Writing
Talk, Ask & Learn
If we don’t discus & ask questions, we don’t learn.
At a recent social event, I heard a husband expressing his mystery as to what his wife was thinking. The more he talked the more obvious it was that they had never discussed the issue in any depth. He continued to wonder when the obvious solution was to ask.
One of the most powerful questions I ask in my consulting is ‘Why are we solving this problem?’ The first answers I get are often a variant of ‘I have been told to solve this problem’. That’s an order not an answer. Taking time to drill into the real rationale reveals richness that improves the project outcomes.
I meet many employees who want to improve their organisations but never discuss their ideas. They want to understand and do better but think it is not their place to ask. Without necessarily wanting to do so, their organisation frustrates the simplest act of autonomy, asking a question.
Without a rich and vibrant conversation about the issues that matter we fail to learn.
What you don’t do
We think in life about what we have done and it’s influence on who we are. The flip side is what we don’t do. What we don’t do defines us just as much.
What we didn’t do: the conversation we wanted to have, the followup we missed, the extra effort we could have made, the thought we overlooked, the ideas we never shared, purpose unmet, and the plans left unfulfilled.
What we can’t do: the skills we haven’t yet learned, the practice not yet perfected, the knowledge unknown, the bias & privilege we can’t see, the conflicts avoided, the sponsorship we missed, the advice unheard, and the deadline that’s gone.
What we won’t do: the values we will keep, the choices rejected, the beliefs unquestioned, the paths abandoned and the changes embraced.
Not all of what we do we control. Some opportunities depend on others. Some moments are so deeply held that they don’t feel like a choice. Whether we control it or not, what we don’t do affects us and deserves attention.
Much Loved Tools: Pyramid Principle
In a summer job during university I was introduced to Barbara Minto’s Pyramid Principle as a structure for communication. I’ve used the logic ever since. The lessons of that approach dig me out of all sorts of presentation messes.
Here are the big lessons I’ve learned applying the Pyramid Principle approach to fix communication:
– Remember to have one message: it is surprising how often you see a presentation without a message. These presentations forget to make their point succinctly because they are overfilled with ideas and with elaborate introductions, narratives and evidence
– Structure promotes simplicity: Structure clarifies thinking. Structure clarifies for the listener too. Best of all understanding the structure also makes you more adaptable to change. Only got 5 mins for your half hour presentation? Knowing your key points will help you home.
– Support ideas with evidence: Others forget to support their assertions. In those that do use evidence, in many cases the charts usually tell a different story to the text. Make it easy for your audience to see your evidence.
– Pyramids beats chains: Many presentations are long fragile chains of logic. I’ve seen someone fly around the world only to have the presentation fail at the first question. That presentation depended on all of a long chain of premises. The failure of one idea left all the work bereft. Pyramids stand on other support when one element falls.
The Purpose of Procrastiwork
Procrastiwork is a term coined by Jessica Hische to describe the work you do when you are avoiding the work you should be doing. This blog often forms a part of my procrastiwork. I love the opportunity to work out loud, to clarify my ideas and the conversations that are spun up from these blog posts. I learn so much from my procrastination that it can be quite addictive.
Jessica Hische’s point in coining the phrase is to point out that procrastiwork is a great hint to the work you should be doing. If you choose that work, it speaks to you. I’ve experienced the power of finding purpose in the work. This blog is a big part of my personal purpose of making work more human and it was through posts here that those ideas were surfaced from my work.
Procrastination can be purposeful if you ask yourself the right questions. Work out loud on the work you do to avoid work. The repeated process of transparency and reflection will help you find insights as to purpose.
The Diversity of the Change Agent
Change agents aren’t all alike. Organisations that fail to embrace the diversity of the change agent fail at change.
Change agents are a diverse bunch.
Organisations tend to lump them together in an ‘outsider’ bucket. When change agents don’t think & act in the way of the majority then it is assumed their different way is shared. Yet change agents often find collaboration challenging when they don’t understand that a common desire for change can be driven from diverse motives and methods.
Adam Morgan of eatbigfish describes 10 challenger narratives in The Challenger Almanac. These narratives that give a sense of the diversity of motivations and approaches to change:
- People’s Champion – standing up for the exploited or overlooked
- Missionary – ethical or ideological advocate
- Democratiser – challenging elitism and exclusivity
- Irreverent Maverick – the provocateur
- Enlightened Zagger – the deliberate contrarian
- Real & Human – advocating for the human
- The Visionary – transcending current ideas
- The Next Generation – improving fitness to the future
- The Game Changer – rewriting the rules
- The Feisty Underdog – battling the winners
Few change agents fit cleanly in one narrative. Often many narratives will be woven into a unique personal approach. There are plenty of opportunities for conflict as to the objectives and methods in the diversity of narratives.
Change agents and the organisations that seek to foster their work need to concentrate on building connection as to what is in common. Ideological debates and fractious debates as to approach can illuminate the diverse paths but they tend to delay action.
Change agents need to embrace the action of others, learn from diverse perspectives and leverage alignment of narratives. Broadening the toolkit of change benefits both the change agents and their organisations.
Work Out Loud on Your Job, Your Career or Your Calling
In their book Creative Confidence, Tom and David Kelley describe the research of Amy Wrzesniewski of Yale University’s school of management. Amy Wrzesniewski has identified that people view work as either a job, a career or a calling. Whatever your view of work, working out loud can help.
Working out loud in a job
If you view work as a job, work is a way to earn money to pay for weekends, holidays and hobbies. Working out loud is a way to make sure you keep your job through recognition of your efforts and growing skill. Working out loud outside of work can take your hobbies to the point that they become a calling.
Working out loud in a career
If you view work as a career, then you are interested in achievements and promotion. Working out loud makes your work more visible. Sharing your work as it occurs accelerates people’s ability to appreciate your efforts. You can learn faster and build your skills in a network. Working out loud connects you with those who can help you find the next job opportunity.
Working out loud in a calling
If you view work as a calling, then you find work intrinsically rewarding. For this group working out loud is a way to connect with others who share the calling. Working out loud helps you build the community of peers that will take your work to a new level and a wider greater impact.
International working out loud week is from 16-23 Nov 2015. Put working out loud to work helping your job, your career or calling.
Mastery takes Time
Before we connected the world in an instantaneous network, we understood mastery takes time. Now we often forget that we can’t leap to learning.
I’ve had many conversations recently where people have wanted to move quickly to mastery. Stakeholder expectations are high. Everything else is available at the push of a button. Where’s the shortcut to mastery?
Mastery takes learning. Remember the apprenticeships of the pre-industrial era were seven years long. Seven years lifted you to journeyman practice. A lifetime of learning and teaching others lifted you to master.
While access to information has changed, we have not necessarily transformed the pace at which we learn by putting skills into practice. We can find best practices easily but using them and moving to mastery is something else
Mastery depends on context. Mastering your particular purpose in your domain is unique to you. Your practice will be in a specific domain. Other’s practices may not fit. Discovering this context, purpose and clarifying the domain can take its own time.
Mastery takes continuous practice. Mastery is the ever continuing quest to learn, experiment and improve. Mastery is the domain of next practice. Practice takes time. We like to hear sorting superstars talk of their success. We often fail to focus on the decades of dedicated practice that makes that brief moment of mastery.
Our obsession with speed can mean we devalue the slow. That is a mistake when it comes to mastery. Mastery is something we have a lifetime to practice.
Change Management Institute – CMI Disrupt Conference 11-12 November
The following Q&A was prepared for the CMI Disrupt Conference in Sydney and London on 11-12 November
Conference Speaker – Simon Terry disrupts
What does the future of change look like?
The power of digital disruption is in its power to leverage learning at scale and speed. If we consider our stakeholders as individuals, who we work with and learn from, things change radically. We need to start to apply these new ways of working throughout our organisations.
Are we being replaced by robots?
Automation and mechanisation have been disruptive throughout human history. But in the past, people were only considered inputs to production. But now we have real alternatives. Enabled by digital tools, we can focus on creativity to realise human potential. That’s shifting the game, from one of simple mechanical efficiency to human effectiveness.
How do we change our approach?
Start small. Start now. Start at the edges, with change agents, positive deviants inside and outside the organisation. Look out for rapid and dynamic influences which force change. Adapt and be accountable. Work with and through your people.
JOIN the conversation on Twitter #cmidisrupt
The Network Always Subverts the Hierarchy
Human relationships are flexible and driven by shared information, influence, trust and other personal dynamics. These dynamic relationships will subvert any formal fixed hierarchical relationships.
We see the fixed relationships of the hierarchy. We obsess about their nominal power. What we don’t see is how the network wins slowly through human relationships. Networks of information, influence and trust shape how the hierarchy behaves:
- Want a positive decision from the CEO? You know who to lobby to influence his or her opinion.
- Want to know why some customers can get what they want? Look for their networks and connections into your organisation and into competitors.
- Why do all employee emails leak within minutes? Look for the gossips and informal relationships outside the organisation.
- Want to know why some are promoted over others? Look for the networks of previous experiences, trusted relationships and reputation helping careers along.
As soon as a new hierarchy is created or control processes are tightened, human nature starts subverting its effect in the name of relationships of information, trust and influence. The rational slowly yields to the relational. The network wins in the end because it leverages the human social process of decision making.
Fighting the influence of networks makes life less human. Embrace them as a part of any hierarchy.