Will we, won't we, maybe... umm: the killer of business momentum

Indecision is such a business and momentum killer. 

Think of a meeting or conversation; there are ideas, possibilities, but then it all screeches to a halt because there isn’t a decision. Or wait, here’s the decision: lets set another meeting date and talk about it all again next time. Urgh! 
I think we are losing the drive to decide. 

Yet decisions are such a vital component of leadership. They help you choose a course of action. They set a direction. They help express your leadership. They give people some certainty in this crazy uncertain world. 

How about this: earlier this week I heard of more than 30 team members being on the receiving end and consequences of the indecision of a senior manager in a large organisation …  the leader couldn’t decide what to do with the most important part of their strategy day, which is just a few days away. 

What? It’s a big and important strategy day. And it’s that big and important and you can’t decide!?  

You still have no certainty on what you want to achieve, how you will do that, and you’re still oscillating and circulating and debating and ruminating over what could possibly be done.

And it’s a strategy day. And it’s important. And it’s involving other people. And it’s about the future of the team and what you work on. 

Whatever the details and the whys and wherefores and ‘yeah but maybe theys’ that you may be scripting in your mind about this situation, the point here is that a decision wasn’t made. Over a period of time. No decision. 

There’s a lack of leadership right there. That’s what it looks like.

It's Indecision. It's Oscillation. And Hesitation. 

Contemporary leaders must give some their teams certainty over the stuff they CAN give certainty on. And making decisions is one of them. Decisions help give people certainty. 

Leadership is about making heaps of decisions. Every day. Deciding which things will you tell, which you’ll share, ask or do; which things will you instigate, delegate, escalate, mitigate.    Yet it’s that flipping from one view to another, unable to make a call or to put a marker in the sand… it's that 'dicking around’ I call it, the not deciding that is a momentum and engagement killer. 

Do we fear that: 

• it will be the wrong decision
• it could really stuff things up
• maybe it’s not totally right
• is it the best we can possibly do, maybe we can do better later with a bit more time
• stuffing this up will hurt my career
• maybe this will cause conflict … and a bunch of other hesitation hang ups.  

Along with authenticity, clear communication and setting visions, leaders dear leaders, you need to make a FREAKING DECISION. And make it fast. Make one now. 

Failing Fast

If it doesn’t work, that is also known as ‘failing fast’. And you will soon know if it’s not right. Failure and failing fast is very ‘now’; it’s contemporary, hip and the done thing in agile teams and organisations. But you’ve got to decide so you can act and then see what happens. If you don’t decide, then you’re not leading.  
If you’re not making a decision you’re not stepping into action, you’re not running an experiment and you’re not leading. You’re lying… in waiting.

Dangerously Safe

It’s like you are balancing on a high wire, not moving towards the end goal and neither are you reversing or backing up to go along some other high wire. You don’t even have anything to help you balance on that wire. You’re a balance-less high wire walker. And that’s dangerous.  
You’re putting yourself in a situation where a little gust of wind, a little rattle on the high wire is something that could topple you over. That wouldn’t be a good ending.   

An End to Choice

"To decide". It means to end and terminate the choices you have. It means to ‘cut off’.

Don’t be the person or role that someone else decides to cut off because you’re not making decisions in your team or organisation. 

Decisions are leadership.Do them. Make them. Lead. 

The Competitive Advantage of Seeing What Others Don't

What does the view look like from where you are right now?

Jim Haudan in 'The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap between People and Possibilities' explains how people across an organisation 'fly' at different levels. He suggests 1000ft, 15000ft and 35000ft. 

Because we're flying at different altitudes, we have different views and perspectives.You'd know it from being in an aircraft:

• On the ground: you can see the airport and the tarmac as you're taxiing to the runway;
• Up in the air: up to a few thousand feet up there, you can make out towns and cities, roads and patchwork quilts of fields and farms; and
• Cruising Altitude: way up there, at 35,000 feet you're getting the big picture and a broad perspective stretching way over the horizon.

Just above here is a visual I use with teams to get them thinking about these different levels. You can write your thoughts in the clouds!

Relax and enjoy the flight; these levels are normal, natural and a part of everyday. But sheeesh it's hard when you're trying to bring people together to align to a strategy, implement a change or adopt some new ways of doing things!

We're so biased to see things that reinforce our beliefs that we need to take some deliberate action to see things in another way... in a way that other people may not see. 

Gary Klein in 'Seeing What Others Don't: The remarkable ways we gain insights' suggests:

"our insights stem from the force for noticing connections, coincidences, and curiosities"

So think about where you're seeing things from, and are you allowing enough connections, coincidences and curiosities in? Ask yourself:

• How does the view change if you climb up, up up?

• What's different if you zoom down and get a closer view?

• How do things look from where you are if you're 'on the ground'?

• What perspective, view or angle are you missing out on from where you are now?

• What do you need to do so you have a broader (or narrower) view?

• What might you have missed?

Klein says further: 
 

"people who can pick up on trends, spot patterns, wonder about irregularities, and notice coincidences are an important resource."

Seeing things, connecting the dots and making sense: this is the true competitive advantage of being able to see what others don't ...and I reckon that's a must-have skill for the uncertain future of work. 

How to enjoy your job without killing your career

As I was setting up for a client workshop recently, plenty of team members walked past the meeting room stopped, looked in and said something like:

'Gee that looks creative'

'Wow, that's gonna be a fun session'

'Oh I wish I was in THIS session, not the dull one next door'. 

What secret creative things were in my workshop? Coloured pieces of paper and markers. That's it! That's all it took to make a space look and feel creative. It made people want to be in the room.

Some workspaces can be bland, uninteresting and crowded with workified clutter that they're not inspiring us to be innovative, creative or game changing. 

Our future career success depends on what we do now, how we approach challenges
and handle problem solving.  

We may not have the option of bringing bean bags and table tennis tables into our workspaces but we can make our own space creative. Especially the space between our ears!

You don't need much to get away from dull and duller, bland and boring, stacks of white paper and clinical walls and spaces. Even a few bricks of Lego can be a great start.

The booming popularity of the colourful blocks and the Lego Serious Play method shows people want to find new, creative and engaging ways to do things. 

 

The fact is, you can do better work
when you use play.

 

Ellen Grove presented a session on using Lego at a conference I attended and I share my visual notes from that session above. Ellen outlined how to get creative and playful using Lego, for the sometimes dull task of gathering information for a project. The four steps she presented are:

1. Constructing: make something with those blocks
2. Give meaning: explain what it is, what it means
3. Make a story: create and share a story about what you've made, what it means
4. Reflect & Incubate: think about what you've created, and what's next, how can you action this?

That workshop session was the busiest, loudest, most collaborative, laughter-filled room at the conference!
People went WILD for it!

If you think 'we couldn't do that at our workplace', have a read of David Gauntlett's contribution to the book 'Lego Studies'; here's the chapter he wrote on using Lego as a tool for thinking, creativity and changing the world.

You can enjoy your job, be creative, play, contribute to innovative solutions and 'bring it', without killing your career. In fact your career depends on you finding ways to tackle the challenges in front of you. 

See what you can build. You'll know the impact just one tiny creative toy block can have if you've ever stepped on one in bare feet!

Blue-Sky Thinking, Strategy & Story

Blue sky thinking is up there, out there, up ahead….
 
We can’t see it yet but we have many ideas, possibilities, hopes. Blue sky thinking isn’t cliché; it’s thinking where there are no preconceptions and no limitations by current beliefs.
 
When you put blue sky thinking to work – at work, at home, or anywhere else in your life or community – see it as three stages or steps, not just the singular step of thinking.
 
See it as:

1. Thinking
2. Strategy
3. Story

 
Once you’ve done the ‘out there’ thinking, convert it to action and create the strategy that will reinforce and bring the thinking to life.
 
Yet many organisations stop at this point.
 
‘We’ve got the strategy; see this spreadsheet and these tables and documents; that’s the strategy’
 
Not so fast. I think you need to push on and create something else: the story that spreads the image and vision of those possibilities that you’re working towards.
 
Make the thinking and strategy more tangible, possible, visible and real – after all, those on the team who will be enacting the strategy may not have had the benefit of weeks (or months or years) of discussions, debates and conversations that you and the team have had in creating it.
 
Go beyond the the blue sky thinking; translate it to the strategy… and then go further and craft the storythat will bring the thinking to life, down on the ground where great work is getting done.
 
An example: 
A current project I’m working with a senior leader on is helping the team visualise ‘what good looks like’. The team has plenty of challenging work ahead of them. A visual map, strategy and story will bring their blue sky thinking to life, bringing it closer and making it more possible, attainable and less abstract.
 
The bottom line is:
it’s helps people make sense of it all, connecting dots and seeing where they are on the path to reaching the blue sky.

'Tis the season for late indicators

As we get all rush-rush on the roads in the last few days before Christmas and holiday seasons, I notice something: 'tis the season for late indicators.

Indicators, turning lights, flickers, flashers - those flashing lights on your vehicle that legally communicate your intentions to turn, slow, stop, move, shift, deviate. 

Cars crawling through car parks in search of a parking space. Drivers slowing, stopping, changing their minds, speeding up, and then turning on streets, can add to the tension. 

Some of the fundamentals of driving start to slip a little. Like indicating early to the drivers and pedestrians around you what your intentions are. The sooner you can indicate what you're thinking, the better. Although not SO early that you're confusing people.

Same goes for the strategy of a team or organisation.

Working with a Head of Strategy in a financial services business recentl,  he said : 'we need to communicate our intentions and strategic plan early, but not so early that people aren't interested or connected with it'.

If you've experienced that feeling of "we don't know what's going on around here", you know you need some earlier 'indicating' from and with the teams you're working with.

In crisis public relations the mantra is 'communicate early and often'. 

But when there's no crisis, just... communicate. Signal your intention. Let your team know what you're thinking, what you're wanting to do, where you're wanting to get to. 

Tensions rise when uncertainty is high. Lower the tension and deliver some certainty by indicating what's on the slate, what's up ahead, what's yet to come. 

It's better to indicate, slow down, stop, wait, reset and then begin again with certainty of where things are going than to be meandering along creating road rage!

With your strategy in 2015, communicate it early, clearly and succinctly. Indicate and the journey will be smoother.