Month: February 2021

Anthropologists have suggested that the greatest human invention is the organization.  Organizations can accomplish so much more than individuals. We collectively arrange ourselves for mutual advantage. 

Let’s think about business and non-profit organizations (excluding military and government organizations).

We accept the trade-off of sacrificing something in order to gain the benefits.  We put ourselves under the authority of a boss. We sign contracts committing ourselves to certain behaviors or results.  We agree to cooperate with others on schedules, locations, and methods.  We do required training, fill out surveys and forms, attend mandatory meetings. In return we get a paycheck or the payoff of associating with a good movement.

There are also inefficiencies associated with division of labor and size of the organization.  We pay the costs for waiting for others, or accommodating the way they want to operate.  We suppress our annoyance with the little things.  We get frustrated by people saying “that’s how we do it around here.”

Think of these tradeoffs and inefficiencies as “organizational taxes.”  There will always be some taxes.  It’s an inherent function of organization dynamics.  The tax profile will be different for a big multinational company, an established family business, a startup using VC money, or a local non-profit helping hungry people.  

The question is whether this tax overhead is working well for the larger aim.  It’s a subjective question, but understand that the organizational leaders – and whomever they are accountable to – get the define “working well.”  Not employees, and generally not organization members at large.  

All our "town square" platforms amplify the few to be heard further, and at other times. This amplification can easily convey the perception that the voice represents a majority view. It might be, and it might not be. If eight other individuals share that view, it still may not be a representative sample of a large population, though it's likely to be more persuasive.  

Think shrewdly.

An important aspect of thinking shrewdly (which doesn't have to be selfish; it's about thinking for yourself) is to appreciate the deeply flawed nature of our hearts and minds. Many people mistakenly believe that racist, classist, sexist, fascist, and totalitarian ideas only come from "those people" or "the other side." Hypocrisy abounds. Watch for proposed solutions to racism which are fundamentally racism in a different way; strategies to defeat fascism from "those evil people" by implementing fascism against them; see the pattern?   

Desires for control, for influence, to be one of the "cool kids" or "righteous people" runs deep. Marketers, politicians, and everyone wanting to promote a narrative understand this truth and use it for both persuasion and manipulation.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's insight from "The Gulag Archipelago" is worth rereading: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

(This was originally published in my weekly newsletter.  Sign up in the right column of this web page for helpful ideas and resources each Friday morning.)

One of the challenges of setting annual goals is that a year is long enough that we’re tempted to procrastinate.  It’s early February 2021 as I write this – we’re almost 6 weeks in the year already, nearly half a quarter! 

An alternative approach is to execute your work in two-week blocks, especially if you’re trying to build momentum and move quickly. 

A year is 25 two-week blocks.  Here are some ways you can use each block:

• Break a big goal into chunks of deliverables and assign each to a two-week block. 
• Push very hard on a project for two weeks, then give yourself a rhythm break by doing some other work in the next two weeks.  You’d potentially have 10 focus blocks for a given project. 
• Pick one skill to master each block and focus on that as part of your self-development plan.
• Allocate “rest and recover” blocks at regular intervals.

Be creative.  Schedule your energy through the blocks. 

This is a tip to strengthen your planning work.  Ask and answer this question:

“What do I want to be able to say, to whom, when?” 

Maybe it’s providing a summary report of a completed project to your VP.  Or sharing a surprise anniversary trip for your spouse.  Or commending yourself when you complete a personal objective.

Imagine it in colorful detail.  What do you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell?  What you feel when it’s done?

This mental exercise generates more powerful emotions to help you accomplish your dreams and bring your imagination to life.  It adds a relational component. It cements a time commitment. 

Try it out.

Bonus tip: You can use this in groups, too.  “What do we want to be able to say, to whom, when?” 

A younger colleague of mine asked for advice on how to give feedback to her boss.  “Do I ask for permission to give her feedback first, or just give it to her?” We don’t have a strong culture of feedback here,” she added.

My advice to her was simple and straightforward: “You don’t give feedback to your boss.”  Feedback is from the supervisor down.  I strongly recommend the Manager Tools model for giving both positive and negative feedback.  

Use a different approach instead. Don’t use the word “feedback,” because that is likely to trigger a defensive “force fields up!” reaction. 

Ask this question to lead off: “May I share an observation with you?”

It’s an open question, unthreatening, potentially very helpful.  The absolute worst response you can get is “Could we talk later? I don’t have time just now.”

When she says “Yes” share an observation which is factually based on observable behaviors.  Then you can add something about feelings, impressions, opportunities, concerns sparked by that observable behavior.  Emphasize the opportunity to do something different (a behavior, right?) in the future.

Examples:

“May I share an observation with you?  In our last two group meetings Jim didn’t speak up at all, even about Project X that he is driving.  He’s naturally introverted so maybe the rest of us need to invite him to participate in the discussion.”

“May I share an observation with you?  This is the second month that management delayed the start of hiring to fill our open position, without explanation. Could you share the reasoning with me?”

“May I share an observation with you?  You didn’t include any reference to the concerns I shared about implementing this new software in your message to the team.  This seems like a replay of the concerns I shared about the new inventory system. This makes me wonder if you don’t think my concerns are significant. Can we talk more this?”

“May I share an observation with you?  All the productivity savings from last year were treated as pure cost-savings, rather than opportunities to spend money another way within our operation.  Is there a way to do this differently this year?

Don’t give your boss feedback.  Share observations.  

One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is establish your customer/client and your team as the hero.  Not you, them.

Call them heroes.

Remind them that they’re doing important, heroic, world-changing work.

Write things like “If you’re reading this, you ARE the resistance.”  (a ripoff from a Terminator movie, brilliantly done in a newsletter)

Encourage them that the problems they face are going to fall, because of who they are and how they live/work/act.

You must be sincere in this and believe it.  People have a keen nose for BS.

Pay attention to how the most effective ad campaigns and web sites work.  The focus is on the customer/prospect/community member, not on the company itself.

In general, integrated systems are more powerful than non-integrated systems.  But integration power comes with a trade-off: complexity.  Some complexity is good (the kind which creates adaptability).  Most complexity makes it difficult to adapt and change to match different environments. 

This is like the wind resistance a bicyclist encounters.  Going 5 mph faster on a bike on level ground requires 2x the effort. 

MPH	Effort
5	1x
10	2x
15	4x
20	8x
25	16x
30	32x
35	64x
40	128x

It takes 128 times the effort to travel at 40 mph than at 5 mph. (The reality is more nuanced, but you can see why world-class cyclists pay so much attention to wind-resistance.)

I suggest leaders pay close attention to the complexity creep.  Nobody intentionally says, “I want our group to work 64x or 128x harder to go incrementally faster.”  But the sum of our good intentions and sincere efforts often takes us there without conscious direction. 

Have you ever eaten roadkill?  I did a few times growing up in West Virginia.  Some of it’s fine – chunks of rabbit or squirrel, or groundhog in a stew.  Opossum, however – truly nasty stuff.  Gack, I can still remember trying to vomit so the taste in my mouth would be obliterated with stuff previously in my stomach. Not being a foodie and nervous about trying new foods, I have used that memory when I’ve traveled internationally and am staring at a plate of something unsavory looking that my host recommends.  “Hey,” I think, “it can’t be worse than possum.”   And I eat it. 

One time in Boy Scouts I was “recruited” to help clean out a pit toilet that the new EPA decided was now too close to the river.  Being small and easily intimidated, I was the kid lowered into the pit with a shovel and bucket.  The only thing that kept me from passing out from the smell and texture was the fear that I’d faint and drown in this crap (literally).  Afterwards I used a whole bottle of Head & Shoulders to get the smell out of my hair and burned my clothes as a hopeless cause.  I pull up that memory when I’m faced with an unpleasant job or task.  “Hey,” I think, “it can’t be worse than cleaning out the pit toilet.” 

Ever had a horrible boss?  It’s useful to say, “Hey, it can’t be worse than _______ was, and I survived that and even learned a few things.”  If a person can’t be anything else he or she can at least be a bad example. 

How could you profitably use your worst experiences and memories as ways to help you move forward?