Posts

The Collaborative Cycle is a great way to work with your colleagues to make progress on a specific topic or area of your project. You can use it for almost anything you're working on!

https://vimeo.com/753637373

Today, I want to share how valuable the principle of "tiny bets" can be for you.

Tiny bets lead to a ton of learning and increases your luck surface area.

Unfortunately, tiny bets are an under-appreciated and under-applied strategy by many professionals because they are interested in big wins.

Opportunity is a portfolio game

"Go big or go home" may be the worst advice that is routinely quoted by people that want to sound like they are doing something important.

Going big leads to a number of failure modes.

• You're putting all of your eggs in one basket. You don't need me to remind you of this age-old proverb. It's not good when investing and not good in your professional work.
• You narrow your focus and create more blind spots. Successful professionals (leader/entrepreneur/change maker) with a wider, more open view see threats and opportunities that others miss.
• You slow learning your learning. Being exposed to more ideas, experiences and information leads to learning that compounds over time. 

So instead of going big, here's 4 ways to make tiny bets pay off for you:

1. Subscribe to newsletters, buy books, try online training
   Life-long learning really is a thing. And it's easier than ever to get access to unique, helpful and relevant education right from your browser.
   Don't hesitate to signup, consume a taste of the content and see if there is value for you. If so, great! If not, unsubscribe or cancel. No harm, no foul.
2. Sign up for free or low-cost service trials
   The pace of innovation is so fast, no-one is aware of all that is possible. What's that funny-named web business someone just mentioned? Sign up to see what they do.
   What is online therapy really like? What's this CBD subscription all about? Too Good To Go mobile app that provides heavily discounted to-go items in a surprise bag in limited quantities? Sign me up - I want to learn what’s going on!
3. Give staff members new opportunities all the time
   I was often frustrated in my own company when people were overlooked for interesting, low-risk opportunities because "they weren't ready yet."
   As a leader, look to offer next-step opportunities to your staff as often as possible. For every single disappointment, you'll have numerous people growing into new roles and surprising you!
4. Use a new tool or framework on your next project
   It's easy to get hyper-efficient and comfortable with the tools you use to do your work. But then you miss the big shift that happens little by little and then all at once. Your learning curve to switch now seems insurmountable.
   Give new tools and approaches a try. Will your current task take longer? Yes. But over time, you'll be in-tune with the important evolution happening and can make thoughtful decisions about how you will navigate the change.

Build your career on Tiny Bets

These tiny bets and others (take on small clients as some will turn into big clients) have been the foundation of my professional career. Many may see you as unfocused or not having a clear strategy.

But engaging in tiny bets is one of the most powerful strategies you can have for seeing new opportunities, understanding how the future is unfolding and creating value in new and (to others) surprising ways.

What little things will you bet on this week?

https://vimeo.com/685574143

“Hey Chris, I got a new job. AND I LOVE IT! My boss is really great, he is so nice and down to earth. They welcomed me with a little party and got me an iPad. I just love the place. So different than the past place I worked.”

My aunt had gotten a new job and it was clear she felt something special in the new place. Notice she didn’t say anything about her work or tasks. She spoke of how others behaved, what they did and how they made her feel.

This is the essence of a work culture. Work culture is how it makes you feel.

When you join. As you’re learning your new role. When you’re working on a project. When you’re sick and have a hard time putting in some time. When you make something great happen. When you screw up.

There’s a good amount of debate about the possibility of designing or changing the culture at a given company. I think this is because the culture was created over time and the behaviors and interactions between people have been developed over time.

It is the early leaders that create the initial culture. And it can start off poorly and remain that way for some time. Consider the toxic cultures revealed at some of the famously fast growing startups like Uber, Amazon and Forever 21.

But as the leaders expand and evolve, every company has a chance to improve their culture. The trouble is that often people struggle with what creates company culture. It is referred to as intangible. It is written about as, “...common goals, values, expectations, mission, and the physical work environment.”

This is too abstract. It is difficult to change culture if you think it is about external definitions that are meant to guide behavior.

It is behavior that guides behavior.

You can set all the mission, vision, values you want. You can put a foosball table in the break room. You can set out a snack mid afternoon.

How people interpret those things and behave will guide others behavior.

So leaders have to lead with behavior. If they never use the foosball table or take a break to have a snack, then others will tend not to as well. However if they demonstrate that it is OK to take a break by routinely taking a break, they will be affecting culture because others’ behavior will be affected.

So to guide or change a company’s culture, consider doing the following with others in the organization:

1. Explore and write down how the company should make people feel.
2. Now brainstorm the behaviors (words, actions, deeds) that make people feel those ways.
3. Consider what changes to the physical environment and policies of permission might help support those behaviors. Start small and try two or three.
4. Create a personal list of behaviors you want to regularly exhibit. Consider having that reference list handy and begin implemnting them as tiny habits.

Note that this is not about creating new rules, mandatory activities and forced socialization.

It is about being intentional with behaviors that make people feel specific ways: Valued, trusted, welcomed, respected, joyful, creative, challenged in a positive way, understood, listened to, etc. If what you do makes them feel that way, they are likely to do similar things to make others feel that way.

That’s how a strong, valuable work culture can be built.

If I look back on what made my company’s culture a remarkable part of our business, it was what we intentionally did that made people — employees, vendors, contractors and clients — feel how we wanted them to feel.

I just returned from Colorado. I was there for an annual small gathering of colleagues I’ve been going to for 25 years. It’s around 30 designers, writers, architects and academics who come together to share their latest ideas, projects and self reflections.

Each person gets 7 minutes to share. Most use something written to make efficient use of the precious few minutes. After each talk, we discuss for 7 to 10 minutes teasing apart the ideas and their implications.

This gathering always reminds me what a gift it is to be with people who care deeply about the world, the quality education of the next generation and doing interesting & meaningful projects.

But it also reminds me of the value of listening and synthesizing themes with each other.

It’s great that everyone only gets 7 minutes. No one can do too much damage. 🙂 But it also means each person gets to hear 29 other points of view. From the micro presentations and all the discussion, a current zeitgeist or “defining mood of a point in history,” for this privileged group at least, reveals itself.

Here’s a few that I took away:

AI, machine learning and the loss of privacy weaved its way through many talks and resulting discussion. There was an optimistic view of their value and exploration of possibilities. But this was contrasted with the problem of personal data being used to identify citizens in violation of regressive and punitive state laws. One colleague reminded us that in 2012, Target used customer data to accurately predict which customers might be pregnant and sent them coupons for baby items and maternity wear.

The importance of equity, anti-racism and LBGTQIA rights is endemic in this group. It is also clear that the next generation knows how to hold us accountable to behaviors, support and action — not just awareness. It is such an important fight as its cuts to the core of what America is supposed to be about - life, liberty and happiness for all.

We have a lot of work to do!

I hope you’ll join me in ensuring a portion of your professional status and skills are used to identify and dismantle structural systems that perpetuate harm throughout our organizations and communities.

Finally, there was a clear feeling of disorientation resulting in reflections on professional identity and purpose. It may just be a perfect storm for this group - many are in the second half of their accomplished careers; an ongoing pandemic has disrupted society and the workplace; extreme political division reduces civil discourse and yet another profession, design, is disrupted by technology at a speed that outstrips individuals’ ability to adapt.

These are all heavy, but important topics.

I speculate that they may be present in every workplace. But learning about them, discussing them and exploring productive actions with a group of valued colleagues energizes the spirit.

It may be especially important, in these times, to get a group of people together to share points-of-view and discuss them. Not yelling them into social media, but being with each other in-person or virtually.

Listening, being curious, making sense and aligning actions.

So, this week, consider planning a 1-hour local confab of your own.

Here’s a quick roadmap:
⁃ Keep it to 90 minutes and 5 or so valued colleagues/friends
⁃ Don’t choose a topic or theme — let people share whatever is moving them currently
⁃ Each person prepares a 7-minute piece
⁃ 7 minutes of discussion and exploration afterwards
⁃ Reconvene for 30-45 minutes after you have a chance to sleep on it to share themes and make meaning together

The beauty of this experience is its raw and honest communication. Your relationship will deepen. You may even plant some seeds of future collective action.

The world still thinks it's all about individual performance. Yet it is the triumph of groups of people that actually move the world forward.

It's understandable that the individual point of view is prevalent.

• We're educated as individuals
• We're graded and evaluated as individuals
• We're compensated and heralded as individual success stories

Imagine if sports teams played like office workers.

One team would be on their side of the field. Quarterback calls a huddle and presents his viewpoint for 45 minutes. One player (it's always that one player) takes copious notes for distribution afterwards. Tasks are assigned and everyone heads back to the locker room.

On the other side, the defensive captain is talking with one player. He's halfway through giving annual feedback to each of his team mates. It'll be another couple weeks to get to everyone -- schedules, ya know.

That's not how it works! Sports teams practice together, play the game together, watch reels together.

Imagine office workers played more like sports teams

Why don't we work more like a team? Why can't we work more like a team? What could it look like?

• Sharing of work every day with each other
• There's only practice and engaging other teams -- no meetings
• Creating content together in real time - not by sending a sole authored presentation for "feedback"
• Specific roles that take advantage of different talents and skills
• Different talent and skills working on the same thing

I'm struck as I write this how the combination of individualism and division of labor for efficiency seems to be at the core of our dysfunctional way of working.

As much as companies talk about high performance teams and being a team player, very few professionals have the opportunity to work as a team.

How could you work more as a team with your colleagues? What would you do differently?

I previously wrote that one way to take care of employees was to load them at around 66% utilization. A number of you asked for research or data to back up that boldish claim.

👉🏼 Queuing Theory

The foundation of my argument comes from Queuing Theory. Queuing Theory is the study of how things move through queues. Think of lines at the grocery store checkout or the counter at McDonald's.

The data-driven product development expert Donald Reinertsen co-wrote, "Developing Products in Half the Time." In it, he applies queuing theory to engineering work-in-process. Engineering work is essentially a queue.

The key insight is that when you load engineers at 100%, they cannot 

accommodate uncertainty in the development process. And when uncertainty arises, as it always does, it affects not only the immediate work, but all the work that depends on it.

Everything slows down.

👉🏼 An exponential, not linear relationship

But things don't just slow down in direct proportion to the variation. The relationship between a variation and the time it takes to complete is exponential.

So under conditions of 100% utilization, something that introduces a 5% change doesn't take 5% longer, it could take 75% to 100% longer.

Another example is highway traffic and entrance ramps. You know intuitively that the more cars that are on the road, the slower traffic moves. Highway entrance ramps have lights that are timed to space traffic out for this exact reason. There are many factors that affect traffic flow, but the highest volume throughput exists somewhere in the 60-70% loading of the available lanes.

Professional work has similar characteristics of engineering work - work in process, queues and how you load the individuals responsible for the work.

👉🏼 The Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle makes our final contribution to this discussion. Using it, we can roughly assume that 20% of professional work is responsible for 80% of the value created.

The trouble is management still thinks about loading professionals to fill their capacity. Instead, they should identify the highest priority work to focus on. Then allow space in the schedule for all the challenges that emerge. You'll have time to address them and continue progress.

How many of you are juggling three, four or more projects? It is no wonder progress is so elusive.

In September of 1970, Milton Friedman wrote the ironically titled, "The Social Responsibility of the Corporation." In it he argued that the sole social purpose of the corporation is to generate profit for shareholders.

He argued this based on his contention that corporations are not people. And that as long as corporations stay within the legal and ethical boundaries established by society, their only responsibility is to generate profit for their owners.

So I won't mention that the Supreme Court has declared corporations people for the purposes of political donations. And that corporations fight to eliminate laws that would guide their behavior. "Yay, free market!"

Unfortunately, a whole generation of idiot executives, lawyers & shareholders have bought into Milton's argument.

But I know you haven't. You're a leader that would like to take care of its employees. You know that organizations can be a positive force, not just for shareholders, but for the people and the communities in which they work.

Here are five concrete ways you can care for your employees and grow a business that provides more value than it takes from society.

1. Host employees as you would any guest

Think about how you treat guests in your home or at your facility. You are attentive to their needs, helpful and make sure they are comfortable.

Do your best to host your employees in a comfortable, interesting and helpful environment.

2. Be interested in their full lives

Deep interest in your employees allows you to better understand their perspectives, lived experience and talents.

Knowing and appreciating your employees helps you see opportunities for them to contribute in a wide range of relevant ways.

3. Commit to their growth and success

Too often employees are brought on with initial excitement, but soon are subjected to judgement and evaluation if they are really doing their job.

Being committed to someone's growth means you not only root for them to succeed, you nurture and support them through both success and failure.

4. Incorporate their feedback into how things work

As a company, avoid implementing fancy AI-driven suggestion box platforms thinking they will help you do better.

Instead, learn to listen to employee feedback day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month. All of the insights into what really isn't working is hiding in plain sight. Respond to it.

5. Keep workloads at 66% utilization

In the current high performance work culture everyone is so busy they can't get anything done. This is a fault of leadership who thinks their primary skill is telling people to get more done.

Don't ignore the research. Assign fewer responsibilities to increase productivity. A workload of around 66% optimizes for all of the uncertainty and coordination inherent in modern knowledge work.

Corporations should be the foundation of wealth creation for all in society, not just the executive class and shareholders. To do so, they must do away with the idiotic premise that their only responsibility is to maximize profit to shareholders.

So much of our work is lost in words.

Conversations that go in circles. Emails quickly forgotten. The 27th bullet point in your presentation.

Being tangible vastly improves the experience and quality of your work.

What do I mean by "tangible?"

tan·gi·ble : 1. perceptible by touch.

It's a simple idea. Make things that can be interacted with. Talking at each other simply doesn't count.

Try these things instead.

1. Use sticky notes to capture individual thoughts and ideas

A colleague reminded me how frequently teams just get together and talk. After 20 minutes, there's nothing to show for it. Nothing tangible.

If your conversation is, for example, about what to do next in the project, grab a sticky note pack and capture people's ideas and questions, one per sticky note.

Now you can group, review, rate and select from the ideas. Making them tangible allows you to interact with them - the key to tangibility.

This works for any topic or question put to a team. It simply requires discipline to do, no special skill.

2. Print out your power point deck and paste it up on a wall or board

Get your deck (or any digital content) up on the wall.

Now you can see and interact with it in a whole new way. And you can invite colleagues to join you at the board and provide feedback.

Let them grab pages and move them around. Write on top of the pages. Add sticky notes for consideration.

Working with colleagues standing up, shoulder to shoulder, interacting with the presentation, fundamentally changes the conversation and the quality of improvements.

3. Bring in something for people to try

One of my clients was trying to reimagine the interface to their audio products. They talked a lot about the qualities they imagined it could have.

One mentioned the new Wii gaming console.

"Have you ever tried it?" I asked. Not one person in the room even though some of their kids had one.

I brought it in and set it up at our next meeting and had each one of them try it. Curiosity turned to delight. Then insight. Then creative, relevant ideas for their own products.

It was the tangibility of experiencing it that helped them understand and make the connections in a way that talking simply cannot.

Professional work is dominated by words. When you create ways of being more tangible, so people can physically interact with emerging ideas and each other, it leads to remarkable and rewarding progress.

I'm going to show you how to uncover the assumptions that underlie your team's thinking on a project. Here's why that's important.

Assumptions are thoughts or ideas that constrain your thinking. Worse, they hold you back without you realizing it. When you uncover those thoughts and ideas, it opens completely new avenues of consideration. Awareness and possibilities expand. Your team is more likely to succeed in the project.

Unfortunately, teams often don't take the time to uncover their assumptions and miss out on what could have been obvious opportunities.

The pressure to move forward trumps initial reflection

It's understandable you might not want to take time to uncover and question your assumptions.

• Questioning assumptions can feel like questioning the project goal itself
• The project plan was created and approved - it's time to move!
• Early work on a project is new and stimulating
• You want to deliver some quick wins

But it doesn't take more than an hour to benefit from the insights and powerful perspective that uncovering and questioning your assumptions provides.

Here's how, step by step:

1. Use prompts to get your initial thoughts up on the wall

A few simple questions generates a host of initial thoughts.

• What matters most in this project?
• What challenges do I see in moving forward?
• What do I think the outcome or solution is likely to be?

Brainstorm each of these for 20 minutes, one answer per sticky note. Get them up on the wall or into your collaborative whiteboard.

2. Ask "why do we think that?" in a recursive loop

Most teams stop at the first step. That's a mistake. Those first thoughts aren't the valuable assumptions -- they're first-level thoughts that you are aware of.

To get to the good stuff, pick a thought that stands out in the first group and ask, "why do we think that?" Listen for a couple answers. Then ask, "And why do we think that?"

Repeat this five times or so and you should get to fundamental assumptions. You and your team mates will already have insight.

3. Challenge those foundational assumptions

Now put your insight into action!

Challenge those assumptions. Are they really true? Do they have to be? What if they weren't? What could you do differently? What directions could the work or solution take?

Uncovering your team's assumptions is one of the most productive steps your team can take at the start of a project. It makes you aware of how your thinking was constrained.

Most importantly, it opens new, more innovative avenues for you to pursue.

Startups and corporate projects aimed at innovating often ignore how things are currently done.

• They have a bigger idea
• Existing players just don't get it
• Current assumptions will stifle their creativity

This is a big mistake.

If you are looking to innovate, one of the most powerful things you can do is understand and model the existing approach. Yes, perhaps your new idea is born from a clear frustration with the status quo.

So you have a bold "why can't we...?" type question.

Well, you should answer that question. Here are three key things you should understand and do:

Dig into the key business ratios

All industries have key business ratios for understanding and managing their operations.

For example, in the hotel industry they use Profit Per Available Room, Occupancy Rate and Revenue per Room Available among others. The point isn't to know what these are.

It's to ask, "why are these used?"

When you dig into why these ratios are important, you start to uncover the true foundation of the industry.

Map the ecosystem players around the industry

Exploring the business ratios leads you to understand more of the components of the core business system.

But you should also model the ecosystem in which the industry exists. Sometimes the existing business is dependent on an ecosystem - Apple's App Store, for example.

In other cases, the ecosystem has a variety of entities that play different roles to support the business -- local labor pools, regulatory bodies or adjacent industries. Model this system out so you can see it.

Map your idea against the ratios and ecosystem

Now map your current idea to the business ratios and existing ecosystem.

How does your model work? Do you have different ratios? Are you dependent on similar ecosystem partners or do you need new ones?

It is easy to focus on your own idea as you pursue world changing innovation. But it is invaluable to understand exactly what world you are really trying to change. That understanding will be an important reference throughout your journey.

Get smart before you get going.

"We have to be strategic about it."

Today in business, the term "strategy" or "strategic" is mostly used as an adjective to make ideas sound important. In fact, in most everyday business contexts it has lost its usefulness. 👇🏼

What is strategy, really?

A strategy is a collection decisions and actions you take to achieve a specific goal.

For example, Southwest Airlines decided to...

• Serve no food
• Use one type of airplane
• Have no seat assignments
• Hire engaging flight attendants to be themselves
• Use point-to-point routes between midsized cities

...to be a preferred, low-cost, profitable airline.

A good strategy is clear when the decisions and actions to be taken build up to support the ultimate goal. Good strategy can be applied to any level of a solution - to your short term goal, a new service solution or the company strategy.

In many ways, good strategy is good design.

Here's a simple approach to help you and your team develop clear strategies and communicate it easily.

1. Break down your main goal into 5 to 7 smaller ones

Strategy is built in a simple hierarchy.

Main goal <- subgoals <- decisions or actions

In the Southwest example, "the preferred, low-cost airline" is the main goal. But it would be difficult to list all the decisions and actions to achieve that goal. Break it into a few others: Limited passenger amenities, fun flying experience, high efficiency ground operations.

2. Start a bubble diagram with the subgoals

You're going to build this visually to increase engagement with others.

Spread the subgoals out on a page or board. Starting with one, brainstorm decisions or actions you could take to achieve the subgoal. Decisions or actions should answer the question, "How can we best achieve that goal?"

Each subgoal should eventually have 5, 7 or 10 possible decisions or actions associated with it.

3. Ruthlessly evaluate, edit and refine

Now you have an initial set of decisions and actions to assess. It's time to evaluate which decisions and actions are the best. Best means:

• It actually helps achieve the subgoal
• It is a cost-effective and distinctive way to achieve the goal
• It supports other subgoals, reinforcing the strength of the strategy
• It is clear that you could execute (make or buy) against it

Prune and edit in multiple iterations to refine the strategy. Revisit each subgoal and assess the decisions and actions. Add, delete, refine. It is OK that this take some time.

A great strategy guides quality work over the long term.

Despite "strategy" becoming a watered down term in business, it is an essential concept that is critical to forming high quality plans. Use this simple approach to build powerful strategies.

It's rare the professional that considers themselves an active facilitator in a typical meeting. Most people will think of being the meeting organizer, a presenter or an attendee.

But a facilitator can create a far more dynamic and productive meeting. Or better yet, a work session. By "work session" I mean people are actively creating content and meaning together.

Here are 4 keys to facilitating a great work session.

1. Establish what participants will be asked to create

Prior to the work session, target what invitees will be asked to create - ideas, feedback, observations about a specific topic. Write down and test the prompt to see that it works for the topic.

At the beginning of the session share the prompt, not the agenda, as the focus for the work session.

2. Give people 10 minutes at the start to write down their ideas

Jumping right into a collaborative creation of content favors the outgoing and those with the most power in the room.

Instead take time for everyone to write down their initial ideas so everyone has something to contribute. You really do want diversity of ideas and perspectives, not dominant narratives.

3. Create a positive and encouraging vibe as people start sharing ideas

As people begin sharing their ideas, your number one job is to get as many ideas shared and heard as possible.

Make no judgement of what is shared and be positive with every contribution. "Yes! Nice. What else?…Yes!" This positive space encourages more ideas to be created and shared, especially if critical ideas are part of the work session.

4. Foster reflective discussion after all ideas are shared

To create insight and understanding of the ideas shared, it is critical to ask questions and discuss the content itself. "What kinds of ideas do we have here?" "What haven't we thought of?" "What is interesting about these ideas?"

These prompts help each person detach from a focus on their ideas to a more general notion of the quality and character if the idea overall.

Facilitating is a critical professional skill in a world of inclusive collaboration. Practice these four pointers to develop and hone your facilitative powers!

How much do you believe in collaboration? I mean really believe that working with others on something leads to better, faster outcomes? And that is fun?

I ask because in working with teams from many different organizations, it is clear that working collaboratively is a new experience. And it is unproductive and extremely frustrating for the participants.

Which is exactly opposite of what great collaboration feels like!

Collaboration should help you move faster. It should help you build buy-in naturally. It should lead to better outcomes.

So if you and your organization is still not benefitting from productive collaboration, here are 5 characteristics of great collaborative work that might help you guide improvement in your team or organization.

Collaborative sessions have a clear focus:

Too many people get together and spend most of the time debating the topic, how they see the problem or trying to understand something specific about the project.

Great collaboration starts with a clear intention of what a session is about. Think of it as the topic focus. Things like:

• Eliciting everything we already know about this problem. (Great for the start of a project)
• Everything we heard in our initial interviews
• What research or thought capital already exists in this area

This makes it easy for others to join and contribute. Shared prior, it also allows people to prep or bring with them some starting ideas or examples.

Collaboration uses a specific method: 

A focused topic provides the sense of direction for contribution. A method provides the structure for how you spend the time together.

There's different ways and amount of times to run a collaborative session, but they all have similar pattern:

• Set up the topic
• Start individually to prime the pump
• Start sharing and building as much as possible
• Then take time to sort and discuss the range of content

This can work for a brainstorm, feedback on concepts or a critique of a rough presentation deck. The key is to have a sense of how you will work through the session toegther.

Collaboration uses improv principles : 

Great collaborators' mindsets and resulting behaviors are aligned with the principles of improv.

• Willingness to contribute without fear of being wrong
• Remain in the moment, focused on what's happening
• Say "Yes, and...", there's no evaluation or judgement
• Action beats inaction - keep moving forward

These aren't all of the principles of improv, but you should get a sense that collaboration requires people being in mind and motion with each other!

There is a lifecycle to collaborative sessions: 

All collaborative sessions start out slowly. The blank page or a warming up period.

Early contributions are what everyone has also thought of. But those first, ugly ideas must be said. They are the first dominoes.

Then, someone shares something that is a spark! "Oh, we hadn't thought about it that way before!" Everyone gets a shot of dopamine and the popcorn starts popping.

There's 15 to 20 minutes of rapid fire, building and sharing of thoughts and ideas.

Then the energy dissipates slowly, calming down over a period of time, until it's pretty clear it's time to shift modes.

Good collaboration involves group reflection: 

Group reflection helps everyone look at the collection of contributions more objectively. Discuss the nature of the ideas, their coverage & potential gaps. And its always helpful to get people to vote on top contributions -- not to detrmine the answer, but to know where others stand.

If your team isn't reflecting with each other on the outcomes of a collaborative session, you're missing an important communication and sense-making activity.

"Decisions" are made after the collaboration ends:

Collaboration doesn't "decide" or "finish" anything. It is a divergent phase that creates more ideas, perspectives or possibilities. This should be an asset to the person responsible for decision-making or moving the work forward from there.

This is why there is no time allocated in a collaborative session for debate or deciding on a final direction. The person responsible and their team members should have time after the session for synthesizing the next phase of work. This is the convergent part that distills value from the collaborative output.

Your turn to nurture collaboration

Review these points and ask where you and your team could be better collaborative partners. Collaboration is a very specific kind of work mode. You'll still need individual work to move things forward. You still need to know how to plan and coordinate a project.

But making true collaboration a part of your problem solving should greatly improve the quality and impact of the work you do. And it strengthens teams and the organization overall.

Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes!

I'm fired up to share this with you today!

Do you write? I don't mean daily email communication or bullet points for the powerpoint deck! (Unless you do those in unique, creative ways.)

I've written throughout my career. Sporadically, not consistently. I've written journal and magazine articles, a few chapters of books, letters to the editor, a few jokes and short stories no one ever saw and I don't have anymore. 🙁

And this newsletter.

However, I've never considered myself a writer.

But there's a renaissance going on right now that I encourage you to consider. And it can change your life and career.

That is starting to write and sharing it with the world. Even if you've never done it before. Even if you think you're a bad writer. Even if you think you have nothing to say. Or that no one wants to hear from you.

Writing, or I should say publishing, has become a critical part of one's professional development and what I call your professional presence.

But you probably have a lot of baggage about writing and publishing it for other's to see: The discouraging way writing is taught in schools; That only big publications are worth writing for. Your belief that your writing has to adhere to the "brand voice" of where you work; That anything you write has to be super-authoritative; Or that you've decided "not to be on social media."

All of that is irrelevant to engaging in a consistent writing habit that develops you professionally.

You can write about exactly what you find interesting. You can write how you want - a sentence at a time, a paragraph or two or a longer essay. (Spoiler alert - writing short things is easier and they tend to get more engagement. You get in more reps and there's a better chance people who appreciate you will find you!)

It's easy to get started. Pick a platform (don't over think it!) Write something. Hit publish! Repeat.

At first no one will see your writing. But you'll get personal benefits. Over time, people who like what you write will find you and share it with others. They'll give you feedback. Your audience will grow. And you'll grow with them.

There are so many benefits to writing and sharing on a consistent basis. It will help you in whatever journey you are on. It provides clarity, perspective, new ideas, and eventually new opportunities. All for you.

A few interesting things that are happening that might inspire you:

1. Writing challenges or cohorts that support each other in a commitment to write something every day for 30 days. e.g. Ship30for30 has students write an Atomic Essay every day for 30 days.
2. Building in public as a strategy for success. Whether you're starting a company, inside one or just doing a project, people are sharing their journeys with lessons learned that inspire and attract others.
3. Simply sharing points of view, tips or perspective on a daily basis to build and serve and audience. And sometimes they are just little visuals like here and here.

It's important to remember you're doing this for yourself and your own professional development. So choose the topics you like geeking out about. Write in a way that you enjoy and can be consistent with. Choose a platform that already has people on it that you appreciate.

If you want to get started or you're already doing it - let me know! I'd be happy to subscribe or follow. I will also consider focusing the next Topic Jam on writing for professional development. If that sounds interesting to you, click here.

Have a great week,

Chris

I was watching my daughter’s volleyball game last weekend.  I was enjoying it because there were decent, long volleys that built up the tension of, “oh, I hope they win this point!” 

Within the long volleys there were plenty of awkward, but surprising saves. One girl shanks a hit, but her team mate dives and gets a “pancake” save. That’s when you just get your hand to the floor, flat on the ground and the ball hits it perfectly to bounce off for your team mate to send over the net!

Ultimately, one team gets the hard earned point and you hear the simultaneous groans of some parents and the screams of the others. 

And there were many more times, because the team really doesn’t have the awareness and skills yet, the ball falls right between two or three of the players. Those are tough to see. 🙂

But what I’m really watching is how the girls are communicating and working with each other through the course of the game. And that was great — they seemed to have a desire to win, but they were supportive of each other, laughed off awkward mistakes and shared tips with each other.

After the game, as we were driving home, I asked my daughter, “What does the coach say to you all during the game? What kind of feedback does he give?

“He just tells us we have to get the ball over the net and other general stuff. It’s not really that helpful. We had a different coach two weeks ago and she was great. It wasn’t that she was telling us stuff we didn’t know, but it was helpful to hear it and have her mimic the right moves and rotations and stuff.”

“Frankly, I’m starting not to like this coach much because of it.”

😳

Wow. I immediately realized she just gave me insight for my weekly email! It was some pretty damn clear thinking about coaching and feedback!

I introduced a set of growth mindsets in the training I’m currently delivering. Things like Beginner’s Mind, Equity & Inclusion, and Start Small to Learn Fast.

It seems to me that professionals working on growth mindsets would benefit from “growth feedback.”

Growth feedback is feedback in the workplace meant to help each other grow. It’s a lot closer to sports coaching than it is “performance evaluation” or judging if someone is “doing their job.”

I’d love to explore this with you just a bit.

Like my daughter who identified useless feedback from helpful, let’s identify types of feedback in the workplace that help our colleagues grow.

Here’s a first shot:

Growth Feedback Types

• I see you. I appreciate you. This may seem really subtle to some, but I realize how much it means to my colleagues when I take a minute to say the simplest thing — that I appreciate them and their talents. That we get to work together to try and make great things happen.
• Encouragement to pursue their growth. “You love to get geeky on the data. Take more time to show the team what’s possible.”
• Feedback to reduce their risk.  “That’s a really good direction. I’ve seen a lot of ideas and that one has a lot of merit. Go for it. I have your back.”
• Technical support. Taking the time to understand their technical challenge and helping to figure it out with them. This is rolling up your sleeves to honor the challenge of what they are doing. 
• Work product feedback. This is best provided as critique throughout the creation of the work product. No one wants to hear feedback after the work is done. Being a sounding board and an objective set of eyes on the work without judgment is an advantage to anyone!

Granted this is a little rough right now. What kind of feedback do you give your colleagues, direct reports and supervisors?

Let’s build a more complete list of growth feedback together!

https://vimeo.com/685574143

“Hey Chris, I got a new job. AND I LOVE IT! My boss is really great, he is so nice and down to earth. They welcomed me with a little party and got me an iPad. I just love the place. So different than the past place I worked.”

My aunt had gotten a new job and it was clear she felt something special in the new place. Notice she didn’t say anything about her work or tasks. She spoke of how others behaved, what they did and how they made her feel.

This is the essence of a work culture. Work culture is how it makes you feel.

When you join. As you’re learning your new role. When you’re working on a project. When you’re sick and have a hard time putting in some time. When you make something great happen. When you screw up.

There’s a good amount of debate about the possibility of designing or changing the culture at a given company. I think this is because the culture was created over time and the behaviors and interactions between people have been developed over time.

It is the early leaders that create the initial culture. And it can start off poorly and remain that way for some time. Consider the toxic cultures revealed at some of the famously fast growing startups like Uber, Amazon and Forever 21.

But as the leaders expand and evolve, every company has a chance to improve their culture. The trouble is that often people struggle with what creates company culture. It is referred to as intangible. It is written about as, “...common goals, values, expectations, mission, and the physical work environment.”

This is too abstract. It is difficult to change culture if you think it is about external definitions that are meant to guide behavior.

It is behavior that guides behavior.

You can set all the mission, vision, values you want. You can put a foosball table in the break room. You can set out a snack mid afternoon.

How people interpret those things and behave will guide others behavior.

So leaders have to lead with behavior. If they never use the foosball table or take a break to have a snack, then others will tend not to as well. However if they demonstrate that it is OK to take a break by routinely taking a break, they will be affecting culture because others’ behavior will be affected.

So to guide or change a company’s culture, consider doing the following with others in the organization:

1. Explore and write down how the company should make people feel.
2. Now brainstorm the behaviors (words, actions, deeds) that make people feel those ways.
3. Consider what changes to the physical environment and policies of permission might help support those behaviors. Start small and try two or three.
4. Create a personal list of behaviors you want to regularly exhibit. Consider having that reference list handy and begin implemnting them as tiny habits.

Note that this is not about creating new rules, mandatory activities and forced socialization.

It is about being intentional with behaviors that make people feel specific ways: Valued, trusted, welcomed, respected, joyful, creative, challenged in a positive way, understood, listened to, etc. If what you do makes them feel that way, they are likely to do similar things to make others feel that way.

That’s how a strong, valuable work culture can be built.

If I look back on what made my company’s culture a remarkable part of our business, it was what we intentionally did that made people — employees, vendors, contractors and clients — feel how we wanted them to feel.

Do you have an awesome work environment and dynamic? You’re very fortunate if you respond with an enthusiastic, “yes!”

Our work is split between in-person, remote and travel. The dynamic between you and your colleagues may be uninspired, strained and uncertain. Or maybe it just feels isolated and governed by Zoom meetings.

But my question is, “How do you think about improving how things feel, how you work together and navigate this uncertain environment?”

Calling for norms is the wrong focus

Many people focus on their organization’s actions and response. “We need to set boundaries — the zoom meetings are out of control.” “We need to figure out ways to get together more frequently.” “We need to set policies for when we are and aren’t in the office.”

The various calls for establishing organizational norms are endless.

I don’t think that will achieve the desired outcome.

While organizations can certainly help create the conditions, it is really you who has the power to fundamentally transform what it is like to work at your organization.

Sound ambitious? Naive? Par for my career! 🙂

It's all about cultivating culture

The quality of your work dynamic is 90% cultural and 10% driven by the organization. Culture is the values, beliefs and behaviors of the people. The organization doesn’t have values, beliefs and behaviors. It’s the people. It’s you.

I’ve worked in small, medium and large organizations. The quality of my work dynamic is always a function of how I show up and how I work with others. It certainly hasn’t been because of organizational policies or norms.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, things I don’t like or want to change. But calling on “the organization” to make the changes never gets very far.

Work on relationships between people

The key is that it involves people. How you are and work with others. And its a way of being, not a quick fix to organizational frustrations.

Here are some ways I try to affect the dynamic in a positive way. Which ones could you try?

• Connect with a colleague on a human level. Get to know them. Find out about their ambitions and challenges. Do something nice for them. Do this with each of your colleagues over the coming weeks. Interact with them as people, not “co-workers.”
• Ask your colleagues for feedback on your latest work. Show them something that you’ve just started working on and ask for their honest suggestions to improve it. Be delighted and interested no matter what they say. Asking others for their point of view and listening with curiosity is a super power.
• Engage colleagues who have less seniority, political capital or reputation. Go to the least powerful and ask for their thoughts. Learn something from them only they could provide. Appreciate them.
• Share something you’re good at or recently tried (a new technique or tool) that others would be interested in learning, too. Help them build their skills. Build this simple peer to peer professional development into your regular workflow.
• Take a stand against a dysfunctional thing that you’re all a part of by doing a different, better behavior. Get more done in a 30 minute meeting and let people go instead of stretching to an hour. Start going with other people’s ideas instead of arguing for your own.
• Figure out ways to make the space where you work together nicer. Put ideas and inspiring imagery on the walls. Adjust the lighting. Help keep the place orderly - don’t just rely on support staff. Get on zoom together for an “remote office clean up where everyone takes 30 minutes to organize your own space and banter about anything interesting or nothing in particular.
• Recruit your colleagues to join you in the office even though nobody has to be there. Celebrate everyone who shows. Bring in a treat you made. Don’t announce it beforehand as a bribe. Let it be a surprise to those that show up.

The idea is that you can and should be nurturing others and your relationship with them. It’s not just about the work. It’s about the work AND about each other.

Let me know what you do to make your work dynamic better and nurture the culture of your organization. Let me know what challenges you face.

Remember, it’s 95% what you and other individuals do, not what “the organization” does.

Creating rapport with others builds relationships and increases the meaningfulness of information shared between you and them. In short, it improves the quality and value of interaction with others.

I've been fascinated by how one can build rapport with others ever since I successfully interviewed Japanese participants through a translator in a mobile research study in the early 90's. They said it couldn't be done.

Here's 5 quick things you can do to build rapport with others, whether it is your colleagues day to day, anew client or in interview participant!

1. Open with joy and gratitude

When others meet you for the first time, do they feel someone with positive energy? And do they know that you appreciate their time? When you meet, get your positive energy on and thank the other person for making time, being with you and sharing their talents!

2. Be a great host

Pay attention to things that make your "guest" more comfortable. Would they like a glass of water? Give them the most comfortable chair. Get their permission for things you might need to do. A great host is always paying attention to the guest's experience.

3. Engage with interest and empathy

Are you genuinely interested in being with this person? Are you curious about them and their lived experience? You have to be! Ask questions that allow them to share their interests and stories. Feel the emotions their stories alight in you and share that with them. People connect with others who genuinely listen to them.

4. Look for a way to provide value

How can you give the other person something that is valuable to them? Something they will have after your encounter. It could simply be a thoughtful thank you note. Or a Spotify playlist or a book. A great approach is to try and connect them with someone in your network that theey could benefit from. Sometimes a real gift like a gift card or locally made product can fit the bill.

Providing meaningful value is a great way to stand out.

5. Conclude with relationship

Offer your contact details. Ask if they would be open to getting together again or connecting if something comes up. If appropriate hug it out! Let them know what you'll follow up with and then do it. Cementing your relationship as you conclude creates a longer term bond.

So how do you do these well? First, try to memorize them. Write them down in a list with your own title. Then, before a meeting, interview or event, focus on doing one or two during the experience.

If you think about them as both a mindset and behaviors, you will be able to practice them and get better over time. So think about them as a practice, like playing the piano or doing a sport.

You will get better and better and building rapport with others. That will lead to deeper, more meaningful relationships as well as new professional opportunities.