This is an experiment: I was so enchanted by Dan Roam's pictorial depiction of his experience at the 8CR author's Pow-Wow, that I asked him how to put hand-drawn pictures on my blog. So, here's my first attempt.
Tomorrow, I'll tell you what it is!
Work haikus:
Having found the work
That makes my Mondays happy
I feel fortunate
If I think that work
Must be boring and stressful
It will be for me
Link: What's Next: The Cost of Competence - Technology - Innovation - Change.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the current pace of change in business. Partly because I'm fascinated by it, but largely because our clients have been wrestling with it, and we're trying to help. Especially - but not exclusively - our media clients, who are affected daily by new techonology and shifting patterns of consumer behavior.
The article above is great food for thought - and it resonates with my own experience. The basic message is: when times require nimbleness and fresh thinking, those who have become most expert in the current situation are often at the biggest disadvantage - their very expertise tends to make them less open to learning to think in new ways.
And - given the fact that expertise generally develops over time - this sounds like bad news for those of us in the over-40 set.
There is a way around it, though. They talk about it in the article, and I've noticed it myself. Executives who make a conscious effort to stay open to new ideas - by really listening to people who think differently than they do, by inviting new people into the conversation, by challening their own assumptions - those executives keep their brains and their points of view from calcifying, and they seem more able to think in fresh ways about what might work now and into the future.
What are you doing, by way of mental calisthentics, to keep your brain from getting stiff with expertise?
It's been a week since I last posted here; as those of you who read my blog regularly know, this is - for me - a long hiatus. Well, friends, it has been a very full week. I worked with three different groups in three different cities, and each session was focused on important strategic work for that group.
So, what did I learn as I was wandering around? Here are the top five things:
1) When people are focused on envisioning the future they want to create for themselves, their energy generally goes way up, and their petty irritations with each other go way down.
2) Most people can think strategically -- if they take the time, they're given some direction, and the issue at hand is important to them.
3) Even when I'm tired, I love helping people clarify and move toward their hoped-for future.
4) I feel grateful and honored to have such smart, funny, passionate and honorable clients. (This week's were Rainbow Media, Optimum, and Union Square Hospitality Group.)
5) Not having time to go to the gym sucks.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I'm often embarrassed to discover the extent to which some assumption I've harbored is both limiting and inaccurate. Fortunately, embarassment notwithstanding, I find I'm generally able to revise my assumption to better reflect reality.
An example: a few months ago, shortly after she graduated from college, My daughter told me that she wanted to start a Mary Kay business, and asked if her dad and I could loan her the money to get her initial inventory. My first reaction? Mary Kay - isn't that some cheesy thing that a couple of bored housewives who have big hair and too much make-up do in their spare time?
Well, now I'm suitably humbled. As I did some research on my own, and started to hear more about the organization from our daughter, I found out just how far off my assumptions were. As you may or may not know (this is from the company website), there are currently more than 1.7 million Mary Kay consultants in 30 markets worldwide; the company has averaged double-digit annual growth since its founding in 1963; and, in 2005, the Mary Kay company had more than $2.25 BILLION in wholesale sales.
And it turns out that Mary Kay Ash was a visionary leader who created a business model based on women supporting each other to be entrepreneurs; who has been responsible for creating more female millionaires in the US than any other individual; and who also built a charitable foundation that does powerful work in the areas of women's cancers and domestic violence.
Silly me.
So, check around the inside of your own head. Anything - a person, and idea, an organization - you're dismissing based on limited or flawed information? You might want to take a closer look.
I was talking to one of my colleagues today about a coaching client he's been working with recently. It's kind of a difficult situation for him, because this person, though smart and capable, has proven to be not very receptive to the coaching process.
My fellow Proteus coaches and I tend to find this the most difficult situation to deal with as coaches. We want so much to help people be successful, and when we can see that they have the potential to succeed - that they understand what we're talking about, and could learn the skills they need and change the behaviors that are getting in their way - but simply don't care to do what's required, it's hard for us not to get frustrated and sad on their behalf.
The conversation really reinforced for me, oddly, the extent to which we're each in contol of our own destiny. So often, the difference between success and failure is our willingness to do what needs to be done in order to succeed. When you think you can't do something; investigate your self-talk: remind yourself of the power of your human mind.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the power of seeing clearly. Most of us, most of the time, muddle together our observations, beliefs, impressions and assumptions -- and call it 'the truth.'
Robert Heinlein wrote a book called Stranger in a Strange Land. In it, he invents a profession where people are trained to be absolutely impartial in their assessments, and to speak only from their direct experience, without inference or speculation. He calls these people Fair Witnesses. If you point to a distant house and ask one of Heinlein’s Fair Witnesses what color it is, he or she will say, “It appears to be painted white on this side.”
This concept is extremely valuable to me. Whenever I'm in a situation where I really need to have a clear and balanced perspective, especially one where I'm likely to have a strong emotional bias (for instance, where I really want or don't want something to happen, or where I'm worried or nervous) -- I remind myself to be a "fair witness." I take a mental step back from the situation, and ask myself "Are you stating things as you’d like them to be, or as they really are? Are you neglecting or ignoring facts that aren’t comfortable or convenient? Are you assuming certain things aren’t important simply because you don’t want to have to factor them into your thinking?"
Making the effort to be a fair witness has often kept me from making foolish decisions, acting on limiting assumptions or being misled by fear.
Another thought about assumptions. How do you know when you're holding on to a limiting, under-data-supported assumption?
Here's one important clue I've noticed over the years. The less data someone has to support an assumption, the more upset they tend to get when someone challenges it. I've witnessed this hundreds of times, and I've also seen it in myself. The opposite is true, too: when you have lots of data behind an assumption and someone challenges it, you don't get mad, you just feel puzzled.
Exhibit A (Challenge to a shaky, limiting assumption.) Two people are talking about going out for dinner. Person #1 has heard negative things about a restaurant, but has never been there himself. The other person has been there a number of times and liked it. The first guy says, "Don't go to that restaurant, it's really bad." Person #2 says, "Oh, no, it's great, I like it a lot." The first guy responds, in an irritated voice, "Well, whatever. I've heard it's terrible, and the person who told me really knows what she's talking about. I wouldn't go there."
Exhibit B (Challenge to a well-founded assumption.) Two people are talking about the weather in Vermont in January. Person #1 says, "I hope you're prepared for the cold up there." Person #2 says, "No, I think it's actually going to be nice and warm." The first guy looks confused, and says, "What? You know we're talking about Vermont, right?"
I'm telling you this to help you recognize your own limiting assumptions, so you can question them (as I suggested yesterday). So, if you believe something, and someone challenges you on it, and you find yourself getting irritated, impatient, or snappish...you might want to try turning your belief into a question: moving from "This is so true" to "Is this really true?"
Have you ever been at the wrong end of a limiting assumption? That is, has someone believed something about you that's simply not true - and persisted in believing it, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding? It could be something fairly innocuous -- your uncle's mistaken belief that you're interested in hearing about fly fishing -- or something much more problematic: your boss doesn't give you responsibility for taking on larger client projects because she assumes you're not capable, even though you've demonstrated your capability many times.
I've come to believe that most of us hold a variety of limiting assumptions, and that doing so can really get in the way of our success. And, if we hold them about the people who work for and with us, get in the way of their success as well.
What is an assumption, anyway? Here's one definition: "Something taken for granted or accepted as true without proof; a supposition." Assumptions are a necessary part of life; if we couldn’t take for granted that some things are true, it would be hard to operate. For example, in the first few minutes after we get up each morning, we make dozens of assumptions that allow us to start our day: that our alarm will work, that our clothes will be in the closet, that the bathroom will be in the same place it was last night, that the sun will rise, that our toothpaste won’t be poisonous, etc. etc. All of these are valid assumptions: we have lots of data to back them up, and not having to think about or question them allows us to move through our day.
But because assumptions are so essential to our continued functioning, we tend to over-extend our assumption-creating capacity into areas where we have much less data. We do it to make sense of our lives and to keep from being overwhelmed by choices – but it often results in holding onto a limiting and inaccurate assumption that doesn’t serve us. And we tend to believe these untested assumptions just as firmly as we do the sun-will-rise variety.
For instance, let’s say you have a new employee who shares some sensitive information with a client. She didn’t know it was confidential; she apologizes. Then a couple of months later it happens again, with a different client and different information. The employee is mortified: she apologizes, makes it her business to get very clear on what should and shouldn’t be shared. Now a couple of years have gone by, and there’s never been another problem. In fact, the employee is more conscientious than her colleagues about discretion and confidentiality, based on her early experiences.
But all too often, that employee will still have a reputation as being someone who’s “not discreet” or who “can’t be trusted with confidential information.” That kind of limiting assumption can derail a career – and it can keep you from taking advantage of your employees’ potential.
How can you shift your limiting assumptions about your employees or team mates? Question them. Here’s a quick primer (you can get a more in-depth look at this approach in chapter 5 of my book):
1) Recognize your existing assumption: For instance, you notice that you’re thinking, “This employee can’t be trusted with confidential information.”
2) Question it: Shift from ‘taken for granted as true’ to curiosity; “Can this employee be trusted with confidential information?”
3) Gather new data: Ask others, observe – get more information about whether or not this belief is accurate. In this case, you might find that, except for those two early instances, this employee has never breached a confidence, and others see her as being very trustworthy
4) Test the data: You might test your new data by sharing some moderately sensitive information with the employee, making it very clear to her that it’s confidential, and see what happens.
5) Revise or re-confirm your initial assumption: Based on your tests (I’d advise you to do more than one) you can make a new and more informed assumption.
You may be surprised to discover how often your assumptions are unnecessarily negative or limiting. Updating them may free you and others to take on new challenges and succeed in new ways. Try it and let me know what happens.
