Tag: communication

Existential threat

Fabrizio1 Comment

When failure knocks at your door, you have to greet it, invite it in, make it feel comfortable, and eventually ask it to move in. Failure needs to be absorbed, somehow, in order for the learnings to become a part of you, to make you better, to prevent it from happening again.

If you deny failure, on the other hand, it will not simply go away. Soon enough it will spread, and your problem will become a problem for the neighbors, for the neighborhood, for the culture, for the village. It will transform into an existential threat. It will just be everywhere, always noticeable, never hidden, a memento of your own incapacity to accept.

Failure is not the end of the world. Pretending not to see it might just be it.

My people resist change

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Three ways to go about change in companies.

  1. Engage with the people affected in time. Instead of going for behind-closed-doors decisions and big reveals, make everyone part of the process. You won’t lose control, and you will win a variety of perspectives and a clear view on what the major problems will be.
  2. Meet people where they are. It is way to easy to say my door is always open. So easy, in fact, that nobody will ever come to you. Make an intentional effort, instead, to check in with people where they hang out: meetings, 1-1s, chats, kitchen tables. You won’t lose power, and you will win connections, face time, and trust.
  3. Say it. Say it again. Say it once more. The saying goes, I told you I love you when we got married, I’ll let you know if anything changes. Of course, it is a joke. Then why do you do just that when it comes to change? Build a marketing campaign around change, make the message relevant, clear, inspiring, and then repeat it in every possible occasion. You won’t waste time, and you will win commitment and alignment.

And change is so much more than this. But since none of the above ever gets done, you could try starting here before complaining that your people resist change.

Protect or build

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You can protect your name, your reputation, your prestige. Or you can build it.

Rarely you can do both at the same time.

Protecting is about public relations, networking, promising, giving speeches. It is a reactive game. It is about ensuring that what you do determines who you are, how others see you. It is trying to control the outcome, that you can’t really control.

Building is about doing. It is a proactive game. It is about ensuring that who you are determines what you do, day after day. It is fully mastering the input, that you can always control.

Choose carefully.

Be dumb

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When you ask dumb questions, people get often irritated and dismissive. But if you explain that you are asking simply because you do not genuinely know, they are usually happy to help. They can also go great lengths to make it click for you.

There are benefits in taking a dumb approach to things, new things in particular. Understanding why something is done in a certain way can unlock new meaning, and eventually you will become better at expressing yourself.

Next time you are in a meeting, and somebody nonchalantly asks “you know that, right?”, or says “you have certainly heard about this”, or mentions a term you are not familiar with. Instead of nodding and pretending, stop and ask the dumb question: “can you explain that, please?”.

You will not loose status. You will gain the possibility to learn.

How far

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At some point, you have to realize that busyness is hurting people around you.

It hurts your boss, who cannot count on you to deliver what you should.

It hurts colleagues and team members, who have to deal with somebody who is unprepared and unresponsive.

It hurts your partner and kids, who never know when you will be around with body and mind.

It hurts your friends, who are stuck listening to the stories you keep telling.

Many consider busyness as a measure of success. It is actually more often a measure of how far you are pushing your responsibilities.