Tag: empowerment

Bridges over gaps

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There’s a gap between you and everyone else.

A gap between what you do and what they do. A gap between what you want and what they want. A gap between how you think things should be run and how they think things should be run. A gap between what you believe is true and what they believe is true. A gap between how you see yourself in ten years and how they see themselves (and yourself) in ten years.

It is quite easy and instinctual, in front of the gap, to either impose our point of view or completely give it up. Both are ways to avoid conflict. “You better do what I say!” or “Ok, let’s do it your way..” are shortcuts for the short terms. They work for a while. Until the other, or we, realise what it’s been renounced. Then we find the gap is still there, only wider.

Another option, more difficult to practice, taking more effort, energy and empathy, is to work to build a bridge over the gap. You build a little bit on your side, the other builds a little bit on their side. Both work to make their sides more solid, and eventually, with time, the two parts will meet.

The meeting point is something completely new, as it is not your side nor it is the other’s side. It is a new perspective, a new idea, a new way of acting, a new vision for your common future. Built on common understanding.

Great thing about bridges, others can walk on them too.

Naming and acting

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If you call mean, “mean”.
Or if you call kind, “kind”.

That is OK, and despite some discomfort in the first case, people will have the tools to decide if they want to stick around or not.

The real disaster, though, is when you call mean, “kind”.

As in.

The most important asset is our people, and then people are asked for regular overtime to keep up with management/customers/partners requests.

We embrace innovation, and then to kick off a new project people have to go through a rigid approval system.

We want to hear from you, and yet it is a machine responding the call, and before I get there I have to wait 20 minute on the line.

How we name things is important. And even more important is that we follow up to the naming with actions and practices.

Sticky ideas

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The ultimate test to your ideas is to see if they stick once you are gone.

Crystallise them, test them, make them spread. And then, remove yourself from the situation and see what others do with them. If they are good, people will continue using them, they’ll make them yours and eventually even improve them. If they are not and people spend most of their time working around them, finding shortcuts and alternatives, you can make one of two choices.

You can discipline and seek compliance, further explain why your idea is good and everybody should adopt it, implement processes and checkpoints to make sure they do. And at some point realise you have landed very far from where you intended to.

Or you can sit down with the people involved, share your observations, start a discussion and together come up with a shared idea that works even when nobody is watching. It seems to me this is the only path to progress.

Bending the rules

Fabrizio1 Comment

We are all subject to the pitfalls of “this time will be different”.

Sometimes ago, I was listening to a podcast featuring Guy Kawasaki. Guy promotes a pretty interesting and well known framework for presentations – the 10/20/30 rule. That is to say 10 slides, in 20 minutes, with text on the slides set at a minimum of 30 points.

Despite people knowing about his “rule”, he was amazed by the fact they were still pitching ideas to him with presentations that did not respect any of those precepts. When the host asked why he thought that happened, he said that people always tend to think that the rule does not apply to them: “Sure, I know about the rule, but that does not apply to me. My idea is the most interesting, what I have to say is incredibly powerful, my insights are superb. This time will be different, I promise.”

It turns out, it almost never is.

A slightly different version of the pitfall is “this time alone”.

Working with start-ups, I have often heard the mantra: “this is not who we are, we’ll do it this time alone, and when things will start getting traction, we’ll finally be able to act the way we really, deeply, sincerely are”. Of course, if you are eventually lucky enough to get some traction, you’ll have forgotten and most likely shit on how you really, deeply, sincerely are. No reason to go about searching for excuses.

Some rules are set for you, some you get to set.

I am not promoting absolute obedience and compliance, yet we should be aware of these traps and be completely honest about a fact. When we start bending the rules, chances are we are starting to bend ourselves as well. We ought to make sure we are doing that in a direction we’ll feel confident and proud about the morning after.

What do others get?

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What do other people get if you achieve what you want?

If you have a target, and you are committed to it, the best way to approach it is to first figure out what others have to gain. Your colleagues, your boss, the other managers, your company, your stakeholders.

It’s a great exercise to keep your wants in check. Is this really the best thing in this situation? Does it still make sense after so much time? Am I being too selfish, unreasonable, unrealistic? How many people are going to end up better off after I win?

And it is also a way to start thinking how to get buy-in. You always need buy-in, you do not operate in solitary. Having an argument that goes beyond “because it’s good for me” (or any variation of it) is a huge step towards getting it.