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Founded in 2002, the blog here continues to be a space of daily conversation about the science of mind and its implications and applications
Nothing gets us in sync like clarifying and connecting expectations. It begins simply with the question: What are our expectations here?
When we create a space of listening and feeling heard, the question surfaces hopes, wishes, requirements and assumptions. The more clear these become, the more we can connect the expectation dots. This builds trust and trust is velocity.
It seems obvious to say that we are optimally aligned and energized when we have a real time and ongoing sense of what everyone is up to, working on, needing help with and completing,
This is not possible through email, conference calls and weekly status meetings. It's only possible through shared, virtual planning and text spaces like Trello and Slack.
Another insane traditional corporate practice is high level decision making, or at any level for that matter, that easily excludes the voice of "admins," meaning the very people who know more of what's going on than anyone in suits of power. Including them will take teams to new levels of smart and sanity.
Many of the CEOs and executives I've worked closely with over the years were good people. In perspective, they weren't smarter or harder working than everyone, starting with their own team.
Their comipensation was disproportionate to the value they delivered compared to the value everyone else delivered. The profound inequalities are simply social agreements that they should be so, with all manner of specious rationalizations. Perhaps it's a call for a new class of senior leaders who gladly accept more payment equity while enjoying higher than normal levels of competency.
When we take a break from complifying how organizations work, we arrive at the simple realization that the good we create happens at the intersection of intention and attention.
We work from the right intention and attention. We have clarity on the good we seek and give attention to everything that serves and supports it.
"The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
When we dream, we begin going out one generation. It is their hope that inspires our hope. This opens us up to the possibilities of our core gifts,
Depending on the energy of the group, we can use the Canvas process in any order.
If people are sitting with a lot of questions, we can start with the Clarity conversation. If people are concerned if they're the right group, we can start with the Gifts conversation. If people just want to launch into action, we can start with the Doing conversation. If people feel drawn to imagine the future they want to create together, we can start with the Dreaming conversation.
All that matters is we keep integrating back through all four conversations, as work in one enriches possibilities in the others.
There are times when it is useful for organizations, and teams, to revisit and connect in why they're in business. Their why is outdated, fuzzy, irrelevant to their current strengths and passions, in dire need of reinvention given current market realities and possibilities.
Twenty one years ago, Apple has 90 days of cash left. Something happened since than and the present reality of their unprecedented trillion dollar valuation.
What happened was they learned to become the Apple they have become. It's the same story as the thousands of companies over 600 years old still flourishing today. Learning.
The prime mistake leaders make is the assumption of how they are heard, and not heard, especially when they think they're being clear in any kind of communication. All that matters is that and how they get feedback on what's received and the impacts made and not made.
Goals are finite, discrete outcomes we are responsible for achieving, locations to arrive at. They are commitments through assignments or initiatives. They are supposed to be realistic even as they might be aspirational. We succeed or fail in fulfilling them. Partial fulfillment is failure.
Dreams are lenses, not locations. Their value is revealing new possibilities to realize in the present. They inspire, energize and engage us in progress towards these possibilities. Progress is by definition achievable. As they leverage learning, they are infinite in their form and path. There is no arrival, only progress on the Agile path.
On a fairly regular basis, when we invite to dream together, there is a handful of people annoyed by the whole exercise. They describe it as a waste of their time, irrelevant to their work.
What I'm always curious about is their relationship to existential guilt. I think people who can't tolerate the anticipatory guilt of not fulfilling dreams will resist dreaming in any way they can.
Should we excuse them from dreaming. I think it's OK to ask them to come back when we're doing questions and actions. They're going to see the dreams of the whole and work in alignment with them.
What helps is reassuring them dreams aren't goals. This assuage their guilt and opens space for the possibility of dreaming.
When we talk about the "organization's" mission, impact or anything, what are we talking about? In some cases, it's code for those who "run" The enterprise. It's their priorities and assumptions.
It's a new conversation to actually engage everyone in priorities and then redefine the organization meaning everyone, not just a dominant and unequally paid minority.
There is an emergent genre of organization that is interested in growing its relationship with the community in which it resides.
Reality is, its employees already have such relationships. They are already engaged as consumers, contributors and collaborators. Organic growth is connecting employees for more awareness, access and engagement.
Entrepreneurs can be socially responsible in a myriad ways. A short list.
Making everyone in the company a share owner
Creating things that add value to communities and the environment
Developing people's capacity for learning how to learn
Offering students and retirees unique learning opportunities
Job descriptions to specialize tasks were perfectly suited for industrial conveyor belt work. Productivity was the direct result of job description enforcement and compliance.
They have no relevance in work that is complex, dynamic or shared. These contexts require real time coordination by the whole.
Work performance and growth is more possible in intrinsic motivation rather than external pressure. Pressure implies that people don't need a personal, relevant and compelling sense of purpose in their work. When people lack this kind of purpose, they minimally engage their goodness in their work.
Estimates for when women will have pay equity at work are at around 217 years from now. It's an insane probability, and an opportunity to search for ways to accelerate this possibility. I would argue that it will have to do with rethinking how we value everyone's contributions at work.
There continues in many workplaces the braggdocio of the bro culture that obscures the multiplicity and nuances of value.
When it comes to fluency in team alignment, two ways to prevent alignment are emails and meetings. They are the source of all manner of delays and disconnects when compared to team boards like Trello and team texting like Slack.
After years of using and observing all these methods, I would argue that team alignment is only possible with the free, easy to use tools like Trello and Slack. No team had communication skill deficiencies. There are only three dimensions in communicatiom: listening, asking and telling. Everyone knows how to do these. Communication thrives when we get the tools right.
Alignment is velocity. Two simple ways to sustain alignment are sprint huddles and daily standups.
Sprint huddles are weekly planning sessions for the next two weeks out. We define together what success, progress and momentum looks like. We identify where help, collaboration and syncing up will be most important.
Daily standups are brief checkins to identify work in progress that needs confirmation of completion, requests and offers for help and making adjustments to the timing of responsiveness.
