THE LEAFLET
December 07 2023
co-created instead of covert change, finding meeting purpose, powerful moments
CO-CREATED INSTEAD OF COVERT CHANGE
In protective mode, the leader minimizes the amount she talks about the change and the number of people involved in producing it. She wants the new steady state, after the change, to arrive smoothly. She wants a good user experience for her teammates as the organization undertakes the change. None of this is wrong in spirit.
But almost all of it triggers unintended consequences that can make the change experience more painful and slow for everyone. You give folks permission to interact with the season of change like consumers, who issue hot takes and star-based ratings and maybe have resentful commentary, instead of like creators, who generously make moves that make the change a cooperative success.
Instead of covert change, co-create change. Assign responsibility and extend invitations.
Read the rest here.
-Eric
WHAT’S THE DOWNSIDE IF WE CANCEL IT ALTOGETHER?
Ask yourself: if we didn't have this meeting, what are the downsides? This is a sneaky way to discover what the point of the meeting is in the first place. The downside is what you lose by not having the meeting.
If this is a standing meeting that occurs every x days or weeks, put a trigger in your calendar 5 or 10 days before the meeting. You are prompted with the specific question: what is the purpose of having this meeting five to ten days from now?
Write down the answer to the downside question. The downside of not having the meeting - this is the reason for having the meeting. It’s what the meeting is for.
If there is no answer, no downside, cancel the meeting. Save yourself and everyone else the time! People are usually quite grateful for this.
Now, plan a meeting that explicitly and specifically delivers that thing. Trim time and agenda items that don’t directly achieve that purpose.
Read the rest here.
-Ben
THE OUTSIZED POWER OF SPECIAL MOMENTS
Well-intentioned leaders often wonder (and worry) about how their people are feeling about their jobs overall. Their people may be doing good work regularly, have solid (or even excellent) compensation and benefits, and team up with colleagues who are similarly proficient. Yet you have a sense that morale, person by person, could be better. You worry you and the job and the organization would get a mild 3-star rating or worse from your people.
The Power of Moments suggests that leaders in this spot should look at the calendars of their people and at the time they spend with those people 1:1 with two goals:
Prepare highs: Identify opportunities to build special, powerful, memorable moments
Preclude lows: Address super low points by talking through unresolved ones from the past and mitigating future ones.
Read the rest here.
-Ben
COMPELLING QUOTES
Novelist and lefty Christian sage Anne Lamott on revealing your inner monster:
When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are. The secrecy, the obfuscation, the fact that these monsters can only be hinted at, gives us the sense that they must be very bad indeed. But when people let their monsters out for a little onstage interview, it turns out that we’ve all done or thought the same things, that this is our lot, our condition. We don’t end up with a brand on our forehead. Instead, we compare notes.
Holocaust survivor Edith Eva Eger, on hope:
Hope isn’t a distraction from darkness. It’s a confrontation with darkness.
Author Gregory Stock, in The Book of Questions:
Do you strive more for security, accomplishment, success, love, power, or excitement?
Keep going, keep growing,
Ben & Eric