Bill Jensen's Blog, page 20

3 Smartest Ways to Say: I Do Not Know

Fast Company recently interviewed the founders of Thinx (and two of our 100 Disruptive Heroes, Miki Agrawal and Radha Agrawal) for their views on the smart way to say "I don't know."  



They shared the first of three crucial things to do as part of the smart way...



1. "I'll get back to you on that."

Too many of us (or our bosses who are too afraid of looking bad), over-prepare for every possible question we might get asked. Get over that! Saying "I'll get back to you" and doing so quickly is an opportunity to show multiple best practices — listening, learning, accountability, reliability and more.



The other two are...

2. Explore, Seek Out Innovations

You're not just reporting back to others and covering your ass...You're exploring something you hadn't yet thought about. More than likely, somewhere within your search, there's a Nugget you hadn't seen, a Next Big Idea that's waiting to be unearthed. 



3. Study the Questioner's Thinking for Next Time

Not the actual question they asked, but during the meeting and afterwards, seek to understand what's BEHIND their question. Usually, there are patterns of needs behind every question that can be applied to help you prepare for all future opportunities.  



Master these three and you will be amazed by how far you can go on not knowing!

Never Kowtow Again: How to Manage Up Successfully

It's a fact of life. We all have bosses we need to manage. (Their expectations, our relationship with them, our responsiveness to them, etc.)


CEOs have boards and shareholders. Entrepreneurs have clients/customers and maybe investors. Mid-managers, well...much of your day is often spent managing up.



While many of the standard approaches for managing up may work, they also leave you kowtowing a tad too much.



You need to (politely, appropriately) push responsibility back onto your boss's plate. You need to always ensure that yours is a successful two-way, not-just-one-way relationship.







One sure-fire approach is the 

Do You Agree Method. 

(Detailed in depth in this cheap Jensen FastPak Tool).



The model is simple:


State the proactive step you will be taking in any given situation, then ask some variation of "Do you agree?"




Example: "This is similar to what we did on the customer service project we did a year ago. Like before, I'd suggest we do this, this and this (fill in with specifics). Do you agree?" (Or..."Does that make sense to you?" Or... "Do you have other suggestions?")






This works for two specific reasons:

1. You are articulating your accountability. You are not presenting your boss with problems, you are going to her with proposed solutions.






2. You are creating a space for your boss to also articulate her views, her measures for success, her recommendations. This ensures that both your asses are on the line, not just yours!






Follow this approach and the result is almost always an enhanced two-way relationship!





MORE TRADITIONAL ADVICE, BUT TOO ONE-WAY KOWTOWY FOR MY TASTE...

Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, recently shared his top three steps for managing up, including:

Put Yourself in Your Manager's Shoes: Your job is to align yourself with her interests, goals and priorities, not the other way around.

Where Is Your Tevye Line?

Go the F**k to Sleep... The No Asshole Rule... The Aristocrats (description, for those who aren't sure if they are ready to be totally offended)... The Aristocrats (video, for those who are ready to laugh hysterically while certainly being offended)...



We all use language we're "not supposed to." We all know some person or product or service that has made a ton of money by breaking that "not supposed to" rule. Controversy sells!



I recently faced a dilemma: Go for it or tone it down?



For my latest book, Disrupt! , which comes out in August, I took one of the chapter titles, Do Epic Shit, from a quote from one of the interviewees, "do epic shit," and decided to use it in the title of the book: Disrupt! Do Epic Sh*t.



OMG. You would think I disrespected everyone's mom or their religion or their values in the worst possible way!!



The reactions were super intense! I asked a long-time friend and well-known author to write a quote for the cover: He replied, "Sorry Bill, but my editor and agent both advised me against [being associated with this book] — they don't like the title. I can't say I'm a huge fan either." Woah.



Surprised the shit out of me! But I try to have an open mind and am a passionate learner. So I crowdsourced the debate. Asked some of my online communities to vote on Do Epic Sh*t or a more safe version. Both sides, pro Sh*t and Sh*t haters, were passionate. In the end, it was 2 to 1 for a safe title and against Sh*t.



So now the official title is Disrupt! Think Epic. Be Epic.



For a business book, that probably was the right decision. Yet I still have this nagging feeling. Did I sell out? Or did I do the right thing?



Which brings us to the point of this post. It's not about my book or cussing. It's about a question we all face every day...



For you: Where is the line between taking a principled and passionate stand and being willing to bend?





Where is the point at which you move from "Yeah, I can compromise on this. No big deal." to "No. I cannot compromise. It must be this way or I cannot be a part of it."



I call it the Tevye line. (Fiddler on the Roof: Where Tevye keeps bending his principled believes for the love of his daughters and finally reaches his limit... He cannot bend anymore.)



For each of us, that line is different. And it changes based on the topic and circumstances.



The only way we can be true to ourselves is to know our Tevya line, and to revisit it constantly, and move it one way or the other as we grow and change.

The Path to Amazing: Be Conflightened

Corporate communication analysis based on more than two decades of change consulting. Name for the common cultural problem courtesy of The Emotionary: Words that don't exist for feelings that do.





Conflightened. That dumb-then-wow moment we all need to feel from time to time.



Our assumptions and habits are powerful allies — sometimes. They often help us figure out the fastest way to get something done without treating everything as a new problem.



Our assumptions and habits can also be our worst enemy. They can lock us into ways of thinking and doing that should have expired years ago. That's why being conflightened can be a very very good thing.



Those Aha moments are the very things we need to shake us out of our old ways and into new ways.



What to Do: Embrace being conflightened. It may not feel like it at first, but being in that state will create an amazing future for you!

Get Your Head Out of Your...

When it comes to being productive: So many people have their heads up their... (What did you think I was going to say?)


Their heads are too far up their To Do list.



So many people think they're being productive, yet are sadly misguided. The most universal tracking of personal productivity: Checking things off of one's To Do list.



But what about...

• Quiet concentration? 

That's rarely on those To Do lists, yet it can enhance productivity!

• Great collaboration with teammates?

Ditto.

• Deep understanding of your job and how it relates to the company's purpose?

Same.

• Never taking on a project (or starting a To Do list) before you can answer: "What does success look like?" "How will we know we are doing a good job?"

Same.

• Asking yourself, "Am I happy?" and figuring out what to change if the answer isn't glowing?

Same.

• Questioning all the stupid measures that companies hand you for productivity, and creating some of your own?

Same.



If you sometimes-to-often think of daily productivity as just checking things off your To Do list, you are missing the majority of what it's really about.



Ultimately, being productive is about results...and achieving those results in the fastest, most efficient, most effective way. But once we moved into a knowledge and service economy... Dreaming matters. Creativity and innovation matter. Stories matter. Clarity matters. Learning matters. Unlearning matters. Growing and evolving matter. Sooooo much matters that's way beyond the scope of merely checking off a To Do.



If you want to be truly productive, the first To Do is to look up...Get away from the list. See how much more should be on it.



How often does your To Do list include: "Do epic"..."Be epic"?



Only when you can answer that question can you be truly productive. For yourself and for others.



(My thanks to the many contributors to a LinkedIn discussion on this topic, from which I drew some of these points. Please check it out. I simplified some of their amazing comments.)

You Cannot Ignore The Power of Stupidity

Every once in a while, StumbleUpon delivers to my desktop something so powerful that it makes me stop everything I'm doing and compels me think deeper and to dive deeper.


That is what happened when I stumbled upon The Power of Stupidity , by Giancarlo Livraghi, first written in Italian, then translated into English. (You can download the book for free, chapter by chapter.)



A sampling of its wisdom...

1. Stupidity is the greatest destructive force in the history of humankind. It can’t be totally defeated. But there is a lot that we can do to reduce and control its power. The more we understand it, the better we can avoid or prevent its awful effects.




2. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. (Hanlon's Razor)



Even when stupidity is not the original source of a mishap, its
consequences often get worse because of our stupid reactions and clumsy
attempts to find a solution.



3. We cannot really understand ourselves without understanding
stupidity, and if we understand stupidity, we will understand ourselves. (James Welles, Understanding Stupidity)




4. We’ve got to live with power — and its stupidity. But this doesn’t mean that we must accept, tolerate or support its arrogance. Or be deceived too easily by gestures,
words, promises and declared intentions. Power should not be admired, trusted or even respected unless it shows practical
intelligence in what it does to us and to the world.




5. Stupidity is often confused with ignorance. 








There is a mischievous reciprocity of ignorance. When people mutually adjust to other people’s
(real or assumed) ignorance, the level of dialogue spirals downwards.



The amount and the quality of information exchanged tend to zero — or become negative, reinforcing false or distorted notions, increasing prejudice,
commonplace and errors of perspective.



To avoid the effort of thinking, we often fall back on comfortable misconceptions that find easy agreement. We follow the path of habit — or we fear the danger of having to tackle a difference
of opinion for which we might not be adequately prepared.



There are many other unpleasant friends of stupidity and ignorance.
Arrogance, presumption, egotism, selfishness, envy, carelessness, servility,
imitation, gossip, prejudice, meanness, unwillingness to listen and to
understand... etcetera... lurking almost everywhere in human behavior
and communication.


Honor the power of stupidity... Or be trampled by it. Your choice!


  

Get Past Nonversations

Corporate communication analysis based on more than two decades of change consulting. Name for the common cultural problem courtesy of The Emotionary: Words that don't exist for feelings that do.









Nonversation. When you speak up, but the powers that be are not listening.



You know the feeling. You've got great ideas. But your boss's boss's boss has already predetermined the "correct" path for your project. Or your boss, trying (appropriately) to keep her project manageable, simply declares your ideas "out of scope" and moves on. Or the culture you're in only believes in great ideas if you can prove that they've already been proven elsewhere.



You speak up in the first few meetings about the project. You even pull your boss aside in a confidential conversation trying to get her to pay attention to your ideas.



But after a while, you realize everything you say is falling on deaf ears. So you make it easier for yourself. You just stop trying.


What to Do: Never stop trying! (Up to 3 times.) Who else is going to speak loud enough for those deaf ears to hear. But if you've tried — really, really tried — and you're still not getting anywhere, it's time to move on! Either within the company...to a different manager, whose ears are not so deaf. Or, if that deafness is pervasive throughout the company, then get up and out of there entirely! Try to break through up to three times, then move on!

25 Perfect Questions

The best questions reveal the biggest ahas, the profound truths of life. That's why I was thrilled to encounter this Quora discussion on "What's the single most illuminating question I can ask someone."



From hundreds of great questions posted there (plus a few of my own), here are my 25 Perfect Questions.



ABOUT YOU

• What makes you… you?



• Who are you becoming?



• What would you do if you knew you could not fail?



• How are you, really?



• What is your ideal day like?



• What keeps you up at night?



• What is the proudest moment in your life so far?



• What's the last totally crazy thing you did?



• What does being successful mean to you?



• What's the most unexpected thing you've learned along the way?



• If you could call yourself five years ago and had 30 seconds, what would you say?



• What is the biggest challenge in your life?



• What makes you laugh?



• What is the last thing you did for the first time?



• Why are you here, really?



BIGGER THAN YOU

• Who was the last person that changed your way of thinking? (…Believing? …Feeling?)



• Who have you been completely vulnerable with? (…How? …Why?)



• What is the most valuable valueless thing you own?




• 
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?



• When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?



• What is your biggest regret?



BIGGER THAN ALL OF US

• What is justice?



• What is love?



• What cause (or belief, or value) would you be willing to die for?



• What really matters?

3 Steps to Absolute Bliss

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." — Walter Bagehot 


The more I learn from the Disruptive Heroes project, the more I see that absolute bliss, in an era of constant an ending disruptions and change, is derived from doing things that conventional wisdom says cannot be done.  


Simplified, bliss came to those who are happy during disruptive times in three ways...  


1. Seek Constant Ahas

Learn what was previously soooo unknown to you and you will find absolute bliss.







"From Steve Jobs, I learned that people can't tell you what they need — they can only tell you how to revise the current or status quo...they can't tell you how to jump to the next curve." Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment, says that he learned everything he knows about innovation, and how to go beyond the status quo, from Apple's founder.



2. Find True North on Your Moral Compass

Rajeev Pesharawaria, author of Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders, shared that he learned true integrity from his father who was a tax advisor in a small town in India. While most everyone in the tax system was corrupt, his father stood firm on his principles. "So many people came to his funeral to tell stories of his integrity in a sea of dishonesty...A public holiday was declared in his honor to respect him for his integrity. Integrity, helpfulness and forgiveness was what he became known for. I try to live each of those every day."



Challenge yourself to live higher and higher standards on your moral compass, even beyond what you thought could have been possible, and you will find absolute bliss.



3. Do That Which Couldn't Be Done

Push yourself beyond what you've done before and you will find absolute bliss on the other side of the hard work.



Lesly Moreno is a 20-something student in New York City: "My grandmother taught me that through hard work you can make it far. You have to work hard and go through pains, but always look at the bright side. She got married in her teens and was physically and emotionally abused. She had 12 kids and took care of ten more kids. She was the sweetest and most generous person I've ever met. Now, I use photography as therapy to get through my very difficult health issues. I wish I could do more than my body allows me to. Photography helps me get through all that."



Do that which you thought couldn't be done, or others told you couldn't be done, and bliss will find you!

Your Second Most-Crucial Skill

In past blog posts I have covered the one skill that rules all others: Triaging. (The ability to quickly figure out what needs to be done, who needs to be involved, rapidly creating a prioritized To Do list, and communicating all that clearly and concisely.) See here, here, here and here for various posts on triaging.


Now, based on Search for a Simpler Way ongoing research, let's cover your...



Second Most-Crucial Skill:

Connecting the Dots

This skill is directly tied to triaging, yet it's different as it comes after the rapid prioritizing. It's the ability to see the connections and alignments (or lack of needed connections and alignments) between all the elements of your project.





For example, let's assume you're building a training program:


• People: Besides those being trained, will others be impacted by changes created by this training? Do the bosses of all those different areas know what they'll need to contribute or do differently?

• Processes: What needs to be (or could be) completely rethought as a result of this new training?

• Tools: Besides the training itself, will any new tools be needed to implement what is being trained?




Connecting the Dots means thinking through these elements as if plotting them on a Venn diagram, focusing on how each dimension of the problem intersects with the other.

(If you want more, the Jensen Group has a cheap FastPak tool on Connecting the Dots.)



But let's not overly complicate this!


The analysis that connects the dots is NOT the most important part.




The most important part of Connecting the Dots is simple... and yet, rarely done: It's creating the space where teammates are encouraged to talk about things that are "out of scope."



Most solutions to corporate challenges work hard (appropriately so) to prevent "scope creep," ensuring that teams are not attempting to "boil the ocean." But that also prevents people from connecting the dots!






You need to be instrumental in creating the team-culture and the conversations where people can talk about how all the dots are connected!





This is especially true if your boss is a linear thinker and not big on expanding his/her thinking beyond narrowly defined spec's. 




At least at the beginning of every project... (Not too much beyond, otherwise you'll get pegged as a procrastinating trouble-maker!):



Your job is to be the person who sees beyond the restrictive spec's of the project. Your job is to be the one who connects the dots that others do not see!




Because everything is connected to everything else...

And too few are seeing that until it's way too late.