Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career (99U Book 2)

by Jocelyn K. Glei

BUILD ON OTHERS’ WORK Chartres was not built by a single master but by a succession of nine masters who came and went with the ebb and flow of funding over the years. This meant there was no single comprehensive vision for the cathedral’s design—each master built on the work of his predecessor, adapting and altering the design as he saw fit and the work progressed. One of the unwritten rules of cathedral construction described by James was that whenever a new master started work, he left the previous master’s work intact. Instead of razing the stonework and starting afresh, he incorporated its lines and themes in his new construction. Start to listen to the conversations in your workplace: do people typically build on each other’s ideas (“Yes, and…”) or block them (“Yes, but”) and try to replace them with their own? How about you? When someone proposes a new idea, is your instinct to accept it and look for ways to develop it, or to critique it and pull it to pieces? When you join a project that others have started, do you look for ways to build on their foundation, or are you tempted to start over from scratch? From now on, make a conscious effort to build rather than block. Start by asking “What’s already working? How can we build on it?” Look for opportunities to praise (sincerely). Say “Yes, and” instead of “Yes, but”—and encourage others to do the same. (Don’t worry, your critical faculty won’t disappear. It’s too well-built for that.)