Questioning Our Assumptions

Over the years, I have been a member of several boards of directors. I've been part of teams that produced some great results -- as well as teams that got bogged down when strong personalities became locked in disagreement. 

During a recent board meeting I was attending, the discussion suddenly became contentious. One member abruptly stood up, pointed her finger accusingly at another member across the room, and then burst into tears; several other board members walked out. Those of us who were left sat in stunned silence, wondering what had just happened?

As much as I think I can identify when someone (including myself) is making an assumption rather than asking the needed questions to find out what is actually true, the fact is, I was caught off guard at this meeting because I too had made some faulty assumptions.

Each of us makes dozens, maybe hundreds of small assumptions every day. There is nothing wrong with assuming that the floor will be solid when we slide out of bed in the morning and rest our feet on it; or that the coffee maker will still be making coffee and not, for example, pina coladas!  It might be entertaining to imagine "what would  happen if we really did question every single assumption?” but it would be difficult to get on with our daily lives and get anything done.

Assumptions come from past experiences that are stored in the brain, and they tend to fortify the status quo.  When something surprising or confusing happens, or when we are stuck or afraid, and don't know what to do next, we call on our assumptions to help us close the gap in our understanding.

The problem is, sometimes assumptions are just wrong, and they lead us to take actions and create emotions based on incorrect information. Faulty assumptions can create a force field that repels people away from each other, instead of pulling them closer together. Relationships can go up in smoke, important business investments can fail.

After the dust had settled and I'd had a chance to speak one-on-one with some of the individual board members, I learned some interesting things, and had my own assumptions challenged. For example the recent effort to keep monthly board meetings to an hour had been welcomed by many (including myself), but had angered others. While many assumed that brief, efficiently conducted meetings were best, several other members took great offense at what they assumed was an effort to keep them from fully expressing their opinions. On the subject of email communications, some members assumed that sending mass emails to the entire group was a way of including everyone, while others assumed that this was a sign that their time was not being respected. Finally, the board had had a number of discussions about encouraging more participation from within the organization; yet when some younger members suggested an innovative new project the board put them off, assuming these young members were too inexperienced to understand how difficult it would be to get this particular initiative off the ground.

Sticking to our assumptions no matter what allows us to hold on to grudges and also hold on to the way we’ve always done things, even if we sometimes end up feeling like a victim.  Even if it is counter productive and leads to inaction.  Our assumptions make us feel right – and anyone who sees things differently, wrong. And if feels good to be right.

But what if our board had an open discussion about the timing of the meeting? Everyone probably would have to give a little, but each side would understand the other's concerns and perhaps not be so quick to condemn them. And what if the next time a member of our organization suggested something new the board actually responded with, "That's an interesting idea, can you tell me more about it, and how you would head it up?" 

What if the next time any of us are tempted to make an assumption, about a reaction that catches us off guard or a suggestion that seems improbable, we ask first: “I am not sure I understand. Could you please explain it to me further?”

It might be uncomfortable. But maybe in the end each of us would feel we'd had our say and been heard; we'd get more help; we'd learn something new. And maybe we'd even end up seeing that there is more in this world that connects us than separates us from each other.

New Year's Intentions

At this time of the year we think about the idea of "New Year's Resolutions". Many of us are looking to make positive changes in both our business and personal lives, and we may even create a list of goals to achieve in the coming months.

An alternative to the ideas of resolutions and goals is the notion of Setting an Intention. While resolutions refer to our resolve and determination to do something, and goals are the results or achievements towards which this effort is directed, intentions are in some ways both, neither -- and more.

An intention is both the object intended, and the path towards that object.  Within the act of Setting an Intention is the belief that when we align our actions with a commitment to what matters most, the intended outcome is already ours. 

At different times in our lives many of us feel a strong desire for change -- and make a decision that it is time to do something about this desire.  Intentions come out of this decision. It might be a desire to change the kind of work we do, or perhaps the way we work; or, a desire to improve the quality of an important personal relationship. Here are some questions to ask yourself, when setting your "New Year's Intentions:"

• What is it that I desire to be true?

• Why? Where does this come from?

• What will achieving this desire fulfill in me, on a personal or professional level?

• How would my reality change by achieving this desire?

• What would I have to give up to achieve this desire? Am I willing to do that? 

In what areas do you desire to see change? Can you clearly envision -- and begin living and working towards -- your intended outcome? What obstacles might stand in the way?  What kind of support system can you create to help you as you move forward along your path? 

Is Your Suit Too Tight for Your Heart?

I recently wrote an article for Forbes.com on the importance of listening (How Important is Listening, Really?, October 25, Forbes.com). I am including a link to it here, and hope you'll enjoy it -- and that you'll also take time to click on the link to Brenda Ueland's wonderful essay on which this article is based.

From a business perspective, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by developing our capacity to be good listeners. How do we start?

• Take a deep breath and be fully open to the person or group that is in front of you.
• Remove from your vocabulary the phrase "Yes, but ...".
• Ask: "Is there anything else?"
• Ask again.

At a workshop I attended this month entitled The Jaguar Path (which included an eclectic and international group of business professionals from the fields of consumer goods, to investment banking, to landscape design) the leader of our group reminded us: "Don't let your suit become too tight for your heart". 

Give your heart enough space so that you can really listen. You'll be rewarded with exceptional results.

Strategic Planning: Creating Your Organizations Unifying Vision

In Good to Great, Collins argues the importance of seeing through complexity to discern the underlying patterns -- to discover what is essential, and ignore the rest. He calls this "the clarifying advantage." I find his simple model for examining what an organization can really be great at enlightening, particularly during these times when so many businesses and organizations are trying to redefine or reinvent themselves. 

It's also a useful model for thinking about what really matters to us, and where we can be most successful, in our professional lives and in other activities in which we engage.

1. What Can You Be The Best At?   A key to your success is understanding what your organization can be the best at, and what it cannot be the best at. It is not a plan to try to be the best at a particular thing. The challenge and the opportunity here is that What You Can Be Best At may be something that you are not even currently doing. Further, your core business may not in fact be the thing that you are best at.

2. What Drives Your Economic Engine?  Great organizations work hard to gain insight into what will most effectively generate sustained and robust cash flow and profitability. In Collins' words, they discovered the single denominator -- the ONE factor -- that has the greatest impact on economic success. 

3. What Are You Deeply Passionate About? You cannot manufacture passion or "motivate the team" to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passion of those around you.

The work of gaining an understanding of these three dimension and where they intersect for your organization will allow you to create strategies for maximum impact.

A few final notes. You may have been asking yourself:

What if we discover that we are not great at anything? I like the fact that Collins actually gets excited about this. Companies that reach this grim conclusion have also persevered and decided "there must be something we can be the best at and we will find it and not delude ourselves when we confront the facts of what we cannot be the best at". 

What if I am not in a high-growth industry? A company does not need to be in a great industry to become a great company. What is important to success is gaining a deep understanding of the key drivers of your organization's economic engine and building your systems in accordance with this understanding.

Why should anyone care about Being Great? First, it is no harder to build something great than to build something good, it does not require more suffering than perpetuating mediocrity. It may even simplify our lives and increase our effectiveness. Second, if you are doing something you care about and you believe in its purpose, then it is hard to imagine not trying to make it great. 

Strategic Planning in Challenging Times

This summer I've had the privilege of working with several organizations on Strategic Planning assignments.  These meetings were enthusiastic, intense, emotional at times, and filled with hard work, determination, and a sense of accomplishment.    

Many organizations today understand that with the challenges faced in today's economy, it is essential that they take a hard look at who they are, what's important to them, and how they are going to move forward successfully with smaller staffs, fewer resources. They know they need to make some changes, but the task seems daunting. A well-mapped out Strategic Planning engagement can be enormously productive in helping an organization adapt and move forward.  

The following are some insights into the process, which I hope you will find useful as you consider a Strategic Planning meeting for your own organization.  

1. DO Engage in Regular Strategic Planning. The world is changing so fast that strategies for success that made sense even a year ago may no longer hold true. Re-visiting and clarifying the organization's mission, values, goals, and strategies on a regular basis helps to create a strong framework that will allow the organization to be flexible and effective in dealing with change.  

2. DO Hire Professional Help.  Without an outside coach or facilitator, most groups get sidetracked or bogged down, and waste a lot of time. An outside professional has the ability to stimulate the group to get out of their usual ways of doing things, seeing things, and interacting with each other. And they will push the group to stay focused and complete its agenda.

3. DON'T Expect To Coast Through It. An effective Strategic Planning meeting takes commitment and hard work. It will likely include pre-work, and often some carefully chosen reading assignments. The meeting itself may span several hours -- or days. And once all this is done, the real work begins: holding oneself and others accountable to move forward with the actions committed to.  

4. DO Expect That Sparks Will Fly. Tempers may flair, tears may be shed. Again, a skilled facilitator or coach will help the group navigate through the heated emotions and channel that passion into breakthrough creative thinking and action.   

5. DON'T Be Surprised When Resistance Appears. As much as people clamor for things to change, most of the time we hope that the results can be different but without us having to be different. An important step in the process of redefining strategy and goals may be gaining awareness of our own resistance to changing how we do things.  

6. DO Notice How the Cream Rises to the Top. It becomes clear very quickly that there are those who just like to hear themselves talk -- and those who are willing to take action. The structure and clarity of this kind of work empowers individual performers, which benefits the entire organization.  

7. DO Include Everyone. While the leadership of an organization may be most involved in determining the Strategic Plan, for this plan to actually work all levels of the organization must be engaged and included. People support what they help to create. 

8. DON'T Neglect to Celebrate. Planning and execution are hard work -- especially if your goal is to take the organization down a new path. Take time out to celebrate your early wins!   

9. DO create goals that you can measure. How long will it take? What resources are needed? What is the desired outcome?  What gets measured gets done. 

10. DON'T Stop Now. Become a Culture of Constant Improvement. Strategic Planning allows us to respond actively to the question: How can we be better at what we do? As innovation is stimulated, the organization becomes more attractive to all its constituents -- staff, members, clients, shareholders.

Taking A Break

Vacations provide a needed break from work, and a chance to kick back and have some fun. Time off can also be an opportunity to explore another side of who we are -- important, because what can ultimately become draining about our work-life is the routine we get into of doing what we always do, being who we always expect ourselves to be, seeing the world through the same paradigms as the day before, and the day before that. 

Having just returned from a 10-day break which included a week at Kripalu , a well-known center for yoga and wellness in Great Barrington, MA, I can enthusiastically recommend the value of taking time off to do something  ... a little out there (more about that, below).

Here's to making sure we all take that needed break this summer, so that September finds us refreshed and renewed. 

DISCOVER WHO ELSE YOU ARE, BESIDES THE PERSON WHO DOES A GREAT JOB AT WORK

Here are three very different kinds of summer vacation experiences I have had in the past 7 years - and important lessons I learned from them about myself. 

1. I am fearless. Well, not exactly. But what I came to understand from the summers I spent learning to rock climb in the Adirondacks is that I have a lot more courage and ability to go beyond my own fears than I imagined. Joining a group of 18-year-olds to climb a 100-foot rock wall, and having to swallow my need to be "one of the best" (when I was clearly going to be among the slowest and most hesitant) reminded me that I do have the courage to take risks, and possibly fail. Repelling backwards off that same 100-foot cliff when every bit of instinct was hollering "you are going to die!" made it clear that there are far scarier things than having to deal with losing a big client, or not being sure where your next project is coming from. Being able to take that "leap of faith" made it easier to take others. 

2. I am creative. For two summers, I spent a week at a farm learning to weave. I had forgotten how much I love color, texture, and making something that is simple and useful. And I reconnected with how important it is to me to be part of a fellowship of others with similar interests, and how that fellowship can rise above any number of differences in how old you are, where you are from, how much money you make. In the end, it is more important than any of those things.

3. I can surprise myself. Who would have thought I'd be interested in Shamanism? Or that these teachings would contain so much that resonate with the kind of work I do as a business coach? This summer I spent a week practicing yoga and studying The Jaguar Path , with teacher and healer Ray Crist, at Kripalu. I signed up for the class almost on a whim, but discovered that this more holistic view of the world really makes sense to me. To my surprise I came away with some very practical tools for making myself more effective at what I do, and helping my clients do the same. In addition, I am a little more grounded, focused, and calm as I confront the challenges of every day. And consider this - how many business coaches do you know with their own magic rattle?   

Why Volunteer? Aren't You Busy Enough?

Recently I participated in a weekend program, created by the College Summit organization, designed to help low-income students prepare their college applications. My role was to coach six young women from Miami-Dade high schools, over three days, through the process of writing their Personal Statements for college. It was one of the most satisfying experiences I have had in some time.

Volunteering can offer professionals the kind of experience that not only satisfies a desire to give back, but also creates an opening to perceive new possibilities for how to approach our roles and responsibilities in the organizations we work for.  

This summer I suggest that each of us, no matter how busy we are, find a way to contribute our time to the issues that matter to us. You'll be amazed at the value you'll gain in your own professional life.

1. Learn what it's like to run a successful operation on a shoestring.  Many non-profit organizations are determined to produce huge results with limited financial resources. As a professional from the for-profit world, it is enlightening to see what combination of factors makes this work: hard work, persistence and determination, honing the organizational message, attracting the best workers, stakeholders, and supporters.

2. Motivating the Troops. Ever feel like you have a hard time motivating employees who are actually getting paid to work hard? What drives those who will work hard for free? My observation: keep your eye on the goal at all times, don't waste people's time, be generous with your recognition of each person's contribution. 

3. The Value of Making A Difference. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review noted "employees are highly motivated, satisfied, and effective when they work in jobs that have a positive impact on others." (HBR, June 2011). The driving motivator is NOT "creating shareholder value." And whether the difference you make is in feeding a hungry person in a soup kitchen, or in being that person your clients can count on for quality, service, and integrity, the opportunity to make a difference is what counts. If you don't understand this connection already, by volunteering you'll get it in a visceral, gut-wrenching way. 

4. What does a Culture of Constant Improvement Look Like? This culture exists in many volunteer-driven organizations, but was particularly evident in the College Summit group. How often do we in business ask ourselves, and those we work with: "What can I do better? How can we improve?" If I have made a mistake, do I own it and commit to doing better next time? As a leader in a company, have I created the kind of environment where these kinds of questions can be asked? 

5. Shake Up Your World. Get out of your comfort zone. Connect to the issues of the day that matter to you. There is no better antidote to the cynicism and anxiety of our times than working with those who -- even amidst dire circumstances -- are determined to create a better future. You'll take on your own professional challenges with a new sense of possibility.