If they say no, you're justifiably frustrated... It's not your fault we're not doing it. They didn't give permission. You tried, right?Seeking permission can just be an escape. An abdication of responsibility. A guilty pleasure. If they say "yes" and it goes wrong, they own the decision. They should have seen it would not work. What were they thinking!? If they say "yes" and it does work ... You're brilliant! And it's a good thing they … [Read more...]
Can you afford ‘No’?
April 29, 2013 by
Hierarchical leadership is a permission machine. The machine is primed to respond with "No". People's work becomes figuring out how to override the default response ... moving the machine to "Yes". And then doing it again. And again. Working with the mysterious machine to get permission to move things forward. Managers might exist simply to push at the levers ... trying for the right combination to produce a "Yes". Other managers might exist simply to increase the volume … [Read more...]
What Could You Achieve With Crushing Authority?
April 25, 2013 by
Rob started telling me about the cool stuff he was producing at work. His team is building things that would cost millions to buy. I was impressed with what his team accomplished. I asked him his secret. His team saw problems. They created solutions. Rob's job was easy. Just say "Yes." No one told them to do it. They just did it. Rob let them. More than that... he encouraged them. Rob didn't try to manage his people (or their tasks). He led his people and their … [Read more...]
How are you making it easier?
June 7, 2012 by
I'm beating this horse this week. The girls stopped eating. We found out their bottles flow rating was too low. Babies won't work too hard to eat. They'd rather not eat ... then drive their parent crazy as the scream because they're hungry. We bought them new nipples. They make it much easier for the girls to eat. They started eating more than before and 3 times faster. It's easy to get caught up in make the tool or the process 'perfect.' If it makes people work too hard, they … [Read more...]
How are you preparing for the parade?
December 28, 2011 by
We looked at each other. The babies crying in the background. "Should we respond?" We created a routine to help the babies learn to sleep. Sometimes that meant letting them cry for a few minutes. It was hard. Very hard. On Christmas Eve, we woke up. The babies slept through the night. 9 weeks old (5 weeks based on full term). Mission accomplished! I'd mention we wanted the babies to sleep through the night as our Christmas present. People would scoff at me. They told me I … [Read more...]
Here’s A High Value Proposition
July 25, 2011 by
Thirty years ago we had 1 hour of national news a day. We had 3 stations to choose from. We watched either Cronkite, Chancellor or Reasoner at 7pm (East Coast) on ABC, CBS, or NBC. If you watched TV at 7pm, you were probably watching the news. Nothing else was on. There was competition between the national news organizations at 7pm. There weren't many outside competitive threats because the choice was news or news. The competition that existed drove up quality. The news outlets … [Read more...]
Finish or fail … how to cross the finish line
July 1, 2011 by
I started looking for photos and links for my content more lately. The goal was a more polished product. It was also better Google ranking and more readers. The work doubled the time to write and publish. It became hard to to finish. My main goal here is to write and finish. It's to cultivate a habit of consistent execution. And to live by example. I let something that was outside of my main goal get in the way. I started falling behind. I started finishing less. Know what your … [Read more...]
There’s no ‘Y’ in Business!
October 25, 2010 by
No profit, no business. Business is about delivering one result ... Profit. Many key results contribute to delivering a profit. Do you have a paying job? There's a good chance you are responsible for delivering some of these key results. Do you know what they are? If not, you might not be doing your job! Oops. It's easy to confuse 'doing' with 'delivering'. Busyness is about doing activities. Business is about delivering results. Are you confusing busyness with business. The … [Read more...]
