The Manager 149 - Critical Thinking and More
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The Manager - Edition 149 - Critical Thinking and More
Hi,
I hope you're doing well and looking forward to the week ahead. This week I've been looking at garden studios, buying new tech to be more productive (or am I merely procrastinating and making excuses?) and doing lots of work in the garden.
Sounds Plausible
I do a lot of work with cultural change programs, and I hear hundreds of people banding around phrases, words and concepts with great abundance. Agile, Psychological Safety, Lean, Mindset, Radical Candour and the rest. They all form part of many change programs but very few people actually really know how they work in action.
You therefore get resistance to words like these from leaders and managers, who grow tired of hearing empty phrases that sound plausible but contain little in the way of action.
They all sound plausible but they are conceptual if you don't bring action, behaviours and knowledge with them.
I stop using these words and simply revert to a few core aspects of coaching and consulting when working with leaders.
They require behaviours and excellent communication skills, trial and error and good relationships. They are hard to truly explain. They are nuanced. They are incomplete as theories. And many of them are dangerous when merely banded about and rolled out. Good luck being radically candour in an environment where you don't truly have amazing relationships and a caring boss.
Be careful as a manager about falling for plausible sounding theories. Instead, rely on solid communication skills, building relationships, listening, looking after your people, solving business problems and focusing your energy and attention on value to your customers.
Management is about achieving business results and looking after your good people in the process. You don’t need plausible sounding theories to do that - you just have to study the work, solve the problems your people face, care about your staff and trust people to do good work.
LinkedIn Post of the week - Shine a light on good work
One of the easiest ways to change how things are done at work (if they need to be changed), is to shine a light on what is good.
It can be tempting to tackle the silent plotters, naysayers, resistors to change and those who don't seem to be onboard with what you're doing. But this is to invest your energy and attention on the wrong people.
Instead, shine a light on those doing things in the new way. Shine a light on good work, good behaviours and good process. Focus on those leading the change, so that others can see what good looks like.
Pretty soon the bandwagon will roll. And as long as you're supporting people on the journey, providing clarity and unblocking work for people, you'll soon be shining a light on great swathes of people.
Change is easier when you shine a light on good work and point at it and say, "that's what we do now".
View on LinkedIn
Permanent Home Working
What? Companies are trying to justify paying people who are permanently home working less money. Surely, equal pay is important - and should be based on the role you do and the value it adds to the business? Not whether you work from home or not?
StarEast Keynote
I did a Keynote for the Techwell StarEast conference back in April. It was well received and now it's available on my very own YouTube channel. It's about Thriving in Your Career and is full of useful ideas about this topic. It's a pretty personal video and I had a lot of fun delivering this one (remotely).
One of the new business models I've entered into is ensuring that all Keynotes I now prepare remotely can be published to my own channel. They were likely videos I wanted to create anyway, so it seems silly to spend the energy and attention on creating the video for a one off event and for it to sit hidden on a conference website - lost to the ether eventually. So, I now only do remote video keynotes if I can pre-record them and then publish them on my own site a few weeks / months after the conference event.
Some conference are up for it, some say no. I'm exploring this idea more. The only downside is it now looks like my channel is bigger than it is - as I have to declare paid content.
Setting up for success - environment productivity
I’m working from home a lot - as all of us are. So, I’ve invested in some shiny tech such as a portable external monitor, posh keyboard and other goodies. I call this environment productivity and I think it’s important; to have the right environment to do good work. But I’m also aware it’s just an excuse and a form of procrastination.
When I wrote my first book “Remaining Relevant”, I used my old rubbish laptop and spent nearly a year sitting in a derelict part of the office every lunch time, typing away. It wasn’t conducive to work by most standards but it became THE PLACE I wrote books.
This is important. Having a place dedicated to an activity helps to train your brain to work. This is the place I do X. And this is far more important than the tech setup.
I’m trying to ensure I get the balance right. Enough productivity tools to get the work done and be effective, without merely making excuses. Do you suffer the same challenges?
Be careful what you swap out and swap in
One of the main threads that runs through my work is critical thinking. Many people comment that I can be quite annoying to work with (in a fun and challenging way....I hope), as I always like to consider both sides of the plan, story, concept, design, life etc. I think critically.
I admit, it is annoying but it’s an essential skill I see missing too often. When I work with leaders and managers they are quick to jump on what others are doing. They are quick to jump for silver bullet solutions and copy methodologies and ways of working. They are quick to try anything to solve their problems.
But we must always pause when this happens and consider the other side(s).
I encourage them to stop and consider what they are giving up getting something else. What are they trading? And is it worth it? I ask the same questions when I do personal coaching. When someone wants a pay rise or a new job - I get them to write down what they are giving up and what they are gaining - and ask them to consider whether it’s worth it?
Is it really what they want? And is the other way better? Truly better? For example, with more responsibility they may have to trade time with their kids in an evening. Is it worth it?
Here’s an interesting article of future trends that is worth a read, and the one thing that stood out was the section of fashion. The survey author states that fashion contributes to devastating environmental waste - this is true. But they argue they can minimise this with AI and blockchain……but if you do your research on blockchain you’ll see some implementations of it are immensely destructive to the environment due to the processing and computing power it uses. Is it a good trade? Is it less destructive to the environment to use computing and server power, rather than traditional clothes manufacturing power?
Another example, when we look at others and see immense success we have to ask what they gave up getting there. When a company is seeing success with a way of working, what did they give up, what did it take and what would your journey be like to get there?
Critical thinking is the key. What problem are we trying to solve? Does this other way really solve it? Have we got enough data to decide (hint - you’ll never have complete data) and do we really, really want the other way? And what are we prepared to give up getting there?
Talking of critical thinking - here is a decent list of good books on the subject from the Art of Living.
The magic of new experiences
I seek out new experiences a lot. My brain kind of needs it. When people run from change - I like to embrace it. It sounds positive but it’s not. I get bored quickly. I start projects and don’t finish them. I take on too much. My daily to do list looks like I’m running a small country. I get distracted easily. But apparently, there is some brain changing magic in new experiences. I guess with all good there is some bad…
Until next week - stay safe
Rob..
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Rob..