"The Hardest Worker in the Room"

For those not familiar with a “Word Cloud” it’s the result of a metadata exercise which visualizes text data and is used by marketing for value proposition exercises, messaging exercises, and customer persona exercises (all involving a bunch of important people in a room and sticky notes) — marketing people love Word Clouds because they’re very colourful and kick off a slide deck very nicely. I only bring this up because, as the saying goes, I needed to “set the table”.

At my gym the walls are covered with sizeable words I assume are meant to motivate. They were most likely the result of some sort of word cloud exercise and I can almost see the bowl of candy in the middle of the table used to keep everyone’s energy up.

Excellence. Power. Motivate. Inspire. Performance. Intensity. Powerful. Achievement. Innovate. Elevate. Challenging. Motivation. Competitor. Perfection. Excel.

Coincidently, as I was counting words and scribbling them into my workout journal, I saw a club member walking around with a T-Shirt that bolding stated, “The Hardest Worker in the Room”.

There is a lot to “unpack” here with five or six bunny holes available, so to save us all some time I decided to focus my efforts on this.

Words are important and they drive action; the right words drive the right action and words without action offer little.*

In fairness, I have no idea what the objective of the word cloud exercise was but most of the words on the wall reflect the results that come with the actual training, so I assume they are meant to motivate. As motivators I suppose they work but none of them help me get to my goal; there is much work to be done between the idea of getting into good shape and having cocktails on the beach looking buffed. Words drive action so it is important to have the right words.

Discipline, perseverance, knowledge, resolve, and ownership better frame what is needed to be successful in the gym. And this brings me to my friend in the T-Shirt.

He didn’t look like he spent much time in the gym — he wandered around looking at his phone and I don’t think I saw him do anything (n fairness though, I was spend much of my time working out and scribbling words in my journal). He may have been having a good time being “ironic” but I can only react to what is presented to me, which in this case, was a juxtaposition to what was on his T-Shirt. And in the context of the gym, this represented a complete lack of any credibility or serious competency. A reminder that words and action represent who you are; aligning words and action are crucial.

Sure this is just a fun example of a moment in a local gym but it really isn’t hard to transfer to something more important.

iamgpe

*I suppose I could have just said, “Talk is cheap so get to work” but then I wouldn’t have had any opportunity to talk about Word Clouds or being ironic.

Unless proven wrong, they made the right decision.

Recently I found myself sitting around a table involved in a "hardy and dramatic discussion" about a business decision that had to be made; in the end, this particular decision did not go the way I had hoped. 

Experience has shown me that the decision making process is usually a mixture of "hardy and dramatic discussion", facts and figures, risk tolerance, gut feel and a smidgen of "hope" - And must lead to making an "actual decision"! 

It is always tough being on the wrong end of a decision; at the very least, it can challenge your conviction or belief systems and at the very most, your livelihood. As I reflect back on the dynamics around the table, I thought I would share some thoughts:

• Although decisions are made based on facts and figures (data if you will), the ability to communicate the information is key. It is with effective communication that a clear understanding is articulated, pros and cons weighed, and the risk of making the wrong decision is minimized. The phrase "being on the same page" comes to mind.
• The decision making process is different for everyone; how they process information, the speed in which they make a decision, their risk tolerance, or the circumstances for needing to make a decision. It is important to understand the circumstances requiring a decision, as well as how the people involved make their decisions - This way you can work within their "decision making comfort zone". My experience is when a person is outside their comfort zone they will either delay the decision or default to a "no".
• Once a decision is made you need to respect it, even when you disagree.
• You need to support the decision to the best of your ability once it's made. If you fundamentally cannot support the decision, you need to be clear on your position... there may be consequences, but you will be respected for it.
• Decisions need to be made to drive action; even a wrong decision is preferable to a non-decision or an endless decision making process. You can always "course correct" a wrong decision, but not much can be done with a non-decision. 

As I look back at the decision made around the table, which as I say did not go the way I had hoped, I do respect that it was made; I have also taken on an interesting perspective - "Unless proven wrong, they made the right decision".

So there you have it, I have made the decision to prove them wrong.

gpe

Execution - Erase "MAYBE" from your lexicon...

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

If you know anyone who has come out of the General Electric "machine", you will have undoubtedly heard of, and/or experienced a "Workout". The original workouts came into being as Jack Welsh, the CEO, was working to right General Electric; they went something like this*. A team (without the leader) would meet to review all the issues that needed to be answered to progress various projects, mandates or agendas forward. The leader would then join them and systematically answer their questions with "YES do it", or "NO don't do it", or "I will get back to you with a YES or NO answer in a week". This implemented action.

There is a "truism" regarding effective execution - All action is derived from either the word "YES" or the word "NO" -  any other word will lead to a vast array of inaction. As a quick illustration**, lets look at the manual outlining what to do if you see a strange "flying saucer like thing" in the air. I'm sure it doesn't read like this:

• "YES" push the red emergency button. (action)
• "NO" don't push the red emergency button. (action)
• "MAYBE" push the red emergency button. (what exactly do you do with this?) 

If you look at any process map or decision tree, there is never the option to choose "MAYBE"... it is very hard to know what action to dive next when you hear the word "MAYBE" (or any derivation of it). About now, someone may be saying, "Wait a second, sometimes you have to say "maybe" because of a lack of information, poor timing, lack of resources, etc". These reasons, really justifying saying "NO", with a perspective as to what action is needed next to stop what is being done, or to garner a YES decision. "YES" and "NO" drive the process forward... "MAYBE" keeps everything in a holding pattern - Spinning and spinning.

"YES" and "NO" are also great data points to measure execution effectiveness. The more you find "NO" being used as part of the decision making process, the greater chance you may have skill set issues, resource issues, time management issues, misalignment with goals, risk tolerance issues or a culture that struggles to drive action - If you hear "MAYBE", you can guarantee you have one or all of these.

There is also an ambivalence that comes with the word "MAYBE"... it will insidiously compromise decisiveness, which is so important in good leadership and will also feed the emotion of regret; the words "woulda, shoulda, coulda" will stick to you.

So throw the word "MAYBE" away! It will serve you well. Things will get done.

gpe

* I have not experienced the original "Workout" but have been involved in many of its "workout cousins" ... sometimes affectionately called a "deep dive".  I've also simplified this and taken a little artistic licence to stress the point. 

** This flying saucer sighting example struck me funny. Apologies if you didn't think so.