Get your team UNSTUCK at the PEN breakfast

We've all had that experience where the plans and goals we set seem to be obsolete within minutes of walking out of the conference room.

We all know that today's fast-paced and ever-changing world requires that we adopt strategies and practices that are more dynamic than ever. Without the proper mindsets and skill sets, teams often get stuck in a world of confusion, false starts, and frustration.

If your team would benefit from developing a more innovative and productive approach to creating valuable outcomes, I want to invite you to the PEN Breakfast on Sep 7 where I'll be presenting on the Improviser's Strategy for Creating Value.

It's been a very busy Summer with our great team over at Employee Strategies, Inc. over the last several months facilitating leadership retreats, leading strategic planning sessions, and keynoting with some amazing clients. I don't get to present this work in a public setting very often--so I hope you or someone from your team can join us!

For more information visit PEN's website. Or to register, contact Brian Lassiter at brian.lassiter@performanceexcellencenetwork.org.

Recognizing a great opportunity...

As you know, I often talk with leaders and teams about creative leadership and the innovative process. Creating meaningful change requires determination, courage, and an ability to recognize a great opportunity when it presents itself.

That’s why I’m excited to write to you today about an exciting opportunity that recently presented itself to me.

A few weeks ago, I accepted an invitation to join forces with the team over at Employee Strategies, Inc. (ESI) and have accepted a position as a full-time consultant with their firm.

J Forrest founded ESI over a decade ago with a vision to help transform workplaces into environments where people can be their best selves and do their best work. I’ve know J for years and am excited that we’ll get to work even more closely together.

ESI’s point of view is very much aligned with the vision of Leading Off the Cuff. It’s a belief that organizations are organisms, not mechanisms. They are driven by human beings trying to create meaningful impact for other human beings.

The team at ESI provides leadership development experiences, retreats, culture assessments and strategic planning to businesses and organizations from a variety of sectors and I couldn’t be happier to join a team of such like-minded consultants, coaches, and facilitators.

In the meantime, the mission of Leading Off the Cuff is not going away. There are a handful of projects I’ve been working on under the LOC banner that I’ll be finishing up over the next few months (many of those with people on this mailing list). I hope to continue to post on the Leading Off the Cuff blog about creativity, productivity, and doing work that matters. You’ll continue to see me at many of the same events as an attendee, presenter, or volunteer.

As always, if there is anything I can do to help support you and your team in doing their very best work—whether it’s developing more impactful leaders; training teams to work more creatively, productively, and collaboratively; or strengthening the culture of your organization, please drop me a line.

I’d be happy to explore how I (and now, the rest of the ESI team) might be able to support you.

This email account will stay active or you can reach me at my new address, andy@esinc.mn. 

Or call me at 651-253-7515.

Or drop by the ESI office on the 3rd floor of the Calhoun Beach Club building for a great cup of coffee, a beautiful view of the lake, and some meaningful conversation.

Onward!
Andy

6 Approaches When a Lack of Clarity Has Got You Stuck

We all get stuck. 

We set new goals and plans—but months later, we haven’t really moved the needle.

Intuitively, we know we’re capable of doing more, but in real life it can feel like we’re frozen in time—repeating the same conversations and getting the same results. We’re stuck.

The Ellsberg Paradox

A common cause of that stagnation can be demonstrated by what’s come to be known as the Ellsberg Paradox.

Named for the economic theorist, Daniel Ellsberg, this phenomenon can be described by a simple demonstration:

Imagine that I hold out two bags and explain that each bag is filled with 100 marbles—some of them are red and some of them are black. 

In Bag #1, I tell you, there are exactly 50 red marbles and 50 black marbles. 

Bag #2 also has 100 marbles and they are also all either red or black—but I’m not going to tell you what the ratio is. There might be an identical mix of 50 red and 50 black like the first bag, there might be 99 red and 1 black, there might be 1 red and 99 black, or anywhere other combination--you just don't know.

Now here’s the game: You get to pick one marble from one of the bags. If it’s red, I’ll give you $100. If it’s black, you give me $100.

Which bag would you like to choose from?

If you’re like the vast majority of people, you picked Bag #1 with the 50-50 split. 

Why?

Bag #1 has no statistical advantage. In fact, without going into the math, it actually doesn’t matter which bag you choose. Bag #2 could just as likely have more red balls as it is likely that it has hardly any red balls—so it all rounds out to the same 50/50 chance no matter which bag you choose.

So if both bags are statistically the same, why do most of us pick Bag #1?

The answer is simple: We tend to prefer what we know over what we don’t know.

Call it an aversion to ambiguity, a preference for the “devil we know”, or just a general lack of creativity—the end result is the same: our bias towards avoiding the things that aren’t clear to us is likely to get us stuck doing what we've done in the past--same choices, same results.

The "Bag #2" in Our Plans

When I sit down with clients and look through their to-do lists, dashboards, or strategic plans—there’s almost always at least one initiative that hasn't been touched, just sitting there for months with zero progress made. 

They might claim that the problem is a lack of time or resources (it’s always easy to blame time and resources) but the real culprit is often more insidious: a lack of clarity. It's a virtual "Bag #2"--not totally clear, and so, generally avoided.

Whether the initiative is worded too vaguely, was abandoned by a champion who understood it clearly but has since left the team, or is just plain new and unfamiliar--the end result is the same. 

We keep going back to the bags we already know. Sure, we can still pull some winning marbles out of those bags, but we're unlikely to discover any new opportunities To really improve our results, we need to find ways to get more clear on the other possibilities in front of us.

How to get unstuck...

If you suspect that you and your team are missing out on some opportunity because of the Ellsberg phenomenon, here are some tips for getting clear, getting unstuck, and getting back on track:

Make it clearer by asking “Why?”

It’s remarkable how often teams respond to me with silence when I ask why a goal is on their list in the first place. 

Sometimes, that lack of response is an indicator that the goal really shouldn’t be a priority, but more often it’s an indicator that there was some deeper meaning behind the goal that has become disconnected somewhere along the way. 

Reconnecting the goal with that original purpose or--better yet--rearticulating a newer clearer goal that more accurately captures the original purpose will often trigger much more productive work.

Make it clearer by clarifying the next step. 

Large projects can be hard to get our arms around. Oftentimes, we avoid things that are just too big. For example, “planning an annual fundraising event” is hard! “Scheduling the next event committee meeting” is easy. If you don’t clearly know what the very next thing to do is and who owns it—it’s not going to get done. Period.

Identify what’s next. Do that thing. Repeat.

Make it clearer by defining the finish line. 

Imagine you’re a runner and you get an invitation to register for a race—but no one can tell you how long the race is. It could be a 5k, a 10-miler, or a marathon—who knows? Would you sign up for that race? Never!

Too often, we sign up for other races in our work without understanding where the finish line is. 

Organizations will set fuzzy internal goals like “Improve Staff Engagement” without a specific way to measure those efforts. It’s almost impossible to make progress.  Sending out a staff survey that gives you a baseline and then setting an improvement goal (e.g., increase staff engagement by 10%) is much more actionable.

When we don’t know what success looks like, we don’t bother. Let your team know where the finish line is and they'll start running.

Make it clearer by putting a time limit on it. 

This is a twist on the last recommendation. Sometimes, defining a finish line isn’t realistic. I can measure when a race is over or when I’ve made 10 sales calls, or sent all the donor thank-you cards--but how do I know when writing this blog post or the design for the fundraising event website is done? Authors will tell you that a book is never really done. Eventually, you just run out of time. When tasks are more qualitative, it's harder to set a clear metric for being finished.

When setting a finish line isn’t realistic, set a time limit instead. 

We’re all familiar with setting deadlines (“deliver the Annual Report six months from today”), but the same principal can be used on the short-term scale. 

I use timers all the time. When I’m not feeling particularly inspired to write I will often just set a timer--sometimes for a little as 15 minutes. Immediately my focus shifts from the impossible task of writing something brilliant to focussing on the very do-able task of writing about anything for 15 minutes. More often than not, I discover something worth writing about after I’ve started typing.

The same tactic can be used by teams in meetings. Set a timer and discuss the most pressing issues related to that project in the relatively short amount of time allotted. Be clear that you will hold firm and end the conversation when the buzzer sounds. The artificial urgency is often all that’s needed to drum up more productive conversation and get back on track.

Make it clearer by killing it. 

Sometimes, if we’re honest with ourselves, we realize that we’re not making progress on a project because somewhere along the line we realized it wasn’t nearly as important or impactful as we had originally thought. But if no one calls it out, the project lives on like a zombie causing unnecessary stress and anxiety for ourselves and the team.

Kill it! Stop wasting time and energy reporting out on the continued lack of progress when you know deep down there’s not going to be any meaningful progress.

Explicitly killing projects that everyone knows were dead long ago creates instant relief and builds trust that the remaining projects are truly priorities and should be treated as such.

Finally, just accept that it's not clear, and do something anyway. 

Very often, truly innovative work includes a fair amount of ambiguity. By its nature, your next breakthrough success may require more energy, focus, and a higher tolerance for wading through the unknown.

If doing innovative work is a real priority, make an explicit agreement with yourself and your team that you are going to dedicate a specific portion of your time and resources to digging in on projects and tasks that are less clear and less comfortable. You can use the approaches outlined above along the way to help continue your forward progress.

——— 

Clarify why.

Clarify what’s next.

Clarify the finish line.

Clarify the time limit.

Clarify by killing it.

Clarify that it’s not supposed to be clear right now.

Getting stuck is unavoidable, but there are specific tactics we can employ to work out of the rut. Hopefully, some of these approaches can help you break through in your work so that you’re not always drawing from the same bag and getting the same results.

What other approaches do you use individually or in your teams to create more clarity or navigate through the unknown? I’d love to hear about them!

Do you know what your HABEs are?

Doing more impactful work is rarely as simple as setting newer, bigger, better goals. It's much more often about shifting old habits, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations (HABEs). Often, those HABEs can be virtually invisible to us. 

• You have a habit of keeping conversations short in our meetings, so you never get to the important but complex problems. Or perhaps you have a habit of long, detailed conversations that leave little room for making key decisions.
• You have an attitude of optimism or pessimism that blinds you to the realities of a situation and keeps you from reacting realistically.
• You have a belief that your boss is uninterested in your concerns so you don’t speak up when the truth might be that your boss is just unpracticed at asking for input.
• You have an expectation that things will be fine because they’ve generally been fine in the past, and you neglect to address that new risk or opportunity that you haven’t seen before and miss out on taking meaningful action.

It’s like the old story of the two young fish swimming through the water when an older fish passes by and asks them, “Good morning—how’s the water today?”  The two young fish swim on for a bit until one finally ask the other, “What’s water?”

The HABEs are our water. Until we get clear about the HABEs that we are all swimming in, we’ll never be able to do our most impactful work.
 

I help individuals and teams see the water. 
 

If you're on a team or are a team leader, I'd like to tell you about the Team LeaderView™. It's a really powerful tool that helps teams and team leaders get clearer about the water they swim in by measuring your work across 14 key performance indicators. The Team LeaderView™ gives a clearer understanding of how the HABEs your team possesses are impacting Productivity skills including goal-setting, decision-making, and accountability and Positivity skills including communication, alignment, and camaraderie. 

What counterproductive habits does your team possess that have become invisible to you? What are positive habits you should amplify even more?

If you're interested in getting clearer about the HABEs that are both driving and holding back the performance of your team, contact me about performing a no-cost Team LeaderView™ assessment. It's a small commitment of time that may start a powerful conversation about how you and your team can do your very best work.

What a Chess-Playing Computer Can Teach Us About Egos & Success

One way to “teach” a computer to play chess is to simply program it to know all the legal moves and give it a goal (in this case, to take the king). If you have even mildly decent chess skills,  you’ll most likely be able to beat that computer if you play a game with it.

Another way to teach a computer to play is to program it to play itself over and over and instruct it to track the likelihood that each move leads to a win or a loss. A few days and many games later you’ll have a computer that even a chess master would have a hard time beating. 

In the first scenario, the computer follows instructions. In the second, the computer learns.

Our greatest successes often aren’t products of our ability to follow instructions. Our greatest contributions much more often come from what we’ve learned.

And while we humans are incredible learning machines, a computer has two distinct advantages over us:

First, it has a flawless and instantly searchable memory. Our brains can’t do that. Fortunately, we don’t need to—that’s what we have the computer for.

The second disadvantage is one that the computer can’t help us with: we’ve got egos. Unlike most of us, the computer is not concerned about short-term win/loss records. Instead, the computer “cares” about learning.

Just like us, the computer only learns by looking backward. It can’t know if each new move will lead to a win until the end of the game. But at the end of every game, it’s more prepared for the next one. As far as the machine is concerned, a loss is equally valuable to a win. The end result is the same: new learning. The computer doesn’t need wins—it needs more games.

Unlike computers, we’ve got a bias towards winning, and of course—in the long run—we should all want to win. But in the short-run, we’d be much better off looking for more games. 

Too often, both in the short-run and the long, we don’t take the time to look back and mine our experiences for learning. We’re too distracted by the pain of the loss or the self-congratulation of the win.

Even worse, too often we don’t play the game at all—avoiding a loss seems safer than risking a win.

If you’re playing the game using only the rules you know and playing with a mindset of loss-aversion, you’ll still get some wins mixed in with your losses. But you’ll never become a master.

Cut down your to-do list by adding one word...

A while back I stumbled on one of the most powerful productivity hacks ever: using the word “draft” in my to-do lists.

If you’re like me, you’ve got a to-do list a mile long. Some of those things are critically important and command attention by their sheer gravitational force. Others are someday-maybe kinds of items that you hope to get around to, but aren’t mission-critical.

And then there are those items that really are important, but you keep kicking them down the road. Things that you should make progress on today, but get little in the way of actual traction. 

Things like, 

• Send that tricky email to Julie
• Build a budget for the new program proposal
• Write the job description for a new virtual assistant
• Call Jose to discuss the project I’d like to pitch him
• Write next week’s blog post

We know they are important, but we avoid them because they’re messy, we’re unsure of what success looks like, and some of them are just plain uncomfortable. The problem is, our avoidance doesn’t help at all. The answers don’t present themselves on their own and often the discomfort only builds. All the while, we’re burning precious creative energy on anxiety every time we scan over that item in our list.

That’s when I insert the word “draft” in my list:

• DRAFT an email to Julie—but don’t send it
• DRAFT a budget for the new program proposal
• DRAFT a job description for a new virtual assistant
• DRAFT an agenda for the call with Jose to discuss the project I’d like to pitch him
• DRAFT next week’s blog post

Suddenly, I get productive. Releasing myself of the pressure of nailing it on the first go and free in the knowledge that this DRAFT is for my eyes only, I can finally start making some progress.

And here’s the real benefit: Once I’m drafting, I end up discovering all sorts of insights that help me overcome the anxiety that was holding me back in the first place: 

• WHILE DRAFTING an email to Julie—I get much clearer on what the essential kernel of the message is that I want her to understand
• WHILE DRAFTING a budget for the new program I discover where the weak points are in our plan and what to put on the next team agenda so that we can address it
• WHILE DRAFTING a job description for a new virtual assistant I discover the problem I’m really trying to solve and can interview with even more acuity
• WHILE DRAFTING an agenda for the call with Jose to discuss the project I’d like to pitch him I rediscover what’s most exciting about the project in the first place and can take that energy into the call
• WHILE DRAFTING next week’s blog post I discover what really moves me about the power of drafting!

There’s a line in the improv world that goes like this: “You’re either moving forward or you’re not.” Certainly, great work is what we all strive for, but the only way to get there is to keep moving forward. Often that means sifting through more than a few crappy drafts on the way. 

Because after a few deep breaths, moving forward is almost always more productive than standing still.

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© Andy Zimney and Leading Off the Cuff, 2016.

Everything changes in November!

We've been busy creating here at Leading Off the Cuff!  Last month's Leading with Creativity session at COCO Uptown was a great success with fantastic leaders from all over town. (You can watch a 2 minute video from the session here during which I unveil the most important question of all time!) And now, we're excited to announce our next event: Changmaker's Day in November. It's a special partnership between Leading Off the Cuff and This Moved Me. We'll be diving into exactly how we create our best work while driving towards meaningful change in our organizations, our communities, and ourselves. It's going to be a lot of fun and I know you'll get a lot out of it. There are only 25 seats available, so register now.    “Today was incredible. It was the most influential and creative two hours I have ever spent... Andy truly is a master of his craft. Andy utilized games and situations in order to convey messages and lessons. This seminar was eye-opening to say the least.” As always, drop me a line if you're interested in a Creative Crash Course for your team, team coaching to get out-of-the box as you plan your next endeavor or planning retreat, or clarity sessions to help get all those ideas channelled into daily actions and progress! Andy RESEARCH, RETREAT, REALIZE, REVEAL!   RESEARCH:   Thursday, Sep 29, The Brave New Workshop's Creative Outreach team is hosting MNOVATION. It's really a great event where you'll learn all sorts of great stuff about adopting a more innovative mindset. A mixture of great keynotes, interactive workshops, and interesting panelists (including my friends Vikas Narula of Keyhubs and Simone Ahuja of Blood Orange), I think you'll find it to be a day well spent. Use the discount code MOREISBETTER for 20% off groups of 3 or more.   RETREAT:   As you know, running a business can be draining. So I'm looking forward to the Shannon's Institute's Alumni Retreat later this week. If you're not familiar, The James P. Shannon Leadership Institute is a yearlong leadership program that offers community-serving leaders from all sectors the opportunity for renewal and reflection. I'm a 2009 alum and am still reaping the benefits of the experience. I encourage you to check out the program.   REALIZE:   I find writing to be a great tool for getting clear on what I actually think and for surfacing new ideas just below my current awareness. About a year ago, I started using a writing application called Scrivener. I've really fallen in love with it, not only for drafting blog posts, talks, book chapters, workshop outlines, and articles--but also as a basic capture tool for simple ideas or resources that I may want to explore or develop at a later time.   REVEAL:   I had lunch the other day with my friend, Nate Eklund of Eklund Consulting and he shared a brilliant idea that he tested out with a client. Wanting to build more comfort with productive failure, Nate suggested that team members build into their meeting check-ins a practice of sharing their biggest mistake in the previous couple weeks. It caught on and has become a favorite part of their meetings--turning inevitable missteps into point of connection and opportunities for learning. Give it a try! What are you making theses days? What's getting in your way? What discoveries have you come across? I'd love to hear about them!   Copyright ©2016 Leading Off the Cuff, All rights reserved.

The Definition of Success is Changing Forever

The formula for success is changing (at least in economic terms), and not in any small way.

At the beginning of humankind there was no economy. We all hunted and gathered and roamed from place to place following the food with our families and other tribe members.

Then—roughly 8000 years ago, something remarkable happened. We started farming, people settled land and raised crops, and some of them had enough of those crops to trade with others for other goods and services. And for the first time in the history of humanity, an economy was born.

It was the Agrarian Economy—and in the most basic of terms it defined success like this: The more land you own, the more successful you are.

That was the first economy and it lasted thousands of years. 

Until the 1700’s. With the dawn of the steam engine, a second economic revolution was birthed—the Industrial Economy. 

Under this new system, large plots of land no longer automatically translated to wealth. (Watch season one of Downtown Abbey to see this drama played out.) Instead, in this second new economy productivity was king. Success was defined by how many widgets you could get out of a single worker or factory in the shortest amount of time.

And so it was. For 300 years.

Now we are on the cusp of the next revolution. Only the 3rd major economic revolution since the beginning of time. And we’re all part of it.

It’s still early, so you hear different names for it. But whether you call it the Knowledge Economy or the Information Economy or something else, the new formula is this: Success goes to those who can collect the most information, learn the fastest, and figure out what’s next faster than the rest.

Decades ago, when Sony launched the Walkman (that personal tape cassette player for those of you under 30), the average product cycle was about 7 years long. When they launched the CD-spinning Diskman, the cycle was about 4.5 years. Today, your tune-churning smartphone is considered old news after 6 short months.

Adaptation and invention is now the name of the game.

In some ways, the nature of success hasn’t changed at all. Food, productivity, and innovating have always been important and will continue to be important. What’s changed is the urgency.

From the beginning of time, the achievements we value most were driven by individuals and cohorts who created something new—shifted the world towards a whole new form from what had existed in the past. 

But now, more than ever, our problems demand that we grow, explore, and discover. 

There’s never been a more important time to develop ourselves and our organizations into black-belt learners, adapters, and innovators. Our survival might depend on it.

————

If you’re interested in helping your team adopt more impactful mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets, I’d like to help.

Contact me at andy@leadingoffthecuff.com or 651-253-7515 to talk about training or coaching for you or your team to develop a more creative approach to your work.

Or join us on Aug 24 a rare open session on Creative Leadership. More info at https://leadingwithcreativity.eventbrite.com.

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© Andy Zimney and Leading Off the Cuff, 2016.

My guest series on the This Moved Me Podcast

Very happy to have done a mini series on the fantastic This Moved Me podcast. We talked all about how the creative process applies to strategy, personal productivity, and keeping things moving towards the sort of change we want to make out there.

You can connect directly to the This Moved Me iTunes page here. The miniseries is MMM episodes 84, 86, 88, 90, and 92.

Click here to go to the show page for Part One.

Click here to go to the show page for Part Two.

Click here to go to the show page for Part Three.

Click here to go to the show page for Part Four.

Click here to go to the show page for Part Five.

"Abundance" vs. "Scarcity" Only Gets You Halfway There

A lot is made of the difference between “a mindset of scarcity” versus “a mindset of abundance”.

And there is a real and meaningful difference to be noted.

Focussing on assets and believing there is always enough is infinitely more powerful and effective than succumbing to the notion that possibility is always limited by our deficits—our lack of time, money, energy, resources, information, skill, etc.

Abundance is an offensive and goal-oriented position; scarcity is defensive and aims to make sure we preserve what is--don’t rock the boat.

But taking on an abundance mindset is only half of the solution when it comes to moving things forward and making the sort of impact we want.

Having enough is not the same as having everything.

I know with absolute certainty that we have what we need to do whatever is most important in any given situation.

And I know with equal certainty that we can not do everything.

In fact, the only way to do what is most important is to identify that which is not as important.