Being an open system means, basically, that you are not arrogant enough to think that you have all the answers, or that your organization has all the answers, or even that you should.

The lesson is this: boundaries on time, just like financial budgets, force us to prioritize good decisions. If we treat time like it is unlimited, we will say yes to a lot of things that really are not

improve, not punish them.

were dealing with and ask the group to help them solve it.

high value. And we lose our way. When you know how much time you have available, and that it is fixed, you will spend it strategically. It forces you to focus on what truly drives the business.

In this column I want you to write down everything that you

Then there is the second group of patterns, which is the repetition of the same work. What I mean by this is that if there is something that only you can do, at least in the beginning, but then you find that you are doing that same thing over and over again in the same way, and you pretty much have it nailed, it might be time to turn that over to s

huge—they represent the team downward in their own functions or departments. They wear the “team hat,” instead of the “functional hat.”

In a very tangible way, that is what leaders do when they pump energy and guidance into an organization or a team.