Leadership Is Language

We don't need anyone in the group to change their thinking. As long as the group supports whatever decision comes out of the meeting with their behavior, leaders are happy if individuals think differently from them. Otherwise, they're just in an echo chamber of their own ideas. There is power and resilience in a diversity of ideas.

Doing is important, but action must be balanced with thinking. Just like Fred and Sue in the introduction-too much activity without thought results in wasted or erroneous actions and bad decisions, and too much thinking without action results in inaction and frustration.

The key to learning and growing, as a company and as a person, is correctly bal

What we want, if we want to create agile, adaptive, and resilient organizations, is the IMPROVE play — but this will conflict with the PROVE play.

The CEO of a public organization in Scotland told me how the group's business planning cycle occurred during the last quarter of the calendar year, which was also its busiest time of the year. So not only was it difficult to take people out of execution during this time, but none of the redwork performed during that last quarter, which might amount

This is the new playbook, which comprises six main plays:

.CONTROL THE CLOCK, not obey the clock.

• COLLABORATE, not coerce.

• COMMIT, not comply.

• COMPLETE, not continue.

• IMPROVE, not prove.




• CONNECT, not conform.

But before we can even be in a position to call a play rather than just react to situations, we need to control the clock, not obey the clock-which

Assume good intent. But if people are trying to make decisions that align with the organization's objectives, then we ought to trust them. Trust people first because your trust in them will affect their behavior. They will work harder, stay longer, and unlock more discretionary effort when they feel trusted.

Decisions are made by individuals, not teams. Businesses need to be able to move quickly, make bold decisions (hypotheses), and test them. Not everyone will be "on board" with every decision. That's OK. Trying to convince every dissenter that the decision is right gives too much power to those positions to stop progress. It will invite mo

If you want to keep your commitments, try using "don't," not "can't."

• "I don't buy product insurance," not "I can't buy product insurance."
  
  . "I don't miss deadlines," not "I can't miss this deadline."
  
  . “I don't spend my time that way," not "I can't spend my time that way."

Idea Swap

Have people argue for the opposite position. Break up the meeting into small discussion groups and invite people to talk to someone who voted the opposite than they did to learn what was behind that vote. This will allow them to practice being curious instead of compelling. They can practice asking curious questions and open-ended question

This common mistake in organizations comes from treating all communications, orders, and information in the same way. Ideally, orders should follow the chain of command, but information should be able to flow freely throughout the organization.