This is the second in a series of Play notes about leading well during different times such as this one. “This not that. Here not there. And here’s why…” With daily distractions, project deadlines, and competing priorities, our teams can get unfocused. Add something like a global health challenge and they’ll likely get really scattered. […]
We might push, posture, protect, or prattle to get results in a meeting. Or we can let go, listen, learn, and lean in. Which aprroach is more likely to generate results that last beyond the end of the meeting? Right. In your corner, Mike P.S. And love. P.P.S. Which approach is more enjoyable, more likely […]
In all the busyness, it’s easy to lose track of what we have agreed to do for each other, that is of our takeaways. Here is a 5-step process that works well. Recap. End each live, text, or email conversation or meeting with a review of who is going to do what by when. Confirm. […]
We have meetings for several good reasons: to stay aware of each other’s work, solve immediate problems, move projects forward, set strategies, and build trust. Our meetings fail when we haven’t agreed upon the reason for this meeting. Or when we try to cover too many of the reasons in one meeting. When some of […]
One way to have a productive meeting is to create a compelling focus by posing a question for the attendees to answer. Then we can facilitate the exploration, learning, and discussion toward answering that question in the meeting. If the meeting is about setting​ a strategy or policy, we might ask something like, “What’s the […]
Meetings can be hellish. But how much better would our meetings go if we were genuinely curious about the people and their work? What if we asked important questions that we didn’t already have an answer to? What if we didn’t need to defend ourselves or our positions? What if we listened then were listened […]
It’s very easy for us to fall into the “Activity Over Results” trap. In this trap, we unconsciously judge ourselves and others by how much activity we generate. But, deep down, we much more value achieving desired results. We spend a large amount of our time on lots of low-value activities including most of our […]
Most meetings serve two distinct functions: to track and to choose. These functions don’t mix well. In a tracking meeting, we check progress, coordinate with each other, and hold ourselves accountable for selected chunks of work. Tracking meetings are shorter and more frequent. They range from a daily, 5-minute, stand up scrum to a biweekly […]
Meetings and emails can certainly overwhelm us. Each one represents another request–or twelve!–to do something. How can this keep going? How can we possibly get everything done? Our job is not to get it all done. We are neither supposed to answer every email nor attend every meeting. We cannot possibly satisfy every request. We […]
Critical thinking is important. And it is horrible if we apply it while we are creating a mission, strategy, or goals. Critical thinking here derails the considerations, explorations, and dreaming. The creative thinking we use build strategies etc. is wonderful. And it, too, is rotten if we apply it when we are meant to be […]