Ron’s Short Review: This is an old book but good dialogue (true dialogue) is the process that helps us make good decisions and helps us get beyond the pitfalls of debate and discussion. Worth the read.
Because my wife is of Dutch heritage, we have spent time exploring her ancestry back to the Netherlands. Her family was a part of New Amsterdam which eventually became Manhattan. A distant family member suggested I read a book titled The Island at the Center of the World. Fascinating.
Here is a description from Goodreads that will give you a small understanding of the scope of the book and Impact of New Amsterdam on New York and America of today.
When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of early America.
The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.
Upon reading this book you begin to realize that many of the concepts that America is built upon came from the early Dutch colony, not completely from the English colonies that came later.
But, knowing what New York and America are worth today or back in the mid-1660’s a very powerful question begins to emerge “Why did the Dutch give up Manhattan without firing a shot?”
The answer to that question is Nutmeg!
The most expensive spice in the world at the time was nutmeg. It cost more per ounce than gold. The Dutch wanted the nutmeg trade and were willing to give New Netherland including New Amsterdam to the English in trade for the small Polynesian Island of Run.
Today that trade looks absolutely nuts. The wealth of America could have been a foundation for the Dutch and we would be closer to the Netherlands today than England. You’ll have trouble finding the Island of Run without Google help.
The point is that at the time, this was a good trade. We didn’t quite see the total future and value of the new world, but the value of Nutmeg was well established. It was a good deal. The world economy and shipping was driven mainly by spices in the 1600 and 1700’s. Filling one ship with Nutmeg at over thirteen dollars per ounce was a tremendous economic driver. Manhattan for the Island of Run was a very good deal.
Lesson learned? Don’t judge decisions made in the past by the conditions that exist today. You will falsely accuse the decision makers of making bad, wrong or stupid decisions. Nothing may have been farther from the truth.
One of the reasons many teams and corporations aren’t good at decision making today is caused by the second-guessing of decisions made in the past. Learn form the past, don’t second guess the past.
My wife has an interest in home decorating ideas and shares many of them with me.
One of the interesting trends I’ve seen lately is bookshelves. How do you arrange your books? Of the three methods I’ve seen, two of them seem crazy to me and one of them I just don’t understand. The two that seem crazy are:
- Wrap all your books in plain brown paper and put them on the shelf to give them a uniformed look. Finding a book is obviously not the point. It’s simply using books as a decorative tool. I don’t think of books that way.
- Turn your books around and put the binder to the back and leave the ends of the pages facing out. Once again, it gives an interesting aesthetic and visual effect of different paper textures, thickness, and colors, but why are you storing books if you don’t use the books, trigger a memory from the books, or go back to a book? Again, that just seems crazy to me.
The third one, I just didn’t understand, but I’ve experienced some interesting learning.
- Arrange your book by the color of its cover.
All the blue books are in one area of your bookshelf, all of the green books are in another area of your bookshelf, all the yellow books are in another area of your bookshelf. Again, it adds some architectural texture and color to the room, but at least you can see the spine of the book and read what the book is about. But for me, I would look at that and say, “I can’t find anything. How would I find a book on the shelf?” I tend to arrange mine by title or subject matter so that I can go back to them later.
Recently we visited one of our daughter’s homes. She has an artistic mind and taste. Her bookshelves were arranged by color. I had to admit that it looked very nice, but when she and I had a chance to sit down and talk one evening, I admitted to her that I couldn’t find anything on that bookshelf. “Why do you choose to arrange it by color?” Her answer to me was that “When I think about a book, the first thing I remember is its color, it helps me find the book quicker.” I had never thought about that.
I spent a day with a colleague the other day who is just tremendously successful and respected. One of the conversations we had was about certain books we had read, and I almost had to chuckle, when every time I would bring up a book he would say, “Did that book have a green cover with yellow writing?” Or, “Was that a blue book?” Or, “Was that the black book with the gold print on it?” For one of them, I had to say, “I believe there were two editions. One of them was green and one of them was black with gold.” But that helped him recall a particular book.
The point here is, that we all recall things in different ways and for very different reasons. In general, the business world assumes, and I want to emphasize the assumes, that we recall things through rational logic. But it doesn’t happen that way. To build great teams we must understand and honor what triggers people’s thought and recall. We must allow people to throw out things like, “I think of this in that way,” Or, “I recall this because of that color or that experience or that situation.” Some will think logically and rationally, but not everyone does and great teams honor that. They begin to understand that even the best of people recall and think about things in very different ways.
Accepting the differences opens the door for great dialogue on very tough issues. When we begin to see the whole kaleidoscope of how we see
- Situations
- People
- the future or
- what’s going to work and what isn’t
we give ourselves a chance to work toward unity and commitment. Unity and commitment to decisions are two of the hallmarks of great teams.
I’ll probably share with you a blog post soon about the value of nutmeg. That doesn’t mean anything to any of us, but it’s a very powerful lesson in life.
So, as you’re building a great team, make sure you completely honor the fact that different, very highly-skilled, very intelligent people all recall and think about things in different ways. This is what makes for robust teams and robust dialogue.
Current Excitement
Three months ago, she had been excited. This was the opportunity she had been working toward since she joined the company three years ago. Meaningful work is one of the more joyous things you can experience. She didn’t want this job because of its prestige or high pay. She wanted this job because it was meaningful to her, her colleagues and clients.
How it Started
When I talked with her three months ago she was riding high. She explained that when she joined the company she had been hired for her skill set and outstanding success in her last assignment. But before she even joined the company she explained to the CEO that this was not her dream job. She would certainly do the job and do it well but in the end, she wanted a different assignment that was more meaningful to her.
Over the three years, she did indeed do the job well. She built a great team and was recognized beyond her company as an outstanding contributor to the industry. And while she enjoyed the work and found great satisfaction in building and growing a great team, she continued to remind the CEO on an annual basis that she was still interested in the job that was more meaningful to her. And now she had it.
Takeoff
She was filled with new energy and new excitement and explained all the things she wanted to accomplish in the new role. Many of them had never even been tried by the company. The breadth and depth of her vision were overwhelming when she explained all the things she wanted to build. I was wondering how any superhuman could possibly accomplish that much.
Collapsed
But now! Have you ever seen a large hot air balloon being deflated? The beautiful, magnificent structure stories high into the sky with a buoyancy that leaves it hovering just above the earth defying gravity. But an instant later the entire structure has gone cold, collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud and lies there motionless and useless on the ground. That was what today’s phone call felt like.
She had just come out of a budget meeting where it was clear the company was not going to meet next year’s goals and drastic cuts needed to be made. In an instant, her carefully crafted team and the multiple goals that had been hovering above the ground, ready for takeoff were now lying on the ground with no visible means of support. Deflated!
Lean Times Require Focus and Innovation
Times of plenty can destroy one of the greatest assets of leadership teams: good decision making. We’ve discussed this in other blog posts, but the concept is always worth reinforcing. The word decide (de-cide) means figure out what to kill or stop doing. In times of plenty, leaders seldom have the spirit or inclination to say “no”. Good deciding means to be clear about what you’re saying “no” to.
The other concept we began to talk about in her time of deflation was innovation and creativity. It has been well documented that the best innovation takes place when the boundaries are the tightest. Again, in times of plenty, it’s much easier to throw some ideas up on the board, try them all and see if any of them produce fruit. Not innovative! Innovation is about simplicity. Doing the most with the least. It’s those times when budget, time or resources are in extremely short supply when the best innovation happens. This was her time of opportunity. The budget was not just going to be tight, it was going to be slashed. She was going to be forced to say no to save that part that absolutely required a yes. And even the items that received the yes would need to be accomplished in the highest quality and the most elegantly simple way possible. Now was the time for true innovation.
Have you figured out how to say no? Have you absolutely insisted that things get accomplish in the most elegant, simple form possible? At some point, you will likely be forced to accomplish those tasks. You might as well get started now. Learn to say no. Do everything as elegantly as possible.
Ron’s Short Review: Ray builds on Life Principles such as: embrace reality, understand that people are different, and effective decision making. He moves into Work Principles with get the culture right, trust in radical truth, and others. Very thought-provoking.
The world is becoming a very fast paced environment. With each step of increased travel velocity, the world has become more interconnected than ever. With the advent of the internet and pipeline speed that velocity has become almost infinite in nature. It seems like a Niagara amount of information, data and connectivity are swirling around us every moment of every day. With each passing day, it becomes more difficult for us to maintain our balance. Without balance, bad things happen.
Over the last couple of blogs (Check out Balancing Act and High Wire), I’ve noted that Balance is the key ingredient of great decision-making, health, and happiness (human needs). Today let’s explore decision-making.
Myers-Briggs teaches us that human decision-making is a two-stage process of taking in information (Perceiving) and then making our decisions based on that perception. It has been my experience through 25+ years of team building and leadership development that we must keep those processes in balance.
My data is rather old (meaning more than a day at this point) but the last I remember seeing is that we create over 50,000 GB of data per second. I’ll let you look up what the size of that number really means.
The human mind can’t come anywhere near absorbing that much data (or even a fraction) every day to use in our decision-making processes. So, the mind needs to use shortcuts, models, and tricks to help us survive and make everyday decisions in our daily lives. Each of us uses a different method of taking in data related to a decision that we’re making. The two key areas that Myers-Briggs describes are:
- Sensing
- Facts
- Details
- Data
- What do we know in the present?
- What have we done so far?
- What are the next steps?
- Intuition
- Bigger picture
- Future
- Implications
- Where are we trying to go in the future?
- What will the possibilities be?
- What is the ultimate goal?
As you look at the written list you would likely agree that we need all that information in order to make a good, well-informed decision. The problem is that in our every day lives, our brain tends to focus on and give greater priority to either Sensing or Intuition. It takes a team and a good process to maintain a healthy balance. Without balance you’ll tend to be either too short-term or long-term focused. If this function isn’t balanced it can cause the business to fail.
Once the perceiving function is completed (and hopefully balanced) our “deciding” function kicks-in. Myers-Briggs identifies these as our Thinking and Feeling functions. A better way to think of these is logic and values. All too often in the business world, “feelings” are discounted as being too emotional. Decisions should be made on logic. But values are important to every organization. When values are violated, the culture begins to crumble, and the organization loses a sense of being. Logic and value must be balanced.
Just like on the high wire, goals cannot be met, and trust cannot be build when we lose our balance.
Balance, Balance, Balance.
Success.com recently published a list entitled “10 ‘Harmless’ Habits to Drop If You Want to Be Successful.”
Based on the experience I’ve had with successful teams the last several years, I would say just being successful at dropping the first habit will get you a long way toward success.
Number One: Saying Yes When You Want to Say No!
I’ve taught many teams recently the true meaning of the word decide. Top corporate teams are filled with high achievers. They have all been getting things done since an early age. They’ve been rewarded in academics, sports, arts, and business for getting things done. Getting them done faster and in more volume than anyone else. They’re “doers”!
So, it’s very natural to believe that when corporate leadership teams get together they should decide what to do!
But that’s not what the word means. The “cide” part of the word means to cut off, put to death, publicly execute. Think for a minute about the words pesticide or homicide. The one habit that is keeping most teams and leaders from success is concluding that they should be doing more and more. Corporations and individuals don’t have the resources, energy, time or fortitude to keep doing more and more. Successful teams and leaders decide what to kill, what to stop doing.
There are so many variables related to success and failure in the auto industry that I honestly don’t know if this one issue will spell success or failure for General Motors (GM). But, I need to applaud their courage in shifting their measure of success from being the number one car maker in the world by volume. That seemed to be the driving force in GM for decades. But today, they’ve decided to stop producing vehicles in many parts of the world. That takes courage. Will it be successful? I don’t know. As I said, there are many factors to success and failure. But I do believe that deciding where to stop putting your resources is a big factor.
Saying No is Difficult
I really don’t know many leaders who reward and praise their people for not doing something. But they should. Research and my direct experience with many great leaders validate that focusing on the top three issues you face is the best route to success. Rewarding your people for not doing the 10th item on their priority list (and 9, 8, 7, …) will lead to more success than you can imagine. Leaders and organizations never have enough resources to do everything. The assumption is they just need more resources or more productivity out of the resources they have. That’s the wrong assumption. The real answer is assuming you’re trying to do too many things. Deciding not to do the low priority items will help you realize that you have all the resources you need to accomplish your top priorities. And it will lead to greater success as well.
Figure out how to say No!
The Power of a Positive No by William Ury is a great resource. Deciding to say no will be one of the most productive practices you ever learn.
Probably yes, but that’s likely to be a problem if there isn’t balance.
Some brain scientist will speak of the five brains:
- Reptilian – Identifying and responding to threats
- Limbic – Emotions, relationships
- Neocortex – Makes meaning out of experiences and memories
- Heart – Understands how we’re reacting physically and chemically to interaction
- Executive – Translates information into decisions and future direction
Our modern world seems to celebrate and elevate Executive brain function. Big Data and computer analysis give modern executives more instant information than any leaders in history. CEO’s are hired and fired based on their decision making and vision reputations.
But, every time I’ve been hired to help grow and develop executive teams, only a small portion of the issue is related to the executive function of the brain. Most of my work is spent with emotions, relationships, experiences (and the memory of those experiences) and interactions. Relationships. Trust!
You must be competent at your job to be trustworthy. Steven Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) talked of Trustworthiness requiring both character and competence. Competence tends to be correlated with the brains Executive function. Character and style, how you relate to people are much more complex and the results of the four other brains working well.
One of the great transitions points in career development is moving from manager to leader. Your worth and value to the company are often measured by your competence and Executive brain function right up to and through being a manager. But, when you first step into that leadership role, the style: relationship, motivation, collaboration suddenly become much more valuable.
Leaders maintain the competency. But at the leadership level, that’s simply the price of admission. If you’re not competent you’ll be exposed soon enough. But the best leaders start early at understanding and developing the first four brains so that when they have that opportunity to become leaders, they perform well. In fact, those people who are often identified as “high potential” are the ones with balanced brain functions.
Yes, executives have highly developed executive brains. But that’s only one fifth of the issue. They also have four other brains working well.
Ron’s Short Review: The word “Decide” actually means to figure out what you’re going to say “No” to. This book helps you figure out how to do a great job saying No.
I recently went through some physical therapy for a rotator cuff issue. As the therapist was doing what he was trained to do (push your body beyond all physical limits) he asked: “Are you in pain?” He wasn’t doing his job well enough unless I was experiencing excruciating pain (or so I thought). But he surprised me when he said, “I don’t just want you experiencing pain. However, if you’re experiencing true stretching and the discomfort that comes with it, that is positive. But, the old saying of ‘no pain, no gain’ is not helpful.”
I immediately understood what he was talking about and I could easily distinguish the difference between the pain that was coming from a healthy stretch vs. something that just hurt like it was causing damage.
Unfortunately, I feel we’ve lost this ability to distinguish between pain the stretching in our daily business lives. There is a stretching pain from:
- Being productive
- Trying new things
- Reaching for new heights and
- Pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones.
But there is also pain from:
- Never saying No,
- Tackling so much that we could never expect closure or even high levels of productivity and
- Pain associated with the constant distractions of daily interruptions.
This is the pain caused by being busy. This is pain for pain’s sake. This is not healthy, this is torture.
Many of the teams I work with are asking for help to cure their stress. They know they’re in pain. You can see it on their faces. Their feeling trapped in busy-ness.
Business requires deep work. We need to be making better decisions than the competition. The word decide means to figure out what you’re not going to do, not just do more.
- Not saying No.
- Wall-to-wall meetings.
- Conference calls
- Text messages
- Emails
- Endless process of poor decision making
These are all signs of busy-ness and they’re killing us. Let’s start by doing some simple but profound things:
- De-cide: Choose which option you’re going to kill.
- Decision Process: Good decisions start by identifying the true owner of the decision. Most meeting thrashing is not over the decision itself but who really owns the decision. Determine that ahead of time, the decision will go much better.
- Protect some deep work time. Give people space and time to think deeply about the situation. Wonderful and profound things happen.
Take a good hard look. Are you in business or busy-ness? If you’re truthful about the answer it will put you on a much healthier path.
This was a statement recently posted by Benjamin Hardy.
I didn’t agree. I believe in free-will, not predestination. People who take a very dependent approach to life don’t believe in free-will. They don’t believe their efforts can make a difference. They feel helpless because others will overrule them. They live a very sad life. Exercise your free-will. You’ll be happier!
But, as I read further I began to see what he was saying. There is a price to pay for the choices you make. That I agree with. There is always a price to pay. Even when you choose not to choose, there is a price to pay.
Time to Pay the Piper
Often the price to pay is some pain and suffering. If you’ve read many of my posts you’ve noticed my reference to Dr. Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled. He explains that the root of mental illness is the avoidance of pain and suffering. Choosing not to pay the price at the moment (pain and suffering) will lead to some form of mental illness. The word that comes to mind most often is dysfunctional. We have a very dysfunctional team, company, environment… fill in the blank.
Dysfunction Junction
Why is it dysfunctional? Did someone decide there should be a dysfunctional team? Was that the desire, to work in a dysfunctional environment? Not consciously, but somewhere, the decision was made not to deal with a difficult issue. Therefore, with the decision made to avoid the pain and suffering in the moment, the consequence is a dysfunctional environment.
Time is a big cost issue when it comes to decisions.
Do I decide to help my employee learn a new process or take less time and do it myself?
Consequence: You will always need to do it yourself.
Do I decide to get the team on board before moving ahead or let them know the direction we will take?
Consequence: No buy-in. No engagement. Failed decision.
Do I decide to take the time for good deliberation or make a quick decision?
Consequence: People don’t believe in the decision and will continuing to support other directions.
Developing employees, getting buy-in, facing the dilemma of decisions all take time. Not paying the cost of time in the moment causes negative results. But those negative results may not become evident immediately. Later there is no visible cause and effect. People will say “It’s just dysfunctional.” No, that was the consequence of a decision you made.
There is no free-will. Every choice has a cost. And a consequence.
Ron’s Short Review: This is the book to help you deal with Right vs Right decisions. Most business decisions are Right vs Right but we frame them as Right vs Wrong which makes them impossible to solve. This one should stay on the bookshelf.