Uncommon Clarity will save you time. But that’s not all. Clarity will also improve profits, morale, confidence, and results. Listen to why you need clarity now!
The deadly earnest executive team talked while I awaited my piece of the agenda. Five minutes in, I interrupted. “Do you have any idea how many different topics you are discussing? How many decisions you are trying to make?” They were incredulous, insulted, irritated, but silent. From the notes I’d been taking, I listed the five decisions and two plans under discussion. Irritation was quickly replaced with recognition, which was just as quickly replaced with new energy. The clarity I created by enumerating the seven topics instantly paved the way for rapid progress. The order in which those decisions needed to be made was now quite obvious, each discrete decision was relatively easy, and both plans obviously needed to be postponed until some of these decisions were in place. Clarity creates breakthroughs in speed, quality of results, commitment, and confidence. Unfortunately, clarity is rare. I have repeated this experiment countless times with equivalent levels of shock and acceleration of progress. Try it yourself. The next time you are in a meeting, make a note of the number of topics under discussion. Ready to create the clarity that produces better results faster and with greater confidence and commitment? Let’s talk: Ann@UncommonClarity.com or 603-784-5727.
With Cupid zinging love-tipped arrows through the air, I thought this would be a good time to warn you of the dangers. There are many situations in the workplace where love at first sight is common, but should be avoided. 1. When interviewing candidates for a job opening, sometimes you get lucky and start with a great one. But don’t fall in love at first sight, no matter how amazing the first candidate. Talk to at least a few more. Broaden your perspective. Sharpen your questions. Let the contrasts deepen your understanding of the characteristics most important to the position. 2. When considering your options, you should definitely dodge the arrow. The first options to surface, no matter the situation, represent old habits, perennial favorites, fads, and lingering ideas from most recent conversations, rarely great ideas. Take a little extra time to brainstorm. A wild and crazy pause can unleash far better options. A client struggling with next steps and batting oft-repeated options paused long enough to ask my advice. “Should we go with A or B?” My response: Neither. And that is when the conversation got interesting!
Mention income inequality and many explode and rail against various methods of redistributing wealth – taxing the rich, raising the minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits, the Affordable Care act, expanding social programs. Every one of those ideas has countless enemies and so the debate goes nowhere. People who dislike arguments shut down. Those with strong opinions about any of the above are beyond listening to anyone else. Let’s add some clarity.
“A shared process brings clarity to group thinking. If you want better results in a fraction of the time, establish your process before leaping into the fray.” Ann Latham
While I was at dinner last week with a Fortune 500 Executive, we were discussing employee expectations for career advancement. We lamented the ambitious but misguided who don’t know what they don’t know and feel entitled to success. We bemoaned the techies who are eager to be done but inevitably break something every time they fix something and leave far too many details unfinished. And we shared stories of accomplished individuals who are so nasty, annoying, and/or self-centered no one wants to work with them. In the end, we identified three secrets to success that may be of interest to your employees (feel free to pass this on):
Having arrived early for a client meeting, I became privy to a conversation spurred by heavy resistance to changes they were trying to make. Those present proposed many ideas to reduce the resistance. Unfortunately, those ideas were of two distinct types: Changes to the goal Changes to the methods used to achieve the goal If you are struggling with implementation, whether encountering resistance or hitting other obstacles, be sure to distinguish between the ends and the means. If your goal is sound, don’t sacrifice it just because you haven’t found a suitable method for achieving it. There are always multiple paths to any destination. If your desired end point is important, stay strong and find a new path.
My daughter is jumping out of an airplane tomorrow. When I first heard, I asked her what kind of training she would get. “There is no need,” she said. ‘You jump with an expert. You are never on your own. They even pull the ripcord for you. They do this all the time.” So there is no reason to worry. Right? The likelihood of a problem is tiny. They do this all the time and she is literally in the hands of experts. I woke up suddenly from a dream
In “Grouping Students by Ability Regains Favor in Classroom,” the New York Times, June 10, 2013, reports that the pendulum is swinging back. In the 80s and 90s, many felt that separating children by ability would trap underprivileged or underperforming children permanently. Thus, we started treating everyone the same. Age became the sole qualification and children of all types took the same classes.