The world has changed since the last time you did this.
Before you get going again, take another look.
Knowing what you do now about the resources you have to deliver what you really want; what the people you serve really want and what the people you work with really want, which version of better are you aiming for this time?
Once you’ve accepted what is, it’s time to take stock of the resources you have available to you.
Obviously, the physical resources – cash; credit; working capital; stock; work in progress, the available working hours of your team.
Also the intangibles – your Promise of Value, your ‘way we do things round here’; your know-how and expertise; the willingness/ability of your team, clients and suppliers to support you through changes.
Less obviously perhaps, its time to take stock of what matters. Because that will almost certainly have changed, for you, your clients and your team. And that may open up whole new futures, and close some you thought you had available.
Possible futures are resources too. It’s worth taking stock of them before you decide which ones to explore.
Over the weekend, as well as reading, I listened to wise words from Scott Perry, of Creative on Purpose:
“Acceptance of what is opens the door to what is possible.”
It’s difficult to avoid grieving over what you’ve lost, which includes the future you thought you were going to have.
It is lost. There is nothing we can do about that.
But other futures are open to you. Different futures. Better futures. Because you can make them so. At least, you can do your best to make them so.
The first step in a process of recovery is to accept what is, now.
When, towards the end of last year, I decided to publish a book, I had an idea in my mind, a mental picture if you like, of what it would be like.
I envisaged something like a Ladybird book. A small format, portrait, made up of double-page spreads, with text on the left hand page, and an accompanying photograph on the facing page. Simple, easy to read, slightly nostalgic (for people of a certain age), and perhaps slightly tongue-in-cheek.
I knew I couldn’t put this together myself, so I asked Rob Key at Studio Change to help.
Rob had a different mental model. Still small, still two-page spreads, still text plus illustration, but completely different.
He showed me what my book would look like according to his model and I was blown away.
The thing about models, is that they are all approximations, they are all wrong.
But some models are much more useful than others. And you’re unlikely to come up with all of them yourself. So you need to share your models, be open to new ones and be willing to improve your own.
Model interactions is how we learn to do better.
Why do I need process if I have good people?
Because making good people reinvent the wheel over and over again is a shocking waste of talent.
Talent that could be used to invent better wheels, or more interesting uses for them.
Last night I discovered Johann Hari and his work on depression, anxiety and addiction.
His findings are fascinating, and chime very much with my beliefs on what motivates people, and how you help them to be happier and more productive.
Humans have fundamental physical needs – food, clothing, shelter, sex.
We also have fundamental psychological needs – autonomy, mastery, agency, purpose and above all connection with other people. We need to be seen and valued.
I’d be interested to know what the current situation is doing for those needs right now. I suspect that some of the psychological needs are being better met for some people, while for others some of the physical needs are under threat.
If Covid-19 is an opportunity for a reset. It’s going to be worth thinking about what comes back after the reset button is released again.
How can we ensure that more people have more of their fundamental needs met intentionally and consistently, without killing ourselves or the planet in the process?
It’s a big question. But we can start small, with where we belong – with our own families, friends and businesses.
Here are the TED talks:
https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious
https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong
If, like me, your business-to-business offering feels a discretionary spend at the best of times, you’re probably thinking “Where will I fit in after this is all over?”
The answer? Wherever, whenever and however the people you serve are going to need what you can do for them.
The only way to find out where this will be is to step outside the bubble of your own concerns and put yourself in their shoes.
Not their shoes now, but their shoes down the line, when the urgent crisis is over, the extent of the damage better known, the time when the people you serve will be asking themselves the question “Where will I fit in after this is all over?”
For the right people, what you offer will never be a discretionary spend.
And we only find the right people with deep and deliberate empathy.
If you know about Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), you’ll know that people have preferred channels of communication and expression. Some people lean towards images, others towards words, others towards feelings.
Not surprisingly, these preferences apply to how people take in the information that convinces them of something, for example, whether or not someone is doing a good job.
Try it. Ask yourself “How do I know someone’s doing a good job?“
Is it by seeing them do it? Is it by reading a report they’ve produced? Is it by hearing someone tell you? Is it by doing it with them?
The preferred channel isn’t the whole story though, we also have a preference that relates to time and frequency – how many times we need to experience the signals of a job well done, in order to be convinced that the person doing it can be safely left to themselves.
Some people are immediately convinced, they only need to see/read/hear/do once, and they are happy to let the person carry on.
Others need a few instances before they are convinced.
Yet others need to keep receiving the evidence because they are never quite 100% convinced, no matter how many times they see/hear/read/do.
Clearly this has implications for what might be appropriate roles for the individuals in your team, depending on the kind of business you do. And there are dangers in it, as I’ve talked about before.
It is of particular relevance if you are a manager or business owner, when one or more of the usual channels are not available.
The first part of the answer for most businesses, is to switch to measuring outcomes, not work.
The second is to run spot-checks at a reasonable frequency, which can take different forms.
For example you could arrange to ‘accompany’ someone as they perform their job. You give notice, so they are prepared, because you are not so much checking what they are doing as monitoring the reactions of the people they interact with as they do it.
Or you can ‘mystery shop’ – the non-creepy equivalent of observing covertly, from a distance. Better yet, get a professional to do it for you on a regular basis.
And you can give everyone a stake in success, by truly sharing ownership.
The point of this post, and some of the others I’ve written this week, is to show that there may be reasons beyond the immediate crisis that are making you and your team feel uncomfortable and demotivated.
Of course the priority now is get set up just enough to survive.
But there is no need for things to be worse than they are, and soon you will have some time to invest beyond survival.
By taking the time to understand individual working styles, so you can work with the grain of every member of your team (including yourself), you’ll come out of the other side stronger. And you’ll have showed your team you care.
Here’s the book reference again: “Words that Change Minds”, by Shelle Rose Charvet. Check out the website too.
Many years ago I had a job interview for Booz Allen. Almost the first thing the interviewer said to me was “You’re a bit of a butterfly aren’t you?”
They were wrong. I was just following a normal pattern for someone with my appetite for change.
In work, I’m motivated by evolution rather than stability, and every 3-5 years or so I feel the need to make a big shift. I’m not unusual, that’s how most people like to operate at work.
My interviewer was possibly in a different camp. I asked them how long they’d been with Booz Allen. “20 years.” Clearly in the ‘I like things to stay the same over a long period of time’ preference. Or perhaps their motivational kicks came from working with an international consultancy firm – if the job involves the required level of variety, there’s no need to switch jobs to get it.
I’ve also met people at the other extreme, who are motivated by constant change and uncertainty, and who will pivot almost every year.
The point here is that even without a crisis, it’s worth understanding your own and other people’s appetite for change. People will be de-motivated, under-perform and eventually leave if they aren’t getting what they need from the job they are in.
In a time of crisis and uncertainty this is even more important. A few will thrive on it. Most will find it uncomfortable, unsettling, but bearable. A few will find it almost intolerable.
Bear this in mind as you shake down to remote working. Of course the priority is to get things working and keep going. But if this situation lasts, or you decide to change your way of working altogether it’s worth adjust things in line with these preferences.
It may well be that moving people into different roles will help them and you get through it better.
PS the man swapping hats with Charlie Chaplin is Harry Lauder, a music hall (variety) star in his day, and according to Gibbs family tradition, a relation of ours.
It’s been amazing to see how quickly many businesses have been able to switch to some sort of online delivery model over the last week or so.
Continuing my musings on ‘Working Styles’, here’s something to bear in mind though, especially for your sales team.
To be good at sales, or customer service, or support, people need to be get some of their motivation from other people – they need to be externally focused.
So far, so good. But the context of sales can vary, and individuals can have very different working style preferences and still be excellent sales people – as long as the context they are in remains congenial.
For example, a good salesperson can have a reactive preference – that is, they act on things that happen, rather than initiating events. That’s perfect for physical retail, where customers don’t want to be pestered, yet want attentiveness when they ask for it. People with a proactive preference, on the other hand are more suited to a field sales role, where they have to go out and find clients, or for pulling in customers through promotions outside the premises.
Bear these preferences in mind as you switch to online. Working against the grain of their preference will be more difficult for both proactive and reactive people. You could, for example have the reactive people man your chatlines and customer service lines, while the proactive people do online networking and phone calls.
To find out what preferences the people in your business have, I recommend “Words that Change Minds” by Shelle Rose Charvet. I’ve used this approach many times, to help with franchisee recruitment, and to help individuals identify what they should be looking for in a job or career. It can be done in 20 minutes, via a telephone interview.
Now would be a great time to find out what makes your people tick.