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Communication

REPOST: Listening With the Intent to Understand

by Ron Potter May 11, 2023

A Note From the Editor:

As we recently mentioned, we are reposting popular blog posts while Ron is recovering from some health issues.

The next time you’re listening to something, especially on a topic where you don’t necessarily agree, try this experiment: Use part of your brain to pay attention to what you’re thinking when listening to the other person. It’s okay. Your brain has a lot more capacity than your think. You can actually listen to another person at the same time as you act as an observer to watch what your own brain is doing. I know you can.

If you’re like most of us, you’ll find your own brain developing some sort of checklist:

Those two points support my side of the argument so I’ll immediately respond with those.
That point is not supported by fact, so I can instantly discount that.
That reminds me I need to pick up dog food on the way home.
I can’t believe they actually think that point is valid. How could they be so naive?

Then the moment happens. The other person pauses; they may not even be finished with their point of view, but just pausing a moment to collect their thoughts or even pausing a moment before presenting their obviously convincing closing statement. It makes no difference; it’s a pause.
So you jump in:

“Let me reinforce a couple of statements you made earlier because I believe they make my point exactly. And let me also clarify another conclusion you reached that is counter to all the facts we have.”

And on and on and on until you’re forced to pause and the cycle repeats.

If this scenario reflects in any way what you are experiencing while “listening” to other people, then you listen with the intent to respond. Most of us do it. Most of us do it most of the time. It takes a conscious effort and some practice to actually start listening with the intent to understand. But what a difference it will make in your life if you even get marginally good at it.

When you listen with the intent to understand, your curiosity kicks in. You’re not trying to catalog the points you’re hearing. You’re wondering:

I wonder why they believe that?
I wonder what experience they’ve had with this in the past?
I wonder who they trust on this and why?
I wonder what they believe will be the best outcome?

If you’re truly curious and wondering, then your response when that inevitable pause comes will be totally different.
Your first reaction to the pause may be to simply wait to see if there is a conclusion or further thoughts.
You may actually ask if there is a conclusion on further thought.
You may express your wonderment and curiosity and begin to ask questions or clarification or deeper understanding or more background.

Whatever you’re response. If it’s driven by curiosity and wonderment, the other person will immediately know that you’ve been listening to understand. You want to understand, you want to know their viewpoint. This sparks a very different reaction on their part.
A few key things happen from their point-of-view:

Once they realize you’re trying to understand their point-of-view, they become less rigid in their stance and more willing to admit it’s just their point-of-view.
They become more open to questioning their own point-of-view because you’re honestly questioning it in an attempt to understand and not with the intent to control or discredit it.
And most importantly, once you’ve fully listened to and attempted to understand their point-of-view, they’re much more willing to listen to and be open to your point-of-view.

Steven Covey, in his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, indicates that one of the seven habits is to “seek to understand before being understood.” This is what he was talking about.

Listen with the intent to understand. Practice it. Use it often. You’ll be amazed at how much people are willing to share with you and how much they’re willing to listen to and understand your point-of-view.
Try it. It will be refreshing.

And one more solid point: In my book, Trust Me: Developing A Leadership Style People are Willing to Follow, the number one trait of great leaders is humility. The foundation of humility is the willingness to listen with the intent to understand.

What’s your reaction when someone actually listens to you and truly wants to understand?

This post was originally posted here on January 15, 2015.

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Consensus Building

by Ron Potter March 2, 2023

I meet on a regular basis with a group of highly intelligent and successful guys. We have a name for ouselves which is SPACE CADETS. The story is too long about how we became known by that name but we’ve enjoyed it.

Our topics range across the things we’ve been thinking about: a difficult situation we find ourselves in or sometimes simply curiosity. But it often deals with how we reach consensus with our team or client. One of the definitions of consensus from Merriam-Webster is “group solidarity in sentiment and belief.” You can look up the word solidarity but it often leads back to something solid. You build something together that is solid and that you’ll all defend.

There are two words in the English language that are often associated with building consensus.

One of those words is discussion. The other word is dialogue. Most people think of a good discussion as a way to reach consensus. Most of us don’t think of the word dialogue. If fact we often mix the two words up and misunderstand their meaning.

Discussion

There are some interesting ideas that discussion is based on. They include:

Narrow focus
Debate of what is “right”
Defending certainty
Seeking closure

Notice that there is an assumed “right” and “certainty” in the word discussion. Add to that the narrow focus and seeking closure (instead of understanding) and you begin to see that discussion may not be the best approach to building consensus. One of the best definitions that I found said that the word discussion is based on the same root word as percussion. What do you think of when you think about percussion? Drums!

I played percussion in our high school band. When we were in an orchestra situation I remember our band director asking me to bring down the volume on the percussion. But when we were outdoors in marching band, it seemed like he was always asking me to raise the volume. He wanted more percussion. Discussion in an open area with lots of listeners may be useful. But in a small team setting, percussion is not useful. It seems to have all the negative aspects of the bullet list above.

Dialogue

Dialogue is very different from discussion. Dialogue is an exchange of ideas and opinions. Dialogue has some very interesting aspects that you would probably love to have in most instances. It:

Surfaces all assumptions
Names and faces defense routines
Slows down conversation to create learning and shared meaning
Suspends certainty

Suspending Assumptions

The last point in dialogue is suspending certainty. All of us have certain ideas that we feel certain about. This is natural and it’s certainly OK as long as we know they come from our own views and observations. I think we would have a tough time with life if we didn’t have things we were certain about. But it’s important that they are really our assumptions and another person (especially one with different experiences and coming up in a different culture) may see them entirely differently.

I was very fortunate that my consulting career had me working around the world and being exposed to different cultures. I remember one team that was made up of people from Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the UK. It was fascinating to see them start talking about a topic from their own culture and history. Fortunately, this was a team that respected each other and was willing to understand how the different cultures viewed certain topics.

One funny experience I remember was working with a US CEO. He had gotten tired of people being late for meetings so he instituted the rule that if you were late, you had to stand on your chair or table and sing your college fight song or country national anthem. From his point of view that would have been very humiliating. Then one day we were waiting for a meeting to start and I asked him if he saw the people standing outside the conference room door. It seems that all the Irish were waiting outside the door so they could be late and have to stand on the table and sing their national anthem. They loved it.

Suspending Assumptions II

A couple of things to think about when you’re suspending assumptions are:

Let go of your own assumptions in order to understand the assumptions of others.
When it comes to your turn, help everyone understand your assumptions and what formed them.
Move from discussion to dialogue to help everyone understand all of the assumptions so that together you can come up with the best team solution.

It’s important to remember that you won’t win every argument and your assumptions won’t carry the day in every instance. Most often one assumption persuades most of the team but is enhanced by portions of some of the other assumptions.

One way to judge your ability to do this well is how you respond to people after the decision is made. When someone (who may have been fully aware of your position before the meeting) asks you what the decision of the team was, your answer should be something like, “The team thought this was the best solution.” When the person says they know that was not your opinion prior to the meeting, say again, “The team thought it is the best solution.”

Keep in mind that we all have different assumptions. I grew up with three siblings in the same house. We have certain similarities but, as a whole, we are each very different people. You’re no better or worse than the other person, you just have different assumptions.

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Blog Culture Facing Adversity

Perplexed

by Ron Potter February 17, 2022

We’ve been looking at a text written over 2,000 years ago. A partial reading of the text says that we are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.

In this blog, we’ll be looking at the second word on the list, perplexed. Webster defines perplexed as completely baffled, very puzzled.

Some similar words include mystify, bewilder, dumbfounded, and worry. Have you sat in on a meeting where people are speaking a different language from your own? Maybe you know a word or two but for the most part, you’re mystified, bewildered, and maybe worried that you’re not understanding what is being said and maybe you should be.

He Was Perplexed

At one point in my career, I spent a couple weeks in the Middle East. After a few weeks back home speaking English, the only Arabic word I remembered was shukran which means thank you. I had a client meeting in California and the driver who picked me up from the airport spoke Arabic. On the 45-minute journey to the meeting site, he was speaking on his phone in Arabic, so I understood virtually none of the conversation. Upon arriving at our meeting place I politely said shukran for the pleasant ride. The driver was dumbfounded! He almost stammered when he asked if I knew the language. I let him worry for a few seconds then said that shukran was the only word I knew. The blood returned to his face. Dumbfounded, bewildered, worried. You name it, he was perplexed.

Almost every company I have worked with through the years has reduced their conversation to acronyms. It always took me several meetings before I knew what they were talking about when they used FOMO for “Fear of Missing Out” or some other crazy acronym. It never bothered me much because I was the outsider. If I hadn’t figured it out in a meeting or two, I would ask. However, for those who were part of the team, everyone assumed they knew what it stood for and asking was frowned upon. They were perplexed.

We Will All Be Perplexed

Once again, the ancient text indicates that all of us will be perplexed at one time or another. We don’t like being perplexed because it makes us feel uncomfortable or like an outsider. One of our approaches is to assume we know it all. We think that we’re not perplexed, and they don’t know what they’re talking about. We tend to write them off as lost, faking it, saying things that seem profound but are really covering up their ignorance.

This is a dangerous approach. We must be humble enough to ask, to display our ignorance if necessary. We may get that original rolling of the eyes, but if we do sincerely ask what we’re missing, it may give us the opportunity to share something we know and actually help the situation. The rolling of the eyes will quickly turn to respect and trigger good discussion.

Overcoming Being Perplexed

The best way to overcome or avoid being perplexed is to ask questions. Be humble and sincere but ask the question about your perplexity. Often, we’ll find out that each member of the team may be referring to something slightly different from the other team members. They’re also perplexed but may not even recognize it. Good questions lead to good discussion. It’s interesting that the solution to being perplexed will often lead to the solution for affliction, which is united discussion about good solutions.

Have you ever noticed that the person who leads to the most innovative answer is the young person, the new person, or the person whose knowledge is in an entirely different area? They don’t know that they don’t know and therefore ask some of the most profound questions that lead to innovative solutions. They are perplexed, so they ask questions to cure their own perplexity but that can often lead to a more interesting discussion. However, once that person has been around long enough to know “how things are done here,” their perplexity is either gone or kept silent. Those profound questions no longer come. This is a dangerous place to be.

Encourage perplexity! As you work your way through being perplexed, great discussions can happen that lead to a much better understanding by everyone and may even come up with some great innovative solutions.

Read the next post in the series.

Facing Adversity
Afflicted in Every Way
Perplexed
Persecuted
Struck Down
Ancient Text
Regrets—Text to Corinthians

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Blog Culture

BS Indicator

by Ron Potter November 4, 2021

I’ve started reading a book titled The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit. I started reading it just because it sounded like a fun read (my warped sense of humor, I guess). However, once I started to read the research and science behind it, the topic is fascinating.

The Causes and Consequences of B.S.

John Petrocelli is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, who actually studies this issue. How fun would that be?

He finds that people tend to spread B.S. when they feel obligated to have an opinion about something they know little about—and when they feel they aren’t going to be challenged. The Wall Street Journal did a fascinating interview with Dr. Potrocelli. A couple of findings I found interesting were:

B.S. is when someone communicates something with little regard for the truth, genuine evidence, or established knowledge.
Liars actually know and care about the truth. They need to know the truth so they can distract you from it. The BS’er not only doesn’t know the truth, they don’t care about it.
One reason people BS is simply the obligation to have an opinion. People feel they have to have an opinion about everything. They tell each other what they want to hear to avoid conflict or hurt feelings.

Obligation to Have an Opinion

Why do we feel we need to have an opinion? We could just as easily remain silent or openly indicate that we don’t have an opinion on a particular. Even better, if we were to indicate that we haven’t formed an opinion because we don’t know all the facts and haven’t yet figured out the truth.

The WSJ indicates that the main reason people BS is to promote one’s status—to get ahead, appear knowledgeable, competent, skilled, or admired. Unless these BS’ers are challenged, it can lead to some of these consequences but when challenged properly, their BS is quickly exposed and leads to the failure of accomplishing any of those goals.

Detecting BS

Our ability to detect BS has been dulled through this time of isolation. We’ve lost some of our natural ability to detect. The WSJ article points out a couple of great questions that we can ask to retune our BS detector.

Ask people to clarify, they’ll often take a step back and think. And a lot of times, they’ll dial back their claim. So the first question is: “What? What are you saying?”
“How? How do you know that’s true? How did you come to that conclusion?” We have often been taught to ask the “Why” question first. However, Dr. Petrocelli suggests that the “Why” is not a good question to ask. That leads people into the abstract, to talk about their values and the heady stuff. The “how” question gets them down to the concrete, real-world, practical things that we would call evidence.
The other question should be: “Have you ever considered any alternatives?” The reason for this question is that if they say no, you know they probably haven’t thought through the thing very well.

The Power of Detecting BS

Something on your radar just pinged and you’re not sure if this person is telling you the truth or just BSing. Or you might simply be ignorant of the situation, the facts, and the truth. In either case, asking the questions above will help you, your team, and your leadership be better at what you’re trying to accomplish. Become a good BS detector simply by keeping your radar up and asking the right questions.

You’ll be thought of as a solid citizen and a critical thinker. Don’t accept or spew BS.

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Blog Culture

Communication

by Ron Potter August 5, 2021

You’ve heard me talk often about the need to listen with the intent to understand. The better you get at this the better you’ll understand what’s being said.

But the other side of communication is talking. Just because you said something doesn’t mean your listener understands. Simon Sinek says “Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean”. Just because you said it doesn’t mean your listener(s) understood it.

Communication

Our word communication is from the Latin communcare, meaning to share. “The act of developing meaning among entities or groups through the use of sufficiently mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic conventions.” To quote Simen Sinek again “Communication is not about saying what we think.”

Act like an owner

I once worked with a client that was publicly owned and had a leadership team from all over the world. It seemed to the CEO that there was too much command and control attitude coming from his leadership team so he began talking with them about acting like owners, not just managers running a company that was owned by the stockholders. He was hoping this “Act like an owner” attitude would institute a more caring and inclusive approach by his leadership.

However, one member of the leadership team seemed to “double down” on the command and control approach to his leadership. The CEO asked me to talk with the individual to see if we could figure out why the message didn’t seem to be getting through.

I talked with the VP and asked what he thought of the “ownership” approach. His response was very positive. He agreed that the entire team should act like owners and that should produce some great results. I was having a hard time aligning his words with his actions so I asked him what “ownership” meant to him.

As it turns out the neighboring country had invaded his homeland 600 years ago. They took over all the land and essentially enslaved the native population. To him, that was ownership. Complete control to rule the land as they wanted with a complete command and control attitude. His reaction was that the leadership team should absolutely act like owners!

Communication is about conveying meaning

“Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean” Ownership meant one thing to the CEO and an entirely different thing to the VP. The meaning had not been communicated. Because this leadership team was a globally diverse team, it became almost necessary that we parse the language to assure the meaning was understood— to ensure others hear what we mean.

Extraversion vs Introversion

I began to see a similar issue a few years later working with the Asian culture. In North America, it seems that our extraverted, outgoing leadership style is the style that is associated with a lot of corporate leaders. In Asia, it seems that the introverted, quiet, thoughtful style is the one that is more revered by the culture.

I began to observe that in North America if someone was walking past and the CEO was sitting quietly, apparently “not doing anything” it would be a good time to stick their head into the office and interrupt the “not doing anything” moment with a question or a statement. In the Asian office, if the CEO was sitting quietly, the person would silently tip-toe past the office so they wouldn’t interrupt the CEO’s deep thought.

Two different cultures with different beliefs about the same action.

Communication is about sharing meaning

Our corporate world is becoming more global all the time. The Covid pandemic has accelerated the use of virtual meetings which puts even more emphasis on speaking and listening with the intent to convey and understand meaning.

Communication is a two-way street:

Learn to listen with the intent to understand
Speak with the intent of ensuring others hear what we mean

We must do both for the betterment of everyone and the company.

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Blog Culture

Zoom Fatigue

by Ron Potter May 13, 2021

My first regret with Zoom is that I didn’t invest in the company in the early days. I’ve been a user since the early days but had no idea what was coming. Covid increased users rapidly and the last I looked they had around a half-million users. One more investment opportunity missed!

For this blog, I will use the word Zoom as a generic term for all of the video conference applications from Microsoft, Cisco (Webex), Google, and others.

Exhausting

Even though Zoom has become essential, the environment has become exhausting at the same time. Why?

I’m a highly extroverted person and you would think I would enjoy the Zoom environment. And in fact, I do prefer it to one-on-one phone calls. And I even do OK and experience quite a bit of value in small team meetings.

But for those who are in several meetings per day and often with large numbers of participants, it’s exhausting. I have always experienced mental fatigue deeper and harder to recover from than physical fatigue. Zoom meetings are all focused on mental fatigue.

Evolution

We have evolved (and survived) because of our ability to understand very small expressions and understand meaning from them. One of my pleasures is reading spy novels. Almost all of them talk about microexpressions as a means for understanding truth, lies, confidence, fear, and other emotions. Human communications is a combination of words, movement, timing, gestures, and others. Scientists even have a name for all of this coordination. They call it synchrony.

Synchrony is essential for complete communication and humans work hard to achieve it. I believe that synchrony is essential to build trust! It’s interesting to me that Zoom and all of its competitors are working hard to improve teamwork through this media. I believe it was Microsoft that talked about the “art of teamwork”. And yet, they are all looking at things that can be measured like: “Who are you meeting with?”, “How often are you meeting?”, “What time of day do you meet?”. None of these things have anything to do with building the trust essential in good teams.

Fight-or-flight

Scientists at Stanford University found that the size of images can trigger our innate “Fight-or-Flight” state of mind. When another person’s image looks larger and closer than others on the conference call, they can seem threatening. Looking at a screen of nine faces where there is no coordination of closeness to screen is very different than having nine people around a conference table. When every image is a different proportional size, the human mind is trying to figure our fight-or-flight threat. It’s exhausting.

Feel Good Conversations

Studies also show that face-to-face conversations release neurotransmitters like dopamine. Dopamine is linked to our feelings of pleasure. I look forward to meeting with people one-on-one. It feels good!

Another quote from Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction lab is “Zoom smothers you with cues, and they aren’t synchronous. It takes a physiological toll.”

What to do

So what do we do about all of this? So far, I’ve seen no good answer.

Virtual Apps

I’m working with a group putting together an app we call GPS4Leaders (GPS4Leaders.com). It was originally meant to be a stand-alone app that leaders and teams could have instant access to through their phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. We have built the app based on years of consulting work with clients.

Since the rapid shift to virtual meetings, we are moving away from the stand-alone app to a Zoom-based app. We’re currently working with one of the Virtual Meeting Software companies to incorporate the “trusting team” concepts into the virtual environment. We’ll see how it goes.

Pick up the phone

If it’s impossible to meet someone directly, pick up the phone and talk together. You can even revert to the Zoom environment but do it one-on-one, not in a group. Talk with the other person directly. Get to know who they are, not just what they do. What makes them a unique individual? What is their background? What experiences have they had? What are their ambitions? Anything you can do to get to know them as human beings the better. We are human beings, not human doings!

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Blog Culture

Heeeeere’s Johnny!

by Ron Potter September 24, 2020

I’ve recently noticed there are Johnny Carson reruns from his old “Tonight” show on one of the networks. I always considered Carson the best night-time TV host so I began to watch a few. Overall, I have not been disappointed.

Humility

While I’m sure that Johnny Carson had a reasonably big ego, it seemed that he treated every guest with equal respect and humility. It didn’t make any difference if the person was the hottest movie star of the day or had just won a contest for catching gumdrops in their mouth. The person had accomplished something and Carson respected them for it. He would often join the person on stage and attempt to duplicate their effort almost always failing miserably. Once again to demonstrate their accomplishment and respect them for it.

Monologue

But the real topic of this blog is listening! Elizabeth Bernstein wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal titled No One is Listening? Maybe You’re the Problem.

I’ve written several times about listening with the intent to understand vs. listening with the intent to respond. Many of our communication problems happen because we’re preparing our response rather than trying to listen and understand what the other person is saying.

But Ms. Bernstien made one point in the article that many talkers engage in monologue rather than dialogue.

Carson always started his show with a monologue. While he certainly was listening to the audience for clues about how funny his statement was, he simply went on with the rest of his monologue just as he had written and practiced it.

The WSJ article said “Often talkers engage in a monologue rather than a dialogue. They drone on and ignore the listener’s clues that he or she is disengaged.”

They’re speaking in a monologue while seemingly engaged in a dialogue. And then rate the “listener” poorly for not being engaged.

Dialogue

But once Johnny had a guest sitting across the desk from him, he seemed to fully switch to a dialogue. He listened. He made eye contact. He asked open-ended questions. He encouraged the other person to elaborate.

Let’s examine the word Dialogue for a minute. I have observed teams that use:

Debate
Discussion
Dialogue (although very few understand or have been taught what it means to dialogue)

Debate

Many of you have been on debate teams in high school or college. If you’ll recall, you were often given positions on a topic that you may not have even believed. But you still had to debate and in fact, were graded on your debating skills whether you believed in the topic or not. The goal of the debate was to “win.” If your goal in a team meeting or engaging with another person is to win the debate, you may actually accomplish the goal but over time will be ignored and shunned for your lack of dialogue abilities.

Discussion

Most teams will tell me that they’ve learned the negative aspects of debating and have avoided them by making sure the team is having a good discussion. While their intentions and often their actions are good, they don’t really know the root of the word discussion. The word discussion has the same root as percussion. I played in the percussion section in my high school band. When we were out marching in a parade or other pageantry, I played the snare drum and my job was to play it as loud as possible to help the band stay in order and be heard over the crowd. All too often, teams turn to discussion where the loudest person wins through sheer force and percussion.

Dialogue

Dialogue has a pattern that will help a team reach a unified position. There is much to be learned about dialogue and it can be modified to the team’s particular needs but in general, follows this pattern:

Boil the issue down to two positions so that you can decide (eliminate one of the options)
Once down to two positions, dialogue them one at a time.
- This means that for a period of time “everyone” on the team is on the same side to help lead the position to great success.
Once each position has been dialogued, decide. Eliminate one position and put all the team’s energy into the chosen position. It’s amazing how quickly one position can be reached when the debate and discussion are removed from the process. It’s also amazing how powerful one position can become when everyone is behind its success.

Heeeeere’s Johnny!

Treat each other with respect!

Treat each topic and position with dignity!

Get the entire team on the same page!

You’ll experience power and speed beyond what you imagined possible.

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Blog Team

Overused Teamwork

by Ron Potter July 9, 2020

Team Leadership Culture: Teams first. I’m a big fan of teamwork. However, when it creates an overcommitted organization and conflicting priorities it is counterproductive.

The foundation of this post was inspired by a Harvard Business Review article, The OverCommitted Organization, written by Heidi K. Gardner and Mark Mortensen.

The Overcommitted Organization

In the article, they talk about the dysfunction that can happen when people are assigned to too many teams at the same time. They break it down to the following pros and cons:

PROS: By assigning people to multiple teams at once, organizations make efficient use of time and brainpower. They also do a better job of solving complex problems and sharing knowledge across groups.

CONS: Competing priorities and other conflicts can make it hard for teams with overlapping membership to stay on track. Group cohesion often suffers. And people who belong to many teams at once may experience burnout, which hurts engagement and performance.

Increased Pros or decreased Cons

So now we face the question: Is it worth increasing the PROS at the expense of decreasing the CONS?

My answer is a clear NO! Look in more detail at the expense of the CONS.

Difficult to stay on track.
We have looked at the cost of distraction many times in this blog. Our social media and instant communication can and will negatively affect productivity.
In fact, we can become so distracted on a regular basis that it reduces the brain’s ability to concentrate and think deeply. These are two features that we need more today than ever!
Group cohesion often suffers.
Without group cohesion, there is no team! Teams that tell each other the truth with respect and fully commit to team goals (regardless of personal or department goals) is at the core of great organizations. Group cohesion is essential!
Burnout.
People who experience burnout experience reduced energy, brainpower, commitment, drive, and many other aspects that make them top performers and good team members. Avoid burnout!

PROS

In my mind and experience, the list of pros is actually cons.

Efficient use of time
It’s been proven that the only people capable of multi-tasking are highly trained fighter pilots. And even these highly trained individuals are not capable of transferring the multi-tasking beyond the cockpit when their life depends upon it.
Brainpower
It’s also been proven that teams function better when multiple brains are open about a problem or situation. However, using “one” brain across multiple teams does not increase multiple team’s “brainpower.”
Solving Complex Problems
Complex problems are solved with deep thinking and moving in and out of team subgroups. Complex problems are not solved by having one brain on many teams. In fact that leads to burnout and reduces the ability to solve complex problems.

The Overcommitted Organization

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not opposing what Gardner and Mortensen are stating in their article. In fact, they use experience and solid research to prove their points. And, they reach the same conclusion that I did.

One paragraph right near the middle of their article says

Launch the team well to establish trust and familiarity. When fully dedicated to one team, people learn about their teammates’ outside lives—family, hobbies, life events, and the like. More important, it forges strong bonds and interpersonal trust, which team members need in order to seek and offer constructive feedback, introduces one another to valuable network connections, and rely on one another’s technical expertise. (Italics are mine)

This is a powerful conclusion that reinforces everything I have learned and experienced. Teams that establish trust and have an environment of constructive feedback are the most beneficial.

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Blog Culture

Open vs Closed Minded

by Ron Potter May 28, 2020

Why is it that some people seem to make constant progress in their professional and personal lives, while others appear to be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over?

While the answer isn’t cut and dry, I’ve noticed an interesting mindset difference between these two groups: they approach obstacles and challenges very differently. It comes down to mindset.

Successful people tend to approach life with an open mindset — an eagerness to learn and a willingness to be wrong. The other group digs their heels in at the first sign of disagreement and would rather die than be wrong.

—Shane Parrish, Farnam Street Blog

Business journalist and television personality, Suzy Welch talks about two qualities necessary to get ahead:

1. Grit
Inevitably you’re going to receive some tedious assignments. Completing them with a positive attitude, Welch says, is something your boss will notice.

“Grit is getting the job done without complaint,” Welch says, “especially in challenging situations.”

To show grit, don’t give up when the simplest solution isn’t an option. Be creative and show resolve in completing the assignments you’re given. Welch says a boss can identify grit in an employee who demonstrates “perseverance, resolve, creativity, and the ability to just figure it out.”

“Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty.” was the definition given to us in last week’s blog by author, Heidi Grant Halvorson.

2. Gravitas
The second trait, gravitas, is all about presence and the way you carry yourself.

Welch describes this elusive characteristic as a mixture of “seriousness, maturity, thoughtfulness, wisdom” — traits that are tough to fake, and that will lead your boss and colleagues to respect you and give your perspective greater consideration.

You can also cultivate gravitas, Welch says, through the behaviors you avoid, like gossiping, being unprepared for meetings, interrupting others, or improvising important presentations.

Grit

Of the two, grit seems to be the one that can be developed over time.

Getting the job done without complaint.
Don’t go with the simplest solution.
Commit to long-term goals
Creativity

The attribute that is more difficult to learn over time is creativity.

Some personality types are more prone to “doing it by the book”. Others feel that creativity requires coming up with complex and completed solutions that no one has thought of. Both are wrong!

Creative Types

One exercise I’ve run with teams has been about creativity. Unbeknownst to the team, I divided them into the personality types that naturally tend to be more by the book and those who tend to be more creative. I give them the same exercise that requires creativity and measure the results. The “creative team”

Shows the most creativity in the first round.
On the second round there may be some creativity but at a much lower scale.
By the third round, the “creative’ types are generally out of ideas.

By the book types

This type performs at a much different cadence.

In the first round, these types often complain that the creative types somehow “broke” the rules. Although most of the rules are in their head.
In round two, once they realize that the rules are more flexible than they imagined, the come up with a substantial about of creativity. However, it is usually less creativity than the other team achieved in the first round.
By round three, the creativity continues at a pace similar to the last round.
And for several subsequent rounds, the pace of creativity continues.

The other issue I see with the “By the Book” types is feeling that a creative solution should be complex and complete. The best and most creative solutions are simple.

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful” – John Maeda

Both types are Creative

It’s simply a matter of pace. Creativity types seem to exhibit the most gain early. But burn out quickly.

“By the Book” types may demonstrate more creativity over time. It just takes more time.

Gravitas

Too me this seems to be the trait that’s harder to develop over time.

It’s dependent on the mindset of Creative vs Victim. I’ve written a few blogs on this concept and it seems to strike a chord with many of my readers.

If you’ve adopted the Victim mindset, there is no way to project Gravitas. Remember that Welch describes these as “seriousness, maturity, thoughtfulness, wisdom.” Being a victim projects none of these traits.

If you’re serious about developing this trait of Gravitas, then it requires a trusted, truthful mentor. This type of mentor tells you the truth, both good and bad. This type of mentor also helps you get to the root of the victim issue rather than simply adjusting the traits that look like gravitas.

Open vs Closed mindset will make all the difference in your career and life. Grit and Gavitas: develop them for your own well being. Others will also notice.

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Blog Culture

We’re not in Kansas anymore

by Ron Potter April 16, 2020

I’ve just started reading a book titled Epidemics and Society. This book makes the point that epidemics have done more to shape society and the course of human history than wars. This book was written before our current battle with COVID-19 was even on the radar.

What will our Future Look Like?

During this time of self-containment, I’ve had many thoughts about what our future will look like when we finally emerge for the worldwide pandemic. My thoughts have taken me from movie theaters to the workplace and topics in between. We’re not in Kansas anymore!

Video Connected Teams

One of the things that I believe will happen during this time is employers and employees will realize that much can be accomplished over the Internet. While we’ve been moving this way already, this forced telecommuting may help us finally pull the trigger to use technology more broadly.

All of the collaboration software such as Microsoft Teams, WebEx for Teams, Zoom, and others are seeing this as an opportunity to push their technology farther and faster then they would have before we left Kansas. We’re not in Kansas anymore!

Art of Teamwork

We’ve heard “Art of Teamwork” used to show that collaboration is needed as much as simply getting things done by groups of people. In other words, there is an Art to building great teams with collaboration platforms.

A few years ago, a small group of my colleagues gathered to talk about creating an app that would help leaders form better teams. We believe it’s more than simply adding the “art” of great teams.

We called our app GPS4Leaders (You can see more on our webpage). In doing so, we were expressing that teams, like a good GPS system, is more than just functioning well at the moment.

Think about what a GPS system does for you:

Clearly identifies where you are now.
Helps you locate your desired destination.
Maps out the best route to reach that desired destination.

Where are you now?

Knowing where you are now means knowing who you are as a team. GPS4Leaders uses four modules to help you assess your team and guide you toward the desired future.

GPS4Leaders is made up of four modules:

Interact (available now)
Teams (available now)
Leadership (coming next)
Culture (in the near future)

Knowing where you are now requires the first two modules.

Interact helps the team identify who they are as individuals and what the make-up of the team looks like when you put all the pieces together. This is accomplished by a self-assessment looking at personality types. You can think of these similar to the familiar DICS or Myers-Briggs. We’re not trying to build the best assessment; we’re trying to make whatever assessment you use more visible and useful.

Teams looks at the dynamics within the team. GPS4Teams has two assessments built-in. But again, we’re not trying to become the best assessment in the world. Our goal is to help you assess how your doing so that you know where you are now and your progress toward a better future team.

Leadership will be built in the near future. This will allow teams to assess their leaders. It will provide the same advantages as Team but be focused on the leader.

Culture will be coming in the future. This will look at the company as a whole and determine the extent to which leaders and leadership teams are being successful in pushing positive behavior throughout the organization.

We’re not in Kansas anymore

Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we are now in a very different place. The rules and patterns of our old way of working together have disappeared. How are we to function now?

Please visit our website today and experience how this new app will help you navigate this brave new world.

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Blog Team

The Illusory Truth Effect

by Ron Potter April 9, 2020

Not everything we believe is true. We may act like it is and it may be uncomfortable to think otherwise, but it’s inevitable that we all hold a substantial number of beliefs that aren’t objectively true. It’s not about opinions or different perspectives. We can pick up false beliefs for the simple reason that we’ve heard them a lot.”

This is a quote by Shane Parrish, blogger at Farnam Street. Shane was the first blogger that I followed and one reason I turned to him is his focus on critical thinking. What I mean by critical thinking is his ability to examine where his own thoughts start and progress.

Illusory truth effect

Shane points out reasons. “The illusory truth effect is the reason why advertising works and why propaganda is one of the most powerful tools for controlling how people think. It’s why the speech of politicians can be bizarre and multiple-choice tests can cause students problems later on. It’s why fake news spreads and retractions of misinformation don’t work.” I don’t intend to turn this blog into a political statement but his point is a good one. We can get caught up in the belief of the day very easily.

Why does the effect exist?

“As with other cognitive shortcuts, the typical explanation is that it’s a way our brains save energy. Thinking is hard work—remember that the human brain uses up about 20% of an individual’s energy, despite accounting for just 2% of their body weight.

The illusory truth effect comes down to processing fluency. When a thought is easier to process, it requires our brains to use less energy, which leads us to prefer it. That means that processing them was easier for their brains.”

Cause of misinformation

This can become a harsh reality on business teams that must be guarded against. Why does it happen in the first place, especially when team members are smart and well-intended? “It’s the result of people being overworked or in a hurry and unable to do due diligence. The signal to noise ratio is so skewed that we have a hard time figuring out what to pay attention to and what we should ignore. No one has time to verify everything.”

Cure for misinformation

As a business that must make decisions based on the truth, how do we sort it out and make sure we’re making good decisions?

SHARE!

First, understand that this susceptibility to illusory truth is very natural. It happens to everyone. Agree that no one is above the siren call and all are susceptible. There is no one (except GOD) who knows it all!

Second, share your illusory truth and label it as such. It’s not that any person on the team knows the truth and all others are working with a handicap, even the boss. It’s that we all work with our illusory truths.

Once the illusory truth is shared by each member we can

Begin to understand where that person is coming from
Begin to form the truth (or at least a team illusory truth)
Make some action plans

While it’s natural that every person has their illusory truth, it’s also natural that every team has their illusory truth as well. You may make a team decision or commitment to an illusory truth and that’s OK. As long as you know it’s based on illusory truth and not what’s true or false.

Get all the illusory truth on the table by sharing. Make a team decision and commitment. This may be based on real or illusory truth. Make sure it’s identified properly. And no matter which type of truth the decision is made upon, make sure there is a team commitment to the decision. Commitment is what’s important.

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Blog Leadership

“Soft” Skills Win

by Ron Potter April 2, 2020

Start with skills

An article in the Wall Street Journal was written with and about Bob Funk, founder of Express Employment Professionals and former chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Funk makes his living by matching people who want jobs with employers who need good employees.

When Mr. Fund talks about the interview process he starts with what most employees think of as the Hard Skills.

Hard skills and experience, he says, are only half the equation, and not the important half. “So many people do not realize how important the soft skills are to unlocking job opportunity,”

Mr. Funk offers a quote from a boss he had over 50 years ago. “There’s a person for every job and a job for every person. That’s still true.”

Try before you buy

Most of the companies he works for are small and medium-size companies with fewer than 250 employees and he places most of his workers in part-time positions. But over 60% of them go on to be full-time employees.

Hard skills and experience are only half of the equation and not the important half. (Italics are mine). Soft skills are the important part of unlocking job opportunities!

Soft skills rule

Mr. Funk found that the top five skills that employers look for are:

While Mr. Funk concedes that education is vital, the most important thing for most people is the ability to be trained. And while I agree with Mr. Funk on this issue I don’t believe he gives enough credit to that ability to be trained with people of education.

Higher Education

So many of today’s graduates from major universities have been convinced that their degree from that particular institute has taught them everything they need to know to be successful. I’m a graduate of the University of Michigan Engineering school and for a period of time recruited new hires from that institute. What I discovered was that it didn’t make any difference which university the candidate graduated from. What made the difference was number 5 on the list above, the ability to think critically that made the biggest difference between potential employees.

Learning is what’s important

As a consultant, I once ran an old exercise that didn’t produce any results. When I asked my client why the effort fell flat they said they got the most out of sessions where I was sharing what I was learning. My own learning produced the best results for my clients. I believe that a college education gives you the opportunity to start learning. Showing up to work every day assuming you’re there to share what you already know will get you nowhere. Showing up to work every day ready to learn will show an eagerness to learn, which will carry you a long way.

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