Thursday Three For All: Executing Decisions, Winning Doom and Gloomers, Greeting 4k People Per Day
It’s Thursday, kiddies: the day when I roll out a few things I’ve been reading over the past week. Three of ‘em, to be exact. Enjoy. (Remember: click on the big bold print to read the entire article.)
How Do Great Leaders Keep Their Team Focused and Execute Decisions Well?
(via @robertvadams) As usual, Bob takes a huge work and distills it to a few helpful thoughts. If you struggle with execution (don’t we all?), this may jump start you.
What’s at stake if teams don’t make better team decisions? From a long list of potential answers, four stand out:
- Lost time: Poor team decision-making simply burns more time. It may be more time in the meeting itself, because there were no collaboration guidelines. Perhaps it’s lost time outside of the meeting in hallway conversations, because ideas weren’t fully explored or vetted.
- Dissipated energy: Poor team decision-making leaves questions unanswered and half-baked solutions in the atmosphere. We don’t know exactly where we stand or what we’ve decided. The thought of revisiting an unfinished conversation itself is an unwelcome burden.
- Mediocre ideas: Poor team decision-making fortifies our weakest thinking. Innovation is something we read about but never experience. We cut-n-past the ideas of others, because we don’t know how to generate our own. We traffic in good ideas and miss great ones.
- Competing visions: Poor team decision-making invites an unhealthy drift toward independence. No one has the conscious thought that they have a competing vision. But in reality, there are differences to each person’s picture of their future. It’s impossible for this divergence not to happen if there is no dialogue.
So, how do you start to create a dynamic of collaborative decision-making?
How to Cuddle Up with “No” and Win with Doom and Gloomers
(via @leadershipfreak) This is a good tie-in to a recent post about pandering. How can we help bring our people along?
Dreamers swim in an ocean filled with doom and gloomers who love pointing out danger.
Dreamers start with “Yes”. Everyone else seems like a kill-joy.
Dreamers see resistance when others don’t fall in love with their ideas.
Doom and gloomers seem resistant to optimistic dreamers.
Cuddle up with “No”
“No” comforts doom and gloomers. They won’t get in over their heads. They’re protecting current wins. They need a clear path to the end, before they begin. (All good stuff.)
BART Agent Personally Greets 4,000 Commuters Per Day
(via @laughingsquid) Well if this doesn’t warm the recesses of your heart, you ain’t got a heart. I wonder how much William would charge me just to follow me around and fist bump me when I need it?
photo credit: Jason Mathis
