Productivity.
Whenever you talk in the abstract or the generic to a large group of people, every single person thinks that you're talking to them. Except for you, because you're special and smart.
- Merlin Mann
I designed, organised, advertised and prepared for five presentations on Good Decision Making open to the public.
An hour. Free.
No one registered for the first one.
Two people registered for the second. Neither turned up.
We cancelled the rest.
Lots of possible reasons why. All my fault.
Meanwhile...
A study has found that bosses are losing an average of three months per year of productivity from each worker.
Those with the most unused 'discretionary effort' were knowledge workers.
One of the conclusions was lack of clarity about outcomes. Widgets.
Australians spend more hours at work than those in most other countries and yet according to another study, we rank second last on productivity growth, just ahead of Botswana.
Perhaps everyone who read about my Workshop was part of the 7.5% who considered themselves productive.
None of this applies to you and me though.
Evidence.
The CO of the Squadron was waiting for his two F111s when they taxied in to their hangar bays. Two days later he was waiting for me.
'The future of military aviation - indeed aviation in general in Australia is at a crossroads,' he began. 'The Minister wants us to deal with this incident in a way that ensures continuing confidence in our responsible use of airspace to conduct our training.'
My legal boss had put it more bluntly when he'd tasked me as the Prosecuting Officer. 'If you don't get convictions, don't bother coming back.'
The two pilots had each flown a low level 'spacer pass' by the control tower at the bombing range 30 seconds apart. Their speed was just below the sound barrier, causing a sonic 'disturbance' that blasted the tower into $100,000 worth of damage. The range controller was showered in glass but otherwise unhurt and with a great story to tell.
I arrived at the Base on the Friday. The trial was to begin on Monday. Everyone at the Squadron was as respectful as my rank required in assisting me to gather evidence. But no-one wanted to help me to convict two of their own pilots.
'There was an airman who filmed it,' the CO had told me. I found him and asked if I could have a copy of the video. 'I gave it to the Squadron Safety Officer,' he told me. The Squadron Safety Officer shrugged. 'I deleted it,' he said. It wasn't the smoking gun, but it would have helped.
Three years later and I'm visiting the Directorate of Flying Safety in Canberra to give some legal advice. I'm chatting with the two Squadron Leaders about the F111 trial and ask their opinion about some of the questionable technical evidence given by the pilots.
'Would you like to see the video?' one of them asks. My jaw falls open.
My role as Prosecuting Officer in a Defence Force Disciplinary Act trial was to use an adversarial process to present admissible evidence that proved beyond reasonable doubt that two pilots had broken the law and should be punished to deter both them and others from doing the same. In SPEAR terms I was helping to Patrol the Space.
The role of the Directorate of Flying Safety is to use an inquisitorial approach to gather information about aircraft incidents to learn from them and pass on those lessons to all pilots to keep them safe. It was helping to Create the Space.
Same information - different Widgets.
Foot.
'Tis all one as if they should make the standard for the measure we call a foot, a Chancellor’s foot; what an uncertain measure would this be? One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot: ‘tis the same thing in a Chancellor’s conscience.’
Many knowledge workers' decisions are adrift from their boss's widget.
It may have happened when their bosses changed. Or when there was a restructure. Or there may have never been a connection in the first place. They are products of poor management. Which - ironically - encourages their sense of expertise because they are usually an island of decisiveness amidst timidity.
They are almost always good people who are dedicated and work hard and long hours. They are often called 'indispensable'.
They make decisions that they feel are morally right. This adds to their defensiveness and disproportionate reaction if challenged. Much like Selden's Chancellor's foot, their decisions are an extension of them, not transferrable and attached with an equal degree of organic stubbornness.
They are 'experts' whose advice is sought by others, thus further affirming their sense of expertise. They have become so simply by having exclusive access to information and authority and not because of any objective qualification or because the pillars of their decisions have held up a bridge. They're knowledge workers after all.
They spend much time at meetings, conferences and other forums where experts gather and talk.
At staff gatherings, they're nursing the cupcake in the corner surveying the room with the weary look of the veteran, regularly glancing at their watch to ensure that they are back at their desk to answer the important phone calls and emails and not let anyone down.
They mark their own homework. Their decisions are rarely tested.
They design, manufacture and quality control their own widget.
Their only accountability?
Complaints.
Scared.
'Make the time to be scared of more interesting things.'
- Merlin Mann
Watching TV at 8.37pm on a Wednesday when my phone announced an email and I nearly vomited.
At my desk at 2.50pm when I'm summonsed by the boss and I pocket my shaking hands.
Exiting the ceiling loft at 11.15 on a Saturday morning watching work scenes in my head instead of the ladder and stepping into space and falling five metres onto a plastic bin and then concrete.
I lay on my side for ten minutes wiggling my toes and visualising my spine and ribs and pulling plastic shards from my clothes and feeling reincarnated.
Work had nearly killed me.
I thought of the Merlin Mann quote.
The earth had slammed me into its bosom demanding I make time to think about my fear dividend.
Slumped in a car outside a chemist with a searing headache after a second day of prosecuting two military pilots. Stressed. Out of my depth. Thriving.
Sitting at a boardroom table next to the Chief Operating Officer facing off ten government and commercial lawyers opposite and the contract that would make or break our start-up company in stalemate. Stomach churning. Overwhelmed. Thrilling.
Emails about inaccurate staff leave accounting making me nauseous? Ridiculous.
Calls about not filling out an HR form correctly constricting my breathing? Embarrassing.
Peter Block says 'The price of freedom is anxiety.' Any decision worthwhile will make us scared. The key is to Step Back and confirm that our Widget is worth it.
I.
'There is a lot of learning between 'It fell' and 'I dropped it'.
- Anonymous
'You got a sec?,' the strike pilot asked me. His cheeks still had the outline of his oxygen mask.
I followed him to another room and he pushed a video casette into the VCR.
'This is vision from the package that I just led.'
The black and white infra red images filmed from an F111C aircraft earlier that night three nautical miles away at 600 knots began playing. He was about to narrate when he paused, smiled, leaned back in his chair and gently closed the door from where three pilots from one of our allies were looking in.
'See the cross-hairs?' he resumed. 'You'll see me move them over the corner of this intersection.' He jabbed at the screen where the white cross was settling on the outline of the top of a building. 'This was our target. The telephone exchange in the centre of the city. Top left hand corner. Remember it?'
I nodded. I had reviewed and approved all the strike package targets for the Commander earlier in the day.
'See those numbers here?' He pointed at one of several sets of readouts along the edge of the image. 'They are simulating my laser guided bomb coming in. Three, two, one. Perfect. Bang on. Target destroyed. Well, simulated. Now watch.'
The cross hairs remained in place for a few seconds. Then glided to the ghostly outline of the building on the bottom right of the intersection. Then back up. Pause. Then diagonally down. The image flickered to black.
'Wrong building,' he said, punching the tape out of the recorder. 'I bombed the wrong corner of the intersection. I need you to tell me the consequences. I need you to brief me and the rest of the Squadron on the legal implications of my error. Can you do that?'
'Yes, Sir.'
'Good,' he said. 'Thank you.'
There was a knock at the door then it opened to five bearded, filthy and grinning Special Forces soldiers.
'Come in fellas,' the Air Commodore said, then to me 'Sorry - these blokes just want to see the video of us tracking them along a creek bed last night from five miles away. They're curious. Didn't hear a thing. Want to sit in?'
Journey.
'Some journeys are direct, and some are circuitous; some are heroic, and some are fearful and muddled. But every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need.'
- Parker Palmer
Translated into Widget Thinking:
Do what makes me glad - Weekend Widget.
Find someone who needs my Weekend Widget enough to pay for it.
Mind the gap. Jump.
Weekend Widget becomes Weekday Widget.
Bliss.
Most of us go about it the other way around.
We want independence, food, shelter, status. We find a boss who pays us - it doesn't really matter what to do and enjoying it is a bonus after all it is called 'work' - to fund these needs. Which leads us to dependence.
We pine for our Weekend Widget - our deep gladness. While the world is denied the benefit of our honestly undertaken journey.
Stop blaming the boss.
Stop blaming the bank.
Begin the journey.
The world needs you.
Distractions.
Good decision making in three words:
Be attentively curious.
Curiosity is about asking questions.
Attention - according to neuroscientists - is about suppressing distractions rather than enhancing what you're paying attention to.
It's all about the Widget.
Remember the Five Steps.
Step 1: Step Back. Indulge in the distractions. Don't suppress them. Romp in all the feelings and irrational thoughts that won't get the Widget built but that are distracting you from doing so. Be selfish. Purge. Be human. Be yourself.
Step 2: Identify the Issue. Return to the Widget. Start earning your pay. Start asking questions.
Step 3: Assess the Information. Data. Policies. Logic. Cool. Questions.
Step 4: Identify Bias. Am I being distracted by something irrelevant to the Widget? Questions.
Step 5: Give a Hearing. Hey! Affected person! Proof read this! Have I missed anything? Questions.
Questions suppress distractions by forcing us to listen to answers - and by zooming in on the parts of the answers that are Widget relevant.
Make the Decision. Become who you are.
Remove the distractions from everyone who's relying on the decision so that they can do their jobs.
It's called Leadership.
Process.
The Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa emerged from hearings by a parliamentary commission into allegations of spying by Australia against his country.
The 'scrambling mass of journalists' surged towards him, wanting answers.
'It's a process and not an event,' he told them, ending their lust for 'decisive' action that would sell newspapers.
Another rich lesson in Good Decision Making.
'The First step,' he said, was 'communication' between the two governments.
In other words: 'Before we decide what to do, let's make sure that both governments' decison-makers have got accurate, first hand information.'
Mr Natalegawa made it clear that, notwithstanding what outcome the Australian Prime Minister wants, the Indonesian president still 'reserves the right to decide if he's happy'.
In other words: 'Indonesia will resolve this matter to its satisfaction.'
He's managing expectations about how long it will take.
The Deputy Chairman of the Commission Mr Tubagus Hasannudin said: 'For Indonesians, an apology is a matter of principle. Even when we are about to go past someone, we would apologise to them and say 'Excuse me'.
This is the Indonesian Government's Widget.
In summary, Indonesia is saying:
We received information that our sovereignty may have been threatened.
This is a serious issue. So let's take our time to make sure that we get it right.
(Don't expect a decision for perhaps years. Under promise - over deliver.)
We will collect the best information.
Our legal representative of the people - the Parliament - will assess the information.
We will resolve it to Indonesia's satisfaction. 'Indonesia' is the President.
Good decision making is a process and not an event.
Lines.
On 23 November China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea and warned of military action if any aircraft entered it without permission.
A pair of United States Air Force B52 aircraft flew through the ADIZ today and nothing happened.
In 1973 Libya declared the Gulf of Sidra as closed to ships and aircraft from other nations. The US regularly sent ships and aircraft through the Gulf and in 1981 shot down two Libyan fighters that fired at its carrier based fighters.
Under International Law, if nations accept by their actions unilateral declarations by one nation about the extent of its sovereignty for long enough, then the re-defined boundaries become part of the law. Powerful countries like the United States make a point of exercising their freedom of navigation to show that they have not accepted them.
If military aircraft aren't traversing through other countries' ADIZ then they're 'tickling' them. 'Tickling the ADIZ' is flying close to a declared ADIZ boundary and occasionally ducking over it and back out. It is designed to trigger a response from the other country so that the 'tickling' military can gather information about the other's military capabilities.
Aircraft ducks in - ADIZ country activates radar, sends orders and other command and control communications that can be intercepted and analysed, aircraft might be scrambled to intercept, giving an insight into reaction times - aircraft ducks back out, laden with information collected about the other country's defences.
Despite their military utility, ADIZ are a creature of civilian aviation and military aircraft are exempt. They are intended to give air traffic control greater power over civilian aircraft that are in international airspace, but intend to enter sovereign airspace. But if there are eight radar contacts seeking permission to enter an ADIZ and seven declare themselves then it's a good guess what the eighth one is.
Laws, policies, procedures, contracts, agreements, mission statements, values statements, duty statements, codes of conduct, working hours, meeting schedules, delegation registers, deadlines. These are the ADIZ of an organisation. They declare: 'If you do this, you can expect us to do that. If you cross this line, we will respond in this way.'
The lines that we draw and our responses to them literally define us. We are revealed, tested and shaped by the decisions that we make relative to the boundaries in organisations and in our lives, and in the way that we respond to our own and and others' transgressions of them.
In a healthy organisation, boundaries are a shorthand way of an organisation saying:
'We know by our expertise and experience that our Widget is best made if you stay this side of the line. We don't want every person to have to measure out the line themselves or to re-learn what our lawyers, accountants, marketers, HR department, investors and customers have already told us about where the line should be. You've got better things to do - like making the Widget. We've got better things to do than explaining all our thinking behind these boundaries. So you just need to know - here's the line. Don't cross it.
'We also know that many of you will want to test the line or duck over it to see what happens out of your inherent curiosity, mischief, ignorance, laziness, or mistake. Please pay attention to the lines and don't cross them for any reason. Because your innocent action looks exactly the same as that of someone who has more sinister intentions. We don't want to have to inquire into each person's motives. Plus, we want people with good judgement who pay attention and respect our lines. So just stay this side of the line please. Thank you.'
In a healthy organisation, lines are drawn sparingly and only when the law or the Widget demand them, and not as mere power statements. If they are drawn when only absolutely essential, transgressions or 'tickling' of the lines must have clear and unequivocal consequences because by definition they threaten the existence of the organisation's Widget.
As even the Director of Values said in one organisation: 'Do whatever you want within the boundaries, but cross them and you'll get shot.'
Breaches of boundaries can reveal more about a person than that they merely crossed a line.
An organisation's response to a breach can reveal a great deal about the organisation.
Boundaries are the foundation of Good Decision Making. It's Step 2.
Good decision making is an essential part of an organisation's Integrity.
Integrity is doing what you said that you were going to do.
Disengaged.
The Gallup organisation recently released a report that 87% of workers in the world are either not engaged or actively disengaged from their work.
In Australia, the percentage of engaged workers is a little higher at 24%. Yippee.
Only 19% of Australian bosses are engaged in their jobs. An interesting form of leadership - 'Follow me and be disengaged!'
(If you're someone's boss reading this and you're thinking 'Meh...', then it's likely you're one of the 81%.)
Gallup estimates that disengaged workers cost Australia $54.8 Billion a year. That's almost double the Education budget.
Think about that.
It's breathtakingly remarkable.
Each day in Australia, three out of four people:
Sit in traffic.
Pull their chairs up to their keyboards.
Occupy that space.
Briefly vacate it to sing 'Happy Birthday Miriam' alongside mostly other disengaged workers in the staff room and despite a 75% chance that Miriam didn't care.
Perhaps have a meeting with three out of four other disengaged workers to report to a boss who's probably not interested.
Sit in traffic.
Grow older.
Repeat. 251 times a year. For half a century.
What to do?
Engagement begins with the act of decision making.
When we make good decisions, we declare who and where we are.
We nail our colours to the mast.
We reveal ourselves.
We connect with other workers, our boss, customers, critics, with the organisation and its Widget.
We invite, demand, call on them to do the same.
Bosses - give your workers Widget clarity, authentic support, trust and affirmation and delegate decisions to the lowest appropriate level. Teach them about how to make a good decision and model it yourself.
Back them even when there's a mistake. Back them in front of your boss. Back them when someone complains.
Most of all, back yourself to have the courage and leadership to trust your workers.
This act of bravery alone will scare you into engagement with them.
Workers - make good decisions. Don't wait for permission - just make them methodically and learn from it. Your fear will surely engage you with your boss in what happens next.
We must stand up on our desks and shout 'O Captain, My Captain!'
Customised.
Happiness is a customised Widget .
Each one is hand made.
Bespoke.
Many people set off for work each day to make the Happiness Widget.
For themselves. Or their boss. Or their boss's boss. Or their spouse. Or their parents.
Making the Happiness Widget tailored for another is difficult.
Making the Happiness Widget fitted for two is almost impossible.
It's why work is so hard for some.
No boss says: 'Here's your desk. Pay day is every second Thursday. Make me happy.'
No worker says: 'Thanks boss. Make me happy. Make my Mother happy.'
Yet many of us measure the success of our labour by how it makes someone else feel.
(I tried once and failed.)
Or expect their boss to make their happiness.
Of course if happiness is the express Widget - then that's clear. Challenging, but clear.
If we choose to make Happiness our Widget then that's up to us.
Just don't expect the boss to reciprocate.
The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia recently agreed:
'[The provision of job satisfaction, a sense of identity, self-worth, emotional well-being and dignity] may indeed be amongst the consequences of having a good job in a company run by good management, something to which every employee would aspire. However, emotions such as senses of identity, self-worth and dignity are felt in the breast of the employee, are highly subjective and would, necessarily, be felt to differing extents by different employees within the same working environment. I do not believe that the common law has come close to making the employer responsible for emotions of this kind, or to giving legal consequences to the fact that they are not generated in a particular situation.'