Go Widget or Go Home.
'I wish to God that you protected the White House like you are protecting your reputation here today. I wish you spent that time in that effort to protect the American President and his family...'
- Representative Stephen Lynch to Director of the Secret Service, Julia Pierson.
Widget focus helps us to apply our finite reserves of time and intellectual and emotional energy towards the job that we are paid to do and by which we will be measured and which will give us currency and calories - and more.
If we divert time and energy away from building our boss's Widget and towards defending our ego, we weaken our ability to produce the thing that will answer our critics.
Amidst the noise and distraction of information and our fight-or-flight responses, the Five Steps towards a good decision keep us focussed and on task.
Even when the Widget battle is lost, we should resist the urge to go down fighting for our ego.
Begin building our next Widget for our next boss by learning what went wrong with our construction of this one.
Because the boss is always right.
The Widget Goes to War.
Widget Clarity is essential in good decision making.
The military knows this.
'Selection and Maintenance of the Aim' is one of the Australian Defence Force's 10 Principles of War.
The United States' military's equivalent is 'Objective'.
The Widget has utility on many battlefields.
The Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff was asked by Senator John McCain whether he thought that the Syrians the US was training and arming to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) weren't going to turn those arms and training against the Syrian government.
Senator McCain said: 'You don't think that the Free Syrian Army is going to fight against Bashar Assad who has been decimating them? You think that these people you're training will only go back to fight against ISIL? Do you really believe that, General?'
General Dempsey's answer showed the power and clarity of Widget Thinking:
'What I believe, Senator, is that as we train them and develop a military chain of command linked to a political structure that we can establish objectives that defer that challenge to the future. We do not have to deal with it now.'
Senator McCain's Widget: Undermining President Obama.
The General's Widget: The defeat of ISIL.
General Dempsey's Widget Clarity continued to serve him well as he was questioned at the Senate hearing.
Senator McCain sought to use the General's previous support of US intervention in the Syrian civil war to undermine his (and therefore President Obama's) commitment to the 'ISIL first' strategy.
Senator McCain: 'General Dempsey, was the President right in 2012 when he overruled most of his national security team and refused to train and equip the moderate opposition fighting in Syria at that time?'
General Dempsey: 'Senator you know that I recommended that we train them. And you know that for policy reasons the decision was taken in another direction.'
General Dempsey demonstrated Widget Thinking.
He differentiated between his Personal Widget and his Professional Widget.
He showed loyalty to his boss - the Commander in Chief and President.
He showed integrity.
Widget Clarity.
The First Thing You Need to Do.
'To ask a manager about specific tasks which she/he assigns to a subordinate comes as an unfamiliar experience for most - and the managers find replying equally strange and awkward until they get used to it.'
- Elliott Jacques, Requisite Organisation
The first thing:
Find out your boss's Widget.
Ask your boss: 'What do you have to do, and by when?' (That's her Widget.)
Then ask: 'What are you relying on me to do and by when for you to do it?' (That's your Widget.)
(If her answer is the same as what's in your employment agreement or duty statement, that's a bonus.)
Then ask: 'What does your boss want you to do and by when?' (That's what your boss really cares about and therefore you should care about it too.)
Go away and think about your boss's answers. (If Elliott Jacques is right, you may need to give your boss some time to answer.)
If there's anything stopping you from giving your boss what she wants - tell her.
Then make your Widget.
Do your job.
It's that simple.
You've also made your first good decision.
You've undertaken a deliberate process of inquiry that has advanced you towards where you want to be.
You don't know where you want to be?...
Perhaps that was the First Thing you should have decided? - where do you want to be?
(It was still a good decision - it prompted you towards deciding where you want to be.)
What if you do all of that, make your Widget, and your boss isn't happy? Then you've misunderstood your boss. Your decision has helped you to readjust your understanding about what the boss wants. The sooner you start making Widget decisions, the sooner you'll learn whether you're making what your boss wants.
The boss is always right.
If you're someone's boss, invite them to have the same 'What do you need to do by when' conversation with you. Including inviting them to define for themselves where they want to be.
If you, your boss, or your workers have not had any of these conversations - then there's the source of every problem.
This conversation rarely happens.
It's all assumed.
Which is a lot of the reason why 81% of Australian workers are not engaged.
It's not too late.
The YouTube Test.
Ray Rice is a professional American football running back who is regarded as one of the best ever players for the Baltimore Ravens.
In February 2014 he assaulted his fiancée. The particulars of the assault were on the public record following his arrest.
In July 2014 the NFL suspended Rice for two games for violating its personal conduct policy by assaulting his fiancée.
In August 2014 the NFL Commissioner said that he 'didn't get it right' when giving Rice a two game suspension. He announced that in future such behaviour would attract a higher punishment. A six game suspension.
In September 2014 a video was posted online showing Rice punching his fiancée to unconsciousness.
The Ravens subsequently announced that his contract with its team had been terminated. The NFL said that he had been suspended indefinitely.
The NFL and the Ravens got new information and changed their minds. That's okay.
The new information?
Instead of the world reading that Ray Rice punched his fiancée in the face the NFL and Ravens knew that the world can see Ray Rice punch his fiancée in the face.
Let's test our declarations of commitment to transparency, integrity, values, accountability etc.
Next time you're considering - in Step 3 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision - a response to information that's in an email, phone call, letter or meeting - Imagine:
- Converting the information into a story and then a screenplay.
- Filming the screenplay.
- Posting the film to YouTube.
It's not your decision making process that the world will watch (boring) - it's the information that you're assessing. It's watching Ray Rice punch his fiancée instead of reading about it.
Wondering whether or how to discipline a staff member? Upload to your imagination. Post. Tweet. Watch.
The YouTube test isn't designed to encourage literal transparency or openness.
It's a forcing function that jolts us out of our deep grooves of unthinking responses to information so that we might see and respond to it in a different way.
Satisfaction.
'When I'm watchin' my TV
And a man comes on and tells me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarrettes as me.'
- 'Satisfaction' - Jagger/Richards
You want to resolve complaints to the satisfaction of the complainant?
You want someone else's happiness to be a measure of your decisions?
Good luck.
Stick.
Dan: 'As somebody who feels like a person who knows so little and my knowledge is so incomplete. And yet know I'm supposed to be imparting knowledge to our kids and I kind of almost tried to give up on that and I try to just focus on good decision making.
'It's one thing if you tell your kid: 'Well just do it like this'. And it's another to just walk them through it. You know that if you walk them through it the right way that they'll learn about the thought process. Because I think that thought processes are teachable. Or learnable. Good, logical thinking is a learnable thing. It's one thing if your kid says 'Well how do I do this?' Or 'Why is it like this?' And you just tell them. As opposed to kind of leading them down the path to figuring out the answer on their own. That seems to stick a little bit better.'
Merlin: 'I find it so hard not to intervene. She's doing something - like she's learning to jump rope right now. And it's all I can do not to seize the thing out of her hand and go 'Look! Stand on it with your two feet like this, pull it up to here and if it reaches your waist that's the right length!' 'Cos she's got about half the length that she needs to do it. She keeps jammin' it into her ankle and it drives me crazy to watch. It's all I can do not to intervene. But you know - that's part of the process.'
Substitute 'employee' for 'kid'.
Wire.
A frightening amount of organisational decision making is based on this:
My decisions are superior to yours because once someone drew boxes connected by lines and put boxes above your box.
I'm in one of those boxes.
I know more than you because I'm Up Here.
If anyone doesn't like the decision from your box they can ESCALATE it up to me in mine and I can change it.
Reason: My box is higher than yours.
Know this.
I may give you the benefit of my descriptions of my view from Up Here if I get the time.
Like bread tossed from the back of a moving UNHCR truck.
Be grateful.
Marketing.
‘Our culture is marketing. What is marketing? Trying to get people to do what you want them to.
... the only goal is to get you to buy a product. The only goal. The only goal. The only goal. The only goal.'
Without Widget clarity and discipline, every meeting is a marketing meeting.
Everyone's in competition to sell themselves.
Buy my opinion (ie me) and not hers (ie her).
The Widget is incidental.
A passing vehicle towing billboards with my portrait: BUY ME!
The only goal.
Flawless.
'All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavor to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guessing what was at the other side of the hill.''
- The Duke of Wellington
'It was a flawless operation. It was just that the hostages weren't there.'
- Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defence.
A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.
It takes discipline and courage to seek to execute a flawless operation instead of succumbing to the seduction of decisiveness.
That's why Leaders are brave.
Sure - you might solve a problem with instinct, intervention, positional power or luck.
Meanwhile, someone is planning their operation based upon the predictability of your decisions.
About where the hostages will be.
Rebellion.
'For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.'
- Emerson
Creativity is bringing something new into the world.
Ideas. Suggestions. Alternatives. Inventions. New information.
The organisation does not like this.
Egos do not like this.
Your next meeting will not like this.
Those at the table will hear:
'Your technology is outdated. Your seat at the table is under threat.'
'What you knew is about to become redundant. Draw swords. Defend what you know! Charge!'
In the face of this the creator must choose:
Retreat.
Or Rebellion.
Most of us choose Retreat.
Every single day. Every meeting where we don't speak. Every honest conversation that we don't have. Every idea that we don't put forward.
No point fighting the boss.
(That's why organisations call it 'Engagement'. It's combat.)
White flags fluttering from every cubicle and office.
We're not engaged at work because we can't be bothered fighting.
We remain in our barracks and polish our boots and share stories about the last war. Rising occasionally to jealously discharge a sniper round at a passing Rebel.
While the Rebel Few bravely advance with their ideas, suggestions, alternatives, inventions, new information.
Civil war breaks out between the forces of Is and Could Be.
Charging beneath their banners coloured My Opinion and Your Opinion.
The original idea, suggestion, alternative, invention, information that ignited the war- is forgotten.
(Who shot the Archduke and why? No-one remembers. We honour the combatants of the Great War that followed.)
The organisation's rules, policies, hierarchies, performance reviews, promotions, compliance, accountability, value statements and reserved parking bays are like unguarded minefields.
Mostly maiming the Rebels.
Navigation.
'First of all, every time you begin a good work, you must pray to him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.'
- The Rule of Benedict, Prologue.
If the Widget is our purpose.
If the Widget is our North.
And we're not beginning our meetings with an acknowledgment of the Widget.
If we're not bringing it to the forefront of our minds - 'praying' for it as the Benedictine monks are told to do before they begin their work - so that it may not just be made - but be made to perfection.
Naming it.
If we're not checking, measuring, calibrating, correcting and discipling our conversations against the Widget.
It's proof that the Widget isn't the Widget.
The Widget is something else.
And we're all just kicking opinions along the company road.
Look up from the theory of the organisation's map to the reality of your surrounding terrain.
Who is at the meeting? (And isn't?)
What are they emphasising? (And ignoring?)
What are their reference points? (And not?)
Who makes the decision?
Is one even made?
Take your bearings from these solid landmarks.
There's your True North.
There's the Widget.
Assuming you care.
Try opening each meeting with the prayer:
'Lead us to the Widget, and deliver us from our egos.
Amen'.
Amplify.
'Watch Robin Williams while Craig Ferguson is talking. He's not leaping - he's not waiting to leap and say his next funny line. You can see him always pausing a beat to see where Craig Ferguson is taking it. And that's a sign of real generosity. He's so great at throwing the next ball that's going to respond to what you just said - amplify it - then also have something that he can throw back to you that you can make twice as funny too.'
- Merlin Mann
Grand words. Big words. Vision words.
Such as: Teamwork. Collaboration. Transparency. Learning. Disruptive. Creative. Accountable.
As simple as pausing a beat in a conversation.
Listen.
Generously.
Step back to allow another to step forward.
Amplify them.
Step back.
Invite them the next step forward.
Beat.
Dying to self.
Love in the workplace.
Golf.
'It was 'process' and 'spot.' That was it.'
- Rory McIlroy, 2014 British Open Golf Championship Winner
Rory McIlroy had teased journalists all week about two 'secret words' that he used before each golf shot. He'd reveal them if he won.
He won.
Process. Spot.
"With my long shots, I just wanted to stick to my process and stick to making good decisions, making good swings," he said. "The process of making a good swing, if I had any sort of little swing thoughts, just keeping that so I wasn't thinking about the end result, basically."
It's all about the Widget. It's not about the Widget.
'Spot' was before each putt.
"I was just picking a spot on the green and trying to roll it over my spot," he said. "I wasn't thinking about holing it. I wasn't thinking about what it would mean or how many further clear it would get me. I just wanted to roll that ball over that spot. If that went in, then great. If it didn't, then I'd try it the next hole."
A good putt is one that advances you towards the hole.
A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Process. Spot.
Power.
'The law always limits every power it gives.'
- David Hume
Step 2 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision: Name the Issue.
It's only an Issue if you have the power to make a decision in support of your Widget.
Ask: What power do I have?
Look for it in your contract.
Look for it in your policies.
Look for it in what your boss has said she expects of you.
No power? Then there is no Issue and therefore no decision required of you. Inform someone who does have the power.
Power?
Then ask:
What are the conditions or restrictions on the exercise of that power?
Welcome them. They give focus. Quieten the noise.
If you have a power - you have limits.
Be clear on what they are.
(You'll often find them in your Values.)
Then continue to Step 3.
Burden.
'You're asking me to quash his conviction?'
'Yes Sir.'
'Even though he pleaded guilty?'
'Yes Sir.'
'The Law is an ass, Bernard.'
Air Commodore Smith was a 'one star' general equivalent.
He'd graduated from the RAAF Academy the year I was born.
He was an Engineer. A Fighter Pilot.
He was flying Mirage fighters at twice the speed of sound at 40,000 feet over Malaysia during the Vietnam War when I was still in nappies.
He was a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
He was the Air Officer Commanding Western Australia.
He had a wife and grown up children.
He was my boss.
I was in my mid-twenties. Three years out of Law School. Four ranks and a thousand years junior to him in work and military and life experience.
'The Defence Force Discipline Act allows you to seek a higher legal opinion if you're not comfortable with mine, Sir,' I explained to him.
'Not necessary,' he said as he signed his acceptance of my review and recommendation to quash the conviction of the cannabis smoking airman on the basis of an error of law. 'You've explained your reasons both in your written report and verbally to me today and I accept the stupidity of the Law, not you. I'm going to bring this legal loophole to the attention of the other Base Commanders at our conference at Headquarters next week. They need to know about it.'
A month later, a file 'Command Legal Matters' was marked out to me by Wing Commander Oliver, the Air Commodore's Administrative Staff Officer. I opened it and found a copy of a letter that was marked to me 'For Information'.
It was a letter from the Air Officer Commanding Training Command, a two star general equivalent and my boss's boss. It was written to all the Air Force Base Commanders in Training Command - including my boss. It referred to the recent Commanders Conference and the jurisdiction issue I had cited to recommend quashing the conviction. It was admonishing my boss for quashing the conviction based upon my legal advice.
One line stands out in my memory: 'There is no place for High Court decisions in the administration of summary hearings under the Defence Force Discipline Act on Bases. Command Legal have confirmed this. Commanders should therefore seek higher headquarters legal advice in future before quashing convictions based on jurisdictional grounds. '
The Air Commodore never mentioned the letter nor his boss's criticisms of him at his commanders conference to me, let alone my legal superiors' contradictions. I don't even think that he intended the letter to come to me - otherwise he would have spoken to me about it rather than have me find out via a marked out file. He must not have thought it important.
Air Commodore Smith backed me. He backed me over the commanding officer whose guilty verdict he quashed. He backed me in front of his boss. He backed me before his peers. He backed me when he could have gone to my legal superiors for a second opinion. He backed me even though he disagreed with the legal outcome as a matter of common sense. He backed me when my own legal superiors did not. He backed me with the same business-as-usual manner as he would return my salutes if we passed each other or crack his lawyer jokes.
Air Commodore Smith didn't need to hear a Supreme Court Judge affirm my legal reasoning at a Legal Officers conference six months later. He continued to challenge, question, and ultimately back my advice to him for the remainder of my posting as his legal adviser.
His faith in me was a huge burden. It increased my self-doubt because I had to continue to live up to his total reliance on me and I thought I could not. It made me feel more exposed, rather than protected. It made me more careful and diligent in the legal advice that I gave to him. It made me accept other decisions that he made as the Base Commander that I did not necessarily understand or agree with because I trusted him based upon the way that I had seen him go about his decision making. It connected me to him. It made me a better legal officer, lawyer and person. His trust in my judgement and legal ability and officer qualities was hard to live up to.
Which was another gift that Air Commodore Smith gave me.
He just assumed I was up to it.
Backed.
'Decisions made by my Chief of Staff and my Office have my full backing and authority. Anyone who suggests otherwise is wrong.'
When your boss says 'I'll back you,' - and she does - that's arguably one of the greatest gifts.
And a huge burden.
Pass both on.
Say: 'I'll back you,' to your people.
Say: 'I'll back you,' to your customers.
Say: 'I'll back you,' to yourself.
Feel your burden ease.
Feel the anxiety in your chest.
Backing them isn't a sentimental leap of faith into the unknown.
When you back them. When you promise them - or at least yourself - that they act with your authority and that you will stand by their decisions regardless of the outcome and accept all the consequences - you realise you're utterly compelled to:
- Know them
- Clearly define their expectations
- Define their Widget
- Equip them with everything you have - especially information
- Affirm them
- Get out of their way
When I reflect on my good bosses.
My peers.
My parents.
I think that the message - in words and deeds - of 'I'll back you,' taught me the most about work, myself, and life.
'I'll back you,' says: 'I believe in you. Go and become that person I see and believe in.'
[Now think of the converse and understand how damaging and destructive it can be not to have the backing of a boss. It wounds our soul.]
[Now think of a boss who backed you - and write to them and thank them for the faith they showed in you.]
Laying down your life for another isn't as literal as the mournful notes of the Last Post honouring war dead have us believe.
It's putting yourself at risk to back another.
Is this the answer to how we bring Love into our workplaces?
The Greatest Love?
By backing each other?
Punish.
'At an early stage Abbott defined his priorities: securing the site, returning the bodies, an independent inquiry, and punishing the guilty.
Each day his sense of mission is clearer. It is the key to crisis management. Abbott said late yesterday he had but one purpose: "to bring our people home"...'
The unconscious priority of decision makers is often the reverse: finding and punishing the guilty, then finding the information that supports the decision to punish.
Our decision making is influenced by the need to punish more than we realise.
(We don't make decisions - we make 'judgements'.)
Vengeance. Deterrence. Retribution. Justice.
No organisation other than the state can give any of these.
None should behave as if they can.
This subconscious need to punish is also why some won't make a decision.
'Who am I to judge?'
If we're not the decision maker, we project that assumption onto the person who is.
We won't offer information relevant to a decision.
'What if I'm wrong? I don't want to be responsible for what happens to someone else.'
We don't want to lead someone to the hangman's noose.
It's just information.
How do we avoid being distracted by our punishment bias?
Clarity of our Mission. Our Purpose.
They.
'The school was closed after the teachers alerted the Principal to items in other rooms that they thought may have also been asbestos,' Mr David Axworthy, Deputy Director General Department of Education explained to the interviewer.
Interviewer: 'Why was it that teachers initiated this action and not the Education Department?'
Mr Axworthy: 'The teachers are the Education Department.'
Touché.