Delivery.
'When I was an undergraduate I was given this advice and it has helped me in my writing, so I will pass it on to you. When you have almost finished your paper and think you have a final draft. Find a quite place way from others that read it out loud.'
- An academic.
Your Widget may break during delivery.
Terms.
'The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.'
-Socrates
The Widget is the product of your decisions.
The Weekday Widget is the product of the decisions that your boss pays you to make.
The Weekend Widget is the product of making decisions for your boss.
A Good Decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.
[It's harder to make a good decision if you don't have a Widget.]
Good Decision Making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
A Leader is someone who makes decisions that others choose to follow.
It's all about The Widget.
I might be wrong.
Check.
To check whether your boss wants Leadership or management, try any of the following and see what she does:
- Disagree with her in a meeting.
- Answer 'I don't know' when she asks what someone else is doing.
- Delay reporting to her because you were teaching someone else.
- Answer 'I don't know' to any of her questions.
- Say 'I was wrong'.
Most organisations simply don't have the metaphorical and literal structural tolerance in their people and systems to withstand the amount of turbulence that would flow from having as many Leaders as they proclaim to want or allow.
Which is why most organisations advertise and train for leadership - and recruit and promote for management.
Rare.
Being a Leader is hard.
That's why it's rare to find her.
Organisations call 'Leaders' people who:
- Made a Widget well enough to supervise other people to make (often different) Widgets
- Did something in another organisation that their boss wants them to repeat for them
- Get invited to meetings with limited chairs to learn to advocate their boss's opinion
- Umpire Widget conflicts (rarely) and interpersonal conflicts (mostly)
- Make their Widget better than anyone else in the organisation
- Control others so that the boss doesn't have to
Boss's call them 'leaders' to acknowledge what they want them to do is hard - yet not Leadership hard.
It's a rare boss who will pay you to make decisions that contradict her.
It's a rare boss who will trust you to trust others to change direction from the one she chose.
Rare good bosses means rarer Leaders.
Firms.
In November 1937 Ronald Coase discovered Good Decision Making.
He won a Nobel Prize for Economics in 1991.
Here's the gist of what he published in his paper.
The patron of the Good Decision is the Entrepreneur.
She creates a Widget.
Other Entrepreneurs apply their Widget to hers on its way to a buyer. Each demands decisions: pricing, colour, size, insurance, contracts, transport, dispute resolution, intellectual property ownership. Each decision has a cost which is passed on to the price of her Widget.
She realises it's cheaper to bring all of those individual decisions under one roof.
The Firm is born.
The external costs of decisions move to be cheaper internal Firm expenses that still add to the cost of the Widget.
The price of a Widget is the sum of each decision that is made on its way to find a buyer.
The Firm is only viable if its Decision Making costs less than out in the market - or another firm.
Good Decision Making defines the successful Firm.
In May 2012 at age 101 and a year before his death, Ronald Coase made another contribution to our understanding of Good Decision makers.
When asked why such a great mind as his failed to predict the speed of China's rise as an economic power, he said:
'I've been wrong so often I don't find it extraordinary at all.'
Job.
The entertainment reporter Michael Idato gave us a rare and brilliant example of the relationship between Widget Thinking and Defining Moments in the workplace wild.
A leaked two year old internal email from the former executive producer of the 'Sunrise' television programme to Network management proposed replacing two presenters and the newsreader.
The leak led the 'Sunrise' presenters who remain on air to not just dismiss it, but to ridicule it and cite their continued tenure as evidence that the former producer was wrong and the email was meaningless.
Yet as Michael Idato observed:
'Sunrise's former executive producer....would not have been doing his job if, at every turn, he was not considering alternatives, lest the happy Sunrise family he had assembled passed their use-by date and started to creak with age. His first loyalty is not to them, it is to his employer, and the promise that he will deliver them an enduring hit.
'The same could be said for the Nine Network's management, who would not be delivering value for their stakeholders if they were not examining the on-air performance of their entire talent stable in minute detail, regularly, and willing to do whatever it takes - or sack and replace whoever they need to - to win.
'It was that attitude that saw Jessica Rowe wrenched from the Today line-up several years ago. Make no mistake it was appallingly handled at the time, but it was a brutal and vivid demonstration of the business of television and the very small role that human decency has to play in it.'
Amidst the denials and damage control rose the refreshing voice of Karl Stefanovic, host of the Sunrise rival, 'Today', who said (in a text book use of the three most powerful words in the English language - I Don't Care):
'I know that [network management] is actively planning to get rid of me, and I like it, I embrace it, I don't care....It's best to go, 'it's TV, eventually they will [get rid of me],' so I'm just gonna have a great time and sail on into the sunset.''
A similarly healthy response to the email came from former Sunrise co-host Melissa Doyle, who was one of the three presenters that the email suggested changing:
'It was one view....Television, radio, newspaper executives the world over are probably discussing staff, columnists, et cetera, all the time....I figure that's the nature of the job. It's television. If they didn't have that conversation then you would probably wonder.'
The producer who wrote the email was doing his job - deciding to give his best advice to ensure the success of the Widget - albeit at the public cost of three people's jobs.
The management did its job - deciding to reject the advice as not serving the Widget.
The three current presenters did their jobs - deciding to reassure viewers that they are one big-happy-family, which protects ratings, which dictate the price of advertising which brings in revenue which buoys the stock price which is their boss's Widget.
Three different decisions that may look in conflict on the surface but each serving the Widget.
Perhaps it's Karl and Mel who are the best examples of a healthy shrug at the inevitable clanging of our professional and personal Widgets.
Confidence.
'Once you surrender the idea of intrinsic, objective value, you start asking the question “if the value isn’t in there, where does it come from?” It’s obviously from the transaction: it’s the product of the quality of a relationship between me, the observer, and something else. So how is that relationship stimulated, enriched, given value? By creating an atmosphere of confidence where I am ready to engage with and perhaps surrender to the world it suggests.'
- Brian Eno
The information thuds onto our desk.
It lies there. Inanimate. Markings on paper. Pixels on glass.
We breathe in - and exhale our spirit into it.
We give it life.
We name it:
Complaint. Criticism. Appeal. Escalation. Grievance. Demand.
Or we name it:
Feedback. Evaluation. Comment. Test. Observation. Assessment. Question. Gift.
The actions that we take in response to the information and its relationship to our Widget are what gives it value. We need to engage with it with the eagerness and curiosity that serve our Widget - not our ego.
We need to be brave enough to surrender our understanding of the world for a new one.
If we are all these things - then we invite more thuds upon our desks.
Competing.
'In review tribunal proceedings there is no necessary conflict between the interests of the applicant and of the government agency. Tribunals and other administrative decision making processes are not intended to identify the winner from two competing parties. The public interest `wins' just as much as the successful applicant because correct or preferable decision making contributes, through its normative effect, to correct and fair administration and to the jurisprudence and policy in the particular area.'
- Managing Justice: A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System.
The complaint arrives.
Step 1: Step Back and feel the offence, indignation, anger, fear, fatigue or betrayal well up inside you - then allow seconds, minutes, hours, days for it to ebb away. [I'm human.]
Step 2:What's my Widget and what does this complaint teach me about it? ['The first job of a leader is to define reality.']
Step 3: Do I seek other information to help me to learn about this complaint and my Widget?
Step 4: Is there anything clouding my vision about how this complaint serves my Widget? ['A leader serves.']
Step 5: Is there anyone who might be affected by a decision I may make?
Thank you complainant for testing my Widget. ['The last job of a leader is to say 'Thank you.'']
It's rare to find anyone with this wisdom.
Because Leaders are rare.
Our Justice System is precious.
Responsible.
There's no Old Man in Israel either apparently.
Ami Ayalon served as the Chief of Navy for the Israeli Defence Force, politician and head of Israel's secret service, Shin Bet. In the documentary movie The Gatekeepers, he described his childhood understanding of decision making.
“I had a wonderful childhood,” he said. “I knew that there's a house in Jerusalem, and on the second floor there’s a long corridor. At the end of the corridor there's a door, and behind the door is a wise man, who makes decisions. He thinks. My parents called him the ‘Old Man,’” (a reference to Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion).
“Years later, after the Yom Kippur War [1973], I went to Jerusalem, and I went to that same building. I was on the second floor, and found no door at the end of the corridor, and behind the missing door, no one was thinking for me.”
Lists.
It's the idea of creating the space.
Mundane tasks like checklists free up space in our calendars and our heads for the artistry.
The Widget is the most visible part of a ‘successful’ person’s life. We can easily assume that it’s simply the product of an innate talent or instinct or gift that we don’t have.
Perhaps the only difference between successful people and the rest of us is that the former have a spark that motivates them to invest the time in things like checklists that release the oxygen that allows their spark to ignite into a flame that attracts the rest of us.
The rest of us who don’t have a Widget to inspire us to do the mundane ’10,000 hours of practice’ stuff.
Maybe if we can overcome the reputation of Checklists and Rules and Boundaries as compliance and elevate them to being a means of freeing us up to do the interesting stuff – then we’ll be onto something.
Lie.
'The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.'
- Abraham Lincoln
In the movie 'Die Hard 2', the villains hijack the air traffic control tower and program the Instrument Landing System to tell approaching aircraft that the runway is 200 feet lower than it actually is. The pilots adjust their landing speed and angle of descent according to the data they're being fed and the aircraft crashes into the truth of the earth.
Our usual response to a bad decision is a lie.
We don't comply with policies. ('It's not relevant to my work.')
We work overtime to compensate for insufficient staffing or resources. ('Others depend on me.')
We smile and rise at the end of a wasteful meeting. ('No, I don't have any questions.')
We keep turning up and doing work we hate. ('I've got a mortgage.')
We send false data back to a decision maker.
Each time we avoid responding truthfully to a decision, we affirm it.
We give an inaccurate position back to the decision maker of the lay of the land.
'All is well!' we declare to them and the organisation.
'Your policies are so practical. Don't change them.'
'Your staffing is appropriate for the Widget. Don't review either.'
'Your meetings give me such useful information. Keep them up.'
'I'm happy in my work. All is well.'
Eventually the boss brings in external consultants to manage team building/performance reviews/change management/work-life balance/staff retention/lunchtime yoga/redundancies.
The most effective way to improve the decision making of others is to respond truthfully to them with a position relative to the Widget.
At least don't lie to yourself.
Quiet.
We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see,
it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer,
perhaps even a fiercer life because of our quiet.
- William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight
A Leader makes decisions that others choose to follow.
They follow a better version of themselves they glimpse in the Leader.
Leaders are Quiet.
Clarity.
At Apple Inc.'s Annual Meeting last week, the CEO Tim Cook was challenged about whether Apple's environmental policies were a profitable return on investment.
'If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock,' Tim Cook was reported as saying.
He didn't say 'You're wrong,' or 'Let's mediate and come up with a compromise'.
He said 'Here's our Widget. If it's not the Widget you want, then choose another one.'
The internet lit up with debate about the response.
Widget clarity liberates.
Follow.
Interviewer: 'We are supposed to do the right things...'
Retired US Navy SEAL: 'Do you know what the right thing is?'
Interviewer: 'Well...not to kill innocent civilians...'
Retired SEAL: 'You don't have any idea. Not to be rude or anything, but one person's...what they think is the right idea is, is completely opposite from what the other one is. That's why we have to solely focus on our Leadership, our Admirals, who have been around and have been through all of this and they make the calls and it flows all the way down to us and we follow our orders to the T. Being in the SEAL teams we're outside of the box thinkers. We're not idiots. Most SEALS have their degrees and a lot of them have their Masters and we've been in this game for a very, very long time. So the thing that we ask - not out loud - we hope and pray that the American public has enough trust and faith in us to do and make the right decision....It's war and there is no right or wrong answer...'
To dismiss this response as the predictably military gung-ho blind 'We just follow orders' is to ignore some powerful insights into good decision making in the most extreme circumstances that also translates to the every day.
Navigating a good decision requires a fixed north - the Widget.
The Widget is designated by the Leader.
The decision maker accepts the Widget as the creation of a person who they trust - even if that trust is that there will be money in their bank account each fortnight.
Implicit in the dynamic between Widget, Leader and decision maker is that the decision maker continues to choose the Widget.
If I sneer at this equation it's either because my Leaders are managers or I choose not to choose.
'Right' and 'Wrong' are irrelevant.
It's all about the Widget.
Encapsulates.
'When people ask me what I do I try and show them this. I am really proud of this clip - it encapsulates what I want to bring to every and any live performance I film or stage for the camera.'
- Hamish Hamilton, Director
What would I show someone if they asked me what I do?
Would it encapsulate what I try to bring to my Widget?
Would I be really proud of it?
Would it arouse goosebumps every time I showed it?
If not - why not?
Configuration
Flight NZ175 from Auckland to Perth was descending.
The passengers heard the whirr-thump of the wheels lowering and locking.
Then the even whine of the two Rolls Royce engines changed pitch to a roar and the aircraft accelerated into a climb.
Toppling the dominoes.
Landing slot with Air Traffic Control lost.
Ground crews, refuelers, caterers, baggage handlers reorganising themselves.
Every extra minute costing the airline $170 in fuel.
350 passengers, their waiting families, taxis, flight connections, hotel transport, crew changes delayed.
Thousands of dollars lost and hundreds of people inconvenienced.
While still airborne and circling in the landing pattern again, the pilot made an announcement.
He had aborted the landing because he had made 'a configuration error'.
Dan, my Air Traffic Controller friend confirmed that a 'configuration error' probably means that the pilot had not set the flaps correctly for the landing.
How naïve of the pilot to make such an admission of his error.
How reckless of him to say 'Hey everyone still buckled up back there that I'm carrying aloft at several hundred kilometres an hour several thousand feet above the ground and who are still relying on me to get you back to earth - I screwed up.'
Yet on reflection - how refreshing.
Honest. Confident. Respectful. Brave.
The pilot wasn't naïve. He knew what he was doing.
Just what you want in the bloke controlling the metal tube you're travelling in 10 kilometres above the ground.
Stream.
'Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.'
W.H. Murray
Start with the Widget.
Save your energy arguing Widget Thinking is dehumanising for more creative battles ahead .
(Yawn.)
Remember - the Widget doesn't care.
Surrender to the cool, indifference of it. Accept its objectivity. A gift from your boss.
Make good decisions and feel Providence stir.