Dangerous.
'The single most dangerous idea in this world is that you should be free.'
- Cassandra Wilkinson
Look at the image above.
Look very closely.
Can you see the sheep dog?
See?
Keep looking.
See it?
No?
There is no sheep dog.
Debate.
The boss is busy. He's important. He's got so many important things to worry about. Meetings to attend. Emails to write. Reports to read. It's unreasonable to expect him to have time to spend consulting with you. Anyway, his matters are lofty and serious. He doesn't have to explain himself to you. You wouldn't understand anyway because it's very complicated. He knows what he's doing because he's the boss. It's serious work being a boss. Don't waste his time and just get your work done so he can do his. The boss is busy.
In mid-1942 Prime Minister Winston Churchill rose to address the House of Commons. The Second World War was in its third year and the British Army was in full retreat in North Africa. The German Afrika Corps was forty miles from Alexandria and eighty from Cairo. Prime Minister Churchill was debating a vote of no confidence in his leadership. He was being accused of allowing the Axis forces of Germany and Japan to conquer and enslave the remaining free world.
Churchill did not use fighting a World War as an excuse for not preparing for and engaging in open debate on his decision making. On the contrary, 'What a remarkable example it has been of the unbridled freedom of our Parliamentary institutions in time of war,' he said.
The boss can't be expected to know everything that's going on. How can he be responsible for something that was done two or three levels below him?
'The question of whether Tobruk could be held or not is difficult and disputable. It is one of those questions which are more easy to decide after the event than before it...But those who are responsible for carrying on the war have no such easy options open. They have to decide beforehand. The decision to hold Tobruk and the dispositions made for that purpose were taken by General Auchinleck, but I should like to say that we, the War Cabinet and our professional advisers, thoroughly agreed with General Auchinleck beforehand, and, although in tactical matters the Commander-in-Chief in any war theatre is supreme and his decision is final, we consider that, if he was wrong, we were wrong too, and I am very ready on behalf of His Majesty's Government to take my full share of responsibility.'
Why can't someone just make a decision? Everything takes so long. There is so much bureaucracy. Ask anyone what needs to be done and they will tell you. The boss is useless.
'Complaint has been made that the newspapers have been full of information of a very rosy character. Several Hon. Members have referred to that in the Debate, and that the Government have declared themselves less fully informed than newspapers...The war correspondents have nothing to do except to collect information, write their despatches and get them through the censor. On the other hand, the generals who are conducting the battle have other preoccupations. They have to fight the enemy.'
The boss wants to be briefed. He wants to have everything run past him. He wants to approve every decision. He wants papers. He wants meetings. He wants pre-meeting meetings. He wants updates. He wants to step in if necessary.
'Although we have always asked that they should keep us informed as much as possible, our policy has been not to worry them but to leave them alone to do their job. Now and then I send messages of encouragement and sometimes a query or a suggestion, but it is absolutely impossible to fight battles from Westminster or Whitehall. The less one interferes the better, and certainly I do not want generals in close battle, and these desert battles are close, prolonged and often peculiarly indeterminate, to burden themselves by writing full stories on matters upon which, in the nature of things, the home Government is not called upon to give any decision...Therefore, the Government are more accurately, but less speedily, less fully and less colourfully informed than the newspapers.'
The boss likes people who work late. Who show how much they care by the number of furrows in their brow.
'Some people assume too readily that, because a Government keeps cool and has steady nerves under reverses, its members do not feel the public misfortunes as keenly as do independent critics. On the contrary, I doubt whether anyone feels greater sorrow or pain than those who are responsible for the general conduct of our affairs.'
The boss wants to know why the plan went wrong.
'Sir, I do not know what actually happened in the fighting of that day. I am only concerned to give the facts to the House, and it is for the House to decide whether these facts result from the faulty central direction of the war, for which of course I take responsibility, or whether they resulted from the terrible hazards and unforeseeable accidents of battle.'
The boss wants to scrutinise every decision. He won't approve anything until he's absolutely certain that it is perfect.
'How do you make a tank? People design it, they argue about it, they plan it and make it, and then you take the tank and test and re-test it. When you have got it absolutely settled you go into production, and only then do you go into production. But we have never been able to indulge in the luxury of that precise and leisurely process. We have had to take it straight off the drawing board and go into full production, and take the chance of the many errors which the construction will show coming out after hundreds and thousands of them have been made.'
The boss has a serious job. He's a serious man making very, very serious and important decisions. Don't mock the boss. He deserves our respect.
'This tank, the A.22, was ordered off the drawing board, and large numbers went into production very quickly. As might be expected, it had many defects and teething troubles, and when these became apparent the tank was appropriately re-christened the "Churchill."'
The boss doesn't like mistakes. He wants the job done right the first time. If not, he'll lay the blame where it belongs. He can't be held responsible for what others do.
'I cannot pretend to form a judgment upon what has happened in this battle. I like commanders on land and sea and in the air to feel that between them and all forms of public criticism the Government stand like a strong bulkhead. They ought to have a fair chance, and more than one chance. Men may make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Men may have bad luck, and their luck may change. But anyhow you will not get generals to run risks unless they feel they have behind them a strong Government. They will not run risks unless they feel that they need not look over their shoulders or worry about what is happening at home, unless they feel they can concentrate their gaze upon the enemy.'
It's a serious business being a boss. It's no laughing matter. He's engaged in important things.
'I have stuck hard to my blood, toil, tears and sweat, to which I have added muddle and mismanagement...'
The boss acts on instinct. He makes decisions and expects his authority to be carried out. No questions. If something goes wrong, let's spin ourselves out of it. Don't admit anything.
'Nearly all my work has been done in writing, and a complete record exists of all the directions I have given, the inquiries I have made and the telegrams I have drafted. I shall be perfectly content to be judged by them.'
Prejudice.
'In order to put prejudice aside it is first necessary to acknowledge it.'
- Her Honour Judge Braddock SC
The Fourth Step in the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Check for Bias.
Each step in the Good Decision Making process is a forcing function. It compels us to pay attention to information that we might otherwise skip over or overlook or assume.
A good boss has her finger on the pulse. She knows her people. She knows her Widget. She knows the imperfections in each. It is impossible for her to not have an opinion. She could get away like most with making decisions on instinct.
The good boss also knows her own imperfections. The better she gets at decision making, the more conscious she becomes of her fallibility. [A great way to tell a good boss from a boss.]
In her Fourth Step, the good boss pays attention to her thoughts. She may even invite others to listen to her speak them. Has she pre-judged her decision?
[A good boss is a teacher. The Five Steps make visible her thinking for the benefit of others.]
As with the First Step, the Fourth Step allows the decision maker to acknowledge the imperfections that make her human. Her biases that may not serve her Widget.
In doing so, she invites those around her to do likewise. To be themselves.
The flaws that allow her to become who she is - free others to do the same.
The steps to a good decision elevate us - and those around us - beyond the decision. It quickly disappears in the distance as we continue our journey to become who we are.
Inquiry.
'Whether it’s in political parties, juries, or boardrooms, groups of humans tend to make better decisions, and to be better at solving problems, when composed of individuals who see the world differently from each other.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Inquiry is a brave act. Risky. It declares 'I Don't Know'.
What boss will admit that? What other things might she not know? Why is she being paid the big bucks if she doesn't know?
Might she not know things that she needs to know for me to know things? I've got a job to do. Where does her not-knowing - leave me?
Not knowing.
Inquiry is a brave act. It levels the power scales. The boss and I are equally ignorant. We learn the new thing together.
The good boss gathers people around her in her inquiry and invites them to tell her she's wrong and encourages me to watch. Brave. [The good boss is a teacher.]
Inquiry implies the boss isn't certain of her footing. She's unsure of the world and needs to know more. She's off balance. Vulnerable to a push from above or below.
Inquiry invites new information that may erase the old. It may call into question everything we assumed. It may even demand that the boss says: 'I was wrong.' Oh dear.
Inquiry is counter to the decisive, busy, brain-in-the-next-meeting, heroic boss.
Thus most bosses don't inquire. [Good bosses are rare.] They pretend to know. They make decisions using instinct. Or delegation (up or down). Or they do nothing and let entropy decide for them. We let them get away with it because he's the boss and we just want a decision - any decision - so that we can plug it into our Widget and have an alibi if the Widget doesn't work and go home and moan about the boss and our life.
A good boss inquires because she is curious. Because she is impatient in her advance towards her Widget which she knows lies beyond the Knowing.
A good boss doesn't decide with power. Or by keeping her workers ignorant. Or by pretending. Or mothering us by protecting us from the scary world of not-knowing.
A good boss knows that I Don't Know might be the three most powerful words in the dictionary.
Or not.
[Let's speak them and see what happens.]
CC.
If your email is about me and I'm not copied in - why not?
If your meeting is about me and I'm not invited - why not?
If the new employee will work with me and I'm not consulted - why not?
If your decision is about me and I'm not heard - why not?
Look at each reason. Now search for any of the following capitalised nouns in your values, codes, policies, mission, speeches, website, LinkedIn page:
Transparent. Committed. Team. Collaborate. Engage. Learn. Accountable. People. Loyal. Inclusive. Serve. Innovative. Creative. Trust. Courage. Excellence.
Integrity.
Leader.
God.
Amend either deed or noun as appropriate.
Or delete 'Integrity'.
Or sack me. [I obviously can't be trusted.]
Or quit. [You can't trust yourself.]
Observed.
'For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts.'
- Bruce Schneier
The Leader begins by creating the Space. She invites others into the Space to become who they are. She assumes that they will make mistakes. Get things wrong. Fail.
The Leader doesn't respond with regulation. The opposite. She ultimately Retreats - leaving us to do our work. To make more mistakes. To continue becoming.
Her faith in us mostly doesn't end well in the measure of the world. We fear freedom. Getting it wrong. We don't know what to do. No-one has taught us. We want to be told. We want someone to blame for our choices. For our unhappiness.
We feel threatened when observed. [I'm not trusted.'] We feel threatened when unobserved. ['I don't get any feedback or gratitude.']
Eventually the Leader is replaced by a manager. He tells us what to do. He checks and corrects. We chafe and share our grievances with each other during our designated breaks and are secretly grateful that we are no longer responsible for our unhappiness.
Constantly fearful.
Longing for Leadership.
Reality.
The decision maker resolves this by:
Declaration: 'Three'
Coercion: 'It's Three or you're fired.'
Intuition: 'I'll tell you when I think you need to know.'
Exclusion: 'It's not Four.'
Whim: 'It's Three today.'
Submission: 'I checked with the boss and she says Three'.
Delegation: 'HR told me Three.'
Committee: 'The ayes have it - Three.'
Bias: 'I hate Four. It's Three.'
Fear: 'Four is up to something. So Three.'
Psychoanalysis: 'You say Four but Your Myers-Briggs Type says you really think Three so I'm going to say Three.'
Avoidance: 'Let's have an off site team building day to create cross-functional capacity in conversations about numeracy.'
Spite: 'As you counted Three without running it by me first you've left me with no choice other than to put you on a warning'
Omission: 'You choose and I'll see what happens next.'
Clarity.
The Officer Commanding summoned me to his office.
'Explain your legal advice on the Base Swimming Pool matter, please.'
'Defence Instructions allow commanders to authorise civilian use of Defence land or assets only for Defence purposes, Sir. For you to have the power to authorise local non-RAAF families and children to use the Base pool, you have to demonstrate how Defence will benefit from having those civilians coming onto the Base. That's a lot of potential liability on the Commonwealth running around, Sir. There has to be some payoff for Defence to justify inviting that risk.'
The Air Commodore pushed a document across his desk towards me. 'Here are my four reasons for existence as Officer Commanding,' he said.
I picked up the piece of paper. It was the OC - my Boss's - Letter of Appointment as Air Officer Commanding Western Australia from his Boss - the Air Officer Commanding Training Command.
'Read dot point four,' the OC said.
'To develop and maintain positive relationships with the local civilian community,' I read out loud.
'Would you agree that me allowing the locals to use the Base swimming pool would be consistent with the execution of that aim, Legal Officer?' the Air Commodore asked.
Widget clarity is the foundation for good decision making.
A good and patient boss who has the confidence to show his working out is a priceless gift for life.
Hacked.
Some companies run 'bug bounty' programs that reward hackers for disclosing vulnerabilities they find in the organisation's computer code.
Imagine that. Opening up your internal software to a bunch of strangers and inviting them to try and break it.
Every organisation has a similar service available to it. For Free. People who volunteer their time to point out errors in its entire operating system.
They're called 'Complainants'.
Going.
'No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.'
- Maya Angelou
Good decision making does not lead you from error.
It does not lead you from conflict.
It does not lead you to the Answer.
It leads you to where you want to be.
It leads you to who you are.
If you turn around and someone is following your steps -
- through error and conflict and with no Answer in sight -
That's Leadership.
Slack.
'One thing I said I could help him with was Leadership. Because I was thrust into that with West Coast.
'And I'll be honest as I have said to him privately...probably not publicly as much as I am about to now...but I probably let him down a few times giving him...probably cutting him too much slack to go home and do all those sorts of things.
'So I don't think I actually helped him. I thought I was doing the right thing by him keeping him happy so he would continue to play football which is...ultimately...I was trying to help the Club.
'But from a Leadership...from a pure Leadership point of view...would I have done that in [his home town of] Melbourne? Well...I would not have had to have done that in Melbourne...to give him a training session off here and there so he could stay back with family and friends back in Melbourne.
'But I thought to keep him happy...to keep him playing happy...I thought that was the most important thing from an early point...
'I went to him and said 'I've probably let you down'.'
- Guy McKenna, Coach of the Gold Coast Suns AFL Team, speaking about Gary Ablett.
The first job of a Leader is to create the Space. Allow people to stretch and become who they are. Whack them if they breach it. Not as discipline or punishment. Not as an exercise in power. Not to diminish the person. To invite them to become as she knows they are.
Evidence that Guy McKenna is a Leader. His humility. His honesty. His measure of himself by his service to others. He doesn't wait to be criticised - to be complained about - for him to proactively admit - 'I failed you. Sorry.'
A month after this interview, Guy McKenna was criticised for allowing Gary Ablett too much freedom leading up to a big game.
The day after the article was published Gary Ablett led in possessions as he captained the Gold Coast Suns to a 40 point win - its first ever - over his former club Geelong.
Elsewhere.
'Nobody cares how you pay your rent. Your job is to show us something we didn’t know we needed to see.'
The best leaders sneak up and buffet us then draw us forward on their slipstream.
We're minding someone else's business. Going through the motions. Comfortable. Smothering our inner restless child with our pillow of outer respectability so none of the other happy successful people around us hears its death rattle.
We're marching to the rhythmic drum drum hum drum drum hum drum of the boss and the managers and the meetings and the courses and the mission statements and the core values and the consultants and the professional development and the change management and the teams and the acronyms and the buzz words and the performance reviews and the clichés and the emails about cake in the staff room and the promise of Friday afternoon.
Loitering for the fortnightly hit from payroll.
She is here. No introduction. No names. No preface or title.
Her voice distracts us from ourselves long enough to rouse the child who squirms free and gasps for air.
We know nothing of her other than she wants to be elsewhere.
She's not waiting for us.
Nor are we.
We leave ourselves behind to go and see.
Simon.
He says: Come Here - so they go There.
He says: Do This - so they do That.
He says: It is Thus - so they say Thus It Is.
He says: Put Money in their Bank - so they say See You Next Week for more He Says.
Be: Creative, productive, innovative, industrious, proactive, engaged, accountable, resilient, loyal, ethical, aligned, happy, autonomous, fearless, motivated, passionate...
No-one moves.
Not without a He Says.
Saying.
Decision-Making is THE act of communication.
What am I saying?
We are the products of our Decision-Making, not our words.
How's that going?
How's the organisation's Decision-Making budget?
Compared to the iDevice budget?
The Marketing one?
Where's Decision-Making in the Staff Development Agenda?
In the Leadership Training?
In the Performance Reviews?
In the Recruitment ads?
In the KPIs?
How do we make right versus right decisions under stress?
How do we integrate what we already know - or think we know - with what we need to discover?
How do we orientate ourselves?
What is the relationship between our problem‐analysis and our Decision‐Making?
What happens when what actually happens does not track with what we assumed?
What awaits us when we look inwards for our moral compass?
What happens when we're wrong?
How do we Make Decisions of Love and Hope?
See.
'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'
- Edmund Burke
See. Name. Point.
See it. See it. See what that person is doing.
Name it. Don't analyse it, judge it, interpret it, filter it, psychoanalyse it, project onto it, condemn it, ignore it.
Point to it. It's over there. It's not in me. It's someone doing a thing. It's not about me. I tell a decision maker the name of what I saw someone else do.
Not a story. A name.
Not what they intended. Not what they were thinking. Not what I was thinking. Not what I wanted it to be. Not what they wanted it to be. Not what I would be intending or thinking if it was me doing the thing.
See. Name. Point.
The Widget is the noun that liberates verbs to bring itself into being.
Agree.
There's banging on the front door of your house where your children are asleep.
'The smoke billowing from your roof is soiling the clothes on my line!' a voice yells.
'Put it in writing,' you yell back. 'And send it to my landlord. She'll let the owner know.'
'No!'
'Well, contact the fire brigade!'
'No!'
You think.
'Would you agree to me passing on your complaint to the fire brigade?' you shout back.
'No. Just stop smoking out my clothes!'
'Would you be happy if I dry cleaned your clothes for you?' you yell.
A van draws up alongside while you're at the traffic lights. The passenger rolls down his window and points at the back of your car.
'Is that a formal or informal gesture about my car?' you say.
The van pulls away as the lights turn green.
'Anonymous!' you mutter under your breath, before accelerating away in a belch of oil smoke and sparks from your dragging muffler.
You catch up to the van at the next set of lights. The passenger repeats the gesture with more animation.
'Vexatious complainant!' you sneer as you raise your middle finger then the volume of the radio.
Organisations pay for opinions - usually called 'feedback' - of customers, clients, employees and random strangers about their Widget.
They hire different people to deter, defend, deflect, delegate, mediate - opinions that are called 'complaints'.
A complaint is information about your Widget from someone who cares enough about their Widget (which may be the same as yours) to give it.
It's your decision - not theirs - serving your Widget - not theirs - as to what you do about it.
Advocate.
"The real hell of life is everyone has his reasons."
- Jean Renoir
The Premier of Western Australia Mr Colin Barnett has not supported a push to remove one of his party members who continues to criticise his government, including calling for Mr Barnett to resign.
Another example of a leader who is on top of his game.
Allowing a critic to remain within the ranks is the sign of a confident leader. And not because of her ego blinding her to the criticism.
The good leader knows that there is wisdom in testing arguments and positions inside the tent before they are released into the wild.
As Dr Tim McDonald says: 'Private honesty. Public loyalty.'
Mr Barnett's accommodation of a dissenting view is also his compliment to the community he serves. He assumes of us what he is demonstrating himself: the maturity to accept that difference is not to be feared.
Mr Barnett is not afraid that the voting public may assume that his party's internal dissent calls into question the ability of his government to run our hospitals and schools and keep our streets safe.
This is what leaders do. They create a space that invites us in to see the version of ourselves that we want to become. 'See?' Mr Barnett says to us. 'I can run an entire State amidst criticism from one of my own. I'm not fleeing. I'm not fighting. I'm smiling. Try it in your own family, workplace, community.'
Very, very few people or organisations can do this. Basically, we don't know how. We don't have the skills. We haven't practised accommodating dissonance. We actively discourage dissent - often quashing it under cover of a breach of 'values' or 'code of conduct'. We drive the our critics to the fringes - until they have to scream so loudly that any merit in their shouted message is dismissed with labels such as 'vexatious'.
If you want to test the maturity and confidence of an organisation or person - say 'complaint'.
Mature people and organisations will seek out dissenters to join their decision making process to kick the tyres.
If they can't find such a critic, they will appoint one. The 'devil's advocate' was someone appointed by the Catholic Church to argue against the canonisation of a person into sainthood.
The mature organisation knows that a dissenter is one of the ways to avoid the trap of groupthink.
The critic - whether internal or external - demands that we explain ourselves - rather than just declare, or even be satisfied by giving reasons for a decision.
A recent study showed that people who were asked to give reasons for an opinion remained convinced of its rightness. While other people who were asked to give a step by step explanation of how they arrived at their opinion were more likely to recognise an error in their thinking and start reviewing their assumptions.
(Herein lies the value of the Five Steps to a Good Decision.)
Therein also lies both the solution and the problem.
Better to cling on to the flawed certainty of our understanding of the world than to expose ourselves to the panic of finding out that we've been wrong.
It's a rare person who can accommodate the distraction in time and energy of a critic.
Which is why we need leaders like Mr Barnett who have the confidence to show us that whether we label it criticism, dissent, disloyalty, or even treason, it's just information.
Another opportunity for us to measure how we're going with our Widget.
Good leaders are rare.
Important.
'It's only in our decisions that we are important.'
- Sartre
Next time you're bored in a meeting, try this.
A Decision will be made.
It can be now. In a few seconds. Later today. Tomorrow. Next year.
One absolute certainty is that a Decision will be made. (Even by default.)
You don't know what the decision will be - you know there will be one. Thus it's almost irrelevant.
Use this certainty as a reference point to work out who are the managers and who are the leaders in the meeting.
The managers will be the ones assembling their dot points for their post-mortem speeches in case the Decision goes wrong. (Most likely to be delivered in hushed tones and with eye rolls in the tea room. 'I tried to tell them that....but they...')
The leader will be holding the space. (She may not be the person at the head of the table by the way.)
She's allowing for the Five Steps - the deliberate process of inquiry - to run its course.
She knows that if she makes a decision that advances her towards where she wants to be - that she cannot make a bad decision.
Her wisdom about the answer liberates her to focus on others.
Watch the leader bravely hold the space. She listens. Asks questions. Listens. Questions. Listens. Listens.
Listens.
Watch the managers and others compete to fling the most words, statements, fears, challenges, complaints, criticisms, and egos within and against the boundaries of that safe space being held for them by the leader.
Spot the manager promoted one or more steps above his competence. You can tell him by his confident assertions. His aim is to declare his opinion rather than to allow it to be tested by the evidence. (That would be too risky.) He wants to be seen as decisive. Sure. Stable. Knowledgeable. Courageous. He does so with the luxury of knowing that he doesn't have to make the decision.
The real bravery in the room is in the leader. Risking being seen as weak. Indecisive. Uncommunicative. As she's talked over. As she holds the space. As she listens.
As she serves everyone else.
Including you. Learning from her as you watch, safe in the space she's created for you. (Guess what - she knows you're watching.)
Regardless of whether it's her decision that is made or followed, she's a leader. Because she created the space and invited you to enter and become who you are.
Allowed you to advance towards your Widget on the way to building hers.
Decisions don't make us important.
The Deciding does.
[Never spotted a leader in a meeting? Of course not. Good leaders are rare.]
Answer.
'I know this stuff inherently,' the senior manager said with a shrug at the end of the presentation.
It's the boss's job to know the answer. Or to know that it's not about the answer.
Knowing - or not knowing - is the beginning. Not the end.
The Widget is our north point from which we measure our knowing.
A good boss knows so much about the Widget that she knows it's never about the Widget.
Good decision making is our boss's way to liberate us from her constraints.
Thus freed, she turns her attention to our cages.