Our Shelter Amidst the Chaos of Information.
'The best way to learn about normal structures and normal function I think is to study disordered functions and disordered structures. When one has spent that amount of time studying abnormalities one develops an enormously healthy respect for normal, an enormously healthy respect for how equilibrium is maintained.'
- Sherwin Nuland, Surgeon
Decision making is an act of creating certainty from chaos.
Buffeted by new information our compass spins and our map is ripped from our hands.
A good decision making process is a structure that shelters us from the push and pull of wild gusts of instinct and bias and the howling of opinions and creates a space for us to think.
We emerge with our decision beneath cloudless skies, a zephyr caressing our cheeks and clutching a new map with new terrain and a compass needle pointing steadily towards our Widget.
We step forth into the arc of a raindrop and the distant roll of thunder and our compass needle wobbles.
The Decision is Superior to the Decision Maker.
'The poem has an intelligence that the poet does not have.'
- Jane Hirshfield
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.
Decision making is an act of creation with its own Muse.
Decision makers who serve a process and engage with others along the way, summon forth ideas, creativity, options, perspectives, insights, wisdom and outcomes that were invisible when they were presented with the need to make a decision.
Good decision making has an intelligence that the decision maker does not have.
Often Decisions Break Things.
'Don't worry if you break it Darcey. I can put it back together because I designed this house actually.'
- Five year old Scarlett to her one year old sister Darcey.
Often decisions break things.
If our decision breaks something -
- or someone in our team's decision did
- and we or they made it using a deliberate process of inquiry -
(Instead of 'Hey! Look at me! Let me show you how high I am up HR's wire diagram!' or 'Eenie, meenie, miney, mo...' or 'I need to do something or we're all gonna DIE!')
- then we can inspect the wreckage and work out what happened.
Learning is behaviour modified by experience.
We will make a better decision next time.
We will advance closer towards where we want to be.
Leadership Perfection.
'Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God...began to wash the disciples’ feet...'
The most powerful entity in the Universe.
He can do anything.
Be Anything.
Yet -
He chooses to kneel and do the job of a servant.
Washing the filthy feet of a friend who will fatally betray him.
All the libraries and rhetoric on Leadership offer less than this act.
'I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you,' he tells them - and us.
Believe him the Son of God or a man of fiction, one could aspire to model their entire leadership philosophy and behaviour on this lesson of Jesus Christ.
'One is never so big
As when one stoops down.'
- David Byrne, Never So Big
Everything is the Consequence of Multiple Decisions.
'I was so incredibly lucky to grow up in the context of workshops...[I acquired] a natural understanding that everything...is made, and is the consequence of multiple decisions.'
- Sir Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice-President of Design, Apple Corporation.
Jony Ive understands and makes decisions. Apple has sold one and a half billion Widgets he designed.
A hundred thousand Apple employees and millions of shareholders and retailers rely on his decision-making.
He applies Widget Thinking. Steve Jobs described him as 'the most focussed human being I've come across.'
“I’m always focussed on the actual work, and I think that’s a much more succinct way to describe what you care about than any speech I could ever make.” He understands that design is ultimately about delivering something. It's all about the Widget.
Jony Ive is on a relentless pursuit of perfection. Billions of dollars depend on it and hundreds of millions of us benefit from it in our use of Apple products. How can he accommodate mistakes?
'Everything we make I could describe as being partially wrong, because it’s not perfect...We get to do it again. That’s one of the things Steve and I used to talk about: ‘Isn’t this fantastic? Everything we aren’t happy about...we can try and fix.’ ”
Who Cares What You Think?
'His Honour made the orders in respect of which there is now an alleged contravention. [The Respondent] was quite open in saying that she did not agree with His Honour's finding on that day.'
She said "It was just what he thought".'
- Judgment of His Honour Judge Bennett, Federal Magistrates Court of Australia - Family Law, in the case of B&B
Thankfully for our justice system and the maintenance of social order, unlike Ms B the great majority of people honours the decisions of judges. We take that obedience for granted.
Today, in hundreds of Australian courts, judges will say: 'Here is what I think.'
People will go to prison, be fined, lose a licence, their source of income, their homes, their children. The effects will ripple through families, businesses and communities. All because an unelected person in a robe on a chair behind a bench on a raised platform in a beige courtroom will decide: 'Here's what I think should happen'.
Some will not agree with the judge and choose to appeal the decision. In about 95% of those cases the appellate tribunal will decide: 'We agree with what he thought.'
Why is Ms B's dismissal of the judge based on it being 'just what he thought' and her defiance of his orders the exception? It can't all be explained by the deterrence of courts' enforcement powers.
Could it be because those affected by the judge's decision see, and often even participate in, the process leading up to it and witness that the judge:
- Is dispassionate,
- Applies rules,
- Relies on evidence,
- Is unbiased, and
- Allows both parties to be heard?
Could decision makers in other fields with far less consequences earn similar respect and compliance with their decisions if, instead of making decisions based on:
- I'm smarter than you.
- I was at the meeting and you weren't.
- I know someone who told me things.
- My job title has manager/leader/chief in it.
- A university gave me a degree.
- I've been on the payroll longer.
- I can sack you.
They openly:
- Stepped Back
- Named the Issue
- Assessed the information
- Checked for Bias
- Allowed for a hearing
Could it be that the lack of engagement, hundreds of billions of dollars spent on compliance, low productivity and unhappiness in our workplaces are because so many of us who are affected by decision makers can't see or understand how those decisions are made? Are we just like Ms B? -
Meh. That's just what the boss thought.
Our Process Serves our Widget.
'That's how I make decisions. I draw how I approach a lot of issues from aviation when it comes to the management of ideas. One of my favourite sayings is that if you muck up the approach you muck up the landing.'
- The Hon. Sussan Ley, Minister for Health & Sport
‘Check wheels,’ the Air Traffic Controller would radio to the student military pilot as he commenced his approach to land.
'Wheels down,’ the student would reply by rote and habit as he continued his descent with undercarriage fully retracted and the ‘Wheels Up’ alarm in the cockpit blaring.
Process is important.
We get good at it.
We turn up to our desk.
Read and type emails.
Attend meetings.
Write reports.
Go home.
Repeat.
The routine of our working day becomes the Thing We Do. The process gradually replaces our Widget as the Thing We Make.
We attend staff meetings and professional development days and listen and nod to sincerely but falsely acknowledge we’ve heard and responded to the 'Check Wheels' and cockpit alarms as our boss and peers and consultants and guest speakers and strategic papers and Ted Talks and even our own little voice warn us that we’ve forgotten to engage our Widget.
Our knowledge worker rituals and the clatter of weasel words that herald them deafen us to the feedback on our process and progress and obscure the Widget it is meant to serve.
If you tapped the student pilot on the shoulder at 500 feet from violently colliding with the runway and asked whether he was doing his job he would say 'Of course. I'm flying. Now let me get on with it.'
Tap any office worker on their shoulder and ask what their Widget is and in my experience, few can answer or even see it as relevant. 'I'm too busy being busy.'
The curt voice of the vigilant Air Traffic Controller radioing 'Go Around!' would interrupt the student's doomed approach and save him from belly landing in a shower of sparks and grinding metal.
Like monks being called away from their manual labour seven times a day to pray, bosses must regularly call 'Check Widget' and force us back into conscious, engaged, mindful recitals of our decision making process and the Widget it's ultimately serving.
Passionate Doesn't Cut It.
'Sometimes I worry that the people who are seen as the most expert...are those who care the most or worry the most.'
'Good morning and welcome aboard. I'm Kurt Ranger and I'll be your Captain today on our flight to New York. I'm passionate about flying and committed to getting you safely to your destination. I was kept awake last night with worry about all the reasons we may not make it. So sit back, relax and enjoy your flight.'
'Passionate about...'
'Committed to...'
'What keeps me awake at night is...'
(Evidence that being 'committed to' is passé and losing its punch is found in the rise of 'totally committed to...' and even 'absolutely committed to...')
Words matter.
Declarations of passion are most often made by characters in Shakespeare's plays and reality TV talent and cooking show contestants - the latter then dissolving into emphatic sobs.
'Hi. I'm Sam. And I'm passionate about food/dance/losing weight.'
Do I want my child's teacher to be passionate - or to be a good teacher?
Do I want my dentist to be passionate - or a good dentist?
Do I want my local member of parliament to be passionate - or a good legislator?
Do I want an infantry soldier to be passionate about his work of killing the enemy?
Of course it doesn't have to be either/or. My surgeon can be passionate and a good surgeon. Perhaps she is good because she is passionate enough about surgery to perservere beyond good enough.
Fiona Wood, one of the best surgeons in the world, spoke about how she learned that 'passion on its own won't cut it'. It had undermined her leadership. Each of the Five Steps to a Good Decision filters out emotions - including passion - that may distract the decision maker from her purpose. Professor Smallbone was expressing his concern about 'caring' equating to expertise in the area of child protection.
As in many things, before declaring one's passion, it's helpful to ask: 'Whose needs are being met?' 'Passion' ('to suffer') implies it's about me and how I feel. Perhaps compassion - 'suffering alongside another' (the client, the boss, the bloke in the next office) - might be worth developing?
Organisations' language of selling its Widget to consumers has leached into how we speak to each other. We market ourselves - even to ourselves.
‘Look at me! I'm passionate. about my Widget!’
Good for you. Now make the thing so your boss can make hers.
Maybe we're whistling past the workplace graveyard of disengagement. 'Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's passionately off to work we go...'.
If you're a boss exhorting your people to have passion in their work, and what you really mean is - do the work well - then just say 'I want you to do your work well.' Or perhaps even 'I'm passionate about supporting you to do your work well.' Or even 'I'm totally committed to putting money in your bank this fortnight.'
I can be passionate. Committed. Caring. Just as long as I do my job - or help others do theirs - well.
And while Hi-ho-ing with passionate gusto, remember to belt out the rest of the lyrics:
'Hi Ho Hi Ho , Its Off To Work We Go!!
We did dig dig dig dig dig dig dig
In our Mine the whole day through
To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig
Its what we like to do
It aint no trick
To get rich quick
If ya dig dig dig
With a shovel or a stick
In the Mines.'
How to Succeed Every Time.
'If you do something every day, its a system. If you're waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it's a goal...Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good everytime they apply their system. That's a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.'
Good Decision Making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Integrity - doing what you said you were going to do.
Leaders with integrity apply a system of decision making that advances them towards their Widget, for the world to see, emulate, and learn from.
Harry is Unhappy.
'There's a critical question that I ask myself:
What do I need to do right now tend the root of inner wisdom that makes work fruitful?'
- Parker Palmer
Dear Harry
Thank you for your letter in which you requested that I make you happy.
I have considered your application in accordance with our Happiness Policy, in particular Clause 17.2 which makes me responsible for the happiness of the employees in my line of management.
As part of my consideration of your request, I sought advice from a number of people, including our Chief Happiness Officer, our Human Resources Officer, our Finance Officer, the Chaplain, Payroll, and your line manager. I also reviewed your employment history and your current duty statement.
On 17 July I wrote to you and summarised what each of them had to say and invited you to comment on any of it.
I carefully read your 427 page all caps reply and have taken each of your submissions into account in making my decision. I also want to express my sympathies about your cat, your football team, and your ongoing acne irritation.
In accordance with Clause 19.8 of the Happiness Policy that authorises me to make decisions about employee Happiness, I have decided that we have met all of our obligations to make you happy, namely:
- Paid you each fortnight
- Performed every other term of our employment agreement with you
- Listened to you whine about your unhappiness and considered whether we were responsible for it
Unfortunately the space-time continuum and the limitations of our technology budget do not allow us to send you back in time to get more hugs and fishing trips with your Poppy.
I encourage you to take advantage of our Employee Assistance Plan to support you as you grieve about Tiddles, suggest that you consider joining the company Rounders team to engage you with a winning recreational pursuit, and I will approve personal leave for you to seek medical advice about your zits.
I happily look forward to you doing your job.
Warmly.
What I Learned From Invading Australia.
We were outgunned, outnumbered and surrounded.
We were attacking Australia.
We were winning.
'I need to lodge small groups of special forces soldiers at various points on the Australian coast,' the Kamarian Commander of 311 Raider Battalion briefed me. 'I want to hide them beneath the decks of fishing vessels that will drop them off without the vessels being intercepted by the Australians. Can I fly the Mussorian flag on them under International Law?'
'Yes Sir. It's called a 'Ruse of War. It's legitimate. Your only obligation is to lower the flag and raise our Kamarian flag if we are discovered and need to defend ourselves. Your biggest risk of interception is by fisheries inspection officers so don't display any fishing gear.' It was much more fun being legal adviser to the bad guys on military exercises.
Following the sabotage and destruction of military and civilian infrastructure across the north of Australia by unknown foreign military elements, the Australian government responded. It suspended the right of innocent passage. No vessel, including ours operating under false flags, could transit Australian terrotorial waters. The Commander asked me for my advice.
'Declare victory, Sir,' I said.
$13 Billion of trade that came through Australia's northern waters annually was halted.
Australia's response to the threat of three civilian fishing vessels and a handful of commandos had self-inflicted billions of dollars of damage to its economy. Much more than the weapons of the armed forces of the mythical tiny island state of Kamaria could ever have done.
The first job of a Leader is to Create the Space.
Boundaries should be liberating catalysts for creativity.
Be generous and discerning in the size of space you create for people - in agreements, rules, policies, practice.
Once you limit the horizon, you have to patrol it. You have to enforce it. You have to mend it. You have to justify it.
You will add to the $250 Billion Australia already spends each year on compliance.
You will constrain and restrict innovation and cause other unforeseen damage.
You can be sure that each person down the hierarchy will define the operating space even smaller for their people.
If someone exploits your generous boundaries - breaks a rule, abuses your trust - be careful not to respond by drawing the lines in tighter. You'll catch more than the stray in your net.
If they breach the boundary again - don't shoot.
Instead, invite them to leave your space and create their own.
Invite them to be a Leader.
Joy is Peace Dancing.
'Joy is Peace dancing. Peace is Joy at rest.'
In 2012 Michelle Jenneke went to work.
Heat 2 of the 100m Hurdles for Women in the IAAF World Junior Championships.
Representing her country. Serious business. Very stressful.
'Having fun,' the commentator reports before the race.
'Constantly dancing around.'
'Happy about performing.'
'Youthful exuberance coming out.'
'Let's see if she can buckle down and put together a technically good race,' the commentator cautioned.
Ms Jenneke had a very precise Widget to make.
Sponsors to please.
Coaches to honour.
Her workplace was live on TV.
She kept dancing and smiling right up to her blocks.
Then went to work making her Widget.
'Very aggressive to that first hurdle,' the commentator said.
Focus and determination. No smile for 13.52 seconds.
Michelle Jenneke won by 0.19 of a second. (Literally less than the blink of an eye.)
No room for error. But enough to dance.
'I get this feeling when I'm going to compete and I just get really happy and really energetic.'
'When I'm out on the track I'm thinking about what I'm doing, not focussing on them.'
'It's really about whether you're happy with yourself.'
We can be joyful in our work.
We can dance and make our Widget.
We don't need our boss's permission.
Just our own.
We don't need to wait for a private moment.
The world craves our dancing.
It begins by being happy with ourselves.
Becoming who we are.
Last week, two and a half years later, Michelle Jenneke danced as usual behind her blocks because she's just really happy.
Then ran the fifth fastest womens hurdles race in Australian history.
Change Your Mind About Changing Your Mind.
'The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.'
- William James
Either/Or.
Guilty/Not Guilty.
Trustworthy/Untrustworthy.
Hired/Fired.
With me/Against me.
On/Off.
These black/white filters of information sabotage good decision making.
They shut out new information.
Our fear is that it may compel us to do that terribly humiliating thing:
Change our minds.
Information liberates.
It allows us to exercise the true test of our freedom:
Choice.
At a cost:
Anxiety. (I might be wrong.)
Which is why we get paid.
Be the naive inquirer.
Try this:
Treat all information that you receive as new.
'How interesting! Tell me more...'
The Art of Living.
‘Our life is an open question, an incomplete project, still to be brought to fruition and realised. Each man’s fundamental question is: How will this be realised— becoming man? How does one learn the art of living? Which is the path toward happiness?’ To evangelise means: to show this path— to teach the art of living.'
A good decision is one that advances us towards where we want to be.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry - asking questions - that advances us towards where we want to be.
A leader creates a path towards where she wants to be - illuminated by her decisions - that others choose to follow.
A leader seeks to become who she is.
A leader teaches us the art of living.
Good Decision Making Lite.
Following Five Steps to a Good Decision too steppy?
Choose one then.
Step Back before making your decisions,
or
Name the Issue before making your decisions,
or
Assess the information before making your decisions,
or
Check for Bias before making your decisions,
or
Give a Hearing before making your decisions,
Apply just one.
You'll be a step closer to where you want to be.
Simplicity in the Difficulties.
'Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war.'
- Carl Von Clausewitz, On War
Every worker who has sought to engage in the workplace knows the friction of accumulated difficulties.
Widget clarity is the key to victory.
Simplicity in the difficulty begins with the duty statement, job description or whatever the boss calls the piece of paper that defines the Widget and how she wants it to be made.
Few organisations write good job descriptions. They rank second to policies as effective dust collectors. You're already in trouble before the artillery barrage of opinions has started.
The military is a good model of how to write good job descriptions. It needs its soldiers, sailors and airmen to have absolute clarity about who they need to kill, how and when. They need simplicity wherever possible amidst the chaos when the enemy is trying to kill them.
Precision starts at the top and cascades down. The boss needs to be clear about what her job is.
These extracts from the job description for the Chief of the Defence Force written by his boss the Minister of Defence are an excellent example of Widget clarity. (You can almost hear the hum of the tension in the leash of democracy restraining the application of maximum violence):
Preamble: In accordance with my powers under s8 of the Defence Act....I give you strategic direction to achieve the Government’s defence outcomes.
Accountability: You are accountable to me for Defence’s performance, having regard to our statutory responsibilities. Any authorisation or delegation of my authority with respect to Defence is through you within the limitations below.
Results: I expect you to deliver:
a. ....operational deployment of the ADF to enhance our national strategic interests and our alliance relationships, to strengthen regional security and to successfully conduct joint military exercises and operations
b. Identification, development and provision of current and future capability to enable our armed forces to defend Australia and its national interests;
c. Enhanced intelligence, strategic policy, scientific and information capabilities, responsive to whole-of-government requirements;
d. Timely, accurate, coordinated and considered advice to the Minister and Government;
e. Proper stewardship of people, through developing and maintaining workforce skills and career structures, building and maintaining Defence’s reputation and providing a living and working environment that attracts and retains people;
f. Sound management of financial and other resources, operating within budgeted financial performance, meeting statutory requirements for preparing financial statements and optimal management and use of the Defence estate; and
g. Appropriate planning, evaluation and reporting documents, including an annual Defence Management and Finance Plan, and periodic Strategic Reviews and White Papers incorporating the above.
Guidance: You should pursue these results through effective leadership and management; and should ensure that:
a. Your actions are prudent, ethical and lawful;
b. Your actions are consistent with:
i. Government Policy
...your role as principal military adviser and statutory responsibilities and authority as commander of the Defence Force under the Defence Act 1903; and
c. You make your decisions and offer advice considering
i. The impact on relationships with others who contribute to national security, including with the leadership of Foreign Armed Forces and other Australian agencies with national security interests,
ii. My separation Directive to the Chief Executive Officer of the Defence Materiel Organisation,
iii. The risk to the sustainable delivery of Defence outputs; and
iv. The CDF’s proposals for promotions to Brigadier equivalent and above are made in consultation with the Secretary, VCDF and the Service Chiefs.
Minister for Defence
Words matter.
Step Back and Sit a Little Closer.
The fox fell silent and looked steadily at the little prince for a long time.
'Please,' he said, 'tame me!'
'I should like to,' replied the little prince, 'but I don't have much time. I have friends to discover and many things to understand.'
'One only ever understands what one tames. People no longer have the time to understand anything. They buy everything ready-made from the shops. but there is no shop where friends can be bought, so people no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!'
'What do I have to do?' said the little prince.
'You have to be very patient,' replied the fox. 'First, you will sit down a short distance away from me, like that, in the grass. I shall watch you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing; words are the source of misunderstandings. But each day you may sit a little closer to me.'
- The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Step 1 in the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Step Back.
We yield to the emotions triggered by information.
We sit with them. Wallow in them. Surrender to them.
Seconds. Minutes. Days. Months. However long we have.
The longer we sit, the less frightening the feelings become.
We tame them.
We understand them.
They become our friends. Teachers.
Our emotional responses to events aren't to be feared or ignored or avoided or overcome or denied.
They aren't to be crushed or suppressed as the Leadership Lore would have us believe.
Sit. Tame. Learn.
Become who you are.
The Mind Watching Itself.
'An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.'
Step 4 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Check for Bias.
This is the mind watching itself.
'Hey! Preconceived assumption not supported by the evidence from Step 3! Get outa here!'
'Oi! Prejudice! Get off my neural pathways!'
'You! Yes you! Fight-or-Flight Reflex! Grow up!'
Indeed - so are Steps 1, 2, 3 and 5.
Good Decision Making in Three Words:
In two:
Watch yourself.
The Root Cause of All Conflict.
You can fight the same battle each time: each dispute, each complaint, each conflict, each difficult conversation over and over.
Same skirmish, different combatants.
Or you can move upstream and address the root cause: