Self-examination during lockdown
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” ― James Clear
Being Me
I must admit I’m envious of James Clear, the productivity expert whose weekly newsletter 3-2-1 reaches about half a million people (the one you’re reading reaches 2000). His book, “Atomic Habits” is on track to sell 2 million copies, too. But why has his message about habits hit such fertile ground? Clear’s premise is that habits are simply an aggregation of repeated behaviours that either act for us - or against us. So why not focus deliberately on those habits that we know work for us? Just this week my good friend Sean showed me a phone app called Being Me that he uses to track his daily habits — things like stretch frequently, write in his journal, ride his bike, drink water, eat only healthy food until ‘drinks o’clock’ in the evening. The app tracks his habits, and while Sean happily confesses to being a measurement obsessive, this also fits with what James Clear emphasises: “By measuring something, you become aware of it”. Clear’s only caution is that the measurement not become the end in itself, but that the habit itself is the true outcome, or more precisely, the result of the habit itself.
Question: “What specific habits do you know of that, if you did them every day without fail, would add to your quality of life, and overall effectiveness?”
How important is kindness in organisations?
I have a privileged role as a strategy consultant to organisations — directors and CEOs tell me many things they can’t easily share with anyone else. I’m used to that, and it’s only by sharing such confidences that I can be of most value to many of my clients. But I must admit I was surprised —- pleasantly — by something a CEO told me this week. She was talking about one effect of the COVID lockdown on her 3000+ staff. She said, “I’m seeing a noticeable uplift in kindness”. I asked her what she meant, and she said, “People are looking out for each other. They’re more understanding. They’re going out of their way. They’re less likely to take offence at other’s actions”. It made me wonder whether one consequence of any adversity is an increased flexibility of behaviour, and an increase in empathy. Or is it simply a product of feeling grateful oneself for good health — and even, perhaps, having a job?
Question: “Are you — or others around you — behaving more kindly than formerly? What reactions are you noticing?”
How do you get a different perspective on yourself?
Back when I was a young employee, I got the following advice from a much older person: “Go for new jobs more frequently than you need to, because you’ll learn about your own value pretty quickly”. Now, as a consultant, some 50 times a year, as each project draws to a close, I ask my clients, “What worked well?” and, “What was of value that you didn’t anticipate?” I’m surprised at some of the responses (in other words, I’m still learning, after more than 20 years as a consultant) which reveal that, despite nearly of my work being somehow strategy related, the value is often human and personal. Some of the common responses that surprised me the first time I heard them: “All our people feel that they own our strategy”; “We all feel as if we’ve made the most insightful and intelligent contributions to our strategy”, and “We no longer have tension and conflict about which direction to take the organisation”. The value of this is that I can now go into consulting project asking if any of these are relevant. And, guess what, they often are.
It’s with this intention of getting feedback from differential perspectives that great credence is still placed, even at senior levels, on 360-degree feedback. Sadly, that approach is flawed as its replicability masks its unreliability and it tells us more about the rater than the ratee. How should you then, if you’re an employee, and not a consultant, go about getting different perspectives on your value, if you’re not wanting to go job searching once or twice a year? Simply ask. If you’re a leader, ask people around you, “What’s working around here?” and “What are we doing well that you didn’t anticipate?” Then, keep doing those things, and find ways to accelerate, expand and leverage those. And, keep asking. Do it at least 50 times a year.
Question: Who — internally and externally to your organisation — can you immediately engage in the two questions above?