seek agenda input

Seek [agenda] input from team members. If you want your team to be engaged in meetings, make sure the agenda includes items that reflect their needs. Ask team members to suggest agenda items along with a reason why each item needs to be addressed in a team setting. If you ultimately decide not to include an item, be accountable — explain your reasoning to the team member who suggested it.

Roger Schwarz

“How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting,” Harvard Business Review. March 19, 2015 as quoted in HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter. Harvard Business Review Press. 2016.

having everyone contribute

Having everyone contribute isn’t just good for the end result of your meeting but for the participants themselves as well. People like to know that their opinions are being heard and considered, says Gino. And, “just by asking people in the meeting for their opinion, you’re going to raise their commitment to the issues being discussed.”

Amy Gallo

“The Condensed Guide to Running Meetings,” Harvard Business Review. July 6, 2015 as quoted in HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter. Harvard Business Review Press. 2016.

social loafing

Keep the meeting as small as possible. No more than seven people. Of course, there is no magic number. Though… “there is evidence to suggest that keeping the meeting small is beneficial,” says [Francesca] Gino, [a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan]… If you want people to have the opportunity to contribute, you need to limit attendance. [Paul] Axtell [who has worked for 35 years as a personal effectiveness consultant and wrote Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations] says that in his experience limiting it to four or five people is the only way to make sure everyone has the chance to talk in a 60-minute meeting. 

The challenge with large meetings isn’t just that everyone won’t have a chance to talk, but many of them won’t feel the need to. “When many hands are available, people work less hard than they ought to,” explains Gino. “Social psychology research has shown that when people perform group tasks (such as brainstorming or discussing information in a meeting), they show a sizable decrease in individual effort than when they perform alone.” This is known as “social loafing” and tends to get worse as the size of the group increases.

Amy Gallo

“The Condensed Guide to Running Meetings,” Harvard Business Review. July 6, 2015 as quoted in HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter. Harvard Business Review Press. 2016.

creating desire

As a basic principle, managers must first view the task of creating desire as more than managing resistance. Adopting a "resistance management" focus can take a business leader down a trail of reactive management actions that often turn into firefighting and damage control. In other words, you should not introduce a change and then wait to identify those groups or individuals who are resistant to that change. Rather, you should adopt those strategies and tactics that have been used by effective leaders of change that are positive and proactive. Your goal is not to drag along the unwilling and uncaring, with all your attention focused on the minority. Your objective is to create energy and engagement around the change that produces momentum and support at all levels in the organization.

Jeffrey M. Hiatt

ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Community. 2006. Prosci Research. p.79

commander's intent

From a leader’s perspective, intent is the starting point. “Commander’s intent” has a special meaning in the military that requires time and thought. A commander must state his relevant aim. Intent is a formal statement in which the commander puts himself or herself on the line. Intent must accomplish the mission, it has to be achievable, it must be clearly understood, and at the end of the day, it has to deliver what the unit was tasked with achieving. Your moral authority as a commander is heavily dependent on the quality of this guidance and your troops’ sense of confidence in it: the expectation that they will use their initiative, aligning subordinate actions. You must unleash initiative rather than suffocate it…

By conveying my intent in writing and in person, I was out to win their coequal “ownership” of the mission: it wasn’t my mission; rather from private through general, it was our mission. I stressed to my staff that we had to win only one battle: for the hearts and minds of our subordinates. They will win all the rest…

Jim Mattis

MATTIS, J. (2019). CALL SIGN CHAOS: Learning to lead. S.l.: RANDOM HOUSE. 238, 239

purpose is the guardrail for actions

Purpose is the guardrail for actions. Change agility requires an answer to the question “Why?”, so that people can fight the natural instinct to resist change. The answer needs to tap into what’s meaningful and important, providing an irresistible invitation to come along. As CEO Shoei Yamana of Konica Minolta has said, “My belief is that people don’t work for numbers…they need to share the same belief that they are creating value in some way.” If you can’t articulate a clear purpose behind the changes being made, it’s unlikely that your employees will be able to implement them.

Edith Onderick-Harvey

5 Behaviors of Leaders Who Embrace Change. Harvard Business Review. May 18, 2018

great necessities call out great virtues

It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed... The Habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties... Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the Heart, then those qualities which would otherways lay dormant, wake into Life, and form the Character of the Hero and the Statesman.

Abigail Adams

John Adams by David McCullough. 2001. Simon & Schuster. p.226

speak, but don’t listen

[W]hen leaders assume their answer is the answer, they tend to approach change as they would a political campaign — heavy on slogans and focused on numerical targets akin to contributions and votes. The process can feel forced; people are engaged solely to be converted to the leader’s “side,” rather than to participate in a dialogue about the potential implications of the plan. Leaders speak, but don’t listen. Or they assume that a lack of feedback reflects agreement and acceptance among their constituents.

Success under this approach is typically measured by increases in compliance (“40 percent of staff have logged on to the new ERP system”) and decreases in resistance (“the number of employees indicating the new ERP system will help make their work more effective has increased by 30 percent since last quarter”). Leaders reward those who quickly conform, not realizing that these conversions often represent superficial commitments, not true allegiance or even an accurate understanding of the new way. And because hard questions are minimized, teams may comply with a change that won’t work once it gets underway.

For employees, the pressure to change without truly understanding or committing to the initiative is an unfortunate fact of organizational life. People become used to the expectation that they will limit independent thinking and suspend disbelief, regardless of the lessons of their prior experience. If employees have a few questions, that is usually acceptable, but more can invite censure or ridicule, or, in the worst cases, can be career damaging, even if such questions represent legitimate critiques or sound ideas for improvement.

Maya Townsend and Elizabeth Doty

"The road to successful change is lined with trade-offs," strategy+business. November 2, 2020.

the behaviors of engaged teams

Engaged teams are productive, enthusiastic, and focused. But how can managers keep a pulse on their team when these are very subjective traits to measure?

Engaged teams and employees often:

• Confide in and show trust in their leadership team
• Identify problems and take on challenges proactively
• Work with a win-win mindset
• Provide better performance on day-to-day tasks
• Work with purpose and reevaluate priorities without instruction
• Challenge priorities and push back on assignments when they don’t see the value of them
• Collaborate with team members (and other departments) with a positive attitude

On the other side, disengaged teams and employees do the following:

• Shuffle responsibility from person to person
• Approach projects with a defeatist attitude
• Prioritize individual work over teamwork
• Fail to speak up or contribute during team meetings
• Come to one on ones without any agenda items 
• Fail to follow through on commitments

These are the telltale signs that something has gone awry. Yet, managers may not have the visibility to identify these signs early when managing remote and distributed teams. 

Marlo Oster

"How to Increase Remote Team Engagement" Workpatterns. December 10, 2020

having better arguments

THE BETTER ARGUMENTS PROJECT—a civic initiative founded by Allstate, The Aspen Institute, Facing History and Ourselves, and the Bezos Family Foundation to help bridge divides—was built on the belief that arguments are fundamental to healthy civic life. To effectively address divisions in our society, it proposes we have better arguments, not fewer.

The project characterizes better arguments as emotionally intelligent, rooted in history, and honest about power imbalances. Using five principles for engagement—taking winning off the table, prioritizing relationships, paying attention to context, embracing vulnerability, and making room to transform—the project provides a framework for people to engage with each other on divisive issues.

"How Do We Build a Better Society? Have Better Arguments" The Atlantic (sponsored by Allstate)

See also: https://betterarguments.org/

recognition and appreciation

Recognition and appreciation. We often use these words interchangeably, and think of them as the same thing. But while they’re both important, there’s a big difference between them. For leaders who want their teams to thrive and organizations that want to create cultures of engagement, loyalty, and high performance, it’s important to understand the distinction...

Appreciation, on the other hand, is about acknowledging a person’s inherent value. The point isn’t their accomplishments. It’s their worth as a colleague and a human being.

In simple terms, recognition is about what people do; appreciation is about who they are...

Great leaders have to successfully focus on and cultivate both appreciation and recognition. And all of us benefit from understanding this distinction in business (and in life). Recognition is appropriate and necessary when it’s earned and deserved. Appreciation, however, is important all the time.

Mike Robbins

"Why Employees Need Both Recognition and Appreciation" Harvard Business Review. November 12, 2019

encourage a certain behavior

Hammers, buckets and earplugs. Suns Head Coach Monty Williams is bringing his metaphors to life in the Suns locker room and the players are listening and buying into his methods.

Williams has presented his team physical items to further his teachings and help his players remember his lessons going further. The Suns locker room is currently lined with large white buckets at the top of the lockers as a reminder to each player every day.

“We had the buckets made and we put 'Everything counts' on it,” Williams said. “It's just a metaphor, a symbol that the bucket is your career. Everything you do counts. Whether it's getting one more hour of sleep, getting a massage, getting your work in, video work, everything is important. Film study, talking to your teammates, communicating on defense. It all goes into that symbolic bucket.”

Following practice last week, one by one the players exited the locker room with hammers and earplugs to take home. The Suns are off to their hottest start since 2009 at 6-3 and are making national headlines, but Williams wants the team to stay focus and tune-out any outside noise.

“The earplugs were so guys would be selective on what they listened to,” Williams said. “You start hearing all [the talk], people sending me articles, delete, sending the articles, delete, send, delete. You see the stuff on TV and naturally you want to listen to that stuff. For us to really focus on the process, I just thought of a goofy idea to go out and buy earplugs and the hammer.”

Williams got the idea for the hammers from his time in San Antonio working with Head Coach Gregg Popovich in order to push the concept of continuing to pound the rock.

“The hammer was, we got to keep working,” Williams said. “If you've been in San Antonio, you have a familiarity with the Jacob Riis poem with the stone cutter. In San Antonio, we just talk about pounding the rock and that's basically what we do there. I wanted to bring some of that stuff here. The hammer was symbolic of the work that you've got to put in everyday and the earplugs were to just tune out all the nonsense because it doesn't mean anything.”

Williams admits that the idea behind gifting his players a hammer and earplugs may come off as goofy or corny, but that the information that is processed matters above all else.

“Coaches, we try to do anything to help our players remember or encourage a certain behavior or a certain atmosphere,” Williams said. “It's just an effort to try to keep this thing from being so monotonous and boring. I just care about our guys and we just try to do things to help them see that.”

Cody Cunningham

"Williams Goes Beyond the Clipboard in Teaching Lessons in Suns Locker Room"  Suns.com November 11, 2019

assessing your culture

Ed Schein, now retired from the MIT School of Management, taught that a group's culture can be studied in three ways: by looking at its "artifacts," such as physical space and behaviors; by surveying the beliefs and values espoused by group members; or by digging deeper into the underlying assumptions behind those values.

As Adam Grant of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and it's youngest-ever tenured professor told me: "People interpret strong cultures based on the artifacts because they're the most visible, but the values and assumptions underneath matter much more.""

Laszlo Bock

"Work Rules! Insights From Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead", 2015, Hatchette Book Group, pages 29-30.

the key to business improvement

All it takes is a belief that people are fundamentally good and enough courage to treat your people like owners instead of machines. Machines do their jobs, owners do whatever is needed to make their companies and teams successful.


Laszlo Bock"Work Rules! Insights From Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead", 2015, Hatchette Book Group

are you undercommunicating?

Transformation is impossible unless hundreds or thousands of people are willing to help, often to the point of making short-term sacrifices. Employees will not make sacrifices, even if they are unhappy with the status quo, unless they believe that useful change is possible. Without credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of the troops are never captured....

Executives who communicate well incorporate messages into their hour-by-hour activities. In a routine discussion about a business problem, they talk about how proposed solutions fit (or don’t fit) into the bigger picture. In a regular performance appraisal, they talk about how the employee’s behavior helps or undermines the vision. In a review of a division’s quarterly performance, they talk not only about the numbers but also about how the division’s executives are contributing to the transformation. In a routine Q&A with employees at a company facility, they tie their answers back to renewal goals.

In more successful transformation efforts, executives use all existing communication channels to broadcast the vision. They turn boring and unread company newsletters into lively articles about the vision. They take ritualistic and tedious quarterly management meetings and turn them into exciting discussions of the transformation. They throw out much of the company’s generic management education and replace it with courses that focus on business problems and the new vision. The guiding principle is simple: use every possible channel, especially those that are being wasted on nonessential information.

Perhaps even more important, most of the executives I have known in successful cases of major change learn to “walk the talk.” They consciously attempt to become a living symbol of the new corporate culture. This is often not easy. A 60-year-old plant manager who has spent precious little time over 40 years thinking about customers will not suddenly behave in a customer-oriented way. But I have witnessed just such a person change, and change a great deal. In that case, a high level of urgency helped. The fact that the man was a part of the guiding coalition and the vision-creation team also helped. So did all the communication, which kept reminding him of the desired behavior, and all the feedback from his peers and subordinates, which helped him see when he was not engaging in that behavior.

Communication comes in both words and deeds, and the latter are often the most powerful form. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with their words.

John P. Kotter

"Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail" Harvard Business Review. May-June 1995

keep fear at bay

It’s awfully hard for managers and staff to get motivated when they believe that the latest project from on high is going to die just like the last one - no matter what they do. Fear makes change intensely personal. People fear for their income. They worry about their families. They wonder what will happen to their careers. When people are afraid, they literally can’t hear or think as well. It’s much harder for them to take in important information when their minds are reeling. This can be a big distraction that undermines your team’s ability to focus and stay productive… just when you need to them most...

So how do the best leaders and managers mitigate change... fatigue, keep fear at bay and keep the team engaged and energized?

By doing two things: identifying and celebrating early successes and creating cultural experiences that support the vision and keep the change train on track.

Brent Gleeson

"1 Reason Why Most Change Management Efforts Fail" Forbes. Jul. 25, 2017

the leader's number one job

[Clear direction] is the leader's number one job. If you don't do anything else, you absolutely must give clear direction to your team. Let them know what the goals and objectives are. Too often there is a lack of clarity, which can lead to confusion, misalignment, frustration, and disengagement. Sometimes, clear direction is all a team needs; General Patton said, "Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

Gordon Tredgold

"4 Simple Things Every Team Wants From Their Leader" inc.com. May 8, 2017

the transformational CEO

Four key functions collectively define a successful role for the CEO in a transformation:

1. Making the transformation meaningful. People will go to extraordinary lengths for causes they believe in, and a powerful transformation story will create and reinforce their commitment. The ultimate impact of the story depends on the CEO’s willingness to make the transformation personal, to engage others openly, and to spotlight successes as they emerge.
2. Role-modeling desired mind-sets and behavior. Successful CEOs typically embark on their own personal transformation journey. Their actions encourage employees to support and practice the new types of behavior.
3. Building a strong and committed top team. To harness the transformative power of the top team, CEOs must make tough decisions about who has the ability and motivation to make the journey.
4. Relentlessly pursuing impact. There is no substitute for CEOs rolling up their sleeves and getting personally involved when significant financial and symbolic value is at stake.

Everyone has a role to play in a performance transformation. The role of CEOs is unique in that they stand at the top of the pyramid and all the other members of the organization take cues from them. CEOs who give only lip service to a transformation will find everyone else doing the same. Those who fail to model the desired mind-sets and behavior or who opt out of vital initiatives risk seeing the transformation lose focus. Only the boss of all bosses can ensure that the right people spend the right amount of time driving the necessary changes.

Carolyn B. Aiken and Scott P. Keller

"The CEO’s role in leading transformation". mckinsey.com. Feb. 2007

the problem just needs to be heard

Gabrielle Thompson, senior vice president at Cisco, has found that when an employee comes to her with a challenge, sometimes it needs a simple solution. But often, the problem just needs to be heard. “Many situations simply need an ear, not action. Oftentimes, problems don’t need solutions — they need presence and time,” she says. As leaders, having the ability to be fully present and listen with an open mind is often the most powerful way to solve issues.

As a leader, your role can be simply to create the safe space for people to air their frustrations and process their problems. Through mindful presence, you become the container in which they have space to process the issue, without you stepping in to solve, fix, manipulate, or control the situation. Presence in itself can help resolve the issue. This kind of presence not only solves the problem but also creates greater connection and engagement.

Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter

"If You Aspire to Be a Great Leader, Be Present" Harvard Business Review. December 13, 2017.

he was actually there

Some years ago, we worked with a director of a multinational pharma company who’d been receiving poor grades for engagement and leadership effectiveness. Although he tried to change, nothing seemed to work. As his frustration grew, he started tracking the time he spent with each of his direct reports — and every time he received bad feedback, he pulled out his data and exclaimed, ”But look how much time I spend with everyone!”

Things improved when he began a daily 10-minute mindfulness practice. After a couple of months, people found him more engaging, nicer to work with, and more inspiring. He was surprised and elated by the results. The real surprise? When he pulled out his time-tracking spreadsheet, he saw that he was spending, on average, 21% less time with his people.

The difference? He was actually there.

He came to understand that, even though he was in the same room with someone, he wasn’t always fully present. He let himself become preoccupied with other activities or let his mind drift to other things. And, most of all, he’d listen to his inner voice when someone was talking. Because of his lack of presence, people felt unheard and frustrated.

Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter

"If You Aspire to Be a Great Leader, Be Present" Harvard Business Review. December 13, 2017.