One of the biggest barriers to organisational change is a collective unwillingess for people to say no. I’m not in any way suggesting that people should become militant and unhelpful, so let me clarify:

If you are asked to do something, it is in everyone’s interest for you to take a moment to establish whether
a. the request will lead to a consumate benefit;
b. whether you have the right skills, experience; and
c. whether you have the time to complete the task in the required time

You would be amazed at how often the task can be simplified, met in some other better way, even if you remain the best person to complete it.

You will also be very surprised at how often team members are happy to help you out and learn new skills/ gain new experience when you delegate to them. Especially if you take the time to make it clear that you have conducted a, b and c above.

Sure, people like the instant power and satisfaction of someone saying to them “yes, no problem, leave it with me etc.”, but the overall gain of a pause will generate a more sustainable satisfaction and respect for your part in a more efficient, more thoughtful business.

As with many of the my heroes, Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto, is an economist and a philosopher (See also Daniel Kahneman) and his simple idea resonates in today’s business as much as in his own day (early 20th Century). It’s a simple idea that states that, in general* you get your first 80% of benefit from your first 20% of effort. This could be the effect of a sales promotion, or a new staff incentive. It also applies in the sense that 20% of workers do 80% of the work etc.. his model was founded on  observations of his such as that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

For me, what it means is…. focus on the first 20% of effort, get lots of 20% effort events going on and come back to squeezing the last remnants of benefit out afterwards if you have that luxury of time. Obviously, if you are a nuclear scientist you will need to do thoe whole 100% no matter how painfully slow those last test, test, retest etc. are to generate results, but in business generally, it’s a rare person that hasn’t got something new lined up that should jsut be getting started to reap those easy rewards!

*normally distributed stats/ caveat emptor etc.

Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) talks a lot about synergy. It’s a word that sounds so ‘buzzword bingo’ that people are afraid to use it when trying to work out how best to work as a team, and this is a real shame. If individuals in a team, especially if peers (say, managers working together on a business plan, or scenario planning, can find a way to agree to celebrate their individual skills, and approach shared problems in a ‘thank you, I couldn’t do it this well alone’ mindset, the creative juices start to flow and the results are (always, in my experience), amazing.  There is great potential in working with each other’s strengths to create a result that is only possible if you channel the differences, the unique problem solving responses. Too often, people bring fear and protectionist thinking “my team, my reputation, my budget etc.” and the goal seems to be solely to ‘prove my way is better’, talk louder to make sure my point  is put across most strongly and demonstrate what I am capable of.

In changing times, (and let’s face it, in this economy, at this time, I doubt there’s a single working person who isn’t experience an unprecedented amount of change in their workplace), we should call upon the experiences, insights, worries, skills and simple ideas of everyone we know, supporting each other to create a ‘middle way’ – not a compromised position, but a high point – like the seat on a stool, where the individuals are the legs, providing a unique core of strength and a wide spread of knowledge.

Yes, it sounds clichéd, but if you can find away to trust your co-workers to pick up where you don’t excel, and in return, generously give of your strength to make magic out of their weak spots, you will both come away looking, feeling, and performing a class apart from the individuals who think they’ve got it all.

With. once again, a reverent and grateful nod to the ever-inspiring Edward Tufte (@EdwardTufte) – The deepest and most probing question you can ask both yourself and others: “How do you know that?”

Asking this question, in my opinion, is the best possible way to slow yourself down and prevent yourself from jumping to conclusions without actually finding out the basis of an opinion. It can be tricky to ask this without sounding like you are challenging someone, but it so often the key to opening a subject up to proper scrutiny that it’s worth mastering!

For example, my team and I are in the middle of a very tricky programme of works at the moment, so many teams coming together for the first time to agree sensible approaches to achieve a lot in a tiny timeframe and it’s really quite something to see the amount of assuming that is going on. Not through arrogance, and definitely not through a lack of skill or intelligence, but seemingly through a need to answer a hard sum by making it an easy one and ignoring the tricky truths. This inevitably leads to problems later on in the project (sometimes too late) so by ensuring that everyone feels they have to properly examine everything they know (or think they know) you would be amazed how much more effort people make to be prepared and also to ask a stupid question.

Better to find out early on what you don’t know – and of course, what the other person has made up on the spot – before you come to rely on that knowledge.