Episode 41

It is Monday morning; a weekend has passed where you were fortunate enough to not have to check your email for two whole days. The reprieve is now met with dread as you stare at the 200+ unread emails. A few hours later, the list has been parsed, a few quick responses sent, and now you can start your day…after addressing the 30 new emails that have newly appeared. It is a situation that is all too familiar. Organizational agility suffers when the primary means of communication and collaboration is done through the wrong communication medium. The means of communication must be multifaceted to match the numerous needs of an organization. Reliance on a single tool like email is the equivalent of a golfer hitting the course with only their drivers. This blog will cover how email, text chat, and video can be more effectively used, like a golfer bringing all the clubs they need to stay under par.

Emails are best thought of as your long game. The hole may or may not be visible, but you know the direction to go. It is possible to see some obstacles, but their full nature is hard to determine from where you are currently standing. Shots from the tee-box are high impact but do not have the fidelity compared to using an iron or putter. This is the golf equivalent of an email. Ideally, a one-way, a written body of information, intended to pass along high-level details to one or many parties. Due to the extremely low information through-put of email, back and forth exchange is not productive. Tee-off shots are critical for setting up the remaining hits for a successful under par hole. Likewise, emails require care and attention to ensure that follow up discussions by other mediums are successful. A bad tee-off leaves the golfer a long way from the fairway, with multiple follow up shots used to correct the error. The same is true with a poorly constructed email. We have all been stuck on that RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE email chain which long ago derailed as a few individuals debated back and forth on the best way to proceed.

Ok, you made the tee-off shot, and with some good fortune we are on the fairway. We can see around the trees we shot over, the sand trap that was missed, and the flag is now in sight. The green is up on a hill, so it is hard to know exactly the slope and the risk if we overshoot. But by putting away the driver and taking out an iron, we now have far more control over our next shot. If we are short or long it is far easier to correct compared to a missed shot from tee-off, and certainly the distance to the hole will be shorter after this next shot. Getting to the green is the equivalent of using text chat. We have more clarity on our goal, obstacles are known and visible, and now we need a medium with a higher throughput for idea exchange. Chats are great for throwing out ideas, asking for quick input or details, and do not require the same degree of forethought or formality of an email. Most chat platforms will support gifs, and honestly, I have not found anyone that does not appreciate a good cat gif. At the same time, chat is limited by the speed of information that can be typed and interpreted between two individuals or a group involved in the discussion. Additionally, if chats do become extended, text is a poor medium for explaining context compared to speech. It is like using your iron on the green. An active text discussion, which can be especially bad in group chats, can lead to notification exhaustion, non-followers being needlessly distracted, or individuals learning to avoid text chat in preference of just email or meetings.

So close now, we are on the green. The hole is 15 feet away. Every bump and contour are visible, details like this were irrelevant earlier as the tools used to get here lacked the accuracy. To get this next shot perfect, every detail between where you are now, and the hole is a factor to consider. This is when a discussion requires a deeper understanding of context than what an email or text chat conversation can facilitate in a reasonable period. In the age of remote work, this is where video calls shine. At least until we have a reliable brain machine interface, speech and body language is the highest throughput medium we have for individuals to exchange information. Just like we would not use a driver or iron on the green, we do not use the putter at tee-off. Ever walk away from a meeting that accomplished nothing? For a meeting, everyone is required to be present, and in the moment, where with email and text chat, it is only a requirement for the author as the recipients can take the time to digest before responding. A useless meeting is the discussion of the small three-inch-deep six-inch-wide divot two feet from sand-trap #3 about 150 yards from the tee-off to the right of the fairway after the water hazard. For a great meeting to take place, the team needs to work through the course together using the right tools, matching the throughput and context requirements of each exchange on the journey.

Just using email and meetings takes away from the value that can be applied while still on the fairway. Quick check-ins, or information requests, allow organizations to quickly share necessary information to remain agile and relevant. While a quick email might seem like not a big deal, conversational emails often lead to inbox hell, lowering the potential value when compared to using email more strategically. Too heavy of a reliance on chat, can lead to an overpopulation of cute cat gifs that result in excessive distractions and a reduced velocity of information exchange as context takes much longer to communicate through text than voice. Over-reliance on meetings drops groups into discussions of details that might not be relevant for the task at hand, potentially wasting valuable time.

Episode 38

A popular theory in management studies is that to encourage a workplace culture where employees are highly motivated they need the ability to practice autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The idea originates in Daniel H. Pink’s book, “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us”, published in 2009. Autonomy is our desire to be self-directed, mastery is the urge to get better skills, and purpose is the desire to do something that has meaning and is important. For this blog I am going to explore mastery. It is very important to note Pink’s definition of mastery as the urge to get better skills. This definition contrasts with a common view of the term mastery, to possess or display great skill or knowledge in an area. I will argue that pursuing mastery is rewarding, however once mastery is attained, starting something new can be a great source of fear and anxiety.

There is a common notion that mastery is just a function of input time, where roughly 10000 hours is the magic number to achieve mastery. This represents a massive time investment requiring dedication, grit, and sacrifice. It is no surprise that mastery under these conditions would feel rewarding. In modern careers, mastery can exist in many forms. Individuals specializing in a subject by completing a masters or PhD will have invested the time to become subject matter experts on a specific area of knowledge. Long serving employees retain a huge amount of contextual information on the nuances of their role, technical and business environments. We want to feel valued and it feels great to be known as the go to resource for a problem. A term that has stuck with me for this type of mastery is “ice-pick experts”.

Herein lies a potential trap for ice-pick experts. The need for knowledge experts is critical, but at the same time business velocity is very high. The “steady” state for business today is chasing a set of moving expectations. The need for business agility has been the motivation behind corporate strategies that focus on driving business innovation. Focused skill growth does plateau and there is a false sense of completeness being an ice-pick expert. “I know everything I need to know”. While this might be true for a specific problem, all that knowledge and investment can become irrelevant as business needs shift. Starting over and relinquishing the valued status of expert is painful, so it would not come as a surprise that individuals in this situation would be hesitant to start something new. Or worse, ice-pick experts in leadership roles holding back business innovation as the new practices require domain knowledge outside the individual’s current understanding. Knowledge obsolescence is especially common in the technology sector which creates challenges as expert knowledge can become as much a liability as it is valued under the right circumstances. “This is how we have always done it” should raise eyebrows.

Modern businesses are faced with an endless stream of new problems to solve. Just like how business must continuously question its practices and processes, look inward and ask yourself “what better skills should I acquire?” Businesses use moonshots, big hairy goals, and stretch goals, to ensure expectations never settle. Apply these practices to yourself. Learning can be fun and rewarding. Instead of viewing mastery as the goal, celebrate the acquisition of competency. This results in more wins more often, with the process self-reinforcing: easier to reflect on progress, and more difficult to become complacent. To get a handle on what you know you do not know, build a personal learning roadmap, and then prioritize gaps. Channel natural curiosity if you have it, and then ritualize it if you can. What you will find over time is that a different form of mastery develops, a mastery of rapidly gaining competence in a new area.

Become an expert in a few areas and good enough to be dangerous in many. Instead of striving to be an ice-pick, envision your expertise as the letter “E”. Unlock serendipity as over time it becomes easier to inter-relate ideas or practices across disciplines. Do not be mentally limited by what your formal education provides. Do not be afraid to go back to school if formal education works for you. If you learned something once, you have the capacity to learn something else. Every profession has its own rabbit hole, and starting can be intimidating, but just like mastery in a single profession, continuous learning is a daily practice. To eat an elephant, it is one bite at a time.

I do not view myself formally as a developer or programmer. Coding languages were intimidating as my formal education provided limited exposure. Since joining MERAK, I have become competent at working with SQL and SSIS and feel confident considering myself an expert in Power Query and DAX. Previously SQL was a black magic box that I used to restore a database backup once after some difficulty, and Power Query was used to make simple API calls with limited transformations. I have always viewed myself as an Excel wizard, but at a Microsoft conference in late 2018, I realized how out of date my skills were and decided to do something about it.

Using a personal passion project as the foundation to a learning roadmap, I distinctly remember saying to a colleague early into this journey, “to solve this problem, I need to use something called DAX”. Recalling my naivety at the time is a rewarding feeling today, as I can distinctly see the progress over the last couple years. Bit by bit, problem by problem, competencies are gained. The most revealing moment has been conversing with experts in these areas with questions and learning that despite their status, they are in the same situation as everyone else, learning as they go, bit by bit, solving one problem after another.

Episode 37

Impostor Syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments or talents and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. Often our top performers, most worthy of praise, suffer from this condition. While impostor syndrome is an individual’s battle, in a modern workplace, its management and hopeful defeat can be done collectively. This blog will cover how corporate culture can help individuals who suffer from impostor syndrome.

Impostors syndrome can manifest in several ways: the need to be special or the best; to exemplify characteristics of a super person; a fear of failure; denial of their ability and discounting praise; or the feelings of fear and guilt about success. Modern work environments have features that make it easy for individuals that suffer from impostor syndrome to get stuck in feedback loops, making the condition worse if left unaddressed. In modern work environments we rely heavily on knowledge from experts and specialists working within teams that tackle complex problems often greater than any single individual. Compounding this the modern work environment is dynamic, with systems and processes changing more rapidly than they have in the past.

The combination of individual specialization, multi-role teams, and a dynamic external environment places a lot of pressure on individuals to perform at high levels, as their contributions are critical to a high performing team. Therefore, individuals that suffer from impostor syndrome, who often doubt their own abilities, will either compensate by putting in extraordinary effort or fear contributing, amplifying their anxiety. We have all been in projects where an individual carried or saved the team or had someone in the office who is challenged when working on project teams.

What can you do to help individuals in your organization that suffer from imposter’s syndrome? An inclusive, supportive, and generative culture is critical here. Let’s translate those fancy buzzwords. To tackle impostor syndrome, the critical first step is to get those feelings out. If no one knows the internal challenges of the sufferer, it is impossible for others in the organization to adjust their behavior and provide support. People who feel like they are impostors often feel like they are outsiders, and therefore an inclusive culture is important. Make it normal for individuals to not be expected to know all the answers all the time. It is normal to ask for help and failure is ok. A supportive organization will see each unknown as a challenge to collectively solve (instead of sticking with what is known) and every setback as an opportunity to improve (instead of finding someone to blame). All of the above elements represent a generative culture where information and knowledge are free flowing between hierarchies and divisions, risks are shared, collaboration is encouraged, and novelty is supported.