For a full list of resources and toolkits, check out our COVID-19 response page.

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As our world continues to grapple with what’s happening around us, everyone, including leaders, struggle to keep up with rapidly evolving conditions. At The Clearing, we have the pleasure of working with leaders across the public and private sectors. As organizations adjust to operating in virtual environments, three leadership principles emerge as reminders of how you can impact and lead your teams and organizations through uncertainty.

Details, Details, Details

Think about great military leaders of the past. Napoleon didn’t have the communication methods we have today, but he still managed to lead many successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary War. Napoleon wrote about this limitation often, notably, “The secret of war lies in the communications.”  When Napoleon wrote orders to his generals, he was meticulous in the detail he provided. He also spent a good portion of his missives describing the “why” behind his commands. Napoleon knew that once a general set out from camps, his chances of getting back in communication with them were slim to none, so he had to communicate his thinking, along with the task, to each in detail.

While we’re not fighting a war, leaders can take a note from Napoleon’s playbook by providing more detail than we’re used to. Communicating the context of our requests is more critical today as we work with teams to navigate a drastically shifting virtual environment. Unlike Napoleon, we do have the ability to contact our colleagues and staff easily via chat, text, email, etc., but without the luxury of walking down the hall, we must be more intentional and explicit with requests and commands and leave room for grace when our colleagues ask for more.

Establish a “Bat Signal” for Emergencies

With our closest team members no longer down the hall, it can be harder to convene a group in time of acute emergency. Those hallway meetings were great for urgent issues, small requests, or sharing a piece of information. What can we do now that everyone’s at home?

In Gotham City, when The Batphone rings or the Bat Signal shines bright, Bruce Wayne drops everything and makes for the Batcave — Gotham needs him. Likewise, for organizations, you too can set up a Bat Signal. A Bat Signal is a simple agreement with your team that establishes an emergency response protocol. When this text/email/call is received, know the team needs to convene, now. Bat Signals are not reserved for the CEO; anyone on the team can throw up the signal. Ensure the team establishes a common understanding of the types of situations that warrant a Bat Signal and hold the team to those protocols.

Balancing Short-term Tactics With Long-term Implications 

In the heat of the moment, as we address pressing matters during a crisis, it’s easy to move from one fire to the next. What a group of emergency response managers realized in a recent strategy session is that, after hundreds of incident responses and thousands of hours spent in the field, holding only the short-term “firefighting” perspective made for huge complications later on, once the crisis subsided.

In times of crisis, leaders must balance short-term firefighting measures with long-term planning. While we tackle urgent threats and shifts, we need to take a few moments to consider the longer-term impact of these decisions. Don’t let current passing circumstances fool us into thinking we must respond a certain way. At the end of a crisis, we want to ensure our organization is not worse off in the long run because of short term measures. Shane Parrish has an excellent piece on what he calls, “Second Order and Third Order Thinking.” As the adage goes,“today’s solutions are tomorrow’s problems.” This still holds true even in times of extreme change.

Charlie Munger, the equally successful yet less well-known partner of Warren Buffet, is considered to be the one of the smartest generalists of all time. His success is likely due to the fact that he finds a “lesson” in everything. Charlie is notorious for taking high-level concepts from different fields, especially psychology, and distilling the core concepts down into simple, easy-to-remember “mental models.”

“The models have to come from multiple disciplines – because all the wisdom of the world is not to be found in one little academic department. That’s why poetry professors, by and large, are so unwise in a worldly sense. They don’t have enough models in their heads. So you’ve got to have models across a fair array of disciplines. You may say, “My God, this is already getting way too tough.” But, fortunately, it isn’t that tough – because 80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly – wise person. And, of those, only a mere handful really carry any weight.” – Charlie Munger

I highly recommend reading up on Charlie’s wisdom in his book, Poor Charlie’s Almanac.

Since I started exploring how I could learn more about mental models in order to apply them, I’ve started to see business lessons pop up in the strangest of places. One of them is from the Roomba.

Robots and Artificial Intelligence Are Evolving

As technology advances, we are hearing more and more about the unique ways robots and artificial intelligence are accomplishing tasks, ways that we can’t predict or understand. For instance, Facebook just pulled the plug on its artificial intelligence system after it developed a new language to more efficiently communicate with other computers that was incomprehensible to humans. Here’s a snippet of the convo:

[Bot 1] I can i i everything else.
[Bot 2] balls have zero to me to me to me…

A latte then appeared out of a slot in the side of Bot 1 and slid over to Bot 2.

The latte part is a joke, however the conversation was very real, as these two machines negotiated with each other to process an equation. It was an unexpected turn for Facebook engineers who, with the looming threat of AI takeover, quickly tweaked their formulas.

That said, the bot did what humans do, only more efficiently, and more importantly, in a way that we weren’t expecting.

So what’s a Roomba have to do with all of this?

The Business Lesson I Learned From My Roomba

I live with my girlfriend, and we were recently gifted a Roomba. If you’ve never seen one work, it’s quite fascinating. The Roomba is a robot vacuum that sits on a docking station in your house. You can program it to vacuum for you, eliminating the laborious task of getting out the Dyson (très bourgeois!). Here’s the rub, because the Roomba is programmed differently than the human brain, it doesn’t use the same patterns to clean that we humans would. For instance, instead of cleaning corner-by-corner, and room-by-room like any normal, sentient being, the Roomba completes a series of non-associated zigzags across the room. When it bumps into something, it turns a little bit and takes off in the other direction.

It drives my girlfriend nuts. Several times I’ve seen her pick the Roomba up and move it over to a particular area, only to have the dang thing head off in some seemingly arbitrary direction.

After contemplating this phenomenon, something emerged for me. With both humans and technology, it’s critical for leaders to “let things do what they do.” Just because someone, or something, doesn’t complete a task the way you would, doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. In fact, that’s where a significant amount of learning can occur.

Now, if you’re working in an environment where process is king and demands repeatability, you most certainly want to rein in any variations when completing tasks. However, for the more creative endeavors, especially ones that have you pitted against a problem you have yet to encounter, it can be incredibly valuable to let someone, or something, take a stab at it, and just observe.

As Charlie Munger says, ”Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”

Leading from the Middle teaches you how to improve the system and show the Man that Millennials know how to get stuff done. Gain new perspectives on leadership, plot the course, and make an impact, even if your title equates to something along the lines of “assistant to the assistant.” Be forewarned — if you take on Leading from the Middle, there’s no such thing as, “above my paygrade.” Written by a Millennial, for Millennials, but in no way, shape, or form limited to Millennials.

In our third episode, One Man’s Story of War and Peace, we speak with Professor Al Fuertes about his experience growing up in a war zone in the Philippines, and how that led him to become a practitioner in the field of conflict transformation. We also discover how some of our conventional notions of the roles in conflict, specifically the role of victim and perpetrator, may not be so clear cut.

Guests speakers in this episode:

Al Fuertes –  Associate Professor at George Mason University and practitioner in the field of conflict transformation.

 You can listen to the full episode below, or on Soundcloud.

Full disclosure — I’m not a sports guy. Don’t get me wrong, I play sports and lots of them. I just ended my fast-pitch baseball career last year, after all. However, Bud Light would never cast me in their chest-bumping-bowl-of-Utz-Party-Mix-spilling Sunday afternoon commercials. I just can’t get fired up about it.

That said, Super Bowl LI on Sunday, February 7th, 2017, was one of the most amazing performances of any game, show, or event I have ever seen, specifically the fourth quarter.

Background for those of you who didn’t see the game, here’s a quick headline. Tom Brady is quarterback for the New England Patriots. Many consider him to be the best quarterback of all time. Prior to Super Bowl LI, he was tied with other greats for most Super Bowl wins at four. If he won, he’d be solely on top with five.

The Patriots (the Pats, as they’re known) were playing the Atlanta Falcons, led by quarterback Matt Ryan. The Falcons were considered the underdog by a significant margin. The Pats are a dominant team, who are known to roll over their opponents, so everyone thought they’d make easy work of the Falcons.

It’s also important to note the nation’s sentiment surrounding the two teams. Tom Brady used to be the nation’s quarterback, however after a scandal and the fact, well frankly, he’s just won too many times, he’s too good looking, and he’s married to a supermodel, many people in the country were rooting for the Falcons, but not really expecting them to win.

Falcons fans couldn’t have been more surprised by how the game started. Matt Ryan came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. He surgically eviscerated the Pat’s defense, making them look like they had never made it out of Peewee football. Tom Brady felt the pressure Ryan was putting on him, and the Pat’s offense struggled to do just about anything.

For two quarters the Falcons dominated the game, controlling the clock and possession of the ball. After 30 minutes of gameplay the score was Atlanta 21, New England 3. In the history of the Super Bowl, no team had ever come back from a deficit so great and won (previous record was a 10 point comeback).

Then halftime came. Lady Gaga was great and the drones blew my mind, but that’s not the point.

Something happened at halftime in the Pat’s locker room. I can’t say for certain what it was, however there was a distinct shift. The Pats came out a different team.

Here’s where the learning starts.

Generate rhythm (the source of momentum) – Brady started with things he knew would work. He found his favorite receivers on their favorite routes. Over and over again, they hit completions, trotted to the line of scrimmage, and did it again. They began to generate a sense of momentum, and more importantly, rhythm. The great thing about rhythm, distinct from momentum, is it helps you perform both consciously and subconsciously. You don’t have to think about rhythm once you are in it. In fact, you only think about rhythm when you are out of it. People talk about rhythm when they are talking about being “in the zone.” The best way to generate rhythm is to do what works, over and over again. At The Clearing, we call those “quick wins.”
Meet the circumstance where it is at –Brady didn’t try to force anything in the second half of the game. He threw long when it was time to throw long, he ran the ball when he had to run. It was as if everything the Falcons’ defense did, he wanted them to do. If we’re going to get really zen about it, he chose everything about the game and resisted nothing. In doing so, and in keeping with our vibration theme, he was taking maximum resonant actions every opportunity he could. The added benefit of resonance is it spreads, like the wave of a vibration, and soon the entire team fell into the rhythm.
Generate outcomes independent of your circumstances –The first half for Brady was atrocious, most of the country was rooting against him and no team had ever made a comeback like the one he was facing in the history of the Super Bowl. To the ordinary person that’s enough to say, “well we gave it the ol’ college try!” and go home. Brady did not do that. He separated his circumstances from his perspective of the future. This is reminiscent of my time in Econ class talking about sunk costs and the classic grocery line example. If you’ve been standing in line for 30 minutes and you see another line open up, what do you do? Well, if the new line would be a shorter wait than the one you are standing in now, you move! Some people argue, “But I’ve already been waiting for so long in this one.” The fact of the matter is, the time spent in line is a sunk cost, meaning you spent it and you can’t get it back, so there’s no point in letting it determine your future. Brady recognized the first half of the game was a sunk cost. In fact, you could see it, play-by-play, everything became a sunk cost to him. He would throw the ball, and as soon as it left his hand, he moved on. It was so visible the guy I was sitting next to at a party said, “He’s in the zone. He just became unstoppable.”

If you didn’t watch and it’s already not apparent, Brady and the Pats came back to tie the game 28-28 with seconds to go in the fourth quarter, sending it to the first overtime in Super Bowl history. The Pats won the coin toss, elected to receive the opening kick in overtime, and marched down the field to win.

While neither team was my team (go Skins?), I couldn’t help but appreciate the sportsmanship, the skill, and the peak performance exhibited by both teams. It was a great game, and one that will be talked about for a long, long, long time.
So, Tom, here’s to you and your win. I can’t say I love you. However, I am in awe of your ability to perform, no matter the circumstances. Congrats.

Leading From the Middle teaches you how to improve the system and show the Man that Millennials know how to get stuff done. Gain new perspectives on leadership, plot the course, and make an impact, even if your title equates to something along the lines of “assistant to the assistant.” Be forewarned — if you take on Leading From the Middle, there’s no such thing as, “above my paygrade.” Written by a Millennial, for Millennials, but in no way, shape, or form limited to Millennials.

This blog is part of a series, Leading From the Middle. This series teaches you how to improve the system and show the Man that Millennials know how to get stuff done. Gain new perspectives on leadership, plot the course, and make an impact, even if your title equates to something along the lines of “assistant to the assistant.” Be forewarned — if you take on Leading From the Middle, there’s no such thing as, “above my paygrade.” Written by a Millennial, for Millennials, but in no way, shape, or form limited to Millennials.

Imagine a world in which “no” is a distant, bad memory. One where you had the power to influence those around you so “no” is replaced by “yes.”

This isn’t about being entitled or any of the other words that are often thrown around to describe Millennials. This is about knowing how to present your case in the most effective way possible. When you start to hear “yes” as opposed to “no,” you begin to unlock what is possible. You start to realize the impact you’re capable of, have the job you dreamed of, live in the location you desired, make the moolah to give you financial freedom, have the…really, whatever you wanted.

I’m here to tell you it’s possible, with practice. It has nothing to do with your age, rank, beauty, or any other category with which you identify.

In this post, we’ll explore the context of the word, “No,” and ways to make requests that will have your boss saying, “Yes,” time and time again.

First, what’s wrong with “No?”

Nothing! “No” still serves an important purpose. “No” is great and can often be a gift if you are headed down the wrong path and don’t realize it. Many prominent leaders who have gone before us tout the importance of getting super effective with the use of “No,” so it would only make sense if you hear it from time to time.

“No” is great because it helps you stay intentional by getting non-value add work off your plate. At The Clearing, we call this type of work MUDA. MUDA is a Japanese word that means “futility, uselessness, and wastefulness.” Eliminating MUDA helps prevent bad ideas from getting off the ground and it helps maintain boundaries.

“No” is crucial if you are trying to bring workability to a system. (Side note — when a circumstance is workable it means it is capable of being operated effectively. For instance, it’s workable when you find yourself saying, “Hey, that actually worked! We’re an awesome team! Pop some bottles!” If you find yourself saying, “We got it done, but we had to go through Hell and back,” workability is not present.)

On the flip side, have you ever heard “No” and it comes across as arbitrary? You’re left with an experience ranging from “How could I have missed that—I’m an idiot,” to “someone is an idiot, but I’m not sure who,” to “clearly, not all dinosaurs are extinct.”

So, what gives?

This is something many people don’t realize—there are two types of “No.” There are those disguised as reasons (or excuses) for not wanting to do something and those that are powerful (in this context, a powerful “No” is one that reduces MUDA – it maintains your integrity and your authenticity in a matter).

To make matters more muddy, they are spelled the same, sound the same, and often used in the same way, despite having two separate meanings. The yutes have a hard time enough with “their, there, and they’re” and “your and you’re,” so this is bound to confuse them.

To tell the difference between the two, skip the definition. When it comes to “No,” It’s the context that matters. It’s not the fact that you said, “No.” It’s why you said, “No,” that counts. Even if you never actually articulate the why in an actual conversation. Hence the phrase, “Actions speak louder than words.”

A perfect example of the weak “No” is the classic, “No, because I said so!” that parents far and wide toss around like candy from a float at a Memorial Day parade. It’s hard to argue against and leaves the child feeling unfulfilled.

It also doesn’t authentically communicate the why behind the “No.” The reality is, mom or dad said, “No,” not because he or she said so; it’s because the toy is too expensive or some other reason deemed too cumbersome to communicate in the moment. That’s why this type of “No” loses its potency as the child gets older and gains more autonomy.

Powerful “No’s” are different. They too come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are just a straightforward, “No.” Other times they are a “No, and here’s why…” When you hear one, you know it. It makes sense. You get it. The rebuttals, which you rehearsed leading up to your conversation suddenly lose their power, because the “no” you just heard shifted the entire context of the conversation.

Here’s an example of a powerful “No.” I recently listened to a podcast featuring the conflict transformation mediator, John Paul Lederach. He told a moving story about a paramilitary group coming to enforce its will on a small jungle village in Colombia, and how one man from that village stood up and said, “No, I will not,” despite the threat of execution, despite the impending destruction that could befall his village, despite all the evidence that regardless of what the villagers said or did the paramilitaries would wreak havoc. He still said, “No.” The trajectory of the conflict in that Colombian jungle was altered forever.

Ok, got it, there are two types of “No.” How does that lead to getting people to say, “yes?”

Understanding why people say “No” dramatically increases your chances of hearing a “Yes.”

Here’s why. When you hear a weak “No,” you probably presented your request in an ineffective way. Your request was perceived to be a burden from the other person’s perspective.

For example, how successful would you be if you walked into your boss’s office and said, “I’d like to have more vacation time.” Some of you might luck out, however many of you would probably find that your boss simply laughs and says, “No!” The way in which the request is positioned immediately gets them thinking about all of the additional work they’d have to take on, the political favoritism it would demonstrate, and the revenue lost, all in service of making sure you got a few more days on the beach.

It’s especially confusing when your colleague, the shining star of the office, walks into the boss’s office, makes practically the same request, and walks out with another 40 hours!

How Can I Get Ahead of The Shining Star? Slip Something in his Coffee?

You could, but I won’t condone that. Another way is to get more effective at making requests.

When someone says “No,” they aren’t saying “No” to you, they’re saying “No” to your request. Just like parents everywhere, they aren’t saying “No” for the heck of it. They’re saying “no” because your request set off several red flags and added a series of complex headaches to their day from which they will likely never recover.

Unlike conversations that end with weak “No’s,” effective requests end with, “Yes” (and sometimes more). The shining star of the office probably followed a simple structure like the one below.

There are three parts (plus one) to making an effective request:

Make sure you are having the same conversation — Often, we think we are communicating, but we really aren’t. Phones are buzzing, emails are being checked, clocks are being watched, etc. Those who are masterful at making effective requests have the other participant’s full attention, and likewise give theirs fully. Sometimes you have to let people settle for a couple minutes in order to shift their focus, a process known as, “letting someone arrive.”
Speak to the priorities/concerns/considerations of the person of whom you are making the request — Effective requests are not about advancing your own agenda. They are about advancing the agenda of the person to whom you are making the request. For a moment, see the world from their perspective. It is important to note that this part of the conversation may require some inquiry beforehand or even in the conversation itself. It’s okay to ask, “What’s important to you?”
Be clear, concise, and direct with the request — After you have a solid understanding of your conversational counterpart’s world, make the request in as few words as you can, so that when they hear your request they immediately see the opportunity in their world. If you find yourself rambling, take a pause and ask the other person, “Am I making sense?”

The final step is one for those who want to sleep more soundly at night:

Let it go—for now — Once you make the request, let go of any attachment to getting a “Yes.” Even if you do get a “No,” you can rest easy knowing if you authentically got in the other person’s world – then your conversation made a difference one way or the other. For the persistent Millennial, don’t worry, the “No” was just to your request at that particular moment. Try again tomorrow.

It takes time to become masterful at making effective requests. However, with a little practice, you can be someone others point to and say, “Look at them, they get whatever they ask for!” And if any of you figure out how to effectively ask for more vacation time, let me know.

On January 21st, a new chapter of the American story will begin. The transition will be a pivotal period for the new administration to set the stage for its path forward. As part of the transition, more than 4,100 individuals selected by the President-elect will parachute into federal agencies across the country to enact the newly outlined President’s Management Agenda (PMA). Each one of those 4,100+ newly appointed individuals will land at the helm of an organization that has worked toward a specific mission for the past eight years. While the plan on how best to achieve the mission may change, your job to deliver on the mission will be the same.

This can be challenging time for you as a Fed leader. You may be faced with a new agency vision, or new priorities may conflict with previous priorities. In some cases, new team members may exert themselves in ways incongruent with an already established culture — as some may not have experience leading organizations of similar scope or nature.

To further compound matters, all of these shifts can occur rather suddenly for the fed team that supports agencies in the interim, as they can only guess what their incoming boss will want.

The following advice is intended to give you an alternative perspective on your experience, which hopefully leads to an insight or two, allowing you to take action if you are stuck or uncertain.

Have a plan.

The countless cliches stressing the importance of planning only further reinforce the obvious need to be prepared, yet it is critical. Spend the necessary time to develop 30-, 60-, and 90- day plans, including specific milestones along the way to keep you on track. However, don’t over plan. We at The Clearing use a concept called DYNAMIC INCOMPLETENESS to illustrate the power of leaving gaps in your plan for others to provide their input, allowing you to enroll and empower them to take coordinated action. One way to practice this concept is to limit the space you allow yourself to articulate your plans — no more than one page, front and back.

Be real.

Look at your agency’s mission, your team, and how well your daily activities help support the mission. What efforts have been successful and what efforts have produced less than ideal results? It’s important to tout successes, and it’s equally important to learn from efforts that didn’t meet expectations. While it can be uncomfortable to discuss shortcomings, it can become a powerful opportunity to shape strategy going forward. One way to accomplish this is to talk about the reality as it really is, or, as Joe Friday from Dragnet says, “Just the facts, ma’am.” If you find yourself offering your unprompted analysis to your new appointee, you may be saying more than you should in the conversation.

Be adaptable.

Your new leader has marching orders, and he or she might take the organization in a new direction, potentially undoing work undertaken during the previous administration. Balancing work-in-progress with new priorities requires an openness to doing things differently. We use the concept COMMITMENT VS. ATTACHMENT in circumstances like this to illustrate the dynamic. By remaining committed to your outcome, but not attached to it, you are free to get there any way you can, as opposed to the one ‘right’ way.

Here are a few that might not be so obvious:

Build the binder. AND create powerful learning experiences.

Even if you read 100 books on ‘how to ride a bike,’ you won’t actually learn to ride until you get on the bike and roll down the hill. The same concept applies for new leaders at the head of organizations. Researchers call this experiential learning. Experiential learning bridges the gap between theories and real-world applicability. You can create powerful experiential learning opportunities for your team by having them interact with your customers and stakeholders. Creating the direct line to customers increases awareness of your organization’s mission and immediately gets them participating in service delivery and mission advancement, as well as affording them a better appreciation of the system within which you operate.

“Do less.”

You may be tempted to fall into a “Jump! — How High?” mindset in an attempt to respond to the many questions and requests of the appointee. In Peter Senge’s seminal work, The Fifth Discipline (a great read if you’ve ever wondered why traffic happens on the Beltway even when there’s no accident, or why no matter what strategic initiative you try, you still encounter the same operational dysfunction), he describes the power of observation. Observation, which is often misconstrued as “doing nothing,” allows an individual to truly understand the forces at play in any given event. Oftentimes, our instinct to react to an event only serves to exacerbate the issue. By taking more time to observe the forces at play, not only will you determine if the event is truly worth addressing, but you will also begin to see some of the non-obvious opportunities to influence outcomes at the source.

The transition will be bumpy! It always is. However, by employing some of these obvious and not-so-obvious tactics, you can alleviate some of your stress and maintain momentum.

Establishing and maintaining effective leadership teams in government demands strategy design and execution that works in socially and technically complex mission spaces. We design new ways of leading in government and have built our reputation by enabling leaders to make extraordinary contributions to causes that matter. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your agency thrive.

In our second episode, Democracy As We Know It: Going, Going, Gone, we take a look at how current events, specifically the Brexit, can be seen as catalysts for larger shifts in the way government works. We also examine possible aspects of that future bureaucracy, and we find out in some cases — that future is already here.

Guest Speakers in this episode:

Cat Tully– Director, School of International Futures – discusses how the Brexit could signal the end of a political system and why democracy’s short-term focus doesn’t work in today’s volatile world. If the United Kingdom and other countries are witnessing the end of democracy as we know it, what will replace it?
Mallory Barg Bulman – Director of Research and Evaluation, Partnership for Public Service – examines trends, opportunities, and challenges for agencies in the US Government. Agencies are working hard to understand their customers and how to effectively communicate with different generations within their customer base – Baby boomers, Generation X, and Millennials.

You can listen to the full episode below, or on Soundcloud.

In our first episode, Telling the Story of STEM, we sit down with industry leaders to learn about the looming STEM talent gap and what some of the world’s largest companies are doing about it. We also discuss the transforming education system and the key competencies leaders must have if they want to thrive in the future.

GUEST SPEAKERS IN THIS EPISODE:
Dr. Mehmood Khan – Vice Chairman, PepsiCo
Ruth Veloria – Executive Dean, School of Business at University of Phoenix
Frank Sesno – Director, School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University
Jon Clifton – Managing Partner at Gallup
Steve Cox -Vice President Public Relations at Sodexo