Preseason Weekly Dispatch
Agreement and accountabilty
The PreSeason Weekly Dispatch is a digest of some of the more interesting article and ideas we are seeing around innovation, orchestration, prototyping and go to market.
There is often a big difference between getting leadership and a team to agree and the hard answers and accountability to deliver on it. This week’s theme is about what it really takes to ensure leaders and teams review, analyze deeply, and embrace reasoned objections to fully commit to move forward, and act.
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DACI, from the Atlassian Team PlaybookThis framework enhances team effectiveness and project success by clearly defining who is responsible for each aspect of the decision-making process.
Min Specs, from Liberating StructuresSpecify Only the Absolute Must Dos and Must Not Dos for Achieving a Purpose
The Pre-Mortem, from Gary KleinA practical way to do risk assessment.
Are we really on the same page?
Genuine forward progress is actually in the hard details not in the general head nod on the Zoom call. As workflows become more complex, leaders can't just say yes and expect everyone to understand what to do together as a team. Julia Dhar and Phillip Jameson have put together a brilliant article in Harvard Busness review about this entitled;
The False Alignment Trap.
Why it matters
There is no SOP for genuine transformation specifcs and real commitment matters. You can’t float above the work. The article unpacks how and why specifics, decision accountability, and a written formal mandate can remove vague promises and amplify work that has to be done.
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Contemporary truths from 1986
Forty years ago, pioneering business theorist Chris Argyris wrote a perfect companion to the False Alignmne Trap called
Skilled Incompetence. Like any relationship, artificial harmony can produce low psychological safety where, in an effort to all get along, we avoid the tough discussions.
Why it matters
Habits and behaviors are how the human mind runs. Learned ignorance is a real thing. Argryis says “Because the executives don’t say what they really mean or test the assumptions they really hold, their skills inhibit a resolution of the important intellectual issues embedded in developing the strategy. Thus the meetings end with only lists and no decisions.”
Download the PDF here
Syntax to Action
PreSeason Partner
Matt Owens writes about when a workplace swaps the action for the account of it. His argument is that people positioned between the economics of a business and the specialists doing the work come to derive value from explaining alone.
Why it matters:
A room that nods in agreement has produced an explanation, not a decision. Explanation becomes action only in the moment it is written down as instruction. The human equivalent of an .md file still remains rare in the boardroom.
Read MoreThanks for Reading
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