Benevolent Manipulation

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By you reading this, I’ve successfully lured you into being benevolently manipulated! But, don’t stop reading… it’s a good thing.

Should you and I interact, my goal is to do as much as I can to ensure that our interactions contribute to you being highly functional… and in turn, guide you to doing the same for me.

Definitions:

  • [buh–nev–uh-luh nt] – desiring to help others
  • [muh-nip-yuh–ley-shuh n] – skillful or artful management.

Combined definition: To artfully manage others to assist them in reaching their potential, recognizing that this will in turn benefit us.

This will be a short post. It’s really about an intent to understand the person you are communicating with. The idea is that whenever you encounter resistance or an issue (these are the easiest indicators), you stop for a second and think about how you can control the situation and work toward a “win-win” resolution. This is especially useful with people you will continue to interact with, as you will slowly find what works. Humans and trial-and-error go hand in hand.

Let’s look at a case study on how to manipulate me:

How To Manipulate Peter for Drawing Reviews

Scenario: You came to me with a set of drawings for me to review. I take them from you and begin to look at them. Your intent was that I review a few specific details, but you may not have communicated that effectively (or I didn’t listen).

Peter’s Actions: I review your detail, but they lead me to look at other things in the drawings. I start to:

  • Find things that aren’t complete (I wonder why they’re not complete),
  • Find incomplete comments that I had previously given (I feel that I haven’t been listened to),
  • Weird design stuff (I start to worry I’ll need to step in and rally things), and
  • The list goes on.

Your Reactions: You’re not happy, because you had only needed a specific range of input from me… and now you’re hearing about the things you already knew weren’t done. Depending on how well I deal with things, perhaps you’re also worried that I seem grumpy. It’s a cascading list of potential sub-optimal outcomes.

Alternate Universe: You realize that communication is best when it is specific, and focused on the end product that you need. You also know that Peter’s eyes wander and he looks at other things. You print out ONLY the thing you want reviewed, or you circle it and write “look only at this”, or you have notes in the set that relate to incomplete redlines… so that when I reference other drawings, I see that it’s ongoing and you have noted my previous concerns.

Result: You have managed me to respond appropriately to what you want/need. You allow me to operate at my highest level for allowing you to be at your highest level.

This is Life!

We all want to operate at our best. We are weak and we are prone to our own shortfalls. When we are at our best, we try to overcome these… but when we are tired/grumpy/hangry/etc… we may not be the people we want to be. If people approach us with an optimized “Peter-centric” approach, then we’re starting off on the right foot and we can control the unintended consequences.

Another example:

Perhaps permitting is getting you down? Permitting is staffed by people.

  • Make it as easy as possible for them to do their job.
    • This is just life: CLARITY in what you give them. Clear documents that consolidate the things they’re looking for.
  • Think about what they are concerned about, and try to correct it in advance.
    • This is just life: AVOID doing the things that you know annoy people!
  • Include things in the project that appeal to their approach to their job.
    • This is just life: GIVE them something that they can recognize as theirs and find a sense of ownership.
  • Realize that their job isn’t to make your life miserable. It’s to do their job.
    • This is just life: UNDERSTAND their job and how you can assist them in doing it better.

Wouldn’t it be an amazing place to live if each of us operated at our highest level of expertise, and those around us helped us to do that? Sigh… dreamy…

It’s 2015. Play is for All.

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In Anchorage, there’s a roller rink that recently forbade a child with a disability from being out on the rink.

I don’t have children. I don’t have a disability. My family doesn’t have anyone with a disability. For some reason or another I passionately believe that it is a human right for children to have access to play. More importantly, that children have access to being with their friends. Even more importantly perhaps, that children have a right to the opportunities to make new friends.

When I was a kid, I moved at the age of 9 and 12. In retrospect, I feel that those two times were perhaps poor times to move, because you land in a place where the other kids already had their groups of friends. Whether for my own sensitivity or not, I felt a bit out of place and like I was always missing out on what the others were doing. The reality is likely that everyone felt the same, but it’s left me with a desire to ensure that kids always have a place and that they have the support to fit in.

So, I believe that kids have a human right to be able to make friends.

As children, we make countless relationships (long and short) on the playground. Play is natural to children, and until we learn otherwise, play is open to others to join in (and to invite us in). Discrimination or the concept of “not like me” is a learned trait.

As a play designer, I subscribe to the “smorgasbord approach” to designing play environments. Every child learns differently and has different things they’d like to experience in a playground. This changes as they get older and move through their phases of development. Playground design should start with trying to accommodate a variety of play needs and desires.

The average person likely doesn’t know the full extent of disabilities that might influence a child’s ability to engage with play. Physical disabilities are the obvious ones, but account for only around 1% of disabilities. Good play design takes this “smorgasbord” of features and assembles them in a way that they begin to have order and cohesiveness. Order is an important way to begin to design for disabilities like autism spectrum disorders.

The point of this? Play design seeks to remove the barriers that might get in the way of a child experiencing play on their terms. Taking this “smorgasbord” and assembling it to accommodate a wide variety of children may require some minimal extra cost, intellectual consultation or perhaps adding a few play elements to maximize impact… but the results provide a high return on investment.

So… a roller rink forbade a child with a disability from being out on the rink.

Designing for physical disabilities can certainly result in extra costs, but I quote Justin Trudeau … it’s 2015! But, for the roller rink… actual access is not the issue. Their concern is liability and potential danger to other skaters.

I’m not writing this to discuss the specifics of this incident; it has been very well covered by others who are closer to it directly or from similar experiences.

The world is not an accessible place. It’s not naturally flat, and surfaces are not naturally hard. Access advocates are clever people, and they realize this. They know that there will be challenges, and some of them will be true obstacles. But, their request is that we let people choose what their obstacles will be. They are 1000% correct that sometimes we will be amazed with the ingenuity and initiative that drive the amazing. If we just say no, then we close the door to that opportunity.

Our built environment will have many places that are not easily accessible. Advocates are not asking that all places be made accessible. They just request that they be given the chance on their own volition to do things if they can achieve them similarly to others, without danger to others, and without danger to themselves that would create liability for others. It’s a fact that every person who is “able” is free to endanger everyone around them (and they frequently do). But, I won’t go into our freedom to do dumb things… although I’m finding it ironic that we limit people with disabilities when the abled are more often those who inflict true costs on our culture.

It’s so easy to retreat back to a place of liability. The United States certainly suffers from a very high level of fear of litigation. There is reality to this, but there is a cultural fear of the possibility that one might be sued. This means that society has trained itself to start from a place of “no”, and then slowly (if ever) move toward yes in an extremely ‘safe’ fashion. This is significantly different than beginning with the possible and crafting it in a careful and justified way.

I’ll go back to playground design. We have a responsibility to allow someone with a physical disability to get to the playground. Whether on a bus, or through an accessible parking space… they deserve to get to the same place as everyone else. That’s a legal fact of our society. We don’t necessarily make it as easy as it should be… but this is where we are. In 2015 everyone should be able to get to a parking lot or sidewalk that is reasonably close to a playground. We also have a responsibility that there is a reasonably direct way to get to the playground itself.

This is where things start to get amorphous. There are requirements for playgrounds to have a certain proportion of equipment that is accessible. (This accessible equipment could consist of the most boring pieces. Good play design isn’t a part of it.) So, your child should be able to get to the equipment to play with at least some of it, and interact with other children. But, they will likely get to a point where their friends move into a play experience that is not accessible. They are now disassociated from their friends.

Now… also realize this applies to parents. There will be parts of our playgrounds that might not allow you to interact with your children if you have a physical impairment. Just imagine that your child gets hurt (perhaps badly) and that you can’t get to them. Even though I don’t have children, I certainly empathize that this level of powerlessness could be devastating.

While it would be difficult to design all playgrounds to be fully accessible, we can make decisions that maximize the potential for interaction. There’s a reality that children love slides and climbing up high. Ramps can be provided, but they can be cost prohibitive. If you exclude those two playground needs, building a very highly inclusive playground based on ground level play elements is feasible for every community.

Play needs to be a community-level discussion. Every playground does not need to do all things for every child. For the same of this discussion, every child should have access to the play that they want/need within a reasonable distance of their house. This doesn’t mean that all playgrounds need to be fully inclusive, but it needs to mean that all playgrounds are designed intentionally to maximize their impact. Sometimes decisions will be made to provide that tall slide that provides children with an amazing sense of accomplishment for conquering their nervousness. When you provide that slide, you also need to ask yourself… how do we provide that same feeling for the kid that might never climb up there?

Inclusivity isn’t about providing access to every piece of play equipment, it’s about trying to provide different opportunities to experience the same benefit… and trying to maximize the opportunities for interaction. Can’t get to the top of the slide? Well, let me be waiting at the bottom to see my friend come down.

One of the best things for inclusivity on a playground is accessible play surfacing. But wow! It’s expensive and its cost could certainly be put into more play activities. But when properly done, it becomes a play activity in itself and these costs can be balanced. Play surfacing is a huge discussion of its own (that I’m always happy to have), but for the sake of this note… realize that it truly begins to eliminate obstacles for interaction.

Let’s get back to the roller rink. I remember going to the roller rink in my hometown for a birthday party. I was terrible at skating and I fell down. I risked wiping someone out and having them break an arm. I remember getting better (or I’d like to think I did), but also that I spent time off to the side with my friends. There were no obstacles for me other than my initiative and my learning curve. If I was TRULY bad and dangerous, I’m hoping that some adult would have assisted me to reduce my danger to others. There’s also a fact that on a roller rink, people skate in the same direction for a reason… you can watch everyone around you to minimize their (literal) impact on your life.

Liability can be controlled with paperwork. It can also be controlled by engaging with others. It can be controlled by supervision. It can be controlled by ten minutes of playing a slower song and calling it “beginners time” on the rink where everyone is asked to look out for one another, be encouraging, and support a love of cooperation and play for everyone.

It’s 2015. We’re all smart enough that we can control and minimize risk. More importantly, we should all be aware enough that inclusivity makes our community better. Let’s start with trying to figure something out and make it a “win win”.

It’s 2015. Let’s explain our concerns and see if the world is ready for new solutions.

Postscript#1: My frustration makes me add: Come on! We’re better than this! It’s freaking 2015!)

Postscript #2: I scanned through the comments on the ADN article (never a fully wise decision to do). I think that they reiterate that we should all just stop for a second and think about what being inclusive means. Also… inform ourselves. That might be asking too much.

Mentoring, Semantics and Understanding

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When you get into the mechanics of optimizing a mentoring relationship, it involves understanding learning styles, communication, and a whole big messy bunch of “trying to understand another human being who isn’t me”.

A good example is establishing the difference between an error and a mistake. I’ll borrow this from something I saw online: An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

When I’m working with people, I expect errors. That’s why we’re working together: I hope that they catch my errors and I catch theirs. As a supervisor, if the same error happens twice I’ll be clear about discussing that when an error happens twice, it becomes a mistake. A mistake can be avoided. When an error happens twice, we discuss how we can avoid it again. This might reside with the employee, or perhaps we change the way the company works or how we support staff. If an error happens three times, then it’s truly a mistake. It’s a similar discussion of how to avoid it, but then it also starts to venture into Human Resources territory. I assess whether there are roadblocks in the way of success that can be solved, or if it is personality-based.

The point of this is that we should have an intentional system in place that absorbs errors and minimizes mistakes. It needs to be an open discussion where people are encouraged to push themselves. Errors can be good when they are a product of learning and pushing oneself. In that light, errors are an indicator of a healthy, learning workplace where people are trying hard.

There’s a current approach to business that is themed “make mistakes faster”. It doesn’t sound as good, but I wish it were “make errors faster”. The idea is that we move ahead and learn from what we do. I’d just emphasize again that errors are good… mistakes not so much.

But… it’s just semantics!!! At the end of the day we just need to find the right words to have a mutual understanding. Let’s just learn from our errors/mistakes/boo-boos/blunders.

Mentoring – Peer to Peer

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Your role where you work is to complete your tasks to your highest capabilities. It’s typical that we stretch a bit, perhaps to 110%, since we figure out some things as we go along. What this means is that you make sure your supervisor doesn’t need to catch things that you should have done. What they should assist you with are the things that are outside of your capabilities, but fall within theirs. They then do the same as your work makes its way up to being reviewed by whoever is at the top of the food chain.

You’re not alone though. No need to be afraid that your sleep-deprived mind will miss things that you should have caught. That’s why we have co-workers.

I encourage people to engage with staff members who are at their level, or slightly below/above. Having someone with similar experience review your drawings allows them to assist you with new knowledge appropriate to your level, and catch the errors that shouldn’t make their way up the food chain. As a reminder, some of your peers are actually computers: spell check! When peer to peer is used properly, it’s a great way to share knowledge and to build confidence. It’s pretty awesome when someone comes to you for assistance and you can help them out. When they reciprocate, it’s also great.

When you do this, make sure your supervisor knows you did it. You’re reinforcing a company’s quality assurance/quality assurance (QA/QC) program by doing this. They can also provide guidance and advice to you that might help you best access this knowledge. It will also reinforce the fact that you understand your role within an atmosphere of active mentoring and knowledge acquisition.

QA/QC? That’s worthy of another post, but it’s good to understand the basic role of QA/QC:

  • Ensure that the firm has a process in place that maximizes correct review by the correct person at the correct time.
  • Ensure that the quality of work that reaches the client has no errors that THEY would catch. (ex. spelling mistakes, sloppy drawing, etc…)
  • Ensure that the content of the work meets your firm’s best management practices. (ex. you don’t forget to include snow storage)
  • Ensure that the work meets health, safety and welfare standards. (ex. proper handrail design)

Basically… a QA/QC process ensures that anyone who reviews the project (from concept to construction) gets to focus on the skill that they have and no one else does. Contractor’s are super happy when they can focus on building, and not trying to understand what they’re trying to build.

So… if you have enough people in your firm, look sideways for your first level of mentoring. This will build your skills, and help you identify the best way to engage with those above you to best gain their knowledge.

(*please note that I use the word “error” very intentionally. An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. Errors are a part of learning. Mistakes happen when a learning opportunity is missed.)

What Does Mentoring Mean?

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2014-15 Corvus Design Holiday Party

Mentoring takes many forms. Many of our growth interactions with people are informal, and have only the structure of the conversation. There is value when we engage into mentorship in a more rigorous fashion, either through our own planning of our growth… or through defined relationships with specific people.

This blog post takes a loose look at our growth as designers, and how the importance of our learning changes over time. I certainly hope that it stresses finding the right people to interact with as we grow and change. The challenge is targeting the right interactions at the right time, to prepare us for the challenges we will face next. Bring out the crystal ball!

The First Stage of Professional Development

When we first graduate, we have been exposed to a wide variety of things through our schooling. We might be lucky if there are a few areas where we have reasonably advanced skills. Likely, we’re about to develop more applied skills in three months than we acquired in school. These will be technical skills. To maximize your own success, you will benefit from finding technical mentors or finding self-guided pathways through the plethora of online education that is accessible to you. In other words, bond with the nerd in the office who knows the keystrokes for obscure commands. When you appreciate that these obscure commands have a useful place in your life, you will be on your way to goodness.

Did the creative part of you just die a little bit? You have to keep on feeding it. At the back of your mind, please remember that the firm you work for needs to make money in order to keep you in work. As a new landscape architect, you will need to be a well-functioning member of the team. If you have sharp technical skills, you and your team will have a higher chance of success. To keep your soul fed, you will need to make sure that you are within an atmosphere of mentoring. Some people are lucky to have elder professionals who are good mentors, and some are not. Learn how to engage with those around you so that you get to plug into the things that feed the designer in you. While you may not get to be lead designer on projects for a while, you WILL get to influence and shape the process… and design elements within it. People underestimate how much control is possessed by the person with CAD mojo and good design sensibilities. If you draft up a plaza that has a good underlying geometric basis that lends itself to a simple and elegant paving design… you will now get to do that for me from now on. You just took something off my shoulders. Seriously… this kind of detailed design skill makes my world go round.

So… at a minimum make sure you have the mentoring you need for technical development, and ideally it’s delivered to you within the context of what it contributes to design. See if you can go the extra step and engage with others for design mentorship that goes beyond the technical. If options are limited, I just can’t emphasize how important initiative is. If you find a meaningful community project that your firm would benefit from, you could bring that to your team as something you’d like to contribute. If it’s your passion, it will feel natural for you. Your firm might even adopt it and pay you for some of your time. Be crafty about choosing things that relate to your firm’s business plan. Business plan? Make sure you know your company’s mission, vision and all of that jazz. Use that (nicely) as a way to benefit yourself when you show that what you do is a shared pathway between your growth and your firm’s success.

The Second Stage of Professional Development

So… now you are sharing obtuse keystrokes with new staff. You’ve grown within your firm where you are engaged into peer learning, and guiding the new guys. You have the core skills of a landscape architect, and are now expanding into the the first bits of the business of design: project management and a wee bit of client development. You have the technical skills where you can successfully complete work on a project. You’re now learning how to improve project profitability and increase the level of quality that is delivered to your clients. You are a honed blade efficiently slicing the fruit before you.

Along the way, you’ve also developed design mojo from learning from those around you… or have you? Have you been mentored? Or have you developed the core skills of a landscape architect, but you need more.

We all hope that our firms have the staff and leaders who will be ready for your next phase of learning. In a large enough firm, that might be the case. But at some point you will need to find the voices that aren’t immediately present. When you go out for drinks with old classmates and old co-workers, you’re using your existing network to your benefit. This is an organic approach to exposing yourself to their assistance. As our network of relationships experience new things, you get to be exposed as well when they tell you about them. Your network is now a critical component of your growth, and will continue to build value until the day you die. Seriously. Your network is now one of the most valuable things that you own, and it’s a wonderful long-term investment.

How do I invest in my network you ask? Get involved! A fantastic target for you is to be involved with your national professional organization. You’ll probably have to start with their local chapter. It’s a great way to learn about what’s happening locally, and be involved to learn the things they didn’t teach you in school. How to run a good board meeting. How to get along well with others. How to try to learn from people that you are likely in direct competition with. Hmmm… the last one is a challenge to your desire for mentorship! That’s why I love being involved with other organizations… or interacting with my peer professionals who don’t work in my region. Go to national conferences and engage with anyone you find. You’ll see that we love speaking with one another, and we’re even more free with information when we know it won’t reappear in a competitor’s proposal.

If you haven’t yet… get involved with your professional organization, and go to its national conferences!!!! For you landscape architects… I’ll make it as easy as sending you to their membership pages:

Your goals for this stage of your professional development will likely relate to discussions about project management, facilitation, communication, human resources. These are all things that you’re experiencing since you have more client contact and are becoming an involved person in your community. What? You say, “I’m not a landscape architect and I’m in the same place.” Bingo… you can now have interesting business conversations with anyone at any event who is at a similar stage of their careers. You can now easily expand your network to include a whole bunch of people. Buying a magazine at the corner store? Ask the owner what his challenges are and I bet that a few of them will resonate with you. How about the challenges of efficient communication to clearly define a task… and have both people actually understand each other?

To summarize so far: In our careers we begin with fairly basic things we need to know. These prepare us for the next steps where we need to know more, and it’s less about getting things done than it is about knowing how or why to get things done. Access to this kind of mentoring should be relatively straight-forward. The next phase is about finding the people who are equipped to have more complex discussions about the how and why. When it comes to the business of design, the key is to step back to understand what the concern/problem really is, and choosing one of many potential strategies to apply to it. Your direct experience helps, but when you can apply the combined knowledge of your network… wow.

The Third Stage of Professional Development

Congratulations. You are now a self-guided learning machine. You’re a leader of your own entity, or an (emerging) leader of an established entity. Stages One and Two hopefully had people that would benefit from grooming and mentoring you. You are now in a place where no one has mentoring you in their job description. You have a good network in place, and you have peers that are in similar places in their careers.

Be warned. You will go absolutely certified crazy if you don’t validate your need for the growth that mentorship has and will provide you. As a leader, you are the person who is responsible to fix all of the issues that no one has been able to fix. I am validating the fact that your existence will likely not be easy, and there will be times where it weighs on you so much that it’s hard to escape it within your regular life. One part of mentorship is the level of therapy that it provides. I have already referenced this in a few blog posts, and will continue to do so. The value of  people validating that you are not alone in the struggles you face is very important. This is even more valuable if it comes from an elder mentor.

Most of this post has related to using your networks for mentoring. This relates to the fact that every entity should have systems in place to support your growth and learning, and that you have actively reached out beyond this ready-made network to fill the gaps. I’d like to end this post on the value of a true mentorship.

I had the great privilege to be a part of Leadership Anchorage (year 13). As a shout-out, if your community has anything remotely like this program… do it! A key component of this was a focus on mentorship. The focus on this was not on a casual mentorship, it was founded within the need to have a mentorship where you had a contractual obligation to your mentor, and the mentor had the same with you as the mentee. This was fully intentional with goals and a discrete timeline. I won’t go into details on this, but it’s important to realize that there is benefit in establishing rigor within a mentor relationship. This ensures both parties understand the purpose of the relationship and its expectations. Don’t go into this lightly, and make sure that the mentor that you seek is not the mentor you want… but the mentor that you actually need. Don’t choose a person who you feel represents who you are today or yesterday, but represents who you would like to be.

This has been a long post. Be intentional with creating all of the different types of mentorship that you need, and ensure that they grow and evolve with you. Actively talk with your peers (and mentors) about mentorship itself. Be intentional.

Your Duty

Be a mentor. Support all of those around you as you can. Cliche as it might be, the fact is that a rising tide lifts all boats.

The (un)Benefits of Owning Your Own Firm

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ArchDaily posted a request today for input about The Benefits of Owning Your Own Firm.

When I talk to people about this, I used to say that it was like a version of retiring. Not retiring to go play golf, but retiring INTO something that was more of your choice. I always followed it quickly with saying that it also meant that any stress that you felt from then on was your own fault. You either didn’t say “No” to something, or you said “Yes” but didn’t adequately manage the situations around that positive response.

There are a lot of moving parts within running a business, and your success revolves around how you manage them. Accounting, contracts, taxes, employees… yet another list of things they didn’t adequately prepare you for in school. If you find peace in balancing your books at the end of the month, then you can look at that as a benefit of running a business. (Yes… this applies to me. Accounting is the only black & white thing in the areas of grey known as being a designer). You can always find people to help you with the things that don’t come easy to you. Your success is founded on bringing the right group of skills together (in one person or multiple people).

So, the biggest benefit of owning your own firm is also one of the largest downfalls: you are responsible for your own success. And at the end of the day, you are also responsible for your failures.

But… we usually don’t leap into starting our own design firm based on a desire to run the guts of a business!!! We want to be designers! Or, we don’t know what we want… we just want different.

Ten years into having my own firm, I realize that the discussion of running your own firm focuses on the running of a business, risk/benefit assessment, and other things like finding work/life balance. These are the easy things to talk about, and there are plenty of resources to draw upon. The biggest issue for me in running a business? When you run a business, there’s no one above you to tell you what to do… but that means there’s no one there to support you when you need help or advice. As a successful leader, you are good at mentoring those you work with (hopefully), but there’s no one there who has mentoring you as part of their job description. You are in effect… alone.

So, a significant thing to consider of owning your own firm is that you need to look outside for mentoring. You need to find the relationships where you can learn, and frankly… be reassured that you’re not completely crazy. I should have called this blog “Please tell me I’m not crazy.” Isn’t that what we crave in life, to know that we have shared experiences and aren’t alone?

With that, make sure your business plan includes an emphasis on building the relationships that you will need to continue to learn and be mentored. Hmmm… you are doing a business plan first, right?

(As a business owner… networking is also pretty darn important. Consulting others to benefit your knowledge (and theirs hopefully) is a very effective networking tool. I’ll save that for another post.)

Optimistic Cynicism?

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What personality type would describe someone who it optimistically bitter and cynical? Many of the posts that this blog will contain will start with a complaint in my head about how things are. Then the little voice inside of me tells me to make lemonade, “be solution based!” I grumble a little but then shift into trying to write about how I wish things would be.

When I meet with people, at some point I find myself saying, “You’re not crazy. You’re not alone. This happens to others. It’s just that you haven’t talked about it before.” Or I let them know that they’ve reminded me I’m not crazy. It’s reassuring to know our experiences are shared.

That’s part of the reason for this blog. I’m saying these things hoping that people nod their head and we both get a better feeling of where we are in the world. When we know we’re not alone, it helps us to work on solutions. This might be on our own with a renewed sense of “normality”, or collaboratively based on insight gained from other experiences.

So… this is just a short post to remind you that you’re not crazy, and you’re not alone. Move forward knowing you exist within a shared experience, and remember to reach out when you need it.

Build Each other Up

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You get to a point in your career when you realize that your value isn’t so much in what you know, but it’s your experience in how you apply it. There’s community value in sharing your knowledge. While perhaps initially counter-intuitive, my optimistic self would like to believe those that say this raises your value at the same time. Yes, competitors (existing or future) might have access to what makes you special, but the odds are they won’t be able to apply it the way that you do. You’re the special sauce that holds it all together.

When was the last time that you identified some people that might benefit from interacting with you? Or people that you know will have mutual benefit with you? Or people that YOU want to learn from? The fact is that most people like to chat with others if they feel that they are being valued.

That’s the point of this! When was the last time that you felt actively valued by someone? That they shared a part of themselves with you to help you be better?

It might just be the fact that I don’t roam in the right circles, but I have a feeling that our culture doesn’t prepare or encourage us to reach out (other than to therapists?). Are we convinced that we need to fight our own battles, and that sharing struggle is weakness? I think there’s relief when we do reach out. I know that I feel it when someone actively reaches out to share notes with me.

So… I choose to initiate it when I can. Not only do I feel like I’ve provided benefit for others, but I KNOW that I have gained. I have perhaps gained MORE, because I’m the one who initiated it and had my own internal hopes and goals for where it might go.

Life is about relationships. Relationships are about connections. We gain community value when we increase our connections and relationships. Everyone gains.

Your task:

Reach out to someone this week to actively engage for their knowledge, or to be their learning peer, or to invite them in for some mentorship of you.

Seriously… we don’t do this close to enough. I guarantee that if you seek to build someone up, you will also benefit.

Most Important Skill Ever!!! Running a Good Meeting

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I’ve had the luck to be on a commission, be on an editorial board, be involved with local professional association leadership, be involved with national professional association leadership, run my own company, and have countless discussions over “after beers” when I interacted with anyone else during the business of the above. If anyone were to ask me what the most important part about being a leader is… running a good meeting.

You are a leader! Your role is to enable those around you to achieve their potential. Your role is to let them figure things out, and then bring them to the table. It’s the best when a sub-committee brings a strong decision to a larger board, and all we have to do is vote to support it or not. There might be some brief discussion, but we’ve chosen the right people to be on that sub-committee… so we intrinsically trust what they bring to us.

I should state that this post assumes that it is a board meeting (or similar) with a group of people who function relatively well and are used to interacting. The opposite end of the spectrum is something like a public meeting… which would require numerous posts to address running from minimizing the opportunities for dysfunction.

Board Meetings are for reviewing and approving things.

When people slip into doing the work at a board meeting (getting into the weeds), it means one of a few things:

  • The subcommittee hadn’t completed their work completely,
    • Oops…
  • They weren’t clear about their reason for coming to the board,
    • Always be clear about what you need!
    • A status report (which really has only need for minimal discussion)
    • A request for approval (if it creates major discussion, it might just need to go back to committee)
  • It’s just the wrong thing at the wrong time.

A (secret?) recipe for a good meeting.

My opinions on the secret of a good meeting?
  • Have a good agenda.
    • This should include times for each item.
    • This is where you enable yourself to manage a meeting. When you get to the allocated time, you interrupt the discussion to state you have reached time. Unless the board decides to extend the time, it should be wrapped up.
  • Have a secret agenda.
    • This sounds bad… but isn’t. The president and executive director should have an agenda that might have extra information on it. At a minimum this should include a model motion (this can also be in the standard agenda) and any cheat notes you might want for easy access.
    • This shouldn’t contain anything you wouldn’t want people to see, but it should contain the items that relate to “leadership” and helping you run the meeting well.
  • Announce your role at the start of every meeting. I like to start with:
    • Hi. My role is to keep this meeting going, and make sure you laugh a little.
    • We will use loose Robert’s Rules for this meeting. If we find ourselves in a more complex discussion, we will use tighter Robert’s Rules and I will act as Parlimentarian to the best of my abilities.
    • I will be a time fascist. My role is to keep our meeting on topic and on time. I do this to be respectful of you and your time.
  • Keep to your agenda
    • Be a time fascist. As said, when you hit your time use it as a point to either validate the importance of the existing discussion by extending the time, wrap it up and find the right conclusion, or save it for another meeting.
  • Maintain the level of Robert’s Rules (or similar) needed for your group.
    • Receive reports and information.
    • Ensure that they are received with a specific intent. Is this informational, or does it have need of a motion?
    • As necessary, have a model motion ready for the group and read it out as a basis for someone to easily say, “So moved.”
    • Get your second, and have discussion.
    • Call the question to get your vote.
      • When I can’t see people (teleconference), I ask for all those who are NOT in favor. This gets to the point faster and generally becomes “motion moved unanimously”. You’ll know when you should start with those in favour, and/or ask for abstentions.
    • When things get complex… make sure you know the process for friendly amendments and unfriendly amendments.
    • YOU have to be the person that knows how to maintain procedural order (or the person who consults your parliamentarian and is willing to enforce it on the group). Without it your meeting will devolve.
  • Keep people laughing and enjoying themselves.
    • Break as necessary.
    • Feel empowered as a humour broker, or empower others to do this within reason.
    • During breaks and after the meeting, touch base with board members to socialize and show them people are listening. Make them feel good about themselves.
    • Always find time to provide positive credit and goodness.
Some of the best feedback I have ever heard in my professional career has been “Thank you! That was the shortest meeting ever!” or “You run a meeting well.” Well… that in addition to, “Wow… you look handsome in a suit!” I stop myself from wondering how I looked before I put the suit on… =(

Trying to Avoid Work (to Benefit Our Clients)

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Sometimes we find ourselves doing things for our clients that they don’t actually need, but it’s what they told us they needed. When that happens, it means we didn’t stop for a second to work with them to truly understand their concerns. That’s one of our main reasons for being… figuring out what root cause(s) need to be addressed. Call us landscape whisperers.

Our expertise is to speak with clients and figure out what they actually need. This can certainly be challenging, as then we need to figure out communication styles and the best tools to enable us to listen effectively. Listening well requires figuring out the right questions to ask. This is also benefited by being equipped with a broad range of facilitation techniques.

Anyways… this post was based on a discussion in the office. We try to empower everyone to say, “Why are we doing this?” because sometimes we need to stop and ask ourselves what the actual reasons are.

I used the following as an example of the way that we humans sometimes act:

  • I need to buy a new house.
    • Why?
  • I hate the house I have.
    • Ok… why?
  • It doesn’t work for me.
    • Why?
  • I love to cook?
    • What doesn’t work about cooking?
  • I hate the kitchen.
    • Why?
  • The counters suck.
    • Oh. Would it be better if we replaced the counters?
  • Yes.
    • Here’s a number for a counter guy. Great conversation!
  • Thanks!

We save effort by listening and working with clients to understand the actual concern, and the correct response it deserves. Maybe that’s a good definition for when someone is a professional in their field? They know the right tool to use at the right time, and how to use it properly.

When someone asks you for a phillips screw, don’t be afraid to ask a few questions and offer that perhaps their problem might better be served by a robertson screw. (a little Canadian content on screws there… if not just an obtuse reference loosely related to this post.)