Crucially Clear

Nitin Nohria, Harvard Business School's 10th and current dean, maintains that

"Communication is the real work of leadership."

The more difficult or important the conversation, the clearer this becomes.

The next time you're in an important conversation,

or one that's going poorly,

ask yourself three questions:

- What do I really want for myself?

- What do I really want for ______ (others in the conversation)?

- What do I really want for this relationship?

You have the most influence over one person in the conversation (yes, yourself), so the biggest opportunity then comes when then you ask,

"How would I behave if I really wanted these things?"

This strategy, and much more, is found in the excellent book Crucial Conversations. Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High.

"Build a Tower, Build a Team"

In 70 workshops across the world, Tom Wujec gave small teams 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure they could ... using 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of tape, a yard of string, and a marshmallow.


This seemingly trivial challenge produced quick, relatable insights into drivers of productive collaborations.

For example, it showed the value of prototyping:

• Teams that oriented themselves to the challenge and roles, planned and built their right answer were ineffective.

• Teams that created quick, successive prototypes, applying what they learned from each iteration were the most effective.

Tom's data also showed the importance of

• including process-oriented team members (CEO teams with executive admins were more effective than CEO-only teams),

• and combining a high stakes prize with "how-to" knowledge. (Just offering the high stakes prize decreased performance, offering the prize and insights into the importance of prototyping increased performance.)

Prototyping is a more readily accepted approach in some work environments than others. You can keep it simple and scrappy, collecting responses to rough drafts of your ideas and using what you learn to improve each new draft.

It's a potent form of active learning that builds innovation mindsets and skill sets by

• encouraging curiosity,

• uncovering hidden assumptions,

• and helping teams think, feel and work in new ways.

Could it be a more effective approach to something you're working on today?

The Stories We Tell

Christy Uffelman is Vice President of Employee and Organization Development at Mascaro Construction, a regional general contractor based in Pittsburgh. She has an interesting story to tell.

If it was a cautionary tale about the struggles associated with

• being a female leader in a male-dominated industry

• bringing expertise whose value was not yet understood

• at a time when many construction companies faced restructuring and layoffs,

it would be understandable.

But during our conversation she told a more compelling story about building networks and leveraging strengths as she

• brought a fresh point of view and capabilities to the executive team,

• built credibility with an award-winning program that helps employees communicate and work well together,

• and partnered with founder Jack Mascaro to create an emerging leaders program that is transferring knowledge and experience from one generation of leaders to the next.

Her story is peppered with descriptions of the capabilities and character of those she works with, as well as her own learning. When Christy says, "I am not a character in the story of my life, I am the author," she positions herself to write a story of success.

Harvard's Howard Gardner says, "Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leader's arsenal."

In the stories you tell yourself and others about your work,

What kinds of themes do you tend to emphasize?

What role do you typically play?

Whose capabilities are highlighted?

And, is there a bigger story you want to create and tell?

What's Most Important Now?

You're not getting paid to do things; you're getting paid to recognize and follow through on the most important things.

A simple habit can increase your effectiveness and decrease stress:

first thing, and later in the day, consider everything you have on your plate and choose the one most important thing to accomplish now.

The more you practice this habit, the better you get at it, strategically allocating your time and avoiding traps like

• mistaking activity for achievement.
• reacting to whatever comes your way, which tends to advance others' goals more than your own.
• letting what's urgent crowd out what's important.

Most of us have schedules pummeled by unexpected requests, problems and changes; so choose one or two times later in the day for repeating this practice. Review your goals, commitments and to-dos, take stock of the day thus far, and identify what's most important to complete now.

Considering both personal and professional goals makes it more likely you'll have the energy and relationships you need to really enjoy your accomplishments.

One Minute Wisdom from 'Rethink'

Good insights can be found in interesting places...

The Rethink Scholarship is awarded to art directors and designers on the basis of a sketchbook containing the applicant's most interesting ideas.

You can use their one minute video as a prompt for fresh thinking.

There's wisdom in the points they make, like:

- Don't fall in love with your first idea.

- Show people your work, see if they get it (repeat, repeat, repeat ....)

and the way they make them, including:

- Layered messages.

- Use of anticipation.

- Novelty combined with simplicity.

Their selection criteria (see How We Pick the Winner) provide self-checks to use as you prepare to present new ideas, highlighting the importance of:

Clarity: of your ideas, and how they are conveyed.

Relevance: speaking to what's most important to your audience.

Freshness: what's new and exciting?

Salience: no need to show every step or possibility, quality trumps quantity.

Craft and execution: how you present communicates as much as what you present.