The Missing Piece.

Almost every biography - book or article - of a famous person reads like this:

I was not famous.

I did some good/bad/clever/stupid/wrong/right things.

Met some good/bad/clever/stupid/wrong/right people.

Some other interesting stuff happened.

Now I'm famous.

Here is my Philosophy on Life for you to learn what I know.

Wait a minute. Flick back a few lines. Pages. Chapters.

What was the thing that you did or that was done to you that isn't done by or to the rest of us that took you from a couple of human readers of your blog (Hello and thanks you two!) to the international speaking circuit?

Sure, we get that you worked hard and never stopped chasing your dream, passion, goal, vision, obsession, love - despite the poverty, failure, sexual confusion, parental alienation and addictions.

But one minute you were an unemployed, broke teenager with a learning disability, banging a drum kit in a mate's garage next to the sheets and pillow you sleep on, and the next you're Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac.

The main reason what happened is never spelled out is because it's often Luck.
 

The same thing with leadership and management advice.

It's all 'You're doing it wrong and you know it.'

Then it's 'You can do better'.

Which means 'Have a Vision', 'Be Bold', 'Develop Your Culture', 'Innovate', 'Hire Good People', 'Nurture High Performing Teams', 'Be Disruptive', 'Trust Your People', 'Delegate', 'Work Hard', 'Mastery', 'Agility', 'Ten Ways To..'.

Wait a minute. Tell me how I...

'You want it broken down more? Sure. 'Wake up earlier'. 'Have meetings on Mondays not Fridays'. 'Do Performance Reviews.' 'Remember people's names'. 'First in, last out.' 'Have fun.' 'Give feedback'. 'Eat last.' 'Celebrate success.' 'Learn from failure.' 'Be accountable.' 

Still missing something?

Everything is the result of decisions.

Decisions are the building blocks of everything that happens. Including Luck.

Good decision making is the material that makes up the blocks upon which mighty things are built.

Good decision making is the missing element in every story worth telling.

No-one will tell you this.

Now the two of you know.

The Decision Making Spiral.

A good decision is one that advance us towards where we want to be.

The decision making process isn't a straight line.

It's a circle. More a spiral.

The end of our decision process is to take us back to where we started; albeit with the benefit of the information gathered, we have a more advanced understanding of our position in relation to where we want to be - our Widget.

(Which is really a better understanding of ourselves.)

Think of a coil - like as in a spring. Follow the coil one full rotation until it's back on the same plane as where you started - although further along the horizontal axis. That's the decision making path of inquiry.

Each decision builds on the one before it and is connected to it - as it will be to the ones after it.

When we circumvent the decision making process by using positional power, or instinct, or guesswork to get directly to where we want to be, we don't lay a coil of reasoning and learning behind us that we can build upon to spring us into our next decision. We just arrive at a place, with no understanding of how we got there except that we are the boss, or high enough up HR's wire diagram, or play tennis with someone who is.

No path for anyone else to follow us, therefore no possibility of Leadership. Or of Learning.

Our decision making process is like the rifling in a gun barrel; the Five Steps are the grooves that guide the bullet into a spin on its axis as it propels along the barrel of thought, thus stabilising its flight and therefore its accuracy towards its target.

Our Widget.

The Leader as Orchestra Conductor.

'The conductor, often referred to as the orchestra 'leader', does not play a musical instrument, nor sing an aria; He does not recite lines; he appears in no chorus or ballet. He does none of those things. Indeed, for want of the talents they require, he could not do any of those things. Yet he renders an indispensible service. He draws out the gifts of others; he coordinates, motivates, inspires; quietly and almost unnoticed, he makes the entire production happen. Such a picture of leadership should perhaps find an analogue in the administrative decision making processes..'

- Robert T. Kennedy 'Shared Responsibility in Ecclesial Decision Making'
 

The leader as conductor of an orchestra is an excellent metaphor that has been explored in many books.

James Jeffery, a journalist, recently wrote about his experience in conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Read these extracts and recognise in a conductor, the qualities of the authentic Leader in any field.

'When you’re conducting...part of what you’re having to do is process everything in as close to real time as you possibly can. You have to both process the now, what’s going on right when you’ve heard it; and the things that are constantly getting further in the past, making decisions whether there are things that need to be referred to, whether it’s something you can do the next time, whether it’s something you need to stop on, whether there’s a particular player or section that has a problem and if they need your attention visually while the music is still going on. And then you’re constantly aware of what is coming so you can be prepared to make the gestures that allow that music to happen.

'So there’s this almost field theory way of looking at time, where you don’t just exist in the now, you exist in the present, past and future simultaneously.

'It’s about creating an environment in which everybody feels not only that they can give their best but that they can take chances. Great things don’t happen without people really trying to take chances.

'Part of your job is to make it so that the musicians have the best chance collectively to engage with the music and to get better as a group as (well as) they possibly can — so you’re also kind of involved in cognitive psychology. What is it that allows people to do their best, how do they perceive information and take it in, what amount can you give things, what’s the best way to handle the group dynamic at any particular moment?

'What [orchestra members] respond to most is trust. I’ll be honest, none of [the orchestra members] trusted you at all. It had nothing to do with the way you were moving your arms, it was the terror in your eyes, the ‘Oh my God, what am I doing here?”....While we were instinctively able to follow your arm movements, we knew instinctively that you were not to be trusted.

'If you look back in history at the sort of figures conductors cut, you look at Bernstein, you look at (Herbert) von Karajan, walking around with cashmere jackets draped over their shoulders, walking in as if they owned, well, they did own the place. The way they walk into the rehearsal affects the way we start to play.

'The hardest thing for a conductor to do is to have the conviction of their beliefs, to tell 100 people in front of them, who know the music inside out, that their way is correct. That is why they have such thick skin, and why they’re paid so much more money, because they have to believe it, make us believe it, and make the audience believe it. And that’s what they’re there for, otherwise it’s a committee.

'In a sense, the complexities of conducting equal the complexities of communication between people....There’s a certain point at which you become like Wittgenstein — ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’ At the same time, Laurie Anderson quite correctly in her response to that says, ‘But can you point at it?’ So there is a sense in which you try to bring out the ineffable, but you’re not able to do it, so you just point at it.'

Be Yourself.

“Take that [rhythm] you’ve got in your foot and put it into your arm,” the maestro urges.'

- Sydney Symphony Orchestra Conductor David Robertson's advice to journalist and first time conductor, James Jeffrey

'I was telling my students about your little leadership habit,' Flight Lieutenant Waugh said when we caught up over lunch in the RAAF Base Point Cook Officers Mess. Kathy had been my Directing Staff or 'DS' during my Officer Training a few months earlier. I was intrigued. What did I, a newly-minted Air Force Officer, have to teach anyone about leadership?

'I told them about how you wrote down in your calendar when your Corporal said that she was having her hair done over the weekend so that you could remember to compliment her on it when you saw her on Monday.'

Something didn't feel right about that then, and it still doesn't.
 

The management books are full of 'fake it 'til you make it' advice to would-be leaders. Tips and tricks to look like you care about your people so that they will be motivated to work harder for you. I think I had been joking with Kathy about my calendar reminder, but I've been a bad boss so I've faked sincerity in other ways.

New and aspiring bosses get caught in the no man's land between remembering what they wished their boss had done for them, and not knowing how, or having the self-confidence, to do it for their workers. So we read the leadership books and do a bit of management by walking around, noting of people's children's names, and try to look interested during long winded responses to our rote 'How was your weekend?' questions.

It's hard.

As one of my bosses, the Abbot of New Norcia used to say to me:

Be yourself.

Take that steady rhythm of humanity in your heart, the wounds from so many bad bosses, your own fear that you recognise in our faces, the optimism and belief in the fundamental goodness in us all - including yourself - and put it into your baton.

Then lead is in playing each of our instruments in your original composition.

Have A Say.

'Whatever you do in life, policy, politics, commodities, consumer stuff, make sure the voter understands there's some opportunity at least – whether they take it on – for them to have a say. 'Cause otherwise, what's the point?'

- Mark Textor, Political Campaign and Corporate Strategist

Step 5 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Give a Hearing.

It's an opportunity for the 'voter' - the person who will be affected by your decision - to have a say.

Here's how you do it:

'Based upon the following information I'm considering making X decision that may cause Y to you. You are invited to give me any reasons why I should not make this decision. I will take your reasons into account when deciding what to do.'

It's more than a token gesture.

It allows the decision maker to hear what should be the most compelling argument against their decision by the person who has the most to lose. That person has the greatest incentive to present every possible counter-argument.

Their response is one of the best antidotes to groupthink.

If a decision maker is reluctant to show his decision making reasoning to a person who may suffer loss as a result of it, then it calls into question how confident he is of his argument.

A sign that it won't be a good decision.

We Don't Need Another Leader.

Everyone is under pressure to be leading.

It's because we're not doing our job. We're not going where our boss wants us to go. We're not making her Widget to her satisfaction.

Our bosses don't know what to do about us not doing our jobs (ie they don't know how to do their jobs). 

So the bosses train or recruit people whose job is to get us to do our jobs - ie do the boss's job for them. 

We call those people 'Leaders', and call them getting us to do our jobs 'Leadership', because 'Leader' is sexier than 'Person who Gets Us To Do Our Jobs Because the Boss Can't.'

Then many of the 'leaders' don't do their jobs to the boss's satisfaction.

So they need someone to get them to do their jobs - ie a 'leader'.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Throw in some expensive 'Accountability' (compliance) to measure whether the leaders are effective or to find evidence to sack them.

Eventually, faster than we can chant 'We're totally committed to the highest standards of...'

We're working in a bureaucracy. 
 

We don't need more Leaders.

We just need to do our jobs the way our boss wants them done.

Doing our jobs means making good decisions.

Most of us (including our bosses) don't know how to make good decisions.

It's a skill we need to learn and practise.

Transfer the Leadership Training budget into Good Decision Making Training.
 

Good decisions advance us towards where our boss wants us to be.

If, during our advance, we turn around and one person is following us: 
 

Leader.

A Call for an Inquiry.

There's always Investigations Into What Went Wrong.

There should be Investigations Into What Went Right.

De-stigmatise 'Investigations' into simply a neutral process of gathering information.

Step 3: Assess the Information.

Six Gun in the Holster of Power.

'I understand executive decision making - which is making tough calls in tough times with high stakes for which you're prepared to be held accountable.'

- Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, responding to a question as to why she may nominate for election as President of the United States.
 

Ms Fiorina declares that the quality that makes her the best person to lead the most powerful nation in the world is her understanding of decision making.

Her statement reveals why decision making is so poorly understood and executed and therefore why so many people are unhappy in their work.

Ms Fiorina is confident that good decision making is such a rare and precious quality that her possession of it makes her stand out from an already élite class - presidential candidates.

She comfortably assumes that the 240 million American voters will nod in agreement.

'Goodness! She knows about decision making! Let's make her President!'

Not just any sort of decision making - executive decision making. Apparently that's a superior form of decision making than the decision making on the factory floor.

You and I could never dream to understand executive decision making so best stand back and clutch our pearls as Ms Fiorina and all the bosses and other clever people take charge and command our timid souls what to do.
 

This cult of the hero leader - the tough decision maker making tough calls in tough times with high stakes - is at the heart of so much organisational failure and personal dissatisfaction. 

It reinforces the myth that decision making is the six gun in the holster of Power.

Instead of the Five Steps  we each can take towards where we want to be.

Luck is What Happens.

'Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.'

- Seneca

A decision maker needs at least one of five things if her decision is to achieve its intended result:

•    Time
•    Positional Power
•    Expertise
•    Information
•    Luck

According to Mr Seneca, the fifth variable will favour us at the moment of decision.

If we've prepared with the Five Steps.

The Decision Making Momentum.

 'Very often when we're asked to approve the use of targeted lethal force, it can only be in a matter of minutes.  And so there's a lot of momentum to that. So to say no is like stepping in front of a 90-car freight train.'

- Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security Secretary and former Pentagon General Counsel

There can be a lot of momentum behind a issue requiring a decision.

President Kennedy learned this during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It took enormous courage for him to absorb the momentum of opinion from the military and many of his advisers that he should start a nuclear war or risk losing one.

Few decision makers will confront these consequences.

There is a momentum of expectations acting upon all decision making.

The momentum of the experts and advisers that have contributed information and opinions towards their preferred decision and want to be right.

The momentum of the people who will be affected by the decision and who want to feel safe.

The momentum of those whose needs would be met by a decision in their favour and who want to be affirmed.

The momentum of the mythology of the hero leader/decision maker who is decisive and bold and thrives on urgency.

The momentum of the reputations of those who appointed the decision maker and can't be let down.

The momentum of the way it has always been done.

The momentum of a parent who didn't give enough hugs.

The momentum of the fear of being wrong.

The Five Steps to a good decision serve as shock absorbers that dissipate momentum and transfer its energy into outward visible inquiry, rather than internal, hidden friction.

Nothing Can Be Loved at Speed.

'Nothing can be loved at speed.'

- Michael Leunig.
 

If our decision making is to be an act of love towards those affected (Yes, I'm looking at you Christians and fellow Golden Rule followers), then we need to slow down.

Avoid being seduced by the myth of decisiveness.

Avoid the myth of the Hero Leader.

Loving others beings with loving ourselves.

Step 1: Step Back.

Verify Range to Target.

'Verify our range to target. One ping only.'

- Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) The Hunt for Red October

Our decisions are like a submarine's sonar pings.

They announce our position in the world - to the world - and the world pings back its position in relation to us - and we learn more about our position in the world - and we learn more about the world.

About where we are.

About our range to target. (Our Widget.)

About any course adjustments we need to make to get there.

The accuracy of the information learned from a sonar ping relies upon the constant of the speed of sound through water.

The accuracy of the information learned from a decision relies upon the constant of the Five Steps to a Good Decision.

The more good decision making pings we make - the more we learn about our Widget, the world, and ourselves.

The Widget is at the Centre of the Picture.

'After the course, students also told fewer personal narratives and stories and instead worked to interpret the images using only the evidence before them. In physical examinations, it's important for clinicians to remove this type of bias..'

- Craig Klugman, Bioethicist and Medical Anthropologist

In an attempt to develop their observation skills, health care professionals were taught an art appreciation course modelled on one taught to children.

Participants were shown art works and asked:

•  What do you see?
• What do you see that makes you think that?
• What more do you see?

The students who took the course discussed emotion less and made more medical observations, using more clinical language. They also noticed more about how their patients presented.

Step 4 of the Five Steps to Good Decision Making is Check for Bias.

We can't Assess the Information (Step 3) before us if we don't see it.

We can't share it with others and seek their advice if we don't have an objective language that doesn't contaminate the information with our personal anecdotes and opinions.

We can't assess its relevance to our Widget if we're distracted by a bias.

Good Decision Making requires us to have the technical skills and self-awareness to remove ourselves from the frame and put the Widget at the centre of the picture.

Good Decision Making in one word: Look.

The President Gives a Lesson on the Five Steps.

'Today the United States, together with our allies and partners, has reached a historic understanding with Iran which, if fully implemented, will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. As President and Commander in Chief I have no greater responsibility than the security of the American people. And I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final comprehensive deal it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer.'

- President Barack Obama announcing the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

President Obama begins a twenty minute explanation of a major decision by reminding his bosses - the American people - and the rest of the world, of his Widget:

'The security of the American people.'

He is saying 'There are many Widgets that may not be served by my decision and therefore as many critics of it. So when you're evaluating my decision and its criticisms, remember my Widget that you elected me to serve.'

He proceeds to explain to the American people and the world - his good decision making.

He's the most powerful person on earth - and yet unlike many lesser bosses - he doesn't rely on his positional power to get what he wants done.

He shows his working out. 'You may not agree with my decision,' he is saying, 'but at least you can see how I arrived at it.'

Most importantly the President is saying:

'I am going to share with you all the information that I have. I trust you - everyone from the Wall Street Banker to the farmer in Oregon - to be smart enough to see how I reasoned my way to this decision - as if you had been sitting alongside me at every table along the negotiating pathway to my decision.' That's a profound statement of both self-confidence and trust. 

President Obama addresses four of the Five Steps to a Good Decision.

(We shouldn't expect any decision maker - particularly the President of the United States - to reveal her Step 1. To do so would risk undermining the purpose of the First Step: to allow the decision maker to purge themselves of emotions that may detract from her ability to address the decision on its merits. 'I ranted to the First Lady about how stubborn the Iranian leaders were and how political and pig-headed Congress is, and then had a couple of stiff drinks before watching a couple of episodes of West Wing followed by ten laps of the White House pool and several covert cigarettes in the Rose Garden while the Secret Service kept a look out. Then I went back to work making my decision.')

Step 2: Define the Issue. (Also the first job of a leader: Define reality.)

'By the time I took office, Iran was operating thousands of centrifuges, which can produce the materials for a nuclear bomb. And Iran was concealing a covert nuclear facility.'

In other words - 'My Widget, the security of the American people - wasn't being made.'

Step 3: Assess the Information.

'Because of our diplomatic efforts, the world stood with us, and we were joined at the negotiating table by the world's major powers: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China as well as the European Union.'

In other words 'I won't bore you with all the technical details in this speech, however other nations have looked at the same information that we did - and come to the same conclusions.'

Step 4: Check for Bias.

'In [my] conversations [with Congress], I will underscore that the issues at stake here are bigger than politics. These are matters of war and peace. And they should be evaluated based on the facts, and what is ultimately best for the American people and for our national security.'

In other words 'I'm not doing this for my own ego or glory or to ensure my place in history. What better way to prove this than for me to argue my case before Congress and teach Congress the same lesson of objectivity.' (We teach best what we most need to learn. If we want to ensure we're not being biased, teach someone else how to rid themselves of bias.)

Step 5: Give a Hearing.

'Given the importance of this issue, I have instructed my negotiators to fully brief Congress and the American people on the substance the deal. And I welcome a robust debate in the weeks and months to come.'

In other words 'Let me know if you've got anything to add to my thinking and the many decisions that still need to be made.'
 

President Obama began by defining reality. He concludes as all good leaders do - by saying Thank You.

'And most of all, on behalf of our nation, I want to express my thanks to our tireless — and I mean tireless — Secretary of State John Kerry and our entire negotiating team. They have worked so hard to make this progress. They represent the best tradition of American diplomacy.'

Naming Orders the Chaos.

'Here the human being is using a word to order the chaos. Because that's what naming does. It orders the chaos. And that's what creation is.'

- Archbishop Mark Coleridge, explaining the Genesis Creation Narrative.

Name your Widget.

Naming our Widget is the beginning of ordering the chaos - of creating.

The mess of information that crowds our brains demanding equal attention and blurring our focus.

The noise of competing priorities that distracts us.

The right versus right decisions that perplex us.

The problems that demand our solutions.

The impulsive reactions.

Name the Widget.

What decision will serve our Widget?

What decision will serve our boss's Widget?

What decision will draw us closer to it? 

What decision will advance us towards our Widget?

What information can I ignore?

Good Decision Making continues our ordering of the chaos that began when we named our Widget.

Regardless of what happens next - we served our Widget.

A Complicated Web of Events and Conditions.

The New Yorker published an article describing how prosecutors of a high profile defendant in New York made a wrong decision about a key piece of evidence. Instead of firing the lawyers responsible as expected, the District Attorney decided to inquire into the organisational errors that had led to the mistake.

She knew the lawyers were skilled professionals. She knew that they had not intended to make the error. 'What factors, she wondered, had caused competent people to make bad choices?'

The DA introduced a procedure well known to the health care and air transport industries where objective searches for causes of error take  precedence over blame and personal liability. 

What emerged was a 'complicated web of events and conditions'. It was 'a classic organisational error: a series of small slip-ups that cascaded into an important mistake'.

The DA concluded that 'even in a busy office like hers, she needed to create a step in which everyone could pause during certain complex or high-profile cases and have someone else take a fresh look at the evidence.' 

Mistakes are treated as inevitable in decision making as successes and thus there needs to be the capacity for dealing with, and learning from them in a blame-free environment.

Another study of errors in prosecutions culminated in several jurisdictions agreeing to each doing a systems analysis of a high-profile criminal justice failure.

'In every case, the horrendous legal accident turned out to have multiple causes embedded in the legal system. There was no single bad actor. '

One case convened a group of more than thirty people representing every agency that had made contact with a repeat offender. It was discovered that 'in almost every incident, the people who made decisions about the boy had not seen his larger pattern of violent behavior because they did not have access to his complete records, or did not see them.' 

In another involving a police officer who had committed multiple acts of professional misconduct, the review was able to 'identify seemingly minor perturbations—poor performance evaluations, excessive medical leaves, discourtesy complaints—as warning signs for early intervention.'

One participant in the studies said that 'the idea is to create a culture of learning from error—to look at what went wrong, what factored in the cases, and how to change the system so that doesn’t keep happening.'

As an expert adviser from air transport safety stated: 

'I stressed the fact that, although it’s perfectly reasonable to be angry at a staff member who makes a mistake, you’re deluding yourself if you think simply firing someone gets to the underlying cause of the error in the first place.'

Boundaries Set Us Free.

Create the Space.

Good Decision Making in One Word

'I just did not — I didn't see it. I didn't see how it could work...And I just didn't think it was a good idea. I think I was kind of — I had blinders on. I think I was limited in that respect. And when I got on the phone with Don, I asked him what his idea was. And he said, "Writing is a form of memory, and perhaps it would be helpful for these people to have access to that form of memory as well." And that really struck me because I never thought about writing that way.'

- Dr Alan Dienstag, Psychologist specialising in Alzheimer’s Disease

Good decision making in one word: 

Look. 

The Job of the Manager.

 'Knowledge workers own the means of production.'

- Peter Drucker

'Engagement' is a buzz word. (Probably because 87% of workers are disengaged.)

Knowledge workers have knowledge. 

The job of your manager is to use her organisational and people knowledge to engage your knowledge in the service of making her Widget.

'Engagement' happens when your manager positions your knowledge such that it meshes with Harry's knowledge. And Sophie's knowledge. And Maḥmūd's knowledge. And with Francine's team's knowledge...

...Picture a combination of gears...

Decision Making Force Multipliers.

'The only real power a manager has is to call a meeting.'

- Anonymous
 

A decision maker needs at least one of five things if her decision is to achieve its intended result:

• Time
• Positional Power
• Expertise
• Information
• Luck

She improves the likelihood of success by increasing any of them.

She can compensate for deficiencies in any of them by increasing one of the others.

Find more time, earn a promotion, learn more skills, attend more meetings...carry more good luck charms.

Or she could become a manager.

A manager should only use her positional power to gather the right people around her and to harness their time, expertise and access to information as force multipliers of her own capacities - or deficiencies - in each.

Or she could engage a consultant to use his time and rely on her positional power to gather information and expertise, and present her with the results.

The decisions she makes are the product of her hard work and skill in selecting, supporting - and getting out of the way of - those people as they do their work on her behalf. Phew. That's the labour of management.

Given the unique skills, trust and self-confidence this approach demands of a manager, any wonder that so many rely solely on their positional power - and the exclusive access it gives them to information - as the basis for their decision making.