Breathing a Big Sigh Of Strategy

You know the scene that's in countless superhero movies where the good guys look each other in the eyes as they finalize their grand plan to beat the big baddie?

This turning point also tends to be the catharsis of their interpersonal conflict, with an incremental "Put our differences to the side and save the world" head nod.

So dramatic! The stakes in those stories (and the movie runtimes) can't give much airtime to the actual resolution process for these two kinds of conflicts. The "how we'll get the bad guy" and the "let's reconcile our differences" conversation tend to be bundled into a cliffhanger statement and a knowing look.

IRL, these are two kinds of conversations.

They're both critical for a functional team.

This duality has been particularly top of mind as I've started some new Team Strengths Accelerator engagements coming out of the Summer of Strengths promotion. Many agency leaders raise their hand for the Accelerator because they think they have a strategic roadblock, such as trying to grow sales. A few, though, are looking for ways to resolve interpersonal roadblocks, like a difficult leader.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast: It's always both.

When I first start talking to someone interested in my TSA offering, I do what any good sales rep would do and help them try to identify the Pain Beneath The Pain. What's the emotional driver underneath the initial outreach? Why now? What's the stakes? What's the desired outcome?

If the pain is compelling enough, that's usually enough to help a prospect become a Learn to Scale customer. Sales 101, brudda.

However, this is just the start of a transformation. Yes, it often begains with one problem- usually the strategic roadblock- but there's always an interpersonal challenge quietly adding friction. Perhaps a breakdown of trust. Maybe a failure to communicate candidly. A power struggle. Overambition.

These emotions reveal themselves during my 1-1 debrief meetings after team members have taken their CliftonStrengths assessment. I love this assessment because it's so darn specific about how you are at your best. I get to start a 1-1 meeting with a relative stranger who is already primed to be unusually honest because they hold in their hands a report that makes them feel truly seen.

When you are truly seen, you feel psychologically safe to share what truly bothers you.

When you share what truly bothers you, we can solve the true root cause problems.

It's a little more complicated and nuanced than Clark Kent giving the audience a growing grin, but it's how real change actually happens. And sometimes, the first step in that journey is getting clear on the problem yourself, in a safe space where you can explore every angle without judgment.

If you're looking to delve a little deeper to find out what YOUR root cause problem might be (strategic or interpersonal), try playing around with this AI prompt that I've dubbed an "AI Advisory Board." It's something that's helped me better understand my own challenges or roadblocks, which then makes it so much easier to seek the real support I need to move forward.

It's not magic- it's five perspectives designed to get you seeing your big baddy challenge from different angles.

If you're AI-curious, there's five examples you can plug into the prompt to see how it works.

A TL;DR from the CRO

Alright, listen up: until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash. Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning- light the bastards up. And Hulk: SMASH.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer, re-enacting his favorite scene from Avengers

TL;DR From The Archive: Four Takeaways From Finish

Jon Acuff’s Finish, published in 2017, breaks down perfection as a universal problem that keeps everyone from finishing, methodically labels several signals of perfectionism, and then provides strategies to prevent this human inclination from derailing our ability to reach goals.

Did your AI Advisory Board recognize your perfectionist-seeking tendencies? After you read this blog post, you will.

ROCK TUMBLING UPDATE

I've become a card-carrying member of the Boston Mineral Club.​

Yes, I am now going to Rock Club.

Once a month, me and a motley crew (of more people than you'd imagine) get together to talk about cool minerals, adventures in rock hounding, and rock auctions. A perk of the membership is free access to Harvard University's Mineralogical Museum (image above) that is an astounding experience, even for non-rock nerds.

I never could have imagined going full nerdcore on gneiss, but it's unusually freeing to not have to hyperanalyze how people are perceiving me. Since I do a lot of training and teaching, I slip into a heightened sense of self-awareness, as if I'm one of my learners. This awareness is directly tied to calibrating my speech, language, and goals.

At Rock Club, I'm just newbie. People here like rocks. That's it.

It's inspiring me to start collecting specimens. I've set up a Facebook Marketplace alert for cheap library card catalogs or apothecary cabinets.

Not only that, but I've got some new rocks going into Rock Hudson and Rock Lobster. I've decided to start my collection with Before-&-After comparisons, so I'm being extra dilligent in writing down my rock tumbling steps.

Don't worry, you'll hear it here first when I've got my first display assembled.

Plan for a better new year,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

​Opt-out from the newsletter | Unsubscribe from all emails | Update your Preferences | www.learntoscale.us, Boston, MA 02119

​PS. Is your hotel room...shrinking? Yes. But the bar is bigger.​