Andrew Skotzko

Running toward uncertainty

The same way soldiers run toward the sounds of shooting, or firefighters run toward the blaze, effective leaders run toward uncertainty.

Uncertainty exists wherever there is tension. Tension is the indicator of change. And change is the work of a leader.

If you’re leading an initiative of any kind, look for the tension of uncertainty and run toward it.

One guiding mantra I picked up along the way as a team lead is “make good things happen.” (Thanks, Scott.) When I don’t know what to do, I start looking around for something good to help happen.

One of the fastest ways to make good things happen in any kind of project is to create clarity. Even though there will be course corrections later, you free people up to charge ahead right now when they have a clear target.

Some good places to start with are where we’re going, why, how we’re getting there, and what comes first.

Just remember: about the time you’re sick of saying it, that’s when they start hearing it.

Impossible*

“Impossible” and “Unpossible”: we confuse these two ideas all the time, and it doesn’t serve us.

Something that is “impossible” cannot ever possibly happen, according to all known laws of science.

Something that is “unpossible” cannot happen according to reality as we know it.

There’s a difference.

Most of what we call “impossible” is actually “unpossible.” Something I want may be impossible to me, right now, this month, with my current circumstances. That means it’s not impossible, it’s merely unpossible.

Really, instead of saying “that’s impossible” we should be saying “that’s unpossible.” Or “that’s impossible, according to how I have defined this other term.” Or, if we really want to be honest about it, we could say “that’s not possible for me, yet.”

Even something “impossible” should have an asterisk next to it, because our scientific understanding of the laws of nature is always expanding. New discoveries can and will change our understanding of what’s possible. That’s what science does, and it works.

The word that changes everything: “yet.” But I’ll take an asterisk as a shorthand for ‘yet’.

Faster than light travel: impossible*.

Next time you find yourself writing that something is “impossible,” try writing it as “impossible*” instead.

The ‘expiring veto email’

I was coaching a new team lead at a startup yesterday, and he brought up a challenge I think probably affects many teams: how do you deal with being blocked waiting for a decision about day-to-day work from the person you report to?

This happens because nobody likes being negatively surprised. Especially in a startup that is going through many growing pains, there are many fears, not the least of which is the fear of losing control.

(Control itself is an illusion, but that’s a separate topic.)

These managers want to be in the loop and know what’s going on. What they’re afraid of is things going sideways and getting blindsided, when they could’ve prevented it somehow.

This is a reasonable concern. Senior leaders in any org have a different perspective than other people, because they are seeing everything. They can often spot problems from their perspective that someone directly involved with the work can’t. These are often integration problems or long-range implications that aren’t obvious in the moment.

Usually, these people don’t have all the information needed anyway and are ultimately going to push the decision back to the people closest to the work involved.

They just want to be in the loop, know what’s happening, and be able to contribute thinking and guidance if they see something that isn’t working or if they have a different perspective from their vantage point.

The problem is that such well-intentioned practices lead to a bad place: bottleneck. And more and more people are waiting on the management for decisions. It’s a downward spiral, and it’s usually a bad sign of how management is doing its job. There are a lot of reasons that it’s good to push decision-making authority as close as possible to the frontline work, and speed is just one of them.

So, can we have both? Can we keep senior leadership informed and benefit from their perspective, and also not get stuck waiting around for an answer from them?

Thankfully, yes.

The trick is to use what I call the “expiring veto email.”

When you send that email where you are usually asking for a decision, make a slight tweak: explicitly state when you need an answer by, and what you’ll move forward with if you don’t hear otherwise. Something like:

To meet our next deliverable, we need to start development on this on Wednesday. Please let me know if you have any input / changes by Wednesday at 10am. If I don’t hear otherwise, my plan is to make this top priority for our next sprint and kick off the development Wednesday afternoon at the team meeting.

It’s deceptively simple. Let’s look at what this simple addition does:

  • keeps them in the loop, so they know what’s going on and going to happen if they can’t get to it
  • gives them veto power if they disagree with your plan or see something different that they think you aren’t accounting for
  • removes them as a bottleneck — things keep moving if you don’t hear back from them
  • promotes a culture of leadership and thinking at all levels

I predict they will be excited and grateful for the initiative you are showing. It makes their life simpler, which every busy manager I know will appreciate. They know what will happen (even if they don’t have time to respond) but can still veto or redirect if they need to.

One caveat

One key caveat to the above tactic is that it should only be used for a day-to-day decision. This is what Amazon refers to as a Type 2 decision: it is reversible, and as such calls for a lighter weight decision-making process.

Most things are reversible and not a Type 1, “future of the company” decision. They’re like walking through a door: you can always turn around and walk back. Act accordingly.

So if you or your team are stuck trying waiting for answers on Type 2 decisions, try the expiring veto email and watch things start moving faster. I predict everyone will be happier for it.

On always being wrong

I learned a new phrase from the one and only Seth that has lit my mind on fire and freed up my creativity: “Always be wrong.” (Expect this and much more in his highly anticipated new book, “This is Marketing,” which comes out next week.)

WHAT? Be…wrong? Are you kidding me?

That was my first reaction, anyway.

But here’s the deal, and it’s actually very freeing:

The idea is to be wrong all the time. To ship generously, and get it wrong. But to be getting it wrong from a posture of generosity and service. Coming from a posture of trying to serve. Showing up for people, for customers, with right heart and right intention to serve.

And then, take notes.

Take notes about where you’re wrong, learn the lesson, make it better, ship again.

We’ve given “wrong” a bad name. I don’t know about you, but I’ve grappled with this for a long time. We’ve all been trained that there is a right answer and that we have to have that answer. Looking for The One Answer to Rule Them All, when there are Many Possible Great Answers.

This often manifests as over-preparing, studying too much in advance, trying to reverse engineer it all up front.

Turns out, it’s much more efficient, faster, and simpler to make a generous attempt, be wrong, learn, and repeat. As long as it’s done with the right intention, it builds connection and trust with customers, with those I seek to serve.

But there is a simple fix: take the sting out of “wrong.” Make “wrong” a friend.

How? Two steps:

Step one: Give yourself permission to ‘always be wrong.’ If you do, and the market does, this is permission to get it wrong. Permission to stop endlessly preparing and trying to get it perfect from the jump. Freedom from trying to reverse engineer everything in advance and solve it all before you leap.

Step two: Pair ‘always be wrong’ with ‘always be learning.’ This is about cultivating a growth mindset (for more on how to do this, see Lesson 2 in my altMBA recap).

If you’re just wrong, but getting better and trying again, you’ll burn out. And that doesn’t serve you or those you seek to serve.

This isn’t permission to ship crap. Give it your best attempt. But it is permission to be imperfect and go anyway.

“Wrong” is the doorway to better, and what opens that door is saying “thank you.”

“Wrong” is the only place I get to be a learner and get better and grow.

“Wrong” is a wonderful place to visit. Just don’t stay there.

Adulting: The Fundamentals

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“Get it together, dude.”

“Ugh, I hate my job.”

“I have no idea what to do next.”

“I feel like such a loser.”

We’ve all been there.

Life can be hard, unfair, challenging. But no matter what life brings my way, I want to be always learning, growing, and getting better. I want to get the most out of my life and assume you do, too.

Whenever I’ve thought something like the above, it’s always come from a place of deep frustration. I’ve wanted and needed an answer. I knew something was off, but was stuck as to how to move forward.

In my experience, the real problem is usually that I’ve stopped taking care of the fundamentals. Part of the foundation of my life is out of whack.

So I start in the wrong place, putting the cart before the horse. I address the symptoms but not the causes.

Oh, you too? Glad I’m not the only one.

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