PEOPLE
WHAT
BEFORE HOW
BY CHIP GALLENT, CERTIFIED PETRA COACH
BUSINESS IS hard enough. We
plan. We think. We train. We win. And,
sometimes, we lose. But what if I told you
that there is a way to tilt the odds in your
favor and win more. Would you believe
me? Well, there is!
At Petra Coach, when we visit
organizations to begin our coaching
relationship, one of the first things we’re
looking to uncover is how that team
collectively solves problems. Most of
the time, what we find is that companies
are spending way too much time on
how they’re going to fix a problem. Ask
anyone—they think they’ve gotten to
the bottom of it and are ready to be the
hero. Usually, answers center around
more of this, less of that, and so on and
so forth.
However, the solution does not lie in
discussing how you should resolve the
issue; it’s in defining what a successful
resolution looks like . . . first!
By defining success up front, you’re
tuning your brain to seek out that result
and the odds of achieving it increase
significantly. And, once you have spelled
out what you want to accomplish, the
steps to reaching that specific outcome
tend to reveal themselves.
Think about it this way: Do you
remember seventh grade science class?
This is when most of us were introduced
to the scientific method—the process
we used to navigate from problem to
solution. The steps are:
1.
Ask the question
2.
Do research
3.
Form a hypothesis
4.
Conduct an experiment
5.
Analyze the data
6.
Draw a conclusion
This method has been proven effective
time and time again, so why is it that in
business, we consistently overlook Step
three?
When you take the time to really
clarify what “winning” looks like for
you and your team, it is akin to forming
your hypothesis; it is specifying the
thing that you’re pursuing and how
attaining it will be measured. When
we immediately jump into how we are
going to conduct an experiment, we’re
setting ourselves up for failure, as we
have not detailed the end game and
exactly what we’re answering. Without
forming a hypothesis prior to executing
an experiment, how can we expect to
accurately reach any conclusions?
In addition to improving your team’s
chances at a “win,” there are also
interpersonal benefits to this principle.
When we observe teams who approach
their challenges by focusing on how
they’re going to settle them, there tends
to be a lot of dysfunction and discord
within the team, and potentially the
entire company. When you focus on the
what first, tension, dysfunction, and
discord begin to disappear as the team
fixates on one, unified, well-defined goal.
The next time you’re faced with a
challenge in your business, recognize
when your team is getting stuck in the
weeds and spending too much time on
the how. Shut it down. Reframe the
conversation with the question, “What
does success look like?” You’ll be
considerably more likely to get it right,
the path to achieving it will become much
clearer, and your team will hyper-focus
on the same outcome. In the end, they’ll
work better together.
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