Latest / The Lagging Team / In the Loop Is Not in the Room

Transcript

In the Loop Is Not in the Room · The Lagging Team

0:00
Melanie Shires: My title hadn't changed. I was still responsible
0:03
for leading marketing and developing my team, but my
0:06
access to the conversations that shaped our work changed. I
0:10
wasn't included in some of the meetings about marketing and
0:12
branding and positioning, even when my marketing coordinator
0:16
was. I was accountable for work I wasn't consistently being
0:21
invited to help shape.
0:24
Devon Morris: This is The Lagging Team. Falling behind is
0:28
a position, not a verdict. Every week, we work to change that
0:34
outcome. Listen to that last part again, accountability for
0:44
work she wasn't invited to actually help shape. And notice
0:50
what didn't happen. Nobody actually demoted her. Nobody
0:54
took anything away. There was no meeting where somebody decided
1:00
to cut the marketing director out of the marketing
1:03
conversation. A calendar invite just stopped including her
1:08
name. Her title didn't move. Her job description did not change.
1:14
Her accountability didn't move one iota of an inch. Here's the
1:22
part that really should stop you. Her coordinator was in the
1:27
room, so it wasn't seniority, it wasn't bandwidth, it wasn't a
1:34
need to know, it was nothing, it was an oversight that hardened.
1:42
See somewhere this week, a new leader is doing everything the
1:47
playbook actually says: 30-day listening tour, all hands
1:53
meetings, weekly update emails, open door policies, saying, "Hey
2:01
man, come have a conversation with me, and they can actually
2:04
mean it. And the team is still a little wonky. They're still a
2:09
little off. They're still guessing. They're still finding
2:13
out things late. So the leader does more and more. Another
2:16
update, right? A longer all hands meeting. A better deck,
2:22
you know. These things happen. They're being fair here, because
2:27
that's what a good leader working hard. That really sounds
2:33
like the right thing to do. When a team seems to be out of the
2:36
loop, the obvious thing is to give them more loop. But more
2:42
loop means that circle just got bigger. But watch what every one
2:48
of those moves has in common. They're all about delivery,
2:53
getting the decision to the people faster, clearer, more
2:58
often. Not one of those changes was in the room when the
3:03
decision got made. See, this is The Lagging Team, and falling
3:09
behind is a position, not a verdict. I'm Dr. Devon Morris,
3:14
and this right here is a Sidebar. Tuesday, I sit down
3:20
with somebody. Thursdays, I pluck one thing that they said
3:26
from that particular episode and go all the way into it. Today,
3:32
it's two words every organization uses like they're
3:35
the same word: informed and included. See, before I sat with
3:44
Melanie, I actually took her assessment. Four domains, right?
3:48
I scored pretty well on this assessment, right? I read my own
3:52
results out loud on Tuesday's episodes, which I'd half regret
3:58
to some degree, except that one of them is the reason this
4:03
section actually exists. My lowest one was energy
4:09
stewardship, not decision making, not boundaries, where my
4:13
energy actually goes, and whether I get anything back, and
4:20
that is extremely important for an introvert like myself. I know
4:26
you may not believe me. I always get that statement from people
4:31
that, man, you're not really an introvert, and the fact is, I am
4:36
at least according to several, several, several assessments
4:40
that I've taken over the years, right? So this is not a one-time
4:44
thing. But here's the deal. Here's why I'm telling you on
4:51
this episode about the room that you're not in, the demand, the
4:57
domain that I scored the lowest in. Is the one nobody
5:02
volunteers. It's the one you don't bring up because naming it
5:07
sounds like you're asking for less work. You know, say it
5:12
flat, no number, then move. So here's my problem with the new
5:17
leader that just needs to communicate more and more and
5:23
more, I really do believe it's the wrong argument. I don't mean
5:29
communication doesn't matter by by any sake. You know I'm not
5:32
saying that. I mean more of it cannot just fix the problem.
5:38
It's aimed at the wrong moment. Okay, every communication plan
5:44
is built around a decision that already exists. By the time
5:48
something is there to communicate, the moment's
5:52
passed. It's done. The plan is about transmission. The injury
5:58
happened one step earlier in a conversation with the team that
6:03
wasn't the team wasn't actually in the room was the problem. You
6:08
can transmit that decision beautifully, right? Early,
6:12
warmly, with context and a question-and-answer period
6:17
to make sure that people clarify and truly understand. And the
6:21
team is still carrying something it had, you know, no hand in.
6:26
Okay, so you get the thing that makes no sense on paper. A
6:33
well-informed team is still behind. That's a problem. They
6:40
know what's happening. They knew before most people, and they're
6:43
still guessing, right?
6:46
Because knowing the decision doesn't tell you the 12 small
6:52
judgments, those different little calls that happen that
6:59
implies or goes along with that particular decision, and those
7:04
were things that happened in a room that they weren't in. You
7:10
see where I'm going. This is why I'll keep you in the loop. Lands
7:17
the way that it does is offered generously, and it's heard as
7:26
demonstration, but it ends up being demotion ultimately. Both
7:34
people really are right about this because "I'll keep you in a
7:39
loop" just really means I wasn't kept in a loop already. I wasn't
7:46
in the room for the decision and the context and the nuances
7:50
associated with that. And the person that actually hurts the
7:53
most is the one who's used to actually being in the room. See,
7:58
Melanie's job didn't just get smaller; her job got the same
8:03
size with less information actually attached to it because
8:07
there was some rooms that she just wasn't in. So you heard me.
8:13
I asked Melanie what her team was doing while all of this was
8:18
happening above her. I want you to take a moment and really
8:22
listen to the first thing that really comes out of her mouth.
8:25
Melanie Shires: Well, it was my responsibility as the leader to
8:28
make sure that my team didn't know everything that was going
8:32
on above me. So I just continued to focus on what I could focus
8:38
on.
8:39
Devon Morris: That's a good leader describing the most
8:43
natural move there is. Hold on to that because we're coming
8:47
back to it because there's some cost here, and we want to
8:52
understand those costs. So, all right, here's the part that I
8:58
actually want to give you, and it's informed versus included,
9:05
informed and included. I'm now. I want to say versus, right?
9:09
Because I think that they're ands. We use them like that one
9:13
word, and they describe two really different positions,
9:17
right? Informed really means the decision actually reaches you.
9:21
You got told either early, late, it was good. You was told in a
9:28
bad kind of way. The decision is the finished thing that you are
9:36
downstream of. Is the problem included? Is you actually
9:42
upstream? You were there while it was still soft. You was there
9:48
while it was still happening. Your objection could have
9:52
changed the entire shape of the thing, and maybe not. But it
10:01
could have, it could have had a small impact in some kind of
10:05
way. Two really different positions, right? And almost
10:13
every tool we we built for actual people is all about
10:18
keeping people in the loop and can only put you in that first
10:25
one that we talked about. Just being informed. See, when I
10:32
think about this and I kind of put that researcher hat on, a
10:36
decision isn't one event. It's a room, then an announcement. We
10:41
measure the announcement because the announcement is the part
10:44
that leaves a trace of something, a sniff of something.
10:49
It's an email, a deck, a meeting on the calendar. Right? The room
10:54
actually leaves no trace whatsoever. It doesn't have that
10:58
smell to it. There's no artifact that records who could have
11:02
changed the actual outcome and what going to and what's going
11:06
to be told after that room dispersed. See, here's the deal.
11:15
So inclusion is structurally invisible, and information is
11:21
structurally auditable. Okay, we manage the thing that we can
11:28
actually see. Okay, which means a leader can do a genuinely
11:35
excellent job at the visible half, and never once be asked
11:42
about the other one whatsoever. And here's the uncomfortable
11:46
part, right? Being overruled is not the same as being excluded.
11:53
There's absolutely logical reasons on why we have to go in
11:58
a particular direction, or why somebody's idea on a table is
12:03
just not the right idea at the time, right? But here's the
12:07
deal: if somebody brought you in while it was still, you know,
12:12
being discussed, while still being put together, while it was
12:15
still soft, took your objection seriously, and went the other
12:21
way anyway. You were included in that. You were included because
12:26
it's absolutely reasonable. Even if it's not reasonable, they may
12:30
just have the authority to be able to make that call and move
12:32
forward. And here's the uncomfortable part: being
12:35
overruled is not the same as being excluded. It just isn't.
12:40
If somebody brought you in a room while still soft, why
12:42
things could still be changed, and your objection was actually
12:46
heard, seriously heard, right? And then they still went in the
12:48
direction they decided to go in. You actually were included. See,
12:52
that's a good leader doing a hard thing. This episode is not
12:58
about them whatsoever. Okay, I want to be precise about that
13:03
because the lazy version of this is the argument that I didn't
13:08
get my way. No, it's not about you getting your way. Remember,
13:15
diversity of thought is what we want when we got to deal with
13:20
complex adaptive systems, complex decisions, lots of
13:25
moving parts. See, Melanie coaches people through exactly
13:31
this, and she says the same sentence to all of them.
13:36
Melanie Shires: You should not have to prove to anyone that you
13:40
belong in the room, you do belong in the room. Period. And
13:45
if other people are making you feel as though you don't belong
13:49
there, then maybe that's the wrong room for you to be in.
13:53
That doesn't mean you don't belong there.
13:56
Devon Morris: She says it twice in the episode about 25 minutes
14:03
apart from each other, so I hear it like it's a bell, and both
14:07
times without me prompting her or asking her. So there's a
14:12
second pair here that I want you to acknowledge and understand,
14:16
and it's the reason why it's so hard. Title and standing, okay.
14:23
Your title is what the organizational chart says about
14:28
you. Your standing is whose room you are actually in, whose
14:35
judgment is wanted while a thing is actually being decided. Those
14:42
two move independent of each other, and only one of them is
14:46
written down, y'all. Only one of them. So when standing drops and
14:51
title holds, no system in the company records that anything
14:56
actually happened. HR sees no change. I mean, you're making
15:01
the same amount of money, so payroll didn't see any change.
15:03
The organizational chart is actually identical. Your
15:06
objectives are identical. The accountability is identical,
15:10
which means that you can raise it as much as you want to. It's
15:16
because what you're describing is something with no evidence
15:19
attached to it, so it becomes hard to see a trace of it, to
15:24
get a hint of it, right? I'm not in those meetings anymore, but
15:28
heck, it'd be interesting. I'm not in the meeting anymore, but
15:34
what happens when you was never included in the meeting? You
15:37
don't even know that the meeting has actually happened. See, it
15:42
cuts the other way for new leaders, right? Who it's not
15:45
about being cruel. They walk into a configuration nobody
15:50
explained to them either, and nothing told them that the
15:53
marketing director used to be in the branding conversation
15:57
because nobody wrote it down, right? They built a room of
16:02
those who seemed relevant when it kicked off those meetings.
16:08
See, that's the whole thing. Standing is inherited by
16:13
accident and lost by accident, and the only person who noticed
16:19
it in real time, is the person that is happening to? That's it.
16:26
Last pair, and this one is gonna sting for many of you that is
16:32
doing a really good job, shielded and spared. Right? Go
16:40
back to the video that you seen earlier. It was my
16:46
responsibility to make sure my team didn't know everything that
16:52
was going on, but above me, every decent leader has done
16:57
that for their team to some degree. It's a part of the job,
17:03
man, and it comes from the right place. But look at what the team
17:07
actually receives. They get the consequences, new priorities,
17:12
shifted deadlines, a project that quietly dies out, right?
17:17
With the cause removed, plucked away, the effects gone.
17:22
Actually, no explanation whatsoever. They were shielded.
17:28
They were not spared. Nothing was actually absorbed. It
17:32
landing on landed on them anyway whatsoever. It just arrived
17:36
without reasons attached to it, which impacts motivation,
17:42
because it impacts your purpose. Okay, and here's the cost that
17:47
nobody puts on an invoice: a team with effects and no causes.
17:54
They look confused. It just puts holes in that purpose, right?
18:04
Not from the team itself. That whole thing that's putting holes
18:11
in them is coming from above. It reads as the team can't
18:18
prioritize, they can't commit, they can't really keep up. These
18:23
become performance conversations about the team, and then about
18:29
the leader. So shielding converts a structural problem
18:33
into a performance problem and hands a bill to their leader, to
18:41
that team, the fix isn't saying to yourself, Let's dump all the
18:46
chaos on them, right? It's really much narrower than that.
18:50
Give them the cause without the drama. Tell them, give them the
18:55
why. Here's what changed above us, and here's what it means for
19:00
our work here, and here's what I actually don't know, and
19:07
whatever that is, right? So, three things, three things for
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Monday. None of them cost you any money. None of you actually
19:19
need permission for. Number one, name the last decision that
19:22
changed your team's work. Then name who was in the room. Write
19:27
down the names, the real names, the actual names. Don't don't
19:30
say Bubba, right? Anything like that. Don't write down their
19:34
functions. Just all the appropriate people that was in
19:36
that was in there, right? You're not looking for villains. This
19:39
is not a time where we're trying to blame, you're looking for
19:42
whether you can reconstruct what happened.
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If you can't name that room, that's a finding itself, a
19:50
decision your team is executing, and nobody can say any of you
19:55
all were there. May want to work through that. Number two, move
20:02
one person, just one, from informed to included. Pick one
20:12
meeting, one quality meeting, one person who currently gets
20:15
the summary. Right, bring them in while it's still happening,
20:20
not just as an observer, as someone whose objection can
20:24
actually change the outcome. Right? Don't just be putting
20:26
people in meetings for the heck of it. Right? If their objection
20:28
can't change anything, you've invited them to just watch, and
20:33
they'll know. One meeting, one person-that's a move that you
20:39
can make. Number three. Say the cause out loud just once. Pick
20:45
one thing you've been shielding your team from and give them the
20:49
why without the drama. Three sentences, right? What changed
20:56
above us? What it means for our work, and what I don't know
21:06
yet-not the politics, not the extra things that were said in
21:10
the room, just really the cause, the effects that are already
21:15
living and existing and have the reasons attached to them. You do
21:18
that; it's going to be a good move because this is where that
21:23
shielded slash spared move actually happens, and it's free
21:28
to do. And you could talk to him out afterwards, see how they
21:32
felt. Right now, here's the deal. Always talk to this
21:36
because I need to. Here's what would make me wrong, but I'd
21:38
rather for you to check me on this, right? Not for you to
21:42
actually take my word for it, right? Don't you know? Do just
21:47
move one person. That's it. Find the last decision that changed
21:52
your team's work, and find the room, and come back to those
21:55
three simple questions. You were in it. You helped shape it, and
22:03
you'd forgotten because being included is invisible when you
22:10
have it. It's a clean finding. This episode is not about you
22:16
whatsoever. Don't torture yourself, right? You were
22:20
brought in early and overruled, man. That happens. Get over it.
22:25
We don't all win in every thought that we came up with,
22:28
and it's about the collective making the best decisions.
22:32
Somebody told you before it was announced, right? You heard the
22:35
objection. You decided the other way, man. That's inclusion all
22:39
day, every day. If you're getting that, then you know what
22:42
I want to say to you. This episode is not for you. You
22:47
found out when the team found out. Found out like you find out when
22:51
they found out, and there were some things that you weren't.
22:57
You were just there. You just wasn't there. I'd be concerned
23:01
about that. The point isn't that every decision needs everybody
23:06
in a room. We we don't want that. That takes up a lot of
23:09
time, and and I've seen us swing in that direction, and I've
23:13
never found it to be useful whatsoever. The point is that
23:17
you really you have never once checked which decisions your
23:25
team is accountable for, and which rooms it was in, and that
23:29
check cost you 20 minutes. So just do it. All right. So here's
23:34
the deal: falling behind is a position, not a verdict. You hear
23:38
me say it again and again and again. And some teams are
23:41
sitting in the right position right now, fully informed,
23:47
perfectly looped in, and carrying work they had no hand
23:51
in shaping. Being in the loop isn't the same as being in the
23:56
room; it just isn't. One is about what reaches you? The other is
24:03
about whether you were there while it could still been shaped
24:12
or the direction changed. So before you send the team another
24:18
update, go find out which rooms that they've been in? If the
24:22
answer is none of them, and you don't have a team that's
24:28
actually behind, you have a team that's downstream, and that is a
24:35
different problem with a different fix. Okay, if you want
24:41
to actually talk about what this looks like on your team, I want
24:46
you to go to thelaggingteam.com/start. That
24:55
is thelaggingteam.com/start. That is the Sidebar. Now you
25:01
know where to look. Thank you for joining us. Where every
25:06
Tuesday and Thursday we work toward bridging the gap for
25:11
teams that are behind.