Having worked in and with government for the past 18 years, I stay clear from acronyms whenever I can. Every department, form, process seems to use an acronym and then the acronym is used throughout the course of business. As a new employee, not only must you learn the people, culture, and new job duties, you need to learn the acronyms. It surprises me that I would even begin to promote the use of one for leaders. However, given one of my personal vision statement components is “LIVE”, as I shared last week, this feels timely.
Learn | Intent | Voice | Experiment
This is about Ubuntu (I am because we are) and provides a framework to foster collaboration between people. Live with intention. Know your intention, share your intention and act on that intention — always. This is my method for taking one step forward and walking into change and opportunity. Let me explain further about each of these letters that make up LIVE.
L | Learn
- Be curious about the environment that you are working in and about yourself. If you are joining an established group, pause-listen-and learn. Ask questions, reflect and examine what is being said, and what isn’t being said.
- Become self-aware (and practice!) when you find yourself frustrated or overly-excited about a situation. Stop and be curious about what is going on within yourself. What are your motives and how are your biases contributing?
- Be courageous and have a mindset of learning. Some of us need to lean back and create the space for other’s contributions, and/or to illicit diverse ideas, to be comfortable with the quiet. The awkward quiet likely will trigger others to lean-in and engage, to formulate their thoughts, and courageously speak up. I am because we are. A group is formed for a purpose. Be curious about other perspectives. Be self-aware of your tendency to speak up first or hold back. Be courageous to admit you alone do not have the answer. What can I learn from this unique group or set of circumstances?
- Seek feedback often as there are always opportunities to learn and improve. Don’t passively wait for the annual evaluation period, drive your own learning, and take advantage of critical moments and schedule a debrief. What worked well? What was hard? Any lessons learned for next time? Acknowledge when you made a mistake. Recognize you don’t always know the solution and sometimes the decision was shortsighted. Learn from others in the form of feedback.
Learn: Be curious. Be uncomfortable. Seek knowledge.
I | Intent
- Ask yourself “what is my intention here?” and invite others to restate their understanding of your statement(s). Coupled with Learn-Self Aware, this can be very insightful (for you and others).
- Be clear about “the why” behind the actions you plan to take that involve other people. Any significant effort, movement, vision you share with others should be accompanied with the why. Simon Sinek wrote a whole book, “Start with Why”, about the importance of communicating with the intention to increase the buy-in and adoption of new ideas and action. Similarly, Stephen M.R. Covey in “The Speed of Trust” outlines intent as one of the Four Cores of Credibility.
- Ask others about their intentions in a non-threatening, curious way. People are not good at clarifying their intention; sometimes asking them about intention may be the first time they have ever articulated it (intention around intent?). Coupled with Learn-Curious, a rich conversation is triggered that often provides valuable context for the path forward.
- Whichever the pathway towards sharing intent, what is revealed in providing clarity and insight into the motivations and rationale will help get others on board (or provide an avenue to discuss why they are not aligned). More importantly declaring your intent, dissuades assumptions and Mr. Covey asserts it is a building block for trust.
Intent: Know it. Say it out loud to yourself. Share it.
V | Voice
- Create space to be heard, to listen, and receive feedback. To facilitate the platform around feedback you will need to pause. The Learn-Courage / mindset combined with Intent-Be clear becomes an authentic way to state you are interested in feedback. I am not suggesting adding a week to a project schedule or that you must sacrifice momentum. Rather, it could be adding 15 minutes to an agenda to digest a new idea when presented. Ideally it means providing information in advance for people to read through, process, and digest. Time respects the different communication styles.
- Provide specific avenues for ideas and feedback to be heard. Share out a survey for people to comment on. Break into small groups at a meaning and ask a compelling question to gather feedback, have them discuss and report out the group’s thoughts. Instead of casting a broad “Let me know what you think…” I propose you create a safe mechanism to gather feedback.
- Recognize your voice. Leaders should prepare for how they deliver ideas, the positional authority of the messenger, and the level of details. Be careful around personalizing. This is a balance. For vision work, I encourage leaders to show their enthusiasm, share the story behind vision, what inspired and transpired before “today” so that others can understand and catch the passion in the work thus far. And often there are details that have not been fully thought through and there is much value in having those closest to the work really determine those details. Here I propose we be clear about what is negotiable and what is not. If a leadership team has determined X with certainty and it is a steadfast decision, be clear about this and direct where you want feedback and engagement.
Voice: Create space. Offer specific avenues for feedback. Recognize your voice.
E | Experiment
- Choose to pilot or test first. Offering a trial for a time-limited period may be a less threatening way to see how a change may work. Or set up a demonstration space where others can step in and try it. I did this for proposing options for cubicle workstations. We used tape to mock-up the furniture arrangement and panel walls, then invited the future occupants to visit the space.
- Offer choice. When implementing an experiment involving others, consider what elements of feedback and customization you can add for individuals impacted. Continuing with the workstation example, we also identified where there was individual control in their workstation. Would you like one shelf or two? Pedestal cabinet with two file drawers, or two box drawers and one file? Coupled with Voice-Specific Avenues, the conversation then becomes constructive and focused on the areas of empowerment.
- Use Test results to inform the plan. Experimentation is different than planning. Think of this stage as the methodical gathering of information, data, feedback, which then is instilled into a plan. Coupled with Voice-Recognize Yours, being clear on what is decided / planned and where there is room to alter plans as you conduct the research will net best results. Also, Learn-Seek Often and Intent-Ask Yourself implies that you are being diligent and considerate of the feedback. The experiment and corresponding feedback informs the plan, alters, and ratifies the path forward.
Experiment: Pilot. Individual choice. Results inform plan.
Hopefully this model is something you could try out. While I strive to follow L.I.V.E. in my leadership capacity, I also waiver and make mistakes. However, I do not fault my human-ness. I seek to Learn. I declare my Intent. I recognize Voice. I choose experiments over large baked plans. This is about Ubuntu (I am because we are) and provides a framework to foster collaboration between people.