Your org has a purpose (besides making money).
You expect to impact the world, in line with that purpose.
BUT, like most, your org struggles to make that happen.
In our last post, we we offered the “easy” solution that few will have the courage to do.
DO FEWER THINGS: Make issue #1 clear. Pause / reject the rest.
Let’s talk about pausing and rejecting work.
Impossible, right?
WRONG.
It’s easy!
It’s easy IF people know what game they’re here to play.
Right now they’re in a game of Busyness Performance Theater. “Say yes to everything, go to all meetings, and make sure you look busy doing it!” It’s the game your organization encourages them to play, and it’s the one they know best.
It’s your job to help them play a different game.
Name Your Game is one of dozens of tactics we wrote to teach strategic leadership in Strategy Tactics, by Pip Decks.
“When I [action], I’m playing a [timescale] game to [goal].”
When we [write this email], we’re playing a [five year] game to [wake you up to the power and influence you already have to intentionally change your org and the world].
Writing this email is an easy YES for us, because we know what game we’re here to play.
You’ll notice it’s not the office politics game or the busyness game or the say happy things so people like us game or any other game out there. It’s the game we choose to play. It’s the one we show up to win, every day.
You can do this, and you can help your people do this, too!
Teach people to see their actions in terms of the game they’re here to play, and they will change what work they choose to do.
Encourage them to pause or reject work that’s not aligned with the game they’re here to play, and they will change what work they choose NOT to do.
Use the image above to give it a try yourself (and do reply with questions).
And if you want more tactics like this one, buy a copy of Strategy Tactics. It helps us out, spreads the word, and will help you and your teams practice strategic leadership.
Ben and David
StrategyTeaming.com