School systems have likely beaten the ability to ask quality questions out of your once and future team members. The people you need to take care of your customers, drive innovation, and sound like a well-rehearsed orchestra to your audience—simply aren’t thinking. Are your policies and procedures, or lack thereof, focused on high quality thinking? (Yes, that’s a pic of Mount Drum, a summit for thinking)
Thinking Test
If you don’t believe me, how many times did someone knock on your door last week to ask you a stupid question? There are stupid questions that need to be asked and then there really, truly are stupid questions that raise eyebrows. How many times was it on a subject you already told them they could make a decision themselves? How many times have you walked into a department and found them working on goofy stuff?
The DRUMBEAT is first and foremost a thinking system. Next it’s a playbook to use at the critical junctions of the game. Then finally it’s a common language for you and your team to use to decide how to think together. If you are falling behind your competition, or want to make sure you stay ahead—it probably starts with higher quality thinking.
Whoever thinks best will usually win.
It’s all about winning however you, your team, your boss defines it. Not just by the “numbers” which are managerial and transactional goals, but also by the “words” the transformational leadership to achieve your purpose. If your team isn’t “enthusiastic”—it’s probably not their fault—it’s on you.
First you need to know why each member of your team stays on the team. Then you can help put all the goals and plays (policies and procedures) in context for them and reach a common understanding and accountability—not just to the team but more importantly to themselves. If you can get to this place with each member of your band of characters then you found your DRUMBEAT.
Building Trust
How do you get a mutual understanding with each of your direct reports? There’s only one-way and it involves building trust. The DRUMBEAT Playbook has lots of productivity tips and riffs but here are three to get you started. When someone really goes above and beyond—say THANK YOU, and give it at least a four-sentence beat. You want that team member to be able to dance to it in their head later—and smile. A great thank you is the good kind of dopamine rush from a real human exchange not just seeing if you have a new email. This new “play” for your thinking playbook should be celebrated with your team if you want the behavior replicated.
And the next time you have a “situation” ask your budding superstar what they would do? See if they miss the mark, come to the same conclusion, or arrive at an even better solution than the one in your head. Yes, it’s a test. How else will you know how well each member on the team thinks? That’s what coaches and drummers do—keep the beat figuratively and literally.
Don’t Thunk While Leading
My friend, Chalmers Brothers, says “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.” Marshall Goldsmith (who blurbed my book btw ;o) wrote an epic book called, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. If your team members are coming to you with new and interesting ideas, and all you say is “No, but…” or “That won’t work because…” or send them away and then make it your original idea in a couple weeks (when you’ve conveniently forgotten where you got the idea)—you’re thunking not thinking.
Thunking is when you cling to the past and refuse to integrate new information. It’s almost always bad. Thunking is kinda like being drunk. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t thunk while thinking. What you should do in these situations is ask questions, preferably open ended questions that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no” answer. “Why?” is a great question. In fact, if there ever was an AI robot that could be a better supervisor than a real human being, it would simply know one word, and it’s name would be “Why?”
A DRUMBEAT Default Day Riff
When you have the ability to structure your day for maximum productivity the best counterpoint to thunking like saying “No, but…” is instead to say “Yes, and…” This is a hallmark of what comedians and actors call improv or improvisation. Two actors improvising a scene kill the scene when the attitude isn’t open minded. In your default DRUMBEAT Day see how long you can keep that attitude with your team in meetings, in one-to-one sessions with customers and vendors, and most importantly with yourself in your focused 90 minute Solo sessions to “get your work done.”
If you want your team to pound the Innovation Drum you can’t run meetings and conversations like an assembly line. The creative mind works differently than the analytical mind. Here are a few tips to wrap up this riff on DRUMBEAT Thinking. Don’t start creative meetings with numbers. Numbers turn off the creative mind. Try to work with the five senses and mix things up by meeting in a new location, maybe stand up and move around, draw instead of talk, write on walls or whiteboards instead of pounding the keyboard, work in teams, eat new foods, drink new drinks, play new music. This is the kind of environment that will let innovation flow.
What are your Thinking Plays?
Let me ask you some Better Sounding Questions. How much of this in your company manual? How many of your new hires do you explain this to? How many of your teammates know the company’s current filtering questions that make sure the team wins—however you define that? Can you define winning?
It’s a great place to start !!
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