Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

impact

The Roots and Growth of Decisions

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They’re cutting down a tree on the corner of my block. A big tree. There are 3 big trucks and 6 guys with chainsaws. The tree is outnumbered, but it still seems like it’s winning.

This one’s major offense is that its roots have completely upended the sidewalk. It’s dangerous. I know because I’ve tripped on it more than once.

Cutting this tree down has done nothing to fix the sidewalk. And putting a sidewalk next to this kind of tree in the first place is a short-sighted idea – but whoever made that decision is at least retired and maybe dead.

So if the decisions people make have consequences, and if they’re hard to undo, and if there’s even a remote possibility that 6 men with chainsaws will have to undo it – maybe it makes sense to think more about the roots and growth of our decisions in the first place.

A decision made

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Decision-making can be quick, pragmatic, slow, careless. You can hear all the arguments or not. You can do the analysis or rely on intuition. You can mix these approaches.

In any case, if you’re the one deciding in the first place you’re likely to benefit. It’s difficult to undo a decision made. That’s a positive and a negative depending on where you stand.

If you’re going to burn the boats, it’s a risky bet with upside if you’re right. If you achieve first-mover advantage, it’s hard to beat, at least for a while. And in both cases, being wrong will quickly be forgotten and being right (or lucky) is sure to bring reward.

So the lesson is to look for opportunities to decide – rather than to simply react to a decision someone else has made.

Boring people

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Seek out the boring people. The ones who slug it out, doing the work. The people who bring big impact even in small spaces, who aren’t vying for credit, and who show up every day to do it over again even as they go unnoticed.

Boring people know how the sausage is made because they make it. They know what it feels like to do something well. It is their point of pride. They could take it apart and put it back together again.

Boring people are different than the people phoning it in. A boring person is doing a job most people ignore. The phoners are doing a job that everyone ignores.

The conditions for a boring person to excel are: the identification of a problem, the permission to fix it, and constrained resources.

When you stop and marvel at how something works, chances are a boring person figured it out. Not because they’re especially smart, talented, or wealthy, but because they had to even though it was hard. And because everyone else knew someone boring would do it if they just waited.

Checking

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It is so great to have something to check. Something to check means progress is being made. The package is on the way, the project is moving forward, the numbers are ticking ever higher. Checking can be encouraging, exciting, and instructive.

But checking is a trap. Things don’t happen because you check, things happen because you take action, make a move, share something. The checks are the ripples from the first drop.

Checking is tricky because it can be nuanced. You can create new ways check; new ways to filter the spreadsheet, or create a new ratio. But this nuanced checking is still checking at its heart.

The more time you spend checking, the more likely it is you’re being distracted; doing things that are important but secondary.

By all means, check. But don’t lose site of the fact that you must keep doing things, over and over, to make the checking informative and useful.

Sharing

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Sharing is hard. It exposes a point of view, a piece of context, that not everyone will want to receive. Not everyone will understand what you share and agreement is not yet met. You will almost certainly be misinterpreted.

Sharing is vulnerable. You’re admitting the things you don’t know while revealing what you’ve been focusing on. You’re asking people to listen to your idea. People always have opinions about new ideas.

Sharing is uncomfortable. You won’t be sure if your timing is right. You may not know who to share with first. You definitely haven’t thought of all the questions you’ll get and how to answer them.

Sharing is important. The only way to know if your idea works is to share it. The only way to gain allies is to share your perspective. Progress can only happen if we share.

How hard is it really?

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That thing you’re avoiding, how hard is it really? What is the actual activity that you need to undertake?

Sending an email? Having a conversation? Raising your hand? Doing a little math?

Certainly these things aren’t hard. No one is asking you to push a boulder up a hill.

And even if they did, could you find a way to start? A lever and fulcrum. A group of allies and a meeting time.

It’s easier to predict an outcome of failure so that we have an excuse not to act than it is to actually act. And slowly, over time, the action we’re not taking slips away. And we wonder how we wound up like this.

It’s unlikely that what you’re avoiding is actually that difficult. And it’s equally unlikely that whatever outcome you’re imagining will be accurate.

If you do nothing but make excuses, you can be sure of an outcome that won’t be your idea (unless you’re very lucky).

So what are you waiting for?