The Primes – How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem

INTRODUCTION xxv
<p>PART 1: UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF LEADING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES 1</p>
<p>How do some people, organizations, and coalitions thrive in uncertain times? What enables them to appear so certain and take decisive action amid ambiguity about the future?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 1 BEING CLEAR ON WHAT S REALLY IMPORTANT 3</p>
<p>How did you decide how you spent your time yesterday? What criteria are you using to allocate your time tomorrow?</p>
<p>LEADING 5</p>
<p>Does being called a leader mean you are leading ? What does leading mean?</p>
<p>IN ON 9</p>
<p>Are you seduced by working in the business at the expense of on it?</p>
<p>CHANGE VERSUS TRANSFORMATION&nbsp; &nbsp;13</p>
<p>Are you fixing or creating?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 2 BEING INTENTIONAL AND GOING FIRST&nbsp; 18</p>
<p>What are you committed to making happen and by when? What does committed mean? What does your commitment mean to others?</p>
<p>INTEGRITY&nbsp;21</p>
<p>Does your yes really mean yes ?</p>
<p>TRUST THE UNIVERSE&nbsp; &nbsp;25</p>
<p>Is your vision limited to what you ve already seen?</p>
<p>DECLARATION&nbsp;29</p>
<p>Are you willing to live unreasonably?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 3 ENROLLING OTHERS&nbsp;32</p>
<p>Can you call people, from disenfranchisement and mere compliance, to their highest level of commitment?</p>
<p>DYNAMIC INCOMPLETENESS&nbsp; &nbsp;35</p>
<p>Can you create a vision that is compelling because of what it says and at the same time inviting for what it leaves yet to be said?</p>
<p>ENNOBLEMENT&nbsp; &nbsp;39</p>
<p>Does your vision elevate people in degree and excellence and respect and inspire them to act boldly?</p>
<p>POWER&nbsp;45</p>
<p>Do you know how to turn strangers, competitors, cautious allies, and suspicious stakeholders into powerful, outcome–driven coalitions?</p>
<p>PART 2: UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF POWERFUL ALLIANCES&nbsp; 47</p>
<p>How do you generate unprecedented power within the group? Is this question all that important to you?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 4 GAINING SHARED PERSPECTIVE&nbsp;49</p>
<p>Everyone claims to value diversity. Can maintaining diverse perspectives ever be a bad thing?</p>
<p>BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT&nbsp; &nbsp;51</p>
<p>How do you help people to see the whole thing ?</p>
<p>LEVELS OF PERSPECTIVE&nbsp; &nbsp;55</p>
<p>How do you help people to see the same whole thing ?</p>
<p>S–CURVES&nbsp; &nbsp;59</p>
<p>How do you lead people to a shared sense of now?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 5 ESTABLISHING SHARED INTENT&nbsp; 62</p>
<p>How do you lead the group to be intentional?</p>
<p>CORE PRIME&nbsp;65</p>
<p>How do you help the group to focus on the right things and feel urgent about acting?</p>
<p>PARITY&nbsp; &nbsp;73</p>
<p>What is the right ratio of analyzing versus imagining?</p>
<p>STAKE&nbsp; &nbsp;77</p>
<p>How do you get the group all in ?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 6 TAKING COORDINATED ACTION 80</p>
<p>How do you get the group to do everything persistently about a few critical things versus doing a few things about everything?</p>
<p>COHESION&nbsp; &nbsp;83</p>
<p>Cohesion is an unnatural state for a group. How good are you at establishing and sustaining it?</p>
<p>REDPOINT&nbsp; &nbsp;85</p>
<p>A good question to ask is, What is important to do? A better question is, Of all the important things we could do, what are the fewest, most important? </p>
<p>MUDA&nbsp; &nbsp;93</p>
<p>Can you distinguish non–value–added activity ? How much of your group s resources is it consuming?</p>
<p>PART 3: UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF OUTSTANDING GROUP PERFORMANCE 96</p>
<p>What do high–performance groups know and do that low–performance groups do not?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 7 MAKING DECISIONS&nbsp; &nbsp;98</p>
<p>What does the word decision actually mean? How are decisions made?</p>
<p>LEADERSHIP SPECTRUM&nbsp; &nbsp;101</p>
<p>Are you the kind of leader who likes to facilitate consensus? The right answer is, That depends. </p>
<p>CONSENSUS&nbsp; &nbsp;105</p>
<p>Are you still using the traditional definition of consensus? Are you aware of how destructive the traditional definition is?</p>
<p>OPEN CLOSE DECIDE&nbsp; &nbsp;109</p>
<p>How do groups actually make decisions?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 8 BUILDING AN INTENTIONAL CULTURE&nbsp; 113</p>
<p>Quick what does culture mean? There are consequences to using more than seven words to define culture.</p>
<p>CULTURE&nbsp;115</p>
<p>Culture happens. You shape it or it shapes you. How good are you at shaping a culture?</p>
<p>CONGRUENCE&nbsp; &nbsp;119</p>
<p>What is the dark side of a stated culture?</p>
<p>FEEDBACK AS CARING&nbsp; &nbsp;123</p>
<p>How good are you at giving it? How good are you at getting it? Why does it matter?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 9 SOCIAL CONTRACTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN THE GROUP&nbsp; &nbsp;126</p>
<p>How do peers give each other commands?</p>
<p>REQUEST&nbsp; &nbsp;129</p>
<p>Why saying no protects your saying yes. </p>
<p>TRUST&nbsp; &nbsp;133</p>
<p>We all say how important trust is. What is trust? How do you generate it and how do you destroy it?</p>
<p>BREACH&nbsp; &nbsp;137</p>
<p>What do you do when your yes turns out to be a no ?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 10 SAYING AND NOT SAYING; LISTENING AND NOT LISTENING&nbsp; &nbsp;140</p>
<p>How do high–performance groups sound?</p>
<p>PERIMETER&nbsp;143</p>
<p>How small a fence have you built around what can and cannot be said?</p>
<p>FACTS, STORIES, AND BELIEFS&nbsp; &nbsp;147</p>
<p>Can you distinguish facts from stories from beliefs? Do you use facts the way a drunk uses a lamp post for support versus illumination?</p>
<p>GOSSIP&nbsp;151</p>
<p>What is it? What makes it so destructive? How do you stop it?</p>
<p>PART 4: UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF GROUP FAILURE 153</p>
<p>How good are you at anticipating, avoiding, and slaying the dragons that inevitably show up and threaten your group and the outcomes your group is standing for?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 11 OVERCOMING RESISTANCE&nbsp; &nbsp;155</p>
<p>Are you okay with favoring some people and ignoring others?</p>
<p>LAGGARDS&nbsp;157</p>
<p>Do you know how to starve possibility killers ?</p>
<p>FRAGMENTATION&nbsp; &nbsp;161</p>
<p>How skilled are you at overcoming resistance from the powerful middle?</p>
<p>SAME DIFFERENT&nbsp; &nbsp;165</p>
<p>Everybody s special. Really?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 12 MANAGING INTRACTABLE DILEMMAS&nbsp; &nbsp;168</p>
<p>How do you end a never–ending argument?</p>
<p>BIG HAT LITTLE HAT&nbsp;171</p>
<p>What do you do when the needs of the many conflict with the needs of the few?</p>
<p>RIGHT VERSUS RIGHT&nbsp; &nbsp;175</p>
<p>Resolving conflicts about right and wrong is child s play. How skilled are you at resolving matters of right versus right?</p>
<p>RESOLUTION PRINCIPLES&nbsp; &nbsp;179</p>
<p>Right versus right arguments have been going on forever. What can we&nbsp;&nbsp;learn from our ancestors?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 13 AVOIDING TRIPPING HAZARDS&nbsp;181</p>
<p>Tripping hazards are easier to avoid when you know where they are. When it comes to working in groups, can you see them coming?</p>
<p>CHASE LOSE&nbsp; &nbsp;183</p>
<p>Chase teamwork, leadership, morale, and culture and you will surely lose them all.</p>
<p>PROCESS CONTENT&nbsp; &nbsp;189</p>
<p>You can run the process. You can contribute to content. Pick one.</p>
<p>SHAPE SHIFTING&nbsp;191</p>
<p>How to destroy your power in groups.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 14 REFUSING TO HIDE OUT&nbsp;194</p>
<p>We all live our lives trying to avoid embarrassment. Can you recognize when you and your group are hiding out and playing safe?</p>
<p>VICTIM LEADER&nbsp; &nbsp;197</p>
<p>What does going victim sound like?</p>
<p>COURT LOCKER ROOM&nbsp; &nbsp;199</p>
<p>Do you find planning to be a near–death experience?</p>
<p>CONFUSION&nbsp; &nbsp;203</p>
<p>Why is confusion such a wonderful way of being?</p>
<p>PART 5: UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF THRIVING IN AMBIGUITY&nbsp; 205</p>
<p>How do you stay healthy when the world is sick?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 15 AVOIDING BRIGHT AND SHINY OBJECTS AND SQUIRRELS&nbsp;206</p>
<p>How do you manage distractions?</p>
<p>A CLEARING&nbsp;209</p>
<p>How skilled are you at creating nothing?</p>
<p>ISSUES FORWARD&nbsp; &nbsp;213</p>
<p>Looking behind and looking ahead are both important. What is the right ratio?</p>
<p>CHAPTER 16 TAKING GREAT CARE OF YOURSELF&nbsp; &nbsp;216</p>
<p>Can you give up coming from something is wrong ?</p>
<p>COMMITMENT VERSUS ATTACHMENT&nbsp; &nbsp;219</p>
<p>Why saying This project makes me so frustrated is irrational.</p>
<p>BE&nbsp; &nbsp;223</p>
<p>How good are you at cutting grass when you are cutting grass?</p>
<p>CONCLUSION: NOWWHAT?&nbsp;226</p>
<p>NOTES&nbsp;&nbsp;228</p>
<p>INDEX OF THE PRIMES&nbsp;&nbsp;237</p>
<p>ABOUT THE AUTHOR&nbsp;239</p>