DataPsy Inc is in search of volunteers to help create a sculpture control dataset
Context Creates Company Results
Unidentified object from the late 1800’s
Recently, we dug in the dirt at our property to see what things we could find. We encountered an unusual brass object nearby coins dated in the late 1800’s and some clay marbles. At the same spot in 1893, there was a thriving livery (stable), a shoe repair (cobbler) and two other small one-story wood structures with unknown purposes.
So what is the brass object?
With our modern frame of reference, we can’t process the clues provided to be able to know what this object is. We know its probable creation date, its geographic location and what it was near. However, we are missing context of its the process or human behaviors that were common in that time and place and may have used the object for something. We simply don’t have the context to be able to interpret the information provided about this object to be able to “know” what the object is.
So what does context have to do with leadership and team capabilities? A lot. Imagine that you were asked to create a product without knowing who it was used for, why it is being built, or the advantage of the product to the marketplace?
WHY WE ALL NEED CONTEXT
Marbles and old coins
We live and work in a knowledge economy. Modern algorithms and machine intelligence use more data than ever before. Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) is a new norm. To effectively navigate this world, we need to combine our collective thought capacity in ways that enable us to interpret larger and more complex situations than before. It’s a business necessity.
Not many individual minds can handle broad complexity such as VUCA. But our collective minds can. Enabling collective minds to think and produce outcomes that reach organizational goals require that the team is provided solid context.
It is generally agreed that the interpretation of information, in any form, is context-dependent (Ontology Summit 2018 Communique: Contexts in context)
THE CONTEXT CONTINUUM
Leaders have different innate capacity to know how to provide context to their teams. Leaders modeling their style after a command and control model frequently keep context a secret from their teams. In their mind, context is something only a leader needs to know. On the other end of the spectrum, Socratic leaders ask questions to guide their teams through reasoning processes that produce desired business outcomes. Here are some narrative examples showing no context, partial context and solid context in the examples below.
Example 1: No Context
Leader: I need you to finish this project by the end of next week.
Team Member: But I don’t have capacity
Leader: Well our Vice President is telling our Director to get it done, so we just have to do it
Do you think the team member feels valued?
Example 2: Partial Context
Leader: I need you to finish this project by the end of next week
Team Member: But I don’t have capacity
Leader: Well it is critical for us to be able to improve guest satisfaction so we have to get this done
Team Member: Oh. Then is our goal to improve guest satisfaction?
Leader: Well our Vice President is telling our Director to improve guest satisfaction, so we just have to do it
Team Member: There might be a better way to improve guest satisfaction than this project.
Leader: Tough. We just have to do this the way the VP says.
Do you think this team member feels “heard” or “included”?
example 3: Solid Context
Leader: Taking you back to the dialogue we had at our meeting last week, our new CIO was explaining how we needed to have a relentless focus on guest satisfaction
Team Member: Yes I remember
Leader: Our latest web statistics indicate that we are only at a 50% guest satisfaction rating.
Team Member: I saw that, and our team talked about it together and think we know how to change the flow to improve that situation
Leader: You did?
Team Member: Yes, we figured out a way to remove ten clicks from the process and it will take us a couple of weeks to finalize design and implement it, but we think we could really improve that rating.
Leader: That sounds great. I know the VP wanted to get this aspect done by the end of next week, but I can go explain your approach and I am sure you could get the time to do this right.
This team member feels valued, heard and included.
Reading through these examples. Example 1 and 2 don’t encourage team member contribution to the whole. The third example reveals a spark of team production and creativity. The leader provided context, asked a question, then encouraged them to think for themselves and make a contribution. This simple example shows how simply providing context can enhance both team member self-worth, their personal happiness, individual contribution as well as team performance. Plus - the leader even achieved the initial objective
Next Steps
Learning to do this first takes commitment by the leader, then practice. There are many ways to learn about leadership techniques. One great start is the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team program. Contact us for more information on how to create high performing teams.
And of course, contact us if you know what this object is - because we surely don’t know!
Mysterious Object
What's Your Ratio of Original Content to Sharing Another Person’s Voice?
Are you letting others see your authentic YOU? They want to see who you BEEE! They want to see and hear you!
Have you ever wondered why your friends look at your feed? Chances are, they want to see a little bit of you there. Are you showing that to them? Or have you hidden your own voice in the vast clutter of the other things you are sharing? Have you accidentally hidden your authentic self from your friends? How can they hear you if you aren’t there? There’s a simple trick to know if your self is hidden.
Ask yourself this question:
What’s Your Ratio of Original Content to Sharing Another Person’s Voice?
The answer can help you see how hidden you are - and then think more mindfully about what you share - in order to make sure that your true self shows through.
Your Original Voice with Original Posts
An original post is an image or words created out of the trueness of your own soul and your own being. It comes straight out of the goodness of your heart and your life. It might be an image of your pet, or a photo of a drawing you make, something you built - like an outdoor fire pit. It might be music you wrote and performed, or it might be words you personally write based on personal, one-on-one interactions with other people in your real-life world.
When you share original posts with the world - you are showing the world who you really are. What you were born to do, what you like to do - and how you bring your energy to your friends and the rest of the world world.
An original post is based on something you have experienced personally in your life in the physical world using all of your five senses. Here are five types of original posts:
You post a job accomplishment or personal triumph
You post a photo of an art piece that you created
You share your own blog post
You share a video of a performance that you saw
You post a photo of your pet
An original post could reveal anything - as long as you experienced it personally.
A simple way to visualize this is to calculate the ratio of your original posts to shares that you make of other voices. Taking a look at this number occasionally will give you awareness of how authentic you are being - so you can make choices on what you share, when and why.
If you have a beautiful child and you share 98 memes and one picture of your beautiful child, and one post of you making music - the friends that are watching your feed are probably wondering where YOU went. They can’t find your voice in the clutter of all the other voices.
The Ratio
Here’s a simple way to calculate the ratio:
Scroll back in your activity log on your social media site. On LinkedIn - that is Me—>Manage—>Posts and Activities
Go through your last ten posts
Assign a point if you shared a true original
No points for sharing anything like the following
Shared or liked a real world (non digital) friend’s true original post This is an example of amplifying the voice of someone you know personally. It’s not original content.
Shared or liked an original post that no one had shared before This is an example of supporting a small business owner or individual in one of their “original” thoughts. It’s not your original content.
Shared or liked a post where you have no personal knowledge of who created the original post. This is an example of amplifying something whose source you don’t truly know.
If you created 6 original posts out of 10, then your ratio is 60% original posts. You can count more than 10 posts if you want. If out of 57 posts you have 34 that are original content, then the ratio is 23 divided by 57 which is 40%.
What’s a healthy ratio? Approximately 70% should be original posts.
Try It
Play with this and practice being mindful about what you post.
On days that you post all original content - do you “feel” better than days you share non-original content?
Are you happier? Are you more centered?
Give it a try.
#DigitalMentalYoga #Mindfulness #AuthenticSelf #BeYourself #BeAuthentic
Boundary Less Learning - The Infinity of Color
Product Possible - Pick Your Team Members Thoughtfully
Why Your Team will Be OWL Right
Originally, Software was developed using Polymathic thinking (Part 1)
Do we really have a shortage of information technology professionals? Or in the mechanization and de-humanization of software design and delivery, did we just simply break the way software is delivered? Did we by collectively place too much value on specialized skills, and not enough on the generalized thought patterns needed to leverage all the specialized skills?
Adventures of a Polymath
Do you find yourself to be frustrated by the limitations of your technical specialization? Are you constantly wanting to create and solve problems, only to be forced into a tiny box by your employer? Do you constantly feel like you may not fit in with the way others think? You may be a polymath. That’s a good thing because according to Harvard Business Review article by Kyle Weins, “We desperately need people with the ability to see big picture solutions” Learn more about this expansive identity, and get a glimpse of how to be successful in a lifelong technology career, regardless of this industry that forces you to specialize. Learn how to embrace your power of generalization and use it to master and integrate multiple disciplines rather than trying to learn more and more about less and less.
