What Matters Most

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What Matters Most   Karl Ahlrichs explains “the world that we’re in now, and emerging now, we can call it the ‘new normal.’  

“Where we were wasn’t sustainable and it may not be reattainable.  There’s this zone that were in for probably the next year to eighteen months where the new rules haven’t been written yet from an employment standpoint, from an employer’s standpoint, from an employee’s standpoint.

Ahrlrichs says that uncommon sense is needed for this crisis we’re facing.  “On October 15 of 2008 at about 2:30 in the afternoon when we collectively looked at each other and realized that the stock market was heading south and we weren’t sure how far south it was going, that common body of knowledge became dead batteries.

“The panic that we saw on the pundit TV shows and in the business press was that the markers that we had always counted on as being good guide posts to how to run business really weren’t responding the way people thought.

“So, that’s when I realized we were done with common sense, we really need uncommon sense to get through this.  It was not just a cute marketing phrase, we really needed to back away from the thinking that got us here and go to the next level.

“For the first time in years, everybody’s nervously eyeing each other and focused on survival.  Unions are willing to give unilateral give-backs.  Employees are willing to work harder than they thought they should.  Managers are willing to adapt to a one-size-fits-one mentality.  This is a time where everybody is really back to basics.

Build a Road Map

Karl suggests that one of the best things we can do is build a road map and figure out a couple of things from that.  “When I say ‘road map’ I really mean road map.  I mean a piece of paper with squiggles, arrows, notations that can guide your path.”

Ahlrichs elaborates, “Get a copy of your organizational chart as it is today…the boxes and the dotted lines.  First step is locate yourself on the map and look at who’s around you, and draw in additional people in their proper spots who may be key vendors but this is basically the road map of who is in your world and what their official reporting structures are.

“Then get out a second color pencil and start adding clues and cues about who [each] person is, how they react to the outside world, how they get data, how they decide things, basically cryptic words that describe what they’re like.

“Then get another set of color pencils, draw in a different color, the actual alliances of people.  This person over here in marketing and this person over here in operations went to the same school, they belonged to the same fraternity, they’re buddies.

“I guess my point is draw in the political affiliations.  What is the glue that holds people together?  By the end of this exercise, things will be making better sense, and into the future as you keep it updated, this will be an excellent guide for a couple of things: communication and why did that happen.

“Communication from the sense of I want to make sure this message gets to that person, let me get out my road map and let me make sure who is on my side, who is allied with them, who hates them, and make sure my message is guided around the land mines and through the welcome spots.

“And then secondarily, you’re really able to figure out why something happens.  And one final point, do not leave this on your desk.  This is your own secret road map.  This is not to be shared.  This is your own private view of the world.  While it’s being done for the noblest of reasons, mainly for better communication and for you to understand things better, others might see this as Machiavellian and manipulative and political.

Ahlrichs is suggesting that this road map will take some stress away from our panic.  “We’re panicked because things don’t make sense.  Once we map out what we do know, then we get a level of clarity that allows our brain to really start working on the fiddely bits around the edges but it also has the reassurance of  ’Okay, this makes sense.’  Once you figure out what you can control, you let go of what you cannot control, and there gets the clarity of being good employee in these modern times.”

Vital Life Skills

Sometimes, the stress wreaks havoc with our powers to observe and figure out what’s going on.  “People who just appear to be lucky, one of the key things behind that is a lower personal stress level.”

What makes us better observers?  “There’s really three life skills that have emerged that have moved to the head of the pack.  They are listening, adaptability and, let’s call it presentation, we could also call it communication.

“We’re back to basics now and the core competencies that really are going to make a difference, one of them–and this is a key one–that’s a willingness to listen.

“I’m an extrovert.  For years, I only had two modes.  I was either talking or I was getting ready to talk.  I was either talking or I was waiting for you to stop.  In our current situation, I truly do have to listen, and that has been a very difficult skill for any extrovert to learn.

“The second point on life skills that apply to work was adaptability.  We have to become different and we have to be comfortable becoming different.  Speaking personally, I’m over fifty.  People don’t like to change much as they get older because patterns are comfortable.

“In addition to listening, a key life skill is maintaining behavioral flexibility.  I find the best way to really keep the personal flexibility as a part of my life begins back at home before I get to the office.  We wake up in the morning and we always go to the same place in the bathroom, and we always do the same things in the same order, then we go and get the same cup from the same spot, and pour the same beverage into it, and get in the same vehicle, and drive the same route, and by the time we get to the office, we’re already twenty rituals into daily life.  Now we want to become adaptable at that point?

“It really needs to be a core part of life.  I drive a different route to the office pretty much everyday.  If I pull out of my garage, half the time I turn left, half the time I turn right.  I am sending my brain a message that the pattern is to not have a pattern.  If I find myself listening to the same station three or four days in a row, I’m changing stations, or I’m turning the radio off, or I’m plugging in my Ipod and learning Spanish, or I’m just doing something different.  This is causing the brain to get comfortable with change.”

We take that adaptability into the work place with us.  “I said it was a life skill for a reason, not a work skill.  We’re trying to be more effective at work, and this whole social networking…Facebook…that’s becoming a part of the organizational world where it’s not a social network anymore it can become an operational network where those are tools used to communicate inside and around organizations and across silos.  That means you have to be adaptable enough to be in it and understand it.

“The third point is communication…presentation.  We have such high standards of what a good communication and what a good communicator and what a good message looks like that, if we don’t keep our communication skills polished or if we don’t learn newer or better communication skills on a daily or weekly basis, we will be very frustrated because our ideas will not have traction.

“We need to understand that the standards for what we will put on page have to be fitting to modern sensibilities, modern standards, modern attention spans so we have to write concise, engaging, short prose.  We need to write zippy sentences and have a hook and an interesting angle.

“Secondarily, there’s a skill that’s been languishing in the background for decades but it’s going to come up front and center these days, it is the power of summary.  People want the punchline first.  You walk into a meeting and the boss turns to you and says, ‘Why didn’t our marketing plan work last quarter?’  You need to lapse into reflective thought for no more than five seconds and give him the answer in one sentence, ‘We missed a marketing window in Europe, we hit it on the East Coast, there were two shifts in buying patterns we did not expect and we think we have it covered for next quarter.’  There in one sentence is the punchline.

“Now, you can go on and support it.  The boss relaxes because you understand the situation and you can concisely summarize it.   Power of summary is an executive tool.  The power of summary is something introverts are very good at and extroverts are not.  That’s again something we extroverts have had to learn.  We just want to talk through the whole thing and someplace in there is the answer.”

Uncommon Sense

In summary, Karl provides three tips to provide employees with uncommon sense in this time of crisis.  “All those years that I worked coaching people on their personal careers, I found there were three things always present in the people that seemed to land on their feet and do well.

“They are personal focus, attitude and we’re back to listening skills.

“By personal focus I mean they could at least articulate what they wanted, not specifically perhaps but what was in it, or not specifically perhaps but what wasn’t in it. 

“So that somebody doesn’t say:

‘What do you want?  I want a job.’  

‘What kind of job?   I’ll take any job.’  

“That doesn’t help!

“Secondarily, our society rewards attitude and it punishes people with a pity party going on.  The ones who flagellate themselves and announce that they’re not lucky, that this is being done to them, that the world controls them.  Pschologically, it’s an external locus of control, they’re not running themselves.  We would perceive it as this person has a bad attitude.  Even if you’re grouchy, it’s important not to appear grouchy.

“Third, again it really comes down to listening skills–listening and paying attention to the world around you, the people around you, the situations around you, reflecting on it and that guides your actions.

“If somebody has those three things:  focus of some type, a post off on the horizon that they’re driving to, the appearance of having a positive self image and personal self control, and a feedback loop of listening to the world around them.

“If they can do those three things and they use them in an operational networking framework, if they’re using it within a social networking framework, if they’re using it within their family, I have observed that these people as they go through life will reflect and feel that they had a fulfilling time on earth and that’s all we can really hope for.”