Issue No. 503 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting says that you can probably do one big project every five years. Here’s how to begin the process and the project. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my 2021 Top-10 Books and Book-of-the-Year.
BAD NEWS/GOOD NEWS. Bad News: my future co-author and I have cancelled our celebration cruise. Good News: Michael Bungay Stanier’s new book, How to Begin (on creating Worthy Goals), was just released!
Memo to “Mike” – Cancel the Cruise!
I have a good friend. We’ll call him “Mike.” So anyway… “Mike” and I had big dreams of co-authoring a book on SMART goals. Then in 2018, I noticed a bestselling author stole our dreams and had the audacity to write his own book on SMARTER goals.
But…there’s always room for another book—especially with our expansive platforms, branding, and unique positioning. Right, “Mike?”
Not anymore. The train has left the station. It’s the final nail in the coffin. It’s… (OK, I’ll stop).
MY MEMO TO "MIKE"
Hey, “Mike.” Remember that bestselling book we were going to write? The good news: it’s done. The bad news: bestselling author Michael Bungan Stanier (aka MBS) just wrote it. And frankly, it’s at least 10 times better, 20 times funnier, and easily 100 times more helpful than anything we could have cobbled together. (We’ll have to cancel that “got-the-book-done celebration cruise” with our wives. I haven’t told Joanne yet.)
How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters is the complete package. The author of The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap (my 2020 book-of-the-year) released How to Begin last week. And apparently, he couldn’t wait to begin his book—so his first paragraph is on the front cover! (“Mike,” why didn’t you think of that?)
“Mike,” here’s the big idea. MBS says you can do maybe one “big” project every five years. But don’t meander into it. Don’t procrastinate. Just begin—but use a process. (He says that a good process is “a thing of beauty.” I resonate with his passion!)
The author has tested his process with thousands of people—and, he says, “A good process is scalable. That means it’s understandable, can be taught and learned, and can spread. You can take it, adapt it, and make it your own. You can use it by itself or work it through with others.”
“Mike,” you’ll remember my “page 25 standard”—that a book needs to deliver the meat and potatoes no later than (and often on) page 25. MBS showcases his Venn diagram for his Worthy Goal on page 34. (Close enough.)
Also for me, the measure of a great book, seminar, sermon, or process is this: Are the labels memorable? Can I do this? Answer: The How to Begin process checks all the boxes.
First…find a Worthy Goal. (He defines it brilliantly: “Thrilling, Important, and Daunting.”)
Second…Commit. (You gotta read about “False Starts” and “Mosquitoes.”)
Third…Cross the Threshold. (The “This/Not That” comparison chart on page 171 is…OK, I’ll say it again…brilliant. I could have used that in my consulting every day.)
But…here’s the kicker, “Mike.” Rather than rhapsodizing on and on with those annoying word salads—and blue-skying it—the author applies the process to his own two big projects. A work project and a non-work project. (Brilliant!) His marching orders for himself (and you): write three drafts.
So, like a fly on a wall (or maybe a mosquito—see below), we watch MBS walk through his three drafts. (Brilliant!)
• NON-WORK PROJECT (Draft #1): Create a new, top-notch podcast.
• WORK PROJECT (Draft #1): Stop being CEO of his company.
I won’t spotlight a spoiler here, but…Breaking News…MBS admits he was “an accidental CEO” and he isn’t that great at the job (“I don’t have the skills or the focus to grow and scale the company…”).
His second draft is very transparent on the why question. “…I’m committed to learning about, and role-modelling, how to give up power…” He worries about making an insincere fake power transfer “which is really a dump of all the things I don’t want to do, while holding on to all the cool bits and pieces.”
Yikes! I’m tempted to buy this book for dozens of “accidental CEOs.” Powerful! Watching MBS agonize over his drafts will release energy for shaping your own Worthy Goal—using his three-draft process.
DRAFT #1: The crappy draft! (“Brené Brown suggests ‘stormy’ as a gentler adjective.”) MBS says that his first attempt is always mediocre, tepid and confused. “It’s overstuffed and underbaked,” and it’s funny, “but not in a way that’s at all amusing.”
DRAFT #2: The active draft. Before you nail down the second draft, MBS has three tests for you: Spouse-ish (Thrilling), FOSO (Important), and Goldilocks Zone (Daunting.) He says you’ll likely get one of three responses from your “spouse-ish” person (spouse, friend, etc.). The Goldilocks Zone chart on page 52 is very helpful. Does this draft have a “just right” feel to your Worthy Goal?
Note: Your active draft needs active verbs and (no surprise) he delivers a list of 75 verbs. The book’s frequent QR codes rocket you to a resource-rich website. Check out the “Give a Verb, Take a Verb” section!
DRAFT #3: The final draft. Here…you’re further defining your project. Don’t strive for perfect. “Good enough” will often do. To arrive, MBS suggest you add a key word or phrase to fine-tune and intensify your Worthy Goal.
“Mike,” I’ve mentioned the brilliant labels in this book. My new word/concept of the year is “Mosquitoes.” They are “tiny and mighty.” MBS quotes Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop:
try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”
MBS adds, “Your Worthy Goal comes with a cloud of its own Mosquitoes. These Mosquitoes are all the things you’re currently doing and not doing—secular sins of commission and omission—that are contrary to this Worthy Goal you’ve set for yourself. You’ll find they’re numerous. Some are tiny, others more significant. No single Mosquito is fatal in and of itself, but together they irritate you, weaken you, slow you down, and distract from your Worthy Goal.”
There’s so much more he packs into this gem: who you’re traveling with and who to leave behind, who’s in your Brain Trust group, the four archetypes you need around you (plus a “trickster” who “provokes you, challenges you, mocks you”), the 10-minute exercises (did I mention this book is both brilliant and practical?), and the humor. LOL humor!
While MBS acknowledges insights from authors (Seth Godin, Jim Collins, Liz Wiseman, David Allen, and others), I had to laugh out loud when he wrote this (one of dozens of creative call-outs):
To order from Amazon, click on the title for How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters, by Michael Bungay Stanier. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (3 hours, 11 minutes). And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.
P.S. So anyway, “Mike,” I guess the book we envisioned writing together is a success—likely a bestseller. (Except…we didn’t write it.) We both love branding. How about a book on branding? Oh, wait. An extraordinary book on branding, Exponential, was just published this week! (Read my review in the next issue.)
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) MBS says you can tackle, perhaps, one “big” project every five years. What’s your big work project and your big non-work project? Have you done the heavy lifting (three drafts) to write your Worthy Goal for both projects? Will you read How to Begin?
2) “Notice your Mosquitoes,” writes MBS. He labels our secular sins of commission and sins of omission as those things that “irritate you, weaken you, slow you down, and distract from your Worthy Goal.” He describes his own Mosquitoes swarm (quite an honest list!). What does your swarm look like?
The 20 management buckets (core competencies) are highlighted in three broad arenas of Cause, Community, and Corporation. Has anyone on your team mastered the Systems Bucket? Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.
Buckets Countdown:
The Systems Bucket (#18) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.
The Systems Bucket Core Competency: “We are passionate about systems thinking and process management. We encourage systems people to use their gifts and mentor others for the benefit of our Cause and our Community arenas. We are careful not to tinker or over-tweak, yet we are tenacious about tickler systems. We have a heart to create systems that serve people, not the bureaucracy!”
Ball #1 in the Systems Bucket reads: “Add Process Management to Your Resume. Mentor your people to ‘think systems.’” My oldest brother, Paul (1939-2015), was one of those wonderful MBA types: trained as an engineer, but happiest when serving people in a general manager's role. He had brains and a heart. He mentored me often through the years, but I still need the brain transplant. Visit the Systems Bucket to read the “systems tribute” to Paul that was shared at his memorial service in 2015.
The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Inspire your team to begin a buckets refresh over 20 days, 20 weeks, 20 months, or (if you’re young enough!), 20 years! Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.
JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Have big ideas and big projects—but need an outside nudge and the expertise to actually BEGIN the project? We have helped dozens of clients move from idea to implementation. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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