Issue No. 557 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting changed my thinking about chaos! Plus, if you love checklists—you’ll love Built to Beat Chaos! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 550 book reviews, and click here for my recent review of the Harvard Business Review Press book, The Anxious Achiever.
The new book, Built to Beat Chaos, includes a stunning number of checklists, including the “Stop the Nonessential Checklist” and the “Give Career Feedback Checklist.”
Checklists for Confronting Chaos!
In case you haven’t noticed, the name of this eNews is Your Weekly Staff Meeting. And every so often, I actually spotlight books that will enrich your meetings. Today’s pick will do that and more. Much more!
SLANDER! Can you relate to Gary Harpst’s shot across the bow? “We love to slander the idea of meetings, but purposeful meetings are a primary tool for leaders to maintain alignment and engagement.” That’s just one of dozens of insights, plus checklists and next steps—succinctly delivered in this comprehensive new book:
In Chapter 11, “Get Results Through Teamwork,” Harpst leverages his in-the-trenches CEO experience with four best practices for attacking the daily chaos. (And his view on chaos will surprise you!) I can describe this book’s uniqueness in one word: CHECKLISTS! This helpful chapter delivers four detailed checklists to flesh out the author’s four best practices for delivering results through teamwork:
• Know and Report Progress Checklist (10 questions). Example: “Does your team appreciate knowing if you are off track and support you in getting back on track? Do you feel free to be honest about your progress?”
• Synch One-on-One Checklist (9 questions). Example: “Do you understand the person’s communication style and personality?”
• Synch as a Team Checklist (8 questions). Example: “Are there clear expectations for meeting preparation? Are written status updates sent before the meeting? Is there a deadline for sending them so people can read them? Is the agenda published in time to prepare?”
• Step Back and Learn Checklist (6 questions). Example: “Does your approach work for entry-level workers who may never have thought about what it means to be a self-leader?”
HIGH TURNOVER. Harpst recommends a “Step Back and Learn” mentoring session with each of your direct reports at least quarterly. “This meeting is not a performance review. It is a mentoring session with two-way dialogue.” He adds, “I don’t have empirical data on this, but I notice a strong correlation between high turnover and the number of people managed by one supervisor. With more interaction between employees and getting to know them, could turnover be improved?”
“The starting place for more effective meetings,” writes Harpst, “is to change our thinking.” He quotes a senior exec’s comment in the HBR article, “Stop the Meeting Madness,” who said, “I believe that our abundance of meetings at our company is the Cultural Tax we pay for the inclusive learning environment that we want to foster…and I’m ok with that.”
Gary Harpst speaks from deep experience. He was co-founder and CEO of Solomon Software, “which was acquired by Great Plains Software and soon sold to Microsoft.” Don’t skip the chapter on “Someone Who Builds Oneness” and his story of the firm’s annual gathering of business partners (2,000 attended!)—and how the team leveraged the “100 Point Exercise” to get buy-in in a breakout. They have used this process more than 5,000 times over the past 20 years! (The book gives you free access to their Gordian™ Problem Solving App.)
LISTEN TO THE MANAGE 2 WIN PODCAST:
Listen to Gary Harpst, author of Built to Beat Chaos, talk about Biblical wisdom on leading yourself and others—on the Manage 2 Win Podcast with David Russell.
BIBLICAL CHAOS! So what’s with the author’s unique view on chaos? Few books change my thinking—but Built to Beat Chaos did and it was a needed poke-in-the-ribs. Noting the “execution paradox” principle from his book, Execution Revolution (read my review), Gary Harpst writes that “…every organization outgrows its ability to execute.” (You knew that, right?!) Chaos? "God created chaos in the first place: to challenge us to the deepest level, to burn off the impurities of false hopes and beliefs."
In Chapter 1, “Chaos Refines Us,” Harpst writes, “The good news is that we have been created for a purpose, and even chaos exists for a purpose. And these two purposes are interrelated.” (Example: The Tower of Babel.) I then wondered—why did the author write a business book with the subtitle, “Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others”—will this work? If you lead your life according to the principles of the Bible—you will find this book absolutely refreshing, original, thoughtful, and even inspirational. Harpst melds Biblical wisdom with business savvy. Built to Beat Chaos is unlike any business or leadership book I’ve ever read or reviewed.
But…what if you’re not a fan of the Bible—or faith-focused? Harpst is not preachy, but he appreciates lifelong learners. “If you are unsure or even wary of a biblical view of leadership, please consider this. The people I learn the most from are those who think differently than I do.” (Amen! See the five chapters, “Contrarian Thinking,” in Part 7 of Mastering 100 Must-Read Books, Books #41 to #45.)
MASTERY. Built to Beat Chaos features three major sections: 1) What Effective Leaders Should Know, 2) What Effective Leaders Should Do, and 3) What Effective Leaders Should Be. I love this: “The central premise of this book is that your existence is not an accident, and neither is your purpose. Every human is created in the image of God and is designed to win at something—to conquer some part of the chaos around them. The biblical language used is unmistakably strong—‘mastery,’ ‘dominion,’ ‘overcoming,’ ‘ruling.’ You were created to be a victor, not a victim.”
PART 1: WHAT EFFECTIVE LEADERS SHOULD KNOW
• 5 Kinds of Leadership: Self-leadership, Functional Leadership, Change Leadership, Process Leadership, Strategic Leadership
• “Order is easier to create than keep.” See the four quadrants of weak and strong Strategy versus weak and strong Execution. Quadrant III is Fire Fighting!
• The Growth Deception: “Headcount increases linearly, but communication-related challenges grow geometrically.”
• Fred Brooks quote: “Adding people to a late project makes it later.”
• The critical reminder of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s “Decision Matrix: Important vs. Urgent.”
• Note the succinct “Takeaways” bullet points at the end of every chapter. Example: “Leadership expertise requirements grow in five areas… The deception comes in that the skill requirements are rising with complexity, but it is not obvious to leaders that the gap is widening.”
PART 2: WHAT EFFECTIVE LEADERS SHOULD DO
• 20 checklists in Chapters 7 to 13 (worth the price of the book!)
• See the “Connecting People to Purpose Checklist.” Harpst: “It makes them miserable when they don’t see the connection. Or they see the connection, but the organization is so dysfunctional that they feel like they can’t win.”
• Two dimensions of leadership: Process (Managerial Habits) and People (Engagement Habits). What quadrant are you in: Bureaucratic, Disengaged, Effective, or Disillusioned?
• Stop the Nonessentials Checklist: “Do people understand that stopping is not a failure but a success?” (See “My Don’t Do List” in the Delegation Bucket.)
• What thought leaders do you follow? Harpst lists 18 of his favorite learning resources including Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Patrick Lencioni, Ram Charan, C.S. Lewis, Stephen Covey, David Allen, Michael Gerber, Jim Collins, and others. He reminded me about Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline (I read it, but haven’t reviewed it).
• Is anyone tracking wasted time? Do you know the three main purposes for group planning? (“If you are sloppy about your plan approval dates, it means your planning is sloppy too.”)
you overcome it with purposeful action.
Without purpose, actions just contribute to more chaos.
Without action, chaos wins.”
PART 3: WHAT EFFECTIVE LEADERS SHOULD BE
Note! Does the author really save the best until last? You be the judge—but don’t skip this really, really good stuff!
• “Outcome Vagueness!” Harpst: “Lack of clarity delegates the definition of what success is to someone else. Yet when you get the result, you are disappointed that it wasn’t what you wanted.”
• “It’s strange that we have time to do the project over again but don’t have time to do it right the first time.” (Bonus book!)
• Hundreds of call-outs! (Assignment: underline at least 25 insightful sentences that are not already highlighted in large font. Every book should follow this format!)
• The author confesses, “…I have also made enough mistakes to be able to tell you with full authority what does not work.” (Three cheers for mistakes!)
• The 3 ways to kill teamwork: 1) Use Force, 2) Treat Everyone the Same, and 3) Don’t Change.
• A brilliant metaphor for the importance of agreed-upon standards: “If one carpenter’s tape measure used twelve inches to mean a foot and another uses thirteen inches per foot, I will not be thrilled with the house they build.”
A or B GUT CHECK!
A) Will you read this book this week? Or…
B) Will you inspire a team member to spotlight this book at your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your next staff meeting?
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Read the Tower of Babel chaos story in Genesis 11:1-9 and then discuss, “What can we learn from the Tower of Babel story in the Bible?” (Note: I asked AI that question—and the response was, frankly, better than I expected!)
2) In a recent WSJ column, “The Business Genius in ‘Air’ Isn’t Michael Jordan,” Ben Cohen notes a scene in the new movie, AIR, that he says “should be required viewing for any executive in any line of work.” Nike CEO Phil Knight, apparently, had a common response to new ideas: “I don’t know. Maybe it’ll grow on me.” (View the trailer. Note: I have not seen the movie.) Cohen writes, “His willingness to delegate and keep an open mind about ideas that he didn’t particularly like may have been the most unusual and valuable aspect of Mr. Knight’s management style in the years when Nike was taking flight.” Hmm! How do you listen, learn, and respond to new ideas—especially ones that don’t immediately resonate with you?
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 4: The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends
Book #28 of 100: Great by Choice
For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #28 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All
by Jim Collins
Books #22 through #40 spotlight 19 books I named to “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” group—featuring Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, and Peter Drucker. Part 4 features four books by Collins, including Great by Choice with his classic comparison company methodology.
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Great by Choice
• Listen on Libro (8 hours, 45 minutes)
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)
MORE CHAOS! Using memorable stories to answer the question, “Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?”—Jim Collins introduces us to 10X companies and 10X leaders.
The stories are fabulous, often very funny. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer had the moniker DOCTOR DOOM and Commissar of Concern, taught to him by the “Grand Master of Productive Paranoia himself, Bill Gates.” Yet it was Gates who put his foot down when Ballmer wanted to boost the head count to—get this—17 people!
OLAN HENDRIX
1931-2023
Olan Hendrix, the founding executive director of ECFA, passed away on April 13, 2023, at age 91. I was saddened to receive this news, but gladdened to reflect on the powerful influence that Olan had on thousands of Christian leaders and ministries. I was also the grateful recipient of his leadership generosity. In Mastering the Management Buckets, I shared a personal story. Read it here. And for more book reviews, visit the Pails in Comparison Blog.
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"Expect the Unexpected!"
MY MISTAKE #7: Minimizing Murphy's Law. I ignored the axiom that "if anything can go wrong, it will." Years later, Ted W. Engstrom (1916-2006) reminded me, "Expect the unexpected."
I should also have memorized O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law: "Murphy was an optimist!" Read more in Mastering Mistake Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Does your communications and marketing team hit deadlines—with agreed-upon results? Are the omissions and gaps obvious? You’ll appreciate a team-read of Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others. We can help you grow your team’s competencies and careers. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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