Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. It's been madness here at Lambert Towers, as such I will be taking a break from the Meeting Notes newsletter for two weeks.

In this week's newsletter, to align to the newly revamped Communication Super Power Course, I'll be sharing some insights about communication from the Animal Communication Types!

Which one are you?

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Animal Management Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Animal types - rapport

This idea of animal types to represent communication styles comes from a wonderful book called Rapport: The Four Ways to Read People (affiliate link - privacy policy).

This book is a cracker, and in the book, the authors (Laurence Alison and Emily Alison), through research (forensic psychology), have identified four communication styles, which they have assigned animals to:

● The Lion

● The T-Rex

● The Mouse

● The Monkey

The idea here is that each of these animal characteristics are related to similar communication characteristics.

These animals allow us to discover and identify our “default” style (or preference as I would call it).

By knowing our default preference, we can learn to understand the pros and cons of our communication style.

• The Lion represents control
• The Mouse represents capitulation
• The T-Rex represents confrontation
• The Monkey represents co-operation

Importantly, using this model we can also learn to identify other people’s animal style and adjust accordingly depending on our purpose and context, and how we may be feeling - after all, our mood and emotions play a large part in how effective our communication is.

Let's jump into some further ideas around these animal styles.

Lion

The Lion animal type is considered to be an assertive and confident style - you are in control of yourself - and to some extent, the situation also.

Lions are decisive, imposing and considered natural leaders. The Lion is used to represent strong, assertive, direct but empathetic communication.

The Lion is the leadership style. It is firm and more direct. We may call this a “hard” communication style. In some respects, at least from my experience of running hundreds of communication workshops, this is the style many people “wish” they could develop.

The Lion stands up for themselves, and others. They are confident and assertive, both traits that many people wish to develop further.

Imagine a strong person in a meeting who is able to exude presence, doesn't let their emotions overwhelm them and is clear in what they want, but not at the expense of other people. This is the animal type I try to convey whenever possible. It isn't about control of other people - it is about control over our own impulses, natural responses to situations and our words and body language.

We are confident, assertive and listening to others. We are not easily pushed over and the words we choose carry weight and meaning. No fillers, no umms, no ahhs, no apologies when they're not needed (and yes, apologies when they are needed). This is the communication style of someone who is at ease with themselves, their abilities, their needs and has a deep understanding of other people.

T-Rex

The T-Rex is used to represent a dominating, powerful, controlling, aggressive and forceful style. And in this sentence I am indeed refering to this style as aiming to control other people through sheer force of voice, language, body language and character.

They are the dangerously emotional character we've all worked with who has little control over their emotional reaction and drives fear into all who work with them. There are plenty of these people in our workplaces.

Consider this style an in-your-face kind of approach.

A T-Rex is someone who doesn’t seem to consider other people and goes after what they want with confronting words and body language. They leave a trail of human devastation behind them.

This is a fighting style with aggression and confrontation at the forefront. It’s probably reasonable to say that we certainly shouldn’t aim for this style. If we find ourselves in T-Rex mode, what’s wrong?

Maybe we need some time out to rest, regain our composure and aim to get on top of what is causing this style. Of course, some people are like this all the time - it's their natural style - in which case, considerable work should be done to round off those rough edge, appreciate other people and get that approach in check. Very little good comes from behaving like a T-Rex.

Mouse

The mouse is used to represent a quiet and shy style of communication; someone who capitulates easily under the force of other people.

“Quiet as a mouse” comes to mind here.

This could also be considered a meek, careful and cautious approach to behaviours and communication. It’s my experience that many people who want to develop their communication skills, wish to develop away from being a mouse.

When I run the Communication Workshop this is very often the one style that comes forth from many people. They want to learn how to move from a mouse to a lion. They want to be heard and be listened to - and to be able to articulate their ideas and thoughts with confidence and clarity. And of course, to be able to deal with other communication styles with ease and care.

I was quiet as a mouse many years ago and it drove me mad. I had great ideas and ways to make the business better but I was shot down and couldn't argue my case in a careful way. I would switch between the mouse and T-Rex when my emotions got the better of me. Not only was this ineffective but it left me feeling under-utilised and under-valued.

There are times to be a mouse, like when a T-Rex is around (unless you want to fight) - although the Lion style may be more contextually appropriate. Sometimes there is a time to let someone rage and have their soap box moment - to not challenge or confront or question (Mouse). Sometimes there is a need to respond with confidence and assertiveness (Lion).

And a mouse may be your natural style. But the mouse is often spoken over or goes unheard; that doesn’t mean they don’t have something important to say.

Monkey

The monkey is used to represent a sociable, energetic and personable communication style. They are the cooperative type.

The monkey style is playful, creative and fun, and these people displaying this style tend to get on well with many different types of people. They are sociable and interactive, and laced with positivity and warmth. Not that monkeys up close are friendly by the way…..

The monkey is a little jokey and certainly on the joyful side. They are quick to find middle ground and bring people together. They are able to communicate with many types of people. This is my default style - so I work hard to adapt my style to be more like a Lion - especially in work, but always relying on this Monkey style to bring people together. Context is king.

The challenge with the monkey style is adapting it for when warmth, smiles and happiness are not required, nor appropriate to the context.

Animal conflict

Given this basic summary it's pretty obvious that conflicts will occur when people are brought together in workplace settings. Everyone will sit somewhere in these four categories, like DISC, they are likely spread amongst more than one.

As such, there is a need, again, like DISC, to alter our style for the purpose, audience and context we find ourselves in.

Tools like this are super helpful in discovering our own preferences and natural styles. We can then use our learning and understanding, like the information in the Comms Workshop, to discover ways to move styles.

It is possible to alter our core behaviours to move permanently to be a more confident and assertive communicator - I've done this, but we can also develop the skills to move around when needed in the current situation.

We will probably be able to quickly identify someone we work with as having a clear style of Lion, T-Rex, Monkey or Mouse. We will likely identify ourselves quite clearly with one style over another.

Equally, we all have communication behaviours we can point at that allow us to move around the styles, or situations that make us revert back to a style that is more comfortable.

In my early days of leadership I would revert quite quickly to a mouse when the CEO was present. For some reason he brought out the meek and shy version of me, yet others didn't.

These are all clues and opportunities to learn how to communicate more effectively and move our behaviours towards the style we want to develop, or the style we need to learn how to play.

We will move around these animal styles, sometimes very frequently but we will typically have one dominating type.

When we interact with someone who is a different animal style to our own, we must learn to flex and modify our communication approach for effective communication to happen. We must also pay attention to the context the communication is happening in, and the purpose, and adjust accordingly.

There is no right or wrong animal to be, although some animal types would be preferable than others in our everyday life, looking at you Lion.

• Many people would class themselves as a mouse but would wish to be more like a Lion.
• It’s likely no-one would want to be like a T-Rex, but we may slip into this when we lose our temper.
• If you’re a mouse and you’re talking to a Lion or T-Rex, you’ll likely get shut down, ignored and trampled over.
• If two T-rex styles are in a room - good luck.

This Animal model is a useful construct to discover which style you are most naturally like, which one you may wish to develop your communication skills to become, and which styles may be most appropriate for different contexts.

By understanding these animal types, we can quickly ascertain who we’re communicating with, and knowing our natural style, decide whether we should adapt in that context.

The answer to whether to adapt our natural style in any context is typically always a YES!

In the Communication Super Power coursebook I dig deeper into knowing ourselves, and adopting our styles, using my preferred self discovery tool of choice DISC. But, this animal model is a good introduction to a different communication tool and how to learn more about yourself.

You see that's the key to effective communication; it's not to become like everyone else - it's to deeply know yourself, know what you want to achieve and then learn how to bridge the communication gap between the two.

Until next time.

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Buying my latest book. Workshop Mastery.
3. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
4. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
5. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
6. 6. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work 

Hey, 

I hope you are doing safe and well. Been quite busy here at Lambert Towers. Kids are finishing school, house projects underway and working on some cool new projects. I hope you are enjoying your week so far.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Waste Reduction Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Mottainai - a regret of waste

Mottainai - a Japanese term that translates along the lines of “regret of waste” or maybe similar to the saying “Waste not, want not”.  

It is a term I first encountered during a conversation on the Stationery Freaks podcast, with Frank, who makes Travellers Notebooks. (I co-host the show btw).

In the context of stationery, Frank was talking about not wasting natural resources and instead, using them carefully. Mottainai is part of his philosophy to re-use, care for and appreciate resources.

However, it got my mind thinking about work - and the common waste of human potential (I refuse to call humans at work resources). Instead, it's about the human's resources of time, energy and attention - and whether it is being used carefully, considerately and appropriately.

I have written plenty before about the waste of human potential in work - and it is, sadly, very prevalent in many workplace.

Mottainai - at work

In many companies there is waste in many forms - especially when it comes to human potential - and the poor use of human's resources of time, energy and attention.

There is a lack of releasing people’s real potential and underutilising their capabilities. This is not only a crying shame for the business to waste such an opportunity but also for individuals - not being able to bring their full potential to the work they do.

There are long meetings, heated discussions and circular arguments about theories and mechanics, when these are often fruitless conversations as it's not even clear what the goals, aims, business results and outcomes are.

Weeks are wasted, energy and attention are misguided, duplicate work is happening, and people are wading through mud to gain some form of clarity. Clarity that could, and should, be provided upfront before the wheels start to move - even if that clarity is only to the next waypoint on the horizon. 

There are politics that override sensible decision making as people shoot down good ideas to save face, or because they don’t like the person who proposed the idea, or because they’re afraid of being seen as inferior, weak or falling behind. 

There are poor behaviours left unchecked, allowed to fester until the workplace becomes so toxic people have no choice but to hunker down, play along or leave for their own wellbeing. All the while their time, energy and attention is spent navigating the toxicity rather than getting good work done.

There are delays, governance boards that don’t make decisions, red tape and a whole host of dysfunctions in the system of work that prevent good people from doing good work for customers, and instead burn time, energy and attention on fighting the system, cheating it or idling away waiting for things to be fixed.

There are pointless reports, metrics that drive the wrong behaviour and reporting lines that are created out of what appears to be sheer madness - rather than a strong compelling business need. 

All of this is waste. Waste of the most important type - human potential and people's finite resources of time, energy and attention.

Only this week, in several separate conversations outside of my work, there were stories of wasteful activity, people doing work that was several steps below what they are capable of, rework and duplicate work, and people working on activities that literally have no connection to any master plan or vision.

Mottainai can help

Mottainai is a helpful concept to come back to - the regret over waste.

In the examples above, all real by the way, I often don’t see much regret from leaders and managers.

A shrug of the shoulders, “never mind”, “not my fault or problem”, “part of business” - all ways to pass the burden rather than acknowledge the wasteful situation, show some regret and work to improve the world of work. 

But it's not just about the regret of waste, Mottainai is about working out how to prevent the waste in the first place; to appreciate what you have (people) and work out how not to waste it.

Mottainai encourages us to avoid discarding this human potential and creating waste in the first place - to avoid the regret. 

Mottainai encourages us to be in awe or appreciation of what we have and who we work with - and to be thankful. And to work hard to ensure people are reaching their potential, developing in the job and being seen for what they are good at.

Mottainai encourages us to understand, acknowledge and say thank you to the potential, people and capital we have. 

Mottainai encourages us to care for, to look after, and in some respects, love what we have. Yes, this applies to our teams and people too. 

Mottainai encourages us to seek out how to use what we have - to add value and contribute to the world. 

Of course, we must deal with low performance, and yes, we must work with other people who share different values to us, and yes, we have problems at work - but that shouldn’t stop us from pondering the human potential and capital we have - and avoiding wasting it. 

Waste is not just people’s capability, it is their most valuable resources; time, energy and attention.

Many people spend their days treading water, wading through mud, repeating work, reworking repeatedly and dealing with systemic problems that can, and should, be fixed.

This is a waste - and Mottainai encourages us to ponder it in order to avoid it, and to regret it when it happens - and to learn from it. 

I for one have always tried to see, embrace, encourage and respect the potential of every person in my team. I've tried to notice people's strengths (even if they are outside of their job role), to ensure work is developing people, and to ensure that it's crystal clear what we're trying to achieve.

I now know what to call it - Mottainai.

Until next time

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Buying my latest book. Workshop Mastery.
3. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
4. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
5. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
6. 6. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work  

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. 

Weather update:  Hot 

Enough about the weather, today’s topic is about where we spend our discussion time at work, usually on mechanisms - and why we often have it backwards. 

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Mechanisms Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Mechanisms exist to support outcomes

I’ve worked with plenty (and I mean plenty) of people who are interested in the mechanics, or mechanisms, of a business.

This methodology, that one. This tool, that one. This approach, that one. This process, that one. This way of working, that one. This theory, that theory.

We all love mechanisms. We want to follow someone else's writing routine because they have 10 best selling books. We want to follow the specifics of an agile approach because someone said it worked for them. We want to follow the exact routine of a military specialist because they are ripped and healthy.

We love mechanisms. And we love them in work too. It's no surprise - we spend all day working in and with them.

However, mechanisms exist for outcomes. It’s the outcomes that are important.

In the world of business those outcomes are of value to the business - and that is always external to the business (customers paying for stuff).

The mechanisms (ways of working, process, governance, metrics, approaches, rules etc) are inside the business - as such they are cost. 

This is why I spend a lot of time as a consultant (and leader and manager) identifying clearly what the outcomes should be, rather than going in strong with my preferred mechanisms.

My time is often spent helping people to identify clear outcomes and to stop talking so much about the mechanisms.

Everyone likes mechanisms - they often occupy our minds and energy for days as we contemplate this one versus that, or we like this one over that one. But it is merely adding cost to the business (all cost is internal) if we're discussing them without a clear idea of what they are in support of (valuable outcomes). 

Mechanisms exist to support outcomes - not the other way around. 

But the trap here is that many people aren’t always sure what their outcomes are supposed to be - in other words - what are the business results?

And even fewer people can connect the dots between the work they do (tangible deliverables) and the value it releases to the business (always external to the business through customers paying for something). 

And so, arguments, discussions, meetings, PowerPoints, more meetings, more discussions, more arguments, theories, brainstorming and more, ensues in the pursuit of the right mechanism, without fully knowing what the mechanism is actually in service of.

Opinions run high when it comes to mechanisms.  

Don’t get me wrong, the mechanism is important, but not if we’re not sure about the outcomes (and the external value it leads to).

Every time we discuss a mechanism (like agile versus waterfall - and yes, that argument persists), we’re adding cost.  

And so, my advice is to firstly work on deciding what the outcomes are, and then aim to tackle the mechanisms, technical problems and practical problems that need to be overcome, to achieve the outcomes.

After all, there is no point in discussing the mechanisms until we have made up our minds about what the outcomes are. 

Only after deciding and knowing what we want, can we then be clear and settle on the right mechanisms.

Mechanisms always exist to support outcomes. Not the other way around. And many consultants themselves don’t see that either - and are more concerned with this way over that way, or this approach versus that, without spending the time to work out what the client wants - and what problems we therefore must solve (and then which mechanisms make the most sense for the context).  

And in everyone’s day to day work life - it pays to be alert and attentive to how much time is spent discussing the mechanisms, at the expense of gaining clarity of outcomes.  

Decide what the outcome is (ideally tracing the value that is external to the business), then discuss the mechanisms of overcoming the practical challenges that stand in the way. It’s highly likely you’ll settle on the most appropriate mechanisms once it’s clear what they are in service of and what problems they overcome. 

A decision is also not a choice - clarity comes from closing down alternative options.

Decide, discuss mechanisms, move with clear and aligned action, refine the mechanisms as you learn more.

Until next time

Have a great week

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Buying my latest book. Workshop Mastery.
3. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
4. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
5. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
6. 6. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work 

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well - and all is good.

It’s busy here at Lambert Towers as the kid’s school terms end. We have sports days; schools plays and end of year fairs. Summer in England is pretty good too, as each village near us to hold a summer fete - and my youngest is remarkably good at the Tombola. Keeps us in stock for a few weeks with cakes and wine, both of which are likely out of date.

After 4 years my current contract is coming to an end, so I will be looking for a new contract starting in September. Please let me know if you need workshops, training or short-term consultancy help.

Today let’s talk about how to move companies to new future states through change initiatives.

Also, what follows is a process that works for any dream or vision you have, no matter how big or small. It would work for starting a new company, or improving a department, or even in your own life.

It follows a simple process I always use and look for when working with teams or companies who are looking to move to something different or better.

1. You need Vision.
2. You need Insights.
3. You need Clarity.
4. You need Alignment.
5. You need Action.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Visionary Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

You Need Vision, Insights, Clarity, Alignment, and Action.

Vision: Your Painted Picture of the Future

Every successful endeavour begins with a vision, or what I like to call a "Painted Picture."

Someone needs the creative foresight to imagine the business in the future—to see how things could be different. They need to vividly envision a compelling future: What does it look like? What does it do? What's it like to work there?

In my experience, many businesses lack this long-term vision, often looking no further than the next quarter's targets. It's no surprise, then, that change programs falter, improvements are elusive, and people feel a profound lack of hope and meaning in their jobs.

Without a clear, long-term vision for the company/team and its people, stagnation is inevitable.

Vision is absolutely essential. We admire visionaries, but they're often hard to find in the corporate world. And when they do exist, their ideas are frequently stifled by red tape, naysayers, and politics, causing them to give up.

But a vision confined to the mind is just the beginning; it needs to be articulated.  

Write it, draw it, doodle it, sketch it, record an audio description, find visuals that reflect it, or even use AI to transcribe a video call. Whatever it takes, transform your vision from an internal thought into a tangible piece of content that can be tweaked, tested, mashed, and improved.

The vision must become something communicable. 

As I always say, "The future belongs to those who can communicate about it."

But before you communicate, you need insights.

Insights: Testing the Dream

We need insights to gauge the feasibility, accuracy, possibility, and applicability of the vision. This means gathering feedback from trusted sources.

However, we must tread carefully here.

Too much analysis can kill the dream. Excessive criticality can blur the vision. And too much sensibility can morph a bold dream into a minor improvement. We need just enough analysis and insights to test the vision, not to extinguish it.

It goes without saying that any feedback should come from people you trust. Everyone has an opinion, so ensure you value the judgment and taste of those you consult.

Similarly, insights from data and evidence must be trustworthy, accurate, and truly insightful. It's surprisingly easy to be misled by statistics.

I've seen countless dreams shattered by seeking too much feedback. Remember, it's your dream, your vision. It's easy for others to dismantle it because they don't see or feel it in the same way you do. 

So, guard your dream carefully and seek feedback only from those whose opinions you genuinely trust.

Keep the dream alive but test it. Incorporate data and analysis and tweak your vision. Just don't water it down into a minor improvement, a mild change, or something so futile it generates no momentum or energy. A good dream energises and inspires; ensure these elements remain intact.

Now, test your future vision against your current reality. I'd love to play professional basketball, but at my age, I'm not fit enough and ache too much. A dream of playing in the NBA wouldn't hold up, but a dream of forming a local dads' basketball team for weekly pick-up games? That's grounded in reality.

While many visionaries can move mountains to bring their vision to life, there must always be some grounding in the business's current reality. Some visions are created for a different company entirely—an impossible dream given the current circumstances. That said, the current reality can shift, often dramatically, when the business is orientated toward a bright future. 

To move toward your vision or "Painted Picture," you must deeply understand your current reality. Be crystal clear about the blockers, the people, the structure, the obstacles, the opportunities, the market data, and more.

Understand it, test your vision against it, and then choose to ignore it if you wish, or refactor the dream without losing its inspirational essence.

Even if you choose to ignore the current reality, at least you'll be aware of it—and that's more than many leaders achieve.

Clarity: Helping Others See the Future

By now, you should have a vision - a "Painted Picture" of the future. Your next step is to bring clarity to it—to bring it to life and help others "see" it. 

This isn't sending them facts and details to read; it's about helping them grasp the idea, the vision, and the image of the future in their minds. Before you share it, you need to bring clarity to it.

Stories are incredibly powerful for this.

"We're here. Here's the challenge. Here's the obstacle. Here's what the other side looks like. Here's how we'll grow. Here's how amazing it will be. Here's how hard it will be. Here's who's involved. Here's why we must take on this challenge and overcome it."

Stories reach where facts cannot. They are inherently human, fostering an emotional connection. If your vision is still intact and inspiring, your story should grab people and lead them into that emotional connection.

The story is, of course, incomplete.

The beginning and end are compelling, but the middle will be a little "fuzzy." This is where the organisation or team comes in; they must write the rest of the story, always holding the end in mind.

The hard work, the change, the effort, the people, the value, the customers—these are all part of the story waiting to be written.

Models also work. 

Model it out, provide visuals, and offer examples. Bring your vision to life with words (ideally a story) and visuals. Without visuals, it's hard to cut through details.

Your visuals must represent the future, the business, and the role people play accurately. They can convey more than a thousand words and help make things concrete.

Models don't always have to be images; consider designs, blueprints, audio, video, and more. 

Bring the vision to life with stories and visuals. These create an emotional hook, helping people "see" the vision, the future, and the anticipated path to get there.

But people also need plans and roadmaps.

This is where Treasure Maps come in. A Treasure Map is accurate and guides people, at a high level, through the waypoints needed for the journey.

It's not super detailed; there's some thought required to move from waypoint to waypoint.

There's a path, but it's not a step-by-step instruction manual. It has waypoints to navigate toward—enough detail to move forward without constraining people to a fixed series of steps (which would be incomplete and inaccurate anyway).

Many a great vision and story are ruined by over planning, by the need to detail everything in advance. 

Those who over-plan aims to think of every contingency, to ponder all the things that could happen and mitigate for them in a plan before any action has taken place.

They seek certainty on an uncertain journey.

With good intentions, they try to reduce the risks involved in moving ahead by creating a detailed plan. The risk shifts from the people doing the work to the detailed planning process. Action doesn't happen until everything is considered.

That's slow and that's not how the story gets completed. We don’t quite know what will happen, but we have waypoints (consider these chapters) of the journey. We don’t always need super detailed plans to move.

Change happens through action toward waypoints, continuous learning, and constant readjustments. The Treasure Map provides waypoints; action uncovers the reality of moving toward those points.

A Treasure Map is needed, but detailed steps may not be.

For clarity and alignment, everyone must use the same Treasure Map. We move collectively to the first waypoint, then the next, constantly taking in insights and pivoting, always keeping the end vision in mind.

When I see change programs with every single step identified and deeply detailed plans, I know they will fail.

Change rarely happens according to a detailed step-by-step plan. It happens through everyday interactions and movement, as people move to the first waypoint, assess their progress, and pivot as needed. Then onto the next waypoint.

Alignment: Winning Hearts and Minds

It's great to have a vision, a Treasure Map, and compelling visuals. Now, we need to bring the entire organisation together to ensure alignment.

This is achieved through effective communication. Think of this step as internal PR. You're aiming to win the hearts and minds of the organisation—the people who will do the hard work to overcome obstacles and improve the business or achieve the vision.

Communication is key here. 

Use the story, the visuals, and the Treasure Map (with waypoints) to communicate effectively, through various mediums and in diverse ways.

Keep repeating the vision and the Treasure Map in different formats. Keep the vision and future top of mind for everyone.

Talk about it often and let the entire system below the leadership team morph to attain it.

When people are aligned, the business will adapt to meet the goals and aims of the Treasure Map and Vision. It might help to set short term goals too. Something everyone can align around at a micro level that leads to the waypoints.

When everyone is aligned and moving in the same direction, you'll have momentum that you should capitalise on.

Action: Driving Towards the Future

 With clarity and alignment established, it's time for action. Fast, solid, driven action toward the first waypoint, overcoming problems and moving toward important goals.

As you progress through waypoints and goals, there's a constant need to learn and pivot.

"How can we get better?" - This is a wonderful question to ask as you move forward. 

Learning is essential on your journey through the waypoints. It’s essential to improve, optimise, and get better. Learn what works and what doesn't. Learn who is on board and who isn't. Learn from data, insights, measures, and metrics.

Crucially, learn from the people in the mix:

How are they feeling? What problems are they encountering? What would enrich their working lives? All of these provide valuable insights for improvement and learning.

Push decision-making down to those directly tackling the problems. Give them support and encourage them to take on challenges and make improvements.

Encourage autonomy and the freedom to do the right thing—after all, people know the vision, they know the plan, they are clear about the waypoint they’re moving towards, and they are aligned. Let them find ways forward that don't require constant leadership intervention or bureaucratic governance.

Action is always most energetic at the beginning of any change program, so capitalise on that enthusiasm by tackling the big challenges and front-loading the work.

Make the first waypoint on the Treasure Map a truly valuable outcome. Solve a major problem, release a significant upgrade—something ambitious that gives people confidence in the journey.

When the grind sets in, be kind to people, support them, engage with them, listen to them, encourage them, and work alongside them. Always bring everything back to the vision and "Painted Picture." Always tackle problems and solve them in their entirety, never passing the burden to others.

This is how you bring about change.

You need the vision—someone to see in their mind how things could be. They need to articulate it, visualize it, and play with it.

Trusted insights and feedback help refine it, and data can inform. Avoid killing ambition with excessive rationalisation; a fine line exists between wild ambition and careful manoeuvring. 

Bring clarity to the vision through visuals, Treasure Maps (with waypoints), doodles, sketches, stories, and models. Help people grasp the main idea.

Share it, galvanize people around it, and foster alignment.

Then, move into action—driven, fun, ambitious, and enjoyable action to overcome problems and unleash agility toward a bright future.

You can apply these principles in your own life, in small projects, in a small department, a large department, or an entire company.

• You need Vision.
• You need Insights.
• You need Clarity.
• You need Alignment.
• You need Action.

Until next time. Take care of yourselves.

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Buying my latest book. Workshop Mastery.
3. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
4. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
5. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
6. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work 

Hey,

Hope you're safe and well. Welcome back to Meeting Notes – right on time this week!

This time, we're digging into something fascinating that pops up everywhere: The Drama Triangle.

We'll explore exactly what it is, how to spot the role you (and others!) may be playing, and why it seems to be in almost every business you can imagine – and, let's be honest, probably in our personal lives too. And how to break free of it (with a consulting and coaching view at work).

Before we jump in, just a quick reminder: my latest book, "Workshop Mastery - the art and craft of teaching what you know," is officially out now! In the book I cover how to run awesome workshops or tutorials. I cover teaching methods, how to develop presence, why it's important to choose the right words, room layouts, course structure and more.

I'm so thrilled with all the feedback I've received so far. Thank you for that!

Onwards - to drama.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Drama Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Understanding The Drama Triangle

The Drama Triangle is a brilliant tool, often used in therapy and counselling, to help us understand conflict, the roles we take on that may start or fuel this conflict, and how we see ourselves in our relationships. I'm going to cover it purely from a work perspective - I'm not a psychologist or counsellor.

At its heart, the Drama Triangle (in the context of work) is really about how we communicate and how we behave – or sometimes, how we fail to communicate effectively and how we demonstrate unhelpful behaviours.

Here's how it works. Imagine a triangle, and at each corner, there's a specific role that people fall into in relationships and conflict.

• The Persecutor: This is often seen as "the baddy." They're critical, they blame others, and they tend to be controlling.
• The Victim: This role is all about "poor me." Someone in this role feels helpless, passive, and generally avoids taking any responsibility for their situation. It's typically somebody else's fault.
• The Rescuer: This is "the hero" of the piece. They step in, they're super helpful, often trying to solve others' problems. The downside? They frequently neglect their own needs in the process.

Now, what’s interesting in any given conflict, or even just during a typical working day through our relationships, we don't necessarily stay in one role when we're in a Drama Triangle. We often rotate between all three, sometimes with surprising speed and frequency.

One minute we're the victim, then we're persecuting someone else, then we're rescuing. Round and round.

In my line of work, as a coach and consultant, I often find myself invited in to be the Rescuer. The trick, and the core of effective coaching, is ensuring I "rescue without being the rescuer". We'll get into that dynamic a bit more, as it's truly the essence of good coaching and consulting.

When all three roles are actively being played out, there's very little chance for anyone to "win" in the conflict. In fact, it's highly likely the conflicts just keep going, with everyone switching roles, ensuring the drama continues, or new conflicts start elsewhere as people move to different Drama Triangles.

Bringing The Triangle to Life: Home & Work Examples

Let's make this real with an example that any parent will likely recognise.

Imagine a situation where a father and son are in conflict. The son feels like the Victim because his father (the Persecutor) won't let him see his friends until his homework is done.

As their argument escalates and neither side is backing down, they both instinctively turn to Mum/Other parent.

At this point, Mum has a choice: does she jump in and rescue one of them, or does she help them work it out themselves? In a work context, this choice is precisely what defines effective coaching - helping people solve it themselves.

Often, the easiest path is to "rescue" the situation, perhaps by finding a quick compromise – "Okay, you can go out, but your room must be tidy tomorrow." Initially, it seems good as the conflict is averted, at least in the short term.

But then, things shift. The father might then play the Victim, accusing the mother of always taking the boy's side and making it easy for the son to avoid responsibility. Now, mum is the Persecutor.

And maybe the father will subtly draw the son back into the conflict to "rescue" him by reliving an old argument. This kind of role-switching can go on for hours, even days or weeks.

Think about another common scenario: two parents arguing over the state of the house.

Parent 2 comes home from work, sees the mess, and is argumentative with Parent 1 for not tidying up as they've been at home all day – Parent 2 is the Persecutor.

Parent 1 becomes defensive, feeling like the Victim. Their child overhears and jumps in to wash the dishes – the Rescuer. Then, Parent 2 might huffily take over the washing up, now playing the Victim, and so it goes.

At its core, the Drama Triangle is a cycle of really unhelpful behaviours and ineffective communication between all involved.

The roles aren't fixed; people jump between them, often very quickly. If this dynamic is left unaddressed, nobody wins in the long run. In fact, relationships can really suffer and become incredibly difficult to repair.

The Drama Triangle in Business

The Drama Triangle is everywhere in the workplace. I often think of coaching and consulting as the art of "rescuing without rescuing."

I'm usually brought in when conflict is high, tension is rising, work isn't flowing, and politics are taking over – essentially, there's a huge opportunity to release agility.

I find Victims, Rescuers and Persecutors all over the place.

One minute, a department head feels like a Victim because of their peer's behaviour. The next, they're the Persecutor, throwing problems at that same peer who has switched from Persecutor to Victim.

They in turn, feeling like a Victim now may turn around and start making demands of their own team, persecuting them.

Their staff then feel like Victims. And maybe when the dreaded engagement survey feedback comes back with terrible feedback about this leader, this boss switches from persecuting their team with high demands and pushiness, to being a Victim again - this time not from his/her peer but from their own team.

All the while, everyone is looking for a Rescuer (think external coach, HR, or a personal mentor, consultants, someone!). Some people are also stepping into the rescuer role to end the drama, all the while being dragged into the drama triangle, where they will switch roles too during it all.

As much as this sets the stage for prime coaching territory, my real job as a consultant or coach is to help people without actually "rescuing" them.

You see, my role is to help break the Drama Triangle. And while it can be done, it's not by me wading in and saving everyone as the Rescuer. I've seen consultants try this, only to quickly become the Victim themselves, or spend all their time flipping between roles just to get anything done (and keep their contract). That's not effective.

How to Break the Drama Triangle

So, how do you break free from this cycle?

There's no single magic bullet, as every situation is unique. But it always helps to understand what causes the drama triangle in the first place and who is playing what role.

As such, the two core areas I look at as a primary focus are:

Behaviours

At the heart of the drama triangle are unhelpful behaviours by those involved.

These usually stem from patterns developed through past experiences. They show up as avoiding responsibility, easily blaming others, refusing to face facts, a lack of self-reflection, a constant need for attention, being overly controlling, or needing constant validation.

These are things we can observe and study.

Good managers can give feedback on them, and great coaches can do it in a way that truly resonates without causing resentment - nudging people to effective behaviours instead.

We can identify unhelpful behaviours, noticing how these behaviours push people into the Victim role, others into the Persecutor role, and how those who avoid conflict might become the Rescuer, often to their own detriment (working long hours, neglecting their own needs, picking up other people’s work etc).

The key is to study and notice behaviours, then figure out how to address them – through coaching, feedback, training, or personal development, or some other mechanism. It also helps to know what good behaviours to look for.

Communication

(Technically, communication IS a behaviour, but I call it out separately here for clarity)

There's often a real struggle for people in business to communicate clearly. I often say that 99% of business problems stem from ineffective communication – and the Drama Triangle absolutely thrives on this.

When communication is ineffective, unspecific, vague, with poorly chosen words and phrases, with little listening (and understanding) involved, it fuels conflict and turmoil. Effective communication on the other hand, can help to resolve conflict calmly and with clarity and respect.

On a personal level, the trick is about not defaulting to your natural personal communication style, but learning instead to pause and respond appropriately for the specific purpose, audience, and context. (I cover this in the Communication Superpower Workbook).

Clear communication avoids misinterpretation, which can prevent someone from feeling persecuted in the first place and becoming the Victim, or from communicating in a way that comes across as persecuting others.

If things do heat up, ensure you're not adding fuel to the fire with inflammatory language, raised voices, or body language that screams anger and frustration.

Listening is also incredibly powerful; it can prevent the triangle from forming, and it's essential for resolving it.

This is why I focus on studying communication breakdown, and how this results in confusion, chaos and of course, drama triangles all over.

To resolve the conflict

At the end of the day, I'm always looking for who's the Victim and who's the Persecutor (and who keep Rescuing other people).

Then, I work with them (ideally all) to identify those unhelpful behaviours and develop stronger communication skills.

It's about raising awareness of the drama triangle being played out, drawing attention to the roles people are playing, and showing how easily everyone switches, and the behaviours and communication problems that lead to it and fuel it.

The next crucial step is encouraging people to take responsibility for their own behaviours. This means learning to reflect and spot their own unhelpful patterns and to set boundaries around what behaviours (and communication) are acceptable and what aren't.

It's hard work, but critical feedback from coaches or managers genuinely helps. However, remember, people must change their own behaviours – we can only help them see the unhelpful ones (and shine a light on the very positive ones) - this is the essence of good people management and coaching/consulting.

However, individuals must take ownership of their own behaviours - we can guide on how to change behaviours - but we cannot force them to change or do it for them, they must do that.

In every situation, people also have choices on next action steps.

A big part of my work is helping people see all the choices open to them and coach on how to make decisions.

This involves helping people think creatively to find solutions to business problems (which are often the catalyst for the drama - leading to the unhelpful behaviours and ineffective communication).

Instead of being stuck on one way of doing things, I encourage lateral thinking to find solutions that work for everyone. When people collaborate creatively, there's no need for a Victim or a Persecutor as a joint choice (and subsequent decision) can be sought. Of course, the trap here is that effective behaviours and communication are required to collaborate and cooperate!

I also encourage people to stop looking for a rescuer and instead use the points above to take ownership of the situation as individuals. A lot of this work is about figuring out what's within someone's control and starting there, while trying to let go of what cannot be controlled.

If we're feeling like a Victim, what can we do to resolve this, without an outside Rescuer or escalating the situation until we become the Persecutor? Often, people have far more control than they realise, they just sometimes can’t see it, or exercise it – this is where great coaches and consultants can help point this out to them.

Finally, I sometimes work with people to understand why they might enjoy the drama – and trust me, some people do like the drama or the fight for fighting's sake, or even enjoy being the Victim.

Often, but not always, this ties back to a lack of meaning, direction, or clarity in their own role or line of work, resulting in them persecuting others when things don't go well, or playing the victim, or rescuing everyone to find some form of clarity.

Of course, sometimes there's a deeper need for professional therapy, which is outside my scope as a coach and manager. That's why I stick to observable behaviours and communication – things I can see, hear, and coach people on - and not jump into the realms of understand why they behave that way after we've covered the basics of lack of clarity and meaning in their role.

If we address the lack of clarity or role development or confusion in the workplace, and people still thrive on drama, that's when it's time to suggest professional help or step back.

The Drama Triangle isn't just about individuals either; I see it played out on a much bigger scale in companies, where entire departments feel like Victims because they feel another department is making life hard for them and Persecuting them.

The authors of the Drama Triangle book even say the Cold War was a global version of the Drama Triangle!

As a coach and consultant, you're often brought in to "rescue" people and companies. The trick is actually helping people to rescue themselves.

In every company there are multiple drama triangles doing on. Just be sure you avoid getting sucked into one – and if you do, be clear the role you are playing and find a way to break the triangle.

Your Path to Breaking Free:

• Awareness: The first step is simply recognising when you're in a drama triangle role, or when people you are working with are in a role. Spot how they switch roles and what causes that.
• Keep an eye on behaviours and communication. These cause the drama triangle, fuel it and can resolve it. Behaviours can be observed, described, communicated about and given feedback about.
• Encourage people to take responsibility of their own behaviours and work with them on shifting unhelpful behaviours to positive ones.
• Help people see the choices in front of them and work with others to solve problems in collaboration and cooperation, rather than needing to win at the expense of others.
• Set boundaries, express your needs constructively, not destructively. Respect other peoples.

And with that, I hope this has been helpful in spotting the drama triangle at play, understanding the roles involved and seeing how people's behaviours (and communication) plays a significant role.

Of course, there are many other reasons drama unfolds, but by focussing on behaviours and communication, you stand a good chance of breaking free.

Until next time

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Buying my latest book. Workshop Mastery.
3. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
4. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
5. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
6. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work 

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. Welcome to this week's (later than usual) Meeting Notes newsletter. Things are good here at Lambert Towers.

In this edition I will share a classic document/talk structure - and some content ideas, for anyone doing business change.

Workshop Mastery

My Workshop Mastery book is now live! As loyal readers there is a discount applied if you use this link here. This book has been pure joy to write - as it's about a subject I care immensely about; teaching people in workshops.

There is a book page on this Cultivated Management page for you to find out more about the book. Use the discount link above though to get the discount!

Enjoy. And go forth and teach what you know.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Workshop Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Leading Business Change - some content guidance

What follows is my own personal playbook and content ideas for writing compelling, interesting and engaging change content material. Of course, material alone does not replace dialogue, alignment and action.

But, people will be expecting something to read through to understand change. A good change artefact can also double up as a structure for conversations, presentations and the like.

I use the following structure ALL THE TIME. It is a combination of experience and good, effective communication techniques. You will find further guidance in the writing section of the newly revamped Communication Superpower guidebook.

Some basics principles first, before we jump into the model I use.

1. You are writing to grab attention now - and keep it, so that people keep reading.
2. The content must be valuable for the audience you are writing it for. No value, no engagement, no change.
3. You must sound like your audience. Use words they use, use phrases they use.
4. You must pose a problem. This problem has a cost if it is not resolved. It has benefits if it is resolved. But before you outline the costs and benefits, you must include enough details to be sure everyone understands the problem.
5. There must be a challenge for people to take on. A challenge is something that is both exciting and hard. If it's just hard to overcome but not exciting or motivating....good luck.
6. The changes themselves must be clear.
7. You must explain why the change matters - and why now. You must convince people that the change is the right change by explaining why it was decided upon and creating a compelling narrative or story that is valuable to THEM.
8. The language and structure of the guidance must have a forward momentum - keep people reading.

With all of the above let's jump through the logical sections I include in change guidance. In the diagram the size of each box depicts how important each section is - the bigger the box, the longer you should spend on getting it right.

The following guidance is suitable for presentations, handbooks, web pages etc

Writing for change

Title

It goes without saying that your guide should have a title. Don't make it boring. Use words such as "Story" or "Guide" or "Journey". Ideally you want people to feel like that it's not boring and dull, and is something they can engage in.

For example "The agile transformation story" or "The HR optimisation journey".

Quote

I always suggest opening with a quote.

Ideally the quote would be from a business leader or the CEO themselves. Of course, it should relate to the content, or change, or movement, or transformation - something relevant.

If there is a "case for change" - even better - get a quote from the boss saying why change is essential.

If you don't have one from someone in the business, find a suitable quote from some famous person. Someone trustworthy and respectable.

Contents

Enough said. Contents, nicely laid out, simple to understand.

What's happening?

This is where you introduction to problem space.

You must pose the problem that the change addresses. No need for deep dives into the problem being tackled, but a simple introduction to ensure everyone reading is aligned around the right problem. All businesses have too many problems - align everyone around the problem being addressed.

You should explain why the problem needs addressing.

In other words, what is the cost to us, the business and people in it, if the problem is left unresolved? Again, simple, clean, compelling language should be used.

It's also then worth explaining the benefits of solving the problem. How will our work and lives be easier? What are the upsides to the change? And how will we know we've solved it?

In your language here, use words like "us", "we", "together". Use forward moving words like "therefore", "as you can see", "let's move on" etc to keep to momentum moving.

It's also essential to sound like your audience. Use the right words and phrases - the ones they would use. Don't sound corporate, formal and structured. Of course, you may have corporate writing guidelines that force you to sound like everyone else, but I'll save guidance on that for some other time.

Explain the change at a high level. "We're moving to this tool", "we're restructuring the team", "we're implementing agile ways of working" etc. A good way to do this could be to use a before and after, or That To This approach.

i.e. Before (We used spreadsheets to manage finances) --> After (We're using X tool to simplify and align).

It should be clear, after reading this short section (no more than a slide or small side of paper) what the problem is, the cost of leaving it unresolved, the benefits of resolving it, and (at a high level) what the resolution is.

The Changes (Benefits)

Now is the time to explain, in maybe three or four pages (one minimalist page per change reason), why the change was decided upon. In other words, why did we choose this change solution - and what benefits it will bring.

As much as you (and your team) have noodled with the problem and decided upon some change based on evidence, data and analysis, you need to convince other people that it is the right change.

This is where you pull upon the heart strings of the reader to explain why this change is a good thing (assuming it is), and why it will make the business, and the lives of people in it better.

In other words, consider the benefits of solving the problem - explain these in compelling, interesting and personal ways, doubling down on why and how this change will release these benefits.

Don't overwhelm with hundreds of benefits. Three is a good number.

For example, maybe the problem is that your HR team have to store employee data in a crappy old tool, crunch data in a spreadsheet and have zero reporting on any numbers around HR related work.

The cost of that is more tedium and manual crunching. The solution is a new tool that can alleviate much of this, whilst also providing super accurate real-time data easily.

The three benefits could be:

1. Simplify the process of all aspects of HR
2. No more spreadsheet number crunching as the new tool has built in real time reporting
3. Hours saved on manual entry, freeing people up for more valuable HR work with the business

Explain each one. Use personal language "us", "we", "together". Make this rich and compelling but not lengthy. Don't include technical details - that can come later.

Another example - shifting to an agile Way of Working:

1. Streamline the time taken between idea and value
2. Encourage more autonomy and localised decision making
3. Rapid feedback and reduction in delays.

All good reasons that can be explained in a powerful, personal and emotionally compelling way.

Explain why this change was decided upon. And use language to keep moving forward "let's go", "find out more on the next page".

Challenge

Now is time to pose a challenge to the readers. In a change program of any time, the challenge is always bringing the change to life.

The challenge is an essential part of any story.

We have the problem. We know it is a problem. We know it is a problem that has high costs if we don't solve it. We know we have some benefits that come from solving it. We now have the challenge - take it on. Deal with it. Solve it.

In this short section you are encouraging people to galvanise around solving the problem (the challenge). In all stories the challenge is taken on by a merry bunch of people with varying skills and competencies - exactly like all businesses.

As such, you need to pose the challenge for what is it - hard, tricky, incomplete, likely to throw curve balls but my word, we should take it on.

On the other side of any challenge is personal growth - ensure this is weaved in alongside the benefits of solving the problem.

Consider painting the challenge as hard, large, big, interesting, compelling, not a path of least resistance and daunting. But we can solve it. Of course we can - if we come together.

Briefly explain that everyone has a role to play and details are later in the guide.

Why now?

To complete, in the reader's mind, why the change was rightly decided upon, it's important to explain why is the right time. Sure, we could have tackled this problem and taken on the challenge years ago, or some time in the future. So, explain why now is the right time.

That could be funding, or maybe the costs of the problem are becoming too unbearable. Maybe it is merely timing, or because new skills are in the team.

Whatever the reason is, explain why now is the time to make the change. Again, simple words, compelling and use personal language (we, us, together, all of us etc).

Motivate and inform

At this point you shouldn't be more than about 12 - 15 pages in. And those pages are light, easy to read and simple. Now we jump into the detail but before we do, articulate something motivational.

I tend to use something like:

"Let's jump into the details to see how we all play a part" or something like that. Sounds simple but it works.

In the following few pages, explain the details of the change. This will be contextual to your world but I'd expect some or all of the following:

1. Timelines
2. Who's leading
3. What role people play
4. What people can expect (training, awareness, etc)
5. Technical details (if needed)
6. Processes details
7. Working groups
8. How to stay informed

etc.

Why this works

This process works because it's compelling, interesting for the reader and most importantly - it's valuable to them.

There is no shortage at all of editorial and written space, but there is a limit to mental bandwidth. That is why it's essential to start with the problem that needs solving, explaining the costs and benefits. After this grounding the change needs explains AND why that change was decided upon.

We then need to pose a challenge that needs overcoming in order to solve the problem, classic story telling. And then move into the details.

Most change guidance is devoid of value - sure, you may get people's attention initially but you must also keep it - and to do that, it must be valuable to THEM. People will read any number of words if it's interesting.

Most change guidance starts with a case for change and then jumps into the details - without anchoring everyone around the problem (costs/benefits), nor explaining why the proposed solution is the right one.

At the end of the day, we need people to feel connected to, and supportive of the change.

We need them to understand why the change is happening, what the change is and why it was decided upon this course of action. And of course, what the benefits are.

If you're doing any kind of business change, no matter how small - consider this structure for your change guidance. And of course, this translates nicely to a presentation and conversation too.

Until next time

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
5. 5. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. It's been pretty hectic here at Lambert Towers - and yes, finally, at last, we have some lovely weather here in the UK. Due to being in the office all week, this newsletter is 4 days late!

Housekeeping

I'm putting the final touches to my Workshop Mastery: ​Design, Teach & Engage Your Audience book - it is due out this weekend!

If you want to pre-register for notifications for when the book launches, then the LeanPub platform will let you do that here.

With the launch of this new book, I have completed my trinity of effective workplace communication advice and training.

1. Effective workplace communication skills - The revamped and extended online communication guide and workbook
2. Presentation skills - Zero to Keynote
3. Running workshops (internal or at conferences) - Workshop Mastery

With these three resources, you have three outstanding ways to grow your own abilities in effective communication, and share what you know with others.

In this post I did about growing your career, the top tier is the ability to communicate effectively and share what you know - these three resources are your guides to this fruitful path.

The unseen power of Tone of Voice

Long time readers will know I focus primarily on communication behaviours and skills when it comes to management, leadership and business improvement.

I often say that 99% of problems in business are related to poor communication - I'm likely not far from the truth.

As such, to advance your career, lead teams and/or change an organisation you need to use effective communication.

• The person in work who tells the best stories wins.
• The person who pulls on people's heart strings (using emotion driven communication) moves people into motion.
• The person who can articulate a bright future and inspire people to "see" it - can guide people to this future.
• The person who can spot problems, clearly articulate them and then influence people to solve them, improves a business.
• The person who develops the ability to influence others can garner support and good relationships.

And consider two things here:

1. You don't need to have a leadership or management role to develop influential communication behaviours.
2. Communication behaviours can be learned.

Sure, you will have your own style, your own flavour, your own motivations and goals - but underpinning successful people is the ability to influence, motivate, inspire and galvanize people around a bright future.

As such, one of the first things I do when I join an organisation in a leadership position (after understanding the business domain and goals - and meeting as many people as possible), is develop a communication plan. After all, power in business comes from distribution of communication.

However, to be truly successful in business communication, even with a solid communication plan, you must develop a strong, consistent and relatable Tone of Voice (ToV).

What is a Tone of Voice?

Tone of Voice is the visible outward manifestation of your brand, you or the business team you are leading / working in.

When people read, see or hear anything from you and your team, it should be obvious, it is from you/your team through the ToV.

In large organisations, where you have central communication teams and branding guidelines, it becomes harder to flex and weave in your own personality, but it's still entirely possible.

In other words, it's harder to sound like YOU because the corporate style makes you sound like nobody. (This is madness if you want people to actually digest what you communicate....but I'll save this for another post)

I outline below my "go to" starting plan for a Tone of Voice. It is mine, and very basic (it doesn't need to be complicated - in fact, it should be simple), but it will be a good starting point for you.

Your Tone of Voice should look, feel and sound like you - so weave this in (whilst also sticking to corporate if you must).

This Tone of Voice (ToV from now on) is the way we communicate with our audience. It's the outward manifestation of our brand, values and ways of working. It should be you (and your team) personified. It should be used in all communication activities allocated on your plan. It should be used in presentations, writing, internal social posts, documents etc etc.

It’s the dimensions of your communication that create the general feeling your audience have about you - everything you say (or choose not to say) is important.

The consistent use of ToV connects people. It builds awareness. It builds trust. And more importantly, it influences, moves and aligns people around what you're doing.

Remember, doing great work isn't about being great at what you do. It's also about telling others about it, garnering support, bringing other leaders and teams on the journey, connecting dots, solving problems collectively, and much of this comes down to effective communication with a consistent ToV.

Work is not done until someone knows about it. Nobody else will blow your trumpet for you. Your team won't always get the recognition they deserve. Others will throw stones if there's radio silence about how you're progressing. People will make up rumours, myths and hearsay in vacuums of communication.

Effective communication is good for you, your team and your success. And good communication has a Tone of Voice.

We all have a ToV - many people don't take the time to define it, understand it and be consistent with it. Every team will have a collective Tone of Voice.

The ToV always needs tweaking, fine tuning and refining. Round off the rough edges, double down on what works - and above all else - let personality and authenticity shine through.

A standard ToV

What follows is my standard "out of the box" ToV that I take with me. You could call this "my ToV". I have not disclosed any specifics, as they are personal to me.

This base levels needs adjusting, building on and tweaking to reflect the team, the business culture and the type of work, but it's a good building block to consider the various elements that may go into a ToV. Or build your own.

There will be elements missing. There will be things you wish to include. I share it here for inspiration and guidance only.

Be Human

Sound like a person. Sound human.

When writing, imagine the person you are writing your content for is stood in front of you. What would you say to them if you were face to face? Write that.

Be friendly. Be positive. Don’t be negative. 

Don’t shy away from bad news or hard times, but don’t drag others down and be negative. Context matters here but try to be positive when possible.

Keep it simple

Reduce tricky concepts and theories down to the simplest principle or guiding idea.

Every complicated topic can be explained easily.

How would you describe something to a child - do that. We're not insulting people's intelligence by clarifying for a child. We are instead aiming for understanding and connection, and simplification.

If we cannot simplify something we don't know it well enough. Or we've not thought hard enough about it. Everything can be simplified - to start with - and then build out once solid foundations are understood.  

Our audience doesn’t have time to unpack complicated nor complex theories - we must not make the audience work harder than they need to to understand us.

Use simple language with short words, short sentences and no jargon.

Explain any complicated terms that we must use. At all times choose the simplest version of a word you can. Construct simple words into simple sentences.

Use Humour

We’re not afraid to use humour throughout our content.

Our humour is never offensive, crass or rude. We are careful with our humour, but light-heartedness has a remarkable ability to drive engagement in our communication. Use it wisely - and contextually.

Don't preach, or brag

We are not preachy. We don't extol our own achievements as a brag but merely as information and acknowledgement of good work.

We respect other teams at all times. We never shoot down others. We are positive and optimistic - we never do this at the expense of other people's ideas, work and thoughts.

Ladder content and theory

We don’t overwhelm, through our content, language and concepts.

We always ladder content in an inductive method - simple to complex, theory to practical application, seed to growth, easy to hard. Start easy, grow in difficulty.

Make it valuable

We don't communicate for the sake of it. We always offer something of use. Our communication is aimed at providing value. Without value we will lose our audience, if we even reach them in the first place.

A nugget of wisdom here, a shining light there, some useful insights here. Always helpful, always useful, always insightful, always adding value.

We ensure we understand our audience and what is valuable to them - then deliver on that value.

​People will read any number of words, listen to long hours of audio and engage in detail, if it's valuable to them. Identify the challenge or problem people face, and ensure you solve it for them.

Break the content apart - appropriate mediums

We don't overwhelm with giant documents and guides that have no summary, no visuals or no explainers.

We always make our writing skimmable with suitable white space, breaks and headings.

We use different mediums to add variety and effectiveness. We experiment and try new things - always learning and seeking feedback.

Use stories

 We use stories where we can.

The Hero’s journey is a good story arc to start with (protagonist > obstacle > compelling/inciting decision > tackle obstacle with colleagues > overcome > learn)

We always tell stories about data. Data has little emotion - stories have bags of it. Use stories to bring facts to life. Stories always go to places of the mind where facts cannot.  

Other story arcs are useful

Define our style

(Here is where we may need to flex to corporate style guides)

We prefer British spellings, but if the corporate style is American, we go with that.

We are consistent. We stick to corporate style guides if they exist. We build our own if they don't. 

We define our approach to capitalising words, and appropriate use of acronyms (which we always explain).

We spell check and grammar check. We are professionals. We must build trust and confidence in our work through accuracy and consistency. This comes through in our communication.

We train everyone in the art of effective communication, presenting and running workshops.

We are clear about who we are

We know who we are - and we are consistent in how we talk about what we do.

In other words, how do we talk about ourselves when we're a team with no external audience? Write that down and stick to it unless feedback tells you it's not landing with people outside our team or department.

We define ourselves, but don't confine.

When we talk about the team (and team name) we are consistent, we use the correct abbreviations, everyone in the team knows how to describe what we do and what value we bring to the business. Soon, everyone else outside our team will too.

Defining how we refer to ourselves is important - we must own the narrative of OUR story and be consistent about what we do, how we work and the value we bring to the business.

Date formats 

Recommendation is:

1 November 2024

Corporate may say otherwise.

Make it easy to find us

We have a home-base location for our content, ways of working, department and internal facing guidance. We own that and we make it look and feel inline with our ToV.

We make it easy for people to find us and we ALWAYS direct people back to our home base. Our URL is easy to find and remember (even if we have to battle IT to get it).

Our outposts (internal social, presentations, emails, people) always direct people to our home base. Our home base is kept up to date - and when people land on it - they know it's us because it looks, feels and sounds like us (ToV).

We have a general email address for the internal business to contact us. It is clear to the wider business who they should speak with regarding our valuable contributions and service. Whether that be the leadership or a generic email - they know.

We explain who is who, and who does what on our home base.

We reduce the friction of finding out more about who we are, what we do and how we work with the wider business. 

Bringing the ToV to life

We have a simple guide to our own ToV - all team members must know where to find it and how to apply it.

Visuals

Our visuals should follow the same styles. We create templates. We push our creativity and improve on this, when feedback tells us our communication is not landing.

Our colours are consistent (of course, we may need to adhere to corporate here)

All visuals should be relevant to the topic, complete (like a treasure map) but not stuffed with detail that does not need to be there.

Our visuals should have three elements:

• Appealing
• Comprehension
• Retention

If we use infographics they are complete and accurate.

Infographics should be whole between words and images. Words alone won't tell the story, images alone won't either. Both together do - test this.

They must be precise.

Everyone knows where to get templates for powerpoint, white papers and other collateral.

Everyone knows about the style guide (we include them in the induction) and everyone knows how to use them. 

Numbers

We are careful with numbers. We use data and evidence where it exists.

We don't truncate time series data to tell a biased story. It's easy to lie with statistics, we don't do that.

We face the truth and deal with it, even if it's not pleasant. 

Tests of our documentation / guides

We always test, check and proof our work - even our presentations. 

• Is it easy to understand on a single read through?
• Is it as succinct as possible?
• Could we remove words and sentences that don't add to the value of the communication? 

Writing is easy, editing is hard. How can we make it shorter and it still make sense?

• We run our words through a Flesch-Kincaid analysis.
  • We aim for 10 years or younger. We are not insulting intelligence, we are aiming for clarity and understanding.
  • We want everyone to be able to read what we write - and understand it.
• Is there an obvious call to action (learn more, speak to someone, download)?
  • If not, could you add one?  
• Does it sound like it was written by a human?
  • Avoid using AI to create the communication.
    • If you use AI, use it to refine, then rewrite what it gives you in your own words.
  • We must sound human.
• If we use negative words (no, not, never) can we find a replacement with more positive language?
• Have we used absolutes (never, always, etc)  - remove them. Absolutes always give people a chance to challenge. There is rarely a single way of doing anything.
• Are we speaking with confidence and being direct?
  • Avoid passive language where possible.
• Have we limited use of exclamation marks?
  • Choose better words rather THAN USING EXCLAMATION!!!!!!
• Do we repeat ourselves often? 
  • Repetition is a useful rhetorical device – but use sparingly.
• Have we done a “read around” of any writing - i.e. read it out aloud.
  • Change anything that sounds odd to read out aloud.
  • We want to write like we speak (unless corporate tell us not to)
• Are we using data?
  • Have we brought this data to life with stories and a human interpretation.

The above is a very simple ToV but it's a powerful way of driving clarity and consistency. Don't under-estimate the hidden power of having a clear ToV. When people receive any form of communication (presentation, email, document, guide) it should be clear in their mind that it is from you and your team - and it moves them into action, or aligns them, or informs them well - at all times it is valuable for them.

A ToV helps you define the style, tone, pitch and language. Every person in your team should contribute to its creation - and know how to use it.

A ToV will likely not be static either. As feedback comes in, you will need to modify for Tov (and guidelines), and your ToV will naturally grow as you, and your team, grow too.

Owning your own narrative, telling stories, aligning others and being clear in communication is an essential aspect of business. I encounter leaders all the time who do not have the support of their teams, let alone their peers. Their communication is ineffective, sporadic and lacking. Then there are leaders who have a plan. They communicate well. They always sound consistent in emails, on video, in meetings - and their team do too. There is consistency and consistency builds trust.

Until next time.

Rob..

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
5. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well, and looking forward to the week ahead.

The final touches are being done to the Workshop Mastery book. I'm super excited about this one. It should be live this week. I'll share details in next week's newsletter.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Hope Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Hope is not a strategy, but it is essential

I know, through my own leadership and consulting work, that hope is not a strategy. But, it is essential.

A strategy has a clear, bright, exciting and compelling picture of the future (hope), but is also has a clear understanding of the current reality (where we are now). With these two things you can then build a plan to bridge the gap.

In other words; this is our ambitious story of the future, here is where we are and this is how we're going to get there.

When you have all three you have a strategy; a picture of the future, a current reality check and a plan (note: the plan doesn't have to have all of the answers, in fact, it likely won't - but the people in the business will find the answers).

But the hope part of this is essential.

The painted picture gives people a compelling, exciting and interesting future that is better than the one today - it is hope written down. It is a hopeful picture; there are too many variables to control an exact outcome but it gives people hope of a better future.

This is needed whether you're launching a new startup or trying to change a lagging Enterprise organisation.

In a sense you're answering the questions every employee has:

Where are we going? And why should I get enthused by it? And is it better than today?

Hope is not a strategy on it's own, but it is required.

Not just fake hope and wishes, but hope that turns into belief.

Hope soon turns to belief when leaders do what they say they will

When leaders start owning the high bar of behaviours, investing in solving the real systemic problems and nurturing capable people, employees see hope becoming a reality.

When leaders start treating people like people and caring, employees see this. When they start making solid, accurate and good decisions, people see how the painted picture is coming alive. When leaders start creating a culture where experimentation and creativity are central, people can see how they play a significant role is working out "how" to make the picture of the future a reality.

When people start seeing positive movement towards the painted picture, hope turns into belief.

We all need hope:

• Hope our business succeeds.
• Hope our careers grow.
• Hope our workplace enriches everyone in it.
• Hope our job isn't shipped off to someone cheaper.
• Hope our leaders do the right thing for the business (and us).
• Hope that we have competent people in charge who know what they're doing.

When we see this hope (the vision of a compelling future) become real, visible, obvious and tangible - we start to believe. And belief is even more powerful than hope. Belief brings momentum. It brings a doubling down on things that work. It brings passion for what we're doing. It galvanises people towards this brighter future.

Hope is essential. Hope gives us a vision of how things could be better. But hope without a solid understanding of the current reality and a plan to move forward, is a wish.

We start with hope (with a plan), then we start to believe when we see leaders, managers and everyone in the organisation moving with clarity. alignment and action towards the painted picture.

It's no longer hope, we can see things happening. We can start to believe.

Hope is not a strategy but it is an essential component of a good strategy.

If you're strategy doesn't have a compelling, interesting and hopeful picture of the future, how will people connect to it?

How will people see themselves growing as they deliver it? How will people see their experience at work improving? How will people know when to believe you?

How will you garner energy, attention, enthusiasm and right action, if what you're heading towards isn't a hopeful, positive and ambitious future that people can connect to?

Hope is not the answer alone, but it is an essential part of a good strategy. Many leaders focus on markets, facts, data and analysis when building a strategy. This is needed, but data doesn't tell a story on its own. Turn that data into something people can connect to. Tell a story. A story of hope. A story that can become belief -through action on the right things.

A good strategy helps people find clarity and alignment - and something compelling to connect to.

Strategy helps people understand why they are working, what they are doing and how things are going to be better. And hope is a part of that. Then do what is needed to show people that hope can indeed be turned into belief. In other words, bring your compelling story of the future to life.

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
5. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. It's been a while since I sent a newsletter, or did anything with Cultivated Management. Life has a habit of getting busy.

Well, today I'm happy to be writing this again and back at it.

Today I'll share some insights into how to be a good coach. Before then though, a little housekeeping.

I've been putting the final touches to my book about running award-winning workshops (working title "Workshop Mastery").

It's been a real joy to write and it will be super helpful for anyone looking to run workshops or tutorials in their workplace, or at events like conferences.

I've also properly launched my Creative Soul Projects Etsy store where all of my current books and courses are now held, including the newly revamped Communication Super Power course.

I also managed to squeeze in a family city break to Budapest last week, which was epic. I will be back in Budapest later this year, sharing insights about how to climb YOUR career ladder at the HUSTEF conference.

How to be a great coach

There's a whole world of people I will offend with this article.

Why? Because coaching means a lot of things to many people.

There are organisations and people breaking "coaching" apart and coming up with different approaches, techniques and names for all of this. It's great, but it's not how I see the world of coaching.

I'm very straight forward when it comes to coaching. I like to keep things simple. I don't buy into the myriad of complexity that coaches bring to this space. No doubt, there is much I could learn, but by keeping it simple, it keeps it simple in my client's minds too - and this is a win.

Since quitting full time work 9 years ago, I have been fully employed as a business, management, HR and agility coach, helping hundreds of leaders and people get smoother, quicker and faster at delivering value, whilst cultivating better workplaces.

Let's firstly clear up a simple but often overlooked confusion, and my take on it.

Coaching and Consulting are different things.

• Consulting is about providing answers, direction, guidance and is more of a tell.
• Coaching is more about supporting the person, and helping them grow, letting them discover or learn.

I ALWAYS use both. Always.

Let's explore this further.

Sports Coaching

I used to play pro basketball (many many years ago) and spend a significant amount time reading about sports coaching. I see my style of coaching as being like a sports coach.

I am there to support people in pursuit of their goals. I am there to correct, nudge, provide "technical" insights into how to do the work and to grow each and every person I am coaching.

A lot of people react to this - and hate the sports coach approach. But it works.

They don't know all the answers

The main reason someone hires a coach is because they don't have all of the answers. If they did have the answers, and they knew how to tackle their current challenges, they wouldn't need a coach.

And therefore, if someone doesn't have all of the answers, it's fair to say that the coach they hire must know more than they do - and have the answers, or at least know how to get them.

As such, there will be times when you literally provide the answers (consulting), AND times when you help someone discover the answer and grow (coaching).

Provide feedback without being resented

A good coach builds a relationship, is confident in themselves, speaks with care and authority and ultimately can provide feedback without being resented.

If people resent you correcting them, providing alternative insights or giving them feedback about behaviours - you have not built a strong enough relationship.

A good coach is respected, trusted and listened to - and this is not just about relationships, it's about how you carry yourself too.

Learn more with the Communication Super Power course.

Know a lot about a lot

The best coaches know a lot about a lot.

I often work with coaches who are coaching leaders, but have never led a team before. It rarely works out well.

I often work with coaches who know a lot about one or two subjects, but not a lot else.

A good coach, in business, will be supporting people with a myriad of challenges, obstacles, goals and issues. As such, the more widely you understand people, the world of work and the business you are in, the better placed you are to coach.

Read widely, learn, and where possible learn through actually doing the work. It's not enough to merely possess the information about something, you must know it, by having put information into action to create knowledge.

A clear direction

It must become apparent quickly what the person you are coaching is moving towards. What do they want? What are they trying to achieve? What does success in their work look like?

It is a waste of time and money to be coaching someone who has no clear outcome they are driving towards.

This is not about what they want to achieve as a person (like confidence, assertiveness etc), but about how they will apply what you coach to their work (be more confident in winning the sales bid, be more assertive in meetings to advocate for the customer, etc).

Sure, there is a place to coach about behaviours and people skills alone, but these should ideally be tied to a business outcome they are aiming for.

Are they looking to solve systemic issues in delivery, or organise their team more effectively, or be more confident around the exec table to garner budget and support, or start their own company, or deal with poor performing people?

It's nice to see someone grow in confidence, but it's even better to see them apply this to real business issues that generate value for the company - that's why you're there.

Note: I use confidence here as an example.

Work on problems towards progress

Given there is a clear direction and outcome the person you are coaching wishes to achieve (and if you don't have that, see point above), you must now tease out what is preventing them from achieving it.

In other words, why do they need coaching?

This should come from them, with some insights from you.

Ask them what is preventing them achieving their business goals.

The answer is never a single thing.

A lot of coaches make this mistake. They focus on the one or two things and work on that, not realising that success for the individual you are coaching is rarely a single improvement or focus point; it is always a systemic challenge.

Keep asking, create a safe space to discuss, ask good questions and tease out the myriad of problems, challenges and opportunities that you, as a great coach, can help them with.

Here are the areas I aim to get insights and opportunities for coaching around - and I rarely, when I dig in, find anyone who doesn't have ALL of these:

1. The system of work they are working in is not helping them deliver
2. They want to improve their communication skills
3. They have "problem" people that they don't know how to deal with
4. They have technical challenges they don't know how to overcome
5. They don't have clear visibility into all of their work and how it hangs together
6. They wish they were different! (more confident, more relaxed, better communicator etc)
7. They are overwhelmed
8. Their personal life is being destroyed by work (THIS IS A HUGE ONE)

It's rarely one thing that you will need to coach someone on. And that's why it's important you have experience, knowledge and expertise in many aspects of work and life.

You are a cost

Realise you are a cost to the business.

Everything inside the business is a cost. Value is always created external to the business. As such, tied to the points above, you must be helping them create value to justify your cost.

This is a mistake a lot of people make.

They focus on the person and their needs, skills and behaviours. This is good. But these improvements must help them generate more value - which is external to the company.

Find out how you're going to do this early on.

Not only should coaching contribute to making the people and business better (external value, or internal improvements that generate external value) but you will also have fewer questions being asked about why someone needs a coach!

You don't coach a team

I see it often, coaches trying to coach entire teams with training, nice pithy phrases and general feedback and guidance. I call this "coaching from the back of the room".

But you don't coach a team, you coach individuals - and each individual will require something different.

If your gig is to work with one person, then you will need to understand that person, and get to know those around them and those who they work with too. But your focus is on the individual.

If your gig is to coach a team, you must get to know each individual in the team - and work out what coaching each of them requires.

This is where the sports coaching approach works so well.

A sports coach, a good one anyway, does not coach the team as whole all the time. Maybe there are some drills, some team work, some games together.

A good coach studies the team working as a whole and identifies the areas for improvement in each person, relative to their role and place in the team.

They focus on individuals and what each of them needs to make the whole team better.

Some people may need their core skills sharpening, others may need some communication coaching, others may need some team-work coaching, others still may need some understanding of the business context.

You coach individuals, who all come together to form a team.

A good way to look at this is to realise that "team" is merely a collective noun for a group of people coming together to achieve some outcome.

Teams don't exist. People do. Focus on them. They will likely require different coaching.

Be nice. Be humble. Be clear. Be confident. Listen.

Of course, it goes without saying that people will resonate more with a coach if the coach is humble and open to learning too.

It pays to be a nice person of course. But nice does not mean a push over - your job is to guide, give feedback, observe, critique and provide direction when needed - all without being resented for it.

A good coach is crystal clear in their communication and takes the time to listen.

A good coach should also possess internal confidence in their skills, ability, thoughts and ideas. You will get push back. You will get disagreements. You will have to back down sometimes. You will need confidence and a thick skin.

Don't coach on something you're not experienced in

I have no qualms in making it clear to clients what I am not good at and what I cannot help them with.

This is important. Many a coach makes the mistake of assuming they have the experience in one thing, and that same experience can be applied to something else. It may work. They may be right.

But remember, you are a cost.

You owe it to the business you are working with to deliver value, not best guesses, not good wishes, not best intent and not potential theories. If you do this and it pays off, you've been a success but it was a gamble.

It's risky and you should be clear up front about your abilities and your limits.

They may choose to go on the journey with you - and embrace the learning together. That could be good for both of you.

Or, I prefer to make it very clear what I don't do and where my limits are. I double down on my strengths and focus on what I can do. Let some other coach work on the bits I can't do. You don't need to have all of the answers.

Not everyone can be coached by you

There will be times where you simply cannot coach someone, even though you have the skills, abilities and competency. Sometimes, people just don't resonate and it could be that a different coach is better suited.

There is no shame in this at all.

Sometimes though, someone is simply not coachable. They are too resistant to feedback, insights or change. They may "believe" they are already awesome. They may not acknowledge that they could grow. They may be happy with the way they are. This can happen.

Final thoughts

You could spend forever in the weeds of coaching approaches, styles and certifications.

Trust me though, I have worked with coaches who are guru master level coaches with every certificate under the sun, who couldn't generate better business results and an improvement in behaviours in their clients. It's very common.

The best coaches are those who do all of the above with humility and kindness and confidence. And of course, appreciation that you're in a lucky position to be able to help people.

And remember, coaching should be about improving outcomes for the person you are coaching. You are a cost after all. But a cost that can unleash huge realms of value when coaching is done correctly.

If you'd like me to help you or your business through my own coaching service, or you'd like some fun and insightful training, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

Hey,

I hope you are well.

In this weeks newsletter: How to structure company communications using The Sunday Newspaper approach. And why this approach avoids the common mistake of assuming a broad audience is a generic audience.

👉 I skipped last week's newsletter as it was a Holiday here in the UK, and I spent a lovely weekend cooking a pleasant, if not stressful, family meal for 14 people!

Cultivated Updates

• I have retired the Communication Workshop from LeanPub, but fear not, a new, revamped and updated online version of my award-winning workshop is now available in a snazzy PDF workbook and worksheet.
• After spending about two-years at the top slot on LeanPub's courses, I thought it time to refresh the content, but also choose another, simpler, way to deliver the valuable content.
• As such, it is now available as a 162 page PDF workbooks with clever cheat sheet and worksheets for you to complete.
  • I have refreshed the content and added more scientific references.
  • I have structured it around an inductive learning approach, like the in-person workshop, which essentially means we start with simple and work outwards.
  • I have added a new section on first impressions, and significantly expanded the writing module with - PAVCC model; Purpose, Audience, Value, Context, Content (more on this later).
  • I have expanded the guidance on non-verbal communication, added some "animal" communication information and built a whole new cheat sheet to summarise the content.
  • I've also lowered the price significantly!
  • You can find it here.
• Long time readers, and purchasers of products, will know that the publishing arm of Cultivated Management is called Creative Soul Projects. That's also the name of the YouTube channel.
  • All new products, that are not about management, will be published under this brand name.
  • The reason for this is simple; most of my work is not directly related to managers at all - it's for everyone. When I post, publish or advertise, people are put off by the word management. Rightly so. They assume it's not for them (if they're not a manager) and it sounds boring.
  • Each book and course references both brands in the introduction, and it's the same great content

Communicating to diverse audiences using the Sunday Broadsheet approach

In every organisation, there is a need to communicate to a diverse audience.

For example, let's say a company is doing a large change and re-organisation program.

This activity require crystal clear communication that is impactful, targeted and effective.

In this example of a large-scale change programme, there is a need to explain what people are "changing" towards (people, roles, process, ways of working, outcomes, organisation).

As a manager, leader or someone running a significant project like this, there is an essential need to communicate effectively. Even smaller programmes of work require effective communication.

In this example, you're communicating to a wide audience, typically entire departments, or even the whole company.

A common mistake people make is to assume that this wide audience is a generic audience.

Hence, communication becomes more about a drive for efficient communication to a generic audience, rather than tailored and specific to a diverse audience.

A broad audience is not a generic audience, it is a diverse audience.

A broad audience is a diverse audience, and this diverse audience will need specific information relevant to their role, sub-group and what they need to know about the topic at hand.

To treat a broad audience as a generic audience is to fail before you've even started.

Long time readers will know I refer to all communication having a Purpose, an Audience and happening in a Context.

When communicating to a diverse audience though, it's important to expand on this guidance.

In the new online comms workshop I expand PAC and it becomes PAVCC - Purpose, Audience, Value, Context, Content.

We'll cover more on this in a minute.

Sunday Broadsheet

When communicating to a diverse audience, the idea of a broadsheet Sunday newspaper brings in PAVCC, and allows you to communicate to diverse audiences effectively.

This is an idea that might be worth playing with.

In the UK, Sunday Broadsheet newspapers are massive. I should know, I used to deliver them on my paper-round as a kid.

They are often 3 or 4 times to size of the regular weekly paper because they contain supplements. And it is this idea of supplements that can help you reach a diverse audience using PAVCC principles.

Readers of a Sunday newspaper get value from the overall package of the paper, even though they may not read every part of it.

I personally throw away the sports section. I devour the culture and food supplements, and I cherry pick my way through the main newspaper. I'm also partial to reading the somewhat irrelevant TV guide too. The entertainment supplements are good fun but the financial ones go straight in recycling.

I am part of a diverse audience. I seek out what I want, I peruse some of the other parts, and don't bother with some parts of the overall newspaper package.

This is the same idea when communicating to diverse audiences in work, especially in Enterprise organisations or large companies.

The idea is simple.

Identify the core purpose and audience of the main package, the newspaper. Identify audiences that would resonate with supplementary information, and create specific artefacts (supplements) for communicating to them.

It's simple but it's rarely done.

Many leaders and managers go for efficiency over effectiveness and try to weave everything into a single artefact like a powerpoint, or an overwhelming playbook or wiki, never quite achieving their purpose.

When this happens, there's no clear purpose, there's no obvious audience (which makes it hard to both write and read), there is no immediate value for anyone (so people stop reading), the context of the experience is lacking and the content is confusing and jumbled, and some of it, irrelevant.

And there you have PAVCC - Purpose, Audience, Value, Context, Content.

Each part of your communication to a diverse audience (teams, roles, departments, levels in the org, geographic regions) must have:

• A clear purpose (what are you trying to achieve?)
• For a clear audience (remember, a broad audience is not a generic audience)
• There must be some value for the diverse audience (otherwise they won't read it)
• The communication happens in a context that must be appreciated when creating it (like times of trouble, or significant personal worry, or growth)
• The content must be relevant, insightful and useful - and in many cases persuasive.

When you break down the your communication using PAVCC - Purpose, Audience, Value, Context, Content and the Broadsheet supplements approach, you stand a much greater chance of resonating with your audiences, and enabling them to find the right information they need to solve their problems or meet their needs.

A good test of your communication artefacts is to put yourself in the shoes of the audience, and ask "so what?" about your content.

Why should I care?

Avoid sending single artefacts for a broad diverse audience, you'll likely fail to achieve your purpose.

I cover all of this, and more, in the new comms workshop guide, but suffice to say, knowing what you audiences want, how they communicate, what gaps they have in knowledge and how you can solve their problems is crucial.

A broadsheet Sunday newspaper does not talk about food, sports, finance and lifestyle on every other page of the main newspaper, mixed with the international news, business insights and political stance.

They separate suitable content out, for different audience's, different needs, and with different goals.

PAVCC

Purpose - what are you trying to achieve (information awareness, persuade people to do something differently, advocate for them getting on board with change, helping them "see" the future, alleviating their fears etc)?

Audience - who are you aiming to reach and affect? What community are they part of? What is important to this community and audience?

Value - What problems do they have and how are you helping them? Why should they read on? Has your content passed the "so what" test?

Context - In what context are you communicating? Is it a time of positive change? Are people worried? What kinds of fears will they have? Create your content accordingly.

Content - Have you created sufficient separation between topics, or audience, or needs? Should you split out organisational change from process changes? Have you covered the legal aspects around a consultation in a separate artefact to one about ways of working improvements?

People will read what interests them

A broadsheet newspaper separates out different topics into supplements, allowing people to find the information they desire.

There is no blurring of supplements to be "efficient".

It is clear what each supplement is about, and those that are interested jump to the right one, discarding what is not valuable to them. They don't wade through irrelevant, non-value add content to find what they are after.

People will generally read any number of words about something they are interested in, especially if its solving a problem for them.

The trick though is getting them to read it in the first place.

Don't make them wade through treacle to find what they need, the chances are they won't.

Try not to make your job easier and more efficient at the expense of the reader.

Your goal with communication is have the audience understand, and act, on what you write (or say, or communicate in a video).

If they can't find the right information then you've missed an opportunity. If you bury the information that is relevant to them, in a sea of other irrelevant (non-valuable content), the chances are they won't even read it.

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

Hey, 

I hope you are doing well and looking forward to the week ahead. 

I’ve been quiet on social media and the blog as I’ve been working a lot, and also trying to launch a fun little project with my sons (well, two of them). We've been building the foundations this last week!

My eldest is looking to study advertising and marketing at University and my youngest (11) is an entrepreneur at heart (always looking for new business ideas (and making money)). My middle kid….well, he’s not sure what he wants to do just yet. 

After realising (sadly) that my youngest’s Lemonade stand business would require a permit and health certification, he asked if he could join me and my eldest with our project. 

As such, the three of us are embarking on a creative (and business) adventure. My eldest is looking to own the marketing and advertising, whilst my youngest has taken on the self nominated label of “Creative Director”. 

I'm not sure what role he thinks he will be playing but we'll all just get stuck in to build it up. Last night he was designing t-shirts..... not sure how many people will buy a t-shirt with the words "my big brother is a poo" written on it...but you never know.

I’ll share more next week on what the project is, where to find it and how to follow along (if you’re interested). It should be fun, we’ll aim to actually make some money, and it will be a great lesson in running an internet business, marketing products, finding an audience and creating value. 

They want to learn through doing the work itself and proximity to me, rather than just reading some books.

And that leads me on to today’s newsletter topic which is proximity. 

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Side Hustle Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Proximity

In our world of work we have no shortage of training.

When I first started out in work, I had limited access to online training, the internet was pretty new still and we had to fight REALLY hard just to get some training within the company. 

Things have changed for the better but I’m not convinced the results are where they need to be.

We have a plethora (you know I love that word) of training. I’ve worked in companies where people can take unlimited training and certification courses. 

I work with people everyday who have WAY more qualifications than I do. In a straight CV comparison on training and certifications alone, they would be head and shoulders above me for sure. 

However, to paraphrase Neil Gamen, there are plenty of qualified people who don’t know what they’re doing. 

There is often a significant gap between knowing and doing.

Being able to do the work is way more powerful than knowing how to do it, but not doing it. 

Proximity to good people is the key to knowing how to do great work (that, and doing the work itself). Proximity to people who are great at what they do is far more effective than a lesson. 

Watching someone who is an expert in what they do, is more powerful than reading a book about how to do the work.

No lessons or certifications are needed to study an expert. 

What they do, what they say, how they say it, the way they carry themselves and the work they create are all behaviours. And, if we’re astute, we can see these behaviours in actions.

We can copy, mimic, study, observe and weave in what we see into our own behaviours. To do this we need proximity - we need to be with them or near them. 

The best way to become a great manager is to be close to a great manager.

Ideally they’ll be your boss. They will expect high standards from you but be kind when you don’t always meet them. They will exhibit a high bar of behaviours. They will provide hope and clarity and a future worth chasing. They will give you feedback to help you grow. They will demonstrate, through their very fabric of being them, what it means to be a good manager. 

Good communicators, leaders, creators, artists, carpenters, negotiators, coders - they’re all available as a model, as a yardstick to measure up to. We just need to be near them. 

This doesn’t just mean physically near. We can learn from seeing them in video, or watching talks they do. 

Jim Rohn said that we are the average of the people we hang around with. That’s true. It’s also true in work. 

Try to surround yourself with excellent role models, people with strong characters and people who you admire. Try to work with people who are excellent at what they do. Find people who are a joy to work with and are visibly passionate about their work. 

We can’t always do this - we’re sometimes surrounded by people we don’t enjoy working with - and don’t want to become. But where else could you look?

Communities are everywhere and they are packed with great role models. Conferences are a good shout too. There is always someone, somewhere, in a workplace who is to be admired and emulated. 

When you have proximity to good people, study them, observe them, watch what they do. It's often in the fine details that you understand why they are good at what they do.

Apply an astute eye for observation on your part.

If you do this you'll find way more value in simply observing and deconstructing someone's behaviours, than any lesson or course can teach. I've written about why nothing worth knowing can be taught.

Sure, we sometimes must get certified, but don’t let that replace being close to someone who is an expert. 

On the job training is invaluable, surrounding yourself with high quality people is essential and shifting your own behaviours based on what you see from these people, is the path to becoming better at what you do. 

Proximity beats a lesson anytime. 

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

Hi,

I hope you are safe and well. Things are hectic as always here at Lambert Towers. I'm busy revamping the Communication Workshop content and turning it into a much more digestible format.

I also still need to finalise a few drawings for the Workshop Mastery book and then it will be published.

And I'm busy working on a little side project which should be a lot of fun. More on that in the next few weeks.

This week I'd like to explore why you only have ONE priority and how to use the HALT acronym for better thinking, communication and wellbeing.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Priority Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

** One Priority

In my line of work, I often work with Leaders who have 17 top priorities. Or they have 5 and all of them are the TOP priority.

We likely have this same challenge in our own work and lives; multiple competing priorities.

But we're wrong.

We only have one priority.

The word "priority" historically means to rank, to find a single item, a first. In Latin, and some languages still today, priority is a singular, to have a 1st, to have one.

And yet, in our lives, and work, we insist on having multiple priorities. But if everything is a priority, then technically nothing is a priority.

When I work with leaders and managers, I ask them to list out all of their priorities. We then "force rank" them in order of importance (or priority!).

1 to 10. Or 1 to 17 in one case.

Which initiative or piece of work is Number 1? Which is Number 2? and on.

It's insanely hard for people to do - even harder for teams to do this without steer and guidance from leadership.

With forced ranking, there can only be one top priority.

After a few hours of arguments and tears, we eventually get a list. Maybe not everyone agrees. They don't have to. But we have a list.

Now we need to focus almost all of our effort on the top priority. Sure, we may need to keep other things moving a little. We can't neglect the wide array of work that falls under the responsibilities of leadership. But we throw as much at the top priority as we can. We get it done.

It's better to have one thing done (that is our top priority) than 9 things partially started.

Once we've done the top one - we move to the next. It's logical to assume that what was priority Number 2 is now priority Number 1.

The same is true in our own lives. We only have one priority. We may feel like we have 3 or 4 but when we think like that, we scatter ourselves around.

Using the pillars of life we may find that the priority shifts and changes over time. I know it does for me, but not until I've completed the work needed for the top priority.

My top priority right now is my health. It has to be. It's dwindled and slipped in the pursuit of a career, then a family, then the grind of work. Without my health I am a shadow of myself in all aspects of life.

I may have 20 things on my goals list - but they are all a side project and lower priority, when ranked against health.

What's your priority? And are you focusing on it? Is it at the top of your to do list?

** Quote - Small Companies

“It’s good to be in a smaller company early because there’s less of an infrastructure to prevent early promotion”

-- The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson

** HALT

"HALT" is a wonderful acronym to consider when communicating, doing high priority work and for looking at your wellbeing.

H is for Hungry

A is for Angry

L is for Lonely

T is for Tired

In the newly revamped Comms Superpower Course, I use this acronym as a guide for thinking about how effective your communication skills will be.

• Will that talk go well if I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired?
• Will I listen well if I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired?
• Should I send this email if I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired?

And if I feel lonely and tired all the time, should my highest priority be my health and wellbeing? Probably yes.

Hunger is easy to fix. Anger may take time to control, or maybe life is hard at the moment. Loneliness is not always so easy to fix. Tired may indicate the need for a break.

But I can guarantee that making decisions, communicating, creative work, family time and general high priority work are all much harder when any of the HALT elements are present.

One trick that seems to work for me when I am faced with HALT, is simply getting out into nature, or pottering on low value and low mental bandwidth work.

Alternatively, if you don't have time to take a break (like you're about to go into a high pressure meeting), consider some box breathing, meditation or watching a funny video. Even smiling insanely to yourself can delay the effect of HALT. And of course, hunger is the easiest to solve, so maybe grab a healthy snack.

** Quote - Critical Thinking

"We must integrate three dimensions of thought. We must be idealistic (and thus capable of imagining a better world). We must be realistic (and thus see things as they are). And we must be pragmatic (and thus adopt effective measures for moving toward our ideals)."

-- Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life - Richard W. Paul and Linda Elder

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

Hi,

I hope you are safe and well.

This week has been crazy busy with work and life. I haven't had any time for new posts to Cultivated but I have done a lot of work behind the scenes on a revamp of the Communication Superpower Course. I've also added some graphics to the Workshop Mastery book.

I've also been fettling with my writing tools a little. I've taken the plunge on a new tool called Lattics, which was cheap at £21 for the year. It has no IOS app though and who knows how long it will last, but it's proven very good so far.

This week's newsletter has a creative vibe.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Utility Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Meeting Notes

** Stuff that costs a lot of money

I was watching the very brilliant Rory Sutherland from Ogilvy do a talk about creativity. It resonated deeply with me, in that creativity is lacking in business.

This is mostly because:

• There are risks when we're creative, so people do less of it.
• There is no upfront guarantee nor detailed return on investment (so projects or experiments rarely get signed off)
• The accountants tend to run the business. With risk and no upfront guarantee of a pay off, most ideas and projects don't get a green light).

He presented a slide that I found quite funny and enlightening which I have recreated here.

It shows stuff that has big effect and stuff that costs a lot of money.

I found it funny because consultancy is in the low effect / high cost region....and that's what I do. Strategy is essential but it's costly. Trivia is worth nothing and it's cheap.

But down there on the bottom right is the ministry of detail. A collection of people, or a person, who looks at the problems and details - and solves them with creativity. They have a tiny budget and a lot of power.

This is how I like to run teams (and my consultancy approach too).

Apply some constraints (i.e. no money) and define a problem clearly, then bring together people to come up with creative answers. Then provide air-cover to run these experiments. It's certainly my experience that these kinds of experiments have huge effect.

** Time spent at work (quote)

This is a depressing attitude, because in the end we spend a substantial part of our waking life at work. If we experience this time as something to get through on the way to real pleasure, then our hours at work represent a tragic waste of the short time we have to live.

Mastery by Robert Greene

** Shorten feedback loops

I've been pondering the utility of theories. A theory is only good if it helps us in some way.

One of the most interesting aspects of consulting is that I am selling theories. I am selling theories with utility.

However, the burden of proof regarding a theory should sit with those who propose it, i.e. "me".

Hence, I always look for ways to put a theory to the ultimate test - creating value quickly. Remember, value is only ever created outside of the organisation - so I am always looking for ways to put my theory to the ultimate test - generating value for customers and increasing the value of the business.

How could you do that with any theory you propose? How could you carry the burden for the proof of your theory? And how could you quickly, and methodically, put your theory to the ultimate test; to create value outside of the organisation?

** Recruiting change agents

I'm not sure I like the word change agent, but I'm sure you know what I mean when I use that term.

A change agent is someone who affects change in a business.

You may recall a video and post I did on moving people into action by encouraging people to get out of the car, and help me pull it towards a bright future. In the video this car was my little Mazda MX5 - it doesn't hold many people but you get the idea.

You're at the front pulling towards your painted picture.

People are at the back, pulling in the opposite direction, and making it hard. Most people are in the car, making it hard for people pulling in either direction.

Through inspiration, positivity, enhanced responsibilities, clear accountabilities and the like, you're trying to get people out of the car to join you.

Eventually, you have so many people pulling towards the painted picture that change is rapid and momentum is free flowing.

It's a wonderful thing to see, if not a little tricky to make happen. (The key is effective communication skills, but you knew I'd say that).

I'd like to add one more element to this idea though - one that is probably more powerful than I appreciated at the time of writing that post. That is, I forgot to mention the "recruit" method.

In a nutshell, for every person you get out of the car to join you at the front, you ask them to also recruit two more people. And so on.

Each person you get out of the car, brings with them two extra people. They too bring two extra people each. As more people join you, you get a massive increase of people.

We're all influencers, and that's the underlying principle of this approach. You get growth as more people join, who recruit more people, who recruit even more people.

The major challenge you face with this approach though, is organising and orchestrating this groundswell of people. This requires delegation and of course, repeating the painted picture story to provide clarity and alignment.

You must be laser focused, keep inspiring people with your goals and keep repeating how freaking awesome the future will be, and how amazing the journey will become.

** Shifting behaviours (quote)

We wrongly but persistently expect to make different decisions tomorrow than we do today.

Maximum Willpower by Kelly McGonigal

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob.

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. Happy Monday and welcome to this week’s Meeting Notes. I was incredibly busy last week sorting out the tech stack and platforms I use for my business.

I let things get out of control and ended up with WAY too many tools to get stuff done.

I like to experiment and try new writing and knowledge management tools, but ultimately end up confusing myself with information all over the place. There’s a lesson there somewhere. So, I'm simplifying.

Anyhow, this week’s newsletter has a learning vibe to it. Let's go.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Happiness Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and creating a bright future of work. Let's work together.

The Learning Pyramid

Found this wonderful model that really sums up my own experience, insights and knowledge about learning.

The pyramid shows the effectiveness percentage of each learning approach or method. And yes, I know my horizontal lines in the triangle are wonky.

Sure, it's likely not scientific but it does articulate the power of learning in different ways.

Of course, many of these approaches will blend and morph into each other too, overlapping, complimenting and supporting as a hybrid learning approach.

This ties directly with the two learning approaches I use in work and life. It also reinforces my strong belief that on-the-job training is essential. Also leisure time spent in discussion is a powerful way to learn too.

Interestingly, I found this pyramid after I'd finished the first draft of my new Workshop Mastery book, coming out very soon. I cover much of this in the guide - especially why teaching others is the most powerful way to learn your subject more deeply.

**

KPIs, confusion and blending of measures and metrics

One of the perennial challenges many people face in work is measures and metrics. There's confusing terminology about OKRs, KPIs, Management Objectives blah blah blah.

We're the masters at confusing ourselves in work. We also often only associate certain labels with certain activities. It's not uncommon to find people using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for products and platforms but not for people or money.

Anyhow, I try, where possible, to help clients simplify this. All measures and metrics can be classed as KPIs. And, be cautious as qualitative (i.e. not numbers) are perfectly good measures too.

Key Performance Indicators are merely metrics and measures that matter. They give us insight into making the business better. They help us make decisions. They help us track we're doing the right things. Anything could be a KPI.

I tend to bucket them into four categories (and yes, most people miss people when they do this sort of activity):

1. Value and Cost.
   1. Value is created outside of the business. Always. So, you'll need some way of measuring external value being created.
   2. Sales, customers, Revenue etc
   3. Costs are everything inside the business. Cost of production are all of the costs associated with creating value. Let's hope it's less than the value generated.
   4. Track these over time - trends matter.
2. Products and Services.
   1. You're likely building and selling something, so measure how "good" that thing is.
   2. Reliability, availability, ease of use, scale, mean time to recover, ratings etc
   3. Track these over time - trends matter.
3. People.
   1. People are the engine of success, yet SO many people forget to measure anything to do with cultivating a workplace that enriches the lives of all who work in it.
   2. Track qualitative team spirit and morale.
   3. Track time to hire, retention, performance, growth, abilities.
   4. Track these over time - trends matter.
4. Delivery.
   1. Most people focus here and conflate these numbers with 1 and 2 above.
   2. Delivery numbers are essentially project management numbers.
   3. How quickly and smoothly are you delivering value?
   4. How effective is the process? Are you on time? Are there delays?
   5. Cycle Time is a powerful measure here.
   6. Track these over time - trends matter.

None of these should be used for control. Instead, the test of a good measure is that is provides insights that help you make the business better and make decisions. If it doesn't do this, it's waste. There's a cost to creating measures and metrics; definition, creation, tracking, storing, reporting, cleansing.

Just because we can "measure" everything, doesn't mean we should.

And yes, trends are very important.

**

Friendly reminder:

"In thinking about such comparisons, of course, remember that happiness is not a competition. Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others."

Authentic Happiness - Martin Seligman

You are not your job

I was riffling through my old YouTube notebook when I discovered these notes about you not being your job.

Although I didn't end up making this video, it did heavily influence my book Take A Day Off (which is available as a digital download now!).

The essence is that we have skills and competencies in work, and we also have them out of work. We are not our job.

**

The essence of business improvement

We often overcomplicate our business worlds with initiatives, governance, theories and methodologies, without questioning whether they have utility (as in, do they work?) and whether they ultimately bring more value to customers.

Whenever you are faced with new initiatives ask whether it's helping you get better at delivering value, or whether it's waste.

It's worth remembering what Taichi Ono said about Toyota:

"All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value-added wastes. (Ohno, 1988)"

The Toyota Way - Jeffrey Liker

Learners must use what they learn in context

As I draw to the close of my new Workshop Mastery book, I must admit I'm very happy with it. I know it will help anyone looking to run workshops and teach others. It's been a joy to write also.

One of the challenges with writing a book packed full of useful guidance is that I don't get to see people put it into practice. I hear from students of the Superpower Communication Workshop and reader of Zero To Keynote, who are using what I share - and that's super joyful, but I rarely get to see it.

With all of my courses and books, I always make it clear that readers and students must put information into action to create knowledge. Information alone is helpful but it's incomplete.

I was speaking with someone the other day who wanted to create a plethora of training courses for her team, so I suggested she does that but ensures three things happen:

1. There is a really clear outcome/goal known to the student (shift in behaviour, new skill)
2. The student must put into action what they are learning in the workplace itself, around real work
3. The workplace context must be adapted to aid the learner (as in, everyone in work must be aware someone is learning something new - ideally someone will support with on-the-job training)

You may recognise this as the Activity Model of learning.

Remember the pyramid above - one of the best ways to learn how to be better in work is to learn in the work itself - by doing it - task acquisition. There's a place for classroom learning, but what is to be learned must be practiced in the work itself.

And then of course, teach others.

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. Life is good here at Lambert Towers. The kids are doing well, the weather is starting to brighten up and spring is creeping in. I know I said I wouldn't mention the weather but I am British after all.

The Workshop Mastery book is nearly done!

It's had several reviews and I'm just prepping some support material such as workshop plans and optimal seating diagrams.

I think I will be publishing it on Amazon but I'm also pondering whether to move all of my products to Shopify, and host it there (let me know if you have any thoughts on this).

This week I posted three articles on the site:

• Building a learning culture
• Wicked problems and how interdisciplinary teams are the key to solving them
• The importance of developing public speaking skills

I'm also still adding to the Releasing Agility scrapbook.

Onwards!

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Demonstrations Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and creating a bright future of work. 

Meeting Notes - some ideas to play with

**

Demonstrations

If you’re in the world of change (which all of us are), it’s much better to provide a good example, than an excellent description.

It’s better to show people what good looks like, than tell them.

It’s better to quietly go ahead with positive change and improvements, than it is to fight over theories, words and concepts with others. It’s much better to make change, than to document a future in beautiful diagrams, plans and charts. 

At the end of the day, it’s better to look at change that is working, shine a light on it, point people to good examples, deconstruct the guiding principles, inspire and enthuse others through this demonstration - and let people emulate, drive and aspire to move into action.

Quietly go about making things better, provide a (good) demonstration and let other people see why it works. Or, spend months creating excellent descriptions of the change (and future) and hope that moves people into action.

**

You have now what you wanted

Overheard on a diary of a ceo video:

"What you have today is likely something you wanted in the past"

Another reason to express gratitude.

**

If you think someone has ruined your life, you’re right. It’s you.

The inspiration for my opening story for the How To Thrive In Your Career keynote (a funny but sad story too), is about Mr Freaking Furious.

I didn’t actually catch his real name but he pinned me against a wall at a conference (not literally), and spouted hatred and venom about work, life, the industry, me, his peers, his friends, his community. He hated everything and everyone. 

I swore never to become like Mr Freaking Furious - that's the premise of the talk (and video).

As I get older I’ve realised an important lesson.

It’s up to me to go after what I want, it’s up to me how I let people make me feel, it’s up to me to tell a story about events in my own life (good or bad), it’s up to me to choose to look at the good in life and it’s up to me to focus on what I can (and cannot) control.

And so, when I heard this quote on a YouTube video (butchering a Friedrich Nietzsche quote), I kind of felt I may be on to something. 

If you think someone has ruined your life, you’re right. It’s you.

**

You have time and you have focus - how are you going to apply it?

One of the most frustrating aspects of doing any kind of strategy or change work with leaders (who aren’t sure what they’re doing), is the utter belief they hold that things should happen immediately, or at a certain point in time.

Change programmes that assume on 15th September we will all operate in a new way, the old way will cease to exist, and results will flow. 

Strategy, that clearly outlines the problems to be overcome, but leaders want the problems solved tomorrow. (Solving wicked problems doesn't work that way.)

The reality is, unless the company has literally no money, there is time. Time to focus, to move ahead, to do work, to discover new insights, to creatively solve problems. 

We have time. We just need to choose where to focus that time (and not expect immediate results).

**

No solutions only trade offs

I was building some “decision making” workflows when I had a sudden realisation (I don’t get many of these), that there are no perfect solutions to problems; only trade-offs. 

And so, I wonder whether this is why organisations avoid solving wicked problems and let them fester unmanaged. Maybe it’s because there's actually no single solution, only a series of trade-offs. 

What do you think?

Have you ever found a perfect solution to a problem that required no trade-offs around cost, money, people, work, structure or anything else?

This is why the pros and cons list (albeit old school) works so well.

There are always downsides to a solution, the trick is working out what you’re willing to “trade-off” and what you’re not.

**

Affective and Cognitive Learning

Nurturing a passion for learning is more beneficial in the long-term, than simply providing a lot of training. By the way, I wrote about that subject this week — how to build a learning culture.

It comes down to the two components of learning (which are covered in depth in the new Workshop Mastery eBook). 

The first component is affective learning, which is to do with feelings.

If we enjoy a subject we will be more effective at studying it. Positive feelings about a subject, stirred in a student by a good teacher, can inspire richer learning. Affective learning is also the feelings we get as we gain more competency. 

The second component is cognitive learning. This is to do with our thinking, knowledge and growth in behaviours (as we put into action that which we learn). 

If we’re sent on a training course we don’t want to be on, or the teacher of a workshop is dull and boring, or the subject has very little interest, it’s fair to say that we’re unlikely to thrive in, nor relish, that learning opportunity.

We’re also unlikely to develop our cognitive growth and comprehension at a good pace if we have little interest in the subject at hand. 

However, if our learning is self directed, and we find an enjoyable teacher (or learning resource), then we’ll be more inclined to find deep space to study, and our cognitive growth will be more rapid (as we enjoy the art of learning). 

In my new system, I cover this from a “teacher's” perspective centred around a rallying call to avoid dullness at all costs, be enthusiastic about your subject and to teach with absolute clarity.

And of course, if we are teaching a subject, it helps to understand that subject from all sides and angles.

**

AI Managers

I was pinged the other day for an opinion piece about AI taking over the role of management. I chose not to write the opinion piece because (in my mind) this mantra from IBM in the 1970s is still valid today:

As a computer cannot be held accountable for a decision, it should therefore never be able to make a management decision. 

The decisions we make as leaders and managers have consequences; hire this person, deal with this low performance, invest money in this initiative, move the organisation this way (or that), work in this way, or that.

They all have consequences.

Consequences should be owned by those who make the decisions. If they are not, the decisions will likely be bad, have no repercussions for those who make them and are merely a way of passing the burden.

As computers cannot be held accountable (at least for now) they should not be making decisions that could have big consequences. 

Of course, there will be leaders who remove decision makers and replace them with AI….but good luck with that. I for one, as a leader and manager, wish to stay out of the legal courts.

**

Support Cultivated Management

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It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..