Lawless Thinking brings you insights, tools and encouragement direct from my world of bold C-suite strategy delivery.

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Thought of the Week

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when it is clearly Ocean.”

Arthur C. Clarke

TL;DR

• There is a point at which trying harder makes progress slower. A new key must be found. But letting go of the illusion of safety is hard.

• If you are leading speed at scale: what old approach do you need to let go of? What can you no longer monitor and control? What error rate can/must you and the business tolerate and how will you manage that emotionally and structurally?

• The DARE Loop invites constant iteration and reflection on how to change thinking and behaviour to deliver the Result: faster.

• As you read this, I am running the London Marathon for Together for Short Lives — undertrained, the wrong shape, and without a plan for what happens after mile 20.

The Barrier That Effort Built

-50m was the limit of the ‘old way’ and I could not get deeper for weeks. I showed up, ‘tried harder’ and applied everything that had worked for me so far in my life: drive, discipline, will, the accumulated force of not accepting no.

But I stayed at -50 metres. Below me, a white line descended into the black, impossible, slightly terrifying, abyss of my target: -101m. 

The DARE Loop requires constant Evaluation of the Decisions and Actions taken and of the Results they have achieved. Followed by a Loop of iterations: try again.

“Fail better”, as Samuel Beckett wrote. “Solve it from a different consciousness to the one that created it” to misquote Albert.

So, counterintuitively, I stopped pushing harder. Instead, I looped faster and tried new ways through. 

I eventually trusted music. My constant friend in all troubles. An ancient Sanskrit mantra I discovered in a kundalini yoga studio in Camden, sung by Deva Premal: ‘Aad Guray Nameh’, got me past -50 metres and unlocked a new physical and mental state which was the key to -101m.

Leading for Execution at Speed and Scale

High performance isn’t pedalling faster (you are at max RPM, right?). High performance is changing gears: moving to the next level.

On my bike, I can push a button to change gears.

But for an exec team, running a complex business at the max, changing gears means letting go of many of the behaviours that got you there and then trying out a new approach that is, hopefully, appropriate for the task ahead.

It’s a leap of faith and it is extremely emotionally challenging.

You have massive influence as a leader. But you cannot change human nature. Like the ocean, you have to work with it.

Speed means giving others the safety, belief, power and purpose to move faster than feels safe to them.

You cannot do this by getting more into the weeds with them and managing their work. By controlling. By ‘mastering the brief’.

You will need to find a new way through: at the very time that the stakes are rising, at the very moment you want to ‘grab the wheel’ and bark orders.

This involves preparation and care, planning and communication. But then it always requires a leap. And some errors.

Earth or Ocean?

I was optimised for hard work and control. But the ocean does not grade on effort and has no concept of control. I had to operate on her terms.

Shareholders don’t grade on effort either. But more importantly: nor does the living, breathing and often fearful organism that you are leading beyond its historic limits.

The organisation grades on purpose and safety to try, on a solid skills base, on clear decision making architecture, on leadership consistency and support, and on culture. In short: on emotion.

Mile 20: Today’s sticking point

As you read this on Sunday morning, I am running the London Marathon. If you have the app you can track me!

I am running for Together for Short Lives. A charity supporting babies and children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families.

It’s a charity I have supported since my own family’s experience of a seriously ill child (who made a full recovery). They support people facing and managing the thing I fear the most in life.

And I am running for my friend Danny Bouckley, and for his son Michael who is living his life whilst undergoing treatment for cancer, and for their lovely family.

I am not a marathon runner. I am the wrong shape. I started running very late in life. But worse, I’ve really struggled to prioritise the training with my family and client commitments!  I have not run beyond 30 kilometres. I do not know what happens to me after mile 20, because I have never been there. I will have to trust in finding another gear.

But I will find a way to put one foot in front of another for them. Perhaps music will help.

Could you find a moment (and perhaps £20?) to support families who are in terrible pain this morning?

PLEASE SUPPORT MY MARATHON FOR TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES HERE

My Fortnight

I have largely been engaged on confidential boardroom advisory work in the defence sector this fortnight which has been extremely successful and very stimulating.

I also had a very successful trip to work in Alicante, Spain and ventured to London to Zoom HQ for a live, and fascinating, ‘fireside chat’ with Benedetto Conversano. Benedetto is the executive advisor to Zoom’s EMEA Customer Council, to whom our chat on ‘Structural Velocity’ was broadcast: via Zoom!

Book of the Fortnight

The book of the week is a mantra for change. I am not religious, so I will not call it a prayer. Of course, you may choose to if you wish.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

The courage to change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference.

What do you have to accept that you cannot change? What are the limits of your powers? Can you find the courage to change the things you can?

Write Your Story 🖋️

Jim

Sponsor my London Marathon run for Together for Short Lives