What will you work on today? It’s such an important question. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, if you let the flow of events determine the work, you’ll never truly do the work that is yours to do. You’ll be spinning, caught in a loop of inefficiency, where the only consolation (or self-defense) is that you were busy. But the organization needs something from you that has nothing to do with busyness. It needs you to make a contribution, Drucker says. It needs you to decide how you will use your time.
Here’s one example: Removing barriers to your team’s success is a meaningful contribution. You might get resources for your team — people and technology. Or streamline decision-making. Or eliminate the expectation of tasks that add no value but happen to be the accepted measure of productivity, or busyness.
Perhaps the best example — because it might be most impactful — is to call your team to an experiment: a test case, a pilot, a pop-up. Why is this a significant contribution?
Two reasons: First, the experiment removes not just organizational but psychological barriers. Think of all the hesitations that block truly creative work: Is this what the leader (or customer) wants? Do we have permission? What if we fail? The experiment breaks through.
Second, the experiment advances the work. No longer is the conversation in the abstract, i.e. “What happens if …?” The team now reflects on an actual experience. What did we learn? What did we notice about ourselves (or our customers)? What does this say about our capabilities, and what might we do next?
There’s actually a third reason why the experiment is so meaningful. Things are in flux right now. Uncertainty is our situation. You might be inclined to put things on hold, wait it out, see what happens, before making any decisions. And you might call your caution leadership. But now you’re back to allowing the flow of events to dictate what you do. The experiment, in contrast, is a path of your choosing. It’s a step into the flux, and your presence here (rather than the sideline or waiting line) is itself clarifying.
The experiment is creative, meaning it is formative in material and psychological ways for you and your team. The experiment will show the way forward. It will define the work that is yours to do.
Daniel Pryfogle integrates the disciplines of leadership and culture formation, organizational development, and marketing. He is the CMO of CX Effect.