“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality.” Greg McKeown, Essentialism

I have seen a pattern develop in recent conversations with CIOs whose teams are overwhelmed, whose change initiatives are met with passive-aggressive resistance, and whose ability to persuade the CFO or CEO are increasingly frustrated.

At the heart is a loss of priority. The priority is the hard work of building people. People are the success to your success. 

One of the classic works on dealing with people is Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He brings focus to five conditions that undermine any organization and team:

Absence of Trust

Fear of Conflict

Lack of Commitment

Avoidance of Accountability

Inattention to Results

His work is classic for a reason; his insights are timeless.

AND

I have observed the emergence of a new 5. If we are going to make people the priority, we have to address the following.

Lack of Ownership

We are diving into initiatives or vision or change or new things without doing the hard work of explaining the why and getting buy-in, though buy-in is a pretty weak term because I don’t just want you to buy-in I want you to go all-in.

Ownership exists when a person is aware of the change, understands their role related to the change, and prefers the change (to use Chris Laping’s language in People Before Things). 

Ownership is when a person would choose what you propose because they believe in the choice for themselves, not just to appease you or the company. Go along with it is much weaker than Go all in for it.

Getting ownership is very hard work. Talking, communicating, listening, clarifying and committing requires more than email or slides.

Failure to Name It

What is the one outcome we are after? What are the mission-criticals that generate the outcome? What can we stop or put on hold?

Priority became priorities. 

And priority has been lost ever since.

Countless CIOs tell me the projects they are working on. Few can tell me the one thing that must be accomplished above all others..

I’m watching my favorite football team go through rebuilding with a new coach. You can imagine all the changes: new offensive system, new defensive system, new approach to practices, etc. But as a fan, I know the one priority because I’ve read, listened, and watched what the team is communicating: Aggression.

It’s been named. It’s the standard. You play or don’t based on it; you win or lose depending on it.

What’s your One?

Unaddressed Habits

I’ve had a number of bad habits in my life I needed to break. I’ve established a number of good habits. To do both, I had to recognize them and address them.

I’m not seeing leaders unearth and address bad habits with their team, and I’m not seeing them identify and build a system to establish better habits.

Habits go unaddressed because we get by at being good enough despite ourselves (as a company, a team or a leader). We lean on talent. Eventually, challenges become greater than our talent. We try and suffer set back because we did not train and improve. 

Training beats trying. Habits are the fields of training.

Limited Advocacy

I am seeing collaboration at the beginning of projects taper off. I am not seeing cross-discipline support of a department’s major initiative. 

Business leads are reporting, but they aren’t necessarily seeing their own contribution to another business’ priority.

We are busy. We have our own “do more with less” challenges. We limit advocacy to our team only.. 

I am sitting in meetings and each manager is hearing what another manager is saying and judging it through the filter of “How will this affect me?” I’m not hearing questions of what the manager needs from the others. 

Absence of Humility

I’m not picturing the egomaniac, the self-inflated leader we all want to silence.

I’m talking about executives who don’t communicate or collaborate, who still cling to forms of command and control, who have yet to embrace vulnerable strength or stories of failing forward.

I’m talking about employees who do what they need to do to get by, to keep their job but not advance the cause, who work the minimum because of a contract rather than a conviction.

The Better Five

We must promote ownership -

Of the one thing named -

So that we are compelled to break bad habits and adopt new habits -

Pressing into company-wide advocacy for each other and not just our team -

Demonstrating the humility called for that fulfills our mutual calling.

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