Sometimes you’re thrown into a situation that makes a mess of your well-laid plans.

And sometimes you’re thrown into a situation that’s ten times more complicated than that.

Perhaps budgets are being slashed at the company where you work…and fast.

Or the stock market…well…we don’t need to go into that. We’ve all seen the wild ride the stock market offers at times.

Or a key member of your company or team decides to move to another company.

Even worse, they’ve been lured away by your key competitor. And you don’t have anyone to backfill their knowledge and customer connections.

Or an always-healthy loved one is suddenly rushed to the hospital.

In chaotic times what do you do to simplify the chaos?

And not just simplify, but as is often required in such unwieldy and unpredictable times, to simplify in the extreme?

Try one or more of these four steps:

1. Focus on one priority. 

Yes, just ONE priority.

When you’re trying to right a world that has turned upside down, you don’t need the drag and confusion of trying to juggle multiple goals.

Like a laser beam, narrow your focus to a single point, your sole priority for now.

2. Let go. Say no.

The only way you’re going to let go is to say no.

And if that’s not easy for you, well, frankly, that’s tough.

You need the skill of clearing out the underbrush and letting go of extraneous things for now.

You find in extreme simplification times that what was once important – and may be again later – is far from a priority now.

Practice the word, “No,” until you can say it with the calm confidence to back it up.

3. Pay attention.

You need easy-to-gather information that will tell you if you’re getting back on track.

Figure out a few key indicators you can count on. These measures are like the dials and knobs on the control panel.

Then pay attention.

Use them.

Simply, consistently.

4. Follow up.

Take the time to see how things are working…or to face the facts that they aren’t yet.

If the action you’re taking isn’t taking you where you need to go, adjust, again.

And again, if you must.

Your world will right itself, but it needs your help.

Simplify, in the extreme.

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Are you leading your company or team through a risky or challenging time?

There are ways to handle the risk well, such as by:

- Preventing or eliminating it, perhaps by taking a different path toward your goal than you originally envisioned.

- Reducing, retiming, or in other ways resizing risk.

- Changing your perspective and comfort with uncertainty by focusing on the value of the change instead of its cost

Yet, try as you might, you have to acknowledge, and work with the fact that taking a risk means there is a chance that things could go wrong.

And that means, of course, that you could fail.

It’s hard to hear, but true.

Prepare for the best, but be able to recover well and move on when things don’t go as you hoped.

It is an essential skill.

Sometimes recovering well means giving up (this is hard to hear, too, but you may be chasing the wrong goal for current circumstances).

It may mean trying to recoup your losses as well as you can before deciding what to do next.

Or it may involve trying the same approach, but in a better way, using what you’ve learned from the current experience.

Recovering well can also mean that you try to meet the same goal, but in a different way.

When trying to recover or regroup from something that didn’t work as you’d hoped, try these actions:

1.  Increase your focus on your customers.

A company or team that has been thrown off-course can start to feed on itself.

And people who are burned out, or stressed, can start to see customers as “the enemy”* instead of the reason their jobs exist.

The situation can quickly degenerate in a downward spiral.

Focus on your customers and what they need from you.

2. Be clear and consistent in your instructions, feedback and guidance to your team.

Grow your trust in this uncertain time, if you can.

It will reduce your stress and that of your team if you trust people to do their jobs (unless you have proof through poor performance that trust is misplaced…and then you have a different problem to solve).

If your stress response is to micromanage, you make things for worse for your team AND yourself.

Ask for coaching to get over the need to manage by microscope, perhaps by developing a delegation process, and practicing to build comfort with the skills.

3. Reinforce what’s most important.

Keep your eyes on the prize as you regroup, and prepare to take a new path forward.

Make sure everyone on your team has current information about current circumstances and, when you’re ready to share them, the plan for moving forward. (The real issue here is that you’d hate to make a high-risk situation worse with poor communication).

4. Simplify.

Get rid of extraneous tasks and other drags on your energy and attention right now.

You don’t need distractions when you’re trying to regain your focus and forward motion.

5. Strengthen.

Mistake-proof the way work gets done, to the degree that is possible and helpful now.

Taking that action could be a distraction under present circumstances, or it could save you from further damage in regrouping, recouping and moving on mode.

6. There may come a point when you need to stop stressing, pressing, and just accept what’s underway.

It’s important to know when stopping to accept current circumstances…really accept them…is your best and strongest move.

You may be sad. You may be mad.

But you have to accept the present situation to be able to understand it, let go of it, make the best of it and move beyond.

Strangely enough, at times of great risk and stress, you may gain control when you just let go.

—

*David Letterman, Late Night With David Letterman, once interviewed a flight attendant as part of the show’s “Stump the Band” game.

“You probably talk to the passengers quite a bit, don’t you?” he asked her.

“OH, NO! We don’t talk to them if we can help it! They’re the enemy!” she quickly said.

Suddenly she realized that, even though she meant what she said, it would not help her well-known employer for customers to know that IS, indeed, what she and some other flight attendants felt.

What’s the best way to manage business risk?

Go toward it.

Does that sound risky, itself?

It can be. The alternative, however, can be far worse.

Real business risks, ignored…well…it’s not pretty.

Remember, first, that not all risk is the cliff diving, high-flying, life-defying kind.

Many of the circumstances that bring about these types of extreme risk are, frankly, ones you can’t control anyway.

The national and world economy, for example is something you can’t do much about.

Devastating acts of nature…same thing. You just have to be ready to adapt well, however things work out.

If these are the risks ones you worry most about, scenario analysis is a tool that could be helpful to you.

Second, the real risks in business are often things you CAN control.

And they’re often already inside your company.

They’re the risks that you either created (often unwittingly) or that you perpetuate by not taking them on, and then managing, minimizing or eliminating them.

(It sounds a bit like a virus, doesn’t it? That’s not a bad metaphor for how these things often work).

Any of the following situations are a risk to your company.

They can lead to product and service quality problems. And that can lead to the loss of customers, profits, and valued employees, too.

By the way, these are all circumstances you can improve:

- Lack of focus
- Inattention to important details…the ones your customers care most about
- Lack of clear, complete communication
- Inaction or ineffective action when a problem is discovered
- Confusing, inconsistent and ineffective ways of getting work done
- Ineffective and frustrating hiring, onboarding, training, managing and mentoring practices

The signs of potential risks and trouble can be subtle…or glaring.

And because you’re in the middle of the situation, you may not really see or grasp problems until they’ve been festering for a long time.

Start to remove risks inside your business in these ways:

1. Brainstorm

Start by considering the parts of your business that feel in control.

What gives you confidence that these things are working well?

Next, think about what feels out of control.

Which of these worry you the most, and why?

Be specific as you create both lists: “working well” and “worrisome.”

2. Pay attention

Don’t assume that all is as it seems.

What assumptions are you making that you need to check? (Often, where assumptions are concerned, you’re either very right, or very wrong).

What data and information do you wish you had to monitor and manage the things you’re most concerned about?

If those risks prove to be real (see the next step), that’s information you’ll want to begin to gather and use.

3. Go toward the risk, and test to see if it’s real

Seek to understand what’s really going on before you jump into action to prevent, mitigate or manage perceived risks.

Observe, research, inquire, test in whatever ways you can to start to see if the risks are real, or just worries that are unwarranted.

And, by the way, people may tell you, “Our work is different. It can’t be measured and managed easily.”

I’m here to tell you, though, as a former operational analyst and process auditor at Apple, there are ALWAYS things you can do to see how things are really working, compared to how you wish they were.

The information you gain in this way is always clarifying. And usually, it’s also good for profits, while it makes things work better for everyone involved.

In addition, get to know people who can advise or teach you. They may quickly see potential problems that you’re overlooking, and shouldn’t be, now.

5. Chunk the action

If changes are necessary, once you understand the risks that are present, break the change into a series of achievable actions.

You’re more likely to do the work if you “chunk” it into manageable sections.

Suddenly, big goals that were overwhelming become accessible and motivating.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

“This feels risky! This feels risky!”

A colleague and I were joking nervously on the first day of an intense, weeklong training class.

We were about to begin a rigorous simulation as we learned to coach teams through high-risk, conflict-ripe situations.

In the release of tension through humor, we were being honest about our feelings and our sense of the learning risk we faced.

We met that risk. It was not easy.

But it was a definitely a risk worth taking.

Most of the business risks I’ve taken during my career have fallen into the “risk worth taking” category. They’ve been risks of all kinds, including:

– Starting a career in a difficult national and local economy
– Changing careers
– Changing companies
– Starting a business
– Moving halfway across the country
– Stopping work for a couple of years to get a master’s degree
– Changing careers
– Changing jobs several times in the same company
– Starting another business
– Adding new products and services as the market changes, some opportunities emerging, while others go away

For some, it’s because they see risk as an experience to be endured, not a process to be managed.

Or they don’t understand risk and its benefits, when successfully faced.

Risks in business can occur in many ways.

They can be the result of uncertainties with new projects, products or services.

Risks can arise when a company grows very quickly, or when it expands into unfamiliar markets and works to meet the needs of new customers.

Individual employees, too, face the risks of change. Sometimes that change is welcome or invited. But many times, that is not the case.

You get the picture: business risk can arise in many expected and unexpected ways.

No matter how you well you manage risk now, you can always learn to handle it better.

Start by understanding your risk personality.

Are you most likely to:

– Seek risk, seeing it as a challenge and an adventure in some way?
– Love the adrenalin rush of risk so much that you create it in situations where it doesn’t have to be?
– Try to understand and manage risk?
– Steer clear of risk in all forms?
– Believe that risk does not exist in your business or industry?

Remember, however you feel about risk, your competitors are trying to manage it better than you do.

And the company that handles risk most effectively has a clear advantage over more fearful and/or less adaptable competitors.

That’s because change is always underway, whatever your business or industry.

Consider these many moving parts that most companies face:

– Customers change in terms of what they want and need
– Markets move and adapt as new competitors emerge and others leave
– Technology continues to advance, and to become smaller, faster, and sometimes, less expensive
– Employees move to different jobs and companies
– Suppliers create new products and services, and enter new markets with the products and services they already sell

The net of it is that if you hate risk, and hate to change, you may become obsolete as you try to stay right where you are, attempting to preserve the status quo.

To understand how well you handle risk now, start by considering how you handled risks in the past:

1. Think of two to three major risks you faced in the past few years.

2. Did you anticipate these risks? If not, could you have anticipated them with more or different information?

3. How well did you handle each risk?

4. How could you have handled them better?

5. Are there risks you avoided? Were you able to keep them at bay, or did they show up again in a different, more vigorous or otherwise more challenging way?

Begin, also, to look ahead:

6. How would you like to improve your risk assessment and management abilities in 2013 and beyond?

7. What information might help you anticipate, understand, and manage risks better? How can you gather this information most easily?

Improvement begins with understanding and acceptance.

Knowing where you stand, currently, goes a long way toward helping you improve your risk management and other abilities.

We’ll return to the subject of risk in the next blog post. I’ll share ideas for how you can begin to handle risk better.

In the meantime, if you’d like more ideas on how to make the next year a better year, here’s a previous blog post I wrote, Seven tips to make your business change-ready for an improved year.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

With one quarter of 2012 now complete, it’s a great time to do a quarterly review.

When you pause regularly – even briefly – to compare performance to plans and goals, you’re more likely to end the year having met what you set out to do.

Set the stage

First, set aside the time you need to be able to give this your full attention.

Second, get out of your office for a few hours to do the quarterly review, if you can.

Third, gather the information you need before you do the actual review.

You need a list of your goals for the year and quarter, if you set them at the beginning of the year (and if not, take the time to do that now for the rest of the year).

You also need information that tells you how you’re doing in the areas listed below, as well as others that are relevant to your business and situation.

Fourth, when you do the review, answer the following questions.

You can also cover the sections below, one per meeting, over the course of several weeks, if that works better for you and your normal work flow.

How are things with your customers?

1. How are things with your customers? How do you know?

2. Are they satisfied, overall? And are those results gradually getting better or worse? Why?

3. What are customers’ most common complaints or suggestions about how you can (or need to) improve? How are you using that feedback to improve?

4. Are there products or services they want that you’re not providing now? Where can they get those wants and needs met, if not by you?

How are employees, contractors and colleagues doing?

1. How are things with for the people who work for and with you? How do you know?

2. What’s their most common feedback as expressed:
- To you?
- To their managers?
- In public forums?

3. Are employees and peers positive, and feeling good about their work and the company? Or do they look discouraged, depleted or defeated?

4. Is the trend in employee satisfaction getting better or worse? Why? If you don’t know, how can you find out?

5. What’s the overall mood at your company now, if you were to describe it in a word or two?

How is revenue?

1. How are your sales, compared to your goals for this point in the year?

2. How are sales of specific products and services compared to what you thought they would be?

3. What’s selling better than expected? What’s not selling as well as planned? Why? How can you use the information to provide more of what customers want, and less of what they don’t?

Are expenses in control…and are investments allowing you to grow?

1. Are expenses what you thought they would be at this point in the year? What expenses are lower than you planned? Why? What expenses are higher than you planned? Why?

2. Are there expenses you’re delaying? Why? How will this be good for the business? How could delays hurt your business?

3. Are there expenses you don’t need to incur anymore? How can you phase these expenses out, or end them now?

4. Are there investments you need to make in the future that will help your company grow and improve?

What problems just won’t go away?

1. Are there problems you thought would be solved by now, but they just don’t seem to get solved, or go away (and stay away)?

2. Why is that happening? Are these just lower priorities than you originally thought? Or have you not yet identified what the problems really are, and what is causing them?

3. What information do you need in order to understand what the problems really are, and how to address them?

4. What do these problems cost the company in terms of:
- Rework
- Refunds
- Lost sales
- Lost customers
- Lost referrals
- Loss of opportunities to do higher-value work for customers
- Other costs of not getting it right yet?

5. Do you need to bring in new or additional resources to solve these problems?

And you…how are you doing?

1. What’s your overall mood about your work and achievements in 2012 so far? Why?

2. What’s going as well or better than expected?

3. What’s not going as well as you’d planned and hoped? Why?

4. What can you do to improve this situation?

5. Are there things you want to to let go, or delegate? What are they? How can you begin to do so?

Are you taking enough, and the right kind of breaks to do your best work?

1. Are you taking enough, and the right kind of breaks to refill and refresh? (Remember, your best ideas may come when you least expect them).

2. What is your main goal for yourself, and your worklife this quarter?

This year?

What else needs your attention now?

1. Are there other things that need your attention now, in addition to the issues we’ve discussed here? What are they? How can you begin to address them?

2. What are your top three goals for this quarter? For the rest of the year?

And while we’re at it…

Schedule your next three quarterly reviews for the rest of the year.

Also, take notes about what you learned during this review so you can create a regular review process that works well for you and your company or team:
- What was most valuable about this exercise?
- What would you do more of, and less of in the next review?
- How will you use what you learned through this process to improve your business, and company, this quarter? For the rest of the year?

There’s more you can do with quarterly reviews, but this will get you started.

Reviewing performance to goals (and new opportunities, as they emerge) can be an eye-opening, engaging and very powerful process.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Good communication lies at the heart of success in everything.

Well, everything, that is, that involves two or more people.

Let’s use a non-work example for a moment.

Think about two people taking a vacation together.

You can imagine the many possibilities of this trip if it’s planned and taken without good communication.

Tickets can be left behind, planes and trains can be missed, double hotel reservations can be made and prepaid, and much more.

Such a trip has the potential of being a disastrously memorable experience.

However, with good communication, that vacation can become a wonderful journey, one that’s fondly recalled lifelong.

Good communication does not just happen.

Communication requires planning, coordination, checking in to make sure that it’s working, and acknowledging – perhaps even celebrating – success when it happens.

If you need to improve communication at work, consider what needs to be improved in each of these steps of an effective communication process:

 PLAN FOR SUCCESS 

1. Remember, first, what your communication goal really is. 

Communication that works well is:

– Customer-focused

– Easy to use

– Engaging

– Effective

– Enough, but not too much

2. Be prepared for your communication to be complete. 

Good communication conveys several things about a shared effort or experience.

Be prepared to provide the following information:

– What is happening

– Why it is important

– Who is involved

– When it is happening

– How the work or event will occur

3. Know your audience.

If you don’t know who they are, or don’t know much about them, find out.

It makes a big difference in what you communicate, and how you do so.

4. Know what people need to do with the information. 

If people receiving and using the information need to be aware of something, they may need less detailed information than if they need to take action on it.

5. Communicate in the way that your audience will receive the information most easily.

Some audiences are web-, e-mail-, or text-based in their communications.

Others need face-to-face communication for messages to be received most easily.

Some communications require a group process for the information to be fully absorbed, and actionable.

6. Plan how you will check to make sure communication is getting through. 

Many managers send important information, but don’t check to make sure that it was received.

Especially if communication involves very important information, it’s essential to make sure the information was received correctly.

This can involve questionnaires, interviews, observations, or in other ways, discovering that the message did, or didn’t get through.

Plan accordingly.

CHECK…THEN CORRECT, IF NEED BE

7. Check to see if your communication is getting through.

Don’t assume.

Check.

Also, consider that one-time communication is often inadequate.

For example, if you’re communicating about a major change or significant action that must be taken, one guideline is that you need to communicate it seven times, in seven different ways for the information to get through to everyone who needs to use it.

Just think about that: seven times, in seven different ways.

Knowing that, you won’t be surprised if you have to repeat a message, or send it in a new way to make sure that it actually gets through.

8. Correct the communication that hasn’t yet been effective.

Improve or correct communication that didn’t work, or didn’t work as well as it needed to in order for the correct or desired actions to be taken by people involved.

PAUSE TO CELEBRATE WHEN IT WORKS

9. Pause and notice that the communication worked, when it does.

Also, acknowledge the people who were involved in making the process successful.

10. Review and reflect so that you can repeat success. 

If this was an especially big communication effort, or an especially important one, take some time to review what worked and why.

Pay attention, as well, to what didn’t work, and why that happened.

Record the information so you can use it again.

There’s no need to reinvent a process that works. And there’s no need to repeat a process that didn’t.

Good communication is not effortless. Often, it’s not easy.

That’s why communication, when it works, is often worthy of quite a celebration.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Have you ever felt that the real barrier to your progress is, in fact, you? 

It’s not as unusual as you might think.

Here’s just one story that might illustrate the point.

SITUATION 

A client company was growing rapidly. Their product idea was good, and the market was ready for it.

Opportunity was almost falling at their feet.

The founder and CEO built a team and organized them enough to meet the initial product demand.

Profits started flowing in what seemed as if it would be an endless stream.

The problems of growth, which they never expected they’d face, were easily masked by high profits…for a while.

There came a point, however, when the CEO and company could not make the leap over, around, or through the barriers of growth completely on their own.

Profits could no longer allow them to hide, or buy their way out of all the problems coming their way.

As the quality of the outcome and the customer experience starting to suffer, profits started to drop.

SOME THINGS WORKED VERY WELL

The founder continued to be very committed to the company.

Employees were dedicated, and believed in the technology they were helping to create.

Some customers continued to bring new business to them, despite growing problems of product quality, delivery and cost.

THE COMPANY WAS GETTING IN ITS OWN WAY IN THESE WAYS

The founder was unpredictable in the way he led the company.

Sometimes he delegated freely and confidently, trusting his team to get things done. Sometimes he did a deep dive into the details as he reverted to his extreme micromanagement mode.

And it wasn’t always easy to tell which of these two managers was going to show up on any given day.

The company’s salespeople thought they knew what customers’ needs were after an order was placed, but they often guessed wrong, or assumed some needs away.

Usually the error was not discovered until late in a project, when deadlines were slipping and product quality was at risk.

The company, and company leader, had no clear model of excellence to drive toward or learn from as they tried to change to meet the new production levels and demands.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF PROBLEMS GREW 

The company started to miss client deadlines.

They quit answering the phone when they knew customers weren’t happy.

It was not until the company lost key customers to competitors that the company took the need for change seriously.

That’s when they gave me a call.

HERE’S WHAT WE DID

I worked with them develop a model and a plan to achieve success in light of the increased project volume with which they were struggling.

We created a streamlined and consistent process structure, measures, and communication flows.

This increased their production capacity, and profitability, without inhibiting the personal initiative that had been a source of success and employee satisfaction in the past.

We created a predictable process for getting information at the start of a new project. This brought in better information that was easier to use and follow, and enabled the project team to quickly and confidently get their work started.

We also created a stronger team culture and dynamic.

The CEO started to engage employees more in planning, doing, and improving the company.

He dictated less, and involved more, bit by bit (it’s not easy for a micromanager to let go of the habit).

Employees changed, too, owning their own actions and outcomes more, waiting less for direction and anticipated correction from others.

We made the way the company ran more predictable, scalable, “delegate-able.” 

We changed the company and team from being the cause of their own problems to being the creators of improved effectiveness and profitability.

We gave them a future that they looked forward to with confidence and zest again.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Actually, there are several things you can do to prevent the worst team experiences from occurring.

One of the worst experiences is the “misfiring band of misfits” experience.

It’s the team that’s not well-organized or well-led for the work ahead.

One simple thing that’s helps avoid this experience is to schedule, and hold regular team check-ins.

It’s a simple but important way you can keep a group’s attention and efforts focused on their shared customer, and their shared customer goals.

The time it takes to plan and hold these team check-ins is minor compared to the time it will take the group to clean up after misdirection and mistakes.

Here are a few tips for how to have good team check-ins:

1. Start on the same page

Make sure everyone knows who your customers are for this work or project, and what they want from you.

Translate the customer goal – the team’s goal, ultimately – into smaller goals that are well-aligned with the overall plan.

These can be assigned, along with due dates for them, to small groups or individual members of the team.

In addition, to make sure you’re talking about the same thing as you work, simple tools like a glossary of often-used terms can be valuable. This is especially true if the work is very specialized, and the team is a cross-functional one.

Plan how and when you will hold your regular team check-ins. If possible, hold at least the kickoff meeting in person.

Get all regular check-ins on everyone’s calendar – and keep them there.

2. Stay on the same page

Hold your regular team calls or meetings as planned.

Make sure the meetings or team calls are productive and efficient. Many teams find that if they use a standing agenda, the reporting, discussions and other work they need to do together with that time can be done more efficiently. People know what to expect.

Create team ground rules and use them. Contact me if you need a set of ground rules you can start with, and adapt, as need be, for your particular team.

Hold people accountable for using each others’ time effectively.

And throughout the process, stay focused on your shared customers and goals. This goes a long way to keep everyone on the same page.

3. Don’t assume you’re on the same page just because you started that way

For some reason, assumptions are easy to make.

Often assumptions arise innocently enough.

They may crop up as a way to try to speed up and simplify communications and the process of reaching conclusions and taking action.

But often simplification airbrushes, or wipes away, your ability to notice something significant.

For example, you may see a problem start to emerge and assume that everyone else does, too.

But that may not be the case…it may have been just you who saw the signs of problems or danger.

Often, urgencies and emergencies or smaller problems (but problems, nonetheless) can be avoided with simple team follow-up and communication.

All it takes is taking the time and making the effort to clarify or verify a detail that turns out to be highly significant.

When in doubt, check.

4. Finish together

Start as a team.

Stay a team.

Finish as a team.

Don’t become a bickering band of well-intentioned but misfiring band of people who are filled with the awful feelings of, “Don’t ever make me work with some of these people again!”

Team experiences just don’t have to play out that way.

And whether you work together in the future or not, you’re probably going to learn some things on this and each team project that make future team experiences more effective.

Make this particular project or team a high-performing, and highly positive experience.

“Teams, a good experience?!” you ask?

They definitely can be…and may even be some of the highlights of your career and work life, when they’re created and managed very effectively. Regular team check-ins are an important part of that experience.

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Freedom equals a rule-free life, right?

Maybe you remember having the feeling as a child that one of the great things about being an adult would be that no one could tell you what to do anymore.

But adulthood’s not quite like that, is it?

Nor is working in a group, or on a team, of any size.

A team that gets a great job done does so because they have a few rules – the right rules for their goals and their game – and they play it better than their competition does.

Your team can be good, better, best when you set and then play by the right rules to guide you to desired outcomes easily.

There are two basic ideas underlying this advice:

1. A team with no rules at all can quickly become an unintended free-for-all of indirection, miscommunication, wasted effort, frustration, conflict and chaos.

2. Too many rigidly applied rules can create a bureaucratic nightmare when the purpose of rules is forgotten as they continue to be mindlessly or thoughtlessly applied.

Either situation – too few rules, or too many – can become the basis for big, awful team stories.

Almost everyone has at least a few big, awful team experiences.

The problem of reaching that perfect balance of the right rules, well-applied is more common than you might guess.

It’s also more costly than you might expect if you miss finding the sweet spot of just enough structure, but not too much, that allows great results to be created by your team consistently.

If you’re the leader of an organization, you might be surprised to find out that your employees may want more rules and direction than you expect.

Uncertainty and too much indirection and independence can be exhausting, believe it or not.

It leaves individuals and groups unable to plan or make the most of the resources they have. They can waste or in other ways miss precious and fleeting opportunities.

Tools, rules, standards, measures and communication expectations can give a team a clear sense of – to use one metaphor – the edge of the pool and the lanes of action.

And without that clarity, a team can feel adrift in the midst of an ocean of possibilities. They’re often unable to choose or agree on a clear direction, make a plan, take action, or have any hope of achieving success together.

One person described great frustration recently in the high-pressure, high-expectations, but otherwise relatively-directionless environment in which he worked.

“We need enough rules to focus on what our customers really want. Right now, we have no idea what that is. Or if our managers know, they haven’t shared it with us.”

Why do leaders avoid setting rules?

Here are just a few possibilities:

- To give themselves maximum flexibility in case their guesses about the future (or what customers really want) are wrong

- To avoid bureaucracy they hated somewhere in their own past

- To encourage creativity in their team or organization

- Because they’re not comfortable in a leadership position, want to be liked, and think there’s a better chance of that happening if they set and have few rules to enforce

- They have no idea where to begin, or what to do to create enough, but not too much, structure to produce success with their organization or team

What can be done to solve the problem?

1. Be clear –or get clear – about your customers, goals, and challenges.

2. Be clear – or get clear – about who’s on your team and the work that needs to be done.

3. Figure out what rules you really need to guide information, decision, and action flows so you can meet your shared goals most easily.

4. Create a basic set of rules that you think will give you enough structure to enable you to work well, but not so much that it weighs the team down and makes them unable to move.

5. Communicate the rules clearly to everyone who needs to use them.

6. Try them.

7. Check to see if they worked.

8. If the first set of rules didn’t work well, list users’ aggravations with the rules as they were designed and implemented.

9. Get rid of or reduce the aggravations.

10. Refine the rules, communicate them, and try the new ones.

11. Check in again to see how they worked.

12. Keep experimenting until you find the set of rules that guides your team most easily to success.

Set your team up to succeed.

Find, or create that sweet spot between chaos and bureaucracy.

You’ll find that when you work in that way as much as possible, it’s where the best results, and the best experience exist for your customers, team and company.

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Let’s say you have a big project to do.

And it can’t be done by one.

You need a team.

Now let’s assume you’ve gathered the people you need, however you recruited or hired them.

As a reminder, if you create and lead what turns out to be a strong, well-functioning team, you’ll experience these, and other things:

- You’ll each, and all, do better work.

- You’ll achieve more together than you may even have expected.

- You’ll almost certainly achieve your results at a lower cost than you could if you were trying to get the work done through a group of individuals who don’t anticipate, communicate or work cohesively.

- Ultimately, you’re likely to get the work done far more enjoyably.

Do you disagree on that last point?

Well, consider your own biggest accomplishments.

If your experience is like others’, your most impressive and most memorable achievements often required a team effort.

What, then, does it take to create a strong “we” out of a collection of individuals?

Here are nine tips that, when well-implemented, can lead directly to improved teamwork and outcomes:

1. A clear, shared vision

2. Clear understanding of your customer and what he or she expects from you

3. High standards

4. Clear roles

5. Clear paths of information, decision making and action

6. Ways of checking in regularly to ensure that things are moving along according to plan…or to provide the time to adapt plans, if need be

7. Shared ways of noticing and celebrating milestones you meet on the way to the finish line of your team effort

8. Downtime and reflective time to refresh, renew and, if needed, notice better, simpler ways of getting things done

9. Caring about others’ and your team’s success as much as your own

I’ll go over each of these steps in future articles.

For now, consider the times when you’ve been responsible for building a great team from a collection of individuals.

Knowing what worked about that experience, and what didn’t, what would you add to the list of “must-do”s that make a team work successfully?

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