What will we do?

This is the third question of the 4 Questions and 10 Rules of Strategic Doing outlined in this 2023 blog post. If you haven’t read through the whole series yet, it may be helpful to start at Rule 1.

You may be too young to remember “What About Bob?” a 1991 comedy about a troubled man who finds relief by constantly (constantly!) reminding himself to take “baby steps” (and with some less-productive hijinks, of course). Cue it up on a rainy day when you need an excuse to laugh, and enjoy watching two actors (Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss) at the top of their game.

The third question in the Strategic Doing framework for agile leadership is “What will we do?” In an earlier post I noted that we often start with this question prematurely, but there is a time to ask it, and more importantly, to answer it. That time is after you have decided on the right course of action and made sure that everyone is on the same page about what it needs. If you’ve been following along with this series, you’ve seen two important tools for that: choosing a Big Easy and using prospection to get clarity.

The answer to “what will we do?” is always baby steps, or as we call it in our trainings, making micro-commitments to one another. The size of the micro-commitment isn’t what matters – it’s the act of saying to one another that we will take action (and then following through).

Why this question matters

It often feels to groups as if micro-commitments are too micro to really get anywhere. There are two reasons – really, they’re the flip sides of one another – this question is critical at this stage in your teams work.

The first is that it builds trust. In an earlier post I discussed psychological safety, which is a shared sense that it is safe to take interpersonal risks. That’s often confused with trust, but they’re a bit different. Psychological safety is whether or not you feel safe to do something. Trust is being sure someone else will do something. The only way to have that certainty is to see proof of it – the person said they would do something, and then they did. You were pretty sure you could trust them, and now you know for sure.

The second is that it makes it clear who isn’t on board. In a meeting, it’s easy for everyone to nod their head and otherwise give signals that they agree with a decision. Asking everyone to make and keep a micro-commitment tests that consensus. There doesn’t need to be any shame in this step: there are many reasons someone might not keep a commitment: they don’t have time, something happened in their personal or professional life – or they really didn’t agree but didn’t say so. It doesn’t really matter what the reason is: what’s important is that you can’t assume they’ll be part of implementing the idea.

There’s also a powerful dynamic that builds alongside these reasons: groups that follow through tend to attract and retain people and resources. They have a centripetal force that pulls assets in…which then makes bigger impacts possible. Micro-commitments are only micro when viewed individually. If there are enough people making them, they add up to something substantial.

How to use this question

No exceptions: no one who has a voice in deciding on the direction gets a pass on helping to implement. Help them find something at a scale that they can commit to: even if it’s only something that will take ten minutes to do. It builds commitment both from them and from the rest of the group (who are always watching to see if it’s really a fair playing field).

Use people’s assets: the micro-commitments people make probably draw on the assets that they have at their disposal. If they have personal connections, their commitment might be to have conversations with them. If they control a space, the commitment can be to make sure it’s available when a group needs it. If they’re a great cook, ask them to scope out menu ideas for an event.

Make commitments public: you can’t build that trust if no one knows what someone committed to do. Ask people to say what they’re committing to (or write, if it’s over email).

Curb people’s enthusiasm: if a team member wants to make a macro-commitment, don’t let them! Or at least, don’t let them until they’ve proven they follow through. Even then, a group in which many people share the load is more resilient and more powerful (ultimately) than one where a few people are doing things. Don’t believe me? Here’s a Third Thursday presentation on the power of sharing the leadership load.

What’s next

Action step: be brave! Before you leave a meeting, ask everyone to make a public micro-commitment that will move the group’s work forward before the next meeting, and document what each person committed to. Emphasize the “micro” part: if it’s a Strategic Doing workshop, we recommend no more than one hour in the next 30 days. For other groups for whom this is a new concept, even getting everyone commit to doing something for 15 minutes is a step forward.

Learn more: micro-commitments are effective in many settings – from New Year’s resolutions to moving prospects along the sales cycle. Here’s a research paper making the case from an economist’s perspective where university students were sent a daily text message with a small (5 minutes!) course-related task, and asked to click “I commit.” They got a follow-up message asking to confirm if they did it, and they were part of a feed to provide social accountability. Students that committed were twice as likely to not put coursework off.