Over the years, I have had coaching, mentors, clients and friends say things to me or behave in particular ways which I found to be brilliant. Every so often, I distil these into what I now think of as my “operating system”; the system of thinking and behaving which I use to operate (at work, for the most part).
I have come to think of these as how to be professional without being a pain in the arse. These are not hacks or shortcuts, they are what I expect of myself and what I look for in other people.
Sometimes I’ll share these with someone, usually if I’m coaching, mentoring or managing them. Often, each one can be explained, demonstrated and turned into action in about an hour or so. That said, they take years of practice because most of them are about protecting us from ourselves, such as avoiding procrastination, dealing with imposter syndrome and so on. (Or rather they protect me from myself. I can’t really speak for anyone else, but there do seem to be pretty typical human (at work) behaviours which need managing.)
I’ve decided to put them together here in case they are useful to other people. I’m always more than happy to talk about these. Email me if you’d like to: [email protected]
Credits are given by first names unless the person is definitely well known. The reason is to credit the thinking and deflect credit from me.
If we’ve worked together and your name isn’t here, it’s probably because I haven’t codified the rule yet. I have pages of notes and only codify quite slowly.
<aside> 💡 I think it’s a really good idea consolidating thinking into a list like this - if you do the same, or you have the same already then please share with me: [email protected]
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Credit: Stephen Fry, The Liar
In Stephen Fry’s, The Liar the protagonist has to create an elaborate web of plans. When working this out, he - the character - uses the phrase “thoroughly thought through”.
I have adopted this to mean: think things through in lots of detail. This is not a thorough plan - don’t over plan, but do over think for a short time. Allow yourself to go through all possible scenarios, especially where your plan fails, and decide how you might deal with it. How it’ll feel, what you need to come to terms with.
TTT does not end up in a gantt chart or a big project plan. It ends up in a view of the “whole board” to use a chess analogy. See the moving parts, see the pieces, be comfortable that every time you make a move so does someone else.
I used to write “ttt” on pieces of paper when starting to plan. It reminded me to allow myself time to think around corners, to think what will go wrong and to be honest about the position I’m in.
Credit: me - because I am crap and checking things