It helps me to create little rules that provide default decisions for common and unusual situations. A couple of years ago, I wrote down my little rules for working life. Since then, I’ve collected a few more…

Communication

• Speak the unspoken.
• Have difficult conversations.
• Find something remarkable, and remark on it, every day.
• Not everything needs to be said.

Decision-Making

• Be intentional: for me, it takes reflection and constant conscious effort for my words and actions to reflect my values.
• Consider your influencers (the people who influence you), and choose them as intentionally as you can.
• Have a plan. Learn something. Change the plan.
• Play the long game. Sometimes we have to do stuff that we don’t care about in the short-term, in order to meet expectations from people who decide if we get paid or if we get privileges. Even while we do the stupid short-term things, we can sometimes set ourselves up for some potentially awesome, or at least potentially meaningful future.
• Focus on the outcome. Imagine what happens after you reach your goal. Then what? Often the real goal is the next thing, or the thing after that.

Getting Unstuck

• When you hit a wall, step back and learn. Learn more about the problem. Who else sees it as a problem? Who made this wall anyhow? It’s probably there for a reason and the problem might be an unintended consequence.
• Get to know the people. The system is made of people, and usually those aren’t the same people who made the system.
• Write stuff down. Sometimes what you think you heard wasn’t the same thing other people heard.
• Wait a week and ask again. Or a month. Or just listen for the moment when someone else raises the same problem, and chime in.

“Curiosity is the most under utilized tool of leaders” — Amy Edmondson
“Don’t fight stupid, make more awesome” — Jesse Robbins
“Make new mistakes.” — Esther Dyson, 2008 post