The Power of Clarity: Mastering the Art of Impeccable Agreements

Reduce the Drama and Boost the Efficiency of Your Team

🥇 - Impeccable Agreements*

A lot of relationship drama is caused by unaligned commitments and unclear and unkempt agreements.

An agreement is anything we say we will do or not do within a certain time frame - basically, who will do what and by when.

So much energy is wasted, and inefficiencies are created because people have different understandings of what has been agreed upon. Often because things are left unspoken or assumed, and so commitment is low, making it almost impossible to hold each other accountable.

We, therefore, waste a massive amount of time and energy with unclear agreements.

It is surprisingly easy to mitigate:

The first step in making impeccable agreements is to make clear agreements

• Who

• is going to do what

• By when.

Aligned teams should aim to keep 90+% of the agreements they make.

The second step is to keep your agreements.

Third, as soon as you know you will not keep your agreement, let the other person know and renegotiate. This is fine. Trust is maintained. Periodically renegotiating agreements is acceptable - just don't renegotiate all the time, as trust will suffer.

The fourth and last step in making impeccable agreements is when an agreement is broken - own it. Don't make excuses, and take responsibility.

If it helps, here is a slightly different approach to thinking about our agreements, whether the explicit (ideal situation) ones or many implied (real life in the workplace) ones: act with integrity in everything you do. But what does that mean? Everyone likely has a different definition of integrity. To me, integrity means this:

• Doing what I say I'll do when I say I'll do it, and doing it in the expected way.

• And if I can't get it done, I'll be responsible for that mess and clean it up.

Everyone will trust you more because your actions align with your commitment, and you consistently do what you say you'll do. High levels of trust make this easy. Communication within a team with high trust can be intuitive and occur with little effort compared to low trust settings.

Conversely, low trust within the team has high costs. Even the simplest communication is fraught with suspicion. People look for hidden meanings and personal agendas, leading to missed deadlines and cost overruns. It's essentially playing life on hard mode - with no added benefits.

At this stage in my life and career, I value success as having the ability to control how I spend my time. As such, I have a rule: I populate my inner circle, the people closest to me, with people who keep their agreements.

I can do without the unnecessary drama.

*The Knowledge Project #161: Jim Dethmer: The Pillars of Integrity

📫 - A quote that I am currently pondering

"No one cares about your excuses as much as you do. In fact, no one cares about your excuses at all, except you."

Shane Parrish

🧾 - An absorbing and insightful (short) read

How to eliminate organisational debt - link to the article - "The debt that's crippling your company isn't on your balance sheet."

This article reminded me of William Bridges's "Organisational Life Cycle." Bridges shares his laws of organisational development, within which he says successful organisations inevitably become institutions. In institutions, the organisational debt is unsustainably high - form is more important than function. Without renewal, these organisations will fail.

🤔 - If you did have the answer to this question, what would it be?

What is your superpower in the workplace?

• How has it helped you in your career?

• Conversely, if you were to flip it around, how has this superpower hampered you?