TL;DR (Too Long; Didnt Read)
Sapiens is a masterclass in reframing
Wheat Domesticated Humans
Reframing is an essential leadership skill for making better decisions
4 of my favorite reframes are at the end
Sapiens is a fascinating book that breaks down human history through the cognitive, agricultural, and scientific revolutions and the unification of humankind.
The author, Yuval Noah Harari, does an excellent job of offering alternative perspectives on our history. The discussion of wheat stood out for me.
The standard narrative about the agricultural revolution is that humans domesticated wheat. By perfecting the means of production, humans can organize into larger communities and abandon their foraging lifestyles.
Harai suggests we look at the revolution from the wheat's perspective.
He explains that wheat was an obscure grass, one of many, in a remote part of the Middle East before the agricultural revolution. After the agricultural revolution, wheat covers approximately 2.5 million square kilometres globally, making it the most prolific plant in history.
How did wheat achieve this feat? Through humans.
Humans had to clear land, weed and rid fields of rocks, develop complex watering and fertilizing systems and protect it from predators. They shifted from foraging for a few hours daily to the back-breaking work of tending to wheat fields.
Farmers built their houses next to the fields to make it easier for them to tend to those fields. As Harai suggests, the word domesticate comes from the Latin "Domus" or "house;" it is not the wheat living in the house.
So, who domesticated whom?
What I appreciate about Harari's book is his ability to reframe history and offer different perspectives that force you to challenge your assumptions and inspire deep thinking.
Should leaders apply the art of reframing as a fundamental leadership skill?
The simple answer is yes.
Team members enter most meetings under-prepared and cognitively distracted by the last thing they were doing before they entered the room.
To make matters worse, most leaders operate on "system one thinking," Khaneman's term for the automatic, intuitive, and involuntary thinking pattern, from his book Thinking Fast and Slow.
To optimize the decision-making in the room, leaders must disrupt the pattern and force participants to widen their view of the problem.
A recent discussion about compensation is a great example.
An employee asked for more money, about 10% of their compensation. The employee was a good performer, culturally aligned, and had upside potential. Considering salary bands and other corporate comparables, the conversation focused on whether 10% was too much.
This is a conversation that has played out many times. Is a 5% or 8% increase more appropriate? The difference is a few thousand dollars annually.
But what if you reframed the question?
What would we have to pay to attract someone from outside?
What is our success rate of finding good talent?
How long would it take them to ramp up, and what are the lost productivity costs?
If we needed a recruiter, how much would we pay?
Suddenly, the math is simple: 10% of total compensation is probably a bargain.
While this is a simple example, the reframe gets people thinking laterally about the whole problem not focused on the single variable at hand.
Reframing is critical to get a full view of a problem. Here are some of my favourite reframe questions:
What if this problem was an opportunity? What would we do differently?
A Peter Drucker special. Best used for a business problem.
What would you do if you couldn't fail? Or What would you do if you were not afraid?
Spenser Johnson, "Who moved my cheese." Great for individual coaching.
How would an outsider view this situation?
Micheal Watkins, "First 90 Days". Great question for client-related issues forcing an external perspective.
What is the opposite story that is at least as true as the one you are currently telling yourself?
Byron Katie's masterpiece is part of a framework she shares openly called "The Work." In the spirit of transparency, I am just learning the Katie methodology, which is powerful and deep.
The key is to get your team to think laterally about problems and see them from many perspectives. The objective is to make the best decisions possible with the information you have.
If you have an important meeting and need help to prepare or require a facilitator, you know how to reach me.👇
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