How To Collaborate With Unproductive People

00:00:00.000 | - All right, next question is from Rochelle.

00:00:02.920 | I've been increasingly hardcore

00:00:04.560 | about implementing your advice recently,

00:00:06.540 | but I've encountered an unexpected side effect.

00:00:09.160 | Some coworkers tell me that they actually prefer

00:00:11.800 | having many email check-ins and get angry

00:00:14.040 | when I jump the gun and start executing tasks.

00:00:17.560 | How can I stay productive and sane without stepping on toes?

00:00:21.020 | - I know what you're talking about, Rochelle.

00:00:25.080 | And I actually have a little bit of empathy for them.

00:00:29.540 | Like, I understand their complaint.

00:00:31.340 | Like, there's two things going on here.

00:00:34.520 | They have maybe more of a hyperactive,

00:00:37.440 | hive-mind approach to collaboration.

00:00:39.040 | We'll just sort of figure things out back and forth

00:00:40.520 | with email, a slower approach.

00:00:41.880 | And you're thinking like, let's just roll.

00:00:43.720 | We're doing a meeting.

00:00:44.600 | Let me just order the food, get the caterer going.

00:00:47.280 | I get that, but they also probably feel

00:00:51.000 | as if they're being cut out of a process

00:00:52.580 | or if mistakes are gonna be made

00:00:53.800 | because they haven't had a chance to talk to you.

00:00:55.760 | And you ordered all the food,

00:00:57.520 | but you didn't talk to them first

00:00:59.040 | and they could have told you

00:01:00.180 | that the guest who's coming to speak is vegetarian.

00:01:02.800 | And so we need to order from this other place over there.

00:01:05.480 | So they have legitimate reasons to want to actually

00:01:09.300 | have a chance to talk about things before action is taken.

00:01:12.860 | So what we have to do is thread this needle,

00:01:15.060 | give people a chance to actually interact with you,

00:01:18.760 | let these things unfold at a pace

00:01:21.280 | that they will follow as well

00:01:23.940 | without you being beholden to an inbox,

00:01:26.080 | without you having to just sort of like

00:01:27.460 | always be sending emails and kind of doing things ad hoc

00:01:29.840 | like most people do.

00:01:31.500 | So one thing I'm gonna suggest

00:01:33.000 | and the first part won't be that surprising,

00:01:36.360 | you figure out upfront, okay,

00:01:37.800 | what are my responsibilities in this thing we're working on?

00:01:41.480 | And figure out some sort of,

00:01:43.000 | and this word's not gonna surprise you,

00:01:44.960 | process by which you're gonna get that work done.

00:01:47.280 | You kind of bring them up to speed.

00:01:48.200 | Okay, here's what I'm gonna do.

00:01:50.000 | I'll take care of the food for this meeting.

00:01:51.920 | I'll take care of the conference room.

00:01:53.360 | I'll take care of getting the promotional materials out.

00:01:56.880 | Here is how I'm gonna do that.

00:01:59.440 | And so you bring them up to speed right off the bat

00:02:02.140 | about when and how you're gonna do things

00:02:04.000 | so that they know the plan upfront,

00:02:06.040 | you're moving it out of,

00:02:07.080 | we'll just sort of rock and roll on the fly.

00:02:09.440 | Two, when you send out this process

00:02:13.280 | for whatever collaborative project you're working on,

00:02:16.640 | lean towards what I call feedback options

00:02:20.560 | versus feedback checkpoints.

00:02:23.600 | So a feedback checkpoint is before I order the food,

00:02:28.000 | we can talk to make sure we're satisfying whatever,

00:02:33.200 | dietary needs or see what you think

00:02:34.960 | would be the best food to order.

00:02:36.360 | That's a choke point or a checkpoint I mean.

00:02:38.600 | Everyone has to come together and gather

00:02:40.800 | before you can make progress going forward.

00:02:43.040 | We all have to wait and gather at this checkpoint

00:02:44.760 | and then we can keep moving forward.

00:02:46.360 | A feedback option gives people the option

00:02:50.540 | to provide you feedback, but even if they don't,

00:02:52.880 | you can still move forward.

00:02:54.680 | So here we might say, if you have any thoughts

00:02:59.160 | about the food or what food should be ordered,

00:03:01.240 | I'm gonna order on Wednesday before the event

00:03:04.180 | in the afternoon, send me any like issues

00:03:09.300 | or dietary restrictions or whatever by that point,

00:03:12.760 | or I have a document that we're planning the product in,

00:03:15.160 | this is the space for it, put that all in there

00:03:17.600 | before the time I listed,

00:03:18.800 | because that's what I'm actually gonna go in

00:03:20.040 | and make the food order.

00:03:21.040 | You can even set up a reminder about that

00:03:23.800 | to send automatically, the morning of,

00:03:27.640 | hey, by the way, remember,

00:03:29.720 | if you have any thoughts on the food or feedback,

00:03:31.440 | I'm ordering tonight.

00:03:33.840 | Feedback options work great because people feel included.

00:03:37.440 | If there's something important that they do want you to know

00:03:40.160 | they will then make sure they get you that information,

00:03:43.320 | but it allows you to actually move forward

00:03:45.440 | without being beholden to just going

00:03:46.960 | with back and forth emails, waiting for replies,

00:03:48.880 | being stuck inside your inbox.

00:03:50.680 | 90% of the time, people don't actually have feedback

00:03:53.520 | on these things they wanna give you.

00:03:54.640 | It's just the idea that they might, that upsets them.

00:03:57.120 | I don't like that you ordered this food

00:03:58.920 | without talking to us because what if

00:04:01.080 | we were inviting gremlins and it's after nine,

00:04:05.360 | if they get water, they're gonna turn into monsters, right?

00:04:07.640 | That's not what's happening, but it could have.

00:04:09.520 | So, I'm upset you didn't talk to us ahead of time.

00:04:12.920 | With a feedback option, you take that concern away.

00:04:15.600 | Like, oh, I could have told you,

00:04:16.760 | hey, by the way, no water, it's gremlins.

00:04:18.600 | You told me how to say that.

00:04:19.820 | You told me when you're ordering it.

00:04:21.200 | You gave me a place to tell you that information.

00:04:22.760 | So, I'm not upset about it.

00:04:24.120 | So, you wanna have a process,

00:04:26.280 | especially for logistical type gatherings like this.

00:04:29.200 | And I should say, by the way,

00:04:30.160 | I keep using this food example because

00:04:32.600 | in the elaboration of this question,

00:04:34.800 | Rochelle gave a particular example about ordering food

00:04:38.760 | and her colleagues got mad at her for ordering it right away.

00:04:40.840 | So, that's why I'm using that example.

00:04:42.880 | But use feedback options instead of feedback choke points.

00:04:45.640 | Tell people ahead of time this is how I'm doing it.

00:04:48.140 | People will be happy.

00:04:49.560 | In the rare cases where you need feedback, you'll get it.

00:04:51.380 | And now you can still execute without having to be stuck

00:04:54.560 | waiting for random emails to come back,

00:04:56.480 | waiting for random email replies to make it back to you.

00:04:59.200 | (upbeat music)

00:05:01.780 | (upbeat music)

How To Collaborate With Unproductive People

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