Second Opinion vs Team of Opinions

I read recently this fascinating story about how Ted Kennedy worked with doctors to treat his brain tumor in a way that kept him alive longer than anyone thought possible.

For most of us when we get really sick we go to a doctor.  They give us a prognosis and then we go to another doctor to get the famed, "Second Opinion."

This is not what Kennedy did.  Ted actually put a group of doctors who all disagreed with each other in a room and had them battle it out.  A doctor would make a claim or state an opinion and Ted would stop the conversation, look at another doctor and say, "Okay-- so what do you think about that?"

Kennedy believed that this made a huge difference in the treatments and care he received and that it led to his longer struggle with his illness.

Kennedy liked a "Team of Opinions" rather than a "Second Opinion."

What struck me was how brilliant that was, how rarely I practice that same principle in my own relationships and how rarely I hear of that principle on leadership teams.

For me, I tend to go from person to person asking for second or third opinions.  Mostly because it's hard to get people in the room together.  But how often to I try to get all the opinions to interact with each other?

An ancient proverb says, "For lack of guidance a nation falls.  But many advisers make victory sure."  I can't help but think this happens when the advisers get to interact with each other, not just with you.

So what would it look like to have teams of opinions in your life and leadership, and not just second opinions?

What's Your Problem?

This approach is even better than pitching an idea (versus pitching ideas).

My least favorite conversations are when someone either:

A)  Gives me the solution to a problem that hasn't been defined.
B)  Gives me the problem and then gives me a solution and asks me to only give feedback on the solution.

You can't solve problems until you agree on the problem.  And few people want to be brought in to give feedback on something if you've already decided what you're going to do.  I call this "stamp of approval" brainstorming.  It's not brainstorming-- it's just agreeing with what someone else came up with.

So when you want someone's advice or if you're leading a team, don't pitch ideas.  Pitch problems.  You have to sell problems just as passionately as selling ideas.

Say, "I think this is a problem with X" and then ask, "What do you think?" 

Once you agree about the problem, ask, "What do you think we should do?"  If they can't think of anything, that's when you pitch an idea.  If you follow this process you help people get in a creative mindset versus a passive mindset and they will better engage with the problem solving process.

This conversation will lead to truly genuine problem solving and ownership of both the problem and the solution.

Don't Pitch Ideas

Pitching ideas is different than pitching an idea.

Pitching an idea is saying, "what if we made a digital music device?"

Pitching ideas is saying, "What if we made a digital music device that had a screen and a round clicker and you could plug it into your laptop and download and upload music onto it?"

The first option-- pitching an idea-- leaves lots of room for the imagination to get on at an entry level.  You say "digital music device" and there's lots of space in your mind to run around with lots of different possibilities.  You pitch the ideas of the second sentence and, with every idea, you narrow other people's opportunity to contribute to the conversation.

Most of the time when you want to bounce an idea off of someone, you're really wanting to bounce ideas off someone.  Recognize that and simplify your ideas into the most basic idea.  That gives people more room to play.  Sometimes they'll go right where your ideas are-- which is great because now you're on the same page.  Often times people will surprise you with something better.  Either way, you'll both own an idea that you got to build together, rather than expecting them to jump onto ideas you're already running with.

By the way, I don't do this very well.  But every time I do everyone is better off for it.

So when you can, don't pitch ideas (even if they're AMAZING).  Scale it back and just pitch an idea, and then watch something amazing happen in front of you.

6 Reasons I Love My Kindle (For Now)

I know, I know. The iPad is way cooler. Besides, both the kindle and the iPad are super expensive.  If it wasn't for Sarah getting me a kindle for my birthday I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

BUT:

Here are 6 reasons I love my kindle (for now).

1. I bought it used for $100 off.

2. I love that when I was in Mexico I could download books, newspapers and magazines, google and wikipedia for free when everyone else was complaining about international roaming charges.

3. I like to highlight and take notes. I like it even more when the kindle bundles all my notes and highlights from a book into one location and emails it to me as a separate document.

4. I thought I was going to miss the "holding a book and turning the pages" thing. Let me be clear: I don't and you won't.

5. Public domain books are available for free. Since my favorite author is G.K. Chesterton and he wrote in the early 20th century, nearly everything he ever wrote is now on my Kindle for free.

6. As primitive as it is, the e-ink reader technology turns about as many heads as the iPad does. It's still in the early phases of development but it is truly easy on the eyes (especially outdoors). To me, this is the one true advantage over the iPad.

To see where e-ink tech is headed in the near future watch this youtube video.

We should all get excited when there is a low cost device that has the iPad's versatility on a high resolution e-ink technology video touch screen like future kindles.

I give it about 2 years to come out.  4 years to be low cost.

See you in the future.

Interview with the President of Disney Animation

Recently The Economist did an interview with the President of Disney Animation.

If I were to guess, I'd say that most of the people reading this blog couldn't tell you who that is.

Don't feel bad.

His name is Ed Catmull. While you may not have known his name, you know his work since he's part of the original PIXAR team which means he's been a part of every PIXAR film ever made.

The interview, which I think is around 20 minutes long or so, was sent to me via facebook from John Wittig and can be viewed in it's entirety by clicking here.

Now, Ed's a little dry but a total genius. If you stick with it and have a lens for leadership you will come away with at least 3 or 4 gems that could change the way you look at your company, organization, etc.

Here are two quotes that really blew me away:

1. "In a creative culture it's better to fix problems then try and prevent them. If you try and prevent error you screw things up. And the natural tendency for managers is to try and prevent error and over plan things."

I mostly like that quote because I already agreed with it. So sue me.

2. "There is this illusion that this person is creative and has all this stuff, well the fact is there are literally thousands of ideas involved in putting something like [a film] together. And the notion of ideas as this singular thing is a fundamental flaw."

This quote, on the other hand, struck me in a new way that I had never thought of before. This idea has been especially true for me with the creation of Sparks. The initial idea of Sparks incubated through various forms and experiments for over a year. As it evolved (and I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near being done evolving before it dies sometime in the future) there have been literally dozens of ideas from dozens of people that came along and tweaked, fixed and enhanced the original series of ideas.

So sparks aren't an idea. They're a collection of ideas from many different people.

The iPad isn't an idea. It's a collection of ideas from a collection of people.

Ed ends this sentiment by stating that a leader's job is to draw out of a team the thousand ideas you're all going to need in order to be successful.

Genius.

Enjoy the interview.