Page 101 - Make Work Great

Beginning Your Crystal

ment. The use of those clear defi nitions in your interaction with the
person you’ve chosen creates a smoother conversation and improves
the fl ow of information.

Beyond Purpose
The reason for starting with workplace purpose is that it naturally
leads to the other fi ve types of overtness: impact, incentive, progress,
resources, and capability. The question of where your conversation
goes next is open-ended. It’s easy to imagine, for example, a discus-
sion about purpose leading to a conversation about resources. What
you’re trying to accomplish and what you need to get there are closely
related topics. Yet the discussion could just as easily turn elsewhere,
such as to incentive (“why I’m excited to be doing this”) or capability
(“what I need to learn”).
To attempt to script an entire conversation in advance would be
unnecessary—and a mistake. You already have the relationship, the
ideas about what to discuss, and the knowledge of how your col-
league will respond. If you start with a trusted person and begin
with an honest sharing of workplace purpose, the rest will emerge
naturally.
How you can best help it to emerge, however, may depend in part
on the organizational relationship between you and your colleague.

If You Are the Manager
As a manager or leader, you are a constant role model to your direct
(and indirect) reports, whether you like it or not. In that regard, the
people in your organization may be the easiest to add to your cultural
crystal. You have a lot of say regarding how they do things and a
lot of visibility into what they do. Plus, because nearly everyone is a
manager-watcher, your demonstration by example holds more weight
with employees than with peers or managers. Formal authority can be
a good thing. When trust is high, some managers have great success
beginning their cultural crystal within their own employee base.

89