Page 86 - Make Work Great

It Starts with You

FIGURE 3.2 The overtness/clarity or question/answer cycle

Be Overt
Define Purpose, Impact,
Incentive, Progress, Resources,
and Capability

Answers Questions

Seek Clarity
Define Question,
Approach, and Need
for Agreement

in Figure 3.2 strengthens your connection to the network. It liter-
ally changes what you work on and how you work on it, improving
your ability to produce output. It’s like upgrading from a dial-up to a
broadband Internet connection on your home computer. You may not
have changed the information “out there,” but you have dramatically
improved your ability to use it to produce results.

Tasks, Relationships, Tasks, Relationships
You may have noticed—with delight or despair—that there is a higher-
level cycle at play here. To get the answers you need to complete
your tasks, you seek clarity from the people around you. To maintain
positive relationships with those people, you need to be perceived as
capable, honest, and trustworthy. In other words, you need to com-
plete your tasks.
The result can be a vicious cycle, as shown in Figure 3.3. To suc-
cessfully complete your tasks, you need strong relationships; to main-
tain strong relationships, you must successfully complete your tasks.
If you struggle with either, you struggle with both.

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