Page 201 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHAT CHALLENGES INTEREST ME? (PERSONALIZED CONTRIBUTIONS)

in underrepresented groups, asked for data on the careers
of these employees, and sponsored projects that communi-
cated inclusion. Wendy often ends a session by asking the
client how he or she might spend fifteen minutes to make
progress on goals. Even busy people can find 15 minutes,
and without at least some commitment to action more talk-
ing only fosters the illusion of change without the reality.
Dave likes to end his workshops with a cartoon of a group
of turkeys who have just attended a training seminar where
they learned to fly. They spent time flying and soaring
among the clouds. Then, the caption says, “at the end of the
seminar, they all walked home.” Dave often asks workshop
participants to share the action items they have calendared
and to schedule a phone call or e-mail follow-up with a peer
to ensure accountability for the result.

Satisficing. Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize–winning economist,
used the term satisficing to describe decision making based
on meeting the minimal criteria rather than on searching
for an optimal solution. Leaders should also help employees
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invest their time, not just spend it. We have used a simple
formula, “return on time invested,” as a time quality check.
In one company, when leaders make a request of employees,
the employees are encouraged to ask “how much time is this
request worth?” By answering this question, the leader can
signal the amount of time and the rigor of the decision the
request warrants. Sometimes leaders make innocuous requests
that create volumes of work among employees because lead-
ers are not clear about the return on time invested and what
should be satisficed versus optimized.
Most of us have learned to satisfice (versus optimize)
some personal decisions. We might satisfice making our bed

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