Herding Tigers Bonus Episode! Optimizing: You're Probably Playing Different Games at the Same Table

Todd Henry [00:00:06]:

This is Todd Henry. Welcome to the Herding Tigers Podcast Surprise new episode. I know it's been a while, a few years, but I think we're going to revive this show for a couple of reasons. First of all, Daily Creative, the other podcast has moved in a different direction and we're going to focus more on leadership topics here and practical leadership advice, practical leadership principles that we can apply in our life and in our work each and every day as we lead the talented people on our team and as we strive to lead ourselves in doing the work that we're capable of doing in the world. So with that said, today I want to talk about something that's been on my mind lately. I shared this message a week ago. I was just on the road for a series of events.

Todd Henry [00:00:48]:

I did an event in Las Vegas with Adobe at Adobe Summit, which is fantastic, and then was at World at Work with a group of leaders from the HR industry and then had a great virtual event with on the Run brand, which is phenomenal. And in each of these three, as I was preparing for these events, I realized that it's impossible to talk about leading our teams or leading our organizations or even leading ourself without understanding what we're optimizing for. Everyone on your team is optimizing for something. Your organization is optimizing for something. That's the reason that tension may not be a problem to solve, but a reality to name. So want to talk about what that means if we're optimizing for something? So every person in our organization is trying to optimize around something that's important to them. The problem is they're probably not all optimizing for the same thing. And frankly, neither are you as a leader.

Todd Henry [00:01:49]:

This is the invisible source of a tremendous amount of organizational tension. We assume that conflict is about personality clashes, or it's about poor communication or misaligned priorities. And sometimes it can be, although those are often symptoms of something deeper that's going on more often than I think we realize. The friction comes from the fact that people are playing different games at the same table. They're each trying to win, but they're keeping score differently. What do I mean by that? Well, think about the people on your team. One of them is optimizing for stability. They want predictability.

Todd Henry [00:02:26]:

They want to know what's expected, when to deliver on it, how to deliver on it. They want to know they have stable ground beneath them so it's not shifting every quarter. They're resistant to change, not because they're lazy they're resistant to change because instability is the thing they're trying to eliminate from their work life. When you announce a reorg or you talk about a new project that's a little bit risky, they don't hear exciting new chapter, they hear threat, because they are optimizing for stability. Someone else on your team might be optimizing for recognition because that's the core motivator that they, that they have, that drives them. They, they want to be seen. They want their contribution to matter visibly, not just functionally. They'll volunteer for high profile projects not because they're glory hounds, but because being known for their work is the currency that makes everything else feel worthwhile.

Todd Henry [00:03:12]:

That's what they're optimizing for. When their effort disappears into the team's collective output with no individual acknowledgment, they don't just feel overlooked. They feel like some kind of subtle deal has been broken. Even though it hasn't. It's just that they are optimizing for recognition. Someone else might be optimizing for autonomy. They want freedom to figure things out their own way. Give them a clear target and room to run, and they will do remarkable work.

Todd Henry [00:03:38]:

But put them in a system of checkpoints and approvals and they start to wither. It's not defiance. It's not that they just want to break the rules. It's that the way they do their best work requires space. And when you take that space away, you take their best work with it. Another person might be optimizing for craft, and especially when you're in creative industries, right? There are a lot of people who get into the industry because they love the craft of what they do. Whether they design or they write or whatever, make music, make videos. They care about the quality of the work itself, sometimes to a degree that frustrates everyone around them.

Todd Henry [00:04:12]:

They're the ones who want one more pass at the deck. They want one more round of refinement, because to them, the work is the point. Shipping something they consider to be half finished feels like a betrayal of what they're here to do. They're not being precious about the work, they're just honoring the thing that drew them into the work in the first place. And of course, there are always people who are optimizing for efficiency. And by the way, if you look at organizations as a whole, most organizations are optimizing for efficiency. They want to move fast, they want to eliminate waste, they want to get the outcomes quickly, and they want to do it as expediently and as inexpensively as possible. They're the ones who are asking, why are we still talking about this in the meeting? While another person is optimizing for craft and is asking for another revision.

Todd Henry [00:04:58]:

Neither of these people is wrong. They're just measuring different things. So you could extend this list, right? Some people are optimizing for income. I mean, there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. They've done the math on their life, and they know what they need to generate in order to be able to sustain their lifestyle. Other people are optimizing for comfort, which isn't necessarily the same thing as laziness. It means they found a rhythm that works and they want to protect it. Other people are optimizing for meaning or purpose.

Todd Henry [00:05:24]:

They need to feel like the work connects to something larger than just the quarterly targets. And when the connection breaks, their engagement goes with it. Sometimes the tension we experience inside of ourselves is when we have conflicting optimization goals. So I might feel compelled to optimize around craft or around meaning or around purpose, But I also am feeling a tremendous pressure to optimize around efficiency, because that's what my organization is asking of me, right? Or I might want to optimize around autonomy, But I know I need to step in and control the work in order to get it where it needs to be. And it creates this conflicting pressure inside of us, this tension that we have to manage as leaders, as managers. So none of the drives that we experience, none of these areas where we want to optimize are wrong. That's the important thing to note. Just because someone else is optimizing for something different than you're optimizing for, it doesn't make either of you wrong.

Todd Henry [00:06:21]:

It just means we have to recognize that not everybody is motivated the same way. And also when we're optimizing around different things, it's going to create tension, and it's going to create a need for compromise and leadership. In those moments, organization and optimization targets are often in direct competition with each other, and almost nobody names them out loud. Almost nobody talks about what they're really optimizing around. We all pretend we're optimizing around the same thing, but we're not. So what do we do with this as leaders? Well, first of all, you have to name your own. Name your own area that you're optimizing around. Get honest about what you're actually optimizing for in this season.

Todd Henry [00:07:01]:

Not what you think you should be, but what you actually are. Your behavior will tell you the truth. Even if your aspirations Don't. Second, we have to get curious about what people around us are optimizing for. We don't have to agree with everyone's priorities, but we have to understand them if we want to lead them well. We have to know what truly drives them. The next time someone's behavior frustrates you, before you just label it as a problem or just chalk it up to another personality conflict, ask yourself, what might they be optimizing for that would make this behavior make perfect sense? And then can we have a conversation about that? Right, which is the third thing? Have the conversation with your team. Make the invisible visible.

Todd Henry [00:07:43]:

When people can name what they're each trying to protect or pursue, or at least they can talk about what drives them, what motivates them, the disagreements don't disappear, but they get a lot less personal. You stop fighting about the decision and you start talking about these competing values or targets of optimization underneath our decisions. It's a much more productive conversation. Listen, the goal isn't to get everyone optimizing for the same thing. That's unlikely to happen. And frankly, you want a diversity of people. You want that person pushing for craft when everybody else is pushing just to get it done. Right.

Todd Henry [00:08:17]:

You want the person pushing for efficiency when the person pushing for craft is like, let's take two more passes at it, or let's just take another month to think about it. No, no, no, no. We have to get the work done. We are creative professionals. Right? So the goal isn't to get everyone optimizing for the same thing. It's not possible, it's not desirable. A team full of people who only care about efficiency are going to produce fast, soulless work. And a team full of people who only care about craft will never ship.

Todd Henry [00:08:41]:

You need that tension, but you need it to be conscious tension, not the underground kind that slowly corrodes trust and alignment. So here's my question for you. Here's my challenge for you. And I encourage you to take this question back to your team, or at least to ask the question of members of your team about what is important to them. What are you optimizing for in this season? And do the people around you know and do you know what the members of your team are optimizing for? Pay attention to the clues. Don't just chalk everything up as people being difficult or as personality conflict. Instead, recognize we are all optimizing for something. And that tension is not necessarily a bad thing.

Todd Henry [00:09:27]:

It can be a good thing because we're going to pull one another to become better at what each of us does. Okay, I hope this was helpful. It's something that's been very helpful for me of late. I would love to do more of these episodes, but I want to know if these episodes are resonating with you, so please reach out and let me know. Send an email to emailoddhenry.com and let me know if this is useful to you. Also, if you're a creative leader, a leader of teams, we've created something called Creative Leader Roundtable where a group of us get together once a month for a 90 minute roundtable where we talk about some of the issues that we're dealing with. You can learn more@creativeleader.net until next time, May you be brave, focused and brilliant. We'll see you then.