As a consultant I am often put on the spot for specific answers and decisions for very ambiguous and undefined problems. Sometimes they want the finish date for a project, or a how much it will cost to build some gigantic piece of software. Whenever you faced with taking a stand on something that is very unknown you should address it head on: "I do not know."

Many people have a problem being able to admit their ignorance. One of my mantras is often misinterpreted to mean I always have THE answer (Often Wrong, Never in Doubt). What must be realized is that I freely admit I don't have THE answer. That is not the same as not having AN answer. My answer might often be that I don't know, but you'll get it clearly and quickly when that is the case.

The goal with always having an answer is avoid paralysis and continued chaos. The goal with admitting ignorance when appropriate is to illustrate the care and attention to detail that you should have for your decision-making. It helps to be Articulate, but only if you are first Deliberate. So being deliberate about how you provide answers is critical to keeping credibility and integrity.

In addition to showing that you care for quality of your responses, you can show that you care about the input of others by asking questions to clarify what is being asked or what will make a decision acceptable. Take the time to understand what a good answer would be, how precise or concrete the details must be, what is at stake in the decision. Being able to clarify the factors that go into your answers and responses is important for being able to defend or justify your position.

This technique of acknowledging ignorance and seeking to understand doesn't just help the quality of decisions, it can actually help ensure you are making forward progress. Breaking big issues into smaller ones, dissecting tasks into dependent steps, is a great way to not get sucked into Analysis Paralysis.

Even in your personal life, if you have a challenge that seems overwhelming, start distilling it into small steps and milestones. Then you can move forward by focusing on just one step at a time.

At work on software projects we use 2 hour increments and daily milestones. Anything more is just too big to digest. By using small units of work, we stay nimble and can celebrate victories more often. Instead of assigning work that takes days, I assign work that takes hours. It takes more effort on my part, but my engineers aren't able to procrastinate. The productivity can stay very high and because I have to understand the work at a much more granular level, the outcomes are easier to predict.

Evidently the music scene in Seattle is cratering at precisely the speed that hot women are moving to that fine city.

This weekend I had an opportunity to visit some friends and as part of a birthday event see a Mickey Avalon show. It was the biggest piece of poser, white-rapper-wannabe, trash I've had the pleasure to dance to. But all the little Britney/Kevin/Ashton/ Jessica impersonators sure seemed to dig the new scene. It was like everyone just pointed at their favorite tabloid photo of random celebrity and said, I'm dressing in THAT outfit tonight. It was more sad and lame than humorous, but we laughed profusely anyway.

Since we were in the pit, my buddy Lane (who remains one of the hottest guys I know) got crawled all over by randomly hot middle-aged women. He was a great sport about ignoring them until they finally took the hint and found other places to rub their breasts and booties.

I spent a very full Friday talking with people about their careers, and then enjoyed a great bachelor party for my friend Greg. For Sunday, I spent most of the day flying around. To round out my weekend, I need a nap, a workout, and maybe a massage. Not necessarily in that order.

There may not be an "I" in TEAM, but there is one in PASSION.

In his book Re-imagine!, author Tom Peters said, "We will win this battle... and the larger war... only when our talent pool is both deep and broad. Only when our organizations are chock-a-block with obstreperous people who are determined to bend the rules at every turn..."

James Surowiecki, is the New Yorker columnist who wrote The Wisdom of Crowds. This compelling book is about how groups of people operate compared to individuals. He sets the context by discussing how many animals and insects increase the sophistication of their behavior by acting in groups. The concept here is that sets of simple interactions following straight-forward rules can produce very complex behaviors. This theory applied to birds is known as flocking. For many insects it is called a swarm.

Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently as possible.
-- The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

After going through the background he then illustrates how all these theories break down when you get to homo sapiens. His premise here is that we present the opposite behavior. Essentially, in contrast to the animal and insect kingdoms, the more interactions that are involved in our behaviors, the less sophisticated and less intelligent the behavior becomes.

All this is not to say that groups cannot be intelligent, it just requires that we aggregate the interactions and don't attempt to reach consolidation or consensus. To put this another way, it means that you should take the average of the individual responses or inputs, don't try and work together to formulate a single answer. He goes into great detail with lots of examples that are very interesting.

He doesn't stop there thought but extrapolates several other ideas as well. For example, if you are aggregating input then you can increase the effectiveness of the group by increasing the diversity of the group.

"Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise. An intelligent group, especially when confronted with cognition problems, does not ask its members to modify their positions in order to let the group reach a decision everyone can be happy with. Instead, it figures out how to use mechanisms--like market prices, or intelligent voting systems--to aggregate and produce collective judgments that represent not what any one person in the group thinks but rather, in some sense, what they all think."

Leaping forward from this it becomes clear that team thinking can lead only to incremental improvements, because it will prevent revolutionary ideas, those thoughts which are by definition outside the group norm.

If you want to create a formidable team then you must acknowledge that the mission of the team is to create a supportive environment for a collection of individuals. Team members must have their own unique voices and perspectives. The team is empowered to encourage the individuals to pursue their own ideas, not to force consensus and keep everything warm and fuzzy.

The saying that "None of us is as good as all of us" is crap. My biggest reward from people I mentor is when I hear them say that not only are they as good as their group but they are actually better at specific thing X or Y. Only then will I know they have the confidence and will to head the lemmings off at the pass when they're all heading off a cliff.

I thought that headline might get your attention.

Lately, I've been fortunate enough to have watched some episodes of a new show called Burn Notice. It is a really well put together piece of entertainment with some pretty decent writing. Not Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip level writing, but noticeably good.

For a job like getting rid of the drug dealer next door, I'll take a hardware store over a gun any day. Guns make you stupid; better to fight your wars with duct tape. Duct tape makes you smart.
-- Michael Weston on the show Burn Notice

Ever since For Love or Money I have been a fan of Gabrielle Anwar. She's not my type if we are speaking about appearances, although she is easy enough on the eyes. No, here spirit and spunk are always radiated in the roles she portrays. It is if even though she is an actress, this thing inside of her always shines through. Something that signals this is me, this is Gabrielle; I may be acting but you know me still.

Her latest role on Burn Notice is no different, but this post isn't about the lovely actress. No instead it is about the character that is written for her: Fiona Glenanne.

Fiona is fiercely independent and fabulously feminine. No matter what craziness is going on, she can handle herself and back up the people she cares about. She knows when to ask for help and she does so clearly and deliberately. Uniquely, she knows when the person she cares about needs her and does what is required without pretense and drama. Her character is woman enough to want to talk about relationships and feelings, but practical enough to set them aside so she can beat up a bad guy, or escape in a high-speed car chase. Just a perfect partner. What is so interesting is that she isn't traditionally submissive or supportive. But then she is.

Michael: Fi, you're here.
Fiona: I came by for a visit. The door was locked so I broke in.
Michael: Fi I'm thrilled that you've come by but Sam and I need to talk about a job so you...
Fiona: Job? Sounds like fun. I'm in!

In the latest episode, you see that she recognizes their partnership and isn't afraid to ask for what she wants. "I wanna help him. Do it for me, Michael."

Michael: I just walked two miles with a twisted ankle. What happened to "Keep the car running"?
Fiona: The car was stolen Michael. Your feds were getting curious. I had a gun in the car. Our little mission was in danger of being compromised so I returned to base.
Michael: And broke in again.
Fiona: I think our little post operation briefing has taught us that you need a car and I need a key to your apartment.
Michael: A key? Aren't you more comfortable breaking in?

When all is said and done, I find that the character of Fiona Glenanne is the most perfect female character I've yet to come across.

From project to project and company to company, the question about how to find great resources, how to interview well and weed the gems from the rough has consistently arisen. This problem is closely related to the situation faced when trying to figure out who to reward and how to measure contributions for individuals in vastly different roles or environments.

Whether evaluating a candidate for a potential fit or comparing two very different but competent engineers, I have found there are two traits that help me separate the wheat and the chaff.

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
-- Anatole France

First off, you can't fake enthusiasm. There is simply no substitute for the intangible value that enthusiasm supplies. Someone who is consistently happy and has only average ability is worth far more than someone who is very skilled but always grumpy or disgruntled.

If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.
-- Vince Lombardi

Ask yourself if you trust that they'll get things done if (and when) you leave them alone. Find out if they're looking to get on your specific bus, or if they are just looking for a ride, any ride. Make sure they can demonstrate passion for both positive and negative things around them. Even the most staid among us can get passionate about things we love or enjoy. But if they are broadly accepting of all annoyances, they probably aren't going to be very creative about working efficiently. If they won't talk about the little things that bother and motivate them, they probably lack that insistence on quality that true performers must have. Likewise, they should be able to articulate why the things they enjoy are enjoyable! If you can't get pin them on both extremes, rest assured their work product won't be either.

Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.
-- Earl Nightingale

The second trait is a follow on to the beauty of passion: inquisitiveness. Given opportunity, do they ask lots of questions? People with passion want to understand problems and propose improvements. The natural state of an evolving mind is to be filled with questions. Smart people, experienced people, know that questions are an imperative prerequisite to understanding. If they don't want to ask questions, they aren't really seeking to understand.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
-- Samuel Johnson

When you observe how someone questions, you see how their mind works. You see the speed with which they assimilate and incorporate new information. You often will see the clues to their biases in the solutions they espouse; you can see how disciplined they are by how they stay on focus or by how rigorously they apply new vocabulary. When questions don't have answers or answers that are incomplete, you can glimpse how they handle frustration, disappointment, and even their own ignorance. One of the quickest and surest ways to gather insight into the mind of another is to watch them learn something new.

Curiosity is idle only to those who fail to realize that it may be a very rare and indispensable thing.
-- James Harvey Robinson

When did it become acceptable to use ignorance as an excuse for incompetence? If you don't know something and you don't put your best effort into learning it, you have no excuse. You are just incompetent.

If you have an opportunity to learn something you need so that your life or your job or your relationship will go smoother or better or more successfully, you should take it. If you don't, you have no one to blame for your failures but yourself. Only a fool spits in the eye of the man holding out a hand to help him.

If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.
-- Mike McDermott from the movie Rounders

As someone who routinely operates in rooms full of above average I'm pretty used to being the sucker. There's no shame in recognizing it and working your butt off so that someday it won't be you. Now having said that, I do think you should be ashamed to be the guy who doesn't even bother glancing around the room to recognize that he is the sucker.

I have no issue with ignorance. It's been my friend and companion for quite some time, and I happily acknowledge mine. Simultaneously I push myself and those around me to stop associating with it as soon as possible. Being ignorant is okay, being unwilling to stop being ignorant is stupid. Making decisions and operating in ignorance is forgivable and often necessary. Continuing in ignorance when other possibilities exist is disgusting and foolish.

Don't disrespect someone who can help you, just because you want to look like you can do it yourself. When you disrespect people who are willing to help you get better, you stop being worthy of their help. Even if you do manage to gain some success on your own, it won't matter. Because no one will like you. And they'll all be within bounds to treat you like the sucker.

An experience with my children this past weekend reminded me of a technique that I've used for some time that I wanted to share with you today.

When trying to get my son to dress himself, he keep picking out things and then deciding he didn't want to wear them. To get some traction I tried something different. I chose two shirts and asked "Do you want to wear this one or that one?" He quickly pointed to one and we were on our way towards being dressed!

The technique here is called Presupposition. Essentially, it lays out a concept that must be accepted as true for a sentence to be understood. For example, if I was to say "Paulo drives fast", there a some things that must be accepted for the sentence to even make sense:

• Paulo must exist.
• Driving is something done by Paulo.
• Some measure of how Paulo drives is possible.

This sounds simplistic (as is true of most truly practical things) but consider the presupposition in the sentence "Will that be cash or credit?" This sentence presupposes that you will be paying. What a great way to get the notion of paying to be accepted by a potential buyer!

What makes this powerful is linking a concept that you'd like to be accepted as true, with neutral topics or choices that presuppose the acceptance of that concept.

To demonstrate, let's start with the sentence "Using web services will save development time." Out of the gate, this is a sentence that is easy to argue about. But if we add some presuppositions it softens the blow: "You may be aware of how much development time will be saved by using web services."

The phrasing with the word "aware" enhances the acceptance of this sentence. You may be aware of it or you may not be aware of it, but we've already presupposed that using web services will save development time.

Another great word is "already". Let's improve our sentence even further: "You may already have started to become aware of how much development time will be saved by using web services."

Notice how adding more and more presuppositions can build the pattern of yes, yes, yes as it is understood so that the final yes can just fall right out. Building in presuppositions allows you to get to a state of acceptance quickly.

Of course, none of that matters unless you have some rapport to begin with and the content is ultimately acceptable. In cases where you are stuck arguing about the window-dressing, this will help you get to a real discussion about the cost of the house that much quicker. In cases where you don't want to discuss the house quite yet, this will help you keep the conversation about the window-dressing until you are ready to introduce the cost of the house.

So evidently know I'm a Certified ScrumMaster. Yay.

You have to attend a two-day course, which if you are lucky like I am, will be with your friends. During the course, you get to practice your Scrum skills and take turns beating on each other to reinforce the principles of competitive cooperation. It was a fantastic course.

Much of the course principles were things I already had lots of exposure to, but there were some neat techniques in the course delivery that I thought were really first rate. It has been some time since I was in the instructor seat and such a hands-on course was a good refresher for me. The instructor Michael James is a little zen, but did an excellent job modeling the behaviors for the class.

If you haven't taken a Scum course, I highly recommend the training. Even if you don't intend to follow an adaptive methodology, the teaming can be reliably executed in almost any environment.

As a very frequent traveler, I get to participate in those little near-death flying experiences more often than most. There is something about being in the back of a steel-can at 30 thousand feet bouncing around with the lights flashing and thunder crashing, totally surrendering control to the elements and the hands of a stranger.

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
-- Luke 24:36-37

In reality there are few times in recent memory that I can remember vivid fear. The kind where you might border on calling it terror. Even when I get that jolt of shock that translates to fear from losing control that rarely escalates to sustained dread. Of course, perhaps that is just because of the relatively safe life I lead.

How do you deal with fear? Uncertainty? When you hear the sound of your own heart beating in your ears, how do you handle it? For my own self, I find prayer and reflection the sure cure. Remembering my own mortality has never been a chore for me. And with the trials in my life, I've long ago resigned myself that those in my life will continue peacefully and successfully without me. That has certainly been harder, but oh what peace it affords.

It also helps that I keep my life insurance paid up.

This past week has just been a ridiculous whirlwind of experiences. Here's a quick recap:

• Sick on Tuesday.
  
• Vegas on Wednesday.
• Airline canceled the flight, then re-routed through Phoenix on Thursday.
• Sick on Friday.
• Seattle for SeaFair on Saturday.
• Pikes Place Market, ferry ride, and flight to Newport Beach on Sunday.
• Still sick on Monday.

There are many pictures, even more great stories, and some new friends. The best are the great stories which resulted in new friends.

Next up...healing.