Diary of a CEO

It has been several months since diving into this best selling book by Steven Bartlett. Here are the "sticky" concepts that have stayed with me and continue to bounce around in my brain.

1. Beliefs & Never Disagreeing: Beliefs are stubborn thoughts that we don't choose in the moment - you either believe something or you don't. They evolved as a way for our brains to quickly establish patterns and make decisions for our survival. Beliefs are created from exposure to evidence, however, that evidence can be subjective and biased to our personal (and perhaps limited) experience. This is to say the evidence is not necessarily true, therefore our beliefs are not necessarily true. None-the-less these beliefs create a story about ourselves and others, and they are difficult to change.

   
   

   Related to this concept Bartlett goes on to write that beliefs can be changed in yourself and others. If this is your goal, you must first find common ground and "You must never disagree". This is a law from later in the book explaining that agreement neurologically keeps a brain open to change. In contrast, disagreement makes it impossible to change a belief.

   
   

   Fascinating. Reflecting on this, I can recall negotiations becoming more productive when reminding all parties about a shared goal. It prompts the question: During the next high-stakes debate or argument, will I maintain the poise to pause, identify the core disagreement, and then re-frame the conversation about a common goal?

   
   

   Additionally, it reminded me that we need to be responsible for our emerging beliefs. We need to remember that the evidence feeding our belief may not necessarily be true. You are likely observing a snap shot in time, through your personal lens, and with limited context. This is a thought grounded to a similar well-known concept, the Ladder of Inference.

   
   
   
   

2. Cognitive Dissonance: This is the internal conflict when there is a separation from your actions and who you want to be. I am a victim of this conflict. The vision of who I want to be - as an employee, father, leader, athlete, and a husband are unrealistic. I fall short often. In fact, by reaching my vision in one role it often sacrifices my performance in another.

   
   

   I survive this conflict by reminding myself that the journey of achieving this vision is what is important - the process is paramount, not the result. I'm grateful that Bartlett provided such a clear definition of cognitive dissonance. By naming this inner struggle, I feel more empowered to live with it productively.

3. Expanding Job Evaluation Criteria: Bartlett highlighted the importance of evaluating a job based on the learning opportunities it provided, and health and wellness support/alignment.

   
   

   This concept was first introduced to me by Phillip Edgell in the Greater Vancouver Emerging Leaders course. He proposed that it is more beneficial to reflect on your experiences based on what you learned, not what you did. This orientation towards a learning perspective is something I'm excited to work at in the future.

   
   

4. Accelerating Rate of Change: The book reference information from Ray Kurzwell (futurist):

   
   

   "If you are 10 years old today, by the time you are 60 years old, you will experience todays equivalent of a year's worth of change, in 11 days. In the 21'st century, today's equivalent of 20,000 years of change will occur."

   
   

   A eye-opening thought that hit me like a bucket of water to the face. On further reflection, this strengthens my belief that the important skills of the future are not going to be knowledge based, rather change-based. Your beliefs and attitude toward change, learning (and unlearning) will drive success.

   
   

5. Incremental Improvements: 1% improvement over time create huge dividends. Small improvements add up over time.

   
   

   This law reminded me a one of my favourite quotes, "Good is the enemy of great". The idea originally attributed to Voltaire, that striving for perfection can cause stagnation, delays and procrastination. The time spent waiting for a perfect solution lets an unproductive system eat away a efficiency and culture, creating a cumulatively large negative impact.

   
   

   Conversely, a series of small improvements creates a cumulatively large positive impact over time. Plus, this approach helps organizations train their 'innovation muscles' and develop a positive orientation toward change. Small incremental improvements should not be delayed if at all possible.

   
   

6. Failure Performance Indicators (FPIs): The book speaks to measuring failure with tangible FPIs, and rewarding FPIs as positive indicators of job performance.

   
   

   For me, despite my natural inclinations, I strive to embrace failure as a positive. For most part successfully, so this resonates with me. However, extracting valuable lessons from failure can be challenging. Emotional responses, ego vulnerability, or surrounding stress can make it impossible to constructively process learnings. This belief brings out the skeptic in me. I ask myself:

   
   

   What type of failure is Bartlett talking about?

   
   

   Is this for an strategic failure, such as an ad campaign not meeting a revenue target? Or are these really the messy communication or personal judgement failures?

   
   

   Might this be a practice that is trumpeted loud by leadership, but not fully embraced through the mid and lower levels of their organization?

   
   

   When a FPI report is published is there a collective eye-roll with managers?

   
   

   Despite my skepticism, I recognize that my messy failures linger with me. That prompts reflection, and that ultimately leads to learning. I am open to the notion that organizations can formalize and reward failure in its many forms. However, Bartlett's system it is so novel that it falls into "seeing is believing" territory.

   
   

7. Level 1 and Level 2 Decisions: Bartlett offers a simple way to be bold with making decisions with uncertainty. He suggests categorizing decisions into level 1 or level 2.

   
   

   A level 1 decision is a 'one-way-door', once you walk through going back is very difficult. These decisions require careful deliberation, research and contingency plans. Level 2 decisions are 'two-way-doors', they are easily reversible. These decisions allow for experimentation and rapid iteration. When these arise organizations should act quickly, then learn and adjust.

   
   

   It has been interesting to categorize my recent recommendations and projects into these levels as a reflective exercise, and to keep these categories in mind going forward.

   
   

8. Free Access: Steven Bartlett widely shared this book across various platforms, often for free. When I poked around to further unpack some of the above ideas, I found meaningful discussions on YouTube and podcasts, in some cases it was Steven reading the book word-for-word. There were few barriers to access this information.

   
   

   Not long ago, authors and publishers protected their intellectual property behind paywalls, albeit futilely. With the democratization of knowledge, Bartlett has chosen to freely disseminate his ideas.

   
   

   Great for us, but I'm interested to understand the ROI strategy of his approach. I suspect this book is a component in a broader strategy, and I'm curious about the specifics. Is this book primarily a marketing tool to higher margin businesses like Flight Story or Social Chain? Is this an altruistic endeavor to share his 'secret sauce', inspired by gratitude? Or, like another law from the book, is this his solidifying his own learnings through the Feynman technique?

A Diary of a CEO packaged complex concepts into understandable laws that allowed me to better frame my own thoughts and actions on personal and organizational growth. Several months later, the above concepts still linger - a good sign that Bartlett's work has made an impact.