The Different Tools Required To Tell, Sell, Test, Consult, Co-Create
Not all tools work on all problems. Years ago, Bryan Smith laid out a tell-sell-test-consult-co-create framework. It's useful in all sorts of different situations. Just remember to lead differently in those different situations:
Tell with clarity of direction and the basics of delegation
Telling is delegating. As laid out in my earlier article on Digging into the Art of Delegation, the basics of delegation include:
Sell with strength of persuasion and the basics of positioning
Selling is persuading. Think in terms of strategic selling and pivot off your positioning to the person you're trying to persuade. The basics of positioning are:
Test with real openness to what you get back and the 4/6/90 rule
As one CEO explained to me, 90% of the decisions in the organization would be made by others and he had to support them. 4% of decisions were his to make and he expected others to support his choices. 6% of decisions were shared.
Thus, you can only truly test the 6% of choices that are shared. 'Testing' the 4% of decisions you've already made or are going to make yourself is disingenuous. 'Testing' the 90% of decisions others make is intrusive.
Consult by ratcheting up your current best thinking
The heart of Roger Neill's current best thinking approach starts with the best one person or a group can do on its own. It then calls for explicitly inviting others to add their knowledge and perspective to ratchet it up to a new 'current best' level. This is somewhere between starting with a 'straw man' proposal that you don't believe in or trying to persuade others to accept your fully-baked proposal. It allows you to be open to new ideas without being defensive in any way.
Co-create by leveraging the rules of improvisational theater
As previously discussed in my article on When and How to Tell, Co-Create, or Delegate, at best, telling yields compliance. If you want contribution, sell, test, or consult. If you want people to commit. They have to co-create.
The rules of improvisational theater work well for this with slight adjustments. Let me suggest three core rules with a slew of sub-rules:
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