Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

Framework

Negotiations

by

If you have a job, you’re a negotiator. Here are some examples:

  • Vendor contracts & relationships
  • Product sales
  • Performance reviews
  • Starting a new initiative
  • Cross-functional projects
  • Scheduling time on the calendar of a high-level person

Some of these negotiations are easy and some are hard, but they’re all scenarios where 2 or more people have different contexts and are seeking outcomes that may coincide a little, a lot, or not at all.

Being a good negotiator requires preparation and strategy. It means knowing what you want ahead of time. It means understanding what the other person wants and figuring out how to align their goals with yours. It requires being a great communicator – actively listening, precisely articulating, and diligently executing.

If you go unprepared into a situation that looks like a negotiation, don’t be too surprised if things don’t come out exactly as you’d hope (unless your goals overlap almost perfectly with the other negotiating parties).

Luck and shortcuts

by

Between the origin and the destination, shortcuts are an oasis in the desert. They’re a sleight of hand. A prestige.

Luck is a tailwind. It’s a cloud when the sun is hottest. A mist when the climate is driest.

When you take shortcuts, you wind up needing to start over again and retracing steps. Shortcuts require you alter your course. They’re a distraction from the end goal.

When luck shows up, it enhances what you’re already doing. It’s encouragement to keep moving boldly ahead. It’s unexpected and welcome.

Neither luck nor shortcuts are dependable.

When you set out to do something, it’s not so crazy to believe you might get lucky, but watch out for shortcuts.

In the middle

by

As long as we can remember, we’ve been in the middle of something. Often we’re hoping for the future to bring some outcome or arrival that has some finality to it. Or we may be lamenting about the past; things we wish we would have done or wish we could get back.

This will always be the case. There is never a moment of your life when you’re not in the middle of something.

It’s the hoping for the future and lamenting the past that we can decide to turn off when it doesn’t serve us. That may make it a little easier to decide what to do next.

The Way

by

Here’s how I think about helping a team develop:

  • Move something out of their way
  • Show them a different way
  • Put something in their way

It’s not about telling people which fork in the road to take, it’s about revealing the fork and letting them decide which is the right path for them.

The 1 Minus

by

In the world of probabilities there is a concept of 1 minus, as in 1 minus the probability of something happening is the probability that something will not happen. For example, if there is a 34% chance your initiative will work, there is a 1 minus 34% – or 66% chance – something will not work. I get it, math is hard.

But this concept is useful beyond probabilities.

It helps reveal the contrary perspective in other problems too, like company culture. This dawned on me while reading What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz. Mr. Horowitz reminds us that when we’re building a culture we can choose concepts that sound positive, but we need to also think about how those traits may be weaponized.

For example, if you say your culture is ‘Flexible,’ that sounds really good – like you’re a lean adaptive group. But at some point, asking people to be flexible all the time is pretty much the same as saying “do what I say and don’t complain about it.”

Sounds pretty rigid to me.

This is further complicated because company cultures have all kinds of traits they’re trying to embody. As the concepts layer on top of each other, it gets trickier and trickier to tease out the underlying implications.

Of course, the goal isn’t perfection, its awareness. We can’t be perfect so if we’re aware that there are layers and nuance to how we live a culture, that’s a great start. Not to having a perfect company culture, but working toward one that doesn’t reward the 1 minus of it’s attributes.