“How we can,” versus “why we can’t” (Influence Part 1)

I absolutely love that quote (and the idea behind it). Instead of focusing on excuses or reasons you can’t make something happen, keep searching for ways to do it. Look for opportunities, not limitations. There are already enough people in the world who are ready and willing to tell you how something can’t be accomplished. Let’s work on cultivating more people that look for ways you can be successful. I have a recent example that touches on this to help hammer it home.

None of the above

(By the way, I’ll go ahead and admit that I’m sometimes guilty of this, so I’m preaching to the choir with this one!)

Often times someone will bring two options to their manager to make a decision.

• Option A will be their own idea. Their pride and joy. And they will spin it to sound like it is the most brilliant idea ever concocted, even if it has some number of negative side effects.
• Option B will be a terrible idea that nobody would agree with.

As an example: we can either change to this new insurance provider (my idea!) or we can stop providing insurance to our employees and let them all die of horrible diseases before the week is over with (terrible idea).

Make sense? Good.

The point is the employee knows that offering one really great option and one really poor option is going to force the manager to choose. However, the good manager will turn it back on the employee with a response of “none of the above.”

Managers, if you want to do it right, here’s the game plan: Instead of settling for two less-than-ideal options, ask for more. Push them to give you three, four, or five options; ask for at least one more viable idea to level the playing field. Ask why they settled on offering just two. Don’t let them get away with trying to push their own agenda if there is a better option still available.

Again, this illustration is centered around asking your staff to do more than the bare minimum. Don’t let them assume something can’t be done. Don’t let them get away with listing reasons/excuses for why something isn’t possible. Ask them to go further and look at “how we can” options, even if they are a bit far-fetched. You never know when one of those ideas could fit perfectly.

So, confession time. Anyone else out there guilty of either jumping onto the “why we can’t” bandwagon? Or maybe some of you need to challenge your people with more “none of the above” choices? I’d love to hear some stories!