In the last lesson you were asked to demonstrate your skill in PTO. Now check if you were able to PTO as instructed.
The orange you were asked to peel was:
Resolve the PTO paradox in 111 words.
The most important instruction for you to follow in this PTO was the specification of 111 words. You were not to know that, of course. In PTO one never really knows because one doesn’t get the opportunity to discuss things, as one does in normal situations.
One of the benefits of PTO, provided you have a skilled leadership team, is that anyone in the team can give anyone else in the team a PTO and it is done without question or discussion. This has advantages of speed, efficiency and effectiveness when the team is striving for a mutual objective. But it is not easy and does take PRR to produce a high level of PTO skill.
Obviously, so early in a leadership training sequence, one is not expected to get the ‘right’ answer as much as one is expected to just try and practise the skills.
DFQ #15:
What is the biggest insight about PTO that you have had so far as you’ve been doing these past few lessons?
Understand the task and complete it
Completed the exercise in almost 111
My biggest insight is : close enough good enough
PTO is all about efficiency of learning and goal achievement. There must be a level of trust between the individuals involved – trust in the judgment and wisdom of others. And belief that everybody is moving in the same direction for well-considered reasons.
And yes, I completed the last PTO exercise in precisely 111 words.
The most critical insight is to understand the spirit of the instruction and
then accomplish the task. Without getting under the skin of the
instruction follow up action would go off target and may not achieve
the desired result.
The biggest insight to me is that to be effective a person must be able to follow instructions in all their detail if this is necessary to achieve a desired objective.
True leadership is about understanding how to take orders before you can learn how to give them. This means, to lead, you must know your followers.
Perhaps this is the downfall of business processes that are designed to “be better” (for all sorts of reasons) – those who lead don’t know how to follow first, so they can’t phrase the order to PTO. Business leaders are often stuck in the “I know better than you because I’m your manager” mentality. The shift towards “we all know as much (as little) as each other” still requires leadership, as there is still a direction in which the team needs to move. Leadership from within is understanding how to take as well as give orders.
The last exercise was a great example of how the command could be achieved in multiple ways. No two submissions used the same words but most of them achieved the desired outcome.
Key learning – when asking someone to peel the orange be as clear as you can be on the outcome you want. ‘I want a whole orange with no skin on it!’ That’s what success looks like.
My response the the 111 question has reminded me of the importance of the order. The command must be exactly right. And that includes: being the right order for the situation; being phrased exactly right; the person being ordered to do “it” has to understand the order, have the resources to carry it out and been trained to obey; the order has to be resistant to alteration – deliberate or unintentional – if it is being transmitted through intermediaries.
As we were taught: orders have to be “idiot-proof” for even the smartest of idiots.
I actually thought the pto was not only the 111 but also the resolution. PTOs are great and have their benefits, and I get the “just do it” idea. However, without more detailed parameters the pto can end up being time consuming and ineffective.
There are always lessons learnt from mistakes, but I believe there is always time to nut out as many problems or misinterpretations that may occur, within reason, prior to issuing a pto. This is the ultimate thinking on your feet.
PRR greatly enhances the skill set needed for PTO. Once attained, these skills increase the efficiency and effectiveness of carrying out instructions.
The greater skill would also be noting or identifying when PTO is required and necessary, separating this from using one’s sovereignty as a thinker.
To ensure that instruction is followed appropriately to ensure the Team and the organisation gets the right result. I feel taking direction is a form of structure that needs to be given to all Members of the team. It keeps us all in line….