Raising issues with your leader or your team can be tough—too many ideas may overwhelm, confuse or burden them unnecessarily, or it might intimidate you. Russ Smidt from MTS created a tool to help you present problems to your leader or team effectively.
- What’s the issue? How do you get this down to a sentence
- What’s the options? why are options important?
- What’s your recommendation?
- What’s the concrete next step?
- How do you get the issue down to a sentence?
- Why are the options important?
- Why does it need to be a paper and not merely a conversation?
- The potential dangers
- Who needs to be one who writes it
- What is the difference between this and coaching tools?
Russ is the Director of Training with the Ministry Training Strategy
TOOLBOX:
The Ministry Training Strategy
Reach Australia Coaching
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TRANSCRIPT:
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
G’day.I’m Pete Hughes and you have clicked on The One Thing.Our podcast is only give you one solid practical tip for Gospel Centre ministry.Every week The One Thing is brought to you by Reach Australia and we would love to see thousands of healthy, evangelistic and multiplying churches and we want to see teams working together well.
0:28
And today we’ve got a tool that we think will help.We’re here with Russ Schmidt, who is the director of training with MTS.Welcome Russ.Have I got the title right?Yeah, that’s that’ll do.That’ll do.Wait, you, you live in Canberra at the moment?
0:43
What’s how long you been living there?We’ve been here in Canberra for about 12 years, so almost long enough to be a local.Yeah, OK.What, what, what is the one thing that you actually love about living in Canberra?Cos I know a lot of people go they they diss Canberra and they go who would live there?
1:01
But what’s one thing you love about Canberra?Yeah, well, Canberra’s been home.It’s also like every other city in Australia, yet unlike any other city in Australia.But I’ve loved the change of pace that comes in Canberra, the accessibility to being outside when it’s not super duper cold, and we’ve loved that together as a family here over the last decade and a bit.
1:31
Excellent, excellent.Well, we’re going to hear a bit more about a tool that you’ve developed and, but let me just tell people for now, you press the play on another episode of The One Thing.How do you bring a problem to your leader?Today’s podcast is brought to you by Church Suite, versatile, easy to use software helping you stay organised in your Kingdom pursuit, trusted by thousands of churches, always improving, passionately supported and here to stay.
1:57
Head to churchsuite.com/AU.And now back to the podcast.Now, Ross, as a staff team and I, I think you particularly had a lot to do with this.You’ve developed a tool called a work paper.Now I just want to be clear before we get too far into this.
2:15
A lot of people will hear work paper and think, particularly if you’re from an accounting background that means a particular thing, but you’ve actually developed it’s something it’s, it’s an acronym.What is a work?Paper.Yeah, Before we get into what the acronym is, it’s a tool to help you to bring a problem with a solution to a person or a team who’s responsible for making a decision about that or for helping you to make a decision about that.
2:43
And so as an acronym WORK well, maybe the K should be ACI go with K, but we can talk about that later.W what’s the issue?O options.R recommendation.
3:00
K concrete action.That’s depending on how you spell concrete, but.Yes, that’s right.It’s a personal strategy for turning problem based thinking into a solution based response.That’s a work paper.
3:16
OK, so where did this come from?Like, why did you feel that you needed to come up with this particular tool?It came about as I landed in the MTS theme three years ago.It was the first time in a long time where I was serving in a team where the boss was not me and an issue had come up.
3:40
I can’t remember what it was, and I drafted my first very long email to the national director and I paused before sending it and went, is this an email that he wants to receive?No.
3:58
You know what can I just pause right there and go?That is such a great question to ask before you even get into the the tool for if you’re because the national director is your direct bot, like your line manager, your direct boss to stop and go.Is this actually an email that they need to read?
4:15
I think it’s just such a great question.But yes, sorry, continue on with the story.So stopped, didn’t press send.Smart piece of very, very wise thing to do.What did you do next?Yeah, I thought I can create some headings, I can use some bold, let’s create some headings.
4:33
And that was probably still not headed in a helpful direction, but still is not really something he wants to read.Now it’s just communicating even more length because it’s got headings and white space.
4:48
Oh, this really is long, but it needs 6 chapter headings.And so I sat back and went, what am I responsible for here?What’s going to help my boss, the national director?
5:05
And I thought a solution, Well, not a solution, a recommendation, because it wasn’t my decision to make the thing, but it was to bring a decision about the issue that I’d identified.And I love a good acronym.
5:22
And work fell out pretty quickly as I looked at the content of this long email and what was probably 1200 words ended up 4 or 500 words and 1 clear sentence in bold that had a recommended solution.
5:44
I think we’re here now because the boss actually did like receiving this email and he has me writing work papers all the time.Because this has been a pattern that you guys as a team have really picked up and you continued on with some of those things.
6:01
Can you give me an example of one in action?Give me give me an example of you know, here is here is one that you’ve actually kind of worked through.Yeah, this is one we worked with just today, this morning, it was making a decision about one of our conferences and it’s not a here’s a complex one.
6:17
It’s not a clear, oh, here’s the issue, let’s work on.This is something that had been discussed several times over the last few months in a couple of meetings in corridor conversations, Those complex pieces to it that had already gone backwards and forwards and we’ll probably a little bit bogged in it and deadlines about it are starting to come up.
6:43
And all of us had lost any real enthusiasm.And so one of the team grabbed the issue.What’s the issue?After we’d become really bogged, was able to put the issue in one sentence.
6:59
It was really two phrases.And that was really helpful for it to be captured so clearly.Where were we at?What is the issue?Five options were brought.It wasn’t just do this or do this, even though in discussions we might have just been weighing up with two, perhaps the thing where we’d always been headed or the option that we wanted to do.
7:27
But this brought 5 good options.And the options work really, really well when you can argue for an option that might not be your favourite or different to what we’ve done, not necessarily to end up going into that direction and we’re not trying to just create papers that waste time.
7:47
But in engaging with that option can make your options much, much clearer the the costs and the opportunities of it.The recommendation that came out of this work paper today was a recommendation in a different direction to where we had been headed before and where we were probably leaning towards.
8:10
And it particularly through working these options out identified a better option that is more connected, more focused on our longer term vision and mission of MTS.So we had a meeting about it today.
8:26
I’m quite excited about it and the team optimistic because we could see in the concrete action, the clear next action, the clear next thing that we needed to do.And when when it came to the question, can we do this, it was overwhelmingly yes.
8:48
Now, you’ve talked about writing the paper, but I it sounded like maybe I’ve got the, the story not quite clear in my head, but it sounded like that was a discussion that you guys had as a team.Is it something you’ve got to write down, or is it just a framework in which to think about how to deal with this issue?
9:06
Yeah, very important to write it down.It does build up a discipline over time for thinking in this way, but one person working on it ahead of time will bring a better consideration of the options with the costs and the opportunities And a recommendation.
9:28
It’s not the solution.Umm, we might come back around to that in a moment.It’s just a recommendation.Umm.And yeah, that being done beforehand, the, the disciplined thinking of writing it down in a paper.
9:47
Umm yeah, achieves several things that then serve the team.Yeah, I was wondering whether the precision of having to write it was a big thing.But let’s let’s come to the recommendation step there.I actually also want to talk about what’s the the most difficult step of it, but just for a moment with the recommendation, what happens if I, I, I write my work paper, I’ve got a recommendation.
10:09
I go, this is where I want to go, but my recommendation isn’t the one that’s picked.Does that become a problem?It need not become a problem.Now, there’s all kinds of internal things that may be going on for you about your recommendation, but the whole purpose of the paper is to bring a recommendation, and you are not responsible for that decision.
10:36
Or you might be just one of the people who are responsible for that decision.It is just a recommendation.We might get on to talking about some of the ways in which the paper can be misused, and it certainly shouldn’t be used to lobby for a position rather than to lead to a solution.
10:56
Sure.OK, well, let’s talk about how.How else could it you, you’ve already mentioned could be misused to lobby you want to push a particular agenda.Are there other ways that this tool could be misused?Yeah, one that comes to mind is the paper becomes a rule rather than a tool, and everything over time can be oriented roundabout producing the paper more so than the importance of the disciplined thinking that goes into it.
11:28
The worst thing would this for for work paper templates to be printed out on an A5 piece of paper and you tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.Here’s my recommendation option #2 and you’ve never actually put the considered thinking into all the options.
11:46
And so I’m alert to going, oh, somebody got a work paper for that.Oh, Yep, there’s a work paper tick.So there’s a, there’s a recommendation.Let’s just go with the recommendation.And whatever is writing the paper.And then whatever’s in the paper, well, leads into a second problem.
12:03
The paper becomes a consent agenda rather than considered agreement.So wouldn’t want to then have a meeting with five work papers or we go oh Yep, we’re happy with all them tick and flick.It’s not a consent agenda, considered agreement.
12:20
It leads us to a recommendation so that we can make a decision together on do we want to go with the recommendation?Because the recommendation then becomes the decision, the solution.That is the responsibility not of the person who wrote the paper.Their responsibility is to bring a recommendation, responsibility to make the decision.
12:40
I I, yeah, I was going to say I think that’s one of the great strengths to this tool is that you’re actually, you know, particularly if you’re leading up, so to speak.So you’re taking this to your boss and you’re saying, hey, here is an issue, here is my recommendation, but you’re not taking the decision out of they’re not taking away their power.
12:58
You’re still saying this is your decision.Here is how I think I would make the decision.Here are some other options, but you need to make that decision.So, but you’re giving making that as easy as possible, which I think is just amazing.So yeah.Absolutely.It works best in leading up, and it might even be that the decision is your own responsibility, but you’d like some help in making that decision so you can use it that way.
13:22
Which brings me to the final problem I can see with the paper.This is from experience that the paper becomes a delegated task rather than in a delivered gift.We should be really careful about asking somebody else to write a work paper, particularly if it’s our issue.
13:42
This this is a a tool to help us clarify our thinking and communicate a recommendation to an issue.I I don’t think it can work by saying, hey, can you write me a work paper on my issue?
14:01
So it’s always, yeah, not a delegated task, but a delivered gift.Yeah, then you’ve got to play what’s going on in Russ’s head today and I’ve got to work that out.In terms of what the issue, do you reckon actually working out what the issue is?Do you reckon that’s the hardest part of the whole process?Ha, absolutely.
14:18
Yeah, I I think it’s actually where the real gold is.And as we’ve used other coaching tools and mentoring things where, now how and all that kind of thing, one of our great weaknesses is being clear on where we are now, what’s the issue?
14:35
And my observation for myself and watching others wrestle with these work papers is the hardest step is writing down the issue in one or two sentences.But often when you get that, the options and the recommendation flow out so much more clearly.
14:56
Sure does.Just so that I understand it, does your team ever two people actually deliver work papers on the same issue or they’ve at least kind of identified as an issue, but they’ve identified it differently?Or is it just generally one person delivers, I’ve got the issue, let me just sort of deliver this.
15:14
Is that how that works?Yeah, I’ve only seen it used individually.Right.OK, Yeah.And I hadn’t thought about getting two people to write work papers on the on the same issue.Because it’s really the discussion afterwards that’s that it’s, it’s, it’s basically giving a discipline to that discussion of here is an issue.
15:35
We need to kind of sort this out.And it’s creating that discipline there to be able to have that conversation.So yeah, it would make sense that it’s just one person.I just thought, oh, I, I, yeah, I don’t know.I’m still trying to work this out.So yeah, I’ll give that one a bit more of a ponder, but I love it when we decide on an an outcome that is not the recommendation that is actually.
16:00
Why?Why do you love that work?One, because we’ve engaged with the issue at the decision making stage rather than going consent agenda, we’ve engaged with that and every time I’ve seen that happen, it has been a good solution.
16:18
It’s been a good decision and we’ve only gotten to that because somebody has given us all the options.There will be also people that will bring extra information into that that the, umm, the author of the work paper might not have had.
16:34
But that’s the whole reason it gets us on this, on this stage of coming up with a solution.Umm, the other reason I like it and love this one is when we identify another option through talking about it together.
16:51
And where that usually is not a, oh, let’s compromise.Let’s go between these two.Or although it’s actually too hard, let’s take the easiest solution.It’s often identifying, let’s here’s a harder path, but a better, better way forwards for us.
17:09
That’s great decision making together in a in a team of two or or wider.Excellent.Now, when we discussed this with our production team, someone pointed out, oh, this sounds very similar to another tool that’s used in our coaching programme at Reach Australia called Grow, which is working out the goal, the reality, the options, what’s next?
17:31
You, you know, the, the grow tool, what, what’s the difference between grow and work?You know, they’re both four letter acronyms.So we’ll say, you know, they’ve got some commonalities, but what’s the difference?I think I I I’d sum it up this way.Grow is a wonderful tool for coaching.
17:50
A work paper is a tool for communication, as as we use Grow for coaching others or even coaching yourself.Thinking the GROW, it identifies a goal and commits to a course of action.
18:09
But as a tool for communication, the work paper is about identifying an issue and bringing a clear recommendation for discussion.One for coaching, one for communication.Sure.OK.So, yeah, so 1, the outcome really is helping someone else work out what their goal is, what they’re working through.
18:29
The other one is the work paper is actually helping me with an issue and I need help with my team to come to a great decision on that.That’s really helpful.And so the emphasis I think there is on the recommendation rather than the concrete action.We don’t want to I, I, I include the concrete action so that we can start to get a sense of the implications of the recommendation, the implications for the decision we’re going to make, because those in making decision might not be able to see all those things all the way through.
18:59
And so the goal of the work paper is less so the next action, the what’s next, but that recommendation.So if you don’t know what someone’s recommendation is going to be, what might a concrete action look like when you’re writing the?
19:14
Paper, this is a place where they can get a little bit confused.I get confused myself here is that sometimes I’ll write the concrete next action is for us to discuss this and make a decision.OK, and that’s helpful to say what is it we’re going to do?
19:33
But then stepping out a couple of other concrete actions, if we go through with this decision, so that we can appreciate the implication of it.Right.Would part of the the concrete action may also be the here is what’s at stake in this decision.
19:51
Yeah, I don’t know whether that fits into the the the process at all, but sometimes it might be helpful to go.Here’s what happens when we get this wrong, so.Yeah, yeah.Draw most of that up into the options so that if if the options is do nothing, stay the same.Go course A, go course B.
20:09
To put good thought there into what are the, what are the costs, what are the opportunities, what are the implications there so that we’ve really considered those things.They’re not just brainstorming the options, we really are considering those options, but then clarifying that down in the concrete next action.
20:30
Sure, Ross.If there was a staff team that were perhaps listening to this at the moment I went yeah, this is a tool we need to get into our team to help us be a bit more organised, work a little bit harder at communication.What advice would you give a whole team to this?I’d start with individuals.
20:50
Just start using it.It’s a tool that improves the way that you communicate, and it’s a tool that will hopefully help you think about solutions to problems and issues that you have, whether the boss likes it or not.
21:08
You can still use it, just just implement it.I think it’s something.Also, while you can teach it, the best way is to model it.Use it, show people how you use it, show how it helps you.It might not actually help some people.I’m sure it’ll help a lot of people.
21:26
All right, let’s Ross, let’s get to the one thing.And I, I have been trying to emphasise it’s one thing.What is the one thing that that you’ve got out of using this tool?Clarity to think and communicate solutions in the face of problems.
21:44
And isn’t that such an important thing to do as a part of a team that’s seeking to make the gospel known?Ross, thanks so much for joining us.I really appreciate the, the, the work you put into this tool, but also the work that you and the rest of the MTS team are doing around the country and around the world.Actually, because MTS Global is, is kicking off in the toolbox today.
22:04
We’ve got a few things.I’ll make sure there’s a link to MTS so that you find out a little bit more about their work.I think we’ve got an example of that tool.Russell will be able to provide us with that example there.And I’ll also put in a link to I, I mentioned something about our coaching.
22:19
We will be able to find out a bit more about that.Ross, once again, thanks so much for joining us.It’s been great fun.Thanks, Pete.Now, if you found this a really helpful episode, can I encourage you to share it, share it maybe with your team, share it with someone that you think may be helpful.
22:37
This may be helpful for you may want to share it with another team that you go, hey, this is something that we that you may find helpful as well.But if there’s anything that we can do to help you, make sure you email us resources at reachaustralia.com dot AU.I’m Pete Hughes.
