“One of the things we should do in any interaction is picture who is going to do what and by when. And if we can’t picture that, we’ve got to ask the question and get clear.”

How often do we think we are on the same page with our colleagues—only to find out a little (or a lot) later that we had our wires completely crossed? Unclear agreements are incredibly common. In fact, one could say that most of the agreements that we make at work are at least partially unclear. And these unclear agreements don’t just lead to poor performance and inefficiency—they also erode trust in a big way. In this episode, Kari and Paul show you how to design your agreements so that everything is crystal clear, nothing slips through the cracks, and trust is maintained from start to finish.

In This Episode:

1:49 — What does it look like to make a clear agreement?

4:17 — Bringing curiosity into our conversations for agreement

5:30 — Defining the “criteria for success”

9:56 — The tendency to want to do things on our own

12:00 — Being able to own it when the agreement go sideways

13:04 — The “cycle of agreements”

15:52 — Agreements are produced bilaterally, not unilaterally

Quotes:

“One of the things we should do in any interaction is picture who is going to do what and by when. And if we can’t picture that, we’ve got to ask the question and get clear.” 

“There may be a possibility of something happening, but that does not mean there is an agreement that it will happen. So we need to make sure there is a solid agreement: who, what, by when, and according to what criteria?” 

“Deciding that ‘I just want to do this on my own’ may be a function of not putting the effort in ahead of time to create a complete agreement that sets people up for success.” 

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Links:

Kari’s Website

Paul’s Website

Contact The Granger Network

Paul’s Other Podcast: Your Business Your Wealth 

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Acknowledgements:
Our work is mosaic art. We read, study, and practice many philosophies, methodologies, and modalities of human performance, to ensure that our approach best serves our clients. We would like to acknowledge all of the thought leaders and organizations, whose ground-breaking work has influenced the TGN Consulting approach – especially Fernando Flores, Jim Selman, Michael C. Jensen, Julio Olalla, Pluralistic Networks, The Newfield Network, and the Strozzi Institute.

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