WEBVTT - Second Cup: Begin by thinking about the end

0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:09.440
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:16.520
<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.920
<v Speaker 1>tip is that whenever you are about to begin a project,

0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.919
<v Speaker 1>think about the end of it. Today's tip, like some

0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.680
<v Speaker 1>other recent ones, was inspired by the book The Friction Project,

0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.479
<v Speaker 1>How Smart Leaders make the right things easier and the

0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:37.560
<v Speaker 1>wrong things harder. In this book, authors and Stanford professors

0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:42.360
<v Speaker 1>Robert Sutton and Huggy Row talk about how organizational friction

0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:48.239
<v Speaker 1>can slow down productive output. However, in certain situations, they

0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:53.280
<v Speaker 1>note friction is good. Slowing things down can help teams

0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:59.520
<v Speaker 1>make better decisions. One form of good friction is pausing

0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.880
<v Speaker 1>before you start a project to think about how it

0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.760
<v Speaker 1>might end. Team members can project themselves into the future

0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:15.560
<v Speaker 1>and envision two scenarios, the project's success and the project's failure.

0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.600
<v Speaker 1>The imagined future success is a pre victoriam, if you will,

0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:25.040
<v Speaker 1>and the imagined failure is a pre mortem. Now you've

0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.880
<v Speaker 1>probably heard of a post mortem. That's Latin for after death.

0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.920
<v Speaker 1>You can examine a project after it is over to

0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.840
<v Speaker 1>understand what worked, what didn't, and why. This can be

0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:44.960
<v Speaker 1>a very valuable practice. But why wait to consider what

0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:49.360
<v Speaker 1>leads to a project's success or failure until after the

0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:54.120
<v Speaker 1>project is over. Sutton and Rouse suggest inviting the team

0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.880
<v Speaker 1>to time travel before a project begins and imagine the

0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:04.080
<v Speaker 1>project's success. What events and behaviors led to that success.

0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.960
<v Speaker 1>The team can then plan the project to make sure

0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.960
<v Speaker 1>to build in those key factors. Sutton and Rao also

0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.240
<v Speaker 1>advise imagining the project as a total failure. This would

0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.760
<v Speaker 1>be the pre mortem, what happened that led to the

0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:26.960
<v Speaker 1>failure and how can we avoid that? In real life.

0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.880
<v Speaker 1>When each team member tells the story of the events

0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.400
<v Speaker 1>that led to the victory and of the events that

0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.920
<v Speaker 1>led to the failure, the team is positioned to avoid

0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.919
<v Speaker 1>the bad stuff and embrace the good. Sutton and Raw's

0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.600
<v Speaker 1>advice about thinking about endings from the beginning got me

0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:49.320
<v Speaker 1>thinking about my recent conversation with Emily P. Freeman, host

0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.680
<v Speaker 1>of The Next Right Thing podcast and author of the

0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.959
<v Speaker 1>book How to Walk Into a Room. When I interviewed

0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.200
<v Speaker 1>her for my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds, Freeman

0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.040
<v Speaker 1>noted that even though we don't think about it all

0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.200
<v Speaker 1>that much, pretty much everything in our lives will end

0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.320
<v Speaker 1>at some point, so we would be wise to think

0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:18.359
<v Speaker 1>about that. Endings can be good or bad or neutral,

0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.840
<v Speaker 1>but often we have some say over that matter, so

0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.079
<v Speaker 1>best to consider the possibilities. I know I have been

0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:33.040
<v Speaker 1>thinking about this with some upcoming projects in my life.

0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:36.720
<v Speaker 1>Over the next eight months or so, my oldest child

0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:41.640
<v Speaker 1>will be applying to college. Eventually this process will be over.

0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:46.200
<v Speaker 1>To me. Success is that he is happy with the

0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.720
<v Speaker 1>outcome and that he felt supported during the whole thing.

0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:57.240
<v Speaker 1>So that is how everything needs to be considered. What

0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:02.400
<v Speaker 1>about you? What are you starting? How will it end?

0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.960
<v Speaker 1>By thinking about this ahead of time, we might be

0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.080
<v Speaker 1>able to shape the narratives in ways that make success

0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:17.799
<v Speaker 1>far more likely. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:22.680
<v Speaker 1>for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:34.040
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.560
<v Speaker 1>or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:46.960
<v Speaker 1>vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.640
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.160
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.