Agency: choices we can make

I am firm believer on attempting to put one’s faith on one’s hand… That’s why so much I even talk about here boils down to focusing on what you can control, and then figuring out what we can we change (hopefully) for the better.

To be clear, that’s not the same as not accepting reality for what it is – which happens to be another of my core beliefs as well – but there’s a big difference between accepting reality and not trying to do anything about making things better.

I guess one of the real problems I have with doing the opposite is the fact that I don’t like the idea of falling victim to my own circumstances, so to speak. I don’t think anything good comes out of it, and that seems to be backed by research.

For instance, there’s an interesting study I once heard about where subjects were put on make-up with a scar before taking a job interview. But the thing is that a little before getting into the interview, their scar was taken off without them knowing (an excuse to touch it up instead was given). Guess what? Most people would later report indirect references to the scar they thought they had on as part of the interview. They truly believed that the interviewer was not only noticing but making some kind of reference to it, while they actually had no clue whatsoever that at some point a scar was there.

Think about the deep implications of that for a moment… It’s mind-blowing! Perception is reality and we don’t do ourselves a favor by thinking we are just a clog in the wheel, and we can’t exercise our own agency and we have just to sort of go with the blows…

Small side track. Whenever I learn about things like that, I can’t help to feel content with my natural tendency to be a nonconformist in most contexts. But if you are not, I believe this can be developed once you know and internalize the implications of the undesired other choice!

In the end, fundamentally, we always get to choose… and often that choice is about how we show up! How we behave in context in such a way that, while you accept reality (because it’s silly to do otherwise), you will try to figure out how things can be made better.

I know this all may sound a little "self-help-like", which I don’t think is one of my best suits, but bare with me that this all have a reason for being. Perhaps an example contrasting the choices we can have, on a concrete level, can come handy by now…

• Imagine we have two teams that have to provide regularly (e.g., quarterly) what they are planning to work on in the foreseeable future. That planning is somewhat considered to be a kind of commitment, although not necessarily in a very harsh way (but expectations are set on stakeholders' and customers' minds).

• Team A tends to approach it rather optimistically (as one tends to, if not learned, often the hard way, how can that sometimes be unproductive), typically overcommitting – and worse yet, they normally have a sense of that upfront.

• Team B, at least it seems like has learned some hard lessons along the way, and therefore they tend to be prepared to learn more along the way. They have observed more work tends to be uncovered along the way as well as they know there are unplanned work that often gets their way.

In the above scenario, which team do you think will more likely be taken in higher regard by those around them (stakeholders, customers)? Which do you think will more often deliver things on time, as per plan? And which do you think will tend to work more smoothly across the period (not having to rush to replan things as new stuff is found along the way)?

I’m guessing you have guessed Team B. Although, and to be clear, there might be scenarios in which we want the boldness of Team A in context. There’s a chance they are also super good at making choices along the way and thus still be able to drive the most important things to the end. In any case, we could still question the form – is that rushing and potential turmoil worth the trouble along the way?!

Maybe I’m too much of a simple man… But I can’t quite get my head around why some people may choose the opposite. Preferring to have to rush off and have (what tends to be) more difficult conversations after expectations are set, instead of just being more thoughtful and mindful upfront in how to set those expectations in the first place.

Or better yet – you can attempt to reframe your language towards that setting of expectations by embracing the probabilistic nature of things and embedding a “NOW-NEXT-LATER” pattern within the constraints of that period in which you may have to set expectations, or make commitments. Just like I explained last time (yes, a kind of organic sequel has been born now already counting 3 posts largely connected, starting from this one).

I once had a boss that would often mention, and kind of “live” by the motto: “underpromise, over deliver”. I truly think the point wasn't about sort of cheating by promising less than we woud be capable of doing. It was just a pragmatic way to capture the fact that things will change along the way, and you better be prepared for it.

In the end, 100% capacity utilization is not only a myth… It’s quite frankly the best strategy for sort of regularly shooting yourself in the foot… And I don’t know about you, but to me, that’s a terrible thing to think about (despite knowing it’s just a metaphor). It’s just that life can be so much simpler if we do something about ensuring it’s kept that way – as opposed to letting circumstances dictate and possibly victimize us in the process.

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By Rodrigo Sperb, feel free to connect, I'm happy to engage and interact. I’m passionate about leading to achieve better outcomes with better ways of working. How can I help you?