Do what you say you will do
Commitments are easier made than met. So do the math.
…every night, I close my eyes
And all my troubles fade
But every morning when I rise
I’m just sleeping in this bed I made
—Allen Stone, from “Bed I Made”
Effective managers meet (at least) two basic requirements: They show up as the same person every day, and they do what they say they will do. This according to my colleague John McCann, who’s led, consulted, and taught enough arts managers to know. Showing up as the same person every day is a matter of authenticity and emotional intelligence (more than this short post can engage). But “doing what you say you will do” is a matter of math:
The “Do What You Say You Will Do Ratio,” which I just made up, divides the commitments you’ve met by the commitments you’ve made. A DWYSYWD Ratio of 1 indicates that you’ve met every commitment you’ve made. A ratio approaching zero shows that you are meeting fewer and fewer.
To be clear, this formula is a cartoon. No mortal could achieve a 1, and there are thousands of contextual and cultural forces that shape the outcome. The purpose here is to sort the challenge into useful components.
Also to be clear, I’m focusing on explicit commitments – spoken, written, or otherwise directly communicated “agreements between two or more social actors to carry out future actions” (Lenney and Easton 2009). Implicit commitments are important too, but they trouble the math and the ability to measure.
Now, imagine a world where your DWYSYWD Ratio is disappointingly low – for example, a 0.1, meaning you meet only one out of ten commitments you make. Consider the challenge or coordination costs to your team, your donors, your board, your peers, your audience, and the artists you serve or support. Consider, also, your own lived experience if you value being a reliable and credible professional.
The beauty of a formula is that it presents three clear paths to explore:
increase the numerator (the top number) by meeting more commitments;
decrease the denominator (the bottom number) by making fewer commitments; or,
go for the gold by achieving both at once.
A first step is to interrogate the challenge: Is it about motivation (drive or connection), opportunity (external bridges or barriers), or ability (internal skills). See the Motivation Opportunity Ability (MOA) framework for more.
If it’s a challenge of internal ability, path 1 suggests attention after the commitment is made – capturing, coordinating, and completing agreements, and communicating all along the way (think Getting Things Done). Path 2 suggests attention before the commitment is made – clarity and candor about expectations, whether there is opportunity and ability to deliver, and whether any of it matters (think Essentialism). Path 3 suggests a rolling attention to match commitments to capacity and core purpose – treating each new commitment as a hypothesis to test through action and striving to guess better over time (think Tiny Experiments).
To be fair, not many of us have full control of our explicit commitments – our job, our boss, our roles, or our circumstance often thrust them upon us. And many carry significant but unacknowledged labor that troubles the path. But even then, there’s opportunity to interrogate and communicate what’s possible, probable, and plausible. And there’s also opportunity to invite such clarity and consistency across your team – building an entire organization that increasingly and reliably does what it says it will do.
From the ArtsManaged Field Guide
Function of the Week: People Operations
People Operations involves designing and driving systems and practices that attract, engage, retain, and develop people within the enterprise (also called human resources).
Framework of the Week: Motivation Opportunity Ability (MOA)
The Motivation Opportunity Ability (MOA) framework offers three ways to interrogate the actions or inactions of an individual or a group: motivation to achieve the intended action or outcome; opportunity provided (or blocked) by the external environment related to that action or outcome; and ability or internal capacity to accomplish the action or outcome.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Sources
Lenney, Peter, and Geoff Easton. 2009. “Actors, Resources, Activities and Commitments.” Industrial Marketing Management, IMP 2007 - Exploiting the B2B Knowledge Network, 38 (5): 553–61.
Andrew, you know (I hope) how much I admire your work and the way in which you look at arts, management, and education. This post, however, may be the best thing you've ever put out into the world. Thank you!