What this means: 

This behavior advocates for collaboration and leveraging diverse thinking. Taking action should involve gathering different points of view, finding areas of alignment, then agreeing upon direction before proceeding. It's about effective and inclusive decision making that ensures the strongest outcome is achieved.

What this does not mean:

This behavior does not mean agreeing with everyone else in order to avoid conflict or bringing so many perspectives into a decision that it becomes impossible to move forward. Nor does it mean favoring consensus over a better decision or falling into the analysis paralysis trap.

Habits to avoid:

Making decisions or taking action unilaterally without considering perspectives different from your own. This habit can lead to a narrow-minded approach that doesn't make the most of the collective knowledge available and compromise your end outcome.. 

Not offering your ideas or views when they differ from most. This habit can limit your influence, hinder others in seeing different perspectives, and compromise the decision or outcome. 

What this means: 

Engaging in focused and open-minded listening during conversations. It means being fully present and absorbing what is actually being said. It requires not jumping to conclusions or interpretations before hearing out a complete thought or idea. It also allows brief pauses for processing before responding.

What this doesn’t mean: 

This behavior is not simply about being quiet while someone else is talking. It doesn't mean pretending to listen while you are thinking how you might respond, or that you can never form an opinion or judgment.

Habits to Avoid: 

Assuming that you don’t have any unconscious biases. Biases can directly influence how you receive a person’s input or perspective. Unacknowledged bias can limit your ability to actively listen without judgment.

Falling into sympathy or pity instead of practicing empathy. A sympathetic approach only provides a surface-level understanding of someone else’s situation. This understanding is typically from your perspective, not theirs.

What this means: 

This behavior refers to how we are contributing to an inclusive and welcoming environment where everyone feels that they belong and are valued. It could involve actively building diverse teams, soliciting and respecting all viewpoints, and promoting collaboration and open communication. This makes everyone feel they are a vital part of the team, thus propelling collective growth and success.

What this doesn’t mean:

This behavior does not imply being passive, pleasing everyone, or avoiding difficult conversations. It does not mean overlooking  performance concerns or allowing negative behavior in the name of creating a comfortable atmosphere. 

Habits to Avoid:

Avoiding difficult conversations. It’s important to address existing issues and challenges, even if it's uncomfortable, for the betterment of the group and individual team members. 

Also avoid ignoring the unique contributions and perspectives of individuals and solely focusing on our shared or common attributes.  

What this means:

Begin with a question and follow-up or respond with 'tell me more about that' encourages open dialogue and invites more expansive thinking. It signals active listening and continuously spurs engagement. Staying humble invites valuable contributions. The phrase 'how might we…' helps to transition into solution-oriented thinking,  reframing difficulties as solvable challenges.

What this doesn’t mean:

This behavior is not about dominating the conversation through interrogation and putting people on the defensive. It doesn't suggest endorsing every idea shared. It's about understanding, not necessarily agreeing. It’s also not about using curiosity and discovery as an excuse to not make progress or decide.

Habits to Avoid 

• Jumping to conclusions: Instead of rapidly forming conclusions based on initial inputs, take time to explore the depth of ideas by asking more questions.
• Interrupting: Cutting others off or rushing to share your perspectives can shut down open discussion. Practice active listening and encourage others to fully express their points of view.

What this means

Encouraging innovation, creativity, and calculated risk-taking in achieving goals. It refers to constantly challenging the status quo by creating a “safe to try” environment where trying new ideas, methods, or business models, backed by a hypothesis and a way to test it is the accepted and expected approach. It also implies exploring opportunities that are not immediately visible or common. 

What this doesn’t mean

This isn’t about experimenting for the sake of experimenting nor does it suggest disruption for the sake of disruption without an intended goal or understanding the impact of the disruption. While encouraging bold experimentation, it does not mean sidestepping ethics, laws or regulations nor agreed upon company methodology. 

Habits to Avoid:

• Sticking to tried-and-tested ideas or approaches by default out of habit or fear of failure. Staying in our comfort zone will stifle creativity and innovation. 
• Making assumptions or taking actions solely based on gut feelings without testing and data-backed evidence or experiments that are not linked to a defined impact.

What this means: 

Active offering and requesting/receiving of feedback in a frequent and genuine manner. 

• For the person seeking feedback, it involves open communication, regularly sharing with others what you are working on and asking for ideas or suggestions for how you could improve on a task, project, or performance. 
• For the feedback giver, it’s about ensuring the recipient is ready to receive the feedback, being caring to take the time to offer thoughtful and helpful feedback as well as noticing great work and commenting on that as well!

The 'Often and sincerely' part indicates that feedback should be frequent, and not an isolated/annual event and that we offer feedback with the intention to help colleagues grow and improve.

What this doesn’t mean 

This behavior does not translate to constant and unsolicited criticism, meaningless compliments (“great job”), or feedback that's not relevant, timely or constructive. It doesn’t mean only receiving feedback without giving it or vice versa, nor does it mean giving feedback without specific examples or without thought to its delivery, nor as a way to project our own issues onto others. It doesn’t mean that only leaders give feedback to team members but that feedback is in all directions.

Habits to Avoid: 

• Only providing feedback when something goes wrong. Constructive and positive feedback should be a regular aspect of work, not only tied to problematic situations.
• Providing vague, non-specific feedback. Feedback should be precise and constructive, offering clear suggestions for performance improvement rather than general comments. Use the COIN model to assist.

What this means: 

Prioritizing maintaining healthy, respectful, and nurturing relationships over individual gains or immediate outcomes. It's about fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and teamwork to ensure the overall success of each other, the team,organization and the client

What this does not mean: 

Ignoring personal responsibilities, tasks, goals, or performance measures. It also does not mean tolerating toxic or inappropriate behavior for the sake of preserving a relationship. It does not mean valuing “internal politics over performance”. If we are spending a significant portion of our time managing the relationship vs getting stuff done, this is a sign that we are off track!

Habits to Avoid:

• Prioritizing personal objectives or short-term gains over the relationship or group goal. 
• Ignoring feedback or inputs from colleagues because of differing opinions. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism should be utilized to enhance the group performance and relationship, not dismissed because of individual ego or priorities.

This Behavior Means

Fostering a caring and supportive environment by ensuring frequent and regular communication with colleagues. It promotes regular check-in on both the work and on personal satisfaction and well-being.This behavior signifies active listening, empathy, and consideration, thus aiding better collaborations and relationships in the workspace. People’s emotions and pre-occupations are present whether we check-in or not. Better to know and be able to offer support and/or adapt if needed versus assuming that everything is okay. 

What this doesn’t Mean

Checking in out of rote obligation, being nosy or crossing personal boundaries, nor to micromanage another person.It's not merely about inquiring about others just for the sake of it without genuine concern or interest in others' well being and progress. It’s also not an invitation to tell our stories to draw attention to ourselves, inappropriately overshare or share at inappropriate times.

Habits to Avoid

Micromanaging: Checking in regularly does not mean exerting excessive control over every detail of a person's work. Unlearn the habit of micromanaging and instead encourage self-sufficiency and independence among employees while being there for support and help. 

Ignoring Emotional Well-Being: Unlearning the tendency of looking at check-ins only as a professional tool. Regular check-ins are not simply about getting status reports but also about understanding and caring for the emotional well-being of colleagues. It's key to unlearn the practice of constantly focusing only on work-related matters.

What this means:

Treating others with respect, kindness, and understanding. Offering help or being of service means providing assistance to others when they need it, or actively looking for ways to make their task easier. This can range from simple acts, like lending an ear when someone needs to talk, to more significant actions, like volunteering to take on extra work to help a team member meet a deadline. Showing empathy, helpfulness and altruism are part and parcel of this behavior.

What this does not mean: 

Putting other people's needs before your own to the detriment of your wellbeing or compromising your own work and responsibilities to be of service. It also doesn't mean offering help in a way that undermines the other person's ability or confidence or saying yes to others without considering the impact on your commitments. Whenever we say “yes” to someone’s ask of us, we are often implicitly saying “no” to something else without explicitly acknowledging it.

Habits to Avoid: 

• Waiting for someone to ask for help before offering it. Instead, proactively seek out ways to be of service. 
• Any tendency to prioritize personal success over the team's well-being. Instead, adopt a more collaborative mindset, understanding that success is a result of team effort.

What this means:

Diligent work habits and persistent effort on every task at hand. It also includes motivating peers to excel. In action, this might involve taking on challenging responsibilities, ensuring tasks are completed to the highest possible quality, and fostering an encouraging, empowering environment for others to thrive and perform their best. It also means having self discipline to take a break when needed, eat, exercise and rest well to maintain resilience and well-being.

What this does not mean:

This behavior doesn't mean taking on all tasks single handedly or continuously pushing beyond reasonable work-life balance limits. Similarly, "activating the best in others'' doesn't entail enforcing personal standards on others or disregarding their perspectives and comfort levels. It also does not mean going way beyond a given statement of work without first checking with the client account manager

Habits to Avoid

• Overworking: Although diligence and effort are valued, overworking can lead to burnout and reduced productivity.
• Neglecting Personal Development: While focusing on tasks and motivating others are crucial, neglecting personal learning and skill development can limit one's breadth of knowledge and ability to stay at the leading edge of your field

What this means: 

Taking initiative, not shying away from challenging situations, and finding innovative solutions to problems. It encourages constant forward motion and the drive to achieve goals at a fast pace. It means being persistent and not giving up when it becomes difficult but seeing constraints as an opportunity to be creative. Navigating limited resources with an abundance of resourcefulness.

What this does not mean: 

Acting in haste or recklessly without careful consideration and planning. It doesn't encourage doing things the easy but low quality way or avoiding hard tasks. It also doesn’t mean violating laws or our values to achieve a result.

Habits to Avoid:

• Overthinking - This habit often leads to paralysis by analysis and can make it harder to 'Find a way'. Delaying tasks and decisions would be contrary to "move fast". 
• Over-reliance on established methods: To 'find a way' often requires innovative thinking and approach. So, get rid of the habit of solely relying on familiar procedures and protocols.

What this means: 

Taking full ownership and responsibility of your tasks like one would do when starting their own venture. In practice, this means putting in the effort, thinking deeply and creatively to solve problems, and always be driving for results. You're attached to the success of the project or venture as much as any founder would be for their startup. It means being the project lead, jumping in to help someone who isn’t feeling well, taking notes or putting dishes in the dishwasher if needed.

What this does not mean: 

This doesn’t mean that you take on so much responsibility that you don’t ask for help, that you don’t share leadership or effectively delegate to others. It also doesn’t mean that you take on so much responsibility that you undermine others or do their work for them.

Habits to Avoid:

• Waiting for instructions - Instead of waiting for someone to tell what needs to be done, proactively identify and act upon what can be improved. 
• Avoiding the "that's not my job" mentality - Take responsibility for the entire project or company success, not just your designated tasks.

What this means: 

Adopting an optimistic and proactive mindset towards challenges. Recognizing the potential effects of your actions, accepting them, and continuously thinking about what can be achieved. It also involves considering the positive aspects and the impact that your actions and decisions can have in your team, Mach49, and beyond.

What this does not mean: 

It’s not about living in a state of unrealistic dreaming or naiveté about real constraints and obstacles. Nor is it about deliberately ignoring or not mitigating likely risks. 

Habits to Avoid: 

• Negativity or pessimism: Viewing everything from a negative or risk avoidance perspective can hinder the process of embracing the impact and thinking possible. Instead, try focusing on the positive outcomes and possibilities. 
• Maintaining the status quo: Thinking possible often requires breaking from the norms and the standard way of doing things. To fully embrace the impact, it's important to be open to bring and accept changes, and not just stick to the business as usual.

What this means: 

Orienting decisions, actions, and strategies towards generating transformative results in the immediate context and for the future. It involves making strategic decisions and focusing resources on those actions that can bring the most significant value to the project, venture or engagement. It means ensuring that all team members understand and align on what those goals are and work together to achieve them. Aligning on and understanding both the immediate and broad implications of one's action, and prioritizing tasks according to their impact importance in both the short and long term.

What this does not mean: 

Ignoring projects or tasks because they do not have immediate, short-term benefits. Nor does it mean focusing solely on short-term gains at the expense of long-term progression. It definitely does not promote a silo mentality where departments or individuals only focus on their areas without considering the overall impact on the company. 

Habits to Avoid: 

• Working in silos: Everyone in the company should understand how their work contributes to broader organizational goals. Working without understanding the larger impact might lead to misaligned efforts and sub-optimal results.
• Being tactical: focusing on “just doing” without considering the bigger picture, impacts on others or unintended consequences. 

What this means:

Actively being at the leading edge (and beyond!) of the ever-changing trends and technological advancements in the market for our clients and ourselves. This behavior involves embracing continuous learning and evolution, and agile responsiveness to ensure relevance and competitiveness in the future, both for the clients and the company through Venturing - across the full range of incremental through to highly disruptive change.

What this does not mean:

This doesn’t mean trying to “solve into the unknown” and distracting real progress in the present due to a fixation on what might happen in the future. It also doesn't involve predicting the future with absolute certainty, but rather adopting a proactive and discovery driven, adaptable mindset. 

Habits to Avoid

• Over-relying on past success: Just because a certain product, service, practice or strategy has worked before, doesn't mean it will continue to do so in the future. Don’t measure our clients or our capabilities solely based on past achievements
• Resistance to change: As industries evolve, we need to be flexible and be willing to revise our processes and mindset instead of sticking rigidly to the old methods and solutions.