Making It Stick

Making it stick:? your message and why you matter. How do you do that these days?? I’m not even talking about LinkedIn or other social media. How about when you are actually face to face with another person? With all the competing requirements for their attention--some known and many unknown to you--how do you build a relationship with someone that sticks? Along with that, how do you build and grow a team that becomes skilled at making it stick with customers, partners and employees whether working in an existing company or building one from the ground up????

I found some answers to these questions in the third and final conversation from my mini-series discussion with Nick Sinai and Marina Nitze, authors of the book Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team, a book that I found so poignant and captivating.

Marina, former Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Nick, a key player in the Obama administration, share their insights into building authentic relationships within large organizations, including the government. They emphasize the importance of understanding people's motivations, fears, and career aspirations (something I call, MFC) to help them achieve their goals.?

Throughout my own career in sales, leadership and coaching the golden rule is to understand the MFC and express a sincere appreciation to each person who chooses to share. Across multiple relationships, this begins to form a web of people who become connected and where you can play a role to help orchestrate change or reach a new goal. Whether inside or outside the company or agency, people become willing to work through disagreements to achieve results and many times to create what often becomes a great new service, product or company.

One of my takeaways from the book is that developing the awareness of MFC and then putting it into action are the foundations for Making It Stick whether practiced individually or by a team.?

We highlight Marina’s incredibly innovative "Grilled Cheese Club” (yes, you can form one too!) approach where individuals from different parts of an organization come together to foster collaboration and understanding, overcoming bureaucratic obstacles in a low-key and informal way. Best to do this in person if possible and don’t forget the cheese!?

The discussion turns to the provocative concept of "stabbing people in the chest,” which in practice is nothing like what it sounds like. It means being open and honest with detractors about disagreements to build trust and transparency so that when it does come time to gain agreement on an initiative or program, you can make it stick. In practice, this means navigating bureaucratic challenges and fostering relationships, even with those with whom we disagree.

Think about the last part of that sentence: ‘even with those with whom we disagree’. As I work with coaching clients, customers and partners, I have learned something really inspiring:? the art of disagreeing and then reaching compromise is something many people crave to learn more about and practice in their life and work.?

In addition, our discussion touches upon the value of playing the long game and exploring career opportunities that go beyond just traditional paths, where Nick and Marina stress the importance of earning trust and demonstrating excellence before taking such leaps. In my own career as well as those of clients, this is the number one rule and we pair it up to the practice of, ‘give to get’.?

This is the third in the conversation series with Nick and Marina, which covered 70 pages and 15 key bureaucracy hacking tactics from the third section of their book. A few of the other techniques that stood out include:?

• Former Navy Seal David Goggins has a saying, ‘Embrace the Suck’. Hack Your Bureaucracy says:? Embrace the continuity while you seek to disrupt it. Embrace what lies ahead

• Stay calm and carry on. Bureaucracy Hacking requires grit and patience
• Sometimes you have to create a new organization. Nick and Marina use humor to make the point by quoting Milton Berle:? It opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door!
• Leave the bureaucracy better off. This is the idea of Making It Stick even after you leave a project, team or company. Rest assured, this will happen as we all leave and make transitions. Nick and Marina share insights into: leaving a lasting positive impact on bureaucracies, emphasizing the significance of codifying work, changing policies, and fostering structural improvements?

Before wrapping it up on this one I have to share a few of my favorite quotes from the book that I know you will appreciate (there are so many more!): P, 136 under ACT “AS IF”?

?Authority is 20% given and 80% taken…So take it!

- Peter Ueberroth

P129, under FIND YOUR PAPERCLIP

Do what you can, with what you have, from where you are

-Teddy Roosevelt? (our 26th President at the turn of the 19th century)

P123, SELL, BABY SELL We’re all in sales now

-Daniel Pink form his book, To Sell Is Human

Sales is the terminal job in all professions; CEOs sell, and university presidents sell. It is the one thing you can’t give away as you become more senior

-Kumar Garg, Vice President of Partnerships at Schmidt Futures

P179, STRANGLE THE MAINFRAME

If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.?

-Quote from Mother Teresa

Final Comments: When reading and re-reading the book to prep for the conversations with Nick and Marina–I kept finding myself saying, ‘yes, I can use this and yes, I should try this, and ‘ya know, I need to think more about aligning the goals of this group or that one to what I want to accomplish…’ The book truly is a guide and workbook to surviving and thriving in a bureaucracy.

And today…it seems like bureaucracies are being forced to evolve or change, more quickly if they do nothing else, to survive and maintain their structure and purpose.?

I’m just so fascinated and even excited about the topic of bureaucracy hacking because I’ve spent SO MUCH of my professional life working within and in the service of bureaucracies in both the private and public sectors.

I know the challenges, frustrations and joys of existing, surviving and thriving in bureaucracies!? And I thank both Nick and Marina for educating me further.?

I hope that you will join the conversation as we wrap up this mini-series and as Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai provide valuable lessons on navigating bureaucracy and driving change, all while leaving a meaningful impact on organizations and society.

Marina Nitze | Nick Sinai