This week I built a team capacity planner to help me get a handle on current – and planned – load. Things are going really well, but my own estimated week had gotten above 40 hours and I needed to figure out a shift.
I also brought on a second contractor and needed to understand their load, too. Plus, we’ve got several projects in the pipeline and I don’t want to propose something to a client I don’t have line of sight on the capacity to execute.
The newest contractor will help me on the financial modeling work I mentioned closing recently. The work is ramping up fast and I won’t be able to deliver it on the client timetables by myself, so this new person is critical.
We’re already in November and I’m realizing all my 2025 OKRs will be graded at the end of next month – and I’ll need to come up with new OKRs for 2026! I feel like 2026 is going to be a lot tougher to define because of how much is going on.
The prior years’ plans have been relatively easy to develop – it was just me and an idea. This year I’ve got contractors, partners, and more than one business. Do I do one set of OKRs for me overall? One set for each business? The framing isn’t feeling obvious to me, but I’ve got a little bit before I need to lock these in.
Whatever I do, I know I’ll be raising my aspiration!
Kevin
A Quote
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I believe that managers must loosen the controls, not tighten them. They must accept risk; they must trust the people they work with and strive to clear the path for them; and always, they must pay attention to and engage with anything that creates fear.
Kevin Kelly is one of my favorite thinkers, and I loved listening to him on this podcast. I liked the sections on rituals and rights of passage. Some of his key takeaways were: Kindness is strength, and donât be the best – be the only.
Do you ever walk into a room and forget why you went there? Me, too. And totally normal. Lisa Genova explains how we remember, and why we forget. She also covers the difference between normal forgetting, and Alzheimerâs – her most common question when sheâs out speaking.
I was recently looking for multiplayer knowledge management to get away from Obsidian now that thereâs a Group 18 team. While I didnât choose Tana, I was reminded of how much I love it, and how much it has evolved since I last checked it out. Click through the different personal and team use cases to see what it can do.
(enjoy this 4ď¸âŁ minute read)
Deep Dive on Getting Things on the Table
Most organizations arenât suffering from what they can see, theyâre suffering from what they canât.
Itâs the teammate who slacks off when the boss isnât around. Itâs the project the team knows wonât hit the objective. Itâs the customer problems stuck in the minds of support staff.
These issues and others like them exist. A few people might see them, but for a variety of reasons theyâre not talked about. This robs the business from the ability to solve them.
You canât solve what you donât know, and you donât know if you donât talk about it.
These unspoken problems compound. The longer they stay buried, the more they cause other problems, and the more costly unwinding them all becomes.
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The Cost of Whatâs Hidden
âIn the typical corporate meetingâa business review, for exampleâthe dialogue is constrained and politicized. Some people want to shade and soften what they say to avoid a confrontation. Others need to beat those theyâre talking to into submission. In groups that contain both types of people (which is the case in many meetings), dialogue becomes a combat sport for the killers and a humiliation or bore for the passives. Little reality gets on the table, and the meeting doesnât move the issues forward much.â
Does that meeting described above resonate? Iâve certainly been in meetings where the aggressors dominate, the passives are quiet, and the real issue isnât spoken – and thus, not solved.
When issues donât get spoken, effective decisions get delayed because the problem remains unsurfaced.
The slacker teammate keeps collecting a paycheck and frustrating the team. The project doesnât get the resources or adjustments to make it successful. Customer problems remain unsolved.
The leadership of the business (in theory) would really want to know about these problems. Why arenât they discussed?
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Why People Donât Talk
Often, itâs fear. Fear of conflict, punishment, or justing being the person everyone looks at. đŹ
Lots of teams pretend everything is fine to avoid discomfort.
People see the cost more clearly than the benefit. If you speak up, you may get shut down, or get a reputation for being a problem. If you expose the problem, the company may benefit, but how likely is that to benefit the person bringing it up?
When the cost is clear and personal, and the benefit is unclear and collective, the calculus says to stay quiet.
When your culture doesnât support candor, you wonât get it.
Your team may feel more comfortable sweeping things under the rug.
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What âGetting It on the Tableâ Looks Like
Once youâve decided to surface reality, the next challenge is how to do it effectively. Candor is NOT just blurting out what you think, itâs creating the conditions where truth can be spoken…and heard.
âJerks are likely to rip your organization apart from the inside. And their favorite way to do that is often by stabbing their colleagues in the front and then offering, âI was just being candid.ââ
Getting things on the table is a collective discipline; a muscle teams build by practicing three habits:
Say whatâs true for you: From âThe 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadershipâ: real candor means speaking whatâs unarguable. Thatâs the difference between describing your experience (âI feel tense when we talk about thisâ) and assigning intent (âYouâre trying to control meâ). When we stick to whatâs unarguable – sensations, feelings, observable facts – others can stay open instead of getting defensive. It shifts the conversation from accusation to exploration.
Celebrate the messenger: People watch how leaders respond to bad news. If you flinch, punish, or dismiss, you teach everyone to hide reality. But when you thank someone for bringing it up – even when it stings – you reinforce that truth is welcome. Over time, thatâs how candor scales from one brave soul to an entire organization.
Listen for whatâs being felt: When people are filtering what they say, youâll see it. A pause. A half-sentence. A nervous laugh. Those moments are gold! Invite them gently: âIt sounds like thereâs more there. Could you please elaborate? I’d love to hear what you have to say.â
Candor, done right, creates shared reality. Everyone gets an accurate picture and you can solve what really matters.
Most organizations donât fail because they canât solve problems – they fail because they never surface them!
Hidden issues quietly drain time, money, and morale while everyone pretends things are fine. Fear and self-protection keep people quiet, and silence compounds risk.
Healthy teams make reality discussable. They donât avoid tension; they channel it into progress. The moment truth gets on the table, decisions get better and trust deepens.
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Call to Action
I like the questions that come from Jerry Colonnaâs, âRebootâ:
What am I not saying that needs to be said? What am I saying (in words or deeds) thatâs not being heard? Whatâs being said that Iâm not hearing?
Pick one conversation youâve been avoiding, one truth that hasnât made it onto the table. Be brave. Say it this week.
Kevin
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Say thanks with a coffee
If this made you nod, laugh, or steal a line for your next meeting, consider buying me a coffee.
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