Keep Your (Philosophical) Razors Sharp
As a leader of people in professional services, your ability to quickly filter out nonsense and get to a decision-making position is critical. Your team looks to you for clear and effective thought processes, and the less time you spend wading through BS, the more value you can bring to your firm and your team.
Good news! There are some great tools to help you with this, and they are free.
For our discussion today, I want to focus on tools called "philosophical razors" (which is just a fancy way of saying logical “rules-of-thumb”) that allow you to shave away what isn’t valuable and address what matters most to the matter at hand.
Let’s start with three of the most famous “razors” and look at ways we could use them:
The Big Three Logical Razors:
Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is usually correct.
Example: While out to lunch, you see a teammate enjoying a meal with leadership from a rival firm. Maybe they’re old friends. Maybe they are a self-deputized secret agent on an intelligence-gathering mission. Occam’s Razor is going to tell you that they are looking to change employment. It may not be the case, but it certainly is the most likely answer and the most logical place to start.
Hanlon's Razor: Don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
Example: A direct report tells you that an important project you assigned them is going very badly, and they’re not sure success is even possible. You wonder how they could do this to you as they know the firm is counting on it. You speculate that it could even be sabotage. Use Hanlon’s Razor to shave away the emotional noise during this crisis. Do a skills assessment and see if you may have simply put the wrong person with the wrong skill set on that job and then fix it.
Hitchens' Razor: Claims made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Example: A senior member of your team feels that the rest of the group is conspiring to make them look bad. When asked, the teammate is not able to offer any evidence to back up that claim. Use Hitchen’s Razor here and let them know that while you can’t be in the hunch business, you will take any presented evidence very seriously. Until then, back to work.
When you make these razors a part of your life, you will achieve:
Quicker problem-solving for complex issues
Better risk management and conflict resolution
More efficient operations and strategic planning
No matter your area of operations, you can integrate razors into your daily tasks and, even better, the culture of your firm or department. Use these principles to streamline conflict resolution and difficult conversations by focusing discussions on facts and essential points and removing unknowable or unimportant back-and-forth from these sessions.
In professional services, clear thinking translates directly to better results. What will you do with the time you save using “razors” like these?
Every champion has a coach. To find out how Chief Seconds can help you stay razor sharp, click below.
