Everything Else is CYA
Being “detailed oriented” or “proficient in Microsoft Office” are protective mechanisms designed to explain, not solve.
If you want to work on a project that holds up the things as they are, this works. Fail, and those skills in word that highlight those footnotes may save you.
That is safety. It is also covering your ass.
Work that expands the boundaries of what we call safe, or innovation, will fail. If your project tries to change the way “we do things” it is a matter of if, not when about failure. You’ll need to internalize that failure isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. With that said, if you don’t trust the person failing, then no amount of pivot tables will change that.
If you want to push the envelope with your team, trust, more than anything else, is required.
Spend time understanding the methods of building trust, instead of skills, and increase the velocity of innovation in your circle.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 