#20: Take massive action by defining fears, not goals

I am going to share with you 5 steps and a 30 min meeting template to transform your team from making excuses to taking massive action.

One of the main reasons teams don’t take massive action during and after meetings is they associate the action with fear, often unnamed.

We don’t take action because we link it to pain

Here are common things I hear from the teams I coach. "I can’t do {action} because…

• I don’t have the right team
• I don’t have budget
• my executives aren’t giving me permission.
• I don’t have access to customers
• I don’t have the right skills

Some of these things may be true but when we start our team meetings and workshops with these limiting beliefs, they become a self fulfilling prophecy. We link pain to taking action and nothing gets done besides the safe, status quo.

“Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right” -Henry Ford.

We crave innovation and new thinking from our teams. It is up to leaders to set the right beliefs and enable teams to push through fear to take massive action.

The antidote? Stop Goal-Setting. Start Fear-Setting

I first learned about this framework from Tim Ferris, American entrepreneur and investor, in his popular TED talk. Instead of setting future goals and hope we have the motivation to succeed, Tim advises us to dive deep into unpacking the fear.

We use fear to understand what might go wrong, how we can prevent it from happening, prepare for worse case scenarios and present the mind with upsides of taking action.

I have been using it for 7 years to push through my own personal limiting beliefs. I also sneak the language and frameworks into the teams I coach to get them to believe in a new a way of working.

Let’s unpack the 5 step process using a common work example: Sharing an unfinished idea with your customer

5 Fear-Setting Steps

Example: Sharing an unfinished idea with your customer

Let’s use an example I experience daily at work: Sharing an unfinished idea with others for early feedback.

This can takes many forms:

• a wireframe of a new product that isn’t quite ready that a team delays for weeks before sharing with their customer
• an executive presentation that a team keeps hidden from their audience until they have a polished PowerPoint
• a new process that is kept secret from internal customers until it is done and right.

Most of us are wired to not share with others until something is done. We grew up wanting to create A+ work before sharing it. Unfortunately, the opposite behavior is needed in modern organizations to de-risk the creation of new products, processes and ideas. We need to collaborate through multiple C- versions before getting to A+ work.

Most teams have the capability to create C- work. The issue is that most teams are afraid. Let’s use Tim Ferris’ 5 step Fear-Setting framework to get this team unstuck and into massive action.

Step 1: Define the worst case scenarios

The first step is to name the fear and really play up how bad it can get. In the wise words of Yoda: “Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”

Using my example above: What are the worst possible outcomes with sharing an early idea with a customer? Here are a few:

1. They absolutely hate it and tear it apart in an unproductive conversation
2. They call my boss and complain. I get yelled at. I never get a promotion. I get fired.
3. I damage my company’s brand. We are known for A+ products. I just showed them some C- shit. They tell all their friends, give negative reviews and my company goes bankrupt

Do these feel extreme? Not really. We all carry lots of fear when creating a change. Step 1 is to name it.

Step 2: How would you prevent it from happening?

Next, we take our Step 1 questions as brainstorming prompts.

For #1: How might we prevent customers from tearing apart our early stage ideas?

Idea: Before they “tear it apart”, we can set the expectations that our team only spent 1 hour on the idea and we need their help to make it better. Instead of us vs. them, it is a co-creation exercise so they can take the negative “tear it apart” energy and transform it into co-creation energy.

For #2: How might we prevent my boss from getting upset at me and damaging my career?

Idea: I have a meeting with my boss and reframe the sharing of early prototypes as a risk management process and that I want to save the company time and money downstream to increase credibility with our customers.

For #3: How might we share early ideas with customers without damaging our company’s brand?

Idea: We could hide the brand from the customer. We focus the learning about the desirability or usability of a product, service, or idea, not brand recognition. Hire a 3rd party researcher to protect the brand identity so it is blind to the customer.

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Instead of sitting in the fear, we proactively design ways to overcome it.

Want to lead a Fear-Setting meeting with your team? Here is a free Fear Setting template + 30 min agenda you can run with your team tomorrow.

Step 3: How would you repair the situation if the worst case scenario happens?

Your brain still may be telling you…”But wait…all those worst case scenarios might happen!!!” Once again, these become discussion questions as a team:

  A. What would you do in the moment if a customer tears apart your idea?

  B. What would you say to your boss if they yell at you in a meeting?

  C. What would you do if you damaged your company’s brand?

For A, perhaps you take ideas from Step 2 and get them to brainstorm new product ideas with you. Make the feedback about the ideas, not you personally.

For B, you could apologize and ask them for help on how to make the next round of customer feedback better.

For C, you could work with your PR team to run damage control on the few customers that are feeling squeamish about your brand.

Obviously, lots more ideas here!

Step 4: What are the benefits of an attempt?

Now, it is time to stop linking pain to action and start linking pleasure to taking action. What good comes out of making a small attempt?

The point here is to think about immediate, small wins that feel tangible. I can think of a lot with our example:

• Increased speed in talking to customers for future rounds of research
• Create small cultural change with my team and boss to reframe early prototypes as a risk management technique
• Excitement of talking to customers
• Reducing the burden of perfection
• Making our product better, faster

Step 5: What is the cost of inaction?

Oomph. This one always hits home for me. What happens if our team doesn’t change? What is the impact in 3, 6 or 12 months from now?

Here are some examples:

• we risk launching a product that nobody wants
• We waste thousands of dollars in a launch
• My team feels uninspired at work
• Teammates leave the company

The cost of inaction is a powerful question to motivate a team into focusing the action to pleasure and possibilities!

Summary

The Fear Setting technique is an incredible framework for a team to address their fears head on and to shift their behavior from fear and pain to taking massive action that is pleasurable.

Run a 30 min Fear-Setting meeting

I made a simple Google Sheet template that includes the Fear-Setting questions and a 30 min agenda you can lead.

When are you going to send the invite to your team?