Curation Math - The Critical Equation
There’s a moment in life and at work when you realize that the whole thing is just about finding and holding on to the right people.
On the work front you suddenly see that what is standing in the way of your organization’s ability to meet its goals, to excel, to transform is far less about market forces, competition or customer needs and much, much more about whether you have surrounded ourselves with the right people. And most times, you haven’t.
That truth holds true on the life front. You suddenly see that what is standing in the way of your life having more meaning, more joy, more growth is less about the size of your house, how much cash you have in your coffers, or your next vacation, and much, much more about whether you have surrounded yourself with the right people. And most times, you haven’t.
The reasons for both scenarios are the same. We don’t clearly see the consequences of the right people problem, and we don’t embrace the mandate to more aggressively curate the right people in and the wrong people out, or at least over.
So what constitutes right? I’m going to argue that whether the context is work or life the right people criteria is largely the same,. The right people are additive, the wrong people are neutral or worse subtractive. We need more additive people in our work and world. Additive people are on their toes, not on their heels. Additive people are ahead of us, not behind us. Additive people add through their energy, ideas, passions and compassion. Additive people care about the world and work, care about others, and care about you. Additive people lead with humility and humor, not ego and avarice. Additive people always give us more than we expect, never less.
We need more additive people, more right people.
A couple of years back I wrote a book called This Is It and I referred to such additive people as SEEKERS. They are people who seek to understand, to engage, to create value in many forms. I proposed seven essential attributes of SEEKERS:
They are:
HONEST
OPEN
CURIOUS
NONJUDGMENTAL
COMPASSIONATE
POSITIVE
And most importantly BRAVE. Because it takes courage to present ideas, to ask hard questions, and to answer them. It takes courage to be accountable to a higher standard. It takes courage to add to the world, it takes fear to only take from it.
Subtractive people are the exact opposite of SEEKERS. They tend to be naysayers, energy suckers and charlatans. They take, but rarely if ever give. They are motivated by self-interest. They are judgmental. They are afraid. Subtractive people exist at work, and they exist outside of work.
Neutral people are neither givers or takers. They are benign, willing to do but not to add, not to stretch, not to leave the comfort of their nests or cubes. If additive people are proactive, then neutral people are reactive, and subtractive people are regressive. Neutral people tend towards fear but so lack passion that they can’t really realize the full meaning or manifestations of fear. Neutral people just are.
With the definitions a little clearer, it’s time to do the curation math in your work and life – to calculate how well you are doing curating the right people in and the wrong people out.
Research has shown that on average there are no more than 10 people at work that directly, materially impact our work, and no more than 10 people outside of work that directly, materially impact our lives. So let’s do the math together.
How many of your work relationships are additive? How many are neutral? How many are subtractive? I’m going to suggest that the minimum acceptable math is 60% additive. Anything less and you’re not going to get where you want and need to go as a company or a team.
Now do the math on your life relationships. Same questions. Here the minimum acceptable percentage of additives increases to 80%. Why? Because this is your only life. To carry lots of neutral and subtractive relationships is to do damage to your life. It’s lacks self respect and maybe even carries a delusion that these non-additive relationships don’t matter, because oh my, they do.
So now that the math is clear, and likely not acceptable, what do you do? You first must accept that active curating is an essential function in your work and life, and then you need to start doing it, like now.
In the case of work, it takes a combination of setting the bar higher for new team members, while using that same bar for existing ones who are perhaps not additive or as additive as you need them to be. A couple of methods to quickly assess what you are working with:
- Simply ask yourself the question, would I hire each person again? If not, they are likely subtractive
- OR do the A/B/C grading exercise. How many of your work relationships are As, Bs or Cs. And be honest about it. Ask your peers to weigh in. You’ll be surprised at the level of agreement about the Cs, the subtractives. And yet they have persisted because nobody wants to take on the task of moving them up or out.
- And lastly, bring some of the SEEKER additive criteria into their job descriptions and performance evaluations. Holding everyone (including yourself) to that additive criteria is the next step along with motivating them and teaching them through your own behaviors to become more additive. Some will, most won’t. Which brings up the most important curatorial task: Being brave enough to let them go.
And that’s the same requirement on the life side of this curatorial question. Being brave enough to let them go. To not hold on because of familiarity, to not perpetuate the subtractiveness of the relationship because you always have. Codependent relationships are decidedly subtractive. Many sibling and cousin relationships are subtractive or at least neutral. It’s time to park them in a parking lot. It doesn’t mean you stop being polite or take them off your holiday card list. It just means you stop investing, because for all that you are putting in, you are getting zero or less than zero back. And that math simply doesn’t add up.