There is a red sticker on the cover of Unblock that says “A practical guide for leaders” and that is exactly what this book is. It takes leaders from all kinds of levels through all the nuts and bolts of running (part of) an organization, including crafting a strategy that creates alignment and focus, setting effective goals, improving the speed of decision-making, taking ownership, improving teamwork and redesigning meetings. The book containts many real-world cases, including complex dilemmas and their potential solutions. But most of all it invites its readers to experiment, put things into practice and see if they work.
The author makes short work with fluffiness. He is all about clarity, relentness and concreteness, which reminds me of Jim Collins’ recommendation to always face the brutal facts. For example in designing a strategy: “Your power lies in consciously choosing your trade-offs. If you don’t select them, the world around you will do it for you.” You have to decide what you want to do, but also what NOT to do. Or: making a detailed, long-term plan is usually a waste of time. Instead: make choices, act, observe, measure the outcomes, determine what to do next.
Kamer prefers outcomes over outputs. Instead of setting a goal to launch a new website, the goal should be that online sales increase by 15% by improving the website experience. And instead of finishing the internal training platform, the goal should be to have 10% of employees complete a training and rate it at least four out of five.
In decision-making, Kamer suggests to take into account the costs of indecision, reducing uncertainty and reversal. Decisions should be made quickly that are easy to undo or have little negative consequences if they turn out to be wrong. Action should be prioritized over analysis to learn faster.
The keys to psychological safety in his view are curiosity and empathy. Leaders contribute to a psychological safe environment by, amongst others, establishing clear norms and expectations to create predictability and fairness, actively invite input, and admit their own fallibility. A nice suggestion is to create a personal ‘how to work with me’ manual, including preferred ways of communication, perceived misunderstandings, preferred ways of receiving feedback, and what drives you crazy. “I see Personal User Manuals as a solid alternative to the common pseudo-scientific personality assessments”, which I totally agree are often overrated and abused. He adds the warning: “Don’t use your manual as an excuse” and keep improving yourself.
Finally, I like his chapter about facilitation as “an essential leadership skill”. He writes that it is often a bad idea to have the highest ranking person chairing a meeting. An external facilitator can help to make meetings better ánd shorter.
Jurriaan Kamer. Unblock. Clear the Way for Results and Develop a Thriving Organization, 2024.