Insights that move teams forward
Minimalist notes on coaching, habits, leadership, and communication—designed for action.
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Atomic Habits at Work: Micro-commitments That Stick
Big goals die in busy calendars. Micro-commitments fit anywhere: one sentence, one push-up, one ask. Here’s how to shrink change until it becomes inevitable—and how to make your team’s smallest wins compound.
Change survives when it is smaller than resistance. Micro-commitments remove negotiation: do the smallest possible action that moves the goal forward.
- Reduce: make the action a 30–60 second move.
- Anchor: stack it to an existing routine (after brewing coffee, send one nudge).
- Visible: leave evidence (a tally, a calendar dot) to reward the brain.
For teams, introduce “Minimal Viable Progress” (MVPg): progress that can be completed in under two minutes. Start standups by sharing yesterday’s MVPg to normalize tiny momentum.
Playbook
- Define the micro-version of the habit (one line, one ping, one slide).
- Attach it to a trigger already in your day.
- Track publicly for four weeks; celebrate consistency, not volume.
Consistency beats intensity when calendars are crowded.
Leading with Questions, Not Answers
When leaders default to answers, teams default to permission. Switch to questions that surface context and unlock autonomy. Here are prompts that change the room without stealing ownership.
Answers speed things up—until they don’t. Teams grow when they think with you, not after you. Questions expand the frame and distribute problem-solving.
Five leverage prompts
- What does “good enough” look like by Friday?
- What’s the smallest bet that tests this?
- What would make this easier to reverse?
- Where are we over-optimizing?
- Who experiences the downside if we’re wrong?
Pair questions with silence. Give 7–10 seconds of space. People fill it with better thinking than any rushed directive.
The 5-Minute Pre-Meeting Reset
Most meetings fail before they start. Prime your brain and the room with a quick protocol to align intent, attention, and outcome.
Five minutes change the trajectory of the next fifty. Here’s the reset:
- Breath: 60 seconds of slow nasal breathing.
- Intent: write one line—“This meeting is successful if…”
- Scan: who needs what to leave confident?
- Agenda: three bullets max.
- Close: schedule the decision, not the discussion.
Share the reset with the first 60 seconds of the meeting. You’ll halve drift and double ownership.
Coaching Your Calendar: Timeboxing That Breathes
Rigid timeboxing breaks on contact with reality. A “breathing” version protects focus and adapts to surprise—without losing the plan.
Use “focus blocks” and “catch blocks.” Focus blocks are sacred; catch blocks absorb overflow. Move overflow to the next catch block instead of stealing from focus time.
- Label blocks by energy (deep, light, admin), not just topic.
- Book breaks as blocks; rest is work for thinking roles.
- End with a two-line log: what moved, what’s next.
Calendars are coaches when they reflect reality. Give it lungs; it will give you momentum.
Psychological Safety in 10 Micro-Behaviors
Culture shifts when moments do. Use tiny moves—naming uncertainty, summarizing before speaking, inviting last-word voices—to make risk-taking feel safe.
Psychological safety is not about being nice; it’s about making candor cheap. Ten micro-behaviors:
- Ask for counter-examples first.
- Say “I might be missing something—what is it?”
- Credit in public; correct in private.
- Summarize before you add.
- Rotate who speaks first and last.
- Normalize “I don’t know.”
- Write it down before we debate.
- Use “could” more than “should.”
- Close with “what did we learn?”
- Log failures with the fix, not the blame.
Feedback that Fuels, Not Fears
Feedback should create energy to act. Use behavior, impact, next step—BIN—to keep it actionable and kind without diluting the message.
BIN structure:
- Behavior: “When the deck arrived at 10:10…”
- Impact: “…the client waited and our demo lost flow.”
- Next step: “Let’s share a draft by EOD Thursday so we can rehearse.”
Ask for feedback first. Modeling invites reciprocity and reduces fear.
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