Introduction

4 KEYS THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING

We know this is a BIG statement. These 4 Keys do change every interaction. We have seen it. We have lived it. And yes, we understand why you might be skeptical.

We would doubt such a BIG claim. But we have observed these keys at work in organizations all over the world.

The Keys provide a common language that everyone can use. They are simple and powerful.

KEY #1 LEAN INTO DISCOMFORT
Opening the Door to Trust

KEY #2 LISTEN AS AN ALLY
Opening the Door to Collaboration

KEY #3 STATE YOUR INTENT AND INTENSITY
Opening the Door to Understanding

KEY #4 SHARE YOUR STREET CORNER
Opening the Door to Breakthroughs

KEY #1 OPENS THE DOOR TO TRUST

Opening this door feels like I am taking a risk, but if I want greater teamwork and collaboration, I need to Lean into the Discomfort I feel in order to get to know you better. How else can we work together? How else can we solve problems and eliminate confusion and wasted effort?

When I Lean into Discomfort I help make it safer to be honest and open with you. As I feel safer and you feel safer, we can open the Door to Trust. Unless I am willing to Lean into Discomfort, the door to those possibilities and potential will remain closed.

KEY #2 OPENS THE DOOR TO COLLABORATION

When I Listen as an Ally, it enables me to hear what you, my team members and colleagues, are saying, and all of us to build on each other’s ideas.

Slowing down to hear you is the key that unlocks the door to collaboration, which results in faster achievement of our goals.

KEY #3 OPENS THE DOOR TO UNDERSTANDING

When you State Your Intent and Intensity, it helps me, my team members, and my colleagues take the guesswork out of suggestions or directions and opens the door to greater understanding of each other. Stating my Intent and Intensity does the same for you.

As the door to understanding is opened, I see how to contribute more quickly, confidently, and decisively. When I know how best to contribute, I know how to add value; and if you do the same, we can each add greater value. And this combined greater value results in our saving time as we achieve Right First Time interactions.

KEY #4 OPENS THE DOOR TO BREAKTHROUGHS

When you Share Your Street Corner and I share mine, we learn to hear differences as contributions, rather than as sources of conflict. As we share our different perspectives, we can see the fuller 360-degree view, use our combined resources, and achieve breakthroughs none of us could have envisioned or accomplished alone.

By using all 4 Keys, the doors to trust, collaboration, and understanding are opened, and the door to breakthroughs unlocks.

Using the 4 Keys Starts with Joining

Judging or Joining? Every interaction begins with this critical decision, and it impacts everything that follows. We do it so quickly and automatically that we are usually not even aware of it.

When I meet you, do I join you—see you as a friend, an ally, someone on the same side of the table? Or do I judge you—size you up, wonder if you are someone not to be trusted, engage cautiously with you, and deny you the benefit of the doubt?

If I decide to join you, I treat you as someone worthy of respect. I listen, am open, extend trust, share information. I am willing to have honest and perhaps difficult conversations. I seek to learn from you. I give you the benefit of the doubt.

If I truly want to open doors to teamwork and collaboration, I need to start by seeing what I could gain from joining you.

Rather than believing I am better off going it alone, I begin to believe that the best way to succeed is through partnership and collaboration. And by joining you, I am investing in our partnership with the expectation that we will connect and together do great things.

If we begin by truly joining, we have the ability to open many doors and unlock the potential and power each of us can bring to the team and to the larger organization. But we have heard others say …

“Joining is difficult.”

“It is hard to trust others and to earn their trust.”

“It is hard to listen to others, especially when they
are not saying things I want or expect to hear.”

“It is hard to define my intentions clearly
when others aren’t defining theirs.”

“And it is very, very hard to actively seek out and
support perspectives that are different from my own
to make sure all Street Corners are heard from.”

We used to think these things too.

But when we began to observe the 4 Keys in action, we noticed that people quickly made them a way of life in their organizations—and in their personal lives as well. People actually like to practice these simple Keys; and when used, these 4 Keys change Everything. We invite you to join us as we open new doors.