SNP: Getting right into it. “Information is power.” Is that still true?
Mo: No…and this is controversial. When information was scarce, controlling it mattered. Information gave a leader the perception of a strategic advantage. But now? Information is everywhere. Everyone has access to it, and expects it. Part of that is driven by the inflection point we’re in right now. Look what AI has allowed us to do! 

Now, as a leader, you may know stuff that the rest of the company doesn’t know. Because you made the decision in that closed-door leadership team meeting! The point here is that power is not walking out of that closed-door leadership meeting and keeping it all to yourself, making it a mystery to others. Be transparent. Tell people everything (without being stupid about it). Hoarding information is an outdated leadership model. Remember that your team knows everything anyway. They know something is going on, and they’re going to gossip…

…so don’t you want them gossiping about the truth? Be transparent. Communicate information.

SNP: So if controlling information is no longer power…what is?
Mo: Productivity. Again, perhaps controversial. What actually matters now is: can you help people do something with information? That’s productivity. So, productivity is power.

And when we’re talking about productivity, we’re talking about clarity and action. Can a leader communicate information, and then help someone understand:

• What they’re responsible for
• Why it matters
• How to execute

If you can do that, they can move, they can take action. If you can’t, all the information in the world doesn’t help and the team just stalls, gets frustrated, and ends up not trusting anything.

SNP: Clarity and action reminds us that you’ve said “people need to be told exactly what to do.” But…isn’t that micromanaging?
Mo: No. Micromanaging is: I’m going to tell you exactly what to do, why you’re doing it, how you’re going to do it, I’m going to watch over you while you do it, question every decision you make in doing it, and likely do most of it myself anyway. 

As a leader, it’s your job to provide clarity around roles (what they’re responsible for…) and why it matters. Then—because you’re a high-performing leader of a high-performing team—you decide how to create the action plan. The how. In many situations, you’ll ask them to come up with how they’ll execute. The conversation can be quite simple:

• Here’s what needs to be done…
• Here’s why it matters…
• How would you approach it?

Great! Now you have a conversation and collaboration. And some brilliant idea is going to come of it.

Then—because you’re a high-performing leader of a high-performing team who does not micromanage—you give them structure. A cadence of communication, a metric, and a way to check progress.

That’s it.

People have access to all of the information. They need the leader—you!—to take the information and turn it into something that they can act on.

SNP: Can you give an example of when a leader wouldn’t collaborate on the “how”? A time when they’d need to be directive on how something needs to be done?
Mo: Maybe it’s an emergency situation, or it has to get done today. Maybe someone’s new to the role and learning. Maybe there’s a significant risk if some protocol is not followed. If you have to give your team member exactly how to get something done, it has got to be clear! Clear, memorable, and repeatable. Otherwise, you’re leaving people to guess.

And guessing kills productivity.

SNP: When an SNP coach introduces a skill or framework in a workshop, we put into practice this what, why, how clarity… Mo: A workshop is a little leadership laboratory, and we’re the leader of that laboratory. So as the leader…we have to be clear!

Think about it: these already high-performing people are taking time away from their very important jobs to spend an hour, two hours, a day with us. We’ve got to make the absolute best use of their time! It’s a non-negotiable that every SNPer clearly communicates the what and the why of everything we teach. And because we’re being brought in to introduce skills and inspire behaviour change in a very short period of time, we also have to give a very clear, memorable “how.”

In a class, we deliver the what and the why, and we deliver a very explicit how. That’s our job.

SNP: The Dialogue Opener framework can be a rather controversial example of the what, why, and how…
Mo: Good Lord. The Dialogue Opener. We do this at the start of every single class, and we teach it in most of them. It’s from my mentor—the former Catholic priest who left the priesthood. The form is: “I’m prepared to discuss X, Y, Z…but in order to make the best use of your time…what’s your priority?” I swear to you, every time I have messed up a meeting, it’s because I didn’t do a dialogue opener.

And yet: this framework has been debated for decades. Teachers push back on how rigid it seems. Participants push back because they don’t like one of the phrases. But remember, we’re leaders in that room. So put it in the same what, why, how model…

• What: Get the other person to talk right from the start of the conversation.
• Why: Because you know nothing! No matter how much prep you put into your agenda, and your deck, and your notes, you don’t know what’s important for them right now…and you won’t know unless you let them speak.
• How: The framework is: “I’m prepared to discuss X, Y, Z – but in order to make the best use of your time…what’s your priority?”

As the leader of that little communications laboratory, we have to clearly communicate the what, why, and how. So yes, we’ve been called too directive or too adamant with this skill. But, seriously, think about it. If we just came in with the what and the why, we’d sound like idiots, and we’d waste a lot of time. We have to put a how – an actual script – on the table. That script has to be clear, memorable, and repeatable. We ask people to write it down and say it out loud. Some might say “What’s on your mind?” instead of “What’s your priority?” Some might say “I’ve put together an agenda today that covers…” instead of “I’m prepared to discuss…” Fine. That’s language. But the form? We do not deviate.

If there’s any ambiguity in what we’re teaching, people are going to forget it the minute they walk out of the room. We’re precise in the class so they’ll remember it, then they can riff on it on their own time.

That’s the challenge for any leader: if people don’t understand what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and have a clear way of taking action…they won’t do it. They’ll go back to old behaviours (and old outcomes).

SNP: So the call-to-action for all leaders: shift from information to productivity, and do that through clearly communicating the what, why, and how.
Mo: Exactly. Be the person who helps others get things done.

Information is easy to get. Everyone knows absolutely everything, and in a company, if they don’t hear it from you, they’ll make it up. While you’re trying to maintain this outdated, 1932 model of power, doling out information from the top…know that your organization is ten steps ahead of you, and already knows more than you do. So your role now is to take all of that information and make it clear and actionable. Provide the what, the why, and decide how you’ll define the how. All three have to be crystal clear.

Productivity is power.