No score, no type, no result page. These are the questions I ask myself, written
down so you can sit with them. A week will not prove anything, and I would rather say
that than sell you something. It is long enough to give you a record of what
actually happened, which is more than you have now.
The full version is a month of noticing — a
self-observation guide, free, making no diagnostic claims. Three questions to
start with.
Where were you when your last unusually good idea arrived, and what happened in the day before it?
What environment reliably makes you worse at something you are normally good at?
What have you been told to work on that turns out to be useful somewhere else?
If you run a team
Questions for leaders.
Same questions, pointed at a room you are responsible for. Nobody needs to answer
these to you. The useful version is asking them of yourself first, and noticing
which ones you cannot answer.
Who on your team did their best work this year, and what was different about the conditions they were working in?
What do you actually know about how each person works, beyond what they are good at?
Which of your standing meetings would nobody schedule if it did not already exist?
When someone underperforms, how long do you spend on the conditions before you conclude something about the person?
Who has been on demanding work continuously, with no gap, for longer than you would have guessed?
What do you decide about people based on how they show up in a room you chose, at a time you set?
Which conditions on your team are genuinely fixed, and which ones has nobody questioned in years?
If someone needed a condition changed to do their best work, is there a way for them to ask that does not cost them anything?
A caution worth stating. Conditions can quietly track with protected
characteristics. Needing to leave by five tracks with caregiving. Preferring
written communication can track with disability or with speaking English as a
second language. A condition should change how work is shaped. It should never
decide who is considered for it.