Nine Lies in Nine Weeks Facilitator's Guide

1. FACILITATOR’S GUIDE Use the outline below to help you facilitate the Nine Lies in Nine Weeks Learning Series + Book Club Invite 9, 19, or 90 friends and colleagues – whoever you want to take on this journey. You can find an email template on the Book Club home page to get you started (feel free to edit as appropriate). Book clubs can meet in person or virtually. Make sure everyone in your group has a copy of Nine Lies about Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World Using the Journey Map as a weekly outline — plan and invite your team to weekly meetings. We recommend beginning each chapter on a Monday and meeting with your group (either virtually or in person!) on Fridays. Access chapter facilitator guide and insights using the crumpled paper navigation at the top of the Book Club home page. Each week offers a new guide with questions that will help you and your team make change.  Individually read the chapter, connect with your group, watch the videos, and make your commitments. Start making change in the world of work.

2. Use this journey map or create your own that works best for you and your team. TUESDAY read + ask Submit your Questions MONDAY read + ask Begin the Chapter WEDNESDAY read + ask Submit your Questions THURSDAY read + ask Complete the Chapter Submit your Questions FRIDAY connect + commit Meet with Team Make Team Commitments

4. Welcome to Week 1

5. LIE 1: PEOPLE CARE WHICH COMPANY THEY WORK FOR Discussion Questions Which part of this Lie rang true for you? Why do you think organizations talk about ‘culture’ so much? What value does it bring and to whom? Though we might all feel ‘something in the air’ in the place we work, what truth does the idea of ‘culture’ hide?

6. TRUTH 1: PEOPLE CARE WHICH TEAM THEY’RE ON Discussion Questions What are the key differences between your ‘team’ and company ‘culture’? How did you feel when when you worked on your very best team? How many teams are you on now? What can we do now to make our team feel more like a team?

7. TRUTH 1: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team?

8. Welcome to Week 2

9. LIE 2: THE BEST PLAN WINS Discussion Questions Why do we place such a premium on plans? How do they serve us? How do we use plans in our team? In our organization? What is the key difference between a ‘plan’ and ‘planning’? How can we get really good at planning without becoming constrained by our plans?

10. TRUTH 2: THE BEST INTELLIGENCE WINS Discussion Questions How frequently do we, as a team, share data from the real world? How do we, as a team, decide which data is worth paying attention to? The best team leaders check in with each team member every single week: how could we start this ritual within our team? What other frequent intelligence-gathering tools and rituals would help our team?

11. TRUTH 2: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

12. Welcome to Week 3

13. LIE 3: THE BEST COMPANIES CASCADE GOALS Discussion Questions How have goals served you as an individual? What does our team use goals for? What does our organization use goals for? Why do you think organizations rely so heavily on cascaded goals? Where do you believe the responsibility lies to set and define goals? Why?

14. TRUTH 3: THE BEST COMPANIES CASCADE MEANING Discussion Questions • Why is ‘meaning’ a more powerful force than ‘goals’ to create alignment? • How do you use meaning and purpose to set goals in your own life? • How do the best companies cascade meaning across all their teams? How do we bring our shared meaning to life within our team? • Why can we learn from imperfect people and companies?

15. TRUTH 3: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

16. Welcome to Week 4

17. LIE 4: THE BEST PEOPLE ARE WELL-ROUNDED Discussion Questions Where does our fixation with well-roundedness first show up in the world? Why do you think it shows up here? At work, why do you think we define jobs and roles as though the best people in them are well-rounded? What tools or rituals do we encounter in our team that are founded on well-roundedness? What things in the real world push against the concept of well-roundedness?

18. TRUTH 4: THE BEST PEOPLE ARE SPIKY Discussion Questions • When you think of your strengths, what signs do you look for? • Which activities are you quite effective at, but that you wish you never had to do again? What do you call those? • In your work, in which activities or areas have you experienced the greatest levels of achievement? Where have you learned the fastest, almost as if you’d done it before? • On our team, where do people rely on you the most?

19. TRUTH 4: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

20. Welcome to Week 5

21. LIE 5: PEOPLE NEED FEEDBACK Discussion Questions • When you say the word ‘feedback,’ what do you mean? • Why does it feel so necessary to offer our feedback to others? Why does it feel so satisfying? • Have you ever had a powerfully positive experience when receiving feedback from someone else? Why was it so positive? • Why do you think so many of us lean out when someone says “Can I give you feedback?” • How do we use feedback on our team?

22. TRUTH 5: PEOPLE NEED ATTENTION Discussion Questions • Can you think of a recent experience where you learned a lot, and retained what you learned? What happened? • Who in your life has brought out the best in you? How did they help you? • When someone on our team asks you to help them get better, what do you think they are asking for? • What is the key difference between your ‘feedback’ and your ‘reaction’? Why is the latter more powerful?

23. TRUTH 5: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

24. Welcome to Week 6

25. LIE 6: PEOPLE CAN RELIABLY RATE OTHER PEOPLE Discussion Questions • How have ratings played a part in your life at work? At school? At home? • Why do you think companies rely so heavily on ratings? • Why are our ratings of others systematically error-filled? Why can we not reduce this error by adding more ratings – as in, why are all 360 degree surveys filled with error? • Do we use ratings on our team? Do any of them work well for us? Why?

26. TRUTH 6: PEOPLE CAN RELIABLY RATE THEIR OWN EXPERIENCES Discussion Questions • After an operation, whom does the physician ask to rate the pain of the patient? Why does he/she trust this person’s rating? • Have you participated in a survey recently? Which sorts of questions did you instinctively feel you could respond to reliably? • Why can we never rate the competencies or qualities of another person? • (Bonus statistics question: why is ‘reliability’ the foundation of all proper data-based discoveries?)

27. TRUTH 6: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

28. Welcome to Week 7

29. LIE 7: PEOPLE HAVE POTENTIAL Discussion Questions • How do you use the word ‘potential’ at work? At home? • What is powerful about seeing potential in others? • How does our organization use the word ‘potential’? How about our team? • Why do so many organizations use tools such as a 9 Box Grid to identify their ‘High Potentials’? • What are some of the dangers of labeling a small group of people ‘High Potentials’?

30. TRUTH 7: PEOPLE HAVE MOMENTUM Discussion Questions • Has your career varied in both direction and speed of progress? When do you think you were progressing fastest? • Have you ever thought about which strengths you bring with you from each role to the next? What are they? • Do you believe you will keep learning and growing throughout your career? How will you decide where you want to learn next? • When was the last time you had a great career conversation with someone about your ‘momentum’? Why was it so helpful? • How can thinking about each person’s current ‘momentum’ help us work better as a team?

31. TRUTH 7: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

32. Welcome to Week 8

33. LIE 8: WORK/LIFE BALANCE MATTERS MOST Discussion Questions • Do you aspire to balance in your own life? Why do you think ‘balance’ holds such appeal for us? • Why is it so difficult to find work/life balance? How do you think our current working lives make balance harder to find? • Even if you were to find balance, what problems would this lead to for you? • What is the difference between ‘boundaries’ and ‘balance’?

34. TRUTH 8: LOVE-IN-WORK MATTERS MOST Discussion Questions • Have you ever spent a week in love with your work? Which activities, situations, and people did you find yourself leaning into? • Have you ever spent a week in love with your home life? Which activities at home did you find yourself leaning into, losing yourself in? • Can you describe at least three ‘red threads’ in your work life, and three in your home life? • On our team, how can we know more clearly what each of our ‘red threads’ are?

35. TRUTH 8: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus

36. Welcome to Week 9

37. LIE 9: LEADERSHIP IS A THING Discussion Questions • Describe the best three leaders you know. What do they have in common? How do they differ? • What do you want from those you choose to follow – whether at work, or in your personal life? • Has a leader you’ve chosen to follow ever let you down? What happened? • Think about your very best experience of ‘followership’. Describe as best you can what that leader gave you.

38. TRUTH 9: WE FOLLOW SPIKES Discussion Questions • Have you ever thought about why anyone would follow you, either at work or at home? When you did, what came to mind? • How can you sharpen your understanding of what people see in you? • What actions can you take to honor and refine your own spikes? • On our team, can we describe the spikes each of us ‘hooks onto’ about the others?

39. TRUTH 9: Connect + Commit • What will you do differently on Monday? • As a team member? • As a leader? • As a parent, partner, friend? What’s your biggest breakthrough from this chapter? On Monday, I will stop _____________ On Monday, I will start _____________ Any questions we still have as a team? *We will submit these to Marcus