My wisdom about Holacracy practice (to the degree that I have it) was hard won from years of experience and of frustration. I had to find my own answers to many of the things I now write about, and now nearly the same amount of time I’ve been practicing Holacracy, I’ve also been practicing the personal productivity system Getting Things Done (GTD).
The main difference for me is that while I’ve cracked Holacracy’s code, I’ve yet to fully crack GTD’s. I’ve been practicing it for 13 years, but I’m still implementing it. And I provide this context because I am not a GTD expert, but I think there are some elements I can speak to.
My favorite way of thinking about GTD is that it’s not really about getting things done, it’s about clearing away mental distractions and remaining present and appropriately engaged in whatever I’m doing at that moment.
That means that by investing my time in the “boring” tasks of regularly tracking and reviewing all of my work, I reduce my mind’s need to constantly interrupt me.
And one of those elements is an insight that’s been especially useful to me in both Holacracy and GTD: the discipline of getting very specific about what “doing” actually means.
In Holacracy, vague tensions like “We need to address this” don’t usually resolve themselves very elegantly. They often benefit from clear owners and concrete actions. GTD applies the same principle at the personal level. I ran into this issue years ago when I realized that I had actions like “Decide about X” or “Figure out how to…'“
The problem was that these definitions could be improved. They were an improvement over having nothing identified, but they still required me to have to figure out how I was going to them.
Until your next visible step is identified, the work tends to stay in a fog, quietly draining attention whether you’re practicing GTD or not.
When a next action is written as “Decide what to do about X,” it’s really a placeholder for an unclarified thinking process — not an action. If the decision hasn’t been made yet, something is still missing. The real next action is almost always something more concrete, like:
“Email Pat to get the latest budget numbers”
“List pros and cons of each vendor option”
“Schedule 30 min to review the project requirements”
If all the inputs (data, clarity of values, priorities, etc.) were present, the decision would already be made. The fact that it’s not made means there’s an information gap or thinking gap, and the actual action is to close that gap.
Just as “We need to make a decision about…” should trigger clarifying who has decision-making authority, “I need to decide about…” should trigger clarifying what will move the decision forward — the next observable, physical thing. When it words, this reduces your cognitive load.
Individually, the same principle applies. When you catch yourself thinking, “I need to decide about…” use it as a trigger to ask:
What do I still need to learn, clarify, or confirm?
What’s the very next physical thing I could do to move that forward?
The key is to identify whatever works for you. For me, I use:
“Set a timer for 10 mins. and free write about…” Or,
“Schedule a call with Mike to get some thought partnership on…”
Whatever the formulation, it needs to work for you. So, how do you get clear on something? What techniques help you brainstorm?
Maybe instead of just thinking to yourself, “I really need to find a way to get some time off next month…” you can also text a friend and ask if they have 20 mins. to help you with something.
Or, maybe you put a block on your calendar for tomorrow to do some journaling on it. The important thing is to notice what it feels like when you’ve taken even a minor action that moves things forward (compared to just ruminating inside your head).
Good structures reduce our cognitive and emotional load, but everyone needs to figure out the specifics for themselves.
So, a decision isn’t itself a next action. Or if it is, it’s not a very good one. A decision is an outcome of the right actions and making those actions explicit, even if they don’t immediately or magically solve it, at least give you a better chance that your decision will be the right one too.
It's easier to change directions if you are in motion. - David Allen