How to be clear when we work together
A new invitation for teams, troupes, merry bands and co-conspirators
The premise
I would like to find some existing teams who would like to be clearer about how they work together.
Teams who want to be clearer about what exactly they’re doing and why and how. Who want to be really clear about who is helping who with what.
And who want to work in a way where everyone brings the best of what they have — and gets what they need in the process.
The promise
I have developed a way of working together that is very clear. If you’ve read the other articles here on Medium — or you’ve taken the Clear Course — you’ll know something about how it works.
Using this approach, you can easily sum up any project or piece of work in a sentence, you can test how clear any idea is, you can connect each step you take to your life’s work (…and know what your life’s work is) and you can clear a path through whatever obstacles and fears might show up along the way.
But, the bit I’m most excited about these days is using this approach to bring clarity to how we work together.
With a set of clear principles and clear processes, you can build a team that works effortlessly together. Where, rather than working on informal hunches — or overly formal organisational procedures — each person is able to work naturally and effectively, drawing on their own vision and passion in service of the team’s overarching intent.
The offer
Over the past year I’ve run 10 online courses on how to be clear. And each one has brought together a remarkable little gang of artists, entrepreneurs, activists, MDs, authors, actors, mothers, fathers, philosophers… all sorts. And it’s been the most enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes each week over the last 12 months.
In those courses, I’ve mainly taught the three skills of how to have very clear ideas, how to practice identity yoga and how to map initiatives.
What I’d like to do now is to offer that course to teams. We’ll cover the same fundamental materials as in the existing course — but we’ll also tackle how to build a very clear team. We’ll work with live examples of how to work together. We’ll get really clear on what you are working on collectively and how it gets done. And I will show you and lead you through the process of making clear deals.
The point
At the heart of building a clear team is the practice of making ‘clear deals’. What that means in practice is that when someone needs help, they can accurately articulate what help they need. And when someone offers help, they can accurately articulate what help they can offer. And when both sides are clear on the help being asked for and offered, they are able to sum up in a single sentence the help that will be given— knowing that it perfectly encapsulates something both people are wholeheartedly invested in. That’s a clear deal.
Because, at the heart of this work of being clear, is the principle that people do better work when they know what they are working on and when it is something they actually want to work on. And that — so much more often than you would imagine — the only reason people are working on things they don’t want to work on is because what is actually needed isn’t clear.
If you are in charge of a team…
I was first put in charge of a team at work when I was 25. I was not good at it. After a couple of years of going in earlier and earlier and staying later and later in the hope that I would magically start being good at it, I totally burned out. And — oh man — I wish I had had then the kind of clear map I have now of how people work together. It would have made the difference between being exhausted and lost or being happily in charge and well-supported.
So, if you are in charge of a team and you would like a very clear map — I would love to show you.
If you’ve just taken over a new team…
If you’re trying to do something new with an existing team…
If you’re starting a new project or a new company…
If you’re having to respond to some kind of transition…
If it just feels like things should be working better than they are…
If you’d like to feel like you have a really clear overview of how everything (and everyone) fits together…
…those are all good reasons to get in touch.
The invitation
Drop me a line. If you have a team that you think could be clearer, I would love to help.
What I have in mind is teams of between three and eight people. That might be the whole organisation — or you might be part of a larger company. Or maybe you’re not a traditional organisation at all — but just some kind of collective of collaborators. I’m interested in working with business people, artists, designers, campaigners, politicians, people in the caring professions… Anyone who might benefit from some extra clarity.
The format of the course will be basically the same as those I’ve been teaching so far this year (six sessions of 90 minutes). And the fee will be on a sliding scale, according to affordability (most likely between £2k and 4k per team). But, because it’s going to be a team working together rather than a course for the general public, I would also like to work closely with the person in charge of the team before and after the calls to make sure it best serves what that team needs.
I am also very open to alternative approaches to delivering the content. If you are based in Bristol, I’d definitely be interested in delivering the course in person, rather than online. If you’re in London — maybe a mixture of on-and-offline. If you’d like to fly me to Amsterdam or Berlin or somewhere in Scandinavia— I’d be happy to consider it. :)
Thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you,
For now,
Charlie
hello@charlesdavies.com
www.howtobeclear.com
And what people have said about How To Be Clear…
“I’m pretty certain Charles needs no testimonials, but I had my monies worth just from the first session of his course. So if you need help with getting clear on something specific, or just knowing how to get clear on things in the future: do it.”
Nick Stevens, The Big Building, Groningen
“Not only can I say you will get clear — it’ll be fun too… If it calls to you — just do it.”
Elizabeth Lovius, Executive Coach, Spain
“Charlie is the alarm cord I pull when my own head gets too confusing. He cuts through the babble to see what’s going on like no-one else can. Charlie should come with a health warning as this can be highly-disruptive (and much needed) work.”
Kathryn Sheridan — Founder and CEO, Sustainability Consult, Belgium
“The workshop structure and delivery were excellent. I came away with a clear and easy to use process to explore and test what it is that motivates a person (be it myself or someone I am trying to help). In the interval since the workshop I have successfully used the process to understand myself and my motivations better. I have also shared the process with a number of other people, and without exception they have found it easy to use and insightful.’’
Professor John D. Kelleher — Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
“Charles Davies is exceptional at clarity. If you, like me, want to be more clear in your creative expressions and decisions, then sign up for his online course…a really good thing to do that will affect you hugely.”
Viktor Lysell, Ritual at Work, Leipzig, Germany
“Coaching at its finest and most transformational.”
Karen Gartside — Reteam Ltd, Chicago
“Highly recommend. Charles Davies has a lot to offer & I trust his integrity.”
Cleona Lira, Independent Financial Advisor, City of London
“I’m not even sure what Charles said or what I said, but what I do know is this. I messaged Charles later that night with the following: “All I know is that everything from here is going to be OK.”
Chris Drummond — Founder, Crafted Crate, Brighton
And some reading…
This work started out with me learning about language at Oxford, storytelling at The Face magazine, project design with The Kaospilots, how online communities work (at a very ahead-of-its-time consultancy in East London), improvisation (with Franki Anderson), money and organisational creativity (with Peter Koenig) and Buddhist dharma and meditation (living at the Bodhisattva Centre in Brighton). And it’s ended up with me distilling everything I learned into one practice: the practice of being clear.
I’ve written about it often — and published everything I’ve written here. Here’s a selection…
“When I teach people to be clear, I teach the basics. And then we practice. And then we share the tips and tricks we learn along the way.”
“I believe there are three things… I don’t mean three handy tips for success — yadda, yadda, yadda — I mean there are three actual, fundamental, necessary components to any creative process.”
“We have to understand the creative processes of nature as a whole — rather than limiting ourselves to the specific culture of work in human society in our lifetime.”
“You change your life when you take the initiative. It’s like changing tracks. It’s opening up a brand new path. Plugging into something new… it’s important to end initiatives too. To notice when they’re done and wrap them up and close them down and let them go unambiguously.”
“…And it’s all very simple. But this little bit of structure — of helper and helped — is the underlying code for collaboration. Even with chains of hundreds of people. Even with hugely complicated projects. You can build an infinitely vast family tree of helpers just using this simple question of who is helping who…”
“In this very moment, there is a next step for me to take that is true… And if, having taken it, I can look back and say — in that moment I was true to myself and to the world I was in — then there is no space for regret. Because what more can we ask of ourselves than that — in one moment — we might manage to stay true to ourselves and the world we are in?”
“But the essence of work is this: as creative, alive, human beings we have the capacity to see things that don’t exist yet and then bring them into the world. Work is creation.”
