Before difficult conversations happen, create your one-pager

If you’re learning something new that can help you in an everyday aspect of your job, don’t assume you’ll put it into action. Create an aide-memoire and then push yourself to revisit it frequently: these are one-pagers.

I’ve been working with scores of leaders as they put their strategy into action. They have ambitious goals, and need to inspire their teams to go beyond what’s been asked for before, undertaking significant change in how they work. The ingredients for difficult conversations are all in place.

I sought inspiration on how to tackle these difficult conversations — I’ve not always been the best at handling them in the past. Inspiration came from a most unlikely source, while learning how to command an international space station.

One-pagers on every eventuality, from the big stuff to the little stuff.

Chris Hadfield’s masterclass on space command is packed with lessons that can be transposed into leadership in any field.

As I have wrapped up intensive, rich workshops on leadership and teaming, I’ve become sharply conscious that, no matter how good the follow-up notes that we send on to the team, participants in these workshops are missing their own, personally produced aide-memoire that can push them into action on the days they’d rather just stick with the status quo, or avoid a difficult conversation.

One element of Chris Hadfield’s masterclass resonated from my days studying for exams back in high school: the art of maintaining one-pagers.

When I was at school, I invested in a pack of 3x4 cards and a plastic Helix box in which to keep this precious cargo. Each card held the key vital information for every facet of the subject in hand: quotes, formulae, methods, concepts. It was a habit that continued into university and then, with the advent of digital keep-saking, I stopped.

Now, I’ve gone back to it, and even invested in some (very cheap) branded postcards to create my one-sheets on the seminars I lead frequently, and the difficult questions and conversations that keep coming up.

My very own (branded, yay!) one-pagers.

And so I wondered why every leader might not keep one-pagers on those conversations, meetings or challenges that are tough to handle, but which are likely to appear at some point in the future. The act of making the card is really as important as using it at a later date. It’s analogue blogging by any other name, perhaps, but maybe worth a go for everyone who has difficult conversations and wants reminded how they would have handled them away from the heat of the moment.