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Decode the Room

Before you play a different game, it helps to see the one you’re in. These are seven unwritten rules almost every organization runs on, each with the signal that gives it away and a question that decodes it.

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Contents

  1. iThe calendar shows powerThe org chart shows authority. Watch whose time bends around whose.
  2. iiThe stated criteria aren’t the scoreboardLook at what the last three people who got ahead actually did.
  3. iiiDecorum is a languageHow people open, disagree and close. Fluency is read as competence.
  4. ivWork nobody sees doesn’t countVisibility beats volume, and you can earn it without self-promotion.
  5. vThe decision happens before the meetingFind out who the decider talks to first.
  6. viStatus is mostly restraintNotice what the most respected person in the room doesn’t do.
  7. viiEvery structure has a gatekeeper who isn’t on the chartLearn who has to say yes before the boss hears the question.

Each rule ends with a one-line exercise and room to record what you see, in a Lockebook, an Intent & Impact or any notebook. It takes about ten minutes to read.