With a wider awareness of what’s going on in your business, you will be surprised less often.

One of the first things I do in any new role is study, with the goal of building my awareness. It's one of the 10 core behaviours of effective employees - they get company smart right from the start.

Who does what? Who is helpful? Who is not helpful? How does work move? etc.

“My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully, and yell for help if you need it.”
― Judy Blume, Author

With a wider awareness the less surprised you will be. But in order to widen your awareness you must study to gain knowledge.

There are many types of studying you could do; watching, listeningstapling, collaborating, measuring, asking for help and many more.

Awareness Fields Model

To help with this ongoing and essential activity, I use my Awareness Fields model to capture useful insights and information as I get company smart.

An image of the awareness fields model - concentric circles growing outwards to less awareness
The Awareness Fields model

Total Awareness

The first circle are things you are totally aware of; yourself, what your team are working on (hopefully), your purpose, your obstacles etc.

This is an essential element of the Releasing Agility model I use with clients.

Decent Awareness

The second level are things you have a decent level of awareness about but they’re not crystal clear; a personal challenge one of your team are having, some process issues in a team somewhere else, some personnel issues in another department, some changes to the strategy that you’ve seen but not fully digested, some customer complaints you’re hearing about, a person of interest in another department etc.

Partial Awareness

The third level are things you’re only somewhat aware of – you have a partial awareness; rumours, hear-say, grapevine, passing comments, observations without facts, people in other teams you’ve not met yet etc

Zero Awareness

The fourth level are things you have zero awareness of; you know nothing about these things.

Moving things in to your awareness fields

A good manager is aware of the various moving elements in a business and tries to get clarity over items in levels 2 and 3, in order to move them to level 1, if needed.

For example, let’s say there is another manager or exec in a different department that you need to align with to achieve your goals.

They may be in level 2 – you know them but not very well, or level 3 – you know of them. Maybe you're not even sure who they are, what their name is and who they work with - level 4.

Your goal now is to grow a positive relationship with that person so they are in level 1.

Level 1 would mean you work together, or collaborate, or cooperate, or at least see often to build a positive relationship with.

Here's an article on why relationships require you to see people.

You are growing a wider awareness of people and the work they do, so you can help to grow your business results and increase your knowledge.

By knowing more people in the business you will hear about changes, strategy shifts, layoffs or anything else sooner – and be surprised less often.

In another example, let’s say you have heard that a new strategy has been designed. You've heard it on the grapevine and it will likely have some impact on you and your team - Level 3.

You could leave it alone and be potentially surprised at how impactful it is, or you could go out and find more about it - pulling it into level 2 or level 1.

By going out and bringing that into level 1 you can work on it, assess it, understand it and be less surprised by it when it's activated.

Too many managers sit by and wait for surprises to come to their teams. Good managers go forth and build a wider awareness.

Increasing your awareness of the world around you is one of the most fundamental activities a manager can do.

Having a narrow awareness field of your domain, your skills, your work environment, your product or your role is giving you fewer potential choices, fewer creative ways to solve problems and fewer channels to hear about business change that will affect you.

What about people?

You can use this same model to work with people in the business.

Let’s say someone new joins as the head of sales. You are aware of them but you don’t know them, how they work or whether their new approach will affect your team.

You could wait until your paths cross – or you could go forth and introduce yourself.

Experienced managers quickly work out who is helpful and who isn’t – this is widening an awareness of people.

What about you?

Widening your awareness about yourself, your work and your strengths is an essential step to becoming a better manager.

The more you know your own limitations the better equipped you are to make improvements and changes - or surround yourself with people who's strengths compliment your weaknesses.

It’s why I built the Pillars of Life and the Trinity of Career Development – to get to know myself better.

Awareness and Learning

It is fair to say that if you surround yourself with people who think like you and confirm your beliefs, you’ll not expand your awareness of new ideas and ways of working.

Real learning comes from the clashing of ideas and concepts leaving your brain to mash it all together.

I built my Personal Knowledge Management System to help me do just that – to capture, curate, crunch and contribute.

“Awareness increases our knowledge and knowledge enriches us” The way we are working isn’t working – Tony Schwartz (aff link)

Some Ideas on building a wider awareness

Here are some ideas on how to build your awareness of the business, yourself and your work.

Speak to customer Services

Customer service teams are on the front line of the business dealing with customers. They have rich insights into the challenges customers face. They have relationships with customers and are dealing with incoming challenges all the time.

Help them to improve the lives of customers. You will also find they have a rich set of insights and data that can help you improve your company, function or department.

Speak to Sales or Account Managers

These people sell your product or service and maintain relationships with the customers. They will have more information than you would imagine. Build relationships with them and nurture this network.

The information and knowledge flowing from the front line of the business will help you improve your work.

Attend a sales pitch

You will learn loads, trust me.

You’ll also see the types of questions your customers ask and it will give you rich insights into how to improve the service or product. You'll also see how experienced sales people deal with difficult questions, overcome hurdles and manage resistance - these are key communication skills that would help you grow in the role of leader or manager too.

Talk to customers

You can learn a lot speaking to customers.

You will almost certainly have a wider awareness of the business and how customers interact with it, simply by sitting down and speaking to them.

Attend meetings, speak to people – network like a pro

Your biggest asset as a manager and individual in the commercial world is your network. Nurture it, take care of it, prune it, grow it and cultivate it. It will pay you back ten-fold.

Your network is the wider community, but it’s also your colleagues at work. Don’t overlook the very people you work with. Your work becomes easier when you have strong work relationships.

Industry news

There are literally thousands of online resources around your industry and your product or service domain.

What’s happening in the industry? What’s trending? How is the industry changing? What regulation will affect us?

Research. Study. Gain knowledge. Build a wider awareness. Be surprised less often. Head off the surprises in the first place.

Social Media

Social Media is a pulse check on what’s hot or not - it can also be quite toxic.

It’s a vehicle for industry news, but it’s also a chance to find like minded individuals or companies and see how others are moving things forward, disrupting their worlds or pushing boundaries that will affect you someday.

Just be sure you're not giving over too much of your energy and attention to social media.

Read books about other industries

You’d be surprised at how much learning can happen when you read books about other industries.

I have some recommended books here. You will build a wider awareness of your industry simply by learning more about it, and lessons from others.

With a wider awareness, you will be surprised less often.