Headphones are great for keeping out noise clutter, so you can hear what’s truly important. I’ll don them on planes and in crowded lounges or cafés, and their good for the gym when weights are being dropped from great heights (am I the only one who finds this annoying?).

There’s another type of headphone that can help you focus and think: strategic headphones. They’re especially beneficial when there is this level of uncertainty in the world as they help you sort through the signals, settle on the most important ones and listen to them.

Do you know yours?

My business is pretty straightforward: I help people make better decisions through facilitated workshops, I help people create better environments for better decisions by guiding them on the governance structures that will best work for their culture, and I train others on how to choose what to build and how to build optimal governance structures.

What are my signals? My conversations with people that give me the opportunity to ask them “How’s business?”.

Take my recent Uber ride to the airport. The driver mentioned he had his own business, which prompted me to ask “How’s business?”. His reply: “It was picking up, then all this happened!”

I’m hearing a lot of that right now.

On the other hand, I have clients pushing on without concern for the current levels of uncertainty. One said to me “If you wait for the world to get better, you won’t do anything.” I could not disagree.

Now back to signals. What are your very best signals to monitor for the health of your business? Do you know them? Do the traditional ones still hold? If not, it’s time to investigate – to look into different areas of the paddock, if you’re in agriculture 😊 – to tap into the different mental models of the people who work for you. Ask them questions, a lot of questions. Get them to vote on things like what they believe will be the average price of diesel in six months’ time. Why? Because the science says that for situations where no one can be assumed to be right, averaging the best guess of a whole lot of people is better than trying to pick the smartest person in the room and hope they are right.

Enjoy!