5% Moments

We're renaming “updates” to “5% Moments” or just "5%."

Forum meetings fly by. There's always too much to talk about. The word "updates" - a common term in Forum practice - never sat well with us because it implies that you have to give a comprehensive update of all the major plot lines in your life. That's not possible in the time we have for meetings.

The point of the practice is to share the things that are on your mind and heart that have the most energy. Forum, at its best, is a place where you bring the deepest issues - the things that you can't talk freely about at work, at home, or even with your friends. Consider this as “Big Talk.” This is the most important input to a Forum meeting. If everyone edits their "updates" down to the 5% highest and the 5% lowest, you will certainly have a powerful and valuable meeting.

What's a 5% moment?

It is no simple thing to figure out what matters most to you. "How are you?" doesn't do it. For one thing, how you are at a single moment isn't what we're getting at. Everyone would answer, "I'm feeling great right now since I'm seeing you all and am in a Forum meeting." People change minute by minute. So we need to reflect, look back, and capture the most important moments.  How can you tell, though? 

Trust your feelings, Luke. 

If we notice feelings, we can reflect on their meaning later, and often the act of relaying them to the Forum helps to do that. 

That’s the 5% process. Try to capture your highs and lows. Here are some hints:

• The clichéd prompt of “what keeps you up at night?” can help. I know I am sometimes at my most depressed in the middle of the night, when I wake up and play some movie in my mind about a looming catastrophe in my life. “My business will fail, my body is breaking down, my kids hate me, I’m getting a divorce,  …” And a few hours later, I’ll wake up, have coffee, admire a clear morning, and feel like I’m going to crush it.
  
  

• “Where am I resisting?” There's a whole strain of "acceptance and commitment therapy around the core idea that the "work" is to turn to that which you are avoiding. When I'm in Forum, I try to share things that are the hardest to say. Sometimes just the act of saying them relieves some of the pressure and the burden.
  
  

• “Where have I gotten emotional”?  Often, our bodies and hearts are our guides. Did you tear up at a commercial?  Face get a little flushed in a conversation?  I like to take a hard look at those moments.
  
  

Start with the 90%. Don't push yourself too hard, it is ok to start with what you would tell people outside your Forum. This is why there's so much payoff to preparing in advance for Forum. Once you get the 90% on a page, you can scour your notes to pull out the most intense stuff and try to share that first.

Professional AND Personal?

It’s got to be a bit of both, really. Because all the top leadership gurus agree.

Sharing some of your whole self vulnerably builds trust. If you get better at showing your humanity, you’ll be better at Forum and better at leading outside of Forum. And pssst - there’s no line - your biggest issues are neither all personal nor all professional. You can’t lead others until you can lead yourself, and you can’t lead yourself until you know yourself. The time for “5% moments” goes super fast in a Forum meeting. We recommend 3-5 moments spanning the Personal and Professional. 

To underscore this, here are a few of our favorite quotes to ponder:

“Who we are is how we lead.” - Brené Brown

“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.” - Billie Jean King

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born - that there is a genetic factor to leadership. In fact, leaders are made, and they are made by effort and self-reflection.” - Warren Bennis

“I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure… We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.” - Kobe Bryant

“There is a difference between vulnerability and telling people everything about yourself.” - Simon Sinek

Advanced 5% - The Balance Wheel

You do not have to be balanced. Of course, there are a ton of sub-categories. Sometimes people use “The wheel” to take stock in more detail and jog their memories. This is a more advanced Forum practice, often done at retreats when there is more time, but we include it here in case it is helpful as you consider 5% moments.

Finally, our "Update Form" What is your 5%?

We’ve seen a hundred different update Forums, all subtle variations of the same thing. This is the one we are using in the YPO Key Associate Forum. 

It is ok to start with the 90% you tell everyone else. But consider how much of this you actually need to share in your precious few moments.

Having a great trip to the beach, successfully hosting your family for holiday dinner, having a good earnings call, or needing to fire someone could be top 5%, but they also might not be. 

Finding your 5% moments is truly all about what you value most and sharing that with your Forum.

"What's your biggest challenge" is the question at the heart of the Forum process. The abundance of information has actually become a problem. We have a tsunami of choices. Perhaps Forum's greatest value is that it fosters reflection on what is most important to work on. In our research, Key Associates most valued "unearth and give attention to major issues" from a list of Forum outcomes. Einstein is usually credited with the insight, but I'll go with innovation legend Charles Kettering's line, “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” We find the most powerful answers to "what's your biggest challenge" where personal and professional collide, and where our 5% moments connect. Then, with a Forum at our side, we can venture out to triumph where it matters most.

Then, what is your biggest challenge?

From the 5%, you, your forum mates and your facilitator can build an excellent parking lot of topics to explore. In this step, you transform 5% moments into challenges (or opportunities) that can ground a valuable Forum exploration. We suggest giving each a “headline” so you can quickly review them or keep them in the parking lot. But you are far more likely to get to a deeper exploration when you’ve already whittled your life down to these top 5% moments.

Good luck!