Unlocking Productivity and Personal Growth through the Importance-Urgency Matrix
Behavior Patterns for High Performing Teams (The Primes)
1. Integrity
Periodic Table of the Primes
Behavior Patterns for High Performing Teams
Works Cited
McGoff, Chris J. The Primes: How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem. Wiley, 2012.
McGoff, Chris. “The Primes.” The Primes, 2019, https://theprimes.com/
Leading
Change vs
Transformation
Dynamic
Incompleteness Ennoblement Power
Parity StakeS-Curves Core Prime
Levels of
Perspective
Blind Man &
Elephant Laggards Fragmentation
Open-Close
Decide
Declaration
Court–Locker
Room
Big Hat–Little Hat Right vs RightConsensus
Leadership
SpectrumMuda
Feedback as
CaringCulture Request Breach
Facts–Stories-
BeliefsPerimeter
Gossip
Chase – Lose Process-Content
A Clearing Issues Forward
Commitment vs
Attachment
1
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2
11 12 13 14 15 16
21
17 18 19 20
RedpointCohesion
Congruence
22 23 24 25 26 27
Victim - Leader
28 29 30 31
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 4039 41 42
43 44 45 46
Same-Different
Shape Shifting
•Leading in Uncertain Times
• Being clear on what’s really important
• Being intentional and going first
• Enrolling others
Trustthe
Universe
On-In
•Building Powerful Alliances
• Gaining shared perspective
• Establishing shared intent
• Taking coordinated action
•Outstanding Group Performance
• Making decisions
• Building an intentional culture
• Social contracting and accountability w/in the group
• Saying and not saying; Listening and not listening
•Patterns of Group Failure
• Overcoming resistance
• Managing intractable dilemmas
• Avoiding tripping hazards
• Refusing to hide out
•Thriving in Ambiguity
• Avoiding bright and shiny objects and squirrels
• Taking great care of yourself
Resolution
Principles
Confusion
Pattern Families
Draft - For Discussion Purposes Only – v0.1
Adapted to Periodic Table Form by Robert C. Wuhrman, 2019
https://scholar.harvard.edu/robert_wuhrman/leadership
2. 25. Consensus – A working definition of consensus that ensures a rational and fair process
where everyone’s treated well and all inputs heard will best obtain group commitment.
26. Open-Close-Decide – How groups actually make decisions.
27. Gossip – Defined as when 2+ people talk about a 3rd in a way that leaves the 3rd
diminished with noone committed to helping the 3rd. Stop listening to gossip - to stop gossip.
28. Court-Locker Room – Distinguishes thinking from doing.
29. Big hat / Little hat – What do you do when the needs of the many conflict with the needs
of the few?
30. Right vs Right – Resolving conflicts between right vs wrong is child’s play. How skilled are
you at resolving matters of right vs right.
31. Resolution Principles – End based, rule based vs care-based resolutions. “Out between
right and wrong is a green field. I’ll meet you there” (Rumi).
32. Culture – Defined as how a group divides the behaviors it will tolerate from those it will
not. Created by group in real-time. Does culture shape you, or do you shape culture?
33. Congruence – The tension created by what is stated vs what is experienced.
34. Feedback as Caring – How good are you at giving it? How good are you at getting it?
35. Request – Why saying no protects your yes.
36. Breach – What do you do when your yes turns out to be a no?
37. Perimeter – How small a fence have you built around what can (and cannot) be said?
38. Facts/Stories/Beliefs – Can you distinguish facts from stories & beliefs? Which drives you?
39. Victim-Leader – Taking responsibility for that which is under group control; intolerance for
a victim mentality.
40. Chase – Lose – Chase a meaningful outcome, deal quickly w/risks to learn lessons or
change practices, achieve the outcome & improve leadership/culture/team at the same time.
41. Shape Shifting – Be clear in your roles as leader. Shape shifting erodes group trust.
42. Process- Content – You can run the process. You can contribute to success. Pick one.
43. A Clearing – How skilled are you at creating nothing?
44. Issues Forward – What is the right ratio of looking behind and looking forward?
45. Commitment vs Attachment – “If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that
disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this
judgement now.” (Marcus Aurelius)
46. Be – Acknowledge you are being something at all times. Pause to notice how you are
being. Choose how you want to be. Become your chosen way of being. It is in your control.
1. Trust – Believing a person can keep their word; a result of leading with respect and integrity.
2. Integrity – Does your yes really mean yes?
3. Leading – Set direction, align resources, inspire action, be responsible for results.
4. On-In - Are you seduced by working in the business instead of on it?
5. Change vs Transformation – Are you fixing or creating?
6. Dynamic Incompleteness – Can you create a vision that is compelling because of what it says
and at the same time inviting – for what it leaves to be said?
7. Ennoblement – Does your vision elevate people in degree and excellence and respect and
inspire them to act boldly?
8. Power – Do you know how to turn strangers, competitors, cautious allies, and suspicious
stakeholders into powerful outcome-driven coalitions.
9. Declaration –A declaration made w/integrity shifts the language from passive to powerful.
10. Trust the Universe – Is your vision limited to what you’ve already seen?
11. Blind man and the elephant – How do you help people to see the whole thing?
12. Levels of Perspective – How do you help people to see the same “whole thing”?
13. S-Curves – How do you lead people to a shared sense of now?
14. Core Prime – How do you help the group focus on the right things & feel urgent about acting?
15. Parity – What is the right ratio of analyzing versus imagining?
16. Stake – How do you get the group “all in”?
17. Confusion – A space where one must travel to let go of a flawed belief and unkowing into a
right belief and knowing.
18. Laggards – Do you know how to starve “possibility killers”? Guardians of the status quo.
19. Fragmentation – The splitting of focus and commitment among stakeholders. Act quick to re-
establish cohesion.
20. Same-different – Everybody’s special. Really?
21. Cohesion – “Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire
to achieve.” (Wilfred Peterson)
22. Redpoint – A good question to ask is, “What is important to do?” A better question is, “Of all
the important things we could do, what are the fewest and most important?”
23. Muda – Can you distinguish “non-value-added activity”? How much of your group’s resources
is it consuming?
24. Leadership Spectrum – Are you the kind of leader who likes to facilitate consensus? The right
answer is, “That depends.”
Summary of Primes from Periodic Table on Page 1
https://theprimes.com
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118173279