MOR Maxim Moment: The Answer’s In The Room

Many leaders build their careers by being the “go-to person,” the problem solver, the one with all the answers. As they progress and take on elevated roles, they often reach a point of exhaustion—trying to manage their new responsibilities while still solving everyone else’s problems.

Enter the mantra: “The answer is in the room.” We owe a special thanks to Bill Clebsch, the former CIO of University IT at Stanford, for introducing this concept to the MOR community. At MOR, we are big fans of Bill. He deeply cared about others, invested in their development, and would never miss a chance to visit and speak at a MOR workshop. This mantra became one of his key leadership lessons: as we grow in our careers, we don’t have to have all the answers ourselves. Instead, we can harness the power of inquiry and trust the people around us. By simply asking others, we remind ourselves that “the answer is in the room.” The burden of doing it all doesn’t have to rest on our shoulders; we are in this together, and we can engage others to lead from where they are.

In conversations with Bill, he spoke highly about the impact he’d seen since working with MOR. He mentioned how one significant change was that fewer problems and issues demanded his attention. This allowed him to focus on what truly mattered in his role. Organizationally, this was ‘right-sized’ focus, as the right people were solving the right problems, and only the critical matters were being escalated.

A more recent nuance, brought to light since the hit Broadway show Hamilton, is how this phrase might be misunderstood. In the play, Hamilton aspired to be “in the room where it happens,” which could imply exclusion, but that was never Bill’s intent. His mantra speaks to the work of a leader: to reach out, gain perspective, invite voices into the conversation and into the ‘room’, and remember that you don’t have to have all the answers. You can trust those around you and have confidence that the answer is, indeed, in the room.