BUY(ing)IN

We often refer to the gaining of support as BUY-IN. Too often that phrase is thought of in the past tense, as if it's already in the books, a done deal, a ship sailed.

Not so. The work of gaining and maintaining BUY-IN is an ongoing process, not an event.

Masters at the craft of garnering BUY-IN consistently engage in the following behaviors. They...

• Start always with the WHY, before getting into the weeds of the WHAT and HOW.
• Assume all voices matter, and should have opportunity to participate.
• Create an environment of equality, in which rank doesn't matter as consensus is sought.
• Value, invite, and highlight different perspectives. 
• Gather and engage both data and people.
• Understand that contexts are fluid/dynamic, thus structures/processes/decisions must be also. 
• Calendar "re-visitation" conversations for months/years to come. 

Sounds messy, huh? However, the messiness is nothing compared to trying to proceed without BUY-IN.

Distraction

We have limited time, limited energy, limited resources, limited bandwidth, and limited attention.

There are a bazillion things and many people (10s? 100s? 1000s?) that compete for our time, energy, resources, bandwidth, and attention.

We get to decide what's important. Once we do, it's the important things that deserve our time, energy, resources, bandwidth, and attention. It's regarding the important stuff that we're trying to gain traction.

Everything else is.......DIS-traction.

TrustPropellant

Trust is a fragile and precious thing. Anything and everything we can do that engenders trust is a good thing. 

Some of the most trustworthy folks I know persistently engage in the following behaviors:

• They help others achieve and succeed as a matter of practice.
• They relentlessly seek from others information and expertise.
• They model integrity; their actions and words align perfectly.
• They heap praise on others, and deflect it from themselves.
• They are extremely generous with their time and resources. 
• They keep both their questions and explanations simple.
• They freely extend trust toward others.
• They exhibit remarkable kindness.
• They are transparent to a fault.

Plenty of areas we can polish up on, huh?

SwitchOnYourBrain

 I recently read Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health by Caroline Leaf (2013).

My top takeaways:

Ø  Our attitude, not our DNA, determines much of the quality of our life.

Ø  Our brain does the bidding of our mind, not the other way around. 

Ø  Our mind controls our body.

Ø  Happiness is a choice, and it comes from within.

Ø  80% of cancers are due to lifestyle, not genetics.

Ø  What we believe, and believe about ourselves, alters the facts.

Ø  Whatever we think about grows, whether positive or negative in nature.

Ø  Epigenetics: our thoughts and choices impact our physical, mental, and spiritual development.

Ø  Multitasking is a persistent myth.

Ø  Quantum physics is another way of admiring God.

Ø  Empathy fosters trust, and makes communication more genuine. 

Ø  Quantum physics informs us that the universe is connected with faster-than-light transfers of information.

Ø  Writing is a powerful stimulant to the neuroplasticity of our brain.

 

My favorite quotes:

“How we think not only affects our own spirit, soul, and body but also people around us.” (p. 24)

 

“Our mind is designed to control the body, of which the brain is a part, not the other way around. Matter does not control us; we control matter through our thinking and choosing. We cannot control the events and circumstances of life but we can control our reactions.” (p. 33)

 

“Our thoughts, imagination, and choices can change the structure and function of our brains on every level: molecular, genetic, epigenetic, cellular, structural, neurochemical, and electromagnetic, and even subatomic.” (p. 68)

 

“The law of entanglement in quantum physics states that relationship is the defining characteristic of everything in space and time.” (p. 121)

 

“Automatization applies to everything in your life, because everything you do and say is first a thought. This means nothing happens until you first build the thought, which is like the root of a tree buried under the ground. The thought produces words, actions, behavior, and so on, which can be compared to the tree, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit you see above the ground.” (p. 133)

 

“Attitude is a state of mind—a thought plus its attached emotions—and it influences what you say and do.” (p. 161)

 

Dr. Leaf’s book was an interesting crosswalk between current neuroscience and scripture. She frequently used one to reinforce the other. She made me think. Which I love…

InquiryGurus

Some of the smartest people I know play dumb a lot. They steadily pitch questions at us that make us think. Then those crafty characters glean the collective wisdom that comes out of the responses to their powerful questions.

Here are some things I've noticed in the questions these Inquiry Gurus put on the table...

• Their question stems frequently come in invitational formats such as "What should we consider as we ... ?" and "How might we ... ?" 
• They pitch one question at a time, not bundling or daisy-chaining them.
• They keep each question short and compartmentalized.
• They almost never ask a Yes/No question. 
• They almost always end with this one: "What are we missing?"

Did I mention that the Inquiry Gurus spend far more time listening than they do talking???

DemandModel

The teams I have worked with over the years have likely grown weary of hearing this steady admonition from me: "If we can't model it, we can't demand it."

As I think about that declaration -- while looking in my own metaphorical mirror -- several dimensions of this assertion seem relevant. I cannot demand of others the following if I cannot model it myself...

• Intentional growth and learning.
• Deep commitment to continuous improvement.
• Stretching to engage with "different" and more folks. 
• Habits that foster physical, emotional, intellectual health.
• Seeking to gain a different perspective of intractable problems. 
• Leaning into discomfort and novelty, rather than avoiding it at all risks. 

That ought to be a good start on my day.

Come on in. The water's..................well, a little uncomfortable.

HeadlessChicken

My lovely bride of 49 years and I live on our ranch. 

Some of the critters we raise are chickens. From time to time we harvest chickens. A chicken with its head removed will run around burning up remaining energy like crazy -- aimless, nondirectional, frantically -- until it drops.

When we look in the mirror and see the same kind of behavior in ourselves, it's probably time to pause, prioritize, recalibrate, realign our time/effort/energy to our desired outcomes. 

As with all metaphors and analogies, this one has some weakness. But, I'm betting you get the point.

Whatcha aiming for today?