OwnershipAmbiguity

Finger pointing, dodging, evasion, blaming... All are behaviors that happen -- A LOT -- on teams for which taking "ownership" is problematic. 

Some of the best teams I've observed (led by the wisest leaders I've observed) put into place some consistent practices/habits to make the "ownership" problem less of a problem:

• Leadership provides crystal clear clarity around who's responsible for what. 
• Monitoring conversations (not scorecards) among and between team members, both vertically and horizontally, happens as part of the daily routines.
• Team member are allowed much autonomy in the processes they use to achieve the outcomes they own.
• The team codifies shared goals, with some kind of metrics applied, so there is some reasonable way by which progress (or its lack) can be assessed.

Sounds easy, but it's certainly not. Otherwise, every team would be doing it.

RichVsWealthy

Being rich is grounded in materialism. Having money, having expensive stuff, and extravagantly displaying both seems both goal and evidence of being rich. Having much, and showing it off. 

Juxtapose that existence with one of wealth. Wealth implies being blessed far beyond material things. In fact, a person can be wealthy with very little in the way of material possessions.

Wealth is grounded in assets more than resources. Those assets can include the tangible, yet more often than not, wealth is made up of the intangible: relationships, peace, accomplishment, contentment, servanthood, wisdom.

The pursuit of either richness or wealth is a conscious decision on our part. 

Wealth for me, please. 

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???