BEcoming

The day we stop learning is the day we put the first foot in the grave. Becoming the very best version of ourselves is a learning journey, from the first breath to the last.

Existing, however, is not the same as living a meaningful life.

Some things that help us BECOME all that we can be...

• Remain curious - enough to keep asking questions.
• Learn - purposefully, in a fashion of daily discipline.
• Care - for others, for the earth, for the future (and show it).
• Exude transparency - in all ways being genuine and authentic.
• Forgive - freely, often, and with the knowledge that the blessings flow in both directions.

That'll be a day's worth of work. 

Rather, more like a life's worth.

Energizer

A car without fuel won't go. An electrical appliance that is not connected to a power supply won't spin, chop, heat, cool, light, jiggle, or ??? A sailboat without wind drifts. A solar panel without sunlight won't generate electron activity.

Stuff that requires energy to work............requires...........ENERGY!

Same goes for organizations that are trying to accomplish important things. Same goes for individuals that are trying to live impactful and meaningful lives.

Energy comes in all kinds of packages: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual.

WE -- you and I -- can be the source of energy provision......for ourselves and for those who depend on us.

Being an ENERGIZER is a daily learning journey.

Time to power up!

CollectiveIntelligence

I read a book about 20 years ago in which the author asserted there is no such thing as individual intelligence, that it's ALL collective. A good point, it seems to me. To wit: everything we know and can do is built on what someone else knew or could do, before us.

Another angle to this argument is relevant when we're dealing with sticky and complex problems. Putting multiple minds, experiences, and perspectives on developing a solution to a sticky/complex problem almost always results in better solutions. 

When we try to leverage the wisdom of the group, the results are always better when we...

• Stay relentlessly focused on the facts.
• Divorce the conversation from political concerns. 
• Are committed to outcomes that are good for the whole (not just some).
• Build flexibility into the deployment processes.
• Abandon the desire for perfection.

Did I mention "sticky" and "complex"?

Trustability

Our world seems chock full of way too many legal documents, contracts, and memoranda of understanding. It seems we can't afford to trust someone unless we've hemmed them up with hundreds of words of demands, constraints, limitations, expectations, etc. 

I am reminded daily of the pervasiveness of these systems built on one thing: DISTRUST! 

All are grounded in the presumption that "the other" will not do the right thing unless they are bound to it via some contractual obligation.

To the contrary, years ago I learned about a very different approach. Here's how it looks:

"I'm going to trust you...............until or unless you give me some reason not to."

How's that for a contract?????

LearningTriad

We tend to think of learning as just one process or event. In fact, the most impactful learning is a three-fold undertaking: 

Learning > UN-Learning > RE-Learning

Fundamentally, this triadic process is a state change. What we know gets modified, what we can do evolves. Some of the elements that trigger (and sustain) this process are:

• Attention - a focusing of our brain by observing, by listening, by reading, by experimenting.
• Agency - no one else can do the learning for us; we only own it when we do it.
• Application - testing what we think we know and can do against real-world contexts.
• Will - we triadicly learn best only when we want to.

Happy Tri-Learning!

ForwardFacing

Questions are tools. Powerful questions are powerful tools.

When thinking about improvement -- whether as individuals or as organizations -- a few simple questions can push us forward in significant ways:

Why are we doing what we're doing?

If our endeavor is worthy, what are we doing that does not contribute to that outcome?

If we're engaged in impactful actions, how might we do them better?

How do we know how well we're doing?

Clarity about where we're headed is critical. Persistent alignment of our thinking and behavior to that aspiration is .................................... nonnegotiable. Or should be.

If not, we're definitely not facing forward. 

PatternProblem

Maybe the problem is not the problem. Maybe it emerged as result of a faulty pattern.

Looking upstream of the problem is often very revealing as to why the problem is a problem in the first place. 

And the thing about pernicious patterns is that they reliably persist in pushing out problems. 

Is there a pattern doctor in the house???