Complexification

We are WHOLE beings, not machines. 

Not only are we a complex mixture of structural stuff (like bones and muscles and skin and hair and...), we are also made up of tiny little things like cells and mitochondria and neural networks and.... And, then there's the chemical potions that flow through us constantly, relentlessly varying their "mixtures" to ensure (sometimes destroy) our health.

But wait! We also host a bazillion critters that aren't even human. Our gut flora is a community of "foreigners" (non-human life forms) that help us digest food and perform other functions. Health researchers conclude that we have at least 400 different kinds of "bugs" that live in our mouths, helping us function as human beings.

We haven't even touched on the different kinds of ways our minds work (see Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intellengences explained). 

Finally, we also have a spiritual or socio-emotional dimension to us. That part has been relentlessly studied through the millennia; we still seem less than certain about how that spiritual element works.

We are walking, talking complexities of "stuff," while also serving as the apartment complex for who knows how many other species. 

We are at once Nouns and Verbs.

As a lifelong learner and educator, I often wonder why we try to define (and measure) children by such narrow metrics as their prowess in math and English and science. Seems far too reductionist for such complex beings.

Dr. Dylan Wiliam is fond of saying that "a lifetime is not long enough to learn the craft of teaching." Nor is it long enough to learn the craft of LEARNING.

But today................we can start anew.

ServantLeadershipAtWork

 I recently read Servant Leadership at Work: Caring About People and Getting Extraordinary Results by Kent Keith (2024). 

 My top takeaways:

• A Servant Leader’s mindset centers on ethical, practical, and meaningful.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Get to Know Each Other as People.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Understand Colleagues’ Life at Work.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Are Ethical – They Treat People Right.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Create Strong Communities at Work.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Help Colleagues Grow.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Help Colleagues Find Meaning at Work.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Help Colleagues Beyond the Workplace.
• Impactful Servant Leaders… Care About Everyone the Organization Touches.
• Find the potential – in people and processes – then optimize that potential.
• Humans are one of 50 million known species. We are part of (not apart from) nature.  

 

My favorite quotes:

 

Per Robert Greenleaf: “Love is an undefinable term, and its manifestations are both subtle and infinite. But it begins, I believe with one absolute condition: unlimited liability! As soon as one’s liability for another is qualified to any degree, love is diminished by that much.” (p. 2)

 

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying that ‘courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.’” (p. 51)

 

“Simon Sinek says that as the leader, “you’re not in charge, you are responsible for those in your charge.’” (p. 95)  

 

This book was an excellent read. Well worth the time for any who choose to be more effective Servant Leaders. 

Malcontents

Malcontents....

Every organization and every team has to put up with the Malcontents (at least, for a little while). 

Malcontents practice one or more of the following disruptive strategies:

• Complain - about everything or anything: schedules, workload, unfairness, millennials, pay,  customers, systems, the weather....
• Resist - anything that represents a change in the status quo (which they seem to hate so much).
• Evade - efforts at improvement or innovation.
• Disengage - when it's time to craft solutions or have consequential dialogue.

How can we deal with Malcontents?

• Ignore them when we can.
• Marginalize them if possible.
• Disinvite them to trouble-shooting or strategy-crafting meetings.
• Give them minimal time and platform.
• Help them find another place to be.

If the Malcontents are only happy when they make us unhappy, perhaps we should flip the script.

Dysfunctionacity

Organizational dysfunction is a tenacious beast. 

Here are some of the culprits:

• Lack of Transparency - Healthy organizations, on the other hand, make a habit of full disclosure, honesty, and transparency with ALL stakeholders.
• Pretending - Healthy organizations, on the other hand, look the "elephant in the room" squarely in the eye, and name it openly. Then, they deal with it.
• Pettiness - Healthy organizations, on the other hand, have a persistent habit/norm of NOT letting the business become "personal." Wearing feelings on sleeves is no way to accomplishment great things. 
• Comms Voids - Healthy organizations, on the other hand, have systems in place to keep information, decisions, and expectations flowing like a steady stream. Brevity, precision in language, and consistency in communications rules! Informed teams are teams that have and feel the freedom to attend to the work.
• Freedomlessness - Empowered and healthy teams, on the other hand, feel the freedom to troubleshoot problems, innovate, dissent, and dialogue. Backroom politics are marginalized and disincentivized. 

Looks like a wish list, huh? Wishing won't make it happen... 

Tame the beast!

CompassionVitamin

When we practice Compassion, it sorta serves as a multivitamin in our interactions with others. Compassion provides a boost to us and those with whom we engage by ...

• Bringing positive energy to the situation
• Cleansing and clarifying the circumstances
• Feeding us and our interactions at a deep level
• Pulling service to others to the front of our minds
• Supplementing the strengths we bring to the table
• Brightening the prospects for impactful and collective action

Bringing Compassion to our engagements is a powerful stimulant.

Had your vitamins today?

ManagingUP!

Management is just that....managing. 

While managing is the necessary and parallel task to that of leading, it encompasses the "grunt work" of logistical and technical supplementals that allow an organization to move efficiently and effectively toward its espoused Vision.

The best leaders I know put an array of deployment strategies in place to "manage" the organization:

• They hire and empower people that understand the desired outcomes and have the skills to make those outcomes a reality.
• They coordinate the team in constant evaluation and modification of the systems that allow for smooth, consistent, and efficacious interface with the "customers," always with the Vision as the backdrop of the work.
• They constantly seek and adopt technical tools that serve the customer well, and that serve those who are serving the customer well.
• They constantly hammer away at the Vision through all kinds of messaging mechanisms so that every stakeholder -- internal and external -- understands clearly WHY the organization exists and WHAT outcomes it is pursuing.

These wise leaders understand that meaningless, redundant, non-purposeful work is............de-energizing work. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Manage UP!

Ignition&Liftoff

Some of the most impactful and insightful leaders I know have figured out a pretty simple recipe to ignite the energy and effort of those they work with. 

Here's what those exemplary leaders do to ignite their team...

• They make a point of knowing the story of each team member. Those stories are deeply personal, and have everything to do with how those folks see the world.
• They observe and discern the strengths of each of those team members and work diligently to craft a role for them that highly aligns to those strengths.
• They collaborate with the team and other stakeholders to craft a Big and Bold VISION of how they can work together to make a better future.
• They "chunk" the pursuit of that VISION into practical and doable actions such that each team member can see exactly how they can contribute to it. The abstract is made concrete, and personal.

LIFTOFF!

Harmony

 In music, harmony is the combining of notes that creates a pleasing sound. That combining happens both in simultaneous fashion (at any single moment) and in progressive fashion (as the song flows). There are numerous ways to affect harmony, but the result is that it pleases the ear and brain of the listener(s).

Harmony also occurs in personal, interpersonal and communal environments. We can "feel" it when our body/spirit is "in harmony." Same goes for our relationships. And, we sense that same "vibe" in the organizations we are members of. It just feels right when we're in harmony. It is noticeably unpleasing when we are not.

As one of my mentors says, "We are clearly singing the same song, but the notes don't seem to be in harmony."

The best leaders I know are superb at getting us to sing the same song, in harmony.

(un)Distracted

We pay a pretty high price for the constant distractions that crowd into our days. These distractions cost us both in personal and professional ways.

An example: Why is the person pinging us via text message more important than the person with whom we are currently having a conversation? 

Allowing ourselves to be constantly distracted is a habit.

NOT allowing ourselves to be constantly distracted is also a habit. 

It's significantly more difficult to embed the habit of "distraction interdiction" into our current lifestyles. That makes it like most other good habits.

PainTastic

Experiencing pain is part of living. Some of the pain is physical, some intellectual, and some emotional/spiritual. Pain hurts, but it rarely does us in (unless we choose to be done in).

Watching some folks I respect and love deal with pain, it seems they apply one or more of the following viewpoints as they deal with it:

• They use the pain to help clarify and focus on the truly important stuff.
• They examine the pain and its antecedents carefully, seeking to learn the embedded lessons for future living.
• They apply the experience of personal pain toward being more understanding of and empathetic toward others who are living with it.
• They realize that pain is often the result of pushing our limits, which usually leads to improved performance.
• They appreciate that pain almost always humbles us, and humbleness is truly a virtue.

Much truth in the old adage that "If it don't kill you, it'll make you better."

PresencePresent

The holiday season is in the air. Pretty hard to miss.

Sitting in numerous business meetings and other human gatherings this week, I was reminded that our Presence is a gift. Though a gift of great value, it doesn't cost us much to share it.

Giving the Present of Presence means lending to the engagement:

• Our full attention to the Other(s)
• Our eyes
• Our ears
• Our open body language
• Our brain/thinking
• Our participation in the chatter
• Our inclusion of others in that chatter
• Our expressions of care (whether we agree or not)

The packaging of that Present doesn't even have to be costly or pretty. ;-) 

Happy holidays!

Edgenesis

Growth tends to occur most robustly out on the edges.

It doesn't matter whether we talking about new growth in plants, expansion of cities, findings in current research, birth of new planets, social movements, weather systems, or our own learning.

Significant growth seems always to find its genesis in places other than the trunk or the capitol or headquarters or at the annual convention or in the inner circle or nestled safely in what we already know. 

New dimensions of what we know, what we can do, how we think and behave are often found "out on the edges" of the norm and the known. Probably has something to do with the risk associated with being "out on the edges."

GrOw forth! Befriend the edges. And those who reside there.

Happy learning...

Gray-niverse

Those who serve in leadership roles (e.g., parent, teacher, manager, coach, captain, CEO, ...) know full well that the world is not a black-n-white environment. Most of the decisions leaders make land squarely in the world of grayness. The higher up the leadership food chain we move, the grayer the world gets. 

The leaders I value and study subscribe closely to some common principles when making those inevitable and numerous GRAY decisions that come their way:

• They refuse to engage in or condone unethical/illegal behavior.
• They seek counsel from wise others (when time permits).
• They start always from a position of "do no harm."
• They strive for fundamental fairness.
• They press always for the common good.

One reality of leadership is that most of the easy decisions never come through our door. Those decisions get made in the customer service division, or in Room 174, or out in the field, or at the worksite, or... The gray ones, however, have a persistent way of landing on our desk or in our inbox. 

Happy deciding...

GraveDigging

Here are some sure ways to start digging our eternal resting "hole":

• Seek to serve ourselves over serving others.
• Hold grudges and withhold forgiveness.
• Think and behave with a Zero-Sum mindset.
• Stop learning new stuff.

Those are not things we are, but things we choose or choose not to do. Every day.

When we put the brakes on purposeful living, we put the first foot in the grave. 

AnxiousGeneration

 I recently read The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (2024). Dr. Dennis Wissing, the Dean of our college at LSU Shreveport, “baited” us to read this book. I am thankful.

 

My top takeaways:

·       Mental health and social acuity of children plummeted from 2010-2015, the window in which phone-based existence began to predominate.

·       Haidt’s 4-fold proposal: 1) No smartphones before HS, 2) No social media before 16, 3) Phone-free schools, 4) Far more supervised play and childhood independence.

·       Fear triggers full response; anxiety is triggered at “perceived” threat. 

·       Smartphones allow us, and our kids, to be “forever elsewhere.”

·       Attunement develops in free play as result of “serve and return” interactions, which forge emotional maturity. 

·       Synchronous, F2F, physical interactions serve as basis for this healthy social development.

·       Social media in a powerful purveyor of conformity attraction, serving as virtual peer pressure. 

·       Antifragile = things that need to get pummeled and knocked down in order to grow stronger.

·       Safetyism = safety above all else.

·       The human brain has two subsystems: Discover mode and Defend mode.

·       Superbly effective experience blockers: Safetyism and smartphones.

·       Four Harms of a phone-based childhood… Harm #1: Social Deprivation. Harm #2: Sleep Deprivation. Harm #3: Attention Fragmentation. Harm #4: Addiction. 

·       4 reasons girls are particularly vulnerable: 1) Girls are more affected by visual social comparison and perfectionism. 2) Girls’ aggression is more relational. 3) Girls more easily share emotions and disorders. 4) Girls are more subject to predation and harassment. 

·       Loss of belonging to a loving and lasting community may be the highest price of social media addiction. 

·       “The Great Rewiring of Childhood pulled young people out of real-world communities, including their own families, and created a new kind of childhood lived in multiple rapidly shifting networks.” (p. 197)

·       Our attention makes US the product that platforms sell to their customers.

·       We should consider the Gardener vs Carpenter analogical dichotomy of childrearing.

 

My favorite quotes:

 

“… overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.” (p. 9)

 

 “I see few indications that a phone-based childhood develops antifragility.” (p. 81)

 

“We should be giving children more of the practice they need in the real world and delaying their entry into the online world, where the benefits are fewer and the guardrails nearly nonexistent.” (p. 82)

 

“The strongest and most satisfying communities come into being when something lifts people out of the lower level so that they have powerful collective experiences. They all enter the realm of the sacred together, at the same time.” (p. 203)

 

“We need to start prevention early, in elementary and middle schools, before our children start wilting.” (p. 263)

 

I’ve read JH before, and been impressed with his thinking each time. A worthy scholar and impactful researcher who seems genuinely interested in shaping better for futures for all of us, particularly our children.

Condesc-truction

Many of the people I admire most are peace makers. They focus on building bridges instead of walls. They understand that any chance at bridge-building is grounded in their/our ability to foster trust. 

Dissimilar folks I observe seem bent on building walls instead of bridges. They demonstrate remarkable skill in undermining trustful engagement and collaboration. 

A trustless environment springs from condescension. How does condescension result in the destruction of trust?

• When my talking eats up more bandwidth than your talking.
• When a focus on weaknesses overwhelms a consideration of strengths.
• When attentiveness is fleeting and sporadic, falling victim to distraction.
• When assumptions based on labels blinds us to an individual's uniqueness.
• When engagements are viewed as contests, with commensurate score-keeping and subsequent rankings.

In our pursuit of betterness, knowing what doesn't work is just as informative as knowing what does. 

We can start deconstructing our condescension tendencies today.................if we choose, and if bridge-building is our intention.

ArtisanListening

Powerful listeners seem rare. Probably because it's a craft, the work of true Listening Artisans who skillfully mix art and science into one healing balm.

The best listeners I know embed some of the following strategies into their secret sauce:

• Defining Questions - They frame conversations with skillfully crafted questions that center on the topic of interest. They know that Q&A sessions can easily run off into the weeds, becoming unfocused b!7c% & complain events, which serve the best interests of none. While they may not know all the specifics that will surface in the answers to their questions, they are reasonably confident of the "direction" in which the conversation will head.
• Time Bounded - They make clear the time allotted for the session. If it's a formal meeting, start-stop times are clearly communicated; if it's an informal interaction, they marshall the conversation toward a clear and signaled closing point. 
• Presence - Those skillful listeners attend the conversation fully. They lend their ears, their eyes, their brains, and their body language to the interaction. They understand that full engagement is a two-way street. They also understand that 80% of communication is non-verbal. 
• Notation - Skillful listeners take note, usually in some visual way. They let the other know that what they are saying has meaning to the Listening Artisan, and will be subsequently dwelled upon. Making notes in some visual way sends a powerful message in that regard.
• Gratitude - Powerful listeners regularly thank the Other for the investment of their time, attention, opinion, and insight. Those Listening Artisans understand that asking, then thanking, others for their viewpoint and thinking is one of the most powerful and magnetic of compliments. 

Looking back on that listing, it's not surprising that so few seem to be Artisans of Listening.

As with all crafts, becoming master Artisans is a journey of improvement. We can start (or continue) that journey today...

ImpetUs...Or...ImpedeUs

The wisest leaders I know are masters at empowering those on their team. They provide Impetus to the team by engaging in the following "juicers"...

• Vision -- They work with us to craft a very clear vision of the better future we can make together.
• Comms -- They provide a relentless drumbeat of communication, internal and external, around that Vision.
• Relate -- They choose to know us well and engage with us authentically.
• Study -- They are driven to learn more and understand deeply, and pull us right along with them in that learning.
• Service -- They model exemplary Servant Leadership, and expect the same from each of us.

And then.......there's the other type of leader. They "get in the way," quite a lot. They're the ones who Impede Us rather than provide the Impetus we need to make that better future we envision.

Championship

Championship is more verb than noun. It springs from intention and daily discipline.

The verb Championship embodies the enactment of several other verbs:

• Optimize -- pushing the talents/gifts to the limit.
• LEARN -- studying best practices and practitioners, adopting the habits of both.
• Commit -- investing the time, effort, and resources to pursue excellence.
• Work -- knowing it to be the foundational verb.
• Collect -- assembling a similarly focused team of partners and experts.

Trophies are nice but you can't eat them and they are notorious dust collectors.

Champions smile, take pictures, glow briefly in the acclaim, then.............get up in the morning and get back to work.

Why? Because Champions know that Championship is more verb than noun.

UnknowingCraftiness

The very best leaders I know know A LOT. However, they skillfully pull off the art of Not Knowing, in the interest of making better teams and producing better outcomes.

How do these wise, knowledgeable, and experienced leaders practice the occult art of not being know-it-alls? They employ an array of strategies that pull from the rest of us a high level of engagement. These skill leaders tap into our best collective and individual gifts by Not Knowing.

Some of their Not Knowing strategies include...

• Suspend assumptions -- Other than the one that assumes we don't yet know all we need to. 
• Curiosity rules -- Each engagement is built on a foundation of curiosity and authentic openness. 
• Inquiry steriods -- Proffer deep questions that probe intention, motivation, strategy, forecasts, logistics, challenges, technical considerations, opportunities. 
• Learn-centric -- Work always and forever from a position of we-haven't-learned-enough-yet.
• Collective wisdom -- Understand always that we are smarter than any one or few of us.
• LISTEN -- To what is said, and just as importantly, to what is not said.
• Document -- Most of what is not somehow recorded, is lost. Capture thinking, somehow, for future scaffolding and dialogue.

Looks like we have more to learn...

RegretPower

 I recently read The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel Pink (2022). 

My top takeaways:

• Healthy regret clarifies, instructs, lifts us up, makes us better.
• Regrets fall into four core categories: foundation regrets, boldness regrets, moral regrets, and connection regrets.
• Regret is better understood as a process, not a “thing.” (Verb, not noun.)
• Healthy regret may make us feel worse today, but better tomorrow.
• Regret’s three broad benefits: 1) sharpen our decision-making, 2) elevates our performance, and 3) strengthens our sense of meaning and connectedness.
• Regret deepens our persistence.
• We’re more likely to regret the chances we didn’t take than those we did.
• Hearing ourselves say “too much” or “too little” is a signal of Foundation Regrets.
• Intentional reflection on our regrets is fuel for our growth.
• Beliefs about morality across societies coalesce around five themes: Care/harm, Fairness/cheating, Loyalty/disloyalty, Authority/subversion, and Purity/desecration.
• If an important relationship is broken….place the call, make that visit, say what you feel. Initiate the mend.
• Self-disclosure builds affinity much more often than it triggers judgment.

My favorite quotes:

 

“One influential study found that roughly 95 percent of the regrets that people express involve situations they controlled rather than external circumstances.” (p. 22)

 

“All deep structure regrets reveal a need and yield a lesson.” (p. 129)

 

“George Vaillant, another Harvard psychiatrist, headed the Grant Study for more than thirty years. In an unpublished 2012 manuscript, he reflected on what he’d learned from the experience. After eight decades, hundreds of subjects, thousands of interviews, and millions of data points, he said he could summarize the conclusion of the longest-running examination of human flourishing in five words: ‘Happiness is love. Full stop.’” (p. 144)

 

“Regret depends on storytelling. We are both the authors and the actors. We can shape the plot but not fully. We can toss aside the script but not always. We live at the intersection of free will and circumstance.” (p. 209)

 

Dan Pink always makes me think. He takes me to unexpected places, and causes me to reflect deeply on my beliefs and my enactments. A very worthy read.

LeadershipEnergy

Business folks often talk in terms of Return On Investment (ROI). We sometimes refer to that concept as "bang for the buck." The bottom line is this: Resources are finite and almost always limited. That is especially true of human energy. 

Energy is in short supply. Personal energy is in short supply. Team energy is in short supply. Leaders' energy is in short supply.

With that "shortage" in mind, the best and wisest leaders I know are masters of directing their finite stores of energy. These smart, effective, influential, and impactful cookies do the following with remarkable diligence:

• They stay relentlessly focused on the VISION, the BIG PICTURE, the WHY of their lives and the organizations they lead. 
• They deliberately work at crafting a Culture of Continuous Improvement.
• They exhibit and demand from others consistent Respectful Behavior toward all stakeholders, both internal and external.
• They insist on constant examination of important metrics (aka meaningful and relevant data) and on having open and honest conversations around that data.
•  They work mightily to assemble and empower teams of folks who are smart, efficient, effective, attentive, and committed to excellence.

One of the biggest energy sucks on the planet is misdirected energy. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Excellain't

Excellence is a state, one that occurs when a person, team, organization, or community chooses to break out of the customary and usual way of doing things. It is always the result of choices made, choices to be different. 

Excellence is never accidental. It springs from a deep aspiration for betterness. Excellence -- whether in individual athletic performance or international business success -- emerges on the heels of deep commitment, high attention, and extraordinary discipline. Never is it the result of dumb luck or a flip of a coin.  

Excellence is not a permanent state. Even if achieved today, it can evaporate on us tomorrow. How in the world can that happen? 

Excellent turns into Excellain't when we become satisfied and/or comfortable. When our state of mind changes from how-can-we-get-better to how-can-we-preserve-what-we-have, we have crossed that line. Good news: We can always turn around and cross the line in the other direction.

Excellent or Excellain't. We get to choose. And, tomorrow, we get to choose again.

Friction

When humans gather.........there's friction. When humans work together ......... there's friction. When humans compete ......... there's friction. When humans attempt great things ......... there's friction. 

The friction is triggered by:

• Who or who does not get the drumstick from the plate of fried chicken.
• Who or who does not get to shower first each evening.
• Who or who does not get the prime property in the inheritance.
• Who or who does not get named deacon.
• Who or who does not get the job promotion.
• Who or who does not get to make the final decision.
• Who or who does not get front-row seating.

The friction exists at the family, church, school, city, county, state, national, and international levels. Almost always, friction results over concerns related to status, privilege, or resources.

The wisest leaders I know somehow "manage" the inevitable friction. How?

• They invite all to the table and honor the various perspectives.
• They exhibit respectful behavior, persistently.
• They LISTEN -- carefully, fully, relationally.
• They guide us in crafting a clear vision of betterness, then communicate it relentlessly.
• They clarify roles so that everyone knows how they can contribute meaningfully.
• They press for the WE achievements, and resist creating winner-loser structures.
• They honor how we "feel" but pull our attention and discussion always back to the data that describes our desired outcomes.
• They help us understand when the friction impedes our progress. 

Honorable leadership practice is a tough slog. Probably the reason leaders of that ilk are so hard to find.

JackassAvoidance

Most of us have dealt with jackasses. They're not much fun.....to be around, to work with, or to work for.

Even worse is when we begin to sense that we may be displaying some jackass-ish behaviors ourselves. Seeing and admitting that we may, in fact, being emanating some of those off-putting manifestations is an excellent way to start the process of shelving them.

What do jackasses look and sound like?

• We/They don't listen to others deeply and with an open mind.
• We/They forget to focus on the BIG picture stuff, perseverating on the inconsequential.
• We/They view others (including teammates) as enemies and competitors. 
• We/They seem completely unwilling to change our/their minds.
• We/They attempt to drown out or censor the voices/opinions of others, instead of engaging in authentic discourse and dialogue.

Looking at the jackass in the mirror is an excellent way to keep more friends, enjoy the workplace a bit more, affect more productivity in our endeavors, improve personal and organizational outcomes.....................................and be a little happier with ourselves.

There's always a mirror handy.

LeadershipLevity

Leaders and leadership teams in organizations deal with a lot of s$#%. The easy-to-solve problems and dilemmas are not the ones that walk into their doors or make it onto their meeting agendas.

Dealing with complex, recalcitrant, even intractable issues (and people) often raises hackles, creates friction, and heightens conflict.

The best leaders I know have learned that a little humor goes a long way in those settings. Adding a little levity in tense environments often raises the level of engagement while lowering the degree of contentiousness. These skillful leaders often employ one of the strategies used by improvisational comedians which is to "never block and always roll." 

"Yes, and...." is a much better starting phrase than "Yeah, but..." Likewise, "How might we..." is a better stem for problem-solving conversation than "We can't and here's why..."

IF we hope to craft impactful solutions, that is. Lighten up!

TeacHer(o)

Most of us have had Teachers who shaped us. The most impactful ones understand that we DON'T need them for….... the content or to rank/sort us. 

Those stellar Teachers know that we DO need them for…

• Relationship 
• Insight (that comes from their experience) 
• Encouragement 
• Direction/Redirection

Not all of mine were professionally "certified" Teachers. Some were …
Parents and Grandparents
    Bosses 
        Colleagues 
            My Students
                Friends

Still, each was or is a TeacherHero in their own right. They have taught me much, and still are.

Gotta run. Time to pay it back/forward...

Engage(d)

I admire immensely folks who are skillful at engaging with others. They have the ability to, somehow, make us feel at ease in their presence. 

These engagement artisans have numerous "tools" they leverage to make the rest of us feel heard, seen, valued, and respected. Here are some of the things these engagemeisters do:

• They ask penetrating questions which invite us to reveal our knowledge, feelings, and positions.
• They display transparency and vulnerability in their own words and demeanor.
• They LISTEN intently as we share our thoughts.
• The exude kindness.
• They offer praise and thanks freely.
• They are fully present during the interaction.
• They seek, always, to build bridges instead of walls.

Just imagine a day in which we might encounter nothing other than these kinds of folks. (Or maybe just a few of them.)

How rewarding might our own days be if we could learn to behave in this way?

InfluencerJam

The wisest leaders I know understand that it takes a TEAM to accomplish significant impact. Thus, those leaders are always on the hunt for, and committed to the development of, influencers. 

How do they do that?

1. Find and connect with 'em - Pay attention to the "landscape," looking for those who not only do good work, but seem to draw it out of others. Get to know them. Talk to them. Listen to them. Learn with and from them. Lean into them. Connect dots with both their personal and professional interests. 
2. Build their capacity - Provide opportunities and access that align with their gifts and talent. Connect them with others in our network. Create mechanisms by which we learn with and from them. 
3. Shape their work - Consistently keep the organizational Vision at the center of our/their attention. Pull and push our Team toward that Vision. De-emphasize or remove elements that impede those efforts. Implement systems that challenge, not threaten, those influencers. 
4. Praise and promote them - Notice, acknowledge, praise, promote, and yes, sometimes "lose" them to their ambitions beyond our organization. Influence is reciprocal in nature. 

Influencers can work with or for pretty much anyone of their choosing. So, why would they pick us to work with?

The "jam" of influential leaders is heavily weighted toward influencing the influencers.

"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends..."

Two-Juice

Most organizational leaders have way too much to do. Too much paperwork, too much homework, too much putting out of fires, too much cleaning up of messes, too many meetings, too much "stuff."

Often neglected are the powerful one-to-one engagements with folks on the team. One-to-one equals TWO.

In my early years as an organizational leader, my lovely bride (now of 47 years) would gently remind me of the following: "Take care of the people, and they'll help you take care of the stuff."

Wise words then; wise words now.

There are huge benefits to spending a little one-to-one time with team players. In each of those Divine Appointments we can:

• Underscore their value
• Express appreciation
• LISTEN
• Laugh
• Empathize
• Clarify vision
• Demonstrate care

Those brief two-way conversations provide positive energy to both parties. And both need it.

Tinker-nacity

Knowledge is cumulative. We build on it one "block" or "straw" or "brick" at a time. Research steadily pushes the boundaries outward, but so does the collective application of that knowledge in science, the arts, crafts, and professions.  

Doubt it? Just do an internet search for hacks on how to change the oil in your lawnmower, or prune your trees, or improve your tennis backstroke, or identify legal tax deductions. 

Never have we had access to more knowledge, more quickly, in a wider variety of formats. Thus, the body of knowledge is expanding at an amazing speed.

Whatever our chosen interests, we can learn more about it and get better at it ... faster than ever.

The first decision, however, is the CHOICE to learn and to get better.

Step #1: GO!

RecalcitranceRemediation

Resistors, slow-rollers, blockers all have well-earned reputations. They often bring organizational improvement to a standstill. But not always...

All organizations have the Cadre of the Recalcitrant. So, how best do we navigate their resistance?

Consider these strategies:

• Seek counsel from wise others outside our organization. Perhaps we're missing something that is giving the resistors reason to push back or credence in the eyes of others.
• Keep communications open, even if painful. Transparency must prevail to keep various factions from digging more deeply in.
• Do our homework. In each meeting and in each individual encounter we are wise to be armed with the best and most current relevant data, and to be prepared to share our highest aspirations for the team in clear and understandable terms. High ground is almost always the best ground.
• Keep our communications clean, clear, forthright, and "on the business." It is never productive for us to attack the character or personality of others.
• Stay focused on the good and the positive. Negativity is a strong attractor, but what it attracts mostly is more negativity. People appreciate a genuinely positive perspective and optimistic voice, even if it's a lonely one.
• Be the change we desire. Integrity is when our words and our actions are highly aligned. Folks appreciate (often admire) it, even if they're afraid to say so.

Breaking through bottlenecks and barriers is a tough slog. 

Let's make sure we're pursuing worthy and noble goals, then engage the challenge presented by the Cadre of the Recalcitrant with vigor and zeal.

FoodDefense

I recently read In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan (2008). 

 

MP makes a strong case in this book that a traditional diet, rather than the modern western diet of fast and highly processed food, is a better way to eat and live. He also embeds within it some simple and pithy guidance on how we can eat healthier.

 

My top takeaways:

·       “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” (p. 1)

·       Even the simplest natural foods (e.g., carrots, potatoes, etc.) are immensely complicated things.

·       Our digestive tract has roughly as many neurons (yep, neurons) as our spinal column. 

·       Much of science is reductionist; scientist study what they can see and measure.

·       The human brain craves glucose – aka SUGAR. 

·       When industry figured out how to transform the seeds of grasses into the chemical equivalent of sugar, the train left the station.

·       The modern western diet is made up predominantly of processed corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat.

·       Shop the perimeter of the supermarket; stay out of the middle aisles.

·       Don’t get your body’s fuel from the same place your car does.

 

My favorite quotes:

 

“What would happen if we were to start thinking about food as less of a thing and more of a relationship?” (p. 102)

 

“Our personal health cannot be divorced from the health of the entire food web.” (p. 103)

 

“An American born in 2000 has a 1 in 3 chance of developing diabetes in his lifetime; the risk is even greater for a Hispanic American or African American.” (p. 137) 

 

“Cult? There is a lot more religion in science than you might expect.” (p. 140)

 

“Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” (p. 148)

This book, like most of MP’s writing, is easy to read and “digest” (pun intended). You won’t regret reading it.