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.
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:
I recently read Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health by Caroline Leaf (2013).
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…
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...
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...
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?
We sometimes get so busy being productive that we forget to be present.
There is tremendous power in being present, fully present. Here are some of the things that manifest, and are perceived as, presence:
None of those things cost money, so we don't have to budget for them or fill out a purchase requisition. Interestingly, productivity often flows nicely as result of our being present.
Power to the presence perpetrators!!!
The best teachers I know follow this recipe:
Toxins occur -- in our bodies, in the environment, and in organizations.
In all three domains, the response to toxins can follow several possible pathways...
Culture is evolutionary. The culture of our family, of our house of faith, of our team, of our organization (of any kind) was built over time, one brick at a time.
The version of that culture (of whichever organization we're thinking about) we experience today is the manifestation of the current habits in practice by the collective membership.
We cannot change the culture of any of those organizations with one purchase of snake oil, by excommunicating or firing one member, by occupying a new building, or by hiring a popular consultant. The likelihood of the success of any of those quick-fix strategies is the equivalent of thumping a spinner.
Meaningful cultural change results from the daily discipline of the members deciding which habits make us better (and doubling down on them) and which of our habits make us less (and purging them).
And, tomorrow, we do it again.
Sometimes people perform poorly.
Those of us in leadership roles are, thus, obligated to address it. That is a non-negotiable.
There seems to be three critical points in that process of "addressing it."
It's tempting to get snarky sometimes. Especially when we're right.
Snarkiness, however, always comes with a penalty: Lost trust, ill will, simmering anger, disengagement, etc.
The price we pay for being snarky makes it never worth what enjoyment we may think we realize from it.
My early years of professional service were spent pretending to be an athletic coach.
I heard Nicholas Keith of the Texas Education Association speak this week to to the powerful progression recipe for learner development:
> Acquisition (initial learning of the knowledge/skill)
> Fluency (practicing for speed and accuracy)
> Generalization/Adaptation (applying the knowledge/skills into real-world contexts)
The best coaches I have known over the years use this very formula toward the development of athletes.
The wisest teachers, leaders, and mentors I know do exactly the same thing.
We all want to feel like we matter.
The wisest leaders I know are masters of helping us feel like we matter.
How do they do that? They...
My lovely bride of 49 years has oft reminded me that we're ALL fighting monsters of some kind. She asserts that everyone is dealing with some issue or challenge, and in many cases, multiple monsters at the same time.
The Love of My Life also encourages me to remember that almost all of these monster-fighters are "doing the best they can" under the circumstances.
Her wisdom in this regard has caused me often in life to observe more closely, care more deeply, discern more keenly, listen more intently, forgive more easily.
I wanna be like her when I grow up...
(Fighting off a few monsters of my own.)
Over 50 years of professional service, I've worked for some bosses who thought they needed to be involved in every decision, provide their approval for every transaction, be leading every consequential conversation. They got in the way quite a lot.
I tend to think of those folks as having the malady of Decision-itis. It's an inflammation of the frontal cortex of the brain, causing extreme overactivity, generating an aura of self-importance.
I've also worked for a few who seemed completely unable or unwilling to make a decision. These suffered from IN-decision-itis. This disease presents as an apparent complete malfunction of the executive function of the brain. It's almost like an allergic reaction to the need to make a decision.
Finally, I have worked for a precious few bosses who carefully gathered evidence, sought multiple perspectives, examined best practices, carefully forecasted potential outcomes, and then....................... made a good decision. These I deem to be the Judicious Deciders.
Any guesses on which are the best to work for?
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...
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!
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...
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?????
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:
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.
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???
Delegating is sometimes -- too often -- viewed as a way to reduce load. There are, however, some powerful underlying reasons for delegating important tasks and decisions to others on the team (whether that team is one's family or a multi-national organization).
Effective delegating sends powerful signals to others on the team, such as...
I recently read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016).
My top takeaways:
Ø The Forward written by Dr. Abraham Verghese is some of the most beautiful prose I’ve read.
Ø I could never be a physician.
Ø Diseases are simply molecules misbehaving.
Ø Quality of life has everything to do with quantity of life.
Ø Words are just as important as scalpels in the surgeon’s tool chest.
Ø Statistics are humans, too.
Ø The easiest death is not necessarily the best death.
Ø Death, like life, is process more than event.
Ø The physician’s duty is not to return patients to their “old” lives, but to keep them living for their “new” one.
Ø Bereavement is but another phase of marriage.
Ø The fundamental question: How do I live a meaningful life?
My favorite quotes:
“Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?” (p. 71)
“Lucy and I both felt that life wasn’t about avoiding suffering. Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving. Describing life otherwise was like painting a tiger without stripes.” (p. 143)
“Yet I returned to the central values of Christianity—sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness—because I found them so compelling. There is a tension in the Bible between justice and mercy, between the Old Testament.” (p. 171)
“The main message of Jesus, I believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time.” (p. 171)
You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.” (p. 224)
This book was required reading for my oldest granddaughter as she was completing her undergraduate degree (as part of her capstone project). She recommended it to me. I am thankful for that, on multiple levels.
