LearningIgnitioneer

Working in a LEARNING organization is an enriching experience........by design.

Organizations built for, around, and about LEARNING necessarily call for both individual and collective learning, as well as cross pollination of that learning. No one works in a silo.

The very best LEARNING organizations I've observed have some clear commonalities:

• Change is assumed, and is the expected constant. 
• The Boss(es) are viewed as the lead learners. 
• Taking risks is encouraged, even rewarded.
• EVERYONE is expected to LEARN.
• EVERYONE is expected to share their learning.
• Learning what doesn't work is valued as highly as learning what does.

Yep, we can start today. No permission required. 

MyopicProgress

We all live in a myopic world. Our contexts, our situations, our relationships, our problems run on a continuous loop in our minds.

The only chance we have of achieving something big, bold, and important together is to understand each other as much as possible, without being judgmental and critical. We call that empathy.

Empathy is a super power, a tremendous bridge builder, and an amazing healer. It starts with us putting our "stuff" on the back burner and focusing on the other.

Genuine empathy is extremely difficult to muster. But each time we manifest it, we ALL win.

We can start now...  

GooseJuice

The tendency of many well-performing organizations, and people, is to hunker and protect. Why mess with a good thing? they say. Why shake up what's working? they think.

Because nothing is stagnant. More specifically, contexts are ever changing, at a higher speed now than ever before in human existence. And, the competitors in, and newcomers to, our genre are moving at warp speed to kick our patootie.

How should we respond when things are going well and smoothly? Get better!

Some proven steps to bettergetting ... 

• Convene and converse regularly with innovators and creative types, both the ones on the team and those external. Forecasting is the first step in innovative improvement.
• Allocate resources DISproportionately toward the teams and functions that are knocking it out of the park. Time, money, effort, and energy is best spent on those producing optimal outcomes.
• LISTEN to everyone, but give scant attention to the whiny, the low performers, the satisficers. 

Getting better. Every day. On purpose. 

Not just a cute saying or tattoo, but a daily and renewable commitment. 

Service1st

A life of service is one of distinction. Putting service ahead of self-interest is challenging but a most worthy endeavor. Some thoughts to guide us toward impactful service... 

WHY? Our purpose in life is what drives us toward service. Knowing our purpose is the starting point. 

WHO? Focused service is the most impactful service. To whom do/should we direct our time, effort, and resources?

HOW? What gifts and talents have we been blessed with that we can, in turn, use to bless others?

WHAT? Choosing wisely the available mechanisms, methodologies, and tools amplifies the service we render. Paying attention and doing our homework helps us magnify the effects of our service.

To whom much is given much is required. 

Serve well this day, my Friends. 

ModelDemand

"If we can't model it, we can't demand it." 

That is one of my most strongly held beliefs about leadership. Perhaps it should be my next tattoo.

What should we model?

• Caring.
• Humility.
• Voracious learning.
• World class listening.
• Conversations galore, up and down the food chain.
• Respectfulness, all the time, everywhere, toward everyone.

How much better will our world be if we model those things?

ArrogantHubris

Yes, that's a redundant title.

The manifestation of arrogance and/or hubris from those pretending to be our leaders is just as annoying as....

the use of redundant words, back-to-back, in the same sentence/title. 

Annoying, and devaluing, and destructive.

FLATsparency

Organizations tend to fall somewhere along the continuum shown below...

FLAT   <<<   --------------------------------   >>>   HIERARCHICAL

The further to the right an organization drifts, the following attributes seem to take a firmer hold:

• Decision making is siloed toward the top and in the hands of a few.
• Communications run predominantly downward.
• Messages and Intent get filtered, and muddified, through multiple layers. 
• Commitment and Attention at the lower levels diminishes.
• Customer DISsatisfaction increases (both internal and external).

What about FLAT organizations, you may ask? The opposites of those bulleted items above begin to predominate.

What to do??? We can often influence our organization toward FLATness. If we can't, it's time to look for a different organization to contribute to. 

Bodacity

Why dream BIG? Because "average or better" isn't good enough. The world already has plenty of that. 

We can be better and we can do better. Every day. On purpose. 

Excellence is achievable (though perfection is not). 

We can be BODACIOUS! And we can start right now.

GReATITUDE

The wisest and most admirable people I know are masters of thankfulness. Somehow, they build a habit and nurture a heart of GRATITUDE into their living, each and every day.

What makes these folks so GREAT in my mind? They relentlessly ...

• Express their thankfulness for the good things and people that come their way.
• Notice and acknowledge both the good intentions and actions of others.
• Show appreciation to others in both small ways and large.
• Seek the good in every situation and in every person, and speak it aloud.

I am so very GRATEFUL at how these exemplars model a life of GReATITUDE.

MinuteMatters

Each day is made up of 1,440 minutes.

Most of us sleep for about 420 of those minutes (give or take).

That leaves somewhere in the ballpark of 1,000 waking minutes available to us each day.

How we use each of those minutes matters. Matters regarding...

• How we choose to SERVE (or not)
• Who we choose to BE (not what we choose to DO)
• The ways we choose to make our world a better place
• How much LOVE we choose to extend to those around us
• Whether we choose to end this day better than we began it

Yep. Lots of choices. May we choose well and rightly, every minute, every day.

Have a good 'un.

Nimbleocity

 Nimbleness and Speed are not the same thing, but they're first cousins.

In a fluid and dynamic world (regardless of our professional place in it), innovation and adaptability are key to survival and success.

How do we do that?

• Be crystal clear about direction and intentions.
• Build deployment flexibility into the pursuit of that direction and those intentions. 
• Communicate and coordinate frequently on the success level (and, thus, viability) of those varying deployments.
• Abandon the lost causes quickly (and forget about sunk costs).
• Quickly flow resources (tangible and intangible) toward those are that gaining traction.

Do all that stuff again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after......

ContinuousUN-improvement

Continuous Improvement is tattoo-worthy stuff. The most impactful people I know and the highest performing organizations I've seen are intensely focused on continuous improvement. 

Sometimes UN-improvement -- the lack of progress -- seems to be the most common and continuous effect. 

Being "stuck" is a clear indicator that it's time for something to change. 

InterVerse

Each of us is associated with multiple groups (I'm intentionally choosing NOT to use the word "organization"): Families, houses of faith, HOAs, country clubs, workplaces, professional associations, etc. Each of those groups has a unique and dynamic culture. We are both shaped by those cultures and also shape those cultures, simply by our affiliation and participation. 

We can view that mishmash membership as a set of sub-universes, each one with the word INTER at the front.

INTERtwined -- Like a tangled skein of yarn, we are loosely intertwined with others in our groups. Sometimes we know the others well, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we cross paths frequently, sometimes we don't. Yet, there are numerous commonalities between/among us due to our affiliation with the group.

INTERwoven -- The coordination of effort, systems, and processes within these groups is far more intentional. This social space resembles a tapestry in which the "weave" is tight, well planned, made of high-quality inputs. Groups that effectively achieve this state are generally intensely focused, well coordinated, extremely collaborative, and high performing. 

INTERconnected -- Via digital connectivity, we now have immediate access to job-alike and life-alike people around this entire planet. From each we can learn what works best, what doesn't work at all, what might work in the right circumstances, what's yet to be tried. Never in history have we had such instant access to others, both inside our groups and outside. 

INTERdependent -- There is a high degree of interdependence between and among those who share the affiliation with us, whether our group is efficacious or not. The satisfaction we experience and the quality of service we provide both trend steeply upward when that interdependence is understood and leveraged. THEN, it becomes a force multiplier. 

INTERVerse -- This is the totality of those other INTER-spaces above. 

Members we are, of each and every one of those INTER-spaces described above. What we choose to do with/for each group is purely up to us. Having a good sense of our InterVerse is the first step in us becoming who we want to be. 

EnemyIdentity

What happens when we discover that we're our own worst enemy? When our habits, our behavior, our interpersonal failures, our lack of empathy, our failure to trust, our inability to "let go," become so glaringly visible in the mirror? When we painfully discover that the source of most of our frustration lives within us.

We really can't engage in meaningful battle until we've clearly identified the enemy. 

Now that we know 'em, we can get to work on making life better for everyone. Including ourselves.

As always, it starts with the daily choices we make. Which ones shall we make this day?

PainInducers

Some folks are just painful to be around. When they're the boss, their ability to induce pain for/in the rest of us is amplified.

As always, anti-example is just as instructive for us as the study of exemplars. So, here goes. Some archetypes of pain-inducing leaders:

• Worry Warts -- To these folks the sky seems always falling.

• Po Po Pitiful ME-ers -- The world seems to have targeted them for misery, and us to hear about it.

• Micro Managers -- Even when we get it 98% right, they'll perseverate on the other 2%.

• Drama Drummers -- As if accomplishing important work is not hard enough, they adeptly find a way to stir up trouble amongst and between us.

• Artful Dodgers -- When there's work to be done, they're nowhere in sight. 

• Blame Throwers -- Masters at faulting others when things go sideways.

We know what they look like. We know what to call 'em.

What do we learn from these powerful anti-examples?

We can put that learning to work. Now is an excellent time to start.

GraceDenied

When we choose to withhold GRACE,

we choose to eschew PEACE.

Our own.

When we choose to decline GRACE extended,

we choose to eschew PEACE.

Our own.

We get to choose, as always. 

CapacityVeracity

Any leader worth their salt knows that important work cannot be done without a high-performing and highly committed team.

Some of the best leaders I've observed over 50 years use the following strategies to build and bolster the teams they work on/with:

• Provide a steady drumbeat of the WHY.
• Put in place guardrails rather than regulations/rules.
• Stay out of the way, but ever present to help when needed. 
• Remain always open and accessible for feedback and dissent. 
• Push, pull, prod, incentivize, expect, and model continual learning.
• Continually monitor and discuss progress (and lack thereof) as a team. 
• Push, pull, prod, incentivize, expect, and model continuous improvement.

Plenty on that to-do list. We can start now.

StaringAtThePliers

Tools have forever pushed and accelerated the accomplishments of the human race.

Consider levers, wheels, pulleys, paper, ballpoint pens, hammers, pliers, telegraphs, etc. We could spend the rest of the day naming tools of advancement, both simple and complex.  

Enter the cell phone in its current iteration, perhaps the most powerful tool yet invented by our species. It now has the power to quickly make available to us any morsel of the sum total of human knowledge, show us our location on the planet, reliably predict the weather, immediately communicate with others at any point around the world, provide pictures of our favorite celebrities enjoying their vacations. And so very much more!

Tools have always been "neutral" in that their ability to affect good work or harmful has rested in the mind and hands of the user. That remains the case for the little computer-communicator we all carry around with us.

What's different with this latest tool of our conjuring is that we seem enamored with it to the point that many are willing to let relationships with other humans slip away due to the adoration of the tool. 

Imagine a person staring persistently at their pliers while ..... walking down the street or driving or eating a meal or sitting on a train or attending a meeting or while in a room with their very favorite person. 

A little disconcerting, huh?

As is always the case, we get to choose...

IncidentalStimulants

So very often the simple choices we make in relation to kindness extended, courtesy afforded, support provided, blessings shared, and mentorship freely given goes scantly recognized.

Rarely are we witness to the downstream fruit such seed planting produces.

Someone (usually many someones) helped us up ... out ... forward ... upward.

We get the chance to do the same for someone else almost every day. And should! Perhaps the stimulus we choose to provide is not so incidental after all. 

First, we pay attention...

Beatings

Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing? Why does "beat down" and "beat up" mean the same thing?

When we choose to accomplish difficult, noble, BOLD work, the inevitable "beat downs" and "beat ups" will come our way.

The grandstands are full and the social media platforms awash with critics and naysayers.

Until they join us in the work, maybe we should take their "beatings" with a grain of salt. 

And get back to work...