FoodRules

I read Food Rules by Michael Pollan (2009) yesterday as my lovely bride of 37 years (Moe) drove us to a family gathering.  Yep, it was a quick read.

MP did a lovely job of synthesizing and condensing a lot of nutritional and bio-chemical research into a pithy little work of 64 rules that he views as an owner's guide for those of us who have human bodies.  He combined insightful guidance with healthy doses of humor (pun intended).

My favorite quote:
“What an extraordinary achievement for a civilization [ours, that is]: to have developed the one diet that reliably makes its people sick!” (p. xiii)  

MP's big overarching answer to the question "What should we eat?":  
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.  

Some of my favorites of his 64 rules:
7. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
18. Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.
20. It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car. 
36. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk. 
37. "The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”
57. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.

Take the (brief) time you'll need to read this one. Very well done.

AwayFromTheBall

As a high school athlete some 40 years ago, my coaches seared into my psyche the importance of being aware of what was happening "away from the ball."  In fact, they diligently trained me to not only be attentive to that activity, but to use it to my/our advantage as I reacted athletically to the ebb and flow of a contest. 

Most folks, players included, tend to keep their eye "on the ball," where the action is most intense.  To be sure, regardless of the sport, the ball is where the action is usually centered (if there is a ball involved in the sport, that is).

Wisely, however, my coaches taught me (through hours and hours of practice) that what was going on away from the ball was just as important to our success as what was going on in the vicinity of the ball.  It is away from the ball that great blocks are made, passing lanes are opened, diversions can be deployed, and strategic movements initiated.  

I did not expect this concept to transfer to other portions of my life so readily.  

What I didn't realize at the time was that the concept of paying close attention to what was going on "away from the ball" would also be a powerful skill for me as a father, as an organizational member, and as a leader of others.  A tremendous amount of effort and action that is critical to our success is happening on the periphery, far "away from the ball."

Messages

I recently re-read the third edition of Messages: The Communications Skills Book (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, 2009).  I had read their 2nd Edition (1995) some years back.  

The book is a nice compendium of the ways we send and receive messages through our voice, behaviors, and body language.  

The big takeaways for me from this reading were:

• LISTENING is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal in the communications tool chest.
• Transparency and disclosure are excellent door openers to high quality communications.
• Body language is at least as important as oral delivery.
• Assertiveness can be expressed without being aggressive.
• Employing validation strategies serves all parties in the communications contexts well.
• All of us engage others from the basis of our own experiences.  Trying to understand the other's experiences fully is an excellent starter for improved communications. 
• Quality questions always a good conversation starter, regardless of the kind of communications environment in which we find ourselves.

A good read.  Worth the time (again).

DataSlaves

A great deal has been written about the power of data and how it should inform our decisions.  No argument from me.

However...

We often allow ourselves to drift into a tacit acceptance that data looks like this:

Or this:

Or this:

However, data can be revealed in very different kinds of manifestations.  
They look like this:

And this:

And this:

Both the "hard" data and the "soft" data tell us important things about what we choose to make important and the methods we choose to pursue our goals.

The wisest leaders pay close attention to both kinds of data sets. 

JungleHacking

Interesting and consequential work most often entails doing something different than we've done in the past.  It means tackling a complex problem, within unique contexts, availed of only today's palette of tools, alongside team members who themselves possess certain "idiosyncrasies" (both as individuals and collectively).  Many times, the problems themselves seem absolutely intractable.

Not surprisingly, there is no instruction manual to which we can refer to get a detailed here's-how-to-proceed recipe.  There is no map on which we can rely to see clearly which path takes us easily and quickly to the solution we seek.

Nope.

Those kinds of challenges are almost always like hacking a new path through the jungle with a machete.  Good work.  Hard work.  Gratifying work.  Exhausting work.  Frustrating work.  Invigorating work.  Satisfying work.  Work, nonetheless.  And, work that needs doing.

"Gentlemen/Gentlewomen, start your machetes!"

Fixing

I used to think I could fix things.  No more.

Through years of trying, I have learned that I never have quite enough of a grasp of the big picture to fix things up.  There always seem to be pieces of the puzzle that are not on the table for me.  When I presumed that I was the one to fix things it seemed to give others the permission to "stand down" and happily let me slave away at the fixing.   Other times, when I imposed my fixing propensities on a situation (or person), others felt diminished; they resented my arrogance and/or imposition.  Almost always, my inclinations to be a fixer triggered from me directives, mandates, mind-numbing procedures, ultimatums, and healthy doses of ill will.

The result?  I never seemed to fix what I deemed to be fix-worthy things (or people).

It's taken a good long while, but finally I see that my job is not to be the fixer.  My job is to engage with others, assess our level of progress, discuss what a better future might look like, then work together toward that end.

It's not so much about fixing what (or who) is broken as it is about positing a better future and seizing the opportunities to achieve it.

Are things (and people) still broken?  Sure.  There will always be broken stuff (and people).  

Our energy is best used, however, to create the conditions in which WE can make it better.  In the case of people, it's about creating the conditions in which they can see and make a better future for themselves.

That work is just as hard, but not nearly as frustrating....... as thinking we can "fix it."

Student's/TeamMember'sRights

Grant Wiggins proposed a "Student's Bill of Rights" in 1996  Below are his assertions in that document.

Every student has a right to...

• Do interesting work that is useful, challenging, intriguing, or provocative;
• Work collaboratively with the teacher to make learning meaningful;
• Know the well-defined and clearly stated criteria for evaluation or grading;
• Be judged according to established criteria rather than being included in a ranking of competitors;
• Get genuine and frequent feedback, both for right now and for long-term progress toward the exit level;
• Take part in grading or scoring that will give chances to improve performance, with assessment being recursive and continual;
• Have plenty of opportunity to do work of which he or she can be proud, with revisions, self-assessment, and self-correction;
• Be able to show, often and in many ways, how well she or he is doing, especially to demonstrate strengths;
• Have available during assessment whatever resources were available during learning (calculators, rulers, reference books, physical models, etc.)

I have loved that passage since I first read it.  Sounds like a magical learning space to me. 

But.................I'm not only a learner and teacher, I am also an organizational team member.  Try this:  Re-read GW's work above substituting "organizational team member" or "employee" for the word "student."  

Sound like the kind of organization you'd like to hitch your wagon to?  

Got a nice ring to it, huh?