NotLearning=SpeedDying

I've written about dying before; you can find those thoughts here.

Fact is, we're all dying - just at different rates of speed.  And, we're all at different points in that process.

Conceptually speaking, however, I believe that we accelerate our dying when we stop (or slow down) our learning.  Learning new stuff enlivens us, literally and figuratively.

Something to consider as we march through this day...

WinningButLosing

Sometimes you win.....................................but you lose.
Sometimes you lose.....................................but you win.

Those admonitions were embedded in my psyche by one of my mentors 20 years ago as he was shaping me to be a stronger leader.

Proving others wrong may be within our capability.  Trumping their decisions may be within our authority.  Undoing or devaluing their work may be within our jurisdiction.  Making them look or feel foolish may be something within our reach (in fact, we may wish it - with or without justification).

In leading others, there is a price to be paid for "winning" at their expense.  Like a soap bubble, our "winning" is visible and tangible but for a moment; but it pops and disappears rather quickly.  Like rot, their "losing" grows slowly and consumes us over time.

Making ourselves look or feel or achieve better at the expense of others in our organization carries a hefty long-term price, the bill for which will most certainly come due.

Scary

I heard a compelling quotation yesterday that caused me pause.  Here it is:

"If your dreams don't scare you, they are too small."  - Richard Branson, Virgin United

Dreams, in this context, are our aspirations, our yearnings, our hopes for the future.  Dreams are not today's agenda, our short term goals, our to-do list for this week.

Branson is spot on, I think.  

What do we want to accomplish this year, this decade, in life? 

Scared yet? (If not, raise the bar.)

MoraleProblems

What causes morale problems among the (organizational) troops?  Here are a few catalysts:

• Uncertainty about the direction (or the nobility of the direction) of the organization.
• Feeling devalued by leadership.
• Lack of voice in organizational decisions.
• Absence of transparency within the organization (usually springing from dismal communications).
• Ambiguity about expectations.
• Concluding that member talents/abilities/skills/knowledge are being wasted.
• Loss of trust between/among other organizational members and organizational layers.

Rarely is low morale about feeling overworked and/or underpaid (these are just less abstract symptoms of the root causes in the list above).

Leaders should think of every one of those catalysts as a form of "disease" that can infect an organization.  Skillful and effective leaders can and do proactively interdict the "infection" likelihood of each.

Takes some thought, takes effort, takes work, takes integrity...  It also takes intentionally deploying immunization countermeasures for each.  And, the work is never done - attention to the health and wellbeing of the organization (just like our bodies) is a daily endeavor.

Ready............set............................GO!

VibrantFutures

If we want vibrant futures for the teams we work on (and thus, for ourselves), there are a few Dos and Don'ts to consider.

Things we should do:

• Be open-minded in the visioning process.  Think big and encourage others do so, too.
• Gain a WIDE range of perspectives (both from in and out of your field).
• Acknowledge and value the gifts/talents others on the team bring to the table.
• Take time to metabolize information (unless you're in emergency response mode).
• Understand that emotion and personal dispositions almost always trump empirical data as rationale for action (or inaction).  Frame positions and messages accordingly.
• Approach problems and people with a curious mind (demonstrated by skillful inquiry).

Things we shouldn't do:

• Try to convince others they're wrong.  It's a waste of time and energy.
• Explain stuff ad infinitum.
• Embarrass or humiliate others.
• Ruin a good plan by over-bureaucratizing it (with too many rules/procedures/protocols/restrictions).
• Put all our eggs in one basket.  Bold and risky ventures are best rolled out as pilot programs.
• Make assumptions about outcomes or people.  Both tend to defy prediction.

No guarantees, but better futures are more likely when we attend well to this prescription.

+/-

The human brain is a remarkable thing.  The human mind even more so.  Philosophers, biologists, psychologists, chemists, theologians, physicists, even a few of us lay people, have for hundreds of years debated the connections between brain and mind, all struggling to make some kind of sense of where our consciousness comes from.  The debate still rages.

One thing that is without question is that the way we think impacts the way we behave.  More than anything else, habits govern our behavior.  And, we have great power to determine our habits.  

One small step toward re-wiring our thinking, thus our habits, is to think and talk in positives rather than negatives.  That can start with the way we think and talk about ourselves and others.  There is great (and empirically-based) wisdom in the old adage, "If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all."

+ examples:

• I can get this right.
• She's an excellent conversationalist.
• We're a great team.

- examples:

• I'm a screw up.
• He a terrible finisher.
• They're only looking out for themselves.

Our thoughts govern our words govern our behaviors govern our words govern our thoughts govern our behaviors govern our thoughts...   

All that recursive wiring and re-wiring has direct impact on outcomes.  We can do this.

Genotype/Phenotype

Our genes (the DNA coding we received from our biological parents at birth) imbue us with a vast set of "possibilities" as we develop physically, intellectually, emotionally (and, perhaps, even spiritually).  This sequencing of genes is called our genotype and is instrumental in determining our hair color, our facial features, length of our our second toe, our psychological dispositions, etc.  These inherited features are known as our genotype.

Our phenotype is a far different us.  It's the us that actually emerges as we develop, the us that others come to know as us.  Phenotype is the us that results from the interplay between our genetic coding and our life experiences.  Phenotype influences stuff like whether we like to dance or not, what our food preferences are, how we deal with conflict, how much and what we read, our IQ, etc. 

Turns out that a lot of those life experiences (both those that happen outside of our control and those within our control) seem to "turn on" or "turn off" many of the genes we are born with.  Yep, it is increasingly obvious that the genes are not so much like rules chiseled in granite as they are on-off switches that control possibilities of manifested traits.  Wow!   (This is now commonly referred to as the study of epigenetics.)

So what? you may be asking.   Here's what:  There are great and increasing implications for our personal growth and malleability as we learn more about genes, the way they get "expressed" in our lives, and our ability to influence their on/off status.  Very cool!

It seems we have great power to influence who we become.  That's intriguing, and heartening, and a little bit frightening.  Begs the question:  Who do I really want to be? (Because I might actually be able to make that person "happen").