Factfulness

 I recently read Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World - - and Why Things are Better Than You Think by Rosling, et al (2018). 

In this book, Rosling and co-authors use a remarkable collection of data to identify and address numerous misperceptions that we typically hold regarding the current state of affairs in our world. To underscore these misperceptions he repeatedly compares the responses to survey items in his voluminous audiences (usually highly educated ones) to the response rates he gets on the same surveys when placed in front of chimpanzees. All too often, the chimpanzees outscored the humans. Actually, almost always. Uh oh!

My top takeaways from reading Factfulness:

·     Averages mislead us by hiding a range, often a very broad range, of numbers in a SINGLE number.

·     Beware comparisons of both averages ANDextremes.

·     Be very careful jumping to any conclusions if the data variances are less than 10%.

·     Bad news plays much better in the media than good news; that’s why we get so much of the former.

·     Trends in data almost always exist in curves; rarely ever in straight lines.

·     I/We are not normal; and other people are not idiots.

·     Categorizations are the same as generalizations, and they are usually misleading.

·     Change is almost always a very slow process, thus very difficult to see while it’s occurring.

·     Single perspectives are notorious liars; viewing problems from many different angles is the best path to a meaningful solution.

My favorite quote(s):

“I never trust data 100 percent, and you never should either.” (p. 50)

“The world cannot be understood without numbers. And it cannot be understood with numbers alone.” (p. 128)

 

“Factfulness is … recognizing when a scapegoat is being used and remembering that blaming an individual often steals the focus from other possible explanations and blocks our ability to prevent similar problems in the future. To control the blame instinct, resist finding a scapegoat.”  (p. 222)

 

“Factfulness is … recognizing when a decision feels urgent and remembering that it rarely is.” (p. 242)

 

This book was recommended to me by a colleague who noted that it completely changed the way he thought. It had a similar impact on me. I just love it when authors, speakers, teachers, wangateurs take my mind to new places. 

 

I highly recommend Factfulness. 

(re)FOCUSed

The wisest leaders I know are relentless focusers. Or, RE-focusers.

These leaders understand that their personal time, energy, and resources are finite. They know full well that they cannot do everything, meet with everybody, read every book, invest in every project, or attend every meeting.

Thus, these wise leaders decide with laser-like clarity the most important things in need of their attention (the late Stephen Covey described them as "the BIG rocks") and they relentlessly focus and re-focus on those elements of highest import.

The words, the calendars, the schedules, the efforts, and the expenditures of these wise leaders send an undeniably clear message about what they deem important. 

Failling to do so is what former Secretary of State Colin Powell describes as "mission creep," the inevitable dilution of our impact and effectiveness when we allow the myriad competitors for our attention to de-focus us.

Time to (re)FOCUS? 

Likely. Always.

Healing1orMany

The late Dr. Hans Rosling did very impactful work during his lifetime - first as a physician, subsequently as a data analyst, finally as an evangelist for truth.

He told a story in his book Factfulness (2018) about serving as a young physician in a poverty-stricken country. Initially, he filled his very long days trying to treat and heal as many children as he could. Eventually, he came to the exhausted conclusion that he could heal far more children by teaching the parents some basic health habits that would interdict the antecedents of the illnesses that were killing their children.

In short, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 

The wisest organizational leaders I know understand and apply this same logic. They purposefully spend the preponderance of their time teaching key players and implementing impactful systems aimed at interdicting the effectiveness killers of the organization - things like poor customer service, inventory bottle necks, bureaucratic time wasters, meaningless busy work, etc.

Upstream "health" habits dependably mitigate downstream "disease." This applies equally to both individual and organizational wellbeing.

HearingGod

 I recently read Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, by Dallas Willard (2012). 

In this book, DW leads us through a careful consideration of what it really means to communicate with the God of our understanding, deeply, meaningfully, continually.

My top takeaways:

·     The Bible – THE word of God – is not EVERY word of God.

·     Our conversation with God should be similar to that which we have with a spouse or dear friend, simply a continuation of the one begun years ago.

·     Real communication is a two-way street that is only substantive when both parties choose to be engaged. It is bogus and hollow when either party doesn’t.

·     God can and does communicate with us through a wide array of media: the Bible, other humans, our spirit, music, nature, events, …

·     Just as with the other beings in our lives (not just the human ones), the quality of the communications is directly proportional to the depth of our relationship with one another.

·     Presence is a powerful medium of communication, both spoken and non-spoken.

·     A very nice recipe for learning: Read > Reflect > Respond > Rest.

·     Our faith walk is about sense-making, us making sense of our existence and purpose. We can only do so via a communicative relationship with God.

My favorite quote(s):

“God is not looking for a holy place. Places are holy because God is there.” (p. 97)

    “Great faith, like great strength in general, is revealed by the ease of its workings.” (p. 156)

 

    “We are required to “bet our life” that the visible world, while real, is not reality itself.” (p. 284)

 

    “Spiritual people are not those who engage in certain spiritual practices; they are those who draw their life from a conversational relationship with God.” (p. 288)

This book helped me think about my relationship to the God of my understanding, and about how I might make that relationship even richer. 

Thanks for the recommendation, LP.

OldGotten

 Somehow, I got old.

I wasn't really aiming for it, but here I am. And, I'm happy to be here. Old, that is.

As I heard another oldie say a few years ago, "I can see the finish line from here." True enough. 

I often reflect on what I might have done better over the years, but I don't perseverate about it. Just a look-back and think-forward process. There is very little about what I did/didn't do in the past that can be changed now. 

What I CAN do is apply that knowledge to the remaining years available to me. I know a few of the things I want to focus on with the days remaining:

> LOVE - those whom God has brought into my sphere, freely and fully.

> WORK - predominantly on those things I deem consequential (and not so much on the other).

> ABSORB - as appreciatively as possible all the blessings with which I have been gifted.

> COMMUNICATE - deeply with others, asking and listening with my full being, probing to learn.

> LEARN - as much as I can, as fast as I can.

> TEACH - what I have learned, generously and often, right up to the last breath.

Not to worry. The homestretch is a nice view.

BloodComms

 It is widely believed that blood is the life-sustaining medium. Blood has three primary functions in our bodies: transportation, protection, and regulation.

Blood transports good stuff (oxygen, nutrients, etc.) into to each cell of the body, and it transports not-so-good stuff (carbon dioxide, waste materials, etc.) out.

Blood also serves as the lead element of the "homeland security" system of the body. It carries around a host of "first responders" that initiate the protective response of the body when unhealthy invaders are at the door.

Blood also plays a regulatory role, serving as the bridge medium between and among all the integrated systems that make up our bodies (respiratory, digestive, muscular, etc.). It helps keep the interface among/between those systems functional and smoothly operating. 

The best leaders I know are superb communicators. They effectively use varying types of communications methodologies as a sort of "blood" of the organization. 

Those wise leaders know full well that the health of the organizational "blood" - communications - is the upstream determinate of the health of the organization.

DestinationNOT

We said our final farewells to another long-time friend this week. Those "good-bye" events seem to be coming more frequently these days.

While painful, attending memorial services always prompt some reflection on the WHY instead of the What and the How.

Clearly, we are all on a journey toward our last day, our last breath, on this planet. None are exempt. 

For some, it's a very long walk. Even so, those long lives are immensely varied in the levels of joy and pain they experience. 

For others, those life-walks are short indeed. Some, even in utero. Through the millennia, countless billions of parents have laid children to rest; from childhood diseases, tragic accidents, casualties of war...

Important to remember is that our life journey is NOT the destination. We are all, every one of us, moving toward that same moment in time: the one just AFTER our last breath here. 

Depending on our personal beliefs and faith, that first breath in the next journey has EVERYTHING to do with WHY we take each step in the current one. 

Either way, THIS is not the destination. 

Safe travels.