Life doesn’t always go according to plan.
When one such detour happened, my brother-in-law said: “It’s not the end of the story. It’s the middle of the story. Nobody likes to read a boring book; think of it as an interesting chapter.”
What a great metaphor to keep things in perspective. The book isn’t bad; just this part of it. Keep reading!
When I was outside Sam’s Club over the weekend, there was a group of girls huddled against the wind with their table of Girl Scout cookies. There is nothing like a box of Thin Mints to assure me that spring is on the horizon!
I’m not sure there are any new flavors this year, but what did catch my attention was that the Scouts now accept Visa for payment of their delicacies. I later learned that this was part of a larger strategy with Dell. Digital Cookie 2.0 allows scouts to track sales data, accept on-line orders, market cookies and store information for future purchases. I wonder if the program leaves cookies on customer’s computers! (-:
Dell provided $2.5 million to provide scouts with access to the program and hopes to help the girls become “strong, smart, tech-savvy women in laboratories, startups, elected offices and boardrooms.” I have written before* that the Girl Scouts were missing an opportunity with their cookie sales, and I am happy that they are doing more to leverage their signature program.
What is your organization doing that could benefit from an infusion of “e”? Is there something you do by hand that could go digital, even in a pilot or experimental stage? If the Girl Scouts can do it, surely you can be a smart cookie and do it too!
Source: Digital developments help track Girl Scout Cookie sales by Grace Wong for the Chicago Tribune in the Telegraph Herald, January 17, 2016, p. B7.
*See Blog #270, February 26, 2013
As an organization’s board was debating an issue during a meeting, the conversation seemed to be going in many different directions. The chair made an astute observation about how the lack of a strategic plan was playing out in this discussion; each member had different ideas on the priority and impact of the topic at hand.
“We didn’t buy a bucket of Legos,” the chair said. “We bought them one brick at a time and we’re not sure what we’re building.”
Did your organization have an end goal in mind before it began acquiring resources and trying to use them? Or did it take what was at hand and just plunge in without a vision for the result?
It always helps to have at least some sense of the picture on the box before you start putting the puzzle together. Even if the details are fuzzy, general agreement on the direction you are heading will help the pieces come together much more effectively.
Good one bg!
I had a vinyl window cling in my window that no longer was applicable so I removed it. At first glance, it appeared to come off without leaving a trace, but when sunlight came, the outline of the decal was quite apparent.
I washed the window and the same thing happened: at first it seemed like the residue had disappeared, but when I viewed it in daylight, the outline remained. I needed to use the trusty Goo Gone and a lot of elbow grease to truly remove its presence.
Do you have experiences like this vinyl decal: you think it is easy to put them behind you, but in reality their effects linger on? Maybe in one light it’s possible to forget that it was there, but in other settings it is not.
Memories and experiences can be like this decal. As much as you wish you could just make them disappear, their impact is deeper than that. Allow yourself some time and prepare for some effort to banish them.
A wonderful exercise to illustrate the importance of non-verbal communication and teams is through playing Koosh Tag.
Participants form two equal lines, holding hands of their team mates, and face (but don’t touch) the opposite team. One additional person is not in the line, but stays on one end to place the Koosh on a table, while a second person (not in the line) is at the opposite end to flip a quarter.
Only the one person on each team closest to the Koosh looks at the Koosh; all others face the coin-flipper. Without speaking, the coin is flipped, and if it is heads, the person closest to the coin squeezes their team mate’s hands — and, if things go correctly, each person silently squeezes hands down the line — with the goal of being the first person to grab the Koosh off the table. If successful, the “grabber” rotates to the other end of their team and becomes the one to watch the coin flip, until one team has rotated everyone through.
The fun comes in when someone incorrectly squeezes — either by squeezing on “tails” instead of heads, by thinking they felt a squeeze when they didn’t, or by seeing the other team squeeze and thinking they were correct when they weren’t. In the case of an incorrect grabbing, the team rotates in the opposite direction and actually loses ground.
Koosh Tag is a great way to illustrate that everyone on the team plays a role, and those in the middle are no less critical to success than the coin flipper or the grabber on the end. It is also a powerful illustrator of non-verbal communication as the whole thing takes place without those in line speaking.
Koosh Tag generates lots of laughs and energy, and is a great way to start a workshop or morning meeting when you need to wake people up. All you need is a Koosh and a quarter to infuse some energy into your next training!
Hats off to Tracy for sharing this idea several decades ago!
I just read that the company that makes Etch A Sketches sold their rights to the toy to a Canadian company. It brought back a flood of nostalgia about the many hours I spent turning those knobs, trying to make that aluminum powder into some recognizable shape.
I have always liked the Etch A Sketch; maybe because it is one of the simplest ways in life to get a do-over. There was no risk in trying something since you knew it could be undone in one shake.
I have used the toy as gifts at the end of a retreat about change and at the start of a departmental reorganization. In one visual, it encapsulates so much about trying and starting anew.
How can you adopt the Etch A Sketch mentality and make a fresh start on something today? Maybe, in honor of Valentine’s Day, you can clean the slate on a relationship, or perhaps a new venture awaits in your professional life. Either way, don’t be afraid to shake it up and embrace another beginning.
Source: Ohio company sells classic Etch A Sketch, The Associated Press in the Telegraph Herald, 2-13-16
Ever since the changeable type balls on the iconic IBM Selectric typewriters, I have been fascinated with the impact the mere change of font can have on a document.
And, although I can’t remember who said it, I believed it when I heard that “good design is 90% typography and 10% blank space.”
I think good work is like that too — 90% of the outcome is what you do with the product/project itself and 10% is the context that surrounds it. You need to provide a breather between one idea and the next. You need to leave that 10% to allow your staff to regroup and recharge. You need to give space for others to weigh in.
When you are pondering your to-do list for the weekend or the next task you’re getting ready to tackle at work, think about your 10%. Be sure you build in some blank space.
I was interviewing a candidate yesterday and a question came up about her use of databases. Another interviewer commented that many people did not like the previous database the association was using, and now there were even some unfavorable comments about the new one.
Everywhere I have ever been there have been people who did not like the database.
When I think about what causes this dissatisfaction, I surmise that there is a minuscule sweet spot between robustness and simplicity.
On one hand, databases could be simple and easy to use, but it would limit their ability to store large amounts of data and sort it into many fields. The more complex databases can accommodate volume, but do require patience, detail and training to extract the information from them.
All of the end users want simple reporting from a complex back end, and this intersection remains elusive. The more information that is stored, the more that is required to retrieve and manipulate it.
As you plan, not only for databases, but for other projects, it is worth your time on the front end to assess where you fall on the robust vs. simple spectrum. If you will truly use vast amounts of data or take action based upon small nuances, it is worth the investment to collect and manage information. But if you really just want a headcount, you don’t need to obtain demographics at the door; using a simple clicker will accomplish the job just fine.
If you keep up with dishes and do them right away, it requires little effort to keep the dishes clean. If you let them sit in the sink for days on end, the food dries and hardens, thus requiring strength to remove it.
I think this simple little analogy applies to weight loss as well. If you eat healthy foods on a regular basis and maintain your desired weight, it becomes a routine that demands less from you. But if you ignore your weight for awhile, it will require a much more strenuous effort when you turn your attention towards it.
The same can be said for all sorts of projects. If you keep up with the data collection, it’s a piece of cake. If you go back and try to recreate it, it is arduous. If you are attentive to lawn maintenance, it is easy to maintain. If you let erosion and weeds take over, you have a chore on your hands to reclaim your landscaping.
The next time you’re tempted to procrastinate or put off a seemingly minor task, visualize the stack of dishes. Do you want to wipe away the food with ease or spend the time deep scrubbing the pot?
I met a friend from St. Louis last week and she remarked on the lack of patience that she sees in organizations. “Everyone is looking for the silver bullet, and they don’t have the patience to stick with a plan and see it out. It may sound old school, but it is true.”
As the world moves faster, more and more people in organizations are looking for quick results. And the options that promise to achieve them are plentiful, making it even harder to have the discipline to stay the course and see something through.
It is true in our personal lives as well. Diet plans, home tidying-up manifestos, ground-floor investments, speed dating and political speeches all promise to make our world a better place in a jiffy.
Most of what is worthwhile takes time. The high road isn’t the short road.
