Month: May 2020

leadership dot #2887: no one

May 11, 2020May 8, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

When will the risk from COVID end? Nobody knows. It’s one of those rare times where literally no one has a grand plan. It’s not like when the CEO and board are working on a confidential merger and line employees are speculating about “what’s up.” Or when Mom and Dad are holding back information about vacation plans or their relationship and the kids wish they knew what was going on. Truly, no one knows the answer to this question.

And that’s good news, too.

Because no one has lived through this type of situation, there are no seasoned experts. It creates opportunities for everyone within the organization, community or family to step up and play a leadership role in their group. No one knows the “right” way to do things, so it’s ok to try something new. No one has experience with the situation, making it possible to experiment or dream. No one has answers or knows ways that people “should” behave because it’s all new to everyone. Everyone – from world leaders to pre-schoolers – we’re all making this up as we go.

It’s probably the only time in our lifetime that we’re all going through something, together, for the first time. What a golden opportunity to capitalize on that blank canvas and shine.

leadership dot #2886: moms

May 10, 2020May 8, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

If you ever feel hopeless, think about Candace Lightner. You may not know her name but you know her impact – she’s the mom who started Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1980 as a response to her 13-year old daughter being killed by a repeat offender. Lightner mobilized other moms on a 40-year crusade that is credited with reducing deaths caused by drunk drivers by 50%.

Moms are a formidable force in our lives as well as in the statehouse. MADD’s lobbying efforts are responsible for raising the minimum drinking age, promoting the designated driver program, increasing the legal blood alcohol limit and enacting zero-tolerance laws. They have become a force to be reckoned with in part because they have put names and pictures to the statistics, making the horror of drunk driving real for those with the power to impact legislation.

Moms are always giving us good advice and here are two more pieces of it: 1) One person is all it takes to start a movement that has made a significant, national difference – it could be you, and 2) use stories and visuals to bring your message to life. Moms changed your driving habits; let them change your advocacy habits, too.

leadership dot #2885: common sense

May 9, 2020May 8, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Along with the candle in a Bath&Body Works bag came a 5” x 10” piece of cardboard with “Important Candle Safety Information.” This sheet outlined such items as a WARNING that candles were a fire hazard and that you should NEVER burn candles on or near anything that can catch fire. I wonder what lawsuit compelled the company to spend its money on something that is so patently obvious to virtually everyone.

Where do we draw the line and leave people to discern evident behaviors for themselves? Milk doesn’t come with a WARNING: Refrigerate or your milk will curdle. Doors don’t say CAUTION: If you leave this equipment unlocked you could be burglarized. Computers aren’t plastered with stickers reading DO NOT IMMERSE IN WATER. Glasses aren’t imprinted with CAUTION: this will shatter if dropped.

Resist the urge to over-explain instructions and to excessively compensate with warnings. Save your money and the trees. No placard or caution sticker is going to change the behavior of those who are oblivious to the apparent and commonsense use of an everyday item.

leadership dot #2884: music

May 8, 2020May 6, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

The New York Times called Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber the most commercially successful composer in history. He’s the man behind The Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show on Broadway that has grossed over $6 billion in revenue during its run.

So, if you were a producer who had the opportunity to invest in another show by Webber featuring the same Phantom characters, chances are that you would have invested. It would have been a mistake. Love Never Dies was a flop, and never made it to Broadway at all.

Despite all of his successes — Webber composed a number of hits that were on Broadway for years, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and Sunset Boulevard – he also had a litany of shows that never became mainstream: Starlight Express, Whistle Down the Wind and Aspects of Love. His By Jeeves was so bad that it closed after just a month in London, but Sir Webber kept writing music and still has multiple shows on Broadway today.

The only sure-fire formula that guarantees success is perseverance. Your chances of doing great work improve by producing a lot of work and continually learning from it. Keep making music, even if some of what you produce seems a bit off-key.

leadership dot #2883: virtual

May 7, 2020May 6, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Have you noticed lately that people are using the words “virtual,” “online” and “remote” interchangeably? I’ve been asked to do a virtual keynote and people talk about classes converting to online learning when what they really mean is content delivered remotely.

“Virtual” means not real – it’s the avatar and fantasy world that is created in games and with graphics – virtual reality. “Online” has different connotations as well, where something is available via the web at any time you want to access it – I could record a webinar and have it online for years. But what most people want is remote work where the facilitator delivers live content via technology – whether that be a keynote, meeting or class.

I think the distinction in language is important because it shapes the expectations for the experience, the audience engagement and the pricing. If students see themselves enrolled in an online class, they expect it to cost less than live instruction and I suspect they put less effort into it. On the other hand, a class delivered remotely – where all are present at the same time and the teacher can interact with everyone delivers an experience much closer to in-person and requires as much (if not more) preparation by the instructor. The same is true of meetings: a virtual meeting doesn’t conjure up the same expectations for preparation and participation as framing the use of Zoom as a live meeting delivered remotely.

Content that is created for use in a synchronous setting – whether delivered live or remotely – isn’t virtual. It’s real and has the potential to generate great discussions, ideas and additional content when done well.

Language matters. Let’s leave the virtual environment to the gamers and avatars and focus our energy on creating the best content we can, even if we have to deliver it from afar.

leadership dot #2882: not less

May 6, 2020May 5, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I worked at four universities that had nursing programs and invariably we saw a handful of prospective students who quickly discovered a mismatch between their image of the profession and the reality. Students would plan to major in nursing because they wanted to “help people” and while that is certainly true, what’s less obvious is that they also had to succeed in one of the most rigorous science curriculums on campus. Nursing is about far more than “being nice” and includes courses in pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, organic chemistry, statistics and diagnostics – just to earn a degree, never mind the extensive clinical hours and state licensing test. Oh yes, and there is blood involved – something that seemed to surprise someone every year!

I think about all this today, on National Nurses Day, and while those in the profession are on the frontlines of the battle against COVID. I wonder how often are they taken for granted or seen as not as important as a doctor when in practice their roles are just as vital. I am reminded of the line Temple Grandin’s mother oft-repeated about her autistic daughter: “She’s different, not less.”

So, in addition to celebrating any nurse you know, keep the “different, not less” mantra in mind when interfacing with others who are not viewed as high in organizational prestige. The receptionist may not be the manager, but she has likely mastered a dazzling amount of information to have at her fingertips in order to do her job well. The mid-level supervisor may not have the glitz of a CEO but is responsible for much of the organization’s productivity. The public works staff may toil behind-the-scenes but their mastery of mechanics and chemicals makes it possible for a city’s infrastructure to function.

Make it your practice to honor others for their contributions, in whatever form they take.

leadership dot #2881: empty shelves

May 5, 2020April 28, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

You’ve heard about toilet paper hoarding ad nauseam but I think the story behind the story serves as a reminder of what happens when we make assumptions.

Yes, there are many empty shelves and toilet paper is still in short supply but not all of it was due to hoarding. This interesting article from Medium points out that two key things are happening: 1) the locations where toilet paper is being used have shifted dramatically and 2) commercial toilet paper and residential rolls come from two entirely different distribution chains. In other words, people are utilizing the restrooms at home and not at the office/airport/school/restaurant and individual rolls come from a different process than the large industrial rolls. We’re short not so much because of hoarding, but because we have dramatically altered the market.

The supply chain is a delicate system by which manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers try to operate with maximum efficiency and minimal waste. They don’t stock expensive warehouses full of excess product in case demand unexpectedly increases by 40%.

Think about the many other things where utilization has radically shifted during COVID. Electricity no longer has heavy use in the central city skyscrapers, rather is disbursed throughout residential neighborhoods. Food demand is now for family-size portions of soup, pasta and staples, not the restaurant or institution-sized containers, and people are drinking beer from cans, not on tap. Office workers now require individual terminals or all-in-one copiers rather than large networks or paper purchased in bulk.

So, the next time you hear a story, don’t automatically jump to the negative assumption that people are behaving badly. Pull back and think about other options that could have caused the result and see the actions from a system-wide view. The shelves may still be empty, but you may have more of an understanding as to why.

leadership dot #2880: peak

May 4, 2020April 28, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

By definition, in order to have a peak, you need to have a downside. Without it, the graph would be flat or the landscape just a rolling hill.

Too often, people have this image of the peak in their mind and may even consider the climb to get there, but they overlook the journey down. In the office environment, this may manifest itself as a letdown after the big push on a project or a void to fill following achievement of a quota. Personally, it could show up as a regression on health or fitness goals after running that marathon or reaching the desired weight. You could experience it as the post-holiday or post-graduation blues when the buzz ends and everything feels ordinary.

Keep climbing that mountain and pushing the graph upwards – and keep in mind that if you reach a peak, the only way to go (at least temporarily) is down.

leadership dot #2879: devil

May 3, 2020April 28, 2020by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

It has been said that the “devil is in the details” and if that’s the case, the devil lives in the Uniform Code proposal process! As a continuation of my exploration of emojis, I came across the proposal form for individuals to suggest new emojis for inclusion in the standard code. Let me tell you, it’s no small task. The process is multi-layered, thorough and about as detailed as I have seen. It’s a wonder that any new emoji are actually added, let alone the 117 this year.

I doubt you plan to submit an emoji for consideration, but take a peek at the proposal to use as a gauge for the level of detail that you desire. Often a source of misunderstanding between supervisors and employees revolves around how many layers of detail to include; the emoji form can serve as a benchmark: provide this level of detail or steer far clear of this much minutiae.

The whole purpose of the Unicode Consortium is to standardize the code that makes intra-platform communication possible so you can’t blame them for their precision. You certainly don’t need to emulate it for every project but it’s nice to have an example on hand if you need to invite the devil to drop in.

leadership dot #2878: abacus

May 2, 2020March 16, 2021by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

When is the last time you used the word abacus, fountain pen or bison?

Your answer is likely “not recently” yet all of these items are among the approved emojis that come standard on almost every phone. I recently had occasion to look at the list of emojis more closely and was surprised to find so many that seem irrelevant: a fountain pen with a padlock, mammoth, Rolodex, dodo or ninja. Do people really have a use for these symbols?

Emojis are sometimes seen as superfluous, but they were developed with a practical application. In 1982, Scott Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University started using the basic (-: and )-: symbols – what he called “joke markers” — so that people could tell whether the written communication was serious or not. I don’t think he envisioned the plethora of symbols that we have today; we have the Japanese to thank for that. The idea of symbols caught on first in Japan, in part because of anime, and the emojis as we know it were originally only offered on Japanese phones. Not until 2007 did Google ask the Unicode Consortium to create universal standards so the symbols would work in all formats, and starting in 2011 the emoji keyboard was first offered outside Japan.

So, today, you have access to 3304 symbols (counting the various skin tones and variations of colors), allowing you to enhance your communication should you want to visually tell your friend to bring the accordion, eggplant, mousetrap and plunger when they come over to visit!

Seriously, before you dismiss emojis as nothing more than childish fluff, keep their original intent in mind. If a symbol can help you clarify your message, it’s better to add one than to have your intent lost in translation.