A Budweiser Clydesdale, one of the most pampered animals on Earth, chose to eat the food of the horse in the next stall instead of his own. It was the exact same hay, in the same quantity, served at the same time, but Simon preferred to reach through the grate instead. His feeder was more convenient to him, but the neighboring hay was more appealing.
People sometimes act like Simon and make decisions that defy logic. You can spend your time lamenting about how their behavior doesn’t make sense, or how it “should” be different, and try to alter their actions — or you can accept that sometimes people opt for the other bucket.
With the midterm elections fast approaching, many organizations are engaged in get-out-the-vote efforts or campaigning for candidates. Much of the work is behind-the-scenes grunt work, but to make it more palatable, people often do the tasks in groups.
Signs of Justice encourages volunteers to host a party and invite several friends to write postcards during the gathering. They sent supporters an email with party tips and even included a Spotify playlist of inspirational music to enhance the festivities.
Whether you are involved in political action or doing a routine task elsewhere, consider involving a group in the effort. A pizza and a playlist can make a dull job much more enjoyable.
Shonda Rhimes is one of the most successful television show producers, creating for ABC a lineup of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. She earned them billions with her shows.
Rhimes’ contract included free Disneyland tickets for her family. When her sister wanted to take Rhimes’ daughter to the park, Shonda called ABC and asked for an additional pass. Allegedly, she was told, “Don’t you have enough already?” After the insult, Rhimes ended her contract with ABC and moved to Netflix, where she produced Bridgerton, another wildly successful series that earned millions.
The short-sightedness of an ABC executive cost the network (b?)millions, whereas a free pass to Disneyland (worth only $150) would have cost them nothing. It was a really dumb move.
Stars have options, and the confidence to exercise them. Don’t penny-pinch with your best customers or employees. Happily giving them the ticket is the best investment you can make.
A school district community task force has been meeting for several months, and most meetings are held in a different school building. We build a brief tour into the agenda, allowing people to see the facilities and hear from the principals. We did this even in a non-air-conditioned building (in July!) to experience the difference climate control makes for the learning environment.
Long after the task force concludes its work, I think our rotating meeting schedule will help community members carry with them a better understanding of the district facilities and their needs.
I am a big believer in rotating meeting locations. When I worked at a college, each of my senior staff meetings was held in a different spot on campus. People whose organization has multiple buildings can utilize that variety to meet other colleagues and stimulate creativity. Even those who have limited office space can meet outside or at a neighboring organization.
Get outside the conference room and experience something firsthand.
The Detroit Riverwalk features 5 miles of amazing — a free carousel, public restrooms, biking paths, greenery, places to rest and eat, and beautiful views of the river and Canada. It has been voted the #1 riverwalk in America for three years in a row…
…and, it’s not finished. In between the lovely landscapes, vacant lots, rundown buildings, and abandoned warehouses still remain. It’s a stark reminder of what “before” looked like on much of the banks.
Detroit could have waited until it had the funds to acquire all the property and perform the transformation, but, of course, it’s much better that they made improvements in stages. Not only does it provide present-day recreation for residents, but the visible progress creates momentum that can spur on future developments.
Are you waiting to complete your “riverwalk” until conditions are perfect, or are you following Detroit’s example to show incremental success? It’s almost always better to get started.
I am teaching a class that is new to me. I was given a previous syllabus and a textbook, but no materials or guidance on what will be covered in the multiple class sessions.
So, I have been gathering relevant content for the past several weeks. Some came from the text; other exercises or content came from previous classes, another book, a friend in the Peace Corps, work with the school district, Harvard’s newsletter, a creativity game, and even the students’ own papers. Gathered as a whole, I believe it will provide a meaningful experience for the wide range of students taking the course.
But I never could have assembled this material all at once. It was amassed through a process of incubation, curation, research, and organization that occurred over time.
Too often, people are paralyzed by the magnitude or scope of a big project and procrastinate on starting it, when the best (only?) thing to do is begin. Thinking about it is a step in the right direction as ideas can develop, but acting on the project piece by piece usually yields a better outcome than a rushed job near the deadline.
Don’t underestimate the power of slow but steady curation. You can assemble the puzzle if you have collected enough of the pieces.
If you’ve ever been in a store that sells Crocs, you know the Jibbitz used to decorate them have become an integral accessory. Little plastic add-ons come in every shape and style imaginable, letting people personalize their shoes in a way that is impossible with other footwear.
I hadn’t seen them anywhere besides shoes, but recently I have seen notebooks and lunch boxes designed to hold Jibbitz or their knockoffs. That makes sense, since many kids have plenty of them, and the ability to make their items unique is more appealing than generic products.
Jibbitz wasn’t designed by Crocs, though. A mom realized that colorful materials could be attached to the holes in the shoes, and a business was born. (Crocs later purchased the business for $10 million.) Now other companies are capitalizing on Jibbitz’ pervasiveness to boost their bottom lines.
Take a lesson from them and consider whether someone else has created something that could benefit your organization. You don’t need to be the inventor of everything — just the one who can implement it in a new way.
At one of my “nothing” lunches with friends this week, the conversation started with youth sports and morphed into a discussion of baseball bats. To me, a bat is a bat is a bat. Maybe I knew about the distinction between wood and aluminum, but at lunch I learned that there is oh so much more to them. Different lengths, weights, inner cores, and more. And the price! I had no idea that even youth bats could cost several hundred dollars!
But what surprised me the most is that bats die. After so much use, bats are considered dead and no longer suitable for use in a game. They may look normal, but players know that the bat no longer hits as it should.
Consider whether you have tools that should be declared dead. They may still be around and in use, but no longer perform at their peak. If kids see the value in upgrading a bat, maybe it’s time to consider replacing something you use to increase your effectiveness.
While it’s important for the leader to have a long-range vision for the organization, it’s also necessary for them to translate it into short-term next steps for those who must implement it.
Think of it as going on a trip. The leader must know the destination and the planned route to get there, but the front-line driver just wants to know whether to turn right or left at the next intersection. Progress is made, and rewards are gained, by aligning those next 2 miles in service of the larger vision.
If your staff is inexperienced, they are (metaphorically) in the driveway and don’t have the capacity to internalize the entire trip. Help them to help you achieve your end goal by giving them strategic guidance in smaller chunks that they can absorb. Allow them to focus on going in the right direction today, while you concentrate on the endgame of tomorrow.
One of the most impressive parts of my Detroit visit was The Station at Michigan Central. The former railroad station building had been abandoned for 30 years and was subjected to vandalism, theft, weather destruction, and sheer neglect. In 2009, the City of Detroit wanted it demolished, but they did not have the funds to do it. How fortunate!
Ford Motor Company purchased the building and has spent a billion dollars on its renovation to make it a center of innovation for the region. They have restored the lobby area to its former glory through application of money and mettle. (One example: to replicate one of the damaged, grand outdoor pillars, the contractor tracked down the original limestone quarry to get matching materials. The quarry had been closed for three decades, so Ford bought it, reopened it, and mined the necessary limestone!) They have infused restoration with modern techniques, such as recreating the gilded chandeliers through 3-D printing and utilizing LED lighting throughout the building. They preserved what was salvageable and recreated the rest using photographs and pieces of the building that were returned during their “amnesty period,” when stolen artifacts were welcomed back without penalty. (Example: a tiny piece of the main wooden clock was returned and allowed the engineers to determine the exact scale of the original, 10-foot clock).
The Station is a testament to what vision (ok, and money) can achieve. I can’t imagine who had the eyes to see what could be with this graffiti-laden, waterlogged shell of a structure, but someone was able to see the possibilities and realize them. I’m sure they were met with choruses of naysayers and realists who pushed back against the idea, but fortunately, they persisted in moving ahead.
If you need inspiration to keep moving forward on an idea that feels too big to accomplish, let The Station provide it. Look at these before-and-after pictures and realize that the seemingly impossible is possible.
