Category: starting

leadership dot #804a: pile of ideas

April 7, 2023March 26, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

My colleague and I hit “send” to submit our 29-page report on the external assessment we conducted just nine days prior. How we were able to write it so quickly stems in part from how we structured our work. I use this process every time I need to organize a project or write anything of length:

1. Write out each of your thoughts — ONE per index card or piece of scrap paper. In the case of our assessment, throughout our visit we wrote out on sheets of notebook paper all of the points we wanted to make (in no order whatsoever), then literally cut them up into little strips of paper — ONE thought per strip. You can write notes over a period of time — they don’t have to come to you all at once.

2. Clear a table (or in our case, the hotel bed) and lay them out in piles according to topics. Make a heading for the pile once a few cards gather in one spot. (So our headings were things like Structure, Opportunities, Challenges, etc.)

3. Then put your piles in order as you think they will flow linearly in your report, session, article, etc.

4. Type up your pile of all the comments in that order. Wa-la! You have an outline, with not only the main headings but all the points you want to make underneath.

5. Start writing from this. If something doesn’t flow, you can always move it, but overall you have a structure that will a) get you started and b) provide sub-sections for you to complete and get that dopamine hit to keep you going.

We left the hotel with our outline in hand. Because I didn’t have to stare at a blank piece of paper or blank computer screen, I started writing even on the plane ride home — just taking the points from my “strips” and turning them into sentences and stringing them together.

I have used this process hundreds of times — it’s how I organize retreats, workshops, articles, projects — and now even the class I will be teaching. As soon as I know I have a big project, I start collecting notes into a pile as ideas come to me in the days, weeks, or months leading up to the moment I really dig in and start working on something. It makes all the difference to start with “something” rather than starting from “nothing”, and I can begin without thinking about it.

Our brains don’t work in a linear fashion. Even with the miraculous cut-and-paste feature on computers, it is still hard to be random when starting on a document in Word. Avoid all that frustration and try the “pile” method above. I guarantee it to be foolproof!

Originally published in modified form on August 14, 2014

leadership dot #3822: catalyst

January 13, 2023January 12, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I recently wrote an article about our region’s Community Foundation and the work it has been doing for the past twenty years. During its two-decade history, the Foundation has served as a “catalyst and convener” to tackle some of the area’s toughest challenges: access to health care, brain health, literacy, small-town vitality, energy, access to college or training, resources for immigrants, and equity, just to name the more recent subjects.

My takeaway from the conversation was that you don’t have to have the answers in the beginning. The Foundation utilizes community conversations, convenes diverse leadership panels, leverages challenge grants, brings together a wide range of partners, conducts assessments and audits, showcases data, and starts the process of determining solutions to vexing issues.

It’s frequently the case that people agree that X is a problem, but don’t agree on a plan to resolve it. Too often the process gets stuck there and nothing gets over this hump to at least enact something toward a full solution. The Community Foundation serves in the role of the instigator — to use Collective Impact and strategic learning models, system approaches, and good old-fashioned listening to help people articulate the issues and commit to a starting point.

We spend so much time arguing about the problem and what doesn’t work. It would be far more productive for all if you served in a “community foundation” role for however you define your community and get the ball rolling on solutions.

leadership dot #3769: overnight

November 11, 2022November 9, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I have a friend who wanted to book the concerts for the county fair so he volunteered to work the shows and do the behind-the-scenes, day-of-show grunt work — for 15 years. He was finally hired to do the booking.

Another friend wanted to write a book so she started writing. It involved one hour at a time, early mornings, restarting, and lots of edits, but she kept at it, and is now a published author — 10 years after she wrote her first page. I

A community member had a vision for how a recreational space could become much more than that and be turned into a regional tourist destination — and her dream will be realized 10 or 11 years after she laid out her “crazy” plan.

If you have a big dream for what you can achieve tomorrow, the only way to get there is with little steps in that direction today — and every day for literally years. There is no overnight success story, even if it feels like it happens to others.

leadership dot #392a: thumbs up

August 23, 2022August 19, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I recently had a tour of a newly developed space that was being utilized for commercial and non-profit use. Someone asked if a particular company was going to open a facility in this district. “Their board wants to have a thumbprint, not a footprint” was the answer.

What a great way to consider the options. You don’t need to think of moves or major projects in terms of an all-or-nothing proposition. You can have a branch office, an express version of your service, or a kiosk-like storefront.

Testing the waters is a prudent strategy and one that may preserve options for you down the road. Think of making just a thumbprint next time you are asked for your time or resources in support of a new venture. It’s a way to signal that you give the project a “thumbs up” without over-committing to the unknown.

Originally published in modified form on June 28, 2013

leadership dot #369a: ownership

August 21, 2022August 19, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A colleague called me today asking for a “teaching moment” whereby I could give him some advice. I love those kind of phone calls!

He is wanting to tackle a process in his organization that crosses departments — meaning that everyone has a piece, but no one owns the process. Translated, this means that everyone does their own thing and no one (up until now) has bothered to consider the whole process from a client perspective or to be intentional about how it occurs. He was asking how he could affect change without becoming the “do-er” or permanent owner of the whole thing.

My answer: “sorry.” As much as he would like to dream up the solution and hand it off, it isn’t a realistic option. He is asking people who have done things the same way for literally decades to make a change. They don’t want to; don’t need to; don’t see the purpose for doing so, and are certainly not going to volunteer to own a new process. His best hope is to focus, over and over and over, on the “why” behind the changes he is proposing; take responsibility for doing the new work himself this year, and hope that those involved will see the improvement. Next year it will be easier to delegate something that people have actually seen (and hopefully understand.)

After I shared my thoughts, he laughed and said “I knew that is what you were going to say. I knew that I had to do the work; I was just hoping there was another answer.”

Those with the vision often have to assume the workload in order to see the new ideas implemented. It is hard for people who are entrenched in a process to even fathom how it could be different, so you must show them instead of just telling them.

So dream on, my dear friend, and then roll up your sleeves and get to it.

Originally published in modified form on June 5, 2013

leadership dot #161a: lily pads

July 16, 2022June 28, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Q: There is one lily pad floating on a pond. Every day the number of lily pads in the pond will double. If it will take one month to cover the entire pond with lily pads, on what day will the pond be half-covered?

A: On the 29th day

If this was a change initiative project, everyone who wasn’t directly involved in the implementation would be “wowed” on day 30 when the full effort was unveiled. People think that change happens in big increments instead of a series of small ones, and it is this illusion that allows change to take on mythical powers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Change happens in little steps, often involving a lot of grunt work, do-overs, trial & error, and frustrations. Only after enough persistence in this mode does a true “breakthrough” occur.

Change is not lofty. Change is not mysterious. Change is not caused by those who are lucky. Change happens because everyday people put in the effort, over time, to take baby steps toward a goal. They connect the dots.

Today is Day 1. What steps are you taking to fill your pond on Day 30 (or 300)?

Originally published in modified form on November 9, 2012

leadership dot #48a: first draft

July 10, 2022June 28, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

The most important lesson that I learned in all of college can be summarized in five words: “Writing is different than editing.” It was the admonishment of a curmudgeonly old journalism professor that we just write, putting unfiltered thoughts out there, and tend to organization and editing later.

Because of this simple mantra, I have completed hundreds of proposals, papers, projects, and especially a dissertation. Writing and editing utilize different portions of the brain and as we worry about spelling or comma placement, we cut off the creative flow that comes from freely expressing thought. Writing without editing also produces a far greater quantity of writing – giving the editor a larger selection of work from which to glean some “good stuff”. It makes all the difference in getting something done. A blank page is intimidating, but reviewing something that is already there takes much less effort. We often know what we don’t like, so editing it out comes naturally.

I think this lesson applies to many things beyond the literary world. It is really about starting and worrying about making it better later. START vacation planning and then narrow down specifics later. START planning a menu for your dinner party and then swap out choices later. START making a Christmas gift list and then make changes depending upon what you actually find at the mall. START thinking of all those courses you could take and then pick one or two. START dragging out the box of receipts and sorting them into piles and then determine what is tax-deductible later.

We don’t like to begin, and we don’t like to have first drafts in life. But a good life is like that – continuously editing to make it better.

Originally published in modified form on July 19, 2012

leadership dot #3666: purge

June 29, 2022June 28, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

After yesterday’s dot (#3665) about my storage system, a friend asked:

Any advice for me: I have a lot of organizing and purging to do. Office stuff. It’s hard to do when there’s so much. I read an article recently about minimalism and how it’s hard to start when the job seems so big. It seems like it would be never ending and would prevent me from using time now for more enjoyable things. Any ideas on how to make this fun?

Drat! I have no magical advice on how to make boring tasks fun. Susan Power wrote: “The motivation is in the doing.” I think about that a lot (usually when it comes to writing the next dot — I’m rarely motivated to start but the motivation comes from doing.) So, the trick is to start. I’d suggest:

Put an hour appointment on your calendar (daily for 2 weeks or weekly for 2 months, etc.) and hold to it like you do for everything else. It’s not “do I feel like purging — it’s My 2:00 appointment says purging time, so I’ll do it.” Stop thinking that it has to be fun to start — it never will be. It will be fun when you finish, and things are organized/clear/etc.
Schedule the time so that you have a reward at the end. Do it for 1 hour then watch TV or read or eat lunch, etc. Or do it in chunks — Do 1 drawer then X or this pile then X.
See if you can do the purging in a different place than your office. Somehow purging on the patio or in the sunshine is less arduous (says the woman trying to read and sort 3600 dots!)
Great music helps!
Keep a pile of what you’ve purged (i.e.: don’t take it to recycling/shredding right away) so you can see progress even though it won’t feel like there is any.
Depending on the state of things, you may need to sort then prioritize — put things into piles by category, THEN read and purge. (For example, when I cleaned out my Mom’s office, I quickly sorted things by insurance, utilities, medical records, etc. – tossing the very old insurance benefit booklets and obvious recycling as I went – but saved the purging that required thought until a second round after the piles were sorted.)
Only keep things where you’re the source. If you have a lot of minutes or documents from work or volunteering, I’d ditch those and rely on the organization to supply them if ever needed.
As I said in my dot, I keep things in small folders — each topic has its own so I can find them again. Shopping for office supplies (colored folders, etc.) can make the task more fun but don’t get hung up on logistics of “what goes in the red folder?” etc. As you can see in the picture, my folders are ragged, handwritten, reused — and work perfectly.

Whether it’s with purging or any other daunting task, I guess my best advice is to stop seeing it as “a lot.” As Anne Lamott wrote: “bird by bird” — one step then the next. You don’t have a lot to do; you have a little to do a lot of times. You could complete the first “little” in the time you spend avoiding doing “a lot.”

leadership dot #3665: saved

June 28, 2022June 23, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplett2 Comments

When I started my first professional job, I took an empty box that held reams of paper and covered it in contact paper, making it my first filing “cabinet.” As rudimentary as it was, the box served as a useful way to collect, organize, and, most importantly, retrieve handouts or resources that I would later use for inspiration or workshop material.

Many years later, that same system has morphed into 39 boxes, some of which have contents older than the people I am sharing them with. What has worked for me over the years is to not only save materials but to create a separate file folder for each topic, no matter how small. If it’s a key article that I use repeatedly, it has its own folder so I can easily find it. If it’s one article on something new, it starts from scratch, too. There’s nothing lofty about it — reused file folders, handwritten titles, Post-its to label the boxes, etc., but this system has allowed me to begin content development from something, never having to face the dreaded blank piece of paper that is sure to cause a creative block.

I take my method for granted since I’ve been doing it for so long, but it was brought to consciousness by author Dan Pink. He isn’t a resource-hoarder like I am, but he shared that he gets an empty box when he is just beginning to consider a new project. Then when he discovers resources as his idea incubates, he tosses them into the box — books, articles, etc. Once he’s ready to get serious about writing, he has a ready-made collection of places to start.

If you’re not proficient and devoted to one of the sophisticated and powerful tools that are now available to help with the curation process, give the humble box method a try. It has saved me (as well as saved my resources) so many times, proving over and over that it’s much easier to turn something into something more.

leadership dot #3561: something new

March 16, 2022March 15, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A different skill set is required to create something as compared to improving it. If you are focused on making something that exists better, the focus is on the output. If you aim to develop something new, the effort should be concentrated on the inputs — the people, vision, infrastructure, culture — all those need to be aligned in order to be successful.

Unfortunately, too many organizations are interested in short-term wins and immediately visible results. Leaders want to see quick evidence that can be bragged about — tangible signs that changes are occurring — but in an inaugural effort, those benchmarks often come much later in the process. The real work occurs before any outward changes are seen.

If you’re asked to champion a process to create something new, begin by setting clear expectations about the time it is likely to take. There are no easy ways to innovate or embed adaptive changes in an organization. Don’t let your enthusiasm override your thinking and cause you to believe otherwise.