Ideas-to-Action

14 Words that will Change Your Life

Please.

Thank you.

I was wrong.

Forgive me.

I forgive you.

I love you.

The "Best Idea Ever"

I met the most amazing person earlier this week.  Jennifer Hale is a true expert in organizational development, leadership development, facilitation, and coaching.  Her joy and passion for helping people improve their lives and organizations radiates from her facial expressions, to the words she uses, to how she engages with people individually and as a group.  She has the unique ability to leave people in a better place than where they started.

In one of our training conversations this week, she told us about the "best idea ever".  I have thought about this idea, done some of it mentally, but never put the pen to paper. 

Life is about relationships.  We know that networking is critically important (both personally and professionally), but we often don't take the time to prioritize and invest in the relationships we want to build.  Now, we have technology like LinkedIn and Facebook to keep engaged with a variety of people who enter our lives, but...

Do you have your Top 20 list? 

Have you identified (i.e. written down on paper) the top 20 people who you want to build relationships with?  Notice, I did not say get something from (like a job recommendation or a work contract).  These are people that you are truly interested in and want to build a relationship that has 1) mutual enjoyment, 2) respect, 3) shared experiences, 4) trust, and 5) reciprocity (signs of a solid relationship from John Maxwell's "Talent is Never Enough").

You will find that your Top 20 will change over time.  Some people who were in the Top 20 will fall out, some will be added.  Always be open to new relationships.

For some people, getting to 20 is hard...stop reading right now, take 3 minutes and simply write down the Top 10 people that you want to develop deeper relationships with.  Was it who you expected?  Was it hard to find 10?  Who did you have to trade-off to get your top 10?  What are you doing today to invest in those relationships?  Do you have a plan to build the relationship?  Are your actions effective?  What could you do different?

One thought that was going through my mind as Jennifer was facilitating this week is that some people seem to treat the number of connections on LinkedIn as a "badge of honor" while others treat individuals with great honor and value.  We love to make connections through current technology.  They are easy and fast.  LinkedIn and Facebook are good tools to connect people, but then we must individually decide if we want to invest time and effort with specific people to build solid relationships.  We must take time to have conversations, not simply link to each other in the digital world.

How are you approaching networking and relationship building?  Are you investing in building solid relationships or simply created an on-line Rolodex?  Who is in your Top 20?

Jennifer, thanks for the spark...

Courageous Leadership

I am currently reading John Maxwell's new book "Talent is Never Enough".  First, I am a big fan of Maxwell's work (my disclaimer).  Second, I am really enjoying this read.  I particularly like his list about courageous leadership (pg 164)...

Courageous Leadership Simply Means I've Developed:

1. Convictions that are stronger than my fears.
2. Vision that is clearer than my doubts.
3. Spiritual sensitivity that is louder than popular opinion.
4. Self-esteem that is deeper than self protection.
5. Appreciation for discipline that is greater than my desire for leisure.
6. Dissatisfaction that is more forceful than the status quo.
7. Poise that is more unshakable than panic.
8. Risk taking that is stronger than safety seeking.
9. Right actions that are more robust than rationalization.
10. A desire to see potential reached more than to see people appeased.

Powerful.  Courageous.

Doing

Hello everyone!  I am back from my unintended 6-week sabbatical.  What started as a simple delay in blog writing to "do" some work led to re-prioritization (my to do list was already long when I woke up in the morning) which ultimately led to procrastination (as I got a chance to take a breather).  Thanks for hanging with me during this time away.  Also, thanks to my friend Mark for holding me accountable to my blog commitment.

This has been a great 6-week journey of learning for me, particularly around the concept of "doing".  "Do" is a critical step in the knowledge building process.  "Do" is a key part of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, aka the Shewhart cycle or Deming cycle.  "Do" is where work is performed to execute the ideas and hypothesis defined during "Plan".  There is no substitute for "doing".

However, I have talked to many people that get stuck "doing".  They wake up each day, go to work, do the job, then get paid every other Friday.  They have a good job.  They are competent, hard workers, and the boss loves them.  Life is satisfying. 

Sounds like a great gig...here's the problem:  The world is constantly changing and we must spend time growing, developing, learning something new, and continuously improving our skills and knowledge.  Today's highly sought after skill is tomorrow's entry level position (or outsource opportunity).  We must actively manage our growth and career to continuously move up the value contribution curve.  It is about finding and pursing your passion with every ounce of vigor you have.  It is about growing yourself and helping to grow others.

Early in my career I was told that I had a choice to 1) live to work or 2) work to live.  I have come to believe that is the desperate choice of desperate people who have not found or do not pursue their passion.  A few weeks ago I was asked about the most critical characteristic I look for when hiring someone.  For me, it is easy:  passion.  A person with passion is determined, pursues excellence, is willing to learn.  Skills can be learned, but passion is fundamental to growth and adding value.  Pursuing passion nullifies the desperate choice of desperate people.

If you are struggling in the rut of "doing" and desire more, here are some questions to ponder:

• How much of your time is spent "going through the motions" of your job? 
• What have you done in the last month to grow your knowledge and skills? 
• How much protected time do you set aside each month for professional development? 
• Who is your mentor? 
• Who are you mentoring?
• What excites you?
• What do you want to do next?
• What type of work environment do you want in the next few years?
• What do you love?  and...What do you hate?

"Doing" is important, but if you find yourself trying to answer the question of "live to work or work to live", make up your mind that you don't have to make a choice.  Instead, vigorously pursue your passion and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Inspiring

I was extremely privileged and blessed to hear Nick Vujicic speak last Sunday.  Nick was born without arms or legs and offers an amazing, inspiring story and message.  It is impossible to hear Nick and walk away without some self examination about where we put our trust, what we do to put our faith into action, and how we let meaningless things steal our joy. 

You can get more information about Nick at Life Without Limbs.

Experience profound joy in your life and live a life without limits.

Give Praise to Make Joy Complete

I came across this juicy piece of wisdom fruit from C.S. Lewis about how praise makes joy complete; and it made me take a strong look at what I am doing to make joy complete...

C.S. Lewis from "Reflections on Psalms" (pg 93 - 95):

"But the most obvious fact about praise - whether of God or anything - strangely escaped me.  I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor.  I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.  The world rings with praise - lover praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game - praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars ... My whole, more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.  It is not out of compliment that lovers keep telling one another how beautiful they are, the delight is incomplete till it is expressed."

...Delight is incomplete until it is expressed.

It is so easy to get caught up in the daily "doing" of life and work that we forget to give praise to the people and things that are the delight of our lives.  What do you take delight in?  What do you treasure?  What are you holding back?

Take some time, sit back and reflect on the joys in your life.  Is it your spouse, kids, parents, work, hobbies, God?

Give praise.  Complete your enjoyment.  Complete your joy.

Make Your Goals Hilarious

Here is a wonderful nugget by Mark Fusco at Squint.  He makes a really good point that your dreams and goals should be hilarious.  Live big.  Break the constraints of rational, logic thoughts and ideas.  Stretch.  Grow.  Change.  Innovate.  Transform.

Why wait to dream big...Great things are accomplished by people with hilarious goals.

Thanks Mark!

"Change" is meaningless

The "change" word seems to be everywhere.  Barack Obama seems to be making a lot of headway touting "change" (not a political endorsement).  While the word "change" may play well in during the political season, "change" by itself is meaningless in our personal and business lives.

Here is the problem:  Change does not mean improvement. 

Associates in Process Improvement have a simple and straightforward model that I have found useful to frame improvements in my personal life and business life.  The model is based on 3 questions:

1. What are we trying to accomplish? (Set aims)
2. How will we know change is an improvement? (Establish measures)
3. What change can we make that will result in improvement? (Select changes)

It seems so simple...and it is.  But, it is also very powerful.  Powerful enough that the Institute for Healthcare Improvement uses it as their base improvement model in their 5 Million Lives Campaign.

Peter Kim recently posted his resolutions for 2008.  He did a great job of identifying what he wants to accomplish (be more green, lose weight, save more money), identifying key measures to determine if he actually improves, and creating some hypotheses about what he can do to make an improvement.  He is also searching for expert knowledge (see his green resolution) on other ways to make an improvement.  There is no substitute for expert knowledge.

As you move forward into 2008, making resolutions and vows to change something about your life, I encourage you to move beyond the desire to change and take real action to improve.  Use the 3 questions to frame your improvement, then start testing your changes to see what works and does not work.

Remember, improvement requires making changes, but not all changes result in improvement....

Don't just change.  Improve.

Rethink all the rules

I have been working on this post for several weeks.  Writing, rewriting, re-rewriting.  I still don't think I have my thoughts centered, or really getting my point across, but decided to move my "thoughts in process" to my blog and let nature take its course.  Fair warning before continuing:  these are my tragically uncool, but authentic thoughts...

The "bug in my shorts" is that there is way too much data and information available today to be consumed by the typical person...for that matter, even by the extraordinary person.  Everywhere you turn, there is data on the web, new information on wikipedia, a new blog, new business books.  There is good information.  There is bad information.  What is the basis for discerning the two apart?  Experience?  Knowledge?  How do I get information that is relevant to me and helps me solve problems, develop knowledge, and gain wisdom?

Is the answer technology?  I have 10GB of information in the knowledge base on my laptop.  Google Desktop helped me organized.  But it is still too much.  Technology is too linear.  Seth recently touched on a couple software breakthroughs that are closer than the horizon:  1) programs live on the web instead of your desktop and 2) desktop software that is truly web aware.  The data exists and is getting more rich everyday.  Our current bottleneck is the software.  However, as the software evolves it will stress and break the all the boundaries and rules by which we operate today.  We are moving at an exponential pace from a linear model with foundational business rules and delayed local connectedness to an nth-dimensional euclidean model with instantaneous global connectedness, where the rules are created, broken, and rewritten - not by us, but by the machines that have learned from us.  We can no longer feed at the trough of data overload.  The machines become us, constantly learning and choosing the data we are fed.  Technology has been linear.  Life is not linear.  As technology embeds more into our lives, it will need to become more like our lives.  Less linear.

Or, is the answer in simply turning the channels off?  Quietly disconnect to reconnect.  Focus.  Have you ever sat quietly, reflectively, with no disturbances for an hour?  For 30 minutes?  10 minutes?  Clarity.  Peace.  Depth. Understanding.

The Truth remains constant.  Everything else changes.

Postlog on technology:  Michael Wesch does an astounding job showing the evolution and impact of technology. A quick "hat tip" to my cousin Bryan Davidson for turning me on to this video.

Best Consulting Firms to Work for...

 

As many of you may know, I recently left a very long "industry-side" career in marketing and operations management to join the consulting ranks at North Highland.  Last week, I received tremendous validation for this decision as North Highland was ranked #4 in Consulting Magazine "Best Firms to Work for in 2007".  In a year when the competition for this honor is more difficult, North Highland is sitting with the classic consulting powerhouses of Bain, BCG and McKinsey.  Wow!

It was a long and difficult decision to leave a career path I have been cultivating since becoming a marketing major at Texas A&M, but one that got easier as I discovered and learned more about North Highland.  As I became more "mature" in my career, I found that I truly enjoyed and had passion for helping people and organizations overcome problems that hindered performance.  Incidentally, this is also why I started this blog. 

What I found in North Highland was a company purpose and a lot of mature consultants and leaders that wanted to do the same thing I wanted to do.  In addition to a culture that supports a holistic approach to work and life (i.e. no travel, employee owned, eat dinner with the family, go to the school play, etc.), there is an overriding passion to change the way people think about consulting.  No consulting glitz or glamor.  Simply mature, very real, highly skilled people with a strong desire to help companies and help people. 

I spoke with Dan Reardon a few weeks ago on how strategic decisions get made at North Highland.  He stressed the importance of assessing decisions through the lens of culture impact.  Growth is good, but not at the expense of culture...not at the expense of what makes us who we are.  Great effort has been made to build the North Highland caring, relationship-based culture; and great care is being taken to ensure its sustainability...something far too many leaders forget as their companies enter high growth phases.

Earlier tonight, I had to help my daughter with kindergarten project to "describe the type of work her parents do".  How do I describe my new job as a consultant?  Wow!  There are some great $50 words that are often used to describe consulting (most of which end in "ize") -- I really wanted to impress the 5-year olds!  Finally, I went back to North Highland's idea of changing the way people think about consulting and told her "I help sick companies get well".  She said, "Oh, you're a doctor."  In a way, yes.

Congratulations to all the people of North Highland that came before me, and thank you to the current leaders who put their faith and confidence in me to help carry this torch forward.