You used to be able to talk with someone and realize the conversation is going to go longer and realize there was a need to have an ad-hoc 2-hour meeting to map out everything that was happening. You never came out of that thinking – “that was a waste of time”. The value of ad-hoc meetings is that they are instantiated at the time a problem is discovered – “Hey we need to chat” -…
How many times do you open the package and throw out the instructions? I do all the time. But someone worked on them because they knew I was going to do things wrong right out of the gate. The ones I do read, they aren’t written in 6px fonts and folded over 17 times. It’s akin to the person with the headache trying to understand the dosage they need to take. They aren’t looking for…
Is the first place you wish you started. Because then you wouldn’t have had to go through all that “trying stuff and failing and feeling like garbage about not having got it perfect before.” This is true. But now you know the first place to look next time, so now next time there will be a last place to look. The Last Place to Look is based on where you are in figuring things out,…
The Grind is what we backdrop to when we aren’t sure what to do. It’s the work that is always there, that if we sit down or put on a timer that we would simply work through it. It’s the pile as high as a mountain that is higher than we wish that we are just waiting to see what will happen. It’s there, waiting to get done but because it’s not sexy, cool, or…
The Challenge of any Leader is to lead the team today with an eye on tomorrow. You’re always leading a battle on two fronts – today and tomorrow – and it’s one that no one ever sees happening, but daily, it’s happening in your mind as you run through team personalities, external factors, changes in technologies, deadlines, and commitments. Everything and anything. The trap is getting stuck in today because of what might happen tomorrow…