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Listening again

August 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Here’s that “listening thing” again, in a few quotes about the importance of listening well:

Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
- Bernard Baruch

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
- Ernest Hemingway

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Robert McCloskey

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.
- Unknown

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.
- Andre Gide

Filed Under: Knowledge Management, Leadership, People at Work, Process Management, Quotes

Perfect storms

August 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Several disastrous circumstances – and one potentially so – that are now underway make one think about perfect storms:

- The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market
- An accident on top of an accident in the mine in Utah, resulting in deaths and injuries for rescuers of miners already trapped
- Who knows how the space shuttle return will go with yet another flying foam incident

How many of these circumstances could have been foreseen, and prevented? Perhaps none. Maybe all. It gives one pause for thought, though.

1. What would the perfect storm be for your business or industry?

2. If it happened – and it could – would you be ready? How would you respond? And does everyone who needs to know the plan of action, know? Are you sure?

3. If your answer to readiness preparation is “Honestly, no, we’re not ready,” what do you need to think about and prepare for (yes – even though, and especially because – you do not want to)?

Some scenario analysis, and risk management planning might be in order for you, too.

4. Who can you engage or enroll in the process of helping you work through the possibilities, signals, plans and contingencies you need to have on the shelf, ready to go, if the perfect storm hits your business, your industry, your world?

And yes, I’m taking my own advice, as well. Scenario planning and checking or improving emergency preparedness is on my short-term to-do list, too.

Filed Under: Knowledge Management, Leadership, Process Management, Strategic Planning

High pressure listening

August 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment


We CAN do this, yes…
Originally uploaded by jcgr.

Poor guy in the catcher’s gear, here.

He’s getting on the job training to be a Big League catcher. Many people  get on the job training…but not with millions of people watching them on TV, as was the case here.

What led to these straits, a newbie at home plate? The San Francisco Giants ran out of catchers late in the 10th inning of a game against their cross-Bay rivals, the Oakland A’s.

Who’d they call in with the game on the line? Pedro Feliz, who normally plays third base.

The Giants lost the game, but not as a result of his play at the plate – he held his own.

Filed Under: Images, Knowledge Management, Leadership, People at Work, Process Management

Leave room for listening

August 16, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Have you ever had one of those disagreements about listening when you think you’re not being listened to, and the person you think is not listening…thinks you’re not listening, too?

A lot of people assume it’s easy, this listening game. But it’s not. Listening is a skill that’s not easily learned, or taught. In fact, listening is an art.

Much of the skill of listening is leaving things open.

Time. Space. Your ears. Your mind. Your eyes. Your heart.

If you’re listening…really listening…you’re not loading up the words you want to say, ready to drop them into the first opening you can grab. You’re leaving that opening alone, letting it breathe and have a life of its own. You’re letting it just…stay…open. It’s a courageous act (have you ever noticed how afraid some people are of silence…simple, profound silence?).

So here it is again:

You have to leave the time and space for the listener to feel listened to. And that means, if you’re really listening, you’re not listening in a hurry.

Try to feel what they’re trying to express, release, to have you understand.

Being a good listener is a gift, a mark of confidence in yourself, as well as the person who’s giving you the gift of trying to help you understand (if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t be trying to get through to you).

The truth, whatever it is, brought out of the dark is never as bad as the truth hiding in a corner, hoping never to be found.

And while we’re at it, how good are you when it comes to listening to yourself?

Filed Under: Knowledge Management, Leadership, People at Work, Process Management

Passion put into play

August 14, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Fan passion – and deep knowledge of the game he loves – yielded a new way for a baseball fan to put his love of the game into play, in a professional way.

Zack Hample has turned his baseball obsession into a book or two, and enough fame to turn his love of the game into a business. He’s captured 3,123 baseballs – and counting – at 42 different ballparks, and he’ll teach you how to snag a baseball or two at the next game you attend. But more than that, if you’re not successful in your attempt, well, he has a money-back guarantee.

His love, and knowledge of the game were apparent in this NPR interview, as was the seriousness of his intent to transmit his passion to others who are more than just amused by his success – they want to play, too.

If you’re a baseball fan who wants to test, or learn from Zack’s extensive knowledge, check out his book, Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-Experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks.

Filed Under: Knowledge Management

Consequences

August 14, 2007 By Leave a Comment


Temper Tantrum
Originally uploaded by jcgr.

An action can have unintended consequences. They can be positive or negative, of course, and if an action yields desirable results, the unintended can become intentional from then on.

For example, a neighbor’s daughter, mad about something (perhaps just being 13 was enough), threw her Barbie in a tree one day. It turned out that the winds of Mother Nature were even stronger, and down Barbie fell.

Not to be outdone by a thunderstorm, the young woman threw Barbie back IN the tree, where she stayed, for weeks to come.

And what of Mother Nature? Well, she won, of course. Like so many other challenges in life, the teenage years…well, there’s no way around but through them (for everyone involved).

In your world, what comes to mind when you think of ultimately amusing (and non-destructive) tactics that people tried to release or demonstrate the temporary storm inside, as they worked through a particularly big challenge?

If it turned out to be an effective way of releasing the tension, did this action become ritualized, turned into an annual award, or a legacy of some type?

It can happen…like the passing of a torch.

Filed Under: Images, Leadership, People at Work, Process Management

Actually, Bob…

August 14, 2007 By Leave a Comment

After a movie he wanted very much to see one day – one which neither he nor I ultimately enjoyed – our son, 15, was making fun of the typical angst and anguish of teens (not that he hasn’t had some of his own, mind you…we all go through some of it). Matt, a fairly quiet sort, started into an imitation of a typical lament:

“No one understands me! EVERYONE is against me! And ANYTHING GOOD that I did, I did all by MYSELF!”

Matt’s quick reply…what he would LIKE to say in that situation…was:

“Actually, Bob, we were behind you all the time!”

I laughed, and could think of several circumstances in which that would apply…some involving high-pitched teenage girls, traveling in a pack, some not.

And on that count, in a bad-news item for advocates of unlimited cell phone time and text messaging, a recent University of Missouri study shows that too much talk about problems can do the opposite of what people think it will.

It can get you stuck…send you spiraling…down, into the ground…if you don’t manage it well, to a conclusion…leading to action…producing momentum and energy that propels you over, around, and beyond the barriers that you perceive are holding you back.

A little focused action creates traction that produces an almost self-perpetuating energy that moves you to new perspectives and bigger possibilities, as well.

Step by step progress…even…one…step…at…a…time gets you up, moves you beyond, gets you ahead of “stuckness,” fear, and even dread of what lies ahead.

Put down the phone. Put on your action shoes.

Get going. You’ll be glad you did.

Filed Under: Business Results, Current Affairs, Leadership, Process Management

Beverage stop

August 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment


Beverage stop
Originally uploaded by jcgr.

Sometimes in your attempt to get one thing, if you’re open to opportunity, you may get something else – often more.

I wanted a close-up of the water drops on the flower…and into the scene walked (well, flew) a wasp.

I waited as quietly as I could to see what I could catch. This was one…his or her quiet refreshment stop.

Filed Under: Business Results, Images, Musings

Sign? What sign?

August 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment


Sign? What sign?
Originally uploaded by jcgr.

Maybe he's not flaunting or flouting.

Maybe he just didn't see the sign.

Or maybe he CAN'T walk around…

Or maybe there's a "turf war" going on between his department and the keepers of the grass and ground.

Hard to say.

What we do know is that the sign didn't work this time around.

And the user of the space was just following his natural instincts.

Design with that in mind: what will the user most naturally do – or want to?

Filed Under: Images, Knowledge Management, Musings, People at Work, Process Management

The lightening (and lightning) effect of laughter

August 7, 2007 By Leave a Comment

An accidental flood (is there any other kind?) created a special need for laughter at our house this weekend. The laughter came, yes, but later…not in the middle of rapidly moving things to high ground.

The experience made me think about the value of laughter…laughing at yourself, laughing with others, laughing at the silliness and ironies of life, sometimes. More on that in the next few days.

For now, a few quotes about the joyous subject of mirth, and laughter:

The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it.
- Bill Nye

Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
- Bob Newhart

He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.
Koran

(On that count, I’ve noticed that learning in a group is often higher, and goes in better, if the group is bonded enough to laugh easily as they work, even on serious subjects).

Laughter is inner jogging.
- Norman Cousins

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.
- Lord Byron

And finally, for now:

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
- Mark Twain

Filed Under: Leadership, Musings, People at Work, Quotes
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