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Are you a pitcher or thrower?

August 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Lightly listening to my husband comment about a baseball game one day, I was intrigued by the following statement:

"He's a pitcher," my husband said, impressed by one player's performance (it was probably the Giants' amazing Tim Lincecum. We're watching the Giants a lot this year).

"Aren't all pitchers pitchers?" I asked, intrigued.

"NO!" he emphatically replied.

"What's the difference?"

"Some are just throwers. This guy knows the batters. He studies them. He goes into a game with a plan."

In your line of work, are you a pitcher or a thrower?

Do you go into your daily game, hoping for the best, without much planning or prep?

Or do you study and prepare, making the most of every day, improving, step by step?

Filed Under: Business Results, People at Work, Process Management

Dashboards in the dark

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dashboards in the dark, originally uploaded by jcgr.

Scenes from a roadtrip night:

One member of the team drives.

One photographs and writes.

A dashboard for each keeps each on track.

What's the dashboard you use most, and best, to stay focused, and on track?

Filed Under: Images, Measurement, Serendipity

The first of many lasts

August 25, 2009 By 2 Comments

Beginnings and endings are on my mind this week.

Our son, the second and last of our children, started his senior year in high school today.

I'm trying not to think about how it is one more of many lasts we will experience this year.

We went through it the first time with our daughter seven years ago. It was a far bigger milestone to reach – and pass – than I ever expected ahead of time it would be. Silly me…how could it not be, when these two wonderful kids have been such a central and vital part of our lives?

About a week ago, it was time to cross off the first of this year's many senior year milestones. The proofs and order were due for our son's senior portraits.

Somehow, try as I might, I could NOT seem to get myself into the photographer's studio.

At some point, I suddenly realized what was in play, almost like a detective who'd solved a particularly elusive mystery. And I laughed at myself, in the discovery.

A few days later I was riding with a friend to a book club we're both in. Her oldest child, a daughter, is a senior this year, too. I gave her the essential details of my ordering senior portraits story, and started to describe my reaction to the experience.

"I thought, 'Well, MAYBE if I never place the order for the senior portraits, and MAYBE, if he never has the first day of his senior year of classes…" I paused for a moment, almost afraid to admit what I had discovered.

A full smile broke over her face, like a wave of sudden and shared understanding.

She picked up my story exactly where I had left it.

"You thought you might be able to stop time, right where it is."

She knew the feeling, too.

We laughed at ourselves, and at our wish not to have to experience the lasts of this year.

But they are ahead. They will unroll, one by one, through this important too-soon-here, too-quickly-gone, fully aware, fully alive year.

And much as we might like to try, we know that, no, we cannot stop time. 

Here's what a few others advise about the importance of endings, and beginnings, and the milestones in our lives:

In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.

Henri Matisse

Beginning is not only a kind of action. It is also a frame of mind, a kind of work, an attitude, a consciousness.
Edward Said

Never lose an opportunity to use a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard seed germinates and roots itself.
Florence Nightingale

What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive – for that is common – but being missed when you leave.
Baltasar Gracian

A hard beginning maketh a good ending.
John Heywood

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
Louis L'Amour

Filed Under: Musings, Quotes, Serendipity

Tired of the “same old same old”?

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Then shake things up a bit.

Today is not the same as yesterday, even if you think it is.

Tired of the same old drive to work? The same old daily routine?

Do something different…even something small.

Open yourself up to a little spontaneity, and a little discovery, as well.

Tired of the same old weekend omelet?

Give this ostrich rancher a call.

He (or she) will shake up your same old same old with an ostrich egg feast for all.

Filed Under: Images, Musings, People watching, Serendipity

Don’t fence you in

August 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Do you ever feel stereotyped?

Perhaps someone puts you into a box of expectations – and expected limitations – based on your:

- Role

- Relationship

- Race

- Nationality

- Religious group

- Gender

- Age

- Education, and where you got your education

- Income

- Job or profession

- Where you live

- Where you came from or other aspects of your past

- Physical attributes of height, weight, hair color, athleticism, general attractiveness, past or present illnesses, handicaps

There are many other ways you can be stereotyped, making your strengths more or less visible, and your opportunities and success impacted in some way, too.

But you must also ask:

Do you stereotype you?

In addition to the stereotypes others may be using to box you in, you may be doing the same thing, too – with the same or different stereotypes.

You may also limit your opportunities by general beliefs. Perhaps you created them. Perhaps you "inherited" them. They may be beliefs handed down through many generations in your family about what people in your family are or are not capable of – and you are assuming they are true.

"I can't" is incredibly powerful. 

"I can" is equally powerful, especially if something is very important to you.

So when you're frustrated by how others may be limiting you, think, too, about how you may be doing the same thing to yourself.

Take the limitations off. Set them aside. Kick them to the curb. Dump them in the trash.

Take a chance.

And find out just how much you can do.

Filed Under: Business Results, Musings, People at Work

There is no straight path to many goals

August 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Not a straight path, originally uploaded by jcgr.

We have a vision, set a goal.

We anticipate a clear path, a nice, straight road.

Often, though, a zig zag path turns out to be only way to go.

Here, a hiker at Bryce Canyon National Park travels the switchbacks to the canyon floor.

Filed Under: Business Results, Images, Leadership, Process Management, Serendipity, Strategic Planning

It’s beautiful. Does it work?

August 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I'm replacing a few well-worn, well-loved items. Or trying to.

They're just purses, but this experience is an example of principles covered in the book, "The Design of Everyday Things," written by Donald Norman a few years ago.

The purses I'm trying to replace had a clean, classic design.

Just the right size and shape, nice leather, they didn't have a lot of flourishes, logos and doo-dads.

More than that, though, they WORKED. Perfectly.

Just enough pockets, in all the right places, and all the right sizes for a phone, pens, and a few other oft-needed retrieved and stored items.

Finding a replacement for a few simple purses should be easy, right?

Not so, I discovered.

And, it turns out, this is a more common problem than I suspected. A client has a similar problem, unfortunately. It's just a hassle neither of us needs or wants (I liked shopping at one point. Not anymore).

And because of that, I bought one recently that seemed "perfect enough."

I should have taken it for a test drive.

It was beautiful, elegant, and vaguely intriguing, with a slightly unusual shape. And it was on sale.

The problem with that beautiful purse? For all its surface elegance, it does not WORK. It's a junker, a clunker, in use.

It's too deep, too subterranean in design and yet, too compact to find things easily without unpacking and then repacking it, multiple times a day. (It's a bit like having a tightly-packed grocery bag that has to be completely unloaded just to retrieve one simple thing).

This beautiful-but-it-doesn't-work bag reminds me of something my mother used to say about beautiful buildings.

"This probably won the architects an award, but they clearly didn't have to LIVE in the building they designed!" she would say in exasperation when something created more hassles than it should have, in use.

Do you know the feeling, too?

Think back to the last product or service you bought that fit solidly in the category of, "It's beautiful, but it doesn't WORK."

- Was there a simple design change that might have made all the difference in usability of the product or service?

- Did your experience change your likelihood of recommending that brand to other buyers in the future?

Filed Under: Business Results, Customer Focus, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Process Management

Flexibility

August 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Flexibility, originally uploaded by jcgr.

Getting big things done sometimes requires a plan that you play out exactly as prescribed.

And at other times, success requires great flexibility.

Usually, using both is the best play:

- Planning and adaptability

- Preparation and responsiveness to whatever you find along the way.

Filed Under: Business Results, Images, Process Management, Serendipity, Strategic Planning

Learning and action and change

August 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Learning – real learning – is an
active, fully-engaged experience.

 

Such learning may be sought, or it may
be brought by work and life experiences. And by virtue of that, such learning
almost inevitably brings about change. And action.

 

That's because when you’ve really
learned, you almost can’t stay the same.

 

Here’s what a few others have to say
about the learning and action and change:

 

The speed of sustainable change is
always less than the speed of learning.

Nigel
Freedman

 

It is not enough to have a good mind.
The main thing is to use it well.

Rene
Descartes

 

The Noah Principle: Predicting rain
doesn’t count – building arks counts.

John
Ferguson

 

The truth of what I say should be told
by what I do.

William
Pollard

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