You are here: Home / Archives for People at Work

Keep going

October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you facing a challenge that’s bigger than any you’ve ever experienced?

Keep going.

Has a creative project become a mystery, your inspiration and output completely blocked?

Keep going.

Or, is the great outcome of a project something you envision and expect…except that you have no idea how you’ll “pull it off,” in the end?

Keep going.

To do so, try this:

1. Recall a time when you overcame resistance, a creative block, or discouragement. Remember how you handled it.

2. Consider a challenge you’re facing now.

3. Let the “keep going” thought wash over you. Sit with it for a bit.

4. Pause to let your next most obvious step become apparent.

5. Take that step. Do it as well as you can.

6. Repeat the process until solid momentum returns, or you achieve success…whichever comes first.

Keep going.

Refuse to be turned away, defeated, or denied access to success that can be yours, with enough focus and effort.

Keep going.

Realize that if your goal is truly inspiring, there will be times when you want to give up, or turn back.

Keep going.

Dreams aren’t easy things to reach, hold, or have.

Keep going.

Success may be just around the bend.

Filed Under: Business Results, Full presence, People at Work

The way you practice can be a predictor of success

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How you practice has everything to do with how you play.

That thought is not new, of course. It’s pretty interesting, though, when you check your own experience and notice how true it can be.

Think of two past projects, one that worked well and one that didn’t.

What were the differences between these two experiences in:

1. How specific your goal was?

2. How you prepared or practiced for the experience?

3. What you paid attention to as you did the work: progress or problems, anticipating success or predicting failure?

4. The encouragement and support you had from others?

5. The encouragement and support you showed yourself?

6. The energy and enthusiasm you put into the work, and how you did so?

7. The way you monitored and corrected your progress, if need be?

8. How you celebrated reaching various milestones, if you did?

I’ll share one detail from my own experience.

Sometimes when I’m working on something new, I imagine successfully completing each step, and successfully arriving at the finish line. It sounds simple, but it’s valuable. That’s because, by the time I actually do the work, even if it’s new to me, it almost feels familiar already. I spend less time in doubt or anticipation of problems because I’ve already “pre-experienced” successful completion of each step.

What differences do you notice when you compare the successful and less successful projects you completed?

What practices do you notice are most likely to lead you to success consistently?

Filed Under: Business Results, Enthusiasm, Full presence, Knowledge Management, People at Work, Process Management, Your own excellence

WOW

June 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment


WOW
Originally uploaded by jcgr

The WOW on this awning in downtown San Francisco made me smile instantly.

WOW.

Think about the last time your reaction to something was a simple, inspired, “WOW!”

What made you feel that way?

Now think about a project you’re working on or a goal you have.

If others were to be WOWed by the work when that project is complete, what would you have done to have inspired them in that way?

How can you get that job done most easily?

Speaking for myself, staying focused on the goal and keeping the work from getting too complicated leads to the most valued outcomes.

And WOW often comes when I’ve enjoyed the work, itself, while it’s underway.

Whatever the path is for you, do what you need to in order for your best work to emerge most easily.

And when you do, enjoy the “WOW!” when it comes your way!

Filed Under: Images, Musings, People at Work, Serendipity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Just a moment’s pause…to window shop

March 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Momentary window shopping
Originally uploaded by jcgr

I was amused at this quick moment on a trip last fall to New York City.

A couple of policewomen couldn’t help but to glance for a moment at shoes on their rounds of the city.

After all, beautiful shoes are beautiful shoes, no matter who you are, or what job you walk.

Filed Under: Images, Laughter, Musings, People at Work, People watching, Serendipity

It was a flying through life Monday here…how was yours?

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It was a rare Monday in my world.

I felt like I was flying through the day, in the good way.

And I was almost afraid to look too closely at how quickly the “to-do” list was turning rapidly into the “it’s done!” list.

You know how it goes. There’s that quiet little fear that if you look too closely, good luck, under close inspection, will fly away.

Yes, it was one of those kinds of days.

Not until about 3:10 pm did I hit the first pothole in the day’s progress and plans.

And then that pothole was a bit of a doozy, but I got back on track again.

At some point before Monday ends, I’ll take a moment or two to try to figure out if there’s something specific I did to make (or let?) this day work out as well as it did.

Maybe it was that moment or two last night when I couldn’t get to sleep. I purposely shifted from worrying about a few things to thinking about things that make me smile.

Yes, that may have been it.

All I know is that I’m going to do my best to make it a flying-through-life-in-the-good-way Tuesday next.

Here’s to a great Tuesday in your world, too!

Filed Under: Musings, People at Work, Serendipity Tagged With: , , ,

Avoiding something? 15 ways to get started so you can get it done

February 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Is there a goal, task, or action you’d do anything to avoid if you could?

Stop resisting, procrastinating, and trying to wish the task away.

Here are a few ways to get started so you can get that work done:

1. Get excited about it.
There’s probably something good about the experience (even if it’s just that you get to scratch it off the to-do list when you’re done).

2. See yourself doing it, and completing it.
Envision the work underway, going well, and see yourself finishing easily. Imagine, also, that if things do crop up that you didn’t expect, you’ll handle them calmly and effectively.

3. Set a goal or milestone. Set a series of them.
Focus on the next milestone and getting that done. Then work on the next one.

4. Plan a reward. Plan a series of them.
Work your way through the task you’d like to toss by pacing yourself with appropriate rewards. Move well – and steadily – through the tasks between here and successfully crossing the finish line.

5. Start focusing on the next thing on the to-do list.
Notice what else needs to be done. Focus a little less on this task and notice what work it’s blocking that may be even more important.

6.  Pay more attention to it.
Look more closely at the task. You may notice things you hadn’t noticed before that appeal to you.

7. Pay less attention to it.
Maybe you’re paying too much attention to some details and immobilizing yourself. Focus a little less, if this is the case. Keep the big picture and long-term perspective in mind.

8. Sneak up on yourself.
Sometimes we intimidate ourselves. Get out of your own way. Let the work through. Almost before you realize it, the work will be underway. Suddenly, seemingly, it will be done.

9.  Cut the drama. Just do it.
Sometimes being a little stern with yourself will do the trick. At other times (and most times, as a matter of fact) encourage yourself as you work and learn. You’re likely to get the most and best work out of yourself this way.

10. “Work. Relax. Don’t think.”
That’s writer Ray Bradbury’s advice. Just start working. Relax as you do. Let instinct, and prior experience with this task, if you have it help you get moving well beyond it.

11. Use this as a chance to learn something new.
Make this a learning laboratory for new skills, in some way, if you can.

12. Add something to make it more enjoyable.
Maybe you can change the location of the work, or the order in which the work is done. Maybe you can add a new person to the team, if a group of people is doing the work.

13. Take something away to make it simpler.
Make the work flow simpler if you can, or use a smaller team of people to get the work done if the team and task are getting too complicated.

14. Focus on the things that could go right.
It’s easy to plan in such a detailed fashion that you see all the problems that might occur. Focus on the things that might go very well, and how you’ll be prepared if they don’t.

15. Focus on how you’ll feel when you get the task done.
Keep that good feeling in mind as you work your way through the task. And then enjoy that finished feeling, fully, when you get to that point.

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

Take the first step to change – accept what is

February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The first step in changing something – anything, really – is accepting what the current situation is.

It’s not always easy. But it is one of the most powerful steps to actual, sustainable change if that’s what you really want.

Here are a few steps to take to accept where you really are, and the situation you’re really in, whatever it is. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What seems to be true, even though I may not want it to be so?

2. How do I know? What are the facts? (The facts may not be fun at this point, but you never know. Find out).

3. Does the situation still look the same, now that I have the facts?

4. What do I want, instead?

5. What’s the gap between what is, and what I wish were true?

And then, get ready to move beyond acceptance. Ask yourself these things:

6. Can I close that gap? If so, what will it take from me?

7. How can I make the change in the best possible way?

Understand.

Accept.

Be with what is.

Let it be to let it go.

You have the power to move beyond, to make “what is,” “what was.”

But first you have to accept.

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

The power of acceptance (and give a little to yourself)

February 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Acceptance.

I’ve thought about this many times as I worked my way toward some high goal I’d set for myself, or tried to move beyond a difficult life circumstance.

Acceptance is commonly-offered advice for anyone going through challenging times, or great change of any type.

I think of a friend whose husband is helping his mother close down her home and prepare to move to a retirement community. I think of managers who are frustrated by their employees, employees frustrated by their managers. I think of people trying to lose weight, or to do other things to improve their health.

Advising that someone accept a circumstance is easy to say.

But it’s much, much harder to do.

Think about each of these situations for a moment. Consider what it takes to fully DO:

1. Accept yourself, completely.

This means fully acknowledging all your strengths and weaknesses, achievements and mistakes, opportunities you took and the ones you missed or chose not to take.

This means accepting the wholeness of you, just as you are, right now.

2. Accept someone else, completely.

This means fully acknowledging someone else, including their strengths and weaknesses, just as they are, right now.

It means accepting whatever relationship and history exists between the two of you.

3. Accept a situation completely, just as it is, right now.

This means acknowledging a situation fully, whatever it is, just as it is, now.

This may mean accepting the hard work, and the odds that you face as you decide to pursue a goal.

It may mean accepting the resources you need to gather, or the learning and personal change you need to do.

It could mean acknowledging a present situation that’s far worse than what you once imagined, or hoped

What’s the real power in acceptance?

Often you can’t release burdens unless you acknowledge that they exist. You can’t muster the energy and effort to get moving to become what you really wish, or create the situation you really want, to be unless you acknowledge that you’re somewhere else.

Energy that’s invested in pretending, “Everything’s fine!” can’t be released and invested in really making it so.

Take a deep breath.

Accept.

Be with, and let be, what is.

Then, when you’re ready, let go.

Move beyond what is.

And then, make things different, and better.

And accept again at each step, as things change and move forward.

The challenge often isn’t in the doing.

The challenge is in accepting what is fully enough to be able to really, and finally, let it go.

Filed Under: Musings, People at Work, People watching, Process Management

Three big risks on your way to big goals

January 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The challenges of a big challenge are many.

Here are just three of the errors that it’s easy to make if you don’t plan and manage your work effectively:

1. Getting into action without a plan

You’re likely in this case to find out that you’re quickly far afield of where you intended to be.

2. Creating a plan but never getting action underway

You’re likely to be filled with fear about something you think you can’t achieve or a problem you can’t conquer. You never get around to turning your great ideas into results that count for anything.

3. Losing track of your target along the way

Here you start implementing your plan, but you don’t follow up well and consistently. You lose your sense of the destination as well as the path there.

Here’s what others advise about these risks, and what happens if you don’t meet them effectively:

Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.
Mark Victor Hansen

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.
Unknown

Any goal without a plan is just a wish.
Larry Elder

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Frank A. Clark

The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.
Earl Nightingale

If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?
Basil S. Walsh

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
Confucius

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.
Jim Rohn

“It is not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves.”
Edmund Hillary

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

How to outsource the cleaning of your room

December 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Outsourcing can help you get more done than you can do alone.

To outsource well requires many things, including:

- A specific objective and success criteria

- Clarity about each others’ roles

- Simple, effective communication processes

- Clear decision-making processes

- Ways to measure if progress is happening and goals are being achieved

- Having a good process for working through misunderstandings, if they occur.

Outsourcing can also be used to get your room cleaned after you leave home.

I know. It’s been going on for a few weeks here.

My husband is on the phone now with our daughter who lives in Eugene, OR.

Having graduated from college a few years ago and changed locations a few times since then, she’s pretty well decided what things would move with her into the life she has now.

The rest of the stuff she’s left at home.

It’s been a room in limbo…no longer what it was, but not yet what it can become.

We all agree that it’s high time to turn the room into an office/study and guest room which will be her room the few nights a year when she’s home.

Gary created a room-clearing process that has worked beautifully over the miles. Here are the basic steps.

1. He knew what his goal was.

2. He knew the job was not getting done in the expected way, and had to figure out a way to do it in spite of the distance between where we live and where she does.

3. He envisioned a process that might work and wanted to try it out.

4. He proposed it to Anne in a way that it wouldn’t feel insurmountable, as clearing the room had felt up to now. She agreed to try the process.

5. He sorted through the many things that had gathered here, grouping like objects, making judgments about what he thought should be kept and what could be tossed.

6. He scheduled ten-minute calls with Anne each weekend for about a month, going over just the things they could review and she could decide on in that time.

7. In the call each week, he described each item that was up for a stay/go decision as well as he could.

8. She made a decision about each one, or asked me to supplement her instincts about it with what I knew about the item and its probable place in her life, before making the final call.

9. I’m the final arbiter on this end of the outsourcing process because I know, and will adhere to her decision criteria more consistently than he will.

Her decision criteria are:

- Do I love it?

- Will I use it again?

- Did it come from a person I love?

Gary’s decision criterion is simple:

- Is there any way I can get rid of this?

10. We’re making regular stops at Goodwill and the Salvation Army and someone who loves each item now will take it home. There may even be some people who will get a Christmas present of an item that Anne was long ready to let go, but just didn’t know it yet. For them, it’s a new item to love.

And to share just a small sample of this process (which has worked beautifully, by the way), here’s just part of my husband’s side of today’s call:

“It’s a red heart pillow, kind of like a Valentine. It has a big stain on it.”

I laughed to myself when I heard his description.

It was clear to me he thought the heart-shaped pillow should move out. He was focusing on the stain, not the heart, describing it in a way that would lead to the decision for which he’d hoped.

In this case, he got what he wanted. The stained heart-shaped pillow is moving on.

Are there lessons for you in this outsourced process?

1. Is there a large task you’ve been avoiding but need to do? How can you create break that big task into a smaller series of decisions and actions that allow you to make progress on getting that intimidating task done?

2. Is there a process you’ve outsourced that isn’t working well? Of the key steps in good outsourcing, is there a step you skipped or need to improve? Clarifying goals, roles and communication processes and mechanisms can do a lot to improve teamwork and effectiveness in any process or group.

Filed Under: Business Results, Measurement, People at Work, Process Management, Serendipity
« Older Posts