Archive for category General
on knee-jerk reactions
things don’t always go as you had planned. something at some point will happen which throws off your expectations. no project is without it’s problems challenges (sorry, in the consulting world we don’t like the word ‘problem’ because it has a negative connotation to it) — but before you institute solutions, you absolutely have to think about how it will affect the entire dynamic.
the problem with knee-jerk reactions is that they are generally conceived by the “fight or flight” portion of our brains; the portion of our brains that doesn’t consider impacts beyond the immediate situation. so while the reaction might be good for you right now in diffusing the situation or mitigating the issue, it may end up having negative impacts down the line.
fight the urge to make those knee-jerk reactions. your task, your project, your business is far too important to hinge its future on a decision made without just deliberation. before you make a decision on how to solve your next challenge, ask yourself two simple questions: “have i gathered multiple points of view?” and “have i really given good thought to this?”
what can we learn from the beautiful game?
image by prettyfriendship, flickr artist
i like drawing parallels between sports and life. there are so many lessons that we can learn just by taking a look at things through a different lens. the beautiful game is no exception.
it’s world cup time right now; for me this is a huge deal. the only way i can describe it to non-football enthusiasts is to take thanksgiving, wrap it up in christmas, and then get rid of it for 4 years. it’s massive.
as i’ve watched the games and results unfold this year, i’ve had to rub my eyes in disbelief on more than one occasion. most notably, for me, the first group-stage match between spain and switzerland where the swiss won with a 1-0 final score. if you look beyond the score to the match statistics you see today’s lesson.
official stats for the game: spain 63% possession, 12 corner kicks, 24 shots… only 8 on target. switzerland 37% possession, 3 corner kicks, 8 shots… but 3 made it on target and of course one resulted in that crucial goal.
what do you look for when you hire?
image by Round Indigo Rock, flickr artist
we’ve had a big hiring push lately at my firm, and to be quite frank i don’t really like it.
to me it’s not enough to hire bright, intelligent, promising people to add to your workforce. you have to go beyond that and think about the team(s) those people will be on. this is hard to do when you are hiring people for their capabilities rather than a particular task. you need to be asking: can they become the new leaders of this team? can they handle the pressures of a highly dynamic development process? will they be able to form those trusting bonds with their coworkers?
i’ve been a part of many teams in both my academic and professional lives to know that just because someone has all the skills necessary, and their resumé checks all the boxes on your list of “the perfect candidate,” that doesn’t mean that they’re the right fit for your organization. conversely, i’ve known people who have not been the brightest or the most talented but whom have made the organization thrive because they were excellent teammates.
who killed mom and pop? a discussion on quality
i have a close relationship to mom and pop because i used to work for mom and pop back in high school. it was a small shop around the corner from my house in south philly, italian flag painted on the floor of the storefront. we took pictures of our frequent customers and would hang them on the walls; it was as much their shop as it was our own.
sal — the owner of the store and my boss — wasn’t a young man anymore, and you could tell that time wore on him harsher than to most people. when you work your whole life — from the time you’re 5 years old till you’re in your 60s — buying and selling produce for your family’s storefront and also a large group of independent restaurants, your body starts to wear out. in some ways it sounds a romantic story — the american spirit lived out by italian immigrants: unquestionable work ethic. uncompromising reserve — but here’s where the story turns tragic.
radio silence
i’m currently in the middle of a very hectic 3 week period. 3 trips, 1350 miles, and an oil change later and i’ll be back to normal.
i’ll certainly try to get a post or two in, but i didn’t want anyone to be surprised if my posting schedule lags behind. your patience is appreciated in this time of radio silence.
thanks!
- dino
don’t forget to add the ‘fun’
image by Tony M...., flickr artist
i was just at the grocery store picking up supplies for the week.
when i got home, i took out the bottle of vitamin water i had purchased as part of those supplies and cracked the top. the flavor was called “spark” and was one that i hadn’t tried before, so — being new to me — i held up the bottle to read the label.
to my amusement, the text was upside-down. i turned the bottle to read it and, the label — the text i was reading — talked about the action which i had just performed (turning the bottle upside-down). it closed with a clever joke, and it was at that point that i realized what just happened.
i was having fun!
fun from a plastic vitamin water bottle? yes. (well, more specifically it was the label itself.) so i started to ask myself a very simple question: why, when we create products, do we always leave out the fun factor? when did we all become mr. soggy pants?
how to eat like a professional
business lunches are not like normal lunches. there’s still an agenda, even if there’s no official distribution of one. when you meet with a client, a potential new hire, new teammates, etc. — you have certain things that you want to discuss, that you want to accomplish.
so why waste time ordering your food?
when you pick the restaurant, be sure to send a menu along with the meeting invite — and maybe even direct your guest(s) to a particular item that you’ve had before or that seems interesting to you. by sharing the menu ahead of time, you can spend less time thumbing through appetizers and more time on accomplishing the goals of your agenda. less time selling your favorite open-faced sandwich to your guest, and more time selling your organization.
there’s an art to the business lunch. if you can master it, your organization’s plate will always be full.
ideas do not occur in a bubble
image by Reini68, flickr artist
when was the last time you had a good idea? one of those eureka moments?
i remember back in college my roommate and i were discussing which of the honey bunches of oats ‘flavors’ we enjoyed the most. after trying pretty much all of them, i told him with conviction that hbo with strawberries was my favorite. i said: ”the thing i love about it is how your milk turns strawberry-flavored afterwards.”
immediately i thought, ‘hey — they actually make that stuff!’ and i shouted out with such joy, “dude! what if i make strawberry milk, and then pour that into my hbo with strawberries? it’s double the strawberry! how awesome would that be?!”
the very next time we went to the grocery store i bought some strawberry nesquik mix and put my theory to the test. naturally it ended up being horrendous, but it was still a good idea at the time.
knowledge is no substitute for hard work
image by sarahkim, flickr artist
i wrote not too long ago about the keys to an effective presentation. it’s strange how sometimes you don’t listen to your own advice, though, john… seriously.
guilty as charged.
i found myself this week in a situation where i had three briefs to deliver to three different audiences all within the span of a few short hours. it’s hard to ‘get up’ for those kinds of meetings, have a short break in between, and then recapture that tough mental focus again. (oh, and then repeat that once more for the last brief of the day) i was feeling confident, however (i usually do), especially since i was closing it out with the same marketing brief i had given dozens upon dozens of times already. but i should have known better than to take things lightly.
the difference between participation and adoption
image by dharmabumx, flickr artist
i was listening in on a social media community of practice presentation today that a colleague of mine was giving about social media in the enterprise and individual performance.
while i feel that my colleague has done some great work — and really took a rather large bite to create a conceptual model for promoting participation in online networks which is itself valiant — i think it’s important to make the distinction between participation, and adoption. it’s a distinction that i feel is greatly overlooked.
mike’s model talked about awareness, self-efficacy, organizational trust, and this notion of perceived improvement potential all being drivers of participation. and i think that’s wrong. in fact, i think it’s exactly backwards.
you might think that i’m splitting hairs right now; toe-may-toe, toe-mah-to, right? but participation and adoption do have rather different connotations despite the fact that often times you’ll hear those two words used interchangeably. i think, however, that you’ll find one is far more desirable (and much harder to come by) than the other. in fact, one leads to the other.
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