Category: culture

Intention

Fabrizio1 Comment

There’s a difference between doing something because it’s what makes most sense, here and now, and doing the same thing because the opposite makes you feel sad, scared, uncomfortable.

Being with someone because you enjoy their company instead of being with someone because you dread being alone.

Being in a job because it’s what better serves your purpose instead of being in a job because you need to pay the bills.

Going out every evening because that’s how you feel you are contributing to your well being instead of going out every evening because that’s what everyone else does.

Intention is the difference. And we can all benefit from claiming some of it over our actions.

Communication tools

FabrizioLeave a comment

It’s all great that companies have so many ways to communicate, share information, ask and answer questions nowadays. But as it’s often the case, new tools don’t fix old issues.

Like assuming that communication happened just because you have communicated something.

Like expecting an immediate answer to trivial or unimportant questions to placate your anxiety.

Like spreading information left and right with the hope that those who need it will get it and absorb it, while others will forget about it.

Communication is a skill and it needs old-fashioned training, not new tools.

Too detailed

FabrizioLeave a comment

Check the specifics and stress over the big picture.

Too often we instead stress over the specifics and don’t even pay attention to the big picture.

One example: check business metrics weekly, even daily, and do it in a way that informs the steps to take next week, next month, not today. Report business metrics quarterly, and do it in a way that links them to a clear, overarching business strategy. Stress only if the quarterly numbers consistently miss the mark, and do it in a way that informs a new strategy.

Risk and reward

FabrizioLeave a comment

Some people do good work. Some people do poor work. Most people do average work.

And the reasons for that are two: risk aversion and reward seeking.

To do good work, you need to be able to deviate from the norm, find new ways, expand the possibilities. In most organizations, this is a risk, and most people prefer not to take it.

To do good work, you also need to be rewarded and recognized for both the success and the failure. In most organizations, average gets rewarded, and most people adapt.

If you are designing how your team will work, keep in mind risk aversion and reward seeking. And remember that if you do what everybody else is used to do, you (and your team) will probably fall in the middle.

Making sense

FabrizioLeave a comment

It doesn’t make any sense.

But seeking sense in what happens around us is a pointless exercise. It means you are trying to explain with reason something that goes beyond it. Feelings, moments, circumstances, relationships. Seeking sense is a rigid activity that aims at fitting the world into familiar boxes.

A better thing to try is seeking purpose. Purpose is the way you connect the dots. It is loose by nature, and it adapts to time and events. Seeking purpose is a flexible activity that aims at shaping your story into the world around you.