In every office

FabrizioLeave a comment

There is doing well and there is doing poorly.

And then there is doing nothing, which is the worst of the three.

It goes like this.

Doing well is marginally better than doing poorly. Doing poorly is infinitely better than doing nothing.

There is also knowing about success and knowing about failures.

And then there is knowing nothing, which is the worst of the three.

It goes like this.

Knowing about success is marginally better than knowing about failures. Knowing about failures is infinitely better than knowing nothing.

This is something to remember in every office around the world.

What to control

FabrizioLeave a comment

The anger, the sadness, the excitement, the joy. Feelings are not your responsibility, nor are they your fault.

What you do with them, on the other hand, is within your control.

Letting the negative self talk become the only narrative.

Sending an harsh comment in response to the message of a colleague.

Asking others to stop what they are doing and follow the latest idea.

Focus on this.

Mindless

FabrizioLeave a comment

A father buys a package of snacks and sees a funny promotion printed on the cardboard.

“Give your child a superhero adventure!”

What they want:

  • Spend a few carefree minutes bonding with their child.

What they don’t want:

  • Fill in a form asking for their gender, email address, telephone number, home address, and a few other personal information.
  • Give consent for sharing data with third-parties and receive further marketing material.
  • Be pressured into a meaningless deadline (two months from the current time) by which they need to submit their child picture. Or else … ?
  • Realize that “giving their child a superhero adventure” actually means having their child’s picture mindlessly inserted into a soulless cartoon frame.
  • Be informed that the final deliverable (the soulless cartoon frame) will be available within 15 working days.
  • Get to know that they can check the status of the deliverable by logging into their personal area (what personal area?).
  • Be given a 8-digit code that identifies the deliverable.
  • Get all the information from a very sketchy sender (fornimascheremarvel23.kinder.com).
  • Receive a link to download the deliverable from their personal area (?) 24 hours later, when they (and their children) have already moved on to other things.

Guess what they get?

Instead

FabrizioLeave a comment

Don’t tell others what you think they feel about you.

Do not second guess them.

Do not assign to them hidden motives.

Do not make yourself the main character in their own masterpiece.

Tell them what you feel about them instead.

No matter what

FabrizioLeave a comment

I wanted to buy a shirt for my son. It was a red one, with one single word on it: “Uff!”. I said it was perfect for him, since he is always complaining and he is never happy with what he is given.

He ended up buying another shirt. An orange one with a dragon on it.

The point being, people rarely want to hear what you think is better for them, who you think they are, where they should or should not focus for their development.

Instead, they want to tell you about what they think. And they want you to find it in your heart to abandon your prejudices and support them no matter what.