Not everything is urgent. Not everything is important. Not everything is newsworthy, and not everything that is newsworthy is a tragedy. Not everything requires your attention. Not everything demands that you change your plans. Not everything is a debate in search of a winner. Not everything is worth your time.
When we lose the ability to look at things with perspective, the world becomes flat.
You can’t respond to feedback with a counterargument, a justification, an elaboration of the original idea.
Feedback is not a discussion, something you ought to win, a way for you to influence others with your perspective. Feedback is not an attack, something you have to defend against, a way for others to bring you down. In most cases, feedback is also not supposed to start an action, something that puts an obligation onto you, a way for others to have your work rectified or changed.
The only, immediate, acceptable response to receiving feedback is always: thank you!
In the urgency of now, we often make the mistake of looking at systems as if they were uniform and uncomplicated.
Technology increases the chances of such a misunderstanding. We are led to believe that tools and apps magically solve incredible problems as we look at their success ex post, failing to consider the various factors that have contributed to it, or the pains they have brought about, or the multiple reiteration they had to go through.
And so, nowadays, when we have a system that does not work, or that could work better, we usually look at technology for the solution.
The problem is that by doing so we focus our attention on a manifestation of what is going.
Change rarely starts at a superficial level. The only way to make it effective is to start from the roots of the problem, moving gradually horizontally and laterally, preparing for what is about to happen and managing the different circumstances.
There is nothing magic in such a process.
News, magazines, social media, broadcasters, experts, webzines, blogs, radios.
They are all out there fighting for our attention. And of course they exaggerate the things they say and they write.
Here’s a double reminder, particularly useful in these days of overexposure and quick bursts of fear.
As consumers, we can decide what to dedicate our attention to. It’s often not easy, but we can concentrate on the job we are here to make and cut out all the rest. No matter how dramatic, alarming, important the news of the moment is framed to be.
As content creators, we have a choice to make between trying to shout louder and use a softer tone of voice. If we decide for the latter, it will be tougher at times. But when we go for the former, the message we want to share will simply fade in the overwhelmingly buzzing noise that jams our audience’s ears at all times.
Start something new with a relationship, not with an idea.
Whether it’s a new job or a new project, a new role or a new country, a new company or a new responsibility. Identify the ones who own a stake in what you are going to do, sit with them, and listen. Gather their problems, their expectations, their motivators, their goals, their ambitions. Be friendly and genuinely interested.
With this knowledge, you can shape the work in a way that serves a real purpose. At the very least, you will have found supporters and sponsors for what will come next.
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