Tag: empowerment

Shortcuts work

Fabrizio3 Comments

One problem with shortcuts is that they work.

If your sales are flatlining, a discount will probably boost them.

If you are nearing the deadline, cramming all the info you have in a format that is difficult to read will probably allow you to make it.

If you need more visitors, a catchy headline will probably get you more clicks.

If you want that bonus, you will probably get it with a good enough job.

If you want to be noticed, blabbering for 20 uninterrupted minutes in the next meeting will probably make people remember you.

Shortcuts work. And that’s pretty much where their utility ends.

They are not a basis for your next leap, a foundation on which you can build your future, a stone to step on to get closer to the change you wish to make.

Shortcuts are in the moment. And living one shortcut at a time can be an exhausting addiction.

Time to stop now.

Each and everyone

FabrizioLeave a comment

Change cannot be imposed.

You can force people to do certain things instead of others. You can persuade them to think in a certain way. You can threaten them with punishments or incentivize them with rewards. You can get compliance and meet standards. You can shout, cry, beat, chase, restrict, and silence.

None of that is change.

Change can only start from within.

And if you want to direct change towards what is good for the community, you need to involve each and everyone in the process.

Contagious

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you decide to help someone, it might not go exactly as you anticipated.

They might not get what you wanted to help them achieve.

They might end up worse off.

They might not even use your help and go their own way.

They might take your help and use it with other people.

They might realize your help is not applicable.

They might feel as if they owe you and get stuck.

They might not be grateful.

They might not want help at all.

Yet, just by making the decision to help someone, you have put kindness out there. Kindness is contagious, and it is always worth it.

Give it context

Fabrizio1 Comment

When we make a mistake, that immediately becomes the center of our life. Who we are. What we can achieve. How far we can go.

We should instead put the mistake at the same level of our wins and successes. If we manage to give it context, the mistake will look much less threatening. How many times did we do it right? How often are we proud of our work? How much have we achieved so far? And if we are way down into failure mode, a friend or a partner can help us get out and see.

Mistakes are inevitable, the same way as successes are.

In search of meaning

FabrizioLeave a comment

I talk about this a lot, and for as much as it is a difficult practice, it is one I am committed to.

You can have an impact today. You can give others what you want others to give you. You can show a different way. You don’t have to fall into despair if the world around you is not the way you’d like it to be. You can be present, here and now, learn, grow, and take others with you along the way.

[…] people who are preoccupied with success ask the wrong question. They ask, “What is the secret of success?” when they should be asking, “What prevents me from learning here and now?” To be overly preoccupied with the future is to be inattentive toward the present where learning and growth takes place. To walk around asking, “Am I a success or a failure?” is a silly question in the sense that the closest you can come to an answer is to say that everyone is both a success and a failure.

One way to renew an obsessive preoccupation with success is to alter the idea that the present is a means and the future is an end. The problem with this way of thinking is that, when the future comes, then it too becomes just another present that is yet another means to yet another future.

Karl Weick, How Projects Lose Meaning: The Dynamics of Renewal

P.S.: thanks to Ed Batista for this fantastic article about the topic.