Tag: failure

Finding meaning

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We can’t keep assessing productivity in terms of quantity.

The amount of emails we reply to.

The number of meetings we have scheduled.

How many conversations we are in.

How late we are leaving from work.

The quantity of leads, presentations, or projects we deliver.

Productivity needs to be a function of a goal we set and of the actions we take towards that goal.

If within a measure of work (an hour, a day, a week) we complete something that takes us closer to the goal, that’s where we find meaning.

The rest is just a poor proxy. Just faked busyness.

Anger and social media

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It turns out anger spreads faster than joy, because it does not need strong ties – and most of our relationships are weak, particularly nowadays and particularly on social media.

If you share something negative or enraging, it gets picked up more likely by people who don’t know you or are mere acquaintances. While if you share something positive or joyful, it most likely will stop at your closest ties.

The idea that something liked, shared, commented, viewed is good is fundamentally faulted. We need to change that before we can actually look at the future of social media.

Losing control

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When you lose control, your instinct tells you to control whatever it is left. The problem is, often what is left does not need your control.

If your relationship is going downhill, you strengthen your grip on your kids. Do this, don’t do that, come here, go there. Of course, they don’t need any of that.

If your team is failing to meet their goals, you double down on your team members. This is wrong, we should try that, why is this happening. Of course, they don’t need any of that.

If your creativity has hit a plateau, you focus more and more on the small details. Let’s refine the tone, let’s make it perfect. Of course, the details are – in most cases – meaningless.

It’d be great if you could just let go of control in the first place, so as to not risk to lose it at any point. It would save a lot of trouble.

Defensive

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It’s so easy to feel attacked when somebody gives you critical feedback or even just points at some mistake you made. It’s even easier when you are tired, when you are going through a rough patch, when you have had bad experiences in your past, or when you are generally not used to get feedback.

If you can just hold your thoughts for a little longer, though, you can see that’s not the feedback that’s hurting. It’s the tiredness, the fear, the stress, the insecureness.

Say it.

“I’m tired”.

“I’m under a lot of stress and I needed an easy win”.

“I’m sorry, I will fix that, it’s just something I don’t feel particularly confident with”.

That little labelling exercise will completely shift the narrative. From defensive you become open. And when you are open, anything can happen.

Decisions

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One problem with business decisions – not always the most important, but certainly the bulk of them – is that they evaporate as soon as those making them leave the room where they were made.

Another problem with business decisions – perhaps a consequence of the first problem – is that they are not given enough time to prove right or wrong.

A third problem with business decisions – a sub-product of our lazy brain – is that the ones that stick actually tend to stick forever.

Keep track of what is decided, give it time to bear fruit, and be flexible enough to revisit it periodically. You can make this more effective if you manage to build different networks in the company – at team level, but also cross-functional – that make decisions and are held accountable for it.

As long as only one person, or the same group of persons, calls the shots, you will always have problem number one, problem number two, problem number three simultaneously.