Tag: failure

Preparing change

FabrizioLeave a comment

Change is weird.

When all is calm, we are alright, we feel safe and secure, even a tiny bit of it makes us freak out. We want to maintain control, we want routine, we want more of what is already working. And we want to pretend it will work forever.

When we are in the middle of a storm, instead. When we have problems, we feel discomfort, when we are not even sure that what we are doing is what we want, then we tend to seek it as a panacea. We go after new things, forgetting what we have achieved, and pretend the exact same problems, discomfort, uncertainty will not happen again. No matter where we end up.

There is value in preparing when things are quiet. Incrementally changing our habits, spending time seeking within, adding a small new piece every day. So when the storm hits, we are ready to welcome it, stay with it, learn from it.

Take control of change. It will serve you well.

From the top

FabrizioLeave a comment

There are companies where it is normal to talk about mistakes and failures, and there are companies where all you hear is success, success, success.

Of course, the latter still make mistakes. It’s just that their culture makes it very difficult to go out there and say: “here, I have done this, and I was wrong”. So, mistakes are repeated over time. People feel stuck, learning is at a minimum, frustration rises.

Fortunately, there is something very concrete that leaders can do. They can share their own failures as learning opportunity for their own group.

It always starts from the top.

Ask this instead

FabrizioLeave a comment

When companies grow and get to a certain size – say, 3-400 employees – the tendency is to add layers of management and middle-management to set the stage for the future growth.

That’s when something typically happens that ends up actually hindering the growth they are seeking.

It is the time when the company stops solving interesting problems and starts serving individual agendas.

It is the time of more and more meetings to find alignment, the time of blaming it on others, the time of politics and gossiping. It is a time dominated by opinions and personal anecdotes. Facts lose importance. Indeed, they barely get measured because everyone is busy pleasing those up the ranks while trying to come out first among peers.

It is where motivation dies and talent retention becomes a serious problem.

So when you hire or promote managers for your growing company, ask them not about their previous experience and their track record. Ask them instead how they plan to manage their team, how they will be handling conflict and contrasting ideas, how they will be making decisions and manage the change that comes from those decisions.

These hires will determine your possibility to get to the next phase. Be intentional about them.

Embellishment

FabrizioLeave a comment

How many tools are you going to try before accepting that there is something deeper that needs to be addressed?

How many platforms will you sign up for before accepting that you can write also on a piece of paper?

How many videos will you consume still before accepting that it is not only by watching others performing that you will improve your skills?

How many people will you have to hire before accepting that it is the lack of a system that’s hindering your growth?

How many courses are you going to enroll for before accepting that you can learn by doing, for free, every day?

How many applications will you have to send it before accepting that it is your story you have to work on?

First get the basics in place, then worry about the embellishments.

We too often get stuck pretending that it works the other way around.

Irrelevant

FabrizioLeave a comment

Nobody likes the idea of being irrelevant, and yet a growing incapacity to focus and control our attention is making us more irrelevant than ever.

What will you do about that?

People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. […] they actually think they’re more productive. They actually think they tend to – and most notably, they think they can shut it off, and that’s been the most striking aspect of this research. […] unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task.

Clifford Nass, The Myth of Multitasking