Tag: relationships

Allocating resources

Fabrizio1 Comment

The ability to move past things is a direct measure of future success.

How long will you keep working on that project that has zero evidence of success potential? How long will you continue with the same strategy when everything around is telling you it’s wrong? How many excuses will you come up with to motivate keeping in the team a person who is no longer the right fit? How far will you push your regret for that promotion you have not been granted against everyone’s expectations? How much is the last big failure going to impact the way you approach your next responsibility?

We have the impression that by sticking to things, plans, ideas, people we commit to them, and if we do that long enough, we will make them better. More often, that is just an excuse, an easy way to hide behind the power of sunk costs and limited possibilities.

Once you have determined that you’ve given the situation your 100%, and yet it is still not working, move past that. It’s not being cold and heartless, it’s not jumping from one opportunity to the next, it’s not a selfish act. It’s allocating the limited resources you have at your disposal at any given time. When you do that by focusing mostly on the past, chances are the future will look grim.

When asking for help

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If you ask for help, the worst thing that could happen is that the person or the group you are asking to will not be receptive and you will not get any help. Your situation does not really get any worse.

It’s the same as having money to invest with only the potential gain to risk. Worst case scenario, you walk with your initial sum.

We often avoid asking for help for the fear of being judged, of letting others know we do not know, of feeling inferior and not being able to give back. And yet the benefit is so vast we should not think twice.

Also, it’s a powerful way to build networks.

Side effects

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At some point, we need to start asking ourselves what type of effect our work has on the world.

We can’t continue to celebrate a new way to keep customers glued to the screen, a new technology that allows whoever to spread a message with the face and voice of a celebrity, a new creative ad from a company who is indirectly promoting obesity, a tweak in the algorithm that dumbs down your social media timeline.

Perhaps these are innovation, perhaps they are groundbreaking in their fields, perhaps there’s creativity and execution to be rewarded in these and other pieces of modern work. And perhaps, the very same thing could be used for good.

Yet, we should worry about how things are received and interpreted by the public, how the things we have helped developing and bringing to life are impacting millions of individuals, whether that is intended or not. We need to factor in side effects when talking about the work we want to do, otherwise our story is but a chapter featured in a book that others will complete.

Fair is out there

Fabrizio1 Comment

Who gets to decide what is “fair“?

It’s us, and we get to make that decision many times every day. When we buy something, when we read the news on Facebook, when we click for next-day delivery, when we dumb down on YouTube’s timeline, when we put a pre-cooked meal in the microwave, when we buy at a discount rather than at full price.

The problem is, we usually do not go with what is fair, as cheap and convenient are alluring. That’s fine, as long as we know that fair is out there, waiting to be picked.

Motivated by urge

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you want people to buy into your ideas and plans, you have to be clear about your thinking and decision-making process.

Why is this more important than what we used to do yesterday?
Why was this option chosen instead of the others?
What does this all mean for my work routine?
What’s in it for me, the team, the company if we are successful?
How does success even look like in this scenario?

When you answer these (and other) questions about your new urgency, and you do it publicly, it is much more likely that people will follow, accept new tasks and overtime, understand the reasons of a late night e-mail. When you don’t, on the other hand, it feels like a managerial caprice, something people are asked to follow now for no particular reason other than gut feelings, a breath of wind in a storm.

Nobody is motivated by urge.