Category: Making a Difference

A Little Further?

Posted on by Carl Weber

Screen Shot 2014-12-22 at 6.44.17 AM

(Image courtesy of Google Maps and Screen Capture)

A planned team run.

A simple goal. 10 miles. A longer run.

The long route concludes on our regular course.

The roads we run on each week.

A Little Further?

Three simple words.

Three simple words posed as a question.

Three simple words posed as a question to push yourself.

Three simple words posed as a question to push yourself and stretch your goals.

A choice.

Go straight and meet the goal.

Go left and stretch.

A Little Further?

Yes.

Tired.

Comfort running on familiar roads. Knowing every little crack, sidewalk, and turn.

New equation: 10 + 3 (words) = 12.

Imagine what those three words could do for us.

Imagine pushing a little more with your job, life, relationships, family, clients, customers, partners, friends, and goals.

A Little Further?

Yes.

 

 

 

 

Parachuting In

Posted on by Carl Weber

MARSOC_parachutist

(Image Courtesy of Pinterest)

While getting coffee before a consulting gig, I happened to bump into two leaders from that same organization who were at a table sipping their morning brew. There was a brief pause.

“Hey, are you parachuting in again today?”

“Yes.”

Awkward pause.

“It’s not us right?”

“Nope, you are fine. In fact your departments are doing well.”

“Great. Good luck. We are just glad it is not us.”

Parachuting In: the new term this group jokingly uses when I stop by to help a division or group of folks in the organization understand themselves better, work through conflict, or learn to be a more effective team.

I kind of like it.

Parachuting in means someone is in immediate need of help.

Parachuting in means that you have come to help.

Parachuting in means that your mission or goal may be secret (you are not going to air another department’s issues when questioned).

Parachuting in means that your work is temporary.

Parachuting in means that you are bringing needed assistance, resources, and strategy.

Parachuting in means that it is their department, their operation, and their team.

That simple phrase has stuck with me. Partly because the work has been long-term enough to earn a nick-name.

What will your work’s nick-name be?

Is your art, your craft, your life, your relationships, your consulting, your business creating the right resonance to earn its own phrase or nick-name?

The other part that I remember is how happy they seemed that I was not there to see them.

45, 1/2, and 104

Posted on by Carl Weber

Drucker-bookshelf-500x183

(Image Courtesy of poetsandquantsforexecs.com)

45.

This year marked a pretty significant milestone for me. Forty-Five years I have been roaming around on this planet. I couldn’t help but remember an interview I watched with Will Smith about turning 45.

“I’m 45 right now. Right? And with the state of modern medicine—90, we’re all probably gonna hit 90,” he said. “90’s like a real thing now…So, I was thinking ‘This is halftime.’ Right? So, when you come out for the third quarter, in any sporting event the third quarter’s an important quarter. That’s not the time when you start relaxing and you start chilling. You gotta go get it in the third quarter.” Will Smith

1/2.

Halftime. That means that there is still half of this game left to play. And when you think about the first decade or two in our lives, most of us didn’t really accomplish that much.

That gives us four and a half more decades to accomplish things, finish projects, ship, and make a difference.

I got to hear Jim Collins speak a few years back. He was asked to say a few words at Peter Drucker’s memorial service after he passed away. On one of the tables, all of Mr. Drucker’s books were laid end to end. Jim asked a simple question.

“Show me where in this timeline of books, Peter was 65.”

The answer was simple: 1/3rd through all of his books.

Can you imagine accomplishing 2/3rds of your work after age 65?

104. 

As I finished a long-run with my team yesterday, my running app recorded 104 miles in November. It seemed important that this month, this milestone, and this accomplishment came in the month I turned 45 at the 1/2.

What numbers have made you record and reflect?

I have been thinking a lot about how to finish well in life. Maybe that is what part of the aging process. In the process of reclaiming our lives, and running into our 80’s, it seemed important to record and reflect about these numbers, and get working on the second half.

Imagine what your second half can bring.

Thanks for the Delay

Posted on by Carl Weber

flight-rights_1910974b

(Image Courtesy of http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

A solitary airport employee stood behind the small podium looking back and forth between the screen, and their own hands. As I approached, their gaze looked down towards the floor. Any attempt at eye contact seemed impossible.

A few minutes earlier, as most of us prepared to board the flight, the announcement was made. Due to delays for an inbound flight, our flight was going to postpone boarding and wait 30 minutes.

Sighs, frustrated words, angry looks, and tension filled the boarding area. Some of which was directed at this solitary employee.

I waited.

Another employee joined that employee and some softer words were exchanged. Finally, they both looked up at me.

“Can we help you?”

“Yes, I just wanted to say Thanks for the Delay.”

They paused.

“Please let me explain. The last time I flew with you, my plane was a late. Storms caused us a delay, and you held my connecting flight, just like you are doing right now. So, Thanks for the Delay. I know what it feels like to think that you will be stranded, and you took care of me.”

Smiles. Relief. More Smiles.

“Well, you are welcome. Funny, someone who came up here was explaining that someone else’s delay was not their problem at all.”

I smiled, waved, and went for a walk to get a smoothie (before the delay, there was no time to get one). As I was leaving I overheard them speaking to each other.

“You know, we may just have to remember that.”

I hope they do. More so, I hope we remember that sometimes planes wait for us. Sometimes you are the customer getting help. Other times, you may have a slight inconvenience when they are providing the same level of service to someone else.

At the end, due to a combination of winds and a flight crew that pushed a little harder on the gas, the flight arrived only 15 minutes later than originally expected.

15 minutes was all it cost so that a handful of people were not stranded in a strange city overnight. Seems like a pretty good trade.

Thanks for the Delay.

 

The Perfectionism Pause

Posted on by Carl Weber

The conversation is the same. The players are different.

There is an idea, a spark, a risk.

Share this art, this gift, this new thing?

Pause. It is not perfect.

I will share it someday, but it is not ready.

More work.

Pause. It could be better.

Even more work.

Pause. If I just (insert phase here) it will be perfect enough to share.

Imagine how much the Perfectionism Pause has robbed all of us of YOUR gifts.

The Two Teams

Posted on by Carl Weber

The Two Teams

When working with teams about their collective behavioral styles, I have noticed that in the long run there are only Two Teams. As I check in with various teams’ progress at certain intervals the Two Teams have two distinct results.

Team One is doing well. Team Two is actually worse than before.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.

Team One is communicating differently, achieving results, and having less conflict.

Team Two is communicating differently, not achieving results, and having more conflict.

What separates these Two Teams?

Why does Team One prosper and Team Two decline?

The answer was simple. After a series of meetings, calls, and follow-up visits a pattern developed. I took notes of each group but the difference became clear.

Team One Pattern

After the initial session, each member of Team One reflected on their own primary style. They made a list of what worked for them as a member of Team One. They made a second list of what didn’t work or needed modification in order for them to be a better member of Team One. Over the next few months each Team One member worked on what didn’t work and tried to leverage what did work.

Team Two Pattern

After the initial session, each member of Team Two reflected on their primary style. They made a list of what worked for them as a member of Team Two. They made a second list of what didn’t work or needed modification in order for others to be a better member of Team Two. Over the next few months each Team Two member worked on trying to get others to change their behaviors and style and did not focus on how they could change.

Will you focus on how you can improve to make the team better?

OR

Will you make a list of how much better things will be when other people change?

The choice is simple when you realize there are only Two Teams.