Tag: moving forward

Historian or Futurist?

Posted on by Carl Weber

 

We seem to like history, especially our own history.

Our history was created through a series of events. We get comfortable telling that story. We have told that story many times. We keep telling that story. We like telling that story.

The pain, the struggle, the successes, the joy.

But those things happened in the past, they are not currently happening.

We keep telling that story.

We are the historian. We gather the crowd around us, and take them on the tour. We rehearsed the lines, know when to pause, and draw them in.

But the crowd eventually fades. The story is old. Tickets are unsold.

But there is something else.

Something different and new.

We can become a futurist.

The futurist tells a new story.

The futurist is setting new goals.

The futurist is moving forward.

The futurist understands past events, but not through a distorted lens of over-emphasis or limits.

The futurist embraces today while envisioning something better.

The futurist is creating.

The futurist is risking.

The futurist is living.

We have a choice to make: remain the historian, or become a futurist.

 

 

 

Rocks in the Canoe

Posted on by Carl Weber

(Image Courtesy of Imagekind)

We either build or inherit organizations. Either we started it from scratch, or we came into the organization once formed.

The organization is intended to move forward, presumably in an efficient, smooth, and relatively safe way: Like a Canoe. (Work with me here.)

You want your Canoe (organization) to get to the destination with ease of effort and maybe even enjoyment along the way.

You are trying to paddle your Canoe forward.

You are probably good at watching for rocks outside of your Canoe.

But there is a problem.

There is resistance.

Things are sluggish.

Instead of focusing outside, you look inside.

There are Rocks in the Canoe.

Some Rocks in the Canoe are employees who are not buying into the change of direction, strategy, or approach.

Some Rocks in the Canoe are rules and procedures that are working against your customers.

Some Rocks in the Canoe are having the wrong people doing the wrong jobs.

Some Rocks in the Canoe are distractions and procrastinations that move us away from our goals.

You didn’t notice it at first. Slowly those Rocks in the Canoe began to add up.

Maybe you have been spending so much time focusing on avoiding the rocks in the river, that you failed to notice the Rocks in the Canoe.

Your Canoe is heavy and weighed down.

Your Canoe is slow and sluggish.

Your Canoe is hovering dangerously close to the waterline.

Can you see the Rocks in the Canoe now?

The Rocks in the Canoe didn’t get there all at once. Some rocks started as pebbles, and seemed to grow over time. Some rocks were there when you first got into your Canoe, and you may not have noticed.

The Rocks in the Canoe need to go.

But, your Canoe may not respond well to quick motion and disruption.

Your Canoe may be a little wobbly.

It is important to keep your balance and not overturn or sink while removing the Rocks in the Canoe.

If you stand up and immediately start throwing rocks, you may tip over or crash.

Maybe we can learn from how the Rocks in the Canoe got there in the first place.

The rocks didn’t show up all at once, and our job is the methodically remove the Rocks in the Canoe.

Imagine what your Canoe could do if it wasn’t so weighed down.

P.S. Don’t be afraid of your competition picking up your rocks. If they want to put your rocks in their Canoe, let them. As you are moving quickly forward, they may be slowing down and not even realizing the cause.

The Evidence

Posted on by Carl Weber

Helping people understand themselves is a large part of what I do. There are various tools to assist with this process, but a solid go to assessment includes the DISC (Thank you creator of Wonder Woman) combined with Driving Forces. This combination helps people understand both their behavioral style (How they do things) along with their motivations (Why they do things).

One of my favorite opportunities to help with this understanding is part of a three-day learning experience for supervisors. I have the opportunity to spend a few hours walking these 20 supervisors through their styles.

Typically during the periodic breaks, many of them come up and want to discuss their results in more detail.

“Hey, I know it says that I can be perceived as harsh, but that is not who I am trying to be, how can I change this perception?”

“When it describes me as picky how can I balance that with the job that does have a need for accuracy and follow through?”

“Wow, how did this thing know so much about me?”

But it was a few days ago that something really caught my attention.

The session began, and one person in particular was noticeable.

I could read the body language. Arms folded, looking annoyed.

Shaking their head No.

Hardness in their face.

Then the break.

I knew what would be coming next.

They were the first to come talk to me.

The tone was aggressive.

They were on the defense.

“Hey, this thing is not right. It is not accurate.”

I paused and looked down at the page.

I can see the page, the graph, the chart.

“I didn’t really read it all, but what I did read was not me! That is not how I am perceived, and I really care about doing what is right!”

They are standing and move closer to me. We are now face-to-face. I can feel them in my space.

There is another supervisor watching this interaction, they can see the same page I can see. Their glance goes from that page, to me, to the defensive supervisor. A slight smile appears.

I smile as well.

I wait.

There are more words.

I look down at the chart once more.

I wait.

There is a pause.

A hard look at the offending page.

A third smile.

“Wait a minute. Did I just provide you with the evidence that this report is accurate?”

I waited and then chimed in.

“Well, what I see is someone who relies on past experience, and proven methods, who may be skeptical of new information, especially that which may be critical of you, because your strong ego may get in the way. Also, you may periodically bring a more aggressive approach than needed, especially when you feel threatened.”

Another pause.

Smiles all around.

“I think I am starting to get it. It is not easy coming to grips with who I am. Some of this report is great, some of it feels hard.”

“Now you are getting it. There are parts of you that are really great and help you to be successful. But some of what we are here to deal with are the parts that get in the way of your success.”

“Thank you for being patient with me.”

“Thank you for providing the evidence that these reports are pretty accurate.”

Learning about your style is not always easy. The hard parts are easily rejected.

But sometimes, circumstances provide the Evidence needed to move forward.

Hating Salmon and Lemon Squares

Posted on by Carl Weber

“He hates Salmon.”

“He hates Lemon Squares.”

“He is grumpy if he doesn’t eat.”

“He is grumpy if woken from a nap.”

“He [insert event, either one time or a repeated event that happened, and form a hard-wired rule about the person despite the passage of time, even years].”

There was a time when I didn’t really like eating salmon. You know the poached (was it boiled?) kind smothered in a creamy sauce with dill.

Rule #1: Carl hates salmon.

There was a time when desserts in general were not my favorite, I am more of a savory person, and since periodically I may be training for something or trying to lose weight, sweets of any kind are not my friend.

Rule #2: Carl hates lemon squares.

Years later, the remnants of those rules still appear. People are surprised when I eat Salmon (grilled and savory is my favorite) or take a bite of a lemon square.

The preferences at that moment were not meant to create a hard-wired rule.

The preferences were a snapshot in time.

But, times change.

And people change.

We think we know them.

We think they are the same.

We think we had it right.

How many times have these hard-wired rules created obstacles between us?

How many times have these snapshots been held up as a representation of us?

Be careful of the hard-wired rule trap.

You have changed, and so have the people around you.

P.S. I am also not always grumpy because I am hungry or when I wake from a nap, sometimes I am just grumpy.

Mourning the loss of who you thought you would be

Posted on by Carl Weber

cemetery 8

(Image Courtesy of the Great Robin Lake)

We start out in life thinking we are going to be a certain thing.

We make plans. We make choices. We move in a direction. We become invested in who we are going to be.

Sometimes dreams don’t work out. Plans change. Choices are made. Sometimes we fail. Maybe we succeed at different things. Our journey took us in interesting directions, and the people we met and experiences we had created forks in the road. We took some of those forks.

We are “here” today, right where we ended up. Not to say that “here” is a bad place.

In some ways “here” is better than we expected, in other ways maybe not as good.

However, there was a lot of us in the original plan. It was part of our story. Part of our narrative about who we were, and how we described ourselves.

And if, as I recently realized about my own original plan, it was wrapped up in a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of ego and pride, part of it remains with us years or decades later.

A few recent events triggered some interesting emotions surrounding an old plan. What I thought was long gone, had just been lying dormant. The freshness of the ego and pride associated with these events caught me a little off guard.

But I had to ask,

“Why are these emotions still here years later?”

“These plans, or goals are long dead, how did they return?”

It was in asking the questions that the answer came into focus.

Long dead.

What do we do when someone or something dies? We mourn.

Mourn:to feel regret or sadness about (the loss or disappearance of something).

When we don’t mourn, losses remain.

Even when we move forward, un-mourned losses lay dormant.

I never took the time to mourn the loss of who I thought I would be. Life moved forward, the plans changed. Life turned out better than the original plan.

But the un-mourned losses remained.

Where has your life taken you? Where have your plans changed, and your dreams shifted?

Where should you be mourning the loss of who you thought you would be?

Mourn. And may mourning help you move forward in your journey.

Moving Forward

Posted on by Carl Weber

 

Moving-Forward

(Image Courtesy of capreform.eu)

The other day I had the privilege of going for a run with my youngest brother and my youngest daughter. We don’t see him very often because we live so far away, and running gave us time to connect just the three of us.

We ran. We laughed. We joked. We connected.

The conversation moved to something that we had just passed by.

It was then my daughter provided a bit of wisdom.

“It is hard to look backwards when you are moving forward.”

A simple statement.

A profound idea.

Sometimes the past isn’t satisfied with not being the star of the show.

Our lives are in the second or third act, but that first act keeps walking back on stage, interrupting and inserting itself into the present.

She was right. 

It is hard to look backwards when you are moving forward.

Just think about what 2015 might be if we keep that in mind.