Improve My Business

Several years ago, I saw a revival of an old musical on Broadway.  The play had everything I’d heard about during the Golden Age of Broadway - complete with a line of gorgeous chorus girls, all looking exactly alike right down to the blonde wigs.  During the opening number, when they all reached up towards the rafters, one girl had a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ - she popped out of her strapless top.  However, she didn’t change her expression, miss a step, or act as though anything bad had happened.  It was to the point that I thought that “Maybe that didn’t happen after all…” - until intermission, when all of us asked each other “Did you see what happened to a chorus girl in the opening number?” and we all had seen it.

Which got me to thinking - how many times, in business, do we blow something up out of proportion - it seems monumental to us at the time - rather than just soldiering on as if nothing was wrong?  Imagine if she’d done what I most certainly would have done - stopped in my tracks, popped it back in, messed up the number, incurred the wrath of the entire troupe, etc.  Instead, she acted so naturally that no one else (except perhaps the girls next to her) even realized that a problem had occurred.  And, the customers weren’t even sure that there had been a problem at all..

How can you apply this lesson the next time something doesn’t go perfectly while you’re doing  your work?

Technorati Tags: ignoring problems, soldiering on, wardrobe malfunction

Great post from Michael Bungay Stanier from Box of Crayons, on 10 small actions you can make to shift your thinking (cut/pasted from his newsletter):

On the road

I fail on lots of the standard “You Are A Real Man” tests.

I’m not into cars at all. I’m generally useless at fixing things up. I’m a distant second in the Sports Fan rankings in our household, and there’s only two of us.

But if there’s one thing I do admire, it’s a good bicycle.

I remember reading that it was the most effective machine at converting energy into motion, and when you combine that with the elegance of its design - as little as possible, but no less - you have a thing of beauty.

The bike I ride is a Cervelo, a fancy road bike that’s designed here in Toronto and is ridden by teams in the Tour de France (well, fancier versions of what I’ve got are in the Tour).

Shift

This summer I’ve upgraded my shifters, so I can change gears by flicking my brake levers back and forth. Generally speaking, I’m trying to keep a steady tempo as my legs spin around - 90rpm is what I’m going for - and mastering gears is a key part of that.

I’m changing gears all the time to adapt to what’s happening. It’s a subtle and constant thing. As the road rises slightly I shift one way, as I want to pick up pace I shift down a click or two, as I notice a headwind I shift back again.

You get the metaphor here, I’m sure. Just like a good cyclist is constantly using the full range of her gears to best maintain momentum, we all can adjust our own gears to maintain the pace we want in our own lives.

When I was growing up, racing bikes were simply known as “10 speeds”. So here are 10 gears you might like to try out and see what works for you.

10 Speeds

1. Pulse
Tony Schwartz writes convincingly that it’s a fallacy to try to manage our time. What we’ve got to do is to manage our energy. One thing he talks about is our bodies working on 90 minute cycles. We can go go go for 90 minutes, but after that you’ve got to take a break to shake things out, refresh and renew.

This is of course impossible to remember without a little help. I’ve started using a great little app on my Mac called Time Out that blanks my screen for 60 seconds every 15 minutes, and for 15 minutes every 90 minutes. It’s annoying as heck at times. But it forces me to step back from my work regularly and ask myself, “Really? Is this the best thing I could be doing? And is it time to take a bit of a break…?”

2. HVA
Start each day by defining your High Value Action - the thing that’s truly going to move you towards your Great Work. Taking time to actually get clear on the thing you need to do, rather than just trying to cope with the flood of work, can make all the difference.

My friend Molly Gordon is masterful at this. Every morning, as part of our Brain Trust mastermind group, she articulates her HVA and then the next day reports in on how it went. It’s no exaggeration to say this has changed her life.

3. Appreciate
Simply put, spending some time being grateful will make life sweeter for you. We’ve got a blackboard at home with “I’m grateful for…” written on it. While I make an espresso in the morning, I take time to reflect upon something I’m lucky to have working for me.

If you’d like some inspiration on this, check out Neil Pasricha’s blog 1000 Awesome Things. He’s masterful at this.

4. Abandon your goals
I’ve just had the pleasure of hanging out with Leo Babauta of Zen Habits at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit. Recently Leo has sent out a call to abandon goals. It’s hard to get my head around that totally, but his general point is that goals can become chains that bind us, set us up for failure or unsatisfying success, and contribute to us missing opportunities that float past.

So if you’re tangled up with lots and lots of goals, endless lists of to-do’s and a general sense of heaviness, consider letting some of it go. (You can check out #8 on this list - it might help.)

5. Create systems
Jonathan Fields has a fantastic new book coming out in September, called Uncertainty. He looks at the paradox that although we’re wired to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty, it’s only in ambiguity that we get to explore the edges of ourselves and our Great Work.

He’s interviewed lots of people who are excellent at consistently being creative, and one of the things he noticed is that these people build lots of systems and processes. It allows them to be efficient and “on automatic” for much of the mundane stuff in their lives, and consequentially be able to be more focused and creative for the work that matters.

6. Do something badly
The pressure to be a polished high-performer is something that many of us feel. Or maybe I’m just projecting. It’s a wonderful thing, then, to be able to step away from that and into a place of being a learner. Daniel Coyle writes about this in his book The Talent Code as does Joshua Foer in his book Moonwalking with Einstein. Growth comes not from repeating what you already do well, but from putting yourself in that place of incompetence that is both painful and vaguely exhilarating as new neural pathways are being created.

7. Savor and Serve
Another friend from my mastermind group, Jen Louden, is building a wonderful community around the concept of Savoring and Serving the World. It’s a marvelous insight. How do you both step up your game to make the world a better place, and  step up your game to enjoy the wonders of the world as it already is.

8. Cut 90%
I spoke recently at Andrea J Lee’s Wealthy Thought Leader conference in Vancouver and talked about ways of making ideas stronger and more powerful.

One route I offered up seemed to strike a real chord with people. Cut 90% of what’s going on. It’s a provocative challenge. You can’t just trim and tinker when you’ve got to cut 90%. You’ve got to make some bold decisions and get serious about the No’s.

What’s powerful about this, is it will force you to focus on the essential, your best guess at what will really make a difference.

9. Find a hero
For a good part of my career I kept hoping for a fabulous mentor who would show up and with gentle but profound wisdom guide me down the right path and make my journey a bolder and braver one.

Still waiting for that. You waiting to be rescued too?

Seth Godin has a great point of view on this. If you’re waiting for a mentor before you act, you’re just finding a reason not to act. Rather, pick a hero - someone whose work and style you admire - and decide what you might learn and emulate from that person.

Three of my current heroes? Eddie Izzard (for his willingness to constantly stretch himself and the impact he has in the world), Bob Dylan for his sense of mystery and resilience and James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features, for exploring the edges and for espousing “moderate weirdness”. How about you?

You can download a template from Do More Great Work on an exercise on heroes and role models here.

10 (+7). Pick one of the Irresistible Principlea of Fun
The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun. I know you’ve seen it. But hey - it’s irresistible, right?

Take another look and pick one to work with, play with, savor and explore. See where it takes you.

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Michael Bungay Stanier is the founder and Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. He is the author of Do More Great Work and Get Unstuck & Get Going, and the creator of The Alchemy of Great Work, The Great Work Movie, The 5.75 Questions You’ve Been Avoiding and The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun. Michael was a Rhodes Scholar and the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year. He is Australian and now lives in Canada.

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so, that’s my inspiration for this post - what do you think?  I’d love to hear your comments…

and, if you like this, sign up for his newsletters - they’re definitely worth the read…

Technorati Tags: Box of Crayons, inspiration, Michael Bungay Stanier, shift thinking

All four of my grandparents came to America from Ireland (counties Leitrim, Antrim, Cork, and Donegal).  I’m Irish through and through - and last year went to Ireland for St. Patrick’s day with my children - here we are in a pub drinking a Guinness draft:

In the pub on St. Patty's day - Dublin

and of course we had to visit the Guinness brewery, where we learned all about  the beermaking process, and why Guinness tastes so good!

Mary at her visit to the 'mothership' of breweries - Dublin

In many other parts of the world, Guinness is not available via tap (quiet sobbing in the background by lovers of Guinness); so we are relegated to cans.  In order for the cans to work properly, they have a small plastic widget inside containing pressurized nitrogen, that allows the stout to be infused with nitrogen (vs. carbon dioxide for most lagers, etc.), contributing to its smoothness/creaminess.  Anyone who’s had their first can of Guinness will invariably try looking at what’s rattling around the can after the beer’s been poured - and they see something like this:

plastic widget inside Guinness cans

However, according to this article, some enterprising Irish mathematicians have figured out a way for cellulose to produce the same volume of nitrogen while being biodegradable - eliminating the need for the plastic widget.

Showing that, once again, the Irish can combine their passions (in this case, science, beer, and the environment) into one concept, for the betterment of Guinness drinkers worldwide.

Images:  Mary McDonald; and the Guinness widget (cc) by Flickr user slworking2, via Wired.

Technorati Tags: beer, environment, guinness

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about picking some words as guideposts for the year - if you’re not familiar with the concept, here are some creative posts from Michael Bungay Stanier who chose 11, and Chris Brogan who’s got 3, (and the single word chosen by 300 words a day, as 3 were too many to focus on for them) to give you an idea of the words and why they were selected…

All of which got me thinking - what would my words be?  What guideposts would I benefit from focusing on for 2011?  What would  help me be a better business person, as well as a better human?  And it came down to the old list that we were taught as kids — God, family, others.  If I truly work on being a better person, on making better decisions based on this triage, wouldn’t that make me a better business person also?  Someone you’d delight in working with?  Someone who you know would treat you ethically, and with respect?

Sometimes I think we overthink things.

Sometimes “out with the old, in with the new” has no value.

As business owners or workers, we often are caught up on the “movement” of it all – the movement of ideas, services, products, whatever – from where we are to where it needs to be. As a result, it’s often difficult to find the quiet – to find that place that will allow us to slow down, relax, and reflect on what we are doing.

The quiet that allows us to listen to the soft, almost unintelligible voice inside us – the one that quietly whispers words of wisdom and our most secret thoughts. Things like

“Is this what I really should be doing?”

“Should I be doing this more? Less? Differently?”

“Do I really need to sign up for another webinar, or should I be working on what I’ve already gleaned from the 3 I’ve attended?”

“What makes me happy? Does this?  Could this if I change something?”

and a whole host of personal stuff, which I won’t get into here…

Finding the quiet is often difficult unless you know where to look. One client I had was busy from 7 am to 7 pm every day – and was stressed out as a result. As her consultant, I worked with her to help her streamline and organize her business, including delegation of authority and shared responsibility; but as someone who genuinely respected and cared for her, I also worked on the way she approached work – especially as it negatively affected her level of stress. What did we do?

• Took 30 mins minimum for lunch – every day. This may sound like a simple thing, but she had gotten into the habit of eating at her desk – while she caught up on voicemail, emails, etc. - and so had no break from her day.  By “forcing” her to look up from what she was doing, she quieted her mind enough to take it out of gear - and sometimes found that she got things cleared up easier as a result.

• Took a walk whenever we could. When we had to discuss a matter, and the weather cooperated, we’d take a 10 min walk outside while we had our talk.  We’re not talking 3 mile hikes - just a quick turn around the building perimeter.  This was in an industrial park next to the railroad – not the most scenic of areas – but we both grew to appreciate the flowering weeds that refused to die even though they were regularly run over; the patterns in the gravel after a hard rain; and the bite of the wind or the heat of the sun as we walked and talked. This momentary focus on nature always left us both refreshed, and the brisk walk got our blood flowing again. [I had often envied smokers who got to go outside every 2 hours for a smoke break; and saw no reason why non-smokers should be deprived of seeing outside weather... so had implemented something similar in two previous companies also, which had worked well.]

• Wrote down a task list. Previous posts have talked about the need to write an ‘accomplishment’ list; but for this case, we simply emptied her head of the stuff that was swimming around there, in order to make room for cognitive thinking. Accordingly, we set up a task list that worked for her, and once she finished something, she would cross it off (and get that feeling of accomplishment that we all get when something gets off our task list.)

• Keep a pad/pen next to the bed. One of her problems was that, once she was lying in bed and relaxing, things that she’d forgotten to do would pop into her head. In order to ensure that she didn’t fret about it all night, she started to keep a pad and pen next to her bed so she could jot it down – and then let it go.

While this list is not rocket science, it worked. She started to enjoy her lunch time as a ‘work free’ zone, running errands or (gasp!) taking an hour to meet a friend when she wasn’t in the cafeteria, reconnecting with employees; and as she continued to take her walks, she invited others in the company to walk with her, so everyone started to benefit from the small break; best of all, she started sleeping more soundly once we figured out how to empty her brain from all her worries.

What techniques have worked for you? I’d love to compile a great list!  Please post your ideas here!