Loyally subversive ideas for orbiting the giant corporate hairball
I don’t know if you’re supposed to mix blogs or projects, but I think a little transparency is always good.
The stuff I’ve written (and others) here on grootship.com is good, and should read and studied, but in an attempt at full disclosure and to provide reasoning why I haven’t posted here in a while, I offer this video.
The bottom line is that my efforts are over at http://www.areyoucuriousenough.com right now.
But thanks for being here. I may come back to this some day.
You can’t have everything.
…where would you put it?
By the same token, you can’t do everything either.
If you notice the dates on my posts you might think that this blog is dead (which is why I might just take them off), but you’d only be partially right.
I like to call it, ‘hibernation’.
When an animal is hibernating, they are taking care of themselves, refueling, resting, so when they come out of hibernation they are even better than before, ready to take on the world.
Well, I’m getting ready.
Plus, I’ve been doing stuff over at The Rex Blog lately. Check it out for fun.
Thanks for sticking around.
Problem:
You have people who have subscribed to your blog, but you’ve totally neglected them.
Solution:
Don’t.
Ok, I confess. This is me.
And this is embarrassing, but I’m going to just come out and say it. Going for total transparency here.
There are a lot of options and features and cool tricks and stuff you can do with a WordPress blog. And I thought I had perused enough through the features that I knew where to go if I wanted to do something. Well, either I didn’t look hard enough, or wasn’t curious enough to find out, but I’m sorry to say that I just found my list of subscribers.
‘Sorry’ meaning I’m sorry it took so long, not sorry I found it. Rather the opposite – ‘elated’ and ‘exuberant’ that I found you.
So thank you very much, subscribers. I’m sure it was on a whim, but you took action nonetheless, which is more than most people.
Whims are good.
They drive action.
I need more whims.
Problem:
1. Every 45 seconds a child dies from malaria.
2. You don’t get a chance to save a child’s life.
Solution:
Buy this book, End Malaria, and your $20 will go to buy some mosquito nets, which I guess they don’t have enough of in Africa. Seems simple enough.
The thing is, they know for a fact that mosquito nets will protect children and others from the mosquitoes that carry malaria. It’s a simply preventable disease that no one should have to endure. Especially when a lot of us could skip a lunch for $20 and help those less fortunate.
And if you do it today, you’ll be a part of End Malaria Day, where the book will reach #1 on Amazon and save 4 million lives.
Here’s Seth Godin’s message from the Domino Project.
You may be only one person, but you count.
P.S. Oh, and the book is good too.
Problem:
You can’t seem to make any progress on your projects. You’re always getting distracted and rationalizing other activities that are not helping you move toward your goal.
Solution:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. ” (Lao-tzu said.)
And that entire journey consists of a whole bunch of steps, one at a time.
So making progress is nothing more than putting one foot in front of another.
Sure, that sounds easy enough when you’re talking about a long walk. But what about completing a large, complicated project?
The principle is the same.
The problem is that, in our mind, all the actions required to complete our project don’t show up as equal tasks that you can just string together, one at a time, in a linear fashion, like a bunch of steps. It’s more likely to have a bunch of moving parts, that function simultaneously, involving other people, creating new ideas, making tough decisions, and balancing time with the other important aspects of your life.
True?
Well, did you catch that one phrase?
“…in our mind…”
The fact is, we really can only do one thing at a time.
And in our mind, some tasks have been defined as hairy or difficult or complicated or huge. But they really only consist of a bunch of small actions. Sure, a lot of things may be happening, but you yourself are only doing one thing at a time.
So if we can redefine our project into smaller, simple, or easy tasks, and just do those,
one at a time,
consistently,
every day,
it will be just like putting one foot in front of the other,
and making progress.
Before you know it,
our epic journey is complete.
It turns out that I’m not the only one with this thought. People smarter than me have done some research. And when Dan Pink (author of Drive) highly recommends a book, I listen. Check out The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer.
To get an idea of the amount of research done and what the book is about, read the 6 questions Dan has for Teresa.
Problem:
Your meetings are ineffective and waste a lot of time and resources. Decisions take way too long to get made.
Solution:
Implement the Modern Meeting Standard.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, the latest best selling book on Amazon is Al Pittampalli’s, Read This Before Our Next Meeting. And it is taking the corporate meeting culture by storm.
Al unabashedly declares that meetings are a cancer that is eating our productivity, progress, and overall morale throughout corporate America, and he is here to cure us.
His book is a manifesto on meetings where he declares what’s obviously wrong, and then presents an alternative called The Modern Meeting Standard.
This new standard of meetings is based on several principles that we know in our heart are true. And yet, we still fall victim to decades of learned behavior. It’ll be hard to change, so we need to help each other.
The Domino Project has put together a handful of goodies to help us in this journey to a better way. Here they are in summary:
https://grootship.com/2010/04/08/mix-up-your-meetings-part-1
https://grootship.com/2010/04/10/mix-up-your-meetings-part-2
https://grootship.com/2010/04/14/mix-up-your-meetings-part-3-start-times
https://grootship.com/2010/04/20/mix-up-your-meetings-part-4-rearrange-room
https://grootship.com/2010/04/27/mix-up-your-meetings-part-5-diagram-the-conversation
Problem:
You’re not learning new things, expanding your horizon, getting out of your comfort zone, or having exciting experiences.
Solution:
Raise your curiosity.
Most people think curiosity is just a trait you’re born with and you either have it or you don’t. But you know that can’t be entirely true because sometimes you are more curious than at other times, and even people who may not seem like the curious type have at least been curious about something at some time in their life.
The Curious Mind
So if curiosity is fleeting and sporadic, and it can help us learn new things, then we need to figure out how to capture it, control it, and use it to drive our actions. We need to develop the curious mind.
Experiment
Try this experiment.
Think of a time when you were really curious about something. What did it feel like?
You really wanted to know that one thing, didn’t you?
Ok, now try to feel that feeling again. You’re feeling it now by just remembering the situation.
Now, keep that feeling, and think of something else that you want to do or learn, but were afraid of, or didn’t think you could pull it off, or thought it was too far fetched or crazy. Then realize that you don’t really know exactly what might happen if you tried that. Isn’t there some aspect that you are curious to know what really might happen?
There, now forget about your fears or doubts, and let your curiosity drive you to action. It can be stronger than the forces holding you back.
Did it work? Are you motivated to go do something?
Let me know in the comments because I need some more data points.
Problem:
Some people know who your are, they might remember your name, but they don’t connect a story or an idea or concept with your name. They don’t know what you are about, your special skill, or unique contribution to the world.
Solution:
Create your story.
It should be so clear that a one sentence description easily comes to mind when someone mentions your name.
Many people call this ‘branding’ but that just sounds like a painful agriculture ritual. Yes, your story is your brand, but I don’t want to overuse that word (oops, too late.) It should be something that you are passionate about, that comes easy to you, that you enjoy learning all the facets and angles about, and that you could talk about all night long. It’s a special skill that you own above others. So when that subject comes up, people will say, “I know who’s really good at that.”
You might say, “But I’m multifaceted. I can do a lot of different things.” Yes, that is true, which is why your defining identity needs to be at a high level. Instead of being known as someone who’s a good pencil sharpener, it would be better to be known as someone who creates beautiful art. There are a lot of details and skills that go into creating great art. Pencil sharpening is just one small part of it.
Once you’ve determined your story, identity, or brand, here are some keys to imprinting it in the minds of others.
Be Prolific
In order to have a concept or idea come to other people’s mind when someone mentions your name, you have to do something over and over again, and be pretty good at it. (Unless you’re known as a habitual failure. I suppose then you’d still be good at failing.)
Another word for doing something repeatedly and in lots of different places is ‘prolific’. You have to be prolific with what you do. People need to see you everywhere, doing your thing. Repetition makes things stick, and sink in.
Stay on Message
You also need to be consistent in your overall message. This doesn’t mean sending your words through some internal communications board check before sending them out to the world. It means being consistent in what you provide and making sure the same point gets across each time. You can do a variety of things that communicate the same message. It doesn’t always mean repeating a mantra, although that does help.
Be Helpful
Another reason people will remember you is if you are helpful. If you are all about yourself and only concerned with number one, people may remember your story, but they won’t want to be a part of it. And what good is that? You want people to be sharing your story in a positive way, to join you in your cause.
Of course, if you put yourself out there, and have a message, there will be people who disagree or don’t like it. Don’t worry about them. If you have dissenters that means that you have a message worth dissenting, which also means that you have a powerful message worth promoting. If you still offer to be helpful to everyone, the dissenters will know that it is their choice.
I don’t have it all figured out yet myself, but I continue to learn and experiment, and sharing these thoughts with you helps me to crystallize what I need to do too.
So what is your story? Who are you? Tell me in the comments.
Problem:
My company doesn’t have a good internal tool for social networking so I can’t really build an internal community or a following.
Solution:
Actually, you do.
Back in the olden days people used to get to know each other by sending messages with an ingenious invention called electronic mail. And although it may be clunky and inefficient, some people still use it today.
There’s even an older method that you might have heard stories about, where people actually meet together in person, where they can see each other’s physical bodies.
I would venture to guess that your company still has these ancient options available.
So, whatever way you can get to know another person, you have a way to build a community. Email allows you to send messages to all of them at once, so they all have a subject to talk about, or you can connect with one person at a time, building your relationship with that person. And if you can get everyone in the same room, you can have a shared experience to talk about.
New tools are nice. But if you want to build and lead a community that can make things happen, the only thing holding you back is your desire.
Problem:
You haven’t written a blog post in a long while, and your last one was about how to get unstuck.
Solution:
Write a blog post.
It’s amazing how I have to read my own posts to get motivated.
And what an ironic last post to get stuck on – The Number One Way to Get Unstuck. Hey, just because I know what it is, doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect me.
That just makes it more painful. It’s like the mechanic with a broken down car. Sad state of affairs.
Well, a pause or temporary setback does not mean failure, or the end. It just means that there’s a perfect opportunity to move forward and progress. To do better. The game is not over, I just have less points than the Resistance. It has scored. But I’m working on a comeback.
And that’s what I’m doing here. Doing something… baby steps to get moving again.
Also, just because a blog hasn’t been updated in a while doesn’t mean my life has stopped. In fact, I’m just starting a new big project that will be exciting, motivating, and entirely taxing, but it will be worth it. I haven’t decided whether to tell you about the details or not, so I’ll just tease for now.
Meanwhile, why don’t you go do something meaningful and tell me about it in the comments. It might help me out.
Thanks.
grootship