Idea for reflection – 31
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Posts from the ‘Kathleen’ Category
May 9
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May 6
Meep, meep …!
Growing up, I liked to get up before 7 a.m. on Saturday morning to watch the Bugs Bunny Road Runner hour. Every cartoon followed the same plot with the Road Runner constantly outwitting Wile E. Coyote and his unlimited supply of tricks purchased from Acme Corporation. The cartoon had its own law of gravity – Mr. Coyote could not fall until he looked down. And, no matter what he tried or how he planned, the Road Runner would shout, “Meep, meep!” as he zipped away into the sunset.
How often do our organizations run off a cliff and just keep going? The reports that no one has read for the last five years, the processes that are 90% workarounds of the original checklist, the employee that stopped contributing to the team two years ago – all things that are easier to ignore. We continue on as if we were standing on solid ground.
How often do we keep looking outside of our organization for the answers? Or look for quick fixes like the newest technology or the latest business fad. We continue on as if buying the same solutions will create a different outcome.
Looking down and falling leads to pain. Ending the ordering of new quick tricks from Acme requires change. We prefer to avoid pain and change. But the good news is that like Wile E. Coyote, we will live to fight another day. The only question is whether we will keep doing the same thing over and over again, or do the work of drawing a new cartoon.
Apr 30
Through the window
The window has forty
panes, forty clarities
variously wrinkled, streaked
with dried rain, smudged,
…
The window is a form
of consciousness, pattern
of formed sense
through which to look
into the wild
that is a pattern too,
bearing along the
shapes of the mind
…
The windy day
on one of the panes
a blown seed, caught
in a cobweb, beats and beats.
– Wendell Berry, excerpted from Window Poems 3
Apr 25
Can imagination be taught?
I’ve been writing about the Stanford d.school and their design thinking process. In a new article in the Stanford alumni magazine, President John Hennessy is quoted,
It’s much harder to teach creativity. [It involves] multiple routes, multiple approaches and, obviously, it’s virtually impossible to test whether or not you’ve succeeded. The measure of success is likely to come long after, not unlike many of the other things we try to teach: To prepare students to be educated citizens, to prepare them for dealing with people from diverse and different walks of life. Those are things that play out over a long time, whether or not we’ve done a good job.
But the core curriculum supports just that: learning to be imaginative and creative. Students learn techniques for “interviewing, observing, suggesting, tinkering, reviewing and then perhaps completely restarting two, three or four times.”
What are you taking time to observe? Who are you interviewing to understand their perspective on working or doing business with your organization? What will you try, test, and re-design until you get it right – a new product, an improved process, a customer experience? Who you do you meet with regularly who is outside of your industry or discipline that can stretch your ideas and imagination?
Sparks Fly: Can imagination be taught?
d.school – Bootcamp Bootleg
d.school – Research by Design
Apr 21
Organizational antiques
An interesting conversation thread from the current Friends graduate cohort began with the statement, “I’m reflecting on the buzzphrase ‘historical perspective’ (something I hear a LOT and use often myself) and wondering if a bias toward “from this point forward” is more relevant. [sic] ” The discussion has proceeded to consider motives for using the phrase and how it influences outcomes.
I added my own questions: Is the phrase being used to stifle new ideas? Or, is it a preface to telling a story that spurs action? Further discussion questions motives in using the phrase: Is the motive to protect or justify a position? Continue the status quo? Is it a fear of change?
What are your organization’s antiques?
What are the processes that don’t support your goals? What are the decision-making methods that repeatedly lead to the dead-end road? What are the reports that no one has read in years? What equipment needs to be retired?
Which antiques are so valuable that you’ll pass them down to the next generation?
Apr 18
Mutually assured distraction
One of the questions I am frequently asked in workshops is, “How do we deal with people emailing and texting in our meetings or presentations or training sessions?” This is not easy to answer, especially when the person using the smart phone is above you in the organization. Using smartphones 24/7 to text, email, or use social networks happens constantly – and not just at work. It happens at lunch with colleagues and friends. It happens when I’m on a walk in the evening with Jon. It happens (illegally in Kansas) while people are driving.
It is a scientific fact that we cannot multi-task. We can only do one thing at a time. The more we jump from task-to-task, the lower our productivity and quality of work becomes. And yet we allow our meetings and personal conversations to be constantly interrupted – distracted by the technology at hand.
One workplace strategy is to use ground rules in meetings. One of the ground rules might be: Show respect by giving full attention to our discussion; if you have to take a call or email, excuse yourself from the meeting. In classrooms, I state that I expect students to give their full attention to the dialogue and activities; if they have to take an emergency call, I ask them to leave the classroom. During time with family and friends, I often choose to turn my phone to vibrate or off, which allows me to focus on the experience we are creating and sharing.
When any of us choose to allow constant interruptions of conversations, activities, and even decision-making processes, we are chosing to function at levels that undermine our goals and relationships. We are practicing “mutually assured distraction.”
Apr 13
Resource: More design thinking from the d.school
The Stanford d.school has released a new toolkit for organizations involved in design thinking. As Tim Brown says in Change by Design, “You have to start with observation because it’s the only way to illuminate the subtle nuances about how people actually get things done (or don’t get things done), and it’s these deep insights that lead to powerful new ideas.”
Here are some of the focus areas addressed in the new toolkit:
- problem finding and framing
- multi-disciplinary team building
- ideation/brainstorming
- prototyping/testing
- storytelling
Download the new d.school toolkit; explore and research!
Previous d.school Bootcamp Bootleg
Where do we start?
Less than 7% of the Eastern Screech Owls in the United States live in Kansas. Discovering a rather unusual visitor requires dedicated observation on our part and support from friends who watch for his arrival. But his regular return requires the right resources (temperature, hollow tree, water and food, etc.) and trust as people walk past his home and take his picture.
I recently wrote about building a better boss. One of the resulting questions that has prompted an ongoing conversation between Jon and I is, “Where can our organization start building?”
Organizational environments are as complex as natural ones that support the life of this owl – someone would argue more complex because they include people. Yet we return each day to our work and the opportunity to start anew.
The place to start is always with yourself. Here are some questions that I ask our coaching clients that will jumpstart your thinking:
- Have you identified your personal values and vision?
- How do these fit with the values and vision of your organization? Of your team or work group? (Note: organization and team values might be somewhat different!)
- Do you trust others in your organization and do they trust you?
- What are the top three things that you want to focus on for learning and growth in the next six months?
Starting with leading and managing yourself lays a foundation for successfully leading and managing others. In an age of immersive connections, the first question is, “Are you connected to yourself?”
When focusing on the positive doesn’t work
Appreciative Inquiry is an organizational change process that can be very successful. But I often get asked why the process doesn’t spend time identifying and trying to fix problems, “Doesn’t focusing on the positive give an unrealistic picture of an organization?” Or, “Only looking at what works is a very slanted view of our organization.”
I experience Appreciative Inquiry as being an adaptable process that creates opportunity to build relationships, allow all voices to be heard, and gives people permission to have fun and be proud of their accomplishments.
Yet operating out of an appreciative framework won’t make any more difference than reading most self-help books. Having a one to three-day event where everyone walks away feeling good doesn’t do any more for an organization than thinking positive thoughts for five minutes at the beginning of the workday. Reading positive blog posts is not all that valuable.
A question often used in Appreciative Inquiry process goes something like this, “If you had a magic wand, what three wishes would you grant your organization?” But, it should end with this, “What one step will you take today to make that wish a reality?”
In the end, using a positive appreciative frame for an organization is not magic. In order to have value, it requires positive action. Positive thinking does not deny difficulties like tsunamis and recessions. Given the challenge faced, positive thinking creates an environment that asks us to identify what is possible now, to identify the first step we will take to move forward. Then each one of us has to choose to take that step … and the step after that …
Without action, Appreciative Inquiry is just a nice event spent telling stories. Let’s stop sitting and start moving. What one action will you take today to move toward your desired future?
Mar 18
Idea for reflection – 30
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
– Albert Einstein
Friesen Group 