No one’s going to tell you that now’s the moment.
Above and beyond
No one’s going to tell you that now’s the moment.
Tag: commitment
Full and hopeful conviction
One of the great nuggets – that I’d otherwise have lost had it not been for the visual notes I took – from the Adaptive Leadership piece in HBR that I talked about yesterday is about how to run experiments in adaptive settings.
Since adaptive challenges have unknown solutions, by definition we must make adaptive leadership decisions with incomplete information. Even better, often the biggest breakthroughs come from holding two seemingly opposable ideas, goals, even values at the same time and trying to meet two seemingly incompatible needs.
In these adaptive situations, our only choice is to run experiments – to make a decision based on the information we have, with a clear statement of our hypothesis and an articulation of what data we will use to determine if the experiment is working. (Very Lean Startup-y, in a very different context, which is always nice to see).
The soft underbelly of these situations isn’t WHETHER to run experiments (we have no choice) it’s HOW we run these experiments.
It’s all too tempting to view these tough calls at 51-49 situations, to continue to see all sides of the argument even after you’ve started running the experiment. This is even more tempting in situations in which you disagreed with a decision – it’s so alluring to talk about the path not taken, to keep on hedging your bets just in case this path doesn’t work out. Think how smart you’ll look if you have an “I told you so” moment three months from now.
Here’s another way to look at it, from the Adaptive Leadership piece:
Holding incompatible ideas in your head at the same time is a little like deciding to get married. At the moment you decide that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you have to fully embrace your choice; you have to believe wholeheartedly that it is the right decision. But your practical self also knows that you probably would have fallen in love with someone else under different circumstances. So how can your intended be the only “right” one for you? If you treated the decision to marry this particular person at this particular moment as a 51–49 question rather than a 90–10 question, you would never take the leap. The same paradox applies to adaptive leadership interventions. You have to run the experiment with full and hopeful conviction.
I’m much more of a romantic than that, so the analytical approach to the decision to get married just doesn’t sit right with me. But that’s another conversation.
What I like is the memorable analogy and the great last sentence: “You have to run the experiment with full and hopeful conviction.”
Not doubt, not worry, not with side conversations about how this will never work or with hesitation or second guessing.
Full and hopeful conviction.
The thing about being generous
Is that most of the time the generosity comes right back at you, except when it doesn’t.
You can lean into that rejection too.
That tiny sense that someone just took advantage of you? It’s a reminder that this isn’t a zero sum game. It’s also a chance to remember that there are times when you, too, were less generous than you could have been.
Whatever you do, don’t let these rebukes stray you from your path.
(and speaking of paths, here’s Nipun Mehta’s beautiful UPenn Commencement speech on generosity – the transcript of which has been read more than 100,000 times)
Most of the time
You can’t make people care.
You can make people act.
How does knowing this change what you say and do?
The thing they don’t tell you
…when you set out to change the world is that the bottom right part of the table is actually MORE frustrating than the bottom left.
If you’re stuck there, I hope you choose to keep looking for the top right (succeeding), rather than retreating to the bottom left (not trying).
It’s not personal, it’s business
Really?
Feels to me like that’s a big part of the problem.
How did you raise all that money?
“I hustled.”
“Yeah, but what else?”
She already answered your question.
Six types of blogging days
- “This is such a great idea! People will love this! I’m a wonderful blogger! It’s so easy!”
- “What the #*$%# is wrong with my #%*$%$ computer!!”
- “I’m not used to writing here/at this time of day.”
- “Gosh I thought this post was going to be easier to write. This is taking forever and it’s still not there yet.”
- “Is this post good enough?”
- “I have nothing to say. I’ll never have anything to say. It’s all been said before.”
The hard part is: you have to post on all of these days. And the dirty little secret is that no one, not even you, can tell which is which.
Keep at it.
(p.s. this post isn’t just about blogging)
Each and every dollar
If you work at a nonprofit, as I do, you might pause and consider: each and every dollar for your organization comes from a gift.
Obvious at some level, but if you stop to think about this for a second your perspective changes. Think of the seriousness and the intention of every donor, the dreams – small or big – they attach to the donation they have made.
I’m not at all advocating for penury for nonprofit staff; in fact I firmly believe that we need the best people to create massive change. The problems we are working on are so important, so challenging, so complex, and pay is part of the equation in getting and keeping the best folks.
But there’s a certain humility that comes with remembering that you are working on someone else’s dime, that no matter where you are and what you are doing, you are engaged in service work thanks to the trust that someone has placed in you and in your organization.
It never ceases to amaze me that the nonprofit sector has a reputation for being less rigorous, less focused, less fast-paced, less strategic than the private sector. First, because all the people I know who work at nonprofits put their hearts and souls into their work every day. Second because once we’ve made the decision to do this work we have no choice but to be completely committed and to do our best work every day.
The minimum bar is to treat the money your organization spends like your own.
The higher bar is to remember that it is a gift from someone else, entrusted to you to make a change in the world.
It’s a huge responsibility.
Missing deadlines
There are two things that happen when you miss deadlines, the first obvious, the second insidious.
The direct impact is that you don’t ship your product. Revenues come in later. Business partners are disappointed. Your team is let down.
The insidious part is that – drip, drip, drip – what you mean by “deadline” starts to erode. “Deadline” becomes “what we’re shooting for if nothing goes wrong.” But of course something always goes wrong, so the first sign of trouble becomes a chance to negotiate (with your team , with your business partners, and with your procrastinating self), a chance to argue that something’s got to give.
When hitting deadlines becomes non-negotiable, you and your team put that whole negotiation aside and just get to work. It’s amazing to discover what you can produce when you expect yourself to deliver every time.
* * * * *
(If you’re curious: it turns out that the source of the word is a “dead line” for American Civil War prisoners who were kept inside a stockade. A railing placed inside the stockade marked the line prisoners were not allowed to pass – and guards were told to shoot any prisoner who crossed the line, because they were deemed to be trying to escape.)