All posts by steve@kerrzone.com

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Changing Course

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Selecting an approach to accomplish a goal, (i.e., how to….)is the first step toward achievement.  Execution of this approach is usually most efficient if you don’t change course mid-stream.

A simple example of this would be acquiring a quart of milk. The approach could be to walk to the local store or to drive there.   Perhaps you chose to walk and halfway there decided it was too cold outside and went back home to complete the trip by car.

This change of approach would significantly increase the time to accomplish your goal, i.e., get some milk.  The reason for the change, it was too cold, is clearly a good motivator so it was probably not a bad choice and something that might not have been known at the outset.

Value-Based Judgement

The decision to change course should not be taken lightly.  Good planning upfront helps ensure the initially chosen approach is viable and probably only needs minor adjustments.

If the impacts of a change are less than the benefits there is value in proceeding.  Instead of just figuring it out as you go along before making a change determining the value equation makes sense.

Over Reacting

One of the key dangers to reacting without analyzing the impacts is things could get worse.  Making a change because it feels needed or because unexpected risks have occurred will likely impact the time to achieve the goal and the quality of outcomes.

The best approach is to plan, monitor and control the execution as opposed to hoping all will turn out well in the end.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Profound and Prolific

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When your communications (written or verbal) demonstrate great knowledge or insight you are being profound.  Given this is a subjective determination you may believe yourself to be profound while others might not.

When you are fruitful or highly productive you are considered prolific.  Being both prolific and profound usually don’t mix, that is profundity is typically not voluminous.

People Just Don’t Get Me

In some cases, when you are profound (from your perspective) others might not get you.  on the other hand they may treat your wisdom with the respect it deserves.

You might become a knowledge guru, that is a spiritual leader capable of spouting profundities as part of your daily communication.

People may hang on your multitudinous pieces of wisdom waiting anxiously and with anticipation for the latest pronouncement. Or maybe they just don’t get you.

Thats okay, you are most likely confident in yourself and don’t require the approval of others.  The fact they don’t embrace your profundity is their loss.

Sharing Insight

Your knowledge is for sharing.  Passing words of wisdom to the broader population, verbal or otherwise can be uplifting for everyone.

Choosing to ignore your profound proclamations, perhaps even to mock you, mainly means others miss out on the pearls of wit and wisdom you freely share.

When we are capable of being profound perhaps even prolifically we should do so ignoring the detractors who frankly, just don’t get it.  We may feel sad for them but we should not mourn their loss.

After all ignoring the valuable insight of others is a personal choice.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Looking Back, Charging Forward

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Reaching back can sometimes help you leap forward.  The past can be a predictor of the future.  Taking a look backward can improve the way you move forward.

Intuitively understanding the results associated with certain actions or behaviors is a learning experience.  This knowledge should guide the forward approach.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is an ongoing process. Making an effort to improve how you do things.  Improvement requires an understanding of past actions and results.

The top of mind question is how would this have been better.  Understanding the past enables you to leap forward into the present with confidence.

Changing what you did or how it was done is key to making a positive change, i.e., an improvement.  However, looking back should not be morose but rather reflective.

That is don’t dwell on failures or lack of success but rather consider the past an opportunity to make the future golden.   Past results are intricately tied to how you acted.

Acting the same is likely to give the same result.  Consider your behavior, remember what resulted and cogitate on how to improve the outcomes.

Burst Forward with Anticipation

Changing your activites is exciting.  The potential for improvement is truly motivating.   Anticipate the greater returns you will gain by improving your practices.

Reviewing past events and making changes is not without work.  Anticipation builds excitement and motivation and this will help you put forth the effort needed.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Following the river

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When European explores began their overland journeys to the western parts of North America in the 16th and 17th century travel by water was a common practice.

Of course this limited the explorers and settlers that followed somewhat, to places the rivers went or the lakes were.  The philosophy was, follow the river, it will take you somewhere.

Making Maps

Using rivers and lakes allowed greater distances to be covered faster and supported the development of maps.  Of course the destinations were not planned, beyond going where the river went.

Eventually portages between bodies of water and ultimately land bound trails increased the scope of exploration and maps covered the entire continent.

The initial approach, basically follow the river into the unknown, fascinates me.   I am a firm believer in planning which starts from the premies of knowing where you are going (the destination).

The first European explorers and the settlers that followed them basically figured it out as they went along.  Looking back in history this proved to be a viable approach, that is it worked.

Careful Plan versus Sketchy Concept

The successful exploration of North America, albeit a high risk high reward situation, does demonstrate that working toward a conceptual goal ( with a multitude of unknowns) can lead to sucess.

This leads me to balance careful planning wth a less structured course.   That is just following the river into the unknown, going where it goes and figuring out how to overcome obstacles as they arise.

While this does not resonate with me at a basic level, intuitively it makes sense to balance planning with chaos for the best overall results.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Believe

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Believe in yourself basically demands you have trust and confidence in your abilities.  You know the truth is what you think and feel.  Personal greatness is founded on belief.

Overconfidence can cause issues.  Typically this is related to a belief which is not founded in fact.   However, believing in yourself for things that are realistic and achievable is both motivational and directive.

I think I can

“The Engine that Could” is a children’s story that highlights the power of positive thinking.  A small steam engine is challenged to carry a load up a steep hill.  Chanting “I think I can” which morphs into “I know I can” ultimately the engine makes it up to the top of the hill.

Believing you can does not always mean you will be to achieve your goal, but it helps.  When you have confidence you will give it a try, otherwise, you might just give up (it’s too hard).

Bringing Others Along

Confidence can be contagious.    Others are affected by your attitude.  Believing in yourself helps you move ahead but often it will enable you to get help.

A cautionary note.  Others quickly recognize overconfidence.  This can be as effective repealing others as believable confidence can be in attracting support.

Lack of confidence, like overconfidence, is always an excellent way to find yourself alone on the island.  It is important to not only reflect the fact you believe in yourself and your capabilities but you must also demonstrate this through your behaviour.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Patience

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Good things will happen over time.  To avoid frustration and angst while waiting for their arrival requires patience.  This is the skill that enables us to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

It has been said that patience is a virtue.  While this is a catchy phrase which associates patient behavior with high moral standards, I believe patience is more a learned skill than a virtue.

Value-Based Motivation

It makes the most sense to practice patience if there is a clear benefit to doing so.    Immediate gratification usually feels a lot better than waiting, so why should we be patient?

The quality of the result is often raised when the appropriate time is allowed for maturation.  In a nutshell, this is the value of patience.   Patience is required to execute a strategic approach.

For Example

Many large public corporations develop and communicate with their stakeholders the companies long term business strategies.  These can cover five to ten year periods.

Sadly, executing these strategies often requires shareholder patience and that is often lacking.  Stock prices are impacted by the immediate and tactical and frequently this causes changes to or even derails the strategies.

Leaders of public corporation who ignore the need for stakeholders to receive immediate gratification often regret it.   Sadly patience is a skill oft-overlooked,

Over the longer term being able to preserve over the short term bumps and grinds of the economy and focus on well-defined goals (not just those of expediency) the results will be better.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Sales or Service

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I recently took a trip to Toronto.  I rented a car from Hertz at the airport.  Over the years I have rented cars on many occasions mostly from the big companies (Hertz, Budget and Avis)

On the whole, my experiences have been good but this latest rental from the Hertz Toronto airport concession was different.   The agent was focused on sales rather than service.

Caveat Emptor

The Latin phrase meaning “buyer beware” is probably an accurate warning however large multi-national companies recognize the need to focus on service over sales.

This reduces the need for the buyer to beware.  The corporation has recognized good service is more likely to increase sales in a sustainable way versus sneaky activities that might have a short term gain.

Taking advantage of the weak

Hertz disappointed me on the service front.  Given I was tired from my 5-hour flight and anxious to get to my destination my awareness radar was on low.

The agent took full advantage of this asking me if I wanted basic or comprehensive insurance.  In fact, I did not want any insurance and if I had been asked a yes or no question (as I should have been) my answer would have been no (i.e., Do you want optional insurance?).

Unfortunately, my brain translated the two options to mean basic is no and comprehensive is yes.  Due to this sneaky phrasing of the question, I ended up with optional insurance I did not want to provide coverage my credit card already provided free.

Short Term Satisfaction

Hertz got a sale but lost a customer.  This approach is just not sustainable.  When dealing with customers focus on providing service to them (give them what they want) and treat the sales as secondary.

If you have a good and fair product it will come naturally.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Let it Go

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There are times when tenacity, that is the ability to firmly grip something and not let it go, is admirable.  Also, there are times when letting go is the better option.

The balance between determinedly following a course of action (e.g. a personal career path) and changing direction (taking a new career path) is not always an easy one to follow.

Just Move On

Holding on relentlessly can cause internal anxiety for you but can also color other peoples perspectives of you in a negative way.  Being perceived as the stubborn or intractable is a negative spin, it is better to be seen as firm or tenacious.

Managing how others view you is an important life skill.  Recognizing when to drop something is a key part of this.  That does not necessarily mean acquiescence, but rather closing a topic in a way acceptable to everyone that is involved.

Often, to do this, you need to be able to recognize when it makes sense to just let it go.  When arguing or ongoing discussion is clearly just fostering continued disagreement it is likely time to shut it down.

Not Giving Up

It is important to distinguish between letting go and giving up.  These are very different approaches, albeit they can appear to have the same outcome.

Giving up will lead to personal baggage and potentially you will feel bad about yourself.  Letting go is about recognizing that hanging on is painful to you and getting nowhere.

Releasing the pent up emotion which is eating away at you for something that is unlikely to change can be resolved simply by accepting the way it is and moving on.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Listening to Others

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Meyer’s Briggs theory of personality types is founded on the baseline level of your tendency toward introversion or extroversion, and all points between.

If you are an introvert the biggest risk to your happiness involves listening to other people.  For extroverts, the opposite is true.  Socializing often involves two-way communication and for many introverts, these exchanges are full of action requests or complaints.

What Risk

Extroverts want to get involved and thoroughly enjoy the exchanges.  Listening is the doorway for them to interact and they welcome it.

For introverts,  listening represents a risk of creating the need for an outward interaction.  Being inward focused, based on their own mood and feelings, actively reacting to others is a chore.

This is not intended to impinge on others needs or their right to pontificate, it simply means the introvert does not desire to be part of it.

Playing Nice

Being culturally compliant while interacting with others requires effort.  Introverts, by their very nature, typically expend more energy on interpersonal interactions than extroverts.

Playing nice is hard for the introvert.  They strongly feel the need to conform to social norms but prefer introspection and so find it a lot of work to “be on”.

On the other hand, extroverts do not feel an overt concern for correct behavior and like the hyperactive child you sometimes wonder “Where is the off switch?”

Diversity

Fortunately, the diversity created by divergent personality traits – for example, introversion and extroversion are beneficial to everyone.

It is the diversity of personal behavior that makes it interesting for all.  Sameness leads to boredom, neither introverts nor extroverts are better and both add great value to the human continuum.

 

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Initiative Planning

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Whether arranging a wedding , a party, moving to a new home or dozen of other similar activities we all participate in from time to time, planning is key.

Your initiative will usually have better results better if you think of all the things that need to be done and then work out the best ways to do them, including timing and interdependencies.

When planning an initiative or project it is usually best to have a single plan.  Not surprisingly, different stakeholders often have alternate approaches.

Communicate & Coordinate

Having a single plan that everyone is aware of does not have to be locked in stone.  The plan is the foundation for managing change.  Change is both an intricate and critical part of any project.

Plans are not meant to be once and done, rather they are for coordination.  Efficiency does not occur magically, you need to plan for it.

Multiple plans cause chaos.  When participants are working on executing the activities to make the objective become reality it is confusing to say the least to find different people are following separate approaches.

Multiple plans can lead to disaster, everything can pop off the rails and crash before you know it.  By the time the multiple cooks realize something is amiss, it is often too late to fix.

A Single Approach

A single project plan, recognized by all can be the foundation for discussion and sharing.  This does not mean all voices should not be heard, creating the plan is a collaborative exercise at it’s best.

Having only a single unique plan is the best way to reducing the risk of failure.