Leadership & Life Journal

River Bends

June 2, 2016

I was floating down the Green River in Utah in a drift boat with a fly-fishing guide. His name was Boomer. We had drifted along in calm waters for several hours and caught a good many rainbow trout. As his name implies, Boomer was a very loud and dramatic guy, but he also was a great guide and teacher. He taught me several lessons of fly-fishing that morning – like how to cast into a strong head wind, let my drag do the work to land a big trout and roll out my line for a perfect drift. Little did I know that I was about to learn a new lesson that would impact more than my fishing skills?

Without notice, Boomer shouted, “Lay down your rod and hold on.” I did what he said, because you do what Boomer says. As I quickly secured my equipment, I heard them — then I saw them — white water rapids upon us. I held on, and Boomer guided the boat through the wild watercourse and around a big sweeping bend, as masterfully as he cast his fly rod.

When I regained my composure, I looked back upstream and saw parts and pieces of drift boats bashed on the bank of the river bend. Boomer noticed my backward gaze and said with a smirk, ”First timers who said ‘we don’t need a guide’ and obviously didn’t know how to read the creases.” I was puzzled by his term “creases.” Then he reminded me of he had instructed me to cast my fly to where the water was pushed up and deflected by underwater structure – a crease.

“Fish hide behind those obstacles waiting for their next meal,” he said. “Creases can be good news for fishing in an easy flowing river, but can be bad for boating in rapids… unless you hear what the crease are telling you.”

Life can be like a swift river in deep canyon. There are some calm spots here and there, but there are also a lot of bends of change and rapids of transition along the way. If you can read the creases, you can prosper in good times and manage well in the rough bends, even if the rapids distract and try to destroy you.

The challenge comes when we try to maneuver a new bend alone or, worse yet, with some agreeable friends who know as little as we do. Propelled by bad information and over-confidence can turn a risky adventure into a pile of parts and pieces scattered on a rocky bank.

The price of a good guide, who can read the creases, may appear costly at first, but will prove well worth the price when you pull soundly ashore at the end of the productive trip.

Journal Entry: What river bend are you facing soon: a career shift, life transiton, a family milestone, a financial disaster or a spiritual desert? Have you successfully managed this type of transiton before?

If not, do you know a guide who has the wisdom to read the creases and knows the bends?

What would it cost to get their guidance? What could it cost if you don’t request help from a “Boomer” at this time in your leadership and life?

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. – Isaac Newton

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to wise counsel. – Proverbs 12:15

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. – Peter F. Drucker

Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. – Proverbs 19:20

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. – Robert Frost

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who will argue with you. – John Wooden

Begin before you Start into the Wind

January 29, 2016

My wife and I spent the first week of 2016 in a beach vacation house in on the Gulf Shores, Alabama. It was not the ideal time to being on a non-tropical beach, but we thought it would be fun. We knew it would be cold, but we could bundle up. Best of all, we would have the beach mostly to ourselves.

The temperatures were comfortable the evening we arrived, so the next morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn and went outside to see the sunrise. I was totally unprepared for the near gale force wind that hit me cold. With no coat on, the wind went straight through me. Walking to the car, much less a stroll on the beach, felt like pushing a wheelbarrow up a steep hill that never ended. It was exhausting. I may have managed things better and even enjoyed my walk if I had stopped and prepared before I rushed out into the wind.

Three Things
You may work in a world that can feel like a gale force wind of unwanted and non-essential activities that can push you off track and exhaust your time. I have observed that there are three primary things that contribute to extremely windy days at work for many leaders :
1) Meetings: sitting in meetings you don’t need to be in, especially when there is an ill-prepared Power Point presentation

2) C Players: spending too much time trying to fix the C players in our organizations – a nearly impossible mission to accomplish

3) New Technology: trying to learn how to operate new software and getting distracted from operating the business and, of course, attempting to manage the constant stream of untethered electronic communication.

4) add you own here…

It would be wonderful if we could simply step out of these winds while at work and cleverly avoid our time wasters. But after years of watching myself and other people strive to pull out of the gale force activity winds while in the midst of those winds, I have concluded that this strategy fails every time. But there is a strategy that works.

The folks who decide to Begin before they Start each day are the ones who more often keep their footing in a world of unyielding distractions. Their secret , they tell me, is to never let daily activities Start before you Begin. Invest a few purposeful minutes to put on your emotional and spiritual coat, before you step out into the wind.

Journal Entry:
Do you start your day in the wind with email, a calendar check, and a task list or do you begin with some time to reflect on things that really matter? It may be worth a try to intentionally “Begin before you Start” each day of your Leadership and Life in 2016.

“In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.” – Paul Harvey

“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.

And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.” – C.S. Lewis – from Mere Christianity

Wisdom of an Innkeeper

January 4, 2016

Mary and Joseph’s First Christmas (another perspective)

The weary couple at the close of day
hoped this crowded Inn was their place to stay.
Compelled by the expectant couple’s plight,
the innkeeper found them a room that night.

He ushered them into his hectic hall
When he heard God’s voice so still and small,
“Don’t birth my son in the ruckus place
Of noise and drink and want disgrace.
Is this a place to begin a life
that will change the world of dark to light?

So the keeper of the inn did say,
“There is no room for you to stay.”
And he turned the worn out couple away.

Stepping outside his lodging place,
He whispered to the groom in haste,
“There is a spot where you can stay –
out back- in my livestock stable hay.
Though not as warm as sleeping here,
it is distant from this dwelling of leer.”

“This is no place to birth a king
whose life will make the angels sing
Of love and joy and grace to all –
Don’t start His life in this reckless mall.”

Stark words he spoke, were not his own.
Where had his compassion gone?
This kind innkeeper had been used
to protect God’s son by his refuse.

The groom in livid anger said,
“I’ll take my bride to this unkempt bed
to birth a child alone this day.
But you, dear sir, will be known for all days
as he who turned the King away.

In great dismay by what he heard
The innkeeper left without word.

That night a savior child was born
in the silence of a manger lorn
With sheep and mules and cattle there
to gaze upon the baby fair.

The groom looked at his bride and child
in this quiet place of peace and mild.
He understood the innkeeper’s will.
That put them in a place so still
so they could hear the angels’ thrill
and see the star above the hill.

If they were in the noisy inn
the angels’ song could have never been
heard above the party crowd,
the star obscured by a smoky cloud.

Now they both knew the reason why
the innkeeper had passed them by
This tiny king in their arms this night
Will never be found in the noise and blight
And bustle of a world that reeks
of self excess – where egos peak.

Instead He is found in a silent night
Where angels sing and stars are bright.

As you seek your Christmas this year
Look not in the hustle and bustle so near.
Consider the innkeeper’s faithful ear

To God’s whispered voice,
which always speaks,
but seldom shouts or competes
with all the glitter, glitz and haste.
Find Christmas this year in a common place.

By Michael Alan Tate (original 2004, revised 2006)

Working Journal Entry: Where will you find Christmas this year?

A Well Pruned Life

December 28, 2015

It is winter. If you are a gardener, the chill in the air is a reminder that this is the time to prune your fruit-bearing trees and vines and flowering perennials. This act of cutting a plant almost to the ground seems extreme. But the law of nature requires near total destruction before new growth can produce of a good harvest.

If this cutting back doesn’t happen at all or happens too late, the results are not good. Total neglect of pruning over time results in disease and untimely death. The un-pruned plant becomes an unbalanced mixture of old and new, producing many limbs and leaves – but no fruit. Several years of not pruning a rose bush will turn it into a thorn bush.

Proper pruning eliminates at least 50% of most vine plants. The remaining healthy vines will often produce a 100-fold yield.

Is it possible that the heart of this principle holds some truth for your business, career and family?

Journal Entry: What will you prune from your busy of schedule, of things you know you have to do, so you can have time and energy to produce your very best in your leadership and life in 2016?

Drawing Some Insight: It is not easy to see the things we might need to prune. We are too close to them. One approach to seeing what needs to be cut back is to draw a stick person in the middle of a sheet of paper that represents you today. Take 10 minutes and list everything connected to you at work, in the community and with your family, don’t forget how your electronic devises pull at you. Now see how you answer the Journal Entry.

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. – Mark Twain

Law of the Trivial Many and the Vital Few: 80/20 Implications for Life & Work

Strive for excellence in a few things, rather than good performance in many.

Celebrate exceptional productivity, rather than praise average efforts.

Look for the short cut rather than the full course.

Exercise control over your life with the least possible effort.

Delegate or outsource as much as possible in our daily lives and business.

Only do the thing we are best at doing and enjoy most.

Make the most of those few “lucky streaks” in our life and work where we are at our creative peak and the stars line up to guarantee our success.

Uncomfortable Truths

October 27, 2015

Five years ago the Millennials (employees ages 18- 34) made up around 10% of the workforce. Today, their numbers have increased to around a third of the workforce, and by 2020, they’ll make up almost half of the workforce.

Last week I asked a large gathering of executives, “Do you have some managers in your organization who constantly complain about the new generation of workers on their teams? Do they have many conflicts and ongoing problems motivating them?” Heads nodded across the large room. Then I asked the nodders, “Are they the same managers who had constant conflicts and complained about their unmotivated people 5 or 6 years ago?” Nods were slower.

Although there is some truth to the disruptive way a small portion of Millennials act out in the workplace today, I believe that more times than not, the “new generation” buzz is just an excuse for a some lazy managers to continue being lazy managers. Whenever there are many books and a boatload of specialty consultants making lots of money on a really hot business topic – it is usually not the whole truth.

An IBM Study (Myths, Exaggerations and Uncomfortable Truths) of 1,784 employees in 12 countries and from six industries reported that:

Millennials have similar career aspirations as other generations; they desire financial security and seniority.
Millennials don’t really want a trophy; they want a leader who is ethical and fair and they want performance-based recognition and promotions, just like older groups.
Millennials don’t really want to do everything online and virtually. When learning something new, they want face-to-face interaction.
Millennials leave their organizations for the same reasons as other generations – to get ahead, enter the fast lane, to make money.

What this seems to boil down to is that having an excuse is a lot easier than exerting some effort to understand and appreciate the differences in people. I would suggest that each person, no matter their phase in life, is seeking answers to these three questions: 1) who am I? 2)what are my strengths? 3) Where is my place in the world? If each of us put a little more energy into helping another explore her or his answers, maybe our workplaces would be more productive and our communities and homes might become better places to be.

Journal Entry:
Would this be a good time to take an uncomfortable step in the direction of helping a next generation team member or a kid at home get closer to the the truth about their place in leadership and life?

Millennials are like pets who work sometimes. – U-tube video: Millennials in the Workplace Training

A 2012 analysis of 20 studies and 19,691 people found that generation had nothing to do with employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment or turnover intentions – Journal of Business and Psychology. Generational Differences in Work-Related Attitudes

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one. – George Washington

God grant me the wisdom to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the thing I can; and wisdom to know that it’s ME. – A wise manager’s daily prayer

Looking Up to Leaders

August 27, 2015

Pulling out of my driveway yesterday morning, I looked to my left and saw a very young boy standing beside a middle-age man waiting for the school bus to arrive. They stood about a block away, and I recognized them from the neighborhood. I thought, “What a fine way to begin my day – seeing a father and son begin their day together.” I stopped my car to take in the moment. The boy looked up at his dad and tugged on his sleeve, and the dad looked down – at his cell phone. I waited. The son said something to this father, who never lost concentration on texting his message. I drove off wishing I had not paused to watch. In my rear-view mirror the scene was the same as I drove away.

Engagement is a hot topic these days. There are multiple employee engagement training courses and engagement consultants that provide all the skills and knowledge needed to equip every manager to be an excellent mentor or coach at work. However, a recent Gallup poll of 2,000 organizations of varied sizes found that 70% of employees said they were not engaged. In addition, 49% of the employees who had left an organization said they didn’t quit the company- they quit their boss. The leader they had looked up to and expected to help them learn and grow didn’t make the time to look back and talk to them.

If you walk down almost any hallway in any business and peek inside the offices or even in the break room, you’ll see what most people are engaging in these days. It’s sitting in their palm. It is not a sandwich.

Mobile technology has changed us – in some good ways and some not so good ways. Information exchange via technology can save time when it’s a tool we manage, but when it becomes a key stakeholder in our lives and work and begins to overly influence our activity, even consume some of us, everyone loses. If that is you, maybe it’s time to do something about it. There is a 3 step strategy you might want to consider in the side bar.

Journal Entry: When a team member, family member or friend looks up to you, where will you be looking? Will your choice of where to look help or harm her or him in their leadership and life?

Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.

Mother, will you text me a bedtime story – Modern Parenting

Smart Phone Detox, Employees Engagement & Wellness Strategy
Step 1- Push the OFF button (not silent mode) . Do this 5 times each day for 20 minutes at a time.
Step 2 -Take a walk thorough the office and talk to someone face-to-face .
Step 3- Be amazed that the world did not collapse today and your blood pressure dropped 10 points.

Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?
– Al Boliska , actor and writer

Peeking Pushing Mentor

July 26, 2015

Once upon a time a small child saw a big teenager riding a bike. He admired the teenager’s skill, and he decided that he wanted to be able to ride a bike too. At first the idea of peddling fast and staying upright was frightening. So he tested the experience in a safe environment.

The child found an old bike in his family’s garage, and he pushed it up to a workbench and put the kickstand down. He then climbed up onto the workbench and then slid over to the bike seat. And there he sat, turning the handlebars and imagining he was racing down a road.

After a while, the child carefully got down off the bike, looked under the workbench and found some old training wheels. His mom helped him put the training wheels on so he could start to take rides all by himself. It took some time in the driveway, but he finally he learned how to pedal and how to brake. Then he worked up his courage to take the next big step. He removed the training wheels and was ready to take off into a whole new world. But the first attempts at gaining balance were awkward.

Peeking

His neighbor from across the street looked out his window and saw him struggling to ride. The neighbor walked over to lend a hand. He steadied the bike as the child began this next step in his biking-skill development. After a few times with hands-on support, he was ready. “Let me go,” he said. Wow! What a feeling of freedom and control. Then he looked down, lost his focus and crashed hard. It hurt. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hurt again, but he got back on the bike anyway. Something inside made him know that if he didn’t push through this tough spot, he would never reach his goal.

Finally he got his balance – and stayed upright and moving steady. He rode more each day and had fewer crashes. Lessons were learned, skill increased and his confidence grew.

Pedaling

One afternoon when he was riding, he met another young biker. They became fast friends. Days were spent racing on the street, competing on homemade obstacle courses, learning new bike tactics together, making mistakes and getting better.

Over time the young biker began to see more clearly what he was good at and what he was not so good at. Bicycling feedback is fast, very clear and often painful. His strengths grew stronger, and weak areas became less apparent. He started making better riding decisions.

Sometimes other people watched him take a risk on a big hill or real curvy road and crash. Most people sighed and helped him get back up, but some people laughed at him. When anyone laughed, at first he got mad and tried to get back at the jeerers. Then one day he asked one of the critics for advice on how to avoid a crash next time. The naysayer’s feedback really helped, and he gained a friend. Although that was not always the case, he found could learn from almost everyone, if he listened. His confidence rose, and his circle of friends grew.

Pushing

It’s good to have several friends, but everyone needs one big encourager, someone who is totally committed to your success and will always tell you the truth. He had that someone. When he was first learning, he remembered his neighbor peeking through the blinds at him as he struggled along. He had never stopped looking out for him. Over the years, this wise mentor observed him as his skills and judgment increased and supported him as he took longer trips and tried more challenging bike adventures.

Riding past a small house one morning he noticed a child standing in the yard watching him. He slowed down and looked back. In that young person’s eyes, he recognized the same desire that had captured his imagination years ago. He waved then made a U-turn in the street. He rode up in the yard beside the youngster and put his kickstand down. The child asked if he might he sit on the seat. He said sure. They talked for a while about bicycles and then he left for home. When he arrived there, he went into the garage, looked around the workbench for something and found it.

Later that day he headed back to that child’s house with his old training wheels in his lap and a steady grip on his handlebars.

Journal Entry: Who are the people who helped you stay upright, challenged you to grow and cared enough to speak truth to you over the years? Who do you know today that needs a steady encourager who will peek in on them and offer a timely push as they pedal their way to where they want to go in their leadership and life?

The best test (of a servant leader) and diffucult to adminster is : do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served , become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become a servant (mentor)? – from Servant as Leader by Robert Greenleaf

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. – Proverbs 11:25

Go to the people, learn from them, love them, start with what they know, and build on what they have. But of the best of leaders, when their task is accomplished and their work is done, ‘We have done it ourselves,’ the people will all remark. – Chinese Poem, 23 BC

Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults. – Benjamin Franklin

Success in life is determined by the decisions you make. Significance in life is determined by the decisions you help other people make. – Michael Alan Tate

Projects that Go “Know Where”

June 30, 2015

History shows us over and over, leaders have a way of getting things wrong. Yet stronger leaders will see in these errors in judgment a knowledge that lays the groundwork for future expansion and growth.

Take the 1803 effort by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Their expedition to find a Northwest Passage – connecting east to west and establishing a U.S. presence in land that other nations had their own sights on – was one of the most important projects in U.S. history. Though this effort had a profound effect on the United States we know today, if we were to use the standards some of today’s executives would apply to projects, the expedition would be considered a complete failure. After all, it took longer than expected, cost more than planned, and failed to meet its primary objective – to discover a waterway that led to the Pacific Ocean.

Learning from Failure

Before Lewis and Clark started their project, they only knew vaguely what lay ahead. They planned carefully, but they couldn’t be expected to know what they would face. With each step, however, they gathered valuable information that accelerated westward expansion and the growth of our country.

I think it is safe to say that most managers and professionals are good at making plans to solve problems. Over time most learn to act with confidence – when they have a clear deliverable and a sense they can control or adapt to the factors that impact success or failure. Sometimes, however, a new way of thinking is needed. When a manager moves up to a higher leadership position, the newly placed leader may continue to apply the same problem solving thinking to predicaments. Predicaments are different than problems. Here’s why.

Some Things Can’t be Solved

Predicament is synonymous with words like plight, quandary, jam or pickle. It is defined as a difficult situation that has no readily discernible resolution or way out, often involving multiple stakeholders. Predicaments can’t be solved. At best a predicament can be influenced toward a more ideal scenario. Similarly, the Lewis and Clark expedition, which at first appeared to be solving a problem, instead became something with strategic significant. A voyage of discovery, which ultimately lighted a path so others could “know where” their best step might be in an uncharted world.

Journal Entry: Are you facing a predicament such as motivating a diverse staff to excellence, reorganizing your company’s reporting structure, coaching a technical genius to become a leader, helping a senior partner move on to a next phase in life, raising children to be their best or making a marriage work? If you apply the Lewis and Clark approach to project management, you just might be lucky enough to go “know where” in your leadership and life.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. – Peter F. Drucker

All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgments or probabilities, and not on certainties. – Charles W. Eliot

If you are deliberately trying to create a future that feels safe, you will willfully ignore the future that is likely. – Seth Godin

Women who carry a few extra pounds seem to live a lot longer than the men who mentioned it. – A husband who is not sleeping on the couch

Planting a Strategy

May 22, 2015

When I was a child we had a good-sized garden. My father liked to plant many crops in it, but loved his green beans. Not just any bean would do. “Kentucky Wonder” pole beans were his calling. He was known for his knack of growing them and his disposition for sharing baskets full with others.

His process for planting was logical and systematic.

Plow and fertilize the soil based on climate or moon phase.
Select high quality seeds and plant them at the correct depth.
Place a 5-foot pole near the bean plant, so the vines (runners) can latch on and move up the structure.
Train each of his children to work the garden; place any wild runners back on the pole and sprinkle Seven Dust™ to protect the plants from pests insects.
Listen to what people say about the taste and look of the beans and note ways to improve next year.

The General’s Way

Strategic Planning is often called the art of the general. The premise of strategic planning is to set up as a sequence of moves based on your strengths and your competitor’s weaknesses so that you win and they lose. For decades this blood-on-the-field military model has been the tradition in business strategy development, but with limited success.

A McKinsey Quarterly survey of nearly 800 executives reported that only 45% of respondents were satisfied with the strategic-planning process and only 23% indicated that major strategic decisions were made within its confines.

For those who are tiring of this traditional model, there is another approach that I am currently experimenting with. I call it Strategic Planting ™, the art of the gardener. What follows is a snap shot of my idea and process.

The Gardener’s Way

Strategy Planting™ is not for everyone. It is a sweat-in-the-field approach that calls for more thinking, creativity and risk-taking. The traditional strategic planner is like a farmer who fights against other farmers to capture more of a limited amount of farmland. In contrast, a strategic planter conceives a new way to grow a top quality crop that requires no soil at all. Apple, Southwest Airlines and Cirque du Soleil are just a few companies who appear to have planted their strategy. Each of theses organization invented and nourished a new way of being in a place of value that had never existed. Freedom instead of fighting became their reality, because their competitors were too busy battling each other for more worn out farmland.

Strategic Planting™ is counter-intuitive and may seem overly inspirational, but its soil is research rich. Similar to the background needed to prepare for strategic planning, detailed attention to the market and keen self-awareness are baseline requirements. However, the intent of this analysis is not to compete against, but to unearth a soon-to-sprout vision.

Step by Step

Like the system my daddy used with his pole beans, the process of Strategic Planting™ is logical and systematic.

Prepare a healthy culture. Fertilize it with core value stories.
Plant a few good seed ideas, monitor growth and invest in the ones that take root.
Set-up an infrastructure to support and sustain growth
Train staff to keep quality on track and to prevent the two deadliest infestations: “comparing yourself to others” and “a win-lose mindset”, both of which will lead to a withering death.
Keep honest self-examination continuous,especially after a big accomplishment. Celebrating a great harvest is needed, but great success can breed greater failure if arrogance and pride become the fertilizers for the future.

Journal Entry:

Do you have a business to build, a career to grow or a relationship to strengthen? Consider Planting a Strategy as a way to find more success and significance in your leadership and life.

Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are. – Alfred Austin, poet

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. – Winston Churchill

The Sower
He told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.”

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Whoever has ears, let them hear. – The Bible , the book of Matthew 1 verses 3:3-9

The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious. – John Sculley, American businessman & entrepreneur

Comma or Period

April 1, 2015

A few years ago I facilitated a focus group of high potential leaders at a very successful and innovative enterprise. This small lean organization had run uphill fast to reach its current peak of achievement. People were stressed to near breaking point, but still determined to become even better. I asked the group, “What is the chief barrier to your organization getting to the next level of success?” The room was silent. Eyes darted. Truth telling can be terrifying. Then one guy spoke-up, “We do a good job planning most of our projects, but we have too many going on and we rarely really complete many of them. I’d say we have a lot of commas and very few periods on our projects.”

The group collectively sighed and nodded. Someone chimed in, “When we get close to wrapping up a project, a new idea pops up and we take off on it. We don’t stop and see if the last project was finished, much less finished well.”

Listen to Everything

I shared their observation with the executive team, who acknowledged the wisdom of these future leaders. Then the team examined the 30 plus strategic projects that were on their plate for the past 2 years. They determined that over half were comma projects – projects that were still only 60% to 75% complete or 25% to 40% away from putting a period on it. Slumped shoulders and weary eyes told it all. Their comma projects were like leeches; clinging, lingering, draining energy and wasting limited resources.

Set a New Habit

After some difficult discussion, the senior team declared a new corporate habit they would establish to help move the organization to the next level. “We will concentrate on a few high leverage projects and schedule a formal debrief for each one. At the debriefing we will mark it as either done well or done away with, note our lessons learned and share this with all key stakeholders both verbally and in writing.” What will be the benefit? “We believe that if we do this consistently most of the new ideas, that keep us busy, will be preemptively addressed due to our thoroughness and discipline.”

Have Courage to Slow Down

At their annual planning retreat, the CEO told the Board there would be no new projects initiated for the next 6 months while they put periods on a few projects that really mattered. The Board is pleased with the record-breaking results this year.

Journal Entry: When would be a good time for you to look at your project list and decide if you need a new strategy to move to the next level in your leadership and life? Period.

‘My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere, you must run twice as fast as that.” – The Queen of Hearts tells Alice in Alice in Wonderland

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John the Baptist, an apostle. John 8:32 NIV Bible

What went well? What did we learn? What is still unclear? How can we improve? – 4 Project Debriefing Questions

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer