How to solve all of your problems using a playground

When in Doubt, Go to the Playground

Phillia (see my post from 2013 for Phillia's intro: Phillia Post) would show up everyday to the office and did the same thing every morning.

He gets his coffee, turns on his computer, says hello to a few colleagues and then sits at his desk. It usually takes five minutes for him to look at his list of tasks and then freak out and walk over to my desk to chat and make some sort of nervous small talk.

I asked one day about his to do list and why he let it freak him out. He showed it to me...what a train wreck! I quickly came up with a solution for him (a stolen solution from Franklin Covey of course). List everything in order of importance. Gut the shit that doesn't absolutely have to be done today. Delegate what you can. Break down the big tasks into smaller pieces. Re order the list. Then start at the top and go from there.

Decide what is important first

Easy, right? Simple you say? Yes, it can be if you recall how much pleasure one gets from keeping it simple.

I think about my kids playing on the little playground in the park we live in. When it is just the two of them out there they are having the time of their little lives. Running around the structure, walking along the wooden border, going up the slide backwards.

And they love it because it's easy and simple, it's pure. It's when three more kids show up that it gets complicated. When two people want to use the slide at the same time. When someone is throwing acorns and someone else doesn't like that. When someone is loud and screaming and another kid gets scared.

Lack of resources leads to conflict

So what do we as adults do in this situation. usually one of two things: we either remove our child from the situation (here Johnny, come play over here with this. Isn't this fun?). Or we try to mediate the issue at hand (Now Johnny, it's not nice to throw acorns at someone. You might hurt them.)

Our issues as adults, whether in the personal or professional world are not much different when you think about them. We have a limited number of resources available to us: budgets, time, peoples' attention, housing, water, that new iPhone that was just released. It's when those resources get scarce or we are in competition for them that conflict arises. I would suggest that remembering the basic rules of the playground might help most of us as adults in resolving these conflicts. For a simple reminder here is a list of the common playground rules in my little part of the universe:

• If it's not yours don't touch it
• Share with others
• Keep your hands to yourself
• Don't pick on the other kids
• Use the playground at your own risk
• Have an adult with you if you are too young
• Stick to age appropriate play elements
• Don't booze and play
• Wear proper footwear

When in doubt

What would happen if you posted that list in your office? Would it stick? Would it matter? Would people actually pay attention and get it?

Maybe at some point I'll actually get into how to promote an ethic of play in your work environment, but for now this is good enough. Just remember, all afternoon should be for leisure and play according to Thomas Jefferson, or was it Ben Franklin?

Either way, go play. Be nice. Share. And when in doubt go down the slide backwards and trust your gut. In the end it's only a slide and you are only playing.

What do the LinkedIn buzzwords say about us?

What do our LinkedIn buzzwords really mean?

The day we learned about ourselves from a social network

Today was the annual day that job hunting and the unhappily employed scour their online profiles, resumes and social media posts for overused and seemingly cliched adjectives used to describe themselves; Linked In has revealed the most commonly used words in user profiles for 2012.

"Responsible" was the most often used descriptor and "driven" has somehow replaced motivated in our lexicon.

I am sure that lots of folks have already recognized that "creative" and "effective" will probably always rise to the top of any annual list when describing professionals. Just as I am going to guess that in the next two years the word strategic will more than likely fall off the list; eventually the pendulum is going to swing the other way. We are all craving safety via laws and policies after the failure of the auto industry, the banking system and most recently the budgeting abilities of our federal government. But the increase of regulation and NSA eavesdropping will lead to an eventual desire to cut the apron strings...see the Roaring 20's for more on pendulum swinging.

The thing that surprises me the most though is that "patient" is the most commonly used word in the USA. I am not shocked that we perceive patience as an important virtue at this moment in time. If you want to deepen and develop relationships with stakeholders and customers, if you are trying to make an impact in your community, if you are responsible for healthy product development you need to be possess patience to be successful in the long term. Putting the word in my Linked In description or my resume doesn't jump out at me though as a no-brainer.

Most employers want to know what objectives you will be carrying out, when you are going to do them and they want you to do it before your competitors do. We can fast forward though television commercials. We scroll through Twitter feeds in moments and see all of the day's headlines. Our complete financial information fits on the four inch screen of our smart phones. I am not saying that I support the culture of ever increasing progress but often times folks just don't allow for plateaus and pauses. The world just has a lot of demands and competition is fierce everywhere.

So what do we think about the pressure?

When you walk into some one's office and they are staring out the window while chewing on their pen cap do you think they are working hard? It's quite possible that they are taking the time to make an incredible important decision for their professional company or department. But usually our response to a scene like this is, "get to work. There isn't time to sit around and stare out windows." Being patient can often be mistaken for lack of initiative. We live in an instant gratification world. Patience does not always jive with online shopping and next day delivery.

Most futurists and economists agree that our future workforce will be based on the information and knowledge sectors. In a recent article on Bloomberg.com, a senior consultant was quoted as saying,

"“There’s an assumption that you can do it in one to two years but we have not tested this out to see if the mangers can actually do it,” Roi said. “They have to mature, they have to develop business judgment, integrity, competence, leadership in a very short period of time.”


It takes time to allow people to learn, to make mistakes, to figure things out for themselves. Quite often this process leads to ownership and feelings of investment. While I am surprised to see patience as a commonly perceived attribute in the world of Linked In I am happy to see us embrace a slower world and one where taking the time to build relationships, businesses and quality results is accepted.

For more information on patience and slowness, check out the following links:

http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

http://www.slowmovement.com/

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/

Influence as value

My friend Keith says that:

The number one rule of leadership is showing up.

It's not that bad of a rule really when you think about it. Part of being a leader is the ability to identify how people work together, what their needs are, what their skills are, what their challenges are. And then figure out a way to help them achieve their goals. All the while without making it about yourself.


And then I thought about this groundbreaking event I was invited to today. The pictures in the paper were of all these people that were so proud of their accomplishment. They all showed up. They were there and it was recorded in perpetuity by the media. But are they the leaders of the project? Maybe one or two, but definitely not the majority of them. So does the first rule of leadership still apply here? Or are these people that were just trying to create and develop influence? What were they doing there? Who were they helping? Whose goal was being achieved?

Then the other night we finished watching the movie, Atlas Shrugged. The point as far as I can tell is that there is nothing worthwhile that can be bought with influence. It was a terrible movie. I am not a film critic or even a film aficionado but I know bad when I see it...this was bad. But it directly took on the question of what role we allow others to play in the influence in our lives.

So the question is, "If just showing up a lot and being around is a way to become a leader, are you just buying influence by being the last man standing?"

Is that truly leadership? Is that of value? Is influence the same as leadership acumen? Not really sure here but I seem to have a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe next post will answer or maybe this just gets worse.