Culture

Culture is a funny thing. When it's good it's great, and when it's not - we forget how important it is. Culture defines how we contribute to the group or team or organization that we're part of in many ways. Strong positive cultures tend to see 'more' from their people, while less positive or even weak culture have their staff view where they spend time as just their job.

Culture is created through example by the leadership, or those the leaders nominate, and it's precariously balanced. One bad egg can wreck a culture - as it often is manifest as an unstated set of rules that we follow because we want to. When one person acts counter-culturally, it spreads a toxic feeling - the rest of those involved recognize the anti-culture contagion, but are often powerless to stop it as culture rules aren't written down more often than not and hence can't be enforced.

Culture is very similar in a properties sense to an organization's or team's momentum. You know when you have it and others do too, but it's hard to recreate on demand.

Those responsible for culture, (and it's by-products of passion, energy and goal-focused behaviors) have a responsibility to maintain it positively and strongly. That they abdicate this responsibility in some cases is unacceptable. It's akin to throwing away an ROI focus, or accepting huge cost overruns. Sadly however as it's an intangible quality that not all recognize, the requirement to keep it strong, keep it burning well and preclude others from spoiling it is often overlooked. That's just a sign of simple lack of vision unfortunately.

So I ask you - what have you done today - yes, today - to promote a vibrant, healthy culture that helps empower your group, team or staff to go above and beyond. If the answer is nothing - then you have some work to do.

Time Flies

Just yesterday, I held her in my arms as she squirmed, cooed and gurgled.

Last week it seems I cuddled her, holding her hurt knee and telling her it would all be all-right.

I watched with pride as she momentously trundled across the room, beaming with a tremendous sense of accomplishment as only a 2 year old knows.

I watched doctors give her a needle as big as her whole arm as she screamed confused at the smells, noises and coldness of the hospital.

I laughed with her as she'd nudge my leg, sitting beside me on the couch, all the while not looking, and acting innocent.

I've witnessed her intellect deepen and broaden, with the same burning ball of curiosity at the centre.

I've seen her physically grow into an unrecognizable pretty woman, ready for all the world has to offer.

And now, she's done her first year away, succeeding magically at school, more balanced, poised, funny and interactive than almost anyone I know. How did this happen ? How did I look away for an instant to find she's grown up.

I'm proud of my little girl as any parent would be, and saddened that this part of our lives together is gone, to be remembered in photos only. I'm seeing the speed of time today, it's relentless movement, and wondering at where it's gone. There's a lesson here I'm sure, but right now I'd rather just quietly remember my little girl.

So you had a bad day

Some days are worse than others. Like today for example.

What to do about it ?

Learn from it, admit accountability and understand what's involved so that you don't repeat it. You feel better already, don't you..?

When Things are Opaque

When you can't see the path, what do you do..? When the details drown out the big picture, what do you do..? When the smoke from all the fires means you can't execute the strategy, what's your approach..?

Too many of our days are like this, when we worry about being so busy at our jobs, that we can't really do our jobs.

The trick is to validate I've found. I've mentioned it before, but Team New Zealand's focus has stayed with me, and this singular drive and focus is what I use to get me through those times when the work stands in the way of the accomplishment.

The hard part is figuring out what the focus needs to be - after that - it should be straightforward (but not easy) to hold any action you're taking up against this test to validate its' legitimacy.

An Acheivable World

Are you the kind of person that uses a process as you go about the achievement of a goal or objective ? I am.

I didn't always think that I was but I've discovered in recent years that it actually truly helps me I've found that I am someone that benefits tremendously from understanding the next steps to take and the component parts of the overall task I had wanted to do this, but - I wasn't always this way.

For a long time I thought it'd necessarily stifle creative thought or that it didn't allow me to explore or try new approaches. But whether it's exercise or helping a company do things in a more intelligent manner, I discovered that following a defined methodology or a defined process makes a big difference. I can clearly celebrate the achievement of certain goals and at the same time I can understand the bigger picture or the context of where I am in the scope of the overall task .

Perhaps it requires a logical way of thinking about things or perhaps it works for someone who just really need to have structure. Regardless, having a process or methodology helps place an understanding of what is needed into an understanding of what ever it is that we are doing.

Are you a process person ? Are you someone who benefits from doing things according to a checklist or someone who needs the surety of understanding what's been done and what hasn't..?

Maybe you don't need it - there's lots of different ways you can approach a task or deliverable and whatever way that works for you - I wish you well.

Here is a suggestion though - if you have never tried it, my suggestion is that it's worth that effort as you may discover that there's an achievable world out there that allows you to imagine both the goal and the pathway to the accomplishment of things that you do, that seems quite impossible right now. Whether it's losing those pesky 15 pounds or hitting your sales target or redecorating a bathroom, careful thought to define the steps (the process) saves tremendous stress and possible rework. It also means that if you're not successful, you know where things fell off the rails and can attend to that, rather than give up on the goal all-together.

What if We're Alone

Late last year, the solitude of Voyager 1 struck me - so far away, and yet in cosmic terms, in our own backyard still. But I've had a thought that lingered since then, and I'm expressing it now as sad as it may be.

We know the universe is large, and old. We know that (to the best of publicly admitted knowledge) we haven't yet heard from another stellar body. The nature of what we look at and listen to allows for time travel of a sort, so all we know for certainty is that the farther away something is, the longer back in time we're seeing it. You see light and radiation move at a defined speed (thanks Albert) and so the light we see is therefore not happening in real time from it's departure point. An illustration would be that the radio commands and replies to the Mars Rover - on our closest real planetary companion - take 20 minutes to go back and forth. So, it's feasible that it sends a message, something happens to it, and the Earthbound scientific community listening in don't realize it for up to 20 minutes. Likewise, the Sun in the sky may have 'gone-out' - we wouldn't know it for 9 minutes. (Scientifically, our distance to the sun varies only a little based on the roughly circular shape of our orbit, whereas we can be 'close' to Mars, or it can be on the other side of the sun depending on the time of year). Without going all physics formula on you, distance in this sense is very related to time.

All of which is slightly diversionary to the main point.

What if our explorations and listing and watching the cosmos reveal (or demonstrate by or not revealing) that we are indeed alone. That there aren't any other worlds out there (yet?) with sufficiently advanced capability to engage us in conversation - or that they just aren't there.

What does it say about our own existence, that we might be the only ones in this vast place. Does it imply we're divine, or an accident. Our "being here" certainly can't be the main thrust of the universe's reason to be if we're the only ones. It's unlikely, sure but the possibility does exist. Even more realistic is the idea that someone had to be first. Think about that for a moment..the first civilization to emerge would have indeed been alone. While they may see the same primordial soup that they emerged from in other places, at some point they would have to admit that they were all by themselves for their foreseeable future.

That perhaps is the silver lining here. As time & distance are so closely related, we are given the ability to see back in time - and even though we may discover nothing out there, there's always the present. Who knows who or what may come around the next corner.