Tag Archives: behaviour

Park it

Have you ever felt that emotional, cloudy feeling in your brain when something seems so hard that you don’t know what to do next?

I have.

When the speaker makes the wrong assumption. Someone changes their mind. An agreement is broken.

Our mind can cope with only a few challenges at a time. In meetings, when more than 3 barriers are raised, notice how everyone’s confidence and constructiveness drops?

There’s a simple way to overcome this. Since our brains black out, it’s best to create a ‘parking lot’ on the whiteboard.

The parking lot is somewhere issues, blockers or cons can be stored and addressed at a later time. They are things raised during discussion, verbalised, noted and recorded.

Our brains love this. We don’t panic that they may be forgotten. We don’t stress about getting sidetracked. We don’t accuse people of hijacking the meeting.

When the time comes to go through the parking lot issues, you will find that the emotion has dispersed and once unpacked they are much easier to solve than previously thought.

The Parking lot technique is a simple way to keep meetings on track (and on time!) and to keep everyone focused on achieving the same thing. Try it!

Try something

try something

The worst place to be is stagnant, afraid to make the next move. After failure, the next best thing to do is try again.

If we find ourselves second-guessing or holding back, we’ve already lost.

Success only comes to people when they try something over and over again, a slightly different attempt each time.

We learn. We build muscle memory. Change velocity. Wins are subconsciously enforced as good behaviour. Over time, we discover the right method or approach.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success, simply someone who has tried a thousand times.

Hitch a ride

hitchhiker
Life is full of trends. Like waves in the ocean, we can get swayed back and forth without realising it.

We know that the cycle of poverty is hard to break because there’s momentum behind generational unemployment.

Addictions are terrible because it’s not only the substance or behaviour, it’s the habitual repetition of that action that makes it hard to break.

On the positive, finding a mentor or boss with positive momentum can completely change your career or outlook on life.

Who will you hitch a ride with this year?

Fixed or flexible

flexible

It’s frustrating when someone comes along and ditches the plan. The plan we all agreed was the best path. The one we graphed and colour coded and said, in unison, ‘approved’.

It’s also frustrating when someone can’t break from the plan. The plan that is so constrictive, inflexible. The plan that’s stopping us from making something even better.

Both ways of thinking are perfectly fine, but can be equally dangerous.

Often I find myself in both camps. When I’m invested in the plan, I can’t stand it when people break it. When I want to break the plan, I can’t stand people who want to keep it.

Understanding the type of people you work with (and for), either planners or breakers, is a massive help.

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Deliver at all costs

delivery
Photo: npr.com

Not delivering is the worst thing you can do. It gives me a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.

Sometimes we stall and delay because we’re afraid of showing people our work or being judged on the quality.

But the results are secondary, really. And the benefit of hindsight means we can improve, optimise and learn for next time.

If Amazon delayed delivering a book you ordered because they thought you might just return it, or write a bad review, you’d be mad.

So, let’s keep our commitments. Even if it’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, ship it. Press send. Turn up. Apply.

Then learn from it. Doing nothing is worse than doing something badly.

Working backwards

We usually get stuck when charging ahead, blasting through the steps, until, suddenly, we can’t go any further.

Running full speed our heads down blocks the vision of the end goal. Sometimes we end up off track, with a product nobody asked for or wants.

Another way: do it backwards. Keep in mind the end goal – from the start.

If things go perfectly, what will we end up with? Answer that, and you’ll find it much harder to get lost.

Burning desire

Campfire

What makes you tick?

What burns inside you that drives your thoughts, actions and dreams?

Everyone has something. Some feel it stronger than others. I think it’s worth reflecting on our desires and motivations or else we risk losing sight of why we do what we do.

Try writing it down, sticking it up in your room and measuring how much time you spend trying to make it a reality.

Perhaps much of our frustration in life comes from wasting time on things that don’t matter.

Generalising

See what I did there?

It’s true, though. Most of the time, most of the people will act the way we expect.

However most of the time we aren’t trying to get most of the people to do what we want. (to change their thinking, perceptions, behaviours)

We usually target very specific segments, commonly referred to as niche’s. They’re the kendo club, the amateur cartoonist or karaoke restaurant enthusiasts.

Most of the time, those people are weird. Different to the norm.

Generalisations are useful, but let’s keep in mind who we’re really trying to connect with.