“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“I must disabuse you of a commonly held idea, that when you get to be the boss everybody under you works for you. You will get far more done if you figure out a way to work for them.”
— Kenneth Ashworth, American educator, educational administrator, and public servant; from his 2001 book, Caught between the Dog and the Fireplug
Success is when you realize what makes you special.
There is so much software in the public domain that doesn’t work. A few examples include the ticket app that fails to process your payment in time, the parking app that failed to register your account setup, or the payment app that charged your debit card three times. What happens when these issues occur; who can you call? We, aka the End Users, are tricked in a Postman / McLuhan kind of way, to replace solid functionality with UX driven graphic design. What is not obvious is that the cool, spinning, bright-colored buttons are inexpensive because they are just eye candy. The real investment in software is in making it resilient AND intuitive so that it works 99.9999% of the time.
You, Ms. Leader, make me feel disengaged from the organization when you think communication is not important …When you hold me accountable for things I can not control …When you withhold information about the direction of the organization so I don’t understand the value of my work …When others have more influence with you than I do because your focus is upwards and not down …
Tags: #NatureofMan
Orange thinking is a concept of combining two powerful perspectives, aligning them strategically by establishing a common end, and synchronizing and integrating plans to bring about change.
The discipline of Psychology tells us that the color yellow represents ENERGY and the color red represents PASSION. Together they are orange which represents FOCUS and ENTHUSIASM, which is an ideal environment for change.
The challenge is implementation. There are three steps to turning one’s thinking orange.
Aligning red and yellow forces creates an impact at a visceral level and it facilitates overcoming inertia inherent in the organization. Like traffic cones, orange thinking enables movement towards making a change in the world.
How many emails do you have in your inbox? Do you really want one more? Your employees feel the same way. You are competing for their attention and so you must craft your message so that critical information gets through.
To reach your organizational goals your team needs to counterbalance ambiguity with good organization design. You need your employees to be able to talk about your goals consistently and passionately without a PowerPoint.
You must contextualize communication around your strategic objectives for communication is the lifeblood of your organization and essential to successful projects.
Ok, so this isn’t the first post but we are starting fresh. Have you ever experienced a moment when you wondered what you were supposed to know but don’t given your age? Questions might pop into your mind such as, when should I go see the doctor for a physical or how do I get investment advice?
I know some of this knowledge is supposed to be passed down from parents but what if that didn’t happen? Would you rely on television commercials or Google? Would you try to strike up a conversation with a buddy at work? How will you know you are getting good advice?
Insights will tackle some of the questions that we can’t put off any longer. I hope this starts a conversation and possibly provides some helpful guidance occasionally.
At the 9-11 memorial
Tags: Published, xNYC2016, From the Road
June 08, 2016 at 10:41AM
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