As a Goshen Web Design firm, we’ve got to celebrate with the Goshen College boys basketball team on Goshen player, Errick McCollum, making the Friday, Jan. 15, ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays. The Senior Goshen player’s steal and dunk versus Grace College was the #6 Top Play!! We celebrate with our community on a NAIA Div. II team making the big time ESPN cut! Great job Errick!
A good post from Pat Lencioni and worth reflecting on…
The Enemy of Innovation and Creativity
Maybe it was just the kind of kid I was, but I’m guessing that most children are constantly reminded by adults to be more efficient. Maybe not exactly in those words. More likely it comes in the form of phrases like “don’t be late”, “use your time wisely”, “don’t waste money” or even “turn off the lights when you leave a room”.
And while it’s difficult to argue with a parent’s or teacher’s or coach’s motivation for instilling these principles in the youngsters they’re responsible for, there comes a time in life—especially in certain situations—when those very traits become problematic. One of those situations is the call to innovation or creativity.
I’ve become convinced that the only way to be really creative and innovative in life is to be joyfully inefficient. Again, maybe it’s just my personality, but I’m guessing it applies to most of us whose jobs or lives involve dreaming up or improving on new ideas. And this makes sense. Asking someone to be both creative and efficient reminds me of that quote from Einstein: “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” The two activities are fundamentally opposed to one another.
Efficiency requires that we subdue our passion and allow it to be constrained by principles of logic and convention. Innovation and creativity require us to toss aside logic and convention, even without the near-term promise of a payoff. Embracing both at the same time seems to me to be a recipe for stress, dissonance and mediocrity, and yet, that is exactly what so many organizations—or better yet—leaders, do.
They exhort their employees to utilize their resources wisely and to avoid waste and redundancy, which makes perfect sense. They also exhort them to be ever-vigilant about finding new and better products or processes, which also makes sense. And yet, combining these two perfectly sensible exhortations makes no sense at all, and only encourages rational, responsible people to find a middle ground, something that is decidedly neither efficient nor innovative.
So what are leaders, who want both, to do? First, choose their poison; decide which of these two characteristics are truly more important and live with the consequences. And when you simply have to have both, create skunkworks efforts which allow a small group of people to be joyfully inefficient. No guilt. No confusion. No hesitation. And keep them largely separate from their efficient peers, at least until they’ve developed their ideas and are ready to share them.
But whatever you do, don’t chide creative, innovative people for their inefficiency. And try to avoid throwing faint praise and backhanded compliments at them (e.g. “I guess you creative types just aren’t capable of hitting a deadline or staying on budget”). Few people have the self-esteem and courage to continue being inefficient when others are calling them out as being flaky, irresponsible and unreasonable. If we’re serious about innovation, we have to celebrate—yes, celebrate—the inefficiency of the people who we rely on for new ideas, even if it means they are late for meetings, they waste a little time or money and they leave the lights on when they go home.
Yours,
Patrick Lencioni
I enjoy Jon Gordon’s posts as they typically inspire me to be more positive and give me some good “reflection material.” This most recent blog post is one of those.
I’ve attached the first 5 of the 20 Ways to Get Mentally Tough and included the link for you to click through and get them all via pdf. – Mike
20 Ways to Get Mentally Tough
(Excerpt from Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else)
1. When you face a setback, think of it as a defining moment that will lead to a future accomplishment.
2. When you encounter adversity, remember, the best don’t just face adversity; they embrace it, knowing it’s not a dead end but a detour to something greater and better.
3. When you face negative people, know that the key to life is to stay positive in the face of negativity, not in the absence of it. After all, everyone will have to overcome negativity to define themselves and create their success.
4. When you face the naysayer’s, remember the people who believed in you and spoke positive words to you.
5. When you face critics, remember to tune them out and focus only on being the best you can be.
Here’s an inspirational video for the day. Some of the very best who accomplished some of the highest highs also experienced some of the worst defeats and lowest lows. I’m telling myself, and I’m telling you: PRESS ON!
Here’s a short article from John Maxwell that is a number of years old but has lasting nuggets of wisdom.
I think the points that stick out most to me this time around reading it are collaboration and debriefing. Collaboration is so crucial or else you don’t have buy-in; you don’t have the best ideas; and you don’t engage the best of others in the pursuit. As well, I think de-briefing is ignored far too often. We do something and move on, failing to learn and glean wisdom from the journey because we fail to stop and reflect together. De-briefing enables learning to occur; it enables the team to work through anything that came up during the process, and it allows relational bonds to go deeper. So here is the article, I encourage you to read and reflect on it! – Mike
TREES AND TEAMWORK
By Dr. John C. Maxwell
Leadership lessons are all around for those who know how to look
for them. I’ve observed some powerful motives for leading
through teams from the trees around me.
A few winters ago, parts of the southeastern United States,
including Atlanta where I now live, endured a much tougher than
usual winter. Following a wet, six-inch snowfall, pine trees
made a great parable of the need for teamwork.
Along the roads I noticed that where tall, young pine trees grew
in large stands, even though the branches were bowed with the
heavy snow, the trunks and branches were able to lean against one
another, thus providing support. When the snow melted, those
trees that had support sprang back into their usual vertical
position. But where that same species of tree stood alone, the
snow’s burden had a much different effect. Branches bent until
they snapped. Occasionally, the trunk even split in two.
Otherwise healthy, young trees lay broken on the snow.
On the West coast, where I previously lived, a different type of
tree provided another dramatic parable. The giant redwoods only
achieve their great size in forests of redwoods. The root
systems of these mammoth trees are relatively shallow. Planted
alone, they will inevitably topple in high winds. But in redwood
forests, their roots become entangled and bound together below
the earth’s surface. Each tree is tethered by all its neighbors,
and together they can withstand hurricane force winds.
Leaders who go it alone will fail alone. Collaborative
leadership takes more effort, but it yields greater results.
Collaborative leadership takes more time, but it provides a
greater probability of success. The adage, “None of us is as
smart as all of us” becomes evident when your failure is a direct
result of failing to enlist the input of people on your team.
1. Plan together.
This allows you to share the victory with your team, and allows
your team to share with you in the face of defeat.
2. Prepare together.
Getting input from your team members not only improves your
chances of winning, it also prepares others for leadership roles.
When leaders and potential leaders work together, they learn from
each other new ways of processing information and planning
strategically.
3. Celebrate together.
Never pass up an excuse to throw a party. One of the most common
flaws I see in leaders across the country is when they reach a
significant milestone, they immediately set their sights on
another without stopping long enough to celebrate the victory
they’ve just won. Do it! Not for you, but for everyone else who
gave so much to make the win a reality. And if you lose one once
in a while, celebrate the fact that it could have been worse!
4. Debrief together.
After each win or loss, schedule a brief meeting to find out from
each participant what went well – and what could have gone
better. You’ll see the situation from multiple viewpoints, and
you’ll also see first-hand who on your team is growing in their
ability to handle success and defeat.
When you apply the lesson of the trees, you’ll emerge from the
Everywhere I go these days, I see books about the power of things. The Power of Less. The Power of Now. The Power of Intention. The Power of Positive Thinking.
Whatever.
Not a single one of those things has nearly the same amount of power as the power of negative.
The power of negative hits us every time we start to second-guess our ability to accomplish something.
The power of negative spotlights the places where we feel deficient.
The power of negative causes us to toe society’s lines more often than we should.
But the power of negative has a bright side. It charges our thinking during the planning process so that we consider all the downsides and obstacles before starting. It points to voids where we can create a market. It makes us remarkable.
Much like the force, it has to be channeled for good rather than evil.
A good, quick article to reflect on from the Six Month MBA…Have we gotten into a routine of crushing dreams and forcing narrow (often called ‘realistic’) thinking? I think so far too often. – Mike
Day dreaming is something adults try to shake out of us as kids. We’re told to keep our feet on the ground, to be realistic, to be practical about what is possible. The adults in our lives tend to err on the side of protecting our little spirits rather than pushing us to think big.
Where does that leave us as adults? Any time we start to think big, our trained response is to pull back. Too often we mistake negative thinking with being realistic. We see being practical as a protection against harm rather than playing it safe, which is more harmful in the long run. The reality check becomes a shackle holding us down to earth.
But learning to soar in the clouds, to dream, imagine, think big allows us to find something we never expected-a better reality.
From up high, we can see so much more of what could be and choose a better place, a better reality to be grounded on. One we can’t see if we stay shackled right where we are, in a location we’re already familiar with.
How long have you had your feet on the ground where you are? Is it time to get your head up in the clouds?
Most of us never see our dreams come true. Instead of soaring through the clouds, our dreams languish like a broken-down airplane confined to its hangar. Through life, I have come to identify five common reasons why dreams don’t take flight.
#1 We Have Been Discouraged from Dreaming by Others
We have to pilot our own dreams; we cannot entrust them to anyone else. People who aren’t following their own dreams resent us pursuing ours. Such people feel inadequate when we succeed, so they try to drag us down.
If we listen to external voices, then we allow our dreams to be hijacked. At some point, other people will place limitations on us by doubting our abilities. When surrounded by the turbulence of criticism, we have to grasp the controls tightly to keep from being knocked off course.
#2 We Are Hindered by Past Disappointments and Hurts
In the movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise plays Maverick, a young, talented, and cocky aviator who dreams of being the premier pilot in the U.S. navy. In the film’s opening scenes, Maverick showcases his flying ability but also displays a knack for pushing the envelope with regards to safety. Midway through the movie, Maverick’s characteristic aggression spells disaster. His plane crashes, killing his best friend and co-pilot.
Although cleared of wrongdoing, the painful memory of the accident haunts Maverick. He quits taking risks and loses his edge. Struggling to regain his poise, he considers giving up on his dream. Although the incident nearly wrecks Maverick’s career, he eventually reaches within to find the strength to return to the sky.
Like Maverick, many of us live with the memory of failure embedded in our psyche. Perhaps a business we started went broke, or we were fired from a position of leadership. Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality, and all of us have encountered that gap. Failure is a necessary and natural part of life, but if we’re going to attain our dreams, then, like Maverick, we have to summon the courage deal with past hurts.
#3 We Fall into the Habit of Settling for Average
Average is the norm for a reason. Being exceptional demands extra effort, sustained inspiration, and uncommon discipline. When we attempt to give flight to our dreams, we have to overcome the weight of opposition. Like gravity, life’s circumstances constantly pull on our dreams, tugging us down to mediocrity.
Most of us don’t pay the price to overcome the opposition to our dreams. We may start out inspired, but through time we fatigue. Although never intending to abandon our dreams, we begin to make concessions here and there. Through time, our lives become mundane, and our dreams slip away.
#4 We Lack the Confidence Needed to Pursue Our Dreams
Dreams are fragile. They will be buffeted by assaults from all sides. As such, they must be supplied with the extra strength of self-confidence.
In Amelia Earhart’s day, women were not supposed fly airplanes. If she had lacked self-assurance, she never would have even attempted to be a pilot. Instead, Earhart confidently chased after her dream, and she was rewarded with both fulfillment and fame.
#5 We Lack the Imagination to Dream
For thousands of years, mankind traveled along the ground: by foot, by horse-and-buggy, by locomotive, and eventually by automobile. Thanks to the dreams of Orville and Wilbur Wright, we now hop across oceans in a matter of hours. The imaginative brothers overcame ridicule and doubt to pioneer human flight, and the world has never been the same.
Many of us play small because we do not allow ourselves to dream. We trap ourselves in reality and never dare to go beyond what we can see with our eyes. Imagination lifts us beyond average by giving us a vision of life that surpasses what we are experiencing currently. Dreams infuse our spirit with energy and spur us on to greatness.
About
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold over 16 million books. His organizations have trained more than 2 million leaders worldwide. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and INJOY Stewardship Services.
So the moral of the story is press on, press through, and in the words of Winston Churchill, “Never, give up!”
I’m currently reflecting on this blog post from the SAMBA Blog at www.sixmonthmba.com. “Effort counts.” I like that. Remaining in the place of discomfort often does provide growth. It is stretching and builds fortitude within. Not easy, though, because it always look greener on the other side. “Battling the desire to flee counts.” Perseverance must finish it’s work so that we can become mature and complete. – Mike
How to grow like a fern Posted: 02 Apr 2009 07:19 PM PDT
Ferns are a natural symbol of growth. Just to exist they battle bugs, storms, a tough layer of soil. Existing itself is a tiring. But existing isn’t enough for ferns. Ferns reach.
One by one their leaves create a lofty shape reaching far past the soil. This comes from an intense push against the ground to rise higher, continuously breaking free of the physical limitations imposed upon them. Growth.
Growth doesn’t come from doing things you’re good at. Nor does it come from doing things you love. Real growth comes from a more uncomfortable place. A place of challenges and obstacles that force us to constantly push to get above ground.
Growth comes from doing things you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do them. It’s embracing the thing we resist and fear the most. Doing a great job working for someone else is growth. Teaching yourself something you don’t like doing but need to learn is growth. Prioritizing tasks in the face of intense deadlines is growth. Admitting to yourself why you’re scared is growth. Not running away from your responsibilities is growth.
Most importantly, acceptance is growth.
Accept the thing you least want to do. Embrace it. Pretend it was the very thing you were put on this Earth to do. Do it to the best of your ability and don’t think about the results. Take the next step, finish the daunting task, get clear about your relationship.
Effort counts. Battling the desire to flee counts. Realizing that the anxiety of fighting it outweighs the risk of doing it counts.
I am a guy seeking to live a life that makes a difference. Not finished yet but doing what I can along the way!
I'm a Internet Marketing Consultant for Digital Hill Multimedia, specializing in making the web work for you through websites, web applications, and online marketing with a specialty in social media marketing and increasing your brand footprint online.
By night I'm a closet business consultant, mission consultant, leadership consultant, little league coach, husband, researcher, and big time dreamer.
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