Learning from history is cheap. And worth it.
What are the five best decisions your competitor or your predecessor made last year?
Not only because they worked, but because they showed you a new way of thinking, something that went against your instincts or biases…
Every political candidate ought to be able to outline the five lessons learned from the men and women who came before–especially the positive things they've learned from those in other parties. Those unwilling or unable to do so are either demagogues or ignorant.
Every job candidate ought to be able to outline the five lessons learned from the leaders they've worked with previously. Those unwilling or unable to do so are not paying attention.
The number one thing to steal from your competitors: Wisdom.
January 12, 2016
What are you doing that's difficult?
What are you doing that people believe only you can do?
Who are you connecting?
What do people say when they talk about you?
What are you afraid of?
What's the scarce resource?
Who are you trying to change?
What does the change look like?
Would we miss your work if you stopped making it?
What do you stand for?
What contribution are you making?
Hints: Any question that's difficult to answer deserves more thought. Any answers that are meandering, nuanced or complex are probably a symptom of something important.
January 11, 2016
Your customers are hiding.
Your prospects are hiding.
You are hiding.
All of us are.
Hiding from change. Hiding from responsibility. Hiding from the prospect of feeling foolish.
We hide by avoiding things that will change us. We hide by asking for reassurance. We hide by letting someone else speak up and lead.
We live in fear of feelings.
We're lucky enough that the things we used to fear don't happen so often any more, so now we fear feelings.
We will rationalize in extraordinary ways to avoid coming out of hiding.
When in doubt, look in the hiding places.
Olly, olly, oxen free.
January 10, 2016
Two guys are running away from an angry grizzly when one stops to take off his hiking boots and switches to running shoes. "What are you doing," the other guy yells, "those aren't going to allow you to outrun the bear…" The other guy smiles and points out that he doesn't have to outrun the bear, just his friend.
I was at a fancy event the other day, and it was held in three different rooms. All of these fancy folks were there, in fancy outfits, etc. More than once, I heard people ask, "is this room the best room?" It wasn't enough that the event was fancy. It mattered that the room assigned was the fanciest one.
Class rank. The most expensive car. A 'better' neighborhood. A faster marathon. More online followers. A bigger pool…
One unspoken objection to raising the minimum wage is that people, other people, those people, will get paid a little more. Which might make getting ahead a little harder. When we raise the bottom, this thinking goes, it gets harder to move to the top.
After a company in Seattle famously raised its lowest wage tier to $70,000, two people (who got paid more than most of the other workers) quit, because they felt it wasn't fair that people who weren't as productive as they were were going to get a raise.
They quit a good job, a job they liked, because other people got a raise.
This is our culture of 'getting ahead' talking.
This is the thinking that, "First class isn't better because of the seats, it's better because it's not coach." (Several airlines have tried to launch all-first-class seating, and all of them have stumbled.)
There are two challenges here. The first is that in a connection economy, the idea that others need to be in coach for you to be in first doesn't scale very well. When we share an idea or an experience, we both have it, it doesn't diminish the value, it increases it.
And the second, in the words of moms everywhere: Life is more fun when you don't compare. It's possible to create dignity and be successful at the same time. (In fact, that might be the only way to be truly successful.)
January 9, 2016
- Start with the method. Unlike just about everything else we teach, science is not based on human culture or history. If one wants to study literature or geography or the Kings and Queens of England, it begins with knowing all that came before, the work, the names, the lists, the battles. Science, on the other hand, is above culture. Gravity would have existed even if Isaac Newton hadn't invented it. After two weeks of science class, students should know how to think like a scientist.
- Science makes sense, it's not magic. One of the challenges of teaching science in high school is that there seems to be so much to cover, it's tempting to cram all the formulas, names and theories in front of students. Just as there's no room to argue about when they fought the War of 1812, we often present science as a bag of magical facts, not the result of a method, a method students can implement.
- Then the vocabulary. Not first, not second, but third. Vocabulary is where science students tune out. When a word doesn't mean anything, when it's a random placeholder, the easiest thing to do is fail to understand it, forever. And then there's no recovery. A strong vocabulary gives students the foundation to move forward, a weak one is the end, forever.
- Metaphors are how we understand. Most of science, even physics after a few months, is about the invisible, the tiny, the very large, the things under the skin. The more we give students metaphors to hook these concepts into a world that's understood, the better.
Here are some statements worth avoiding:
Memorize this, it will be on the test.
Don't worry about it, just be able to answer the question.
You understood the concept, but were wrong by a decimal point. Zero credit.
Do the lab, even if it doesn't make sense.
In my (limited) experience, just about everything we do to teach science is diametrically the opposite of the points listed above.
If it's worth memorizing, it's worth even more to understand it.
PS this works with anything scientific, not just school science.
January 8, 2016
Leadership is a choice. This is apparently controversial, but more than any other element I can track, leadership occurs when someone decides it's important that they lead.
The challenge, then, is in making the choice to lead.
I'd like to invite you to a new real-time online workshop on leadership. The goal of this group sprint is to create an interactive, real-time environment where you can safely explore what the leadership choice is capable of accomplishing, what it means, and how to get there.
You can find all the details here.
The workshop takes three hours, and my hope is that with your contribution (of time, content and energy), it will become an important part of the + Acumen series of courses. We're doing this as a fundraiser, hoping it will raise enough to allow Acumen to double the reach of their already essential online workshops and courses. Tickets are limited, and sign ups end next Friday.
I'll be in the Slack room for this launch session, and I hope to see you there.
{PS Sunday is the deadline for altMBA4 early-decision applications. The final deadline is next week.}
January 7, 2016
There are millions of college seniors beginning their job search in earnest.
And many of them are using the skills they've been rewarded for in the past:
Writing applications
Being judged on visible metrics
Showing up at the official (placement) office
Doing well on the assignments
Paying attention to deadlines, but waiting until the last minute, why not
Getting picked
Fitting in
The thing is, whether you're a newly graduating senior (in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt) or a middle-aged, experienced knowledge worker looking for a new job, what the best gigs want to know is:
Can you show me a history of generous, talented, extraordinary side projects?
Have you ever been so passionate about your work that you've gone in through the side door?
Are you an expert at something that actually generates value?
Have you connected with leaders in the field in moments when you weren't actually looking for a job?
Does your reputation speak for itself?
Where online can I see the trail of magic you regularly create?
None of these things are particularly difficult to learn, if you are willing to be not very good at them before you're good at them.
Alas, famous colleges and the industrial-education process rarely bother to encourage this.
January 6, 2016
The crowd prefers sweets.
The crowd gets on its feet when your band plays the big hit, and sits down for the new songs.
The crowd will pay far more for a steak dinner than a vegetable one, regardless of cost or effort or value.
The crowd will always pick the movie over the book.
The crowd would rather wait in line for the popular attraction.
The crowd likes to be chased.
The crowd likes explosions, resolved plots and ample lighting.
The crowd would prefer a digest.
The crowd never liked Ornette Coleman very much.
The crowd's favorite words include fast, easy, cheap, fun, now and simple.
The crowd needs a deadline.
The crowd is the group of people who don't get what you do, who loom on the horizon as the reward for making your work more popular.
And yet, the crowd continually gets more than it deserves, because people like you make work that matters. Work that you're proud of.
January 5, 2016
When you build a tribe or a movement, you're asking people to join you.
To become, "one of us."
That means, though, you need to be really clear who 'us' is. Not just who am I joining, but what does it mean to be one of you?
January 4, 2016
Writing the first draft of a computer program is easy. It's the testing that separates the professional from a mere hack. Test and then, of course, make it better.
The same thing is true with:
- Restaurant recipes
- Essays
- Web user interface
- Customer service
- Management techniques
- Licensing agreements
- Strategy
- Relationships of all kinds
The reason it's so difficult to test and improve is that it requires you to acknowledge that your original plan wasn't perfect. And to have the humility and care to go ahead and fix it.
No fair announcing that you're good at starting things. The world is looking for people who are good at polishing them until they work.
January 3, 2016
