What Did You Learn Today?

by | Apr 26, 2016 | Change, Learning

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What do you write when you don’t know what to write?

This is similar to the concept of what to do when you don’t know what to do.

On my list of daily dozen activities in my April adventure are posting to this blog and writing down 3 things I’m grateful for in the last 24 hours.

Today I wasn’t sure what to blog about. It was a full day of meetings on highly disparate topics that involved many different people. I started to synthesize it all.

Then a thought occurred to me. What if I changed “what am I grateful for?” to “what did I learn today?”

Here goes.

An editorial calendar is a must to sustain daily blogging. It’s easier to post daily when I know in advance what I’m going to write about. When planning for a particularly busy day, I outline and start drafting a post the night before. But I’ve learned this month that an editorial calendar is even more important.

Collaborative work spaces help build relationships and momentum. Visiting a company location with an open-environment workspace this week reminded me of the value of face-to-face interactions. I moved around the floor between meetings and sat in high-traffic areas. At least 3 chance conversations helped accelerate some of the projects I’m working on.

People will share the most fascinating things if you ask questions and listen. Today was a lot about asking questions and hearing what a variety of people had to say. Now I’m synthesizing all of that input, identifying areas where more information would be valuable and doing follow-up actions.

No one has all the answers. Often in life, there’s no single right answer. There are a range of options, all with upsides and downsides. Talking with a lot of people helps generate additional options. It also reinforces that we’re all figuring things out as we go along. But working together, we’re stronger.

Be humble. This is one of the most important learnings through my career pivot. Often I’m researching concepts that are new to me or asking others a lot of questions. It’s part of being bad first that Erika Andersen articulated in her book of the same name. And it sure is humbling. Yet I’m also humbled by how generous and patient people are with sharing their expertise and perspectives.

What did you learn today?

Can You Change in an Instant?

by | Apr 23, 2016 | Change, Learning

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Is it possible to change in an instant?

Conventional wisdom says no. Change involves multiple steps. Change takes time. Change is hard.

Yet there is one thing you can change in a moment. What is it? Your mind.

You don’t need more than a moment to decide you will think in a different way. You will act in a different way. You will see the world in a different way.

Endlessly inspiring in this area is one of author Gretchen Rubin‘s “twelve commandments of happiness.”

Here it is . . .

“Act the way you want to feel.”

Not feeling so good, physically, emotionally or spiritually? Start acting the way you’d rather feel.

If you want to feel happy, start acting that way. If you want to feel energetic, bring a bounce to your step. If you want to feel valued, start by appreciating someone else.

And if changing your life in an instant seems too far fetched, try these tips from Nicolas Cole for how you can improve your life the most in a single day.

His best advice?

“Be today who you want to be tomorrow.”

Who do you want to be tomorrow?

Just start acting as if you already are that person.

You Can Change

by | Apr 21, 2016 | Change, Learning

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Could there be anything new about the growth mindset, first articulated by Stanford’s Carol Dweck?

As it turns out, yes.

People Won’t Grow If You Think They Can’t Change was a great post today in Harvard Business Review.

Written by Monique Valcour, the piece applies a growth mindset to how leaders view, interact with and influence the learning potential of their team members.

Did you ever work with a leader who saw more potential in you than you did at the time? Did you ever have have a team member with more potential than they saw in themselves? How did those scenarios turn out?

A good way to think about new frontiers or challenges is Dweck’s TED talk, The power of believing you can improve.

She opened with a story about a Chicago high school where students who didn’t pass a class got a mark of “not yet.” What did that do? It placed people on a learning curve into the future.

What’s your “not yet”?