Honor the Time

I was honored to just complete a 4 day Teacher/Facilitator Certification. 10 highly motivated professionals coming in from around the country to earn their opportunity to teach others. I am reminded of how important education is each time there is an opportunity. Without the transfer of knowledge from one person to the next it is lost forever. Highly motivated, well educated, passionate professionals will not know the foundation of learning without someone else sharing the information.

Lessons in that:
- We need each other
- We are learning machines with an appetite to "know"
- The transfer of knowledge can never be compromised

Thank you to all spent the time and earned the learning. We are all better for it.

What are you looking for?

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after." - JRR Tolkien

I recently received an e-mail from a colleague who had just taken a transfer to a different part of the company. She did this to find a healthy work balance while still managing a significant part of the business and making an impact. This happens all the time yet she had recently e-mailed me and suggested that she just figured that the company HQ had written her off and that connections she had once made were no longer available to her.

This is the same professional that a couple years earlier I had shared a truth. Companies, although many have great missions and do a great good have no soul. A company will not check you at your limit, will not send you home early, will not celebrate an anniversary or birthday. A company, better yet a corporation is meant to do one thing. To sustain and grow and live past the lives fueling it now adding shareholder value and doing what it does forever.

She is a dedicated, talented and driven professional. She had been carrying a torch for a brand in the company for years waiting and working for the benefit of that brand yet becoming frustrated because it was an on gain off again brand for the business. Finally, after a masters degree, two children and a killer commute she decided to look for something different. She decided to look for balance and professional growth.

Here is the good news, she won. Not waiting for the company to some how grow a soul she went looking for something and found something new that she was never quite going after. Balance, professional impact and vital connections in the business that did not get cut off but actually grew stronger because of her journey.

Keith Ferrazzi

"Who's Got Your Back" is the book the Keith is out speaking about right now. I hosted him at Life Time Fitness and the company had a great experience. Keith spoke in the LTF Artistry Auditorium to a focused and inspired group.

His book is summed up this way:

"Disregard the myth of the lone professional "superman" and the rest of our culture's go-it alone mentality. The real path to success in your career and in your personal life is through creating an inner circle of "lifeline relationships" - deep, close relationships with a few key trusted individuals who will offer the encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support that every one of us needs to reach our full potential. Whether your dream is to lead a company, be a top producer in your field, overcome the self-destructive habits that hold you back, lose weight or make a difference in the larger world, Who's Got Your Back will give you the roadmap you've been looking for to achieve the success you deserve. "

Keith inspired the room to pursue open, vulnerable relationships to allow a break down of silos and starting to build dynamic relationships the create accountability and a better work environment.

His book is a great read. I would encourage you to pick one up and read!

http://http://www.keithferrazzi.com/WGYB/mybook.html

Suburbia

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Suburbia

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Silos, Politics and Turf Wars

Pat Lencioni wrote a book by this title. Reading about the concept and living in an all out turf war is like watching a WW II movie and actually storming the beach! The movie can reflect the emotion and danger of war but when you are really there the full impact, aftermath and repercussions become, shall we say acute.

Real war causes real death, real turf war causes real death too.

Death comes:
- To respect of one division to another
- Productivity
- Agreeing and working toward the common good
- Professional relationships
- The true idea of why we work in the first place

There is also collateral damage. Those not even involved can lose days and have increased frustration because of the bickering, back channel communication, lack of alignment and down right undermining. These symptoms unchecked bring a wider range of impact to the company, people lose respect for those in the battle and secondary casualties start to way heavy on the company itself moving forward. Turf wars are selfish.

I believe that turf wars can start:
- From the ground up when two people or divisions naturally compete and then the competition turns personal and vindictive because the common company goal and mission is forgotten or put in second place behind ego and expectation

- Nurtured from the top down when executives fuel the fire because that is how they motivate someone to work hard or find it exciting/personally advantageous to fan the flames to press their agenda or goal

Either way a turf war unchecked or managed too will lead to hurt feelings, loss of motivation, loss of relationship and eventually may hurt the company in a significant way when the going gets tough and true alignment is needed.

Some cultures in companies are built around fueling the flames. Some companies refuse to allow turf wars to grow and manage and lead to collaboration and cross functional effectiveness.

What type are you?

Keys to Success

I must see 3 minute presentation on success!

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A Qoute for Greatness

"Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends." - WALT DISNEY

I love how this one quote from Walt Disney sums up what I believe to be his belief on customer service. If you make "seeing it again and bringing their friends" happen consistently by hiring right, training right and giving this talented people the right tools then game over, you win.

I know I want to see what Walt Does and I want to often bring my friends. He may be gone yet his company still strives to deliver on this belief.

July 4th!

"The day will be the most memorable in America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival...it ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade...bonfires and fireworks from one end of this continent to the other, from this day forward, forevermore." -John Adams

I agree John Adams! Thanks for the great idea. Happy Birthday to the USA

Trajectory Depends On Where You Want To Go

Seth Godin just posted this diagram on his blog. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/07/the-riskreward-confusion.html

Similar is the idea that I have written about around life trajectory. There are times in your life:
- Choosing to go to college
- Choosing a life partner
- Making money doing some work
- Turing 40

All of these passages and many more are times when we evaluate what we want in life and attempt to set the trajectory that will give us purpose, have something to look forward too and surround us with good relationships and work.

What if you find at any of these passages that you are not finding the fulfillment you projected or you realize that you have simply set a poor trajectory because you have new insight on who you are?

Fear (see blog from 7/1/09) can set in and then there is a risk we ignore the voice telling us our trajectory is off and we keep plowing forward without addressing a career choice, a unhealthy relationship or a change in our age.

Another option would be to step through your fear and break down your life trajectory to the point that will allow you to re-build inside your purpose. I am not suggesting you abandon all that you have built or reject all relationships you have built along the way. I am suggesting that you get serious about following your path of purpose and stop worrying about $$ in a job you do not like or regretting an eduction you do not have. Move and build your trajectory back to where you want to be! The only thing you might regret is the time your waste in waiting to move after you see your trajectory needs to be pointing a different way.

In 2000 I was an executive at a fast growth company pulling into a white two story colonial home with a pool, acre of property, 2 great kids and beautiful wife and wondered if this was all there is? All of these things were fine yet I felt there was more. Holding onto my wonderful family, together we jumped, left the home, pool, job and set off on an adventure that led us to start a company, my wife to get her MA in counseling and our kids to understand that stepping through fear and taking risk is a part of life and that it is important to set the right trajectory even if that means you need to step back to move forward.

Seth is right, risk vs reward is the axis, Trajectory is the plan and fear can stop you if you let it. Step on through to the other side.

Fear is Not Real

The only feeling that is an illusion is fear. Fear is a sensation in your body and mind that is felt based on the projection of what could be not what is.

- We bar windows because we fear we will be robbed
- We feel fear when we see we could be hit by a car, projecting how much is could hurt
- We buy insurance to mitigate a fear of what could be lost

At the point any of these fears become a reality fear leaves us and the "Fight or Flight" feelings of anger, confusion, pain, rage, excitement and many others become the real feeling that take fear's place.

If you allow fear to carry into your reality and you do not replace it with a "Fight or Flight Feeling" you become consumed, immobilized and unable to move into a safe position. Fear will not make you move it will only make you aware that you are in danger. Fear is a thin veil that must be passed through or it will bring to pass the very thing you feared and consume you.