Author: whatifconcepts

Empowering those that inspire so they can excel at the work that matters.

Depends

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How many lug nuts on a car wheel are you willing to travel without?  How many gears on a road bike are you willing to ride without?  How many times are your willing to let your shoelaces break before replacing them?

The best answer; it depends on the journey and circumstance.  In a perfect world, we would purchase, fix, or replace any of these items immediately.  However, we tend to drive, ride and walk a little way before addressing the problem.  In extenuating circumstances, we travel great distances and endure long periods of time if our survival outranks the pending maintenance issue.

There are no perfect top ten lists or flow charts.  If these things existed we could replace most committees, task forces, board, and leadership teams with algorithms.  Instead, we need the human element to wrestle with the questions that matter.  Great decision-makers are capable of altering the course of a cause more than the accumulation of resources.

Never forget to think about the human element.  Otherwise, we are collecting badges and experience points as we try to advance from level to level without an understanding of how it impacts the overall mission.

Pine Cones and Acorns

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If our best ideas are like pine cones and acorns then they need to fall outside the canopy of the great trees from which they fall.  It is scary and uncertain to land on an exposed piece of land but necessary to germinate.  Our best ideas that fall at the roots of the parent tree never have a chance to fully evolve.  Unless someone transports them to open sunlight, adds moisture, and places them in fertile earth.

This is why we share ideas with others.  We cannot foster all our great ideas.  Too many fall under our own aboral umbrella.  We have to seed them with just enough structure that someone else can take them forth.  Sometimes our best success comes from moments of serendipity.  The seatmate on a flight, the stranger at a conference, the visitor who sits in on a meeting.  Our weakest ties become the greatest hope that our best ideas might find a home and scale to full form.

Simon Sinek reminds us that ideas only take their true form when we share them out loud.  We have to give them life and put them into the narrative.  Like the pine cone and acorns, their fate depends on the ecosystem in which they land.

Dosage

What is the right dosage of our organization’s mission to achieve optimal impact?  How do we quantify meaningful connections to gain the full benefits of our programs?  Who are our super users, just right visitors, and not enough group?

My family has been visiting college campuses this year.  I have been fascinated by how each university prioritizes their introductory itinerary for prospective students.  All sessions start with an orientation that involves a digital presentation.  Afterward, student-led campus tours are the norm.  However, a number of colleges do not include a visit to a single academic building on their prescribed route.  Recreation centers, student unions, residential halls, dining options, historic buildings, athletic stadiums, and central outdoor spaces all make the must-see list.  Only two universities had us sit down at desks in a classroom to discuss academic life, student-teacher ratios, and curriculum tracks.  Each university makes an assumption about what is going to resonate with prospective students.  They calculate the right dosage of show-and-tell to capture the essence of their institution.

This past weekend, I took my son to a snowy football game at my alma mater.  Attending a football game might add the right dosage of the college experience to help him decide for or against the college (even when the student body was on Thanksgiving Break).  My students’ decision will be based on where they can see themselves thrive.  The university that provides the right dosage that resonates with their individual preferences. 

 

What Happened?

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Not every boarding pass gets us on a plane.  We take for granted that a rectangular piece of paper with an airline logo printed in the corner allows us to board.  What assumptions once re-examined might be transformative?  How often do we pause in the middle of everyday activities to consider all that operate smoothly for us to advance without complication?  One warning light can delay a flight for hours, even when the non-cooperating part appears to be less than vital.  What is essential for your journey?  Who have we taken for granted?

Alone on the Edge

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Thirty degrees at 7 PM and snow appears on the roadside as I near Bogus Basin Ski Area.  I have been riding uphill for 14 miles and not spied another cyclist, which is remarkable because there is always another velo enthusiast on this route.  A vest, rain jacket, long fingered gloves, and cycling cap rest in my jersey pocket, ready to add micro-layers of protection during the thirty-minute descent.  There is no official turn-around point on this ride.  Temperature and road conditions are the guiding parameters.  Finally, I encounter sheets of water running across the road and decide I do not need to be wet and cold, and the ascent stops and the return to the valley floor begins.

I have traveled this route over one hundred times by bike.  Tonight’s effort stood out because I was alone and the temperature.  It joined hallmark memories, like the thunderstorm that pounced so quickly that I turned around one-minute from the summit, afraid for my safety and without disappointment that I had not reached the top.  Or, the time I loaned my jacket to a freezing cyclist from Arizona who rode up the mountain unprepared for Idaho’s fall weather. Then there was the cow that stood in the road on a blind corner.  On the descent, I missed striking this oblivious bovine because I decided to try a different high-speed line around the corner.

The moments on edge are the ones that stand out.  The ascents and descents that fall somewhere in the range of normal are forgotten, even when recorded in a training log.  Our own edge provides a conduit into an inner conversation about what we value and believe.  

Today, what opportunities do we have to visit our edge?

 

A Case for Wayfinding

Screen Shot 2018-04-07 at 9.12.01 AMIf the plan were certain then there is no need for the journey.   Every round of golf starts with a scripted course of action.  The prefered route is laid out on a map.  Yet most rounds of golf do not go as planned.  We must adapt and find our own route.  Afterward, what gives the stories we tell character and color is the way we overcame those obstacles.  If a round of golf cannot follow the script, why do we think our three and five-year plans are going to stay on course?  Planning is powerful.  Wayfinding, once we begin, is essential otherwise the plan does not match reality.

  

 

Wayfinding

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If the goal is clear, the route remains flexible.  The goal, gain 1,000 meters of elevation.  The first day it took 50 kilometers of cross-country skate skiing.  The next morning the milestone arrived in 4 kilometers using backcountry skis to ascend to the top of a ski resort.  If we see one option to achieve our goals, then we miss the adventure.  Wayfinding is how we solve big questions and reach big goals.

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Check-in

Screen Shot 2018-02-06 at 9.27.08 AMThe meeting is wrapping up.  Agendas and handouts are re-organized, laptops shut, bags and coats grabbed.  The Board Chair states, ‘I want to go around the room and check-in with each person.’  She looks to her left and makes eye contact with the board member seated next to her.  The board member replies, ‘good meeting.’  The next board member nods and then adds, ‘I would like to know more about how we select the firm that performs our audit.’  The third person to the left of the Board Chair states, ‘I still have questions about the draft contract we reviewed to engage the marketing firm.’  A few heads nod.  The Executive Director starts to respond but the Board Chair assures everyone more details will be forthcoming.  And the process continues as each attendee is given the opportunity to share.  Some provide a thumbs up to signal all is well.  Others reflect on the momentum of the organization’s growth.  One individual alerts the group that they will be traveling next month an unable to attend the next meeting.  The check-in takes just a few minutes.  The meeting is adjourned and everyone scatters to their next commitment.

The act of the check-in, a moment of reflection, community catch-up or whichever term you choose is powerful.  It provides a platform for each individual to share that which is most pressing, concerning, or might be helpful for the good of the order.  Facilitators often use this technique when working with groups.  What would it look like if a check-in was the final act of your next board or committee meeting?  What would it feel like as a board member to share a final reflection or acknowledge an uncertainty?