How does your tribe communicate? Is there a glossary to assist newcomers and outsiders?
Author: whatifconcepts
Impressive, Remarkable, and/or Profound Impact
How do we assign value to an individual’s effort? What is impressive to one person may be remarkable to another or have a profound impact on the recipient. Knowing who you are serving and why transforms the value.
Remarkable Meetings?
Attentiv published a report highlighting our meeting habits. It is worth a read and perhaps some consideration. Why are so few meetings scheduled without an agenda? What does the duration of the meeting say about how we value our team’s time? What is the difference between meetings?
What is the best meeting you have attended? Why? Have you told anyone so they can benefit from your experience?
Making It Visible
Just because the path is not entirely visible does not mean a journey cannot launch. Our greatest successes reveal themselves in moments when we start in a shroud and summit despite the conditions. If we strike boldly for an invisible peak we move intentionally.
I am reminded of a scene from the West Wing where Leo McGarry tells Josh Lyman a story of hope.
“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.”A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.”Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on”Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.'”
What journey is worth commencing when the summit is not visible and success remains elusive?
Success or Problems
Does your organization’s agenda highlight successes or problems? Most enterprises proportion the majority of their time in favor of problems. If an outsider attended a board meeting would they think your organization was succeeding or struggling on a burning platform?
Consider what your organization spends its time discussing in meetings. What does it do to the culture of the organization?
Signature Moments
Sometimes the iconic thing you do needs to be hidden from view in order for others to appreciate its value. Boise State University’s Football Team is know for playing on blue turf. There is now an NCAA rule that restricts any other football programs from installing turf that is not green in color. The BSU stadium’s field is covered with grass this week in order to facilitate a FIFA friendly soccer match. The blue turf is visible year round except for this special occasion. Covering the blue turf has generated numerous interest, discussion, and robust debate. The iconic blue turf will be back next week and appreciation for its existence will grow. The grass has a future home in a local park so those with an affinity for the soccer pitch can visit it there.
What if you hid your signature thing for a few days. Would people notice? Would they remark on its absence? Who would comment? What might you learn about its perceived value?
Elite Status
A room on the highest floor with a views may be provided for individuals with higher status in a hotel loyalty program. That perk is less treasured when the elevators stop operating or a tropical storm forces evacuations to lower floors. First and Business Class seats are usually clustered in the first rows of an airplane. These seats becomes less desirable when the air conditioning unit in the front of the plane fails and the temperature soars. Upgraded luxury cars are offered as perks to loyal rent-a-car customers. This upgrade becomes less remarkable when one has to refill the gas tank or a customer is assessed a congestion charge in a major city, a fee that is waived for smaller hybrid vehicles.
Elite status brings benefits. Not everyone is seeking the same perks. The assumption that a business makes about what constitutes value can be misaligned with the customer’s desires. Being flexible with rewards offers more value than having a one size fits all rewards chart.
Sleeper
We get lulled into patterns of thinking and acting. The is fast, that is slow. Open this door, not that. This person produces results, that person always hesitates before acting. We do this until our pattern is interrupted. If we are adventurous enough we put ourselves in unique environments then weak ideas influence our worldview.
We can interact with a different group of people, attend conferences that attract a different tribe, read from peripheral sources, or just try to get lost and search for a way back. Otherwise it takes the unexpected to jolt us awake. When our paradigm is flipped by the irrelevant becoming remarkable.
Pathway Forward
If the conditions are challenging enough, others will seek to share the path that you are working to establish.
Humor
Where does humor find itself into our efforts? If we cannot remember the last outburst of laughter perhaps it is a point of reflection. Few of us are making decisions that will change the fate of the world within seconds. It is the committed ceaselessness of our efforts that results in remarkable. Lets be a bit playful in our deliberations otherwise the world we are trying to create becomes a lot harder to imagine.
What-if-concepts 