Without some troops I would not tackle a project like shifting the locus of my business from my computer to another system so that others could share it.  Having that locus of control shifted makes many things possible that weren’t possible before.

While I have them (before they move on with their REAL lives), Ipek (on the left) and Semih (on the right) are making possible this transition to Cooler Email and other great tools of productivity.

On a related topic, I attended a business gathering last evening where we talked about execution of strategy.  The overarching theme of the evening was that for there to be a shift in the collective consciousness of bringing our heart to the business world, and not just our head, we all need to work for the common good and make decisions with the common good in mind, not just our selfish interests.

This is a theme of mine, and fortunately not JUST mine!  Working for the common good means that as we go about our regular work, we bring in the fine art of considering how what WE do will impact others.

I have helped Semih find a school where he will get his MBA, and I will help Ipek get a job.  I met these two young adults through an earlier intern, Orcun, whom I helped find a job and in doing so I lost him as an intern.  He replaced himself by introducing me to his two friends who needed internships.  THAT, my friends, is the FINE art of getting things done!  When I released my need for Orcun to be my intern, little did I know that I would end up doubling my workforce of interns!  My deciding based on the common good turned out to be good for me, good for Orcun, and good for Ipek and Semih.

I think that’s the way the world REALLY works, and it is NOT intuitive any more than leaning into the curve on a motorcycle is intuitive.  It is a choice, and in the end things get done that should get done, even though in the beginning we don’t see the whole picture.

Workers in China focus on performance, which means they focus on their strengths not their weaknesses.  There, according to Marcus Buckingham’s research, 73 % of workers focus on their strengths, and 27% focus play to their weaknesses compared with the United States where only 14% spend most of their day focusing on their strengths.  We need to build our jobs to fit our strengths.

In the U.S. we believe our strengths are what we are good at, except we may be good at it and we hate it!  We CAN do it, but it drains us.  A weakness is an activity that weakens you.  A strength strengthens you. The assignment from Marcus for the audience was to take a pad of paper, draw a line down the middle, and over the course of the day note what you’re doing and also whether you loved doing it or loathed doing it.

Marcus points to 4 clear signs of strengths:

1.  Success – you feel effective
2.  Instinct – you look forward to it — you like doing it
3. Growth – your synapses are firing, you are in the flow, inquisitive and focused
4.  Needs how do I feel after I have done it?  Did it fill a need I have?

At end of the week, pick one activity that you loved and write a strengths statement that is specific and general at the same time.  In his funny way of sharing a story, Marcus told of when he was interviewing Rosa.  He picked the verb “interviewing.”  Drill down to the specifics of what you really liked about that.   Marcus got specific around interviewing.  “I only like to talk to you if you are really good at your job.  I want to explore why you excel.”  That is specificity around the verb “interviewing.”

End up with 3 strengths statements, and do it twice a year.  Do the same self-evaluation for what you loathe.

Now, as a manager, what about the people you manage? How will you discover your peoples’ strengths, and help them play to those strengths?

Furthermore, what is your strategy to manage drainers — activities that need to be done and you loathe doing it?  Here are some choices.
1. Stop doing it
2. Team up with others who are strengthened by it
3. Offer up your strengths until it is what you do all day
4. Perceive the need, then use a strength to neutralize your weakness
5.  Suck it up and do it

First be honest about what weakens you.  Move your job so the best of your job becomes most of your job.

Responsibility of  a Leader

The job of a leader is to lead people to a better future.  A leader needs optimism.  If you are not motivated that way, you are a pessimist.  How to get agreement from those you are leading is by providing CLARITY, so that people can taste the milk and smell the honey.  There is a vividness about the future, and it is painted in a way that we can see ourselves in that future.

A leader needs to know:

1.  Who do we serve?  Exactly who, not something vague.  Giuliani focused on reducing crime as his focus.   Make a choice, be vivid.
2. What is our core strength, edge, then paint it vividly. Not something vague like “our people are our core strength.”  It’s too vague.  IPhone’s core strength is not partnering!  They have other core strengths, that’s not one of them.

3. Tell me the one score we are going to use.   The Balanced Scorecard is good for management, lousy for leadership.  Marcus gave a prison example where the leader said, “We serve the prisoner.”  Whether right or wrong, he was clear.   What measure?  The recidivism rate is the measure of success — if successful in creating that future, they will keep prisoners from coming back.
4. What action can we take today??   Giuliani, as an example of a leader, cleaned up New York City and his measures were to remove graffiti and have cab drivers wear collared shirts.
In his keynote, Marcus kept coming back to fears, saying that real leaders create momentum when they measure specific actions because specific actions calm our fears.  That is brilliant.   What stops us from focusing on our strengths is our fear that our weaknesses will damage us.  If we are following a capable leader into the future that is vividly expressed with one or two clear measures of success, we can then move confidently forward.  If our managers are focusing on our strengths with us, we can then enjoy our work and make our greatest contribution.

The appeal — to the American audience, not the Chinese one — was to up the ante on our game.  Get clear about our strengths and use them in service of a clear and vivid future.

Dr. Lynch has studied trust in organizations so thoroughly he is writing two books on the architecture of what it takes to build trust, providing a breakthrough in generating successful relationships; one for academia, one for business leaders.

Specifically yesterday we were learning about the ladder of trust in organizations (as opposed to some quick and insufficient definition of trust) and how people climb up the ladder of trust (above the belt) or descend down the ladder of distrust (below the belt).  No platitudes or hollow concepts, this was a sturdy, application-driven workshop experience.  This video gives you a two minute moving snapshot (if you listen closely, because I was in the back of the room) of a highlight moment of the day.

One requirement essential to trust is to balance two interests; self interest (individual good) and mutual interest (greater good, noble cause).  Many folks would have their savings intact if the greedy few hadn’t tipped the scales to ignore mutual interest and gobble gobble gobble for themselves, never mind the impact on the rest of us.

Dr. Lynch’s research reveals that 80%-90% of people are capable of achieving that balance, and we all should look out for the dark side that is in the other 10-20% of the population.  Whether we like it or not, that element is indeed real in our society, and it can play a very strong hand in our experience of life.  If we don’t feel safe with one another, how can we trust?  If we don’t trust, we revert to fear.

I invite you, the reader, to be a champion for trust and to learn how to be that champion in your organizations.  At the creationship tip-top of the ladder of trust, fun and joy are present.  Are you having fun in your organization?  Are you being creatively collaborative?  You could be.  As Dr. Lynch says, “Fun is where Fear Disappears.”

Fairmont Chateau Le Montebello, tucked between Ottawa and Montreal Canada, is a beautiful place to be, never mind the beautiful people who found their way there to be together for the last Vy Summit.  I was privileged to speak, as well as be an audience member.  Thank you to Tom, Mike and Mikka, for generating yourselves. Thank you to all of you who extended yourselves authentically to be an “adult,” (Fred Pryor), manage your thoughts — your ands, your buts, your I’s and you’s etcetera (Mary Lore), and and to be a stand, with me, for the highest good of all INCLUDING yourselves and your organizations.  And thank you Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga for showing us the template of how to take the high ground, even when it’s hard.

We live downtown on Market Street in the Marina District, where most runs pass below our patio and windows, but none as large or impressive as the Rock and Roll Marathon with 30,000 runners today. For those 30,000 runners it is a strenuous event, for us it is a parade.

If I were hiring, I would be at the finish line of the Rock and Roll Marathon.  I would interview those who came in early to learn about their motivation and where else are they motivated to excel like they just have.  I would interview the middle of the pack runners to see where they got their staying power for 26 miles.  Not the premier athletes that the first group are, what drives them?  For what cause or reason would they subject their bodies to 26 miles of hard labor?

I would look at their costumes — did they go all out to present themselves in keeping with the rock and roll theme, as some did?  You would not BELIEVE some of the tu tu’s I saw running by me.  One woman had stretch-on fabric tattoo arms that she could conveniently remove after the race but in the moment she was WITH it!

And I would interview the laggards.  It was clear, at some point there were fewer young, virile runners and more gray hairs and paunches.  This clip is taken of a laggard group.  Look at them!  They have spirit, they have determination, they are going to go as long as they can go, regardless of the rubber tires around the middle, the scrawny arms or legs, the leg in a cast.  They are going to be part of the party for as long as they are, and they are not to be discounted!

Consider, for a moment what it would take to don a Superman outfit and strike out afoot for 26 miles with 29,999 of your favorite strangers. Superman, wherever you are, I salute you.

The lessons of the human spirit abound in this event.  If I were hiring I would definitely ask if someone has ever run a marathon or taken on a marathon kind of event, and how they viewed the experience.  Myself, although I prefer to avoid physical risk — my risks are in other areas of life — I have traversed a number of treacherous rivers, once with an older friend who had Multiple Sclerosis.  Without his medicine he would have been in a wheelchair.  I doubt, if the river guides had had a clue, they would have allowed him onto the raft.  At one point we capsized and he was thrown over.  Getting his stiff, aging body back onto the boat was not easy, and he did it without complaint.  It took sheer grit, a character quality that I knew about him before we started this journey.

I knew about him, from this experience, that he had grist for the mill.  How about the folks you hire?  Do they have character?  I don’t mean ARE they a character, I mean do they HAVE character — that abiding quality that gets one through difficulties in life that seem to come ready or not, at work or in life.

It is character that has us exhibit the discernment skills that make us good collaborators and team players.  Character eschews gossip, pettiness and being small in the face of the challenges that come with being human.

I was proud of the 30,000 starters of today’s Rock and Roll Marathon.  Regardless of how far their bodies got them, they put themselves in the race, and that is what makes life rich and full.  Way to go!  From watching you at mile six, I would have appreciated any one of you on a team with me.

I found her fascinating.  Imagine having a job thinking about how people think, and why they think that way, by studying the sources of those thoughts.

This two minute video clip is Dr. Frank’s extemporaneous answer to a question from the audience, “What is Truth?  Heidegger’s sense of Aletheia is an attempt to understand the meaning of truth in a completely new, or rediscovered manner.

Dr. Frank ’s presentation of post-structuralism included the thoughts of Heidegger (the 20th century philosopher), whose thinking is rooted in pre-Plato times.  As best as I can tell, being a fringe student of philosophy, Heidegger is the main man of post-structural thought.  As opposed to analytical thinkers, Heidegger was the expert/writer/author about the world AS we know it; AS means it’s “a burdened world.”  Post-structuralism attempts to point people toward a clearing, an opening.  That we (people) are the givers of meaning to this world requires words if we are to have meaning. Post-structuralism asserts that we have made our world, we can change it.

Dr. Frank made several additional points that stood out for me, within her intense, dense academic message.  She said, “Information is largely bereft of being, and being comes before knowing…. Daza is “Being THERE, there is no being without ‘there”; being is related to the world of there. …. Two-sided-ness is necessary, for example to bring in the light requires darkness….. We are always there, in the way!…. Hermeneutics (one of those pot-structural comments) means interpretation, or understanding…

What I make of that presentation (and my Landmark Education eperience) — that is to say, my interpretation of her incredibly deep and mind-bending presentation — is that information, data, reality is not real, it is infused with our interpretation which is limited by where we are at any given moment.  Being-in-the-world is Heidegger’s replacement for terms such as subject, object, consciousness, and world. Being is temporal meaning it is related to time.

I am particularly mindful of paradoxes, and although she didn’t SAY “paradox,” her comments clearly point to the requirement of the paradox (a seemingly opposite which is in fact two ends of a continuum).  For example, she said, “We can only know a given truth when we also know it’s opposite.”

Touching this deep subject of how we think, why we think, what we think FROM was surrounded by the request that we look, in the conference, at where are we coming FROM, and what are we speaking FROM, and where are we listening FROM… right now!  As we have embarked on this weekend inquiry for ourselves, it is clear that my “evil twin” is sometimes speaking, my “higher self” is sometimes speaking, my “ego” is sometimes speaking…. and being aware if who is speaking gives me access to myself at a more forgiving, understanding, compassionate level.  I can then extend that forgiveness, understanding, and compassion to others with whom I am speaking.

So far, it has been a phenomenal conference… more later.

I understand why to sell no wine before its time — the wine isn’t ready to be consumed!  It would not taste right, it would reflect badly on the wine maker, it would “leave a bad taste in our mouth” (pardon the pun) from the experience.

What about the timing for discovering the world revolves around the sun, and not the other way around?  It took over 1000 years from the first person’s assertion of the earth revolving around the sun, not the other way around, before Copernicus gained credibility for this novel view of reality!   Indeed, Nicholas Copernicus was destined to put forward the theory of the earth’s motion at a time when the idea could be heard. During an earlier era Aristarchus declared the same, too early in mankind’s receptivity to gain credibility.   Although true, truth found no champions.

A modern forward-thinking mind, Dean Kamen, invented (among other things) the electric scooter Segway. His intention was that they replace cars for local transportation but they proved too expensive. I see them downtown upon occasion, driven by the neighborhood “safety cops.” Kamen, according to Fortune Magazine (May 3, 2010), has learned that change takes time and a group effort. Indeed Wilbur and Orville flew, yet it took another 50 years before flying was mainstream.

Although adoption curves have their own timing, they are shortening by and large.  For example, the speed of change is lickety-split on the web. My wonderful social media intern, Audrey Vernhet, informed me recently that Facebook could cost money in the next few months. I am NOT ready to climb on that adoption curve!

Speaking of adoption curves, I wonder when business leaders will take up the accountability for being trustworthy and hold each other to account for the position power they hold?  See www.trust-in-leaders.com for an opportunity to comment by completing the research request.  I welcome your thoughts.

While this video is a long, amateurish video (I did it) of 20 minutes or so, the contents are worth watching for the joy of seeing professionalism at a young age.  The team included Ryan Rotariu, CEO; Asia Snook, VP Marketing, Kim McIntyre, VP Operations and Michelle Plamondon, VP Finance. Their challenge — to make executive team decisions while running a public, international company over a seven year period.  This is a stellar executive presentation to their “board of directors,” of whom I was one, in the Intercollegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC), at the end of year six of the simulation.

I understand second hand that they participated in this simulation for a measley 1 college credit, and returned to college from the San Diego competition to take finals (they are undergraduate seniors).

Anyone who has presented results will be sufficiently impressed with their thoroughness of analysis, and indeed they did win against three competitors in their “world” of four competitors.  Enjoy!

If you haven’t seen Ted Talks you have really missed something!  For more inspiration and innovation, go to www.ted.com.  Enjoy!