My Riffs

One can listen and observe and use all the senses at their disposal and still not learn. Something has to happen between taking in information/observations and it becoming a learning experience. Maybe a few things have to happen. 1. Parsing of the info (validating/invalidating the data) 2. Honesty (applying what doesn't fit in your framework and adjusting your framework with the new information) Once those things happen you have true learning.

Denying never actions anything. Denying a problem never helps it. Never moves it closer to resolution. Being in a state of denial is a bad place. The only way out of a state of denial is for a dose of reality to smash the denial. And the consequences often leave one worse than having just accepting the reality of a situation.

Leadership is more of an art than science. You can't force true compliance or even followers. Leadership isn't about position or title. A position doesn't include trust and respect. In practice people follow those who have gained trust and respect, irrespective of their title. John Maxwell said, "Leadership has less to do with position than it does disposition". People don't follow the person with a title, they follow the person who seems to know what's right. So who to follow? Evidence suggests people follow those who exemplify leadership, not those who are titled with it.

Do you have a comment, concern and complaint box? You should. It will contain gold in terms of feedback. Yeah there will be a lot of junk, but you can mine those comments, concerns and complaints for absolute gold. Your most valuable feedback is from those who have a comment, concern, complaint or suggestion. Affirmation is nice (and necessary), but it doesn't provide valuable and usable feedback.

For a moment ignore the current issue/problem. Now take a step back and figure out, what's the goal? Once that is figured out, maybe your current problem isn't a problem. Or maybe you should be solving it in an entirely different manner. The basic overview is, figure out what the goal is, then reverse engineer back to the current issue(s) your facing. That way your solving for the solutions to the goal rather than just chasing today's problem. (thank you to Andrew Bentley for this thought)

There's a reason for everything, we just may never find or figure out every reason. If you can figure out the reason something is as it is though, you now have some important data to help shape the future of that thing. Before making changes or getting frustrated, understand the reason. This will help frustration and even proper framing of that something. Then knowing the reason, you can know what to do.

There is one force stronger than any other. It can conquer sadness, depression, hate, loss, grief, despair, differences, fear, hurt, anxiousness... Love is stronger than all those forces and can conquer them Love is the great conquer.

Is safety defined by legislation, boards and governments? Or is it defined by real world tests and experiences? What is safety mean to each individual person? Safety is challenging to define and legislate. Because you're told something is safe, doesn't mean it is. Because you're told something is dangerous, doesn't mean it is. People have had bad accidents with things deemed safe. Some people make a career out of doing the dangerous. Nothing is truly safe. Understand safety for yourself to the best of your ability and don't just accept what is heralded as safe.

1. Words that strengthen 2. Words that weaken The category you invest in more determines your strength.

Who will be on the front lines? That's a very important question and decision. The frontline qualifications are higher than the others. The front liners need many different skills. - good judgement - vision - understanding of the why - strength and energy - courage - honesty to relay what they see back to the others The front liners can make or break the team.

Dreading something is generally a good clue. It's a clue that what you're dreading is likely important in some way. There will likely be value there in doing the thing you dread. Easy tasks have little value. Difficult tasks have a ton of value, and we generally dread them. Use dread as a clue.

Something fundamental to success on any level is, character. Without character, everything is a nonstarter. When organizations lose people of character, you can make assumptions about the organizations future. It will be a matter of time before the organization fails. Character should be the most important factor we look for when hiring, when filling a volunteer position and when making decisions involving people. If you don't have character, you don't have a foundation to build on.

There is a whole lot more information to gather. You can learn and know a whole lot more, simply by paying attention. There's no cost to this. Keenly listen and observe. There is much more to learn in everything you see and do everyday, but you just have to pay attention. Listen to what people say, they will usually tell you everything you need to know. If you're a good listener. Watch what people do. This will say a whole lot. And this is all free. No extra cost to gather all this extra information. No extra cost to learn this. (thanks to Jordan B Peterson for inspiring this post)

We usually assume when one loses their way that they were on the wrong path. And that's often true. But it's not categorically true. You can lose your way on good paths too. People on good paths lose their way sometimes too. They may not lose their way in turning from good to bad or from right to wrong, but moreso in running out of something. Sometimes it's energy they run out of, sometimes is hope, sometimes it's vision... So on good paths it's critical to stay focused. Focused on remembering why you started, focused on keeping the vision both front and centre and also relevant. Good paths can take unexpected twists and turns, but that doesn't always mean losing your way. Losing your way means running out of vision/energy/hope. Twists and turns aren't bad, they usually keep you engaged.

There seems to be two things that reveal character more than anything else: 1. Crisis 2. Power Times of crisis reveal your strengths and weaknesses. But so does power. Power often reveals your weaknesses more than your strengths. What you do in these situations reveals a whole lot about yourself. Pay attention as it will present valuable clues about what you should improve.

I think one of the most common lies we tell ourselves and others is "it's okay". As if there's shame in acknowledging that it's not okay. As long as things are okay, they won't get better. It's fine to say something isn't okay, for it's the first step to making it better. It's okay to admit we're not okay. What does prentending help? It's okay to admit something is broken. What does warping reality help? If something's broken it will eventually crash. Better to admit it's broken and fix it before the crash.

Why be great when you can be good enough? Great takes not a bit more work, but a whole lot more work. Great requires much more risk. Great requires likely misunderstanding. Only few dare to be great.

I read something yesterday that hadn't occurred to me before. In short it said if you're journeying toward something, that means you're journeying away from something. In essence if your heading somewhere new, you have to leave something behind. It is important to note what may be left behind when you're heading somewhere new. Heading somewhere new is cool and exciting, just make sure you know what will be left behind.

Environment can aid or hamper development. Some children grow into adults lacking in key areas, all because their environment wasn't one where they fully developed. You do see circumstances where people are given a good environment and they don't develop. Or the opposite situation where someone in a bad environment grows into a well developed adult. Leaders need to be conscious of the environment they are creating, for leaders are responsible for the environment. Environment is set by the leaders.

When is love wrong? Never. There are some expressions of love that aren't appropriate and etc. But love is never wrong.

We're stronger when we're different. It's these differences that strengthen the group rather than make it weaker. Harnessing and making these differences work together is where the magic is. Expecting someone to think or be the same as you weakens the group and yourself. Our differences = Our strengths. If you're the same as someone else you share the same strengths and weaknesses, making you unable to help or better each other. It's by our differences were able to help one another.

I need _______. I want _______. Most us of have things we want or feel we need. A raise, a new car, clothes or whatever. The important question to ask is, what did we do with the last things we had "more" of? Did they go as far as we had hoped? Did they make us as happy as we had hoped? Did they last long enough to justify the investment? Did we utilize them effectively? I think often we would be better off if we would think in terms of how can we do better with what we have rather than thinking we need more. Contentment pays better than getting more.

”We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.“

People and businesses are seemingly obsessed with differentiating themselves from other people and businesses. Individuality is important, but when he mission becomes simply being different from someone else, the mission has failed. The mission shouldn't be to simply differentiate from someone else, but rather to be our best. Our differentiation should be pursuing our uniqueness and making ourselves the best we can be in character. This goes for individual and organizations. Just trying to be unlike another is weak and short sighted. Long term vision is making yourself the best you can be.

Most innovation is iteration. Apple wasn't the first to make the MP3 player, but they iterated on what existed and made the best. There are few products Apple created as entirely new products. To create is much harder than to iterate. Both are good. But improving on what already exists is somewhat safer and easier. Creating new is riskier and a whole lot harder. To iterate or create, these are good questions. Doing nothing is usually the wrong choice though.

The system is there and it's largely unchallenged. There's often good reasons to challenge the system though. Systems easily become outdated, yet those within the systems become dependent on the systems and highly sensitive to the system being challenged. It's a comfort thing. But comfort kills. If you poke the system be prepared for your hand to be bit. But that doesn't mean the system shouldn't be challenged. Rather the opposite. Try and imagine a world where the system wasn't disrupted. RIP: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, etc.

Your history matters. History doesn't define you, but history provides context to who you are. It tells where you're from. How can you completely explain who you are if you don't know what your past is? Your history has everything to do with who you are today. Your history tells you things like: What you've overcome to be where you currently are. What people are responsible for helping you become who you are (good or bad). If you past is something to overcome or something that provided a help to you. The precedents that were set in your life sometimes before you were even born. So to know yourself better, get acquainted with your history! 

It's easy to forget, what you hold closely as your ideas/opinions/beliefs are actually debatable. That's why there are other ideas/opinions/beliefs out there. And this is a good thing. Diverse ideas help weed out the good from the bad. It's always a good thing to engage in true open dialogue. This is how we form our ideas and allow them to be challenged. If we're not willing to challenge our ideas, there's a grave danger in holding wrong ideas. Allowing them to be challenged helps us either discard for a better ideas, or solidify what we think. Both are positive results. The only requirement is honesty and openness on our ends of things. And this is a whole lot harder to accomplish than we would like to admit. So remember, what you feel is right, it actually debatable. (yes, there are some absolutes that aren't debatable, but those are the exceptions to this rule :)

If you’ve gotten good at a certain task or skillset, it’s time to move on. You can’t rest in “being good” at something for too long. Your growth ceases and eventually what you’ve become good at will work against you. Often what you’ve mastered will eventually be what brings you down. Don’t abandon what you’ve become good at, just figure out what the next step or level is. Stagnation is merely the period of time between success and failure. So, once you’ve mastered or become comfortable with something, figure out something else to do with it. You don’t lose what you’ve learned or done, you build from it and go even further. Everything we learn is merely a step to the next thing. We never arrive. And if you accept that you’ve arrived, you’ve just signalled your end.

If you’re not engaged in doing something difficult, you will become complacent. Difficulties keep us engaged in life. If you’re not fighting some form of a battle, you’re open for failure to creep in. But as long as you stay engaged in the difficult, you will stave off failure. Your guard and defences go down when you’re not engaged in the difficult. So embrace the difficult. Embrace the battle. It may be what is keeping your guard up and preventing you from being overcome.

The world is fast paced and you have to move quick to keep up. You have to move fast to just stay afloat. But you have to slow down sometimes to take it all in. Great decision making and great learning usually occurs when you slow down and think about things.