There was a meme going around on social media a while ago that stuck with me. Perhaps you have heard this before, but if not, here you go.
“I don’t have ducks, I have squirrels; and they are not in a line, they are at a rave.”
That is what the beginning of 2018 has felt like to me – a number of good things going on, all vying for attention, and me feeling somewhat stretched to keep up with all of them. I have enjoyed the start to the year and all the things that have kept me busy – I am thankful to love what I do – but there are moments when you stop and wonder just how (if?!) you are managing it all.
As a number of you know I am a Patrick Lencioni fan. In my work with teams I have often used his ideas to move the conversation along. One idea that I have found particularly helpful is his, “What’s Most Important Right Now” exercise from his book, The Advantage. The basic idea is that teams or companies often have too many tasks or goals on their plate that are competing for top spot and they need a way to prioritize the most important thing that everyone needs to focus on. The question, in Lencioni’s words, is, “If we accomplish only one thing during the next x months, what would it be? In other words, What must be true x months from now for us to be able to look back and say with any credibility that we had a good period?” It is a great question. (If you would like to discuss this idea further I would be happy to talk you through it in more detail.)
In addition to the team or company setting, I have wondered if this idea might work on a smaller, personal scale; for example, for day to day or week to week planning. In my ‘squirrels at a rave’ existence I often tried to answer the question, “If I only get one thing done today, or this week – and would feel reasonably satisfied that I had a good day or week – what would that one thing be?” As you can imagine, it did not always go as planned – I still had crazy days when it felt like all I did was move from one “on fire” task to the next, but there were times when the question did what it was supposed to. There were days and weeks when I could look back and realize that by asking that question I was able to avoid the distractions, put things in order, and get done what was truly the most important thing at that time.
The really good news, for me at least, is that I think the squirrels are somewhat more relaxed at the moment and life has settled into a calmer pace. Until the next rave.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, May 6th, 2018 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Comments.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
The Most Important Thing
“I don’t have ducks, I have squirrels; and they are not in a line, they are at a rave.”
That is what the beginning of 2018 has felt like to me – a number of good things going on, all vying for attention, and me feeling somewhat stretched to keep up with all of them. I have enjoyed the start to the year and all the things that have kept me busy – I am thankful to love what I do – but there are moments when you stop and wonder just how (if?!) you are managing it all.
As a number of you know I am a Patrick Lencioni fan. In my work with teams I have often used his ideas to move the conversation along. One idea that I have found particularly helpful is his, “What’s Most Important Right Now” exercise from his book, The Advantage. The basic idea is that teams or companies often have too many tasks or goals on their plate that are competing for top spot and they need a way to prioritize the most important thing that everyone needs to focus on. The question, in Lencioni’s words, is, “If we accomplish only one thing during the next x months, what would it be? In other words, What must be true x months from now for us to be able to look back and say with any credibility that we had a good period?” It is a great question. (If you would like to discuss this idea further I would be happy to talk you through it in more detail.)
In addition to the team or company setting, I have wondered if this idea might work on a smaller, personal scale; for example, for day to day or week to week planning. In my ‘squirrels at a rave’ existence I often tried to answer the question, “If I only get one thing done today, or this week – and would feel reasonably satisfied that I had a good day or week – what would that one thing be?” As you can imagine, it did not always go as planned – I still had crazy days when it felt like all I did was move from one “on fire” task to the next, but there were times when the question did what it was supposed to. There were days and weeks when I could look back and realize that by asking that question I was able to avoid the distractions, put things in order, and get done what was truly the most important thing at that time.
The really good news, for me at least, is that I think the squirrels are somewhat more relaxed at the moment and life has settled into a calmer pace. Until the next rave.
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2018 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.