Brian@GrowthWorks

Working on Purpose... Take this Job and Love It

We invest way too much of our lives at work to be miserable while we're at it. And yet, we all know people who spend more time complaining than performing.

The most common refrain I hear sounds something like this: "If only I could find a job that had real meaning and value, then I'd be happy."

I understand that sentiment. There are jobs that challenge even the most positive and optimistic among us. I've poured hot tar on rooftops on 90-degree days and loaded newspapers on trucks at 3 in the morning... and complained. But I was raised by a man who had a lifetime of tougher jobs, and yet he brought a sense of passion, purpose, and pride along with his lunch bag to every one of those jobs pretty much every day. (Thanks for the lifelong lesson, Dad.)

Now I watch for people in those potentially spirit-deadening jobs who find a way to soar and make a difference nonetheless. They are reminders.

Here's one. Watch, enjoy, and wonder...

(For Email Subscribers, click here to go to YouTube to watch.)

Make a Difference,

Brian

5 Lessons about Learning and Leadership... Courtesy of a Daughter with No Fear of Fish Heads

I have long believed that if I listen well, kids have a lot to teach me about being a better grown-up, a better leader, a better person. My son and daughter have been schooling me for years. The most recent lesson came in a handmade card for Father's Day, celebrated today in the US, sent by my daughter, Callie, who is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tzactza, Peru.

DISCLAIMER: If you want to score big points with a parent, send a note like the one I'm about to share with you. I'm proud and touched to have my daughter giving me this much credit for my parenting (and I had only an instant of suspicion that she may be about to ask me for something big). I know it may seem like I'm nominating myself for some good daddy award, but I really am putting this out here because of the wisdom I'm hearing in her words.

THE BACK STORY: You need a bit of background to understand the "inside" story on the fish heads that show up in the first paragraph. When Callie was 15 we took a family trip to Spain. When we ordered our first meal at a restaurant in the Plaza Mayor, near where I lived when I was a college student studying abroad, I warned that the fresh-caught trout would come with head and tail attached. Everyone thought I was joking; they had never seen that in their American upbringing. But I wasn't. After the initial shock it was not that big a deal. Trout is a delicate creature. Everyone ate with no major problems. But a week later at a restaurant in Nerja, along the Costa del Sol, Callie ordered another variety of fish that had a much bigger, more intimidating head. She got a bite or two into but couldn't go on. I was eating a delicious...wonderfully blackened swordfish steak I was planning to savor sloooowly...bite... by... bite. I was a bite or two in when I realized to make life right at that moment it would be Callie eating my swordfish. And, to enjoy the punchline, you need to know there is an animal many kids keep as pets in the US that are a delicacy in the Peruvian diet, and we'll be sharing meals on a visit with Callie soon...

The Lessons

I'll lay out the lessons here all-official-like with headings, bullets, and indents, but they'll mean more when hear them in Callie's own voice below.

On Learning:

• Try new things, even when they're scary.
• Whenever you can, laugh instead of getting angry.
• Look for solutions instead of despairing over things that aren't going well.

On Leadership:

• Stand by the people you're trying to teach and lead. They will need your help.
• Be ready to teach... and also be ready to keep learning.

Callie's Version of Lessons about Learning and Leadership

NOTE: The outside of this card is a head and shoulders photo of Callie holding a small camp-fire-grilled fish in two hands, with head and tail attached, and looking as if she might swallow it whole...

Happy Father's Day. Thanks, Callie.

Make a Difference,

Brian

Inspiration...

I wish anything I could say or do could be as eloquently inspiring as this young man's story... but I guess that's the point...

It's a story about golf, but it's not about golf. It's an inspiration about living life fully -- no matter what.

It starts a bit slowly, but it's more than worth the 12 minutes you'll invest. Stick with it. And pass it on. From what I can tell by view counts on the original ESPN site and YouTube, not many people have seen this yet.

Make a Difference,

Brian

P.S. Thanks to Linda Bryant for sending it my way.

Too Much to Do?

I made a to-do list off of my to-do list today, and I'm ending the day feeling I haven't gotten very much done. Not exactly a banner day.

So I went in search for a little solace, and found it in this quote from Ann Lamott. It's one of my favorites. It's from a book she published in 1994, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were at our family cabin... and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"  

I'm feeling a little better...

Make a Difference,

Brian

Are You Highly Creative?

The numbers are not in your favor...

When tested for creativity, somewhere in the neighborhood of 98 percent of 5-year-old kids score at the  highest levels. Test them five years later and about 30 percent still shine. Test the general population of adults? Sadly, less than 5 percent can still let ideas fly, according to research by George Land going back to the 60s.

A lot of the work I do helping teams change, improve and innovate comes down to getting grown-ups to act more like kids again. Be curious. Be playful. Every once in a while turn off that ever-so-adult voice in your head that makes us take things sooooo seriously all the time.

Something happens as we grow up that turns up the dial on our ability to think critically, and turns it down on the ability to entertain alternatives to the way things are usually done. That's why we break out the Playdough, Slinkies, bottles of bubbles, Mr Potato Heads, Legos... to remind people that sometimes we have to break some paradigms and let go the restraints that lock us into doing the things the way they've always been comfortably done -- and hoping for different results.

Once, we were all kids... and all creative. With a little practice it's not that hard to get back there.

This video is targeted at entrepreneurs; that's the market served by its producer (Grasshopper Group). But if you could use an inspiring reminder about believing in big things, chasing dreams... watch it. It will be two minutes and 19 seconds well spent. With a little refresher, we can all beat the odds...

Make a Difference,

Brian

The Zamboni Principle...

The Zamboni Principle goes by other names, but it's a simple story about a guy who wanted to drive a big ol' ice-grooming tractor across hockey rinks that makes the lesson stick with me, so that's what I call it.

My partner, Gerry, was leading a two-day workshop we had created called Eagles. It was focused on helping people build on their strengths, find their sense of purpose in their lives and work, and to create goals that in many cases became life changing. In the workshop we had people create "vision collages." They cut up magazines and pasted together words and photos they found helpful in expressing what mattered most to them related to work, family, community and spirituality. We would have them start the collages near the end of the first day of the workshop, ask them to complete them overnight, and come prepared to share whatever they were willing to share the next morning.

At the end of this particular workshop, one participant told Gerry he would be late arriving the next morning and was afraid he would miss his chance to present. Gerry assured him, whenever he arrived, they would take time for him to talk about his collage.

He came in at the tail end of the presentations. Although he had missed the inspiration of hearing other people take a few risks in sharing their personal stories, he dove in. As Gerry remembers it, everything was going smoothly as he talked about some newly discovered insights about where he wanted to head in life and what else he would like to accomplish. Then he said something to the effect of... "Now, this next part is going to sound... silly... but I'm going to put it out there. I have always had this powerful desire to drive a Zamboni."

Without missing a beat, almost every person in the group of two dozen pointed across the room and said, "Then you need to talk to him!" Him was the guy who had shared earlier that one of his great passions in life was the off-work-hours he put into coordinating volunteers, ice time, and rink maintenance for the youth hockey association in his community.

Putting it out there for this one guy essentially put a set of Zamboni keys in his hand. Dream achieved.

That was a little thing, but I've seen it happen time and again on things big and small. Someone willing to speak. Someone else willing to listen. Connections made. Needs fulfilled. It's not magic. The work of achievement doesn't go away, but the universe has an uncanny way of bringing together its disparate pieces.

The Zamboni Principle. Put it out there, and then pay attention. Stuff will happen.

Make a Difference,

Brian

Life Is a Gas If You Can Keep Your Sense of Humor...

"What are the most important things you learned from your mother?"

A friend asked that question a couple of weeks ago, looking for some ideas for a talk she'd be giving at church on Mother's Day. I didn't realize at first how thought-provoking it would be to spend a little time reflecting on that simple inquiry. It really got me thinking.

Mom's been gone for a long time, but I imagined how she'd be dealing with the current socioeconomic mess we're in. One thing I learned early was about living within means. There never was much money coming in the door at Hillside Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut when I was growing up, and there were no credit cards. Mom and dad focused on taking care of the basics in ascending order. On occasion that meant buying a few groceries instead of paying the electric bill on time... which in my pre-school days sometimes meant scrambling to hide in the basement stairwell while dad was at work and a bill collector was at the door.

The most important thing I learned from mom, however, has more to do with keeping things in perspective, taking things in stride, and maintaining a sense of humor no matter what twists life brings.

What's that? A Baby?

My mom was 42 years old when I was born. I'm the last of four kids; my sister -- the next youngest -- is seven years older than me. I was a bit of a surprise... Keep in mind I was born halfway back in the last century, so the art and science of medicine was somewhat less precise than it is now, but the story mom told in her lifelong lilting Irish brogue:

"I thought I was pregnant, so I went to see the family doctor, Dr. Sear.  He said to me," 'Delia.  You're 42 years old. You're not pregnant. You've got gas.'

"I left, but finally ended up going to see another doctor, and I was right. I was pregnant.

"About a year later was I was walking down the street with my baby carriage and I ran into Dr. Sear. He said, 'Delia! What do you have there? A baby?'

"I said, 'No. It's a little fart with a bonnet.'"

Near the end of her life when I would retell this story, my mother would deny she ever said such a thing. And she would laugh...

Find a Reason to Smile,

Brian

   Happy Mother's Day!

Little Things Make a Difference...

"Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the the people you can, As long as ever you can." -- John Wesley

It seemed like we weren't going to find a parking spot anywhere within a mile of the park. We had been circling in the Powderhorn neighborhood hoping to find a space close enough we'd be able to catch part of the annual May Day Parade wrapping into the park. Unfortunately, thousands of people had had that same idea... about an hour before we did. Every block was lined with cars snugged into the curb bumper to bumper.

I was driving south on Elliott a few blocks from the parade route, a bit dejected, conceding we'd have to head to the outer limits to find a spot.

A woman walking in the street toward the park flagged us to a stop.

"Are you looking for a place to park?"

"Uh, yes," we answered, a bit skeptically.

"My house is at the end of the block. It's the only one with a driveway."

Though neither of us said anything, we were both thinking, "Right, what's this gonna cost us?"

"There's a blue car parked there. Just pull in behind it. You can park there. We're not going anywhere. We won't need to get our car out. Just leave yours there and you won't have to worry about it. No problem."

Huh?

We parked, looking at each other with disbelief as I turned off the ignition. It wasn't a huge offer, but still not the kind of thing that happens every day.

As we walked back along that same block I noticed there was a space on the street. I thought about going back and moving my car there. But I figured I'd let someone else have a lucky day too -- showing up even later than we had and finding that open spot.

But get this. As we headed east at an intersection, a young father, walking north from the same corner with his wife and 5-year-old daughter, backpedaled, and without prompting, asked us for directions to the park and parade. A guy? Asking directions?

Spring was in the air!

Brian

   A Float in the 35th Annual Minneapolis May Day Parade -- Worth the Walk!

Jaw-dropping Glimpse of Future Technology...

Cross a Maes and a Mistry and what do you get? Bedazzled.

This video starts out a bit slowly, but stick with it. Patti Maes runs the Fluid Interfaces Group out of the MIT Media Lab. Pranav Mistry is, Maes says, "the genius" student behind the amazing technology they demonstrated in February at TED, a conference that brings together innovators and big thinkers in the worlds of technology, education, and design.

With only $350 in off-the-shelf gizmos we all own, this team put together... well, watch the video... And then, no matter how overwhelmed you may be feeling about our world gone crazy Facebooking, Twittering, LinkedIn-ing, Ning-ing, and social networking 24/7/365, OMG, I dare you to pretend this stuff is all a fad.

Make a Difference,

Brian

P.S. Thanks to my GrowthWorks partner Gerry Sexton for sending me my link.

Need a Boost?

Watch Stand By Me.

It's five minutes and twenty seven seconds of video inspiration. Street music. A reminder we all have friends and family who need us in good times and not so good.

Watch it. Enjoy. Pass it on. And get in touch with someone who'd be thrilled to hear from you.

Make a Difference,

Brian