Hmmmm. I shut off the TV years ago. But now I have the internet. How do I know if I'm being distracted or if I'm really doing something? There's no red pill to take for this.
Even more interesting that Jack's book is Flight of the Buffalo by James Belasco and Ralph Stayer. Good stuff about teaching your organization to make the right decisions and break them out of the habit of making the decisions they think you (as the CEO) would make.
Whitney
· 2 years ago
You can see life as a giant funnel or filter, and at different stages, people get excluded from the "exudate" to get all science-y about it.
Let's look at people hoping to be doctors. Filter #1 is graduating from high-school and getting into college. Filter #2 is the pre-med classwork, and famously, Organic Chemistry. Filter #3- The MCAT's and getting into a decent Med School. Filter #4- Getting through Gross Anatomy... and on it goes until you reach your destination. After each filter, fewer and fewer people remain. Each filter is there to wean the talented, serious and dedicated out from the rest. The filters aren't perfect, and can seem arbitrary, but they've been set up as checkpoints along the road to "Doctorville".
Sometimes I think we fail to do the cost/benefit analysis when we approach these filter points, to figure out whether we want what lies on the opposite side of this wall, and what will happen if we get there? This is the "being equally prepared for success as for failure" question, and so many times, we get caught up in the getting to the location we forget about the Why part of the question, or the "What if".
I'm currently confounded by setting a 2 year goal because I made so much progress this past year, two years out seems very difficult to predict. Yet if I don't choose a direction or goal, I could end up anywhere. I have several things I would like to see happen, and perhaps the point of all of this is to start focusing in a more single minded way towards a unified goal, rather than on many shorter term goals. Much to think about- Thanks, CB.
David Finch
· 2 years ago
It comes down to "making choices" and "taking action." The question I've asked myself after reading this post is, Am I putting action towards my choices or am I in the never ending rat race of always taking action to someone else's choices?
The challenge isn't whether we won't to act. The challenge is whether we want to make a choice. Especially if it goes against the grain.
Thanks CB for thoughts and insight!
The Goat
· 2 years ago
I don't know: with all the talk about the importance of "conversation" how can MacLeod's blog be fairly judged to be less relevant than those of any other self-proclaimed social media pundits?
I will say this, though: I am sort of sick of hearing about all of it. Wake me up when the Age of the UberMeta finally passes. I'm reminded of your fishbowl analogy.
As far as the Matrix metaphor (which I don't wholly subscribe to), personally I think everyone's pitching their own version of it.
The Goat
· 2 years ago
Just a bit more on the passive/active thing: one of the recurring themes for me has been confronting fear of the unknown. I just wrote about this using learning to ride a motorcycle as an example. I love the idea of riding a motorcycle but I'm also a little freaked out by it (no thanks to some of the gruesome photos on the Internet). I'm doing it anyway. I could excuse myself from that in a million different ways, but I've come to realize that the knots in my stomach actually represent opportunity.
Not to, you know, totally take the conversation in a different direction. Or whatever.
Hi!
Liz Strauss
· 2 years ago
Hi Chris and all, It's so nice to hear someone talk of looking before we buy into every new thing that is offered for "networking." We seem to be actively giving away more and more of ourselves without thinking about who we're giving it to.
I see people saying things on Twitter that I wouldn't necessarily tell someone I just met. Yet it's there for anyone to read. I wonder about that. I think it's important to look behind the curtain when you visit OZ. Too often the offer is so romantic we forget. :)
All Comments
Even more interesting that Jack's book is Flight of the Buffalo by James Belasco and Ralph Stayer. Good stuff about teaching your organization to make the right decisions and break them out of the habit of making the decisions they think you (as the CEO) would make.
Let's look at people hoping to be doctors. Filter #1 is graduating from high-school and getting into college. Filter #2 is the pre-med classwork, and famously, Organic Chemistry. Filter #3- The MCAT's and getting into a decent Med School. Filter #4- Getting through Gross Anatomy... and on it goes until you reach your destination. After each filter, fewer and fewer people remain. Each filter is there to wean the talented, serious and dedicated out from the rest. The filters aren't perfect, and can seem arbitrary, but they've been set up as checkpoints along the road to "Doctorville".
Sometimes I think we fail to do the cost/benefit analysis when we approach these filter points, to figure out whether we want what lies on the opposite side of this wall, and what will happen if we get there? This is the "being equally prepared for success as for failure" question, and so many times, we get caught up in the getting to the location we forget about the Why part of the question, or the "What if".
I'm currently confounded by setting a 2 year goal because I made so much progress this past year, two years out seems very difficult to predict. Yet if I don't choose a direction or goal, I could end up anywhere. I have several things I would like to see happen, and perhaps the point of all of this is to start focusing in a more single minded way towards a unified goal, rather than on many shorter term goals.
Much to think about- Thanks, CB.
The challenge isn't whether we won't to act. The challenge is whether we want to make a choice. Especially if it goes against the grain.
Thanks CB for thoughts and insight!
I will say this, though: I am sort of sick of hearing about all of it. Wake me up when the Age of the UberMeta finally passes. I'm reminded of your fishbowl analogy.
As far as the Matrix metaphor (which I don't wholly subscribe to), personally I think everyone's pitching their own version of it.
Not to, you know, totally take the conversation in a different direction. Or whatever.
Hi!
It's so nice to hear someone talk of looking before we buy into every new thing that is offered for "networking." We seem to be actively giving away more and more of ourselves without thinking about who we're giving it to.
I see people saying things on Twitter that I wouldn't necessarily tell someone I just met. Yet it's there for anyone to read. I wonder about that. I think it's important to look behind the curtain when you visit OZ. Too often the offer is so romantic we forget. :)
Thank you for writing this.