Introducing a Forelog: Experiments in Vision

(The following is for Tony B. (“What it is!”), my buddy at work, who wrote a LinkedIn post that inspired me to write a reply that “exceeded the maximum character limit”. Grr. And thus, I’m reminded why I still have this blog medium: to express myself on my terms, which, ‘twould seem, can include a seven month gap between posts.)

There’s a LOT in: “The goal is to be directionally correct, honoring your values and objectives with each step.”

When coaching product development, we’re hoping our customers (…users) will buy our offerings, and ideally use ’em, and double ideally love ’em, ’cause it’s changed their behaviour to be more in line with futures/visions both the supplier (company) and demander (user) want.

Our #product offerings are how we #impact the world, the stuff of a #backlog, a ‘what’ from which we seek feedback.

When coaching process development, we’re hoping our teams (…and scaled entities) will try out low-risk ideas to have things suck a li’l less over “the next 2 weeks”, and maybe even be awesome, while appreciating this habit to practice: pause & reflect & ask how we can be better.

Our #process improvements are how we #conduct ourselves in the world, the stuff of a #frontlog (my word), a ‘how’ from which we seek feedback.

When coaching personal development, we… uh, I… uh, I don’t really know what I’m doing here, so I pull from YouTube videos, and wise words gathered from the years, and my proclivity to merge mental models, resulting in an extrapolation of the above.

Continue reading Introducing a Forelog: Experiments in Vision

Bring-Yourself-To-Work Day

Imagine this concept: “Bring-Yourself-To-Work” Day.

What psychological safety would be required in the workplace for you to show up as your authentic self?

What culture would be required in the workplace for us to celebrate each others’ individuality?

What grace would we have to practice giving for us to work with each others’… individuality?

What patterns of communication, both synchronous & asynchronous, would we try, to bring the best of ourselves to work?

I re-derived this phrased the other week, giggled, and figured I’d share for the lulz.

Want more? This has been written about, so google around. But first, giggle.

My Approach to Sharing a Screen

I’ll be blunt, starting with a sample inner monologue:

Oh, you’re about to share your screen during this Zoom meeting? OK. Let’s do this. Oh, can I see your screen? Yes. Thanks for asking: the technology worked. Oh, you want me to focus over in that part of the shared screen? Sorry, that shit’s too small. Can you make it bigger? Is that all you can do? Well that’s annoying… Just keep going. I’ll lean in and squint.

Let’s do better.

When facilitating a Zoom meeting, and I’m going to share a screen, I have a Driving Principle: Actively remove from the screen what is not part of the conversation. I’ll even do this after I’ve started sharing, as education via a “before ‘n’ after” micro-session, showing off my tactics in a live demo, making the world a better place…

Continue reading My Approach to Sharing a Screen

My Approach to Re-Centering

I have a little black book.

No, it’s not that.

This is the point of the blog-post-writing process where I decided to search through 10 years of public journaling to see if I’ve covered this topic before. I have, 8 years ago. And I began that post the exact same way. Ugh.

Do I keep typing? Is there additional value I can provide? Have I changed at all in a way that’s worth sharing?

Eh, I’ve got two things for ya.

1 – This practice is still the best thing I can do, at a deeper level than a solid night’s rest, to re-center myself.

2 – I’ve recently recommitted to do this 4-hour activity every quarter, after only doing it a handful of times over the past few years.

Re-read that post. (I just did.)

How do you re-center yourself?

Your Obituary

Beyond being at least half-decent at relating to a few key humans, what do you want it to say on your obituary?

Are there episodes to your life / career?

Are there grand acts of service / contributions to a field?

Are there noble crafts you dedicated yourself to each day?

Is this an exercise that helps you figure out what to do now & next?

What is your legacy?

So yeah. I think about this. A lot.