Zero to Sixty in 59 Minutes (or less)

Usually when I walk into a meeting, I have several goals:
* Arrive prepared – respect yourself
* Arrive on time – respect others
* Learn as much as I can – you may as well learn and meetings go faster
* Enjoy the meeting – it’s okay to have fun
* Leave the meeting without any tasks – okay, not always realistic, but at least try to leave with only your own tasks and not anyone else’s
* If the meeting is scheduled for one hour, leave by the 59 minute mark – create a sense of urgency

The last item is the real point here. We usually schedule meetings in hour or half-hour increments, which is fine, but it’s not necessary to take all the time allotted just because it’s there. We owe it to ourselves and to our colleagues not to waste our time or theirs – meetings should be more like SWAT team exercises – get in, get it done, and get out. Well, perhaps that’s a little too tight – we do need time for camaraderie and team building (nobody likes to tell stories or have sidebar conversations more than me) – but you get the idea.

Healthy and productive meeting characteristics include a beginning and an end, a purpose and an agenda, the right people in attendance, decisions and action items clearly documented, other narrative notes kept to a minimum (why write down anything that no one ever refers to again?), and finally and perhaps firstly, someone to lead the meeting and keep it on track. Also, if you are deciding between a 60 minute meeting and a 90 minute meeting, only choose 90 minutes if it’s going to help avoid a second one hour meeting – otherwise, move the agenda along more quickly.

Following (or even during) some unhealthy or unproductive meetings, I have had thoughts like the following:
* “That’s two hours of my life that I’ll never get back.”
* “After five minutes, I became so numb that I forgot my own name.”
* “What just happened there?”
* “Did we actually do anything?”
Don’t leave yourself or your colleagues with those thoughts – you and they deserve better.

I’ll leave you with my 2007 motto for FAS: All one hour meetings in less than 60 minutes. Let’s do it.

This Time is the Next Time

As we learned from our Investment in Excellence training, whenever we have temporary setbacks, rather than lament over what we used to call failures, we simply look at it is an opportunity to learn how to do things better “the next time.” So when does the next time begin? Starting...now? Okay…now? How about…now?

Sometimes, we delay changing and improving, not so much because of the improving part, but because of the changing part. As Lou Tice tells us in about every way possible to reinforce the message, the best way to change is through affirmations. “Talking about the future in the present tense”…”we become like and move toward that which we think about”…remember? Affirmations – they work. Come on people, you know he’s right. Take control of your life. Okay, that’s my pitch for affirmations.

There’s a story of two seventy year old women that had been friends for about sixty of those years. One of the women told the other that she had always wanted to go to culinary school and become a chef and had always regretted not doing it. So, she had applied to a program, was accepted, and would graduate in about three years. Her friend said, “How can you do that? You’ll be seventy-three years old when you finish.” The first woman responded, “In three years, I’ll be seventy-three years old anyway.”

A couple parcels of wisdom from the chef-to-be are that the sooner you start the sooner you finish and that it’s never too late (if you begin now). Whether it’s culinary school, your bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree, learning Spanish, learning ballroom dancing, being more generous (with time and money), becoming your authentic self, getting to know your neighbors, learning to relax, or applying for that new job, the sooner you start learning and changing, the sooner you will have learned and grown.

Quoting a famous woman named Oprah, “When we know better, we do better.” So do better now, don’t wait to learn and change, because this time truly is the next time.

Drive it Like it’s Stolen

No, I’m not asking you to break the law, or even as our police chief would say, “drive it like it’s borrowed without the owner’s consent (or a rental car).” That’s why it’s drive it “like” it’s stolen rather than “here’s how to hotwire a car and escape down dark alleys to avoid pursuit.” Not that I’ve ever stolen a car, but my understanding is that the first things that someone borrowing a vehicle without consent might do is to check out the stereo, open the sunroof, and then step on the gas. Why? Because that’s the good stuff.

Sidebar: Always hesitant to use automobiles (or sports) as metaphors for anything, given the potentially historical gender reference, I am going to proceed anyway. Besides, in terms of driving anything like it’s stolen, there is definite gender equity – I think I’ll leave it at that.

Okay, the point being that if you’re driving a stolen vehicle (or a rental for that matter), time is of the essence, so you should make the most of the ride – that’s why they call it “joy ride.” In our professional and personal lives, we should get the most possible out of everyday, every moment since we can never be sure how long the joy will last.

Time is fleeting at every age and after fifty, it seems like the brakes don’t work, so buckle up (I do have some responsibility for risk management on campus), hang on, and steer it as best you can. It’s more interesting that way and it’s definitely more fun – and actually, you’ll be more interesting that way and definitely more fun.

Having recently been treated for skin cancer, I am obligated to my dermatologist to make a pitch for wearing sunscreen, a hat, or both. Also, having recently discovered my sunroof after owning the vehicle for five and a half years, I am obligated to myself to open the sunroof anyway. (Insert your own imagery here of the heavens opening up or something about “Touched by an Angel.”) We should all be obligated to ourselves to “go hard,” “let ‘er rip,” “go down swinging,” and even “run with scissors” on occasion (sorry Mom).

Don’t miss out on the good stuff, at work or at home – turn up the volume, open the sunroof, and drive it like it’s stolen!

Objects in Mirror are Closer than they Appear

What happens when things go wrong? Ouch. In assigning responsibility for less than ideal results, some look toward others and some look at themselves. As Jim Collins describes in “Good to Great” regarding the highest levels of leadership, “Level 5 leaders, inherently humble, look out the window to apportion credit—even undue credit—to factors outside themselves. If they can’t find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck. At the same time, they look in the mirror to assign responsibility, never citing bad luck or external factors when things go poorly.” Reportedly, underperforming leaders use the window and the mirror in the opposite manner.

I like Collins’ metaphor generally, except the part about crediting “good luck” for good works, or any luck at all. While humility is great (or at least good), modeling how to share (and receive) credit appropriately is probably great(er). Sharing responsibility is also a good idea, although some of us nearly always believe that somehow if things didn’t go well, we are responsible; perhaps not responsible for a particular event that contributed to a poor outcome, but responsible because we believe we could have done something that would have ensured a successful outcome. We may not have any idea what our contribution might have been, yet we still believe that we should have been able to bring home the prize, trophy, or other sports-like symbol of winning.

Confidence or arrogance? Well, it depends…sort of a thin line here. Perhaps it’s attitudinal. When we look for solutions to correct the aforementioned poor outcomes, problems, issues, conundrums, and other perplexities, intuitively we know that we don’t know it all and we must look to others for answers and knowledge. Well, unless we believe we do know it all I suppose. Okay, so maybe now we’re getting to the attitudinal difference that defines confidence and arrogance.

Sidebar: I once had some colleagues return from a workshop where personality/work traits were analyzed for the participants (and their bosses back in the office just for fun); they were happy to report that they had defined me to be a “know-it-all”…okay. The good news was that there were two kinds of know-it-alls – the real know-it-all and the fake know-it-all – and I was a real know-it-all. I beamed with pride…eventually.

I would suggest that confidence is outwardly focused and arrogance is inwardly focused. While we can certainly be confident in ourselves (self-confidence is admirable), arrogance is all about oneself (self-arrogance is redundant). We can also have confidence in others – looking for knowledge elsewhere and generously applying credit for that knowledge. Conversely we can’t learn anything if we arrogantly know it all already – knowing it all and taking credit whenever possible.

So, learn to share credit, including receiving it if you don’t already. Learn to share responsibility, including accepting it if you don’t already. Don’t be a know-it-all (real or fake) – you’ll learn more. Do look to others for knowledge – you’ll be wiser. How? Look in the mirror – that answer is closer than it appears.