Projects take time.
Big projects take a lot of time – a lot of scary, ambiguous time.
Quick wins inside of that scary ambiguous time can be a huge factor in team morale. People love to see progress, even if it superficial.
As a leader, it’s your job to find those quick wins, and then use them as a way to keep everyone focused on the big picture. Properly utilized, they function as stop gaps to build everyones tolerance for ambiguity.
That way, the focus can remain on the big picture.
“Speed is the distance traveled over time. I can run around in circles with a lot of speed and cover several miles that way, but I’m not getting anywhere. Velocity measures displacement. It’s direction-aware.
Shane Parrish – Speed Vs Velocity
Some questions for your team in light of this quote:
What is our unique selling proposition (USP)?
How do we engage with other teams?
What is the bar story – how do we explain ourselves at the bar?
What are our perceived and real threats?
What are the talk trigger – what gets them excited?
Maybe most importantly, can someone tell this story back at us?
Ten other themes in the Sopranos that stood out to me:
Son vs mother
Child rebellion
Narcissism… really anything to do with cognitive deficiency
Complicity
Cognitive bias
Whiteness
Racism
Nepotism
Enough
The 7 deadly sins
I just finished my second watch (first rewatch) of the entire series. I read the Sopranos Sessions while doing it. (Great Book btw – go get it if you can find it!)
So, of course it’s the story of a mob boss.
But what is it about?
David Chase and crew did a fantastic job making the show as thick with meaning as life, at its most confusing, can be. Things have a purpose or no purpose at all.
Take the final scene.
That man in the members only jacket at the end, how is he different than any other person that watches Tony Soprano whenever he enters a room? Does the jacket mean something (a mob underling killed himself earlier in the season, and he liked Members Only jackets)? What about the bell at the door, does it signify death (the last few arcs of the show covered death extensively)
Or does it all mean nothing? Plenty of times the show just ends things that you thought were headed to bloodshed with a drink and a handshake.
As much as the old sportswriters might not want to hear this, life isn’t baseball.
What do I mean?
Well, in baseball, the point is to score as many runs as possible. When someone hits the ball out of the park, that is a home run. In baseball, a home run is always good. It is at least worth one point, possibly more.
In a game where the average team might score three runs, getting a few in one shot is good.
In real life though – the attempt to hit a homerun or even the homerun itself, can be dangerous.
In baseball, they reset after homeruns, the manager might take out a pitcher, in short, they adjust. The person that hits the homerun gets to rest. In life, we tend not to. Our brains just see points, and often ignore the rest.
It’s like never sitting down. You’re always chasing it. Small hits(singles and doubles) start meaning less and less, even though they can be more impactful.
This means that home runs can be something that keeps us on a path (hello cognitive bias).
I guess all I am saying is take a break sometimes and stop swinging just for the fences.
The best thing for us to do is work.
The next best thing for us to do is to take a break.
We don’t know where the work will take you on a day to day basis, but we do know we need to do it. The same goes for a break, take one every day.
Then show up again tomorrow.
Consistency gets us to the future we want, even though we can’t see it.
And probably, going to ask you to put yourself in an unfamiliar place.
If you want to change a system that runs on a bunch of soft rules (say, for example, “diversity” in the tech space) you’ll have to force yourself out of your comfort zone.
In that case, tweeting and saying “we need to hire” isn’t enough. What makes “soft” power so powerful is its ability to quietly dismiss things that go against the system. I’ve seen teams say they want to hire “diversely,” host events, and after a year not make a dent in their internal staff.
Attack it directly or your “want” will get washed away. Make the first move in communities you haven’t heard of. Reach out to underrepresented people, not just in look (and end up with people who have been preselected by the system) but in education and upbringing. Hang out with them, bring them around (and not just in sterile environments) and help them with their projects. Get them in the door by holding your foot down and welcoming them inside.
Direct action, or not at all.
And that is good work.
Scary – what am I missing?
Healing – what do I need to face and how do I face it?
Peaceful – wow, quiet.
This only happens if you give yourself real (at least an hour) quiet time.
To radicalize.
To harm.
Ultimately, to kill.
The Christchurch mass shooting is a disgrace. My heart goes to my muslim brother and sisters at this time.
If we keep working, then no one will accuse us of being lazy.
If we put more things in the market, maybe one of them will catch on.
If we keep adding pages to the report, then people will know we did the work.
Fear. Fear. Fear.
