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A Correction – More Important Things

Different

The other day I wrote about what I’ve learned from the companies I’ve run and worked for.

I’d like to change the list.

Original:

  • AllHipHop – How to write on my own, turn it in, and receive critique.
  • HiphopDX – My first interviews, stronger writing, fact-based stories, pitching.
  • The Gamer Studio – staff management, hiring, firing, and a bunch of stuff in between.
  • DTCC – Stakeholder management – whoa this was a rough lesson over six years.
  • altMBA coach – When to push and when to pull a team without being the “boss.”
  • Arcade School – Education technology and the beginning of pricing.
  • Cofound Harlem – Engaging with politicians and  early entrepreneurs
  • Philosophie – Design design design.
  • Datalogue – ****
  • Informed – In progress

New:

  • AllHipHop –  Jump in.
  • HiphopDX – My first interviews, stronger writing, fact-based stories, pitching.
  • The Gamer Studio – staff management, hiring, firing, and a bunch of stuff in between.
  • DTCC – Problem management. Solving at any time. Reasoning
  • altMBA coach – When to push and when to pull a team without being the “boss.”
  • Arcade School – What HIPPO means
  • Cofound Harlem – Engaging with politicians and  early entrepreneurs
  • Philosophie – Design design design.
  • Datalogue – Communicating as an outsider
  • Informed – In progress

 

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You’re Right – So You Are Going To Change Minds? Not So Fast.

Inspiring change isn’t just about being right.

Facts don’t win arguments. In fact, it may push a person to be even more wrong.

Crazy? You bet. Do I do it? Yes.

Our egos haven’t evolved. There was a point in time that being wrong meant death, and we grew into beings that will hold on to the hope of a lie rather than the truth.

So how do you inspire change?

I don’t know the formula, but I do know it involves

  • Empathy
  • Listening
  • Allowing people to save face

This viewpoint is hard because it requires a lot of backbone.

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How Do I Get Someone To Change?

Everyone wants to know how to change someone, it seems. I get the idea – if I can change my team, then I can push MY work to the next level.

So, you have an abundance of tools and techniques on the internet. It’ easy to find, type in “top ten ways to ch” on Google and watch Google not only finish the sentence but then provide hundreds of pages of results.

Well, lucky for you, I am going to save you a ton of time and give you three instead of ten.

Even better, they all start with the same word:

  • Over-index
  • Over-correct
  • Over-communicate

That’s it.

Next, you have to deal with “who cares.”

What do I mean?

Who cares:

  • That you put that much work in
  • That you made sure the work looks great
  • That you bothered to tell everyone

Depending on where you are, it may even annoy people. I’ve worked in a few places where what I do makes me a weirdo.

Why? You end up with just the hard parts:

  • Doing it every day
  • Working in the darkness
  • Staying on target

Then that annoyance turns into respect. That respect gets contagious.  The rest of the team begins to lean in.

The key isn’t to change them, far more easy to improve yourself. Humans love to model the behavior around them.

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New Dreams

Change comes with destruction

I think you need to kill your old dreams to get to the new ones.

Decisively.

Everything we do comes with some cost, even maintaining the parts of the past that aren’t a part of our identity, the pieces that don’t serve us.

So, we need to put those old dreams to sleep and move forward. Because every day we don’t, we are taking away the possibility to do more.

Change is a radical act, and for it to stick requires action.

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Your Future

Is up to you, too

What change can you make, today? How about one that can change your life?

Why not start it?

Now.

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Go. Start a Fire.

How can you become a fire starter?

First – what is a fire starter?

A fire starter is a catalyst for change.

Why are they important?

They make things happen when inertia sets in. Innovation usually occurs through fire starters. They are around to cultivate growth in project, teams, and organizations.

How can you become a fire starter?

Well, I think it is already inside of you. This blog is built around the audacity to create change and make an impact on the world around you.

The trick is to bring it out. Think about the last time you “pushed the button” and made the room uncomfortable enough to shift direction. The inputs that created your output there varies for everyone. The important thing is capturing it, and trying to bring those inputs into your life consistently.

Firestarters change the world. Be one.

Speaking of Firestarters, the wonderful Kate Harvie has just shipped her book, Believe It and Behave It: How to Restart, Reset, and Reframe Your Life, and it is a great tool to help you “fire start.”

Her wisdom has helped me shape this blog into what it is today, and working with her to improve the clarity of my writing is one of my most cherished working relationships.

Buy her book, and I know you’ll learn something to help you make a change.

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Being Different Is Difficult

Different is Difficult

When most people talk about wanting something different, rarely do they want something too different.

What do they want?

They want a different flavor of themselves.  If we use a car metaphor, people don’t want an another kind; they want a different shade of paint or a new model.

If we stay with the car metaphor, it’s easier to drive a car where you reliably know where the air conditioner and the aux cord are. You can still have the same habits and get the same results.

Sometimes it isn’t a bad thing to want an update or even the same car. A new type of car means a new way of operating, and that takes time to get comfortable.

Dealing with people is no different.

If you do want different, prepare for “uncomfortability” on both sides.  Different is difficult. It requires us to change our habits and ways of seeing the world after we are comfortable.

Be patient.

 

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Table for One

Smallest change, please

I love being a part of the altMBA program, both as a student and a coach.

During a private event with both alumni and Seth, he made a point that I’ve spent a lifetime trying to avoid. The thing is, he was completely right.

Before, I didn’t want to face it because:

  • It requires a lot of work and a ton of vulnerability.
  • It forces you to make decisions about the product you are offering to the world.
  • And, it might scare some people off.

What is it?

Focus on changing one person. That’s it.

Your job isn’t to make something for the masses. Your job, as a leader and a creator, is to make something for one person. Decide to attack one person’s problem, let one person find a voice, have one person feel represented.   Everyone else has to miss the boat.

Once you get that one person, then turn it into two.

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Don’t Block Other’s Pain

Resist the urge to shield everything

You have to let your team scrape its knee. 

Failure is a path to growth, and when you stop the team from scraping its knee, you cut that growth short.

We adapt. When we are on a team that we trust, we know that the pain we feel can evolve into value at some point. When you are working with a team long-term, this is important. Each failure turns into a lesson for you and your team.

Don’t shame, blame or guilt. Failure is information. It is a chance to regroup.

Doesn’t mean it isn’t painful.

Let that pain evolve into an experience, or you’ll feel more pain later.

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Show Up, There is Always a Prize When You Do

Go to work, show up

Every day you show up, something happens.

Sometimes that “something” is external. We earn accolades, money, validation.

Those are nice and necessary. Helping someone or making something happen feels good.

However, the external isn’t permanent. If that were it, then showing up wouldn’t be nearly as important as it is.

Something happens to our brains when we “do.” The change that happens is internal. We earn a little more know-how, form habits, and understand the language of what we do.

We take those things with us.They make up our foundation. The starting block for our taste.

There is always a prize for showing up.

Recognize, however, that no one else may see that prize.

Then show up anyway.

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