Look at that red badge on your phone.
Have you ever sat back and wondered how much intellectual power has gone into how that information is presented to you?
Think about why they picked that:
Realize that they have psychologists, technologists, and even philosophers working to make sure you notice that button.
Is it ever any wonder why Facebook is so addicting?
In top-down organizations, leaders work with “the stick.”
The “stick” relies on the largest threat: “you’re fired.”
“You’re fired” means that a worker has to decide if the leader has enough authority to tell them what to do, as well as learning if the leader can actually fire them.
These decisions mean that it comes with mental overhead. If you, as a worker, have to think, “Will this get me fired?” You aren’t as effective.
This style has a point,though if you lead. If compliance means more than creativity, which is true at most gigantic organizations, it works.
Taking that style anywhere else, however, relies on a situation or the environment.
The bad news, if you depend on that style to lead, is that those situations rarely occur naturally.
What other method exists?
We can learn how to execute for others.
We love completion and root for finishers. So, execute and build confidence.
As a result, gaining that confidence allows them to believe that you lead effectively. That trust means people listen, and once they listen, they follow. Furthermore, your confidence creates authority.
Those who often execute by example become the ones who lead by it.
We(human beings) don’t like to run towards the trouble. Most of our lives build on avoiding it. We live with warnings from several people, always telling us that the end of the world is near, especially if you decide to investigate whatever that noise is. Because of that, we end up growing a certain amount of cynicism towards the noise, and anyone who decides to try to figure it out. In turn, we soon become the people who warn others about the noise, creating a cycle.
It is a huge reason most of us feel trapped, even with no cage around us.
It is something that is extremely hard to pinpoint, but something we all have. It’s the question we don’t want to ask out of fear of rocking the boat, or its the meeting we don’t want to deny because it’s a waste of time(and denying it would piss someone off), or the blog we swear we are going to write because the world needs to hear us.
The noise is what makes every human unique, and why if you know how to connect to it, every single conversation you have is interesting. That noise is the thing that makes us unique.
I think we all have a noise inside of us but kids showcase it the best.
It’s very active when we are young. That noise compels us to ask questions, explore, and talk to anyone. It leads us down roads often considered “odd.” I think kids make us smile because we see it, and we think it is alright for them to have it. It doesn’t hurt us to see someone so young with it, because they don’t remind us of ourselves yet. They are free.
But later on, we tell them to kill it, to fit in, to “act right.” They miss out on the grand insight from it, and it only gets to come out at random intervals of inspiration.
It’s a shame, because it usually grants great innovation. But luckily, it’s never to late.
Monday morning is here and I don’t like it.
I hate Monday mornings. It never quite feels like a fresh start- more like the old one gets loped off and we gotta start from the beginning.
I want to make it so my Monday is a continuation of Sunday – get into something where the work healthily goes into my life all week long. No need to stop something that is constantly in motion.
Maybe I need to start in with a project I own. The plan is to do some design work soon. I don’t know when it will be done, but I hope putting it down on paper( or I guess screen) will get something going.
I have no old work to show to prove what I can do.
I have to rebuild my portfolio – I used to have stuff socked away, but I have deleted and loss passwords to more accounts than even I care to know.
It is going to take some time to get it back, and part of that stops me dead in my tracks. Where will I go, who wants to start fresh after feeling like there was a foundation before?
But that is the thing isn’t it – the way design moves, no one cares about my old work – or my old design, it would be outdated, and look terrible considering what I have done.
Either way, the feeling is damning. I guess I just have to start don’t I.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 