Starting new conversations in the workplace!

Preface for any who may be new, or occasional readers:

Subscriptions to Talking Story have spiked in the last week since we said Aloha to Joyful Jubilant Learning, and I am thrilled to have you here. THRILLED. I assure you, joyful learning will always be a part of Talking Story (learning is my Hawaiian value of ‘Ike loa); I cannot imagine it being otherwise.

Reading back over this posting, which follows, I also feel I should explain… There’s a lot of self-indulgent “me” in it, offered up to you as the silent question, “Perhaps you too?”

There are times my posts will “talk story out loud” as a clarity-seeking extension of my own self-talk, and it usually happens on Sundays, a Mālama [stewardship, within caring] day for me. So a truthful caveat that my writing today is normal for me, as the person I am, but not post-normal as the author ofTalking Story, who seeks to deliver more concise writing to you that is not as lengthy, nor with as many posited yet unanswered questions. If you skip this one you will not hurt my feelings, truly. However if you have the time to read it, it might also be the quickest “pleased to meet you,” catch-up, and/or reconnecting you can possibly do with me, for I am committed to giving Talking Story my good stuff, and not the clutter, interesting as it may be, or the sometimes noisy clatter. It’s just that the process of it all needs a writer’s rambling room at times. Sundays suit, are Mālama kind and patient.

A seemingly opposite (but very connected) aside: I also discovered Iain Thomas’s TED talk yesterday, which is a very compelling way to learn about you and not me, and I highly recommend it:

“You and I, We are the Same.” Yet…“we’ve grown up in this digital space, where identity is entirely optional.” —Iain Thomas

You can watch it on my Tumblr, Ho‘ohana Aloha. Click here to see the video (9:28 long).

Glorious weekends, we love thee

It’s Sunday. For many on this particular Sunday, that means the Colts versus the Saints within SuperBowl XLIV with a supporting cast of million-dollar commercial spots. For me, that means thinking and taking stock on a day others in my sports-fanatic household are more than happy to give me that space, especially after I’ve prepped with a great Weekly Review done on Saturday. If the game is good, they’ll have it on tape.

There is no better “taking stock” for me, than following up on something. Then ‘better,’ becomes more meaningful when that following up is with my current Ho‘ohana [my work intention]:
Take 5 in 2010: A Game-Changing Ho‘ohana is what we now turn to updating.

Why game-changing?

No, it’s not more within a SuperBowl metaphor. Game-changing is the first question I answer for myself when the years morph from one into another: Do you want to change your game, whatever it may be, or do you want to tweak the same one, and improve it in some way?

In my case, the 2009 shift into 2010 answer had to do with learning new and different versus more of the same, as a wanting that was tugging at my insides. It was connected to how my learning directly affects my ‘doing’ of most everything (i.e. my productivity: Am I busy, or accomplished? Big difference.)

As the saying goes, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll likely get what you’ve always gotten.” Einstein gave this another twist… he defined insanity as doing the same things but expecting different results. Provocative coaching.

Mahalo for being here, and helping

Rands tweeted: “As you write, you need to take your readers with you.”

I think this Sunday is good for that purpose, for much has happened. Besides, as I write, and share things I find and discover, I will take myself with me too, in that “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” kind of way.

Your words can move you if you let them

I have written that adopting mantras can be powerful. In Managing with Aloha, we refer to it as the power of our Language of Intention [MWA Key Concept #5] for the words we speak and act upon are incredibly quick and efficient in effecting shift in workplace culture.

Sometimes I will rediscover this key myself, and on a very personal basis, and by now you’d think I’d no longer be surprised by the way that works, but I am. Keeping my sense of wonder about it all is good, I suppose… yes. We have to know that there are forces at play stronger than we are, fragile and mistake-prone humans that we are (hmmm… more to explore here with the concept of love as a strengthener… will table the thought, for now.)

My Ho‘ohana Sculpting. MWA is inseparable

Back in December, as 2010 drew to a close, I posted Take 5 in 2010: A Game-Changing Ho‘ohana. In brief, updated form, the thoughts, and possible mantras within it, were these:

• “My overall strategy for 2010 became clear to me early on: Less will be more.”
• “Taking 5 has proved so good for me in the past, and I trust it. Here are the 5 things I now consider the lumps of clay awaiting my own Ho‘ohana sculpting throughout 2010:”

1. Say Leadership Coaching (my business umbrella) will serve Great Managers directly

Learning and stretching is glorious: They grow you. However the truth is that I had allowed too much mission-creep to sway me from my own Ho‘ohana focus. And guess what? In the process of better focus, we can do much for everyone who aspires to self-manage, and self-lead, or manage and lead with their ideas and demonstrative illustrations versus by managing others.

2. M/L Practical: The 30/70 Mission of Managing with Aloha

“M/L Practical” refers to leadership (L) creating energy as our greatest resource, with management (M) channeling that energy in the best possible way. 30/70 is a weekly measurement and action application of the time we devote to each: 30% to leading and 70% to managing. Generally I will write on leading each Tuesday, and on managing each Thursday, with publishing at Say Alaka‘i keeping me on track.

3. Jobs Reinvented and Delivered for Best Livelihood

Not only are business models being reinvented post the “Great Recession;” so is work, job, and career. Do we understand our true relationship with wealth? Our values can help guide us: Values are the Bedrock of Hard Reality.

4. Small and Nimble Self-Managing Teams and Tribes

And small and nimble everything else, it turns out. Self-reliance is speaking up in a louder voice too, a voice we all should welcome, I think. Teams and tribes demand that choices are made. Choices about involvement, about managing, about leading, about good following. There are choices about commitment, the honoring of character, and respect for culture.

5. Critical, Consistent, Clear Communication: “Communication is huge and we need a focus.”

Increasingly true, each and every day. It presses on me, hard and insistent. It battles within me constantly: Communicate, yet quietly reflect first. Communicate with clarity, yet be open to ambiguity and variance. Communicate, yet debrief in private, and self-edit.

Each point has gotten sharpened or strengthened, has spoken up louder, or has intensified somehow. These past few weeks have been affirming and amazing.

For today, and to wrap this up in some way, these are two milestones… movable rocks I am painting with emotional images (like those torches the final 3 burn on Survivor!)… polished stones I will hold in my hand to feel their presence, solidity and strength…

Of Significance: 1. Learning is a never-ending Project

But even learning needs boundaries.

7 short days ago, I declared “game over” for Joyful Jubilant Learning: Learning Healthy and Joyful Endings. I surprised many with my decision; I surprised myself. There were others who completely understood, or who were not surprised at all, or who had wondered why it took me as long as it did to arrive at my place of ending. Not-so-oddly when you think about it, these others were some of the ones closest to the project.

Today, a mere week later, I can best think of Joyful Jubilant Learning as a project of stellar proportions, and not a blog I ended. “Project” does not minimize it in any way, believe me. I love, and thrive in Wow Projects. JJL was stellar in that it challenged me, and others, to open up our learning in Palena ‘ole capacity-stretching. Palena ‘ole is MWA Key Concept #9:

9. Palena ‘ole (Unlimited Capacity):

This is your exponential growth stage, and about seeing your bigger and better leadership dreams come to fruition. Think “Legacy.” Create abundance by honoring capacity; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Seek inclusive, full engagement and optimal productivity, and scarcity will be banished.

Learning is a never-ending project for all human beings who want to grow, believing in their own unlimited capacity. Yet we do have to manage our Learning within focus-sharpening boundaries with reasonable edges at times, making it a “short and deep” project of significance with a defined beginning and decision-bearing end. Otherwise, it can take over everything else.

For some, learning at JJL meant community. For others, learning with JJL meant “learning apart together.” Thank you so very much Lodewijk for that clarity. To you who chose that route, silently yet resolutely sticking with us in spirit whenever we vocal JJLers nagged you to be more visibly involved, I admire you, and better appreciate you now, if indeed you stuck with your learning.

Stellar Wow Projects give back in many ways, and , as raw as it still feels for some of us, I am very confident that JJL will continue to give.

Of Significance: 2. Communication benefits greatly from Sense of Place

I think this one also connects to “Less is more” and “Small and nimble.” I am still craving more FOCUS and as a publisher, I am fully aware how much every part of my life marches to the rhythm of how and what I am communicating in any point in time in different team circles.

And oh, what a vicious circle this can be…

Accomplishing is a smaller chunk than all of doing.
Can we do less, yet accomplish more?

Doing is a smaller chunk than all of communicating.
Can we communicate less, but get more done?

Communicating is a smaller chunk than all of thinking.
Can we think less, yet communicate more?

Thinking is a smaller chunk than all of learning.
Can we learn less, yet think more about our learning?

While critical, learning is smaller than the largeness of living.
And in our living, place can mean almost everything.

Another thing that JJL taught me so well, painfully so at times, was that communities and teams are defined by place too, not just people.

To help me focus on my game-changing in 2010, I need to recommit to Sense of Place [MWA Key Concept #8] in some tangible ways which are connected to how and where I communicate. So these are my decisions going forward, with where, for some very practical and tactical reasons, I will communicate from.

You will see more detail evolve as it happens; all need some transition time and may not start immediately, but soon. All are already in process. As usual, I start with Ho‘ohana intentions in the form of another Take 5: My manageable, small chunk of choice.

1. One place as “true blog” and that is here, at Talking Story, my mothership. I have changes planned for all the other domain names I own and publish under the Ho‘ohana Publishing umbrella; stay tuned.
2. One place as “Hawai‘i citizen publisher” and “my local” and that will be at Say “Alaka‘i.”
3. One place in “conversational web-based social media” and that will be on Twitter, and simplified in one account @rosasay. I make no apology for other places I share or broadcast online and choose not to converse; it is intentional.
4. One place from which I will draw subject matter for any additional writing I do as a guest author, and one place from which all business models, coaching, writing, speaking presentations, teaching workshops, and new projects will flow in 2010. It is the one place from which all value-alignment will root, and remain fertile, and that is Managing with Aloha.
5. A place I will still say “no” to throughout 2010, despite the more popular web marketing “wisdom” we are bombarded with: I will not be doing any email newsletters over and above, or different from the ways you can now get my publishing alerts directly into your inbox: Via Feedburner subscriptions to either this blog, Talking Story (click here), or if you want even more, my Tumblr, Ho‘ohana Aloha (click here).

Clarity is such a beautiful thing! It is kind. It can soothe and heal.

Where do you stand with your Ho‘ohana, this 6th Sunday into 2010? Mālama yourself. It feels really, really wonderful.

Photo Credits: Posse of painted stones by Isot pihvit pizzat on Flickr

Tagged as: ‘Ike loa, communication, email, game-changing, Ho‘ohana, Language of Intention, Less is More, Managing with Aloha, Mālama, Take 5 in 2010, Tumblr, Twitter

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