Rainy Day Leaders
I asked a group the other night to share their favorite rainy day activity. The answers ranged from, “stand out in it and let it wash all over me,” to “bake/cook something comfy.” Growing up in the pacific northwest brought many a rainy day. We have so many words for rain. Spitting, drizzling, pouring, beating, pounding, well, you get the point. But rains bring a pause. Do I have what I need to move through this weather? Do I need a raincoat, an umbrella, or a moment to allow it to cleanse my soul and reset my spirit? Some people said, “Read. Though I read all the time, there is something more cozy when reading and listening to the rain.”
Perhaps the rain symbolizes release, pause, reflection.
For some, the rain isn’t any of those things. It amplifies that they feel unprepared, unsure if these waters will ever end or turn into flash floods. For some, rain symbolizes fear, foreboding, and insecurity.
When the rains come, what kind of leader are you? Are you the one that puts people on edge or are you the one that reflects, sees the rains for what they are and can explain them to your team? Not all rains are gentle (another descriptor) and not all rains are torrential (see what I did there?). Rainy day leaders can clearly articulate to their team what kind of rains they are facing, see each of their team and how they are reacting, and help each one fill in what they need to experience the rains in a way that creates hope and clarity.
Sometimes we need to remind people the rain is welcomed and it is okay to snuggle on the couch with a book and let it pass. Other times we need to supply the rainboots and buckets, because we need to go in and help out.
Cheers to my rainy day leaders out there!
For today:
Blame it on the Rain (heh)
Chapters & Books
I got curious and went looking to see if I had archived some of my older posts…silly me, I have Input in my top five strengths, you BET I have them archived and probably a picture of the whiteboard where I sketched them out…heh.
Here is one from when I left my classroom as a high school English educator.
January, 2016: A Chapter Closed - in fast forward
I started packing this week. I also started the perpetual garage sale (all free) on the three tables to the left of our learning space. Ugly silver fabric covering the tan bulletin board came down. Quotes collected for student inspiration when I could not offer any slowly came down off the walls. Thinkers like Maya, Zora, Atticus and Shakespeare slowly found their way to the hands of desperate students uncomfortable with change or to the recycle bin, happy to have played their part in this small scene.
Three weeks.
It was too small to teach all the lessons left.
Who will remind them to push through the apathy when it hits in March? Who will remind them that their existential crisis in February is normal? Who will remind them that they cannot choose the wrong school? For GOD’S SAKES YOU ARE GOING TO COLLEGE! It doesn’t matter! YOU will find your niche. You will give in and over to the culture and add your own. Oh, you have so many spices to add to this global recipe! Who would remind them of that?
Two weeks.
I was too small for the love and grief.
I just do my job. That is what I do. I see them, scared, angry, pissed, frustrated, or small. I see them, meet them, and then we MOVE. There are no excuses. There are no rocks to hide under. I see each of them individually and collectively. I see them and we move…I just didn’t expect that they needed that.
One week.
It all became too big. My ugly cry. My grief. My second guessing…was leaving this space the right thing to do after sixteen years in it?
One year.
It has been one year. At least once a week I am asked, “Do you miss it?”
Every day.
But sometimes the call is farther down the trail than where you were. Sometimes to go after what is necessary, you have to leave what is known and comfortable.
I miss the classroom. I miss the dialogue. I miss the interaction with students.
But it is worth longing for those moments in small doses as I work with other collaborators in our community to open up doors for students, to create spaces in which experiential learning is the norm and not the exception. I am working for all those wanting the best for our future, and that, well, that was bigger than my four walls, it was bigger than my small lessons, and it was bigger than my comfort.
I left them with three pieces of advice:
Be Here. Be Humble. Be Human
Explore and Engage. Laugh at yourself. Remember that we have worth because we breathe.
I have a lot of chapters in my book o’ life, but this career pathway part, I haven’t really looked at in a while. It has a lot of chapters in it and five of them added just in the last nine years. Each position has given me the ability to hone my Strengths, use them in a variety of settings, so I can understand better the contexts of peoples’ stories. I speak a lot of industry language, and it helps me be a better coach, a better consultant, and a better version of me. I like this quirky path I took from K-12 to business to state government to nonprofit to higher ed to Julie Brock Consulting. I look forward to seeing this chapter play out, the others have been fabulous reads…this one won’t be any different.
Latest loves:
The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin I am waking from a long creative hibernation, and this book is wiping the sleep from my eyes.
Tribal Leadership The state of the world, as of late, has had me reflecting on this concept. I’m looking for stage five leaders.
Revitalization
It isn’t lost on me that I am posting this on cusp of spring. The equinox has past, but the weather, at least in Minnesota, is just starting to catch up. Winter likes to hold on into spring, especially on such mild years as this. I used to write a blog called, “Not so Shiny Jules” the real observations of an ordinary human. I thought it clever, the little play on my name. It drove my mom crazy, “but you ARE shiny!” (Thanks mom). I stopped writing because somehow I convinced myself that writing was just a thing I did, not an essential part of my identity. I write to make sense of the world, to process, and to work out the most complex knots of humanity. Writing is not shiny, it is messy as I work a problem from all sides. It is the pencil lead smudge on the side of my hand (thanks left handedness), it is the garden dirt under my fingernails, it is the sweat on my brow after a trail run. Writing is a form of breathing for me.
I’m bringing it back.
With little structure.
With more light.
You’ll see, if you look back through the posts here, they are an attempt to be structured, and more “on brand” for Julie Brock Consulting than the musings of a human trying to make sense of it all. I prefer the latter. I’ve missed the latter, so I’m going to do the latter. I can’t guarantee that you will find anything of use here, but I can guarantee you will see me showing my work as I continually work at those knots.
I’m excited to get my hands dirty, my hair up into a messy bun, and dig back into humanity.
Latest loves:
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield: fun rom com about a late night show writer and a guest who mirror for each other their greatest strengths and their glaring insecurities.
Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé. There is nothing to say.
You are a delight
When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to grow up and be an adult. Be old enough to make my own choices and live my own life. When I got there, I realized how hard it really is. Do I feed my body good food or do I grab what is fast and easy yet again because I can’t seem to schedule time in a way that works? Do I make my money stretch to cover my bills or do I buy a new shiny on my credit card? Do I do the “adult” thing or act like a “kid”?
What people don’t tell you is that you are constantly your 4 year old self, your 13 year old self, your 67 year old self, all the time in every version of your body. So our choices, our decisions are fresh, every day and who knows which version of ourselves holds the lever. Is it my wisdom? My playfulness? My impulsiveness?
We aren’t fixed in our personality or identity. We are ever changing, ever flowing, and never truly in control. The sooner we can let go of marching toward some statue version of our perceived greatness, the discovery of our truth will become brighter, easier to observe, and delightful.
You are a delight to be observed through loving curiosity.
Want to read more from other brilliant people?
Carol Dweck Growth Mindset
Sandra Cisneros Eleven
Combating Negative Bias
Saber tooth tigers used to stalk and kill us. Watch the Croods for a good example as to why negative bias was important to pay attention to. However, as the world evolves and technology creates ease and adaptability for us, there are fewer tigers, but our brains want to make everything into a tiger, you know, to protect us.
Our brains are experts at identifying threats, but not as skilled in identifying the glory and wonder of the world. As we grow up, the negative experiences, touching a hot stove, a bad break up, getting lost or separated from a parent, these experiences stand out as neon signs flashing warnings at our future selves to WATCH OUT!
Taking an asset-based approach to life takes practice and time. It requires creating new neuron wiring and practice. Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuroscientist, in his 2013 Tedx Talk talks about how our brains, little by little, can counter the negativity bias and build a hard-wired positivity response. He indicates that over time, neurons will learn a new pathway and start to fill our brains with the positive versus negative, but we have to work at it, it is growing new patterns, developing new habits.
In our work cultures, we often perpetuate a negativity bias or weakness driven environment, We do annual reviews in which we are asked to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses, and create goals to increase our weak areas. It is ineffective and doesn’t stick. However, if we instead, learn about our CliftonStrengths® , how they are productive or unproductive, and learn how to best communicate and modify them, we start to increase a positive mindset that values what is right and good with ourselves and others versus seeing everyone, or ourselves as a tiger.
Asset framing is the first step to uncovering the beautiful way we are wired, which opens up endless possibilities for impacting the world around us in powerful, positive ways.
No Arrival
“There is no arrival. If you have arrived, you have died.”
This is how I started every AP Lang class I taught. I then went on to remind these High School Seniors that this was the beginning of the end. The last first day of PK - 12 school. The last homecoming. The last prom. The last of dictated courses (sort of). The beginning of the last year in this chapter of their stories. How will this chapter end? What will be the words right before they turn the page? How will they construct this chapter over the course of nine months?
And then they got to work writing their best arguments, standing on a tree stump in the middle of my classroom and declaring in their best Lorax voice who they were and what they stand for? “I am Julie and I stand for unearthing every person’s beautiful wiring.”
And that is what I do. I help people unearth the very best version of their wiring. I do that through coaching, through consulting, through writing, through speaking, through being a decent human and good friend. And it is always in the person’s hands. It is your story. How do you want to write this chapter?
I act as an editor, a proof-reader, a questioner, and a coach. Sometimes it is a pacing issue, and we need to slow up or speed up. Sometimes the order is just not resonating, so we rework, reorder, rediscover. It is an exercise and practice that is never mastered but constantly learned.
Are you facing a transition? A lull? A knot that you just can’t seem to worry out? If so, let’s connect.
Asset Framing
Puberty messes us all up. All of the sudden we care what other people say and do, care about the words that come out of their mouths, and are not told that for the next four years, hormones will drive while we hold on for dear life trying to figure out if we are in a perpetual fight or flight cycle. Will the waves of emotion pull us fully under?
We don’t talk about how puberty robs us of our own confidence by introducing comparison, self-doubt, negative bias, and inexcusable behavior from usually decent humans. Every middle school needs a class called, “Why did I do that?” and the answer most likely will be puberty. Why did I trip that guy? Impulse control is shot as you consider, what would that look like? What would happen if? And then hormones take over and, there you have it. Puberty.
Because we don’t talk about it, we have so many adults unsure, uneasy of their role in the world. Because what puberty robs from us, we have to build back. We also don’t talk about that. We don’t talk about the power of words and for every tearing down comment we receive it takes four authentic positive comments from people we trust, to out power that one put down.
It takes work to bring back the brilliance dampened by puberty. It takes work to build a personage that is truly ours, truly asset-framed, and actively fighting negative bias. The good news, is we can. We can stand on our assets. Most importantly, we can equip our kids with what is right and good about themselves as they navigate the crazy waters of teen-dom.
CliftonStrengths shows us our leadership wiring. When we learn more about how our top five strengths show up and work together, it gives us a clearer picture of what we bring to the world in addition to our dazzling personality. We bring our wiring, we bring our brains, we bring assets. When we are able to articulate our strengths to others, we have a common language steeped in assets. Steeped in showing what is right and good about each of us and how we show up in the world.
We have to actively create an asset-framed perspective to best serve ourselves and those around us, and it is crucial as we move through these revolutionary times to bring the very best version of ourselves forward. It is critical for our future to have adults who model actively being asset-based, asset-framed, and confidently letting kids know that puberty sucks, but we can get through it with our best in place.
Mosaic
Mosaics were used to pave floors. Creating not only a foundation to stand on, but an inspiring one. Mosaics from the 4th century BCE depicted heroes, stories, and history. Greek life and greek Gods captured, one pebble, glass tile, clay shard at a time. Soon, it was a commissioned art, creating beauty and the known with the odd and unknown.
It is the art of seeing bits of what was, to make what is.
Mosaic artists examine each shattered piece to see how it fits with the new vision. How does it fit into the bigger, better, and newer picture? Mosaics give each shattered piece of life meaning and purpose, and beauty by taking our broken pieces and build them into a new whole.
The true beauty is in the build. In the process of sifting through our memories, moments, and selecting with care and precision the pieces that go into the Mosaic of our life. There are moments that break us, push us beyond what we thought we could ever do or be. Crushing moments can also produce the very best pieces of Mosaic self.
Panic attacks.
Debilitating anxiety
Depression
Death
Each knocked the wind out of me as I crashed into the ground. Each broke moments into minutia that I painfully pulled my fingers through looking for those bits of myself that I recognized as gorgeous, as shiny, as pure. Those I picked up and grouted into the new version, the new path, the new version.
And I do it over and over.
Because the Mosaic is never complete. The examined life is never finished. The build is beauty in motion, and we are the creators of our own pieced together masterpieces.
Wordsmith Challenge 5
What’s one family tradition you’d like to carry on in the future?
Peppernuts. The look like dog food, and taste like heaven. Mom would start making batches right after Thanksgiving ended and continue until two weeks from Christmas, that gave the cookies time to age. Big containers filled up with these tiny treats, and we would clear them out quickly.
They were our trading wizard for an entire month. If we wanted a hostess cupcake or twinkie, a bag of peppernuts would get us them. It was the one time in which our homemade, mainly organic, and no added sugar household was heralded as remarkable.
We do make them, but not as clockwork as mom did. Usually there is one double batch a year with thoughts to do another, but Christmas comes quickly, and then it is too late. At Aunt Linda’s, we painted sugar cookies, at Grandma’s, we had Clam Chowder, and at our house, we had Peppernuts.
Wordsmith Challenge 4
What did you want to be growing up? Why?
An actor. In Kindergarten, we acted out Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I was mama bear. I remember fully committing to the role and feeling the surge of frustration and love only a mom can have when her children at the table are needing to be fed and screwing around at the same time. I fell in love with the ability to transport myself to other worlds. I became a storyteller in my bedroom, producing elaborate dramas with my village of stuffed animals. This was my place of solace and safety. A place in which my large personality wasn’t just accepted, but expected.
I acted in every play at school, tried out for community shows, and drama was my longest kept major at University of Oregon.
People ask why I didn’t pursue. It wasn’t just one thing, it was a series of things that picked away at my confidence. When I had to make a decision, I was alone, and I wasn’t secure enough to dive in fully.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have done it. I would have gone all in and bet on myself. Because everyday my spirit continues to look for outlets, places in which I can create and belong in multiple stories across the universe. And I believe that I will find my new version, my acting 2.0, the place for my spirit to soar and perch, understanding that we are home.
Wordsmith Challenge 3
List the 5 people you spend the most time with. How have they affected your behaviors, thought, and life?
Randy Brock: n, 44, WM, spouse
He role models how to be an awesome human in the waves of COVID19. He works out, drives for meals on wheels, hosts podcasts, and does the weather. He gives the best hugs, is supporting our boys’ interests by building a fowl coop and talking video games.
Andrew Brock: n, 16, WM son
This guy. Smart, funny, thoughtful, and dialed in. When he sits on the deck and tells me all that he knows, I settle into the warmth of his stories.
Owen Brock: n, 13, WM, son
This guy. Razor sharp wit, conscientious, and empathetic. He smiles and this glint in his eye bubbles up from his spirit and I know something delightful or wicked is about to emerge.
Work team: n, amazing dedicated women
They push to address the inequities of our community in a way that gets shit done. I know we are better because they are working collaboratively and supportively across the community.
HFB: n, amazing, funny, smart group of women that I am so lucky to call friends
We keep us all accountable to being our most authentic, kick ass selves. We are different and yet collectively, a sisterhood.
“Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
CHIEF SEATTLE
And my list goes on to include my extended family, my extended network, my collaborative partners, all the people who are aching to do some good in our community, to make someone’s life better, if only for today. They all make me better, make me reflective, make me whole.
The web we weave is what matters in the end. The goodness of people connected and pulsing through the community-wide story. We are truly, better together.
Wordsmith Challenge 2
If you could run the country for a day, what’s one change you’d like to make.
One day. Twenty four hours. In the middle of a partisan feud fueled by ego and righteousness. In the middle of a pandemic, fueling fear and anxiety. In the middle of an epoch shift that pushes away from individualism and leans into collectivism. That is a helluva time to enter leadership…for a day.
In this one day I get one change to make…systems work isn’t by magic. When the dominos fall, all we see is the result, but we do not see the hours it takes to set them up. The numerous times in which the table was bumped and they all fell. The restarts, the apologies, the anger, the resolve. We don’t see all the work, we just get to be an audience, wowed by the wonder of it. How did they do that? ingenuity, adjustments, tears, frustration, practice, and patience. How did they do that? Commitment to it. To the magic, to the result.
I would want to set up the first domino, and that starts with the people. I would bring in a host of therapy animals and trained coaches/community health workers to listen. To listen to how these staffers have devoted themselves to serving people through a pandemic. To listen to what it is that brought them to this government role, to serve the country, to serve the people.
Then, after the people of whom those staffers serve joined our conversation, we would start looking at the inequities this pandemic has unearthed and risen to the forefront of our broken system. In the human service industry there is a mantra: “Not about us, without us.” and it seems that is a modern way of saying “of the people, by the people, for the people.” And isn’t that the role of elected officials? To represent the voice of all their constituents, not just those who voted for them. But I digress. My point, is together we would co-create a defined standard of living that is a basic right of all humans, dismantle a system built by and for white culture, and work toward a future in which every human has the ability and autonomy to reach their full potential.
One day doesn’t allow for much, unless I am given Hermione’s time turner, but this feels like a good place to start. Invest in those who are doing the work of the policies, and invest in the co-creation of something new and more appropriate for where we are now…and we are all equally human, now we need a country that represents and honors that.
Wordsmith Challenge 1
Describe what your life will be like in 3 years if you continue to allow your bad habits to stand in the way.
On the cusp of a half century, I’ll do what I always do, I’ll review my life and decide I need to do something big, something memorable. Because nothing in review is ever enough. I wanted to write about eating too many carbs or drinking too many beers, and those do have real consequences I can talk about, don’t get me wrong, but they are symptomatic of something far deeper and much more damaging.
If I follow the root past the inability to celebrate accomplishments, or not feeling compliments, I find the spring waters of my being and also a dam, built and reinforced over the years. That dam is occupied by my inner critic who is fueled by fear and anxiety. She feeds off of the slightest hesitation, and drinks from the head waters of my spirit. She is strong and good at her job.
If I lose my vigilance, if I stop paying attention, it is easy for me to think that my lack of motivation is just one too many cookies in a time of crisis, but it isn’t. It is the call from deep within trying to protect me from a made up world within my head. And her holler is both bone shaking and a whisper. She throws run-on sentences full of cruelty saved only for the fiercest of villains, but through the cacophony, the real arrow pierces, “you are not and never will be enough.”
Even typing it here seems ridiculous. It is a lie, and it isn’t true, but if I don’t keep reminding myself it is a lie and counter those messages with love and compassion, I am worn out and beat down within days. Bad habits are symptoms, and if I pay attention, maybe on the cusp of 50, I will do something big, something memorable like do yoga consistently for a week, or meditate on the regular, maybe drink more water and take a run. And maybe the call I hear will be from waters rushing through a weakened dam.
Wordsmith Deck
My lovely in-laws gave me a Wordsmith Deck for Christmas. I did a couple of prompts, then left it. I have wanted to commit to writing more, and yet I feel such a block when I sit down to do it, so I am doing a summer challenge. This deck has 100 cards in it. 100 days. That takes us to August 23rd. Let’s be real, I’ll take some days off in there and try to run away, so I’ll extend it to the end of August. A prompt. An idea. A practice to break the heavy writer’s block I have happily carried around for over a year. All genres will be welcome, and I can’t guarantee there will be a theme or anything, but I will write again, and frankly, I need words like water. It is a life source for me.
I have no idea where this will go, but it feels good just to type here again, so I’ll take that. Also, my latest crap TV addiction is Songland. In case you need it, I say soak in that level of creativity. It is remarkable.
Women on the Space Walk
History is marked today as the first all women space walk started at just past 7:30 a.m. ET. Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are embarking on a 5.5 hour space walk today that will inspire girls and women alike.
source: http://nasa.gov
NASA failed forward in the spring of 2019 as they realized they did not have enough spacesuits in a variety of sizes to fit all their astronauts and had to cancel the scheduled all women walk. Fast forward six months, and here we are. Watching these engineers replace the batteries on one of the arms of the space station.
It is exciting to see, empowering to watch, and relieving to understand that yet another glass ceiling has been cracked. We still know that young women lag their male peers in pursuing technical fields. I hope, as I listen to science classes ask questions through the live broadcast, that young girls are seeing themselves in Jessica and Christina’s spacesuits. In addition to Koch and Meir, Stephanie Walker, NASA Engineer, is working with the team from Houston.
Dreams. This is a defining moment for young women across the globe. In this five hour spacewalk, there are 330 minutes of live inspiration happening for girls everywhere to declare, “I want to do that. I want to be an astronaut.” And I hope so many do.
A return of sorts
Long ago, when I started a blog, I called it Not so Shiny Jules. It was random observations from just an ordinary human. As I shifted, it shifted with me to make room for more specific and pointed conversations about observations in the workforce world and I renamed it Julie Brock because I had also written a book and hoped to write some more.
And then life happened.
I didn’t write another book, instead I wrote a sort of long piece about reasonableness in a time of contention. I changed jobs two more times. We transitioned one boy to high school and the other to middle school. Randy changed careers.
And somewhere in there, my habit of writing shifted to the back burner. In one toxic place of work I allowed my voice to shut off because of threats and scrutiny. It was about reputation and maintaining status quo. It clipped my wings and recovery has been hard and slow.
It’s why The Reasonables continues to live in my google drive and here it bits, because the constant drumbeat in my head was one of accusations and fear. Who the hell do you think you are? Who do you think will listen to a damn thing you say? You are…and fill it in with the lowest form of insult and demeaning comments you can find.
I was done. I had listened to lies from people who didn’t matter and those lies weaved a dark cynical web in my soul, I felt my spirit fall into a protective deep abyss, and I’ve spent the last four years spelunking and calling for her.
Maybe she didn’t fall or retreat or leave at all. That might have been another lie I told myself while I was in the dark and couldn’t see the lies weaving tight, tight knots across my heart. Anxiety told me it was protection, no one could hurt me again.
But that is the strongest, most wretched, worst lie to believe.
We will get hurt. If we fear it so deeply that we cut ourselves off, we miss out on living.
I risked a lot by leaving my classroom in the middle of the year in 2015. I loved my work and the kids other parents entrusted to me for nine months, thirty-four weeks, 184 days, a year. I had created a system that made room for every student. It challenged each person to take ownership of their education, assess where they were and make a plan to get to where they wanted to be. I was a guide on their journey, and it was beautiful. I had non-readers start to read. I had kids who told me they couldn’t write start defining themselves as writers. I made room for failure, room for time-management, room for humanity and it was a place I loved.
My teaching license lapsed in June and I cried.
I won’t return to the classroom in that way again. It isn’t because I was burned out, but because the season had passed. I was good, maybe great, but was I making a dent in the overall system? Was I perpetuating a grind that was training our young humans to jump through hoops versus own an education they were proud of?
Sometimes the system cannot be changed from within. Sometimes a whole new approach has to be taken to create lift, to create change, to challenge the status quo.
And so I am returning to this writing thing, but this time around the mountain, I picked up some new knowledge. This time in my sabbatical from writing I found some truths that were slowly but deliberately gnawing away that densely woven web. I can only be who I am. And that doesn’t require explanation, a label, or justification. yes, I am an ordinary human observing the world, but I’m not just an ordinary human. As Walt Whitman reminds us, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, so I contradict myself. I am large — I contain multitudes.”
Into the deep abyss I go, not to find a thing, but to marvel in the multitudes of humanity. I have no idea what it will reveal, and my curiosity is giddy.
Transitions
Whether a season or that sentence between paragraphs, a well planned, well executed transition is my favorite. We live among old oaks whose bark is wizened. They are the last to turn their leaves and sometimes, they skip the yellow and just drop them. The birch and elder play along with fall and autumn, but our oaks are beyond it.
In Oregon, fall and autumn came so steadily and then in October, a rain storm would ravish the trees, and Halloween was spent under slickers and walking on all the leaves knocked down by the wind. There is a steadiness of the seasons and still an unknown of the transition and how it will settle, how it will sit. Will we, readers of seasons or essays, be easily moved from one idea to another, or will it jar us, knock our leaves off, and leave us rereading or trying to decide where we are in the entirety of the experience?
Photo by Chris Pagan on Unsplash
We are in a mighty transition now. As the world warms up and parts of the globe become inhabitable. It will move us, whether we want it to or not, to evolve, adapt, change. As school systems change because of the increased efficiency of our learners forces it to, we have an opportunity to re-think education, what it is for, and how it is delivered. As workforce trends continue to influence the influx of technology and automation, we can take this time to think what work can and should look like for each individual within the organization.
We are in transition.
And what I love about transition is the ability to see change appear.
Change is here. It is. Will we hold on to our leaves so desperately like old oaks, or will we be like the aspens and maples, leading the way and blazing the path with our brilliant colors?
Lay Overs
If you fly Icelandair, you can schedule a stop over in Iceland for no additional cost. What a great way to promote more tourist traffic to the country and, perhaps, a way to take care of their staff to get them home more often. I’m not sure, it is just a guess, but I know that there are places you can’t fly to in one shot and you have to take a lay over, so why not increase the likelihood of someone then spending time and money on theirs?
Other layovers aren’t as spectacular as taking a day or two to stop in Iceland, but still are vital to the overall travel experience. We certainly won’t be flying direct to Australia from Minnesota anytime soon. Los Angeles is an essential stop on that travel excursion as the pacific ocean isn’t tiny.
Traveling through our careers are no different, really. Sometimes it is necessary to take a position that seems a little out of the way, or seemingly a nuisance, but in reality, for your overall health and to ensure you get to where you want to go, it is necessary.
image from wiki commons
I’ve taken a few “layover” positions in my career journey. Jobs that seem off pointe or a little out of scope, but in reality have been crucial for me to develop the skills and talents necessary to perform the next role. Every position I have held, I have made sure that it provided me a skill or a set of learnings that make me a better fit for whatever is next.
Flying straight through to the destination isn’t always the best decision, and for impatient people that is hard to hear. However, if we take an Icelandair approach, and be intentional about our layovers, we may just enhance our journey with some unexpected beauty.
Hottest Commodity on Earth
I asked a group of high school students what school was preparing them for and their answers varied from the deeply cynical, "success" to the question marked "college?" Not one said work.
When I asked what they were going to do after high school, shoulders shrugged and a jumble of thoughts carried through the room, "College? Move out? Uh, get a job?"
When I asked what kind of job, again, shrugs and question marks. And then I asked, "What do you think the hottest commodity on earth is?" Again, blank stares and then the brave soul, "What's a commodity?"
You, I answered. You are the hottest commodity on earth. Not gold, not processors, not lumber, and not corn. You, humans, you are the hottest commodity on earth, and every hiring organization needs you.
Work, job, career, workforce, careerforce, entrepreneur, business owner, manager, tradesperson, vocation, we need to be clear with our future that we are, indeed, preparing them to work. As long as they buy into the mythical money, they will make a transaction, a barter, a trade for it. The difference now, at the heart of technologically driven change, is the intersection of baby boomers retiring at a remarkable 10,000 per day until 2029. Leaving us now with .6 qualified workers per job opening in Southeast Minnesota.
It is a job seekers market in a market that is changing faster than our systems can adapt. Tom Fisher, University of Minnesota professor and Director of the Minnesota Design Center, presented the future of work at a Southeast Minnesota Together Summit. He says, "Jobs will be replaced, but work continues. What is the work that needs to be doing, and how do we figure out entrepreneurially to do that work?"
“Profit isn’t a purpose, it’s a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others.”
How do we change our education system to transparently prepare our future for work? I am all for standardized assessments if we can make sure we are assessing the right skills: Leadership, adaptability, creative thinking, problem solving, autonomy, enthusiasm, and self reflection. How do we train our managers to be mentors, gurus, and guides? How do we shift organizations from top down to project-based or flat organizations that promote leadership at every position? How do we encourage communities to develop systems that are adaptable and accessible? How do we help people see that showing up to work is a gift of time and talent and that paying for that is an investment? Simon Sinek says, "Profit isn't a purpose, it's a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others."
Photo by Mario Purisic on Unsplash
It isn't enough to design a great product and manage customer service through damage control on social media outlets. A company's first customer base is its employees. Tony Hsieh in Delivering Happiness says, "Your personal core values define who you are, and a company's core values ultimately define the company's character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.” Ultimately, the companies who will weather this workforce storm are the ones who are willing to assess their company through the eyes of their employees, be proactive to opportunities, and build a culture that is clear, consistent, and builds community. These organizations will have strategy and action that aligns to vision, mission, and values, and will onboard for culture and skills.
An engaged and committed workforce is a business strategy, not a corrective action, not a nice-to-have, and not fluffy. Engaged people increase the bottom line because they want to do their best work, they believe in the vision, and consistently deliver on it. They are in alignment with their strengths, skills, and passion. There are so many ways to invest in meaningful ways, and your people will tell you. It is as simple as asking what Mary Oliver asks of us, "What will you do with your one wild and precious life" today? Tomorrow? and the following tomorrows? Or if that seems a bit big, then consider, "Are you working to your potential? Are their strengths and skillsets you would like to use more often? Do you feel supported and challenged? Have you taken time to reflect on your next best step? Ask to listen. Ask to act. Ask to engage the hottest commodity on earth.
Want to talk more about culture and how to become an employer of choice? Contact me.
Maintaining Constructs
We build from the ground up. We lay corner stones within our foundations. We construct our buildings, both figuratively and literally to last. However, the strength and longevity of our buildings are contingent on the cornerstones, the foundations, and the materials used. Cheap in, cheap out. If great materials are used, then maintenance becomes crucial to the lasting power of the building. And every building, no matter how amazing the materials and upkeep, reaches a moment in which reconstruction, restoration, intervention must happen or the building, even though it looks pristine, will fall.
Photo by Will Langenberg on Unsplash
And we will say things like, "We didn't see it coming? How did it happen? But it looked fine?" Unfortunately, we can cover up crap for a while, but the longer we do, the harder it will fall and the more casualties we bring down.
So we need to check in on our constructs. What do we believe in so strongly that it holds up our identity and ideals? These constructs drive our world view. They keep us grounded in belief. And just like buildings that age, it is important to check in on the cornerstones and foundation for cracks or wear. To replace them is not hypocrisy or betrayal, it is progress and repair. It is a myth to believe that what serves us once will serve us forever; the world is too big for that.
What I appreciate about Winter is its ability to force us to look at the foundation because it will break shit with its hearty cold. It forces us into the basement of our soul, into the neglected corners of our heart, where we allow cobwebs and vermin to take up shop because we are convinced it is doing it's job. It is holding us up. When in actuality, we have been neglecting it in the name of strength, but by looking strong, the termites have been busy tearing holes in what was strong holds.
Go look, It isn't that scary, and truly, knowledge is power. You don't know what pipe to fix before it bursts, unless you look. This is a beautiful step in vulnerability because it forces us to look where we don't want to and, in most cases, consult an expert, so we can repair or replace with confidence that it will hold for a few more decades, years, moments. And frankly, as long as they are checkin in with regularly, no time is better than another, it is about the quality that is experienced by knowing that construct belongs, is solid, and is doing its job.