Plan to Fail. Let me share a little secret with you – You are going to fail. You’ll have multiple failures in diverse areas in life. It’s what you do with them that predicts if you’ll be an overall success. If you are not planning for failure, you aren’t planning for success. My point may sound like a Yogiism but I mean it. Let’s dissect it a little bit. This post is a two part series. Today we’ll introduce the post and talk about the first two angles. Inspiration I was leaving the office yesterday for lunch and I wish I had followed Jon DiPietro‘s great blogger advice and brought my camera phone. I know I’ve blogged a bit about this before when first starting out in posts talking about using checklists, recipes and algorithms; embracing empirical evidence; or even harnessing paranoia as a DBA but I want to zero in on failure from four angles here. Angle #1 – Include Failing In Your Planning An obvious example - Had they planned for failure on the Titanic would more have survived?
What Do You Think? Accepting Criticism. Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica. Every day, I get emails and comments that are amazingly positive and encouraging, and in truth these messages are the very thing that sustains my blogging. However, I also get negative comments now and then: criticism of my writing, and not nice criticism either.
How do you deal with criticism? And yet, while criticism can be taken as hurtful and demoralizing, it can also be viewed in a positive way: it is honesty, and it can spur us to do better. Recently, I ran an “Ask the Readers” post asking for suggestions for improvement, after receiving a few critical emails and comments. The reader emailed me back, and here was his response: After sending my email, I felt I might have been a little harsh. I really liked that thought, so here is that post he suggested: how to take criticism with grace and appreciation. Personally, I tend to get a little angry when I’m criticized. And you know what? And then make that change. Wrong. Ask Questions. Ask yourself: If you could interview like Walter Cronkite, would you get more value from your meetings? Would your mentors become more valuable? Would your chance encounters with executives in elevators and thought leaders in conferences yield action items and relationships?
The answer is yes. “As someone who had little to no experience in business--outside of running my own one-man freelancing operation--all that's really saved me (so far) from madness are the skills I used as a journalist,” says Evan Ratliff, who wrote for magazines like The New Yorker before founding his startup, The Atavist. One of those skills, he says, is “being able to formulate questions that deliver useful answers, whether from advisors or clients or whomever.” Good questions can move your business, organization, or career forward. The problem is, most of us ask terrible questions. But we don’t have to. The following advice can make you a much better interrogator, not to mention conversationalist:
Visualize the Problem. Today I would like to provide you with a quick case study of how visual thinking was applied to a tough decision that one of my life coaching clients was trying to work through. Her name is Emma (not her real name), and we are going to look at how to go about visualizing your options. Emma’s Current Reality Emma worked at the head-office of a large food distributor earning a good living. However, Emma was at a point in her career where she felt as though things were stagnating. She wasn’t growing, didn’t feel challenged and the passion she once had for her work was no longer there. However, the job she had provided her with great financial security and stability, so-much-so that pretty much every physical possession she had in her life came as a direct result from sticking with this career path for over 15 years. Emma’s Desired Reality She often spoke with me about her childhood dreams of owning her own restaurant and breaking free from the corporate world.
The Visual Coaching Call Related. Problem Solving Steps. Quality Glossary Definition: Problem Solving Problem solving is the act of defining a problem; determining the cause of the problem; identifying, prioritizing and selecting alternatives for a solution; and implementing a solution. Free problem solving resources An organization needs to define some standard of problem solving, so that leadership can effectively direct others in the research and resolution of issues. In problem solving, there are four basic steps. 1. Diagnose the situation so that your focus is on the problem, not just its symptoms. The chart below identifies key steps for defining problems. Review and document how processes currently work (who does what, with what information, using what tools, communicating with what organizations and individuals, in what time frame, using what format, etc).Evaluate the possible impact of new tools and revised policies in the development of a model of “what should be.” 2. 3. 4.
Excerpted from G.