Category: This is all a test

…are somewhat inevitable in anything we try to do.

Though we kinda know that, when they arise we’re not only surprised but a little thrown because we’ve done all the planning, research, and work so it shouldn’t be.

When we keep our focus on what’s wrong instead of what’s happening the problem(s), challenge(s), or breakdown(s) often continue.

Here’s a thought, maybe we’ve possibly stumbled across an opening for taking some action.

It’s all just feedback, as I learned many years ago.

The problem, challenge, or breakdown could be an opportunity to find a way to move something forward and maybe locate something we missed in our planning and research. An opening for taking some action as mentioned above.

Angered, frustrated, baffled or embraced, valued, utilized; like most things, we have a choice of how to approach and frame it.

Written while listening to South African/Cuban mix.

This blog post was written by me and is a mosaic of my experience, reading, and learning.

…was the text.

I couldn’t figure out whether “the right people,” was the most important part of the text or was it “yet.” It also could have been “I’m not sure.”

So I scheduled to respond later and moved on to some other things, In the professional world that’s called working through the problem which slides somewhere between “I have no clue what to say” to just simple procrastination.

I spent some time on a number of clever replies as I pondered what part of the text to address.

The response that elicited, “Right – I like that” was,

“I learned a long time ago that management often gets the union they deserve,” along with, “and sometimes companies get the staff they deserve.”

Written while listening to Arabian Oud music.

My latest read, The Nowhere Office by Julia Hobsbawm

This blog post was written by me and is a mosaic of my experience, reading, and learning.

…and was struck by both the immensity of the endeavour and some of the responses to the final outcome.

Much of the mainstream or legacy media’s commentary focused on the last few seconds of the launch as the Starship tumbled and then exploded. The failures.

Alternative media outlets ran through and commented on the entire four minutes of flight with the final destruction just part of the entire happening. Some of the successes.

As Elon Musk mentioned prior to the launch, he couldn’t guarantee success but could guarantee excitement. And he delivered.

From all accounts, the first Starship launch was a combination of successes, it got off the launch pad without totally destroying it along with some failures, it didn’t make it to orbit and exploded during the attempt.

How many times have we experienced this success/failure conundrum in our own lives and work but sometimes stop short?

• We try something new and it doesn’t quite work out so we shelve it and criticize ourselves for our incompetence.
• A new work process is tried and initial results focus on what didn’t work with little attention paid to what did.

This seems to be where we often get stuck; either we don’t start something because we fear we can’t assure a perfect result the first time out or, if things go awry, we don’t reframe the experience and learn some lessons for the next attempt but maybe quit instead.

Most of us will not be putting billions of dollars at stake as Elon Musk did so maybe we can take a few more risks, criticize a little less, fail and learn a little more, and get something new happening. This is moving from management to leadership and, as Seth Godin has stated, “it might not work.”

Written while listening to some Paganini solo violin works.