Message of the Day - Too Much Information Too Little Words to Express It All

Good Morning,

 

A great point pulled from ‘Make It Stick’ is that we often have a lot of information in our heads about many different subjects. Some folks have so much information that they are said to have forgotten more about a subject than most people know. That is a lot of information.

 

If we want to share this information with the uninitiated, then we have to decide what information in our arsenal (our mind) that we feel would best explain the topic at hand.

 

The challenge is that often the amount of words needed to give a subject justice, so that our audience gets it, may be more than we have the time to give. Or, more likely, if we are giving an ad hoc lesson to someone, we will often leave out bits and pieces that slip when we think through the steps of what we are sharing. This happens because in our attempt to formulate what to say, we think through the steps faster than we can say them, and in recounting each step, one or more gets overlooked.

 

To our audience, this information is flawed and confusing. Add to this that when we remember a step that we missed and throw it back into the mix, it can make a confusing conversation even more confusing.

 

The larger or more complex a concept we are trying to share, the greater the difficulty we will have in getting it across in its entirety.

 

One way to help bridge this gap between what is in our head and what we share with others is to either write it out, use training aides like PowerPoint or hand-outs or have our audience take notes and review those notes after you have finished, or have the audience repeat back to you what you have shared. Using prepared training aides also ensures that if you give this information multiple times, you will give close to the same if not the exact same message.

 

Like the telephone game where information gets all bollixed up, sharing information with others can be equally confusing if we try to just do a brain dump to our audience.

 

Too bad we cannot just save everything in our brain onto a thumb-drive and plug it into our audience. Then again, it’s probably better that we can’t.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Knowledge Trumps Position

Good Morning,

 

Continuing in my reading of ‘Made to Stick’ (http://www.madetostick.com/blog/) in the section called ‘Stories’ there was a story of a nurse in a hospital’s neonatal unit who saw a baby on a ventilator turn a bad shade of blue. When the medical team came, they started to treat the baby for a collapsed lung. The nurse’s gut told her it was something with the baby’s heart. She then told the Doctor who came in to treat the baby and handed him the tools for treating the heart and not the lung. It saved the baby’s life.

 

This nurse bucked the chain of command because she had better knowledge than the leadership at the top of the chain. This sounds almost like heresy in our world of organizations, but in reality it is just a change of perspective from another commonly used concept.

 

Leading from the front lines, or rather letting the front lines, or most experienced and knowledgeable person make the decision on a matter is common. Colin Powell leads this way, and so do many other great leaders who surround themselves with people smarter than they are.

 

Now that we have people who are better at a lot of what we do working for us, would we still see it as heresy for one of these people to trump our diagnosis of a situation with what they see with their greater experience and knowledge?

 

If we try to ‘pull rank’ when our best says we do not have the right answer and they feel they do, we can cause an awful lot of problems. First we are wasting a valuable resource in the people working for us. Second, we are telling those people that we don’t care that they know more, we are the boss. And most important, this demoralizes those key assets, in that they will less likely get us the correct information when we need it most and often will start looking to leave.

 

When we are the boss, the leader, the manager, we have to be able to defer to their greater knowledge and trust that making ourselves vulnerable to our team will not undermine the team. In most cases, it will have the opposite effect. The team will step up even more knowing that they are trusted and cared about.

 

Remember, knowledge often trumps position.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Remembering The Roots We Inherit

Good Morning,

 

This past evening I had the opportunity to attend the 15^th Anniversary Party for the Scottish Society of Louisville (www.scotsoflou.org). It was a well attended event. There were also many original members and early officers in attendance in addition to new members who signed up that night. I joined the society in 2004 and have been active with them for the last four years. During the meeting we heard from the past presidents in the organization who were in attendance and former board members as well.

 

Each shared stories from their time with the organization in years past. They talked about how the organization grew and changed, and how the policies and processes which we follow today were originally created. Activities that some members may take for granted today as having always been became more alive with their birth and growth. This started me thinking.

 

In our own lives, we are very familiar with how we came to where we are today, that is we know our roots. We can mostly remember our childhoods and what we experienced, learned and felt. These memories are often very dear to us because of this tie to the nostalgic.

 

The nostalgia often dies off or doesn’t even exist when we were not part of the roots of an event or organization. Like joining a company which was founded a few years before you were hired, or joining an organization founded years prior. What those companies or organizations do and how they came about doing them are their roots, but we seldom get sentimental about reading the history.

 

Although, when we hear that history from those who have been there and lived though these times, that history comes alive. Their passion makes the roots more meaningful and suddenly, we inherit new roots from the hearing someone share their experiences, knowing we are now a part of the story.

 

If you see an event or something that an organization does that you do not understand or have a hard time appreciating, then find someone who was there when it all started. If they are not around, try to find notes or anything or even listen to stories second hand. Find the passion that was involved back in early days of that event or organization and you will find a new appreciation for it as you now see yourself as part of it.

 

When you do, your inherited roots will become more than just words or actions, they will have meaning beyond them.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Forced Prioritization

Good Morning,

 

My current read is Chip and Dan Heath’s book ‘Made To Stick’ (http://www.madetostick.com/blog/). The book covers how to make ideas last. It does this by comparing ideas that fail with those that have been around for eons and seeing what the difference between the two is.

 

The first section of the book is called ‘Simple’. This does not mean ‘dumbed down’, rather it means a very easy to understand and simplistic message. That is, short and meaningful and to the point. That is where the concept of forced prioritization comes up.

 

Forced prioritization is understanding that you have little time or a small space to get a message out so you need to make sure that what you send out is the most important information first. To make the most of your message, you package the core elements of your message in the first line or first paragraph of your message. This is used often by journalists and newscasters who know that they may not be able to get their full message out, or their audience may not wade through the entire message to get to the most meaningful part.

 

This is counterintuitive for the camp which likes to build up the message and after sufficient building, gives out the most important message. Some folks just don’t have time to wait for the ‘punchline’. If that is your audience, like your boss, or peers, then you have to find ways to shrink down your message to the basic most key part.

 

Here is a practical way of setting up your message: put what you want to say in a PowerPoint Slide with large font. If it can be read easily, you are fine. If you start getting lost in the words because there are over 100, then its time to trim it down.

 

Less is more with forced prioritization, but do not lose the central point of your message, and don’t bury it somewhere where the reader or listen has to search for it. Often it will not be found.

 

I look forward to other great tips from Made to Stick!

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Seeing the Future in Others

Good Morning,

 

When we look at others what do we see? Do we see the clothes, the make-up, the hair? Do we see the person underneath all of that? Or do we see what that person could become in the future?

 

I remember being told a story from a former VP from Yahoo back in 1999. The story was that one employee of Geocities, before it was acquired by Yahoo, who often showed up to work in torn jeans and t-shirts. They probably did not own a comb or brush, and the rest of the grooming was questionable. In today’s world, each of our companies would have something to say about this employee and how we would deal with them. One day, this person came to work with several crumpled napkins with writing on them. When he laid them out, it was the framework for publishing multiple web pages to the internet at the same time, something no one in the industry could do at the time. The idea became a Billion Dollar Idea and launched Geocities, and then helped Yahoo.

 

How many of us would not have given this person a chance? How many of us would have forced him to change his mode of dress and grooming (yeah, I would have too)? How many of us would have fired him? Look at that opportunity cost, losing billions of dollars because of making a judgment on how someone dressed…

 

Last night I attended a job fair at ITT Technical Institute here in Louisville. The students came in mostly on their breaks. Some of the students came in with dress shirts and ties, others came in with full suits, and others had t-shirts and jeans. Some were very well groomed and others looked like they walked in off the street for a free meal. Each walked around the tables to see the different companies and what they offered in future employment.

 

When these people came to our table, I tried looking at them not as who they were by the way they are dressed, or groomed themselves, but the spark in their eye, the way they spoke and how they carried themselves. Many were nervous and some were very outspoken. In each of these people there was a chance of something great in their future. It was up to them to seek it, and since each were students learning to improve themselves, each was on the right road.

 

Many of those people will be doing great things in the future. It is our job to help see that future and clear the path for them to achieve it.

 

How are you helping others become their future selves?

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - How to Make Yourself Feel Better

Good Morning,

 

Welcome new recipients!!!

 

I am finishing up Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success’ by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg (http://www.amazon.com/Southwest-Airlines-Business-Personal-Success/dp/0767901843). That is, I am reading the last 100 pages, I call it the 100 page countdown. I remember how many pages I have left in the book each time I put it down at this point (currently 92), and this helps drive me onward to finish the book and move to the next one (for the folks who wanted to know how I read so much).

 

Anyway, I was reading the section on giving back to the community and after a few sections, I felt like I was reading Chicken Soup for the Soul. People gave of themselves and the company to help those in need, and it brought tears to my eyes. I love reading how others stepped up and helped another person. I love seeing how this help changes them. One story was woman feeling bad for herself for having to work on Christmas Eve. Then a customer comes up, an old man who has very little, just had bypass surgery, fresh with bandages, and wanted to fly from LA to New Orleans to recuperate with family, but all flights have left for the day. She and her team help him get a hotel room, on them, and booked him on the first flight out. At the end of the event, she was happy to have been working Christmas Eve because she helped this man. She now calls him Mr. Christmas because of the lesson she learned from him.

 

This warms my heart because of how I have felt after I have helped others and how I felt. I remember the time I bought a dozen roses for five friends when visiting the National Zoo. I handed each of them two roses and had two left over. I then saw a lady walking by in what looked like a blasé almost melancholy mood, so I handed her the two roses saying ‘beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady’, and her face lit up. She walked on with a smile, smelling the roses.

 

Doing something for others, even remembering those things you have done for others will almost always bring a smile to your face and warm your heart. And if you this doesn’t, then get out there and do something for someone else. ANYTHING. Maybe for Halloween, prepare bags of candy for your coworker’s kids to bring home. Maybe volunteer at a hospital or Senior Center to read to people.

 

I guarantee you that you will feel like you got the better end of the bargain after you have helped.

 

When you are down and out, help others. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but it works. We are just wired that way.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!

 

 

 

Message of the Day - Peace of Mind

Good Morning,

 

A Duke University Study showed 8 factors which lead to emotional and mental stability:

 

1. Absence of Suspicion and Resentment – When we fill our minds with suspicions of others and carry grudges, it adds a lot of stress to our lives. As another writer once said, when we hold a grudge against someone, that person lives rent free in our mind. This takes away from our ability to have peace of mind because we are getting upset over these things.

 

2. Living in the Present – Life is here and now. Hoping for things to be like the good ole days will make us sad as those days are probably gone forever. But, if we look around, we may just find that these days are just as good if not better, and there is always tomorrow to look forward to, but not dwell on, as that is just as bad as lamenting on the past.

 

3. Cooperating with life and taking advantage of whatever situation presents itself – Stop trying to control everything and take advantage of what is offered to us in life through opportunities and serendipity.

 

4. Staying involved with the living world – People like wolves are social creatures. If we isolate ourselves and become a hermit, we can slowly lose our peace of mind, and even our mind itself.

 

5. Accepting the fact that everyone suffers from sorrow and misfortune – we are all human, we all have feelings, no matter how cold or unfeeling someone is, they will have feelings (barring any mental health issues of course). This means that we are not alone when we are sad or upset, and we can count on others to be there for us.

 

6. Cultivating Love, Honor, Compassion and loyalty rather than selfishness – need I say more?

 

7. Not expecting too much of self – This is a big one. We set ourselves up for a fall every time we give ourselves expectations which are too large or unlikely to happen. Dare to dream, but realize that some things are probably out of our grasp. No matter how much we exercise, we will not be able to pick up the Empire State Building (unless you are the Hulk and are very, very, very mad).

 

8. Finding something bigger than yourself to believe in – Being a part of something, belonging to something bigger than ourselves helps us as well. We get support from others. We can get behind something we can look up to and live up to. Religion is one, causes are another.

 

 

Adapted from ‘Office Christianity’ by Perry E. White.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!

 

 

 

Message of the Day - Celebrate!!!

Good Morning,

 

My current read is ‘Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success’ by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg (http://www.amazon.com/Southwest-Airlines-Business-Personal-Success/dp/0767901843).

 

One area of this great book covers celebrations. Southwest loves to celebrate. What they celebrate and how is another matter. They do not just throw parties every year or have monthly events for the profit and loss statements. Southwest uses celebration to reinforce their company culture and values as well as to celebrate the behavior they want in their employees and maintaining a family-like atmosphere even with 10’s of thousands of employees.

 

Think about that for a moment. What do many people do to reinforce the behavior they want to see in others? Usually instruction, warnings and maybe some sort of bonus. Southwest uses celebrations to do the same thing, in addition to using training and other tools. And when they celebrate they publish the event with many photos and share it with the entire company. There are walls of fame and honor, like at Yum! Corporate Headquarters with thousands of photos and memorabilia from the celebrations.

 

The result has been a company with employees who do amazing and outrageous activities daily to help ensure the company succeeds. While other airlines have been truly struggling, Southwest remained profitable and even in today’s bad economy, Southwest is still doing better than most other airlines.

 

Celebration of your values, your culture and the behaviors you want your teams to have is a great way to help get everyone on board and in the right seat. And when you celebrate, be sure to capture the moment in photos and words and share it with everyone. This does not have to be annual or quarterly awards, but they help, but any opportunity can be celebrated. This also does not mean have a party for every kudos letter your company gets either. We do not want to make it so common that it becomes unimportant either.

 

Celebrate!

 

Enjoy!!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Message of the Day - To be trusted, you first need to be vulnerable

Good Morning,

 

Welcome new recipients!!!

 

A few years back I asked my team at that time to give me a list of what they perceived to be my strengths and weaknesses. I had a pretty good idea of what they were, but my perceptions were most likely different from my teams. In their eyes, it did not matter what I felt, it was what they saw which how they saw me.

 

I asked each team member to list out some strengths and weaknesses and to be as honest that they felt they could be with the weaknesses. I promised that only good would come from this.

 

When the lists came in, I thanked the team for sharing both the strengths and the weaknesses. I wanted them to know that their feedback was truly welcomed.

 

Sorting through the lists, there were more strengths listed than weaknesses. This was to be expected, but there was important information here. There were weaknesses that my team shared with me.

 

To me, the listed weaknesses were more important than the strengths. These represented opportunities for my growth AND that my team trusted me enough to share these weaknesses with me.

 

What I did next helped bring my team to a higher level of production. This team (some of whom still receive these emails) has been one of my most memorable teams and the most productive I have ever worked with.

 

So, what did I do?

 

I simply addressed the list of weaknesses, which included some pet peeves and concerns that the team had about me, my actions and my behavior. I did not ignore any of the weaknesses. Not one. As I worked to stop or lesson the amount of activities which my team felt were my weaknesses or just did not like, my team saw that I did care about them. More importantly, they saw, by my actions, that I cared about what they thought. This team was engaged!!

 

By making myself more vulnerable to my team, I took that team to a whole new level of performance. Their trust in me and our in our mission soared! I am happy to say that nearly all of the team members on that team when I was put in charge of another team have since been promoted into management (and that is a message for another day).

 

To be trusted as a leader, you first have to be vulnerable.

 

Enjoy!!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!

 

 

 

 

Message of the Day - Discretion - Valor, you know the connection

Good Morning,

 

We have big dreams and high hopes. And often life puts opportunities in front of us. Many factors determine if we rush in and grab the opportunity or if we hold off. Having a support group to help you make those decisions is great, but many times we have to go it alone.

 

This is especially true in working with or for organizations. Sometimes we are enamored by what the group does, or what we can learn from the group, or we look forward to the people we can work with in those organizations.

 

Opportunities in these organizations may open up for us, and we have to decide if we should take that opportunity. Some people will take any opportunity that comes by thinking they are few and far between. Others will be able to sit back and assess the situation to see if it is a great fit.

 

In making that assessment, we need to determine if our strengths are going to be put to use or will we be working with our weaknesses for the most part. This is very important. If we perform a function which we have done for a long time, but hate doing it, then being given a better opportunity to do the same thing will most likely end up creating another period of time hating what we do. More money will not make a weakness into a strength nor make something we hate into something we like. Sure it will be better for a while, but then when the novelty of the salary increase wears off we are back to square one.

 

If we will have to work in an environment that we do not do well in, it should be a reason to think it through before joining in. For example, I work well in chaos and chaotic environments. I slowly build order and structure and am okay with the bumps in the road that come often. Change that a little to where there is a ‘war’ or continued ‘heated discussions’ like in an election or a volatile work environment, like politics, then my skills falter quickly. I tend to lose my cool faster than I would like. And although I am better than I was, I am not much better. Working in that kind of environment would stress me out and make it hard for me to use my strengths.

 

It is those times, when we know that we will be working with our weaknesses and not our strengths that we should bow out and not take advantage of the opportunity.

 

When opportunities arrive, and they sometimes come in the strangest ways, discretion is the better part of valor in determining if we should take it or not.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!

 

 

 

Message of the Day - Fooling Yourself

Good Morning,

 

I just returned from an afternoon walk. One that I wanted to take so that I could get some needed exercise. As I finished up the walk and made for the home stretch I thought back to a time in my youth when I was with my Dad, Stepmom Cecilia, and my sister at our country house in Shohola, Pennsylvania. The house was part of the Walker Lake Community.  

 

Back then my parents were into running and with friends of the family, my Dad, Stepmom went to run around the lake. It was about a three and a half mile run. I was about 10 and thought I could run around it to. So I we all started together and within a short time, I was way behind everyone else. As I huffed and puffed, I stopped and decided to walk back to the house. Then another idea hit me. I walked up the other way and hid in the woods waiting for the joggers to make their way back home. My Dad and his friend, George were first, followed by Cecilia and the last runner was George’s wife. After she was well past me, I climbed out of the woods and hamming it up I straggled back to house as if I made the run.

 

Looking back to then I realize that I fooled by parents, but worse then that, I fooled myself. I deprived myself of trying to complete a task, and gave myself an out. I did not benefit from the exercise and I hardly ever ran again. Making it right to fool others is a dangerous place to be. You can easily get into a mindset where you are justifying your own actions and making it right to continually fool people.

 

I have since come clean with my Dad about this incident. More importantly, I have come clean with myself. I work hard to achieve my goals, but I also make it okay for me to not complete a goal if it is not the right goal or if it is too difficult. I have even learned to put down a book I am reading if I just cannot get into it. Luckily there are over 50 others lying around to be picked up and read.

 

When you are honest with yourself and truly put effort into achieving your goals, you can achieve great things. You can go back to college and get that degree. You can enter a competition and win. You can learn a new hobby and enjoy many hours with that new hobby.

 

When you are honest with yourself, you may not always get what you want, or do what you want, but you will know where you are. You will not be in a wild maze of webs created by years of deceiving yourself. You will not have to figure out what you said or did for others when you were trying to fool them so you don’t give yourself away.

 

Honesty is still the best policy.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!

 

 

 

Message of the Day - There is no one size fits all leader model

Good Morning,

 

Welcome new recipients!!

 

This morning I started a book on Benjamin Disraeli. I have often admired the quotes attributed to him and how he was depicted by movies with Queen Victoria, so naturally I wanted to know more. Just after reading the introduction I realized that this man was not your stereotypical leader. He was more of a dandy than a life long military leader. Disraeli worked hard to get others to help him, and allow him to move quickly and seize opportunities as he saw them open up (which made him look opportunistic).

 

This made me think back to all the different leaders I have known and worked with. They did not all fit into the same mold. Even my favorite leaders were not totally alike in style and ability, with one exception; they cared greatly for those working with them.

 

There is no perfect pattern or mold to be the perfect leader in our world today. It is my opinion that in the world which is so ultra-connected as ours that we need different types of leaders to handle different types of missions or activities all working together. The age of the team is quickly becoming the norm. Sure teams have been around for a long time and everyone knows the benefits of a well run team.

 

The team of leaders who all have different ‘super powers’ if you will, allows for teams to take their abilities to a whole new level. Teams can move quickly and use which ever team member’s skill and knowledge is best at any particular time.

 

This means that we need leaders of all makes, models, beliefs and capabilities willing to work together. This also means that it is okay if you are never going to be the next Robert E. Lee or Colin Powell or my favorite, Belisarius from the Byzantine Empire. It is okay to be you, and add your skills and abilities to the mix. (And if you are not getting the hint, it means that YOU can be a part of any team as a leader just as you are NOW and add something of value).

 

We all perform better when we all work together and add in our own talent and skills.

 

There is no one size fits all leader model in our world, and I am very thankful for that.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!