The seeds of trendy, seemingly quick-fix ideas too often fall on the hard soil of resistance to change. Innovation and change are more about rethinking and re-engineering what we already have. We simply have to move outside the box to better see what’s inside that box.
The best deas emanate from tried-and-succeeded/failed experiences, from folks around us — mostly inadvertently — and from the life-work we take on. Here are links to the sources of my ideas: About Me and What I Have Done and Do.
A Few Ideas
Lasting change — personal, organizational — comes from relearning the good stuff we learned as kids, recasting much of how we’ve come to think as adults, uncoupling from bad habits, being self-honest and accountable, and trying to be kind to ourselves.
It ain’t easy.
Here are some jump-starter ideas that might help you get rolling.
Miztakes: Oops or Ouch?
Mistakes are not what they used to be. They once were black and white, intimidating, and your fault. Now a mistake is more oops than ouch, encouraged as development, touted as a growth opportunity, and not completely your fault.
Regret Writing
I wrote an angry email to my oldest late one night that broke my 12-hour rule. I was right in the reprimand but wrong in the tone of the message. Here’s what I learned about regret, and how, maybe, to prevent a reocurrence.
Are You Paying Attention to Me?
When I stepped into the university classroom as a guest lecturer for a course titled “Computer-mediated Communication,” I faced 40 students sitting in rows of tables peering politely at me from behind computer screens while tapping on keys.
Back to the Foxhole
A regular paycheck after unemployment can cause us to forget what we promised in the tough times that we would do in the good times — like remembering people from back then. Time to return to the foxhole.
Snippets that Stuck
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“Someone once said, ‘You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd’ … Oddness is important because it is the quality that adds color, texture, variety, beauty to the human condition.”
Messy Spirituality, Mike Yaconelli
“I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.”
― A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
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Retribution: “Save business cards of people you don’t like. If you ever hit a parked car accidentally, just write “Sorry” on the back and leave it on the windshield.
Author unown
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Word of the Year nominations from a past American Dialect Society conference:
gate lice: airline passengers who crowd around a gate waiting to board;
hate-watching: continuing to follow a television show despite having an aversion to it;
and dancelexia: the inability to pull off dance moves (such as misspelling YMCA).