Collect plenty of ideas

Not just one idea or three, but plenty. You never know when you’ll need them.

Many people ask me about my blogs and posts.

They ask:

- How do you post everyday?

- How do you come up with ideas?

- Tell me/show me how you do it...

The key things you need are to be able to generate content, to deliver value via that content and then to execute on the idea ... among that is to have a wad of ideas. (I don’t know how many a wad is!)

I focus on ‘curating’ my ideas; collecting them as I think of them. I don’t ’sit down to have a good idea’. I grab them when they arrive. Once collected in an Evernote file, I wander through that file each day and think, ‘which of these ideas is buzzing for me?’ (Singing, buzzing, humming, glowing - whatever the verb, it’s about the idea that I react to.)

That’s the one I pick ... and then I write.

I don't stockpile pre-canned posts.

I don't copy and paste from the past.

It's more like I’m riffing from an idea I collected, likely a while ago - days, weeks, months.

You can do it too… to share your thinking, ideas, thoughts and value.

Become what I call a ‘Leader of Value’. So to get started, collect plenty of ideas.

When overwhelmed people deliver underwhelming presentations

We’ve seen them and been bombarded by them, those dense presentations of data, dot points, slabs of text and diagrams with .... aarrghhh our brain is fried! Sometimes we overwhelm people, overloading them with too many ideas and messages, jamming it all in one deck or pack of information.

It doesn’t make sense. This can drown people; not save them.

So beware; if you’re overwhelmed, busy, running from meeting to meeting, struggling to get clarity in your own mind ... what you create and deliver to others may well be just as messy and overwhelming. It could turn out to be underwhelming though, disappointing, confusing.

It's then easier to just ignore and disengage.

In times of major change, when people are waiting to hear, needing to see and curious to know what the heck is going on, it’s vital we manage our own state of information overload and cognitive load so we're not just passing the chaos on to everyone else.

We’ve got to 'get our head around' our own information before we can begin to think about transferring it to others. Blog posts included 😁

Time spent making things clearer ... is time very well spent. 

Could you make it easier

Is this a question you routinely ask about what you’re working on? How can we do this easier, make it easier, get it done with less resistance, obstacles, blocks, twists and knots?

Most things we’re working on really don’t need to be this hard, but we make them so. We can be distracted, lured and drawn in by others to add more and more, trying to do more and more or talking about more and more.

Because something is challenging doesn’t mean it’s worthy or good. So don’t be one of those people who when they speak, seem to make things more detailed or more confusing.

Life’s tricky enough without making stuff harder.

No silly time-wasting, power-playing games needed. Progress is the prize and reward. Help people work out what’s going on, what needs to be done and then get on and do it. 

Beware the thieves of clarity

Are you tuned in to what steals clarity in your team, unit or organisation?

Is it meetings?

Lengthy reports?

Status updates?

Decks and presentations with complicated models, too much text, too many chevrons, arrows and ‘pillars’ or icebergs? 😜

The race is on for meaning and understanding. The sooner we understand, the sooner we can make decisions, get into action and get feedback and insights on that action.

But how much might we hiding behind work, tasks and activities that actually steal clarity, create ambiguity and generate more confusion? Do we busy ourselves working on stuff that doesn’t really support clarity … but rather steals it?

In this complex world, it’s better to be known for being able to cut through and get to clarity; not overly simplified, not dumbed down … just c-l-e-a-r. Today, be on the look out for the thieves of clarity. Don’t let them get away with it. Bring it back, hold onto it, keep it together because other people in the room, in the team, across the organisation need you to … stand up for clarity.

What do you see that steals clarity and understanding in your world of work?

Less stuff, more happiness

Graham Hill is a designer and his TED Talk on having less stuff and more happiness is a quick and inspiring watch at just five minutes.  

As he spoke, I sketched some visual notes… and distilled his key points to a less than 90 seconds sketch video. You can watch the video by clicking on the image below...

So that's a five minute talk, distilled to a one pager of visuals, and to a 90 second video. 

Distil, distil, distil.

Too many leaders waffle on, give the l-o-n-g story every time they speak, send a lengthy bullet-pointed blah-blah email or share a thick PowerPoint pack of 'stuff'. Oh yawn!

You might be in love with it but you're fighting for attention from the people you're trying to engage with. 

Keep your teams happier and help them get to meaning quicker by delivering short messages and clear compelling, 'made-by-a-human' visuals.

Be sure your communication has less stuff… and you and your teams will have more happiness!