Vignettes

Ikigai – Is Nothing Sacred?

Ikigai – Is Nothing Sacred?

Ikigai (Pronounced Eee-key-guy) has found its way into business. Ikigai is a Japanese concept comprising two words: iki = life and gai = purpose. In other words, Ikigai means life’s purpose. The key to Ikigai is made up of four primary elements: what you love (your passion), what the world needs (your mission), what you are good at (your vocation), and what you can get paid for (your profession). There are so many ways to use Ikigai (and we highly recommend following the ‘my inner creative’ link below to learn more).

Learning: Ikigai is increasingly making its way into the business world, and though it’s an interesting way to explain multi-layered product goals, we hope it’s short-lived. This one has a spiritual element that feels diluted in the business context.

References and Resources

Setting personal and professional goals using Ikigai from My Inner Creative; Type: Article

How to Ikigai from Tim Tamashiro/TedX YYC; Type: Video

What are your thoughts on the use of Ikigai in the business context? Have you seen it’s increased usage? We’d love to hear from you.

Freddy Will NOT Be Attending

Freddy Will NOT Be Attending

True Story. To save money, we rented cabins at a closed-down camp for our annual Customer Success meeting. Although it saved the company money (as we came under budget), the team’s running joke was that we were lucky to leave the 3-day event.

Learning: As a general rule, you never want people overly concerned about whether they will leave a meeting alive by the end.

Have you ever found you and your team in odd situations? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Thought Leader or Idea Guy?

Thought Leader or Idea Guy?

Most people agree that Thought Leadership means “Inspirational content to drive change.” But I can’t help but feel that the “Leadership” portion is often overlooked when actually practiced. Whenever someone claims to be a thought leader, I’m reminded of the famous Ellis Rosen cartoon.

Learning: Thought Leadership is only as good as the willingness of the Leader to do the work.

References and Resources

Thought Leadership: What It Is and How to Master It in 2023 from Margarita Loktionova/Sem Rush; Type: Article

There Are Other Places for That

There Are Other Places for That

It doesn’t belong in Slack if you have more than two sentences to write. If that is not a rule, it should be. Slack is impossible to search and won’t help you prioritize your work. Slack is not a Work prioritization tool; it is a “Hey, want coffee?” kind of tool. Email is still best if you have something to say and it’s longer than a Coffee question.

Learning: Managing interruptions is one thing – that is on the receiver’s side, but long messages are on the writer’s side. So, if you want to write a long message, use your email. Searching for messages in Slack still has a long way to go.

What Slack rules would you implement if you could? We’d love to hear from you.

Cultural Change: Starts Where?

Cultural Change: Starts Where?

If you are trying to change the culture at your company, it starts with you first. Lasting change is not something that others are responsible for doing first. Actions, Beliefs, and Experiences all impact the culture, and if you want to make a dent in changing the culture, start with a self-inventory.

Learning: Everything starts with you (or me). Maybe it’s both. The point is that change of any kind starts with ourselves. To do that, we have to know what we are being asked to change and why we are changing, and we have to know the end goal. If you are a leader, modeling the correct behavior means being willing to raise your hand to go first.

Does this resonate with you? How do you stay ahead of change and ensure others around you are supported? We’d love to hear from you.

When Always Playing Equals Not Playing

When Always Playing Equals Not Playing

When someone always plays devil’s advocate, they are not playing anything – they are a detractor, a nay-sayer, a progress-stopper. To be clear, healthy debate and discussion about a topic is healthy. Very healthy. But two things: There is a time and place for healthy debate, and once a decision is made, we move on collectively – even those with dissenting opinions. And, if someone is regularly “playing” the role of devil’s advocate, they aren’t playing.

Learning: If someone is always playing “Devil’s Advocate,” share this with them and see what they come back with on the following topic. That will tell you if it was a behavior they were unaware of or if they can’t help but be the critic. If the latter, then ask them to lead the next topic.

Have you ever seen this behavior before? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Lets Put That in The “Never” Pile

Lets Put That in The “Never” Pile

The Parking Lot is a funny thing. On one hand, it’s very necessary to keep the conversation on track (people can’t help but stray). On the other hand, some great ideas die in the Parking Lot.

Learning: If you keep a Parking Lot, someone must own the capture, reduction, and assignment of critical topics.

Does this resonate with you? How do you keep meetings focused on a single topic and keep ideas that are off-topic (but interesting) alive? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Never Talked About But Often Done

Never Talked About But Often Done

Some believe that speed is the only thing that matters when resolving an issue. And, though speed is important, understanding the problem you are trying to solve is even more important than speed. This, sometimes, requires a pause to think through the issue. The phrase “slow down to speed up” is a perfect response to anyone who wants to rush into a solution. Of course, the opposing phrase “paralysis by analysis” can also happen if you feel you spend too much time understanding the problem. The late USA Colonel Colin Powell used the 40-70% rule for any key decisions – to know no less than 40% and 70% of the information you need to decide.

Learning: In certain situations, doing something/anything can feel like progress. Many find it counterintuitive to slow down, but slowing down is often precisely what needs to happen. So, if you are facing a big issue and are reading this, we hope you spend a few extended minutes genuinely understanding the problem.

References and Resources

Colin Powell’s 40-70 Rule by 42 Courses; Type: Article

What do you think about the late Colonel Powell’s approach? Do you have techniques you use to slow down others (or yourself) in making key decisions?

From Dog Food to Merlot

From Dog Food to Merlot

It’s funny to think about the evolution of business jargon. In the last few years, we somehow moved from “Eating Our Own Dog Food” to “Drinking Our Own Merlot,” which means “to use your company’s own software or solutions.” As an aside, I’ve heard Champagne or Wine as substitutes for Merlot – but it does beg the question: Why did we start with Dog Food? Why not just Food? Well, we have Microsoft to blame for that. In the 1980s, Microsoft Manager Paul Maritz wrote an email challenging his team to use their own product. The title of that email was “Eating our own Dogfood.”

Conclusion: Aside from the fact that this would likely be an incredibly boring book, I would love to know the history and rationale behind business jargon and the evolution of certain phrases over time.

References and Resources

Eating Your Own Dog Food from Wikipedia; Type: Article

Does this resonate with you? Have you seen the evolution of certain business jargon? Care to share? We’d love to hear from you.

Mistakes…We All Make Them

Mistakes…We All Make Them

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft at the time, once said the above quote. In the fiscal fourth quarter of 2023, the iPhone generated 43.81 billion dollars in sales. Talk about a mistake. A miscalculation. A miss. So, if you said something or did something that was a mistake, it’s okay. But since we are not all Steve Ballmer’s with golden parachutes – you have to own it. And then pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and try again. Innovation, great ideas, and the next best thing will not happen if everyone doesn’t try again. That’s called resilience. And if the walls are still standing and the employees and customers are still breathing – forgiveness is the most powerful tool you can use.

Learning: If you continue trying new things, some will fail, and some will be your best self/work. Keep trying.

References and Resources

Apple’s iPhone revenue from 3rd quarter 2007 to 4th quarter 2023 by Statistica; Type Article

Microsoft’s Lost Decade by Kurt Eichenwald/Vanity Fair; Type: Article

Have you ever made a mistake at work (Loaded question)? How did you recover? We’d love to hear from you.