Use This Activity To Develop The Most Crucial Habits for Lifelong Success It’s a cool October night. One of those nights where the sun starts going down, coaxing people back into their houses. The type of night that is actually perfect when you are going to exercise and sweat. Moving through the subdivision is easy enough. You can chart a rectangular course to meet the distance requirement you have. In my case, I’m able to do one big loop to get in 5k of activity. Little did I know that the distance was going to be the easiest part of the night. Most people outside of the military have never heard of rucking. It seems absurd when someone explains it to you. Rucking, is a low-intensity exercise in which you add weight to your back while walking or hiking. But what makes this the best exercise you have never heard of? It creates a unique set of conditions and variables to play with. It challenges you mentally as well as physically. The Physical This part is easy to understand. It’s ...

 Promoting Value is Exactly Why No One Is Listening We live in a world of innovation. Every day something new is created. So why is it then that so many great ideas die? Sell the features. Sell the benefits. Sell the value. The right way to sell is to show how good your service, product or idea is. Wrong. Those things are necessary, but they are not what is essential for new ideas or innovation to catch on. Changing The Frame I have spent the majority of my career making things better. Continuous improvement, network design, process re-engineering — it has many different labels. It’s all the same. Make changes to what is being done to generate better results. The single biggest key to my success in implementing new ideas? Lower the barrier for entry. We like to believe we are organic computers. Rational to the end. That given the right information and the correct inputs, people will produce the best output. To get someone to actually change, give up on that idea immediately. In the...

 The Lost Art That Changed The World   People hear the word philosopher and this is what jumps to mind. Icons of the past that changed the world thousands of years ago. Brilliant thinkers that changed how everything was understood. Ideas that changed the course of history. This isn’t you. So you aren’t a philosopher. That statement is wrong. Completely wrong. Philosophy isn’t about a few brilliant thinkers. Philosophy is something that we can all do. Most of us DO do it when we aren’t drowning in the busyness we have built our lives around.     Philosophy is our ability to wonder. About life and everything in it The goal isn’t to come up with answers. The real intent is this: It’s about the process of trying to find answers versus accepting without questioning. The most important ideas in your life will come from your own individual reasoning. They will not come from what has been forced upon you by society.     The beginning of thought is in disa...

 Building Habits In One Area of Your Life to Improve Others     Everyone knows that exercise is good for you. We are meant to move. The lifestyles that many of us lead today keep us glued to our chairs, in front of screens. I’m not sharing benefits for your body. This quick hit will share 6 qualities that will improve ALL areas of your life. The experiences we have, the habits we build, are not locked into the activity you developed them in. How you train yourself to behave or react in one situation will carry over to others. Running alone will allow you to build personally and triumph professionally.  [1] DISCIPLINE In order to achieve any goal, you have to take action. The biggest challenge people face is keeping themselves accountable. All too often we quit at the wrong time.  The world is full of distractions. Our mind is loaded with resistance.  Build your inner strength by sticking to a routine not giving up when things are hard. [2] CONSISTENCY...

 How My Focus on Writing is Influencing Everything For every year that has gone by, I have written more. You meet more people, attend more meetings, work on more projects and balance more commitments. To juggle all of those different activities, we communicate with each other more than we did in the past.  A lot more. It does people a huge disservice. And they don’t even know it. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Jump-starting 2022 It’s cliche, but I decided that I was going to get back into writing. I had first picked it up when I left my job in 2019 and dove headfirst into the professional world of networking. My weapons of choice? LinkedIn and a personal blog. To step outside of my comfort zone and showcase my business prowess, I took to writing. I developed a strong habit of posting 1–3x a day on various industry news. My network was growing. Eventually, I let it drop off. I got busy with a new job and didn’t prioritize it. One day turned into ...

 Using Small “P” projects To Get Smarter Do you feel like there is too much to learn? I do. All the time. I cannot believe what people are doing, what they have created or how simple things have been re-invented. New products are being created to replace products that they had already replaced. What inspired my thinking this morning is note taking. Exciting stuff, I know. Note taking isn’t the point though. It highlights how much things are changing, and more importantly, how people’s understanding and perceptions are changing. This is what’s important, because it’s happening — everywhere. The more that you can learn, the more exposure you get to shifting paradigms, to better you will be equipped to manage your own needs and keep pace. What is a Small “P” Project? I’m introducing you to this idea to tear down how you might think about projects. People hear the word project, and they think boardrooms, budgets and big deliverables. Small “p” projects comes back to an idea that David ...

 The Opportunity That Almost Everyone is Missing For the majority of the population, the 40 hour workweek is here to stay. I sit in the contribution/results camp vs clocking time. Forcing anyone to live by the ticker is a remnant of the past. Unfortunately my opinion won’t change the world. Have you ever thought about how much time you spend working?  How about you work 7.5h a day, meaning 37.5h per week. You are a little ahead of the filthy forty. Good for you. Before you start smiling, did you know that a 7.5h workday is 31% of your ENTIRE day. I’m being generous unfortunately. Remember you sleep 7h a night (you do sleep 7 hours a night right?) leaving you with 17 waking hours. With that new base, work now takes up a whopping 44% of your day. Gross. But wait, there’s more! It’s the roaring 2020s baby, let’s not pretend your nine to five is really all the work you do. Side hustle? A start-up? Gigwork?  Even sitting here now, writing this for you, do you classify th...

 How Measuring Differently Helps You Stand Out In a digital world, information is everywhere. At work, at home or at play, you have more access to information than ever. Use it. Below you will find some things I have learned leveraging data to keep making improvements in anything I do. Data is not something only for the office. When you realize how much information is out there, your world starts to change. Feedback is the secret to success. Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Tik Tok - they all provide services. The platforms and devices aren't the only reason their are winning. Data is their real advantage. It should be yours as well. Measure What Matters Whatever it is that you are about to do, if there is a path in front of that needs to grow or get better you HAVE to think about what to measure. Some of what you need to measure is easy to understand. These are the things that everyone else is doing. Those core key performance indicators that start the journey. Here are some examp...

 How your ability to hold both positions sets you apart as a leader Nobody wants to follow an asshole.  Leadership is not about your authority, it’s not about telling people what to do. Your position doesn’t make you better than anyone else. You’re probably thinking, how they hell can you be “unyielding” as a leader while still being open minded … these are not the same. Unyielding — adjective unable to bend or be penetrated under pressure; hard: trees so unyielding that they broke in the harsh north winds. not apt to give way under pressure; inflexible; firm: her unyielding faith. People follow those who take charge. Who are confident. Who default to action and make decisions. When leading a team, they expect you to be able to provide this structure, to provide them the context and the guidelines that they need to operate. How then can you mix these two ideas to be a kick ass leader while delivering results? It’s all in where you apply each idea. You have to be unyi...

  I love how Rita McGrath shares her frame on blind spots, seeing around corners. It's a great way to think of these types of opportunities. In business there is always that point when something new is starting to take hold. It could be a new technology, a new service or a dramatic shift in consumer or market expectations. We can get stuck in the trap of what we are doing and how we have been doing it. This limits our ability to properly assess the situation. It is not always a lack of ideas that leaves us caught off guard, rather inadequately addressing the problem. This is one of the reasons I love working with younger teams.  People that are new to the workforce, new to a new company or industry see things as they are. They don't have years of experience that is guiding their thinking or altering their perceptions; they are free from the workplace biases we create and support by having to execute day in and day out. Because of this gap in knowledge or understanding of the c...

Every organization rates their employees. Every organization identifies high-potentials (HIPOs) within their ranks.  Usually part of an annual review process, managers are asked to rate each member of their team against a pre-determined scale; and while programs, criteria and assessment cycles change, these reviews are all essentially the same. A high-potential employee (HIPO) is someone with the ability, engagement, and aspiration to rise to and succeed in more senior, critical positions. Where you get classified within a matrix influences your career. Those identified as high-potential are given the opportunity to take on more projects, they work on more challenging problems and benefit from wider exposure to the business.  If your aspiration is to rise within an organization or find yourself with a senior level role at some point, it is essential that you be seen as a HIPO.  Disclaimer: There is absolutely nothing wrong taking on a role as a key player / regular cont...

  We live in a world that is obsessed with solving problems with a system or technology. How many times have you hear someone [basically] say "let's get an app for that"? Crazy. I'm all for shiny new things. I love my toys as much as you do.  Rarely however does that new systems, application or software suite fix any of the underlying issues. When was the last time you started using something new, either in your personal or professional life, and it immediately fixed your problem and you changed nothing about what you are doing. Often, what ends up happening, is that as businesses look to implement some new tech, they also end up having to change HOW they are doing things. The changes that are made to core processes is what drives the success. Using your phone to track your steps, your sleep, your workout or to even help you write. Pause for a second, think about any of those situations.  Tracking your steps and setting daily goals means that you are actually walking ...

  Do you know what I did last week? This will sound crazy and you might think I need help (honestly maybe I do!). I have been struggling to manage my time and responsibilities lately. Not so much in terms of knowing what I need to do, more balancing what I need to do with what I want to do. What had been happening was that too many things were pushing off, "Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow" or I was allowing myself to think that "I don't have time for that". The consequence was that every few days, things would stack up and the biggest place that was suffering was my sleep. Now, I appreciate off the bat that might sound lazy AF to some people. Thinking "Is this guy really whining because he's not able to sleep ... come on dude". I get it, our society has created a culture around how much you can do on the fewest hours of sleep. I bought into that, big time ... hell I was captain of the team. At one point in my life I was flying 50-100 times a year...

 I have been spending a lot of time lately doing discovery. Have you come across a process or workflow that has a gap or a problem and when you ask about it, the response is either "this is just how it works" or you are given the "reason" for it. I'm always surprised about how often we take the response as a concrete or unchangeable component. We seem to figure that since someone can explain or give an answer, surely they must have explored the alternatives. While this can be true, very often you will find that the reason that is given was more dependent on the thinking or options available at the time versus a pure problem / gap / deficiency in the actual process. Working with my team, I enjoy engaging them with a lot of how and what questions, I keep pushing to the next level, not immediately accepting the response. I am not being difficult and they know that I am asking to really understand, and they do great job explaining. It is always rewarding when you c...

It's been a while since I have written anything new. As I have started and gotten into a new role with a new organization, finding time for other interests has been harder. I had couple of events over the last two weeks however that found me back in a place to share. My new role is all about Continuous Improvement. Working with my team and the broader operations teams to drive a lot of change. This is not a new world for me or aren't responsibilities that I haven't had in the past, however it is the first time I find myself in a role completely dedicated to it. The most important thing that you need to be able to do in order to drive change is to understand what is going on. You HAVE to ask A LOT of questions, to keep asking "... and what else?", to keep pushing past the first answers and responses you get (often these are what the business has always done, or what individuals have been doing based on their understanding). Asking questions and pushing ...

Coming from an operations world, you are always on the go. While you might work 8 or 10 hours a day, the other parts of your business and/or your responsibility are usually going 24 hours a day. This is one of the most challenging things for people to manage as they get into an operations world. At first you simply believe that you will do more hours, get ahead of the curve and then you will be able to slow down and relax. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. The more you get accomplished, the more 'opportunities' you seem to have. Added to this, you start to deal with the matrix above more often then you realize. The biggest trap that people fall into with their work and responsibilities is not taking the time to understand where each task / problem / responsibility fits. The other major challenge is that we often take on what 'seems' to be urgent and important ... for other people and not necessarily ourselves. With so many people working from home right now, I...

I often am challenged or get asked how I have developed the thoughts and insights I have into certain domains even though I don't have years of work history in those spaces. Maybe I'm just weird, or wired differently, but this always leaves me puzzled. The reality is I'm not sitting around coming up with quadratic equations, most of the way I frame things is rooted in common sense. At the end of the day, when not at work, I am a customer / consumer too, just like everyone else. Often I simply look at things and say, "how would I do this", "how would I make this better or less of a pain in the ass"! It's not rocket science. This always makes me think of some line from a movie or TV show (probably something geeky that I came across over the years because I couldn't Google it - if you know it, let me know!) Basically the idea is that to truly understand something, you need to see it while hanging upside down in front of a mirror. The ide...

This week seems to be starting off with a theme for me ... the idea and requirements of Express Delivery in last mile. Last mile is a challenging space. You are making direct deliveries to a customer. These are typically the least efficient deliveries that you can make, because an individual order size most likely will be challenge with respect to the operating costs to perform the activity. The discussions I have seen recently seem to be providing people with a bit of a false sense of security (in my opinion). We live in an age of data and technology, where the smallest operations can replicate what used to only be achievable by the biggest companies. This is a double edged sword however in the face of rising expectations. Everyone thinks about Amazon, and how they are 'easily' able to deliver on their service experience, but even Amazon has been careful and slowly approaching express / same day delivery. Walmart has been in the news recently as they launched their...

Adaptability is a big buzzword right now. Makes sense, the CoronaVirus has up-ended the status quo and everyone needs to be able to adjust to their new conditions. If everyone values the ability to pivot and adapt, why then are we seeing such inertia? The answer? Adaptability is more of a mindset and approach versus systems and tools. I was out running this morning. I have been back and forth with runs, cycling and rucking , overall I am pleased with some of my progress and less so with others. For this week I wanted to start a new program: 5km run on Monday, 10km ruck on Tuesday and a 20km cycle on Wednesday (rinse and repeat for R, F, Sa - day off Sunday). I knew the route I had been using for my runs up until this point was just shy of 4km, so to keep it one continuous flow, I changed the route to what was closer to a solid 5km loop. The run started fine (the first few minutes always make you think it will be easy all the way!). As you get out of that first phase a...