Tag Archives: awareness

Beating the Status Quo

“Are you saying that my internal thinking, my doubts as a leader, seeing myself as an imposter, IF I can deal with all of that, the problems in the project will be easier?” Ryker was curious.

“No, the problems in the project will still be difficult,” I replied. “But, if you have doubts in yourself, the problems in the project may be impossible. Slay the imposter first.”

“Slaying the imposter sounds easy and impossible at the same time. Do I just ignore the imposter, pretend it doesn’t exist?” Ryker asked.

“The first step is awareness,” I nodded. “And you are aware. Your stomach relays the message loud and clear. Your stomach wants to win. It tells you to just go with the flow. You have been drifting along in life allowing your stomach to make the tough decisions, mostly to stick with the status quo, do not tackle anything difficult. It wants to lull you back into familiar patterns where there is no conflict.”

“But, the conflict is still there,” Ryker reminded me.

“Yes,” I continued to nod. “Which will win. It’s like two dogs in a fight. Which will win?”

Ryker knew this story. “The dog that wins is the dog I feed.”

Resistance is Inside

“You told me to listen to my stomach,” Ryker said. “My stomach tells me there is trouble ahead for this project. At least, now I know the trouble is inside me and not in someone else.”

“The stomach is a valuable radar detector if we will only listen,” I replied. “When we blame the resistance on someone else like your team’s ringleader, our stomach is happy, it does not tell us that we are the ones that have to change.”

“And, that suited me just fine. I could put all of the project pain on someone else.”

“Resistance is very real. It keeps us in the status quo, where it is comfortable. Resistance must be wrestled with before any real progress is made. So, tell me what you are going to do? How will you fight the resistance?”

See No Evil

“I don’t have time to think about KPIs,” Marcelo complained. “We have too much work to do around here. I have production quotas to get out the door.”

“How do you know when you have finished a production run?” I asked.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, we have someone counting units before they go in the box. We build to order. We try to keep finished inventory down.”

“Do you have defects?”

“Yep. Or, so we hear. I always overrun by 10 percent to cover customer complaints. Seems to work out pretty well.” Marcelo gave me that confident look.

“If you were to have Key Performance Indicators, what would they be?” I pressed.

“I told you, we don’t have time for that. If there is a quality problem, that is for the QA/QC department to figure out. Believe me, they will tell us.”

“Sounds like the trilogy, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?”

“As long as I don’t look for trouble, I rarely find it.”

“So, if you know you are blind, you will figure out a way to see. But if you don’t know you are blind, you will continue to run into the same problems, over and over.”
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-Adapted from Ray Dalio, Principles

In the Gap

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Humans possess the unique quality of awareness. Not only can we hold a thought, but we can simultaneously be aware we are holding that thought. Awareness allows us to change.

The first level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) is awareness. Self-awareness creates the platform for self-management.

The second level of Emotional Intelligence is social awareness. Social awareness creates the platform for relationship management.

For difficulties in either level, ask yourself – What am I not aware of?

This requires you to be quiet and observe – What am I not clearly seeing, clearly hearing, clearly feeling?

This requires defined periods of focused introspection – What is the cause of my response to the events around me? What is the influence to my behavior?

Awareness is that gap between stimulus and response, between what is coming at us and how we respond to it. In that gap is our choice. In that gap is awareness.

We have the unique ability to be aware. Awareness can have a powerful impact on the problems we solve and the decisions we make.