My January insights

One of the most powerful tools in the agile methodology is the retrospective – looking critically at what’s happened in order to figure out how to adjust and to consolidate learnings.

I’ve decided to run monthly retrospectives, taking a look at my focus, lessons learned, honoring who I was and figuring out who I’ve become…

Jan 1st – the first day of the new year:

Visualized spreading the wish to all sentient beings in the Universe – it felt really good 🙂

Jan. 1st

Check your luggage and throw away whatever you don’t love and need.
Brush-up your tools – your skillset – and resolve for upgrades whenever needed.
Verify motivation.
Now take your brilliant moves for a good year!

Jan.2nd – first Sunday of the new year:

Getting ready for the first working day of 2022?
Maybe you could look at the whole work story differently…and start fresh this year?

Jan 3rd – first Monday of the new year:

In a tiny corner of the world called US, they celebrate Sleep today…go figure…
Searching for the magic in it on my way to work.

Jan.4th

Mentorship is as natural as humanity – but there is more than one way of doing this.
Have you had the chance to get a really good one by your side?
Will you share one thing s/he/it have taught you?
One of my most valued mentors was Violeta Ciurel, Ph.D., who taught me, a very, very long time ago, about the power of breaks & focus. I’m pretty sure she does not remember, but I am forever indebted to her for her role modelling, teaching, challenges and subtle lessons that serve me to this day.

Jan.5th

I love Albus Dumbledore, don’t you?
(for the non-kids out there, this is the great mentor & leader in Harry Potter 🙂
Life’s not always joyful, but nothing stops us from keeping happiness at hand.

Jan.6th

“Dry January” – a challenge lots of people are taking, in UK and other parts of the world is about a lot of things…and a “reality test” for a lot of people.
Wine is great, beer is amazing, all cocktails & scotches & such are great inventions…as long as you get them into you for the right reason 😉

Jan. 7th – first Friday of the year:

I love this equation of performance:
motivation + competence + tools = performance
It’s a simple explanation for the basic fact that an individual can do an amazing job in a company, then a lousy one in another (or vice-versa): context matters.
When we blame people without a sanity check of the processes supporting their motivation & competence, we add injustice to the poor context we’re exposing them to; no wonder so many individuals are choosing disengagement, non-engagement or plain resignations, given how the new work reality left a great number of companies well behind in terms of adequate work processes…

Jan.8th – first Saturday of the year:

Yeeey, first weekend of the year!
Maybe it’s now when your planned transformation starts?
Or perhaps you’re already beating yourself for whatever shortcomings you might have spotted during this first week of the new year?
Action is needed, albeit a compassionate one.

Jan.9th

1. Things you don’t love or need
2. Social network contacts whom you don’t really know or are irrelevant for your strategy
3. Habits you could do without
4. “Friends” who don’t really act as such
5. Files & Folders that became obsolete
6. Goals that are not burning your sleep
7. Meetings, conversations, tasks that are not immediately conducive to the achievement of your KPIs
What’s on your checklist?

Jan. 10th

When I was 8, I had a pretty similar desk, size-wise…asked my father for a bigger one, to make room for books, notebooks & such. He fell for it and I got a 2 sqm “presidential” one with 3 drawers an a nice cupboard, I loved it!
One year later my father introduced a clean desk policy (you can only imagine the mess if you have 10 year old kids passionate about books, learning by handwriting etc) – and I discovered the principle outlined below.
By the 3rd grade I was back to a 1 sqm drawer-less desk.
My father was a very wise mand indeed, and a great mentor, allowing me to learn “in action”…
How are you simplifying your life, creating space to live it?

Jan. 11th

Some businesses still delude themselves thinking that adding more recruiters or “injecting more tech” (don’t you just love that buzz? sounds pretty invasive to me…) into their talent acquisition processes, it’ll save the day for their (wo)manpower shortage.
I maintain that it’s not about this…or, rather, that you can work around shortage of manpower or tech, but if do not navigate around the fundamentals of what you’re offering people (your EVP) it all becomes irrelevant.
How do you make sure you cover your basis?

Jan. 12th

Remember the days when power-point introduced cute little gadgets of transitions, sounds and such? How everyone hurried to use them, thus contributing to what became known as “death by power-point”?
Well. any tool is as useful as you make it, and simply because tech allows us to do certain things does not necessarily mean it’s always a good idea to do so…
Personally, I believe “the one click application” apps, allowing candidates to apply tens of times per day by, well, one click (!) are contributing to a reality whereby everyone applies for any job, just “because”.
What tech temptations do you believe we should resist in HR?

Jan. 13th

I hear a lot of leaders lovingly referring to their direct reports as “kids”.
Nothing wrong with that, as long as they are not seen as helpless babies, but rather as +7 yo who actually need to learn to stand on their feet, make their mistakes, make their own decisions and learn by doing…

Jan. 14th

Investment in learning is mandatory – the world changes so fast and people generally want to learn more. Not investing in this equals mid-term suicide for any business.
Investing in learning without fixing company processes & managerial/leadership capabilities is a waste, as you’ll not be able to capitalize on the upskills.
There is a myth that people leave companies primarily because of poor direct management. The factual truth is that they leave companies where they don’t feel comfortable – i.e. they leave “good companies” (with the right culture, processes, tools) because of poor direct managers indeed, but they also leave good managers that are not backed-up by the right culture, processes & tools.
Treating people right is a holistic job of the entire organisation. That’s why silos won’t work.

Jan. 15th

Sitting, waiting & victimizing will take you nowhere…neither is blindly following the same path.
There is resilience – an enabler of staying on a path to a vision – and there is stupor…

Jan. 16th

Jan 17th

It all starts with the readiness to learn – is the person ready to put up with the effort to change? All learning leads to change…and this takes energy.
It then goes to methods used – are you showing things? Telling things? Power-pointing things?
You might want to consider creating contexts for them to learn, and patiently accompanying them on their path…

Jan. 18th

Celebrating Winnie the Pooh day?
You ought to :), even if for a day’s light, tender wisdom dose.

Jan. 19th

Robots, apps, forms, AI…so easy to get caught in playing with “toys for boys”(and girls) and to forget it’s all about people and cost of service, not about tech per se.
Unless tech comes free and does exactly what candidates, employees, clients expect them to do.
Is there a free lunch?

Jan. 20th

Are you learning?
Are you changing?
Take a break from time to time and celebrate your upgrades 🙂
Oh, and make it intentional and internally driven – or else you’ll forever be dependent on other people’s opinions…

Jan. 21st

Genuinely wondering if you agree with this.
Also wondering what you’re prepared to do to walk the talk …

Jan. 22nd

Today some people around the world celebrate Hug Day.
Yeah, virtual hug day…not the same thing…
But since we all have a cat or a spouse or a kid nearby, I must confess there are two things that blew my mind hug-wise:
– the mindset triggered by the words below…
– and the 8″ hug concept: that you must hold there for 8″ and the reason for it – it may take that much to get a deep breath / sigh, signaling that the hug worked its magic…
Happy Hugging!

Jan. 23rd

This has been for years my absolute most favorite quote of all times, as it speaks of connection with reality (as opposed to living in one’s mind) and it offers a practical path towards it, one that everybody can walk.
Maybe the biggest benefit Covid years have brought is one of teaching everyone to ground themselves, by stepping out of the shallows of constant chatter and wasted time / pretend lives. Some learned the lesson and came out taller.

Jan. 24th

Beware of folks without a sense of humor – for they may be losing site of reality while trying to control it 🙂

Jan. 25th

I am playing “opposites day” today 🙂
Sort of a mind gym, but also a way out of normal, otherwise sometimes dead ways…
Are you curious what’s on the other side of the moon?

Jan. 26th

Celebrating Spouse Day is not a LI topic – but wellbeing is, so here’s my piece of wisdom (being married for almost 30 years to the same guy, go figure): we all need a safe place; that is defined by unconditional love – and after our parents, the only chances we’ve got are our life-long partners and special friends.
I love this quote, as it clearly gives a simple diagnostic of whether the relationship is the right one 😉

Jan.27th

Some time ago I discovered a question that is really helpful for thriving in any environment: “What kind of person is doing well here & now?”. The answer shows you what you need to do. Then you chose if you want to do it or not.
Simple.
Not easy – but at least us humans are not stuck in a given shape and are free to choose who are 🙂

Jan.28th

Stress, Depression, heavy-duty PTSD and paranoia are the most common reasons why people are depleted of their sense of humor.
Are you laughing at life? Or are you taking work so seriously that it kills your creativity, growth and happiness?

Jan. 29th

The day we understand the world is not meant to adapt to us but the other way around, we are ready to be good at living.
Then, being smart makes all the difference…

Jann.30th

The more we live in the realm of positive emotions, the healthier we are. The stronger. The more fit to deal with the remaining life’s balance of learning moments.
How do you purposefully build beauty & positive emotions into your life?
Do you use colors?
Words?
Rich silence moments?

Jan.31st

“Be Heart Smart” is the US slogan for the month dedicated to a healthy heart.
Hard to be smart about invisible things that work on their own 🙂 – at least not everyday…however there are three things we can do:
– eat less than we need
– exercise more than we feel like
– stay aware of our stress levels and master managing them

Want a better life? Re-learn how to sleep…

Wellbeing starts with the simplest things – and right up there in top three is sleep, which clears away waste products in your body and restores brain functioning. Typical hygiene factor – you only pay attention to it when it’s not working fine – yet you can totally repurpose it into an epicurean phenomenon or a subject for daily gratitude.

There are tons of advice, do’s & don’ts concerning sleeping, but ultimately it all boils down to two things:

• the ability to fall asleep in the first place
• the ability to sleep some more if you wake up during the night

Rooted in biology, there are some basic stuff you cannot do without – here’s the absolute list of controllable elements you ought to pay attention to:

Ultimately, if you find yourself lying in bed, uncapable to fall into the blissful sleep, you need to take the right actions. Here they are:

1. Timing matters; it’s entirely in your control to go to sleep at the same time each day and to do the math of how many hours of sleep you need, and this is the single biggest gift you can make to yourself.
2. Light is critical; you may not like (and certainly don’t need) a complete dark environment, so a sleeping mask it not necessarily “it”, but restricting your sleep space to a steady, dim, away-from-your-eyes light is essential. One tiny interesting element – checking the time, including by keeping an illuminated clock in the bedroom, is a really bad idea not only because of the light’s impact, but because
3. Temperature: a cooler environment – some 1-2 degrees below the normal daily temperature, and ideally around 20 Celsius induces sleep and helps it’s quality because it eases up the work the body has to do in order to regulate its temperature during the night.
4. Digestion counts: you don’t want a full stomach, triggering acid reflux (inherently triggered when gravity is no longer helping) and bowl movements that will wake you up; you also don’t want to keep waking up 3 am due to low sugar blood resulting from not having anything in your stomach either, so make sure you snack 250 – 300 calories before going to bed.
5. Mental stimulants – coffee (half life is 5 hours!) / digital devices / sports done too late in the day / exaggerating with power naps will help your productivity but will ruin your wellbeing in the long run.

Three routines that need to become a second nature when you get into bet and until the set waking up time:

• relax your body: the progressive relaxation technique is a simple, quick technique to build sleep into your body
• clear your mind for a short while: give yourself some 15-20 minutes of quiet wakefulness instead of anxiously battling mental agitation; if this does not work, get out of bed (which must remain a place of relaxation in your body memory, not a place of frustration!) and move to another spot in your available space, engaging in reading or listening to music until you feel like dozing off again…
• play the sleep cycles: it’s pretty normal to wake up every 90-120 minutes, when a new sleep cycle starts…which basically means that the first reaction you should have when you wake up should be to relax into a new cycle; no action is the best action, and this includes not wondering what time it is!

Easier said than done, right?

I love baby-steps…how about you just picked one improvement and acted on it right now?

MY DAILY WOW: perfectionism is an auto-immune disease – how to help a colleague cure

Like many other socially-induced diseases, perfectionism is hurting individuals at the doubtful benefit of others. This says it all:

“Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit for the worst in ourselves; the part that tells us nothing we do will ever be good enough – that we should try harder.” –  Julia Cameron

The mindset is “I am what I do. If I don’t get it done perfectly, who am I?”. It’s an all-or-nothing game that ultimately takes a toll on people’s health, and on the road to that end, it cruelly diminishes the quality of life. As in all other such instances, nobody can “get” other people “cured”…but is there anything we can actually do to help the self-inflicted ones potentially step out of this sooner rather than the later?

Knowing that perfectionism is directly linked to external validation, interpreted as identity validation by the perfectionism-inflicted colleague, it stroke me today that every time we use “perfect”, “as expected from you” or any other external validation of identity we reinforce this sick behavior 😦

So how about going for a bit of WOW and reinforcing “best-effort” instead?

By asking the right things / setting realistic goals. By asking for experiments and pushing people towards “let’s see how that goes”. By giving short deadlines for getting bite-sized things done.

By readjusting the rules and completely letting go of fancy, corporate, useless areas of “excellence” that add little value to the business.

By constantly offering perspective, drawing perfectionists towards the big picture, and recognizing the best effort instead of the perfect end result. Until they can do it to themselves.