Colleagues,
​
Earlier this week I listed out my major projects, but I forgot to mention one: rewiring the patio lights. We have a patio on the far side of our yard and the wiring was disconnected when we replaced our deck last spring.
 
Essentially, all I needed to do was splice two wires together. Unfortunately, to do that I needed to run a 20’ section of wire underneath the deck and then up and into an outlet on the outside of the house. I budgeted four hours, which began, as all projects do, with a trip to Lowes.
 
Six hours (and another trip to Lowes for a 33-cent part) later, I turned the power back on. That was good because by then it was dark.
 
I knew exactly what had to be done for each step of this project. I doubled my estimate of how long it would take me, and I was still wrong! That’s the way change is. We can know exactly what to do, but it still takes twice as long and is twice as hard as we thought it would be.
 
This is why I advocate an incremental approach. If you initiate a small change and it takes one week instead of two, you haven’t really put yourself in a bad situation. If you plan a six-month change and it takes a year, that’s a bigger problem.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

I have major projects going on at my house right now:

1. Installing new doors
2. Replacing our stairs and stair railing
3. Building new raised beds in the garden
4. Planting out the garden
5. Making and installing new trim for the baseboards, doors, and windows.
6. Replacing light fixtures

 
Some thoughts:

1. This is too many things to focus on 
2. The pressure and stress have a tangible negative impact on me
3. All of these things need to be done

 
Our organizations are like my house – there are many aspects in which we can and need to get better. The problem is that when we lay them all out it becomes overwhelming. And when we try to address more than one or two things at a time, we just keep jumping from one to the other without really making significant progress.
 
How many focus areas does your organization have right now? How much consistency is there between what your leaders want and what you want from the people you lead?
 
More on this tomorrow.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

If your organization has too many focus areas for improvement/growth, what can you do?
 
Here are some options:

1. Focus on one thing at a time and ignore the rest.
2. Look for overlap where one area is linked to another and focus on the linkages.
3. Focus on one important piece of one change and then shift to another significant area of a different change.
4. Tackle the thing that is causing you the most grief.
5. Look for the best bang for the buck – the least effort for the most change.

 
Narrowing initiatives is really hard, because when we see a way to improve, we naturally want to attack it. The problem is that there are so many places where we need to get better, and that improving even one thing takes time – usually more time than we can imagine.
 
In the end, we become squirrels, chasing one shiny object until we catch a glimpse of a different shiny object and abruptly change direction, over and over again. At the end, we are exhausted, and all of those shiny objects are still out there.
 
The reality is, even if you just take care of one thing, your organization will be better. So, focus on that one thing.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

Here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, our safe planting date is May 1. It is really hard to wait until then to plant out the garden. Last year, I was so ready to jump into it, and the weather was so nice at the end of March, that I planted a bunch of peppers and basil the first week of April. 
 
The third week of April, we got our final round of cold and half my plants died. The ones that survived never fully recovered and were always behind the plants that went into the ground in May.
 
Waiting until the right time to implement a change can be really hard but beginning a change at the wrong time rarely leads to success.
 
Put another way, just because something needs fixed doesn’t mean that now is the right time to fix it. It is so hard to be patient, but so important.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

I spent a lot of time in schools working with educators last week. The onset of state testing adds one more layer of urgency onto a year that has already been phrenetic.
 
I feel the same sense of urgency from many of my non-school colleagues, as well as most organizations that are influenced by the seasons.
 
When things get crazier, we tend to be even more driven by the urgent things, meaning we spend even less time in quadrant 2. 
 
As you find yourself moving from one thing to the other, try using this 5-step method:

1. Can I let it go?  Is it really quadrant 1 (urgent and important) or is it actually quadrant 3 (urgent)?
2. Can I give it back? If it isn’t your job, can you give it back to the person who put it on you?
3. Can I give it away? Is there someone else who could do it just as well (or maybe even better)?
4. Can I give it a C? Is it okay to do the absolute minimum and just MVP it?
5. Can I bounce it? Can you do a minimal piece and then send it to someone else?

 
Now may be the hardest time to pause and ask these questions, but it may also be the most important time.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick