Colleagues,

Okay, I’m not actually drowning. I’m not even near water right now.
 
However, Pam and I have been talking about a “water feature.” A water feature is a generic term for something in your garden that involves water, like a fountain, pond, or waterfall.
 
We have actually been talking about water features for years, but we always wanted a waterfall, and they are time-consuming and expensive to build.
 
Recently we adjusted our thinking from a big waterfall to a small fountain made of some stacked stones. We talked about all of the different options and configurations and identified some possibilities.
 
Later, as I began to look more closely at the designs, I realized that they would still be time-consuming and costly. It looked simpler than a big waterfall, and it wasn’t going to be quite as much money or effort, but it wasn’t going to be cheap and simple.
 
On reflecting, I realize this pattern repeats itself in my life. I can’t do something big and complicated, so I scale it back, but in the end, it is still big and complicated. Just not quite so much as before.
 
For this water feature we will take an A-B, MVP approach. We will think about what we really want, but then break it down into specific pieces that can stand alone, so we have something enjoyable each step of the way. It will be great!

​Colleagues,
 
We are wired to understand. We want to connect one event to another and to know why something has happened (or hasn’t).
 
In the absence of real information, we tend to make stuff up. It’s not that we are trying to fabricate lies or untruths, but our minds cannot accept that we don’t know why, so we theorize, conjecture, and… make stuff up.
 
I had reached out to a friend recently and not heard anything back. I reached out again but still didn’t hear back. At that point, my mind started trying to figure out why. 
 
Were they sick? Maybe they were dying.
 
Did I offend them? I can’t remember our last conversation, maybe I really made them angry.
 
It is fine to try and understand, but one of my personal challenges is that I fill in the missing information with worst case scenarios, so when I don’t have complete information I start thinking negatively.
 
What does this mean for leaders? Two things:

1. Give people information. 
2. Don’t leave people hanging.

 
Even if all we can say is “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you” or “Crazy busy, will call later.” 
 
Minimal information is better than know information.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

Yesterday I shared how I need to put up a new fence for my garden and how that big fence was like Big Change. Today I’ll share how to apply the principles of leverage to take a more incremental approach:

• 0>1 means that I am tackling a problem, not just the symptom, so I am reassessing the different things that the new fence must achieve. Because this will be permanent, I need to consider some factors this time that I didn’t worry about last time, like durability, aesthetics, and how to make it easy to mow around.
• A-B means I am doing one piece at a time. I can build a couple of gates without even touching the current fence. I can also adapt the current fence as I build the new fence one section at a time.
• MVP may be a bit harder to apply as this fence will be a final product. That said, if I can do things in stages, making a fence section viable first, and then going back to pretty it up, then I will do that.
• M=V/E means that I want to get immediate value from what I do. The thought of spending all summer putting up a fence isn’t appealing, but if I can make an effective gate that works right away, that creates immediate value without too much effort.

 
Like all analogies, this is imperfect, but hopefully it is good enough (five bonus points if you tell me which principle of leverage I just used!)
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

I’ve written before about fencing in my garden. 
 
Something had been digging in the beds. Initially I designed and built these fancy, nice looking mobile fences. They were expensive and time consuming to make and only surrounded a part of my garden. 
 
When I decided to fence the rest of the garden, I took an MVP (minimally viable product) approach. I bought some inexpensive T stakes and some chicken wire and surrounded the whole garden in less time than it had taken me to make the fancy fence.
 
This year, the shape of my garden has changed, and Pam and I have mapped out the final, permanent boundaries of the garden. This, of course, means designing a new fence. This one will be permanent, so it represents a larger investment. In a sense, this fence is like Big Change in that it requires:

• Significant resources
• Lots of planning
• Will take a long time to implement
• Is completely dependent on key personnel (me)

 
However, I will still use the principles of leverage to approach the job. More on that tomorrow.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick