Time to reflect.

Time to share.

Time to give.

Time to look up and be present.

Now, and all year round.

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

“Maybe Christmas”, he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.

“Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.” – Benjamin Franklin

“It’s not what’s under the Christmas Tree that matters, it’s who are around it.” – Charlie Brown

Are you stressed?

Stress can be good for you.

It must be the right sort of stress though.

Too much stress can be debilitating.

It depletes energy and decreases performance.

That type of stress feels overwhelming.

It is negative stress.

There is stress that is positive.

Eustress (interestingly pronounced “you-stress”).

This is the stress that pushes and motivates.

It energises and improves performance.

It is a challenge that you can handle.

The excitement of a project.

The fulfilment of organising an event.

Doing something interesting.

Learning something new.

Get some stress in your life.

The eustress kind.

“Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress—stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth.” – Tim Ferriss

“Retire from your job but never from meaningful projects. If you want to live a long life, you need eustress, that is, a deep sense of meaning and of contribution to worthy projects and causes, particularly, your intergenerational family.” – Stephen Covey

You want to create something new.

Try something different.

Step out of your comfort zone.

Take a new direction.

Transform and evolve.

There has been no progress.

Otherwise it would have happened by now.

You know what needs to be done.

You’re not doing it.

There is resistance

There is fear.

Good.

There will always be resistance and fear.

They are along for the journey.

Especially for the stuff that matters.

“The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” – Steven Pressfield, author of “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles”

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

What is not being said?

Are you able to read between the lines?

A hesitant pause.

Glib words or liberal platitudes.

The omitted subtext.

Listen with all senses engaged.

The non-verbal messages.

The facial expression.

The body language.

The stance or posture.

The usual mannerisms … or lack of them.

The sideways glance.

The volume and tone.

The emotion … or lack of it.

What you can infer?

What is your intuition telling you?

There is the spoken word …

… and then there is so much more.

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker

“We need to look at the subtle, the hidden, and the unspoken.” ― Malcolm Gladwell

This is the reality.

It was not anticipated.

It is not ideal.

But there you have it.

This is the current situation.

The present predicament.

Warts and all.

This is it!

It can’t be hidden anymore.

Or swept under the rug.

It is now all out in the open.

Reality has arrived.

If you don’t like it …

… then it’s time to create a new one.

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” – William A. Ward

“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Individuals are not working together.

Teams are pulling in different directions.

Departments are at odds with each other.

The organisation is misaligned.

Misalignment is waste.

A waste of time, energy and resources.

So, get aligned.

Find common ground and work from there.

Bump up a few levels to find it and then move back down.

If there is no alignment on actions, agree on tactics.

If there is no unity around tactics, agree on objectives.

If the objectives are unclear, agree on strategy.

If there is disagreement over strategy, agree on purpose.

If everyone is out of sync with purpose … well, you’d better start there.

Get aligned before you get going.

“Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.” – Jim Collins

“Every person in your company is a vector. Your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors.” – Elon Musk

How do you ensure you never run out?

What is the process?

Weekly stocktake.

Repeat standing order.

Minimum trigger levels.

Kanban ordering system.

Visual inspection.

Flag when the last one is taken.

Or does it rely on George?

George is a great guy.

Also, George sometimes forgets.

Or goes on holiday.

Might change job.

Could be absent (for a variety of reasons).

Or George could just stop doing it.

And now you have run out.

With a realisation.

George was the process.

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” – W. Edwards Deming

“Authority should be vested in the people doing the work to improve their own processes, to teach them how to measure them, to understand them, and to improve them. Amen to the idea that employees shouldn’t have to ask permission. They should have the right to improve their own work processes.” – Steve Jobs

You have never done it before.

There is trepidation.

There is apprehension.

There is fear.

If you listen to the fear, you give it power.

Conversely, you could face down the fear.

If you do, you gain the power.

What you’re about to do is scary.

That’s why you should do it.

“An individual develops courage by doing courageous acts.” – Aristotle

“Everything worth doing starts with being scared.” – Art Garfunkel

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” – Tim Ferriss

Sometimes you won’t have the solution straight away.

You might need to let the problem percolate.

Leave room to think on it a bit.

It’s perhaps a difficult problem.

That’s okay.

You have solved difficult problems before.

You will solve this one too.

It maybe doesn’t feel like it right now.

So that can be frustrating.

Do something else.

Take your mind off it.

Go for a walk.

Exercise.

Do some gardening.

Go fishing.

Have a swim.

Take a shower.

How many ideas come in the shower!?

Relax.

The solution will come to you.

“It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else.” – Stephen Hawking

“We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops.” – John Cleese

The old process was working well.

It produced reliable and consistent results.

The process had a rhythm.

Then something changed.

The old process didn’t work so well.

It began to wobble and falter.

Workarounds were introduced.

The rhythm had been lost.

Yet, there was unwavering dedication to the old process.

It still produced results.

Though now it was hard work.

Persevering with the process introduced stress into the system.

There was a perfectly good replacement process waiting.

A newer process requiring the smallest of adjustments.

Once adopted, it would again produce reliable and consistent results.

The rhythm would return.

Transitioning to the new process has no downside.

There’s no reason to hold on any longer.

Just change the process.

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates