Do you realize how easy it is for you to turn off people you find offensive? There’s value in surrounding yourself with people and things that bring you joy and make you wiser.There’s also utility in trying to understand the worldview of someone with the most offensive ideas.

My dad sat on a cheer, stared outside, and told me that he had to cut his beard.

Me: “Dad, how long is your beard?” Dad: “a few inches…”

Dad doesn’t have a beard, but he believes he has one.I am not bothered by my dad — I expect this behavior from him.

I am in awe at our brains — how powerful they are that someone could perceive a beard where none existed.

Being kind to other humans.Not being overly attached to perceptions.Questioning appearances and looking beyond the surface for truth — discovering the nature of nature.Appreciating life as it is now.

If you are old enough, you can remember learning patience, compromise, and how to create alliances and enemies through your control of the television remote control.You can remember what it means to beg your television partner to stop channel surfing and stay on one program for a bit. You can remember telling people to wait five minutes for your show to finish before you switch for another show. You remember having to influence other watchers that your programming choices serve them better. Have we lost what it means to control the remote?

I wrote this in 2019. Excerpt below:Your ability to be the most effective individual relies on your ability to balance information from the past (how things were), the present (things as they are now), and the future (things as we want them to be). Too often we abuse this ability and, like Marty McFly, get stuck in the past, the future, and search endlessly to come back to the present.  Thanks Dr. Mike for the inspiration.

I believe whimsy is the x factor in getting teams to open up and generate ideas. Whimsy, or play, allows us to suspend belief and dive deep into our imaginations. It makes laughing at failure fun. It brings levity to otherwise stressful situations. Life is already hard enough.

AI is only as useful as the questions you ask it. I think learning from books, others, and school is the same way.

The x-factor of my production function is space and time to think.

Musicians often regard the strongest musician as the leader of the group. That’s a terrible idea.The best band leaders foster openness to create, are effective communicators, and actively remove creative and performance roadblocks from their teams. It’s been proven, businesses often promote the strongest “musician.”What should we do with those that excel in skill and ability? Elevate their status, recognize them for their skill, pay them a ton of money, and give them more complex projects. We don’t necessarily make them people managers.How do we identify skilled people managers? Look for people who are skilled at collaborating, mentoring, teaching, or removing productivity roadblocks. Look for people who others trust. Perhaps an anonymous survey given to a team: “Who is the person in the group that you trust to have your back when the chips are down? Rank your choices from most trusted to least.”“Who is the person in the group that you believe can handles the toughest challenges in the most adept and skillful way AND gets amazing outcomes? Rank your choices from most skilled to least.”My bet… the strongest people leaders rank high on #1 and low on #2. The inverse would be true of strong individual contributors.

Continuing the train of thought on workplace value.Going to customers and asking them about their experience is a path to learning how they perceive value. Questions a customer success manager might ask:How would you describe the value received from our service relative to the price paid? What is the most valuable?What is least?If you were starting over, would you choose our service again? Why or why not? How do you compare our service with alternative solutions you considered? What were your expectations before purchasing? What factor most influenced your decision to purchase our service?What surprises, good or bad, have you encountered while using our service that influenced your perception of it? If you are considering discontinuing our service, what factors are contributing to that consideration? Questions like that help identify how customers perceive the value of their investment and how their perceptions may influence their decisions to renew or stay. What if we asked questions like this to employee?How would you describe the value received from your employment relative to the wage we pay you?What is most valuable? What is least?If you were starting over, would you choose us as an employer again? Why or why not? How do you compare employment with us with alternative employers you considered? What were your expectations before accepting our offer? What factor most influenced your decision to accept our offer?What surprises, good or bad, have you encountered during your employment that influenced your perception of us as an employer? If you are considering discontinuing your employment with us, what factors are contributing to that consideration?