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Founded in 2002, the blog here continues to be a space of daily conversation about the science of mind and its implications and applications
When approaching an interest, it’s natural to try deciding what we should do going forward. Considering first what we could do opens space for more options, and more flexibility in timing.
What could make this more possible?
What could be a first or second version of this?
Many efforts we organize can be organized as projects. Any interest can be organized into projects that themselves can be organized into interests, discoveries, questions, actions and timing. Projects make possible focus and momentum.
It’s useful to think of a plan as the organization of questions that guide necessary actions into desired outcomes representing our prime interests. When we get our questions right, we get our actions right. Our questions are what's unclear, unconfirmed and undecided. They address our hopes, concerns and assumptions.
We essentially shape uncertainty more through interests or fears. They are distinctively different lenses.
Interests reveal connect us to new opportunities, questions and possibilities. Fears disconnect us. They reveal threats, risks and deficiencies. Fears are about what we need to say no to. Interests are about what we will say yes to.
When we go about organizing literally anything in our life, our work or our world, there are five things that are never going away. They will always factor into how well we do.
Interests: What would be great?
Realities: What do we know?
Questions: What are our unknowns?
Options: What can we do?
Timing: What will we do and when?
Work from 3 questions.
What are we interested in creating?
What could and will we discover, decide and do to move in the direction of our interests?
What is the best timing for all of this?
This piece nicely suggests that any time dream can begin and move forward with just a couple hours of focused action.
https://link.medium.com/SNhCGndEGU
What would be wonderful, delightful, great, awesome, lovely, beautiful, useful, life-changing, inspiring, fascinating?
These are the frame options for identifying our interests. They represent what we are genuinely drawn to when it comes to thinking about the future. The energize and inspire in ways goals do not.
It’s interesting to think of goals as constraints which they are. They are constraints in the sense that they represent end points rather than directions. Directions imply the kind of sustainability that inspires and energizes the intersection of interests and actions and questions. We can move in a direction in any frame of timing. We don’t have to worry about whether we can achieve them because it’s not a matter of achievement but a matter of exploring, experimenting and discovering. It turns action into learning rather than a source of doubt, prediction and worry.
Perhaps the most reasonable progress is 1% a day, leading to 100% in 100 days. As a question, it's a question: What would 1% of this direction look like today? The constraint of scale juices creativity and even with failing half the time creates far more momentum than completely failing to aim for 100% of anything on any given day.
It’s useful, and indeed important, to have many plans, which equates to multiple interests. Each enriches the others. They don’t need to be prioritized. Timing applies to how we move forward in progress and iterations. The reality is we can give time regularly to our questions and actions.
We have myriad ways of languaging what we want to create in the present and future: purpose, why, drive, motivation, direction, vision, mission, goal, objective, desire, metrics, passion, priority, urgency, success, progress.
The frame of "interests" addresses "what we want to create" in a way that is personal, reasonable and engaging. Interests energize and organize us, in many ways better than some of the other frames. It's the simple question: What are we interested in creating, exploring, learning, discovering? It speaks to point and process, where the other frames often speak to one or the other. It is a sustainable, generative and connecting lens because, as the other frames are realms of the head, interests are realms of the heart.
In any timeframe, like 2 weeks or months or quarters, we create optimum momentum by making sure we have things we're starting, progressing and completing. A balance of these creates a rhythm that has its own potential energy.
Once we have defined our interest in what we want to create in any planning process, and have identified our knowns, unknowns, and action, we then decide on the optimal timing for actions. What will get started and done, in what order and in what timing rhythms?
Timing includes giving attention to and aligning with any other related planning efforts in the organization.
After all, timing is still everything.
Every team in an organization will have at least one plan. It can be an annual operating plan, budget plan, change plan, project plan, improvement plan, implementation plan or any other possible category of planning.
Overall organizational velocity and integrity depends on how we keep relevant plans connected. This begins with mindful awareness by all teams of other teams and their related plans.
The simplest way to a plan is by desired outcome rather than category. If we're doing a plan to get our first paying client, we name this as something like "First paying client plan." We don't need the unnecessary categorical ambiguity of arguing whether this is our "startup plan," "business plan," "feasibility plan," or whatever. Name it for what it is.
Ideas are living things whose growth we make possible or impossible by the language we use when describing them and reacting to them. Here are three simple ways to make growth possible.
• Respond to any idea first with "What I like about that is..."
• Preface new ideas with "What if..." This invites more imagination than critique
• When an idea is proposed that raises questions for us, we can respond with "How could we...?"
These simple ways of using language increases the variety, depth and usefulness of ideas, and allows some ideas to simply be effective sparks to an evolution of more and better ideas.
Why do we see performance differences on teams?
https://link.medium.com/InkrqAxjuU
https://medium.com/@JackRicchiuto/should-we-finally-give-up-on-strategic-planning-f5813216af2a
There are endless ways to go about the future we want to see. Here is one option.
What are we ready to do and try in the upcoming 2 quarters: start, progress, complete?
What's an optimal sequencing of these?
What could and would be the 2 year implications of each of these efforts and experiments?
What are our knowns and unknowns for each?
What does this mean for the next 2 months?
What does this mean for the next 2 weeks?
Is there anything that could give us more velocity on anything?
The refresh cycles on everything are every 2 weeks, 2 months and 2 quarters.
