Reassurance

Would you like BALANCE with that?

Back from the Dominican Republic. Two words: Alignment (my favorite word lately) and Balance. That´s how you can sum up the benefits of having a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) methodology in your company. That´s what I told the potential client (the purpose of the trip was to tell the success story of implementing a PPM methodology in our Company).

Something I realized during my visit: these people GET IT. I´m talking about the joy of living and taking it easy. Granted they´re a developing country and you begin to see ¨first world-like activity¨ in the city (rush hour, horns, rising prices, etc). But when you interact with them you still get the paused and HONEST ¨Hello, how are you?¨ that all of us fake in the other places I´ve lived in. It makes you smile back to them and CONNECT.

I wonder if it´s because they still have alignment and balance in their lives...

This is a view of the beautiful garden and pool in the Hotel El Embajador.

Island hoping

I just found out Today that I fly to Santo Domingo, D.R. tomorrow at noon. Unexpected, but it´s always a good time to fly away and give presentations on alignment.

No blogging ´til Saturday. I hope to take some cool pictures to post.

Have a great weekend.

¨Poltrona¨ lifestyle

Guannovation

Yes, it´s THE question.

What is Innovation? Lately it seems like the ¨mojo¨ word, but what does your Company understand by innovation?:

a) Keyword in any strategic plan that needs immediate attention in order to be executed ¨as usual¨;

b) ¨Naipes joker¨ word used as an excuse to explore ¨new ways of doing things¨ (read: to postpone important decisions that rock the boat...);

c) Must-have word in the cover of cool business magazines;

I think innovation is a MINDSET. It´s realizing that:

1. We are not in control. Anyone who pretends to be is set for a good deal of frustration.

2. Nothing that got us here is guaranteed to take us there.

3. Yes, we will fail. And get up. And fail. And get up.....

4. It´s a whole new game... in every industry.

5. Connection is what matters. It´s what brings success. Oh, but don´t search for it; rather, open yourself to it. Otherwise it won´t happen.

And aligning everyday actions and decisions accordingly. That is: reconsidering everything, embracing the chaos, preparing to sail the boat of disruption.

Everything else is...well, tonight´s word: guanno . vation.

What is Innovation for you?

¨Cluelessy¨

Wouldn´t it be cool to have such a word? It rhymes with ¨cruelty¨...I guess because it´s cruel not to know yourself...or having the outcome of your interactions with other people be leaving them with that idea.

1,000 !!

We´ve officially crossed the line of a thousand visits!

My first post on this blog was back in October 29. Thank you for coming by, for your comments on and offline. I still suck at drawing on the Wacom pad, but that´s another story ;-) Let´s continue the conversation.

I want to thank all these bloggers for writing on their own voice and inspiring other people, me among them:

Hugh MacLeod
Enrique Dans
Charles Green
Seth Godin
Evelyn Rodríguez
Miss Rogue
Nick Smith

It´s a gud laif. Enjoy...

F.E.A.R., Inc.

Fear of failure

This is an idea I´ve had running around in my head for a while...Tonight I saw this post by Henrik Edberg and finally got it out of the system. Highly recommendable blog.

Ok, sleepy again. I wonder if I´ll ever get to sleep more than seven hours. Don´t you wish you had enough with just three? I do. Tomorrow the day starts at 6 am, meeting at 8. Maybe we all need to read this book ;-)

gud nait.

Review the six degrees!

I think it´s time we review the six degrees of separation statement/axiom/theorem, don´t you?

I mean, what year was that formulated? It came out of an experiment, right? Hmm...let´s see.

Ok, here´s what Wikipedia says. Apparenty the experiment was carried out in 1967 and then again in 2001. In the latter, the conclusion was that six degrees is an average, not a maximum.

Anyways, my point is that the connectedness we´re achieving by means of technology should lower this number in the next decade or so, at least to 4. What do you think?

Too many...

Inspired on this post by Nick Smith.

Reengineer

I bought this Wacom Graphire4 tablet and have been practicing drawing on it. At first it´s harder than drawing on paper but then you start getting the feel of it and discovering features, etc. The previous post was drawn on it too.

This is my modern version of ¨So much ado about nothing¨...

So loooong...

The facts are: more and more people get divorced each year and people are losing faith in marriage/life-long relationships. There were 14,000 divorce cases in Puerto Rico in 2006 (25,000 people got married). Spain is the EU member in which marriages last longer, an ¨astonishingly¨ 13.8 years.

Why? Why do we make the difficult decision to spend the rest of our lives with another person and then fail miserably in so many cases? Is there a way we could save the drama? Let it be clear that I´ve never been married, let alone been in a relationship that lasted more than 8 months. But I think a good way to analyze this is in terms of goals and outcome.

Think of the many times you´ve heard somebody say ¨I´m ready to settle, at this time in MY life, finding a partner for the rest of MY life is what I need.¨ Their GOAL is to spend the rest of their life with someone (mistakingly identified with marriage). The outcome is very likely to be a STRIIIIIKEEE 1!! after a few years.

Now ask a couple that´s been together for, say, 30 years. Ask them ¨how do you do it?¨ You´ll get an answer that talks about them living for the other person, loving the other person everyday is the goal. As a result (OUTCOME), they´ve been able to spend their lives together.

How about changing the approach to marriage from the mindset of ¨I want to spend the rest of my life with someone, let´s go out and find her¨ to ¨I want to make someone happy that will make me happy, and as a result spend the rest of our lives together¨? Make the other person´s happiness your goal, and find someone with the same intention.

This is another smallapproachtothebigpicture. What´s yours?

Time...Laif

So this gets a bit personal Today. It´s about not being aware that THIS is the only moment we have.

It´s funny: everyone who goes through a near death experience always says how it changed their perspective on life, and how they try to live to the fullest, enjoying each minute.
It´s even funnier how all of us that haven´t gone through it don´t even bother to try.

Someone said Today ¨...it´s only noon, I wish it was 5 pm already¨ and I started counting the many times I´ve said that too, and wondering if that´s what we´re here for: Longing for moments of joy while living (dying) through the ¨rest of the time¨. Obviously not. I´ve got the ¨what¨ clear. Now, ¨how¨ not fall into that?

Maybe this helps: Today is the only day of your life. I think I read it somewhere, so my thankful apologies to whoever said it so wonderfully. How many things would you regret not having done (mainly because you kept putting them off) if you died in two days?

I bet that´s an exercise the people that´ve gone through a near death experience have done, either at the time or after.

¨One Day Life¨ was the name of the band I played drums in back in Spain. The band was named so because (this is how we would explain it): our songs are about life in general; life is condensed into 1 CD; what if you could condense all life into One Day?

Well, Today I realized the real reason is because your life is only one day long: Today. And back in the day I used to play guitar too, which I enjoyed very much. I´ve been willing to pick up a guitar and start playing again for months! but for a few stupid reasons still haven´t done it. So Today I went, bought one, and played and played and played (yes, my fingers are yelling at me...). And it felt great. Can´t wait to be able to play Jack Johnson and sing along.

I think this is all related to the idea of ¨flow¨, ¨embrace the chaos¨, etc. The Smashing Pumpkins said it better back in 1993:

¨Today is the greatest
day I´ve ever known
can´t live for tomorrow
Tomorrow´s much too long¨

And that´s another smallapproachtothebigpicture, another way of living a gud laif.
Enjoy :-)

The text in the picture is a haiku I wrote back in eighth grade, somehow I always remember it.

Fluffy

Here´s to ¨I want to look beautiful but I don´t know why...oh wait, I do...because that´s what´s expected.¨

Name your insecurities....then kill them.

Nowhere Path

Inspired by Incubus´ song ¨Nowhere Fast¨.

Some lyrics:

Will I ever get to where it is that I am going?
Will I ever follow through with what I, what I had planned?
...
Will I ever get to where I'm going?
If I do, will I know when I'm there?

Do you have a vision for your life and a way to get there (other than ¨live everyday....carpe diem...bla bla bla)? Is what you do on a daily basis ALIGNED with it? I think this is one of the simplest ideas to articulate yet most difficult things to execute. What do you think?

20 extra minutes

You call a company to demand a service. They´re open from 9am to 5 pm. It´s 5.02 pm and already nobody answers the phone. Result: you think ¨these lazy people drop the pen at 5.00 and they don´t care. I´m sure they´re still around and don´t pick up cause I´m 2 minutes late...¨ The ¨go the extra mile for our customers¨ attitude is nowhere to be seen.

If I were responsible for customer service, I´d pay the receptionist or whomever it is that answers the phone in the first place 10 minutes of overtime before and after business hours to be there and make sure those ¨borderline¨ calls are properly attended. I believe it exemplifies the customer-centric attitude it is talked about so much (¨we´re not just here from 9 to , we´re here for you¨). Plus, those ¨borderline¨ calls are usually very important.

What do you think?

Predecir el tiempo

Dicen los expertos que nunca vamos a poder predecir el tiempo con exactitud (teoría del caos, etc.). Lo interesante de todo esto es cómo interacciones en apariencia insignificantes pueden tener una influencia determinante en el ¨macro¨. El ejemplo de cómo el batir de alas de una mariposa puede influir en las corrientes de aire de la otra parte del mundo es clásico. Hoy me enteré de otro.

Resulta que el plancton, ese microorganismo de 1 milímetro de ancho que vive en el agua, ayuda a regular la temperatura de la Tierra. ¿Cómo? Este es el proceso:

La Tierra se calienta
El océano se calienta
Los migroorganismos se ¨excitan¨ y se aparean
Al aparearse liberan DMS (di-metil sulfitos)
El DMS se evapora y provoca condensación
Las nubes blancas tapan parte de los rayos de Sol
La temperatura de la Tierra baja.

En hechos como este se fundamenta la ¨Hipótesis de Gaia¨, de Lovelock, que afirma que la biomasa regula las condiciones las condiciones del planeta para hacer la vida más hospitalaria a las especies que aquí habitan (mos) (pena que algunasa especies nos empeñemos en hacer lo contrario).

Por eso, entre otras cosas ¨hay una parte de la realidad que se nos escapa¨. En este caso lo que nos permite predecir el tiempo.

Prueba a hacer una analogía con:
- Tierra = empresa,
- Plancton = interacciones entre empleados, mercado etc. (lo de aparearse no va ;-)

y luego mira si tiene sentido la cultura de ¨command and control management¨...mejor dejar que el Gaia se ocupe.

Promote slavery

hmm.....Why is it that we want to climb the corporate ladder?

1. Self-realization through ¨inspiring¨ people to execute tactical plans. Hhmmm...nope, they come from high up and they´ve metamorphosed from strategic plans that you´d never want to know how were conceived. Besides, you don´t agree with most of them. Deep inside you think they´re unimplementable.

2. Self-realization through ¨acquiring more responsibility¨ and being able to manage a unit/division/etc. Hhmmm....nope, this involves too many counter creative administrative tasks even robots would go on strike to avoid.

3. Self-realization through ¨being exposed to different roles so I can acquire new skills¨. Hhmmmm.....yeah, whatever.

4. Self-realization through driving a company car, using a corporate credit card and cell phone.
We´re getting there.

5. Got anything better? Please.

How about not climbing the corporate ladder?

Infatuation

Infatuation:
1. an object of extravagant short-lived passion
2. foolish and usually extravagant passion or love or admiration
Synonim: Puppy love.


Here´s to: ¨It´s not you....it´s me¨.

I was thinking about it today and it made me laugh. Got any comments / thoughts / rants you want to share?