Good Morning Friends! Here are my 5 Things to Consider this week!
Culture – We Trust You. If I were to pose the question to everyone reading this right now, who here feels micromanaged? I bet there wouldn’t be a single hand in the air. As a company, it’s no accident that we put a TON of trust into you and your ability to do good work, think on your feet and problem solve. When it comes down to it, we’re adults here doing adult shit. You’re not going to have bosses standing over you monitoring your every move. We trust you to be competent in your decision making and realize that, even if something doesn’t work out perfect, your decision making was sound and rational. We also know that trust is a two way street. You have to trust us in a few areas too. Like, providing you the right tools you’ll need to succeed, relentlessly working to create and maintain a workplace that fosters healthy growth, CREATIVITY and development. And most importantly, as Danny Meyer puts it, providing constant and gentle pressure in the right directions. You’ll always be treated as a professional with a sizeable amount of autonomy because allowing you the freedom and space to think, grow and develop is where the opportunity lies to grow the most.
Leadership – Perfect is the Enemy of Good. I’m seeing this a lot lately. From drink menus to decorating, the idea that something MUST be perfect is getting in the way of something being good enough. Trying to attain “the perfect” can actually prevent us from making it just “Good.” Perfection is an elusive glory, just like a Unicorn. But has anyone ever seen one? I mean, a real one. Not our creepy sock-and-sandal-wearing animated type. I have seen a real horse though and if you ask me if I’d rather wait for a unicorn or take the horse, I’m taking the horse. Now I’m not shitting on the pursuit of perfection. It certainly has its merits. It can push people to do great things. But being paralyzed by the idea that “if something isn’t perfect, than it isn’t ready” can stop us from moving forward or even launching at all. Rather than expecting A-HA! moments all the time, expect gradual improvement. Rather than waiting for great leaps, aim for steady and marginal progress. Rather than waiting for “great,” try “good enough” and have it sooner. Now what am I going to do with this horse?
History – The Shack. History of The Shack – The Original Late Night Slice – Part 5 – The Shipping Container – Years 7 – 10 Abridged When we finally got the shipping container delivered, it was culmination of a lot of valuable resources. Time, money, thought, planning…you name it. And when we finally got it on-site and placed, it was pretty cool. We finally had a proper “Shack” that was new, beautiful, spacious and, most importantly, safe…or so we thought. It didn’t take long for the powers-that-be to find out about our new digs and they had other thoughts about having a 45ft shipping container in the middle of the Short North. See we weren’t trying to get one past the city or anything, we (the City and I) just approached this different. I approached it as a “mobile unit,” they approached it as a “structure.” Each approach had its merits and allowances. Hence began the long and tedious argument of figuring out what this thing would eventually be. This would end up being a process that would last almost 5 years. The lesson can be boiled down to this; we were the first ones to try something new. Being the first has its risks and rewards. In hindsight, I would have definitely done things differently. That’s the luxury of hindsight. Sometimes though, you just have to go with your gut and trust in the ability of you and your team to figure out the rest. I’ll never stop doing that.
Motivation – “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl
What I’m Reading or Watching – I’m about 4 hours into an audio book called, On Becoming Babywise. It’s a “how-to” guide on the first few months of parenting. Not sure I’d recommend it. Not the book, the whole having kids thing. It sounds hard and rather joyless…at first anyway.
Baby Update – The little vagina gremlin is 32 weeks this week. Less than two months to go. He is currently the size of a volley ball that Tom Hanks found on a beach and drew a face on. He’s already abandon his dreams of making it big on Broadway and is contemplating taking a position as an assistant shift lead at a call center in Hilliard.
Thanks for reading! Like or hate any part of this? Let me know! I really value your feedback.
Have a great week!
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