Motivating a Team of One

It feels awful to let your team down, just ask Green Bay Packer Brandon Bostick, after his team's recent NFL playoff game. Likely though he has the advantage of leaning on his teammates for support and motivation he'll need to recover from this dramatic loss.

How to start a team of one

One unfulfilled lifetime goal and solo initiative of mine has been to commit to a 3-4 times a week routine of physical exercise and activity. Over the years I've taken up jogging, joined health clubs, tried cross country skiing, biking, swimming, and other sports only to be knocked off course eventually by the excuse of distraction, interruption or some other life circumstance. And time and again there I am, staring at the person in the mirror knowing there's no one else in the room other than the reflection to blame for the breakdown -- the feeling can be overwhelming.

When there's no friendly teammates on hand to support you -- no question about it, it is hard to go it alone, to pick up and carry on. Recently though, for me, there's been an exception.

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.--George Bernard Shaw

For two years now I've had consistent success in living up to my exercise goals.  The same set of excuses are still present, but my personal motivation and commitment are stronger. What's changed? Psychologically speaking, I've become a team of one+ (one plus).

That's right, no less than three times a week there's me and my dog, Fergus, running, training or participating in dog agility trials. Wait a minute, you say, that's a team of two. Not exactly.

Never once has my dog looked at me and said, "you know I just don't feel motivated today."

The reality is, and it's the most wonderful thing about dogs, they give 100% from the time they're born till the day they keel over. And in so many ways they are the perfect teammate -- they don't complain, rebel, or back-stab. So we work and compete as a team, and I do my best to keep up to the expectations of my four-legged teammate. But in the final analysis, I am a team of one.  I made the commitment, keep the practice schedule, drive to the competitions, and do everything I can to help us win.  And that's what's different.

It's just a point of view -- I don't want to disappoint my dog. Even though it's literally impossible to disappoint him -- he has no expectations. He's just as happy playing tug of war, taking a walk or chewing the fuzz off a tennis ball (the latter typically being about 180 seconds of entertainment).

Not letting down my friend is what always favorably tips the scales in the daily motivational debates in my head -- but it works.  Even Capt. Pickney  (see my Jan 2nd blog --Finding the Courage to Make Change) who has to face high seas after he leaves the dock, could have stopped half-way and turned back, but for his friends.  You see he had regular radio calls with school children during his journey -- he was a team of one who couldn't disappoint his friends.  
So the lesson learned for success is don't go it alone.  Build a team of one+, check in with a friend, routinely consult a mentor, educate an apprentice, or last but not least get a dog. 

Recent Articles

We Can Fix Stupid
Keep Us in the Dark
Daring Success and Failure
Change Happens
Small Matters
I Am Charlie

Change Happens

Change is relentless and affects all things.

It is a fact, there is absolutely nothing in the universe capable of standing perfectly still, except perhaps the stubborn thoughts in our heads.

Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.--Jackie Robinson

Change or get out of the way.

Simply put, people who fight for the status quo are asking to be left behind by the universe. They choose short term comfort for certain extinction -- and those of us who stand on the sidelines to watch are complicit in their negligence.

Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching.--Tennessee Williams

So the choice is ours, to stand by while our leaders resist change, or to instigate change to resist those leaders.

Recent Articles

Small Matters
I Am Charlie
A Call to News Beat Activisim
Help to Break Bad Habits
Transformational Change
Daily Struggle

Small Matters

It is brutally cold outside today, it's Friday, and there is not even one small thing I have the motivation to start. What good would it do anyway?

It reminds me of another Friday, early in my career when I was freelancing for my friend Lou's creative agency. It was 4 pm and out the window nothing but sheets of rain.  Inside, beer and wine started to break out among the staff when, just then, the phone rang. Lou emerged from his office and handed me a small note containing contact information.  He explained it was someone wanting a small project done, but they wanted to meet for a discussion right now -- tonight! Lou didn't want to drive 35 miles away, during rush hour, in the rain, so he said that if I wanted to pursue the job on my own, to go for it. I called back, agreed to meet, and then cursed the whole drive out to his office.

Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.--Swami Sivananda

The office was very small -- a travel agency -- and I had a sick feeling that this was going to be a total waste of time.  Nonetheless, I was happy for the referral and decided to give it my best effort thinking perhaps it would lead to something down the road.  

After some preliminary questions regarding my experience, the owner of the travel agency explained that this year it was his turn to chair his industry's national association meeting and that he needed my help to put on the meeting in Nashville for its 2,000 members.   I hyperventilated the entire ride home.

The project billed out at a quarter of a million dollars. Attending at the Nashville meeting was the head of an even larger allied travel association. Eight months later, we produced his meeting in Washington, DC for its 5,000 members.  I suddenly found myself with 5 employees and looking for a larger office.

If you had asked me that late Friday afternoon if I could tackle a meeting for 5,000 people, I might have backed off driving out for the meeting.  It's only because I took the first small step out the door, in the rain, that the course of my career changed dramatically.  As for my friend -- he learned the hard way that no job is too small.  How about you?

Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room.--TBD*

*TBA is my acronym for "to be attributed" -- still looking for the author.

I Am Charlie

The contributors and staff of Charlie Hebdo are heroes. All who believe in change have a duty to honor those who dissent, who protest, who satirize without fear. Their courage and of those who continue will change the world forever.

Here are the cartoons that brought about their murder:

               

     

Je Suis Charlie.

Empathy is a Good Start

Most of your ideas for bringing about a positive change likely come from a single perspective -- yours.  

Typically it might go like this, something doesn't look right, sound right, or impacts your senses in a way that evokes a visceral response. Instinctively you come up with a set of solutions you could envision. Then, as you evaluate the various actions you might take to implement these changes, you are overcome with a fear of how others might react to your actions. At this point, you abandon the thinking because it seems too personally risky to rock the boat.

At least this is the way it often works with me. 

“Put yourself in their shoes — look at the world through their eyes."    -- Barack Obama

The key words from above are, "personally risky".  What if the immediate benefits or risks of your plan of action were to be viewed from perspectives outside your immediate world and the usual suspects?   Would you uncover evidence allowing to you broaden the benefit or spread the risk?

Empathy provides another lens to view the implications of change.

This past week my good friend Mikey urged me to watch the video I've embedded below.  It is Dr. Samuel M. Richards,  Penn State University Senior Lecturer in Sociology, at a Ted Talk he gave in 2010 concerning empathy. Without spoiling your viewing, I will simply say that after watching it, it made me think that risk is a point-of-view, and that solidly considering the perspectives of others can often change the risk equation in favor of action.

Resolution for Change

Resolve to use social media as tool to enact positive change.

I saw a young boy yesterday challenge a hardware sales associate to find a meter stick for his school project.  Perplexed, the sales associate consulted others by radio to no avail.  By the time the boy's mother arrives she is clearly dumbfounded by the associate's shrug and ignorance of the item.  She goes on to describe a wooden stick with measurements indicated.  The associate grins, takes them to a shelf,  and proudly produces a yard stick.  "No", she says, "it's longer, a meter stick, you know to measure millimeters and centimeters."

It's an insignificant transaction, but it brings to my mind how resistant to positive change we are as a society.   How stupid we must look to the rest of the world when we stubbornly cling to outmoded ways. Is it stubbornness, superiority, stupidity, laziness, greed, or just human nature that hold back our progress?

Perhaps it's all of the above. My gut tells me though we're running out of time waiting for common sense change to simply happen.  I see too many politicians, corporate executives, journalists, administrators, educators, leaders, and others seemly imprisoned by the status quo. History shows some go so far as to even enshrine stagnation by enacting laws or building barriers to prevent and bury change.  So what to do?

Social media now enables a near universal access to news of scientific finding, evolving technology, religious freedom, corporate greed, political wrongdoing, human rights, fairness, justice, etc. -- increasingly there seems no reason for common folks armed with knowledge to wait for their leaders, they can act on their own. My motivation came two days ago via radio.

I heard an interview with Seth Godin regarding his new book, What to do when it's your turn. (and it's always your turn).  

One particular thought of his really resonated with me (and has inspired this blog), the idea that you owe it to the world to pick up the microphone and say something meaningful.  He advises that your efforts might work and they might not but that’s OK.  Not to run away from the fear, but not to ignore it either. He said, "The ability to live in that tension and discover what you can do in the midst of that… that is artistry."

Well artistry or not, my microphone is now turned on to spur change.