“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
-- Confucius
In the beginning of re-versioning, I suggested you create a Board of Directors, and gave some ideas of how to select people who could help develop You 2.0. Since then, we’ve been answering a lot of questions related to “Who am I?” -- favorite things, skills and interests, the things we do well and always wanted to do, even who we are not. If you’ve done all this, you’re ready to meet with your board.
Meeting with your cool Board is easy. Here’s some tips.
• It’s Re-Day! Set a date and time when everyone – or most everyone – can play. You may have to set up more than one meeting if your board is bigger than three or four people. That’s ok.
• Confirm, confirm, confirm. Call or email after the meeting is set up, and remind everyone the day before, with purpose, time, length, and place. (If you’re meeting virtually, check out the affordable services at SaveOnConferences.com.)
• Write an agenda. Start by restating your purpose, and how long the meeting will take. As efficiently as you can, without seeming to rush, get the general scope of your “Who am I?” answers on the table. Then ask your board for their ideas, and end by restating any conclusions and things they can expect next.
• Prep information and/or visuals. This can be PowerPoint stuff – keep it simple and visual please, not a million lines o’ text – or handouts, photos, pictures – whatever you want. Have some fun – your Board will appreciate that you took the energy to make it fun for them, too.
• Test your equipment or conference call service. Ask someone to be on the phone for 2 minutes if you need to ensure everything is working.
• The day before the meeting: confirm, confirm, confirm!
• Run the meeting. Stick to the agenda and the length you promised. Listen! Take notes. Thank everyone and go home.
You’ve just run your first Board of Directors meeting. Take a bow.
But what do we talk about?
Your Board will be so excited to help you through this process that you’ll wonder why you even thought of this question. But you can guide your discussion a little anyway.
I asked my board for straightforward answers to a couple of questions.
• What did I do well that I hadn’t identified for them already?
• What did I not do well that I should avoid?
• What other ideas did they have for exploring?
• Who did they think I should talk to/check their blog/write/email/experience?
I was amazed at two things from my board: how open and stimulating they were, and how excited they were for me to be going through this process. They all wanted to know where it would end up. They all had ideas for how to move forward. They all had opinions on all of the questions I asked.
And, happily, you’ll discover that people who like you, also like to talk about you – with you in the room. They like to imagine things for you. They like being part of your process. They’re excited to see how baby-seed ideas will grow. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it’s something you will not only never forget – you’ll never know exactly how to thank them enough.
Here’s a hint: keep them in the loop.
As you make progress after your board meeting, keep emailing successes to your board. Let them know what’s happening. Don’t be shy about asking for more advice. Lean on them a little. They know you’re beginning a scary exploration, and that no one knows what will happen.
Let them help you. It’s allowed. It’s a great gift – one we often forget to give.
Showing posts with label friend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friend. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Who Am I? #2
What does it all mean?
In the last re-versioning exercise, I explored my favorite things, and found some surprises on my list: professional projects from 20 years ago; new (and old) passions; vocations and avocations; places I’d seen and explored around the world. Even things I tried a little of and always wanted to do more of, but never “had the time.”
As we say in the training biz, I “compared and contrasted” my favorite things, and I noticed something: there were skills that many of the things had in common. And – surprise – there were elements of the things I’m consciously most interested in everywhere.
My “favorite things” list came out of playing and thinking about the past. But before I could step forward into the future, it seemed like I needed to take stock of What Is Now. This is that exercise.
Skills and interests
I looked at my list of favorite things I’ve done – work, personal, interactive – and compiled two more lists: a list of skills, things I think I can do well; and a list of interests, things I knew about or wanted to know more about, or “always wanted to do.” It was pretty “listy,” but you already know I love lists and words.
The “skills” list helped me condense a lot of the ideas that had been floating around in my head into some concrete, simpler things that I knew about myself: creativity; listening; organizing (lists!); planning.
The “interests” list was more subject-like, almost a list of college class titles from an Ideal University of You: learning to watercolor; mental health and physiology; ancient and cultural history. They weren’t all “egghead” things, either: horses and dressage were in there, as well as how things work and engaging in my community.
At this point, I felt like I was done already with raw material. It was time to head for the future.
I hear you: "But I hate making lists!”
If you feel frustrated sitting by yourself and listing all this stuff – or if your lists aren’t too satisfying – here’s an exercise to help you find your skills and interests.
You’ll need at least three people to do this exercise.
• Friend #1 is your Recorder. This friend will time this exercise, ask the questions, and write down or otherwise record your responses.
• Friend #2 is the Reality Foil. This friend will work with Friend #1 first, then with all three of you, to complete the exercise. Both of these people should be very good, honest friends (See “Choosing your Board of Directors”). (You may have more than one Foil if you want, but I would start with one first.)
• You.
You will also need:
• Paper and pens OR a voice recorder
• A watch with a second hand and an alarm or a stop watch or alarm clock that can mark brief periods of time (like 2 minutes)
• A place for you or your Reality Foil to sit without being able to hear the others. Doesn’t have to be a recording studio – if you’re sitting inside the house, have the Foil go out in the yard, or vice versa.
Here’s the exercise.
STEP 1:
1. Sit in a quiet space or place with the Recorder. Have nothing in your hands or around you to distract you. Sit for as long as you need to relax, to stop thinking about what you need to do next. You need to do this now.
2. The Recorder sets the timepiece for 2 minutes, prepares to write, and asks you: In simple words or phrases, how would you describe yourself?
3. Answer the question, with the first thinks that come to your mind. Don’t stop. The point of this isn’t a “right” answer; it’s to access some stuff you may not be aware of.
4. The Recorder writes everything down as fast as possible, using a short hand if necessary. No talking about your answer: the Recorder simply records as neutrally as possible.
5. If you stop talking, the Recorder will tell you, “Go on.”
6. If you’re still going strong after 2 minutes, the Recorder will let you go.
7. You can stop any time after the alarm goes off.
You’re done. Go sit and relax, and send in the Reality Foil.
STEP 2:
1. The Recorder repeats the exercise with the Foil, asking, “In simple words or phrases, how would you describe [You]?”
2. Foil: No talking about You. Just record the answers as neutrally as possible. And same rules on the timing: Keep the other person talking, and end after 2 minutes.
3. The Recorder brings You into the room. All you have to do for now is look at the two lists, and ask the Recorder or your Reality Foil any questions you have about the content, if you have any.
4. Keep the lists, thank your friends, and go out for coffee to celebrate.
OR:
This next part of the exercise you can do immediately after the steps above, or you may want to take time to think about it before you share your thoughts with your friends. Or not.
STEP 3:
1. Look at your list. What surprises you about the order in which you described yourself? What did you “forget” to state that you think is obvious now that the exercise is over? What do you want to add? (If you add anything, use a different color pen or otherwise indicate, “These words came later.”)
2. Look at your Reality Foil’s list. What surprises you about the content of the list? The order of the descriptions? How do you feel looking at this list?
3. Compare the two lists. What do they have in common? What is different? What does your Reality Foil see that you want to be more of? What does the Foil not see that you want to make more obvious?
4. Think about all these lists and words and questions. What does it tell you about how you see yourself in the world? About how the world sees you? What does it tell you about how you want the world to see you in the future – and how you want to see yourself?
5. Given the answers to the questions above: What most interests you in the world? What skills do you bring to the table?
I hear you #2: “But my friends won’t help!” or “I can’t ask my friends!” or “I don’t have any friends!”
We’ll work on some of those issues later. Meantime, here’s another fun way to investigate your skills and interests.
Presto! You are now the President of an amazing institution: You University (a.k.a. You U).
As I am the head of You U’s Board of Directors – your Virtual CEO, I guess – here’s your assignment:
Write the foundational curriculum for all new You U students who enter the university.
What’s in a curriculum? I want to see a couple of things:
• Department Titles: What are the main areas of interest where we need to hire professors, do research, enlighten students? Start with those.
• Required Classes: In each Department, what subjects, skills, and attitudes that you think each You U student must achieve in order to be successful in this world? In short, what are the basics that you feel are most important?
• Elective Classes: Now, what are the subjects and skills and attitudes that You U students might also want to learn? What else might be helpful for our students’ success?
• The Head Professor’s Resume: Write the job description for the Head Professor who will be able to help run You U. Now, secretly you want to apply for the Head Professor position, so write the job description including all of the skills that you already have. That way, when the position is filled, they’ll have to select you! (ha-ha-ha evil laughter here)
Now, this is your first draft, so don’t feel like you have to write the whole course catalog. But spend enough time on it to be able to show something substantial to your board.
Done? Leave it be for a few hours/days. Then head back and look it over. Make two columns on a piece of paper, one headed “Skills” and the other “Interests.” Use your curriculum information to identify both and create your lists.
The past, the present – now comes the fun part: the future.
In the last re-versioning exercise, I explored my favorite things, and found some surprises on my list: professional projects from 20 years ago; new (and old) passions; vocations and avocations; places I’d seen and explored around the world. Even things I tried a little of and always wanted to do more of, but never “had the time.”
As we say in the training biz, I “compared and contrasted” my favorite things, and I noticed something: there were skills that many of the things had in common. And – surprise – there were elements of the things I’m consciously most interested in everywhere.
My “favorite things” list came out of playing and thinking about the past. But before I could step forward into the future, it seemed like I needed to take stock of What Is Now. This is that exercise.
Skills and interests
I looked at my list of favorite things I’ve done – work, personal, interactive – and compiled two more lists: a list of skills, things I think I can do well; and a list of interests, things I knew about or wanted to know more about, or “always wanted to do.” It was pretty “listy,” but you already know I love lists and words.
The “skills” list helped me condense a lot of the ideas that had been floating around in my head into some concrete, simpler things that I knew about myself: creativity; listening; organizing (lists!); planning.
The “interests” list was more subject-like, almost a list of college class titles from an Ideal University of You: learning to watercolor; mental health and physiology; ancient and cultural history. They weren’t all “egghead” things, either: horses and dressage were in there, as well as how things work and engaging in my community.
At this point, I felt like I was done already with raw material. It was time to head for the future.
I hear you: "But I hate making lists!”
If you feel frustrated sitting by yourself and listing all this stuff – or if your lists aren’t too satisfying – here’s an exercise to help you find your skills and interests.
You’ll need at least three people to do this exercise.
• Friend #1 is your Recorder. This friend will time this exercise, ask the questions, and write down or otherwise record your responses.
• Friend #2 is the Reality Foil. This friend will work with Friend #1 first, then with all three of you, to complete the exercise. Both of these people should be very good, honest friends (See “Choosing your Board of Directors”). (You may have more than one Foil if you want, but I would start with one first.)
• You.
You will also need:
• Paper and pens OR a voice recorder
• A watch with a second hand and an alarm or a stop watch or alarm clock that can mark brief periods of time (like 2 minutes)
• A place for you or your Reality Foil to sit without being able to hear the others. Doesn’t have to be a recording studio – if you’re sitting inside the house, have the Foil go out in the yard, or vice versa.
Here’s the exercise.
STEP 1:
1. Sit in a quiet space or place with the Recorder. Have nothing in your hands or around you to distract you. Sit for as long as you need to relax, to stop thinking about what you need to do next. You need to do this now.
2. The Recorder sets the timepiece for 2 minutes, prepares to write, and asks you: In simple words or phrases, how would you describe yourself?
3. Answer the question, with the first thinks that come to your mind. Don’t stop. The point of this isn’t a “right” answer; it’s to access some stuff you may not be aware of.
4. The Recorder writes everything down as fast as possible, using a short hand if necessary. No talking about your answer: the Recorder simply records as neutrally as possible.
5. If you stop talking, the Recorder will tell you, “Go on.”
6. If you’re still going strong after 2 minutes, the Recorder will let you go.
7. You can stop any time after the alarm goes off.
You’re done. Go sit and relax, and send in the Reality Foil.
STEP 2:
1. The Recorder repeats the exercise with the Foil, asking, “In simple words or phrases, how would you describe [You]?”
2. Foil: No talking about You. Just record the answers as neutrally as possible. And same rules on the timing: Keep the other person talking, and end after 2 minutes.
3. The Recorder brings You into the room. All you have to do for now is look at the two lists, and ask the Recorder or your Reality Foil any questions you have about the content, if you have any.
4. Keep the lists, thank your friends, and go out for coffee to celebrate.
OR:
This next part of the exercise you can do immediately after the steps above, or you may want to take time to think about it before you share your thoughts with your friends. Or not.
STEP 3:
1. Look at your list. What surprises you about the order in which you described yourself? What did you “forget” to state that you think is obvious now that the exercise is over? What do you want to add? (If you add anything, use a different color pen or otherwise indicate, “These words came later.”)
2. Look at your Reality Foil’s list. What surprises you about the content of the list? The order of the descriptions? How do you feel looking at this list?
3. Compare the two lists. What do they have in common? What is different? What does your Reality Foil see that you want to be more of? What does the Foil not see that you want to make more obvious?
4. Think about all these lists and words and questions. What does it tell you about how you see yourself in the world? About how the world sees you? What does it tell you about how you want the world to see you in the future – and how you want to see yourself?
5. Given the answers to the questions above: What most interests you in the world? What skills do you bring to the table?
I hear you #2: “But my friends won’t help!” or “I can’t ask my friends!” or “I don’t have any friends!”
We’ll work on some of those issues later. Meantime, here’s another fun way to investigate your skills and interests.
Presto! You are now the President of an amazing institution: You University (a.k.a. You U).
As I am the head of You U’s Board of Directors – your Virtual CEO, I guess – here’s your assignment:
Write the foundational curriculum for all new You U students who enter the university.
What’s in a curriculum? I want to see a couple of things:
• Department Titles: What are the main areas of interest where we need to hire professors, do research, enlighten students? Start with those.
• Required Classes: In each Department, what subjects, skills, and attitudes that you think each You U student must achieve in order to be successful in this world? In short, what are the basics that you feel are most important?
• Elective Classes: Now, what are the subjects and skills and attitudes that You U students might also want to learn? What else might be helpful for our students’ success?
• The Head Professor’s Resume: Write the job description for the Head Professor who will be able to help run You U. Now, secretly you want to apply for the Head Professor position, so write the job description including all of the skills that you already have. That way, when the position is filled, they’ll have to select you! (ha-ha-ha evil laughter here)
Now, this is your first draft, so don’t feel like you have to write the whole course catalog. But spend enough time on it to be able to show something substantial to your board.
Done? Leave it be for a few hours/days. Then head back and look it over. Make two columns on a piece of paper, one headed “Skills” and the other “Interests.” Use your curriculum information to identify both and create your lists.
The past, the present – now comes the fun part: the future.
Friday, January 5, 2007
You 2.0
Things begin: The Crash of v 1.999
I’d been bored for a decade and unhappy for a year in my job – as an instructional designer and training consultant for B2B corporations – and didn’t know what to do about it. From the outside, I had “everything”: my own business, flexible work hours, good pay, lived in a nice little house in a nice little town in the country, great community and friends. But inside? I hadn’t enjoyed my work for a very long time.
Finally, a really bad week got me going. I needed a New Me. I needed an updated version of what I wanted to do. I needed to create Laurie 2.0.
I needed a personal Board of Directors.
Selecting the Board
I needed opinions – from friends who knew me well, from colleagues I had known for literally decades, from clients who had seen my work and benefited from what I did best. But how to pick them?
Here were my criteria:
1. STRAIGHTFORWARD:
My first thought was “honest,” but I meant more than that. Of course all my friends are honest. But would they actually say what they thought?
I needed people who would have the gumption and courage to tell me the truth – but still be supportive, productive and generous. I have a lot of friends who, as kind and honest as they are, either can’t give a straight answer to an uncomfortable question (like “What don’t I do well?”), or are TOO strong in expressing their views – and not open to allowing others to build on them.
I needed kindness and honesty: my definition of “straightforward.”
2. CREATIVE:
My Board needed people who already had “out of the box” thinking and doing evident in their own lives. People who didn’t settle for a “status quo” of expectations in their jobs or their lives. People who were actively managing their professional and/or personal lives. People who could take an idea – theirs or someone else’s – and run with it.
3. FEARLESS (APPARENTLY):
First I thought “optimistic,” but the people I needed weren’t afraid of change, or at any rate, acted in the face of it.
Change is hard and disconcerting and unpredictable, but it’s also exciting, creative, sometimes mind-blowing, and certainly necessary.
All of my Board members had faced and handled change, sometimes daily, and weren’t afraid of it.
4. FRIEND:
Everyone has different kinds of friends in their lives: personal friends who share hobbies or common friends, professional colleagues who turn into friends because of common interests or a simple ability to get along, or a good history of working well together.
In my case, I also had clients, who knew something about my private life but whose primary experience of me was through my work.
Since “Laurie 2.0” was going to be a wholesale change in the way I live my life, I needed people from all three of these areas to contribute their ideas. In short, I called in some chits.
• Ah yes, the clients: I selected clients very carefully, since they were definitely in the training business with me, and I didn’t want to let it out that I was aiming out of the arena. So for that group, I added “discrete,” knowing that they would not spread the word among other clients and associates that Laurie was “out of the business” until I actually was, in fact, changing course.
5. LAUGH LOVERS:
Laughter is a big part of me: my life, my being, and my ability to cope with stress. So all of my Board members had to be able to laugh – at silly ideas, at jokes, at how strange life is to lead us to where we are now living, and even at the meaning of life. Deep laughers. Fun laughers. Kind laughers. People who liked my big ol’ loud, from-the-belly laugh that is (apparently) my trademark and that helps people know I’m in the movies, restaurant, party or theater.
Should you get a bunch o’ laughers for you? Not necessarily. But look at how you like to “be” with people: Seriously? Quietly? Slowly? Rat-ta-tat fast? Ask yourself: If my Board reflected my favorite way of being, what would it be? Then go with that.
The Big Step
With these definitions in mind, I mentally ran through the people I thought would be interested. I called ‘em up and outright asked them if they would take an hour to talk about the new me: “Laurie 2.0,” as my Board Member/friend Paul Ryder said it.
All agreed, and, to my surprise, all were excited. We scheduled it for a few weeks out. Short enough to put on a little pressure, and enough time to think.
Ooops: now I was committed: time to act.
AFTERTHOUGHT: How Many Is Too Many? Or Too Few?
Too many people: comments can be stifled because people don’t want to fight for airtime.
Too few: ideas stall because everyone has to work to keep the conversation going.
Just right: you, plus 4-5 friends per conversation. If they all know (or know of) each other, excellent.
How many meetings you hold is up to you. I did two group ones, and a few private conversations. I’d say that’s the minimum for me.
You know best, but beware getting too many conversations going – more can create confusion after a while. Plus it puts off the Big Enchilada: actually deciding to make a move towards change. Don’t cheat!
FOR YOU
If you want an easy organizer to help you select your Board of Directors for your transition to the new you, give me an "e": LazyL@wyoming.com
I’d been bored for a decade and unhappy for a year in my job – as an instructional designer and training consultant for B2B corporations – and didn’t know what to do about it. From the outside, I had “everything”: my own business, flexible work hours, good pay, lived in a nice little house in a nice little town in the country, great community and friends. But inside? I hadn’t enjoyed my work for a very long time.
Finally, a really bad week got me going. I needed a New Me. I needed an updated version of what I wanted to do. I needed to create Laurie 2.0.
I needed a personal Board of Directors.
Selecting the Board
I needed opinions – from friends who knew me well, from colleagues I had known for literally decades, from clients who had seen my work and benefited from what I did best. But how to pick them?
Here were my criteria:
1. STRAIGHTFORWARD:
My first thought was “honest,” but I meant more than that. Of course all my friends are honest. But would they actually say what they thought?
I needed people who would have the gumption and courage to tell me the truth – but still be supportive, productive and generous. I have a lot of friends who, as kind and honest as they are, either can’t give a straight answer to an uncomfortable question (like “What don’t I do well?”), or are TOO strong in expressing their views – and not open to allowing others to build on them.
I needed kindness and honesty: my definition of “straightforward.”
2. CREATIVE:
My Board needed people who already had “out of the box” thinking and doing evident in their own lives. People who didn’t settle for a “status quo” of expectations in their jobs or their lives. People who were actively managing their professional and/or personal lives. People who could take an idea – theirs or someone else’s – and run with it.
3. FEARLESS (APPARENTLY):
First I thought “optimistic,” but the people I needed weren’t afraid of change, or at any rate, acted in the face of it.
Change is hard and disconcerting and unpredictable, but it’s also exciting, creative, sometimes mind-blowing, and certainly necessary.
All of my Board members had faced and handled change, sometimes daily, and weren’t afraid of it.
4. FRIEND:
Everyone has different kinds of friends in their lives: personal friends who share hobbies or common friends, professional colleagues who turn into friends because of common interests or a simple ability to get along, or a good history of working well together.
In my case, I also had clients, who knew something about my private life but whose primary experience of me was through my work.
Since “Laurie 2.0” was going to be a wholesale change in the way I live my life, I needed people from all three of these areas to contribute their ideas. In short, I called in some chits.
• Ah yes, the clients: I selected clients very carefully, since they were definitely in the training business with me, and I didn’t want to let it out that I was aiming out of the arena. So for that group, I added “discrete,” knowing that they would not spread the word among other clients and associates that Laurie was “out of the business” until I actually was, in fact, changing course.
5. LAUGH LOVERS:
Laughter is a big part of me: my life, my being, and my ability to cope with stress. So all of my Board members had to be able to laugh – at silly ideas, at jokes, at how strange life is to lead us to where we are now living, and even at the meaning of life. Deep laughers. Fun laughers. Kind laughers. People who liked my big ol’ loud, from-the-belly laugh that is (apparently) my trademark and that helps people know I’m in the movies, restaurant, party or theater.
Should you get a bunch o’ laughers for you? Not necessarily. But look at how you like to “be” with people: Seriously? Quietly? Slowly? Rat-ta-tat fast? Ask yourself: If my Board reflected my favorite way of being, what would it be? Then go with that.
The Big Step
With these definitions in mind, I mentally ran through the people I thought would be interested. I called ‘em up and outright asked them if they would take an hour to talk about the new me: “Laurie 2.0,” as my Board Member/friend Paul Ryder said it.
All agreed, and, to my surprise, all were excited. We scheduled it for a few weeks out. Short enough to put on a little pressure, and enough time to think.
Ooops: now I was committed: time to act.
AFTERTHOUGHT: How Many Is Too Many? Or Too Few?
Too many people: comments can be stifled because people don’t want to fight for airtime.
Too few: ideas stall because everyone has to work to keep the conversation going.
Just right: you, plus 4-5 friends per conversation. If they all know (or know of) each other, excellent.
How many meetings you hold is up to you. I did two group ones, and a few private conversations. I’d say that’s the minimum for me.
You know best, but beware getting too many conversations going – more can create confusion after a while. Plus it puts off the Big Enchilada: actually deciding to make a move towards change. Don’t cheat!
FOR YOU
If you want an easy organizer to help you select your Board of Directors for your transition to the new you, give me an "e": LazyL@wyoming.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
