CHEW YOUR CUD AVOID LEARNING THE SAME LESSON OVER AND OVER

CHEW YOUR CUD --AVOID LEARNING THE SAME LESSON OVER AND OVER

As a top executive leader, you are given so much to chew, swallow and digest in any one day.
Information--gripes among your top team-- a brewing decision that you can't quite make--a budget that
demands constant adjustment and readjustment -- political/economic dynamics --capital intensive projects that may or may not produce the ROI  projected.

I am always amazed at the history and lessons that ARE NOT  learned by an organization or by its top leaders.  The arc and rationale of major decisions are forgotten.  The path of strategy development  is no longer seen.  The accumulation of "fixes/projects is puzzling even to those who created them.  It's almost like the momentum of the organization is running the company, not you--it's top leaders.

Rumination is another word for "chewing your cud"
Rumination means thinking deeply.  Going over an experience and digesting it.
Stepping away from the quick bite of evaluation.
Staying with the thinking until you have integrated it into your values, your point of view.
Looking from a distance at your own behaviour and that of your company.
Step away.  Talk out loud with a trusted colleague who will think with you.  Drive, fly, walk alone.
Sit and stare.
Rumination is good.


CHEW YOUR CUD AND BEGIN TO LEARN  IN A DEEPER WAY TO GROUND YOUR ACTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE

TIGHTENING CONTROL? DOUBLE CHECK YOUR TRUST LEVEL

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF TRYING TO TIGHTEN CONTROL OF YOUR COMPANY AS A MULTI-PURPOSE ANSWER, FIRST DOUBLE CHECK YOUR TRUST LEVEL

Do you trust your business strategy?  Are you willing to lean into it and not falter for the foreseeable future?

Do you trust that you have communicated the strategy.  You, not the communication department.  You
Your voice.  Your belief.  Your words.  Your authenticity.  Do you trust that you have massaged it into the DNA of your company through endless conversations big and small?

Do you trust you talent?  Do you have the right people in the right roles.  Do you trust them or are you still testing them?  Do you trust they can succeed?

Do you trust you have the right amount of stretch and support for your top leaders?  Are you stretching their capacity or stretching them beyond capacity without suportive challenge?

Do you trust that you have an accurate view of your company?  Do you probe and listen?  Have you established your intent to talk to anyone about anything?  Do you have formally scheduled but informally run mehods to get the pulse of the organization?

I know that many of your companies are fighting for survival.   And the temptation is to control your business to victory.  I get it.  Just double check your trust level before tightening control.

STAY IN LOVE WITH YOUR BUSINESS

STAY IN LOVE WITH YOUR BUSINESS

Not your company

Not your colleagues (especially not them)

Not your power

Not your perks

Not your status in the community

Not leadership in general

Not organizational theories

Not business trends that offer false hope

Touch it

Know it in detail

Nurture its parts

Accept the human part and bring out the best

Be anxious to get back to it if you have to be away

Be goofily proud of it

Constrain you own ego for it

Don't take it for granted

Make time for it--the real daily grit of  it

Protect it

Be refreshed when you spend time with it.

Follow the old adage for marriages--"Don't go to bed mad."  In other words know something is wrong and fix it before it festers  

Stay in love with your business.