Best New Year Change

Don’t think too much about what the start of a new year actually is. Think a lot more about how it can help you organize yourself. The passing of a planet past an arbitrary point on it’s orbit is unremarkable. It is something not worth noting. Yet we do. Humans seem to like beginnings and ends to things.

You will see a lot of new year advice. There are the oldies to make a resolution. Be a better person. There is the more modern remove anyone or anything that doesn’t serve your purpose. These are ok. If you don’t want to think too hard they work for you. If you surround yourself with a bunch of people who think just like you and don’t challenge you, nobody will get in the way, even if they should be. For a long time yes-men were looked down upon. Oh, how times  have changed.

All this to say, maybe there is a bit more to the celebration of the passage of time. Maybe this isn’t a time to make changes but to look inward and see who you really are and what you really want. 

I’m finding that you need to put your stuff out there, amongst people who don’t always agree with you if you want to grow. Honestly, I’ve known this for a long time. But how do you get people who differ from you to hear you out in a world where so many people are quick to drop anyone from their life who doesn’t unilaterally support them? How do you get people to open up to you?

First, you need to look at how you approach interactions. It matters less who is right or wrong and more about how people feel interacting with you. No matter who you are speaking with and what you are speaking about, it is critically important to try to leave them thinking that even if they don’t agree with you, they felt heard. They felt like they could share their thoughts and answer follow up questions. The last part is a lot more critical than you realize. If people don’t feel like they can clarify their position, then they probably won’t have a good feeling about the interaction. They will not feel seen and they are less likely to engage with you in the future.

Most people know that not all of their ideas will be accepted and incorporated. However, they want to have a chance to share them. If you don’t give people a forum to speak, they will take their best ideas elsewhere.

Second, you need to subdivide your message into manageable bite sized pieces. You may have the best idea in the world but if it is presented in an overwhelming manner, almost nobody will take it in and spend some time pondering it. Human attention spans have always been short. With the current access to information and the ability to quickly switch it off or move on to something new, most people’s attention span will not be getting any longer. So you need to get them hooked quickly and make a part of your point succinctly. You will often need to elevator pitch someone. Admittedly, I don’t love this. I enjoy long-form story telling. I like losing myself in a long story from someone else. But most people tune out and move on quickly, even if there are only two of you in the room. Know this and use this.

Third, it has to generate a response. You have to make them care. You can talk to me until you are blue in the face about New Zealand’s corporate tax scheme. I will never provide feedback no matter how well you present it and how important your issue is. I don’t live in New Zealand, it just doesn’t really matter. 

So, what should you put out there to help you look inward. You need to look at how you make decisions. This is central to anyone’s character. When given choices, what do you choose. What are your guiding principles. What must be preserved above all else? You need to think about these things. You need to understand what your decisions really do. You need to know that people will be looking at what you prioritize and why it matters. This is who you are. It does’t matter what slogan you put on the wall, it matters what you do when you are faced with a decision. It matters what you put first in order to get what you want. 

If you want to do the impactful new year activity, look at how you make decisions. It will make the biggest difference.

So Much for So Little

Last week I was in South Florida, staying in a very nice resort right on the beach in Broward County. The weather was great and the scenery was beautiful but that is not what this post is about.

It is very apparent that there are not a lot of laws in Florida. I saw several people driving motorcycles, not one of them were wearing a helmet. Drivers using handheld devices while driving was rampant. Florida does not have a state wide prescription database so you can go to 5 doctors on the same day with the same pain symptoms and get a prescription for a narcotic each time and there is no barrier to stop you from getting all these filled at different pharmacies.

So, if Florida doesn't have all that many laws to enforce why did I see so much police?

If I was outside the resort, I would see a member of a law enforcement agency about every five minutes. There was city police, Sheriff's Department, and State Troopers everywhere. There was more police around than you see in the rough part of Winnipeg. 

All this got me thinking about the ideas of regulation and enforcement.

On the surface, it would be reasonable to think that if you have fewer laws to enforce, you should need fewer personnel to deliver the enforcement. This may not be the case after all. It may be possible to have more difficulty enforcing fewer laws because the general populous does not have a tendency to ensure they are in compliance. If ensuring you are compliant is the exception instead of the norm then it is more likely that it will not be the default position.

I'm not advocating more laws, rules, or regulations. Most jurisdictions have too many rules about things that just don't need to be regulated. However, good regulation can help mitigate bad decision making and there just seems to be a lot of that out there.

Some places it may be difficult to set up individuals to make good decisions. If you live in an under-regulated American state and you believe freedom means you can do what you want because nobody is going to tell you what to do, then it may be difficult to lead someone to good decision making. That being said, we need to move in that direction.

Nobody likes to be micro-managed. Everyone likes to feel like they have control of their life but, if you don't know how to make good decisions or you don't see the value in making good decisions for yourself and your community the cycle of bad decisions will continue.

Good decisions are built on the foundation of good knowledge. Good knowledge comes from education and experience. If we can get more people living in a paradigm of good decision making we will need less efforts in law enforcement and that can only be a good thing.

One of the great aspects of travel is it shows you how others do it, there is always something good to take away and always something from the not-so-good file. The more we mix things up, the better we will all be, and better decisions will result.

The Right Answer

The right answer to a situation often is related to perspective.  The criteria that makes it right can be different for various people.  Of course, there is the fact based information but when it comes to outcome the decision making process can diverge dramatically.


I see two potential overarching guiding factors. you can make a decision that will give you the biggest potential upside or you can make a decision that will give you the least potential downside. I suppose the skilled decision maker would know when to use each perspective but lets be honest, I'm not always the best at making decisions and neither are most people.


I seem to be noticing that I am migrating from looking for the biggest upside to the least downside. I see a couple of potential reasons for this. One is I'm getting older and the other is I changed jobs about a year ago and the job change came with a perspective change on the same subject material.


If you are making decision that have the highest potential for good results you are looking for the biggest impact. You are trying to have the biggest outcome. The drawback is if you have made a bad decision you will often have more the clean up. When you are young, I think it would be easier to make a decision that has a big impact. There is a pretty good chance you haven't had to clean up too many messes, yet. They will come and you will learn. Hope fully you will make better decisions that require less clean up. There in lies the change. Now you are looking to make decisions that have the least potential for a downside.


If a decision has a limited downside, it is probably safer but also has less probability to have a significant impact. Sometimes this is the best type of decision to make but it shouldn't be the default decision.


In m employment I find that I have less control with the input of decisions I make. It is a sign of moving forward in an organization. However, it seems to make it easier to make safe decisions. Not having the control to make small corrections as things move forward, makes it difficult to take chances with decision making. That being said, it doesn't mean you should always be taking the safe way out.


All this explains a lot of why people seem to take the safe way out as they move up in an organization. Everyone says that they would do it differently of they were in charge but it rarely seems to change. It seems like you can change the people but the results remain eerily similar.


Maybe a sign of great courage is to take fearless decision making from a place where you have a lot of control to a place where you have less control. Even if you trust the people around you it is human nature to make it easier for them and ultimately you. So you opt for the safe way. Once in a while I think going with a bit of calculated risk is a good plan. It will keep you sharp and maybe make everything better, in the long run.


I'm in the middle of learning this life lesson, I have not figured it all out but acknowledging I am faced with this dilemma is the first step to learning how to step forward and find some of that creative courage I have deep down inside.

When Good Intensions Don't Quite Work

While I was driving to work today, an ambulance was coming the other way. I was stopped at a light and had no influence in the the situation. I was only an observer to this.

Here is what I saw.

There was a vehicle in the left turning lane. He saw the ambulance coming down the street in his rear view mirror. He decided to get out of the way, and move to the right. This is the law. The street we were waiting to cross was a busy street, at a busy time. His idea was to get into the flow of traffic and get out of there.

It was a great idea.

Moving across the other lane, he managed to block the entire lane for a brief time. He left as soon as he could. He also managed to delay the progress of the ambulance.

The vehicle in question managed to block the entire street. I know he was trying to do the right thing, but this time doing nothing would have worked out better. The driver didn't know at the time, and wouldn't have any info that would have helped him know at the time. I am not here to criticize the decision. He followed the rule. it just didn't work out this time.

Always do what is right, but also look around and do what is best.

While Looking for a File

While I was looking for another file I came across this that I rattled off. It struck me as useful and fit within the context of this blog, so I reproduced it here. This is one area that I found people were routinely bothered by is all facets of life. Enjoy and use it if you think it may help.

Making Better Decisions

How often have you looked at a situation and said to yourself, “Why did he choose to do that?” We have all been there and probably will end up there again. There appears to be a lot of bad decisions being made all the time. They can be frustrating, expensive and even dangerous. So, what can we do to make better decisions?

There are several models that describe what happens when a decision is made. They normally don’t explain how to make a decision. When trying to make a decision many people become overwhelmed. It can become very daunting when you are faced with a new or unique decision. Life doesn’t always play out how the experts portray it to. There are constraints on our ability to make and implement decisions and often people get lost in the clutter. Here are a few simple guidelines to help you make better decisions more often.

Accept You May Make a Bad Decision

I have often seen people become so engrossed with making a perfect decision; they end up not making any decision. If you have the authority and responsibility to make the decision, you are expected to make it. It is important to understand that leaders may have to make unpopular decisions, but they may be the right decision. By accepting that you may make a bad decision you are freed up to make a good one.

Determine What Criteria are Truly Important

When faced with a decision, you can often boil the issues down to two or three main points. If you have too many criteria to consider, the minor items may skew your result and the choice will not adequately address the problem. Remember you must address all the criteria that truly matters but also cut through the fluff.

Be Mindful of Time Constraints

A good decision must be timely. It is no good to decide to get on a plane after it has left the runway. On the other hand if you have some time before a choice needs to be made, take the time to seek out the information that will help make a better decision.

Seek Assistance When You Need It

Nobody is an expert on everything. When you don’t know the answers ask for help. Always review the applicable policy for guidance. The decision may be already made for you. If the policy doesn’t provide much help for your current dilemma then supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates are all excellent sources to draw on. Remember, we are all working toward the same goal.

Making decisions can be difficult but, if you keep these guidelines in mind when you have to make one, your chances of success will increase.