Categories
Business

Quality vs. Quantity

Quote: The problem is rather that the important and relevant outside events are often qualitative and not capable of quantification. Peter Drucker

“The problem is rather that the important and relevant outside events are often qualitative and not capable of quantification.”

Peter Drucker in “The Effective Executive”

Peter Drucker’s quote got me thinking. Outside events happen all the time. We hear about a customer that needs our service done a certain way. It may be inconvenient for us, so we ignore it. But then another customer has a similar request.

It may be some quality information. It could positively change the way we do business. But is it quantitative? Could we survey all current and potential customers to get a reliable survey that would confirm what we’re seeing?

Perception versus fact

We can perceive that certain information is valuable even though it isn’t a fact. A customer has a suggestion that we perceive could change the way we do business. Yet, there is no way to know if all current and future customers feel the same way. Do we pursue it anyway? It takes some intuition and perception to know.

We have to get comfortable with making decisions partly based on intuition if we’re doing to move forward. There are just some things we cannot quantify. And that’s the part of business and life that is an adventure, isn’t it?

Categories
motivation

A Little Birdie Told Me

Cartoon of two boys and tweeting bird

The other day, I heard the phrase, A little bird told me when someone wanted to pass along anonymous information. It wasn’t very helpful. Whenever I’ve heard that phrase, it means someone really wants to give gossip instead of something useful.

I like Twitter and I have spent some quality time reading through tweets. It can be entertaining, much like gossip. But it frequently doesn’t leave me a better, improved person, much like gossip.

Cartoon of two boys and tweeting bird

Beware of who you follow and what you listen to. The wrong voice can bring you down and ruin your productivity. An anonymous little birdie can make you wonder who else is grumbling and who can you trust.

The tongue can cause great damage. It’s amazing how incessant chirping and tweeting can affect you.

Categories
motivation

Failure is an Option if You Want Success

cartoon of a girl and a monster. The monster is eating someone. A girl says, "You see Roger? This is why I don't like facing my fears."

The fear of failure grips us all. Who wants to look foolish? All of us would like to nail a challenge the first time. We all would like to appear perfect, flawless and successful.

The problem is that none of us know what will be successful from one moment to the next. What worked last year doesn’t this year. What doesn’t work now may be a viral success in the future.

We can create, but we can’t guarantee our creations will be a success. Hollywood is a great example. How many movies miss the mark? Yet nobody working on a movie wants it to be a bomb. How many movies were failures when they first came out, only to become cult classics?

Failure is an option if you want to create anything, try anything new or make a difference. Success doesn’t come from doing everything successfully. Success comes from showing up and doing the work consistently.

Categories
motivation

Did I Make That Call Today?

©2013 Speartoons, Inc

Texting has revolutionized the way I communicate. If I suddenly have something I want to share with my wife or kids, I can send it immediately and not worry if they are busy. I can send a note of encouragement to a friend. I don’t have to dispense with the pleasantries of small talk before getting to the point. I can make the point and have an answer in a moment.

But the temptation is to make that the primary form of communication because it is so effortless. It’s easy to type a thought and send it. A lot can be lost in translation. It is difficult to make a true connection with a few words and no context. A text is an electronic sticky-note. Make sure when you are using it, it’s the appropriate way to communicate in that situation.

Sometimes it is just better to make the call. But it can feel awkward if I’m out of practice. It can feel too easy to hide behind a text. I’ve heard of couples breaking it up over a text. Really? It may be easier but it is not the way to deal with something so emotional.

Sometimes it is better to make the call or to visit someone in a person. If I have something important to say, I will make that call today.

Categories
motivation

I Had One Job!

Cartoon of a boy and a teacher. The boy says, "That was due today? Seriously? I need help.Where can I get some homework insurance?"

Looking back, it seemed such an easy job. All I had to do was complete my homework and turn it in. I had no other obligations. I didn’t have a job, nor did I have a side hustle. After all, I was in third grade.

I had plenty of motivation. I am a firstborn son and very self-conscious. I yearn to do the right thing and do it well. I feared my third-grade teacher because she was a yeller. I didn’t want to get on her bad side. Yet, somehow I forgot to do my homework that day. I had one job and I didn’t do it. I remember the yelling. I had to stay in the class at recess time. What was I thinking?

Cartoon of a boy and a teacher. The boy says, "That was due today? Seriously? I need help.Where can I get some homework insurance?"

Now I know why I didn’t do my homework. I reasoned there was nothing I could do to please my teacher. In fact, I was sure she expected me to mess up. So I delivered and didn’t disappoint her.

Frequently, I’ve heard the phrase, you had one job… as a joke. A seemingly simple job can be messed up. It may appear to others that a person had only one task to do, while it may have been one in a dozen that day. What seems obvious in hindsight may not have been so when the work was done. If a supervisor expects a direct-report to mess up, they frequently don’t disappoint.

I had one job in third-grade and I didn’t do it that day. I learned my lesson and got my homework completed after that. However, it took years for me to see myself as a good student and to do the work because I wanted to, not because I feared some wrath. I was motivated by fear, not by the enjoyment of learning something new.

Expect the best in people today. Sure, they may disappoint and there may be times when we wonder what they were thinking. But it is better to expect the best and get disappointed once in a while than expect the worst and get it every time.