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Rapid Fire Learning | June 2010

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Aloha Ho‘ohana Community,

If you are newly joining us, Rapid Fire Learning is another way we “take 5” here at Talking Story: It happens on the last weekend of the month. Jump right in! If you’re one who likes learning of the backstory, you can catch up with a fuller explanation of what it’s all about here: Rapid Fire Learning Returns to Talking Story. Click on the tags near the post footer to skim through previous month editions.

I’ll go first, and I invite you to join in. Use the comments here, or send me a trackback from your own site. Tumble something, or tweet yours one-by-one in the Twitter 140 if you like!

My RFLs for Iune ~ June, 2010:

One of the mantras I had adopted for 2010 was “Less will be more.” (Here is the backstory.)

Within the spirit of that mantra, I gave June of 2010 up to an experiment, one of using, and doing, as little as possible in diverse ways. More simplicity. Less complexity. More calm. Less busy-ness. These became guidelines I applied to everything, including my work. One of my reasons was family, for I knew there were graduations, weddings, and some vacation time to be had this month, and I wanted to focus on people and on conversation, and see if I could further wean myself from my digital habits, habits I know to be too hungry in their greediness with my time and attentions. Thus RFL is a bit more focused for me this month, for here are the 5 key learnings I have taken from my Spring-into-Summer, June 2010 Less is More-ness of a month:

From beneath

1. While my intention was to “see and better hear others” more than usual, I learned to see myself more, and began to watch my own habits as they happened. I have noticed that I dabble a lot as new inputs come my way. It is possible to remain an incessant dabbler without choosing, and without deciding for long stretches of time. On the one hand, I like that I jump into dabbling as I do, and that I do not hesitate, nor stifle my curiosity. On the other hand, this dabbling gives me a wanton restlessness that I do not like very much, and I need to end it at some point, with a choice or a decision of some kind being that ‘ending’ or a finish-with-flourish.

Crown flower buds

2. When you are family, you take each other for granted way, way, WAY too much. We all know this, but what do we do about it, and how often? We think we know all there is to know about each other, forgetting that family grows and changes just as our friends, co-workers, and other peopled relationships do. This month I taught myself to catch up with family more intensely, asking them better questions, and listening to their whole answers in that I welcomed their going “off topic” whereas that meandering can honestly annoy at other times. Family can be endlessly interesting; I’m the one that gets boring if I’m not careful with curbing my impatience for an answer. Impatience can kill a much more fascinating story.

Inner Beauty

3. I learned how little I really need my laptop (when traveling) now that I have my iPhone and my Kindle. When home, and in-office, and I force myself to ignore my laptop, I start to initiate phone calls, and connect with people more by voice and conversation, and less by email and text message. Voice is better. Conversing is richer. Both give you a timely, emotional connection that simply cannot be duplicated because there is interplay.

And you are?

4. Part of June included a totally unintentional radio silence both online and off (I had to cancel a speaking engagement for the first time ever) because of a worrysome family accident that brought everything else to a halt for me. I learned who missed me, and who did not as connected to a business initiative I’d taken on: Decisions previously fraught with emotion became very easily made, teaching me how useful emotional detachment can be if only I can manage to stage it in a less dramatic way!

Of the earth

5. I hate that I have become a skimmer in our world of informational overload, for I crave that old ability I once had, and have lost, to read slowly and deeply. In these June weeks I’ve learned that I can get that ability back if I enforce longer stretches of digital/interweb abstinence on a daily basis. Yes, daily. Turning off once a week or weekend is not enough, not for the habit shift which must be re-cultivated.

Magnolia story 3

This Less is More RFL-ing dished up more time I could give to my hobby-ing on Flickr… the photos I have included as dividers here are a few of my personal favorites, among those which caused me to focus on the natural beauty around me. Click on any photo to get the larger view appearing on my Flickr stream.

So how about you? What did you learn this month?

Rapid Fire Learning | Take 5 from May, 2010

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Aloha Ho‘ohana Community and learners one and all!

If you are newly joining us, Rapid Fire Learning is another way we “take 5” here at Talking Story: It happens on the last weekend of the month. Jump right in! If you’re one who likes learning of the backstory, you can catch up with a fuller explanation of what it’s all about here: Rapid Fire Learning Returns to Talking Story. Click on the tags near the post footer to skim through previous month editions.

I’ll go first, and I invite you to join in. Use the comments here, or send me a trackback from your own site. Tumble something, or tweet yours one-by-one in the Twitter 140 if you like!

My RFLs for Mei ~ May, 2010:

These are top-of-mind for me:

  1. Helping people isn’t as easy as you might think. If they aren’t self-motivated to help themselves, shift or change in some way, what you offer them is like blowing in the wind.
  2. We rely on computers way too much today, both in working and in the  living of our day to day lives. I’m part of the problem, for I definitely have come to rely on computers excessively: Now that I have a mac I never shut it down unless I’m about to get on an airplane. Thing is, I’ve also learned this won’t stop for me, and what I must do is reallocate some of my usage.
  3. That simple, one-word question “Why?” sent me on a variety of different explorations this month. I learned to revisit it thanks to learning about Simon Sinek, and his Golden Circle (TED Video here).
  4. Endings create voids which are the spaces in your life for new possibilities. It’s good when you are ready to fill them, and quite unnerving when they’re empty for too long, so I’m learning to be better prepared (i.e. more proactive, with projects waiting in the wings).
  5. I am, and have always been more impatient than 99.9% of the other people in my life. As long as that’s been true for me, my learning to deal with it continues, especially because I actually like the impatience of discontent, very much so.

My Ho‘ohana Take 5: This is what I have given my ‘Ike loa focus to in May:

I have become such an RFL addict that I now do it twice: Above in the stream-of-consciousness way, and this second time, for the Hawaiian value of Mahalo: “Living in thankfulness for the elements of life which make it most precious to us.” My thankfulness in this next set is for Talking Story as my “mothership” for this blog has become very important to me, as a HUGE factor in my monthly learning.

You can do your Take 5 in Learning with ‘Ike loa (the Hawaiian value of knowledge seeking) however you wish: No Rules, keep it useful for YOU.

Or you can share in my approach with this Ho‘ohana Community immersion! These are my top 5 take-aways particular to 5 of the Talking Story conversations we have had in recent weeks. Did you gain different impressions here? I would love to hear about them!

  1. From: Monday is for Managing with Aloha
    I wrote two new ebooks in recent months, and ironically, what that writing process revealed to me was that I personally need more of Managing with Aloha back in my own concentrated focus more than ever. This decision, to dedicate Mondays to MWA on our Talking Story editorial calendar going forward, feels very, very good!
  2. From: Beautiful Confidence
    Funny how photo-blogging can be so very provocative. This was my shortest post in May, and it generated the most off-the-blog discussion for me with managers: We all seem to feel confidence is essential in management, but it is maddeningly elusive no matter how much we are actually “in charge.”
  3. From: Speaking. I LOVE it. That’s why I charge for it
    This post returned me to some of the business model discussions we had back in April, for it talks about how incorporating “free” into your business offerings can backfire on you despite the best of intentions. Money has a lot of baggage, but it does add respect and credibility to the work we do, giving it more tangible worth. Be okay with getting paid; you deserve it!
  4. From: PÅ«‘olo Mea Maika‘i: Playlists
    PÅ«‘olo mea maika‘i is ‘a bundle of good things’ you return home with. Things you feel are gifts. I had connected the Hawaiian kaona of this to honoring my now substantial blogging archives, and the process of working with them anew is proving very fruitful, helping me make some new decisions with the subtle coaching of older perspectives I’d best not forget.
  5. From: The Real Problem with Leadership
    How fascinating this has been, and continues to be! I wrote it as a plea for self-leadership, for I so tire of the blame game that happens, and yet when people talk about this post with me, they still want to talk about other people!

Your turn! RFL-ing and Taking 5 is way easier than you think

This month-end weekend posting will always look like a long one, appearing to be very ambitious, but it really isn’t —it’s a recap of my keepers, and so it actually gets written very quickly. Once you get into your own RFL/ Take 5 habit you will begin to experience that too. As with most learning, you’ll be slower in the beginning, but you pick up speed!

So jump in. What have you learned during this month of May?
We learn so much from each other when we share it!

We Ho‘ohana together, Kākou,
Rosa

Added help to that RFL of looking up from the computer and into real life… This is the time of year that strangers will bravely knock on our door to ask if they can pick the plumeria which spills from our trees in the front yard. So many graduation or wedding lei to be strung in May and June, or to adorn the resting places of loved ones this Memorial Day Weekend, and we, and the trees, are happy to help in the celebrations. A joy to be in the yard now, for the scent is so fragrant, and the sunny day is still Spring gentle instead of Summer strong.

Rapid Fire Learning | Take 5 from April, 2010

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Aloha Ho‘ohana Community and learners one and all!

If you are newly joining us, Rapid Fire Learning is another way we “take 5” here at Talking Story: It happens on the last weekend of the month. Jump right in, or dip your toes first by catching up with a fuller explanation of what it’s all about here:
Rapid Fire Learning Returns to Talking Story.

I’ll go first, and I invite you to join in. Use the comments here, or send me a trackback from your own site. Tumble something, or tweet yours one-by-one in the Twitter 140 if you like!

My RFLs for ‘Apelila ~ April, 2010:

These are top-of-mind for me:

  1. I’ve been self-coaching myself to batch work within my weekly calendar planning and it is working wonderfully, but it’s also surprising me. The learning within this has been that work can redefine itself constantly: My calendar labels for the work I target will capture my intentions, but debriefing is invaluable in seeing what the work itself morphed into.
  2. I am pushing myself toward the learning of more editing skills, for what I have learned is that I can’t just tell myself to edit better, I need to learn a more precise technique with doing so religiously.
  3. Must give some appreciation to Smashwords, the platform I chose to use for the publishing of my new ebook, for there is a wealth of publishing information to be learned there — and I have! I’m thoroughly enjoying the study mixed in with the work I’m doing related to it.
  4. I’m learning to give in to the simple act of having faith, allowing it to curb my impatience. I’m talking specifically about that faith you must have that the seeds you plant will bloom eventually — but not if they rotted from over-watering!
  5. I’m learning to let go of some pretty big things by practicing what I preach in “Don’t Add, Replace” as a work processes strategy. My ebook for instance, was a letting go of a one-on-one coaching program, reshaping it so I could move on.

My Ho‘ohana Take 5: This is what I have given my ‘Ike loa focus to in April:

You can do your Take 5 in Learning with ‘Ike loa (the Hawaiian value of knowledge seeking) however you wish: No Rules, keep it useful for YOU.

Or you can share in my approach! These are my top 5 take-aways particular to 5 of the Talking Story conversations we have had in recent weeks. Did you gain different impressions here? I would love to hear about them!

  1. From: Managing with Aloha now on Kindle!
    This happened on the 1st of April, and it became pretty amazing the way it set off the entire month within a theme of learning all I could about the most up-to-date trends in e-publishing. (As an aside, I think “usability” programmers have very little empathy for their true customers.)
  2. From: Revamping your Business Model? Enjoy the Study
    If you feel you’re not coming up with enough new ideas on your own, this is the sure-fire way to get them in buckets.
  3. From: Creating Jobs? Let’s start with the Job Maker
    This one talks about how our intention moves us in certain directions; even here on Talking Story. (For me of course, Talking Story is very significant, a true driver, and I’m glad that it is!)
  4. From: Initiative, Humility and the Local Way
    I’ve always felt that humility is one of the most misunderstood values, and that we’d benefit from it most if stopping to challenge our own definitions. My challenge-to-self in this post was connecting it to initiative.
  5. From: Manager’s Skill: Separate Signal from Noise
    We can talk about some lofty, ambitious things here, and a post like this one will always bubble up to the surface as one of my favorites because it grounds me back in helping you with day-to-day basics.

Your turn! RFL-ing and Taking 5 is way easier than you think

This month-end weekend posting will always look like a long one, appearing to be very ambitious, but it really isn’t —it’s a recap of my keepers, and so it actually gets written very quickly. Once you get into your own RFL/ Take 5 habit you will begin to experience that too. As with most learning, you’ll be slower in the beginning, but you pick up speed!

So jump in. What have you learned during this month of April?
We learn so much from each other when we share it!

We Ho‘ohana together, Kākou,
Rosa

Rapid Fire Learning | Take 5 from March, 2010

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Aloha Ho‘ohana Community and learners one and all!

If you are newly joining us, Rapid Fire Learning is another way we “take 5” here at  Talking Story: It happens on the last weekend of the month. Jump right in, or dip your toes first by catching up with a fuller explanation of what it’s all about here:
Rapid Fire Learning Returns to Talking Story.
[Also… You may have seen that post before, but did you catch all the comments there? Good stuff shared by Ulla, Dwayne, Phil, Káren, Steve and Joanna— mahalo to all!]

RFL, Take 5, and Ho‘ohana

We’ve been getting intimately familiar with the value of Ho‘ohana recently, so let’s kick off RFL and our March Take 5 that way: Our Ho‘ohana with this monthly process (our intention and purpose) is to reflect on our learning as a way of retaining it, to share it with each other, and to celebrate it within our sense of place here within our Talking Story community.

I’ll go first, and I invite you to join in. Use the comments here, or send me a trackback from your own site. Tumble something, or tweet yours one-by-one in the Twitter 140 if you like!

My RFLs for Malaki ~ March, 2010:

This month I scribbled my 5 top-of-mind learning sentences out on paper first, and I noticed that they also captured 5 different kinds of learning for me. So I rewrote them to share with you that way:

  1. Learning merits from cooking.
    I continue to collect my lessons-learned from bidding Aloha to Joyful Jubilant Learning this past January, and thus I’m noticing how a couple of half-baked take-aways have become ‘fully risen and well browned’ given the simple merit of allowing some time to pass.
  2. Learning requires the quiet of solitude.
    I find that the more I can keep some time to myself for reflection, the more I think about what I have learned, exploring it more fully, and questioning how I will hold onto it by actually using it well.
  3. Learning requires the noise of company.
    That said, there has been certain learning this past month I was so grateful to have company for, in that people gave it better context and more meaning. I may prefer the quiet for making my final decisions, but I really depend on the musical noises first for doubly good input!
  4. Learning fills open spaces with earlier decisions.
    When you devote yourself to learning something specific, you’re never bored, for calendar openings are opportunities to chip away at it a bit more. Your decision with how to spend available time has already been made and precious minutes are never wasted: They are devoted.
  5. Learning sizzles in action.
    Learning by DOING is the richest learning of all, for it’s the way I will surely go “all in.” Think about that: We learn ‘about’ things constantly, becoming aware of them, but we are more selective in what we actually try to do. And when we do it, wow!
For example, with No.5 above this month: I decided to do the publishing formatting for Managing with Aloha on Kindle myself rather than delegate it, so I could learn ALL about it, and open up my thinking with future publishing possibilities.

My Ho‘ohana Take 5: This is what I have given my ‘Ike loa focus to in March:

You can do your Take 5 in Learning with ‘Ike loa (the Hawaiian value of knowledge seeking) however you wish: No Rules, keep it useful for YOU.

Or you can share in mine! These are my top 5 take-aways particular to 5 of the Talking Story conversations we have had in recent weeks. They are that cooking I mentioned in my RFL No.1 above, specific to  Talking Story. Did your ‘rising and browning’ of our conversation starters turn out differently? I would love to hear about it!

  1. From: Are you a Linchpin, a Genius, or an Alaka‘i Manager?
    This was one of those write-it-out to think-it-out posts for me, and I took the added step of reaching out to someone privately to help me make sense of it. Mahalo Paul, for your generously honest help: Your coaching has been priceless.
  2. From: 2010 Mālama for Say Leadership Coaching
    Another posting in which I shared my inner work processes with you, this time particular to Say Leadership Coaching and some publishing/ web presence statements there. BIG learning in designing for my customers, receptive to their needs and identifying how I best serve them. Mahalo to Karen Swim for her truly stellar advice!
  3. From: When Learning Gets Overwhelming
    No doubt about it: In this stretch of time since our February RFLS/Take 5, this is the Talking Story post I have returned to most. It stimulated the vast majority of my private emails from you too. Mahalo to Ulla, Joanna, and Gwyn for the the comments openly shared there for everyone.
  4. From: Ho‘ohana Stretch Marks
    I write about, speak about, and coach Ho‘ohana so much: I daresay I use the word much more than Aloha! Can it possibly stretch any larger? Oh yes it can.
  5. From: We buy, and work, with our hearts
    This one was about our emotional capacity being better expressed through experience design, and I am self-coaching myself to keep it close. It puts my senses on high alert: I feel it articulates our true opportunity with the job creation topic we are now working on together here. Tough times can make us too pragmatic, and we dismiss our emotions as not as ‘sensible’ or as luxuries we can’t make allowances for until the basics are met. Big mistake, for our emotional intelligence is what needs to get more ‘basic’ in how we embrace it!
When the winter keeps chilling the air we turn to comfort soups. So good! Yes indeed, cooking time makes a big difference.

Your turn! RFL-ing and Taking 5 is way easier than you think

This month-end weekend posting will always look like a long one, appearing to be very ambitious, but it really isn’t —it’s a recap of my keepers, and so it actually gets written very quickly. Once you get into your own RFL/ Take 5 habit you will begin to experience that too. As with most learning, you’ll be slower in the beginning, but you pick up speed!

So jump in. What have you learned during this month of March?
We learn so much from each other when we share it!

Which reminds me: I MUST add another Mahalo to Lodewijk van den Broek. Have you noticed how my post titles will now appear in the subject line of your email subscription? It was Lodewijk who taught me how to get that done for us :)

We Ho‘ohana together, Kākou,
Rosa