the only three things you can do
One of the most memorable lessons I’ve ever gotten from Ben came in a high school library almost 10 years ago. He was training a group of aspiring high school principals and extolling the virtues of Having Your Sh*t Together. (He had a nicer name for this but this is what he was talking about). Basically - being someone your team can count on, even for the pesky details. The kind of person who follows through every time and doesn’t use “vision” or “inspiration” as a crutch for bad execution.
The scales-from-my-eyes moment in this session was Ben’s simple assertion, adapted from David Allen: when it comes down to it, there are really only three next steps
Send an email
Book a meeting
Make a call
Every grand scheme you have for the bold future of your organization is probably going to start with one of those three things. That’s it! That’s the list. (I am assuming if you are reading this that you are doing knowledge economy-type stuff. It is striking that it was true for high schools principals, too - those noble souls literally shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of teenagers each day).
This shook me because I realized I had not been a serious person before this. I did not really Have My Sh*t Together. I erased the first step on the grand journey and that meant, so often, none of the other steps happened at all.
Send an email, book a meeting, make a call.
-Eric
