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Week 34: Quick Wins

I have a new professional challenge in my business that's requiring me to change my rhythm a bit.  New work that I'll say more about later.  I'm fully enjoying it as it absorbs my time like a sponge in the start-up.  Just to point out:  I am beginning this blog post at 9:58 p.m.  The good news:  I jogged at my health club before coming home. The bad news:  I didn't start jogging until 8 p.m.

Such is life for the moment.   

While I'm writing, I'm multitasking. Cooking rice and Thai curry on my stove.

Hitting redial as I try to check-in with Mom for our weekly chat -- but her line is busy for almost an hour now.  What is she thinking to be on the phone during the only 45 minutes I have a chance to try a call (without telling her my plan of course as it could not be confirmed until 9:30 p.m.)!  smile

When organizations try to change, they always say "get a quick win" early if possible.  It sets the tone and gives people confidence in the new way of working.  We're getting a few of them in our business. Small, promising signs of teamwork, business growth, diverse client projects with interesting people -- fun to be a part of it despite also some transition challenges.

I regularly look for quick wins - or little wins - to celebrate in life.  Some days I have to look harder than others.  Especially if "win" also includes keeping something that resembles a personal life in the process of a fun new job.  Today I jogged: quick win.  On the weekend I went to an outdoor concert:  evening win.  Yesterday, I had a good cup of coffee first thing in the morning: quick win. (So I had another: double win!)

Last night, after a particularly long day, when I was feeling fewer "wins" I had to settle for the one quick win that all women know:  taking off my bra and putting on something more comfortable the minute I step in the house! And you know what?  That was just enough; I slept well.

Week 33: A lion at my door

I walked home one night last week, in the dark and rain, to find a lion staring at me from the front door of my apartment.  A big one.  This one.

  At first I thought someone must be playing a joke.  Why would anyone put a large plastic lion in an otherwise tasteful entry way?  It's like people in the USA who put Statue of Liberty replicas in their front yards. An overgrown pink flamingo.  But he's still there as of this morning.  Several times, I've jumped when I opened my door.  This fellow is definitely bigger than me and I don't expect him by my mail box.

And now I wonder, what is his purpose?  Is he protecting me? Trying to scare me?  Is he reminding me of the roar? That he's just really a large cat?

My last week needed sometimes a little protection.  Ups and downs of business conversations, team leadership and life.  Sometimes I wish I had a lion by my door; telling me to rest while he stands guard.  We all need a place to feel protected sometimes, even in good times like I feel these days in busy business and with friends.

I know a couple of Leo the Lions:  my father, an old boyfriend who just turned 40 this summer. They roared a lot and loved a lot.  Tonight, I think I'll just pat him on the head and say "good night." 

Required adjustments

Change experts always talk about the adjustments one must make when taking a new action.  Here's my required garden adjustment.  These lovely gold flowers add a splash of bright color in my garden box.  They reach nearly to the top of my window when you look out from inside; so, I get a splash of color there, too. They are healthy and apparently happy.

But here's the catch.

They stand nearly four feet above the tops of my other plants.  I read "one meter in height" when I bought them in their little pots last April.  My vision of a meter and reality did not align.  A meter is longer.  My mistake. Like magic, they sprinted up to unforseen heights.

I'll win no landscape awards for my box this year.  Too much contrast with one plant over-powering the others.  Next year, I'll have to decide: do I remove them in favor of shorter ones or do I add something that grows to a height in-between?  No idea yet. I have the winter to do some research.

Meanwhile, I'm accepting and enjoying it for what it is: my lovely-if-not-designer result.

Week 32: Flowers that keep glowing

That's not a typo in my title. I meant "glowing flowers."  On Monday morning, near 7 a.m., I walked out my door and for some reason that morning found the rudebeckia's along my walkway stunning.  I stopped and took a picture.  That was the last time I stopped at all until Friday. Or so it seemed.

In between, I met with clients on four days.  Most of the meetings happened amongst torrential rain from Tuesday night through early Thursday morning.  Flooded streets.  Soaked shoes.  Spent a long evening with the PWG Executive Committee in a restaurant overlooking Zurich that should have provided a visionary view of the city. But of course, that's the night the rain began. We got a lot accomplished inside.

The week had some bumps.  Some challenging conversations to set clear action plans and deadlines.  I'm working with a new client team. Love it.  The people and the challenge. I'm a change for them.  Takes energy on all sides to make a change.

Finally on Friday, I walked home (not in rain) at about 7:30 p.m.  First thought I'd go to my fitness club for a work-out. Checked-in even. But realized in a flash that a walk home in fresh air was the thing I needed more.

And there were the rudebeckias.  Glowing in the evening sun.  As if they had not stood outside in 36 hours of pouring rain and cold wind this week.  As if nothing interesting - or in fact anything at all - had happened in the last five days.  Fresh, one might say, as daisies on a sunny Monday morning.  I smiled: if they can be so fresh after this week, so could I!  I was glad for the walk home.

The biggest difference

And then Mom said,

Maybe that's the difference between working in a school and working in a business.  In teaching, we expect kids to all be different.  And in business, you expect everyone to be the same."

Why work on a team

I asked Mom what was important when working on a team (as in a school with 25 or so teachers):

She said, "You have to be willing to go your share or more.  Be concerned, helpful, caring and show this to other people.  Spend some time talking with someone when you would really rather spend it in your classroom.

You can't just go in a do your job.  It makes it harder for the whole building (school).

You have to get to know the people on a human level."

And if you don't?

"You would feel like no one would care about anyone.  You would just go in.  There would be no support system.  You would have to get your entire happiness from the work itself - the teaching, the kids.

How could you even work when you don't know the best way to cooperate?  Everyone has a different personality and way of working.

Can a person really be completely happy unless he or she can interact with another person?"

That was a question which perfectly answered my question about working on a team.

Week 30: "be"

It's holiday time in Zurich.  August 1 - National Day - the equivalent to the US 4th of July.  Most people take the entire week off (plus the week before or after...).   I love it when the weather is good, which it was yesterday. The normally well-organized and safety-loving Swiss save up their spare change and purchase the largest fireworks they can afford.  Then as it becomes dark, they light huge bonfires on the hills around the lake and enthusiastically at will set-off their proud purchases until it all runs out or 12:00 midnight arrives, whichever comes first. 

Or, if they don't have room for a bonfire, they just light those big old Roman Candles right off of their terraces, like my neighbors on both sides. I didn't have to spend a Franc and smiled for hours in the celebration.  Simply being present.

In my business, I talk about Be-Become-Build as a foundation for compelling communication.  This week I am focused on "Be."  Slow down a little in the sunshine to be happy.  Be creative. Be myself.

Today, I pottered around Zurich.  A cappucino here.  A little shopping there.  A quick phone call.  A short work-out in the gym mostly for the excuse of following it by taking a sauna.  A little rosemary and garlic around dinner.  A rainy-night movie. 

I believe there can be too much productivity in human life.  To much being efficient and not enough being still to hear our own voices.

Five years ago, I had a few weeks off to potter around Zurich.  Out of those weeks came my dreams, my book, and ultimately my business.  My growth and learning to live outside as the woman I am inside.

That's a sneakily-powerful word:  "Be"