Greetings!
Welcome to the Foresight Newsletter, a free monthly publication by Patrick Gray, president of Prevoyance Group Inc. This newsletter shares tips for high performance IT organizations and observations that we hope will prove informative and enjoyable. |
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It could be Worse Syndrome
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"It could be worse" seems to be a continuing refrain these days. Dribbled glibly from the lips of everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs, to politicians, to the neighbor who tolerates a bad job with long hours and abysmal pay, ICBW seems to have become a universal salve to dab on the wounds inflicted by turbulent times. While in any given situation there are certainly worse potential outcomes, ICBW's more cheery cousin, "It could be better" seems to have departed the scene, leaving mediocrity and lowered expectations as an acceptable modus operandi.
ICBW lowers the bar, and provides a defined set of expectations before we even attempt to change the status quo. Few sports fans tolerate a coach, manager or owner of a formerly high-performing team pointing to a string of losses and saying "Hey, it could be worse," yet we indulge in this behavior and find it acceptable when conveying personal and organizational performance. While results "could be worse" than a double-digit decline, they could also have been better, and more than just a semantic game, shifting the focus from the worst possible outcome to demanding something better can change you and your organization's orientation from slow decline to a difficult yet far more fulfilling climb towards excellence.
Even in what some are calling the worst economy in a lifetime, examples of pursuing "It could be better" abound. One of my favorites is the smart phone. At best, a marginally effective business tool and at worst, a pure indulgence that is more toy or fashion accessory than critical technological accoutrement. Despite the down economy, a battered technology industry, and miserly consumer and business spending, smart phone sales are on a tear, surpassing the sales of more traditional (and less expensive) mobile phones. While former industry giants like Motorola and Nokia flounder under stagnant products born of ICBW, Apple, Research In Motion and a resurgent Palm are producing a perfect storm of technical wizardry; each new device lighter, faster, more functional and less costly than the prior. An arms race towards excellence has ensued and consumers have joyfully benefited from the results.
Even mundane industries have gotten in on the act. Wal-Mart and other discount retailers are increasingly delivering quality products at compelling price points, increasing sales while rivals wallowing in a sea of ICBW stare in envy and verbally prepare investors for another quarter of red ink.
Next time circumstances conspire to deliver a less desirable result to you, rather than considering the even more abysmal results that were narrowly avoided, ponder the possibilities and fruits of the better.
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| LIFE
The Strange Science of Nutrition
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Like anyone that has tried to maintain some semblance of healthiness I have often been flummoxed by the ever-changing tides of what is "good for you." Fairly standard foods seem to fall in and out of fashion like the latest celebrity sensation. Remember when you were supposed to have 6-8 servings of bread and grains each day, followed a few years later by bread nearly supplanting Satan himself as the ultimate evil? Similarly, milk, butter, meat, eggs and even water have followed the same course: to be consumed with abandon one day, then banished from your plate the next.
Recently I heard a speech from an expert in an esoteric field of metabolic science, the name of which I forget (and likely could not pronounce), who looked for links between food, metabolic science and genetics. He explained some of his research in layman's terms, and perhaps the most interesting conclusion his years of research has produced was the most obvious: that food affects each one of us differently. He noted that salt, another food that seems to be perennially out of favor, only increases blood pressure in a very small portion of the population, but does so rather dramatically, causing doctors everywhere to encourage everyone to avoid salt.
He also mentioned that the shifting winds of what is "good for you" largely depend on the random genetics of a group that has undergone a particular study suggesting one food or another might be "bad." While I have likely done a poor job of recounting the science, the conclusion that some governmental or organizational body can dictate the perfect nutritional plan to each and every individual seems like a rather misguided notion, and now science is backing that theory up. While I am certainly not qualified to dispense medical advice, getting some exercise and eating foods that agree with you seems far healthier and easier than chasing the latest "one size fits all" admonishments of the dietary "authorities."
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| HEARD IN THE HALLWAYS
Electronic Hand Grenades
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Email forwards are often the corporate equivalent of a hand grenade. Perhaps the most infamous are the dreaded forwards that contain nothing more than those three terrible letters: "FYI." Often followed by pages of replies, other forwards, summaries and other "FYIs," one can mentally picture the sender, head popping up from behind a desk and tossing a hand grenade in your direction, most likely one of those funny-looking stick grenades always used by the Germans in WWII movies.
I personally find this behavior intolerable, especially since the prime offenders often seem to be paid by the email, clicking the "Forward" button on the most trivial matters. Perhaps the best weapon is a quick reply with the simple request: "What does this mean to me?" When the forwarder is actually forced to explain how that novella-sized email chain might actually be relevant to you, it suddenly may become far less pressing, and the chance of future demands for summaries may cause a moment's pause before the mouse immediately jumps to the "forward" button and fingers poise above the letter F, Y and I on the keyboard.
If you are a frequent forwarder, sending long missives without explanation is not only disrespectful, but a massive productivity drain. Taking five minutes to summarize an email chain before passing it along to ten people saves an hour that would otherwise be wasted by each person trying to unravel and defuse the grenade you tossed into their inbox. |
| TRAVELS WITH PATRICK
The Great "Mancation"
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My wife recently found out she is
pregnant with our first child, who is scheduled to be born in early
January (hopefully he will follow his father's client service
philosophy and arrive on-time and on-budget). I had been planning a
motorcycle trip from our home in South Carolina to Colorado, and with
the big news, the trip has taken on a new dimension. I have extended
the time I am taking for the trip, and while I usually keep a journal
on these types of adventures, for this particular trip I am planning
a video and photo journal that I will give to our child on his or her
21st birthday.
The trip has also turned into a last
celebration of pre-fatherhood "manliness," what a friend dubbed a
"Mancation" (Man Vacation) before I trade the motorcycle for a
stroller, at least for a few years. I have planned a route with no
highway, and frequent dirt roads, camping along the way and meeting a
ragtag bunch of similarly-minded folk for three days of riding
off-road mountain passes in Colorado. If all goes according to plan,
there should be more bad jokes than shaves, and more mud and dirt
than fine hotels, all a nice juxtaposition to the time for
uninterrupted contemplation that occurs in the saddle.
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Thanks for reading this month's Foresight newsletter. We love hearing from our readers, so please feel free to email info@prevoyancegroup.com with any comments or suggestions.
Warm Regards,
Patrick Gray
Prevoyance Group |
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| Breakthrough IT Turns 1 |
| Patrick Gray's debut book, Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through IT celebrated its first "birthday" in November. You can purchase the book on Amazon.com or request signed copies or volume orders by emailing info@prevoyancegroup.com. | |
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