Do I practice what I preach?

Do I practice what I preach? Do you?

This is a follow-up post to yesterday’s interesting challenge about “mistakes” smart people make.

Funny thing is, I’m often tempted to judge myself based entirely on my intentions.

The fundamental change brought about by teaching – and they say to teach is to learn twice – is that I’m much more aware of my blind spots.

So, I rewrote my 463-word vision/mission statement, created in 1995 after reading Stephen Covey’s classic, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.

It went from 463 words to two words!

So easy even a caveman can remember it.

Make it a GREAT day, because if you don’t, who will. Carpe diem jungle jeff 🙂

Know the mistake smart people make?

Wanna know one of the biggest mistakes smart people make?

Sophisticated and intelligent, most organizations wordsmith their vision, mission and brand statements for the benefit of looking good to Wall Street and their Board of Directors.

Here’s the paradox, in a quote from someone really smart.

“Complexity holds people back from acting because they don’t know which action will have impact”.

What smart person said that?

It was Bill Gates, in a Rolling Stone article I read in October 2007.

Next question.

Do you agree with Bill? Why or why not?

Wanna know my opinion?  It sounds bloody brilliant to me.

Many organizations are tempted to put together various “decks” with really cool, lofty, even inspirational stuff. That’s what great organizations do, right?

They capture the essence of the vision, mission, brand, etc. on “paper”, so that new and existing employees will be fully engaged, and committed.

Here’s the paradox: People are too busy to remember what you’re really trying to say.

My mission is to help people take it from the paper to the floor.

I have many ways in which to do this. For the sake of a shorter post, I’ll stop here.

Carpe diem, make it a GREAT day for your employees, customers and shareholders. If you don’t, who will. jungle jeff 🙂