“It’s ok to fail” sounds so great in theory…. but in practice… Yikes.

From the Andon cord at Toyota to the concept of psychological safety, the idea that we need to create cultures where it’s ok to point out and to make mistakes is pervasive (and justifiable). We do not want a “sweep it under the rug” model because that’s how bad actions get hidden and unethical actions emerge. 

Like many great ideas in this world, this blog post is inspired by a recent Taylor Swift quote.

In her podcast debut with the Kelce brothers on New Heights, she was talking about her lack of sportsing (that’s my word) expertise. And she said she’s not bothered by her lack of abilities when it comes to sports because “It’s not part of my metrics for my self-worth”.

We pay for coaches, we admire therapists, we read all the self-help books—but what if the most transformative support was just… being a better friend?

I love my job. I’m grateful for the intellectual challenge, the relationships I build with colleagues and students, and the flexibility and autonomy that comes with professor life.  There are, of course, small things that are a bit exhausting or irritating, but that comes with any job. And I’m happy to navigate those because they mean I get to do real work that I love.

“Feedback is a gift.” “Learn to accept feedback.” “Feedback matters.” Sure. All true…. but I believe we’ve been trained to look at feedback as a one way transitory mechanism. If we shift our paradigm to one of complex adaptive systems, it changes what feedback means, when and why we give it, and how we receive it.

ChatGPT is great at helping to tighten and tone e-mails. Most of us (I’m guessing) are using it (and other AI LLM programs) for this. But I’ve been thinking about the process of moving from that angry e-mail to the healthy e-mail, and I believe that process matters.

These motivation and engagement-centric questions reflect a somewhat control-based approach to leadership. The implicit assumption is that motivation and engagement are "inputs" to be manipulated or controlled by a leader. This mindset assumes that the leader has some sort of power to affect the team’s level of motivation.

My conversational counterpart said to me: “well that’s an instrumental value”. I challenged him: “but isn’t the purpose of an organization to serve the customer – a terminal value in and of itself?” He responded no, arguing that serving the customer is an instrumental value – a means to the end value of making money/profit. I told him I disagreed – if you treat the customer as an end – in and of him/herself – then you will eventually realize profit. I mean, it’s just Kant, right?

My Dad went and built himself a Koi pond.

This started about four years ago. A professional landscaper dug the hole, laid the lining, and plumbed the pond. Then my Dad started his endeavor to create this small ecosystem in his very own backyard in central Indiana.

What if wanting to be a leader meant striving to be a person of integrity, modeling the behaviors you hope to inspire in others? What if it meant developing greater self-awareness and emotional intelligence, improving your decision-making, and building more trusting and understanding relationships?

So what can you do today to start to move from a rough team experience to one in which teamwork is more fun?

My high school commencement speech opened with a poem…