Field notes

Field Notes

Our daily Field Notes email is just the kind of jumpstart you need. A fast read. Maybe less than a minute. Because sometimes it just takes one insight to change the trajectory of the day.

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How Important Is This to You? If you have ever wondered how a conflict exploded over a seemingly trivial matter or action, it’s because it wasn’t inconsequential to them. When people bring issues to your attention to discuss or resolve, it’s a good idea to ask them this question before attending to it: How important is this to you?
Creating a new habit is never easy. It requires real discipline to adhere to a new routine. What isn’t obvious is how frequently the routine needs to be repeated before a habit is formed. New behaviors that don’t occur daily seldom become habits. The human brain is hard-wired to create new connections. When a behavior is repeated regularly, especially in the same environment, the brain gradually encodes it as a routine action
Leaders naturally discriminate between team members based on track record, reliability, and skill. Giving team members a letter grade to capture the difference between them is somewhat of a parlor game for leaders. They love to argue about how many A-players they have on the team and why others don’t make that grade. Every leader wants more A-players and fewer C-players. The question is: What specifically defines the difference?
Distraction is the enemy of productivity. The more distracted a person is during a project, task, or meeting, the less productive they are. Toggling back and forth between full engagement and distraction all day long creates a rollercoaster of attention deficit. Even small distractions cause people to take longer to finish tasks and degrade the quality of the output.