The Friday Thing #683

If you missed Notes from the Newsroom last week, you missed a real treat…

The Friday Thing #683 begins with language. Words are the currency of my world and I’d like to share with you a few words and a phrase that have been on my mind a lot this week

Bravery was one of the words of my week. I was talking to a big customer earlier in the week and they were asking me about culture change and how to cultivate a culture of innovation at their company. I have a mixed relationship with the word innovation as it has become a bit of a non-word to me – at least as it’s used in the tech industry. It’s thrown around almost as a filler word versus being used in the truest sense of the word as something that signals a breakthrough or a novel idea. It’s a word I have tried to remove from my own (and somewhat company) vocabulary as it really ought to be earned than claimed as it so often is. Yet, as I thought about this question from a customer it occurred to me that risk is the vital ingredient to cultivating innovation – and that I spend a good amount of time trying to encourage people to take risks. Not jump off the edge of a cliff type risks – smart risks where you know there is a well-balanced chance of success vs. learning. Not success vs. failure, because I think that’s the mindset that is important to encourage risk – by creating a sense of safety for those about to take the risk. It takes bravery on behalf of this risk taker and as leaders we can encourage that bravery and reduce the risk factor through our words but also our actions in modeling and celebrating the learning as well as the success.

That may all sound blindingly obvious but it’s on my mind because I thought about another conversation I had this week with a friend about leadership and what vulnerability means for leaders. I will confess it took me some time to get my head around the concept of vulnerability and I am still learning how to be vulnerable – but 2020 certainly helped me. Some of the same words come to mind when I think about vulnerability – risk and bravery. And reward. Some of the most rewarding moments of the last year have been where I have opened up and talked about previously uncomfortable topics such as mental health or racial injustice. The learning is I need to do more of this as it’s good for the soul.

The final words, actually phrase, on my mind this week is “Truth to Power”. Once again, I will confess to being a bit confused by this phrase when I first heard it in business. I’d heard the phrase many times before in my teens – mainly in rap and hip hop I was listening to and with hindsight I now realize that I was more focused on the beats than the words being said and the use of this phrase. The phrase itself is credited to Bayard Rustin, a Black Quaker and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement who coined the term while advocating nonviolent methods in his fight for social justice. It’s a concept that has been on my mind this week as I think about some upcoming events I am working on and my role in helping prepare leaders I work with for these moments. My job is to put these leaders in the moment before they get there and help them rationalize what they want to take about with what we need to talk about. Doing so often requires speaking truth to power. It often requires vulnerability, bravery, trust, and not a little risk and I am thankful for those around me who embody these behaviours and encourage them in me.

As serendipity often does, I found much of this captured in the Gapingvoid piece and image below this week where Commander Amanda Hawkins talk about her first experience of speaking truth to power and how it was a pivotal moment in her development as a leader. I can relate to that and think you will enjoy reading “Commanda’s” story. 

That was a lot of words to open with…so I’ll try to keep it short from here on and share two things that piqued my interest this week.

I know everyone here is not on Twitter but for those who are you have to take a look at this breathtaking time-lapse of Seattle earlier the week. Shared by Sigma Sreedharan it shows the sun coming up from two vantages points, looking across the city and the mountains. I could watch this on loop all day.

And of course, something from the New York Times. I actually meant to share their 74 of Our Favorite Facts for 2020 a few weeks ago but it got lost in my list of candidates. There’s so much goodness in here – references to McSorley’s (ahhhh, I long for it), and reminder (for you Tom) that Fly Fishing remains the United States’ second most dangerous profession, after logging. And the surprising fact that the summit of Mount Everest is about the size of two Ping-Pong tables. So much goodness in here. 

That’s it for this week. See you next Friday, or in about 175,000 breaths.

-Steve