It's cool to be cold...or is it?
Jaime Torchiana, M.S.
President, Exemplary Performance?? Marquis Who's Who in America USAT Team and 4X All-American Duathlete??
With temperatures dropping across the Mid-Atlantic, the first frost ??is right around the corner. Naturally, I suggested to my 14-year-old daughter that she wear a jacket to the bus stop. Cue the classic teenage eye roll. ??
"I’m fine, I don’t need one. It’s not cool to wear a jacket." Instead, she threw on her sweatshirt ??and headed out the door, looking like she was ready for early September, rather than a 47-degree mid-October morning. I didn’t push it. (I knew she would wear it to appease me, only to take it off when out of sight and risk leaving it on the bus). I thought back to my own childhood when my mom always made me bundle up in the longest (sometimes ugliest) coat imaginable. Even in lean times with our family business, mom always invested in the warmest coats and boots - she wanted her kids to be warm. I wore them without question because that’s what you did. That was normal. And it wasn't until today, as I watched the kid across the street head to the bus in shorts, that I wondered: Why do we follow trends that aren’t practical or useful?
That same thought hit me earlier this week during a conversation with my new web designer. We were working through a brand narrative exercise, and I was venting about the challenges of marketing. No one is actively looking for performance solutions. Instead, companies keep pouring time and money into traditional learning programs and competencies that sound good on paper but don’t address the real gaps in performance.
Just like my daughter clings to what’s trendy—thinking a sweatshirt will do the job—the business world often sticks with what feels familiar: training initiatives that look good but don’t actually drive measurable outcomes. When I try to introduce new solutions, I have to work hard to point out what’s missing:
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The reality is, just like wearing shorts in the cold, what’s popular isn’t always what’s smart. It takes a bit of courage to step away from what everyone else is doing and invest in what actually works. Real performance improvement requires a different mindset—one that focuses on uncovering and scaling what top performers do differently, rather than defaulting to traditional training methods that miss the mark.
So, whether it’s rethinking a learning strategy or convincing a teenager that a jacket isn’t just for show, the lesson is clear: Don’t let “what’s cool” distract you from what’s truly effective.
Because when the frost hits—whether in business or on a chilly bus stop morning—you’ll wish you had invested in something that really keeps you warm.
Privately employed, I don't have a company. Was long committed participant in the Autism Network Scotland 2007-22, it's axeing is wrong and is factional politics for the more militant dogmatic wing of the autistic scene.
1 个月To like shorts in cold is a minority identity. Not every kid may have that motive, but there are folks for whom it genuinely is more comfortable, for a reason that jas already been known to science for a generation so proves to be genocide of an identity all dress codes/uniforms that don't allow it. "Sensory issues", physical sensitivities to textures fabric pressures and heat known connected to adhd autism tourettes and high metabolic rate. Practisers often do sustain our ability to do it by investing in really keeping the rest of our bodies warm, particularly the torso heat core. There have neen eras when shorts were courage and not what everyone else was doing. An irrational history in boys' school uniform in Britain linked them to age and made them get seen as only for younger boys and created a terrible bullying culture against them for older boys, while girls had no bullying of their leg comfort choices, that continued until gender equality defyings of uniforms became possible for boys from 2011. In 1986 a popular TV comedy, Blackadder, took part in that bullying and laughed at and victim blamed for psychological harm by it, and still no media voices ever call it out.
Retired
5 个月I am laughing as I read this. ?? When I am heading home from the gym in the winter mornings bundled up in a thick winter coat, and the heat blasting in my car, I routinely see kids at the bus stop in shorts, and light or no jackets. I think, "they must be freezing - what's wrong with them?" But I guess you answered it, Jaime Torchiana, M.S.. "It's cool to be cold." I'll settle for uncool and be happily, comfortable, warm. Thanks for sharing another enjoyable story that teaches us something while we laugh!
Leadership Endurance Coaching for sustainable high performance when there is no finish line in sight | Aligning people and business strategies for growth | Fractional Chief People Officer
5 个月The jacket story rings lots of bells for me. Jaime Torchiana, M.S. I remember almost gloating on a college visit when one of the kids swore they wouldn’t need a jacket. Being mom, I packed it anyway. Said child reluctantly admitted that they did need a jacket. I smiled a little smile. In the organizations, I’m curious what profile of leader or org is willing to be different?
Manager
5 个月Just to be clear....the coat was not the ugliest; ?? that was truly your perception!!!
HR Consultant & Employee Engagement Enthusiast → I specialize in turning data-driven insights into action for happier, more productive workplaces | Champion of Change, DEIA, & Employee Listening
5 个月Excellent analogy Jaime Torchiana, M.S.! I used to teach middle school and instantly thought of my students. They lived in shorts all winter. I didn't get it. Your quote, "what's popular isn't always what's smart," is a powerful one. Going against the norm is scary. I admire those who were willing to step out and try something different.