A speech to inspire all...

This is the stuff that drives me and no it isn’t a Smartsheet! (inside joke for all my colleagues who read this post)

I hope you enjoy the video below! I have watched this specific speech by Admiral William H. McRaven more than a dozen times and I have listened to it in the background numerous other times. A colleague of mine introduced this video to me earlier this year and it has positively impacted my life ever since. I have believed in this effort to do better and I try to be the most selfless person I can be by thinking of others first. We too often get caught up within our technologies and forget about the most important variable in everything we do…the people factor!

University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address - Admiral William H. McRaven

This speech and what it stands for should be at the heart of every team because of the following core principles:

• Always try to add value!
• Everything we do has a chain reaction!
• Fail forward, don't be afraid to try! If you fail just learn from your mistakes, correct them, and continue on your journey toward success.

One of the most important questions that he poses which I think is in all of our minds –

“Changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it. So, what starts here can indeed change the world, but the question is — what will the world look like after you change it?

Other inspiring advice from the admiral:

“Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core. But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.”

“Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission, is the time when you must be calm, composed — when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to bear. If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.”

“If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.” – Change is hard and organizational change is even harder and discouraging at times but you must arrive at the mindset where nobody makes a conscious decision to make people's lives harder, it does happen but ultimately the goal is to make things better! A Franklin Covey training that I took last week said that 88% percent of people believe that a change will negatively impact them so please keep that figure in your mind as you implement change and be sure to communicate the why behind the change so people can associate the reason behind it and identify the value within it.