During these change-critical times… everyone… yes EVERYONE in any type of leadership role needs a special “NO/WHAT ABOUT?” personality check!  Specifically I am recommending that you honestly assess your typical first response to a co-worker when they pose a new idea, alternate action, personnel change and/or service redesign.

Is your immediate response:  “NO… not at this time.”  Or something like:  “WHAT ABOUT cost or that thing failed in the past.”  Do these words sound even remotely accurate?

This week’s TRIPLE III TIME message is all about creating and maintaining a culture of new idea generation.  Good ideas are hard to come by!  Even if the concept is way too difficult to initiate… or too costly to the organization/business… a single “stifling-word” can eliminate a truckload of high-value unique thoughts and possible innovations!

As you complete your initial response assessment…ask these kind of questions:

• Is NO an answer of convenience and no extra leadership effort is needed?
• Are finances a true concern or is lack of money an easy hiding place for having to try something new?
• Is it really a fact that no one has tried a suggested new idea or is innovation a personal fear factor?
• Has there really been similar innovations that have failed badly?

I am going to use some of my previous words to offer my position on today’s topic:

“During these change-critical times… good ideas are hard to come by!”

Change waits for no one… so be the leader that sparks the cool change… rather than the leader who is always dreading the need to change.

First let me point out that no matter your job and/or citizen status… everyone has some form of “Professional Landscape”.  Ok… Ok… I am already assuming that most readers are identifying with those that work with designing, installing and maintaining outdoor areas and the plants that are part of making an area look great… right? To better get everyone focused let me restart this TRIPLE III TIME message by offering MY definition of “Professional Landscaping”. In my teaching/consultant world, I periodically think about the local people… geography… culture… customers… colleagues…businesses… communities that are all a part of me… and MY “Professional Landscape”!  And as I am collectively Realizing My “Professional Landscape”… I better understand and strategically take stock of impactors that somehow affect my professional situations. 

What am I referring to?  Well let’s consider a special TOP 10 Realizing My “Professional Landscape” impactors:

– Growth Source Options

– Declining Clients/Students

– Service Potential Versus Customer Volume

– Need for Innovation

– Performance Results

– Special Niche Areas

– Personal Capacities

– Rate-of-Change Factors

– Situational Uncontrollables

– Travel/Time Limitations

I guess what I’m trying to encourage…is that everyone take a moment to accurately, progressively begin Realizing YOUR “Professional Landscape”!  Think about the impacts the listed TOP 10 can make on your current job…learning ideas…network connections…you know what I mean.  Too often we don’t take the time or apply a unique approach to consider potential improvements for ourselves.  

Realizing YOUR “Professional Landscape” may be necessary at different points in your career planning…so give it a try.

Planning and preparing to be the leader/facilitator for any special event/training/presentation can and IS a professional challenge every time!

Think about it.

Quality for these occurrences is often experienced by the “little-extras” that are provided to all in attendance.  And depending on the number of individuals invited and participating in the occasion… overall preparation can be somewhat easy… or become the case for sleepless nights, irritability and/or a chronic state of being overwhelmed!

So what are the TRIPLE III TIME recommendations for easing planning/preparation strains…TRUST YOURSELF.

All the outside advice in the world will NOT resolve your concern for planning confidence… right?  Rather it may be appropriately wise to TRUST YOURSELF and apply the following:

• Use your own processional judgement on planning/prep time and effort invested.
• Relook and calculate your preparation work already supplied… and ask if you have over-projected event/training/presentation planning expectations? (Have you maybe already doubled what time will allow?)
• Prior to the activity trade chairs with attendees and decide if they could absorb a little more…be getting “just enough” or are you in the “way too much” service category?

Finally, for fun become an official timekeeper of yourself and apply some historic activity limits/expectations.  Consider college classes that recommend one-hour study/prep-time for every hour of class time.  Or car repairs that often reflect time labor costs that are similar to the overall cost of repair parts?!

Regardless…take effective and efficient steps to TRUST YOURSELF! when planning/preparing for leading/facilitating important events/trainings/or presentations. Very recently I avoided all of these common sense recommendations and drove myself crazy preparing for a consultant session.

And guess what… I did just fine.

What if the producers of the nationally known DISCOVERY CHANNEL knocked on your door and announced that “YOU” are going to be their first “WHO AM I?” special television “personality”!  Well…I would understand if your first instinct would be to quickly slam and lock the door…RIGHT?!  But for this unique TRIPLE III TIME message-moment, let’s seriously think about the knowledge, skill and experiences value of doing an adult-years self-assessment labeled:  WHO AM I?

First, I believe it would be wise to think back to your basic starting jobs and then compare those jobs to where you are today in the world of work.  Consider what learnings that you have chosen to carry-over from opportunity to new opportunity.

Do these carry-over learnings help answer:  WHO AM I?

Next review your travels, home location changes, job related movements, and what major factors have contributed to shaping you.  Do you enjoy a regular geographic and/or home ownership change?  Is/has “home” always been nearly in the same location?  Does relocation to a new town, state, suburb or forest make you excited or cause you grief?

Would the DISCOVERY CHANNEL viewers enjoy this:  WHO AM I? segment?

The final self-assessment area to utilize would be to somehow rank personal and professional areas of achievement.  For example would you assess your education status as your most important achievement factor…or your family and all the positives it brings to you.  Or what about your job credentials/positions that you have had?  Truly all of these self-assessment discoveries are critically important to accurately respond to the BIG question:  WHO AM I?

Ok…ok it is time to wake up from the DISCOVERY CHANNEL dream (or maybe nightmare) and get to the real purpose of this non-traditional TRIPLE III TIME message!

The simple III take-aways from honestly…periodically completing a WHO AM I? self-assessment are contained in this SUPER 5 DISCOVERIES list:

1. Don’t duplicate life efforts but better use all of what you have!
2. Make great choices of those individuals you surround yourself with!
3. Calculate job changes based on valued NEW learning potential.
4. Think independently as a life requirement.
5. Be accurate and honest during any self-assessment… and always be proud of discovering: WHO AM I!

It is always interesting as you “grow-up” and remember some of the special learning points shared by your parents.  One of the main directives that came from my Mom was:  “If you don’t have something good to say about someone or something… don’t say anything at all”.  I will bet a lot of readers of this TRIPLE III TIME message can remember this or some similar quote from a family leader… right?!

Well today before I get into the real important parts of this blog…I think that given our interesting times and multiple options for getting the word out… if we really followed Ma’s suggestion there may be a bit more silence in our world… do you think?!

Ok enough of that…it’s time to stress:  Finding The GOOD!

Today with our tremendous worldly expansion of communication methods and styles… it is very difficult to accurately see the various sides to every issue.  Example issue impactors may be geographic location, past experiences, local finances, regional culture, religious concerns, population ages, political beliefs… and possible a whole lot more.  The result is that only YOU personally and professionally become the key to make it a standard practice to reflect on ALL sides of particular problems/issues or actions and in so doing:  Finding The GOOD!

I will not deny that often it is very challenging to achieve Finding The GOOD! in many situations. But today let’s think about trying a few common sense TRIPLE III TIME suggestions:

• Take time to “see” a bigger picture.
• Use patience as a professional tool to see more of the situation.
• Be ready to see a view you did not think existed.
• Research other sources that you may not have used before.
• Don’t allow someone else’s short timeframes to be your only timeframes.
• Finally don’t be afraid to JUST SAY “IT”:  Possibly your “authenticity” when purposefully Finding The GOOD may be just what people need to hear.

Let me know how it works!

One of the most important continuing evolutionary factors in today’s workplace world is the challenge of innovatively Growing As A LEARNING Organization!

​“Organizational learning is the process by which an organization improve itself through gaining experience and using that experience to create knowledge. The knowledge created is then transferred within the organization. This type of learning benefits both individuals, teams and the organization as a whole. There are also positive intra-organizational benefits to this approach.”  (2025 Valanis Group)

So given this definition… let’s ask this important TRIPLE III TIME question: do you lead your group as a LEARNING organization and/or do you belong to a LEARNING organization??

In so many situations… individual learning no matter how effective… does not guarantee organizational learning.  Even when many individuals in a company are being trained well and continually…. the company as a whole doesn’t really get the greater value.  Employee networking, communicating, teaming and blending critical thinking are sometimes given only a “second thought” priority and unfortunately lessens the benefit of Growing As A LEARNING Organization.   In order to proactively respond to an always changing personal and workplace environment, more emphasis needs to be placed on cooperative thinking and experimenting with futuristic options for greater product and/or service development.

Growing As A LEARNING Organization requires an inclusive style of management and an open, progressive communication process that engages all in try–out innovativity.  Strict routines, uniform skill-sets and only “one-right-way” of operation/production… no longer fits in our fast-paced, higher-tech world of work and tomorrow’s jobs in both the public and private sectors.

We have addressed the importance of quality customer service in a number of different ways within multiple blog segments over our TRIPLE III TIME years. But as I considered how limited the prior messages were and how non-personalized my improvement recommendations felt… I believe I fell a little short of what “MAXIMIZED” Customer Service should represent in our highly competitive 2025 (and beyond) marketplace.

Think about it.

Whether the customer is looking for the right nails, food, car, job, consultant advice, appliances, crop fertilizer, co-worker support, employment service and the list is endless… it is way past the critical time to enhance and begin universally providing a much more personalized approach to customer service.

Maybe there are already a large group of professionals that do this, but I want to ask:  do we take the appropriate customer service time to ask:  WHAT/WHY/HOW questions about the product/service being sought… or do we just react with traditional/convenient responses?

Taking the time to discuss past product/service experiences, planned use, one-time or long-term need, research completed on options/opportunities and/or the situation requiring a possible unique/creative customer service approach…can totally drive a “MAXIMIZED” Customer Service style!

Bottomline: I believe adopting a solid “MAXIMIZED” Customer Service (Beyond: “Can I help you?”) professional habit will result in greater confidence, partnerships, respect and RETURN CUSTOMER occurrences for you and/or your marketplace.  Gain the necessary insight into this development objective… and then go progressively forward.

If someone had told me that I would be penning TRIPLE III TIME-Inspiring Innovations “Catablog” messages for more than one-five-ten years… “I would have laughed them out of the joint!”  Yet with D.S. and J.B’s strong, continuing skills and support… we are now Beginning Our 12th Year!

Although each weekly message (1,144 so far)…was/is special in its own way, our major topic principles have remained constant: Leadership ALWAYS!, Developing YOU!, Communication LIVES!, and Innovation NOW! When I chose these high-value topics in the beginning… I simply picked professional development action areas that were most important to me. And thankfully after eleven years, I believe they have served us all well.

So now after that quick, fun trip down memory lane… it is time to share the first TRIPLE III TIME message for 2025. Plus in staying with my favorite format for message delivery, here is my TOP 10 Beginning Our 12th Year! priority action list:

1. Create/Invent/Innovate something every chance you get.
2. Read a meaningful book… completely during the year.
3. Send a totally random “Thank You” note to a friend/colleague/family member… maybe every three (3) months.
4. Begin making NEW donations (time or money) for a worthy cause.
5. No matter your/their age… mentor someone to help them professionally grow.
6. Arrive extra early and/or stay late at your workplace at least once per week.
7. Tell someone you are proud of them for one of their professional development actions…because it matters.
8. Keep a log of non-traditional personal or organizational growth efforts you are part of. (Keeping “score” will encourage you to do more.)
9. Make “Always Fresh” a workplace/work performance an everyday theme.
10. Finally, please use my first NINE (9) priority action list items to be your “LEAD BY EXAMPLE” professional development standards everyday… EVERYDAY!

Lets have a fun, cool new year.

This last week one of my current American Government &Politics class members submitted a weekly Position Paper entitled:  Homework Does NOT Increase Learning.  Well I decided quickly she was a top candidate for making it a class presentation/discussion topic.  And it was very evident that she was proud of her topic selection and even prouder of her opportunity to share her thoughts and “Position” on the homework issue.

As you can guess, the rest of the class voted unanimously in favor of her idea to eliminate homework for students in all grades.  But you will also not be surprised that when I cast my vote…I included a statement that I thought it was a very short-sighted, creativity limiting and professional-growth delaying concept.  The resulting class discussion was very good!  And in the end I truly believe that everyone understand that dependent on one’s approach…Progressive “HOMEWORK” could be a better mindset.  So to correctly continue this important re-learning opportunity…this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message is kind of a reminder that homework…Progressive “HOMEWORK” can and should be a continuous improvement component of every workplace.

Think about it.

If you want to stay “up with the times” research homework may be a suitable responsibility.  Or if you are looking at new/different hi-tech ways of changing your business/agency marketing…Progressive HOMEWORKon what is most effective might be timely.  Or if you need to upgrade your professional credentials…to possible apply for a new/different job…Progressive HOMEWORKwould be a natural action to build your new life/work plan!

Maybe we all don’t think about daily life/work challenges and the Progressive HOMEWORK that we complete to improve?!  But if not before…today please be proud of and take credit for the professional advancements you achieve based on the Progressive HOMEWORK you complete everyday…EVERYDAY!