“Indispensability:  The fact that someone or something is so good or important that you could not manage without him… her… or it.”
(Cambridge Dictionary)

Indispensability is a topic that I have considered many times as an important focus for my TRIPLE III TIME blog. Why? Mostly because I think I want/need to pass along the message of how “replaceable” we all are.

Times… products… services… situations all are facing more constant change than ever before.  And are we all ready, willing and able to change at a high rate… maybe?!

Also it is critical to recognize and understand who and/or what determines your Indispensability? You may believe that an organization can not progress and “live without you”. However, at no time can or should you consider yourself immune from job cuts, techno-replacement, AI advancements or customer priorities!

During my Director days, I tried to convey a leadership message that encouraged an Indispensability goal. That if we followed a consistent operational style of innovation and retained a personality of specialness in our area of work… that we would remain indispensable. In addition, we discussed the service principle that even when times were good and we could take a “slow-down-break”… that no matter our status…NOW was the time we needed to improve and be creative even better than before!

Bottomline: If you truly adopt a goal of attaining Indispensability in your world of service or product provision… be as innovative and operationally special as you can. Progressively convince all that work with you to adopt similar goals. And understand that “perfect” Indispensability does not exist… but it sure can be fun if you pursue it EVERYDAY!

We have all heard about and experienced the term:  Return-On-Investment…Right?  This phrase simply means:

“The return is the profit you make as the result of your investments.”

And I believe we have also directly or indirectly considered our own Return-On-Investment status…especially when it affects our pocket-book!  But today I want to shift everyone’s professional focus by changing just one word in this traditional expression.  Creatively, this TRIPLE III TIME is going to address the benefits of your:

​Return-On-PARTICIPATION!

​“The return is the PROGRESS you make as a result of your PARTICIPATION.”

My definition…but think about it!?

First whether you are meeting with someone or a group…people really do appreciate your participation in a professional discussion.  Not only do they benefit from hearing your input on the issue at hand…but you also gain greater understanding on what a person/group wants to happen and/or the best outcome given certain circumstances.

Second, there is always a gain of mutual respect that comes to you as a Return-On-PARTICIPATION result.  This return may not be directly noticeable, but will be reflected in a colleague’s discussion with others.  They may indicate that you had solid recognition of the challenge issues and offered quality responses to questions/concerns.

Finally your Return-On-PARTICIPATION may be gained through a more open opportunity to share innovation/creativity concepts.  Too often co-workers, colleagues and/or business partners are hesitant to share new ideas.  Consider how many might benefit from yourinterest in their initiative.  How progressively helpful it would be if everyone adopted a Return-On-PARTICIPATION engagement practice every time…everywhere.

Do you follow a R-O-P strategy??

Great communication is and continues to be a major focus of many TRIPLE III TIME blog messages.  Whether the communication information is delivered in-person, letter form, phone call, email, texts or via video (and I’m sure everyone could add at least one more option to this list), Choosing The “Right” Words has become a much greater challenge no matter the delivery method.

Let me explain with an example.

In my American Government & Politics classes as students prepare their weekly “Position Papers” on multiple topic areas, it is always evident that they assume I understand certain circumstances or event actions that drove the Position information that they were sharing.  Whether my communication confusion or unawareness was caused by their modern-day techno-speak…acronym over-use…slang words and/or half-sentences, the result was:  (1) a lower point score, (2) questions from me that didn’t make sense to them…or (3) too many unforeseen course assignment mis-understandings between myself and the students!  Do you see the challenges??

So if you are wondering…the bottomline for this TRIPLE III TIME message is to push the need to blend COMMON-SENSE PROFESSIONALISM into all of your communications and practice Choosing The “Right” Wordsas a critical life-skill priority everyday…EVERYDAY!

And maybe start practicing with this short TOP 10:

1. Greater people-based diversification requires greater communication simplification.
2. Attempting to please everyone with more…bigger words…may bring on more, bigger confusion.
3. Don’t ramble and thereby over explain.
4. Pick words that have common-sense understanding.
5. Don’t assume clarity…say things clearly.
6. Consider you may have only one chance to make a great point.
7. Saying less can often say much more.
8. Be sure you research who your communication audience is.
9. Minimize words that can be mis-interpreted.
10. Re-read your messages a couple of times to pay greater attention to achieving communication that bridges the age and life-style gaps.

There is a ton of Choosing The “Right” Words advice in this message…did I choose correctly?