Category Archives: Triple III
TRIPLE III TIME: Pay Attention To The “Little Things”!
Guess what? This final 2023 TRIPLE III TIME blog message represents 10 years…yes a decade of sharing leadership, communication, professional development, innovation and sometimes personal special topic discussions. Since January of 2014, every Friday Jessie, Deanna and I work together to make sure each weekly (hopefully) inspirational posting is placed online for all to see.
Has it been challenging…YES. Has it been fun…YES. Do I feel it’s time to quit?…NO!
So as we conclude 2023…and together comprehend this large number of TRIPLE III TIME messages (520 to be exact)…I want to encourage everyone to: Pay Attention To The “Little Things” by way of a unique TIMELESS TWELVE. Specifically, I want you to think about when “Little Things” become BIG! Here are the TIMELESS TWELVE examples:
- When you realize that someone or a group has replicated a special idea/activity that you created.
- When an old picture has new meaning…just when it was almost thrown away.
- When you realize having people tell their career story is needed from all age groups…to all age groups.
- When a void is felt when you did not return a call…and the person is no longer around.
- When you realize pure creativity and innovation ispossible for everyone…anytime.
- When you reach back to a colleague from 30 years ago…ask for help…and they just ask when and where.
- When playing with crayons or simple building blocks with a child becomes cool…again.
- When an individual fondly remembers and reports the special help you gave them many years ago.
- When you experience teamwork as a favorite organizational past-time.
- When you get to spend extra quality time with an aging parent…who understands their limitations.
- When everyone views “retirement” as just an alternate/NEW way for a person to contribute.
- When people proudly and regularly seek your counsel, advice and suggestions as a friend, co-worker and/or professional.
I hope everyone gives each of these TIMELESS TWELVE… Pay Attention To The “Little Things” examples some individual focus. So much to gain!
We will start 2024 next week.
TRIPLE III TIME: Be the GROWTH Example
“Bravery is not something we’re born with, but something we grow into and learn as we progress through life. However it is much harder to be brave if we believe that the person we are now is the same person we will always be. A GROWTH mind-set is the thing that allows us to be brave in the face of adversity. It’s our brains way of encouraging us to love a challenge-here’s a chance to learn!” (GREAT TED TALKS-Leadership by Harriet Minter)
This thoughtful paragraph written by Ms. Minter says an awful lot…in just a few sentences. Do you see/read what I mean?
In the first sentence Harriet tried to make the point that one must be patient and not to expect to be immediately “all-knowing” no matter your age. GROWTH comes to us as we move through our daily lives…so maybe we need to slow down and become a little more aware of all the diverse learning activities going on around us and maximize their progressive potential!
Next, she recommended that we not be afraid of GROWTH through adversity. Rather Ms. Minter indicates that approaching adversity through bravery is just natures way of challenging us and opening up new opportunities for us to learn.
(Now go back and read her quote again. What is YOUR take-away from these words?)
My biggest TRIPLE III TIME take-away from this great TED TALKS excerpt…is that it is forever critical to Be The GROWTH Example! Too often people shy away from life’s challenges and very much lose the personal and professional GROWTH elements contained in every one. Her paragraph also gives us a different “OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME” scenario…and suggests that if you don’t approach life’s challenges with bravery…you may never get that OPPORTUNITY again.
TRIPLE III TIME: Quality COMMUNICATION Management (QCM)
People in all areas of their lives often are concerned about how well they communicate. Whether it is with family members, co-workers, students, friends or colleagues in their career field… Quality COMMUNICATION Management (QCM) is a critical, priority concern.
Today more than ever before, I believe the greatest challenge in the area of high quality communication is the diversity of communication options. Think about it. Tweets, emails, phone calls, letters, texts, podcasts, FaceTime, in-person meetings and other social media-isms…make the objective of delivering a complete and informative message understandably difficult.
So what’s the III self-help answer: Complete a Quality COMMUNICATION Management (QCM)assessment/evaluation! What do I mean?
My “official” QCM Assessment/Evaluation calls for a periodic “Test of 3” in specific communication areas. For example:
- Take 3 email examples and determine if they are complete messages or just “blips” of what you want to say.
- Take 3 cell phone messages and determine if the discussion assumes the call receiver knows everything you expect they do.
- Take 3 formal letters you have written/sent and assess them for purpose, content, receiver expectations and timeliness.
- Take 3 meeting agendas that you have utilized in recent in-person meetings and evaluate them for main topic(s), use of personnel time and outcomes.
- Take 3 virtual training session recordings and measure your learning points, questions asked and knowledge obtained.
Conducting multi-media Quality COMMUNICATION Management (QCM) assessments/evaluations is very…VERY IMPORTANT in today’s world. Use the five questions in this TRIPLE III TIME message as starter points…then create your own measuring sticks. And go ahead be critical…it will only make you better!
TRIPLE III TIME: Know Your Role
Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles within my worlds of work! For example, I have worked as a:
- Youth Advisor
- Asphalt Truck Driver
- Farmhand
- Bowling Machine Repairman
- Insurance Inspector
- Sports Store Salesperson
- Program Planner
- Director
- Consultant
- Adjunct Faculty
- Adult Program Placement Worker
- Board Member
In almost every situation a job description was available to help one: “Know Your Role?” However in most workplaces, I will admit that I was able to quietly model my role somewhat in a way that not only benefitted the employer…but also allowed me to customize my job role and thereby heighten my product/services contributions. And although there are other concepts I would like to cover and explain their positive learning lesson values…but not this week.
For this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message I want to share my “Know Your Role?” thoughts that come from both my employee and employer experiences. Here are my Serious 6!
First, DON’T assume or attempt to read your supervisor’s mind about your role. You will be incorrect most of the time…so just ask! Second, know your limitations. Don’t make performance role promises you can’t keep. Starting a lot of projects is cool…but not finishing them is a problem. Third, be a continuous “job student”. The more you know about what you are doing…the better you will do it. Fourth, go ahead and “over-do” role tasks for qualities sake. If it means more money sometimes…AOK…but don’t excel only for the money. Fifth, don’t change how things are done just because they are not done how you think they should be. Listen more and create a “I can show you” role situation. Finally, learn to remember those things that could be done better…especially in the treatment of workers role. Why…so when YOU become boss and “Know Your Role?”…YOU will do things better.
TRIPLE III TIME: “Practicing What YOU Preach!”
First let me admit that taking on this topic message: “Practicing What YOU Preach!” has been avoided for quite some time. Why? Maybe because I am not the best…most complete listener that I preach everyone should be?! Or maybe I take calculated risks more often and maybe more risky risks than I would admit to in some of my weekly TRIPLE III TIME blog messages. However, no matter my position, the professional value in this life-long statement of wisdom is regularly accepted across everyone’s workplace and life situations.
Therefore, in order to give “Practicing What YOU Preach!” its full TRIPLE III TIME notoriety, here is a customized TOP 10 that I am sure will hit-home with many:
1. Are you giving someone else’s good idea a real, solid chance?
2. Are you revising your stance that just because your best way worked 15 years ago…it may not be the best way today?
3. Are you giving employees, partners, customers, co-workers, family…a second or third chance?
4. Are you not being immediately defensive when questioned about an action you took?
5. Are you accepting change as standard-business activity?
6. Are you not preparing an answer in your mind…before you hear the whole story?
7. Are you really getting things done ahead of schedule…or are old reminders still necessary?
8. Are you still ignoring quality research and data that says your cool idea isn’t cool?
9. Are you limiting your techno-time or are you now addicted to social media?
10. Oh yeah…are you listening better and more completely everyday…EVERYDAY?
I am sure you are looking in the mirror when you ask yourself the question are you “Practicing What YOU Preach?” about these or other questions. Who knows…honesty may show up.
Have fun with this TRIPLE III TIME exercise!
TRIPLE III TIME – This Semester’s Priority: COMMUNICATION
This week is Spring semester class start-up at our community college. Remember, I teach two classes each semester and my single specific instruction area is American Government & Politics. As you can guess this is a fun, great, diverse course and between the two classes I have about 30 students in total.
One of my traditions every semester is to identify an individual professional development priority for everyone to improve on as a person and as a student. This Semester’s Priority: Communication was received with a good number of why…what…when…where…and how questions. Their concerns were not a surprise but my answer seemed to add up to a very important TRIPLE III TIME message.
Here are some summary bullet points of what I told them:
- Communication…good communication skills are the most important transferable skills…for EVERYTHING!
- Communication…good communication skills can open many opportunity doors…bad communication skills will close them.
- Communication…good communication in whatever form will cause you to be invited back for many progress opportunities.
- Communication…good communication defeats gossip.
- Communication…good communication can help you make a positive difference for yourself and others.
Well I could tell that my good communication discussions were reaching the “this is too much” for the first class level. However, for this TRIPLE III TIME message remember: (1) Communication has to happen so make it good, (2) Be aware of your own Communication strengths and weaknesses, (3) Make quality Communication part of your organizations culture, and (4) Help everyone understand THEY own their Communication…so THEY should make it the best everyday…EVERYDAY!
LEARNING MOMENTS Podcast: Everything-to-Everyone Leadership
I believe it is important to start our new year 2023 out right by offering a message related to one of our principal topic areas: LEADERSHIP. If you look at the title: Everything-to-Everyone Leadership, you get the introduction idea of the challenge I am going to address. And like many LEARNING MOMENTS we discuss, there are no perfect answers to this expectation dilemma.
However as you listen closely to the podcast, I try to offer at least a workable idea to improve every Everything-to-Everyone Leadership event.
Enjoy the listen.
TRIPLE III TIME: Using OTHER PEOPLES Time Wisely
Time management is a regular personal and professional challenge that is felt in every life/work area. In fact as a unique testimonial to this issue, as I question young adults in my American Government & Politics classes about their greatest obstacles as college students, time management always makes it to the top of the problem list.
Well not surprisingly there are different workshops and online help sites that are designed to improve your ability to time manage. These options are a benefit in many cases, however I believe that no one gives the “art” of great time management the appropriate attention it deserves. Also, I can report that regardless of the consultant session topic I am recruited to train on… “help us a little with time management ideas” is always a request.
However, today this TRIPLE III TIME message reverses the responsibility for improving time management. Specifically we are going to look at the question: Are YOU Using OTHER PEOPLES Time Wisely?
Give that question some real…honest thought.
In your job as a foreman, employment counselor, teacher, division manager, corporate trainer (and the list goes on), do YOU take steps to use peoples time wisely?
Recently I was at an organizational update session with a series of people assigned 15-20 minutes to deliver their information. Guess what…over half got their information out in less than 10 minutes…but did they add another 10 minutes of non-important “filler” just to feel that they did a complete job??? YES!!!
Bottomline: When you think about helping people around you improve their time management skills…stop and look in the mirror too. Ask yourself if your communication practices/efforts are solidly Using OTHER PEOPLES Time Wisely (because it’s a two-way street).
And you know what I mean.
TRIPLE III TIME: Strengths & WeaknessesTRIPLE III TIME:
Every semester at the end of each American Government & Politics class the students and I conduct an “informal assessment” of the course. I ask questions like:
- Were the tests fair?
- Should we have used the book more?
- Were the weekly assignments too much?
-
Were the guest presenters good/have valuable ideas/concepts?
The results are always insightful, discussion-worthy and helpful as I plan for future class sessions.
This year I added one more discussion question to the list. As a student…what is your greatest strength… and then your biggest weakness? Here are a few examples of their answers.
There were several others but many could be combined with any one of these. Then “out-of-the-blue” one student asked: “What is your major strength and weakness?”
Well to say that I was caught off guard is probably an understatement…but I knew they wanted an answer!
![Image[11149]](https://inspiringinnovationsinc.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image11149.jpeg)
The weakness I stated was that: “I am the most impatient person you will meet because I expect it done yesterday”. And on the strength side I said: “I practice innovation and believe there is always a better way of doing a job…any job… everyday…EVERYDAY!”
I believe I gave them the answer they were looking for but then I asked: “Why is the strength/weakness question important?” Silence…no comments.
I concluded the class by telling them that they should plan for a question about personal strengths and weaknesses every time they interview for a job. That today more than ever before companies/organizations are looking for people that can add-value to their service or product. And how you answer this question could make a real difference in your future.
I think they will do fine! But what about YOU…could you answer the strength/weakness question with confidence?
TRIPLE III TIME: Where Do YOU Fall On The Request For Advice/Input/Help “Scale”?
This week we are going to discuss an issue that impacts EVERYONE…as leaders, parents, co-workers, friends…EVERYONE! I can’t say that we are asking about a personality trait or something that was learned as you grew up. But this TRIPLE III TIME message is all about: Where Do YOU Fall On The Request For Advice/Input/Help “Scale”?
Ok, let me explain the question a little better.
When someone at home or in your workplace brings up an issue that they are having trouble dealing with…are you:
- The “Advice God” with the absolute right answer every time?
- The “Critical Evaluator” that criticizes all that someone has tried to do?
- The “Forever Analyst” that just believes taking more assessment time is best?
- The “There Are Many Other Issues Confuser” that makes the issue more complex than need be?
OR
- The “Quiet Listener” that hears the whole story but says nothing?
- The “Did You Try This Suggester” that has unlimited ideas one can consider?
- The “My Experience Tells Me Teacher” that only considers a historic action?
- The “I Will Help Volunteer” that uses partnerships for progress?
My guess is that we have all experienced people in our daily lives that fits into one or more of these categories…but again where are YOU on the Advice/Input/Help Scale?
Well I will admit that there have been times and issues when I have fit into any one of the eight Scale examples. Why? Because it is the ISSUE that most often draws out the Scale option in you. However, the goal of this TRIPLE III TIME message is to help everyone examine their Advice/Input/Help Scale style and be better choosers of Scale options as issues come up. Is it easy…NO…but will it help build quality partnerships and better product/service outcomes…YES!
Inspiring Innovations, Inc. 