5 Things to do this year (Again)

Hallo to everybody again.

It's been quite some time since my last post. 6 months have passed with many things that happened and that kept me away from this Blog.

During these holidays though I read a bit and this picture made me remind the post I wrote 1 year ago (Things to do in 2014).

Were my resolutions also completely missed?

Curiosity killed the cat and I went immediately to check.
The answer was: yes and no.

I had listed targets so generic that could not be measured (except some quite general things) so, sorry to say, these were not resolutions nor things to do.
These were only good will thoughts.

In that list I made most of the mistakes that people can make when writing down such lists.

- The target was too far or not clear. Exercising is a nice thing. How much and to reach which level is something that people must have in mind. The result is that today I gained some kilos although I made more exercise than last year
- There is no idea of the consequences of these things. In a word, as these are things we never experienced before we cannot predict how better we will feel when these will be reached. And then, why should we suffer to get there?

What happened in reality was that I met people that changed a lot of small things in my life. I must really thank all of them (and I normally do personally) because today I am probably better than last year.
This is my first thing.
1) THANK PEOPLE THAT ARE DOING GOOD THINGS TO YOU. I hope I will meet more and more people that will be important to make me a better person.

On the other hand I have also questioned some people and found myself completely upset for some decisions. Paralelly then
2) TELL PEOPLE YOU DISAGREE BUT NEVER TAKE IT PERSONAL (...if it's not personal). This is something I need to work a lot, expecially not to "overheat" and to keep my pressure down.

In the last months the time that was left for myself was really minimal. I decided to spend it with my family, my children and my "better half". I neglected some of the things that I loved to do though but that I considered less important.
But now it's the time to
3) DO ONE THING YOU NEVER DID BEFORE. It doesn't matter if it's learning a new language, do paragliding, walk on top of the Himalaya or run the New York Marathon. Just find one thing and work to do it.

This will not be very simple as I am often travelling. My job, that I love, brings me a lot around the world, meeting different cultures in different places and keeping me away from my family.

Now, though, it's time to share some of this with them so
4) SPEND SOME DAYS WITH YOUR BELOVED ONES IN A SPECIAL PLACE. There are a lot of places that I visited and inspired me a special "flavour" to share with my family. Just pick one...

Last one, that seems obvious but it's not (at least it was not for me in this 2014)
5) LOOK AFTER YOURSELVES. If your body tells you something's wrong check it immediately. "What is always speaking silently is the body." Listen to it. Do not take it as granted.

That's all for today.

See you soon
Ciao

It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.

Florence, a 27 years old guy uses Twitter to tell everybody he's quite annoyed because this summer he will stay home.

His name is Giuseppe Rossi; typical italian name. 

There are thousands of Giuseppe Rossi in Italy but this one is different.

He's gifted. He was born in the US, his parents being from southern Italy, and he came back to Parma when he was 12. One year later he started his career. He's a football player.

Parma, Manchester when he was 17, Newcastle, Parma again and then Villareal and Florence.

An expatriate like thousands of italians in the early 19th hundreds that had to motivate himself and always proof he was good enough to be there.

When he starts at Manchester he's playing with Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Diego Forlan, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs just to name some.

A lot to learn, a lot to fight.

But he's gifted. He's a striker and he can score. He scores a lot of goals both in his team and in the National team. In 2008 after his 1st injury, a meniscus broken, he's 21 and he's preparing for his 1st World Championship. 

That's THE EVENT. 

A player has probably the possibility to play two World cups. A good one three. 

16 players could play four editions, 2 played five.

Giuseppe is 21. He has 10 years at least in front of him. 10 years are 3 World Cups.

But Marcello Lippi, a semi-god after he won the 2006 edition, decides it's not his time yet. 

He stays home and Italy comes quickly back from South Aftica after one of the worst world cup ever for the team.

For the 2012 European championship though there is a new Italy manager, Prandelli, that thinks Giuseppe must play.

He's now playing for Villareal. 32 goals in one season and he's the top scorer ever for the Yellow submarines, so is Villareal known for its yellow shirts. The first "human player" after the two aliens Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi that play for super teams though. Real and Barça.

That's what Italy needs to remember another Rossi, Paolo Rossi, that brought us to the top of the world in Spain 1982.

26/10/2011, Madrid. During Real Madrid vs Villareal a ligament of his knee breaks. 6 months out. There's still time though for the Euro Cup in Summer 2012. But the recovery will be long and tough.

Giuseppe is a strong guy though. He went around the world since he was 12 and he lost his father few months earlier. He had to do it for him.

The day after his ligament was back and now 6 months of pain. Out of the pitch for the recovery.

Winter goes by quickly and in April Giuseppe is ready again. But it's not over yet.

The 12th of April he's doing his training and... crack. Same knee, same ligament. 6 more months out.

This would have killed everybody's hope.

But Giuseppe is strong. And Fiorentina thinks he can do it and although he's still out, signs him for the 2013/2014 season.

And he's back on duty on August 2013. Goal to Catania. Then 2 goals to Genoa, 3 to Juventus and 2 to Sampdoria.

He's the usual Pepito, the nickname that was given to him when in Spain was one of the top scorers.

5th January 2014.

 

A tackle and his knee goes bad again. 4 months out.

I think that you must ask yourself why this is happening.

What "God of the football" you have insulted to make him hating you so much. Where you can find the strength to restart, again, for the 3rd time in 3 years. Always alone in a team game.

Resilience. Giuseppe has got a lot of it. And a lot of motivation.

Football world cup in Brasil is waiting for him. Football at the top level and he deserves to be there.

He's back again on May and ends the season with an impressive 16 goals in 24 games.

He's on the 30 players of the Italian team that will be shortlisted to 23.

On June 2nd the final list. Giuseppe is not there because he's not been considered ready after the last injury and he tells everybody he does not agree.

He will probably have his last chance in Russia in 2018.

Cheer up Giuseppe!!! You'll do it.

Ah... I could not run the Cortina Dobbiaco last week. 

6 months of training and 600km gone. My meniscus was broken. The little devil won but I'll try again next year. I will have much more chances than Pepito to do it.

Have a nice week end

The little devil

Just one week to the Cortina-Dobbiaco.
Just one week to the 30km that I am preparing for the last three months.
To be ready and ENJOY a great run among one of the most beautiful landscape in the world.
The "Tre cime di Lavaredo"

And the Lake of Dobbiaco

will be the great environment where I will try and finish my 1st 30km run.

These last weeks has been quite tough. Even though I traveled a lot (and I really mean A LOT) I tried to keep following the training I had to do, to be able and ready to finish the race.
Wake up calls early in the morning to go out and have my 15/18 km before breakfast or late runs have been the normal things in the last weeks. And now...
Last Sunday I had a problem on my knee that made me stop training and that is seriously threatening the possibility to run.
This is the "little devil" that became big. Veeery big.
Who's the little devil?
I call "little devil" the voice that is inside you every time you want to do something different, something bigger, something outside the "normal stuff". Every time I want to be different and to change something I have this voice that tells me... stop doing this Ale... keep on doing the good old way!

That's the feeling you have, when you're 2 km away from the end of the training. A hard one. And everything inside you says "stop, you have done enough".

Training, to me, is also if not MAINLY to be able to resist to these voices. Much more difficult to resist to temptations

The little devil is trying to leave things as they are, trying to stop you doing the extra mile.

That's valid on sports as well as on life.
This is the same voice that stop people going outside the comfort zone. To really understand what they can do and what they are. To do everything they can do (and this can be a lot!)

To make people dividing the "ME" from "I". What I must do (for example because it's my job) from what I really am. In a word, stopping people being happy because they understand what they really want to be.

But beware.
The solution is not being deaf to the little devil. Not covering his voice with other louder voices.

The solution is to learn NOT to follow the voice. Not to keep the status quo and take a step forward.

Don't stop moving forward. Don't listen to your little devil.
I hope my knee will not listen to him too

Have a nice week end

"Always pass on what you have learned." 5 good tips from Master Yoda

These days are quite hectic and full of things to do.

In this big flow of information, targets, flights and small things and with so little hours to sleep and rest I must admit I have thought about my Blog very little this week.

In reality when I woke up this morning, feeling a little bit like Sting waking up again in his clothes (sorry for this parallel that might seem a little presumption but look at this please...)

I had no idea on what to talk about this morning.

Then, a new friend of mine, saved my day. We were talking about the types of protections that men are creating to protect themselves.

Anger, Hate, Fear and Suffering.

That's quite close to what one of the characters that I loved most, used to say. Master Yoda.

I have then to pick 5 of his best quotes, the 5 that I think can give good pieces of advice to everybody.

Ah, I could not find who was the screenwriter for Yoda's part. It should be Lawrence Kasdan but I am not sure. What I am sure about is that he has created a gem on the cinema world.

1) Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

This is one of the basis of the psychology. We create an artificial shield to protect ourselves from what we fear and make us suffer. We need to understand what we are fearing and build a positive shield not to destroy but to positively channel the anger and not let the things go to the wrong direction.

In a word... Be a Jedi

2) (Luke) I can't believe it. (Yoda) That's why you fail

This idea was also taken by Guy Kawasaki on the video I posted on last week (see my Marketing in the facebook era Post)

To take step forwards you must "Believe to see" not "See to believe". Only if you fully trust on your ideas you'll reach the goal you've in mind.

3) If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are... a different game you should play

This, together with the next one, is the basic of what you need to get out of your comfort zone. It is impossible to go out of what you do, always, and make no mistake. People learn from mistakes. 

No mistake, nothing to learn. You're still in your backyard.

4) You must unlearn what you have learned

Again, that's the basic of moving to the next level. It's like if you're doing a sport since when you were a child. Nobody taught you how to do it. This happened to me with tennis. I am not a good player but I took some lessons with a master that changed some aspects of my game. I was getting worse instead of improving. Then after having practiced I became being better, and better and better.

To move on the next level you need to be prepared to do that, even if this mean to change what you've done since you were born.

5) TRY NOT. Do or do not. There is no try

This is by far my favorite. Don't be stopped by your fear of not being able to make it. The fear is just a screen that is between yourself and what you want to do.

Delete the "I'll do my best approach" and replace it with "I will do this".

That's all for today. I wish you a great Jedi week.

Ah, sorry... also the title was a quote from Yoda. Actually I found 6 good quotes and I did not want to skip one. I used that as a title but it is as important as the others.

Ciao

The little Chemist

It's spring!
Finally the temperature is going better and the days, after a very long wet period, are starting being more pleasant.
The garden is then the natural place to spend the day. The first two days though are used to bring it back to a "proper shape". It's not only cutting the grass but trying to get rid of all the things that were put outside during winter (you do not wish to go out in winter at out temperatures).

In doing this you suddenly realize the real essence of our economy today...

We got rid of an entire big bag of games that, I am sure, my children used veeeery little. Then suddenly this video came to my mind.

99% of the things that are moved around the US is TRASHED AFTER 6 MONTHS!!!
I do not think Europe is so different.

But why is this happening? Is it just a question of buying useless things?

I am sure that whoever has got children agrees that they much more than what they can enjoy. They are simply getting more than what they really need.

This comes from a "natural" reason.
Two of the chemicals that are responsible for the "feelings", the Seratonine and the Oxitocine, are generated by growing the sense of "relationship" and "feeling of love and trust".
In reality these are chemicals that we have since thousand years and their main target was to keep us alive favoring the "sense of belonging to a group" and making the group healthy i.e. having always food and protecting themselves from dangers.
And today it is artificially generated. One of the ways is to give presents, to give something regardless is needed.
It is somehow like the famous quote of the movie "The Devil's Advocate" where Al Pacino, describing love, was saying "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate."
So today we are BIOCHEMICALLY simulating a atavic behavior giving presents 99% of which are thrown in a bin in 6 months.
And in our environment, this is even more required as the Fantastic 4 chemicals (Endorphins, Dopamine, Seratonine and Oxitocine) are always fighting against...

CORTISOL that is generated by the stress and anxiety

The original function of Cortisol was in reality to raise our attention and pump sugars in our muscles either to fight or to run.
Good if you are in a forest some thousand of years ago.
Good if it happens once every now and then.
Not good if stress is continuous.

So, among the usual bad feelings, the usual sleepless nights, the usual problems that stress is generating we are also trying to generate some "good chemicals" to fight it by doing the WRONG THINGS.

And we go back to the usual point.

Life is simple. It's just about doing what you REALLY like with the people you REALLY like. Doing it well and enjoy it. But most of all, do good things for people that is around you at work and at home. Create a sense of safety and trust.

Do not try to artificially feel well. It's not working on the long run and does not help yourself.

Music is also a good way to grow one of the Fantastic 4.
That's my favorite song (and also my children's) these days .

Enjoy
Have a great week

Everybody's got a weapon of choice

Quigley down under

I don't know how many of you have ever seen that movie.

It is some years old and tells the story of Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck), a cowboy and sharpshooter from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is a customized 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle. He answers a newspaper advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long-distance shooting with four words, "M. Quigley 900 yards," written on a copy of the advertisement, punctuated by several closely spaced bullet holes.

Once he moved to Australia, he grew his reputation (and his problems) thanks to his rifle.

And this is one of the main scene when the villain, Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting.

"I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it."

Although it is true that you cannot be everthing for everybody you cannot forget the "business as usual", the gunfight for a cowboy, and keep well alive what generates the most of your business. 

But the only way to develop is to understand who you want to be. And the decision has to come both from listening but most of all from the ideas and your DNA.

The importance of listening is clear as well as the importance of implementing the signs you get from the market.

But this will not ensure you the development. You will be another one using the gun. Maybe a good one, maybe one of the best but still, one of the big group.

Unless you are very lucky, from the market you will be getting info about products as usual, i.e. what is available on the market with some minimal changes.

Everybody knows that, these kind of things only give you benefit on the short term. 

Great to keep your bread and butter alive. But not great to really differentiate on the market.

We should learn to listen and drive the discussion on a high level never entering into the specific points because, once you are drilling down too much you will simply look at the details. 

Looking at the reason why on that specific case you could not succeed. 

Looking at what was missing productwise or servicewise typical of a "me too" approach. 

And it is hard to change the world looking at the details and having a "me too" approach.

Giant steps forward will be made changing things because in today's market everybody's gaining access to everything. The old tactic of opening new market is today less and less winning as the new markets to sell the "usual things" are less and less.

So...

-To change things you cannot (only) listen to your customers although this will ensure you the day by day business.

-Knowing the process is the only way to dramatically change things. So, again, expertise, skills and some degree of risk are necessary.

-Ideas are ultimately worthless unless you activate them with focused and consistent actions

-Be the best on somehting and make people knowing you for that.

-Do not forget bread and butter. You may need that sooner or later.

Have a nice week

History SHOULD teach us nothing

Europe has been one of the main actor of the last 1500 years of history. Within Europe, Italy played an important role throughout the different times starting from the Roman empire, going through the Venetian republic and the importance of Florence in the Renaissance.
That's history and this is what has heavily shaped our italian (and European) culture up to today.

Facts are that Italy has the highest number of UNESCO sites included my beloved Dolomites (and I'd better not start talking about the wasted potential of this as only 4% of our GDP comes from tourism) and some of the laws, rules and habits are a direct consequence of what our beloved Roman ancestors discussed a couple of thousand years ago.

Everything has been already seen and tried and checked... as the great Shirley Bassey said, HISTORY REPEATING.

We have 2000 years of history!!!

And we know why things cannot work.
We know everything that has been already tried and why this is not going to generate what we expect. Therefore we need to find something new, something new out of very little choices since everything has been already tried.
This is what I call the "WHY NOT" syndrome. It is a very European type of syndrome as we come from a very "conservative" colture.
It is spreading everywhere and it's mainly appearing when salesmen are doing their presentations. Things changes though. Sometimes people that do not have experience have an advantage. They are free to do things without prejudice and preconceived ideas.

A salesman must be a visionary, someone with hope and dreams. Someone that is trying to break the current status quo trying to find something different.

Different countries
Different customers
Different solutions
Different products

And the hope, the dream and the optimistic approach are the main driver to make them spending hours in a plane or in a car, away from their families and their hobbies.

There are little things that can destroy this. It is like putting some sand into the gears. Little things that are making the whole system break down.
And the "WHY NOT" people are the worst enemies. People that already know that "it'll not work because..."

It's always easy to say that things will not work without saying HOW TO DO TO MAKE THEM WORK.

This is the basic driver for a salesman (and not only for a salesman). We must think it will work.

If we do our best to convince people that they can't succeed we will easily make it happen. With a bad result for the company.

Things changes and things have changes. Do not worry to try again and to risk. Don't take history as unique driver for your choice.

Challenge the "WHY NOT PEOPLE" proving that YOU CAN DO THINGS.
Being in the winter olympic period, follow this

Take your shot. And score.

Have a nice week end

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.

I would really like to be a good father to my children and a good husband to my wife.

Quite a difficult task when you are spending half of your day phisically at work (being in reality more than 3/4 of the time in which you are awake) and some of the rest mentally at work.
In this difficult task, to try and spend as much time as possible with my children, I drive them to school.
With my little princess, 5 years old, I must also enter into the school and I help wearing her smock and getting ready for the day.
In that very moment also the school bus arrives and my daughter's school mates enter as well and start getting ready.
They do everything themselves and what is always funny is that, if I ask anybody if they need help, they challenge staring at me and, after a "no thanks" meaning "I am good enough to do it myself", they show me how good they are.
They simply learnt to do it properly since every morning they must do that themselves. And if I ask my daughter to do it she is simply telling me "mmmm daddy, can you help me?" exactly in the way that you cannot say no.

This came into my mind while driving to the office.

The radio was giving the usual bad news telling that some companies are closing and hundreds of workers risk to be made redundant therefore help is required to the government to try and help their case.
Sad thing, clearly. But how much is this our fault?

If on one side the companies, once they settle somewhere, MUST have a corporate social responsibility on the other side they must continue their business in a sound and healty way.

If one plant or company is not going well this cannot make the whole ship sinking.

In reality a government should be able to protect workers by making the working and investment environement suitable and appealing for the companies. In a word, by making the country competitive as the companies that are in the country should be.
Currently, unfortunately, what we are doing to to protect the workers is subisiding them and the companies and, to me, this is a big mistake.

This means we are financing the inefficiencies instead of financing the SOLUTIONS to the inefficiencies.
In an office environement, this would mean to continuously hire people instead of improving the process.
Quite difficult to imagine if you are an investor or entrepreneur.

It is not something that can be done overnight. I know.
We are, or better, we have been experiencing a deep change in the economy and in the markets. But it seems we haven't realized that. We must really start realizing that the "lifetime job" will probably not be the standard in the future.
It will definitely not disappear but it will not be the norm as it was.

So, how should we react to that?
This will not be easy. It will need first a change of attitude and mind.

So...
1) STUDY!!! Always!!! Look around, listen and be curious
2) Understand what we are goot at
3) Do not give up. Elvis was told to go back driving his truck instead of sing!
4) Be the best salesman of yourself!

Do not trust people that say they have the secret for the success. There is no SINGLE SECRET FOR THE SUCCESS.
Look for someone that can be a teacher, someone that you trust and that care you. Someone to tell you how to wear your smock at school but that let you do it yourself.


But remember

So, I would like to propose a change to the old saying I put on the title.

What do you think about...

It is not 100% mine I admit, but I liked that very much. UNDERSTAND-LEARN-SELL

Ciao and have a great week end

It's a kind of magic

"The sculpture is already into the block of marble. The artist must only free it."

This is what Michelangelo used to say in the 15th century and this is what he managed to do ONLY freeing the sculpture from the marble block.

Nice one, isn't it?
We could say that also nice paintings are trapped into the pencil or the brush and the artist's task is "just" to take them from there to the canvas.

But how?

These are both paintings. YES! Even the first one that looks like photography.

The painter in that case is Diego Fazio a.k.a. Diego Koi while the second one is, as most probably all of you recognized, Pablo Picasso.
What's the difference then? Not that the Picasso woman got stuck while going out of the pen, but the WAY people are using their talent and skills is different. What's behind these skills is always difficult to understand. And it's not only the 10.000 hour rule saying that takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to acheve mastery in a field (see "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell)

They are, in my humble opinion, both mastering their field.
They are just showing that in different ways coming from:
- their life experiences
- their ideas
- their skills

To better understand this, let us look at photography.
I am so lucky to live in one of the most beautiful mountain areas of the world: The "Dolomiti Bellunesi"

What's behind these fantastic pictures? Is it just being in the right place in the right moment? (thanks to Federico Musashi)
Is it a question of luck or of being quick at taking out the camera and shot?



Well not only that...

The GREAT RESULTS are always a mix of:

- Training
- Skills
- Passion (love your work)
- Preparation

7 minutes of difference are crucial to take the picture you want to take and you must probably camp for days to take it as the weather conditions as always unpredictable.

In this quick discussion about artists and talent we forgot about some important things though.

How many failures they had? How many times Michelangelo hammered the wrong point? How many Picasso sketched something he didn't like? How many wrong takes are behind a breathtaking picture?
But also, who were their mentors or guides that saw their talents and gave them the directions? 

None of these artists has stopped trying and improving and none was scared or discouraged by the mistakes. They all love what they do and this is the fuel to keep their passion.

This is not only valid for artists though. It's also true in our everyday life!
Whoever manage people has a big responsibility not only for the company they are working for but also for the people they are managing (not to mention the responibility we have for our children).

If you manage people you must understand their talents, mentor and support them when there are problems or difficulties.
Everybody is a nice sculpture trapped into a marble block. It's just a question of be freed.

Have a nice week end

It's just a virus

This winter has been quite good so far.

I don't know if that was because of the mild conditions or because I built more immune defences but fortunately I did not catch any flu nor strange things during my holidays.

Every year infact, as soon as I stop working...
Bam a tiny virus decides to take over the control of my body and obliges me to stay in bed for some days.
Last week though, I started my personal battle with the flu. I was almost giving up but at the end I limited that toa cold and headache.
Clearly, all the ladies that are reading this Blog would say... here it is.
The usual man-flu; it's even been formally defined.

Though for me, average italian man, this kind of flu takes away mental and phisical strength.
And this week this has been worsened by some events that people I know and I work with had to face.

Problems, things like a child or a relative being seriously ill or a job lost that happened and that I did not know anything about because they were either keeping very secret (and I can understand them) or that suddenly recently happened. Everything this week, and it really touched me.

I tend not to believe to "signs" but, probably because I am getting older, I took these events happening during my "man flu" as something to think about how little I should complain. Funny enough, I also got this message from a friend of mine...

Be kind. Always.
Tough target isn't it.
Because if there are people that are VISIBLY fighting a battle, and then it's reasonably easy to be kind with them, and others that are keeping everything inside.
But when you fight you do not need other enemies but allies regardless your battle is outside or inside you. And someone kind at you is an extra help to find the strenght to overtake the problem.

I invite everybody to see this video. Again quite a casual thing that happened this week, a lead I got that is perfectly fitting into the mood of the week.

There is something to learn from every event of our life. Clearly the bad ones are the worse to overtake but WE WILL BE ABLE to overtake them only if we are ready and prepared to do it.

Prepare yourself, increase your competence and live well your life to tackle the bad moments.

Never give up. Never stop learning. Stand up and keep on going.
Have a nice week end

For your eyes ONLY!!!

It is scientific. Men and women are different.

I really did not need scientists to tell me that.
Whichever man is capable to see the small drop of water in the sink that is making your wife mad... please raise your hand.
I think it's a phisical difference in our eyes. Colours and small details are simply seen in different ways.
Look at that example...

Even though I know that, during the Christmas holidays I volunteered helping my "better half" cleaning our flat. In a nanosecond I had a vacuum cleaner in my right hand and a sponge in my left one.
And I promise, I did my best, THREE TIMES.

And the result was...

She had to redo everything simply because the result was not what she thought was the minimum acceptable...
Well, let us say that her minimum acceptable is like the Pope is coming for dinner that very day (not an unrealistic option with our beloved Pope!).
So what happened?

- She was upset (to say the least)
- We lost time
- I have a good excuse not to do it again (that is a strategy too)
- I have a new topic to discuss in my Blog. DELEGATION

In my continuous journey to the "recherche du temps perdu" or better searching for the wasted time rather than lost, this is one of the main topics.
And it is an ART.
Delegate means to have everybody doing what they should do so you can do what you are supposed to do.

I know, everybody would like to delegate BUT...

-it takes more time to explain than to do it yourself
-nobody can do it properly
-the others don't have time either

So we keep on doing things and complaining that we do not have time (and maybe the others work much less than what we do).

In reality I think that there are three main reasons why we tend not to delegate:

1) we do not have clear which are the activities we must do.
What happens if I give away some of my work and I realize I have nothing better to do? The key point is that people must free their time to do what they are good at and what is strategic for the company (or simply what they are paid for)

2) we think that by keeping the knowledge away from the others you will become "irreplaceable".
Sorry to say, guys, BUT normally we can be replaced by someone else. And if your company grows on someone that cannot be replaced you'd better find another company before this "genius" finds one. Maybe it's better to keep your job reaching the results thanks to your extremely professional team.

3) we cannot set a "minimum acceptable" performance for the other's job.
Clearly we must understand that the others WILL NOT DO THE JOB LIKE YOU. It does not mean they will not reach the target but the WAY in which they will reach the target will be different. And we must accept this once we set a "good minimum result".

If you really want the skills of your team to improve, to develop new leaders within the group and to have everybody feeling they are INTO THE GROUP then start delegating.

- Identify who can do the job and tell him why
- Show examples of previous jobs
- Be sure people understand the objectives and the deadlines
- Give everybody the tools to succeed (this is what we want!!!)
- Let people work (and make mistakes) and support ONLY if required

and at the end... CELEBRATE!

Hard task... probably another target we should reach in 2014.

From my side, I promise I will improve on house cleaning... I am not sure I will be able to see the small drop into the sink but I will do my best. It is scientific... men have different eyes.
Otherwise I will start with ballet dancing...

Still have some hope with some practice

Have a nice week end!

Things to do in 2014

Wishlists and rankings.

I really do not like them and this time of the year, everybody is making their own "special recipe" with things to do to become a great man, a leader, to earn more money or simply to lose some weight.
I have seen a list of 26 (twentysix!!!) points required to be a better leader.
Probably the point number one should be "NEVER write a list of points to become a better leader".

But apparently to be a great Blogger you need to put down a list. And here I am.
In this Blog I want to list the things I would like to do to improve myself and, in all modesty, that I think everybody should try and implement.
Simple, clear and straight forward points.

Let us then decide how many of them though.
I think that 3 is the perfect number. Enough to remember all of them and to give most of the information. Also when doing my presentations I tend  not to list more than 3 things in one slide or to give three reasons why something works better than something else.
Trying to limit the number of items obliges you to think about what is really important.
It is clear that "give more time to your family" or "try to have an hobby" are good points to improve life quality. But everybody knows that and everybody tries to do this. So I took these things out of my list.
I managed to bring the list down to 4 points. This is the bare minimum.

4 things to do in 2014 to be a little happier.

1) Always follow what you think is right.

It looks something normal but it's not.
We must first understand WHAT we believe and what we think it's right. We need to understand WHO we are and WHY we are doing what we are doing. We need to leard how to communicate it and then stick to that.
If you want to behave differently you will not show your abilities and your best parts. You will be simply an actor playing a different role from what you really are.
Always remember: “If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way.”  

2) Mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body).

We need to keep our body fit. Not only doing some sport but eating properly. I was once told: "would you put gravel instead of fuel in your car? Well, by eating what we're eating today we are doing this with our body".
I sincerely think that we are overestimating our "healing capabilities" by not caring about ourselves at all. Until it's too late.
Then, once we are taking good care of our body let us focus on our mind. Read, listen and learn. Find one new thing to learn: a Language, a sport, a game, whatever, and do it.
Keep your "mind gears" well lubricated.

3) Semel in anno licet insanire (once in a year one is allowed to go crazy)

Do something crazy. One thing that you want to do and that you always postpone.
Do one of the things that you want to do before you die.

4) Celebrate the achievements

We are always setting our targets higher and higher and working hard to reach them. It is always a difficult road, paved with problems, hurdles and difficulties. But when you are able to win, when you are capable to go there you must celebrate. Have your celebrating time will allow you to be rewarded and restart full and motivated.


Here it is then. My first list and, in all fairness, I quite liked doing it.

Some of these points are included in this manifesto.
This is my present for a great and happy 2014.
See you soon

 

Resilience

The Wikidefinition of Resilience is the ability of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically, and release that energy upon unloading.
This has been the definition that I studied during my University times.
Then I started working and Resilience changed from being a Material characteristic to being a PERSONAL characteristic.
Books, meetings and presentations made me understand the meaning of this new meaning for Resilience and the importance of this attitude to succeed achieving your targets (see my Post "Persevere").

But last Sunday I have clearly understood what it means.
First Half Marathon of my life. Good conditions, slightly cold (around zero deg.C) and great view of the mountains around.
This has been my "running target" for this year and to reach this I have trained early in the morning or late at night regardless the weather conditions. Well, I tried my best to be prepared and FINISH the race. 
Finish my first half marathon.
750 people were at the startline ready to run 21km (and some meters) around a beautiful Belluno. 

750 normal people and some real athletes ready to prove themselves they could do it. 
That they could arrive or run faster than last year: simply everybody had a WHY to have moved from other cities, other countries even to be there on a freezing Sunday morning dressed with a red shirt ready to run.

And during the race there were difficult moments, bad feelings, things not working fine but also other runners that helped keeping the right pace or giving some piece of advice to help out of the crisis.
The more you're getting close to the end, the more you are alone though.
And then the last three km are the worst. I was tired, my legs heavy and feet soaring. I am definitely not a real runner and I was clearly feeling that.
But, finally I could see the finish line. Go, go, go, slightly faster to finish propely the race.
Then... no, although the finish line was at 20meters we had to do 1 more km going around the town first down and then uphill.
one km, one thousand meters. After having run 20km. I was completely out of fuel.
Resilience is the ability of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically, and release that energy upon unloading.
I was "deformed" (my feet definitely were) and I had to release the energy, the last energy I had coming out of this.
And that was a real understanding of it.
Now I can say that I am an Halfmarathon finisher (1h 54min... not an athlete yet) and that I know quite well what resilience means.

As usual it is a question of setting targets and work to get there with passion and belief. 
No excuses. No "I do not have time". No "I will do it tomorrow".
As usual a question of people and to give them targets that they can achieve even if there is a "last minute problem". 
And, at the end, sit down and appreciate you have reached your target. 
Then set another one.
Need to stay alive. Need to set the next step and work to reach this. Need to enjoy this.

Next step... 30 km. Bellunofeltrerun

This is my next "running target".
I should probably avoid the thousand of calories that we will have during the dinners on next days. I should, I do not know if I will.
Happy Christmas to everybody

Tell me WHY

It's still a tough time. Though people start being optimistic and there is apparently some positive trend.
It is now time to push the throttle and continue promoting your strategy and ideas.

My recent posts always put the accent on the NEED of having a strategy and to continuously pursue it but are we sure that we know what a strategy is?

I have started having this doubt after a read a post of an ex colleague that was referring to a book written by Simon Sinek "Start with WHY".
Frankly speaking I didn't have a clue about who is Simon Sinek and then I read his BIO. You can find it clicking HERE.
Well, interesting guy and with good ideas and capable to communicate quite well.

Something to learn here!
Being curious, I immediately checked a TED Talk that he made and that you can find here

I can summarize this video in three titles:

1) What you do and how you do it is important but make you no different from the others
2) Marketing message is crucial... we must tell WHY you do things and find "linke minded people" to spread this message and "like minded customers" to buy your strategy
3) There is, according the "law of diffusion of innovation", a tipping point that will make your strategy going from "shared among friends" to "shared everywhere" (or almost).

So... does it mean that willing to have a great product and being the "best one" in the business IS NOT A STRATEGY? Is "WE WANT TO DO" not a strategy?

Well that's tough point to understand. That's a tough point to understand on a "me too" society, where going to a supermarket you can find 100 different types of shampoo.

But it is true. You can be in the business, even survive or grow in the business telling people how good you are in manufactoring products, the products as usual, and how good are your products but you will never be the leader.

It is not that simple though to BELIEVE in something.

Most of all

to clearly TELL PEOPLE what you believe
to PROVE PEOPLE what you believe is right
to PRODUCE THE TOOLS  (or products) that will BE ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
to TELL EVERYBODY that you have already "early adopters" that used it and it was good

need a team that is fully involved and that must be a "like minded team".
If this is not the case the message will always be diluted and without a clear and precise  message you cannot reach the tipping point. This famous 15% that will have your "early majority" users (1/3 of the market) start using your solution and paying back your investment.
People don't buy what you do but WHY you do it.
Products, technology, target markets are just ways to reach the strategy.

Ideas
People
Communication
Products

Ingredients are always the same
Recipe is different
Results will the different

Have a nice week end

Assemble or Produce?

I must thank everybody's reading my posts.

So far this blog has been read almost 1600 times, but what is really great for me is that some of the people that read it contacted me to comment and to give me some more ideas for new posts.

This confirms what I once read... if you have something to say, you will find someone that will listen.

One of the recent chat I had with a colleague of mine about my last post was about the fact that what I am writing is not "produced" by myself but I am assembling ideas of others.

That's a good point indeed.
Is this reducing the impact or the meaning of what I am writing?
Well, I am not so sure. Let's put it in this way...

The company I work with is assembling components made by others (even though we are still manufactoring some of the key components that our competitor are buying outside) but we are continuously innovating and differentiating.
The clear strategy we have is to approach in a different way the market to give to the customers SOLUTIONS to increase the efficiency of the system, to improve the indoor air quality and to reduce the total life cycle cost.
But we are doing this assembling components that are made by others.
Where's the secret then?
The secret lays on HOW WE ASSEMBLE the components and HOW WE COMMUNICATE our ideas.

Well, that's also what I am doing. I am assembling in MY OWN WAY what I read, hear and see from others.

If I must be frank, the real reason why I am  keeping this Blog, beside the fact that I like doing this, is to try and learn and put down in a tidy way what I gather from others in order to share it with everybody.

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others" and to grow yourself you must ALWAYS study, listen, look and learn.

At the moment I try to be a good assembler and this allows me to use, AGAIN, a quote from Mr.Jack Welch.

In one of his books, Winning, there's a good point. “You are not a leader to win a popularity contest – you are a leader to lead”

No reason to assemble for the sake of showing you are good.

Assemble to learn, to share and to give some ideas.

Ah, before going... I would like, like millions others, to remember Nelson Mandela BUT in a different way. I am sure he would have liked this, still modern after 73 years...

Have a nice week end

Sorry... NO!!!

Everytime we are getting close to Holidays, things are always going crazy.

On the last weeks of the year it's time to make some reality checks and I hope to try and fix the last things.

In the "time management secrets", having a clear idea of:

1) where you want to go
2) when you want to arrive
3) how to go there
4) where we should check the developments
5) which are the results you expect

is crucial to define the priorities and therefore to identify WHAT is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to do and WHEN.

Writing down, better, handwriting down your targets is generally the best thing to do.

Handwrite is something that has been forgotten but implies some activities that allow your mind to properly concentrate.

All the preparation phase, taking pencil and paper and starting from the white paper obliges you to make an effort to imagine the complete picture.

When you start writing down, you must create the story, follow the Whole process and finally read it again.

And then... you can judge if your plan is ok based on...

 

 

And then, once you have a GOOD, HANDWRITTEN, SIMPLE AND WELL DESCRIBED PLAN what will happen?

Now another point comes out. It's like in the videogames.
When you destroy a monster, the next one is always more difficult.

Impelementation is now the point.
And implementation needs:

1) TIME
2) FOCUS
3) RESILIENCE

I think, or better, I HOPE that your working life is like mine.
I start the day knowing what I should do and then routine things happen. The famous activities URGENT NOT STRATEGIC.
You can infact divide the activities in

-URGENT STRATEGIC
-URGENT NOT STRATEGIC
-NON URGENT NON STRATEGIC
-NON URGENT BUT STRATEGIC

Having said that everybody should run away from the activities non urgent non strategic and focus on the strategic ones, the urgency always wins.

And also the human nature goes that direction as the "sense of satisfaction" that you have when you solve an urgent problem is one of the things that make yourself feeling happy.

But is this what you SHOULD do?
Maybe not
But this is what everybody ask you to do... quickly please.
Now we enter into "delegation" discussions that are probably too long to be dealt here.
The real point here is that we must start saying NO.

There are even discussions on how to make it. THIS IS one of them.

This is also another link http://lifehacker.com/a-scientific-guide-to-saying-no where it is explained how and why.

This is a difficult task. Not a question to be impolite. Just a question to TIMELY AND EFFECTIVLY reach your targets.

Have a nice week end with the SANTAKLAUS running in Pedavena. Warm up!