Greg's Right FIT #349

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Momentum
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Momentum

• Having an agreed on direction or destination is useful for managers. Direction is more useful than destination for building momentum. However, destinations elicit stronger emotional responses, useful for motivation. Mix them up. 
• Buying into your company's vision helps with momentum. It may be the vision you love. It may be the way the vision helps customers you love. It may even be the way your friends enthusiastically work toward the vision. If it isn't, go.
• Salespeople don't want to talk money too early because it can kill momentum. It doesn't have to be this way. Teach them to talk money in two ways: ball-parking and negotiating. Different language, no loss of momentum. 
• A vision that's just out of reach is a powerful thing. Vague enough you can pivot when things change. Clear enough you don't doubt it will happen. Use this language pattern for practice: the world in 5 years, our customers in that world, how we provide value to our customers in that world.  

Being Human - Jump in

"Leap and the net shall appear." – old saying

I'm cleaning my grill. It's a messy bit of business and while I spray and wipe my mind wanders. This time it wanders up north where my in-laws live.

One of the joys of visiting my sister-in-law is my sister-in-law's husband. They own a brewery and restaurant in the shadow of Lambeau Field home of the Green Bay Packers American football club. As you might imagine, there are times when it's a busy place. 

On this visit they are prepping for a busy day when it's revealed the main fryer is broken. They're professionals and without missing a beat they come up with workarounds and make do. The next day I am there to help pull a small fryer from another part of the building down as a temporary replacement until the new one arrives. 

I'm useless in these situations. Watching and trying to stay out of the way. When the old fryer is removed it reveals a dirty backside. As much as they'd like to pull big equipment like this out to clean behind it daily, it doesn't happen. Now is the time. 

One of the managers is training a new employee and they survey the situation. It looks like a lot with no good place to start. She takes a short breath and without missing a beat tells her trainee, "When you see something like this it's best to jump in. Clean with what you have and hope something better comes along." With that they get to work. 

I think about this as I stare at my grill's drip tray. The liner hasn't done its job and the drips have gone everywhere. I pause for a second and remember my training. Sometimes it's best to just jump in. Let's light this candle. 

Random Stuff

“Now he wasn’t hungry any more– and he wasn’t a little caterpillar any more.” – from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We are a week out from a big event in our neck of the woods. My son is getting married next Saturday. There doesn't seem to be much for me to do yet, so I am busying myself with projects around the house. One of which is tending my fall garden which is coming to life. 

In the garden I am trying some new things because my lovely bride and I took a course about it. Included are cabbages. I have two good-sized specimens working despite the best efforts of some cabbage moths. 

Have you heard of such a thing? It turns out I've seen them most summers but never thought twice about them. Little white moths that flutter to and fro, laying lots of eggs on my cabbages, broccoli, and kohlrabi. Yes, I said kohlrabi. I don't know what it is yet, but it came with the class. 

Anyway, when I started inspecting my leafy greens I notice tiny little green worms. These things are amazing. They go from tiny specks to full-grown caterpillars overnight, taking a leaf or two with them along the way. The plants seem ready for it because a few days after I take the very hungry caterpillars and fling them toward the bird bath, a new leaf is there. The cabbage especially. It seems determined to simply overwhelm the caterpillars by growing too fast. 

As I type this I can see 4 or 5 of these little white terrors bopping around my office window. I'll let them have their fun this year. If it turns out, however, that I like the taste of my cabbage, broccoli, or whatever the hell kohlrabi is. . .then next year we're going to war. 

It's a promise.