Greg's Right FIT #356

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

• When building momentum your ability to deal with change is important. However, your company's response to change is even more important to keeping the momentum going. Watch how your leaders deal with change and take note.
• The future autopsy technique keeps you on your toes. Humans are pretty good at imagining success before it happens. We're also great at dissecting results. (hindsight is 20/20, right?) After picturing success, imagine it failing. Then autopsy the failure and take notes. 
• Does your company use minimum acceptable standards for your sales people? How long has the company kept a low performer on payroll despite being below the minimum? (that's your company's real minimum acceptable standard)
• If you're going to use minimum acceptable standards, start with the lowest performance is staff memory. Minimums set higher than memory are met with skepticism. If you set it higher, enforce it with no exceptions, or it doesn't work.

Being Human - Overwhelming change

“The game is afoot." – Sherlock Holmes

This week started with a lecture. The was about Sherlock Holmes and a theory on the origins of an "all-knowing" detective. Specifically, the professor talked about why a character like Sherlock became so popular in Victorian London. 

London in the 19th century grew to be the largest city in the world, going from 1 million people to six million in less than 90 years. A lot of change to deal with in the span of a long life.  

A day later I read about Taco Bell's advances in computing with AI driven robots being able to time exactly when to dip fried goodies into the fryer so the Door Dash delivery driver can give their customers the best fast food experience possible. 

I spent the rest of the day playing with Open.ai's text generator writing blog post prompts, songs in the style of Dolly Parton, and making lists of whatever came to mind. 

The world is moving pretty fast. A lot like how it must have felt to a Londoner in the late 1880's. So much change. No direct experiences to learn from or help make sense of what's happening. No one who seems to know what's going on. 

Except Sherlock Holmes. He knows everything. He's from high society, went to the best schools, trained as an expert sportsman, and yet can converse with the lowest of low society. He has contacts everywhere and knows exactly what's going on in an ever-changing London. 

No wonder Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character is still popular today. We could use someone like that right now. I mean, how exactly did the robot know how many Chalupas I was going to order last night? 

Random Stuff

"You see, in a few minutes, I will unleash an unprecedented reign of terror upon the entire...Tri-State Area!" – Doofenshmirtz

You've probably heard me say I'm writing a new book. Tentatively titled, "Harnessing Momentum: Igniting and Sustaining Sales Force Motivation." I say tentatively because as I finish the first draft it's a little more about a sales person and less about a sales force. It happens. I was just listening to an old interview with Dr. Oliver Sacks, and he said he did the same thing to his publisher, pitched one book, delivered another. 

Sitting still for an hour or two a day to write is hard to get excited about. I find I am spending a lot of time doing everything but the thing I schedule myself for.

Like playing with the Open.ai text completion interface.

It's trained to do a lot from a little prompt, and the text it generates looks like it might come from a slightly inebriated college student. For instance, I told it to write a poem in the style of poet Billy Collins about a white cat and a gray squirrel. It took a few seconds to give me this:

One day I was sitting in my chair
And I saw a white cat and a gray squirrel

They were both so beautiful, I had to stare
The cat was perched atop a tree
And the squirrel was busy gathering nuts

They both looked so peaceful and free
I wished I could be like them, just for a day
I wished I could climb trees and chase away all my cares

But alas, I am just a human being
And I must content myself with watching
As the cat and the squirrel go about their day

Not bad. It almost gets his wry sense of humor and the twists at the end of his poems. Definitely gets the use of "I" in his poems. But what about University of Nebraska poet Ted Kooser? What happens when I give the same instruction but change the poet to "in the style of Ted Kooser?"

The white cat and the gray squirrel
stare at each other from opposite sides of the room.

The squirrel is up in the tree,
the cat is down on the ground.

They both know they're not supposed to be there,
but they can't help it.

The cat wants to catch the squirrel,
the squirrel wants to eat the cat.

But they both know that they'll never succeed,
so they just stare at each other from opposite sides of the room.

Fun! So close. But what room has a tree? Squirrels eat cats?

My mind is racing. If I can just harness this power for myself. . .what worlds can I conquer? What riches might I amass?

My palms are damp. I'm giddy with excitement. The electricity in the air is palpable, making the pets restless. I sit. I think.

Something is happening.

...

I give up in an hour.