Greg's Right FIT #522 – This week: Evidence, Last best, Resolutions

Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

• Thoughts on Evidence
• Being Human
• Random Stuff

Thoughts on Evidence

• One way to demonstrate intellectual rigor is to look for an ask for evidence. Where does it show up? What is it now? What do you want it to be? How do you value the difference between now and what you want? What does that mean over time? Get curious because you'll probably be measured on it.
• When listening for evidence, it helps to separate what you hear into one of four buckets: no evidence, soft evidence, hard evidence, and 3rd party validated evidence. One isn't necessarily better than the others, so don't judge. Keep in mind that working with each of them requires a different approach.
• Getting to evidence is an example of a hard question you need to ask in a soft way, both inside your firm and when you are with prospects. "Where is that showing up now?" is a good place to start.
• This month, let's save ourselves future effort by staying off solutions for as long as possible while gathering evidence. Better evidence helps us focus on the results we want and shows us which activities will get us to results faster.

Being Human – The last best thing

"Le mieux est le mortel ennemi du bien" ('The best is the mortal enemy of the good'). – Montesquieu

This week has been all about trying new coffees. One of my gifts was a collection of popular coffee beans from famous Los Angeles purveyors. I've been playing with grind size and ratios of grounds to water, then ranking results by surveying my taster. (she's very patient)

The process reminds me of a conversation I had with childhood friends a few years ago. We were recapping many decades of our work experiences. Stories about how we started one place, why we left for the next place, and so on. At one point it became clear we all ended up in the last best job. The one that matched some combination of our strengths, challenging work, and income requirements. That was the commonality. We all found the last best job we could live with.

This is just like where my coffee tests are going. I am enjoying the process, but have a feeling I'm going to end up with the last best thing again. The one that matches some combination of grind, grams, water, and convenience. Getting coffee from Los Angeles is probably going to lose out to our weekly sojourn to the market. "Good" narrowly beating "perfection" once again.

Random Stuff

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man." —Benjamin Franklin

What kind of goals do you set for a new year? Are you a new year's resolution type?

Years ago, I was at a new year's dinner when someone at the table decided it would be fun for everyone to share their new year's resolutions. Sounds fun unless you don't have a resolution and you've been knocking back cocktails all evening. I feel the same way about this kind of table talk as I do about icebreakers in groups. I am overcome by a desire to get-the-hell-out-of-here, and a dark cloud descends. My ego screams out, "say something clever! win! WIN!" and I hate that feeling.

That night, I was near the end of the rotation so when it came to my turn I went with a variation of, "I don't really have a set goal, but I want to be more present this year. You know, really be wherever I am." Heads nodded, and we moved on to the next person.

This happened a few more times over the years and my "being present" answer was a crowd pleaser. Most people bring up this or that interesting goal, and I say, "I want to be here when I'm here, there when I'm there." Someone will say that's good, they want to do that too. We'll make eye contact. Nod knowingly. Boom. Done.

This year, we were in a small group and it came up again. The first person said, "this year I want to be more present. . ." and I didn't hear another thing. That son-of-a-gun jacked my non-resolution resolution. What the heck? Who does that?

I can't remember what I said. I'm sure it made no sense. I was rattled. Shook.

This morning I am resolved to work on next year's clever answer. Instead of a resolution, I'm going to say something like, well, I don't know what I'll say but it's going to be deep. Or maybe I'll just recite the last goal that comes to mind. Like finishing writing a novel or something. I really just need a quick, semi-thoughful sounding answer so we can move on to the next person because I'm sure their answer will be great.

I just need to get invited to next year's dinner. I should work on that too.