Circle Three: the eighth
Matrix Transitions. Teamwork. Self-Renewal. Noises.
Welcome to Circle Three!
In this second 2021 edition, I leave you with this quote from Kai Brach of Dense Discovery that eloquently speaks to some of my own truths:
“What remains of 2020, for me at least, is this strong sense of fragility; that nothing is inevitable – not the next family visit or the next election, nor the food on supermarket shelves. … If I had to pick a theme for the coming twelve months though, it would have to include more appreciation for the many things I took for granted, and more resolve to stand up and fight for them when it matters.”
Appreciation = Empathy * Information * Action. Here’s to a steady increase in our abilities of appreciation this year.
Last week’s most-clicked link was this article on “How to Talk to Anyone.”
Enjoy!
-Dan
So what’s Circle Three? For new readers, the name comes from Seth Godin’s Linchpin, where he posits that the internet has created a circle beyond family and business: a tribe. Where knowledge is exchanged and our gifts are shared.
Thanks for being a part of this third circle. Let’s create something.
One Big Idea
“Working with other people, you learn how to get to ideas faster.” -Jack Antonoff
Collaboration forces iteration and helps ideas come alive. Who can you work with to get to the ideas you want? What ideas would benefit from a couple of new players?
Circles of Thought
John Gardner’s “Self-Renewal” speech to McKinsey on learning, meaning, and the 40-year process of growing up. You won’t regret sitting with a warm coffee one morning this week and reading through. I dare say you’ll be inspired.
One designer brought to life some mechanical movements from a reference book in the 1860s. Practice makes perfect, and this designer’s form of practice involves a lot of mechanical learnings from history.
This page on public speaking, while aesthetically pleasing, is something I’ve returned to time and again. Simple, resource-filled, and always something new to pick up on.
Looking for new music? Look no further than “Every Noise at Once,” a scatterplot of the entire genre-space of music. Explore playlists or use the scan feature to randomly peruse!
Newsletters 201 presents a guide to newsletters and why email is the last democratic platform that gives you full control.
Inner Circle: Transitions
Digging into the Eisenhower matrix and the transitions within.
The Eisenhower Matrix, or the Urgent-Important Matrix, is a well-known prioritization tool. People use the matrix, like the example below, to bring structure to both work and life; what I’m interested in is how people shift between the areas of the 2x2 grid.
The matrix helps overwhelmed individuals sort and prioritize tasks. The formal name, The Eisenhower Matrix, comes from a Dwight D. Eisenhower quote:
“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
This matrix is crucial when projects become bigger and longer than initially forecast. To-do lists pile up. Deadlines get pushed, and every day is a scramble to put out new fires. The matrix brings a sense of organization and calm.
In life, we wake up knowing our priorities. “Drink coffee” falls into the urgent and important category for most people. It needs to be done — for ourselves and for others who might interact with us. Then the workday starts, and we shift to sifting through emails and meetings that fall into the “Important, Not Urgent” or “Not Important, Urgent” categories. Maybe around mid-morning, we shift again, this time to those “Important, Urgent” tasks. This time spent in the top-left portion is what many would consider the productive time of day.
Each day brings new challenges, in work and in life. As they come into focus and we begin to see new tasks or challenges, we must choose: how important and urgent are these?
This choice can have an effect, and the reaction is vitally important. Do we calmly assign these new challenges a bucket? Can we continue our work in front of us or has this new task sent us into a frenzied state?
I offer two examples.
Leaving for work, you walk outside to the car thinking about what you’ll have to do today. Your “Important, Urgent” tasks are on your mind until you get to your car and see a flat tire. &%*$! You are drawn from your current state of mind to deal with a brand new “Important, Urgent” task at hand! It requires a quick shift, but hopefully a sense of calm wins out.
An afternoon at work has you making design changes after a formal review. These are “Important, Not Urgent” changes. Suddenly there are parts from another project that have come back with issues. It needs immediate attention. Shifting to this new “Important, Urgent” task, you need to remember what the project and part details were, communicate with the fabricator, and understand the changes that need to be made. It presents a chance to calmly understand the new problem, or becoming overwhelmed, lashing out, and changing the trajectory of the rest of the day for yourself and others.
Taking a pause to understand triggers and transitions has a positive effect on ourselves and others.
Some companies have built-in slow periods when there is designated time to work on “Important, Not Urgent” tasks that benefit the company as a whole but often fall through the cracks; there are also times where urgency rules the day. Good leaders will create a balance to focus on the immediate needs and long-term goals of departments.
As individuals, we have a responsibility to work on the Important categories and not delay until everything is urgent. It requires patience, organization, and big-picture thinking that will help any team accomplish goals.
State of the Circle
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