Focussed attention

Polluted

I’ve seen truly dark skies only four times in my life, in four places: the South Island of New Zealand, the Masai Mara wildlife park in Kenya, the Thar desert on the border of India and Pakistan, and the Maldives.

Over 80% of the world's population, including me, lives under light-polluted skies. We don’t even know what our natural rhythms are, as so much of our life is spent in direct, or indirect, artificial light.

And now, in New Zealand (and other places too), a ‘dark skies’ movement is emerging. This protects lands from excessive light, in line with the practices of the Maori people, who of course navigated celestially to New Zealand across vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.

I’ve often thought we can liken light pollution to information overload in an organisation.

Just as excessive artificial light drowns out the stars and natural rhythms of the environment, an overabundance of data, meetings, and communications can obscure an organisation's core mission and strategic priorities. And, so, like New Zealand ‘dark sky ordinance’, think about whether your organisation could benefit from a ‘clarity initiative’ that:

1. Filters out non-essential information
2. Focuses on a small number of key metrics and goals
3. Creates "quiet periods" for deep work and strategic thinking
4. Encourages a culture of mindful communication

By reducing your "organisational light pollution," ask how you can better see your "guiding stars" and navigate towards your true north.

Question: What would a ‘clarity initiative’ achieve in your organisation?

Obsessed

I watched a truly compelling documentary recently, The Fire Within, about Katia and Maurice Krafft. Never heard of them?

As the world’s only vulcanologist couple, with a palpably joyful passion for their science, they travelled the world, filming incredibly dangerous lava flows and explosions up close, and conducting research as they did so. Ultimately, they gave their lives to a volcano, swept away by the pyroclastic flow of newly erupting Mt Unzen in Japan in 1991.

It’s no overstatement to call their dedication an obsession, which is defined as ‘an idea that preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind’.

Jeff Bezos also refers to Amazon as ‘customer obsessed’, which he describes as having three aspects:

• “Leaders start with the customer and work backwards”.
• “They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust”.
• “Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers”.

While Amazon is rigorously commercial, an even greater priority is given to constantly asking, “What would the customer want?”

Question: What is a healthy obsession for you and your staff?

Mesmerised

Did you see Kamala Harris’s speech this week? I thought it was one of the most coherent expositions of domestic policy by an American politician I’d seen in some time.

But, let’s time travel.

It's instructive to watch Bill Clinton presenting Barack Obama’s re-nomination as the Democratic Presidential candidate back in 2012.

This isn’t new of course, but this week I spent 50 minutes enthralled by Clinton, as much by his message as by his style. Clinton wrote it himself, delivered it without notes, and if you track carefully, you’ll see him liberally using all Top 10 Presentation Golden Rules:

• don’t take your eyes off your audience;
• punctuate with spaces;
• emphasise by varying voice tone;
• repeat important words and phrases (Clinton is almost hypnotic at times);
• vary your facial expression (I saw everything in him from disgust to delight);
• be provocative;
• tell great stories;
• invite the audience into your own world (“We all believe . . .”)
• be humble and acknowledge failures
• be magnanimous and acknowledge others
• enjoy yourself (that’s a bonus 11th, if you were counting)

Question: When you speak, what do listeners hear and see?

Whether you’re focussed, obsessed or mesmerised by something this week, enjoy it. And, pay attention to your state, and your capacity for creativity and high performance, as you do it.

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Have a great week and see you next Friday,

Andrew