Awareness

An Answer To Meetings Running Past Time

Garth Beyer

Meetings rarely end when they’re supposed to. Ever wonder what to do about it?

Why not state the meeting will end 5 minutes earlier than you originally thought. Instead of 5:00 p.m., tell everyone it will end at 4:55 p.m.

1) Cushion is better than being rushed

2) When the organizer also keeps time (perhaps by setting an alarm) wrap up doesn’t go past 5:00 and they don’t feel as rushed to finish.

3) Knowing a meeting won’t last for a full hour, attendees will be encouraged to tighten conversation, ask the important questions, and won’t feel bad for staying an extra two minutes, because no one is going to plan something else at 4:57 p.m.

The bad side to this 5-min grace period: people may still view it as “we’re getting out 5 minutes early” and if they don’t get out at 4:55, they may get frustrated.

Then again, all it really comes down to is awareness. For effective meetings, you don’t need to follow this tip, you merely need to think about meeting effectiveness, talk to others about managing their time better, and put it at the front of your mind when you walk into a meeting.

 

Stay Positive & Aware

Out Of Creativity

Garth Beyer

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There’s no such thing. Feeling like you’ve exhausted your creative abilities is a sign that you need to observe more, explore more, and digest more.

Feeling like you’re out of creativity is a lifestyle choice –                                                         not a byproduct of expending too much.

 

Stay Positive & Really See What’s Happening Around You

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

Self Delivered Progress

Garth Beyer

My co-worker dropped a great one liner the other week. She mentioned that you need to, “under promise and over deliver.”

I couldn’t have agreed more at the time. It encompasses a positive view of expectations. If you get someone to set low expectations and you proceed to blow them away, the person will be shocked, amazed, and grateful. In addition, by under promising, you are casting the safety net. If you can’t seem to deliver, it’s okay because you never promised that much to begin with.

–    –    –    –    –

Part of the statement here needs to be revoked. While I still hold to the attributes I’ve stated, I completely disagree with one part of the statement to under promise and over deliver.

Eliminate under to create the saying “promise and over deliver.”

If you need to under promise something, then it’s likely that it’s best you don’t promise anything to begin with. Promising something that you’re worried you can’t deliver, or fully deliver, is not a smart promise. Smart promises is what gets us places. Smart promises say exactly what you will do with the guarantee of it being completely done.

If you’re interested in progress though, if you want to move up the ladder, if you want the recognition and admiration from the people who you fulfill promises for, then you need to promise and over deliver.

Before any skepticism is launched, let me say without any wiggle room, that there is always a way to over deliver. It’s this performance of searching for a way to over deliver, and then following through with it that creates progress. Self delivered progress for you through over delivering on promises for them.

 

Stay Positive & Who Knew Progress Was So Easy

Garth E. Beyer

The Five Stages Within The Diffusion Process

Garth Beyer

The Diffusion of Innovations, also called the Diffusion Theory, is a theory that strives on the interpretation of how people either adopt or reject new ideas, technology, products, or change in general.

There are five stages within the diffusion process:

  1. Awareness Stage: An individual becomes aware of the existence of an idea but lacks knowledge of what it does, or the benefits of it.
  2. Interest Stage: An individual has a desire to obtain more information on the idea: what is it, what does it do, how will it affect our culture, what are the possibilities of using it?
  3. Evaluation Stage: An individual mentally questions the selfishness that the idea can be used; how will it benefit me? The individual also begins to demonstrate interpersonal communication by requesting feedback on the idea from others.
  4. Trial Stage: If it benefits the individual, then the idea will be tried. It will be a personal experiment, a small sample to be tested in a way that concludes how the individual can benefit most from it.
  5. Adoption Stage: The individual begins to scale the idea and use it consistently. This adoption stage is largely based on continuous satisfaction of the idea.

A similar five stage process in the mental acceptance of an idea is Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation, Confirmation encompassing similar definitions to those I have presented.

Everyone

Garth Beyer
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Everyone has their problems, their battles, their emotions, their wars, and their own issues. Realizing this, knowing this, understanding this does not mean to put you to inaction. It does not mean to hold back, to deal, to settle, to not complain, to not feel.

Humans need to be better and if there is one way that is more available to us than not doing anything, it is doing something. It is taking action, reacting more passionately, releasing our empathy, our sympathy, our hopes that others can win their battles.

It is to encourage your neighbor, your tribe member, a stranger, that you not only acknowledged that they are having their problems, but that you have their back, support them and encourage them.

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. – Robert H. Schuller

If there is one thing humans have the biggest habit of, it’s creating a mess of our lives, of making more problems and provoking difficult situations to arise. We’re not stupid, we just kind-of suck but we are aware that we can do better. We just have to act on it.

Everyone has their problems. It’s up to you to offer solutions because doing so starts an endless cycle of understanding, encouragement, togetherness and above all, -not less problems, life would be boring without them- but more solutions. And that gets us somewhere.

 

Stay Positive & I Feel Good For You Son

Garth E. Beyer