Learning to unicycle is of course not impossible but it's not easy either.
It's hard because there are several things to do all at the same time. You can't really think much about them because you can't stop peddling. There's no time to ponder. It's all feeling and reaction.
It's hard because there's so much advice on how to do it, but much of what people write relates to what they got hung up on. Once they got the hang of "that one thing" the rest was easy. It's not the same for everyone, so advice is relative and not absolute.
It's hard because speed is needed to balance. On a bike speed is mitigated by brakes and handles. On a unicycle, speed is determined by how you pedal, and if your pedaling isn't smooth your body has to react to counter balance accordingly. If you press hard on the pedal, you better lean forward. If you get distracted and stop pedaling, you best not be leaning too far over the wheel. It's not a natural feeling to commit to pedaling fast enough to get your balance without any ability to direct the unicycle or stop without stepping off the front.
On a unicycle, theory only gets you so far.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Moving Strategic Goals Forward
Opinions about the way things should be are everywhere. The world is filled with good ideas. Strategic thinking is all about imagining what doesn't exist but should. The world has no shortage of strategic thinkers.
Strategic planners / actors are much less common and for good reason. It's not simple to make a significant/meaningful change. However, a simple strategic plan is the place to begin and an invaluable guide for course correcting.
Brainstorm
Write down all the good ideas regardless of whether they are long term goals or short terms tasks.
Sort the ideas based on whether they can be done in less than a month.
Use the Five Whys analysis technique to determine the underlying strategic motivation for the idea.
Plan
Create a list of tasks to be completed in the coming month that brings the strategic ideas closer to reality. Be specific about the success criteria for each task. Some of these tasks will be taken from the original brainstorming list and some will become obvious when thinking about how to break longer term objectives into something achievable in a month.
Review
Weekly - Review the monthly plan and identify what needs to be done in the current week to achieve the monthly objectives.
Monthly - Honestly assess the degree to which the tasks from the previous month were accomplished. Assign a score (0 to 5) for each task.
Publish
Share the results of the monthly review with someone. Work with an advisor or colleague - not alone (in a vacuum).
Strategic planners / actors are much less common and for good reason. It's not simple to make a significant/meaningful change. However, a simple strategic plan is the place to begin and an invaluable guide for course correcting.
Brainstorm
Write down all the good ideas regardless of whether they are long term goals or short terms tasks.
Sort the ideas based on whether they can be done in less than a month.
Use the Five Whys analysis technique to determine the underlying strategic motivation for the idea.
Plan
Create a list of tasks to be completed in the coming month that brings the strategic ideas closer to reality. Be specific about the success criteria for each task. Some of these tasks will be taken from the original brainstorming list and some will become obvious when thinking about how to break longer term objectives into something achievable in a month.
Review
Weekly - Review the monthly plan and identify what needs to be done in the current week to achieve the monthly objectives.
Monthly - Honestly assess the degree to which the tasks from the previous month were accomplished. Assign a score (0 to 5) for each task.
Publish
Share the results of the monthly review with someone. Work with an advisor or colleague - not alone (in a vacuum).
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