MentorFactor

Wise, Old TechComm Farts

In 1983, I became a technical writer and, subsequently, in 1987, joined the Society for Technical Communication (STC). I met some amazing people, like David Armbruster, Joann Hackos, Lottie Applewhite, and many, many others who had an profound impact on my life and career. Ms. Lottie invited me to serve on a panel at Annual Conference in 1989 that included many of these luminaries to talk about careers in TechComm. I was so honored to be included with a group of people who valued what I had to say. I was hooked on the profession, the learning, and the community. I had found my tribe. 

This past Monday (March 4, 2019), one of my besties for all these years--Linda Oestreich--assembled another group of TechComm luminaries who, by the sheer passage of time, have become today's Lottie Applewhites: Linda, George Hayhoe, De Murr, Jackie Damrau, Mary Jo Stark, Andrea Ames, and me. TC Dojo invited us to participate in a panel to discuss careers in TechComm. It was so good to reconnect with everyone. 

Here is a link to the session. Enjoy.

Stealing Time

I'm currently reading a wonderful book called Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. (His Twitter ID is @calnewport, but don't expect him to respond!) Newport describes our current cultural condition of constant distraction. I don't know about you, but the pinging and the interruptions (think about the new ads that pop up in the middle of watching a video on FB!) keep us from doing work that matters at a deep, detailed level. This also keeps us from dropping into #FLOW. All these distractions seem to not only be increasing, but accelerating, at an alarming rate. This has the effect of making us feel anxious ALL. THE. TIME. It is hard to turn it off, because we have bought into a culture where FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a THING!

My colleague, Jennifer Moss Breen, is passionate about teaching people to be resilient. In our book collaboration, Visionary Leadership in a Turbulent World: Thriving in the New VUCA Context, she wrote a chapter called, "Leadership Resilience in a VUCA World". She describes a practice of self-awareness that would serve us all to cultivate. She suggests that we need to learn to "steal time"--to shut down, to walk in the woods, to turn off everything, and listen to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us. This is what makes us resilient during those stressful times that are volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

Both Newport and Moss Breen suggest that we consider scheduling our downtime. I've learned to do this over the years, but, often, the world intrudes and I "forget" about strictly guarding my time. This was brought home to me yesterday, when I had logged on to my client site (at 8:30 a.m.) and found out that one of the folks I'm working with (but whom I have never met) actually sent me an email at 6:00 a..m. for a 6:30 a.m. meeting! I declined with a message that I would NEVER accept a meeting that early without 24 hours notice. Then, I set my hard boundary by telling her that that was my personal time. She actually wrote back and said she didn't know what my hours were. SERIOUSLY? In what world is it OK to ping some you have never met that early in the morning? This is the new world of corporate America in the "agile" software development arena.

All of this to announce I'm starting my next book. The working title is "Flow-based Leadership in the World of Information Technology Development". It's time to steal time and go deep again. 

 

In Another Life...

Once upon a time, my dream was to be a commercial artist. I made this decision in 1968 when I was a Junior in High School. I did a little research and decided I wanted to attend Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where they had a wonderful program in commercial art. I went to see my high school counselor, Mr. Eye, to solicit his help in applying to VCU. I will never forget him, because, in one conversation, he killed my dream. When I told him I wanted to attend VCU so that I could become a commercial artist, he said, "Oh, Judy. Find a good liberal arts program where you can find a good husband and settle down and have babies." And, I was naive enough to believe him.

A number of years passed. One marriage and one baby later, I found myself at the Art Institute of Atlanta majoring in Fashion Design. I LOVED drawing fashion. I used the work of famous fashion artists as croquis (or templates) to learn to draw fashion. I eventually developed my own style of drawing and of design. 

Fast forward to this past week. I was listening to Debbie Millman's podcast Design Matters. She had one of the fashion artists I used to emulate on her show: Richard Haines. I loved his work. I had used his work as croquis for my own drawings. He and Debbie talked about the importance of putting your work into the world.

Richard mentioned that he is now 66 (the same as I) and that he went to VCU to get his degree (which would have put us there at the same time). He spoke of being freelance his entire life and what a roller-coaster that life is. He had had so many experiences that paralleled mine, I felt compelled to reach out to him on Instagram. He responded almost immediately. We had a lovely back and forth conversation. He encouraged me to put my work "out there".

SOOOOO...Here goes. Here are some illustrations from my 1975 fashion portfolio.

Thanks for the encouragement, Richard.

FLOW: Focus Outward

Many of you who know me understand how goal oriented I have been my whole life. My goals consist of things I want to acquire, places I want to go, activities I want to do, and the impact I want to make. Notice how many "I"s there are in that sentence? 

In 2007, my consciousness was smacked upside the head! I discovered a community of people who were outward focused, giving, and compassionate: Fire and EMS. Their way of being was so intriguing, I decided to study them for my doctorate. Since then, they have accepted me, unconditionally, into their tribe. I experience a sense of peace in their presence. Don't get me wrong. They are not perfect; they have their issues just like the rest of us. The thing I love most about them is their compassion and optimism in the face of adversity and tragedy. Consider this: Their job consists of dealing with people on the worst days of their lives. 

"Being focused outward"--that is, "losing your sense of self"--is a characteristic of being in flow.

While I'm still goal oriented, my focus has shifted from "what I want for me" to "what impact can I have on the world." Flow-based leaders must learn how maximize their own flow before they can facilitate the flow of others. When everyone is in flow and focused outward, magic happens. There is a feeling of oneness. Boundaries drop. We experience moments of euphoria. When the group binds together, that the bond is unbreakable--even if the group is not physically together. This is the message. This is what I want to educate the world about.

This is what will get us through these chaotic times.

The Boring-to-Interesting Journey

Preparation. Sometimes, it just isn't fun or interesting. However, to reach a state of flow, we have to go through the effort. Whether you are a technical communicator, a firefighter, an electrician, or the leader of a major organization, preparation is necessary for successful outcomes.

Bozoette's Red Nose blog prompted me this morning on this topic. Electric companies train their electrical engineers to respond to ice storms in a way that minimizes the effect of outages for their customers. To be sure, they have all their procedures and policies documented. The fact they are able to respond so quickly and efficiently is because of their training, experience, and knowledge transfer practices. I suspect, like firefighters, they actually enjoy the work because they know how to meet the challenge.

Firefighters know they need to stay physically fit and train continuously to be able to respond appropriately. They may not enjoy physical training, but they do it because the work of firefighting is physically difficult. They may not enjoy training on the basics over and over, but they do it because they need to be able to respond automatically if they are faced with something out of the ordinary--which happens all the time. This preparation enables the ability to go into flow when the tones drop.

The work of the technical communicator is the same. We take on projects that are painful. We have to dig for information; subject matter experts are not forthcoming or they are non-existent; resources are limited; timelines are unrealistic. But we do the work, because it feels so good to do the learning, the organization (fitting all the pieces together), and the publishing. Ultimately, WE become the subject matter experts, because we take the time to learn the details and have the deep understanding about how they all fit together. Training and experience, accepting the difficult challenges, is how we get better at what we do. The mark of a good technical communicator is the willingness to dig in, accept feedback, and improve appropriately. 

One of the ways technical communicators can continue the learning is by attending conferences. One of the best conferences in the TechComm world is coming up at the end of March: The Society for Technical Communication, Rochester Chapter's SPECTRUM.

Learn how to hack your flow! Hope to see you there.

 

Sunday Stealing (from Bozette)

My BFF, who is gently prodding me to blog more often, posted an exercise from The Artist's Way (a book I haven't picked up in a while). In an effort to not put so much pressure on myself to be thorough, accurate, and relevant, I'm going to post my own responses to this exercise. Practice. Practice. Practice.

1. List five hobbies that sound fun. (I'm including hobbies I've attempted, but haven't stuck and hobbies that I just do not allow myself to take the time to do.)
• Composing pieces for the piano
• Riding Dressage horses
• Creative writing (novels, poetry)
• Drawing 
• Traveling for the heck of it
2. List five classes that sound fun.
• Seth Godin's altMBA
• Jeffery Martin's Finder's Course and Explorer's Course
• The Flow Genome Project's Flow Hacking Course
• Otto Scharmer's (Presencing Institute) Theory U
• An Advanced Digital Photography Course
3. List five things you personally would never do that sound fun. (This is a hard one, as I more than likely will try it at least once, if it sounds like fun.)
• Learn how to dance Salsa
• Run for office
• Quit work, sell everything, and move to a foreign country
• Quit work, sell everything, and travel the world photographing the glorious faces of humanity.
• Go to Burning Man
4. List five skills that would be fun to have.
• Low-light photography
• Creative writer
• Physical trainer of folks over age 60
• Dog trainer
• Salsa dancing
5. List five things you used to enjoy doing.
• Trained Tennessee Walking Horses
• Sung and played guitar
• Played the piano proficiently
• Drew portraits
• Did macrame and other crafty things
6. List five silly things you would like to try once.
• Go on one more horse drive with my sisters
• Quit working and travel the world (Hmmm. Didn't I already list this one?)
• Move to New Mexico.
• Visit multiple firefighter training centers in Europe and Asia.
• Go to Burning Man.

The Flow-promoting Universe: Nothing New Under the Sun

I've been investigating flow-based decision making and flow-based leadership in the fire service since 2007. What an amazing journey! 

However, I'm not the only one who has been going down the flow-path. There are others doing amazing things to help people operate in flow more often and effectively. While we are all coming at this idea of maximizing flow-states from different angles, we are all feeling driven to make the world a better place by helping people flow more often.

While flow has very distinct characteristics, which were quantified by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi over 30 years ago in his studies of "optimal experience", getting to flow is slightly different for everyone. It is important, therefore, to conduct ongoing research using different methods and coming from different angles to provide multiple ways of knowing around the topic of "flow". Here is a bit of the current landscape of this ongoing research:

Csikszentmihalyi has partnered with Zsadany Zad Vecsey and Zoltan Buzady to create a flow-promoting game called FLIGBY (FLow Is Good Business for You). Companies around the world have used this game to learn about flow and how flow-states increase productivity and well-being in organizations. I will be blogging specifically about FLIBY soon.

Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler, authors of Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Rvolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, have created the Flow Genome Project, which continues to do ongoing research, as well as offer opportunities for individuals and teams to explore "flow hacking".  Graduates of their courses are creating and sharing their own ideas about flow. For example, Kevin Votaw has actually created a formula for flow that is spot on. You can see it here in a blog about what Wheal and Kotler call "hedonistic calendaring" (which is remarkably similar to my own Strategic Planning for Your Life™ (SPYL) program).

Two professors at Stanford, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, wrote a best seller called Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life and teach a class on this topic at Stanford. Their methodology is also similar to Wheal and Kotler's "hedonistic calendaring" and my SPYL program. 

Dr. Jeffery Martin (a classmate of mine) has been conducting well-being research for over 10 years. This is the largest international study on persistent non-symbolic experience (PNSE). This work has "resulted in the first reliable, cross-cultural and pan-tradition classification system for these types experience. It also led to the fundamental discovery that these were psychological states that had been identified and adopted for thousands of years by many cultures and belief systems. They were not inherently spiritual or religious, or limited to any given culture or population, and could be molded in many ways to shape the experience." To make this work accessible and relevant, Jeffery has created the Finder's Course and the Explorer's Course. The people who go through these courses report profound life transformations. 

Mikey Siegel (another classmate of mine) works at the intersection of tech and well-being to affect a life in flow. Mikey works "to create tools that facilitate people’s own path toward higher consciousness, self-realization, awakening" as defined by each individual's experience of transcendence. You can learn more about his projects and see his TEDx talk here.

Dr. Jennifer Moss Breen (my co-editor and co-author in Visionary Leadership in a Turbulent World: Thriving in the New VUCA Context) researches and writes about the concept of resilience, which is essential to being able to experience flow. Jennifer focuses on leadership resilience and leadership humility.

There really is nothing new under the sun. We are all out here building on what others are doing--weaving and re-weaving--hoping that our work will resonate with those who need to hear it in the moment.

The common denominator is FLOW and our desire to make the world a better place.

 

 

Committing to New Habits

Supposedly, it only takes 21 days to create a new habit (or break an old one).

I love to write. However, the act of blogging on a regular basis plagues me. I think of topics to blog about at the most inopportune times. I generally write these ideas down when I think of them, but, then, when it comes time to flesh out the content, the meaning and the profoundness of the idea seems to have diminished. I'm not sure what that is about.

This past Sunday morning, I was IMing with the lovely and talented blogger, Mary R. Wise (whose name is an actual sentence!) complaining about my inadequacies in this arena. We decided to be blogging buddies. I have already missed my first deadline; she met hers. <sigh>

So, here's the thing. I'm doing it. Whatever. It. Takes. Every day I don't have to be on client site, I'll write something. It might only be a sentence or two, but, if my personal mission is to positively influence as many people as possible in this lifetime (and it is), I cannot pass up this amazing technological opportunity to make the world a better place any way I can. 

Honoring Kyle Robert Wilson, May 25, 1982 - April 16, 2007

Ten years ago today, Kyle Robert Wilson, a firefighter in Prince William County (VA) Department of Fire & Rescue, lost his life in the line of duty. I never knew Kyle, but his death had a major impact on the trajectory of my own life. 

You see, my brother-in-law, Battalion Chief (Ret.) Steve Strawderman, was the A-side commander of that incident. Steve was the one who made the difficult, yet informed, decision to not send in others to rescue Kyle, in effect saving the lives of others who could have lost their lives in the inferno.

At the time, I was just getting started in my studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies getting a Ph.D. in Transformative Studies. I was interested in studying how people make decisions. I had just discovered the very well researched concept of "flow," which comes out of the world of Positive Psychology. I began to wonder whether being in a flow-state facilitated decision making (it does, by the way). When Steve told me this story about Kyle, I realized that Steve was in a flow-state when he made his decision. 

My committee agreed to my idea to study the flow experiences of firefighters in the midst of critical decisions. My life has been forever changed. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to study the most amazing, compassionate, dedicated people on Earth. These men and women are my heart.

Rest In Peace, dear Kyle.

Strategies for Maximizing Flow-states

When I do presentations about flow-based decision making and flow-based leadership, I'm often asked, "How do I experience flow more often?" It happened again this week, when I was meeting with Team Diem at Apres Diem in Midtown Atlanta. I was not completely happy with how I responded, so I thought this might make a good little article to put out into the world.

The first thing to recognize is that flow is a feeling, not an activity. It is neutral. That is, it is not "good" or "bad," "positive" or "negative." It is how you feel in the moment. Flow, also called, "ecstasis," "being in the zone," "peak performance," among other things, feels wonderful. My cousin, Eric Glickrieman, a amazing musician, and composer, calls the feeling, "riding the wave of action." I've heard firefighters refer to it as "bringing your A-game."

Most of the time we recognize flow when we are in it. Initiating flow is a skill. Here are a few strategies to help you get the point where you can consciously pop into flow.

• Recognize when you are in flow. Consider how you got there and what is keeping you there. Remember, flow is the intersection of skills and challenges. Pay attention to what happens that pulls you out of flow.
• Have a plan. Understand that the plan will change and be OK with that. Having a plan helps you make decisions and enables you to live in the moment unfettered by worry and anxiety.
• Take care of yourself from a physical, mental, and spiritual perspective. Choose to be happy!
• Nurture an outward focus on making the world a better place by helping and mentoring others. Practice forgiveness. One of the most important characteristics of flow is the loss of sense of self.
• Get better at what you do. Training and experience mitigate boredom and anxiety, which are the two primary flow-stoppers.

It occurs to me that each of these bullet points is a separate set of blog posts (or maybe the next book!). Let me know if you have any questions. By the way, at 11:00 this morning, I'll be speaking on the topic of "Flow-based Leadership" to Technology Association of Georgia's Entrepreneurs Society. I'd love to see you there.