It doesn’t take much to acknowledge someone or something. I really miss getting on the bus via the front door: in Brisbane during the pandemic, we’ve been getting on the bus via the back door, which means it’s not easy or natural to say hello to the driver. Just the acknowledgement and eye contact: I see you. I’ve gotten used to calling out “good morning” on arrival and “thank you” on departure. The acknowledgement is important.

It’s the same with work deliverables, work well done, work mates, service providers, and passers-by: any acknowledgement will do. And it’s simple and free.

It’s common to hear the statement “hire attitude, we can teach them ability”. Or, ‘check capabilities, we can sort out competence’. Good mannerisms mean good employee.

That’s mostly true. But if your strategy is “attitude over ability”, I’d expect to see a corresponding solid, unwavering onboarding and induction procedure alongside.

Hiring someone who behaves well, but who is not supported in developing their ability, is poor business. A ‘hire behaviour’ policy requires a solid, unwavering training budget that is never questioned.

Hiring for attitudes and behaviour make sense, but don’t assume that means they’ll just do the work as expected.

There’s a lot of intent and possibility in the question “what happened?”.

If it’s being asked, then something must’ve happened. And that must mean there’s a story to tell.

Many business books explain the importance of storytelling in business. Using stories is an effective way to get the point across, develop empathy, or connect with teammates or subordinates.

We also need to get better at describing ‘what happened’ for technical or project-based events. Developing skills to communicate “what happened” on projects, and research, as engaging stories will help us to communicate the achievements and innovations that happen on every project.

Yes, we know there is more to life than work. But there’s an awful lot of ‘other stuff’ to pay attention to, other than work, so keeping it all straight can be just like work.

Cal Newport (writer of the books Deep Work, Digital Minimalism, and soon to be published A World Without Email) proposes four ‘buckets’ to life:

• Community (family, friends)

• Craft (work and quality leisure)

• Constitution (health) and

• Contemplation (matters of the soul)

These categories are good way to narrow down the overwhelm in life. In each category, commit to doing one valuable thing consistently for that category.

A thesaurus I checked showed that the words sceptic and cynic are synonyms. I’m not sure I agree that they are the same.

Both words describe someone who questions what they are hearing, perhaps putting up arguments against it.

But I think a person can be a sceptic without being a cynic. A sceptic is inquisitive, and curious, leaning towards seeking more information. Other descriptions include utilising suspended judgement, or systematic investigation.

A cynic has gone beyond questioning, leaning quickly towards negativity, distrust, and questioning motives.

We should be able to be sceptical without being categorised automatically as a cynic.

I made the joke recently, after someone wrote January 15, 2020 as the date. I remarked, we’re actually in 2021, though nothing’s changed. Boom-boom.

I think it’s dawning on many of us that 2021 might not be all that different from 2020. Uncertainty will prevail, and inconveniences, unexpected changes, and tolerance will continue to be key features of life in 2021.

Always Be Kind. With disruption comes unrecognisable patterns, unpredictability, and loss of confidence. Our social lives have gotten smaller during this time, and we’re not interacting with each other as much anymore. But when we do, first, be kind.

If you are learning and gaining experience, and you’re given the option to either a) get more experience in it or b) reflect, articulate and codify the experience already accumulated, instincts say you’d choose a) practise more.

I would’ve.

But some research* shows, counterintuitively, that “reflection and review” of past experience is a superior mode of learning and ‘bedding in’, for some types of knowledge anyway. I was completely surprised by that finding.

So, ‘reflection’ on nascent knowledge is better than more experience with it. Structured reflection with a mentor or coach is more valuable than taking another training course.

“Money just makes the important stuff easy … so [instead] we try to make the unimportant stuff hard, …. just to make it feel like we're not coasting.”

Firstly, that’s a good observation, and true.

But secondly, about quotes and their sources.

I had that quote scribbled down, without attribution. Rather than repeat it unattributed, I instead put it into the big-G search engine.

So now, because I found it, I have to credit the writers of the Netflix series, “The Politician”. A character in the first episode said it.

No judgements about the source… it’s still a profound quote.

When a house, or high rise, is being built, there is temporary scaffolding put in place to support the structure while it’s under construction.

When roadworks are underway, there is often a temporary detour to direct traffic (and cyclists like me) around the disruption, for convenience of the workers and safety of the public.

There are many examples of temporary inconveniences. They may not look good in the moment, or not nearly resemble the final outcome. But they are there for a reason, and they are only temporary. Time spent disliking something temporary is not a good use of time.

Every so often I come across a word that I’m sure I know the meaning of, but actually maybe not quite.

Glean is one of those words. I was asked, ‘what did you glean from that resource?’, and I thought, weird word, then answered with what I had ‘gotten’ or ‘surmised’ from it.

It does mean “obtain information”, though it originated from gathering grain after the harvest.

But also now: ‘….obtain from various sources, often with difficulty’.

And it’s true: sometimes we have to – and should - go to various sources, and also overcome difficulty, to glean the needed information.

There’s a difference in concentration levels needed to glance at twitter posts versus the concentration (and time) needed to listen to a podcast or read a few pages in a book.

The time spent doing that newsfeed scrolling is generally too short of a time block for the (better) alternative of reading a few pages of a book, or listening to a podcast.

And it’s not just the time factor – it’s the concentration required.

Our ability to concentrate on one thing – one article, one podcast, one book, one subject – is being eroded. This is not good for solving complex problems.

Disruption is associated with uncertainty, but they are not the same state. You can be disrupted, with no external uncertainty about it at all. That happens with something outside your control (a snap short lockdown anyone?). That kind of disruption mostly causes internal uncertainty. It is very disrupting but there’s no uncertainty – not externally, anyway. The uncomfortable uncertainty felt is internal: how to cope, what does it mean, what will I do. These are fair questions, best handled with resilience. And with predictability: identify routines, patterns, and processes that have predictable outcomes. The disruption may remain, but the uncertainty doesn’t.

The most banal uses of predictions are, of course, weather forecasts. Or, perhaps fortune tellers. One or the other is more reliable, but both use skills to predict the future.

Being able to predict the future reduces uncertainty. Our brains like certainty, and so we leap to conclusions about the future as much and as often as possible.

So, make it easy on your overloaded brain by putting in place predictable outcomes wherever possible. It might be boring, but if you’re feeling uncertain, use your skills to make checklists or write procedures. That helps your future to be more predictable.

The human brain tends to look for patterns, in order to reduce uncertainty. Patterns mean familiarity, which means the ability to shortcut, for an overwhelmed brain. Any time we can shortcut, that’s what we tend to do.

This is why we have natural and normal biases, though they may devolve into stereotypes or, worse, incorrect assumptions. The human brain craves certainty, familiarity, and predictability.

This applies for dealing with people, or when dealing with projects. The people side of this discussion is behavioural and cognitive psychology. The project side of solving uncertainty delves into project controls, risk, documentation, and procedures.

The opposite of uncertainty is, of course, certainty. More useful, to get control of uncertainty, is using an antidote to uncertainty: predictability and reliability.

During 2021, the “Beyond 100 Words” webinar series will be held on the 10th of the month. Right there is some predictability for you to alleviate uncertainty: future episodes will be on the 10th of each month. There are 10 episodes planned in 2021.

This month’s topic is uncertainty itself. I’ll draw on examples and stories from my March 2020 100WAD posts (an uncertain time for sure) and provide some takeaway suggestions to deal with uncertainty.

Calendars and clocks are a human construct. Turning the calendar over to the new year is cathartic in some ways, and also meaningless in others. Of course, these measures of time are based on the phenomenon of the earth’s rotations, but besides that, it’s all made up.

But, the structure of days, months, and years should not be underestimated, and the new year can be a cathartic, cleansing and purifying time.

I’m taking the time to cull my email inboxes. Starting the new working year with empty inboxes means more brain space, which may allow more space for innovative work.

Last post of 2020 …I’m taking a break from #100wordsaday until January 4th.

In 2021, in addition to carrying on this daily caper, I’ll do a monthly webinar series, ‘Beyond 100 Words’.

I’ll choose a theme based on some of the published #100wordsaday, and on the 10th of each month, I’ll present background stories and inspirations, and provide some takeaways, to help with that theme.

The pilot episode will be on January 10th in the afternoon – I know that’s a Sunday, so it’ll be a soft launch for sure. January’s theme is ‘uncertainty’. More details after the break.

Happy holidays!

I was surprised to learn that a revered colleague closes his eyes during online meetings. Not only does he not use the video, but he actually sits there with eyes closed while the conversations are going on. I thought initially, how rude. That’s not fair to the speakers.

But maybe he is right to do that. He points out, so rightly, that so much human interaction is from nonverbal cues. In person, our eyes take in all of the body language and nuances. On video, all of that is gone. So, he concentrates on voice, tone, and pitch; eyes closed.

The phrase “love your work” can be positive (“it’s good to hear that you love your work”), or critical (apparently, it’s a particularly Australian slang to say it sarcastically). Adding a comma reverses it in the sense that the work loves you back (Love, your work).

We all strive to love our work. Life is better then. Perhaps there are fleeting moments, but it’s not often a sustained feeling. But when we’re in those moments, it’s worth remembering. Those are the times to be writing a ‘career episode report’, or a storyline, or just a ‘what happened’ list every day.

A hundred years ago, there were pure etiquette schools, and it was very clear what ‘good behaviour’ expectations were. Fifty years ago, it was post-1960s and the rebellion was on. The youth of the day (baby boomers in their teens) questioned all things etiquette. Ten years ago, social media arrived, and etiquette was possibly banished to history.

But perhaps not. Humans still function best together when expectations and rules are known. But in a multi-cultural, diverse, and inclusive society, we no longer know what the rules are. Sure, be kind, that’s obvious. At a gathering, clearly set other expectations too.