Game changers
I’ve gotten used to experiencing small but meaningful game changers that come around pretty often. For instance, getting a USB splitter opened up my world because my (new! fancy!) laptop only had ONE USB port (insert eye roll). Getting that splitter was like WHOA! Also, I recently ordered powdered malt (think like the crunchy stuff that’s inside Whoppers, but in powder form) and turning a homemade milkshake into a malt is a RAD upgrade. Oh, and getting a Dutch oven, allowing transfer from the stove directly to the oven, has vastly upped my cooking game.
All these little things are pretty awesome and can really put a spring in your step for a day or two. It’s the BIG game changers that don’t come around as often but the splash they make is like a tidal wave. And I just got soaked by a tidal wave game changer.
I just finished Seth Godin’s AltMBA program, an intensive 5-week sprint that had work every day, a cohort of people from across the globe, and small learning groups you work with. I went into it expecting I’d learn some new things and meet some cool people. And it totally blew me away.
There were, of course, very tactical business and marketing learnings I got from the program. But these other things, the intangible lessons, are the ones that really changed the game. I learned that:
I can do a LOT of work. It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down and “produced” work. Oh sure, I have this blog that I deliver every week, but a lot of my work is having conversations, curating content by reading and listening, and giving myself space to have ideas and thoughts. But this program required constant (daily!) publishing of the written output of my thoughts, a pace I’m hardly used to but it turns out, I am actually quite capable of doing.
Getting precious about your work is the antithesis of making great work. Sure, it’s important to make your work important to you (otherwise, why are you doing it??) and to deliver quality work, but holding it so tightly or so preciously that you can’t even hear others’ input, suggestions, observations, feedback, or ideas means that your work can only be as good as you are on any given day.
Leading me to this important bit: when you leave the framework of a question wide enough, you can get an astonishingly wide range of ideas and responses. When we limit our questions, we limit what we can get back. Finding people and readings and ideas from all over the globe have changed how I want to get feedback now, and opened me up to making sure I can get as much as possible. Which includes making sure I don’t narrow my inquiries, thereby arbitrarily narrowing the responses I might get.
And maybe most importantly of all: connection is so easy if you choose to engage and you approach it meaningfully. The work we produced was quite personal to each of us (even if it was in a work context), so simply by reading and commenting on one another’s work, I had the opportunity to get to know literal strangers in ways I don’t even know some of the folks who’ve been in my life for years. And it compelled me to react and respond in personal ways of my own. We weren’t just liking or hearting something the other person said, we chose to respond meaningfully and connect outside of our prompts as well. In five short weeks, I’ve made some lifetime friends.
I almost talked myself out of doing this program because it sounded overly intensive. Like it would take up all my mindshare and time for five weeks, and did I really want to do that? But I’ll tell you what…I was missing the point entirely. My mindshare and time were too narrowly focused and after this game changer, I feel more expansive than I have in years.
Where will your next game changer come from???
Serious game changer: wheels on your feet!!!
