Happy Friday,
This weeks insights include:
Are you solving the wrong problems? ⚠️
Find your perfect coaching book 📚
A self-care writing exercise ❤️
Enjoy!
Are you solving the wrong problems? ⚠️
This week I read Upstream Thinking by Dan Heath.
It explores how people commonly focus on solving the wrong problems. They react to problems after they happen.
Instead, Dan suggests preventing problems upstream.
What I enjoyed most about the book are the stories used throughout.
A great example is a Dutch bicycle company, VanMoof.
Customer complaints were high as many bikes were being damaged during shipping.
Their solution? They started printing images of flat-screen televisions on the side of their shipping boxes, which are very similar in shape to flat-screen TV boxes.
“Our team sat together and we imagined that couriers would be more careful with packages if they knew even more precious goods were in them,” the cofounder Taco Carlier told a journalist.
Damaged goods were reduced by 70% to 80%.
I created this summary so you can get the best insights quickly.
Find Your Perfect Coaching Book 📚
This week I shared this visual to help you find the perfect coaching book. It's been rather popular on LinkedIn with over 300 Likes. Welcome to folks reading this newsletter for the first time!
My hope is that the visual will help leaders coach better.
To help you become a better coach I created Switch.
Within just 5 days you'll have practical ways to lead, empower and inspire your teams.
A Self-Care Writing Exercise ❤️
Many people I spoke with this week are finding life hard. I'm sharing this writing exercise for anyone struggling or those who need a reminder to do self-care.
Grab a pen, paper and find a quiet spot
Mindfulness is about focusing our attention and increasing awareness of the present moment. Often we get trapped in our own thoughts and lose a sense of what is around us.
Firstly, find something to look at. What you choose is up to you, start with a single item. A chair, a table, a person, a wall, a glass.
Once you have chosen your object, look at it intently for a few minutes. Take several deep breaths as you focus on the object to help you relax and focus your attention.
Imagine you are going to paint it, now do a word painting.
Describe the object in great detail, observing aspects of it that you wouldn’t normally see. The texture, the colour, the shape, the position, the density. Describe the feelings that arise in the present moment as you focus your attention on the object.
As you write, take a breath after each sentence to focus.
Debrief
What did you notice that perhaps you wouldn't normally?
As you look back at the object now, does it appear any different?
What relationship does it have with any feelings that arose during the exercise?
Quote of the week
“After the ecstasy, the laundry”
- Jack Kornfield