doug smith training

Maybe you inherited your team. Maybe your team just lost a key player. The game goes on. You've got to keep playing, keep producing, and keep developing your team.  Work with the team you've got. When you do, they will astound you. -- doug smith  

You can organize a team around your goals and you can also organize your goals around your team. Both are essential moves to your team's success. -- doug smith  

Can you solve every problem? Of course not. Some problems need more time, more resources, more miracles. Sometimes the best we can do as a leader is not to make things worse. Even if you can't solve a problem there's no reason to magnify it. Look at that problem from the viewpoint of someone who just doesn't care. Does it look different? Is it really a mountain or simply a molehill (of course, if you've ever had moles you know what kind of problem that is). Will any of it matter a year from now? If yes, get busy. If no, breathe? -- doug smith  

What we tell ourselves about how we serve determines largely how we serve. -- doug smith  

Problems are complicated. We need to think clearly about them, to analyze their causes. We also need to act quickly because, oddly or not, some solutions expire.  Sit, or move? Think, or act? This isn't a universal assertion, but maybe one with value:  the situation isn't entirely the problem, and the problem isn't entirely the situation. As closely as cause and effect may nest, there are likely other causes, other effects worth considering. It's a bit like widening the circle in a jam session. Yes, the new instruments complicate things, and yes, sometimes the notes are discordant, but oh! the miracle of the unexpected harmonies can make the how piece better. That's the situation. What if it existed before the problem, and needs to exist beyond the problem? We can sit with a problem without making that problem the entire situation. What do you think? -- doug smith  ps: The drawing is only partially related. It't a situation. It's a problem. I drew this danci...

Work your goals but make your goals serve you. No one needs a goal that makes them cranky. -- doug smith 

I remember getting a big let-down after a show would close, or a project would end, or a movie would wrap...anything really important that I'd been working on. All that work. All that focus. All that energy. And, then suddenly it's done. But that was then. That was too much focus on the outcome and not enough on the process. Because the end comes and goes, but the process can continue. The process of creating, of learning, of growing.  The best part of achieving your goals is enjoying the journey, and then you avoid any big left-down at the end. The journey, the process -- that's the joy. -- doug smith  

If you could be remembered forever for one thing, what is that one thing? Share it with me if you like. I'd like to know, because it is probably entirely possible. It could even be a goal. -- doug smith  

Have you ever gotten resistance to a goal that you really wanted to achieve? Maybe someone told you that you weren't capable. Maybe someone told you that the goal was wrong for you, or unachievable.  What do they know? Your goals are important no matter what anyone says. Get started when you're ready. -- doug smith  

What looks like the root cause of a problem may have roots of its own. Keep digging. The rush to solve may leave things unresolved.  -- doug smith  

Every problem leads to an outcome.  Some you want and some you definitely do not want.  You're going to prefer the outcomes of the problems you solve. Don't you think so? -- doug smith