Prepare to be prepared

"We have a meeting coming up."

I'm sure this phrase has been uttered by countless people banking on one thing we hope shows up at the meeting-change. 

That's what we meet for where I come from. If you aren't there to change, you didn't come with the right purpose. 

Why did it take me so long to figure it out, this meeting thing? 

Here's a short list of how great meetings are ran:

• agenda is sent out prior to the meeting
• the key people are invited
• there is a time keeper and a preset length to the meeting
• 75% of the meeting should be spent on performance issues, if you are here to communicate-send it to us in an email
• decide who runs the meeting, and who is going to keep time
• document all action items for follow up 

It's not rocket science. 

I have a meeting coming up tomorrow that's the first of it's kind for me. I'm super excited and ready for the challenge. 

As for finding the others-I've made considerable progress on the ODDF, before I release it, I have some more kinks to work out. The website exist, it's just rough around the edges because it's free and I don't want to pay for services just yet. When it is ready to be shown to you, my awesome readers, I'll provide a link on my website. 

Pride in the making

Do work you are proud of. 

Merry Christmas! 

What now?

The forum I've been dreaming about became a reality through the internet and some friends. 

From my view, our restaurant is packed. Busier than I've seen it since I got here. The crowds in front of the shopping outlets are jammed to the max. 

And my mind wanders to what my goals are...

What now?

I've done some things, I've crossed items off my to do list, and I've shared moments with friends when they needed me to. 

What now is my next question? 

What do I need to be working on now? What's next for you? Is it another book before the end of the year, is it a letter you need to write, is it a difficult conversation that you need to have? 

Whatever's next. Do it. 

Find the others

There is nothing new under the sun.

We know there is purpose to our day. If you haven't figured it out yet, you might need this. 

I have an idea about connecting a group of people who aren't currently connected. 

I work in Chick-fil-A and we have a lot of resources, but our most valuable resource-people, are not being utilized to our fullest potential. 

My idea is an Operationally Driven Discussion Forum to happen within the walls of our intranet. All over the country-Tampa, San Antonio, and multiple other places on the East coast groups of leaders are meeting together to solve problems in their own restaurants. They idea share, collaborate, discuss, examine, quiz, and find out about each other's business. Meetings are a great way to share. 8-12 people get in a room once a month and talk about what's going on with them. It's already happening and it's making those teams better.

It's REMARKable. It's building community. It's solving real problems together. It's creating raving fans.  

Our hinderance as a company comes when we are not connecting Tampa with San Antonio. 

I want to see Chick-fil-A create a digital space where people who aren't Restaurant Marketing Directors or Owner/Operators can connect. 

What would a discussion forum look like if 3 key leaders from each restaurant contributed to a website that was based on making Chick-fil-A better? 

A connection will be made from Greendale, WI to Flagstaff, AZ and the business, team members, owners, home office staff, and the individual who contributed will be better for it. 

Connections. Where are the others? How do we connect them? 

I just created my own BHAG-big hairy audacious goal. I'm scared. I'm alone, and because of the current form @cfahome, this might not work.

And that's ok. I'm not scared to dance with failure, I've done it once and I plan on doing it again. 

#yourturn

The difference between clean and dirty

A conversation.

If intentional, you have the ability to do anything. Compound time, effort, failure, and learning, and you can take a Garland grill from dirty to clean.

Holding a brief meeting with the right people can affect the outcome of your day. Do it for a week, and your business can do things that you never thought imaginable.

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Sunday Night, B League

I don't know a lick about basketball.

I'm terrible at it. 

Last night I fouled out of a men's league basketball game. If you include the hunger that was setting in, I quickly became hangry. For those of you who have either seen me hangry, or have experienced this phenomenon yourself, it's rough. 

In between wind sprints designed to calm me down, I had a conversation with my Maker. After about nine sprints I asked-What are my options? 

Gripe. Or keeping learning. 

I choose continuing ed. I hope you do too. 

Writing Scares the Be-Jesus out of me

Every time I look at the "publish" button I get scared.

Because I don't know what happens after that. The unavoidable. The unknown. I met a man last night and told him I was a blogger. I've had a blog since 2006 and that's the first time in public I've made that statement.

I write so I can clear my brain of thoughts. But I also write to connect.

I want to know which post you have most enjoyed and why.

The first two people who comment below and tell me which blog post and why will get shipped Seth Godin's new book "What to do when it's your turn (and it's always your turn)".

Simple eh? Let's see who the first two readers are!

#yourturn

The power of associations

Who am I around and what are they doing to me?

It's really easy to see how people are living their lives by looking at the people they spend time with. I know that the rule of thumb is that your salary is similar to your five closest friends. I want to know if that's true. I would like to see someone comment below to either enforce this idea or reject it. (a good way to tell might be looking at your recent calls on your telephone and see if it holds up)

Why should you care who you are around?

After a couple of questions to people share what they are doing and who they are doing it with. What shakes me up is that they want changes in their life and don't change their friend circle.

If you goal is to get to point A. And you know people who have not been to point A, why continue to spend time with people who can't help you get to point A.

This stuff shows up every where. All it takes is someone to stop for a moment and do some introspection.

Who am I around and what are they doing to me? And is that ok?

There are some people who you can be around for a few minutes, but not a few hours. There are some people you can be around for a few hours, but not a few days. There are some people you can be around for a few days, but not a few years.

This stuff is so subtle. If you don't notice the gentle nudge in your back, you might wind up off course.

NASA's space ships are only on course for their destination 3% of the time. The rest of the time they are adjusting their course. Brief, but minute, focused adjustments.

I hope you take a moment and comment below with who you friends are, and if your salary is similar to theirs. I'll go first.

Who are you going to sit next to?

At work, we deal with people problems. All day long. There isn't a problem we have that is without a person attached to it.

After reviewing some personal notes I have on HR, I see how important that function of a business is. If you are able to get the right people on the proverbial bus, then good things start to happen.

A reflective question for you-Who have you hired to come into your life? Where have they got you going? How late do they have you staying up? What type of conversations do you have with that individual to make you stretch for a goal? If you aren't having challenging conversations with people, are you sure they're your friends?

One of my favorite parts of interviewing is the silence. I like to see how people respond when you aren't speaking. Are they comfortable? Are they uneasy? What posture does one take when silence lingers? For me, it's always been a way to get more information out of person about an answer, or it's been a way for me to see if they were confident in their first answer. Silly? Probably, but it's how I roll.

What's be a good human resources idea that you've used that seems to help you get the right people on the bus?

More on associations.

Celebrate the little wins

Do you remember the day you figured out how to ride a bike? No training wheels, no parent pushing, no more anything but you and the open road?

I think it's easy to celebrate this kind of victory because it's tangible. You can immediately see the result.

In my mind, after we learn so many physical skills, how do we know what to celebrate?

In our business, we celebrate learning. As a team we have been sharing our new vision statement with each other and with our team. And when you hear a team member say it to you after never hearing it before...

#winning