Renatta Algalarrondo and Paul Mackender graphic recording for a Lizard Brain client.
There’s no such thing as useless knowledge.
I went to my 20-year grad school reunion last night. Among the jokes about gray hairs and photos of kids, I heard one thing over and over again:
“Brian, I wouldn’t have made it through accounting class without your cheat sheet.”
It wasn’t really a cheat sheet. The professor allowed us to bring exactly one page of notes into the final exam of a course that relied on dozens of complicated formulas. I just took the time to carefully design a notes page using Adobe Illustrator that laid out all of the relevant formulas in a nice, neat, 6-point font.
Grad school was great, but accounting was not my jam. During class, I thought, “I just have to make it through this class and then get on with the good stuff. I’m not going to be an accountant. When am I ever going to use this?”
20 years later, I run a small business. I do my own bookkeeping. But more importantly, I take notes for other people. That little side effect of accounting class has become my full-time job.
Whodathunkit?
You often hear leaders extoll their people to “think outside the box!” You might as well say, “Stop thinking the way we’ve been paying you to think for your whole career!” It’s a lot easier to help people make connections to knowledge, skills, and abilities they already have. Imagine a meeting that starts like this:
If you ever asked yourself, ‘When am I ever going to use this?’ I have an answer for you. The answer is today. Right now. We have a tremendous challenge in front of us. Failure means leaving the room without a working solution. Success will take all of us drawing from the depths of knowledge, skills, expertise, and experience. Think of a challenge you overcame, whether it was fixing a flat tire, dealing with illness, rearranging botched travel, losing a job, surviving a pandemic, or passing a difficult exam. HOW did you do it? WHAT did you do to overcome the challenge? Hard work? Phone a friend? Keeping calm? Listening to experts? Challenge teaches us the skills that make us stronger next time. So be thinking about what you’ve done to succeed. And let’s begin.”
Want to draw out the hidden strengths of YOUR group? Let’s talk. https://calendly.com/brian-lizardbrain/45-min-discovery-call
