Having a Just Cause

Hello world.

So one of my.

Things to do is procrastinate on Instagram. It's the evening I should be relaxing, but I'm reading, reading the Infinite Game. Here's a little peek of Moonshots are not a just cause. There it is, a printed page from the new book.

So it's the first time I've read it. So it's really just a lot of red pen, quite frankly.

But.

Here'S what I'm loving. I've learned so much from this, from this book, and it's given me an entirely new way of seeing the world, an entirely new lens through which to see it, which has been a thrill and even sort of adding more depth to some of the.

Previous stuff that I've written about. For those of you who may have read Leaders Eat Last, for example, I talk about the circle of safety.

And one of the things that.

I sort of, I think I talk about it in leaders, I have to go back and check. But yes, it's absolutely a leader's responsibility to build a circle of safety. And when it exists, it is then the responsibility of others to step into it. And very much about trust being a two way street. Think about it. In a personal relationship, you know when you are married to someone or dating somebody and all you do is give and give and give and give and create a safe space for them and they don't reciprocate, then the relationship is going to collapse. So I like this idea of shared risk, though. The leader is the one who takes the risk first.

Anyway, as I like to do, if you like, I will answer any questions you have. And the more questions you have.

The easier it is for me to procrastinate and not do my work.

What else can I tell you? Hello from Portugal. So cool. And from Venezuela. Neat. What else can I tell you that I've been learning? Oh, one of the things that I do is this idea of vision and mission statements. Everybody's got a vision statement and a mission statement. And.

One of the problems is that we don't have standard definitions for what a vision or mission are.

So they always look different, sound different. Some companies have one, some companies have both, some put them in a different order. So the question is.

What is a vision and mission statement? So I thought just like I've done with a lot of my work, if we can't agree on the definition, let's throw out the words and start again. And I talk about a just cause and I give some pointers as to actually how to write a Just cause, where is it? So if you actually want to write a just cause, if you actually want to write a vision that will inspire people, it needs to have five things. So all vision statements need to have five things for them to be inspiring and worthy of the infinite game. Here we go. They must be for something. They must be inclusive, they must be service oriented, they must be resilient and they must be idealistic. What does that mean? Okay, for something means it has to be a positive and specific, specific vision of the future. So being against something is good to rally people, but it's not, it's not lasting and it's not inspiring. So you have to be for something. What do you stand for versus stand against? It has to be inclusive, which means it is open to all those who would like to contribute. So when people hear your vision, they think to themselves, oh, I'd like to be a part of that. And you can attract people from all different kinds of skill sets. Too often when people write visions or missions, they ground it in their product, you know, to make the best computer, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's really attractive if you're an engineer, but if you're an accountant, that's not so attractive. And very often when organizations define their vision or mission based on product, it makes some of the people who work at the company either feel like or even sometimes treat it as if they're second class citizens. So this has to be inclusive, service oriented. It means the primary benefit has to go to others. If you go to your boss for career advice, the expectation is that the advice that you get will benefit your career. If your boss gives you advice to benefit their career, not really very good. So the same value chain, which is all of the things we do, have to benefit those on the receiving end. So if you're in product development, the products you're developing have to benefit the people who will use the products. If you're a leader, the things your leadership, your advice, your counsel, everything has to benefit the people in your charge. And if you're an investor, the investments you make have to benefit the company you're investing in. And then of course you can expect to be paid well. Of course you can expect to be rewarded. Of course you can expect a return on your investment. Second, only after.

The benefactor, the person who's supposed to benefit from your effort or counsel is satisfied first. And this is necessary for a good just cause in the infinite game, it has to be resilient. That sort of goes without saying. It has to be able to endure political Technological and cultural change. Once again, if you define it based on your product and there's a technological change, not gonna last. And then finally, it has to be idealistic, big, bold, and ultimately unachievable. In other words, it's not about some big goal of becoming the biggest or the best, and it's not about reaching some revenue target, even if it's huge. Or it's about achieving something that for all intents and purposes, you'll never get there. Think about the Civil Rights movement. Think about the Declaration of Independence. We'll never actually reach a point of all people are created equal, but will die trying, which is sort of the point of a good just cause, which is we devote our lives to advancing something that is an ideal. So. So I figured most people don't write good vision and mission statements, not because they're bad people, but because we don't really have any standardized guidelines. So that's what I'm hoping. Hoping to put some framework around with the hope that those of us who work for an organization with a just cause will be inspired to come to work every day.

Questions?

Could I tell your daughter Clara to go to bed now? That's funny. Clara, go to bed now.

Let's see what else.

Just leafing through the questions. Hello. A lot of people from Portugal. It's kind of late there, isn't it? You should all be in bed. You Portuguese like to stay up late.

Anyway, so I'm hard at work finishing this book, eager.

Eager to share it with you all. I'm in that nervous stage now where I'm writing, and.

You know, I fear that I haven't properly communicated the ideas or properly communicated the thought. And. And there's all this insecurity that goes with producing a product like this. It's a creative product. It's not a product of science or experimentation. It's a creative product. So, you know, all that nervousness of putting something out there as I'm reading it, I'm enjoying the reading. But, you know, the fear I have is. Is will. Will you guys like it? Will it connect? Will it actually offer value in the world rather than just be some sort of vanity thing, which I don't care about?

Lots of Portuguese on here tonight. No plan to come to Portugal anytime soon.

Hello from Peru. I'd always wanted to go to Peru.

What are some good books to recommend? There's actually a bunch of cool books coming out from some folks I know.

Scott Harrison's book Thirst just came out, I think today. Scott's a great guy. And I know his story. It's kind of inspiring. It's really inspiring. Not kind of inspiring. It is inspiring. Scott Belsky's new book, the Messy Middle, I think just came out today as well.

I like Scott, and I like what he stands for in the world. Brene Brown has a new book coming out as well, about leadership. I haven't read it yet, but I am excited to read it.

So those are some books that are coming out from people I know and like.

Come to Australia. I was just there.

Hello from Argentina. I like Milanesas.

Struggling with the finding of the founders of my company's why. Struggling with finding the founders of my company's why. I'm not sure I understand the question there. Are you one of the founders? Are you working for the founders? Hello. Jim Kwik. Jim. For those of you who don't know Jim Kwik, you really. Kwik, you. You really should click over and say hi to Jim Kwik. He is awesome. One of my favorite people in the world. He just said hi. He's the best.

Yes. Brene Brown's work is pretty magical.

Oh, so you're working for the founder, Eric. Well, they have to want to do it. So is it that you're struggling because they don't want to do it and you think they should, or that they really want to?

But, you know, you have to want to learn your why. It's. What's that old joke? How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? One. But the light bulb has to really want to change. It's the same thing. You can't force anybody to learn their why. They have to want to do it because once you learn it, it requires the focus and sacrifice to actually go through it.

So.

Yeah.

Do you think our why changes as we go through different seasons in our life? Oh, that's such a great question. Do you? I think your why changes everything. I've learned about the why. The answer is it's permanent once you. It's the sum total of how you were raised and our experiences as kids. And it's fully formed probably by our mid to late teens. And then the rest of our lives are simply opportunities to live in balance with our why or not. So it's not like, you know, a lot of people think tragedy changes your why. No, it doesn't. But it certainly can make it front and center if you've suffered a personal tragedy in your life. Natural disaster, September 11th. You know, a lot of us are sort of struck all of a sudden that my job is Stupid and it's not worthwhile and I don't feel it's fulfilling. Well, that doesn't mean that your why changed. It means you came to realize because of the tragedy that there are things that are more important for anybody who's ever had somebody near them die prematurely. You know, you're struck by our problems aren't that bad and life is valuable and special and it really reminds us that to focus on something bigger than ourselves is important. So these things thrust the why into focus, but they don't form your why and they certainly don't change your why. We only have one why and it lasts our entire lives. The challenge is to live in balance with it.

How do you learn your passion as a 15 year old?

You know, that's such a good question. I think as a 15 year old, I hope that you start to practice taking care of your friends, you start to practice service, that you start to practice leadership, that you volunteer or you go away on a volunteer program or you do something for others or when you spend time with your friends, you know, you've heard me say this before, put your phone away and make sure all your friends put their phones away and really spend time, valuable time with your friends.

And that's what I think, how, I think you'll discover your passion as a teenager, quite frankly, as any age, which is, there's a great irony to discovering our passion, which is it doesn't come from trying to find it for ourselves, it actually comes from trying to help others find it. So commit yourself to help others find or solve the problem that they're struggling with, which may be the same as yours, and you will soon discover what your passion is as well. It's counterintuitive, but you know, human beings are made to take care of each other and so that's what we got to do. Why is, is why a humble thing? A why is an act of service? It's kind of, it has a dual purpose. It's the value we offer to the world, it's the value we have in our friends lives, but it's also the thing we need the most. So my why is to inspire people to do the things that inspire them. So together each of us can change our world for the better. So that's what I try and put out there, that's what I try and do. That's what I try and have reflected in my work, to inspire people to do what inspires them. However, the thing that I give to the world, the value that I have in the world is also the thing that I need the most. So I have to constantly seek inspiration from others.

Because if I don't, then I become lost and I forget my own why and it becomes about me and I forget that it's about service. So.

Yes.

Can why create discomfort for the the ground and losses in opportunity cost?

Well, I think what Y provides is calm and certainty. So sometimes there might be short term losses for long term gain. And I think why provides the focus to make those decisions. It happened to me personally when I discovered my why a bunch of years ago. I decided that the work that I was doing at the time was not the work that was advancing my cause. And I decided to close my office and start again. And everybody panicked and thought that I'd gone out of business. And I can tell you that I had never been so sure of a decision in all my life. It was such an easy decision to make. How do you pick friends? Hopefully you pick friends who you care about them that you'd want to sacrifice for them and that you feel that they would sacrifice for you. You don't necessarily know these things overnight. You know, friendship is like dating. You know, you get to know somebody and you see if there's something there. I love how Jen Strauss Rosenthal.

One of my oldest friends, just logged on. We've known each other since we were in high school. Hi, Jen. So this is, this is. She's the best. So this is the way a friend of mine describes trust. And I think it's brilliant. He just finds. So when you meet someone, there's a rope there called trust that you would never lean on because you don't know them. And then as you get to know them, you might put a little bit of your weight on the rope and you see if it holds. And the more you get to know them, the more of your weight you can put against the rope until the rope holds your entire weight. But you would never do it out of the gate. You would never do it first because you don't know if the rope is sure. And so it's the same thing. And you have to constantly keep checking your rope and theirs. Like, is the rope that they provided you still strong or is it starting to fray? And if it's starting to fray, you have to say, hey, my rope is fraying. And you have to keep watching their rope and seeing are you acting in a way that their rope can hold up their weight because you're responsible for building that. So it's a two way street. But I love this metaphor of trust. As a rope that you lean on. My friend Tom came up with that, and he's kind of a genius. One of my dear friends and mentors.

Here's the thing about mentorship. A lot of people, you know, you get an email. I'm sure everybody is familiar with this. You know, will you be my mentor? Mentorship is like friendship. You can't just go up to a stranger on the street and say, will you be my friend? It doesn't work that way. You can't just decide who you want to be your friends. You got to get to know each other. And I think mentorship is the same. Same way a mentor, like a friend, evolves. You don't choose who your mentor is. You don't say, ah, I want that person to be my mentor. Because how do you know that they would want to sacrifice time and energy for you just because you asked them? You don't. Just like someone doesn't. Just because you ask them to be your friend, they're not going to just be your friend.

Where it's not like little kids on the playground anymore. And so mentorships evolve. Like if you call someone for advice and they give you advice, this is what happened to me. There's a guy named Ron. I met him, I thought he was amazing. I reached out to him for some advice, and he took my call. Another time I reached out to him, he took my call. Another time, I emailed him, he returned my email, and before I knew it, I realized he really cared about me and he really cared to see me grow. And he became my mentor. Slowly, like somebody becomes your friend. And I remember I was leaving his house and I had my put my arm around him to say goodbye, and I said, you know, I'm so glad you're my mentor. And he responded, something I did not expect. He said, and I'm so glad you're mine. And this is what I love about true mentor relationships, which is both people are learning. You're both the mentor and the mentee. For as much as I thought he was just the giver, it never occurred to me that this highly accomplished man was learning from me too. So I think great mentor relationships are like great friendships. They're about give and take. And you don't decide to make someone your mentor, even if it's well intended. It evolves, and you discover someone's your mentor, like you discover someone's your friend, like you discover you're in love with someone.

So that's my view on mentorship.

Watched Deadpool 2 the other night for the second time. Time. Such a good film. I really like the Deadpool franchise. I hope they make many, many more.

So that's just a random thought.

Yes, I do know Malcolm Gladwell's books, and I think they're very good. He's an amazing storyteller, and I think he helps shed some light on some of the things we experience in our world.

So I think I should probably go do some more work, maybe have a bite to eat. Oh, what's this last one? Have you thought about bringing your why into the school system to help help our students and teachers? Oh, yes, I have. I know there's a lot of teachers who found my work and principals who found my work, and they've been doing it organically. You know, the primary responsibility of a principal is not to take care of the students. The primary responsibility of the principal is to take care of the teachers. The teachers take care of the students. And if the teachers feel like the principal is taking care of them, they will invest all of their energy into taking care of the students. But if the teachers feel that they're not safe when. When they come to work, and that's got nothing to do with tenure, it's, do you feel psychologically safe? Then they will work to protect themselves from the school rather than spending their time giving to the kids. So I think teachers need to learn their why, I think principals need to learn their why, I think schools need to learn their why, and I think they need to teach leadership to principals and administrators. Not because I single them out as bad, because I don't think necessarily they are, but I think it's just pervasive in all industries where we promote people because they want the job or they're good at the job they had before we teach somebody how to be a teacher, before we let them teach. We teach somebody how to be a doctor before you let them practice medicine. We teach somebody how to use the computer system before we let them work on the computer. So why would we not teach somebody how to be a leader when we expect them to lead? So I think we can do much better job at schools and definitely inside organizations to teach leadership as we promote them into those positions. Nice glasses. Thank you very much.

And on that note, I will wish you all a pleasant evening and have fun with your friends and families. Oh, one more thought. I had this thought.

Figure out if you're addicted to your phone. And I've been doing this. I go in and out of phases with this, but try this. It's really rough. Charge your phone in a completely different room than the one you sleep in.

And when you wake up in the morning, see if you really crave your phone. If you do, you, you might be addicted. The idea of waking up in the morning and just like starting your day and brushing your teeth without immediately thinking, I need to check my phone. You know, I'm pretty good about not checking my phone all the time. I'm really pretty good about keeping my phone away when I'm with my friends, not putting it on tables in meetings. I don't bring it into meetings or I put it in airplane mode and keep it in a jacket or put it on a shelf or something. But I've been charging it in a different room for a while. And in the morning sleep, it still bothers me that when I wake up I wonder what's on my phone. So I'm working to keep charging it in a different room with the hope that when I wake up in the morning, I just go through my morning routine before I check the phone. So.

There you go. Have a good night everyone. Always a pleasure to see you all. Thanks for tuning in to say hi until my next procrastination.

I'll see you later.