Jellies
On Sunday I toured an exhibit at the National Aquarium in Baltimore about “Jellies”-jelly fish. They do an amazing job in multi-media presentations. Screens with comments about the tanks underneath, beautiful displays, mood lighting and of course, the star of the show the jelly fish. Jelly fish are amazing looking creatures-oranges and whites and reds-amorphous and swirly and mysterious. They float around growing smaller, then larger, with their long sweeping tentacles. I learned that they are in all the oceans and some fresh water habitats as well. Not all of them sting, some are quite harmless.
I was quite struck by the time line outside the exhibit. Jellies have been around, little changed, for over 300 million years. Humans, on the other hand have been around for about 200,000 years. I’m not sure what jellies have done to influence their habitat. My guess is that their impact is small, even though our planet is 70% water. Plankton or algae may have a wider impact. And, early on, there did not seem to be enough people to seriously affect the planet, either. Now, things are clearly different. There are too many of us to sustain the earth without serious change and we are incredibly reluctant to take action when it is hard and is not universally agreed to.
I keep trying to apply systems thinking to address that conundrum. We all want a better, safer, healthier planet for our grandchildren and their grandchildren, but we can’t agree on what we all would have to do to get there, nor if we would be willing to take the necessary steps. The continuing spill in the gulf, and the resultant damage to ocean life, beaches, marshlands and the people who depend on them to eat, feed their families, recreate, navigate is mind boggling.
Life in that aquarium as a jellyfish sure looked easier.
Who’s your peer group?
When we were kids, we had peer groups of all sorts. We had classmates, we had team mates, we had recital groups, or dance classes or religion classes. Everywhere we went we were lumped into some subgrouping.
Sometimes they were peers, sometimes they were just our age. For adults, there are very few regular standards in which to measure success. You don't make/not make it to the finals every year. We measure ourselves against financial outcomes that are not completely within our control and can devastate us when the outcome is a layoff or a termination. Not to say that financial outcomes are not important. On the contrary, if financial success matters to you, it makes sense to create accountability and benchmark your success against your goals. So, where do you go to find accountability?
Some people find a friendly competitor or a competitive friend at work or in their community. Other people look to industry or professional associations. How can you get independent objective feedback to help you reflect on what you do well and what could use some work?
Once you find a partner or a peer group, here are some ways to make accountability work:
Be honest about what you are looking for and who you really are.
No shame or trash talking unless you both like that sort of thing.
Agree in advance about the ground rules.
Set goals that are measurable (ex.:contact 3 prospects this week).
Write down the commitments and review them each time you talk.
Encourage and help each other. It’s easy to find negativity.
Keep notes and review your progress every 3 months.
Finally, stick with it.
Let me know how it turns out.