Trash or Treasure

My mom, husband and children are all accomplished chefs.  Because they routinely create yummy feasts, and enjoy the process, my culinary skills are quite limited.  However, my creative instincts and ongoing desires to make something delightful from unexpected materials  (that often yield non-culinary successes),  occasionally result in delicious, yet usually non-repeatable dishes.

Seeing and acting on potential, where others fail to realize possibilities, is so rewarding.  Refrigerator ingredients that would have been trashed, were combined to produce a scrumptious potato corn soup.  Though I was the only one in town to enjoy it, it was quite exciting to realize that acting on good instincts can occasionally yield results that would ordinarily require skill and experience.

We are generally more apt to experiment when the stakes are low.  And when we are able to turn trash to treasure the rewards are amazing.

Objectivity

Daylight Savings Time prompted me to complete a fast-paced 30 minute walk before starting my business day today. As I moved briskly through our 10-street neighborhood, I noticed possible subtle improvements, with potential for big impact, that existing homeowners could easily make if they only recognized them.  Too often we see things in our personal and business lives as they are, without examining how they might be incrementally or significantly better.

We owe it to ourselves, families, friend groups, nonprofit organizations and companies to periodically objectively consider what incremental and monumental steps we should consider to maximize our impact.

Objectivity

I've attended so many beautiful weddings and I've always been emotionally invested. It was great fun to watch the spectacular Royal Wedding with no personal attachment to the bride or groom.  I was able to really listen objectively to the wedding vows. 

We don't always consider the emotional investment our colleagues may have in business proposals. Their emotion may challenge their objectivity in truly listening to what others are saying and fairly weighing alternatives.  The higher the stakes, the more careful we must be to include objective parties in evaluating business options.

Mirror, Mirror

It would be grand if we could all query a magic mirror and receive the honest feedback that we're doing great.  Just as magic mirrors only exist in fairy tales, we often make honest feedback just as illusive.  We create the corporate equivalents of magic mirrors by setting the "fairest of all" expectations, rather than truly seeking actionable feedback.  We all need objective feedback.  We need to continually assess whether we are getting the programmed "Mirror, Mirror" feedback (Fairest of All) or informed options to improve.