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You are here: Home / Key 2. Worthwhile Work / Doing the Drill Down: Less is More

Doing the Drill Down: Less is More

January 14, 2013

Last time: This January, Slow Down
This posting continues our January talk-story.

When I look back on my working history — not job or career wise, but considering my own Ho‘ohana emphasis as a manager and coach whatever my position or entrepreneurial stripe at the time — the evidence of my doing the drill down is unmistakeable.

As I’ve heard someone define ‘movement’ recently, mine hasn’t just been spurts of passion, but a collective shout. The spurts have been passionate for sure… ‘less is more’ and ‘smaller is better’ and ‘focus like a laser’ among them. The shout is Focus.

WisteriaYou can’t save the world, but you can effect good change in your corner of it. Do one thing at a time, and do it well.

I call it ‘doing the drill down’ for I see that I keep moving from being a generalist to a specialist, and from making lists of possibilities to eventually working on just one thing on that list — especially when I’m coaching others. If they’re to succeed, we have to choose our habit-changing battles or creative reinventions carefully, and then we have to go all in, and focus on very specific action.

No action, no change.
No stickiness.

Examples are helpful, I know, so to respect the privacy of my clients we’ll use me as an example. My own drill down has looked something like this:

School’s over. Time to be an adult and go to work.
Why just have a job? I’ll be a manager; it suits me.
Managing is a profound responsibility; I’ve got to manage in a Pono way.
Values-based management is clearly becoming the way to go for me.
Leadership? Not there yet. Let’s talk Sense of Place.
Now let’s talk managing with Aloha.
Being a manager requires answering a very specific Calling.
We need The Daily 5 Minutes for better listening. We need to learn from people.
Now let’s talk business model for all of this. As a sensibility for work.
We need to define Culture, don’t we” yes, in our Language of We-Intention.
Now is it time for Leadership? Break it down… to creating more Human Energy.
Technology is changing the game radically. So is generational demographics.
Yikes! Where is the conversation? “Let’s talk” isn’t happening as much as it should.
We need The Daily 5 Minutes for speaking up. As an acquired wisdom.

I could probably tweak it even more specifically, but that’s a pretty good draft.

Doing the drill down takes time — that phrase ‘all in good time’ comes to mind — for I’m talking about years of Ho‘ohana movement here. In my case (my habit rhythm, my value-driving) ‘Ike loa, the value of learning, always looms so large. I love study, and wayfinding. Learning exploration factors into that listing of possibilities I’ll do, as a kind of thinking exercise with qualifying my drill down: When all is said and done, and I make my choice (with the next drill down I take) will I be okay with knowing what I’ve eliminated, or put aside as periphery for now?

I’m starting to wonder just how specific and focused it’s possible to get. How far can doing the drill down actually go, and be successful?

One thing is for sure: In my Ho‘ohana, ‘Less is more’ makes me much happier.

Japanese Maple

Archive Aloha with related reading:
  1. On that collective shout of the MWA movement: Like it? Might love it? Run with it.
  2. You can thrill to the work, no matter what your job might be right now: Beauty in the Work: “Things Occur to You.”
  3. As an Alaka‘i Manager, help your team gain traction: A Gift of Focus … and this post may help, paired with the previous one: The Workplace Mixology of ‘Ohana
  4. On doing one thing at a time, and doing it well: Accept your Small Wisdoms with Grace
  5. If you are a tracker and documenter, consider this as another example where Less is More: The Victory of Continuous Celebration

For more reading paths, go to New Here? or click on the tags found in the footer.

· Key 2. Worthwhile Work

Comments

  1. Rosa Say says

    May 15, 2013 at 11:00 am

    A little more on this:
    You can’t save the world, but you can effect good change in your corner of it. Do one thing at a time, and do it well.

    I like the advice Leo Babauta is known for giving in regard to habit-building: He calls these 4 things his “nutshell principles”
    1. Start very small.
    2. Do only one change at a time.
    3. Be present and enjoy the activity (don’t focus on results).
    4. Be grateful for every step you take.
    Read more here: How I Changed My Life, In Four Lines

    A lesson learned from me in regard to his 3rd principle above: You have already focused on the result you want, when you chose to embark on the change in the first place – it was your WHY if you began ‘with the end in mind.’ So be present in the journey to enjoy the shift you make, and notice all of it.

Trackbacks

  1. Role Reconstruction: Design your Sweet Spot as Manager says:
    February 3, 2013 at 6:08 pm

    […] of the way you approach your purposeful following, so I followed up with this article as a kind of drill down of Less is More, where we filter those purposeful following objectives with the real, day-to-day […]

  2. Managing Basics: Study Their Work says:
    April 18, 2013 at 2:36 pm

    […] study, making it enjoyable and rewarding to pursue mission and vision. We’re the dreamers of drill downs, experiments, and pilot projects. We’re the best next-steppers, and we batch. If we’re […]

  3. Force of Habit, and the Force of Change says:
    May 13, 2013 at 11:48 am

    […] Thank goodness for ‘IMI OLA being my value this month. It helps me so much, as I seek the highest form for my best life. Thank goodness for ‘IKE LOA, as the value-driven way I judge my reading, and my learning. Thank goodness for a better habit I have with focus, in doing the drill down. […]

  4. We Earn Our Keep, Integrated says:
    August 4, 2013 at 9:22 am

    […] to get there (work-based in increasing your relevant skills, knowledge, and network), one new and highly concentrated lesson at a time. The way I see it, the biggest benefit to having an employer (as opposed to being […]

  5. Tough Times are Rough Draft Times says:
    October 23, 2013 at 10:37 am

    […] I’m talking about here needn’t cover large-scale, sweeping change. I’m taking about drilling down, tackling the small stuff, and checking off items that have lingered on your Someday/Maybe List so […]

  6. A Discipline with Reading says:
    January 10, 2014 at 8:03 pm

    […] immerse to experience, to learn, and to decide on your keepers so you can newly use them, and move on to whatever is Next for you, wherein you’ll balance out […]

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19 Values of Aloha: Index Pages

There are 19 Values of Aloha taught within the Managing with Aloha philosophy:

Ch.1 Aloha | Ch.2 Ho‘ohana | Ch.3 ‘Imi ola | Ch.4 Ho‘omau | Ch.5 Kūlia i ka nu‘u | Ch.6 Ho‘okipa | Ch.7 ‘Ohana | Ch.8 Lōkahi | Ch.9 Kākou | Ch.10 Kuleana | Ch.11 ‘Ike loa | Ch.12 Ha‘aha‘a | Ch.13 Ho‘ohanohano | Ch.14 Alaka‘i | Ch.15 Mālama | Ch.16 Mahalo | Ch.17 Nānā i ke kumu | Ch.18 Pono | Ch.19 Ka lā hiki ola | Full Listing

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