#1146 meaning

What I did not know when I started writing a daily blog is what it would teach me.  I thought that I would impart lessons to others, but I did not really expect to reap benefits myself.  Wrong.

In addition to strengthening my discipline (required to write one of these buggers every dang day), and heightening my observational skills (so I have topics to write about every dang day), it has caused me to reflexively think of implications of what I see.

In an environmental scanning workshop I attended, the example used was about a hurricane hitting the Gulf.  It is one thing to know about the event, but the next step is to make meaning out of the occurrence: A hurricane means that homes are destroyed so the demand for building supplies increases; businesses are disrupted, so employees are displaced; the oil refinery must close so oil tops $70 barrel, etc.  The scan is irrelevant unless implications are considered.

The same is true with blog writing.  It is one thing to see a hawk or a snake, but another to turn those events into a lesson that may have applicability to others.  

You don't have to write a blog every day to intentionally strengthen your meaning-making muscle.  Push yourself to think about the implications of what you observe and to ponder the impact in the larger system.  

Leadership is about making connections with your dots, not just collecting them.  Try to draw some lines with your thinking today.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com