Confessions of a Checklist-Aholic
I have a problem. I am a Checklist-Aholic. I don’t remember the first time I put together a Checklist. I don’t even remember the first time that I did it in outline form with multiple subparagraphs. Or when I started using highlighting, boldface and italics to pull and push my eye along and through the layers upon layers of words and numbers.
But I confess that it brings me pleasure, comfort and a sense that I am in control. And that is a problem. A really, really big problem. Do not misunderstand. This confession does not mean that I believe chaos and forgetfulness should rule our days. No, it is more nuanced than that. Honesty requires that I acknowledge that control is elusive if not impossible. Honesty requires that I acknowledge that to be in control you must embrace some degree of chaos and an ability to hold on in the face chaos, move through chaos and be stronger after chaos. The Year 2020 has been a good teacher for me. The teacher has forced a reckoning.
The reckoning? Checklists had taken control of too much of my limited time. Checklists had driven too many decisions when an in-person discussion should have occurred. Checklists had become a barrier between me and spontaneous, creative interaction with team members. There has to be a balance.
Yes, we need the guard rails of a checklist to show us a collective path forward. We need to know we are heading in the same direction. But we also need space and grace for a diversion from the path to new and better places. Places where growth may occur faster than if we checked our way up or down the list.
This blog has been on my mind and I was always one last confirmation away from preparing it. The tipping point came this morning when I opened an email to me from the Center for Action and Contemplation. Below are a few snippets from that email with a reflection from me following each quote. A few of these are spiritual and personal but they apply equally in a business setting.
o “The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But the mystery of transformation more often happens not when something new begins, but when something old falls apart. The pain of something old falling apart—chaos—invites the soul to listen at a deeper level, and sometimes forces the soul to go to a new place. Most of us would never go to new places in any other way.”
o 2020 has forced many of our businesses to abandon the old checklists and find new places to survive. Maybe I should visit those new places without a checklist in hand so I can listen and learn new things?
o “We will normally do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart, yet this is when we need patience and guidance, and the freedom to let go instead of tightening our controls and certitudes. “
o 2020 has seen me reach for the checklist when the day seems darkest. Maybe it is in that moment I should simply sit with a team member and think out loud? Or maybe just take a walk without any paper or pen and think?
o “While change can force a transformation, spiritual transformation always includes a disconcerting reorientation. It can either help people to find new meaning or it can force people to close down and slowly turn bitter. The difference is determined precisely by the quality of our inner life, our practices, and our spirituality. Change happens, but transformation is always a process of letting go, living in the confusing, shadowy space for a while.”
o 2020 has taught me that I want transformation not mere change. I want to be able to face future 2020s and embrace transformation when it comes again and again. I do not want mere change. I want mighty transformation.
o “In moments of insecurity and crisis, shoulds and oughts don’t really help. They just increase the shame, guilt, pressure, and likelihood of backsliding into unhealthy patterns. It’s the deep yeses that carry us through to the other side. It’s that deeper something we are strongly for—such as equality and dignity for all—that allows us to wait it out. It’s someone in whom we absolutely believe and to whom we commit. In plain language, love wins out over guilt any day.
o 2020 has taught me whom I love and why. 2020 has taught me what I am FOR and why. But 2020 cannot be the end of my “learning.”
Business gurus say you accomplish what you measure: EBDITA, NOI, NOL, ROI, etc. Okay, then this recovering Checklist-Aholic wants you to measure me by whether we create businesses and environments that honor LOVE, EQUALITY, DIGNITY, INNOVATION, COMPASSION and EMPATHY. Forgive me if I still put together a colorful Checklist for a starting point. But do not forgive me if that Checklist leads to CONTROL and FEAR. Those aren’t the measurements that matter.