Shipulski On Design

Personal energy. Mojo. Vigorous interest. Gravitational field. Life force.

When the project is stalled, someone adds their personal energy to reestablish momentum.  No one asks them. They step up. And without their personal energy, the floundering would flounder on.

When there’s a risky decision to make that everyone is unwilling to make, someone proactively injects their mojo to unstick the decision.  They aren’t invited to step up, but they step up nonetheless.  Their mojo doesn’t make the difficult decision, but it makes it possible.

When the team is stuck and progress is insufficient, someone takes vigorous interest in the situation to unstick the team and reestablish momentum.  They actively demonstrate their interest by getting up to speed, formulating the problem, and creating the conditions for a good solution to emerge.  They don’t do it for credit.  They do it because they care. And they do it in a way that they will get invited back under similar circumstances.

When there is chaos in uncertainty, someone attends the crisis mitigation meeting, and their gravitational field calms the room.  They don’t do anything special.  They sit calmly and emanate confidence, kindness, and caring. There is no need for words, just bodily acknowledgement that things will be okay.  Everyone lightens, but no one knows why.  Their gravitational field doesn’t create the mitigation plan, but it puts everyone at ease so the plan can emerge.  They do this because they know it’s important, not because they were invited.

There is more to people than their knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience.  And there is more to us than core competencies.  People have a life force.  It’s not measurable.  It’s not quantifiable. It’s not tangible.  But it’s real.  You know the someones who step up.  You know the someones who run toward the problems.  And you know the someones who pick you up when you need it.  If you take a minute to visualize those someones, you will know what life force is.  You may not be able to name it, but you’ll know it.

Take another minute to write down how their life force manifests.  Create a list of what you’ve seen them do and the impact they’ve made.  This will give you insight into how you’d like your life force to manifest.  Then, tomorrow, help your life force do its thing.