Nature’s excellent leadership

33-second video: We named this spot ‘Periwinkle Island’. The idea came from Sanibel Island’s Periwinkle Way, highlighted in yellow below….
google map of Sanibel island
Upper right red arrow is our route over the Sanibel Causeway. The Causeway is 3 miles long. Leaving the Florida mainland is always a small thrill because we will be living on an island for the next week. The first island intersection is Periwinkle Way. We hang a right to drive to Mitchell’s SandCastles at the end of the second red arrow.
Homeowners yard and driveway
The most important part of leadership is the leader’s vision. Vision is applied at home too. Even for a flower bed. We planted store-bought plants last year. Flowers go to seed (just like weeds). Left unchecked, they multiply. That’s my vision. We picked periwinkles because they’re in our top three favorite Florida flowers.

Every organization has five foundational pillars.

Each pillar has several architectural blueprints, totaling 19 between the five pillars.

Leadership is the first pillar and vision is the first architectural blueprint.

It’s a lot easier to lead and a lot easier for people to follow when everyone is clear about why you exist, where you’re going, and why that’s important.

The thing with Nature is that it was here long before humans.

So long before humans it’s incomprehensible how long before.

Nature leads the way the cosmos sees fit.

i have a Nature theory from six decades studying it.

Nature takes care of itself.

In its own time.

In its own way.

Rejuvenation, adaptation, evolution.

This is how i know Periwinkle Island will flourish when the rains come.

There’s a catch though. i have to keep the ‘weeds’ (nature’s landscape shapers) from choking out the periwinkles. i’m actually trying to influence Nature so the Periwinkles choke out the ‘weeds’.

Note: Sanibel’s Periwinkle Way is prolifically lined with Palm trees and Periwinkle ‘weeds’, everywhere.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Book and keynote notes, work

conference room class
A rare photo of nearly the entire Disney Institute Team in a two-day internal training session.

A clear, concise, compelling vision is the key to desire.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Disney Customer Service 101

disney customer service speaker
Questions are a labor of love. Questions sustain an insatiable desire to learn.
child in wildflowers
The vision. Photo: $3.00 poster from Walmart. Displayed in our home for years before we became long-shot parents.
child in wildflowers
The reality. Photo: Our young son in our yard.

i don’t have the answers, i have the experience.

Astonishing find from my customer service research. Two options…

Organizations where the majority of employees know a simple, singular customer service goal outperform all other organizations.

Organizations where no one is focused on a collective, singular organizational goal always underperform.

The other research finding is that all human beings instinctively know what do do.

The pervasive organizational customer service opportunity is to know the three world-class basics.

The goal, the tools, and the reason.

Once the three are linked, Magic happens.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Cold and hungry

Jeff Noel blog post screen shot
Wrote this seven months ago. It published recently.

As the story goes, a well-established-career Willie Nelson was asked why he wasn’t writing classic songs like he used to.

He replied, “When I wrote those great songs I was cold and hungryI’m not cold and hungry anymore.”

David Olgilvy’s 8-habits video here.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Leaders must fight

photo of TV show Lioness on TV
Recently began watching. Intense. Watched Season 1, episode 7 last night.

Leaders must fight for what they believe in.

It’s a harsh reality that makes sense to me.

Has made sense since i was a kid.

You want to set the school record for the 440?

No one is gonna hand it to you (or any one).

You want it?

Prove it.

Fight like hell.

Note: Held the Spring Grove Area high school 440 record from 1977 through 2023.

What is that?

Forty-six years.

Note: Fought like hell but it never felt like a fight. It felt right.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.