Tag Archives: strategy

Guiding students forward

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Watch this leadership lesson I just found on Instagram:

I can’t help but think about how important this is not just in business/leadership roles, but also in teaching. The best teachers guide students. Teachers are the compass: “A compass doesn’t point the way, it points north and guides the student on their own journey.”

We lose sight of learning when we focus on teaching courses and not students. We lose our bearings when the curriculum is more important than the learner. We are completely lost when we teach to the test.

Watch the video again, and think of the times you led a challenging student rather than faced off with them. Like the time you put the ‘trouble-maker’ in charge because you had to leave the room for a couple minutes… knowing he would keep things in line for you but would cause problems if a peer was left in charge of him. Or the time you metaphorically threw a lesson out the window because students felt lost and you were not getting the learning across. Or when you sat with a kid to do 5 homework questions, letting them know that if they did that with you, they wouldn’t have to do any of the remaining homework.

Are you the guiding compass or the bossy captain? Are you facilitating learning or trying to push learning down their throats? Are you building resistance and conflict or resilience and trust?

Chess puzzles

A few birthdays ago my youngest got me a Chess.com membership for my birthday. I’ve kept it up although I don’t play a lot of full games. I do have a student that challenges me occasionally, and he’s up 11 games to 10 against me. But mostly I do puzzles.

Chess is an amazing game of strategy and I’m blown away when I watch masters play. I can’t see 3 moves ahead much less 8, 10, or 14. For me, even knowing puzzles can usually be solved in 3 or 4 moves, I often end up making an error along the way.

I often have to click the ‘Analysis’ button, after solving a puzzle with an error along the way, to figure out why my error would not have worked. Even when I do get all the moves right, it doesn’t mean I saw the moves in advance. I’ll often try a move that to me makes the most sense, but not see the full solution yet.

But I do love the challenge, and I like that I can try a puzzle and I’m usually at the solution in less than 2 minutes. That’s more fun than a game that spans days, especially when I’m not making moves during the work day… so puzzles are my thing. I’m not necessarily good at them, but I’m slowly getting better.

A deviously democratic plan

You’d have to be living under a rock to be unaware that the USA has an election coming up. And I’m probably not the only one holding the opinion that neither candidate is up to the job. Well, here is a devious non-partisan plan that I’d love to see Biden enact in order to flip the whole election on its head.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision that, “Presidents and former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts they took while in office”… has created an opportunity for Biden to prevent Trump from running.

Step 1: Biden could pass an unconstitutional executive order making it illegal for someone who has committed Trump’s non-presidential related crimes from running for president. Now if Biden stops here, it would cause absolute chaos, and great civil unrest. So he’d have to do one more thing at the same time.

Step 2: Biden could choose not to run in the next election. What this does is that it completely levels the playing field for both Democrats and Republicans. It leaves both parties needing to find replacements at the same time. Both parties can then find new, younger, more suitable leaders, and maybe the craziness of the US election could become about platforms and not about people.

This won’t happen, but could you imagine if it did? I could legitimately see either party winning a fair fight. It would all depend on the candidates the parties choose. In both cases a moderate candidate would have a better chance than an extremist. A too far right republican candidate would not win over the ‘Never Trump’-ers’, and a too far left democrat candidate would push this same group and more to the republicans. Suddenly the entire election would be about the platforms and not personalities.

There’s the plan: A democrat using a republican biased court decision to rebalance an election. And the entire world would be in a better place than it is leading up to this election as it stands right now.

Seeing the game

When it comes to seeing the game, while also playing the game, I’ve already shared my story of thinking Wayne Gretzky was an overrated player, until I watched him play live. In a professional sport, being able to play, while analyzing the play, is an amazing feat. To do so day after day comes from years of dedicated effort, and also a gift of perspective that not everyone has… because if everyone had it, the person with the most time practiced would always be the best, and that’s not always the case. That said, hard work and hours of committed practice can’t be underrated, and most great players put more time in than average or even very good players.

Such is the case with playing Chess. The best players have played so much that they are able to see the game in a way that regular players simply can’t. They can see many moves ahead, eliminating unlikely moves so that they can see the likely position of the board 8, 10, 12, or more moves ahead. Meanwhile I struggle to see past 2 moves.

I like to do chess puzzles. They are challenging, and yet they don’t take nearly as long as a chess game. I can stare at a puzzle for a minute or two and then solve it. Or I make a mistake then it’s another 1-2 minutes of studying the pieces and I try again. Sometimes I take a hint and see which piece I’m supposed to move. But seldom does it take me longer than 5 minutes and sometimes I can do 3 puzzles in 5 minutes.

But then I watch the masters play and I’m simply amazed. Their ability to analyze the board and play the best possible moves, knowing what their opponent will do next, is so brilliant it seems like magic. And if you want to have your mind blown, watch these chess gurus play speed chess. I can’t think that fast much less play a strategy game that fast.

It’s simply incredible what these players can do, how they see the game, and how they can still stump each other and not have every game end in a draw. Meanwhile I’ll keep having fun with my short puzzles, challenging my brain but never getting close to seeing the game quite like they can.

Dear Grocery Store

It’s time to enter the 21st-century and provide intelligent search in your stores.

Create an App that is a shopping list that automatically sorts products by the aisle that they are in. Have sensors that the app detects so that once in that isle, you can see right where the product can be found.

Yes, I know you make a lot of extra money selling stuff because people are searching, can’t find their products, and see other products to pick up, but here’s a better way to do it!

You have an extreme amount of data about what people buy together. Instead of relying on them accidentally stumbling upon something as they search, use the data you have:

1. Put things together that people have bought together on their past shopping experiences. There are hundreds of millions of orders you have already tracked on every receipt you’ve ever printed and stored. Yes, that might be challenging for someone who doesn’t use the app, however, you’re going to design the app so that it would be stupid not to use it.

Who knew that people who bought tacos also bought mango curry sauce… you do because the data says so. So, why not put them next to each other in the grocery store?

2. Use the bottom 1/4 of the App to a) suggest related items when an item is added to the list, and b) show related items or data-suggested items while looking for the next item on the list.

3. Personalize suggestions based on individualized purchase history. If someone adds taco shells regularly, remind them about taco shells or salsa the next time they buy ground beef.

4. Make the App features great. Make it ideal for other lists too, make it indispensable. Add features that might suggest other items if you are on a diet. Or let a vegetarian know that a sauce has meat products and suggest another one that doesn’t.

5. Don’t game this too much. We aren’t stupid. If we see that every item you suggest is by Kraft, or we see the same items again and again that your App is pushing to us for advertising kickbacks, we’ll know the App is made for you and not for us. Here’s a magical idea, don’t just say you put the customer first, actually put them first!

The days of forcing people down every isle for them to buy more products are over… or they will be for you if you competitor takes this App idea before you do.

Spam call strategy

I don’t know about you, but I almost never pick up a phone call from a number I don’t know. I’d rather listen to a voicemail than listen to spam. However, recently I’ve been trying something new.

I actually do pick up, then I immediately hit the mute button and the speaker button. So far I’ve only had a callback once from someone who was trying to contact me, because the call wasn’t a spam. And one other time I heard a questioning ‘Hello?’ and responded.

Every other call has been silence and then a click to end the call. I think it’s the muting of the call that does the trick. The auto-callers the spammers use waits to hear a greeting to know they have a person online. I don’t get a call back, and I don’t have to listen to the start of a spam message… and hopefully my number is deemed as a bad line, whereas responding and hanging up is confirmation that they have a ‘live one’ to call again.

The call is still an annoyance, but at least it’s less of one and also less rewarding for the spammer.

Chess strategy

I am in awe of great chess players.

Recently I’ve been playing a bit of chess online on chess.com. I do the daily puzzles, and occasionally I play a game or two against the AI at a level I can sometimes beat. I also play a long slow game against my daughter’s boyfriend. We make a few moves a day, and right now he’s kicking my butt in a game.

I’m not very good, but I am getting a bit better. However, I get fixated on making aggressive moves and end up leaving myself vulnerable to attacks. I can’t see too many moves ahead, and when I try my opponent seems to find moves that I just didn’t see.

On the other end of the spectrum is Hikaru Nakamura. He moves so fast and sees the game so far ahead that I can’t even follow his play. For example, when I watch clips like this I have no idea how he can see so far ahead?

I’d love to be able to see the game like this, to understand so clearly not just what I plan to do but what my opponent will do as well. But I’m not a grandmaster and never will be one. I just hope that I can improve my play a bit and enjoy some competition that’s just slightly better than me. My limitations and lack of years of practice won’t stop me from marvelling at the strategy of incredible players, or at how people can play speed chess and see so many implications of so many moving pieces simultaneously. It’s simply amazing to watch!

Complaint driven change

Change is good. We learn, we grow, we adapt, we change. Change is essential, and I like to think of myself as a change agent.

But change isn’t always easy. And the adoption of change is never distributed evenly nor does it affect people equitably. In many cases, when change happens it upsets people who are not ready for change… and that invites complaints.

Squeaky wheels start to squeak.

Something we need to be careful about is that change is happening for the right reasons. This can be hard because no matter what you do, the people most resistant to change are often the loudest. So you are doing things one way and it isn’t efficient or effective, and people complain. You change to a new way that works better. Now, there are happy people (quietly) enjoying the new approach, but a new group are unhappy. That new unhappy group might not be big, and they might not like the new system only because they liked the old way… but they are the loudest group.

This group might be the most vocal, they might make the most complaints, but they shouldn’t be the reason not to move forward, or to quickly change again, before seeing the positive aspects that the new changes have created.

There will always be squeaky wheels. There will always be naysayers and complainers. It’s important to empathize and support these people. It’s also important to learn from these people, but they should not be the drivers of change. A small but loud group should not be allowed to slow down or alter change just because they are the loudest.

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Afterthought: I wish news media thought about this… news today is about attracting eyes and clicks, and the small squeaky groups get far too much attention.

You can’t pick 7

The next time you ask someone to rate something out of 10, tell them they can’t pick 7. Seven doesn’t give you enough information. If it’s an eight, it’s desirable; If it’s a six, it’s not. Seven may or may not be worth it.

So instead of letting the person come back to you with an un-definitive 7/10, force them to bump it up to worthy or bump it down to un-worthwhile.

Not sure if this is helpful? Then let me ask you: On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s this advice worth to you? … and of course, you can’t pick 7!

The slump

My personal best archery score in a Vegas 300 is 289. I’ve done this a few times, first in May of 2021 and most recently again in December. But I’ve been in a slump for most of 2022. In fact, I’ve had a couple scores lower than I’ve seen since before I got my personal best last May.

Today I seemed to have turned a corner and I scored a 288.

In fact, had I not had one bad shot at the top of the tenth end, I would have tied or even beaten my record.

Slumps are never fun, and this was one where I just didn’t know what I was doing wrong? I ended up moving closer and shooting again and again at closer range until I felt successful enough to move further away. This seemed to work.

I believe the slump is finally over and I’m anticipating a new record soon. It’s time to get the monkey off my back and finally score in the 299’s.