Topsoil Property Co

We engage in defensive routines that prevent us from seeing or exploring our mental models. When we fail to examine our mental models we develop "skilled incompetence" where you protect yourself from the pain and threat of examining your thinking which in turn prevents any learning and ability to improve yourself or your outcomes. Say what you think. Create a culture where people are not judged or punished for voicing realities that can make people uncomfortable (our fundraising goals for next year are very unrealistic when you think about the recession and our previous year's increases). Thank you PS and Argyris.

  Humans are always asking themselves these questions, either subconsciously or consciously: “Do I matter?” “Do you respect who I am?” and most importantly “Do you care?” Mirror back to people what you perceive them to be saying and feeling. Try using sentence starters like: What I hear you saying is _______ This makes me feel ______ , how does it make you feel? Affirm what people’s experience is. Try using statements like: That makes a lot of sense... You make a lot of sense... That is a very normal reaction... Yeah, I can see your perspective… The build trust you must show people with your body language and words: You and your experience matter deeply and are very important I respect who you are and I respect your opinions and feelings, they are valid I care deeply about you and your wellbeing Thank you, Cindy Piva .

You get what you focus on. So focus on what you want. Our Approach To problem-solving is broken. We get stuck in the mud of identifying the problem and never make it out of the mud to the other side of the road. We place all our talent and resources on problems we've identified, and then we are surprised when we end up with more problems. Asset-Based Community Development does not mean to ignore the problems. On the contrary. You listen to the community. Seek to understand the problem. The crucial difference is what comes next: look around the problem to find the assets. Physical, communal, human. Find the assets. Then invest in the assets and build them up. Make more positive deviance happen. Thank you, Rev. Bill Stanfield .

Yesterday I met someone in person that I greatly admired. After his speech to our group I had a moment to share one-on-one time. More than anything I wanted to create a personal connection. And then I messed up. I tried to pack everything about me into 3 sentences to show him who I was. Epic failure. My words came out as a mouth full of mashed potatoes. He left slightly confused and I left bummed. Instead, I should have led with a question. I'm working on asking a question first before I talk about myself. Questions create openings. Questions give you a chance to listen. Nothing makes someone feel a connection more than being understood. Build your understanding by asking first, and speaking about yourself second.

You care about winning. Example #1: When the goal is an arms race (i.e. who has the biggest boat), we underestimate the importance of funding. This table from the US State Department shows the cost of the Civil War. The Union had almost 3x as much funding as the Confederacy. Those resources mattered greatly in determining who won the war. Example #2: When the goal is to innovate and create (i.e. solve the currently “unsolvable”), we overestimate the importance of funding. When YouTube was being launched, over 40 startups were working on building an online video platform. This included Google. Google, with all the resources in the world lost. The then tiny YouTube crushed them. Why? Constraints. When the goal is to create something new, having to face the reality of constraints , and then problem solving within those narrow boundaries, actually increases your chance of success. When you are working to win, know what kind of battle you are in.