Earlier this week I ventured out to Jets preseason camp in Florham Park, NJ for some meetings and to watch the rituals of NFL practice. I am always amazed and try to learn from the nuances of preparation, and this time followed the punts and the returners and their meticulous attention to catching a ball while everywhere around them chaos and distraction reigns. While catching a fly ball in baseball has its challenges, no one is running at you to take your head off as this strange shaped sphere heads your way. No easy task.
It reminded me in some ways of the the 2012 film “Trouble With Curve” where an aging Atlanta Braves baseball scout played by Clint Eastwood, even in his failing years, sees something that no one else does as the team searches for its top pick. His focus with all the noise is just different, and that’s his special gift. The result plays in his favor, it is a movie, but it reminded me of the thing we need to do, especially as we move back to almost full speed normal with return to school underway and fulltime, full blown time challenged activities filling fall days.
How do we literally stay ahead of the curve or focus through the chaos ?
From Zooming to in person meetings to business travel to kids activities to chasing the latest buzzworthy items, streaming to AI, microseries to deep dives, how can we stay focused and prepared so that when asked about Olympic breakdancing, or the NBA broadcast deal or Wolverine and Deadpool, we can know just enough to be in the conversation if needed, or are we able to foul off the question just enough to stay ready for the next pitch, literally or figuratively.
It serves as a good reminder of the two most important skills aren’t new, but like hitting the curve, they have to be managed best.
Listening and time management.
The ability to listen, not just hear the noise, but listen for relevance is a skill we can never get enough of. Being able to sift through all the noise we have to make sure we are able to assimilate information into a cohesive and important narrative is so key to success as we move back to being challenged with every second for relevance. Especially when we are still in a world where loudest voices seem to resonate much more than quality ones in almost every area of life and business.
Listening, and sifting, is so important, because if you can listen well, its amazing what people will tell you, and if you do listen well, you are able to piece together the important pieces into a narrative of storytelling than can be very impactful and relevant to everything you do.
Along with listening comes time management, a skill which we talk about with students that is so vital. How do we use our 24 hours of our day best? It again comes back to those curveballs, and knowing when to swing, when to listen, and when to strike efficiently. For me, early morning reset is so key. I can take that time early in the day to look back on what was missed, scroll through platforms like twitter and Facebook and book mark and acknowledge what is important, and file them into a narrative so that I can look at trends, learn from others what may seem relevant, and then see how things can fit together for the day, the week, and the month. It is an effective rest, and then gives me a quality approach to taking the best swings while not being overwhelmed, or more importantly, missing a key pitch of an idea or an opportunity.
I also keep lists…written lists and notes, so that I don’t forget or don’t miss a trend that could be significant down the road. Also like any team, being able to build and have that support system, and a platform like twitter gives you the ability to curate and see who those information suppliers are that can provide time managed news that you can knit together on your own. Lists are so key.
So by the way are tools on Facebook like Memories and Birthdays. I take every morning, just a few minutes, to scroll through both, send some quick messages, and use the functions to think and reset and remind of what is of value in the past, and what can help in the future.
Now, like Gus the scout in “Trouble With The Curve,” seeing through all the hype and the buzz and getting people of value to listen and engage is not easy. We all want to be aware and engaged in the trend worthy vs the long term fix. Also like in baseball, success in staying on top of the curve is a big challenge, with limited success always being an issue. However, what do we learn from the misses or the near misses that gets us to stay on top of the next move, the one that brings us success and satisfaction when we do connect. Ironically what led to Gus’ success was not something as much he saw, but it was what he heard, and once again listening played a key role in success.
Listening, learning, managing time and staying on top of the curves are so important, and it was nice to be reminded by a decade old movie. Time well spent as we head down the 2024 stretch.
