What it is to Win.

And no, an email will not Suffice.

(or, why face time either via the app or via the real, is your key to moving up.)

If it’s true that body language accounts for 55% of communication, then a phone call is missing out on … well … 55% of the communication.

Meet in person and the solution will usually come.

Make a phone call, it might come.

Send an email or a text… well… you might get crickets.

Or you might get an email. But the chances of getting what you want are fractional in comparison to the other options. Email and text miss out on a full … I don’t want to say 93% because I refuse to believe it’s that bad… but if you’re not there to monitor the person’s state of mind when they get the message (the way you are able to perhaps stop yourself from going in certain directions with your conversation)… you’ll have a better chance of doing that on the phone and an even better chance of course correction options when talking in person.

There is no course correction in email. At its best it can be instructional, inspirational and collaborative. But at its worst it can be the verbal equivalent of barfing on someone. They have no option but to just take it.

That is why Email should only be used for predetermined sorts of communication. Most communication should either be in person or on the phone (38% tone and music of the voice + 55% coming from body language .. I don’t know you do the math… it’s damn near 93%… why would I ever walk into a ring knowing I was 93% blind? I’d have to be mis informed or insane. Or afraid. We make assumptions… too many assumptions without discussion: without verification, without discovery… without exploration… and therefore without understanding.

Related to this point: there was the point at which I came into my own skin as a managing director of an app development team. It was the day I decided that I was in charge… not of people. But of my own future. I could either let shit slide down the hill like so many rolling turds on the playing field of our lives.

Or I could step up. Finally, it was done. It was decided. I had shown myself and other people enough success. I acknowledged it. And it gave me the confidence to speak my mind.

for my confidence to rise and for theirs to do the same… and at that point my job became all about ideas… Ipulled a project manager into my team just as I’d always dreamed of doing. And just as I’d hoped things began to transform. Iwas able to spend more time coming up with creative solutions to both HR and technical issues… architecting systems of team operation and app development process flow as much as architecting my own future career.

No my life has become about turning the “gray” into “black and white”. So that we can walk away from our jobs at the end of the day and go live our other lives without a care in the world for what we left behind… because day by day, we bring more and more clarity to the process, and as that clarity spreads further and deeper, the stress becomes less and less… the fun becomes more and more.

Much of my day is now spent sitting with people to talk about what they call “problems” and looking into a dusty toolshed in my head representing all of our resources and experiences that we could MacGyver into a duct-taped chewing gum laser solution… or at least a solution that will move move some data from one place to another without a human stepping in to fuck it up as we humans sometimes do, especially when we are learning.

They call them meetings. I’m beginning to see them as creative sessions. Architectural conversations about moving every transaction in our lives into right-sized automation solutions.

Where I work there are no real class barriers. It is all about ideas and performance. Period. I don’t look at meetings anymore with dread. Now I see them as the opportunity to grow into new technologies and new solutions. I call them sessions. Because we’re working through shit. Just like you would in any session.

What a good session looks like: Coming up with visions as we are talking; communicating those visions with passion. Then, once we agreed it was the best approach, we’d set up an end goal, chunk it into 3 or 4 steps, and then set the next major and micro step to take. And then sicking a PM on structuring the rest and checking in on the progress.

Ok, the execution is never that simple, but that’s the idea. Broad strokes… then make sure it’s do-able and make it happen. This. This is what happens once you realize your life is one big Play and you have many roles in your life and many scripts in your backpack. This is a performance. You are cast in several roles. And the more you can play them like a professional would, the more you begin to bend the curve of the future trajectory of your life. Insert your favorite actor here but I’d love to share a wall in my condo with some linguistically and pitch-perfect delivery strong story types like Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Sean Connery and (name your favorite actor or actress here). The more you are organized… the more professional you come across, and the more you do this in person, face to face, the better you will be at getting your ideas into the hearts and minds and plans of the people around you. Act the part you are currently playing. If you don’t like the role, get a new one. After all: All of life is a stage. You can’t escape your reality: that you need PEOPLE to perform for and to provide help to in order to feel good about your life. So Play the part. Don’t cop out by writing emails your whole life.

Own it.

Grab your sack and walk into someone’s cube or office, and talk to them like the human being that they are, and watch how shit starts to get done.