Fast:Forward Farther

When the big game begins in a few hours, I’ll think back to Sunday, January 17, 1971. I clearly remember going to Mass that day. The pastor read the Gospel, gave an unexpectedly fast homily, and said, “The Super Bowl starts in two hours. Go Cowboys.” The Colts beat our hometown team that day – in a game that featured 12 players who would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame, including quarterbacks Johnny Unitas and Roger Staubach.

Less than four years earlier – a few months after Super Bowl I – the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which included one of my favorite songs by the Fab Four: 

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?

So here I am. Staring down my 64th birthday. Hair still full. Don’t drink. Haven’t seen quarter till three in decades. These days, years fly by a lot quicker than when I was a kid. While the fourth quarter is underway, I still see myself much younger… not even to halftime.

Perhaps that’s mental gymnastics. Perhaps it’s naïve. Perhaps it’s crazy. I prefer to believe it’s having a wife who still gives me birthday greetings, kids who open their door to me with a smile and hug, and – especially – being able to recall moments from 50+ years ago. 

Part I of II

For the past 17 years, during December, I share the biggest lessons I took away throughout the year. During 2023, these were the best:

Knowing Thyself – In February, I heard about the Why Institute, which took Simon Sinek’s popular ‘Start with Why’ theory and constructed a way to measure the reason an individual does what they do. After taking the WHY.os Discovery I signed up, completed training, and became certified. In October, I attended the annual gathering in Albuquerque, where I met many coaches dedicated to helping others better understand themselves. I’ve delivered individual and team debriefings for more than 80 folks so far and want to add 120 more next year. It’s rewarding to help others better understand themselves by revealing their Why, How and What, and hearing, ‘Yes, that’s me!’ 

Teaming Up – Since 2010, I have worked closely with another coach… supporting each other on engagements within our individual accounts. In 2017, we added a third coach to the mix. This year, I vetted and deployed eight others at a single organization. Realizing that ‘separate, together’ is better than ‘single shingle,’ the original trio formed a new alliance last fall – LAH Insight, LLC – with the mission to collaborate with each other and serve larger entities. More to come soon.

Down Time – Kathy and I took all the precautions at the height of the pandemic, and I received every vaccine, including the latest in October. We successfully skipped Covid… until not feeling well the week before Thanksgiving and testing positive. The next 10 days were a slog, first with a severe head cold, cough, fever and chills for four days… then no energy (with lots of naps), before it departed our house. There seems to be an uptick in cases early this winter, and symptoms appear worse than the past couple of variants. Stay cautious and stay healthy. 

Clear View – We moved back into our home a year ago after a complete remodel, with replacing every window the only item to be completed, due to a lengthy backorder. On the morning of January 12, a crew of 17 arrived and quickly went to work removing 37 frames and installing much better energy efficient windows. It was a windy day and my gut said, ‘Wonder how that’s going to impact things?’… yet I trusted their experience and kept quiet. Big mistake! At the end of the day, our ‘new’ home was covered in dust. We spent weeks cleaning up the mess. They also ruined many of our new windowsills – and we had to repair them at an additional cost. The manufacturer made the window above our kitchen sink incorrectly, and an installer has come back twice, months apart, to replace it. Both times there was a different issue, and we’re still waiting for attempt number three. The most disheartening thing is we spoke to several other families who recently replaced windows and none of them had any problems. 

Just Ask – The rise of AI the past 12 months has companies quickly moving to deploy Large Language Models in their processes. Some experts believe this is a paradigm shift in productivity. Others suggest it’s a matter of time until robots take over. I played with ChatGPT early and found it to be a good starting point for idea generation. A few months ago, I heard about iClaude, which was created by former Open AI employees. It accesses more current information, accepts PDFs, and can analyze up to 75,000 words, so you could upload a book and iClaude will summarize it. While no one is certain where all this innovation leads, I attended a webinar during which the presenter shared this equation: HI x AI = AHI(2): Human Insight times Artificial Intelligence equals Additional Human Ideas. Sounds good to me.