I was told a story by a manager at Netflix about how a relatively new hire brought down the Netflix site for a few seconds when trying something new. The immediate reaction from management was celebratory instead of punitive.  The message communicated to the employee and the rest of the team was "that's great you took a risk!  It shows you are bold and ambitious in your efforts."

I am sure the manager's story is circulated within the company.  In doing so, the company cultivates beliefs and attitude towards taking risks.  Employees that hear this story will assume, correctly, that they are safe to take risks when trying to improve or innovate any aspect of their work.

We create a culture by cultivation of beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, ideas, skills, and even world views, and the conscious practice of storytelling is one of the most powerful ways in which this cultivation happens.  If you notice, it is actually always happening. Shared stories communicate "how things are done around here" more effectively than any official memo or retreat.  

One of my mentors, who worked with Peter Drucker, mentioned how managers at HP were required to come up with stories of courage about their employees.  Do you want to know more about your workplace culture?  What are the stories you tell, what are the stories people tell about each other?  A change of culture resides in a change of story.

​Today’s post is a reminder to maintain the sense of perspective and equanimity.  In the video below I talk about how easy it is to lose perspective and begin to perceive problems as bigger than they are if things are not going our way.
Are things really that bad?  Even if our circumstance is dire, how much is there we don’t know about?   How can we be so sure these current circumstances are not exactly what we are needing at this moment?