“I didn’t edit that”

I don’t know how that could have been changed. I didn’t edit that at all. So weird!

— from a client who was struggling with problems stemming from a required custom field in CiviCRM (edited for brevity)

Every now and then, I’ll hear this kind of thing from a client: some configuration changed, and nobody knows why. It’s pretty surprising, to say the least.

So what’s going on here? Who’s changing the settings? And how can we limit this kind of “mystery configuration change?”

I should mention that, when addressing this kind of mystery, I’ve never seen any evidence that some bug in CivCRM (or related software) is actually changing the settings on its own. That would be a serious concern, and it’s tempting to lay the blame there. But I’ve seen no evidence pointing that way.

Instead, this can usually be attributed to a simple explanation:

• Simple human error: someone checked a box without realizing it.

• Multiple admins: some other staff member with administrative privileges made this change intentionally, not realizing that it could cause problems.

Usually it’s enough to simply correct the configuration.

But there are ways to limit the chance of this happening, and the most straightforward is this:

Be strict about who gets administrative access:

• Define (and document) a reasonable collection of user roles, each with appropriate permisisons, and assign the appropriate role to each user.

• Ensure each user is fully trained on, and responsible for, the features that they have access to.

• Naturally, this means only a very few users (probably just one or two) will have full administrative access to your site configurations and data.

And, if “mystery configuration changes” are happening on your site, there’s also a way to identify “who made what change”:

Enable CiviCRM’s “Logging” feature (at Administer > System Settings > Misc (Undelete, PDFs, Limits, Logging, etc.) ):

This will allow someone with the right skills (probably a developer, because CiviCRM doesn’t make these logs available in its administrative interface) to examine the logged data and identify who made the change, and when they made it.

Keep in mind, that logging can slow down a site that sees a lot of CRM data changes, so you may not want to enable it withat careful consideration.

But if “mystery changes” of any kind — whether it’s constituent data or system configs — this kind of logging can help you get to the bottom of it. (I’ve used it several times this year to help my clients understand “who’s changing what.”)

All the best,
A.

You can but you shouldn’t: required Custom Fields

Here’s a pro tip for working with custom fields in CiviCRM:

When CiviCRM asks you if you want to make a custom field “required,” just say no.

You could say yes, but if you value your sanity, you should simply never do this.

Doing so can create some surprising troubles. Not that it will completely break your CRM, but it can cause unexpected errors in unexpected places.

Today i solved such a problem for a client who was in a fair bit of pain over it (and under significant time pressure, too).

For them, the problem showed up as a validation error on a contribution page. No matter what they tried, the contribution form would fail with a cryptic error message, "Payment Processor Error message :DB Error: unknown error".

The problem? A required field on the Individual contact record — a field that was not even available in the form being submitted. (Think about it: if the field isn’t in the form, how could it have a value? And if it’s required to have a value, how could the form be submitted successfully?)

They’re trying to get this launched as part of a scheduled campaign, and as holiday schedules play havoc with everyone’s availability, they were worried this was going to delay things. Not good.

I sorted them out, and they’re happy. But I think a few of them gained several gray hairs over it.

“But Allen, what if I need to require the field in a form?”

That’s completely reasonable, and doesn’t make a problem. If you’re using Profiles, it’s fine to mark the field “required” in the profile. Same goes for FormBuilder: require away!

But setting the custom field itself to required, that’s just thumbing your nose at the gods of chaos.

And they will find you, believe me.

All the best,
A.

♬“It’s the most stressful time of the year” ♬

When I was a kid, Christmas really was the most wonderful time of the year.

Then I grew up, and now I know why it was so wonderful for us kids — because the adults in our lives were stressing-the-heck-out trying to make it so.

You’re probably feeling it too.

Family obligations. Gift shopping. Social events. Scrambling to get all your business done before you’ll be out for a few days. Accommodating schedule changes from your colleagues. Plus the substantial end-of-year work that’s standard procedure for most community-driven organizations.

In the midst of all that, I hope you’re making time to think about the two major classifications of every task you might undertake:

Obligations and aspirations

• Obligations are those things we feel we must do, or risk disappointing people who matter to us.

• Aspirations are those things we want to achieve, even though nobody’s expecting it.

We probably all know they’re both valuable and important.

We’re just not usually very good at thinking about them at the same time.

Ironically, most of us spend lots of time in December thinking about obligations, and as soon as New Year’s day is in sight, we start thinking about our aspirations.

In case you haven’t noticed, stressing out for a month over our obligations is not exactly the best warm-up for taking care of our aspirations.

Here’s the thing:

When’s the best time to think about our obligations? Every day.

And the best time to think about our aspirations? You guessed it: every day.

Sure, you “have to” take care of your obligations. But if you don’t also take care of your aspirations, who will?

All the best,
A.

Dealing with bot spam

When I was a kid, our church had a little box for suggestions and prayer requests.

My father was a pulpit minister for a while, so I learned that such a box will sometimes contain other interesting things, too. Like gum wrappers. Or the occasional dirty limerick from an especially daring kid. (It wasn’t me, I swear, Dad!)

Your website's contact and donation forms probably have a similar problem. If they don’t now, they probably will eventually.

You can't just close them up, but it's a headache to deal with spam submissions.

And sometimes it's more than a minor annoyance. When you've got hundreds of spam contacts showing up in your CRM every day, or card-testing scammers submitting stolen credit card numbers, it can have a serious impact on your operations.

So what to do?

First, recognize that this is an ongoing campaign against malicious activity.

There is no one-button fix. Every step you take to make it harder for the bad actors can also make it harder for your legitimate users. That's a cost all by itself, besides whatever time and effort you put into this.

So you'll want to have some kind of baseline measurement first, to evaluate the impact of whatever actions you do take.

But here are some things you can do to tighten up your fortress against the invaders.

Contribution "card testing" scammers, and other spam via CiviCRM forms:

Credit card thieves can (and do) purchase lists of stolen credit card details on the dark web, and then automate the testing of those details on some online payment form somewhere.

If they pick your contribution page, you could be in for some trouble with your payment processor (imagine: Stripe suspends your account until you find a way to block the scammers.)

Or, if you're really getting hammered, the volume of traffic can make your site unusable.

To protect against this kind of abuse, you can install and configure the CiviCRM "Form Protection" extension and Google's reCAPTCHA tool. This will provide a rather high barrier against bot-driven form submissions. (See this civicrm.org blog post for more details on this topic.)

"Contact Us" form spam:

For any number of wild and varied reasons, bad actors will implement automated scripts that submit bogus data through general-purpose forms like your "Contact Us" or "Subscribe to Our Mailings" forms.

If these forms are built in CiviCRM, the Form Protection extension (see above) can help.

But if they're built in your CMS (Drupal Webforms, WordPress Gravity Forms, etc.), or if you want something besides Google reCAPTCHA, you've got more options, in the form of outside (usually paid) services that scan all form submisisons and reject the ones that fail the "smells like spam" test.

The two most popular services are Akismet and CleanTalk, and both of them:

• Have plugins/modules for both Drupal and WordPress

• Work without CAPTCHAs, puzzles, or other "stupid human tricks" hoops for the user to jump through.

• Are pretty darned inexpensive.

• Have a good reputation for blocking bots without blocking humans.

Here's the thing:

A little bot-driven spam now and then is likely an acceptable "cost of doing business" if you want to keep your "contact us" and donation forms open to the public.

But if (and when) it gets bad enough that it's hurting your organization, you do have options.

All the best,
A.

“This form spam is killing us”

Here’s a question (paraphrased, emphasis mine) that came in over the weekend:

Hi Allen,

Yesterday I found that we’re getting hundreds of bogus contact records added to our CRM each month.

I'm just sick about this because we’ve aready worked so hard to clean up records that we already had.

I figure these are coming in through one of our many public forms, but how in the world are we going to find these all and clean them up — and more importantly, what steps can we take to block whatever it is that’s submitting them?

- N.

That’s a great question, which I’ll answer with a question:

Have you ever tried to lose weight?

I have.

The first time was really frustrating. I figured it was a simple matter of cutting calories, so I worked really hard to trim my diet. Really hard. And it sucked.

And I quit it.

It was just too difficult. I was cutting the calories hard, without event knowing how much I needed to cut, or what it would get me.

The second time was a lot easier.

Acting on some good advice, I just spent the first two weeks eating what I normally would, but tracking everything (Yes, everything. Hershey's Kiss from the bottomless bowl in the office? That goes on the tracker.)

During that time, I also measured my weight on a regular basis.

After those two weeks, I had a clear understanding of my baseline weight and caloric intake.

And, armed with that information, I could make intelligent decisions about my diet (and exercise) — and then observe the impact of any changes, against that baseline.

Having that baseline made the whole thing a lot easier.

At least, a whole lot easier than just diving in head-first with radical changes.

So what does this have to do with form spam in your CRM?

The question at the top of this email warrants, among other things. a similar baseline-measurement approach.

You know the spam is coming in.
You've seen it.
But where is it coming from?
And how much is coming in?
And among the dozens of ways you might try to solve this problem, which method, if any, will actually have any impact? And how will you know?

If it's just a small, annoying problem, then sure, you can just try a few easy changes here and there and hope that something works.

But if it's a big enough problem to keep you up at night — if it makes you “just sick about this” — then it's worth approaching it a little more methodically.

In this case, I took a look at the CRM and found a few patterns that will allow us to pretty easily make a report that will point out the contact records that most likely are spam entries.

Once we save that report, we can run it any time and see how many have come in over the past day, or week, or month.

Of course that will make them easier to clean out.

But more importantly:

It will give us a baseline measurement, against which we can evaluate whatever fixes we decide to undertake.

If our fixes are effective, then that report should pretty quickly show a dramatic decrease.

If so, we can forget about this problem for a while and move on to other things.

And if not, we can decide to invest (time, money, effort, risk) in a more involved solution.

I'll talk more tomorrow about some ways to actually fight the good fight against the spammers.

But for now, here’s the thing:

When you’re looking to make a significant change,
whether that's reducing spam entries,
or increasing your memberships,
or making it easier for people to contribute to your campaigns
— anything that needs more than just a one-click fix —
it's worth taking baseline measurements first
and standardizing those measurements
so that you can compare them
over time
and have confidence
that your improvements are actually delivering the results that you need.

All the best,
A.

Doing more with less

Even the most well-funded organization has to face the reality of limited resources.

For small organizations, that reality is even more critical.

And though it's tempting to try to build solutions that will be “perfect forever,” the trick to doing more with less is understanding that “perfect forever” is not actually a requirement.

My friend Wendy is not a professional seamstress, but she volunteered to create costumes for her church’s upcoming Christmas musical.

Her big challenge: a breakaway tuxedo for an on-stage quick change.

It's the kind of thing that has to work right, every time. And she heard all kinds of advice about how to make it foolproof.

But she was smart.

Her time is limited, and this is not the only thing she has to do.

So she started with a design that she thought was good enough, even though it might not have been completely foolproof. (You know, she used double-stick tape in some places instead of hand-stitching.)

The result?

Her “good enough” design was actually good enough!

As a bonus, her team did another smart thing: at rehearsals last night, they tested the live quick-change more than they would actually use the costume. There are 4 performances; they live-tested this thing 9 times. It’s definitely good enough.

Wendy could have spent twice as much time and effort on that costume. And the practical value of that increased effort would have been exactly zero percent.

Here’s the thing:

When you’ve got a new workflow, new feature set, or new campaign coming up, it’s wise to reason out all of the possible challenges.

But there’s a point at which increased investment (time, effort, expense, stress, delay) will have limited real-world value to your people and your mission.

Doing more with less requires a willingness to recognize when your solution is “probably good enough,” to implement some reasonable testing, and then to move forward.

“Perfect forever” is not only unattainable, it’s also just not needed. What is needed is decisive action.

All the best,
A.

CiviCon: San Francisco, May 2025

If you’re looking to up your CiviCRM game and make connections with like-minded folks, there’s nothing better than an in-person CiviCRM conference to make that happen.

And — good news! — just such an event is scheduled for late May of next year, in sunny San Francisco, CA.

Here’s the initial announcement from civicrm.org:

The CiviCRM community is going back to where it all started to celebrate 20 years of serving nonprofits.

Start planning now to attend the event in the San Francisco area.

There will be three parallel tracks of sessions over two days, packed with case studies and the latest in SearchKit, FormBuilder and new extensions.

Planning for this gala event is already underway:

• May 19-20: Admin & User Training
• May 21-22: CiviCon
• May 23-24: Developer Training
• May 23-27: Developer and Documentation Sprint

Special social events planned for the evenings include a dinner and tour at the Internet Archive on May 22.

Please set aside this time in your calendar and start planning your trip.

We expect this global event to attract attendees from across the US and Canada as well as from Europe, Australasia and beyond.

More details including accommodations, call for presentations and sponsorship opportunities coming soon.

It’s been a few years since that pesky old COVID thing shut down these events in the US, and I’m super-excited to see them coming back.

Participants can attend for any or all of the segments listed above, but I think readers here will benefit most from the Admin & User Training (May 19-20) and the two-day multi-track CiviCon (May 21-22).

I’ll definitely be there, and I hope you will too!

All the best,
A.

The revolution will not be live-streamed

There are changes you've been waiting to see in your organization.

Smoother communications with your constituents.
Increases in membership acquisition and retention.
Consistent improvements in fundraising.
More effective and efficient staff workflows.

Maybe you've been waiting for just the right timing.
Just the right opportunity.
Just the right tool.
Just the right idea.

And when you find that, everything will change.
It will revolutionize your work.

But will it really?

It's an attractive notion. But it's very rarely the way things actually work.

The revolution will not be televised.
Or live-streamed.
Or even announced.

It will come through consistent effort over time.
Aimed at clearly defined goals.
Implemented through careful experimentation.
Punctuated by smart decisions that you may not even recognize until well after you've made them.

If you're not sure where to start, get some help.

Reach out to someone who can listen and advise,
help you identify your goals,
analyze and improve your processes,
educate your staff.

Don't wait for the revolution to happen.

Start making it happen now.
By defining a vision.
Selecting a few attainable goals.
And getting the help you need to achieve them.

All the best,
A.

Email troubles: pick your battles

What happens when your organization’s outbound emails are getting flagged as “potential spam”?

Lots of headaches, that’s what.

• Your constituents find your emails in their Junk folder — or not delivered at all.

• Your staff have no confidence that any emails are being received, whether that’s your annual end-of-year appeal, your newsletters, or just a simple “Hi Allen” email to a single recipient.

• Your organization is all but cut off from the world.

That was the situation of an organization that came to me this week. We discussed a few options:

1. Get this fixed ASAP for all of the ways that email is going out now (Gmail, CiviCRM, MailChimp, etc.)

2. Additionally work to improve sender reputation by establishing strong policies for list maintenance, relevant content, and effective segmentation.

3. Further streamline the whole operation by decreasing the number of systems that are sending email: get CiviCRM fully configured for all mass email use cases, and get rid of MailChimp and other newsletter services.

They were interested in all of it, but like everyone, they face numerous pressures of limited time and limited budgets.

So they made a smart decision:

• Solve the immediate crisis now: at a minimum, we have to be able to send email reliably, and that can’t wait.

• Take on more proactive improvements in the new year, when the immediate crisis has passed and new funds are available.

Here’s the thing:

You’ll probably never be able to solve every problem and pursue all of your aspirations at once.

Picking your battles is a matter of considering both urgency and importance, and weighing that against available resources and potential value.

Being able to think clearly in a crisis is key. And with practice, we can all learn to do it.

All the best,
A.

My “silver” dollar

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.

- Piet Hein, “A Psychological Tip”

Sometimes …

… all the pros and cons seem equal.

… competing priorities seem equally valuable.

… all the options seem equally risky.

What to do?

Just pick one. Any one. Take action. Move.

If you can’t pick: find a coin, and flip it.

I keep this 1976 Eisenhower dollar on hand for just such occassions. (And because I’m a hopeless “good old days” romantic.)

Technically, it’s a “clad-copper dollar”, not a “silver dollar”. Meh.

As Piet Hein hinted, a coin flip doesn’t always completely make the decision for you. Often you’ll find, if you pay careful attention, that you’re hoping for heads or tails. And once you notice that, it’s fine to just “go with your gut.”

But either way, make a decision, and then take action.

There’s usually little value in waiting.

All the best,
A.

Any action beats inaction

Reaching for your goals is usually a simple (if challenging) matter of planning and execution:

1. Pick a goal you wish to reach.

2. Understand where you are now in relation to that goal.

3. Formulate a pathway to get where you want to be.

4. Design a plan to navigate that pathway.

5. Execute the plan, beign ready to adjust as needed along the way.

Simple, yes, but not without its challenges.

One of the biggest challenges comes at the decision points:

• Which goal should I pursue?

• Which method should I implement to get there?

• Among competing priorities, which one should I prefer?

• Lacking complete information, how should I begin?

In moments like these, it can be tempting to stall. To wait. To delay until more information is available. To avoid the difficult decision.

Unfortunately, inaction and indecision are not your friends.

Fortunately, the temptation to delay decreases significantly when you realize one important truth:

You will never have perfcet information; you will always have uncertainty.

In moments of indecision, it can be wise to puase for reflection.

But after that brief reflection, the best decision is any decision. The best action is any action.

Action provides results.
Results provide information.
Information guides future decisions.

Here’s the thing:

If you have some headache in your work, and that headache has been a recurring problem for too long (whatever “too long” means to you), something has to change.

And if you want it to change, you must take some action to change it.

That means “waiting for perfect information and absolute certainty” is not going to get you there.

Instead of waiting:

Pick any reasonable action. Undertake it. Observe the results. Adjust. Repeat.

All the best,
A.

How to handle emergencies

On a daily basis, a firefighter will spend a lot of time doing anything but handling emergencies. They’re doing things like:

• Undergoing training and education

• Exercising to stay fit

• Maintaining vehicles and gear

• Performing inspections, installing smoke detectors, and educating the public on fire prevention

In short, they’re doing what they can to prevent the emergencies, and to be ready for them when they come — because they will come. That’s when the firefighting happens.

You’re probably not a firefighter, but…

Emergencies will appear. Deadlines will press. Personnel will change. Surprises will happen.

And like that firefighter, you do have options to be ready (or not so ready).

If you’ve
kept your staff well trained,
and worked your routines to stay sharp,
and maintained your systems and tools,
and established monitoring systems to alert you before a problem gets out of hand,
then you’re well set to handle the pressures that will come.

Because they will come.

When they come is not up to you. But how you prepare is.

The best way to handle an emergency is to be as ready as possible before it happens. And that’s something you can control.

All the best,
A.

Adding friction

My new dumb phone is a thing of beauty, mostly because it makes some things difficult.

Like tapping into the opinions of a billion internet strangers on the latest hot-button topic in sports, entertainment, or politics. (Sorry, it’s just not as fun as I thought it would be.)

Sure I can still access my social media, but it's not in my pocket. So it's much harder.

That's by design.

It creates friction between me and things I want to think less about. So I can stay focused on the things I want to think more about.

Here’s the thing:

Are daily interruptions and tedious tasks are pulling you away from the kind of creative strategic thinking that your mission needs?

There's probably a way to increase the friction between you and those distractions.

Yes, there will always be little puzzles to solve.

But I hope you're making time to focus on the long-term thinking that truly empowers your work.

All the best,
A.

How they see you

Do you know why your donors give?

It might not be for the reasons you would think.

This morning I spoke with the executive director at a local organization who told me they've already secured a $20,000 Exclusive Presenting Sponsorship for their annual gala next year.

She called it, and I quote, "jaw-dropping," "fantastic," "extraordinary," and "a game changer".

Later in the conversation, she mentioned that the sponsor had let on about why they decided to sponsor:

This annual gala — among the many fundraising events held by various charities in our local area each year — is the one event where all of the sponsor's employees a) attend the event, and b) actually have a great time while they're there.

Here's the thing:

Your donors and potential donors will see you in ways you might not expect.

They're not always as passionate about your mission as you are, but they are (or could be) very excited to help you because of something they see in your work — something you might not even have noticed.

If you can learn more about what they see, and if that happens to be compatible with your organization's vision, why not lean into that, and remind them of it through your own messaging?

Yes, it can be good to explain how important your work is to the people in your community.

But if saying "We're also the most fun you'll ever have!" strikes a chord, why not say it a little more often?

All the best,
A.

Midwifing a transformation

There's a transformation inside your work (or your team, or your organization) that's waiting to come out. Some new way of working that will move your mission forward, not just keep it afloat.

It's probably not quite ready to see the light. But it's there. It probably needs some time. And some care. And someone to help it spring to life.

Have you seen the signs? Have you felt it kicking? Have you thought of a name for it? Have you imagined it taking its first steps?

Don't be afraid to imagine what it could be.

Let yourself take some time off from being busy to consider how you can help it along, and who might help you bring it into a beautiful reality.

-A.

Will it really?

When you're thinking about adding a new component to your CRM system — an extension, a training program, a documentation system, whatever — you'll probably want to ask yourself a few important questions:

• Will it actually help me accomplish what I need? Does it actually do I think it does?

• Does it fit smoothly with my organization’s working style, or will we need to make adjustments there?

• What kind of effort will I need to maintain it going forward, and who will do that work?

• Will it do what I need right out of the box or does it need a lot of configuration first?

Taking the time to get these answers, before you begin, can save you a lot of pain and heartache.

Not to mention wasted time and money.

All the best,
A.

Shirts are easy

On the way home today I popped into a favorite store. I got lucky, found a couple of shirts I loved, I took them home. Easy.

I’m no fashion guru, but this seems a workable method for maintaining a wardrobe: Look around, see what's out there, grab what you like.

The same method would be a nightmare for home improvements. Head over to the Home Depot and see what's available. Pick up a few new windows, an in-floor heating system, maybe a solar panel or two.

What's the difference?

Partly, it's a matter of cost. If it turns out I don't like the shirt, then my loss is a whole lot less than if it turns out I don't like that in-floor heating system.

But the bigger issue is complexity. My wardrobe is not a tightly integrated system. It's a bunch of separate pieces that mostly align with a personal style. That new shirt is easily replaceable with any other shirt in my closet.

A house, on the other hand, is a tightly integrated system. That in-floor heating system needs to be matched to my flooring, my foundation, my electrical system, and any number of other systems in the house. Buying it is a commitment to ensuring it integrates properly with a bunch of other systems.

Here's the thing:

Unlike your wardrobe, your CRM system is a tightly integrated system. Components that don't play well with each other will create unexpected problems.

And that means all of the components: The core CRM, third-party extensions from the extensions directory, custom extensions you may have commissioned, your training, your documentation, your policies and procedures, and your organizational structure and working style.

When you get an idea to acquire or replace one of those components — whether it's because you saw someone else using it, or read about it in a blog post, or just got a wonderful idea and thought it would be fun to try — it's worth thinking about how that's going to fit in with the other components.

Imagine finishing a complete DIY remodel of your master bathroom — with that fancy heated floor — only to realize that you need to rip up the floor again. No fun, right?

It's no fun in your CRM either.

All the best,
A.

Seasons

We're captive on the carousel of time.

— Joni Mitchell

It’s a very busy time of year.

End-of-year fundraising.
End-of-year membership renewals.
End-of-year whatever.
Thrown together with a family and social calendar that seems to fill up itself.

You're probably spending a lot of your time this season in execution mode.
There's a lot to be done.
It's time to put your head down and get to work.

Once the page turns on this year’s calendar,
it’ll time for trainings,
and planning workshops,
and conferences,
and summer interns.

For many, that's the season when you're mostly in planning mode and strategy mode.
Time to be creative and look to the future.

But it's always the season to take care of your health.
And your sanity.
And your relationships.
And your learning.
The kind of things that benefit most from consistent, small efforts.
And time spent in reflection mode and recovery mode.

The seasons come and go.
And then come around again.

Watch out for the moments when it's time to switch modes.
With a little practice,
you can capture those moments before they slip away.

All the best,
A.

Which zone?

There's a feeling we all get, more or less often, when our mind is switched on to the task before us.

It's fantastic.

We call it “being in the zone” but the truth is, there's not just one zone.

Your brain is capable of several distinct modes of thinking.

• Strategy mode, when you're focused on big-picture thinking for the future.

• Planning mode, when you're organizing specific plans for yourself or your team.

• Execution mode, when you're knocking out tasks in your plan.

• Learning mode, when you're ready to vacuum up and understand a lot of new information in a short time.

• Fighting mode, when you're ready to perform at a high level under stress.

• Reflection mode, when you're assessing your current situation or past work.

They're all important and valuable. But you can only be “in the zone” for one mode at a time. Switching from one to another is not easy. And each one takes a bit of practice.

Here's the thing:

If you value the results you can get in any given mode of thinking, it helps to spend time there, often.

As a leader in your organization, are you making time for the modes of thinking you value most, and that are the best use of your time?

it’s not a bad thing to spend time wrestling with a tough technical problem. Somebody has to solve it, after all.

But tough technical problem mode is very different from strategy and planning mode.

If you're not making the time to switch from the one to the other, when will you be in the zone to guide your team’s future work — or your own?

All the best,
A.

The learning loop

You’re familiar with the “learning curve” — when something’s hard to learn, we say it has a steep learning curve: you have to learn a lot very quickly, just to get started.

You might have seen this old cartoon, often called “The Learning Cliff”:

The labels for those lines will change as the cartoon gets repurposed in different communities, but the joke is that the learning curve for that one thing (shown by the black line) is ridiculously, impossibly steep.

That’s the Learning Cliff. And it can feel brutal.

But it’s not necessary. Because you don’t have to scale that cliff all at once.

Becuase good learning will also circle back on itself.

You try something,
it works okay,
you learn,
you try it again
hopefully better this time.

Improve and repeat.

It’s more like this:

That's the Learning Loop. The more frequently you circle back, the tighter the loop. You’ll revisit things now and then, but you’re generally moving forward.

Turns out there's a relationship here:

When that learning curve feels steep — like you’re climbing a cliff — circling back make a lot of sense.

Here’s the thing:

We’re all learning. New systems; new ideas; new team members; new goals.

Tackling it all at once is hard; and it’s risky; and it’s usually not necessary.

Want to avoid falling off that cliff-side and never making it (like those poor stick figures in the cartoon)?

Take notes. Reflect on your learning. Circle back, then move forward again.

And count the small wins as you do. They will add up.

All the best,
A.