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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my 11 year old son, who has not watched a single college basketball game all season correctly predicted 3 of the final 4 teams (I only correctly predicted 1 of them), and I believe if you are learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share lessons I’ve learned about the value of systems and organization.
Today’s Fun Fact: Today is March 28 and do you know what happened at exactly 10:15 am EST on this day in 1985? More than 6,000 radio stations simultaneously played the song, “We are the World.” So here are some fun facts about “We are the World.”
- This was a benefit single for victims of famine in Africa. It raised over $63 million (equivalent to $136 million today), which was distributed to Ethiopia, Sudan, and other impoverished countries.
- The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. The producers were Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian.
- 42 different artists sang on the track including Lionel and Jackson, of course, Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Smokey Robinson, and even Dan Aykroyd.
- The project began as an idea Calypso singer Harry Belafonte had for a benefit concert featuring black musicians. Lionel Richie’s manager, Ken Kragen, liked the idea of releasing a single and contacted Richie about the project, who agreed to help. After Belafonte and Richie, Stevie Wonder was the first star to agree to the project. From there, word got out and many members of the music industry signed on to help.
- It was recorded on January 28, 1985, the day of the American Music Awards. Since the artists were all in town for the awards, it was much easier to get them together to record the single.
- The song received a number of honors, including three Grammy Awards, one American Music Award and a People’s Choice Award.
What I Learned Yesterday:
A few weeks ago I got an email from a local friend of mine who needed some help with a project. They are going to be relocating their office this year, and he wanted some help figuring out how to properly record in their new space which will have a classroom space for training seminars and workshops. He invited me to join him at the location of another local company that has a similar setup, and will in all likelihood be sharing some of the new office space with him.
I happily joined him and looked forward to seeing how I could help them, spending some time hanging out with my friend, and learning a few things during the workshop that was being presented.
The workshop was being attended by about 30 different people from some of the most recognizable businesses in Oklahoma City. Some of the attendees had recently been promoted to a higher level of management and were sent to the workshop as part of their career training, while others were independent business owners or high level executives wanting to grow their own business skills.
The workshop attendees were seated all around the room mostly in a U pattern, with several other attendees seated at tables in the middle area of the U. During various times throughout the session, the workshop leader asked questions of and got feedback from the participants. This was helpful for me to observe so that I could better understand the recording environment and conditions.
Well over halfway through the session, the leader passed out a couple of pieces of paper to each participant. Both pieces of paper were identical and had the numbers 1 through 100 printed randomly in a grid pattern.
On his cue, we were instructed to find and circle as many numbers as possible in the time allowed (1 minute). We had to start with number 1 and go in ascending order. After he made sure everyone was ready and understood the instructions, he gave us the signal to begin.
I easily found the first couple of numbers but it seemed to get harder and the numbers more elusive as I progressed. At the same time I could hear the sounds of everyone else’s pens circling number after number and I felt like they were circling much faster than I did. I tried to focus and go faster. I could feel the seconds ticking by and my brain felt like it was going in slow motion. Then in a flash, he called time and we put our pens down.
One by one we went around the room and called out our highest number circled. As we did, the leader wrote them all down on a marker board. My score was near the average of the room that day. I found 14 numbers.
The leader then instructed us to draw two lines on the paper. One line would divide the number columns vertically in half, and the other line would divide the number rows horizontally in half. This essentially put all the numbers into one of four quadrants.
Making sure we were all ready to go again, he gave the signal and started the time. This time I was off in a flash! I remembered a couple of the general placements of some of the numbers and was more familiar with the exercise. Still, it seemed like everyone was circling much faster than I was. When he called time, I was happy to see that my score had improved! This time I scored a 19. However, I was pretty sure I didn’t improve at the rate everyone else did. I looked over at my friend’s paper and he had scored in the high 30’s. Ouch!
We went around the room again. I was near the end of line so I was one of the last people to reveal a score. So by the time it got to me I was mortified. Well over 20 scores had been revealed, and no one did worse than me. In fact, after all the second round scores were given, I was dead last. The highest score was in the 90’s. How could someone find over 90 of them and I only found 19!?!?!
Ugh! I was embarrassed. I felt like a loser. I wanted to crawl under the table and hide. I didn’t want to look anyone in the eye or talk to anyone. Why would they want to talk to and idiot like me. My self confidence was through the floor.
The leader asked the room if dividing the grid into quadrants helped. Everyone agreed. I couldn’t figure out why they thought it helped. It didn’t help me. I think the only thing that helped me was that it was my second time doing it and I was more familiar with the exercise. Then the leader asked if everyone had noticed the pattern. What? There was a pattern??? He revealed that numbers were consistently found in quadrant order. That is, number 1 was in quadrant 1, number two was in quadrant 2, number 3 was in quadrant 3, number 4 was in quadrant 4, number 5 was in quadrant 1, number 6 was in quadrant 2, etc.
OH! That would have been nice to know! It turned out that the guy that found over 90 numbers picked up on the pattern and used that knowledge to fly through the exercise.
Here’s what I learned.
As I drove home a short time later, I wished that I’d had one more chance to do the exercise with the group and prove that I wasn’t an idiot. I wondered what I could do if I did the exercise again with full knowledge of how the numbers were arranged.
So you know what I did, I opened up Excel and recreated the number sheet. I took the quiz again and this time I did much better. This time I scored a 36! My score was right in line with the score my friend achieved (and he’d taken the quiz before that day).
I then called my kids into my office. I had them sit across from each other and take the quiz. I gave them two rounds just as I had been given. I then revealed the secret of the quadrants and gave them a third attempt. Their scores skyrocketed too!
Colby went from a 19 his first time to a 37 his third time. Addi went from 18 her first time to a 32 her third time.
There are quite a few morsels of goodness in this story.
First, in my conversations with my friend that day as well as hearing the comments of others, all of us felt like we were slowed down by hearing the noises of other people’s pens. It caused us to lose focus, let our mind wander to thoughts about how far they were progressing, and even caused us to have doubt, fear, anxiety, and dread- all negative feelings. When I asked my kids how they felt as they were going head-to-head, they described the same things.
It’s also worth noting that doing something over and over again will generally give you better results each time. This seems obvious, but it’s still worth noting. We can expect to do just about any exercise or task and get better at it the more times we do it. This exercise certainly fell into that generalization.
The bigger lessons for me came when it was revealed that there was, in fact, a structure and system to the layout of the numbers. To those who observed that their circles were progressing in quadrant order, they performed the best. This tells me that it’s helpful to always keep an observant eye open for ways that we can improve our workflow. I was so focused on trying to improve just by sheer will and determination, that I was completely oblivious to the obvious pattern. I even thought at one point in the second exercise that it was stupid for him to have us draw the lines on the paper.
It reminds of a story from when I was in high school. Do you remember the game Minesweeper from Windows 3.1 and beyond? My girlfriend’s dad used to sit at their computer and yell at that game because he could never win. She observed him playing one day and told him that the numbers represented how many bombs that were touching that respective square. He pushed back and told her that she was mistaken. He said that the numbers were just random gibberish. She took over the game and showed him what she meant and taught him how to interpret the numbers. His mouth was agape as he realized that he’d been oblivious to the obvious clues. Almost immediately he won his first game of minesweeper and he took on a whole new enjoyment of the game.
So why didn’t the session leader tell us about the pattern before letting us go for the second time? Or why didn’t he let us go for a third time? I honestly don’t know, but I think this gives us the biggest lesson of the day. We can’t assume that everyone sees or understands the systems around us.
When we bring on a new employee or include someone into an established system, it’s important for us to show them how things are set up and explain the “whys” of the system. If we only give them partial information, we are not fully equipping them for success. It’s like giving them half a map and telling them to figure the rest out themselves.
Lastly, it’s important to systematize things and keep things in order. Organization, systems, and full instructions go a long way to achieving success. And I think that’s something that all of us can get excited about!
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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