 After every major event we produce, there’s one thing we schedule: a rest day.
I grew up hearing my grandmother call herself “lazy bones” while maintaining an immaculate house, baking cakes (yes, plural), preparing meals, caring for others, and leaving behind more in a day than the rest of the family could accomplish in a week. She would say it almost casually, as if it were true. I never believed her, but I did absorb something else: the idea that rest was suspect. That no matter how much had been done, it was never quite enough to justify stopping. I still feel that tension.
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 Growing up on a farm, I learned to measure the severity of winter weather with one simple question: Can you see the big barn?
If the barn across the yard remained visible, we could confidently stick to our plans. When snow, wind, or fog prevented my family from seeing the barn’s massive outline, we knew our expectations for the day had to change. My brother still lives on the farmstead with his family. A few weeks ago, I texted him: “Can you see the barn?” “Not really,” he replied and attached a photo. I couldn’t see the barn in the photo, but that is because the building has been gone for years. Still, it remains a visual cue for our family. When conditions are uncertain, our plans need to evolve. This is true for projects too. Leaders and teams face their own versions of whiteout conditions. Plans are made, but something threatens to knock things off track. At Reach Partners we know how to navigate threats by paying attention to cues, those signals that something needs to change.  If you’ve ever had a project fall victim to shifting priorities, raise your hand.
Yep. Us, too. We have all had projects that stall or “lose steam” along the way. Projects without hard deadlines seem particularly easy to set aside in favor of something that seems more pressing. But non-urgent projects have value, and that’s what makes it hard. What should you do when something you are excited about has to slide to the back burner? Should you pause, continue, or abandon a project when other tasks demand attention from the team?  We've all been there – staring at a project that should be moving forward but somehow isn't. Anita and I call this feeling "spinning," and it's one of the most frustrating experiences in professional life. Whether you're physically drained, mentally stretched, or working at the edge of your expertise, being stuck on something you know has value feels awful.
I've kept a sticky note on my monitor with simple wisdom about how to break free from project paralysis: "What is my understanding of the task? What do deliverables look like? What are the first 3 steps?  At Reach Partners, we spend a lot of time developing show flow documents.
That’s because they are one of the most powerful tools for ensuring an event’s success. A show flow is more than a spreadsheet or a checklist. It’s the operational backbone of your event, the single document that holds the who, what, when, where, and how. Whether your event runs for one hour or spans several days, the show flow becomes the go-to reference that keeps every person, every detail, and every resource aligned. Here are several qualities that make a show flow valuable:  Anita and I have our own language when it comes to giving directions while driving.
When Anita says, “turn right,” I'll promptly turn left. Almost every time. Meanwhile, when I announce that “We need to head north,” she will ask: “Which way is that?” Apparently, we have complementary directional abilities. I can't tell my left from my right, but I have strong spatial awareness and can almost always point north. Anita can give clear instructions with the confidence of someone who absolutely knows where she's going, but she has no idea which way north is. Our solution? We acknowledge these shortcomings and turn ourselves into living directional coordinates. Now Anita says “take an Anita” when she needs me to turn toward her side, and “take a Rachel” when we need to turn toward mine. Problem solved. In our work at Reach Partners, we’ve learned that client projects also require translation – or a new collective language. After all, communication is more than finding the right words; it’s about making sure everybody understands where we’re heading.  Some of us are wired to think – and we do so deeply, thoroughly, and in spirals.
We imagine the possibilities. We anticipate outcomes. We consider people, timing, risk, and reward. Thinking is how we prepare. Thinking is how we protect. It’s good work. But thinking is only part of it. As Eddie Rickenbacker, an American fighter pilot in World War I, said: “The key to success is to think things through and then follow through.”  Reach Partners is fortunate to share office space with a voracious reader. To nobody’s surprise, none of us hesitated to start an interoffice book club when Rachel suggested we read a book together.
The three of us are now on our second book. We don’t have a hard schedule. We jointly determine how much to read for our next discussion, and I find an hour on our calendars that works well with other work obligations. We are reading Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Two of us have read it before, but reading it again is not only helpful but insightful. I find this true of so many personal development books.  Several years ago, Reach Partners started a practice that has now become an established tradition.
We initiated CCC, which stands for Coffee, Cheese Plates, and Cocktails. We are big believers that good food, good drinks, and good conversations go hand-in-hand. By adopting this strategy, we’ve been intentional about framing our relationship-building in a fun, informal way. But let’s face it, this is also our much-more-inviting take on a CRM tool. This is how we stay connected with our current clients while learning about ways we can partner with new ones.  People often say they need something specific to generate more energy and are disappointed when they never seem to have enough of it. I suspect this gap occurs because we focus on the things that gives us energy instead of the processes we set up.
Think about it: How often have we been asked, “What gives you energy?” How often have you been asked, “How do you produce energy?” Maybe it’s the “how,” not the “what,” we should seek. After all, we have more control over the “how.” As I reflect on this, I want to share a few ways you can create positive, helpful energy: |