Life Hack: A Spoonful of Sugar

When I was younger, I thought the pathway to the American Dream was paved by merit. As long as I was smart, truthful, and effective, I'd be on the fast track to fame and fortune.

I cannot count the ways I've been wrong about that belief.

Whether it was starting a feud in my local newspaper, or being unfairly brutal to my supervisor in their performance review, or making a 15-slide Powerpoint presentation of my latest whackadoodle idea, I've had to learn the hard way that the ends don't justify the means. Sometimes, the means are all that matters.

It's all about the packaging.

Sometimes that felt like a betrayal of my core values. For years, I believed that "packaging" was just another word for insincerity. It was for salespeople and politicians, not for people who were trying to do good, honest work. To me, wrapping a difficult truth in soft language felt like a lie in itself.

What I failed to understand is that the "packaging" isn't about hiding the truth. It's about honoring the humanity of the person you're giving it to. It’s the difference between throwing a brick through someone’s window with a note attached and knocking on their door to deliver the message personally. The message is the same, but the delivery determines whether you start a conversation or a war.

And this isn't just about difficult conversations. Two of my Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Achiever and Strategic, which means I am very driven to get things done AND I like finding strategic pathways to achieve objectives. It's easy for me to sit down and pen out a 9-month strategic roadmap, complete with objectives, milestones, and action items.

However, just because it's easy for me to run ahead doesn't mean it's easy for others to follow along. I've suffocated so many brilliant ideas in 15-page strategic documents. I've had to learn how to bite-size my roadmaps while also telegraphing the larger journey. This process that has not always been easy but vital for gaining consensus and buy-in.

Learning how to package everything- from difficult feedback to a 9-month strategic plan- is what I believe to be core effective leadership skills. It's about positioning ideas with empathy and chunking a vision so people can come along.

These are major drivers for the Team Strengths Accelerator. This program is designed to help you better understand yourself and your team so you can package your best ideas, communicate your vision, and build a team where everyone's contributions are not just seen, but celebrated. The CliftonStrengths assessment provides a common language to talk about these difficult topics, the 1-1 debriefs pinpoints each individual's packaging problems, and the team workshop is a safe space to apply solutions.

This particular spoonful of sugar is on sale until September 1st, so don't wait to scoop this up.

A TL;DR from the CRO

If a poodle is not packaged with a poof, is it really a poodle?

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

A TL;DR From The Archive: 10 Ways to Ensure Your Strategy Session Fails

If you want to set a team up for failure, make sure to follow these ten easy steps.

Tonight I'm going to a difficult farewell party.

Five years ago, one of Learn to Scale's first customers was an organization called Hack.Diversity. Hack helped people from non-traditional backgrounds get their first jobs in tech and I was hired to help build out and facilitate their Career Readiness Week. During that engagement, I was so inspired by the mission of the organization and the passion of the organizers that I wanted to do whatever it took to stay involved.

Ever since then, I've volunteered my time as a Mentor and helped coach entry-level software and hardware engineers navigate the unspoken rules of corporate workplaces. It's been a nourishing and meaningful experience, both for me and (I think!) for my mentees.

Unfortunately, the decline around hiring entry-level tech talent and the sad fact that "diversity" is not in season nowadays has forced Hack.Diversity to shut down. Tonight is their farewell party.

I'm bummed because the community of people and organizations that want to help Black, Latinx, English as a Second Language, second career professionals, and young talent get meaningful jobs in tech is an AMAZING community.

I don't know how I'll be filling this social justice gap going forward, but tonight, I'm celebrating the people who also care about that gap.

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Your friendly learning nerd,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. Or you could wrap feedback in this beautiful paisley print with cardinals.​