Matrix Group International

Month: January 2022

  • Ready to Declutter Your Digital Life?

    Ready to Declutter Your Digital Life?

    It’s a new year and with a new year comes new year’s resolutions. Many of us resolve to tidy up our closets and garages. This past holiday season, I decided to declutter my digital life. Here’s what I ended up doing:

    Cleared my Email

    I have unlimited storage in Gmail, which is a good thing and a bad thing. To be honest, I had a lot of unread emails, mostly promotional and social emails, but still. All that unread email was weighing on me and stressing me out. I spent two weeks clearing out my email. I’m down to a (more) manageable list of unread emails and overall number of emails. I still have a ways to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I even deleted about 1,700 drafts of emails; God only knows why they were still in there.

    I Unsubscribed From a Zillion Newsletters

    I have no idea how I get on so many lists. I hesitate to press Spam on most of the messages I receive because most are legit businesses and many are newsletters I subscribed to a while back. But I hadn’t read a Chronicle of Philanthropy or Entrepreneur.com newsletter in ages, so I unsubscribed. Who knows if my unsubscribes will make a difference; maybe for a bit?

    I Emptied My Downloads Folder

    The Downloads folder on my laptop was huge! Every time I download an attachment or an image, it would go into Downloads. Often, I needed the files for something quick and then never again. But those files stayed in Downloads. I realized I had old project files, and I don’t want those on my laptop; I want those files on our company intranet and nowhere else!

    I still need to clear folders in Drive, delete photos in iPhoto on my phone and Mac, yada, yada. But the decluttering I did over the holidays has already lifted my spirits. Turns out digital clutter is just as distracting and annoying as physical clutter, maybe even more so because it’s often hidden and there’s so much of it!

    How about you? Where do you have clutter? What are you doing about it? 

  • What the Vietnam War and the Stockdale Paradox Can Teach Us About How to Face 2022

    What the Vietnam War and the Stockdale Paradox Can Teach Us About How to Face 2022

    plant sprout in tilesIt’s 2022 and it feels like 2021 again. We’ve got another COVID wave, more lockdowns, more virtual schooling, more work from home, canceled trips, and a country more polarized than ever. I can sense fatigue and hopelessness from my family and my staff. During these times, I turn once again to a great video from Jim Collins about what he calls The Stockdale Paradox.

    Admiral Jim Stockdale was shot down by the Vietnamese during the 1960s and then spent 8 years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. He was the highest-ranking military officer at the Hanoi Hilton, which meant he had the full burden of command and responsibility, but he was also repeatedly tortured and could be shot at any moment. Admiral Stockdale’s time at the POW camp was bleak, miserable and seemingly endless.

    Jim Collins, the author of several of my favorite business books (Built to Last and Good to Great), got to know Admiral Stockdale at Stanford University many years ago. Professor Collins has written extensively about what he calls The Stockdale Paradox. 

    Professor Collins asked Admiral Stockdale HOW he survived his years as a POW. Admiral Stockdale replied that he never wavered in his faith that he would get out and, more importantly, he would turn his time as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton into a defining event of his life, that in retrospect he would NOT trade. Wow. Just wow.

    Here’s the crux of The Stockdale Paradox. You need unwavering faith that you can and will prevail against whatever terrible situation you’re in, AND you need to confront the brutal facts of your condition, whatever they may be. 

    What does this mean? For me, it means:

    • Not being naive in thinking that this pandemic will be over soon and life will get back to normal.
    • Not giving in to despair when I’m missing my family, my mom, my co-workers, travel.
    • Rallying my team and reminding them that we can, and will, prevail in the end, over this pandemic.
    • Reminding myself and my team that we will come out stronger as a company and as a community.
    • Not romanticizing the olden days, the “normal” days.
    • Keeping my team and my family focused on what we CAN control: our work, our attitudes, our routines.
    • Finding joy where I can, including walks in the snow, movie night at home, new accounts at work, amazing clients, Zooms with college buddies, and my amazing family.

    For those of who are leaders at work and at home, Jim Collins reminds us to become Admiral Stockdale for those who need us to be. We need to have unwavering hope AND we need to help those around us navigate the gloom and despair that surround us.

    Here’s the video from Jim Collins. I have watched this video countless times. I watched it at the start of the pandemic, when my team was working nonstop to launch BeSpeake, when the world opened up and then closed again because of Delta, and then again when Omicron wiped out all of my family’s holiday plans. I hope you find comfort and strength in The Stockdale Paradox. We are living in a Stockdale moment and we all need to become Admiral Stockdale.