I got a C- in German 101. Freshman year of college, Fall semester, 8:00 a.m. class. I took French in high school but grew up Lutheran near an Amish community. That should have helped, right? Lots of life lessons my 18-year-old self could have learned. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a learning opportunity. So, I breathed a sigh of relief, advanced to German 102 and got another C-.

Often, we don’t fail, but we don’t succeed either. In this edition I want to explore how as Bruised Camels, we can be good stewards of average results. And you’ll be green with envy at my St. Patrick’s Day humor.

Journey on,
~Mark

Mark King
​Mark@BruisedCamels.com | LinkedIn

Business | Personal Leadership

Consider a C- Pure Joy

Sometimes in our professional lives, we don’t get F’s, but we don’t exactly crush it either. 78% of a stretch goal. “Meeting expectations” on your annual review. How do we learn and grow from so-so outcomes?

The Lens of Clear Intent – Responding well to a C- presents more challenges than an A+ or an F because of the ambiguity. When we score 100% or bomb completely, we think the causes are obvious. (They likely aren’t.) However, average results send mixed, often contradictory signals. Subjective work like making decisions, creating content, or developing people only increases ambiguity.

Middle of the road outcomes become less ambiguous when filtered through your original intentions. As humans, we often rewrite the history of our intent to grade ourselves on a curve. I couldn’t do that for German because the course syllabus defined expectations before the first class. We need more syllabi in life. A syllabus holds us accountable when we underperform, but also provides objective affirmation of our progress. Personally, I get even more motivated when the data says I’m succeeding.

Three books have influenced me a great deal in how I think about connecting intention to outcomes via data. In different ways, all three identify upfront intentionality and data driven review as foundational aspects of learning and improving.

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, Annie Duke – Decision making is the essence of what most of us do professionally. How do you separate luck from skill in decision making so that you can improve? Duke, a professional poker player and cognitive psychologist, provides a fantastic method for evaluating and improving your decision making. Documenting key decisions in a journal before the result occurs forms the foundation of her approach.

Finish: Give yourself the gift of done, Jon Acuff – Self-described “goal nerd” Acuff consolidates a lot of great content on setting and achieving goals. I resonate with his approachable and actionable strategy for creating goals and then using data to accomplish them. He also emphasizes tracking data in fun ways. Let’s be honest, not so deep down we all love getting gold stars on a chart as we make progress.

On Design Thinking: HBR’s 10 Must Reads, Harvard Business Review – If creating a “syllabus” triggers academic PTSD for you, try the term “experiment” instead. The venture capital, Silicon Valley crowd love Design Thinking as a framework for grading progress and learning in the ambiguous context of start-ups and innovation. It can be buzz-wordy, but don’t toss the baby out with the bath water. The core concept of defining an experiment with a thesis/prototype, testing it, and then evaluating the outcome against the thesis works. HBR’s compilation provides a foundation for how to apply this approach personally and professionally.

The Lens of Fruitfulness – Even through email I can hear some of you: “That’s all great until I get a lousy evaluation because my boss changed the syllabus. I had crystal clear intentions and mounds of data. But the market shifted, so my bonus got dinged for circumstances beyond my control.” Yep…I hear you. It’s not like it hasn’t happen to me. As my high school English teacher frequently said: “Nobody said life was fair.” The Bible does, however, say a lot about our attitudes when life doesn’t grade us fairly.

When Jesus said: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), he was anticipating serious persecution, not subpar performance at work. When James said: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2), he was talking about torture and death, not missing quarterly goals.

Yet, the principle easily extends to our contemporary lives with our less than life-threatening challenges. We must view all of life’s outcomes through a spiritual lens. When Paul told the Romans that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom. 8:28), he meant our spiritual good, not our professional success. If we allow them to, our workplace successes, failures, and C minuses will shape us into fruit-bearing Jesus Followers.

In a 1994 interview, the late Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen went so far as to equate being broken with being blessed. “In a strange way the spiritual life isn’t ‘useful’ or ‘successful.’ But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out of brokenness.” I suspect Nouwen would agree that our disappointment with mediocre results can bear fruit if we let it.

To be clear, you should not be satisfied with a C-. Strive to transform it into something better. But be thankful for how that C- can transform you spiritually.

Kitchen Drawer | Dad Jokes

St. Patrick’s Humor

Why did the leprechaun go outside?
To sit on his paddy-o.

I asked my friend when his birthday was.
He said March 1st. I stood up, walked around the room, and asked again.

Why did St. Patrick drive all the snakes out of Ireland?
It was too far to walk.

How does a leprechaun work out?
By pushing his luck.

Kitchen Drawer | Postscript

Your Thoughts?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this edition or your suggestions for topics. Or…just fire off a note to say “Hey.” Use Mark@BruisedCamels.com and you’ll bypass my overflowing work inbox.