Kākou in the Ho‘ohana ‘Ohana with ‘Ōpala ‘ole

You know what is amazingly wonderful? Just a few months ago I would not have dared to put that many Hawaiian words in a post title without definition. However today, there are so many of you who know exactly what I mean!

For the malihini (newcomers and first-time visitors), please stay for a while and learn with us!

If you are new to Talking Story:

Kākou is all of us together, inclusively.

‘Ohana is family, or in our case, a human circle of Aloha.

Here, we refer to all the readers of Talking Story, SayLeadershipCoaching.com and ManagingWithAloha.com collectively as the Ho‘ohana Community.

Ho‘ohana is to work with passion and intent, and each month we have a Ho‘ohana theme we work on Kākou, together. We learn more together, and we learn better together. In doing so we share our Aloha with each other across miles of cyberspace and ocean-wide distances.

Thus we are Ho‘ohana ‘Ohana, an ‘Ohana brought together in our Ho‘ohana to learn worthwhile work.

‘Ōpala ‘ole is this month’s Ho‘ohana theme, in which we are doing away with clutter. ‘Ōpala is rubbish, and ‘ole is without.

(See how much you know!)

So, the hapa phrase (hapa is half, i.e, Hawaiian mixed with English to help learn),
Kākou in the Ho‘ohana ‘Ohana with ‘Ōpala ‘ole of my title means

All of us together in our Ho ‘ohana Community ‘Ohana are working to banish the clutter in our lives this month.

I’m in between offline business trips, and I’ve been trying my best to keep up with a few bloggers of the Ho‘ohana Community whom I know are in alignment with our ‘Ōpala ‘ole clutter-clearing efforts right now. I found a couple of articles I’d like to share with you.

This is a longer post because I’m about to take off (and off-line) again … you can read it a little at a time until I can post next!

As a preface to this: Now that I have personal productivity on the brain I am finding sooooo much stuff is available online, and I am realizing that reading it all will add so much more overwhelm than it’s worth. I’m steering clear of most techie stuff right now, believing I need to proactively resist any temptation for bells and whistles until my own reinvention of some very basic habits kick in. So right now I’m loving the articles written about productivity in simple terms.

Clutter-Busting

Adrian Trenholm wrote Get Sorted with the Five Ss with a nod to our clutter-busting Ho‘ohana theme this month of ‘Ōpala ‘ole, and his article really appealed to me, both for his tips themselves, but also because the creative use of language can be so powerful.

Adrian gives his checklist to us in both Japanese and in English: Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set in order), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardise), and Shitsuke (Sustain). Great reminders with a new language framing that will help you get another burst of ‘Ōpala ‘ole energy. Do click in and read it.

Slide that trash can over…

I’m finding that I am getting absolutely ruthless with trashing things both electronically and in my physical spaces, for there will then be much less for me to collect, process and organize. And right now, with so much going on in my life it just feels extremely liberating to throw stuff away!

Less clutter truly does help you feel physically lighter. It helps you focus better.

Electronically, Delete!

In particular I’m using my delete key much more frequently with email, which brings me to my next suggestion for you, a visit to the To Done Blog for Keith’s article, Getting Things Done with Delete.

There was something about his Tao of Delete phrase that made me feel so much better about my own relish of hitting the delete key with such complete and careless abandon. (You’ll also note Keith refers to 5 Ss in his post that are very similar to Adrian’s).

It’s not just about ‘Ōpala ‘ole

There is much other Learning that is continuing in our Community.

For those of you who may have been intrigued with my goal to integrate the relationship tips in Never Eat Alone to my MWA3P equation at some point, Rick Cecil posted something you’ll want to read: Building Relationships and Managing Time

Rick shares an experience within his own quest for improved personal productivity, so do click in to benefit from his lessons learned. You’ll find I left a comment there for him, and I’d encourage you to do the same if you have some thoughts to share.

While you’re there, look at this other post Rick did too:
Weekly Personal Improvement Reports. Would you be so bold — and willing to be so vulnerable, in doing the same thing? Rick is one brave man!

What’s your Kuleana?

Last week’s short series on Responsibility seemed to strike a chord with many people, and I must again say thank you to those of you who shared comments here. If you are interested in carrying on the discussion, I refer you to the newest member of our Ho‘ohana Online Community, Hanna Cooper, and her blog Making A Difference.

Hanna’s blog is just 7 posts old, however I was very excited about adding her strong and clear voice to the Ho‘ohana Online Community, and when you click in I’m sure you will understand why. Please share your aloha with Hanna, and if Kuleana is still on your mind, start with her most recent post, Unique responsibilities. She asks some very good questions.

Sshh! Listen. Listen carefully.

One of the reasons I am so insistent about the Daily Five Minutes is because of its purposeful history: It was created specifically to help managers learn to be better listeners. It became a tool with many other benefits, but improvement in listening skills is still the fertile ground from which those other benefits bloom.

John Richardson at Success Begins Today has recently written a fantastic series of posts on listening. I know that Dwayne had also mentioned it. Do spend some time at John’s place and read these: Just use this link for his home page and you’ll see them all.

Listen to Your Audience, Beyond Bullet Points
Listening Marketing, Develop a Compelling Story
Listening, Showing Respect
How to Become An Effective Listener

John, you are so right. Listening is about showing respect. When we respect each other we treat each other with dignity, and we conduct ourselves with distinction. In managing with Aloha, we call that Ho‘ohanohano.

So many bright minds in our Ho‘ohana Community.

I ended one of my MWA3P emails with this recently, and it’s an abservation worth sharing again: The oceans between us are bridged with our aloha and na 'imi ka 'ike loa: our seeking of learning, knowledge and wisdom.

We live in a wonderful day and age, don’t we.

Aloha for now, a hui hou,
Rosa

Bright minds = Tagging Bliss! Language. Clutter. Productivity. Responsibility. Community. Listening. Respect.
Hawaiian Tags: Aloha. Kakou. ‘Ohana. Ho‘ohana. Kuleana. Ho‘ohanohano.