In this, the inaugural episode of a new series inside the Lead. Learn. Change. podcast, host David Reynolds describes a new way to view the concept of ROI. These short episodes will highlight lessons learned from observation, reflection and experiences and will be peppered into the Lead. Learn. Change. podcast schedule, with the focus of Lead. Learn. Change remaining on guests who share their insights and stories about how they approach life and work and capitalize on their interactions with others.
Introduction, ROI background and explanation
The Narnia story
Lessons learned
Invitation to subscribe, tell others, and share your own story
David Reynolds: Welcome to ROI, a Lead. Learn. Change. podcast feature, highlighting reflections, observations, and stories from which I hope I have learned some valuable lessons. I am your host, David Reynolds, welcoming you to a short episode format that will punctuate our regular guest and host on-mic installments. You are invited to listen, consider your own experiences, and generate ideas for applying important concepts to make a difference where you live, work and serve.
Why ROI? Doesn't that stand for return on investment? Yes, it does. So is this now a financial advice forum? No, it is not. Return on investment is the standard expected meaning of ROI, but not for me. I am an investor, but not so much in fiscal matters. I think the greater return comes from investing in assets other than money, relationships, connections, ideas, dreams, thinking, writing, learning, sharing, faith, creativity, integrity, commitment.
These are the things that matter most. They are worth investing in. ROI for me means reflect, observe, influence. Reflection is looking back, understanding the past and its patterns. Observing is looking around, taking note of what's happening now, where you are and where other people are. Influence is looking ahead, leading, collaborating, and supporting others to move to whatever's next. That's ROI, reflect, observe, influence, past, present, future. Remember, you can't change the past, but if you don't change the present, you will not impact the future. When we invest now, we change tomorrow. Conversely, nothing changed now equals nothing new tomorrow. So what will you invest in, act on and accomplish? You might see the return someday. You might not. Will you write anyway, share anyway, learn, create, ship, encourage, commit, dream, bleed, change, connect? If you don't do the work you were meant to do, who is going to do it?
Who can do it? It's your work. If you don't invest your time and your talents to make things better, then whatever impact you would have made simply will not happen. Learn from the past, invest in now, the return will come are, ROI, reflect, observe influence. So what does this new view of ROI look like in practical terms? Well, think for a minute and pull up an experience from your past that made a difference for you or somebody else. Reflect on what happened then? What was your role on what was going on? What did you learn? What did you change or will you change as a result of what you learned? How can your story lead others to meaningful action? That's the essence of the ROI concept, reflect on what was, then look ahead and envision what could be even better, and then look around and see what your role is in effecting that change.
The event, the experience doesn't have to be worthy of a newspaper headline or serve as a foundation for a best-selling book or a blockbuster movie. And it doesn't have to go viral on social media. It needs to be real, and it needs to resonate with somebody else, maybe one other person, maybe a thousand, maybe, probably an unknown number of people. Start today, share something meaningful with someone else. So, as I reflect, I think back to something as simple as reading a book with my son. We started reading The Chronicles of Narnia together when our son, Jackson, was eight years old, that would have been in 2002. We began with The Magician's Nephew, which is one of the lesser known of the seven books in the series. I read aloud and Jackson listened with the mere activity for both of us.
We didn't read this book every day, but we moved through it consistently and we were eager to hear what would happen next. And sometimes, our imagination was confirmed and sometimes, we were quite surprised. It was just great fun regardless. We finished the first book and moved onto the next one. We chose the more famous The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and finished it, although not at the same clip that time.
Then one day in 2003, we started the third book. Neither of us could remember what triggered the slow down that happened next, nor the eventual full stoppage, but it sadly slid into our lives nonetheless. The book lay dormant then got moved out of sight and then became almost forgotten except for some occasional momentary regret and reluctance. Our daily schedules caved to alleged urgencies dujour and completing the Chronicles was simply not to be. That was 2003. Fast forward to May, 2017.
One day late that month, Jackson heard the last word of the seventh and final book in the Narnia series. About a year earlier and preparation for Jackson to return home after college, during his gap year before medical school, my wife and I were rearranging furniture, discovering items in storage and considering what in progress projects to attack when the Chronicles of Narnia book resurfaced. It clearly needed to be read. So when Jackson came home at summer's end in 2016, he and I resumed our CS Lewis time. And there we were, a 56-year-old dad reading to a 22-year-old dual STEM degree university graduate headed for medical school. We both loved it. It took us about 10 months. And in that time, we re-read the interrupted third book and consumed the remaining four. Fourteen and a half years to the day from the day we started, we crossed the Narnia finish line together.
We both signed the book inside the front cover, commemorating the occasion. With just a few weeks left before Jackson was to leave for medical school, we created yet another very happy memory. Commitment, relationships, imagination, these things are worth investing in and making part of your individual life, your family, your team, or department norms or corporate fabric, yet interruptions are inevitable. We often say unexpected, but we all know that the more accurate assessment of what life throws at us is, expect stuff you don't expect all the time. No one believes that he or she can orchestrate a journey and account for every variable along the way. So what are the buffers against being derailed by something unforeseen? Relationships, not mere acquaintances, but long-term, I can contact you after five years and we pick right up relationships, as well as those that allow for interaction every day, week, or year like clockwork.
And imagination. Narnia may allegedly be imaginary, but science fiction and fantasy stories are merely the figment of someone's imagination. In reality, these realms of fantasy very often represent and bonafide concepts just in a new way. Think of the science fiction that has come to pass in our world. Artificial Intelligence, Star Treks replicator, the Jetsons robot vacuum, credit cards, face scanning technology, wireless, everything, Dick Tracy's wristwatch, and on and on and on. Narnia's doors of other worlds, communication with entities previously unseen, good triumphing over evil, and on and on and on. Don't be fooled by people who say such things are childish. Imagination is worth sticking with. If it's not imagined, it might not to be. Imagination can lead to some great things. So too can commitment, committing to keep a relationship alive and committing to what you imagined could be and whenever possible, blending the two will yield amazing results.
It doesn't matter if you're knocked off course like Jackson and I were, or if you choose to veer off on your own, as long as you maintain direction and make incremental progress, you are keeping your commitment. Specifics such as timing, structures and costs may change, but the underlying principles do not. Relationships, imagination, commitment. That's what works. That's what's real. That's a worthy destination. That's a great place. To me, that's Narnia. When you look around today, what are the relationships worth investing in? What do you envision or imagine creating or accomplishing that would make a difference in your home, circle of friends, classroom, school, or enterprise? What commitment can you make, will you make to make it happen? What is your Narnia? ROI, reflect, observe, influence. Invest now, create now, envision tomorrow, commit now. The benefits will come. The return will be realized.
Remember, you can't change the past, but if you don't invest in the present, you won't impact the future. Thanks for listening to this ROI episode, please subscribe to Lead. Learn. Change. and tell others about the podcast. Email me at leadlearnchange@icloud.com or reach out on LinkedIn at David W. Reynolds. I encourage you to share an idea or a story of your own. Until next time reflect, observe, influence, ROI.