This is the halfway mark of a rather large project Iâm working on with my cross-stitch. And if youâre not too sure what cross-stitch is, if youâve heard of paint-by-numbers, then this is the same, but stitch by symbol. Each little grid square  corresponds to one cross stitch (literally two stitches that make an ‘x’). Different symbols denote the different colours, so you know which colour goes where.
As you can see on the pattern, Iâve pencilled in where Iâve been (stitched), so I know where I am, where Iâve been and whatâs left to stitch.
I knew Iâd reached the halfway mark â itâs pretty obvious with this kind of a design â Iâve done half a butterfly! But I just knew that I would get to the halfway mark and stop to take stock or have a look at what Iâve achieved so far. And so, I undid it from the frame and rolled it all out to have a little look and say to myself, âYou know what? âNot too bad, not too bad.âÂ
I think this relates really well to something thatâs in Dan Pinkâs book, called âWhenâ. What he talks about in his book is that when you recognise the mid-point that that might be a really good point to just stop, assess and congratulate yourselves.
Maybe if youâre a leader in a team, and youâre all working on a project, and you reach that mid-point, thatâs a really good place to actually stop and spark (re-spark) some motivation and have a look at how productive the team have been, maybe look at what are some, now, foreseen issues that might come up as you work through to the end of the project.Â
When I look at this particular cross-stitch project, Iâm not going tell you where they are, but there are a couple of errors. And now that Iâm at the midpoint, what I need to do is make sure that on the second half of the butterfly, that I account for the errors that I did on the first half. So, that the end result is you canât see any errors, that itâs even. By stopping and checking the pattern now I think itâll probably work in my favour: I actually stopped, rolled it out, had a look, and make the corresponding changes on the second half of the design.Â
Anticipating whatâs coming ahead, but stopping at the mid-point, and making sure youâre on track, making sure everyoneâs still engaged, maybe doing a little bit of scenario planning, whateverâs needed is advantageous and productive.
Just some food for thought there.Â
You can check the video here if you like:
Productive Leadership Tip:
Use the midpoint of a project to catch your breath, help the team catch their breath. Long projects can be exhausting so to avoid a drop in productivity and motivation use the midpoint to reflect on:
đ how far you have come, celebrate the success;
đĄ what learnings have you received from the effort so far?; and
đ what new do you need to consider going forward to ensure success?.
Reference:Â Dan Pink
And you can let me know what you think of the cross-stitch, too, if you want. Â