ATLAS on “me” time
When I was little, my family would often take trips to Turkey Run State Park in western Indiana and I have been longing for years to take my husband and my two kiddos, 10 and 12, to experience the imaginative magic of this park.
As a child
I remember pretending to be an official explorer, the very first person to navigate the trails and paths of dirt and mud. The trails were lined with majestic caverns and cold streams – would they have dinosaur bones in them and stories of societies’ past? But the first challenge ahead was to conquer the fearful suspension bridge, with its rickety wood planks and rushing water below…
I’m an outdoor gal at heart. You’ll often find me on my back porch, comforted by the sounds of the woodpecker drilling holes in our dead tree and the pesky blue jay, squawking and chasing the other birds away.
I grew up an outdoor kid. From the moment the bus dropped us back home from school until dinner time or sundown, the group of kids I grew up with mastered outdoor fantasy play. Every day we’d gather to build forts, explore the neighborhood or simply to make headbands out of flowers and whistles out of blades of grass.
As a parent
When my husband and I brainstormed Labor Day weekend plans, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make the 90-minute trek to the other side of the state, put the electronics down and enjoy the outdoors for the day. It was a weekend without soccer games for 10, great weather and no rush to get home for anything, which was the perfect trifecta excuse to get outside and head to Turkey Run.
Everyone would certainly be on board with this idea!
Sunday morning when I proposed the chance to cut the cord and go hiking at Turkey Run that day, I was met with a reaction I hadn’t quite planned:
“I want to do ANYTHING but hiking,” groaned 12.
Then 10, who had just finished a full day of basketball, chimed in, “Yeah, my body is too sore for hiking.”
Even my husband was “meh” on the idea.
Ugh. Dreams shattered.
Okay, my dreams weren’t exactly shattered, but I was disappointed that my crew wasn’t on board with my outdoor, memory-making idea for the day. We ended up compromising by mixing a day of shopping in Nashville, Indiana with a drive through Brown County State Park/tower climbing – a result of a productive family brainstorming session.
As a family, we unintentionally used the ATLAS framework.
The following day, thinking about work again
I sat down to think about what I wanted to write for this blog post, and I giggled to myself as I reflected on the weekend. As a family, we unintentionally used the ADVISA ATLAS framework (sneaky framework!) to craft our outing:
A – Activation from above
AKA, Mom and Dad – the family “executive team.”
My husband and I needed to be a united front and be “all in,” whatever we decided.
After all, we carry “the family culture” and as an executive team, we needed to both have buy-in and cascade the final idea down to the team.
T – Trust and shared purpose
Why leave the house at all?
For context, we had spent the previous day lounging inside the house in sweatpants watching college football (go Buckeyes!), so luckily we could all agree we wanted to be outside and do something atypical. Turkey Run wasn’t the shared vision, but my husband’s idea to mix nature (driving through Brown County State Park) with shopping in Nashville (which, to the kids, translates to having fudge and ice cream) offered something we could all look forward to.
L – Leadership effectiveness
Our direct reports, I mean kiddos, needed to know what we expected of them to make it a great day.
Throughout the day, we empowered them to pick which way to go while zig-zagging in and out of shops and up and down roads, decide which treats to eat when, and be responsible to carry their own load throughout the day (quite literally, carry their own purchases).
A – Actionable people data
In this case, we’ll call this “actionable ‘little people’ data.”
Based on previous road trips, we’ve collected quite the data on our little people to ensure a smooth outing, including:
- The exact time when 12 needs to take Dramamine before the trip
- How many snacks to pack based on length of car ride
- The right footwear for any trip with a walking component
S – Systems that support leaders
After longer trips to North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and more, we’ve established quite the repeatable process for any successful road trip.
Our road trip system includes:
- DVD Player: 10 likes to be responsible for the portable DVD player, from getting it out to set up, and 12 likes to write out the list of DVDs we’ve packed, listing them in order of viewing
- Waze for Dad (partly for destination info, partly for the heads-up on speed traps)
- Coffee for the “executive team” before departure
At the end of the day
We hopped out of the car for a bit to walk around one of the larger lakes. About five minutes in, 10 turned around and said, “I think I DO like hiking – I wish this trail was even harder.” He continued, “We should have gone to Turkey Run today… Can we keep walking another 30 minutes?” Face palm.
The “executive team” wore flip-flops, so the walk didn’t last as long as the kids had hoped. But, it does look like I’ll get my Turkey Run trip in the near future, after all.
Maybe we’ll put the electronics down again soon and turn into explorers. Who knows what we’ll discover about ourselves and our family.
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ATLAS – the 5 essential drivers for creating and maintaining cultural competitive advantage