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13 Skills for

Building Better

www.choose-mc.com

Will Schoettler

Grab a pen and paper. You’ll need them later.

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About Me

My name is Will Schoettler
I’ve been using LabVIEW for 18+ years
Certified LabVIEW Architect
Certified LabVIEW Embedded Developer
Certified TestStand Developer
LabVIEW Champion

Owner & Managing Director of Choose Movement Consulting
Leader of the Minneapolis LabVIEW User Group �(2026 Community Catalyst Award Winner!)

www.choose-mc.com

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About Me

I’ve been running an experiment for the last 14 years.

www.choose-mc.com

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www.choose-mc.com

Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM,

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Spending got put on hold.”

“The project got cancelled.”

“We don’t know when we can start.”

“We don’t know when we can continue.”

“We know it’s hard, but we really appreciate how you work.”

“For you, we’re �going to see what we can do.”

2020 went from worst year to best year.

There was something different about how we worked that led to this kind of support.

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“Why don't you just

focus on getting better."

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I get to be happy too.

I get to choose how this goes.

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Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, Public

domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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An interesting thing happened. Themes emerged. Everything I could find fell into one of thirteen categories. And that category was a specific but versatile skill that had many aspects to it. But not only that, most people attributed their success to just one or two of the skills. People build entire careers just around some of the basics. So what could someone do with all thirteen?

As a result of practicing the skills, I found myself much more capable of paying attention to the people around me and to have the energy to really help improve things for others. In fact, it just started coming naturally. I was able to perceive both problems and solutions more easily. It became intuitive to help. I had a much better balance so that I could enjoy life and get things done.

Because of this effect the skills had on me, it seemed like a logical next step that giving more people these skills would provide sustainable help for others. And I want to emphasize that. Help that provides infrastructure to build better systems and organizational structures.

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choose-movement.org

So I did two things. First, I created Choose Movement (choose-movement.org). A free resource for others to discover and learn the skills for themselves.

I made an interesting finding along the way: confident, happy fulfilled people just happen to help others and create more productive systems that benefit others. They aren’t as focused on clawing their way to the top, but rise up through more constructive means without bringing others down - or taking advantage of them. So I thought, this would be an excellent program to improve business and government because we hear so much every day about how businesses and politicians have lost their way.

Choose Movement’s mission is to improve accountability and responsibility in decision making within business and government by empowering you with strong skills that lead to personal fulfillment, confidence, capability, and consideration for others. The idea is that that happy, capable, confident, and fulfilled people with perspective are much more likely to take the time and energy to implement productive, long-term solutions and block harmful decisions.

How often do you hear about something that is happening in the world and just wish people would figure it out? What if that changed to “let’s figure this out”? What if even 10% of our population with 9-5 jobs did that as part of their day-to-day operations within our organizations? That’s millions of people. What kind of improvements could we make?

The Choose Movement strategy is based on the idea that happy, confident, fulfilled people with perspective are much more likely to take the time and energy to implement productive long term solutions and block harmful decisions. A growing community of these people can effect a lasting change.

What was particularly interesting was that Benjamin Franklin, founding father, had developed his own system for practicing what he called “Virtues”. It was setup in a 13x4 format. He would focus on each virtue for a week while being mindful of the others. By the end of 52 weeks, he would have spent a month focused on each while keeping them all actively in mind throughout the year. This works perfectly for our 13 skills as well. So I implemented the Choose Movement program with the same 13x4 program format.

The title of this presentation is 13 skills for building better. Hopefully you’re starting to see how this is coming together.

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Efficient, Intelligent, Code with a Conscience

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After 12 Years…

99% Employee Retention
88% Repeat Client Rate

2 competitors requested we take over their clients upon retirement

“Their team is not only highly reliable but also exceptionally flexible, always striving to find win-win solutions that ensure mutual success.”
“We will miss her, and I hope to work with her again.”
“…able to come into difficult and incomplete projects midstream…”
“…not only helped us develop the software, but they also helped us architect a structure we can use for our future projects.”

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Accountability

Values

Help

Extra Mile

Dreams

Team

Choice

Moderation

Self

Trust

Gratefulness

Solutions

Understanding

OK. This is exciting. This stuff really works. So what are these 13 skills? Here is a quick overview.

Mention 1-2 sentences about each skill.

Extra Mile: Can you push yourself when you want to. Can you pick the right things to push on.

Dreams: The importance to chasing your dreams and how to effectively go after them.

Team: We are all on a team whether we realize it or not. How to be a good team member, build great teams, and keep your team pointed in the right direction.

Choice: What I consider the keystone to everything – practicing awareness to understand the forces at play and learning to make the right choices at the right times.

Moderation: Everything in moderation including moderation. How to create balance for yourself so that you can take meaningful risks successfully.

Self: How to take care of yourself, speak up for yourself, and how to set boundaries. Learn how happiness comes from the way you live your life.

Gratefulness: Learn to appreciate the complex world you live in. Observe circumstances and how to take advantage of them, even if they have negative components.

Solutions: Effective root-cause problem solving. How to manage problems and tackle challenges even if you don’t have everything figured out.

Trust: Learn how to safely give trust, how to build trust, and how to be worthy of trust.

Understanding: How to appreciate and take advantage of diverse perspectives. Learn when to listen and when to speak. Learn how to properly explain your perspective.

Help: How to help effectively and how to ask for help. This is a core building block of happy communities and friendships.

Values: Define who you want to be and act accordingly. Essential for feeling satisfied with yourself.

Accountability: Learn how to build accountability systems to make sure you stay true to your values. Stay accountable to yourself and others.

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Examples

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OPEN QUESTION

Do you feel like you

have enough time to do

everything you want to do?

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OPEN QUESTION

Do you feel like you

are always grinding but not making much progress?

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SOME SAGE ADVICE WE KNOW

Always give 110%!

Unknown, many

Recipe for burnout

Can you Push?

Work smarter not harder!

Allan F Mogensen

On what?

Can you Pick?

Always follow your dreams!

Unknown, many

Is that practical?

Do you have a Passion?

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Write down the top 10 things you need to do next week.

Identify the most IMPACTFUL thing on that list. Not the most urgent.

Add one thing you WANT to do.

Reorder your list.

Take Action

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A DEEPER LOOK AT THAT SAGE ADVICE

We need to be able to push ourselves even when we don’t want to.

Extra Mile

We need to identify what has the most impact and tackle it with intelligence.

Choice, Extra Mile, Gratefulness, Solutions

We need to follow our dreams to find our real dreams.

Dreams, Choice, Values, Accountability

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Your focus next week is to accomplish your high impact task and the thing you want to do.

Put in extra energy to do them well. Do them right.

Repeat every week.

Take Action

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OPEN QUESTION

Do you feel like you are constantly reacting to outside forces?

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OPEN QUESTION

Do you feel like

others keep getting lucky ?

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SOME SAGE ADVICE WE KNOW

We don't know who discovered water, but we're pretty sure it wasn't a fish. Marshall McLuhan, David Foster Wallace, Every-Day Japan, others

Plato’s allegory of the cave

Plato

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Pay attention to yourself: �How are you responding to this presentation right now?

Take Action

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SOME SAGE ADVICE WE KNOW

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”

Viktor Frankl

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Stephen Covey

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A DEEPER LOOK AT THAT SAGE ADVICE

By being aware of what makes us feel the way we do, we can make better choices.

Choice, Self, Trust

By being aware of the forces pushing on us, we can gain better context and make better choices.

Choice, Gratefulness, Understanding

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A DEEPER LOOK AT THAT SAGE ADVICE

By understanding the people around us, we can understand their motivations, negotiate better, and build better solutions.

Team, Understanding, Help, Trust, Values

By taking the time to appreciate what is going right, we can find opportunities when some things go bad. This is not silver lining.

This is practical application of objective observation.

We make our own luck by being practiced at seeing opportunity.

Choice, Gratefulness, Moderation

When I was in applications engineering at NI doing support, there was an AE that took a support call that did not start well. The customer was angry, and the solution was not clear. But this AE did not just try to come up with a cursory solution and get off the phone. He stuck it out through the rudeness and listened carefully to the customer. He started getting more context. He had recently been laid off and this was his first attempt at a project on his own so he could pay his bills. When the final solution was found, he had completely changed. He was so happy to have called in, and he saw the potential for success. But beyond that NI had won a customer for life, and the story was not lost on management. Ultimately it improved the AE’s reputation as well, resulting in new opportunities. That angry customer was an opportunity in disguise, and the AE was able to take advantage of it. In this case it was closer to second nature, but the result was the same. And by recognizing these types of opportunities more often, you can create opportunities for yourself that otherwise would not have been there.

What are other ways that people can take advantage of otherwise negative circumstances?

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PAY ATTENTION

To yourself
To how people behave around you
To what is going right
To why you make the choices you make

Practice mindfulness meditation – it’s supported by science.

Stop reacting. Pause, seriously contemplate, then make a choice.

Take Action

KEY

TAKEAWAY

We’re always in a rush these days. If you slow down and really start paying attention, a new world will open to up to you.

To yourself – how do different situations make you feel? How does that impact the choices you make?

To how people behave around you – why do they do what they do? Why do they respond to you they way that they do?

To what is going right – do not take the good for granted. Even if other people have it too.

To why you make the choices you make – be honest with yourself on why you do what you do. Recognizing that is the first step to changing how you respond.

If your goals are to prove yourself, to get the last word, or to show that you are better, then you are being controlled by your own insecurities.

Practicing awareness and choice is the single most important takeaway from this presentation. If you can get better at this, your life will change.

This is hard to do actively, which is exactly why we talked about pushing yourself first. The better you get at pushing yourself to focus on this, the bigger gains you will make.

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OPEN QUESTION

Who here thinks that most companies actually act out their stated values?

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OPEN QUESTION

Who here thinks that most politicians act in the interest of the people ?

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SOME SAGE ADVICE WE KNOW

The Two Wolves

Cherokee parable, others

"Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out." Italian proverb

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Make a list of your top five values.

Describe the type of person you want to be.
Not what others say you should be.�

Write an example from the last few days where you exhibited each of those values.

Write an example from the last few days where you did NOT exhibit one of those values when you could have.

Take Action

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SOME SAGE ADVICE WE KNOW

“No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.“

William Penn

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

James Madison

“In God we trust; all others bring data.“

W. Edwards Deming

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A DEEPER LOOK AT THAT SAGE ADVICE

Our values help us make the right choice in each situation.

Values, Choice

Without internal and external accountability systems, values are just an aspiration.

Accountability, Values, Extra Mile, Team, Trust, Solutions, Help

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Accept it: nobody is perfect. �Stop expecting it from yourself.�Stop expecting it from others.�
Accept it: excuses make you fail.�You have to keep striving to be better.

Accept it: values can change.�But know why, and truly think it through.

Take Action

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Talk to others about who you want to be. �
Structure your life around making it easy to follow through on your values. For example, create habits that make following through on your values second nature.

Take decisive action – meet the person next to you, exchange information, and promise to follow up on push goals next week.

Take Action

If you talk to others about who you want to be, some will help, and others will call you out when you aren’t living up to it.

Structure our life around making it easy to follow through on your values. If you value time with your family, then set boundaries on work so that everyone knows you don’t respond once you are home.

You can create little habits that become second nature. If you value kindness, always make a point to hold the door for people. If you value honesty, ensure you are being complete and forthright during your everyday communication.

Avoid extremes. Almost any extreme is a recipe for destruction in other areas.

If you find that it is tedious or too much work to be who you want to be, then you have probably picked what you think you should be, not what you want to be.

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Building Better

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Prioritize Impact

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Go the Extra Mile

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PAY ATTENTION

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Use Awareness to Generate Better Choices

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Values Filter Choices

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Accountability Ensures Values

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Align Your Team around Values

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Avoid Extremes

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Feed the Right Wolf

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Contact & Questions

Will Schoettler

Managing Director

will.schoettler@choose-mc.com

Learn More at Choose-Movement.org

Sign Up for the Free Self-Paced Program

Download or Sign Up for Coach.me and add Choose Movement

www.choose-mc.com

Reach out if you’d like

to join a free workshop

for more depth on the skills.