Category: Uncategorized

 Key Performance Indicators.  KPIs.  People who love to measure organizations, processes, and effectiveness adore KPIs.  Simply put, it is the variable that is measured in order to demonstrate success.  That’s my loose definition.  You can do your own research on Google and Wikipedia.

A KPI certainly serves a purpose.  There is value in measurement.  I have friends who spend their careers measuring and staring at KPIs in an effort to demonstrate how good or bad performance is.  A well-defined KPI can tell you exactly how that latest process tweak improved productivity or that cool new internet advertisement increased web traffic to your sales site.  If you can find a thing to measure, tie it to a desired outcome or result, and actually get meaningful data…well, that’s a KPI.

The problem arises when KPIs are applied to the human elements of interactions.  There is no KPI for how much you like someone or how loyal you feel towards a particular brand.  There is no KPI to measure love, and there is no KPI that can detect infidelity.  You can’t read a report to figure out if your best friend is feeling suicidal or if your spouse secretly hates your guts.

Likewise, there isn’t a KPI to tell you how much an employee likes working for you.  There are no KPIs to illustrate just how quickly key members of your team are going to jump ship once the economy improves.  I looked but couldn’t find a KPI to measure how easy it is to strip an employee of their dignity by disrespecting them and treating them like a cog in some giant, oily machine.  No, there are no real KPIs for such things.

Instead, spirit and connection and empathy and the dying art of intuitive action number among the capabilities that, if developed and nurtured, can provide a leader with the power to effect meaningful change.  I’ve never really believed that a statistic or a survey can give you true insight into the shared soul of a group of people.  Only a leader, with eyes wide open, can give that insight.  

How many insightful, empathetic, intuitive, spirited leaders do you know?  There aren’t as many as we would like to think.  Bummer isn’t it?  No wonder our places of work suck.  I wish they would get their acts together.

Sound familiar?  I hope it doesn’t.  If it does, then maybe you’ve pinpointed the source of the real problem.

In my estimation, the question shouldn’t be how many insightful, empathetic, intuitive, spirited leaders do you know?  In my estimation, the far more significant question is how many times have you been that insightful, empathetic, intuitive, spirited leader?

How many times has it been you?  Or…is that not your job?  Is that for somebody else to do?

Your answer to that question can change the world.

Inevitably, you come to this moment when the clouds part, the sun shines through, and the path is illuminated.

Unfortunately, I don’t have my walking shoes.

Well, I do, but I’m feeling a little afraid to put them on.  Or am I?  I mean, I think I should be feeling fear.  That’s what I would normally be feeling.  But…but it’s just not there.  No fear.  Well, how do you like that?

I like it a lot, actually.  Oh, there will be fear again, I am sure.  I am human.  I will doubt.  The tape in my head will play.  My insecurities will pop up.  It happens.  It will happen to you, too, no matter how self-assured you may feel.  Like I said, I’m human.  You’re human.  It is part of the experience, part of the journey.

The trick, see, is to meet the fear.  Embrace it.  Acknowledge it.  Then release it.

Release it?  I’ve written about release before, haven’t I?  Huh.  Maybe there is something to these musings of mine.

You know, Regine laid it out for me: I’m not that young any more.  I’m not old, either, but I’m not that young.  All she meant was that I don’t have to worry about credibility any longer.  That 28-year-old woman wrote a great book, and people read it.  They read it without regard for her age.  Why?  Because she had a message, and it was a good message.  She wrote eloquently, with authority.  Age?  Who cares when there is wisdom to be had?

Me…I’m a bit older than her.  I’ve got something to say, too.  And maybe, just maybe, people will listen.  If they don’t?  Who cares.  I don’t write for them, anyway.  I write for me.  I write for me and for the people who DO listen.  Even if there’s only one other soul reading my writing, it’s worth the time and the effort to put ideas on paper.

Every word, every idea is worth sharing.

Oh yeah…the path is clear.  Screw it.  Who needs shoes?  I’ve got a journey of a thousand miles ahead of me.  I hear those are best started with a single step.

Touchdown! Hello, Chicago!

If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then you could conceivably drive yourself nutty trying to divine all the reasons.  I don’t try too hard.  It can give you a headache.

But sometimes, I can’t help but wonder “why.”  Like…if you did everything you needed to do in order to…say…catch a plane on time.  But a security watch list and whole bunch of other people trying to catch a whole bunch of other flights keep you from getting on the plane.  Then, the next flight out gets delayed an hour.  Then, you get on that flight, and that flight is delayed at the gate another 30 minutes or so.  Finally, you’re up in the air and on your way.  

The first flight made it safely.  Nothing exploded in the sky.  No crashes.  The flight you’re on makes it safely.  You find your suitcase right away.  There were no alien invasions to foil.  Nothing overt to signal why you went through everything you did.  But…

The Universe is far more subtle than we think.  99 out of 100 times, we have no clue what’s going on or why things are actually transpiring they way that they do.  That’s OK.  We don’t need to know all the time.  I think there are things that we should simply accept and with which we should just roll.  Rolling along…

But…I’m human.  I need a little order in my life.  So maybe I imagine a person who was having a horrible day in the seat that should have been mine.  Or maybe I imagine a soldier coming home on leave who was able to get home in time for his mother’s surprise 60th birthday party sitting in that seat that should have been mine.  Or maybe someone was having a great day and making that flight made their life even greater.  I just know SOMEONE benefited immensely from what I went through today.  So, whoever you are, I’m happy to have taken that one for you.

Hypothetically speaking.

I was reminded today that it is our spiritual obligation to love one another with reckless abandon.

I read a post this morning by someone who was honoring a deceased friend.  Mysteriously, it is gone.  I would have copied it or linked to it or something.  But…it’s gone.  The essence of the post was this:

     People just need to love other people.  Period.

We do.  Really.  And nobody will remind you that love is the natural state of being than a child.

This evening, my little guy and I were waiting for my oldest to come out of his karate class.  There was another kid waiting out in the hall.  He was drawing.  His mother was further down the hall on the phone.  I was messing around with my little guy, dancing and jumping around.  He was copying me, so I tried to make it increasingly harder for my son to mimic my footwork.  He did pretty well.  We laughed.  The kid on the floor stopped drawing and started watching us.  He laughed, too.  My little guy noticed him, they exchanged a few glances, said a few things to each other, and then the door opened and kids started trickling out.  

We walked in and gathered up our own karate kid, and, as my oldest was putting his shoes on, my little guy said, “Dad, I have to run outside!  Quick!”

He ran outside, quick.

“What are you DOING?!?!” I called out after him.

He was standing in the hall, looking forlorn.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I had to say good-bye to my friend, but now he’s gone.”

He looked stricken.  I put my arm around him, and, before I could say anything heartfelt and consoling, he was off running and screaming with his brother.

It made me think about that post I read this morning.  My son reminded me that the default state of being for human beings is love.  We want to make connections.  We want to feel closeness.  We want to open our hearts to other people.  We do it effortlessly and selfishly when we are little.

We retain that despite all the ugly stuff that happens over the years.  I know that there are exceptions to the rule.  I’m not that naive.  However, we don’t totally lose it.  What we do it suppress it.  We control it.  We only let it come out under extremely rigid circumstances.  After all, it’s too strong a word to use irresponsibly, isn’t it?

I can think of a lot of other words we toss around with reckless abandon.

Why not love?  Why not love with reckless abandon?

“Not one of us is worth a single cent less today than we were a year ago.” — Rev. Ed Bacon

 I find living with deliberate intention to be tiring.  I don’t do it nearly half as often as I should, but that is partly due precisely to the fact that deliberate intention is tiring.  You have to expend energy on living a life that consists of conscious activity aimed at pursuing a goal or objective.  It is far easier to react to things as they come up rather than try to do things that will lead you down a path of your choosing.  One could use the analogy of swimming: it takes more energy and is more tiring to swim against a current that simply be swept away by the current.  It’s the popularity of this imagine that leads so many people astray.

Although actions guided by deliberate intention take energy, they do not have to be exhausting.  And simply riding the currents will most likely result in your going places you don’t want to go.  It is a common misconception that getting swept away is the same as going with the flow.  It is not.  Flow is a magical, wonderful thing.

Flow is when your intention and the current upon which the Universe has set you are perfectly synchronized.  It is actually far easier to find flow than one would think.  It is also far easier to expend the energy to get yourself to the right current, to find the place that coincides with the your place in the Universe, and follow the flow than it is to recover from being swept away by some errant current.  Eventually, if all you do is follow the river while in a raft, you’ll find yourself somewhere you’d rather not be.  When you find your way to that flow, you’ll invariably wind up in the best possible place to receive the bountiful gifts the Universe has to offer.

I guess the moral of the story is to use your energy wisely.  Use intention, find flow, and don’t the waste time and energy needed to correct course after letting life just sweep you away.

I’m pretty good at what I do.  I’m pretty good at looking at things differently.  I’m pretty good at articulating my ideas.  I’m pretty good at opening people’s heart and minds to at least be willing to listen to other points of view.  I’m pretty good at getting people to talk.  And I think I’m easy to get along with.

It’s easy to think of myself as being pretty good at a lot of things.

Sometimes, though, you just need to be reminded that you can…well…not be so good at stuff.  Right now, I’m struggling.  I’m not handling things so well.  I’m fumbling.  I’m stumbling.  I’m tripping up.  It’s not the prettiest of pictures.  It’s not my finest moment.  Humble pie tastes like crap, figuratively, but I’m easting it.

And that is good.

It’s sort of like kaizen of the self: continuous refinement and improvement, even if it comes from less than stellar moments in life.  But I suppose the hard times are really the best times, the times that sharpen the knife.  Because…you know…I’m a knife.  All sharp and shiny.  Like the one from “Crocodile Dundee.”  

 It’s sort of trippy how the world just seems to be…back.  It’s like the Rapture in reverse: for weeks I moved about the suburbs of Chicago alone, for all intents and purposes.  Sure, there were other cars, but…c’mon!  We’re talking about CHICAGO.  The highways were practically empty.  Driving down 294 was like driving down the legendary Autobahn.  Or maybe like the Viaducto at 2 AM.

The office was pretty much empty, too.  Signs of life become fewer and fewer the deeper we got into December.  Where did all these people go, anyway?  Sour grapes, for sure, but it was so slow it hardly seemed worth taking the day off.  What a waste!  We could have drank coffee and eaten donuts, damn it!  Why didn’t you come in?!?!  Not that I didn’t enjoy the silence.  The deafening, oppressive silence…

But now everyone is back.  I think this will take some getting used to for those who disappeared for the entire latter part of December.  Some of the poor souls have this quasi-vacant stare on their faces.  I caught a few of them walking around in circles.  Others roamed aimlessly.  It was sad, really.  I feel bad for them and all of their time relaxing at home or traveling to distant lands.  Sour grapes, indeed…

So, I will accommodate those who have returned.  I will allow them a day or two to re-acclimate themselves to this daily grind, this race of rats.  Yes, reality will hit them soon enough, and the false sense of joy and serenity they have built for themselves will come tumbling down like the proverbial house of cards.  

And then we start stirring the pot.  We’ve got a world to change, folks!

Since I can’t help sounding like the (soon-to-be) proverbial corrupted MP3 file, we are SO attached to our artificial cognitive constructs of time!

There.  I said it.  Phew!  Out of the way.

We mark and measure and observe the passage of time with great enthusiasm and zeal.  Regardless of social status, economic situation, or political inclination, just about everybody I know is an expert at watching the clock and keeping track of the calendar.  It’s a vital human practice these days.  One must be aware of the passage of time each day lest one forget to eat, sleep, or leave work early enough to have a life but not so early so as to attract attention.  For these things, understanding a clock is essential.  And one must also maintain skills associated with calendar-consciousness.  After all, one must be aware lest one forget to prepare for winter, submit one’s taxes on time, or remember which days not to show up for work.  Further, when one combines these skills of clock-watching and calendar-consciousness, one can ensure that the new episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” are not missed (on Thursdays at 8:00 PM Central).  Every day has its place in the cosmic order of things, and we must honor that place!

Today is no different than tomorrow.  Well, tomorrow hasn’t happened yet, but I think you might get my drift.  The rest of the cosmos doesn’t care about the obsessive-compulsive need of our species to catalogue EVERYTHING, particularly time.  It really, really doesn’t care.  Whether you believe in a natural force balancing all things in existence or you believe in an organizing consciousness…whatever you choose…the fact remains that the way we slice and dice time is a purely human construct meant to provide order to what appears to be a somewhat chaotic universe. 

As is the case with so many other things we do, there are very real, very necessary roots to our obsession with time, but that obsession need not pervade our lives.  The opportunity to disengage is there, we just need to seize it.  Why should we?  I believe that we lose ourselves in the ebb and flow of the currents of time.  If we allow ourselves to get caught up in the external flow of time, we run the risk of being overcome, of drowning, in the larger zeitgeist that drives the machine of modern society.  What’s more, so many of the sources of this global flow are reinforced by entities with a vested interest in your being aware of what to buy, when to buy, and where to buy. 

This time of year is a perfect example.  Where I live, in the United States, you can already see Christmas displays coming down and Valentine’s Day displays going up.  I’m all about the loving, but these cues are so obvious, and they aren’t coming from the need to prepare for the cold months to come.  OK, maybe Valentine’s Day might have something to do with warmth on a cold February night in Illinois, but that’s not the point.  Don’t get suckered in by the details. 

Step back.  Relax.  Close your eyes.  Open them

Open your eyes.

Every day is the same.  It is filled with potential.  It is no better than the days before, than the days yet to come.  And there is no guarantee that there are more days.  Today could very well be your last day.  Embrace that fact.  Squeeze every last drop out of today.  Sure, you are assuming you’ll get another one tomorrow, but why waste what you have in front of you?

2009 is almost over.  2010 is almost here.  It starts tomorrow.  It’s a brand new year, filled with endless possibilities, with so many things that we could potentially do.

Why wait until tomorrow to start?