Musings

There isn’t a person on the planet who truly enjoys being told what to do.  People prefer to be a part of the process.

So…make them a part of the process.  At work.  At home.  In the community.  

Not only that, for your own satisfaction, BECOME part of the process in your own life, whatever process that might be.

This one comes from a Successories poster.  I must give props lest I incur the wrath of the Copyright God.

I really don’t feel the need to comment too much on this one.  I think it speaks for itself.  It is worth letting these words “sink in,” if you will. These days, it seems like integrity is underrated.

The Roots of Character

Those who preserve their integrity remain unshaken by the storm of daily life.  They do not stir like leaves on a tree or follow the herd where it runs.  In their mind remains the ideal attitude and conduct of living.  This is not something given to them by others.  It is their roots…it is a strength that exists deep within them.   –Anonymous Native American saying

From www.m-w.com:
Feedback (ˈfēd-ˌbak): the return to the input of a part of the output of a machine, system, or process (as for producing changes in an electronic circuit that improve performance or in an automatic control device that provide self-corrective action)

I like the part about improving performance.  The word “feedback” has nothing to do with traveling through time, with focusing on the past versus the future.  You see, there is a cycle to life, the Universe, and everything.  Just look around you.  Lao Tzu understood that there pretty much isn’t anything that we can learn that cannot first be observed in nature in some form.  He looked to the natural world not just for inspiration, but for wisdom.  And he found it there, in spades.

Feedback is all about the cycle of continuous improvement.  Kaizen, as they say in Japan.  In art, Kaizen manifests itself in the form of an unrelenting, almost obsessive, desire to perfect the artistic rendering of a single subject.  Birds, for example.  I once read about a Japanese artist who spent his entire life sculpting birds…of every shape, size, color, material.  He sculpted in exquisite detail, and he was only able to do so because he was so dedicated to a cycle of continuous artistic improvement.

Our friend, Mr. Deming, capitalized on Kaizen when he took TQM to Japan.  We all know what happened there.  Unfamiliar?  How about Sony?  Or Toyota?  Honda?  Nintendo?  Simply observe the cycle in action.  

The process of delivering feedback to individuals inside and outside of the workplace has little to do with focusing on the negative aspects of the past.  If this is how misguided individuals and organizations have chosen to focus feedback, that is one thing.  The word and the process itself are something else entirely.  It is not unheard of, after all, for something to become perverted in the name of Profit.  Such is the case with feedback.

What feedback should be is a means of assessing what has occurred in an effort to improve what might occur in the future.  The obsession with the past as it pertains to business often is rooted not so much in the desire to assist in performance improvement of the individual as it is rooted in the need to control the cost of compensation.  By searching the past for the “gotcha” moments that allow for a lower performance evaluation thus lower merit increase, feedback has become more a weapon than a tool.  

Mr. Deming identified “Seven Deadly Diseases” which he believed would undermine any organization’s attempts at improvement.  In fact, he cited these diseases as sure-fire ways to drive an organization into the ground.  I find the Seven fascinating because you can see their imprint all over the current economic disaster.  I also find them fascinating because I can just imagine how counter-intuitive they must seem to those vanguards of the Old Economy who simply cannot let go of a model of leadership that, I believe, simply will not work in the years and decades to come.

I will not give up use of the word “feedback.”  I know what it means.  I know what the intent behind it is.  I know what my intent is for those I am entrusted to lead and for the organization in which I lead.  I will honor the cycles in nature and continue to search for them in my daily life.  This philosophy has served me well over the years, and I would do well not to abandon it.  And I will remember those diseases.  They will not dissuade me from doing what is right, no matter how insidiously pervasive they may be.

In case you are interested, here are Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose.
2. Emphasis on short-term profits.
3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance.
4. Mobility of management.
5. Running a company on visible figures alone.
6. Excessive medical costs.
7. Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees.

The thing that happens is neutral.  Our reaction to it defines it.  Our reaction to it categorizes it.  Our reaction to it is based on a set of filters that is unique to each of us…like a fingerprint.  That is why it is sometimes so hard to have empathy, let alone sympathy, for one another.  We can all look at the same event and each experience something completely different.  So, the thing that happens is neutral.

Motivation is subjective.  It is not neutral.  Motivation is dependent on the perception of the viewer.  It’s like the physics analogy of the train: if you are on the train, the world is racing by, but if you are on the ground, the train is racing by.  Same set of facts, different experience for each viewer.  Motivation is the same.  There is what happens inside the heart and mind of the person who displays the behavior, and there is what the observer attributes as motivation for that behavior.  Same set of facts, different experience for each participant.  

There are other examples.  They point to the same fact: we live in a world of neutral occurrences that are colored by every single one of us in our own, unique way.  Life is a detailed picture devoid of color, just waiting for an artist to fill in the empty spaces.  We are all that artist, painting the world in the colors of our own experiences.  If we could all just learn to see the colors that others paint…

Problem is, the world is full of f*****g art critics.

 At some point, it becomes important to understand just how far you are willing to go when taking a stand.  It also becomes important to understand when to take that stand.

Not now, not today.  Patience.  I am already seeing a shift in the variables around me.  Not forcing the matter when I first felt the urge was a wise choice.  There is intuition to thank, of course.  And there is also the wisdom in not acting solely based on emotion to thank.  I firmly believe that emotion is an integral part of the decision-making process.  The key is to not let it dominate.

Above all else, there is wise council to thank, as well.  And for that, I am grateful for my wife.

I will continue to bide my time.  As the landscape shifts around me, the issue may not be forced, after all.  

I will wait.

I am fascinated by influence.  When it comes to leadership, there is nothing that holds my attention more than influence.  Influence comes in many forms.  It is subtle, and it is overt; it is gentle, and it is severe; it is gradual, and it is decisive.  Influence is simply a tool that can (and is) wielded by everyone.  So, when I say it is an aspect of leadership that fascinates me, I do not confine my definition of “leadership” to just the corporate variety.

I study influence as best I can.  I look for it as a third-person observer, and I look for it within my own sphere.  I read between the lines of books and articles, trying to find the threads that connect one thing to another and how those threads are used.  There is, of course, a fine line between influence and manipulation, and, to top it off, manipulation is a much-maligned word.  So, I tread lightly less I venture too far into territory I would rather not explore.

In the end, for me, influence is the way that what is best inside of me can touch what is best inside of another such that either one or both (or more) of us can make the most of tomorrow, having been strengthened and inspired by our interaction.  When I am able to influence others, then I know that I have done what I set out to do; I know that I have achieved one of my life’s more nebulous, undefined goals.  If I can influence, then I can hope to inspire.  If I am able to inspire, then perhaps someone else might take a moment to look inside of themselves and find something they did not know existed.  And maybe, just maybe, they can use that something in service to others, to humanity.

By far, my favorite form of influence is to simply have faith in other human beings…faith in their abilities, faith in their spirit, faith in what I believe is the fundamental desire to live in peace and let others live in peace, too.  I believe faith is the most powerful form of influence.

Strategy implies knowing what you want in the first place.  Victory is not enough.  Winning is not enough.  There is a larger puzzle, and strategy is how you build it.  The goals are the pieces.  There is always a greater tapestry that seems just out of reach.  That is how it should be.  Resting on one’s laurels is almost as great a sin as not getting up in the first place.

At times, having a simple goal is the best way to move forward.

I was reminded today why it is so important to have a plan, a long-range vision of the intention behind your actions.  Every action should be a step in a direction that is strategic yet fluid, moving towards your goals regardless of whether or not these change over time.

As I contemplated this, I was reminded of one of my favorite excerpts from “The Art of War.”  Not that I’m big into war stuff.  This one just speaks to strategy in general…which is important to warfare, or so I hear.

Anyway, it goes like this:

“Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively.  THey are like a great river that maintains its course ut adjusts its flow…they have form but are formless.  They are skilled in both planning and adapting and need not fear the result of a thousand battles; for they win in advance, defeating those that have already lost.”

Sun Tzu was the man.

About two or three weeks ago, I talked to a good friend of mine on the phone.  He called me from Hawaii.  Hawaii was a stopover on a much longer trip for him.  I hadn’t talked to him in nearly 4 years, and it was a gift to hear his voice on the other side of the wire.  We spoke for quite a bit, catching up and all that jazz.  We talked about life, about careers, about family…and about plans for the future.  Like I said, hearing his voice was an absolute gift.

I met him when I was in third grade.  That’s a long time ago.  He was a wild child…always has been, although he has been domesticated during the past few years.  He had a mullet back then.  Not just any mullet, mind you, but an early-80’s HEAVY METAL mullet.  We played soccer at recess.  He was really good.  He excelled as a goalie.  I remember his intensity and the way his long hair flapped in the wind as he ran.  He walked the line even back then.

Today, he is a Gunnery Sargent in the United States Marine Corps.  When I spoke to him a few weeks ago, he was headed to the Middle East.  He talked about “his guys,” the people who the USMC entrusted him to lead.  There was courage and there was passion in his voice.  He is proud of the men and women with whom he works. 

Today, he is somewhere in Afghanistan.  He is somewhere remote.  He is but one of many who will be making their way over there in the coming months.  When I sat down to eat dinner with my wife and my boys this evening, we went through our normal gratitude ritual.  When it was my turn, I could only think of my friend, on the other side of the planet, doing his part to make the world a better place.  Policies and politics aside, he does what he does because he believes the world will be better for it.  That is admirable, and it is noble. 

I thought about him, I thought about my father-in-law, I thought about friends and colleagues at work, and I thought about other friends from my youth who have all worn or still wear a uniform in service to my country, the United States of America.  I thought about them, and I was humbly proud of their sacrifices. 

Thank you…all of you…out there somewhere.

I am grateful for you.  I am grateful that you are still here with us.

There is something satisfying about tilling the Earth (or a very small portion of it) by hand.

I didn’t do that today, but there’s something satisfying about that.  Actually, I did that last weekend.

I’ve wanted to write this post for a weeks or so now, but the words just aren’t coming out right.  At some point, when there is something to say rattling around in your brain, you are just best served releasing it.  So, that’s what I’ll do.  Release it.

Most of the time, “communing with nature” conjures images of a cabin in the woods or a lone adventurer braving the tundra on their own or being stranded on a desert island with nothing but your wits, a UPS package, and a volleyball named “Wilson.”  For me, it’s usually something more mundane, like mowing the lawn or edging the yard of tilling the Earth by hand.

I think it partially comes down to a groove, a “zone,” if you will.  Maybe “flow;”  I’ve heard it called that before.  Whatever it is, it’s when I lose my thinking mind in the act of repetitive, demanding physical activity.  When my body and my thinking brain go into auto-pilot mode, my consciousness fires up.  I feel a connection to something outside of myself, and I go someplace…else.  It’s hard to explain, but there is no need to explain.  Just mentioning it should be enough; I haven’t met a person who hasn’t been there before.  In fact, most of us know precisely what it is, precisely what it feels like, and precisely how to get there.

That is where I go when I engage in the act of interacting with the Earth.  

I know; it sounds…goofy.  I have been called far worse things in my life.  And I know that not everyone believes that we, as humans, can easily connect ourselves to the greater Universe around us.  And I do mean the Universe.

Communing with the Earth is easy.  Communing with Nature itself is a little more complicated, but it’s still relatively easy.  Go to Yellowstone.  That’s about as easy as it gets.  But communing with the Universe…that seems a little harder.  I don’t know what that looks like for other people, of course, but I know what it looks like for me.  And I know that the door to that starts with my hands in the soil…figuratively and literally.

And where does this lead?  I don’t know exactly.  All I know is that I don’t go there with enough frequency.  When I do, though, it’s totally exhilarating, totally cleansing.  And when I arrive at that apex, I find myself subliming into something that reaches farther out into the Vastness than even I can comprehend at this juncture in my existence.  But I know enough to know that I have been recharged,