As remembrance day approaches I recall the poem I wrote in grade twelve.  It was published in the school newspaper and then again in the school annual for that year.  Remember this was the early seventies when I wrote this (probably still resonates today though)

The Poem

Lucky

Oh aren’t we lucky

Living as we do

Between the second world war to end wars

And the coming third world war

Which will!

Remembrance day is not directly about war, but remembering those who fought in wars .  I cannot argue this is important and worthwhile.  I wonder though why we need to fight wars at all.

Wars are basically people killing people both purposely and as effectively as they can.  Human history is littered with aimless conflicts.  I say aimless because I struggle with associating any real value with war.   Soldiers are a key component of these conflicts, no soldiers, no wars.

Peacekeepers

One key problem is if one side has soldiers who can take control by force and the other side has no protection, they will probably lose all (unless they have Samson to defend them).  So, we need armies and soldiers to keep the peace.   Unfortunately, this practice in itself sustains the ability to wage war.

What if there were no conflicts.  What if life was not only considered sacred but the taking of others life unthinkable/ impossible to do.

This is a utopia and in the words of John Lennon something we can “Imagine”.  If we can imagine it we should be able to make it happen.  Probably much easier to dream than make a reality but not impossible.

Remembrance

So while I honor those who have fought, who have sacrificed much, in defense of a cause.   I wonder though “why can’t we all just be friends”.   This is another reference to a song by the ironically named pop rock group “War”.

My office has an infestation of black flies.  Apparently the fly’s seek warmer environments as the weather gets cold.  This includes things like crevices of trees and other places that will provide some protection from the elements, like our warm leaky building.

Older buildings leak heat and this attracts the flies.  If your building is near open fields or parks where they breed in warmer weather and your building is not well sealed, as could be the case for many buildings on a historic university campus ( lots of open fields and areas fly’s like to breed as well), you could be at risk of an infestation.

What to do?

Apparently one good alternative is to fumigate in the fall (i.e., around now).  This will clear out the place and given there are not many new fly’s hatching outside in this weather, the problem is put off until next fall when the new batch of spring and summer fly’s seek warmth and the cycle starts all over.

Of course, you could upgrade the buildings envelope to improve it’s seal against the outside coming in.  This would be an environmentally sound approach as well reducing the amount of energy required to heat and cool the buildings interior.  Probably more environmentally sound than pesticide as well.

Oh Pesticide

One fine colleague pointed out that there are no known or documented cases of disease transmission by black fly’s while pesticides probably are not good for you.

I guess if you don’t mind having black fly’s wander on your sandwich at lunch time or sit on the rim of your coffee cup they could be tolerated.  I mean you probably won’t get sick, I find it a bit unappetizing though and that cup of coffee, well – down the sink.

So if I weigh pesticides versus tolerating these little black pests I do lean toward pesticide.  My preferred solution though would be better installation of the building.  This would reduce heat leakage which attracts the fly’s as well as reducing their entry points to the building.

At a religious service I attended the other day, I was surprised to hear the word contemplative used used as a noun.  This was new to me,  I had thought this term to be exclusively an adjective.

On checking it out I found several references to use as a noun, referring to someone who has dedicated themselves to religious contemplation ( there seemed to be some correlation with Christianity but this was not absolute) .

So a contemplative (noun) practices a specific type of contemplation (the adjective), that is,  thinking quietly and seriously about religious matters.

Thoughtful, long consideration or observation

Although there are Roman catholic orders specifically made up of contemplatives,  focused on spiritual contemplation related to god, the act of profound thinking about something is in itself contemplative.

Recognizing Spirituality

The service that got me contemplating about contemplatives (noun) was led by a Roman Catholic priest and the his references were made about an individual who did not believe in Catholicism, as an organized religion put a great deal of thought and consideration into religious practices and spirituality.

Religious/ spiritual contemplation, how and what it is turns out to be an enormous topic, with a massive amount of reading material made up of on-line, articles, books, manuscripts and on and on.

Hearing the word used as a noun in reference to a spiritual individual who was a deep thinker (but not part of an organized practice in any way) started my investigation of this topic.

It is quite fascinating and I wanted to share with my readership.  You may be interested in doing some research on your own  – maybe even become a contemplative.

I have read a number of studies in recent years about good stress.  The basic principle is, while stressful situations are known to take a toll on the body and can lead to things like heart attack, stroke and nervous breakdowns, surprisingly the absence of stress has been shown to lead to these things as well.

Eu-stress

The term was first quoted by endocrinologist Hans Selye based on the Greek prefix for good “eu” so literally good stress.  Eu-stress motivates us to attain a goal and as long as the gap between current state and the desired goal is not too great, it leads to hope and engagement (good feelings).

What happens without it?

Without motivation – (hope and engagement) our bodies can experience similar symptoms to that of bad stress, also known as distress (where the gap between reality and goals is perceived to be too great to resolve).  This can lead to physical ailments and ultimately even death.

Health Impact

Regular exercise with a balanced diet are commonly included as key considerations for a healthy lifestyle.  There is a plenitude of data from many studies of the last decades that have shown this to be true.  Another key aspect of a healthy lifestyle, not so often mentioned, is the importance of goals that are a bit of a stretch but keep you motivated and engaged.

A Fine Balance

Admittedly there is a fine balance between Eu-stress and Distress, and careful management of personal goals is needed to ensure the motivating circumstances do not become overwhelming.  While not always easy to manage, don’t forget the health benefits of maintaining this balance and having some Eu-stress can be as important as exercise and diet.

Relax and Enjoy

Eu-stress, relaxation and the associated enjoyment derived from both things go in combination and the optimal balance will help you to “live long and prosper”.

I recently made an online purchase from Hammacher Schlemmer  (hammacher.com).   This is a specialty retailer headquartered in the United States with a large mail order service as well as stores.  Their catalog indicates they provide exceptional service to Canada.  Hmmm, I wonder.

Order Confirmation

The order confirmation indicated what the cost of the purchases, the shipping services and shipping surcharge (presumably because this was a Canadian order) plus Canadian goods and services tax would be.     The shipping and handling was quoted in the online confirmation as $32.90.   Though not explicitly stated I found out when billed all the costs were in US $. (Not really unexpected so no problem)

Foundation for a Class Action Suite

Now it gets interesting.  When the items were shipped I was billed.  The amount charged in US$ for the items themselves and the taxes matched the online confirmation I received when I made the purchase.  Surprisingly the shipping and handling was charged as $44.09 US.   Interestingly the difference between $44.09 and $32.90  is at a rate of 1.34 which is what the US/CDN buy rate of exchange was at the time.

Customer Service?

So I wrote an e-mail to the customer service department asking the very simple question, why was the online confirmation for shipping, handling, service surcharge for $32.90 US and the actual charge was $ 44.09 US.

The first reply talked about what I had bought and what it cost and how it was being delivered.   Given this was not the question, I wrote back asking the same question again.  Reply number 2 said the difference was was due to the exchange.  Ah ha, I thought and quickly wrote back saying the quote was in US and the charge was in US so the difference was not the exchange, unless they converted shipping and handling to Canadian and then charged that in US$, clearly what would be an overcharge.  (If this is systemic I really see a class action opportunity.)

Anyway the third e-mail reply in the stream blathered on about questions I had not asked and things I already knew leading me to a final blunt reply – please answer the question or refer it to a supervisor who can.  The answer back was, I can’t help you via e-mail please call our customer service line to resolve this.

Calling Customer Service

I explained the circumstances to the representative who answered the phone.  When I offered to send another copy of e-mail confirmation so he could confirm the quoted amount he suggested I submit my complaint to customer service on-line to which I noted I had done so four times and finally the online representative had told me to call.  Ultimately, my call to customer service resulted in the difference being reversed; However, the cause was never revealed.

Canadian Customers, beware of Hammacher overcharging the exchange.

Note:  I sent a copy of the link to this post to Hammacher customer service so they could have the opportunity to comment/ respond to my allegations and explain the difference, which frankly I would really like to know.

In business, strategy is  a high level plan to achieve the organizations goals.  It needs to be far reaching and cover a reasonable period of time, that is three, five or even ten years.

To use the words of the popular rock group “The Who”,  for me one trait of strategists is they “Can see for miles and miles”   That is to say true strategies are both far reaching and visionary.

Lip Service

Too often I observe organizational leaders label their tactical activities as strategic.  To be clear tactics are actions in support of the strategy and by their very nature focus on short term objectives which support the longer term and higher level goals which form the underpinning of the strategy.  I really like the term strategic direction as it implies the strategy is pointing the way (miles ahead) but does not necessarily deal with the details that come up along the way.

Most Frustrating Usage of Strategic and Tactical Approaches

My biggest pet peeve is when tactical objectives receive strategic treatment and vice-versa .  Here’s a hypothetical example of this.

Strategy

– Build highly functional software tools for enabling development  the digital games, focus on functionality not quality.

Tactics (in support of the strategy)

–  develop and implement methodologies for gathering and translating functional needs of game developers into software products

–  since the focus is on functionality build a strong support practice that can respond to and fix deficiencies with the software tools quickly and with minimal impact on the customers.

In this example, during the execution of the tactical activities to gather and translate the requirements of game developers, if discussions begin around whether the efforts should be focused on game developers and things like should the focus be on functionality or quality, then the focus moves away from the tactical imperative – delivery a product in support of the objective.

The reason for separating strategic and tactical plans is so when the work is actually being performed (either developing a strategy or executing the strategy) the teams can focus on their objective (as defined by the strategy).  Re-visiting the strategy during tactical execution is not only inefficient, at it’s worst can lead to circular churn with no results and the associated negative impacts.

A Real Life Example

This is a highly summarized version;

In 1997, 3d Realms decided to build on their successful strategy of developing three dimensional action third party shooter games.  Tactically it was decided to build the next Duke Nukem game (Duke Nukem Forever) to continue the success of a very popular series.   This should take about a year.  Unfortunately during the game build the strategies for the kind of game, game engine, underpinning technologies, etc,  kept being revisited so much so that a highly anticipated game first announced in 1997 (and planned for delivery in 1998) was still was not completed by 2010 (and so 3D realms went under, but that is another story).  This is a great example of what happens when you are not in tactical mode but should be.

Collaboration is a commonly used term in business today but often misunderstood and misused.

Basically the act of collaboration is often thought of as working with others to do a task and to achieve shared goals.  In reality real collaboration is much more complex than that.

To be effective and achieve higher quality goals more quickly and efficiently;  the skills, ideas and cultural backgrounds of a diverse group that is working to a common purpose need to be leveraged in such a way that the best of everything is used and conflicts are positively focused.  That is not to say there should not be conflict as often positive use of differences results in a much better end product.

What’s at the Core of Real Effective Collaboration?

All good collaborations exhibit the following core behavioral traits among everyone who participates”

• everyone both is heard and hears others
• trust and respect are not lip service or behaviors practiced because good collaboration needs it but rather the team has developed (the members have earned) the trust and respect of each other.  This does imply that powerful collaboration sessions come over time and need some background experience and that is usually true.
• a common shared understanding of how the collaboration will work, that is the associated processes and methodologies are defined, debated, confirmed and proactively practiced right up front and throughout the entire exercise.

Much more than working together to achieve shared goals

Definition aside, for me true collaboration that produces better results requires patience and setting the stage so that the team (the collaborators) will natural practice the key behaviors I highlighted in the above three points.

And the final word, and most important aspect of creating and then working in a collaborative way is motivation.  Everyone has to have a good personal reason to work in harmony.  Human nature is such that collaboration is not a natural state and to fully embrace the concept you have to really want too.

So think about motivations, both your own and those you are collaborating with and leverage your observations of both your own and others behaviors to reinforce positive motivators, whatever they may be, (recognition, appreciation, etc).

On Oct 25th I started a post about the 37 live rock concerts I have attended in my life so far.

Over time, every week or so, I will list the next three best.  The first post covered the top three, today’s covers four to six.

Just a reminder; 1) Paul McCartney, 2) Led Zeppelin, 3) Elton John

And at Number Four

4) Alice Cooper –  What a showman.  Originally the band was called Alice Cooper and overtime the bands front man, Vincent Furnier, adopted the name and began a solo career.  The name Alice Cooper is attributed to all the artists albums both when it was a group and the solo career of Vincent (who assumed the name Alice Cooper) which started in 1975.   I saw the solo Alice Cooper, with a fabulous and talented backing band.  The interesting thing about this group/solo act is the music was fabulous, great melodies, hooks and performed by skilled musicians.  To get noticed they developed a stage act which stood out and by the time I saw Alice he was cutting of his head with a guillotine and playing with a live boa constrictor.  I was there for the music but man what a show.   I am not sure they needed the act though, as the music could stand alone

5) Al Stewart –  This solo singer/ songwriter had a number of big billboard top ten hits, the most famous was probably the Year of the Cat.  I saw him perform in a small club in Toronto that seated about 100 and I was sitting at a table probably just 1 to 2 meters from his piano.  The intimacy of the event just matched Al’s musical genre and the whole concert still stands out in my mind as just an exceptionally great experience.

6) Queen –  Many folks would wonder why this band was not number one.  When I first heard the song Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975 I was blown away.  This was rock as it should be, musical, powerful and a bit of a parody.   I saw them live a couple of years after the release of “Bohemian” on the Tie Your Mother Down tour.  While the music was par none, the act was fairly standard.  Hence sixth place.    (We are the Champions had not yet been released when I saw them live)

I read Canada’s largest and most successful national daily newspaper everyday (The Globe and Mail).  I read the electronic copy of the daily printed version (I do pay for this subscription lest you think I am cheap).

Mostly I just read the business section (my wife thinks it is a real waste as the paper is full of valuable information.)  Mainly, I find the columnists present perspectives I am aware of and agree with 80% of the time, 10% of time it is new ideas and 10% of the recommendations I disagree with.  So on the whole my daily read of the paper reinforces my high opinion of myself and all is good.   That is, I am aware of most of the recommendations and ideas about financial management, taxation, budgeting etc and the columnists agree with me so I must be good.  (Please take my ability and desire to pontificate on this subject with a grain of salt. )

Sharing a Thought from the Globe

Occasionally I do come across  some powerful and valuable ideas.  I guess it’s like gambling, infrequent rewards keep me reading the paper.

Last Tuesday there was an interesting article about fund managers level of investment in the funds they manage.  In the US reporting of the managers level of investment is mandatory and Morning Star (a Chicago based investment research company) used this information to see if there was any correlation between the level of investment by the fund manager and the funds performance

Surprise

The research showed a clear and definitive correlation between the amount of money the fund manager(s) had invested and the overall performance of the fund.  The more skin the manager has in the game the better the performance.

This finding seems intuitive, the part that was new to me was Canadian regulators do not mandate the sharing of this information and Canadian funds rarely do share it.  Of course you can ask (but apparently not many folks do) but the fund company is not required to disclose, only if they want to.

Personally, my wife and I divested ourselves of all mutual fund holdings years ago (too expensive and only you really care how your money is invested); however, I found this article enlightening as it reinforced my view that you are the best person to manage your own investments.    If others do it for you for a fee and do not have risk of personal loss, well let’s just say their attention could be limited.