I recently had a tour of the operations at the base plant of Suncor in Fort McMurray.  Suncor is an energy company whose main product is is synthetic crude extracted from oil sands in Northern Alberta.

Environmental Controversy

Destroying your home is probably not smart and although it is probably a questionable statement to some extent I will say;  “the human race has demonstrated an overall high level of intelligence”.

Overtime, an expression of this collective intelligence is the way people worldwide have come to recognize the negative impacts some of our actions are having on the environment.  This has led to increased communications, new laws and changes in the things we do.

All good!

Scapegoats

Sometimes passion for a cause is stirred up in the general populous by over aggressive leaders through the use of scapegoats.  In these cases right or wrong is not really the point, rather the ability to leverage perception for political gain or to initiate action.

Sadly, this appears to be the case when you examine the environmentalists versus Suncor.

Entertainment, religious and political leaders regularly tour the Suncore Fort McMurray mining operations, often ending with some statement about the horrific damage being done to our environment.

Certainly, on a relative basis, that is compared with environmentally damaging activities globally, this is just a load of crap.  Hence my categorization of these attacks as scapegoating.

Why a load of crap?

It cannot be argued that digging up the landscape, upgrading the bitumen and transporting it affect the earth (just the massive size of the operation speaks to this).

What struck me though,  is the commitment and effort to be responsive to the need to protect the environment and to both minimize and recover and restore any damage.   Why is that so rarely highlighted?

I find it disturbing this is so rarely even commented on by the attackers.  It can be noted, globally Suncor’s Fort McMurray operation is a mere speck of dust in the eye of the damage being done to Tera-firma,  when coupled with the tremendous amount of work being undertaken to mitigate such damage it is really inaccurate to label this commercial enterprise as the environmentalists enemy.

Easy Target

The Fort McMurray mine is not readily accessible for the majority of the earth’s population so they cannot verify these claims but mostly rely on the media to create their perceptions.  This makes them an easy target for the detractors who in fact are largely just leveraging the circumstances for their own personal gain anyway.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday about bonus pay, incentive pay and performance.

Bonus Pay

Bonus pay is not necessarily related to individual performance and may even be contractual in some cases.

In those cases the amount is generally fixed both as to when and how it is paid. t could have some dependency on company profit or revenue or it could be fixed subject to review at time of a contract renewal.

This is a kind of incentive pay but not also as clearly objective as the sales example.  This is because performance is a subjective measure in many companies.

Incentive Pay

While incentive pay has a lot of similarities to bonus pay, and many call it that, the key difference is the connection to individual performance.  Say a salesman gets an an additional bonus of 2% when their sales reach $100,000 overall – that is an example of incentive pay.

Bonus pay can be  a kind of incentive pay but is not as clearly objective as the sales example.  This is because performance is a subjective measure in many companies.

 Handle with care

Our discussion centered around the linkage between bonus compensation and performance.  We all had experience with bonus pay in a variety of Corporations and based on the conversation it was clear  this kind of compensation can cause negative reactions if the program is not both clearly communicated and administered consistently.

When tied to performance it is critical to make sure the measure is objective.  If subjective their is certainly the opportunity for the recipient to feel more slighted than rewarded.

And finally, everyone who might recieve bonus compensation needs to clearly understand whether it is varible orfixed and has a performnce compnent or not.

As I have noted in previous posts, my personal approach to life is to maximize my pleasure (enjoyment) while not impinging on the enjoyment or pleasure of others.

Short cold days

If you live in the nortern hemisphere this time of years the daylight hours are shorter and the average tempuratures colder. A great setting for celebration and though different cultures and religions have different approaches on ways to celebrate this time of year, generally,  celebrations occur.  Not surprisingly,  celebrations occur in the southern hemisperes this time of year as well, but the underlying drivers are not cold dark  days but just the opposite (warm long days).

And for me that is good, and I really enjoy the opportunity to make the most of the seasonal practices designed to bring pleasure.

 Christmas Day

For christians a key celebration at this time of year is Christmas day.  It only occurs once a year and is strongly promoted from early childhood as a day of gift giving, entertaining and just good times all around.

This fits perfectly with my own personal values and not surprisingl,  with the majority of humans.

So I will end this short holiday post with the classic greeting for this time of year,  that resonates most for me, and will never get old   “”good will and peace to all and to all a good night”.

What is the root of motivation?  Why do we have a desire to act?  Even when I am relaxing and doing nothing it really means I am doing something I enjoy, like reading a book or watching a show.

So I wonder

Is the desire to be doing things, except when we are sleeping,  built into our genetic code.  Even meditation is considered an activity, that is, something you do.

I believe the basic reason we keep ourselves busy is hereditary.  What we actually do to keep ourselves busy is related to the results of the activity.  When we do something, the purpose we do it is to achieve some result,  and that result is the basic motivation.

For me though the really interesting part is in general humans want to be occupied with some activity.

Sometimes I think I would just like to vegitate and do nothing.  During my waking hours I find this is difficult to do.

Retire and die

Many studies have shown that on retiring from a lifetime of work, those who don’t keep active tend to die sooner. These study results just reinforce the importance of keeping yourself busy.

There is a basic desire built into human nature to keep active and it is to our detriment to ignore it.

In 1969, Theodore Rozak introduced the term counter-culture in his book “The Making of a Counter Culture”.   The simple premise was a culture developed with values and norms substantially significant from those of the mainstream society within which they are contained, is a counter-culture.

The creation of a counter-culture can be called a cultural revolution or depending on the context of the change drivers could be labeled something more specific, for example, a youth rebellion.  This was the case for the cultural revolution of the 1960’s.

The Rolling Stones

The other day I was listening to some old vinyl record albums by the Rolling Stones, which I had purchased in the decade of the 1960’s.   Although one among many, the Rolling Stones  were “perceived by the youth of the world as representatives of opposition to an old, cruel order — the antidote to a class-bound, authoritarian culture”.  (I stole this quote, although slightly modified, from Wikipedia as I don’t think I could have written it any better).

This started me reminiscing about the youth rebellion of the time, I grew up in the 1960’s.   It dawned on me the sub-cultural which was created by this youth rebellion was now in fact totally integrated into main-stream culture.

Living in the Past

For me, the music of the time was closely associated with the culture changes being integrated into main stream society.

Although my my wife has often claimed I live in the past because of my close association to the cultural artifacts of that time (movies, music, literature, fads), I have come to realize, in some ways the present is the past and the changes to societal values and norms initiated by the youth rebellion of the 1960’s are now the norms of today.

So maybe I am not an old fashioned fuddy-duddy lost in the past but rather just reveling in the amazing changes of that decade and looking forward to the next cultural revolution.  I predict it has started, I refer to the environmentalists, probably the next counter-culture to become mainstream.   (Hopefully not too late).

On my drive home today “Land of Make Believe” by Chuck Mangione was playing.  This is a song from 1973 that I had never heard before.

I am familiar with Chuck’s music.  His style is jazz rock, as sort of a crossover style.  He had several rock/pop hits in the early seventies.

Ester Satterfield is the singer.  Her performance, the lyrics themselves and the music was striking and gave me pause.  Hence today’s post.

Ah to dream

The opening verse caught my attention.

“When you’re feeling down and out
Wondering what this world’s about
I know a place that has the answer.

It’s a place where no one dies.
It’s a land where no one cries.
And good vibrations always
Greet you.”

Sometimes there is a moment when all around you is in chaos and worries abound, taking that pause into the land of make believe is all you need to re-charge.

Circumstances adding meaning to the song

The impact of the song was greater for me as I drove home today due to the events of last night.

Last night, in the city of Edmonton where I currently live there was a senseless tragedy.  Two young adults and a youth went on a criminal robbery rampage resulting in the killing of two innocent convenience store employees – for no discernible reason.

The song resonated.  If only we could live in that land of make believe  where no one dies, no one cries and you are always feeling good.

In short a beautiful song, great sentiment and timely for me.