Monthly Archives: December 2016

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Your parcel has been redirected to the recipients new address

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On Friday I was waiting for delivery of an expensive item shipped via Canada Post Express.  The shipper promised expediated delivery in two days.

The order was placed and accepted on-line.  Order confirmation  was received Nov 27th.  Two days later (not) on Dec 9th we were actively monitoring the Canada Post tracking number for the long awaited but finally expected delivery.

And Surprise

The tracking updates showed the package landed in Edmonton at around 2:00 and the local sorting facility at approximately 6:30 am.  Out for delivery at 11:00 am.  All is looking good.

Alas, by 5:00 pm the package has still not arrived and then, the big surprise.  Checking the tracking number at 5:30 we notice the status has changed to “Your parcel has been redirected to the recipients new address.”

And Panic

Was the item in the process of going missing.  Afterall, we had been home waiting for the delivery since 11 a.m. and certainly we lived in the same place since at least then.  I am thinking it takes more than 4 hours to relocate your home.

So I called Canada Post.  Getting a live person on the line is a test, like a real I.Q. test requiring probably an I.Q. of more than 160 – but I figured it out.

A complete waste of time of course, the only advice being I needed to contact the shipper, Canada Post would do nothing and even if the shipper followed up immediately, it would take a week or more to investigate anyway.

So much for promised 2 day delivery, that had already taken 2 weeks.

Long story short, the shipper was little help but magically the parcel showed up Saturday morning at around 10.

Shopping Online

Interesting summary to this story is the fact my wife and I are avid and high volume on-line shoppers, for years. To date though very few, almost none of the items have been delivered by Canada Post and delivery is always as expected.

My advise to on-line retailers out there, give Canada Post a pass, there are lots of other cost effective options and Canada Post is just giving you a bad name.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Lets Figure it Out

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Organizational and group cultures are dependent on many factors.  Things like what is the organization trying to achieve , what things are most important – i.e., clients, profit, team members satisfaction and so on.

Typically the organizations leadership set the direction, influence and impact how the group works together.  Basically this lays the foundation for how the culture develops over time.

Meeting the Organizational Goals

When managing by objectives, the intent is to achieve defined and measurable goals.  In that case, the key method of determining if the culture is effective lies in monitoring of goal achievement.

This is most effective when done continuously enabling identification and remedying of the root cause of issues ongoing.  In this model there is no right or wrong culture , only effective ones.

We’ll figure it out

Consider a culture where the focus is on, respectful conversations, where everyone’s opinion matters, anyone can affect any decision and the overriding  approach is “we’ll figure it out”.

Sounds a bit too anarchistic for most organizations (whether Corporate, Non-profit or Government).  Surprisingly the results produced from such a culture can be of a high quality.

That being said though this type of culture is hard to work in and requires strong leadership to ensure results are achieved.  In fact, this type of culture demands strong leadership to work.

It is key though for leadership to be mindful of the manage by objective concept (i.e., results) and keep their eye on this ball.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Listen to the Music #10

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

Over time, I am listing the next three best. Nine posts so far covered the top twenty seven (listed below), today’s covers twenty-five to twenty-seven.

Just a reminder; 1) Paul McCartney, 2) Led Zeppelin, 3) Elton John 4)Alice Cooper 5) Al Stewart 6) Queen 7) Bee Gees 8) Deep Purple 9) James Taylor 10)Blue Oyster Cult, 11)Johnny Winter, 12) Uriah Heep 13) The Monkees. 14) 1910 Fruitgum Company 15) Allman Brothers Band 16) Kansas 17) Styx 18) Wishbone Ash 19) Trooper 20) Brave Belt 21) Nazareth 22)BTO 23)Peter Gabriel 24) Bad Company 25) Paul Rogers 26) Jethro Tull, 27) Lady Gaga

And today’s list

28) Jeff Healey – On of the best blues musicians for me his guitar playing lets you feel the emotion and his voice is the epitome of what a blues singer should sound like.  jeff is blind but it did not hinder him at all from giving an awesome, spellbinding performance.

29)Roger Waters – I saw his theatrical performance of the wall.  What a show, as much about the performance as it was about the music.  Competently performed and enjoyable.

30) Procul Harum – One of the bands most popular albums was recorded live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.  This was in the early seventies and was a favorite album of mine.  I did not see them live until the mid nineties  in Toronto and I was not dissapointed at all.  A fabulous show with their biggest hit ( A Whiter Shade of Pale) still resonated – timeless.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

It’s not about winning or losing

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Growing up my parents used to say “It’s not about winning or losing, it’s how you play the game”. Seems like a good value to adopt.  Probably not for a professional athlete or olympic contender, but for an average person this is probably a good attitude (my own opinion anyway.

The Oscar Wilde Twist

I was reminded today, of a delightful twist on this common wisdom from nineteenth century playwright, novelist and poet, Oscar Wilde.

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame” – Oscar Wilde.

Tongue firmly in cheek

Yikes, stating the obvious.  Humour often has a foundation in truth and this statement truly resonates with me as a more accurate description of natural human behaviour.

Trying  hard and playing fair is a noble sentiment, after-all,however,  as I have noted before, for most folks, it is all about the royal me. What, me at fault, unlikely.

Living Together

Avoiding the laying of blame is probably a more effective way to collaberate with others.  Blame is a kind of attack.  It’s not unusual to get a response in kind.

And so the vicious circle begins – ” it’s your fault, is not” and so on.  A little witticism like this one from Oscar Wilde can often help us identify odd behaviours that we should avoid but actually sometimes just practice naturally.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Solutioning solutions

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Most issues are resolved either through a point in time solution (PIT) or elimination/resolution of the root cause, that is a solution based on root cause analysis (RCA).

Both methodologies result in issue resolution, however each have both benefits and drawbacks.  Which approach to use for problem resolution depends on the desired balance between effort and results.

Point in Time

Typically implementing these solutions requires less effort but might not result in a sustainable resolutin.  Basically this usually just puts and bandaid in place.  It works but the wound might still fester.

Adressing Route Cause

This method requires more effort and takes longer to implement.  First the root cause must be determined so a solution can be devised and implemented to specifically address and resolve the issue directly.  This is typically a permanent resolution.

Which Approach

Issues result in negative effects.  While you are taking the time to determine and then devise a solution for the cause of the issues the negative effects continue to compound.

Can you wait?  Perhaps the magnitude of the issue and its associated  negative effects do not justify  a significant effort to resolve.

Perhaps a combination of RCA and PIT methods is in order to first addresssome issues quickly (short term) while tackling the problem more permanently over  longer term.

Or strategically a permanent effective solution might make the most sense.  The approach is very much dependent on the number, nature and complexity of the issues together with their associated impacts.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Selling Stuff

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The Canadian prairies have been hit by a deep freeze.  It’s estimated daytime highs will range from -15 to -20 degrees celcius.  On the celcius scale 0 degrees is the tempurature water freezes at.

This got me thinking about my cars block heater.  In the past I usually plug it in before I go to bed and leave it on overnight.  The recommended optimal usage is only 2 to 3 hours before you start the car, so this overnight use is not environmentally aware.

For convenience a block heater timer is suggested.  This way you can plug the car in the evening but the electricity flow can be scheduled to start at the appropriate time, say 5:00 A.M. for example.

Google to the Rescue

I quickly identified a fabulous sale at Canadian Tire, $10 for a timer with a regular price $30.  Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers products were all in the $25 to $30 range.

Off to Canadian Tire’s Wyndemere location, aisle 52, with 133 items in stock. The display was there with the product name and price, no product.

Making a long story short, after 15 minutes of me waiting while he looked, the sales rep located the timers by the cashiers where they had all been moved to take advantage of impulse sales.

While I waited for the sales rep at aisle 52, I counted 10 disappointed customers who probably saw a flyer or found the item on the web site, went to the advertised location and found themselves out of luck.

Seems like the strategic positioning of ALL the product away from it’s normal location was not such a good idea.  I did suggest this to the sales rep who clearly thought I should stick to my day job.

What do I know about selling stuff?

More on this saga tommorow.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Check your environment

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In a collaberative discussion today, a collegue and I came up with a simple model for team environments.  We theorized three types of environments based on key performance traits.

Understanding the organizational team  environment can be a great asset when deriving a strategy to develop a high performing team.  That is understanding the starting point can guide the most effective performance enhancing behaviors.

First the performance Traits

We hypothized that all teams members can be catagorized into one of three groups relative to their desire to accept change and improve.

  • receptive, open to all ideas for change and improvement from any source whether directed from granted or earned power
  • limited, largely require direction from a source with granted  power.  Otherwise happy with the status quo.
  • resistant, improvement or changes are not adopted, earned power is not recognized and ways are sought to circumvent direction from those with granted power.

The team overall

We believe all teams will have a majority of individuals within one of the categories.  An even balance is unlikely. This defines the baseline effectiveness of the team.

So as a leader, whether leading from the front based on organizational heirarchy or leading from behind leveraging your ability to impact and influence while relying largely on earned power; understanding the morphology of the team is really valuable.

On the whole, is the group receptive, limited or resistant?  Understanding this can inform your actions as you work to lead the team (actively or indirectly) to higher performance.

That is the approach to changing and improving performance of the team can spiral forward naturally where they want to participate or could require more coaching or stronger tactics.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

If your happy and you know it……

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Clap your hands.  A simple but accruate lyric to what is often thought of a little ditty for children to sing.  It is a motivational song with a purpose.

Happiness is a state of mind.  Really it is that simple.  To paraprhase the song, if your happy others will know by the way you behave.  Happy behaviour is much more pleasant than any other kind.

Constantly Happy

Let’s check the assumptions.  If happiness is a state of mind, it is your mind and only yours so you could choose to be happy all the time.  Is this a realistic assumption?

Obviously external and environmental factors, for example being subjected to  physical torture or starvation make the choice more diificult, perhaps even impossible.

Staying Happy

Admittedly,  there are factors that can impinge on your ability to maintain a state of happiness.  However, given happiness is a state of mind, you do have a lot of influence.

Consider:

  • through personal meditation, self talk or just deep thought be very clear what makes you happy
  • plan your behaviour around seeking and attaining happiness
  • remember always, not matter what rhe circumstances, environmental or contextual nothing can make you unhappy, really only you can do that.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL, no matter how hard it may seem, you DECIDE, no one else.