Monthly Archives: November 2017

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Freedom to Choose

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Yesterday the Quebec national assembly unamiously passed a resolution to request merchants no longer use the currently common greeting “bonjour/hi” but rather replace it with just bonjour.

French is after all the official language of la belle province, and including English in the greeting is annoying, apparently.

A one sided approach

Of course the required greeting for all federal agencies “bonjour/hello” is okay, Canada the nation is bilingual  so this greeting is common sense but it is in fact mandated by the agencies.

Almost all my siblings work for the federal government and they have told me it is a serious offence for any employee to not open the conversation in both official languages.

If the government representative is prompted to continue in a language they do not speak (not all federal employees are bilingual, although many are) they must immediately seek support of a colleague that does speak the language the citizen prefers (English or French)

Contravening this requirement is considered a serious performance infraction and if discovered becomes part of your permanent performance record and if repeated can lead to dire concequences.

Is Quebecs appraoch this really important?

The national assembly is really reinforcing the symbolic importance of language to the culture.  For bilingual Canada reinforcing the multilingual culture is a critical statement for our country.

All provinces come under this bilingual umbrella and although Quebec considers itself unique I find this trivial waste of time on language trivialities insulting to the rest of Canada.

Imagine the furor in Quebec if another province requested their merchants to never greet a customer with bonjour.

Ah the insanity of it all, can’t we just be friends?

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Belief

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We all belief in things.  That is the acceptance of the truth, existence or confidence in someone or something.  This can include things for which the physical or literal existence cannot be validated.

You cannot see, touch or talk to god (two way talking) yet this is a belief many hold as absolute.  The belief can be so strong it drives behaviour.

In some cases, this behaviour might not conform with social norms, for example the suicide bomber who shouts “God is great” before obliterating both themselves and those around them.

Devoid of Belief

While skepticism is a true and demonstrated behaviour, that is a suspension of belief, on the whole individuals are not able to live their lives without some core beliefs.

Philosophically the need for belief could be  illustrated through a bastardization of Descartes famous “I think, therefore I am”.  Something like “ I do not believe, therefore I am not”.

An exaggeration certainly, with a foundation of truth.  Life without belief, at least in something or arguably even a belief in nothing (the giant void) is a belief.

Understanding and Accepting your Beliefs

Self contentment requires a recognition that you believe in something  even if that belief is nothing.  Nothing does exist and has a physical representation, a numeric  “0”or alpha null, so you can believe in it.  (I believe in the power of null)

Belief drives behaviour, comfortable behaviour is peaceful and requires an understanding of your personal beliefs in order to attain this state.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Symbols

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To a great amount of hype, the engagement of Englands Prince Harry to commoner Meghan  Markle was announced on Monday.  The last time an English royal married an American divorcee, there was an abdication.

If all goes ahead as planned this will be the first time a person of color, American and a divorcee actually joins the royal family.

Prompted by this announcemnt  and the associated level of interest, one of my colleagues asked a most interesting question,  what do the royals do?

Symbolism

Do you believe in Santa Claus?  Well you might not believe in the existence of an actual Santa Claus, as a descrete entity,  it is likely the concept and philosophy he symbolizes resonate with you.

Although the royals do exist, unlike Santa, the parallel is like Santa Claus, what they represent is larger and more powerful than their actual existence.

What you Do/What you represent?

Actions are critical, what you do is what you are.  In the case of symbols, e.g., royals, religious icons, fictional idols, it is not what is done but rather what is represented.

So, the answer to what the royals do is; support the symbolism.  Missteps on their part can damage the image of what the symbol stands for,  but to a large extent this damage can be overlooked in favour of the value provided by and the need and desire to believe what is being represented over what is occurring.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Organizational Change

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There are three major grocery retailers in Canada, Sobeys (a division of Empire company), Loblaws (George Weston Ltd.) and Metro Foods.

Last week Sobey’s announced a major re-organization which will reduce their office staff across the company by about 800, as it is implemented nationwide.

Why Re-organize

The goal of changing the structure of an organization typically is one to all of the following:

  • Address changing market forces which are attacking the organizations business model. In the case of Sobey’s the rise of on-line retailing is beginning to impact the food sector. The signs of major impacts like those that affected book,  music and general retailers are clearly present.
  • By changing the way you do business and even in some cases focusing or expanding the business scope, a key objective is improved efficiency and higher quality so the business becomes sustainable
  • Reduce resource cost (expense reduction) without impacting volume or quality of service or product by changing processes and practices both significantly and rapidly (not a slow continous process improvement but a drastic one in a fell swoop)

Cutting Staff

Some organizational changes increase staff but often expense reduction is one of the goals (not always though).  Unfortunately the press has focused on the Sobey announcement as a staff reduction.

This is a good way to sell news content but the perspective is a little unfair to Sobey’s.  The reality is any retail company can go bankrupt in the current consumer environment (e.g., Sears and Toys r Us) , size is not a protection.

Sobey{s move to sustain the company by changing its business model is both strategic and wise.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Self Awareness/ Confidence and Arrogance

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The ability to focus on yourself separate from the environment and other individuals, is the basic concept underlying the emotional intelligence attribute of self awareness.

Typically this requires an internal belief in the abilitiy to rely on yourself and your judgement.  You believe and trust in yourself.

Combined these behavioural traits can appear to others as an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions (i.e., arrogance)

Avoiding the Arrogance Label

While confidence and self awareness are powerful personal attributes, valued and invaluable tools for you to achieve your personal goals, being percieved as arrogant is something to avoid.

The ability to be both self aware and confident in a way that is not percieved as arrogant requires concious effort.  By default these behaviours can send the wrong message.

As you travel down the road of winning friends and influencing others (to quote Dale Carnegie) make sure you use your sensitivity to balance the way you are percieved.

That is, use your self awareness of others reactions toward you to influnce and change those reactions.  Manage your personal behaviours in a way that those you are interracting with like.

This is not a natural or unconcious approach.  Be fully aware of how you are behaving, constantly judge how others percieve it and change as needed to get the desired reaction.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Make Every Moment Count

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A humans life span is infinitesimal compared to the age of the earth or perhaps the universe.  On a relative basis, even just a second of your life is significant and matters.

We might not know or understand why we were born or what our purpose is, that is evolution or creation, but we do know we are here and alive.

Our capability to think is theorized by many as the underlying proof of our existance.  “I think therefore I am – Descartes”.  Regardless of the why’s and wherefores, we have been given the gift of existence.

Explanation not Necessary

The value of the gift of life is not dependent on the reason for our existence.  The opportunity for pleasure and happiness exist, why question it?

Enjoying every moment, nano second by nano second, is the only logical approach.  I do not mean a hopeful and confident approach to the future (practising optimism), rather than believing in the positive or hoping for it,  I refer to actually being positive, always.

Simply put, I do not need to know why I am here or to be told explicitly by others what my purpose or objective is.  Albeit, oft called a hedonistic approach, I seek maximum pleasure.

I don’t need to be told this approach to life is okay or accepted by others nor do I need their approval. It is after all my life and my obligation is  to enjoy it to the maximum.  After all no one else is going to do it for me, nor could.

 

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Are you feelin Alright!

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How you feel is part of a thought process.  This process is centric to YOUR brain.   The brain is not autonomous for most things (exceptions are basic things like normal  breathing).  In fact, the behaviours and feelings derived from  the data you receive from your brain are yours to control and yours alone.

The brain does not action, it provides data which you use to decide and implement action.  Therefore, logically, you will never feel bad.  Why would anyone decide to feel bad.

The operative descriptor here is “bad”.  By definition the things described as bad are negative.  Negative is typically not a desired state of being.

People do feel bad

The simpliest explanation for choosing negative feelings and the associated depressed and sad behavior is based on the analysis of the data.

You parsed the data provided by your brain and decided the most appropriate internal response was to feel bad.

Personally I wonder what the value equation is.  The data could be a death of a close friend or relative, loss of something you hold dear and a thousand other things as simple as dark cold days.

My own approach is to feel good, regardless.  Why not?  In truth, up to the point of my own death, anything but feeling good, upbeat and happy seems pointless.

I choose how to feel, act and behave and logic dictates sad unhappy feelings make little sense.  Maybe I am part Vulcan.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Filling the Information Void

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I often observe how social groups tend to fill information gaps by making up the data. This is the foundation of gossip. It begins with a factual foundation and then grows organically.

Most often, groups of colleagues, acquaintances and co-workers   begin with the kernal and fill in the gaps arriving at conclusions which are passed on as completedly factual.

For Example

An organizations leadership decide to be candid and communicate accross the organization that spending has reached unsustainable levels and cost cutting must ensue.

The work of identifying the best approaches begins but this is where the transparency disappears.  Large groups of the organizations human resources have no insight into the detailed planning.

The result is speculation, assumptions and sadly the new reality is arrived at.  Although there is probably little alignment with the actual plans developed by the organizations leadership (and known to few) the majority come to believe what they made up to fill the information gap.

Of course, this commonplace organizational behaviour can have very negative impacts.  For example, strong capable resources the organization needs to retain, depart.  Largely because they are convinced the layoff axe is imminent (although that might not be the case at all).

The unfortunate fact is this type of scenario is totally avoidable.  The mistake of not holding broad open disccussions about the detailed cost cutting strategies, sharing plans and ideas ongoing as they develop, leads to people creating their own answers.

Without the benefit of accurate information this answers can be far off reality and lead to unwanted consequences.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Equity Market Supply and Demand

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At a recent Reuters Investment management conference, presenters suggested the growth in Corporate earnings during the past year is in the double digits.

Credit Suisse reported an annual increase in global wealth of $17 trillion U.S. dollars, rising to an overall estimated total of $280 trillion.  This growth linked to increases in Corporate earnings.

This capital accumulation needs to be employed whether as venture capital, equity  or other investments.  That is, within the constraints of risk, as your capital increases you have a desire to employ it to get more capital.

Availability of Equity

On the flip side of growing capital are equity investments.  Although not a unique vehicle, investing directly in a companies stock via direct purchase, mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETF), is a popular way to continue to grow your wealth.

At the aforementioned Reuters conference there was also some solid data presented indicating the supply of new equities was currently experiencing a net growth of zero.

Market Value Rises

And so, we arrive at a simple but logical explanation for the current explosion in the value of equity markets – world wide.   It is probable, one of the factors driving price gains is the ready availability of capital versus the flat supply of available equities to invest in.

Simply put demand exceeds supply.

The Predicted Market Correction

For months now many analysts have noted the precipitous heoghts equity markets have risen to, predicting a correction or a crash.  Historically the economic fundamentals do not support this so it is puzzling for some.

I believe the current state of prices is to some extent just a reflection of supply and demand and won’t change until either of those factors are altered, i.e., more equities available for sale or less capital accrued.  Both things are linked to overall economic activities.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Delegate or Transfer Accountability

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Managers delegate, leaders transfer accountabilty.  The objective of delegation is to get work done through others.  It is based on a prescriptive (do this, do that) principle.

Transfer of accountabilty enables others to do the right work at the right time in the right way.  This encourages initiative, innovation and builds confidence in others.  That is both their confidence and, based on the outcomes, potentially your own confidence.

Delegation

Good delegation requires a high degree of clarity around requirements and strong agreement to them.  Based on the directions the outcomes or results are also clear.

In conformance with the principles of the Stacey matrix typically the management styles associated with delegation are rational, judgemental or political.

The manager or supervisor focuses on conformity to instruction which should lead to the expected results.  This is very much a command and control methodology.

Transfer Accountability

In this case the assignments are task driven.  The goals and objectives are largely related to deciding the best way to solve the problem, issue or achieve the goal, and then execute.

The progress expectations are not closley monitored.  Failure is an option and when it occurs it is both a reason to celebrate (you tried) and a learning opportunity.

The exercise of accountability requires some authority and the granting of this to others typically results in a rise in personal confidence (something like you have faith in me so I should have faith in myself)

Getting things done through others

Both delegation and transfer of accountability are approaches with benefits and risks.  The context is often important in determining the best approach, or balance thereof, in any given situation however in the long run enabling others to take accountability where feasible will lead to more innovative, creative and higher quality results.