Monthly Archives: July 2020

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Activating Inspiration

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The ability to be inspired lies dormant within each of us, we only need to activate it.  Becoming mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative, is a personal choice.

The opportunity to do so is neither unique nor limited by intelligence, everyone has the capability.   The defining factor is desire.

Passion

Caring or being passionate about something is a great way to ignite inspiration.  Inventors often describe how their passion for a particular topic was a key motivator to create.

The trick is to let your interest flower into a passion, explode as inspiration, and voila a brilliant creative outcome will blossom.  It is just a personal choice.

Something Special

The ability to be inspired is not something special that exists in a select few.    The level of innate intelligence and talent granted to each of us unquestionably has a genetic component.

However, everyone is capable of personal inspiration.  The results of our inspired behaviors are subject to the extent of our capabilities but inspiration will drive results in every case.

Everyone has the ability to choose to stretch themselves, to examine, explore, and be excited by the possibilities around them.  We can use this excitement to drive both actions and ultimately achievement.

Wasted Opportunity

Every missed chance to become inspired by something is a missed opportunity.  When your curiosity is aroused let your interest be peaked, go with the flow and forge onwards.

Take heart in the fact that you can, and only you can, choose to be inspired.  No-one can block you, the only roadblock is yourself.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Persistance

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Personal beliefs are the foundation of your value system.  These concepts and principles which you hold to be true are the fundamental drivers of your behavior.

We are not always able to sustain our beliefs.  External factors ranging from environmental, other people, legalities, and so on can force us to compromise or just give in.

Personality Cornerstone

Not staying true to your heartfelt personal beliefs can have a significant long term effect on your well being.  Unfortunately, these beliefs might not be widely held by others nor even based on scientifically proven facts.

However, they are ours and however, they were formed by us it is this personal ownership that makes them so powerful.

Our beliefs can, and should, change over time mapping to changes in circumstance but by and large, the basic principles we adopt at a young age will remain intact (i.e., our personal values)

Staying the Course

Accepting cases where others overrule what you believe is right is just a part of living.  It does happen.  Most important for your own well being is to find a way to accept these decisions without harming your own psyche.

This requires a reasonable level of persistence to influence change to align with your core values and beliefs.  That is you must try in a measured and logical way to influence the change.

Reasoned arguments/discussions will help you shape the decision/ imperative in a way that either leads to change or acceptance on your part without remorse or regret.

When seeking to influence change based on your own personal beliefs, remember persistence is critical but not to the point of banging your head until it bleeds.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Passive Approach

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Email became the prime business communications tool starting in the nineteen nineties, overtaking snail mail which was the prime source to that point.

Today, with all its warts and even with the advent of a variety of messaging tools (SMS, Twitter, Linked In) email still remains firmly entrenched as the easy communication tool of choice.

Submit and Hope

While email is a far more efficient tool when compared to written or typed documents sent by hand, internal or external mail services (and occasionally courier) this ease of delivery and tracking has some drawbacks.

Many now use email as a passive messaging method.  Issues and concerns are often disseminated to multiple parties at the push of a button.

The receipt can be tracked/proven electronically and so the sender is able to say “I told you so” in defense if an untoward event occurs and the those who should have known about it and reacted accordingly did not.

It’s not my fault, I sent you an email about it.

Information Overload

Sadly, the ease of writing and sending emails creates a massive overflow of electronic communications, such that many recipients are often overwhelmed and just cannot get through them all.

Just personal observation, in the days before emails, daily correspondence going through a small ten-person office was likely a tenth of what it is today with email.

Given this context, for really important messages I strongly recommend direct contact with immediate feedback.  Sure follow up with an email if you wish but don’t rely on it.

You may be able to massage your own guilt using the email technique, (i.e., I told you via email) but it does not address the real issue, communication that gets the results needed.  Actually solving the problems before they occur.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Upheaval

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The covid-19 global pandemic has caused many changes in our daily lives. Some of these may have a lasting effect on our behaviours.  For example travel and tourism are greatly restricted.

Central office workplaces are empty with many working from their homes, restaurant’s focus on takeout, bars are closed or limited capacity and online shopping is the order of the day, to name just a few of the obvious impacts.

Disruption

This sudden change is unwelcome by many if not all of us but we are adapting.  Covid-19 is not the only upheaval underway for many of us.

Even before the dawning of the pandemic the energy industry was in turmoil with the price of oil and gas sinking like a stone.  Traditional brick and mortar retail was (and is) under seige.

These changes and their impact on our lifestyles are not just regional or limited in scope, but span the globe. and impact a multitude of things.  Virtually no one is immune from their reach.

Adaptation

The causal factors  of the ongoing upheavals we are  experiencing are broad and largely out of individual control.  We can work within our social groups for changes and impact mitigation but largely the best approach is to accept and by embracing reality, thrive.

Even when remedies for covid are discovered (cure and or vaccine) and oil and gas supply and demand comes back into balance it is unlikely the changes wrought over these past months will not remain to some extent.

The new normal has arrived.  Find ways to enjoy it.  As the Borg in the TV show Star Trek The New Generation would say, “Resistance is futile”

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Balancing Duty with Responsibility

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Occasionally we run into situations the person who commands our group, organization, or country (i.e., a leader) makes decisions we do not agree with.

For some of us, these proclamations or approaches to action can be patently incorrect but we need to deal with them.  This raises a question of accountability, do we diligently work to make changes or just buckle under and support the leader?

What is Right?

Our personal decision as to what is right may be valid, however,  based on the relationship and agreed societal or social norms we have some obligations to support our leaders regardless.

It is critical though that this should not equate to the practice of god-like idolization, however, hierarchical groups require boundaries to operate and acceptance of the need for leadership roles is part of this.

There is an important balance between mindless adherence to others’ directions when they are simply role-based.  The exercise of appropriate change influence to promote the best alternative (if not the right one) is needed.

The Leader Says

An early lesson my father taught me many years ago that still sticks in my mind related specifically to follow the leader syndrome.  He asked, “If your leaders jump off a bridge will you follow them”?

Unfortunately, most things are not that simple or straightforward or easy to decipher but the message is clear and has been very relevant to me throughout my life.

There may be times when our leaders should be questioned.  This needs to be in a reasoned and carefully thought out way but you could regret blindly following the leader so giving it some thought is well worth it.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Test for Clarity

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The quickest way to screw things up is believing your message is fully understood, or that you understand an incoming message perfectly.

If your belief is nothing more than an assumption the well known and overused truism  “Assume makes an ass of U and Me” takes effect.  Simply put, the risk of a negative impact, if your assumption is incorrect, is large than you think.

Validate

Avoiding this risk is pretty simple.  Check the meaning.  This is not like check the meaning at the door but rather confirmation what you are thinking is what others are thinking.

Words regardless of the language used only to have the meaning we assign to them.  Technically each word has well defined common meanings that everyone understands.

The way the words are strung together (i.e., sentences) also have rules that ensure common usage and interpretation.  That of course depends on whether you are familiar with the rules.

Reality

The concept of using language, coupled with actions to express meaning in a way that is subject to common interpretation is of course logical, but is it a reality?

With individual perceptions and bias along with the physical constraints such as hearing and eyesight limitations, our interpersonal communications are open to being misconstrued more often than not.

Paraphrase

One very simple verification technique is to replay the message with different words and sentence structure while retaining the meaning.

This will often expose those quirks we are all subject to when sending and receiving information from others.  Taken to an extreme don’t just paraphrase but act it out as well.

Did you get my meaning of this post? (This is the weakest form of validation of all, i.e.,  asking the direct question to which almost always the answer is Yes, regardless. )

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Change is Good

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Every moment we of our lives change is occurring.  It might be outside our field of perception or could directly impact us.  It might impact us later but the process of things becoming different is inevitable.

Change can be transformative or relatively minor in nature however even the smallest change can might not impact until months or years later.

For example, a butterfly might create a small breeze in South America as it flutters through the meadow that later becomes the impetus for significant weather changes perhaps a hurricane in Florida.

Quantifying Change

Subjectively we might approve of the change considering it desirable (maybe we initiated it) or conversely we may consider it of low value to us even harmful.

Given the subjective nature of our assessment and the fact change will occur it behooves us to find some good in all changes.   Accepting change, adapting and thriving in it is far better than the alternative.

Managing Change

Although most people can find ways to accept and support changes this is rarely the first reaction.  Change management needs to focus on helping everyone impacted see the good that comes from the change, as it relates to them.

Without effective change management, whether someone helps you through a change or you do it yourself, our default approach is often to seek out and find the bad things.  Ultimately this makes the change distasteful to you, unnecessarily so.

Change is good, you just need to find out how it is beneficial to you and adopt the best approach to embracing it.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Making do with what you have

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The Rolling Stones have had a long and prestigious career with many interesting songs ranging from pure entertainment to thoughtful and philosophical.

I have recently had some problems with my home office chair.  One of the wheels keeps falling off.  Of course, this can be a bit disconcerting, even dangerous when it happens you are getting out of the chair and it flips.

Getting What you Need

The chair issue is urgent to some degree, that is I need a comfortable chair so I can sit in front of my desktop screen for most of the day (with the pandemic we really are tied to the desktop for everything)

My issues drew me to one of my favorite iconic Rolling Stones tunes.  Musically it is really different (from a rock perspective) very choral in nature.  What struck me most though was the accuracy of the bridge lines.

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you might find
You get what you need

What I Want

In this specific case, I want an office chair I can rely on without having to worry about it tipping over or getting stuck as I try to roll away from the desk to leave.

Unfortunately I kind of wanted it stat.  Not being able to accomplish this, the chair is broken and the repair is not that feasible, I was stuck with getting what I needed. (At least I could get that though, through a wonky but temporary repair).

And this led me to hum the Stones tune all the while realizing that is life if you can’t get what you want then try hard to get what you need.  What else can you do?

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Coincidence or ………..

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My son and laws and I were chatting on Sunday about a variety of topics.  All while maintaining a separation of six feet.  And of course passing the beer cautiously

Not sure the impetus but the discussion strayed to how few celebrity marriages/partnership last more than 25 years.   This included each of us throwing in our examples.

Lasting Relationships

Sadly the three of us came up with surprisingly  few celebrity examples.

Paul and Joan Woodward, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russel popped up and then we paused.  I am sure there are more but our point was made.  It is not a lot.

As a final additionJohn Travolta and Kelly Preston was mentioned.  I was not sure they qualified but researched it later they were married almost 30 years until she died.

That’s where the freaky coincidence comes in.  We were having this discussion last Sunday (which is the day Kelly died from breast cancer).

In fact the timing of our discourse was just after the announcement of her death although none of us had heard it or were even aware she was ill.

Coincidence?

For me this is just another example of how we are all interrelated and powers and circumstances beyond are ken do exist.  Our discussion of celebrity relationships came out of nowhere.

That is, there was no specific initiating events.  In fact my son in law who later mentioned John Travolta was the one who brought up the topic.  There was no reason, it just came to him.

These kind of coincidences occur for me from time to time and I am convinced there is some intrinsic meaning.  Just not sure what yet.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Reorganization/ Process Redesign

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You may have heard this anecdote before, I was told it by a CEO who said it was a true story.  It presents an interesting perspective on when and why to undertake radical changes in your business.

When first appointed, the CEO who told me this story was given three envelopes by his successor.  He was advised to do the best he could but when the wolves were at his door and trouble in the wind the information in the envelope would help.

Envelope #1

His first couple of years went well but by the third fiscal year expenses were up and revenues flagging.  He opened the first envelope.

It said ” Give the stakeholders something to take their minds off the state of the business, implement a company-wide process improvement program.

He did this and the problems magically went away (at least the perception of them).

Envelope #2

After a couple of smooth years, the overall economy flagged and things in the business we again on a downward trend.  He decided to open the second envelope.

It said “Give the stakeholders something to take their minds off the economy.  Implement a company-wide restructuring.

He did this and the problems magically went away (at least the perception of them).

Envelope #3

After another couple of smooth years business problems were back.  The expense trend was on the rise, revenues were down.  Seemed like time to open the last envelope.

It said “ Prepare three envelopes for your successor”.

And the morale to the story is smoke and mirrors will work for a while but unless the root cause is addressed it will catch up with you eventually.

In large organizations, reorganization and process redesign can be a great way of deflecting stakeholders temporarily but ultimately the real issue will need to be resolved.