All posts by steve@kerrzone.com

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Making Gravitational waves

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Back in 1915, as part of his theory of relativity Albert Einstein included the existance of gravitational waves.  Over the years, and in some cases within Alberts lifetime various pieces of the theory of relativity were proven.  However this did not include proof gravitational waves existed.

Yesterday it was announced in Washington DC that in Sepetember an experimental device designed using lasers and a multitude of other highly complex technology had successfully detected a gravitational wave.

A true Genius

Over one hundred years ago Einstein developed a theory to explain physical phenomena’s he observed.  It hurts my brain just to absorb the concepts today and all I have to do is understand the answer, I don’t have to figure anything out.

For me the amazing part is as much about observing physical clues as it is about interpreting and explaining them.

Einsteins task was not only solving the mystery but actually figuring out what the  mystery was in the first place.

The scientists that have followed are brilliant as well but they knew their objective and approached achieving it through a set of incremental goals. This is a little simpiler than starting out with basically a blank page.

Understanding the Universe

And so part two in the ongoing journey of understanding the universe begins.  How did it come to being? How big is it? What changes are continually occurring?

I may not live long enough to see all the answers revealed, but at least some I hope.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Helping someone who needs it

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I had a discussion today with a colleague about helping someone who needs it.  For me, the points we bantered about apply whether personal or business focused.

Perception is Reality

It is critical to remember that your reality is based on the way you perceive things and caution must be applied to assumptions about whether help is needed or not.

Trying to assist when assistance is neither desired nor maybe considered required can lead to a whole host of issues.

A key skill to practice from your emotional intelligence (EQ) tool bag is self awareness.  Be aware whether the desire to help is potentially really for you as much as for the target who you are offering support to.   This is a key underlying factor it is really important to have a solid grasp of – that is why are you offering to help.

Receptivity

Most important is to check for receptivity.  Typically helping people who don’t want to be helped requires a battering ram  approach (exaggeration) or careful planning and manipulation.

Obviously the greatest success comes when help is requested rather than offered – although both approaches can work the latter usually requires a little more finesse, sensitivity and ample use of humor (always a good way to grease receptivity).

Why Help and When?

For  the most chance of achieving positive results from the assistance select opportunities where it is needed.

Humans (like most animals) have great instincts and gratuitous offers for help are usually smelt out a mile away.  This results in passive aggressive behavior at best and pure aggressive behavior at worse.

Please be the good Samaritan, this is a basic foundation of high performing cultures (social or business); but exercise with care to achieve the best results.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Guiding Success

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A key leadership attribute is having a keen understanding of the destination.  And most importantly how to get there.

Givving Direction

The first step toward achievement of a goal is clearly understanding the big picture.  What is the overall objective and how  and where do individual goals fit on the path to the overall objective.

Effective leaders not only  guide and direct the journey but monitor the quality and effectiveness of the achievements along rhe way.  It never ceases to amaze me when I hear a leader or manager exclaim “Thats not what I wanted”.

Of course another favorite is “Stop asking all these questions, just do it”  For me these kind of directions come from those with more managerial tendencies (a boss, supervisor or even a parent).

Leaders Seek the Optimal Result

Giving direction and guidance can lead to results but it’s important to qualify that results alone do not equal success.

Understanding the work that is being done, to ensure the goals and objectives align is not about micro managing or inflexibility.  Rather it is guiding achievement without interfering, micro managing or doing it yourself.  No one said leadership was easy.

How is this possible

Most importantly construct an environment for open ongoing and frequent communication.  Too often leaders hide behind the door to their office (a badge of success – the office that is).

Communication, voluntary, exuberant, two way and frank is the only way a leader can grasp what is occurring without becoming over involved and directive.  That is encourage everyone to discuss openly and freely about what is going on.

A free and open exchange of ideas with the right touch and balance of direction and validation the the goal is being approached, that is what you seek.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Playing to deadlines

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In the nineteen nineties Walmart perfected just in time delivery.  It  was a wholesale change to logistics management paradigm  for retail  at the time which was based on warehousing products in central locations rather than delivering them from the manufacturer to the store directly just when needed.

The savings in wharehouse costs was a big driver of the success of this approach.  I also attribute it to that inate aspect of human nature which drives us to wait to the last minute

RRSP Season

Seeing the plethoria of advertisements for RRSP contributions around this time of the year got me thinking about what for me is a very strange, albeit common trait of waiting to the last minute.

To be honest I made my contribution for last year inMarch right after submiting my tax return – no waiting for the April deadline for me.

I guess what surprises me is given all the benefits of doing a task well in advance, so many people still wait to the last minute.  I am thinking of benefits like no line-ups, no risk of late penalties, no risk of sell- outs and so on.

Still in the case of Walmart, just in time delivery actually is a cost saver.  Although it does result in some limitations, like restricting suppliers to the ones that can provide just in time deliver.  It does allow for lower prices and higher sales volume.  And of course for many, last minute frenzy is just a natural way to do things.

I know I do think differently than the masses on occassion and waiting to the last minutes is definately one of those times.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Operational Frameworks for Higher Cultural Maturity

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All cultural environments are subject to an operational framework which the stakeholders use to interact with each other.

In organizational groups the cultural is formed by the members of the group and how it well it operates is guided by how each component of the basic operational framework is practiced (or not).

The Operational Framework

Here is a picture of the four basic operational components intrinsic to any basic culture

Slide1

Whether written or just intuitively understood the most basic cultural attribute your internal organization must have are rules.  These can be called team norms, they can be policies, they can be government enforced laws or a variety of other types of standards.  All of these have one thing in common, they guide behavior.

Any combination of these forms of rules/standards can co-exist, the key is they need to be supported by some authority (whether is by the taking of personal accountability or enforcement through discipline.)

Ultimately disagreement or misunderstanding of rules – where they were not well communicated or its not clear that they exist can result in an interpretation process, which usually requires a judge.

Cultural and Organizational Maturity

The level of maturity applied by the members of the cultural group  to the ongoing management of behavior both within and outside these rules can be a key measure of organizational maturity.

Typically high performing cultures/groups/ teams demonstrate an intrinsic understanding of this framework by each member of the team and this results in efficient and effective interactions and resulting team outcomes.

Can I use this framework to create improvement

One continuous improvement approach can be to assess your organizations culture against this framework to identify the weak areas or behaviors so that they can be addressed.

For example are there too many rules, too few, are they well or badly understood, is they little personal accountability taken, or too much personal accountability is applied versus consistent discipline and so on.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Social Networking Etiquette

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In the last fifteen years or so we have seen a huge increase in the use of social networking.  Top sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can generate millions of views of a particular post in a single day.

Unwritten Standards

From childhood we learn and adopt many conventions (standards) about how to interact with others, mainly guided by our parents or guardians.

Many of these standards are not enforced through formal discipline methods, first through warnings or guidance as you grow up and then when you are older more often through  ostracism.   If you don’t behave as expected like the rest of us you will be excluded.

A simple example would be the usual morning greeting ritual.   Someone says “good morning” and you are expected to respond in kind ” good morning to you” or something like that.  Silence or if you say something like “what’s good about it” will lead to you being ignored in the future.  People will whisper “stay away from him/her in the morning they are not nice.  You are ostracized.

I should point out a key attribute of these unwritten rules is common sense.

Social Networking

In the case of social networking learning the social norms does not begin at childhood nor is guided by your parents.  The norms are set and passed through some virtual network by the participants themselves.

In the case of Facebook you must be at least over thirteen, so you already have a basic framework of standard norms covering social interaction and should be able to employ some level of common sense.

Older Generation Fumbles

Not having been brought up with Facebook, joining it post mid-life, I initially have found these unwritten standards frustrating.  My first reaction has been rebellion and is of course is defensive – “If I had known, I would have followed that, you are being unreasonable.”

On second thought the logic (and common sense) of the standard practices seeps in, they are intuitive after all and I feel sheepish for my resistance.

Case in Point

Recently I posted some news about someone else on my own Facebook account (although I had a keen interest in the news) and was quickly advised by the subject that the standard practice was to allow the “owner” of the news to post first, then I could share it on my account so a broader audience (encompassing my friends) would find out).

Initially, I found this restrictive and impinging on what I perceive to be my right to do what I want.   On second thought, back to my core value, it’s okay to seek my own pleasure as long as it is not at the expense of others.   I wish I had thought it through fully.

The Morale to the story

If you are new to social networking be sensitive and respectively of the existing user community.  Think it through before posting or sharing information, remember the same principles that apply in the face-to-face world do apply virtually as well.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

A little wistful thinking

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This morning the phrase “If I knew then what I know now….” popped into my head.   It was not about a specific incident but more wistful thinking prompted by a news article I was reading.

Knowing yourself

This mornings wistfulness primarily arose from what I think of myself now versus what I knew about myself forty years ago when I made some key choices about how I would spend my life.

Lest I give the wrong impression, I have no feeling I made the wrong decisions, nor do I have any regrets.  My life so far has been and continues to be fulfilling and satisfying.   I am fortunate in that I am very comfortable with the real events that have brought me to the point I am at (this is not a perception, for me this is – reality)

I often use these posts to share philosophical ideas and that is my purpose today.

Knowledge and Experience

If I knew then what I know now can most often be related to knowledge gained through experience.  There are numerous ways to gather knowledge; whether proactive, reactive or sedentary (you just gather it like a rolling stone does not gather moss) as you move through life knowledge is gathered.

Gathering Experience

My thoughts traveled more along the lines of how  gaining experience requires time.  That is to say, while every moment of your life is an experience, the compiling of valuable and worthwhile knowledge generally (although not always) takes years of gathering, storing and analyzing these moment by moment occurrences.

The conundrum for me is the time it takes to codify a valuable set of experiences to the point where they are useful in guiding your decisions is often too long and so too late.  The decision point has long past.

Why Wistful?

Unfortunately time travel is not a reality (at least that I know of) so there is no way to explore and test alternatives.  What if I had……?

And then I realized, I don’t care and really the point is irrelevant. The enlightenment I experienced at that moment was very heartening and probably proof that I should be more happy than wistful.

What I have experienced, the decisions I have made and where it has brought me are really satisfying (both positive and negative experiences I would not miss one of them).  And that feeling is really good.

And if I did not feel this way, I suddenly understood now be a point to make a change.  It’s never over, never final.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Taking Accountability

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On Wednesday my post was about the practices of discipline and accountably as they relate to standards (aka rules).  Today I will focus on the practice of personal accountability as it relates to self-fullfillment.

Getting it done

Taking accountability to meet a standard, and even to exceed the standard can be a better way to adhere to rules then waiting to be disciplined as a way to correct your behavior and ultimately achieve compliance.

Even better is to proactively take the initiative.  This is a key attribute leaders  demonstrate consistently.  This means,  when you see a gap in processes and practices, take ownership of the issue and lead the implementation  action to resolve .  This leading by example can set off a chain reaction and before you know it everyone is taking accountability.

Taking accountability is a great way to get things accomplished, both through your own actions and as you spark the leader within others they  fill the gaps and the level of consistency and adherence to standards rises.

This effect applies both in personal and non- personal situations.  Generally wherher family or colleagues; both groups will be positively influenced by your lead to take accountability.

Feeling Good

Another key benefit of taking accountability is how it makes you feel.  The satisfaction associated with getting results leads to very positive feeligs.  This will make you want to shout the chorus line from that famous song by James Brown, “I feel good” and you will.

Start today, take accountabiliy, its just lying there waiting for you reach out and get it done  – don’t wait for permission, take control.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Perception is reality

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Canadian philoshopher/ communications specialist Marshall McLuhan  is known for his communication and culture seminars at the University of Toronto in the 1950’s among many other accomplishments from a long and sterling career.

One salient sound bite attributed to him is “the medium is the message”. Like the well known catch phrase “perception is reality” the point is that belief can be shaped by how a message is delivered and ulitimately it becomes reality.  How effectively it is delivered can supersede the message itself.

A famous example of this is the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast of an H.G. Wells sciencefiction story, in 1938.  Part  of the radio play was presented in a news broadcast format.  BIzzarely, this caused many listeners to actually believe the earth was being invaded by an alien race and wide spread panic ensued. There was no invasion.

Facts are Real

I personally struggle with the perception is reality conversation or the medium is the message because I believe facts do exist and real things happen regardless of peoples perceptions, opinions or views.

Of course one persons reality can differ from anothers but to argue a reality does not exist because it is not consistently percieved is frustrating for me.  If a tree falls in the forest it really falls whether I hear or see it.

Playing the Perception Card

When someone trys to argue an issue’s root cause is a result of perceptions my own perception is that this is a cop out.  The thought process is something like “I know, can’t solve the issue so I will claim it does not exist, it is only percieved to be a problem”.  Ouch!

Well, I perceive there is no such thing as perception, only reality so unfortunately for me this argument holds little water.  I agree we can view reality differently and have opposing views but that does not change the fact reality exists – regardless of how one percieves it.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Enforcing standards

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Governments, companies organizations and associations (to name but a few types of structures) all set standards for their constituents, members  and employees.  These can be integrated, overlapping or stand alone

Enforcement

Personal adoption and adherence to standards (or rules) usually occurs through either discipline or accountability.

In the case of discipline the standard is imposed and then is achieved through enforcement. The intent is that the punishment will act as a deterrent. Therefore, the key to effective discipline is power.

Alternatively when the standard is adhered to through exercise of personal accountability punishment is not needed and adherence/performance to the standard is typically superior.

In short, and I believe this intuitive, wanting to follow the standard and being willing doing so of your own volition produces much higher qaulity results.

The satisfaction of exercising accountability is far more motivating than the practice of discipline to avoid punishment.

Can you influence how others react to standards?

If you agree the practice of accountability is superior to discipline as an approach to enforcing standards, the first question is probably can I influence others to practice  personal accountability and if so how?

Everyone has the power to influence regardless of whether it is granted by your place in an organization or you earn it through your own positive (or even manipulative) behaviors.

A key practice I often find effective is to influence by example.  This is definately a foundational behaviour to use as you begin to exercise your power to influence the use of accountability over discipline.

Directed humor, demonstrating benefits or using praise are just a few others out  of a  myriad of options.  My intent here is not to make this an explicit how to blog post but rather just to generate some ideas of methods you could try.