Have you talked to George?

Picking up on Troy's note about being Anonymous at 100 Bloggers and his daddy dream here, the short movie about George fits in.

Have you talked to George?

I Want To Be A Daddy Fifty Years From Now

My grandpa was a tall broad man with thick hands and a firm jaw. I remember him wearing overalls, a white undershirt, and workboots. He grew up on a farm outside Gypsum, Kansas, but he never wanted to be a farmer. In World War II, he flew 100 missions as a tail-gunner, but he never spoke of it. He wasn't a big talker. He died at 74. That was fifteen years ago.

We don't talk about him very often, but when we do, my mom still calls him "daddy." That says something about the man. I hope my daughter is still calling me daddy fifty years from now. It seems like a long way off now, but then, forty seemed like a long way off twenty years ago and now it is here.

It's not hard to believe I am forty years old.

I like to think of myself as a realist, whatever that means, but time mystifies me. Upon reflection, yesterday seems surreal and tomorrow feels more like a prayer than certainty.

Tomorrow is Monday. I will be working from home, because both Julia and Andrew have Halloween parties at school. Alisa and I will decide who will attend which party in the morning.

I am grateful for this opportunity. I realize many working parents don't have the degree of flexibility that I do. This flexibility is due, in part, to the culture of my workplace, but would not be possible if not for the efficiency and success of my team.

I am fortunate. In addition to having a wonderful family at home, I have a wonderful family at the office.

Is it really?

This blog is worth $3,951.78.
How much is your blog worth?

Some would say: Why bother?

I would say: A few good friends, talking across the miles, sharing and making our mark on this world; priceless!

What would you say?

Talk about real life!!

Saturday night ...some time on my hands ... at last!

Feeling a bit guilty about not making a Blog Synergy posting for a while I searched my files to come up with something that you may have seen before but it still makes me laugh. The moral of the story has something of a ring of truth about it sadly.

Enjoy .... and think about the message within:

Once upon a time, in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. By a surprising coincidence, both were blind from birth. one day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering ahead of him, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down.

This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit. "Oh, my," said the bunny, "I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been blind since birth, so, I can't see where I'm going. In fact, since I'm also an orphan, I don't even know what I am."
"It's quite ok," replied the snake. "Actually, my story is the same as yours. I too have been blind since birth, and also never knew my mother.

Tell you what, maybe I could slither all over you, and work out what you are so at least you'll have that going for you."

"Oh, that would be wonderful" replied the bunny.

So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, "Well, you're covered with soft fur, you have really long ears, your nose twitches, and you have a soft cottony tail. I'd say that you must be a bunny rabbit."

"Oh, thank you, thank you," cried the bunny, in obvious excitement.

The bunny suggested to the snake, "Maybe I could feel you all over with my paw, and help you the same way that you've helped me."

So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked,

"Well, you're smooth and slippery, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls. I'd say you must be a team leader, a supervisor or possibly someone in senior management."

Cat's Meow

Doing the dishes is not as much of a chore for my in our house here in Franklin as it may be for some. The kitchen sink is located below the window looking out into our backyard. We can view the summer green, the winter shadows, and especially at this time of year, the autumn colors as the tree that surround the yard turn and eventually fall. One of New England's treasures.

But more importantly, on the window sill itself, we have our collection of Cat's Meow pieces we have accumulated over the years.

The Presbyterian Church in Flemington, NJ

Runners in the Falmouth Road Race

Palmer House Inn, Falmouth, MA

The Chapel at Assumption College

US Grant's house in Galena, IL

and a similar piece of Mt. Kathadin, ME but it is not an offical Cat's Meow brand item.


So standing there to do the dishes,
I can glance up from the suds,
and then step into another time and place.
Yes, I know I am supposed to be mindfull of what I am doing.
But for those moments,
the slipping away is so easy
inspired by the sight of the item.
It makes the time (and the work) pass by!

Such a simple item.
Clearly priced for the tourist trade.
(They are not cheap but they are not expensively made either.)
With a life time of memories.

Food for thought?

What else can be simply made to provide such memories
and equally importantly, an income?

If You Don't Like Change...

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."
- General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, US Army

You've seen this quote. Tom Peters has used it extensively and I have referenced it more than once at Orbit Now! I have the quote tacked to the wall in my office between two whiteboards. I believe it and you should, too.

More about change: Curt Rosengren writes about change from a slightly different perspective in his post To Thrive, Embrace Change and credits The Circle Project, The Alchemy of Soulful Work, and 37 Days with contributions.

There goes a good idea!

This is more than a common sense saying and a significant safety factor for some types of work, this is a new blog that addresses workplace issues.

Never Work Alone is a blog where you'll find great advice for management and leadership related problems. Each week we post a problem and a summary of the response from the great community of managers and leaders over at the Never Work Alone Googlegroup.

Never Work Alone is a coproduction of Slacker Manager, Genuine Curiosity and Random Thoughts From a CTO

To combine the use of Googlegroups and blogs in this way to discuss and present solutions to problems is a good idea.

Now, can some software gurus craft a program to put the two functions together in one application?

Happy Monday!

Today is your best opportunity to ensure you have a good week. Do you know what you want to accomplish this week? What will it take? Figure it out this morning.

Make it happen!

Seven Ages of Man and Economic Motivation

My comment on this post by Jacob Botter at CPH127 I think is worth sharing here:

The trend seems to be towards the interior of the self. We are tending towards more and more individuality and independence when in fact we are becoming more aware of our dependence upon one another. I suspect if we do not turn the tide from independence to interdependence and community, we (yes, the big collective We) are in trouble.

Read the original posting.

Do you see a trend?

What do do think?

Stonehenge Redux

It has been one of the earth's great mysteries. How did Stonehenge get built?

Maybe, just maybe one guy has figured it out!

See for yourself.

Well, what do you think?



Thanks to Tom Asacker for the link.

Real listening

I remember Alan Alda from M.A.S.H. I especially enjoy him on Scientific American Frontiers (when I do get a chance to view it). And now from Michele Miller at WonderBranding I hear that Alan has a book out: Never Have Your Dog Stuffed.

Well, that won't be a problem in the Sherlock household as we do not abide with pets. Getting to the point, Michele quotes Alan in her post:

"The difference between listening and pretending to listen, I discovered, is enormous. One is fluid, the other is rigid. One is alive, the other is stuffed. Eventually, I found a radical way of thinking about listening. Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues. Like so much of what I learned in the theater, this turned out to be how life works, too."

How are your listening skills?

Are you allowing the other person to change you?



PS: I just added this book to my wish list... I am already behind reading some of the books on my shelves but I will make an effort to get to this one.

Create a Blogger Lunch at Work

From Jeneane Sessum comes this recommendation to just do it!

Send out an office wide email on Monday that says: Look, we know some of you folks blog. Sure, you haven't told us so, and no we're not monitoring your site surfing (much), and no we're not mad at you for doing it. Actually quite the opposite. As a company, we'd like to understand more about blogging. And we want you who are already blogging to tell us. You're the experts. You understand the space. So, let's have a lunch and learn session next week. Pizza is on the company and everyone's invited--just bring your blogging knowledge and your favorite blogs (or at least the ones you think the rest of us should be reading) and let's talk about this blogging thing. If you would like to be one of the blogger hosts for this lunch, email [[insert your email here]].

Why not?

To borrow Troy's line "Don't wait for permission to succeed!"

Everyone Needs A Steve

No, this is not shameless self promotion. It did catch my eye because, hey, why wouldn't I want to find out what someone was saying about me, but it isn't me. At least not in full name.

Steve Vaught is our Director of Operations at White Rabbit Group. He IS the left-brain linear thinker in this particular rabbit hole! Without his unique perspective and skills our firm would slow to a crawl.

I, on the other hand, tend to be the right-brain non-linear thinker. And, on a good day, I make important contributions too.

All this to say – everyone needs a Steve! Put in other words, everyone needs colleagues who compliment and complete what he or she lacks. Business growth requires it. Compelling brands don’t exist without it.

Yes, and even a Steve needs a good partner! Do you have a partner?

Have you told them that you are partners?

Your partner should know!

Quit Slacking!

According to a Web survey of 10,000 U.S. workers by AOL and Salary.com, on average, a little more than 2 hours per day per employee are squandered on activities completely unrelated to work. Wow! This is twice the amount expected by HR executives and this does not include time taken for lunch!

Note: These numbers don’t account for time wasted on non-value-add activities, such as unproductive meetings, either.

Topping the list of slacker diversions is surfing the Internet. Almost one hour per day per worker is spent browsing the Web.

Peter Drucker said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Ergo, it doesn't matter how good or efficient you are at surfing the Net on the job. It's useless.

Top Time-Wasting Activities:

• Arriving late/Leaving early – 1%
• Planning personal events – 1%
• Making personal phone calls – 2.3%
• Running errands off-premises – 3.1%
• Spacing out – 3.9%
• Conducting personal business – 6.8%
• Socializing with co-workers – 23.4%
• Surfing the Internet – 44.7%

This is truly amazing. Consider the number of workers laid-off since George Bush took office. I don’t have the statistics in hand, but I am confident that is has been more than a dozen, and even minus those twelve individuals, U.S. workers have time to surf the Web almost an hour each day. What does this tell us? It tells me that U.S. workers are bored. They are not challenged. They are not engaged. They may be disenfranchised! How could this be? This is not an indictment of the men and women in the trenches. This is an indictment of their leadership. Yes, I believe personal accountability is important, but I also believe it should start at the top.

I wonder what role the war in Iraq and the seemingly endless list of corporate scandals plays in this.

Source: Baseline Magazine

Taking a step back ... enterprise

maidenmole is continuing her series on "Taking a step back... over at ?IC@TomorrowToday.Biz. Her post on enterprise has these provoking questions:

Does the enterprise model limit its success to a handful of entrepreneurial types?

To what extent is the entrepreneurial spirit available to the rest?

As we move into the connection economy, are we biased towards those who show entrepreneurial spirit?

To what extent could the new economy really be a connection economy if we do not concern ourselves with those rest?

What can we do as connection economists to ensure that we do connect with all?

I notice the connection to Felix's posting on systemic thinking.

I wonder if this is not any different from what has happened previously.
Wasn't it at one time those who you knew that got you somewhere?
Wasn't it also at one time the explorers who succeeded?

In each day and age, does not a group with some special set of characteristics rise to the top inevitably? The question then becomes, can you become part of that group, and do you have what it takes, whatever it is at the time.

I do not believe that all of us can be part of that group. The nature of the competition is such to prevent it. There is no Lake Wobegon where all the children are above average.

So my answers to these questions would be as follows:

Does the enterprise model limit its success to a handful of entrepreneurial types? Yes, and there is nothing wrong with that.

To what extent is the entrepreneurial spirit available to the rest? To the extent that one is capable of competition at the same level and willing to do so, the spirit is open.

As we move into the connection economy, are we biased towards those who show entrepreneurial spirit? Yes, there will be a bias but there has always been some bias so what is new, nothing.

To what extent could the new economy really be a connection economy if we do not concern ourselves with those rest? If you define the economy as a connection economy, there will be at least three classes of people; the connected, those really connected (the group), and those not connected.

What can we do as connection economists to ensure that we do connect with all? It is an illusion to believe that you can connect with all. You may be able to connect with all those who want to hear your message, but you will not be able to connect with ALL.

What do you think?

To end on a positive note, I do believe that you can be happier with what you have than with what you want.

Demographics

From Michele Miller at WonderBranding: Marketing to Women comes this piece of data:

Starting January 1, 2006, a Boomer will turn 60 every eight seconds.

Now the challenge will be how to make this data point something you can use to succeed!

There is an opportunity waiting for an answer.

What will the future look like as it changes every eight seconds!

What's the framework?

From Patricia Digh at 37Days comes another great post:

... information isn’t terribly useful unless you have a larger framework and context in which to put it, use it, apply it, alter it, frame it, change it. Learning one thing is not useful. Learning how to learn about that one thing is. Perhaps that marks the difference between mindlessness and mindfulness, between idiocy and fluency, or between buying tourist souvenirs and being on the short end of a firing squad.

Between giving a person a fish and teaching that person how to fish...

I'll admit I did cause both my daughter's some aggrevation during their trips to my desk or chair with their homework. "Daddy, can you help me?"

I never gave them the answer directly. Yes, I was cruel.
I asked them questions to lead them to the answer for themselves.
I think it is better that way.

So if you ask me a question, let me alert you that I may ask you a question (or two) in return.
Old habit!

Do you want an answer or do you want the way to answer questions?

Fall back position

I was heartened to catch this quote from George Clooney in the article in the Boston Sunday Globe today. (Bold mine for emphasis)

Ironically, when Clooney left college to pursue acting, his father, Nick Clooney, a former Cincinnati news anchor, urged him to finish his degree in case his acting career didn't pan out. The single-minded Clooney responded at the time by telling his father, ''If I have something to fall back on, I'll fall back."

Living without a net, on the edge can be terrifying, challenging, and at the same time the most inspirational time. I have heard this from many other sources, primarily business entrepreneurs. To hear it from this source I thought was cool!

Does living on the edge provide inspiration?
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.