Brief Moments

     I'd like to find the first corporate MBA who thought moving Black Friday to Thanksgiving day, pulling employees away from their families and ask them what they're doing today.  I'm sure it's not at a checkout counter in retail. Like the changing family structure in America our Thanksgiving occurs on three different days:  Last Sunday with one set of in-laws and siblings nearby, today with my other in-laws and Sunday with my father's family in Grand Rapids.  We won't see those in California, Washington, D.C. or Hawaii but have either already spoken with them or will shortly.  All three occasions we'll be missing my oldest son who's working at a homeless shelter in Kalamazoo.      A family member recently said to me that we were going to have a "crappy Christmas" based on cash flow. My response was immediate.  If we're together it will be a wonderful Christmas because that's all that matters. I just don't have mu...

     This exercise suggested by a friend/mentor would have been interesting begun more than 30 years ago and rewritten every five years without reviewing previous renditions.  In the recesses of memory there have been several perfect days in my life.  One wonders though whether those fleeting synapse impressions are accurate.  That's a different exploration as we consider what it might be like were that day to be tomorrow. It's not chronological, but activities that may vary and accepting the flow of what comes has become an important part of my personal definitions of happiness and success. Early     The day would begin without an alarm's noise before sunrise.  The exercise of grinding the coffee beans and the wavering odor of a  fresh coffee pot hints at hope. Waking daily to a mental song from history (another day's writing), a brief analysis ensues accepting or rejecting relevance.  The first hours are spent in readin...

     Many years ago I had a sales manager who would regularly take the entire team and support staff to the corner bar to build social capital.  I doubt he knew that term though.  Often we know things to be true before someone labels it for scientific measurement.   After an hour or so it would not be unusual for him to stand on a chair and say: "God told me to tell you to sell more radio!  Watermelon shooters for everyone."      Certainly the sales industry has evolved over the years.  The close the deal at any costs and whether or not you can deliver should be dead.  I remember moving into the consultative selling approach and the era of Win-Win.  The client wins and the organization wins.  I believe in part from an evolving theology it's Win-Win-Win-Win I've come to believe in. Customer Win: Pick any major (and some minor) theologies you want.  We're meant to take care of each other....

Stephen Tremp      Pieces of this have come out in many posts since Stephen Tremp convinced me to join the A-to-Z Challenge last year.  95% of what I write is sitting on hard drives, floppy discs, or old type written paper which requires enough resources to hire somebody to convert.  Probably in the next 18 months that happens. And yes, I know that using THIS as my T word in the challenge is weak but the 6 jobs working schedule with the Phd puts Blogs in the background of priorities. Forgive me for the length in sentence structure and in total. Kay Redfield Jamison      Having listened for years to National Public Radio in the car and online I am familiar with the This I Believe Series and although reading the individual philosophies contained therein is interesting it does not at all compare to what one experiences when hearing the original writer speak their own words.    Written language is valuable, but ...

Saturday morning with gray overcast skies Steady winds in Pure Southwest Michigan Weekend Edition feeding awareness in the background Lists of deadlines swirl in neurons unwritten As reminders to do, not stresses that harm The lapdogs run through the mountains of logs That the electric company felled in hopes Of protecting their precarious lines While yapping at the neighbors four times their size Through the boundary fences of backyards So many rush through daily agendas Unfocused on meaning and purpose As completion becomes the only objective That quality falls or service substandard With mediocrity ruling the journey The children are taught by observation That activity levels measure success With no planned moments of nothingness Time to search internally and find The purpose and meaning of who we are Stop! He shouted from keyboards and classrooms Listen! To nothing but the soul of reflection Wait! In the moment of existence Dream! From within, not bin...

     The last week of August this year I suddenly was asked to teach four graduate classes and three undergraduate classes on four different campuses.  So aside from an election night moment of hope and a couple of linked posts to worthwhile blogs or writings of associates there's been no time to share in this medium.      With a week to start before class the first question tends to be "What textbook are we using?"  Then given my abhorrence for texts that give lots of theory and outdated economic reality examples, while helping students relate concepts to the world they live and work in, becomes rather consuming.  Particularly while working on my own PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology; writing for the local paper; filling in as a talk show host on regional radio in the morning regularly; and working to help the engagement between the Tea Party and liberals in my region in solving What Matters Now in my communitie...

    Wow did I get overwhelmed and behind in the daily A-Z blog.   It's good to have work to do though.  With the letter C, several things came to mind; compassion, college; and clarity all came to mind, but I feel a tug towards change .   Maybe in part because I teach Organizational Design, Development and Change in the graduate program for Siena Heights University.  Maybe because there has been so much change in my life over the past eight years in particular. Certainly because guiding organizational and individual change is so much of my life's work to date.      I love Peter Drucker and a couple of his thoughts in particular.  " One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it ." And " The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different ."       Howard Gardner in Five Minds for the Future talks about how we must not only develop expertise in one specific area of ...