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....

     The start of the A-Z blogging challenge catches me rather busy this week officially rolling into a new full time position while filling in for Wild Bill Lewis on 97-5 Y-Country , working on a couple of articles for the Herald Palladium , teaching Organizational Behavior for Lake Michigan College and preparing for a Bridges Out of Poverty Day One Training to lead at  Andrews University soon.  Then there's the homework for my PhD in Organizational Psychology.      In working (or volunteering) for more than 25 years in community and individual development and teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, I've come to abhor the word average .  The average American makes less than a 1/4 of what are U.S. Congressman does, and .0000008th of what the average CEO makes. President Bush was only an average (C) student in college, but managed to become President. I don't know the real numbers, but I know a lot of business ow...

     When we look at where the United States stands in terms of student performance , there is one aspect in particular which stands out for me.  We continue to ignore what science tells us about learning, neurology and brain development in favor of one sized fits all models and standardized testing.      Watching the John Travolta film Phenomenon this past weekend I was struck by the truth of one scene in particular where he states to the neurologist " I think you've got this desperate grasp on technology and this grasp on science and you don't have a hand left to grasp what's important... what I'm talking about here is the human spirit.  That's the challenge, that's the spirit, that's the expedition. "  That scriptwriter gem is also not far off from the work by Sir Ken Robinson .       Having previously read summaries , viewed PowerPoints and watched videos discussing Dr. John Medina 's New York T...

     In our small but beautiful part of the world we're just days away from welcoming visitors from around the world for the 2012 Senior PGA Championship at the Golf Club at Harbor Shores .  Players from at least 15 countries will begin arriving shortly and what has been decades of work by countless volunteers and visionary leadership from many different walks of life will be shared globally on television. I'm expecting phenomenal weather and even better golf for those who join us leading up to Memorial Day.       I've already seen automatic email responses from a number of local individuals volunteering who aren't going to be available until after the final ball drops Sunday, May 27th. The construction around this amazing course to handle the golfers, fans, media, sponsors, employees and volunteers is exciting to watch.  I used to do play-by-play for the Western Amateur at the Point O'Woods on WSJM when it was still h...

     Five years ago Brian Hindu wrote an article for Bloomberg Businessweek about 3M and how Total Quality Management and Six Sigma movements dramatically decreased their number of patents and new product introductions as number crunching and efficiency stifled innovation and creativity.      There's a quote (of many) in Gary Hamel's latest book What Matters Now I love: " If life had adhered to Six Sigma rule, we'd still be slime. Whatever the future holds for us bipeds, we can be sure that happy accidents will always be essential to breakthrough innovation (p. 42)."       Yet Hamel also discusses the incredibly strong innovative culture at Whirlpool, an organization highly vested in Lean training and methods.  The difference between the two examples occurs when our organizations steer too far in either direction.      Jonah Lehrer in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works and in a rec...

     By nature most of the time I am an optimist.  Which is probably why it doesn't bother to spend time watching the news as it does some I know.  "It's so depressing, can we watch something else?".  Having been in a variety of despairs over my near 50 years, as well as some extraordinary opportunities and heights, I know that whatever confronts me today is minimal in comparison to the plight of many on earth, our country, state and even in my community or neighborhood.      I have a poster in the office.  One of those "successories" kind of things.  It looks like a long par five with sand traps running the entire length of the fairway, water on the left and a dog-leg right.  It's got an Arthur C. Clarke underneath:  "The only way to know the limits of the possible is to go beyond them to the impossible."  I do believe he was right.   From deep within me is a predilection to push the boundaries,...