Mutual Mystification

What's the goal?

 So many times we end up with folks either not knowing or forgetting the goal we are trying to reach. Once when our children were little we decided to drive across our great country so they could see this great country and have a lifelong love of travel. Well, somehow along the way everyone seemed to forget that goal and everyone just started going off in different directions and being unhappy about what we were doing! The kids couldn't wait for the trip to be over and my wife learned she dislikes traveling! Quite a change from our starting goal!

It happens at work sometimes when the leader believes he's clearly explained the desired goal and everyone on the team either didn't understand what was wanted or had their own thoughts/ideas of what the goal was. Either way nobody is one the same path towards the same goal! Sometimes, during the pursuit of the goal, in all the activities, we just forget what the original goal was. That's where having the goal clearly written down and posted or shared helps to remind everyone. Below are several other ideas that may help also.

 So how do you solve the "Mutual Mysticification" situation? The most obvious way is to clearly state the desired goal and then have others use different words to tell you back what they believe they heard. It also helps if you go several layers deeper and explain "Why" the goal is important. Others may believe it is because you want one thing and that may not be involved at all, it may be a completely different reason for wanting the goal reached.

 One thing is for certain, if mutual Mysticification takes place, for whatever reason, problems will soon follow and the goal, if ever reached at all, will be tremendously more difficult to obtain.

These are my thoughts, what are yours?
Steve

Are you happy?

Are you happy today?  Today I want to take some time to think about what makes someone happy.  I've found that sometimes the things that make me happy are things that I had no idea would affect me at all.  Other times I have to actively think about and seek out things that make me happy.  Maybe I'm over thinking everything. Maybe I'm expecting too much.
Right now I feel happy, but why do I feel that way? Is it because I'm doing what I want to do (thinking and writing) and have not one but two dogs laying near me, both very content and happy, while at my lake house with part of my family around me? Or is it just something that happens cosmically and today is my time?
Are there things going wrong around me today? Yep, as they always do and will, but why allow those minor items to change your personal level of happy?  I believe that "happy" is a state of mind and it can be (maybe should be) completely apart from events happening around you. Those dog's are a great example for me as to how to be happy.  All it takes is - nothing - yep, nothing, for the dogs to be content and happy.  I've watched my dog be happy inside or outside, with us or alone, dry or wet, etc.  Somehow God made dogs happy no matter what is going on around them.  My dog also never seems to worry about things either.  She has nothing new to wear, and sometimes goes long periods of time without food, yet she never seems to be bothered by those circumstances. One thing for sure, when she see's me or another member of her family that she knows and loves she surely does get happy - so happy her tail is about to knock her off her feet from wagging so much!  I don't ever remember beings quite so happy my tail wags - I wonder if I should consider that too?
Maybe that is the key to my being happy also.  Just stop worrying and stressing about circumstances and decide that no matter what happens (or doesn't happen) according to my desires or wishes, I will still be happy with my life.  WOW!  I feel better already. Now to go power wash the house, cut the grass,  and wait for the A/C repairman to show up and fix the problems with cooling............

These are my thoughts on Happiness, what are yours?
Steve

Never Stop Learning

Lately I've spent more time learning than teaching.  It is a different role for me, but one that I very much enjoy. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about cement but have discovered (once again) just how little I really know about yet another subject. Besides the fact that the cement business, like every other business, keeps growing and changing so you MUST keep on learning, I've also discovered that also like many other things, even the word "CEMENT" means something different than I thought it did! 

A "Cement" is a binder - a substance that sets and hardens independently and binds other materials together.  This is not to be confused with "Concrete", which is made of cement and aggregates. 

On top of that, there are different types of "CEMENT" - Hydraulic and Non-Hydraulic.  The first cures and hardens because of hydration - that is a chemical reaction with the mixing water. The Non-Hydraulic cement must be kept dry to develop their strength.

There is even an organization devoted entirely to cement - http://www.cement.org/
Wow! I had no idea how little I knew (and still don't know) about cement.  I suppose I better go back to working and start learning more so I can share more about my newly found knowledge.

As most of you already know, I like quotes and several pop into my mind today:

     It's what you don't know, that you don't know, that will hurt you!  and:

     It's what you learn after you know it all that really counts!   I'm heading back to school now!

Steve

3 Things for sure!

There are certain absolutes in life, Death, paying taxes, and having some gas engine powered time saving device that won't start as advertised! Yea, I know, push the priming bulb 3 times, set the throttle/choke to start and then pull the starting cord. 900 times! Again and Again until you're ready to cuss and kick or throw the thing, then it finally starts. By then I'm too worn out to do whatever job it was I needed! Remember the communists always have said they will take over our country by not firing a shot, well in spite of certain actions by groups involved in running our government, I'm now convinced it will happen when everyone in the country gets a gas powered tool and try's to start them on the same day! Yesterday it was the lawn mower, but could just as easily have been the trimmer or blower. We are doomed! These are my thoughts, what are your? Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms out there. Steve

MultiTasking

In today's business climate it seems like the term Multi Tasking is all the rage. Everyone wants everyone else to respond/reply almost instantly and even at work the company may request/require that you multitask. 
I have found in my world that sometimes multitasking is a good thing and like so many other items, sometimes it isn't.  Driving to work this week I saw a women who provided an excellent point for the positive view of multitasking.  She was (A) walking her child to the local school, while (B) also walking the dog along with them, while (C) swinging her arms and getting her morning exercise workout.  Now that is creative use of time and multitasking.  In the next block I observed a driver (I won't reveal male or female) that was driving one handed while attempting to work on what appeared to be a BlackBerry phone, and, read the paper stuck up on the steering wheel. This was DRIVING, or maybe I should say swerving around, and not stopped at a traffic light!  Bad choice there just waiting to start an accident.
Now my wife, and many female friends, argue that women are far superior to multitasking than men - and there is at least one famous college study (by a woman of course) that documents several reasons for this claim.

• Women's brains are programmed to think and work differently than men's.
• Women are intellectually superior to men.
• Women from an early age are given multi dimensional tasks while men seem to prefer focused tasks with single focus activities.
• Women just practice this more than men do.

Now I'm not at all agreeing with this theory, but just reporting it as one of the reasons that women seem so much more inclined to multitasking activities than most men are.
One thing I feel very sure of: Multitasking, as with most other activities can, when used to excess or at the wrong times, and result in terrible results and actually hurt your situation more than help you to gain that time you are attempting to save by doing different things at the same time.
As for me, I feel comfortable reporting that I can occasionally multitask without a problem, like walking and chewing gum, or drinking beer and watching a sporting event, but if you get much more complicated than that my tired old brain seems to rebel and I find that I seem to do a very poor job of all of the tasks I am attempting to combine and accomplish. 
These are my thoughts today, what are yours?
Steve

Top Down or Bottom Up?

One day I heard a man give a personal testimony saying "I thought of myself as being a self made man and I worshiped my maker."  Now that level of Pride and Ego will get you in trouble for sure! 

If you're convinced that you know all and have all you need, and that you earned it all by yourself, then get ready for a really big learning lesson that is sure to come your way soon.  I know HUMBLE and how difficult it is to learn and live with, but I promise you (having been on both sides of this particular issue) that the Pride and Ego side is also extremely difficult.

Somehow we have to find a middle ground - that grey area - that path that allows both sides to live in Peace and Harmony most of the time, and then firmly plant our feel and ideas there to sprout and grow in that fertile ground.

I watched it happen when I was involved in manufacturing. When decisions which affect the assembly line are made in the boardroom they seldom work and are always resented. The quality of work diminishes and production stalls.

I watched it happen when I was in sales. When procedures are handed down as edicts, without including the input of salespeople, morale is damaged, which ultimately has a negative impact on sales.

In several churches I’ve been involved with I’ve realized it also happens in churches. When the pastor, or a body of senior leaders, makes a decision that impacts the children’s ministry, for example, without the input of people who are actually doing children’s ministry, resentment builds, momentum stalls, and people resist the changes.

Be careful making decisions from “the Ivory Tower”. Many leaders lead with a top down approach, passing down decisions without consulting with those who have to live with them. It’s easy in leadership to forget that real people have to implement your decisions.

Don’t stand in the tower. Get out among the people you work with on your team.

Great leaders build decisions from the ground up, not from the top down.

Want people on your team to buy-in to your decisions? Then allow the people having to implement them be a part of the team making the decision. You may just be amazed at how little you know and how much you can learn.

How is your organization making decisions?

Ambition

Everyone has some ambition I suppose, the problem I see is that many folks set their sights too low for fear of failure. Why is that? Why do we fear failure so much?
Thomas Edison led the way in product failures, and BECAUSE of that also led the way in product innovations!
Look at baseball, our all time strikeout king is one of the best remembered players!
I've spent a majority of my work time lately working on and thinking about new product development because my company, USG, wants to be the leader in every industry we are involved with. Not top 10 or top 5, THE LEADER! Without ambition that goal would be impossible.
Like most other things in life, balance is healthy and required, but ambition, like ego and pride, in appropriate balance, is a great and necessary item in making this a better world to live in. Have we experienced setbacks and failures during our efforts? ABSOLUTELY! But because of clearly stated focus on our ambition goals, those failures don't become permanent failures, but only minor roadblocks and setbacks that are then overcome.
Where do you stand on ego, pride, and ambition? Do you spend time deeply thinking about those traits? Do you only see those 3 as evil or bad? Why not take a few minutes today to think about how you can use ambition, ego, and pride to improve yourself and the world around you.
Happy Easter to you and your family! Be sure to take time during these next 3 days to reflect on the meaning of this holy time.
Steve