Seeking Coastal Utopia

When are you going to be able to enjoy your life away from the workplace? “this is good work, and we should move to the next level” photo from NeONBRAND on  Unsplash Are you developing and maturing your team, program, business, or organization to survive after you leave? When you start working on a new process or a new solution, are you taking that same time to invest in someone that can own that work beside you? Are you taking the time or effort to transfer your knowledge to the next generation or a peer that is looking to advance their skillsets? “why let work bind you” photo from Zulmaury Saavedra on  Unsplash Why are you a slave to your work? Do you really think that the business cannot run without you at the helm and if that is the case, why is it that way? Did you not hire the right people around you ? It is possible one of the reasons why is that you have not taken the time to do proper succession planning. You have not taken the time to tra...

Maybe we should even restate it by saying that simple is always better. “eyeglasses with black frames” by Jess Watters on  Unsplash Simple. The word itself is simple. The opposite of complex, the opposite of making it so confusing that it requires three people to work on it. It is as simple as one element, one piece. Simple is elegant in its scarcity. When you say “ wow, that was simple, ” you say it with a smile. When you say “ wow, that was complex ” it is usually prefaced or closed with expletives. Now, this is not a treatise against technology, even though technology is taking over. It is adding more complexity to our cars (e.g. self-driving vehicles) or that our appliances are now connected to the web and have browsers and screens built into them, enabled to determine where you are short on foodstuffs. There are (lots of) times when you want simple. It is recognized that self-driving vehicles are required to be complex because of the daunting task for eng...

A proxy is a representative value or measure (figure) that can be used as part of a calculation. You see the use of proxy calculations in economics and social science studies. The S&P 500 Index, DOW and NASDAQ are all giant forms of proxy calculation. You need to use it in your efforts to change behavior. stock market chart from Chris Liverani on  Unsplash You use a proxy when you are unable to directly measure a particular action or activity. We normally see the use of a proxy when calculating the quality of life or defining a measurement for the standard of living. For instance, you wish to measure a feeling, such as happiness or anger, of a group of people and the possible cause of that emotion. You can indirectly associate whether or not they had coffee on the day they reported their specific emotions via the use of a simple binary response counted, 1 for yes, 0 for no, and tally the results. Depending on the number of people that reported getting coffee you could rel...

Are you a giver or are you a taker? Do you try to share everything that you have or do you try to keep things close so that no one can steal it? How do you get those around you to level up? You should share your ideas and share your concepts. Always. Often. Why? “Do Something Great neon sign” by Clark Tibbs on  Unsplash It allows you to leverage the ideas and thoughts of a different worldview . Someone else’s perspective will help you build on those dreams. Ego check. The reason why you do this is that you are not an expert in everything. Seriously. You may be an expert in photography . Or one that can articulate and present engineering development in a rich and impactful manner. Or in helping others see their full, true potential , and teach others to be more empathetic in their actions, but you too can use the help. The help you need to level up . You can certainly be the one that comes up with all the ideas, the creator. You can be the one that’s driven to pus...

Evil replacement water cooler Change is hard, really hard. People say they like change, and they say that they thrive in change. Lies. Most people hate it. We are creatures of habit. Wait, who moved my cheese ? Change is a significant part of my daily work, figuring out how to instill change within an organization. I live, eat, and breathe changes, yet I hate it too. One day I went to fill my water bottle at the cooler and to my dismay, the old water cooler had been replaced with a new one. [pause — huh, look at that a new water cooler ] Then I lost it. My cool that is. After a few expletives… Why should I try it out? Screw you, I want the old water cooler back! Stupid thing. I hate these fill buttons. What the…I can go outside and fill my bottle in a rainstorm faster than this thing — [um dude, you live in Arizona, it rains like 2 inches a year here]… Uuuuuuugh. This water is taking too long to fill. OK, deep breath, it will be ok. Fuh. It’s not even...