Seeking Coastal Utopia

Wake up! “do not let this escape” photo by Adrien Robert on  Unsplash This is not about getting enough sleep or using music or yoga or exercise to help someone wake from their dance with the Sandman, this is about us as a society turning a blind eye to things around us, ignoring the opportunities we have to make a change. Why have we turned into a society that is completely unconscious and underwater? It is though we hardly care about what is happening today, let alone tomorrow. Time for us to wake up. Time for us to take a step forward and make a significant change in our work and our lives today. Believe we can make a difference in our lives. We need to make the conscious choice to do something positive in our lives. What is happening right now that you can support? What is happening right now that you can take action on? What are you afraid of? “this plucky robot had the guts to try something new” photo by Dominik Scythe on  Unsplash Most of us go through ...

Hygiene is important. Cleanliness is next to godliness and all that. Hygiene is important everywhere but it is very important in the workplace. Hygiene means you do not smell like a goat. It means you try to wash your hands, face, your hair, or your body. It means you take effort in shaving or brushing your hair. “dude, brush your teeth” photo by Dan Cook on  Unsplash It even means brushing your teeth. If we are talking on the elevator and less than arm’s length away, admittedly, I do not want to smell your stale coffee breath and what you had for breakfast this morning, nor do you wish to smell my bacon-egg-jalapeno bagel let alone see it stuck in my teeth.  Men and ladies, quick tips, keep a travel-size deodorant, floss, toothbrush, and toothpaste in your work bag, just in case , it will surprise you how often you use it. “I can still smell it” photo by Paulo Silva on  Unsplash Hygiene does not need to come with overpowering scents. These scents inc...

What happened? You just looked at the clock and it is the end of the day, and you did not do what you intended to do. Although it was on your list of things to do, you talked about it, you made the plans, yet you never got to it. How is that possible? Retrace your steps during a typical working day. “what the hell happened?” by Jonathan Rados on  Unsplash Email. Facebook. Instant messaging Meeting Email Phone call. Meeting Another phone call. More (a metric buttload more) instant messages. Meeting. Email. . . . Huh, look at that at, the end of the day. And you did not do a single thing on your list. “person distracted by their stupid smartphone” by Erik Lucatero on  Unsplash Now let’s look at the weekend. The intent is to work on Halloween costumes or carve pumpkins, or . Coffee Email Web searches News Exercise Xbox Chores Grocery shopping. XBox Cleaning Dinner prep. Dinner Movie or TV Bedtime. Well...

We all do it. I am really good at it. I make excuses like a champ. “this is a pile of books I said I would read but didn’t” photo by Annie Spratt on  Unsplash Too many times I find myself in a situation, trying to rationalize why I did not complete a particular task. I may even spend more time trying to formulate an excuse for not completing a task than it would be for me just to go ahead and do the activity. Or I said I was “done” but, maybe 67% is not done . Does this sound familiar? I highly doubt that I am the only person that does this. So how do we break out of that self-sabotaging behavior? It is time to own it. Own that activity. You made the mistake of saying “yes” or “I will do that” or any other positive affirmation when someone asks you to do something. We just do not know how to say NO and we have a list of 214 things that need to be completed by tomorrow. When you say “yes”, you immediately realized in the back of your cluttered mind that you w...

Have you ever been to the circus or have you ever seen videos of the clown car? A bunch of clowns cramped inside, clambering out one after another. Yet you never really know who is driving. They had no purpose other than piing in with most likely no specific directions, no specific purpose other than being slightly silly? In case you are slightly analytical and curious about how they fit so many clowns into cars, Car and Driver devised some physics to justify the science behind clown car stuffing . “plenty of room in this beauty” photo by The Creative Exchange on  Unsplash When you think of the image of the clown car where multiple clowns cycle in and out of the vehicle, running in various directions, switching sides, changing locations, you lose track of who is where and which ones are in the show. The misdirection, constant change and people moving all over the place can cause you to lose track of who is doing what. Unfortunately, some organizations are much like cl...

As you know, as a leader, you should be taking the time to train your replacement . One of the easiest ways to train your replacement is to ensure that you are tasking and delegating activities to those that you have selected in your succession planning as a possible replacement. “you want me to do this?” photo by rawpixel on  Unsplash Exercise your ability to effectively delegate and task activities to the lowest level employees or peers where possible. This gives your team a greater opportunity for growth at the lowest possible cost for the organization. Additionally, when delegating activities and tasks to your employees and your peers, these individuals that you want to grow, it enriches their experience, it increases their capability, leading to greater engagement, and advances the organization by level loading the team and expanding the capacity of the organization. It develops relationships . You are building a depth chart to lean on for possible shortages due to g...

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...

Measure twice cut once. How much money do you have in your bank account? How much gas is in your car? How fast are you going? How many miles before the next stop? “assorted tape measures” by patricia serna on  Unsplash Measures. Metrics. Score. These are needed to succeed. This is the biggest failure of many businesses. Start-ups and mature businesses alike. It affects teams, groups, and individuals. It is a path to failure if you choose to not measure anything that will change behavior. Successful businesses have Key Performance Indicators — KPI’s that are used to identify important metrics or measurements that are necessary for their business success — or survival if they only just started actively measuring. You need to measure your efforts. “baseball field” by Chris Chow on  Unsplash I played a lot of baseball while growing up. That is a statistician’s sport. Everything is measured. Runs, hits, errors, balls, strikes, on-base percentages, assists, puto...

We are an angry country right now — these are angry times. “fried egg in bowl” by KS KYUNG on  Unsplash There has to be something in the water, maybe it is all the pharmaceuticals we are peeing into our drinking water? Are there mind altering brain waves coming through social media to make us angry ? Somebody, please get me the aluminum foil! You wake up every day, you breathe one more breath, your heart continues to beat. You are able to move on through the rest of the day. Some days there are more bonus points than others, but guess what? You are still here, in this moment, and you have the choice to make — be a jerk or be nice. Hopefully, you choose “be nice” since that is how you wish to be treated. When you meet people every morning on your way to wherever it is you go every day, how do you greet those that you know? What sort of look do you have on your face? Is it a slack, deeply drawn face? Is your face pinched in pain or thought? Is it a scowl because the li...

“people working inside white and black room” by Venveo on  Unsplash You can’t lead or manage from behind a desk . Yes, you are right, I am not allowed to say the word can’t — neither are you! Let us introduce another way…as a leader or as a manager, you are extremely ineffective when you stay behind your desk. Stop arguing, it’s true . Unless you are managing a group of automation equipment or robots, then yes, your argument is true. However, the last time I checked, we need humans to do most of the work that we do in business today, and in the effort to keep them involved, they require face-to-face interaction, coaching, and guidance. Humans are messy, therefore we require, no, we demand interaction, and if you are or wish to be a leader or a manager, you limit your ability to actively participate or interact when you are camped out behind your desk. “turned on monitoring screen” by Stephen Dawson on  Unsplash The ability to “see” how the business is ...