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...

Wait, wait. This is all wrong. It is supposed to be ”…all work and no play…” and in the reality of life, I would agree with you. I would much rather spend my day mountain biking, running, swimming, climbing, playing sports, SCUBA diving, you name it — if I could be outside, sweating bullets, that is where I would rather be.  Yet unfortunately, it is a choice. I can choose to do those things I just described without receiving income, or I can choose to work and earn money to afford those things I want to do. The balance struggle begins. But I digress…. “why are you all swimming in circles? get to work!” photo by Pascal van de Vendel on  Unsplash We work because most of us need to. When we work, we are expected to carry out tasks and activities to be remunerated for our efforts through cash, stocks, bonds, or horse trading. So how do we complete those activities? Good old-fashioned labor. Nose to the grindstone . Get. Stuff. Done. Humans are social be...

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...

What image does that title bring to mind? Boiling the ocean. What an immense feat! The level of effort that would be required to accomplish that task. The amount of work that would be required to boil the ocean. The immensity makes you wail internally with despair…. “a lot of water” photo by Giga Khurtsilava on  Unsplash This phrase is descriptive of a very difficult task, close to impossible . The project is massive in scope and scale, which may have been improperly scoped originally. It could be the type of project with an extremely ambitious goal which can potentially cause stress, frustration, and disappointment for those that are also involved because the project has an extremely low chance of success. So what do you do? Manage the scope. Scope is a life ring for the drowning person. In the case of a project that is out of control (or never in control), it is the tool that is used to ground everyone, in reality, providing a clear definition of the pro...

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...

What is time? Can you stop time? We only have a limited amount of time available to us. If we waste it, we no longer can make the best of it. Time is not an unlimited resource. Why are you delaying? Why have you failed to take that first step forward? Are you waiting for more time? Have you made the conscious choice of not stepping forward, of doing something more with yourself, more with your life, more with your work? Each *tick* of the clock, 3600 times every hour, steps us closer to the death knell. “stopwatch at 15” by Linda Perez Johannessen on  Unsplash Fear. It paralyzes us it — freezes in our tracks . Why do we let fear rule us? Why don’t we learn how to use fear to our advantage? What happens when fear takes over? Time slows down, and it feels like time stretches into eternity. How do you use that time stretching tool to be able to produce more to do more? What are you afraid of? Time? If we fear time, then what do we do to help alleviate tha...

“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 ...

Manual central switchboard 1900 — B ritannica Back in the olden days, the late 1980's and early 1990’s — days of the 80286, 80386, and 80486 Intel processor chip series, there was concern over switch costs, which was the identification of chip latency and overall utilization based on the number switches and their frequency. Effectively a reduced capability due to the “cost” of switching tasks in a multithreaded environment. However switching costs are in today’s vernacular when it relates to investments of time and money; such as changing suppliers, changing brands, or even changing products. There is a physical and psychological investment in developing those original supply bases, in that it costs effort, both mentally and physically, to change brands. For example, you wish to change banks. Think of the switches, the changes you have to make from all the accounts you have. Deposits, automatic payments, checks, debit cards, all the changes that have to take place. The amount of...