Dave Carries On and On #1

Just a quick little something for you:

I got this in an email newsletter today. Thought I would share it with all the parents out there:

“The psychologist Erik Erikson discovered that, while little girls playing with blocks generally liked to create pleasant interior spaces and attractive entrances, little boys are inclined to pile up the blocks as high as they can and then watch them fall down: “the contemplation of ruins,” Erikson observes, “is a masculine specialty.”

Obviously, this guy never spent five minutes in my house.

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Time To Get Set, Time To Get Ready

This is the last weekend before the start of the 2009 Hurricane Season. In a couple of days it will be June 1, 2009, and the 2009 Hurricane Season will begin. The season seems to be getting a head start as Tropical Depression 1 has formed over the Atlantic Ocean. According to the NWS as of 11:00am ET, the storm was located approximately 310 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island and moving out to the North Atlantic. While there is almost no chance of TD 1 striking land, it is an opportune time to think about the coming season.

Make this coming weekend the "your get ready weekend". Get your plan in order, run a complete data backup of your system, and make sure you and your organization share the plan with all the staff, especially when it comes time to ask for volunteers. As the storm is making landfall is not the time to be asking for help, you should already know who can and cannot help. It is that simple.

For those of you that live in the Gulf Coast region, share your plan with your family and friends that way they know what your plans are.

I will be sharing more with you throughout the season. So, for now go get ready.


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Something About Reading Business Books

Last night, I was turned on to an interview with Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores in last Sunday's New York Times by my good friends over at 800CEOREAD.com. This was rather timely considering that yesterday morning I posted a blog post about my Summer 2009 Recommended Reading list.

The interview while condensed seems to have covered a broad range of categories, chiefly centered on business (what else). There was one question that mentioned specifically reading business books, which by sheer luck and coincidence my reading list happens to consist of. The question was "So you find that people make business more complicated than it is" and the answer was:

"No doubt about it. I think that all of us read far too many business books. I’ve worked 30 years now in management roles, and a number of times I’ve seen a new C.E.O. come in, and the first act is typically to get the leadership team to an offsite. And you get a consultant - because you can’t do it without a consultant - and the consultant then helps the team design a vision. And then you’ve got all these words, and several thousand dollars and a couple of days of golf later, you go back to the company to actually try to communicate that vision throughout the organization. So you hire another consultant to do that. It shouldn’t be like that.

To me, what Castro-Wright is saying is that if the business books say get a consultant, the new CEOs will get a consultant. If this is the case, then based on Mr. Castro-Wright's logic if the business books say CEOs to take their management team and have them jump off a bridge, they'll do it? Of course they won't do it, but I guarantee some CEOs will definitely think about it. Imagine the title of that book: "The CEO's Guide To Jumping Off A Bridge And Other Ways To Get Your Company Back On Track."

But I digress. Now, don't get me wrong I am not belittling Mr. Castro-Wright's 30 years of work in management. I have just about 24 years of work in management and leadership. I do understand where he is coming from I admire and respect that. Unfortunately, too many times I have been witness to some of the strangest and sometimes stupidest things that CEOs, field administrators, and branch managers have ever done and I know I will see that happen again in the future. I guarantee it.

What I am saying is, that no matter which are read and how you interpret it should not be a replacement for common sense. Common sense when used 100% of the time will take you places you've never been and gain you the respect you never had. When people respect you then you are a recognized leader. Therefore, when it comes to leading and managing people I am a firm believer in if it is not broken then we're not going to fix it. I also firmly believe that to break something just for the sake of breaking it, is also bad form especially if you are in a position of management and quite possibly a leadership you cannot afford to behave in such a manner.

We will talk more about this later but I do want to throw this out now to you: a manager is not a leader and a leader is not necessarily a manager. Please know and understand this, as the two are not synonymous but at times polar opposites. Like I said more on that later.

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A Little Recommended Summer Reading

In a few days, Summer 2009 will be well underway and with it, hopefully, you will have some spare time to lounge around by the pool or the beach or travel. No matter where you are and what you are doing, why not take that time and read a book or two (or three or four)? Here is a very short list of my recommended reading for Summer 2009. Please consider reading these fine books, especially, if you are soon to be out in the real world, earning your own money, fighting for that promotion or pay raise, or at least trying to survive in that cruel world.



1. The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman: It will change how you perceive the world forever.





2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki: It will change how you view money forever.






3. Re-Imagine! by Tom Peters: It will change how you view the business world forever.







4. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: It will change how you view yourself forever.






These four books will apply no matter what your vocation is or will be, because what they teach will transcend more than you can imagine. I ask that you pick one or two or all of them up and start reading.

Remember, while reading is not only fundamental it is also a great way to pass the time as you work on your tan.

Seriously, I do invite you to take a break and read at least one of these books as each one of them will certainly get you thinking and more importantly get you to start asking yourself some serious questions.

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Memorial Day 2009

Before you go off the beach, the lake, the amusement park, or fire up that grill for the holiday weekend barbecue I do ask you take a little time to reflect on what this weekend is all about. Some people think it's about beer and barbecue, some people will think that it's about nonstop partying from Friday night till Monday evening, then back to work on Tuesday.

Monday, May 25, 2009 is Memorial Day in the United States. It is a Federal holiday that means no banks, no government offices, and most state, county, and city offices will not be open for business in observance of this holiday.

In 1868, it was celebrated to honor the Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. Then after World War I, it was expanded to include American casualties of any war or military action, this is to ensure that the nations remembers the sacrifice of America's fallen from the Revolutionary War to the present. For 140 or so years we as a nation honored those that have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, for you and me and our future.

There are several traditions that go with observing Memorial Day. Here are a couple: flying the flag of the United States at half staff from dawn until noon local time, a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 PM eastern time, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars take donations for poppies in the days leading up to Memorial Day. Then the poppies are taken and placed on the graves of the fallen. The poppies have a special significance to Memorial Day as a result of the poem by John McCrae titled "In Flanders Field"

One of the longest standing traditions is the Indianapolis 500, which has been run on Memorial Day since 1911. While an important event the Indianapolis 500 has helped change the way people see Memorial Day. It was formally observed on May 30 but since it was moved to the last Monday of May critics have fought to return it back to its fixed traditional date. This VFW stated, "…changing the date really to create three day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."

I cannot agree more. While I, like everyone else, welcome a three-day weekend, I do not welcome the price this country and its brave men and women had to pay so that we could take some time off from work.

I do ask that sometime over the weekend, for you to stop for a minute, just one minute and think about those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines that never came home. Think just how much better your cup of coffee tastes because they did what they were called to do. Pause and savor that barbecue because you can, knowing that it was those men and women that made it possible.

Just remember them.

"In Flanders Field"

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)


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Picking Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps

Today is my brother’s birthday. He might or he might not read this but I am going to post it anyway. He is my first brother, as I have three younger brothers altogether. Yep, that’s right, my mom had four boys.

If you know me and you know my brother then you know his story. If you don’t, well all that I am going to say is that it certainly has been a bumpy road for him. A lot has been because of bad decision-making on his part. Yet, there is one thing that I truly admire about him: No matter what, he has always been able to pick himself up by his bootstraps, dust himself off, and gets on with his life.

I wish him nothing but the best, as he deserves it. Good thing things are getting better.

Happy Birthday Brother…I Love You, Man!!!

P.S. Two more brothers and two more birthdays to come.

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Own Your Attitude

In a May 15, 2009 blog post by someone whose opinion and knowledge I greatly respect and value, Tom Peters wrote: “Only You ‘Own’ Your Attitude! Does life suck sometimes? Absolutely.”

You better believe you OWN your attitude. You are the one that wakes up every morning and can either say to yourself "today will be a good day" or "today will suck" and you alone will make that decision.

Of course, we all know that there are people that are hell bent on making your day just as bad as they choose their day to be. They will certainly try to make that decision for you but why give them power over you?

That’s why you have to rise above them and rise above yourself. Most of all rise above your comfort zone. You know that comfort zone, that’s the zone you go to when you throw your arms up and say “I give up” or “it’s not what I expected” or “it hurts too much” or “that’s too difficult.”

It is really easy to fall into that zone, heck I have done it a few times in my life. Trust me there are some mornings that I would love nothing more than to pull the covers over my head and stay in bed. While that may sound like the best thing to do, it is not going to pay the bills or put food on the table or help change an attitude.

I leave you with these last few words: It's your decision to make and while it may be the only decision you make today, make your decision truly yours.

Here is the link to the Tom Peters blog post click here


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Thing or two about relationships

Lately, I have noticed a rash of relationship problems. Not my problems directly but those closest to me seem to have their own problems with building and sustaining relationships. While not looking like I am interfering but then again, this is my blog, therefore I give you the following:

There is no simple trick to making relationships work, either they do or they don’t. Of course, both parties have to work at it…together. Otherwise what’s the point?

I offer these two things to remember:
1. Relationships are not solely about what the other person can give you. If all you want in a relationship is for someone to give you something, then you are in a relationship for all the wrong reason. Remember, in order to get something you must certainly be the one to give something first.

2. Relationships are about being genuine. If the other person(s) are genuine in how they feel about you and you are genuine about how you feel for the other person(s), rest assured the relationship will take you to the places yet undiscovered.

As I wrote this, it dawned on me that I left out what this really all about Being Persistent and Being Patient.

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Complacency will kill you

A couple of nights ago I was watching the latest episode of The Deadliest Catch. Talk about reality TV, this show has got it all; Real people doing a real job that is so dangerous that people have actually died during the filming of the show. If you've never seen it, I do invite you to watch every Tuesday night on the Discovery Channel.

Anyway, I was watching last Tuesday's episode and there was a scene where the crab pot slipped off the launcher and almost pinned one of the deckhands against another several hundred pound crab pot. Luckily, the deckhand's quick reactions saved his life as he managed to get out of the way the loose pot and the rope that connects it to a marker bouy. They say that if your feet get caught in that rope there's no place to go but over the rail and down to the bottom of the Bering sea before you realize what happened.

One of the other deckhand's was interviewed immediately after and he stated that everyone on the boat got complacent. It was complacency that allowed the crab pot to slip off the launcher as someone forgot to set the hook that keeps the crab pot in place until it is time to launch. It was complacency that prevented the deckhand from checking to see if the hook was in place. That deckhand's last comment of the interview was, "Complacency will kill you."

Nothing can be further from the truth. Think about your place of business, how many times a day do you find yourself in a situation that could harm you or quick possibly kill if you aren't on your toes? Of course, some people will find themselves in those situations more often than others. That does not excuse those that do not find themselves often in such situations.

Keeping your eyes open, keeping your ears open, and sometimes keeping your mouth shut month just save your life. Most of all, not being complacent will save your life. Let them call you paranoid but you will be ready for anything, at any time, no matter what the situation is.

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Meet the New Silo, Same as the Old Silo

Some time ago an organization that I know underwent a drastic and dramatic change. Seems that their local branches became little silos independent of the organization as a whole. Seems that the local managers were running their own mini empires with almost little to no regard for the headquarters and the organization's mission and vision. Thus an immediate need for change was what had to happen.

Seems that with the local managers, taking a few words from Apocalypse Now:

"things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. Out there with these natives it must be a temptation to be god. Because there's a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. The good does not always triumph. Sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane."

You could say that's exactly what happened to the local managers. They loved the power they had at their disposal. Once the command got ahold of this information, they deemed the local managers were "out there operating without any decent restraint. Totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And [they are] still in the field commanding his [their] troops." Therefore they decided to terminate their command and "Terminate with extreme prejudice" they did.

After this purge, the organization felt confident that their troubles were over. It was just a matter of time before new silos were built. All that trouble to get rid of people and silos were built all over again. The management brought in new people to fill in the management positions that were vacated. They brought with them a value system that worked someplace else. At times, that value system seemed to be worse than what was being replaced.

Somehow, somewhere, somebody told these replacements that they were going out there to save the world. They were going to save everybody from themselves. Little did anybody know that their task went straight to their heads. No sooner had the past regime had been laid to rest that the new regime began erecting new silos.

Eventually, that regime went the way of the dinosaurs as well. It seems that in an effort to clean house all they were doing was replacing the old insanity with a new insanity.

The point of the story is that sometimes change for the sake of change, while necessary, is no change at all. This is especially so when what is being changed is people and not the value system. Changing the value system is certainly something that can be done with "extreme prejudice" but it has to be done with people that are already living the NEW set of values the organization is demanding.

Das Ende der Luftbrücke / The Berlin Airlift Ends

Yesterday, a quiet holiday was celebrated in Berlin, Germany and to some degree here in the United States. Yesterday, May 12, 2009 commemorated the 60th anniversary of when the Soviet Union lifted the blockade of Berlin, thus ending the Berlin Airlift.

The Berlin Airlift has been described as the greatest humanitarian relief effort in the history of the world. Everyday for almost a year aircraft flew in to Berlin's three airports (Tegel, Gatow, & Tempelhof) carrying Food, Coal, and other life sustaining supplies to the citizens of West Berlin. In the end, the airlift carried over two million tons of supplies in approximately 270,000 flights (or sorties).

Talk about commitment. While the Soviets were trying to expand their sphere of influence and attempting to take Berlin (without firing a shot) the three other World War II allies (US, British, French) held their ground in their resolve to be in Berlin and honor the commitment to never let what happened in World War II ever happen again. When the Soviets finally let ground traffic move in and out of Berlin the Soviets knew that the Allies were a force to be reckoned with, even with being outnumbered, at times, 64 to 1. Yes, 64 Warsaw Pact Forces to every 1 US, British, or French soldier based in Berlin.

As a side note, there was one man who not only did his duty but also took that extra step. His name is Gail Halvorsen. Halvorsen was a pilot during the airlift. As he would approach Tempelhof airport he would notice children would gather to see the airplanes arrive every 90 seconds. It was on one of these flights Halvorsen tied handkerchief parachutes to candy and drop them out the window of his C-47 down to the children below. He and other pilots and airmen would later be come to be known as the Candy Bombers.

So my hat is off to each and every individual that participated in the Berlin Airlift as they set the standard for everyone that ever followed them into Berlin until the mission was accomplished and no longer were occupation forces needed in Berlin. I am proud to have served in the shadows of those that went to Berlin before me, and those that walked with me while in Berlin, and to have left my footprints for those that came after me in Berlin.


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When William Congreve wrote the immortal lines "Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak" he knew what he was talking about in 1697's The Mourning Bride.

Yesterday afternoon, I read an interesting article on CNN.com titled "The power of music: It's a real heart opener" The article talked about the power of music as a tool to reduce stress. It seems that Dr. Mike Miller, a Baltimore based research cardiologist, formally discovered what I had know for a long time.

Seems that when "he tested the effects of music on the cardiovascular system. 'Turns out music may be one of the best de-stressors -- either by playing or even listening to music.'" According to the research the "inner lining of the blood vessels relax, open up and produced chemicals that are protective to the heart." WOW! a Triple BONUS on that one.

Unfortunately, as I love to sing...my own way but I can't sing or hold a note to save my life, but I will sing my heart out in the shower, driving to and from work, in front of the PC, or as I write this blog.

When in public (family included), instead of doing my best William Hung impersonation, I would rather strum my six-string or play that FOOKIN' BASS. At least, I can somewhat pass for knowing what I am doing with guitar or bass.

So give it a shot...what have you got to lose but some stress?

I am more than sure Dr. Miller, would not be offended if I prescribed everyone a healthy daily dose of JAMMING and ROCKING OUT and SINGING TILL THE DOGS HOWL.

BTW, Here is the poem The Mourning Bride, -William Congreve

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?

and Here is the link to the article on CNN.com: The power of music: It's a real heart opener

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Mother's Day 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009 was Mother's Day and I trust your Mom had a wonderful day. I do so hope my mother had a wonderful day. Seeing as my mom is over 300 miles away I won't know for sure but what I do know is that she didn't get my Mother's Day gift to her on time. As a matter of fact, it's still out there in the ether known as the US Postal Service. While I know they are taking great care of what I sent her and I am not blaming them, I am blaming myself.

The blame is in the fact that her gift was sent late. It was sent on Wednesday, which means it didn't make it out of the Post Office until sometime after the Sun set, thus giving it two and a half days of travel and sorting time. Hopefully, it will be in her hands on Monday. I know she did not sound too thrilled that what I sent she had not yet received.

I have really got to start getting a better grasp of time management as well as getting things back on track and focused. Lately, I have been letting a lot of the small stuff pass me and I have been focusing on things that are NOT important.

Let's talk about the four quadrants (remember the 7 habits of highly effective people). Recently, I have been living in the world known as NOT IMPORTANT and NOT URGENT, while what is Important and Urgent has been kicked to the curb.

Of course, family, school, and work have been and will always be at the top and in that order, but the small stuff continues to get overlooked and unfortunately gets cast aside or altogether forgotten.

You know they say that admitting there is a problem is the first step to recovery. So now that you know that I know that I have a problem, what's step two?

Talk to you later,
Dave

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