Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
PEACE, KEEP THE FAITH, ...remember those?
PEACE, KEEP THE FAITH, remember those?
Whenever these days I hear those words/phrases, I immediately think back to my high school annual where some friends wrote these as they were signing annuals. I really do not know if I used those words back then, as many did back then; but do know they finally work for me NOW!
I feel sure that most who said those words meant good things by them, no doubt. All I know is that muttering these words now, PEACE or KEEP THE FAITH brings me immediately now to God first of all!...(then I think of the annual, those friends, etc)
As it should be, huh, Him first.
I/we should go to God first in all we do; despite the human side of me, I try to do so. Whether it be finances, health, losses, pains, or troubles/sufferings of any kind, if we would GO TO HIM FIRST….we have really at that point done all we can do huh? We have our best HOPE in the right place, for me anyway.
After we do so, then we can go to relying on ourselves and our human hopes, which we all will.
It struck me this morning how I can begin this day in the right way, with Him, studying His Word; speaking, relating, asking and thanking Him…
Subsequently this could end up, really it could, as the very worst day of my life, or yours and very likely will be for someone’s. That is not bleak thinking, or being pessimistic. It is just the reality of life and not sure, but guess it is also His Will, in some way, no matter what.
Now for sure, it might end up becoming the very best day of mine or your life (I am pulling for this one personally, for you, me or someone. It will be for someone right?)
No matter what happens, it may make no sense on our human level, but that is why He is God and we do not understand always. Because He is God!
I could go on and on and on here when I get to really thinking of this crazy world, hurting people, blessings, goods and bads and why?!?!
However first and foremost please Lord help me remember to go to you first with those wonderings. He needs to remain first. He needs to be our best relationship, our best friend, the one we love most…and He needs to be the one we go to first with any and all that stuff that may go wrong today.
Let me not also forget that we should go to Him first as well with the good stuff, to THANK Him ( I guess that tithing thing goes here also huh? Yes the answer is yes here.)
Blessings, PEACE & KEEP THE FAITH my friend,
DOUG
Whenever these days I hear those words/phrases, I immediately think back to my high school annual where some friends wrote these as they were signing annuals. I really do not know if I used those words back then, as many did back then; but do know they finally work for me NOW!
I feel sure that most who said those words meant good things by them, no doubt. All I know is that muttering these words now, PEACE or KEEP THE FAITH brings me immediately now to God first of all!...(then I think of the annual, those friends, etc)
As it should be, huh, Him first.
I/we should go to God first in all we do; despite the human side of me, I try to do so. Whether it be finances, health, losses, pains, or troubles/sufferings of any kind, if we would GO TO HIM FIRST….we have really at that point done all we can do huh? We have our best HOPE in the right place, for me anyway.
After we do so, then we can go to relying on ourselves and our human hopes, which we all will.
It struck me this morning how I can begin this day in the right way, with Him, studying His Word; speaking, relating, asking and thanking Him…
Subsequently this could end up, really it could, as the very worst day of my life, or yours and very likely will be for someone’s. That is not bleak thinking, or being pessimistic. It is just the reality of life and not sure, but guess it is also His Will, in some way, no matter what.
Now for sure, it might end up becoming the very best day of mine or your life (I am pulling for this one personally, for you, me or someone. It will be for someone right?)
No matter what happens, it may make no sense on our human level, but that is why He is God and we do not understand always. Because He is God!
I could go on and on and on here when I get to really thinking of this crazy world, hurting people, blessings, goods and bads and why?!?!
However first and foremost please Lord help me remember to go to you first with those wonderings. He needs to remain first. He needs to be our best relationship, our best friend, the one we love most…and He needs to be the one we go to first with any and all that stuff that may go wrong today.
Let me not also forget that we should go to Him first as well with the good stuff, to THANK Him ( I guess that tithing thing goes here also huh? Yes the answer is yes here.)
Blessings, PEACE & KEEP THE FAITH my friend,
DOUG
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Fixing things, or just continuing to blame?
From an interview in McKinsey Quarterly / Mar 2011: (Flying people, not planes): The CEO of Bombardier on building a world-class culture.
Paraphrasing a few lines from interview:
(..Everyone in management recognized we had a problem but insisted it was not in their department… At the management level, there were cultural problems too.. ...the culture was about avoiding putting facts on the table. We would go to a leadership forum and spend three days telling each other why we were good. And if a person brought up a problem, someone else would say, -Yes, but you did not really understand the issue properly; we’re actually really good. It was a culture of not facing up to issues, of blaming another department….)
>>>WOW, this is so right and so real. I rarely go into an organization to help with their leadership/people-system, that I do not initially have to help them break through this dynamic first!
The trust needed among senior levels of management is frequently just not there, making this a hurdle to initially overcome. When the leadership gets it, understands this and really begins focusing on themselves, amazing improvement can then happen. If not, the effort, resources expended were a waste of time, no ROI!
The question for you the manager, the CEO, the HR Champion, etc is: Are you ready to really make a positive difference in your organization; or will we just keep telling ourselves everything is fine? When all else fails, try addressing leadership!
Strongly recommend the McKinsey Quarterly for leadership learning, ROI, and tons of just good management stuff. Some of these ROI aspects were used to reinforce points in my upcoming book, The Conference for Leaders.
God's very best this day my friend,
Booker
Paraphrasing a few lines from interview:
(..Everyone in management recognized we had a problem but insisted it was not in their department… At the management level, there were cultural problems too.. ...the culture was about avoiding putting facts on the table. We would go to a leadership forum and spend three days telling each other why we were good. And if a person brought up a problem, someone else would say, -Yes, but you did not really understand the issue properly; we’re actually really good. It was a culture of not facing up to issues, of blaming another department….)
>>>WOW, this is so right and so real. I rarely go into an organization to help with their leadership/people-system, that I do not initially have to help them break through this dynamic first!
The trust needed among senior levels of management is frequently just not there, making this a hurdle to initially overcome. When the leadership gets it, understands this and really begins focusing on themselves, amazing improvement can then happen. If not, the effort, resources expended were a waste of time, no ROI!
The question for you the manager, the CEO, the HR Champion, etc is: Are you ready to really make a positive difference in your organization; or will we just keep telling ourselves everything is fine? When all else fails, try addressing leadership!
Strongly recommend the McKinsey Quarterly for leadership learning, ROI, and tons of just good management stuff. Some of these ROI aspects were used to reinforce points in my upcoming book, The Conference for Leaders.
God's very best this day my friend,
Booker
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Workplace DisTRUST, thinking & maybe some sarcasm
I hear TRUST discussed by leaders frequently; there are deeper and more subtle aspects to trust many just do not get. We all agree that trust is important, and although most do not intentionally lead others astray, your/their leadership may be creating a culture of DIS-TRUST.
Just sharing a few ways managers FAIL TO TELL THE TRUTH!
Workload & Scheduling: Words spoken: We won’t be working Saturday, (or we will not be working late tonight). A common ploy of leaders to keep people motivated until later in the day/week when we drop the surprise bomb on them and work after all. Now that was just a lie now, was it not? Teachers do this a lot also, in their leadership roles.
Quality FIRST (or) Just say something when you see a problem: This is a BIGGEE, happens a lot in workplaces. We preach quality; print it on mission statements; put slogans about it on walls, etc. Then we fail to walk the talk: We tell people to be quiet, not to worry about it and/or tell them to just ship it! ...after they identify a problem, mistake, flaw, etc. Now again, that’s just lying to them. And here is another twist: When we get bad news or criticism we do not like to hear, we blow them away. Maybe you are shooting the messenger, and killing future suggestions. This is a great way to keep people from bothering you; to prevent information from getting to you!?! Oh well, you could always put up a Distrust Box, ...er uh I mean Suggestion Box!
TEAMWORK – (Teams Solve Problems, Not Individuals)… and then managers time after time, make decisions, tell them what to do, and provide THE solution for them to execute. We preach it and then do not practice it; never consulted with them, asked their opinions or attempted to gain consensus/or the best solution. We subconsciously think that 2 heads are better than 1, but then just end up using the thinking of one head - yours, the manager! Oh well, who has better thoughts than you anyway?
We want Risk-Takers! Time after time we abuse, ridicule, or in other ways, put down people for taking risks. Risk is okay as long as it does not fail or cause us any problems, right?!? If he/she had just gotten it right, it would have been a good risk. Wonder what they will do next time; yeah I really wonder!
Promotions, Raises, Transfers… How many times do you think that someone in your organization has considered himself / herself to be the right person for the job; only to watch it go to someone else? When we do not have a system for evaluating performance, people will consider your system unfair… because it is! You will have a tough time proving them wrong! You can always just tell people not to talk about salary, pay, promotions, etc…because of privacy rationale, you know. You and I know it is just because we are not doing it right or fair huh? Oh well, they will never catch on?!?
Let me check on it, and I will get back to you. ...Take a moment and consider how many times you have heard this said to people and subsequently no response? How many times have you taken that monkey on YOUR back and failed to return with an answer? Now I am not suggesting that you intentionally lied, but to him/her it was just that, you lied to them. Now if you had built a strong relationship up front with that person/all your team, they would not suspect this, but you did not do that either huh?
...Managers put themselves into this predicament; Leaders understand the dynamic. They not only build relations but also think ahead; they give them the right to pester until you get back to them. Thus keeping the monkey on their back huh?
Many many more examples are out there, but likely you just remembered something/someone you need to go get back to, huh?
Have a great day, and although you would never make any of these mistakes, others might. You might want to get this into their hands; maybe even your boss! Yikes….
BOOKER, ...what?...I am just saying...!
Just sharing a few ways managers FAIL TO TELL THE TRUTH!
Workload & Scheduling: Words spoken: We won’t be working Saturday, (or we will not be working late tonight). A common ploy of leaders to keep people motivated until later in the day/week when we drop the surprise bomb on them and work after all. Now that was just a lie now, was it not? Teachers do this a lot also, in their leadership roles.
Quality FIRST (or) Just say something when you see a problem: This is a BIGGEE, happens a lot in workplaces. We preach quality; print it on mission statements; put slogans about it on walls, etc. Then we fail to walk the talk: We tell people to be quiet, not to worry about it and/or tell them to just ship it! ...after they identify a problem, mistake, flaw, etc. Now again, that’s just lying to them. And here is another twist: When we get bad news or criticism we do not like to hear, we blow them away. Maybe you are shooting the messenger, and killing future suggestions. This is a great way to keep people from bothering you; to prevent information from getting to you!?! Oh well, you could always put up a Distrust Box, ...er uh I mean Suggestion Box!
TEAMWORK – (Teams Solve Problems, Not Individuals)… and then managers time after time, make decisions, tell them what to do, and provide THE solution for them to execute. We preach it and then do not practice it; never consulted with them, asked their opinions or attempted to gain consensus/or the best solution. We subconsciously think that 2 heads are better than 1, but then just end up using the thinking of one head - yours, the manager! Oh well, who has better thoughts than you anyway?
We want Risk-Takers! Time after time we abuse, ridicule, or in other ways, put down people for taking risks. Risk is okay as long as it does not fail or cause us any problems, right?!? If he/she had just gotten it right, it would have been a good risk. Wonder what they will do next time; yeah I really wonder!
Promotions, Raises, Transfers… How many times do you think that someone in your organization has considered himself / herself to be the right person for the job; only to watch it go to someone else? When we do not have a system for evaluating performance, people will consider your system unfair… because it is! You will have a tough time proving them wrong! You can always just tell people not to talk about salary, pay, promotions, etc…because of privacy rationale, you know. You and I know it is just because we are not doing it right or fair huh? Oh well, they will never catch on?!?
Let me check on it, and I will get back to you. ...Take a moment and consider how many times you have heard this said to people and subsequently no response? How many times have you taken that monkey on YOUR back and failed to return with an answer? Now I am not suggesting that you intentionally lied, but to him/her it was just that, you lied to them. Now if you had built a strong relationship up front with that person/all your team, they would not suspect this, but you did not do that either huh?
...Managers put themselves into this predicament; Leaders understand the dynamic. They not only build relations but also think ahead; they give them the right to pester until you get back to them. Thus keeping the monkey on their back huh?
Many many more examples are out there, but likely you just remembered something/someone you need to go get back to, huh?
Have a great day, and although you would never make any of these mistakes, others might. You might want to get this into their hands; maybe even your boss! Yikes….
BOOKER, ...what?...I am just saying...!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
job openings info
a few positions open now for Certified Medical Assistants in some of my Olathe and Lawrence clinics so thought I'd let you know. I have both FT and PRN (as needed with no guaranteed schedule or hours, benefits, etc.) in both locations. They do have to be a Certified Medical Assistant. If interested the person should go to http://ping.fm/Kl8H7
or contact me for a specific person to contact! BOOKER
or contact me for a specific person to contact! BOOKER
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
APPs development?
If you know anyone with knowledge of APPS (iphones, etc) development and creating, I would like to speak to him/her?
Monday, March 14, 2011
RESENDING...trying to remember something?
Heard something like this somewhere recently: Struggling to remember something?... Here's a tip and a thought: just open up the bible. The mind will flood w/ to-dos, etc! Someone deviously trying to keep us away from reading the bible and HIM?
Remember me, BOOKER
Remember me, BOOKER
Org structure a Communications issue?..just call it Matrix!
Is dysfunction in your org structure causing communication challenges?
One manager was sharing: Organizational structure seems to me to be one of the most significant issues impacting organizational communications.
She paused for a moment: What I came across a while back was that frequently we change the org chart to meet the demands of personalities and people problems; instead of organizing to accomplish the mission.
Mission first, then organize people to support the mission! For most that is about making the product, providing your service, etc. When we move people & their functions around, for relationship issues, personality and conflicts, the result is we are creating functional conflicts. We are also confusing communication channels, pathways and the information flow.
Indeed our people system should be designed to support the business vs re-designing the operation to support the people issues! Many companies have been changed so much to meet the personality quirks… that the lines of communication, information flow, etc don’t make sense anymore. We have dotted line relationships, people reporting to multiple bosses (which one of those dotted-lines is responsible for the leadership stuff?)
Systems and processes have become very confused. People get frustrated because nobody understands it… because it, the structure does not make sense.
The management world a while back was sold on a way of dealing with all this dysfunction. Someone began selling management on a marketing spin, labeled Matrix Organizational Structure. They tossed away the old organizational structure with some platitudes, made-up logics and reasoning to sell this matrix thing. They sold this idea as one that made sense as long as it had a name. Just throw out the dysfunctional org chart and call it Matrix.
What is so funny to me having watched the movie Matrix years ago; it didn’t make sense, it was crazy! They labeled this new structural idea correctly, because it also is nuts and makes no sense!
Before anyone gets upset because you loved the movie; that’s fine, but not the point here. Regardless it was still about some complicated, dynamic and confusing stuff!
***actually an excerpt/paraphrased part of a dialogue from my upcoming book...
Food for thought, BOOKER
One manager was sharing: Organizational structure seems to me to be one of the most significant issues impacting organizational communications.
She paused for a moment: What I came across a while back was that frequently we change the org chart to meet the demands of personalities and people problems; instead of organizing to accomplish the mission.
Mission first, then organize people to support the mission! For most that is about making the product, providing your service, etc. When we move people & their functions around, for relationship issues, personality and conflicts, the result is we are creating functional conflicts. We are also confusing communication channels, pathways and the information flow.
Indeed our people system should be designed to support the business vs re-designing the operation to support the people issues! Many companies have been changed so much to meet the personality quirks… that the lines of communication, information flow, etc don’t make sense anymore. We have dotted line relationships, people reporting to multiple bosses (which one of those dotted-lines is responsible for the leadership stuff?)
Systems and processes have become very confused. People get frustrated because nobody understands it… because it, the structure does not make sense.
The management world a while back was sold on a way of dealing with all this dysfunction. Someone began selling management on a marketing spin, labeled Matrix Organizational Structure. They tossed away the old organizational structure with some platitudes, made-up logics and reasoning to sell this matrix thing. They sold this idea as one that made sense as long as it had a name. Just throw out the dysfunctional org chart and call it Matrix.
What is so funny to me having watched the movie Matrix years ago; it didn’t make sense, it was crazy! They labeled this new structural idea correctly, because it also is nuts and makes no sense!
Before anyone gets upset because you loved the movie; that’s fine, but not the point here. Regardless it was still about some complicated, dynamic and confusing stuff!
***actually an excerpt/paraphrased part of a dialogue from my upcoming book...
Food for thought, BOOKER
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Great HR article for searching/struggling with jobs, Readers Digest, 2011(only part of it here, 4-5 pages of good stuff) : http://ping.fm/DfBrq
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Do not Worry, it is learning along your Journey
…DO NOT WORRY
(Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?... O ye of little faith?... Your Heavenly Father knows what you need. Seek first His kingdom & righteousness and all these things will be given to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow) , MATTHEW 6:25-34
NOT WORRYING is a tough concept for all of us, no matter who you are! In these challenging times with so much hopelessness, bad economy, people/friends losing jobs, organization struggling, oil spilling, disasters here and there, people being laid off – who or what is next? Will it be you, a loved one or some of those you lead? It’s everywhere, and we’re not supposed to worry?!?
Indeed, this is one of the tougher biblical principles we are supposed to follow… all about faith I reckon, huh?
So many things, such as this concept of not worrying leads me back to one of my favorite scriptures which I locked into upon becoming NEW, into His Kingdom about a decade ago:
From James 1: 2 thru 13: (Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance…. ...If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault… ...Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him…”.
All this just says to me to appreciate the journey of life, and to realize there are lessons happening even in these tough, worrying times. Are you in a good time or a tough time?...remember it is part of His plan and your journey!
BOOKER, enjoy that sunshine out there today :)
(Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?... O ye of little faith?... Your Heavenly Father knows what you need. Seek first His kingdom & righteousness and all these things will be given to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow) , MATTHEW 6:25-34
NOT WORRYING is a tough concept for all of us, no matter who you are! In these challenging times with so much hopelessness, bad economy, people/friends losing jobs, organization struggling, oil spilling, disasters here and there, people being laid off – who or what is next? Will it be you, a loved one or some of those you lead? It’s everywhere, and we’re not supposed to worry?!?
Indeed, this is one of the tougher biblical principles we are supposed to follow… all about faith I reckon, huh?
So many things, such as this concept of not worrying leads me back to one of my favorite scriptures which I locked into upon becoming NEW, into His Kingdom about a decade ago:
From James 1: 2 thru 13: (Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance…. ...If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault… ...Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him…”.
All this just says to me to appreciate the journey of life, and to realize there are lessons happening even in these tough, worrying times. Are you in a good time or a tough time?...remember it is part of His plan and your journey!
BOOKER, enjoy that sunshine out there today :)
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
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