Artists – Knowledge ATMs

May 2, 2023

S3 E47 — Why’s and How’s of the Genius Art of Procrastination

Something is missing. I can’t put my finger on it. I just don’t know what it is, but I can feel it. I thought it was something Marshall McLuhan said and was fully prepared to follow the search for it. But, that impulse dried up.

“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “In a moment of complete relaxation, an answer will come to you accompanied by all the relief and satisfaction of finding a set of lost keys. Indeed, this will unlock future doors.” Leo

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 47 in Season 3 of “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 16th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E45 — Tacit Heuristics Blinding Fast-Track Teams; S3 E44 — Make It Rhyme To Work Each Time; S3 E43 — Add a Little Foresight to My Misdemeanor Tab

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E46 — Whimsy Passion Project or Epic Novel of Adventure?; S2 E45 — Wildcard What Ifs and Doobie Bros Bias; S2 E44 — Celebrating Emma the Baroness Tribal Quarantine Style; S2 E43 — See What You’ve Been Missing …

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E46 — Day 46 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E45 — Day 45 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E44 — Google Me Some Chopped Liver; S1 E43 — Desperation on Such a Summer’s Day

Context

Sitting quietly for a moment after I asked “What would Leo da V do?” the answer arrived.

Curiosity.

That’s what’s been missing from the 1-Year Natural Experiment Report. Living life as an art form in a natural experiment.

Why?

I’d been skipping over “Why: What Makes Us Curious?” by Mario Livio.

Guess who figures prominently in Mario’s tale, besides Richard Feynman, my Leo!

“Leonardo’s boundless interests spanned such broad swaths of art, science, and technology that he remains to this day the quintessential Renaissance man. Art historian Kenneth Clark appropriately called him ‘the most relentlessly curious man in history.’”

“Feynman’s genius and achievements in numerous branches of physics are legendary, but he also pursued fascinations with biology, painting, safecracking, bongo playing, attractive women, and studying Mayan hieroglyphs.”

Leonardo’s apparent inability to complete assignments, or his lack of interest in finalizing some of his projects pose further questions laid out by Livio, but really relevant to my behavior too:

- What was it that made Leonardo curious, and why?
- What did he do to satisfy his curiosity?
- At what point, if any, did he actually lose interest in a particular topic?

Leonardo was curious about almost everything in the complex world surrounding him, and compulsive about note taking. He sketched drawings and notes as part of his “artistic”output, estimated by some researchers to be 15,000 pages.

Why include curiosity now?

Livio says the emergence of the unique human curiosity and emergence of the distinct human language were strongly correlated. Which is a polite way of elevating gossip!

Livio believes curiosity is at the core of human symbolic culture.

“… socially shared myths, rituals, and symbolism were most likely the first sophisticated responses to nagging why and how questions and were therefore the fruits of curiosity.”

How?

“The chain reaction that resulted from the positive feedback between curiosity and language turned Homo sapiens into a powerful intellect, with self-awareness and an inner life.”

The basic characteristic of curiosity is the desire to pose a question, thereby risking generating even more uncertainty, which in the context of an information-gap model is perceived as distressing. Einstein once said:

“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.”

Why?

Curiosity is really an engine of discovery. The seed of creativity is curiosity, and that potential for imagination comes from wondering, filled with self-awareness and a rich inner life.

Evidence

So, let’s turn to wondering which of the Steves offers relevant TauBits of Wisdom for the day. If complaining identifies a problem and that problem is really an information-gap itching to be closed, then I like what you can offer Zahnny.

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “Complaining comes easily to most. Just about anyone can describe a problem. The next steps — brainstorming solutions, settling on a few to try, gaining the cooperation of others, etc. — are for the advanced corps. That’s you.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

However comma, as Emma the Baroness is fond of saying, I believe it takes an inventor and two comedians to describe my early in the morning “What would Leo da V do?” moment when I switched from McLuhan to curiosity, more precisely.

So, Steve your Holiday Tau is saying book learning is one thing, but application is what matters, right? Couldn’t agree more. I’m on the back end of teasing out lessons learned from experience and building the theory it supports.

“4” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “The theories that work out on the page but don’t work out in real life can be considered exercises or games, not serious contenders. Actual results trump theory every time.”Pisces

I was surprised late yesterday afternoon when just like your Holiday Tau describes, wave after wave washed through me while I watched Vanessa’s tribute to Kobe Bryant at his induction into the NBA’s hall of fame.

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Feelings are waves. They rise into an identifiable shape and then hit the shore and go back to being part of the big ocean of emotion. Don’t fear the feeling. It’s just another form for energy to be for a while.” Aries

I saw Michael Jordan, duh, since he introduced Kobe for his induction, but not you. Okay I have to admit I taped the whole show so I could fast forward through Tim Duncan’s and Kevin Garnett’s to get to Kobe , so you may have been there. Now I’m wondering if the socially distanced audience were already inducted members and family?

“4” Steve Kerr, 54: “When dealing with distracted people (and it’s safe to say that most people you’ll deal with today will have an attention deficit), assume that you must capture their attention several times throughout the interaction.” Libra

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines jumps from 8138 to 8193 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear. We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process. The result is a slower reaction time.
- Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow”describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts: “System 1” which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. I’m learning a lot about my energy levels first described from within an introversion frame now, from within differences between System 1 and the harder working, energy depletion System 2. Self-control, for instance is hard and takes a lot of energy to accomplish. When I write the concentration requires effort until I can find the “flow.” Implications for True Belief — it’s easy to stay in System 1 vs. critical thinking — System 2. Set some marketing and working on the business goals — System 2 and then ignore them by following the lateral thinking and associative thinking which Leo da V invites me to do — System 1.
- “Why?: What Makes Us Curious,” by Mario Livio. “… socially shared myths, rituals, and symbolism were most likely the first sophisticated responses to nagging why and how questions and were therefore the fruits of curiosity. The chain reaction that resulted from the positive feedback between curiosity and language turned Homo sapiens into a powerful intellect, with self-awareness and an inner life.”

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

March 21, 2023

S2 E99 — Why Pay Over $100,000 When You Don’t Have To?

It was planned as a magnet for attracting the talent base to support growing financial, real estate and technology companies setting up shop on the former Irvine Ranch envisioned in the Irvine Company’s master plan.

“5” Steve Howey, 42: “You thought a thing ran its course. You thought you were done and wouldn’t return to it, but this business is, apparently, unfinished. Otherwise, it wouldn’t keep calling you back.” Cancer

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 99 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 20th day of August in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E98 — Why Your Company Simply Won’t Make It Out of Puberty; S2 E97 — Frame Blindness and Decision Traps; S2 E96 — Two Kindred Spirits Drawn to Mature Complications

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E99 — What’s in a Name? Baby Boy Names?; S1 E98 — Why Can’t I Leave 26 Orphans for a Well Deserved Vacation? ; S1 E97 — My Top 19 Reasons for Failing; S1 E96 — Old Rabbits Die Hard

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In previous episodes we described Start Up, Emerging Growth, Rapid Growth, Sustained Growth and Maturity stages. But, each with the emphasis on how a specific stage provides another better fit opportunity for one or more of 16 Talent Profiles.

We described two mini case studies of what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature companies in a financial and in a consumer industries.

33. Advisor — Executive and Healthcare MBA Program

Part One.

The University of California opened its doors in 1869 with just 10 faculty members and 40 students. Today, the UC system has more than 280,000 students and 227,000 faculty and staff, with 2.0 million alumni living and working around the world.

One of 10 campuses in the UC System

UC’s academic health centers provide broad access to top-ranked specialized care, support clinical teaching programs and develop new therapies. For news about UC breakthroughs and health initiatives.

Nine years before I moved to Orange County, UCI became the youngest campus in the system. It was planned as a magnet for attracting the talent base to support growing financial, real estate and technology companies setting up shop on the former Irvine Ranch envisioned in the Irvine Company’s master plan..

When I worked at Fairview State Hospital, one of the psychologists, a 115 Professional Practitioner, hailed from the School of Social Ecology. Co-workers felt he had been skating from his responsibilities at the hospital while he built up his private practice and taught at the university.

No-one I knew understood what Social Ecology meant. In a way, as a half-time intern working in the morning in the residence hall and then in the afternoon at the Behavior Modification Institute in Newport Center, I might have been half-skating.

Later I befriended the University’s Veterans Advisor seeking his assistance as I transitioned from one career into another. I ended up helping him as he came to the end of his employment while a student in the School of Social Ecology.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Systematic-Professional Organizations

The campus and its library and its influence economically as Orange County’s second-largest employer (contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide) made it a hub for researching potential careers and jobs.

In fact, I interviewed professors, 114 Brand-as-Experts and 116 Institutional Traditionalists, who’s research matched my interests. It what became the business school years later, I interviewed the dean who specialized in Organizational and Management Development to assess my chances at transitioning into that career.

The more important side benefit came in the form of a list of business graduates identified by their Orange Count employers to conduct further interviews.

One in particular led to an offer a few months later to join an internal consulting, management development and training team in a mature, large engineering and construction company located in a cluster of mirror-glass buildings and a corporate tower.

Two Systematic-Professionals Attracted to Maturity Growth Stage

Too academic, we echoed the conclusion of the client from the century-old consumer goods who hired my former boss and me. But we leveled it at an interdisciplinary team of professors we engaged to survey the implication of brand new technology at the engineering and construction company.

S2 E97 — Frame Blindness and Decision Traps

These are the experts who love their profession instead of a specific organization like Sustaining-Associates do. They’re attracted to the challenges that come with large, complicated systems found in most organizations at the Mature stage of growth.

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Stay away from the ‘I did it, and so can you’ type of messaging today because it’s overly simplistic and does not account for the myriad of ways that people are so different from one another.” Aries

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 97 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 15th day of August in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E96 — Two Kindred Spirits Drawn to Mature Complications; S2 E95 — The Founder’s Curse Unleashed by the Edifice Complex; S2 E94 — Sustained Growth: Slicing Turnover and Grooming Experts

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E97 — My Top 19 Reasons for Failing; S1 E96 — Old Rabbits Die Hard; S1 E95 — No Back to Work Days or Hump Days Allowed; S1 E94 — Wasn’t There a Movie about the Tau of Steve?

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

9. Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company

It was founded in the late 1800s by a former governor in the state capitol of California. Roughly a century later the executives decided to move to Newport Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean so families could enjoy a higher standard of living.

It was the kind of mature organization that employed maintenance workers just to polish its brick entry way. It was the kind of mature organization that hired and groomed knowledge workers before the term was coined.

116 Institutional Traditionalists

They included 116 Institutional Traditionalists, Systematic-Professionals delivering products and services in heavily regulated markets the company served, such as annuities, and mutual funds, a variety of investment products and services to individuals, businesses, and pension plans.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Systematic-Professional Organizations

Why? Because 116 Institutional Traditionalists are adept at managing fact-based complex systems with traditional analytical methods and tools. They’re dedicated to maintaining the institution’s smooth running.

They defend the status quo by believing in preserving the rules and procedures. They are practical, realistic and matter-of-fact. In short 116 Institutional Traditionalists make good administrators because of their talent for organization.

Like other large hospitals, banking and financial institutions it was probable that a supervisor or a manager or even an executive hadn’t encountered a major transition from one growth stage to another over their careers.

Two Systematic-Professionals Attracted to Maturity Growth Stage

The buzzword my client described when he engaged me was this project was a major cultural change.

But, it would unfold over many years, so urgency wasn’t felt, as much as it was anticipated.

I had worked in several large, mature companies and had come face-to-face with immune systems that rejected any type of change.

Maintaining the status quo across product lines and departments and divisions had become a way of life.

My client told me our challenge was — how can you inject innovation into a century’s old mature company?

It was a complex, complicated maneuver requiring tons of new knowledge and new idea packaging.

It reflected the company’s structural change from a mutual ownership to a mutual holding company business model.

114 Brand-as-Experts

They become known for their impartial analysis and an affinity for agreed upon standards. They excel in fact-based work situations in which you advance through continuing education, peer reviews and achieving licenses.

The co-founder served as a model. He grew from being an investment analyst into a fund manager and co-founded their global fixed income investment business with hundreds of billions managed in a Total Return Fund.

He was known as “the nation’s most prominent bond investor”. As a 114 Brand-as-Expert he advised the Treasury during financial crises and was described as a fund manager who made people filthy-wealthy.

In a way, he became the epitome of what my client had in mind for educating supervisors, managers and executives.

The goal as to bottle his ability to identify market inefficiencies and exploit them by adjusting the company’s strategies. He embraced new technologies and exotic derivative products while harassing the power of the internet.

There was a requirement for a special blend of talents and skills across high-yield businesses building better traders and analysts and salespeople.

Rrom a management and executive development strategy it was to cultivate the ability to distill complex ideas into something simple enough to take action.

My client wanted build a hybrid curriculum drawing upon university experts with internal consultants to offer the early stages of a corporate education division.

“Advanced Curriculum for Officers” focused more on managing divisions and new units in anticipation of favoring newer industry niches and technologies, but leading in a strong tradition based on an industry resistant to change.

My first role was to manage external experts, define the curriculum based on executive assessments and development plans, and to provide referrals to seminars and recommended development activities.

Plans were based upon individual assessments. They defined gaps to be closed to qualify for the next advancement step, and admission into the high potential development talent pool.

The curriculum was the first for officers and included new courses I researched and designed, updated management courses they had (Management by Objectives was obsolete) and a curriculum I had developed and Fluor and Unisys.

The plan included an “intrapreneurially shared services approach” I had described as a business model I’d experienced and managed before.

During and after “de-mutalization” breakups, my client’s corporate group would have to sell and customize courses for the new business groups while competing with outside vendors and universities.

Top priorities for my client were how to bring about change, how to prevent frame blindness and avoid decision bias from a long list of decision-making traps plus scenario building tools.

I was all too happy to oblige!

Evidence

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “You’ve known things to be more work than anticipated, but today’s thing is ridiculous. Devote yourself when it’s adding up to something that will matter. This isn’t. Get out of it.” Scorpio

Wait, what?

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

So, this is really hard to do. Except what I intend to accomplish is not so much copy me, but to choose which talent cultures work for you as a best fit. Ask yourself how many degrees from high to medium do you need: independence, affiliation, speed, mastery, disruptive innovation, improvement, new knowledge creation or embodied knowledge.

“3” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “The reality of a situation is much better than you’re thinking it is. You just have to ask different questions of it. A person coming from a different place in life will help you frame things another way.” Taurus

How in the world is this unending pandemic much better than I think?

“3” Steve Smith, 30: “Any mistakes in the work will actually be mistakes of planning. The more time you spend thinking ahead and setting yourself up for a win, the better your day will go.” Gemini

Unless, of course, I fall victim to the curse plaguing almost every introvert I know — OBE, overtaken by events!

“3” Steve Howey, 42: “Your natural responses cannot be correct or incorrect. They just are. The behavior you choose after you feel a certain way can be very much wrong or right. You’ll choose carefully tonight.” Cancer

I guess we’ll have to wait for 8 hours or more to find out.

“5” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “It turns out that the period of time when you felt like you were meandering was actually a long and deliberate planning stage for what’s going on with you today.” Virgo

Busted. How long? Almost a year of surviving until I could break the code of jargon my new career spoke in. And then that career transition was repeated and repeated in several industries, types of companies, and at various growth stages.

“3” Steve Kerr, 54: “When you are in an observant, receptive and artistic mood, ‘always,’ ‘never’ and other extremes of language fall away. You revel in life’s many colors and shades beyond black and white.” Libra

As much as I want to own this one, I only picked it for the first part of the first sentence up until the second comma. What was I thinking?

“4” Steve Harvey, 62: “There was a time when you stretched yourself to fit a role. And then, slowly, steadily, you grew to fit the title. You’re about to repeat this process with a new challenge.” Capricorn

Was there ever! I totally talked myself into my first job in a new career in a mature company about to fall into a decline. I learned so much in it and didn’t know it at the time but it fueled this original research I taught at UCI’s Executive MBA program. So, bring on the new challenge! And, now I’m struggling to describe in this “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” work-in-progress

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4636 to 4733.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

February 28, 2023

S2 E95 — The Founder’s Curse Unleashed by the Edifice Complex

We used to call it “edifice complex” — you build a monument (new building) to yourself because you made it as an entrepreneur. But, in doing so you take your eye off the market and bad things happen. The disk drive industry was a roller coaster of cut throat cost competition .

“5” Steve Smith, 30: “There are many levels to getting to know a subject. It can be argued that one doesn’t come to a full understanding until having taught the thing a few times. You’ll go deep today.” Gemini

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 95 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 13th day of August in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E94 — Sustained Growth: Slicing Turnover and Grooming Experts; S2 E93 — Who It Takes to Keep Growth at It’s Peak; S2 E92 — Herding Cats Towards a Tornado

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E95 — No Back to Work Days or Hump Days Allowed; S1 E94 — Wasn’t There a Movie about the Tau of Steve?; S1 E93 — Why is it easier to Hate than to Love the other Half?; S1 E92 — Shh … Secrets Husbands Keep to Ourselves

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In previous episodes we described Start Up, Emerging Growth, Rapid Growth and Sustained Growth stages. But, each with the emphasis on how a specific stage provides another better fit opportunity for one or more of 16 Talent Profiles.

We’ve been exploring what it’s like behind the scenes working in a Sustained Growth company. We broke it down into two parts. Part One described the trials and tribulations working in an electronic distribution company.

Part Two tells a technology story struggling with sustaining all the gains it enjoyed after emerging from Rapid Growth.

Part Two

25. Director Continuous Improvement —

Turbulent Industry

The company competed in a roller coaster, cutthroat industry dependent upon their customer technology product demands. It was a new corporate initiative for customizing quality and process improvement programs to meet their unique needs — how to learn from your success and from your mistakes in some sort of organized way

Corporate Education

It was up to Corporate Education to forecast not too far in the future and determine how supervision and management development training and courses were required for sustaining their business while anticipating what had to be in place for becoming a mature, stable business. In the beginning they relied heavily on consultants to provide the content and teach the courses. I was one of them.

Senior management tasks Corporate Education to spearhead the introduction of continuous improvement . They sourced content from a variety of programs, books, consultants and nearly free content from associations.

But they needed a director to manage facilitators from all functions.

Adding Analytical Specialists to Sustain Growth

Continuous Process Improvement

When engineering companies place a premium on time-to-market for handing out bonuses to their product managers, those manager want to pick their own exceptional players they can trust, and shield them from unnecessary activities like attending an endless seeming stream of meeting.

My take on it for that disk drive technology company was, yes you have to shrink your product development time-to-market, but you have to be able to improve upon what you learn in the process, over and over again.

Manufacturing from Southeast Asia

Since this was a corporate initiative I remember getting the days of the week wrong when we attempted to schedule our first video conference call with our Singapore CPI facilitators. And how difficult it was to present agenda items while moving the camera around to whoever began discussing a specific problem for inviting input from the community of change agents.

Time-to-Money

A senior executive from the San Diego division of Unisys had been recruited to convince and persuade executive management to process run business. He had me assume the meeting facilitation role as we conspired to build a consensus and commitment from the top of the organization.

Edifice Complex

Their headquarters building consolidated California departments into one place having grown from a startup before “making it.” The CEO built a brand new high rise headquarters visible for everyone to see traveling from John Wayne Airport south on the 405 Freeway towards San Diego.

The disk drive industry was a roller coaster of cut throat cost competition. Ups and downs. The reason for continuous improvement was to smooth out the swings — to “rationalize” operations.

Some refer to it as the founder’s curse. You hit a milestone and you build a headquarters to house your sprawling groups of employees dispersed and distributed in local commercial offices.

And, almost a year to the day from when you celebrate with the ribbon cutting dignitaries your market shifts away from you and you free fall into a decline.

During which they either sell or lease their building to other companies on the rise and distribute their workforce to smaller footprint buildings.

Consequences of Not Mastering Growth Crises

Cowboy Product Managers

Product managers from the startup days bristled at all the new processes overlayed on their work. They were “cowboys” and almost all of them were boys, and we took time away from their rapid, get it done at all cost, results the industry demanded from them.

I remember one guy who resisted the implementation saying to the CEO, “Look Roger, let me get this straight. You want me to add more time in my product by insisting I hold these bullshit meetings. You and I both know you don’t bonus me that way.”

What’s more important — driving revenue or scheduling yet another series of non-productive meetings?

And what’s wrong with flying by the seat of our pants and doing whatever it took to meet new time-to-market product introductions?

Nothing.

A Dressing Down and Out

My facilitator and I exchange stunned looks.

I got nailed along with one of my facilitators by the executive vice president, my boss, at the beginning of a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) team meeting.

The executive “went non-linear,” as one of the other executives fondly explains, and a trait, up until then, hidden from me.

With a phone message scribbled in her hand from the director of human resources saying, “dismissed” she appears abruptly out of nowhere, smoke bellowing out of her nostrils. “I want to see you and you.”

“We don’t dismiss, we want CPI to be a positive experience! Get it!? I don’t care what you two personally think, you two don’t dismiss anyone!”

With that she stormed off.

Finally, I think … since I’m speechless at this point, I get the treatment she is famous for. I flash back to an earlier boss who told me that if I didn’t get into trouble, I wasn’t doing my job. The motto was ” It’s better to beg forgiveness than ask for permission.”

Immune System Rejection

Its corporate immune system and talent culture reflected their preferred seat of the pants high pace flavor of time-to-market product introduction.

An investment with little to show for it because it took more than 18 months to two years before positive results competed with shorter and shorter and faster operating standards.

Cowboys don’t shine when the business grows to a more mature size and run and gun tactics cause more delays. A brand new building signaled it was time to act like grown ups, use data to guide product development and cut down on waste. The cowboys were corralled and they didn’t like it one bit.

Our sponsor, one of the early founders of the company during a downturn sided with to cowboys and jettisoned our implementation.

The company had followed the roller coaster ride of start-up, emerging growth and then reset and then sustainable growth and then reset, so I knew going in it would be a high risk opportunity.

Its corporate immune system and talent culture reflected their preferred seat of the pants high pace flavor of time-to-market product introduction.

Product managers wanted to know which was more important, driving revenue or scheduling yet another series of non-productive meetings requiring them to manage their operations by data?

They won, I Lost

On Tuesday, my first official day back from vacation, the morning phone message from executive secretary to meet with my boss at 1:30 p.m. fit the pattern.

My facilitator had explained that after these flare-ups, the exec always patches things up with an apology. That’s my expectation.

So I show up, kind of rehearsing how I will make it easy for her to make up and she says,

“This won’t be your best meeting.”

Intuitively, it was clear that the ship had hit an iceberg and there were only a few lifeboats available.

Unfortunately, I’d be walking the plank without even so much as a wetsuit for the cold choppy waters.

“You’re in the layoffs, part of our division’s fair share. I didn’t agree with it,” she said, “You’re a super facilitator, especially with my staff … who aren’t the easiest in the world to get to agree on anything!”

The irony of this whole situation lies in the fact that I have been an outplacement consultant on and off over the past 13 years.

Now I was on the receiving end of the services. She kept her meeting brief to only a few minutes, something I had always advised whenever I had been at a client’s “taking out” or “picking up” a new participant for our services.

I noticed a checklist of 5 points to remember tacked to her bulletin board … and I mentally gave her an “A” for her handling of me.

Summary

Don’t be like them or you’ll fall backwards to a previous stage and never grow beyond it to the maturity stage.

Advancing from Sustained Growth to Maturity

You’ll be boxed in until you incorporated processes and base your business decisions on data and improvements.

Five Major Stages of Growth for Organizations

But, remember the core strengths that helped you succeed at the previous stage, when overextended lead to a crisis that must be resolved as the ticket of entry to the next.

Growth Stage	Key Success Factor	Leading to a Crisis	New Success Key
Start Up	Loosen	Leadership	Tighten
Emerging	Tighten	Functional	Loosen
Rapid	Loosen	Autonomy	Tighten
Sustained	Tighten	Repetition	Loosen

And more often that not the third Sustaining-Associate profile helps you meet the challenge and master to move from Sustained Growth to Maturity.

Talent Profile	Growth Stage	Organization Type
101 Breakpoint Inventors	Start Up	Paradoxy-Morons
103 Commercial Innovators	Start Up	Paradoxy-Morons
105 Marketing Athletes	Start Up	Emerging-Entrepreneurs
107 Resilient Product Teams	Emerging Growth	Emerging-Entrepreneurs
108 Core Business Group	Emerging Growth	Emerging-Entrepreneurs
111 Agile Tiger Teams	Rapid Growth	Sustaining-Associates
112 Loyal Survivalists	Rapid Growth	Sustaining-Associates
110 Analytical Specialists	Sustained Growth	Sustaining-Associates

Evidence

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “Each relationship is its own continent in which the tectonic plates merge and part. Earthquakes are an inevitability. Don’t be alarmed. Think of them as a shift in boundaries.” Scorpio

Wow, I didn’t see that ending well. And, I’m not sure it does, do you?

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You’re being asked for your input because what you say has been known to change how people look at things, or because you’ve been right and/or helpful in the past. Share freely.” Aries

I’m not above a humble brag, because this has been the feedback I’ve received from hundreds of my clients and students. There I said it!

Hence, having taught and experienced and taught this theory as an idea packager this series in Season Two is when I’m finally writing it out in the form of a manuscript.

“4” Steve Howey, 42: “Even though most of you was formed through means beyond your control, you are still, at least partially, your own creator. Feel free to take artistic license with your own persona.” Cancer

Now this is very enlightening. I’m taking it to mean that I can spend more time with and in my experiencing self and then take artistic license as I switch to my narrating, editing self for creative purposes.

“4” Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “The time limitations you face are the best thing that could happen to your project. You’ll get things done quickly and efficiently and produce twice as much as you would have if given double the time.” Leo

What, are you guys looking over my shoulder? Except in a few high stakes situations throughout my career, I’m missing this strategy for publishing all of my manuscripts so far, except on Patreon.

“3” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You’ll have a choice between expensive leisure and investing in something that doesn’t seem nearly as fun but will likely last for years to come, perhaps even become your legacy.” Virgo

As much as I’d like to believe this one, we’re in a pandemic damn it. I’m just not seeing this so-called l leisure of which you speak.

“4” Steve Aoki, 41: “Indifference is boring. Indifference is not invested in what happens. You don’t care what people think about you, but you very much care what happens next and are deeply invested in getting to a certain outcome.” Sagittarius

Sure, as a general rule, I agree. But, is this really that relevant today?

“3” Steve Nash, 45: “You question not only your actions but also your interpretation of those actions, and it is in your honest response to this deeper level of inquiry honesty that you will find freedom.” Aquarius

So true. I learned what I had done to contribute to my dismissal from the disk-drive company and years later realized which stage of growth the organization tried to navigate and why it failed.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4636 to 4733.

Foresight

- AI-powered tool aims to help reduce bias and racially charged language on websites
- The past, present, and future of electric vehicles

Quality-of-Life

- Southwest Colorado Road Trip Offers Mountain Adventures
- Will We Have a 2020-’21 Ski Season? Copper Mountain’s Summer Park Offers Insight

Long-Form

- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

December 27, 2022

S2 E81 — 3rd of 4 Secrets to a Better WorkFit

Usually when people ask what do you do, you probably say something like I work for … (fill in the blank with the name of your employer) and say it with pride. It might be Nike or Pepsi or The Gap or O’Neal. The point is if you cut yourself, you’d bleed the colors of the organization.

“5” Steve Harvey, 62: “The better days that are coming will not come because you hope they will. They’ll come as a direct result of the actions you take today. You’re creating better days right now.” Capricorn

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 81 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 18th day of July in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E80 — Unrealistic Expectations Hatched Green Box Lessons the Hard Way; S2 E79 — Ain’t No Paradoxy-Moron? How About an Emerging-Entrepreneur?; S2 E78 — What Do Paradoxy-Morons Want and Need?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E81— Is This My Wake Up Call, Steve?; S1 E80 — I’ll Give You Adverse Conditions, Steve; S1 E79 — Can I Keep It Up? For a Year?; S1 E78 — Drag Me to Obsolescence, Clear the Way to the Future

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In a recent episode we broke out talent profiles for each of the 4 Organization Types starting with Paradoxy-Morons and Emerging-Entrepreneurs.

- 105 EEMA Marketing Athletes
- 106 EEOA Operational Accelerants
- 107 EERPT Resilient Product Teams
- 108 EECBG Core Business Groups

Moving in a counterclockwise direction we shift to Sustaining-Associates, the third Organization Type.

You’ll find a better fit working here if your identity is with the organization — expressed as falling along the scale of medium to high degrees of affiliation.

Now, if you’re a high affiliation kind of person, you’re probably struggling the most with forced quarantines and working from home. Zoom meeting may help, but it’s just not the same thing.

Worse Fit

We already know that a worse fit is found where higher degrees of disruption innovation, speed and independence define Paradoxy-Morons. In fact I should point out that at the opposite ends of fit, you couldn’t be more distant and farther apart than 101 PMBI (Paradoxy-Moron) Breakpoint Inventors and 112 SALS (Sustaining-Associate) Loyal Survivalists.

Better Fit

112 SALS Loyal Survivalists represent the talent profile where higher degrees of sustained improvement, mastery and affiliation meet.

Feeling no need to disruptively innovate, Sustaining-Associates place more value on sustained improvement instead.

Higher degrees of affiliation is what Sustaining-Associates share with Emerging-Entrepreneurs, but without a high degree of speed.

In fact, we can say “sharing a border” with Emerging-Entrepreneurs translates into “medium degrees of speed meet medium degrees of mastery.”

Emerging-Entrepreneurs, 106 EEOA Operational Accelerants and 108 EECBC Core Business Group share their border with 109 SAICA (Sustaining-Associates) Internal Change Agents and 111 SAAT (Sustaining-Associates) Agile Tiger Teams.

If we focus on high degrees of affiliation (the “row” stretching from Emerging-Entrepreneurs to Sustaining-Associates) you’ll notice a progression starting with 107 Resilient Product Team to 108 Core Business Group (team of teams) which jumps into Sustaining-Associates with similar 111 Agile Tiger Teams and finally 112 Loyal Survivalists.

Or speed and new knowledge transitions into mastery and sustained improvement.

As we’ll see later when we continue in our counter clockwise sequence, 110 SAAS (Sustaining-Associates) Analytical Specialists share higher degrees of improvement and mastery with 112 Loyal Survivalists and they share a border with Systematic-Professionals.

But, up next I’ll share what it’s like working for Sustaining-Associates either as an employer or as a consultant.

Evidence

“4” Steve Zahn, 51: “As a rule, you like to think about things before you act. So it will be interesting for you to witness the brilliance that comes from acting naturally, subconsciously and/or automatically today.” Scorpio

So true. Thinking, but maybe more to the point visualizing how events might play out. Even when I’m confronted with a problem, I run visualize different ways of solving it — probably entangling memories of solutions similar it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:

You’ll pick up hard and soft skills this year and be well-paid in more ways than one. A new style of communication will improve your relationships across the board, including your relationship with yourself. You’ll be the star of someone’s life and revel in the role. Your talent for creating memorable experiences will be oft employed.

Wow, this is heady and humbling forecast for getting out of this damn pandemic. I wish today was my birthday, but you know it isn’t Hopefully, it is yours and will come true for you.

“3” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Willpower is a muscle that, like the other muscles you have, if worked too hard will become vulnerable to fatigue. Avoid using it until you really have to. Work on systems that will make the desired action a no-brainer.” Aries

Systems, eh? Sounds good. I do feel fatigued, but I’m not sure it is for the same reason. I guessing it’s just uncertainty, disease and partisan politics.

“4” Steve Howey, 42: “You’ll do purposeful work, unrelated to the job you do for money. You are creative and have a fresh take on this, unbound by rules you don’t know.” Cancer

I love this one, sure I’ll take it.

“4” Steve Kerr, 54: “You have an artistic eye and you care how things look, feel, how they are lit and the message they send. You care how things fill the senses and the emotion that is released as that happens.” Libra

Can I throw this in with Howey’s? I feel it describes what you do with a fresh take.

“3” Steve Aoki, 41: “Since you really don’t know what’s possible, it would be foolish to limit yourself your own ideas about that. What’s impossible? Maybe you should start there and work your way back.” Sagittarius

I don’t quite understand the message, but it seems positive. Maybe it fits with how to start brainstorming without eliminating

Well, all I can say is when this Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment comes to a close that the content I’m drafting for this work-in-progress, “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” helps you as you position yourself today for better days ahead.

“4” Steve Nash, 45: “What’s relaxing for one person is stressful for someone else. Be sure to do what works for you to create a neutral state of being from which you can recharge and thrive.” Aquarius

I chose this TauBit of Wisdom, because I need to remind myself to meditate or I won’t be able to recharge and find opportunity in all this chaos.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4341 to 4397.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

December 7, 2022

S2 E75 — Guinea Pig Projections

Where my identity was to a profession, these scenario boxes describe talent clusters of people identifying with their employer. They choose to work at organizations widely recognized by their brand or reputation.

“5” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “What you make helps you grow. Your work is a kind of projection. You’ll put the ideas out there and then try them on. This is all an experiment. If it’s not getting the desired result, you can try something else.” Pisces

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 75 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 5th day of July in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E74 — Summing Up Your Situation in an Intensely Psychological Game; S2 E73 — WorkFit: Chopping Off 12 Losers at the Intersection of Speed and Independence; S2 E72 — 20 Niche-Specific Opportunities Found After Making Soul Crushing Mistakes

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E75 — Dreams and Schemes and Workarounds ; S1 E74 — You Know What To Do, Yeah Right!; S1 E73 — Do You Need a Little Leo da V Time Too?; S1 E72 — It’s Taken so Long, I Could be Wrong

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

Let’s return to the bottom two boxes which the human resource executive team built. It’s one that instead of independence values higher degrees of affiliation.

Where my identity was to a profession, these scenario boxes describe talent clusters of people identifying with their employer.

They choose to work at organizations which might be widely recognized by their brand or reputation.

High Affiliation & Speed	High Affiliation & Mastery
12. Director Electronics Distribution Company: Worse Fit	3. US Army: Worse Fit
31. Consultant — Defense Company Spin Off: Worse Fit	4. Auto Insurance Agent: Worse Fit
	5. Retail Sales Big Ticket: Worse Fit

High Affiliation and Speed

Better or Worse Fit?

12. Director Electronics Distribution Company — regional distribution company tried first grow nationally and then internationally. They ran into complications with the technology required to translate currencies for product ordering. Instead the acquirer from Europe already had systems in place. Less about innovating and more about sales. The joke told internally was “How do you tell who’s an engineer at a party? They’re the ones looking at their shoes. How do you tell who’s the sales engineer? They’re looking at your shoes.” — Worse Fit

31. Defense Industry Commercial Spin Off — to commercialize electron-beam sterilization of fruits and vegetables and hamburger meet to extend their shelf life. Doctors had invested after a round of salmonella outbreak. He had another client which was reinventing itself trying to both innovate and control their product development process. I learned that the talent cultures that inhabit defense contractors are no way the talent cultures that you need to commercialize a startup — Better Fit

High Affiliation and Mastery

Better or Worse Fit?

3. US Army — not loyal, not much in common with lifers, got to know minorities better, but more challenging work in preventive medicine; hated standard operating procedures, “There’s the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.”— Worse Fit

4. Auto Insurance Agent— Learned about reoccurring income as a business model for professional services, just not into the amount of sales effort and prospecting for leads — Worse Fit

5. Retail Sales Big Ticket — Hard on my feet, low amount of shoppers, didn’t feel like it was in their best interest to buy from this department store; more a consumer advocate. Learned about tricks of the trade, bi-polar character — Worse Fit

Oops, none of my work settings could be equated as a better fit. In fact it didn’t matter if the pace was fast or slow.

Summary

The vast majority of assignments fall within the intersection of high degrees of independence and mastery — 15 — with a mix of better fit (9) and worse fit (6). Where independence intersects with speed, six better fit positions out weigh one worse fit.

The final five positions fell within the higher affiliation degrees of identity but split between speed and mastery. Three worse fit positions fell within affiliation and mastery, whereas one better fit shared affiliation but was driven by time-to-market.

Please note: I’m using myself as a guinea pig to illustrate how the team’s progress with the scenario process fit my career. My goal, and their goal, is to describe a way for you to self-select talent cultures and organization types that better fit you.

So, the purpose of a four scenario exercise is to differentiate among trend-driven alternatives which carry easily identified distinctions. So far so good.

But, the team wasn’t finished just yet.

They asked themselves what happens if you connect a diagonal line from a corner of one box through the middle “+” to its opposite corner?

Now, they felt their four boxes yielded more compelling, yet different Organization Types. The very goal of the scenario process we undertook together.

So the bones of their boxes included an “+” and an “x”.

And, then what happens to my list of better and worse fits?

Stay tuned!

Evidence

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “Put a quarter in; get a treat out. That is how it works today. The currency won’t be quarters, but the returns will correlate directly. What you see is what you get.” Scorpio

So, help me out here. Is it simply, “You get what you pay for” or something else? The last line throws me into a state of confusion.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “In order to point your attention in the right direction, you must first have all of it under your command. This requires you to protect your attention from possible drains.” Libra

You’re preaching to the choir, brother. Introverts require solitude to recharge batteries.

“4” Steve Aoki, 41: “It doesn’t take much for an ordinary thing to become extraordinary. The insight you bring to matters will elevate them. You go deeper; they get higher.” Sagittarius

Well, a Steve can dream, right? Insight is what my clients paid for.

“4” Steve Harvey, 62: “People who behave terribly in their personal lives can sometimes be extremely effective, productive and creative in their professional lives. It will be something to handle, process and move forward with today.” Capricorn

And that’s the back story, I’ve read, about Mr. Jobs.

What do you mean “kind of projection”? I’d say it straight up. It is. Trying on ideas is what I’m all about, in case the trees have masked the forest. “This is all an experiment” AMEN.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4231 to 4341.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

December 6, 2022

S2 E74 — Summing Up Your Situation in an Intensely Psychological Game

Their mission was to anticipate how future talent development would unfold. By doing so they would have time to prepare their organizations and clients transition to new demands from changing markets and industries.

“5” Steve Nash, 45: “This is an intensely psychological game. Whether you win or lose will depend on your ability to accurately sum up a situation. Watch and predict before you make your move.” Aquarius

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 74 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 3rd day of July in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E73 — WorkFit: Chopping Off 12 Losers at the Intersection of Speed and Independence; S2 E72 — 20 Niche-Specific Opportunities Found After Making Soul Crushing Mistakes; S2 E71 — My Top 13 Worst Jobs of All Time

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E74 — You Know What To Do, Yeah Right!; S1 E73 — Do You Need a Little Leo da V Time Too?; S1 E72 — It’s Taken so Long, I Could be Wrong; S1 E71 — Isn’t There a Placebo for This?

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In the previous episode I listed 7 out of my 33 positions, as an example, that fit what the human resource executives identified as the first of four scenarios.

Now we turn to the second at the intersection of high degrees of independence and mastery and add 18 positions to last episode’s list.

High Independence & Speed	High Independence & Mastery
6. Vocational Rehabilitation Services: Worse Fit	7. Professional Training Company: Worse Fit
23. Organization Development — Technology: Better Fit	8, Independent Contractor Outplacement Firms: Worse Fit
24. Startup — Quantum Learning Systems: Better Fit	9. Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company: Worse Fit
25. Director Continuous Improvement: Better Fit	10. University Extension Instructor: Worse Fit
26. Organization Development — Tech Company: Better Fit	11. Consultant Leadership Academy: Worse Fit
30. Venture Guidance: Better Fit	13. Consultant Professional Services: Worse Fit
32. Consultant — Product Development Merger: Better Fit	14. Bank CD Conversion Tracker: Better Fit
	16. Graduate Student Assistant: Better Fit
	17. Graduate Assistant Internship: Better Fit
	18. Vocational Rehabilitation Services: Better Fit
	19. Artist — Cards, Poetry, Photos: Better Fit
	20. Information Preneur — InFox: Better Fit
	21. Research & Development — Career Change: Better Fit
	22. Trainer, Management Development: Better Fit
	27. Knowledge Management — Brand Company: Better Fit
	28. Knowledge Media Business: Better Fit
	29. Key Executive Advisor: Better Fit
	33. Advisor — Executive MBA Program: Better Fit

High Independence and Mastery

Better or Worse Fit?

7. Professional Training Company — Focus on customizing suite of supervisory training programs. Seemed old school, been that done that, couldn’t engage my attention and I didn’t sell new business, but it made sense to my growing knowledge management “Robin Hood” sense or repurposing what you’ve done to grow revenue. But, I also learned I wasn’t cut out to turn out and deliver supervisory courses for clients like a university hospital, a transportation agency, or even to three technology companies. I lost interest in management training in slow moving mature organization types while craving the adrenalin rush of working in Paradoxy-Moron companies. It just didn’t satisfy the idea packaging talent I developed when the ideas were old and trending towards commodity knowledge — Worse Fit

8. Independent Contractor Outplacement Firms — I activated Plan B as an independent contractor delivering outplacement group training sessions and coaching at two firms. For the second I held down the fort while the founder underwent heart surgery. He recognized my heart wasn’t in his business and his pressure to sell. I was much more interested in conceptualizing which trends — demographic, social, technical, economic, political — through their interconnectedness would produce major opportunities for new products, services and careers — Worse Fit

9. Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company — Can you interject innovation into a century’s old mature company? It was a complex, complicated maneuver with tons of new knowledge and new ideas packaging. But, I yearned for a return a more Paradoxy-Moron organization that thrives on high degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed — Worse Fit

10. University Extension Instructor —teaching reengineering and continuous improvement as an idea packager thrilled and challenged me, but it represented a hell of a lot of work for low pay — Worse Fit

11. Consultant Leadership Academy— Medical laboratory that didn’t present the challenge of high degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed — Worse Fit

13. Consultant Professional Services — Advised software startup who seemed to be the Swiss Army Knife of surveys with additional functions and features that could fit almost any requirement in the human resources development profession. Their niche was their ability to conduct a survey and generate findings almost immediately instead of weeks which increased the probability that leadership development could be initiated right away — Worse Fit

14. Bank CD Conversion Tracker — Challenge of manual to technology operations. Problem solving. detective following a pattern of clues. No paper work. Solved, move on, keep my mind engaged — Better Fit

16. Graduate Student Assistant— never received great grades in under graduate classes; more serious after the Army — more autonomy, flexibility, enjoyed research and knowledge work — Better Fit

17. Graduate Assistant Internship — working for the State of California half time and professional services startup 50%. First job in psychology field — Better Fit

18. Vocational Rehabilitation Services — the more interesting patients were cops, firefighters and sheriffs who filed stress claims. Set up the first behavior modification steps to more objectively evaluate patients and group job club reinforcement for self-placement while marketing not selling. Exposed to Outplacement. Something new — Better Fit

19. Artist — Cards, Poetry, Photos — Creative expression combining my new found love of photography with prose and poetry. Considered creating a line of greeting cards and posters — Better Fit

20. Online Membership Start Up — Information ‘Preneur ways of making money while you slept. Based on “Money in your Mailbox.” Experimenting with personal computer. Named InFox for Information Exchange — Better Fit

21. Research & Development — Career Change — field testing my approach — tried to sell to Orange Coast and Coastline Community Colleges. Orange County the Association Training and Development — Better Fit

22. Trainer, Management Development— Research, trends and past information interviews. Internal Outplacement – sold it and got permission. Learned on the job — improve quality, introduce new technology, teach and facilitate sales teams (I know, right) and at corporate headquarters send high potential managers in the developmental pipeline to university executive programs for rounding out. I learned large-scale organizations resist change like an immune system does. Developed and refined my skill and talent to package new ideas — newer ways of doing things better — than the tried and true, especially during a decline when hundreds of employees receive their pink slips on Fridays. Oh you need a plan A for thriving in the good times and a plan B for surviving in the dark times — Better Fit

27. Knowledge Management — Brand Company. Strategy and Brand Consultancy. We crashed our models together — learning and development, knowledge creation, media production, internet communities, advertising and marketing. We pioneered a way of capturing the essence of a brand on digital video, searched through audio tracks for the touch points and reused portions of the interviews for orienting new coders hired at accelerated rates — Better Fit

28. Knowledge Media Business — Three of us tried to make a go of our pioneering efforts to capture the new knowledge being spun off so it wouldn’t fall through the cracks for Paradoxy-Moron organizations. But the market didn’t support it and we had to go our separate ways — Better Fit

29. Key Executive Advisor — heading up the regions outplacement for C-suite services paid for by their former company. I covered delivered individual and group facilitated services for offices throughout the Southern California Region from San Diego to Woodland Hills, Pasadena and West LA. It dawned on me that who you knew made the most difference for people at this level I created an online community for information and insight sharing and of course for trusted referrals — Better Fit

33. Advisor — Executive and Healthcare MBA Program — a decade which I view as a field test or a laboratory for the content in these second volume books. I proposed a curriculum to the Director for him to review and meet with me. “Why would anyone choose to come back to school for an executive MBA (and spend over $100,000 over two years) when you’ve got all they’d ever need in this curriculum? — Better Fit

Summary of the Two Higher Independence Scenarios

First of all more employment opportunities lined up in the High Independence and Mastery list. Of the 18, 6 made the worse fit list, leaving a dozen better fits. Looking back, most of them but not all of the opportunities emphasized a professionalism that comes from accumulating more knowledge and experience. It also emphasizes a more methodical, reasoned approach towards developing others.

In the next episode we turn to higher degrees of affiliation combining with high speed and mastery.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“3” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The gap between a certain dream and the reality of the situation has been quite wide for a good while. Now, you’re in for the thrill of closing that space and bringing something truly fantastic at hand.” Aries

Am I really in for the thrill of closing the gap between my self-publishing efforts and the first drips of support? Not seeing it.

“3” Steve Kerr, 54: “What would you most like? You can have what you set out to get, as long as you stick to one thing. If you chase after two or more things, you’ll end up empty-handed.” Libra

Probably true, but I subscribe to the Brian Enos school of creative passion projects. When one Minimum Viable Product test fails, you move on to the next one while conducting a post mortem on the first to see what can be salvaged and repurposed.

“4” Steve Harvey, 62: “A good mentor may come from a different background and work in a different field and still have exactly what you need including a treasure trove of mistakes and the learning that goes with that.” Capricorn

Now try telling , no selling that to a potential protege. When I matched Executive MBA students to my mentor members I warned all those EMBAs and HCEMBAs (Health Care Executive MBA) to sign up as quickly as possible when I announce the deadline, because as they filled out their applications each one included a timestamp. I began my matching process with the first person and continued sometimes to student 35 or 40 in year one or year two. While the TauBit turns out to be true, it’s a hard one to swallow when you’re #35.

Isn’t it though? Accurately summing up the situation seems increasingly polarizing, doesn’t it? I had high hopes for the some of the elements from “Passing Storm” or “Good Company” would evolve to mobilize the country around shortening the length of our confinement and placing us on a more positive path to recovery.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4073 to 4231.

Foresight

- More about cookies – Lonely Planet
- How Millennials Are Redefining Their Careers As Hustlers – Forbes

Quality-of-Life

- Despite jobs rebound, Fed officials see long road to recovery from pandemic recession – Los Angeles Times
- Op-Ed: Is the California dream finished? – Los Angeles Times

Long-Form

- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

December 1, 2022December 1, 2022

S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky

Luck is a form of superstition. We already mentioned how Carl Jung coined the term synchronicity, which he described as “a meaningful coincidence”. Some evidence supports the idea that belief in luck acts like a placebo, producing positive thinking and improving people’s responses to events.

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The first idea that comes to you may indeed be the best one, but come up with more anyway, if only for the accompanying thrill of heading into unexplored directions.” Aries

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 36 in Season 3 of “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 29th day of April in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment ; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

In the Report’s Conclusion Section of The One-Year Natural Experiment we’ve covered meaningful coincidences and synchronicity, now it’s about their second cousin, serendipity or happy accidents as in unplanned, but fortunate discoveries. Diving deeper into Wikipedia I found luck.

Isn’t that what we all hope for? Yeah, I thought so and that’s why this section of the natural experiment’s conclusions is:

Do I Feel Lucky?

“Harry Callahan: You’ve Got To Ask Yourself One Question: ‘Do I Feel Lucky? ‘ Well, Do Ya, Punk?”

There’s Dirty Harry and Harry Bosch. While Michael Connelly’s Detective Harry Bosch doesn’t believe in coincidences I just read a passage in “Black Box” where he drew energy after getting lucky — he knew reporters follow a story which leads to another and another or to a trusted source.

“But Bosch stayed positive. He’d gotten lucky with Pistol Pete and the serial number. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t hold.”

Of course, Harry had a run in with his newer Lieutenant a page or two later …

“So much for his luck holding… he felt that more than his luck suddenly ebbing away. His momentum and positive attitude were eroding. It suddenly felt like it was getting dark out.”

We talk about luck in improbable, negative or positive terms as random or chance events beyond our control which occur all around us.

Luck is a form of superstition. We already mentioned how Carl Jung coined the term synchronicity, which he described as “a meaningful coincidence”.

Some evidence supports the idea that belief in luck acts like a placebo, producing positive thinking and improving people’s responses to events.

Richard Wiseman did a ten-year scientific study… concluding, to a large extent, people make their own good and bad fortune.

His research revealed that, Lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles.

They are skilled at:

- - - - creating and noticing chance opportunities,
      - making lucky decisions by listening to their intuition,
      - creating self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and
      - adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

We’ve heard from two Harrys, a Michael, a Carl and a Richard. What say we turn our attention to four of my favorite Steves?

Evidence

You know Zahnny, I have to disagree with your opening premise. I could agree if you added “but there are certainly ideal tribes which I call Talent Cultures in organizations, and (this is a big and) if you know which of 16 Talent Profiles you can claim, then you can more easily select the best and worst organizations and growth stages to pursue.

To your second Holiday Tau observation — yes, organizational change happens slowly and, thank you that fact alone provided years of consulting fees for me in mature companies heading towards decline, but desperately wanting to reinvent themselves.

“5” Steve Zahn, 51: “There are no ideal groups, though it’s fun to imagine things being better. Organizational change tends to happen very slowly; changing yourself is relatively quick and doing so will affect the entire group.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Which way should I interpret your TauBit of Wisdom, Steve? My first take more easily fit this passion project, especially as I write up my natural experiment’s report. But now rereading it — probably influenced by Zahnny — I might reclassify it from practical, project and task orientation to how I went about my role as an external consultant and an intrapreneur in those declining organizations.

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Because you want to make your work the best it can be, you’re willing to entertain new ideas. You’ll banter, twist and play around with your resources. Changes and add-ons will take it to the next level.” Aries

WTF G&G? How lucky am I? All three of today’s Holiday Tau, yours included, describe what was foremost in how I approached my professional career and peeled away the onion layers to find the simplest answer to complicated challenges. Thanks, Steves.

“5” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “Complex problems may not require complex solutions. However, finding the solution that works may be a long and winding journey that seems complicated indeed! Regardless, stay in it for the long haul and the satisfying end.” Virgo

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8068 organically grown followers

Foresight

- The Brain ‘Rotates’ Memories to Save Them From New Sensations
- Keeping An Eye On The Future Can Help Leaders See Disruption Coming

Quality-of-Life

- California Braces for Another Bad Wildfire Season – KQED
- 4 Spots to Visit in Dana Point’s Lantern District

Long-Form

- “Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge” by E.O. Wilson, an entomologist who studied colonies of ants for their insights. But didn’t stop there, according to The Wall Street Journal, “A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them.”
- “True Believers,” the novel by Kurt Andersen (which seems to precede Fantasyland)? I like how he goes back and forth from now to the ‘60s in which the main character is writing a memoir, but needs “Okays” from her friends who had been hiding a secret for 40+ years that could ruin their careers? Like, what’s my equivalent?
- “Disappearing Through the Skylight” by O.B. Hardison, Jr. which proceeded “Consilience” by a decade. Hardison’s been described as a polymathic renaissance man who wrote, “… Nature has slipped, perhaps finally beyond our field of vision.” What does it mean for “… science, history, art and architecture, music, language, ultimately, for humanity”? This one provides missing chunks of understanding where we came from and where we’re going.
- I enjoy any of the Harry Bosch detective books in the series authored by Michael Connelly. “A Darkness More Than Night,” described “A strange constricting feeling filled his gut. He didn’t believe in coincidences… (It) was a coincidence that even a believer in coincidence would have a difficult time accepting.”So much for detectives, tying up loose ends, relying on their hunches and reordering data, information and witness first hand accounts.
- Or, in “Black Box,” Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch adventure he writes, “But Bosch stayed positive. He’d gotten lucky with Pistol Pete and the serial number. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t hold.” Of course, Harry had a run in with his newer Lieutenant a page or two later … “So much for his luck holding… he felt that more than his luck suddenly ebbing away. His momentum and positive attitude were eroding. It suddenly felt like it was getting dark out.”

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

November 23, 2022

S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity

What about luck? An “architecture of serendipity” provides exposure to new ideas, people, and ways of life so crucial to you, because it expands your horizons. And, when you boiled away all the jargon, this was at the heart of my new knowledge creation and innovation services.

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 35 in Season 3 of “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 25th day of April in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?; S3 E32 — But, Why Should You Care?

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?; S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment ; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

What about luck? Let’s skip “zemblanity” coined by William Boyd — you know, “If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.”

In my career workshops I emphasized the path to higher paying and more enjoyable positions was paved with preparation — identifying what you did well, was valued by decision-makers facing challenges you could capitalize, who commanded the budget needed to engage your services and in which types of or phase of growth would value your skills and abilities the most.

That’s the preparation part of organizing you luck.

Over the years I was able to predict with almost with 90% accuracy when a person would luck into the job of their dreams if they interviewed almost anyone informally, described which challenges a client or employer faced (that you met before), asked for three referrals to other people and broadcast to your audience in a similar matter.

And, then out of the blue one of your connections hosts you and your future client or boss at a lunch, you loosely propose what you do and one thing leads to another and boom you’ve been hired.

In my other career, advising innovation teams and product development teams I introduced a variety of tools to increase serendipity into decision making, problem solving and creative endeavors.

Innovations made by chance have gained purchase throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery.

Most everyday products had serendipitous roots (Post-Its, Silly Putty, microwave, velcro, popsicle and even penicillin) with many early ones related to animals or imitations of nature.

Serendipity has potential application in the design of social media, information searches, and web browsing.

In some Paradoxy-Moron organizations serendipity factors into potential design principles for online activities capturing a wide array of information and viewpoints, rather than just re-enforcing a researcher’s opinion.

An “architecture of serendipity” provides exposure to new ideas, people, and ways of life so crucial to you, because it expands your horizons. And, when you boiled away all the jargon, this was at the heart of my new knowledge creation and innovation services.

Now in this passion project of living life like an art form in a natural experiment, each day’s Holiday Tau triggered lucky new insights and fresher perspectives.

Evidence

While Zahnny, the Fonz, Emma the Baroness and I inherited a sucky Holiday Tau today, the outlook for next week had our names all over it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Wait, what a coincidence, throw in a smidge of serendipity and we’ll be on to something, Steve

Hi Howey, I’m already a believer in your Holiday Tau. It’s already 2:46 p.m. and I’m still banging away on this document. Did somebody say squirrel? Time break this composition off and step outside!

“4” Steve Howey, 42: “The most productive day involves stints of concentrated effort followed by breaks in the fresh air. To skip the breaks makes the journey much less enjoyable, and longer, too.” Cancer

As an introvert, I’m already tuned into my supply of emotional energy almost like a battery knowing when I need some time to myself to plug back in to the source.

“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “While emotional energy, like love, may be invisible, to your eye, it animates the physical world quite obviously. You will easily tell how people are feeling, especially when they are trying to hide those feelings.” Leo

So, let’s piggy-back on the Holiday Tau of the inventor and his two comedian partners in Tau.

“5” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “Daydreaming is anything but a waste of time, though don’t expect concrete ideas to come from it now. Today’s flights of fancy open up the borders for later breakthroughs.” Virgo

Will somebody throw a little serendipity my way? I’m well overdue.

“4” Steve Nash, 45: “You’ve a quirky style and a worldview that could be described as ‘singular.’ You’re unintentionally entertaining, and this works in your favor. Once disarmed, people are so amenable to your suggestions!”Aquarius

Normally, Steve I love your TauBits of Wisdom, but not so much today.

“3” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You don’t fear the influence of others. You know who you are. It is because your rules for yourself are so firm that you can afford to have an open mind.” Pisces

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead:

“This…will not disappoint by ramping up the tension. Besides the domain of life, death and transformation, seduction, with a penchant for using shadows and fog to enhance the allure of our fascinations. Some will be drawn to build temptations, and others will be called to fall prey to them. An early theme of this transit is: what a little power can do. It changes people. Some would say it corrupts them. … will recall to us the times we’ve used and abused power, and the times we were victimized by forces more powerful than us. The lessons of these happenings aren’t learned all at once. They soak in over time. Just when we think we’ve gotten all we can from a past lesson, … will show us a new level of meaning we hadn’t been aware of before.”

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8068 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- “Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge” by E.O. Wilson, an entomologist who studied colonies of ants for their insights. But didn’t stop there, according to The Wall Street Journal, “A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them.”
- “True Believers,” the novel by Kurt Andersen (which seems to precede Fantasyland)? I like how he goes back and forth from now to the ‘60s in which the main character is writing a memoir, but needs “Okays” from her friends who had been hiding a secret for 40+ years that could ruin their careers? Like, what’s my equivalent
- “Disappearing Through the Skylight” by O.B. Hardison, Jr. which proceeded “Consilience” by a decade. Hardison’s been described as a polymathic renaissance man who wrote, “… Nature has slipped, perhaps finally beyond our field of vision.” What does it mean for “… science, history, art and architecture, music, language, ultimately, for humanity”? This one provides missing chunks of understanding where we came from and where we’re going.
- I enjoy any of the Harry Bosch detective books in the series authored by Michael Connelly. “A Darkness More Than Night,” described “A strange constricting feeling filled his gut. He didn’t believe in coincidences… (It) was a coincidence that even a believer in coincidence would have a difficult time accepting.”So much for detectives, tying up loose ends, relying on their hunches and reordering data, information and witness first hand accounts.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

November 22, 2022

S2 E70 — Persistent Failure

I failed so many times at start-ups that I could pick apart most of their plans and presentations almost instantaneously. But, that didn’t mean I wasn’t a sucker for ideas I felt would be sure hits. Even after I left the SBA program I continued to meet and mentor some of my entrepreneurs.

“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “Stay aware, head on a swivel, as you make your way to the crossroads. Transitions are always a little more dangerous. The intersections of life hold potential for much good and bad fortune.” Libra

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 70 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 26th day of June in the summer of 2020.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E69 — How Can You Tell Who’s an Engineer at a Party?; S2 E68 — Take More Breakthrough Showers; S2 E67 — Here’s What I Didn’t Know That Will Help You

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E70 — Lingering Fear My Cover Was Blown; S1 E69 — Anniversary Trip of a Lifetime Deep in the Heart of Tuscany; S1 E68 — Overcompensating for Disappointing Results?; S1 E67 — Don’t Misunderstand Me

Context

This is the continuing story of how I learned important lessons from the school of hard knocks. And it’s an introduction to my second volume of books I described in the previous episode. I had already changed careers and switched industries by following the future brought to us by technology companies.

Key Executive Advisor

He asked me if I’d be interested in becoming their Key Executive Advisor. I learned I’d be heading up the region’s outplacement services for C-suite executives paid for by their former companies.

Clearly this was a major stretch for me. Fake it until you make it, right?

Rose colored glasses again? You bet. I immediately envisioned a 360 degree opportunity.

Here’s how I sized up what I could do:

1. 1. 1. Advise executives by surfacing their unique value propositions, circulate creative briefs describing them, pitch their 90-day plans during the round of interviews and hit the ground running after the negotiations.
    2. Once hired, then have them assess the organization’s current team they’ve inherited against the new direction — with our organizational consulting services.
    3. Have them define the missing talent necessary to execute their plan, engage us to outplace executives and managers that who no longer fit.
    4. Recruit from us executives they’ve likely already met and sized up, that matched their new talent requirements.

Rinse and repeat.

Easy for me to see, but I had nobody local to pitch it too.

The headquarters was on the East Coast where those kinds of decisions were considered, approved, but more probably rejected and denied.

Their motto I came to believe was stick to your knitting and hit your numbers within your own functional silos.

So I washed my hands of the whole proposition and dug in to accelerate my learning about how to deal with executives. Up until then, like sales, not a strength of mine.

My suite of offices were completely different than space devoted to the majority employees from lower paying companies, cubicles with workstations and a generic phone.

It mirrored the “mahogany row” they were ejected from — with an executive assistant just for them, with offices offering privacy with doors that closed. We were selling a normalized service. Come spend the same hours as you would working, but this time devote them to your job search.

I delivered individual and group facilitated services at offices throughout the Southern California Region from San Diego to Woodland Hills, Pasadena and West LA.

It dawned on me that for executives, who you knew and who knew you, made the most difference for people at this level, so I created an online community for information and insight sharing which became a source for trusted referrals.

Just as I was hitting my stride the parent company had been acquired and after about 18 months began consolidating services, cutting back on rental overhead and getting rid of us six figure advisors in favor of those high volume cubicle contracts at lower rates.

Shocked into Venture Guidance for SBA

Usually I see these things coming.

Not this time, though.

Maybe because between advisory sessions, group work and regional office visitations I had been experimenting with writing my first blog, The Journal of 2020 Foresight.

Having been outplaced again, I worked out of a rival’s outplacement office ironically resurrecting my consulting practice while I spent half my time coaching wannabe entrepreneurs who sought angel funding helping them on their presentation, in much the same way it’s done on shark tank.

I’d meet each person with a great idea, hear them out, conduct a preliminary intake against the criteria for receiving our free services provided by a budget from The Small Business Association.

Instead of qualifying for a business loan at a vetted SBA bank affiliate that they’d have to pay back, we were there to vet their idea against evolving criteria provided to us by Tech Coast Angels — a group of entrepreneurs and former executives who agreed to pledge $50,000 each as seed or A-series funding.

In a deck of 10 slides, after being coached by us individually, the wannabes had to stand and deliver to a group of us roleplaying the sharks and throwing at them curve balls challenging their assumptions.

Even after I left the SBA program I continued to meet and mentor some of my entrepreneurs who failed to dazzle the Angels.

Defense Contractor to Disease Prevention Start Up

One of my former client reached out to be because he left the disk-drive company that built the corporate headquarters and experienced “Edifice Complex” curse. He needed my help with his San Diego defense contractor client that struggled with a spin off.

They tried to commercialize electron-beam sterilization of fruits and vegetables and hamburger meat to extend their shelf life — which definitely represented thinking out of the box, Jack-in-the-Box.

Doctors had invested after a round of salmonella outbreak. He had another client which was reinventing itself trying to both innovate and control their product development process.

Too Many Product Innovations

I learned that the talent cultures that inhabit defense contractors are in no way the talent cultures that you need to commercialize a startup.

And, instead of doing what I loved to do, facilitate more innovative ideas from all corners of an enterprise, too many ideas can be a bad thing.

Especially if you don’t have a process in place to kill projects that go nowhere to free up resources — budget and talent — for higher probability minimum viable projects.

It was this last client who was located in the research park of the local university that required me to drive on campus for product meetings.

One late Friday morning, after a Starbucks meeting near the John Wayne Airport, I decided to take the afternoon off. So I drove towards the heart of the campus, parked my silver gray 4 Runner in the town center and began aimlessly wandering.

I strolled past outdoor restaurant tables filled with undergraduates and professors who like me were just enjoying another spring day in Southern California when a voice rang out, “Steve, is that you?”

Synchronicity or Serendipity?

That simple question startled me and jerked me back from my daydreams to reality. I turned around, couldn’t zero in on the voice’s location and began believing I imagined it.

But haven’t I emphasized that particular moment when you realize all your hard work meets the probability that someone you’ve just met will recommend you for a position or client who has a need, but hasn’t yet crystalized the requirements until you walk in with a pitch?

Yup, but for my ex-C-Suite clients I advised in the Key Executive program

But, this time it was for me.

Another colleague wanted an update. And, eventually asked if I wanted to work with her at the University in the Business School advising the Executive and Healthcare Executive students. I aced the interviews with the team.

The Director approved a long-term retainer for conducting advisory services and for teaching seminars customized to Executive MBA students needs. Basically, he wanted someone to create the program from the ground up.

The opportunity lasted for a decade which I view as a field test or a laboratory for the content in these second volume books.

I proposed a curriculum to the Director for him to review, “Why would anyone choose to come back to school for an executive MBA (and spend over $100,000 over two years) when you’ve got all they’d ever need in this curriculum?” he asked.

We should probably keep this our own little secret, since the University is paying both of us he went on to say.

But enough about me. For today, haha.

Evidence

“4” Steve Zahn, 51: “As the bees get nectar, they accidentally spread pollen. Do they know they are the reason the flowers bloom? Like the bees, you will unknowingly cause beauty just by doing what comes naturally.” Scorpio

So, we’re talking about an organic eco-system that’s interdependent, right? So if for some reason bees die off then the flowers and vegetables don’t bloom and seeds don’t fall and — is this what we’ll be leaving for our grandchildren?

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Of all the things you could wish for, an easy route won’t be one of them. It wouldn’t be wrong so much as just off-brand. You welcome the opportunity to get stronger and smarter through challenging work.” Aries

Haha, off-brand. That’s a good one. But I have to say I bore easily if my work hasn’t been complicated, complex or on the edge where the new knowledge you create and circulate, I check out. But, every damn time?

“3” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’re not afraid to answer the call of duty and, in fact, the best things you’ve experienced have happened because you both answered and went above and beyond such a call.” Taurus

Really? Not today. So far, anyway. I answered my call to duty years ago as an Army veteran, but I’m loathe to remember anything good that came out of it.

.“3” Steve Howey, 42: “Let no one, not even you, offer a limiting idea of what you’re capable of. You don’t know what you can accomplish until you accomplish it. Your tenacity knows no bounds.” Cancer

Hopefully you find this inspirational, uplifting and relevant for you today. It’s not for me. But, then it’s not my “official” Holiday Tau either.

“5” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You have paid your dues and done your time. You showed up how they wanted, so you know what that’s like. Now, you’re inclined to do it your own way, to show up how you see fit. It works.” Virgo

It dawned on me that making a living as an artist probably won’t age well when I’m old and gray. So with family responsibilities I chose to write on the side — to exercise my creativity on things I wanted to do in smaller time slots — at night, before work and at lunch. Now with work out of the way, I am truly indeed seeing how it fits and works doing it my own way.

Here’s the added caveat during a pandemic — who knows how long this transition to locked down mode will last and how desperate we may all become for a normal life once more, when none may available on the other side.

“3” Steve Harvey, 62: “You’ve already done the ‘dance like no one is watching’ thing and now you’re into the refinement of movement assumed by consummate professionals. Because if all goes well, someone will be watching.” Capricorn

Over these initial chapters I’d conclude I became good at interviewing, because I assumed the view of an outside consultant. And war stories they cared about flowed naturally from my lips. But once the deal was signed or the offer extended I danced like everybody was watching as I faked it until I made it.

“5” Steve Nash, 45: “The thing you didn’t think you had time for will now be taking up many hours of your day. But if it weren’t good for your personal development, you wouldn’t feel so compelled to manage it.” Aquarius

Isn’t there such a sigh of relief when you finally land a new job, discover how the internal weather blows, and master those obstacles thrown your way in the normal course of your assignments? Yup. It’s the same feeling I felt tempted to follow allowing my networking and marketing activities slip slide away. Hey, I just landed a long-term retainer! And then out of blue the flow you began coasting on dries up.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 3911 to 4073.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION