Month: December 2022

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S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward? 

This morning my knee weather is tight, with a chance of pain, but dull achy in my left hip bone, feeling like a COVID vaccine site, with a slight chance of improving if I wear a sleeve.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It appears that someone took a big leap forward, when, in fact, this was just a series of small but consistent steps over time — doable for anyone with the tenacity. You are most certainly in the category.”  Taurus

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 39 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 2nd 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 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins; S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E39 — The Best Tau for the Pandemic Year, Don’t You Agree?; S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?; S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook?; S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

You know when you sprain your ankle sometimes you can walk it off?  And then later when you sit down for any extended period of time the pain sets in with the swelling and stiffness?  

Really?  

Thank your lucky stars, then.  Well, Saturday was that day.  Only I tripped over  a 6 inch sprinkler next to a fading green telephone utility cylinder which brought me unexpectedly to my knees. 

They hyperextended buckling under me until in the same motion I rolled on the cement edge of our driveway.  Luckily releasing the mower handle’s squeeze bar automatically shut it off so I didn’t have to use my feet to push against the mower rolling towards me.  

Ouch. I struggled to stand.  Once I assured myself with Emma the Baroness’ help that I could walk some of it off I hobbled over to our garage and sat in a tan plastic molded chair, rested, drank an energy drink and calculated I’d better walk it off like a sprain.  

I did. 

I finished mowing the lawn. Like an ankle sprain, the swelling ache with occasional sharp pain here and there took over for the rest of the afternoon and into my dreams last night. 

This morning my knee weather is tight, with a chance of pain, but dull achy in my left hip bone, feeling like a COVID vaccine site, with a slight chance of improving if I wear a sleeve.

P.S. The grass looks fabulous. 

Evidence

Will rest and pain pills and positive thinking take me through the upcoming week?  What’s the forecast?

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead: 

People cannot talk themselves into happiness, and people who demand smiles from others are unlikely to get real ones. Why? Because feelings speak their own language, a tongue as complex and nuanced as it is raw and verbless. 

Even those who exist inside a feeling state are often at a loss as to the particulars of its communication, let alone how to recreate it. Even though emotions seem to defy spoken command, they are not impossible to conjure. ‘I have’ and an accompanying misconception that possessions are the key to emotional satisfaction. 

The theory has remarkable resilience. No matter how many times it’s disproved, the desire to acquire never seems to abate. But at least our quest to own things tunes us in to our senses and gives us an appreciation for the material world that often ends up aiding our journey to a feeling. While owning things, claiming people or chasing the material cannot create an emotion, the quest makes us aware of how we join the moment. Appreciation, wonder, criticism, frustration, joy and other feelings are conjured not by life but by our choice of response to life.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Yeah, right.  Funny you mention “lend a leg up,” right?  But not to worry.  As you know, this ain’t really my birthday.  I hope it is yours and you find relief from self-regulation.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Your love-hate relationship with self-regulation is about to change into all love. You’ll get into the swing of treating yourself so sweetly and nudging, nay, seducing yourself into the habits that give you the life and look you want. You’ll leverage social vibes skillfully; relationships lend a leg up in the professional world and vice versa.

Boy, for two singers and a comedian your Holiday Tau is especially mean.  I’ve been working with my physical therapist on my left knee to straighten it out, rebuild my muscles around it and master my balance.  So don’t give me “someone took a big leap forward.”  That was probably your idea, right Colbert?

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It appears that someone took a big leap forward, when, in fact, this was just a series of small but consistent steps over time — doable for anyone with the tenacity. You are most certainly in the category.”  Taurus

What is it about today?  Oh, right two more comedians.  I don’t appreciate your Holiday Tau emphasizing “a break and a distraction” as a benefit.  Luckily it wasn’t a break, more like a hyperextension in both knees.  As far as a distraction, “Emma the Baroness, will you bring me another pain pill, please darling?”

“4”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Once your heart sets a quest in motion, it’s pretty difficult to stop the search. However, since things often show up when you’re not looking for them, you’ll benefit from a break and a distraction.” Leo

At least your Holiday Tau feels a little more reality-based, except for your first part, G&G.  We’d been working on my balance issues, my physical therapist and me (or I?), and you can’t not take chances even though they involve stomach-churning risk, right?  

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “You’re open to the magical, wonderful happenings, but you’re also aware of the stomach-churning risks involved. One won’t happen without the other, and most likely, the risk comes first.” Virgo

Oh, okay.  First I didn’t expect today’s Holiday Tau to come from someone like you.  And second, being laid up on the couch made me appreciate Emma the Baroness’ interior design talent.  But, pain trumps all else in my internal environment.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Your internal environment is worth addressing since it’s the temperature and lighting scheme you live in all day. Give intentional thought to what would make you feel more comfortable.” Pisces

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • 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.” 
    • “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.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

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S2 E82 — How Do You Inject Innovation into a Century’s Old Company?

I left law school to fulfill my military obligation is a polite way of saying it.  In the Army I learned two things I can talk about.  One was how unprepared the service was after recruiting college graduates who had other better ideas of what their future would look like and who weren’t loyal like the lifers.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Your knowledge of words and symbols will lead you to analyze a situation and comprehend it so well that you’ll be a point of reference for others. You’ll contribute significantly to team decisions.” Taurus

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 82 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 19th 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 E81 — 3rd of 4 Secrets to a Better WorkFit; S2 E80 — Unrealistic Expectations Hatched Green Box Lessons the Hard Way; S2 E79 — Ain’t No Paradoxy-Moron? How About an Emerging-Entrepreneur?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E82 — Why Writers Aren’t the Only Endangered Species. Sigh.; 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?

Context

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

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

Here are some examples from my list of best fit companies and clients to illustrate what it means to love Sustaining-Associates the “tan box” organization with it’s unique blend of talent profiles:

    • 109 SAICA Internal Change Agents
    • 110 SAAS Analytical Specialists
    • 111 SAAT Agile Tiger Teams 
    • 112 SALA Loyal Survivalists

Oops, this first example turned out to be eye-opening, educational and potentially deadly. And, definitely not a better fit for me or my posse.  

3.  US Army — Worse Fit

I definitely was not loyal, having not much in common with lifers, but I got to know and work with all kinds of people from different backgrounds and I felt I needed to fulfill my obligation. 

Luckily part of my time was spent in more challenging work in preventive medicine. But to tell you the truth I hated standard operating procedures, “There’s the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.”

Why?

I left law school to fulfill my military obligation is a polite way of saying it.  In the Army I learned two things I can talk about.  

One was how unprepared the service was after recruiting college graduates who had other better ideas of what their future would look like and weren’t loyal like the lifers.  

We took on more skilled MOS specialties.  

I graduated from medic to preventive medicine and eventually worked in an air-condition laboratory in Vietnam for processing water samples.  And we palled around with the officers — many trained in medicine in my unit which caused frustration up and down the chain of command.  

I learned I wasn’t cut out to blindly follow orders as standard operating procedures when it seemed like there were more efficient processes that could deliver the results in half the time.  

You know what they say, “There’s the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.”

At Fort Dix, New Jersey for basic training as a freshly minted psychology college graduate the Army’s “game” revealed itself to me. Unfortunately for my drill sergeant my psychology training made me resistant to his methods and kept me anticipating what his next tactics would be.  Like getting my platoon to sing along while marching to chants of “kill Charlie.”  Sergeant Ski told us he came back from Nam and we’d better listen up, because all or most of us would be on our way there shortly after a brief stint in Advanced Training following Basic’s indoctrination of new recruits.  

At Ft. Sam Houston in Texas and later in Long Binh, Vietnam my buddies — college graduates too — had much more in common with the officers.  Our common interests created challenges up and down the chain of command. I wanted to solve problems and suggested new more efficient ways to improve procedures, but those fell on deaf ears.  So, I learned to “go underground” with work arounds that made my job easier without calling attention to it.

As a Sustaining-Associates Organization Type, the military thrived with 111 SAAT Agile Tiger Teams and 112 SALS Loyal Survivalists primarily with 110 SAAS Analytical Specialists in administrative and headquarters functions.  

I never came in contact with any 109 SAICA Internal Change Agents— if you discount us college-educated passive-aggressive, but two decades I later discovered their introduction of rapid sharing of best practices into a resistant culture in a video I’d shown to managers and product leaders in a high tech company stretching from emerging to rapid growth.  

Based upon higher affiliation and medium pace and improvement dimensions I now categorize my manufacturing, gas station, Good Humor Ice Cream and even department store retail jobs. Yes, those were summer jobs, including becoming an insurance agent, but the business model was recruit them, orient them to represent the brand, and replace them when they don’t work out.  

9. Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company —Better Fit

This one worked out much better.

I scored a long-term retainer with a life insurance and mutual fund firm.  It was the kind of mature organization that employed maintenance workers just to polish its brick entry way.  

A few years earlier they had won company of the year honors like we did in my “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission” company.  

Their challenge was — how can you inject innovation into a century’s old mature company?  

I figured, why not try. 

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

My direct client, a 110 SAAS Analytical Specialist with help from a small team of 109 SAICA Internal Change Agents worked together to influence the company’s “immune system” through leadership classes. 

The long-term retainer, a consultant’s dream, provided billable hours for three days a week collaborating on the advanced leadership curriculum. I picked up some other projects — one with Ford Aerospace when their division,  Ford Aeronutronic’s Human Resources staff required coaching during the closing of the Newport Beach facility,  

I taught reengineering and continuous improvement through the local university and collaborated with the Vice President of Human Resources at a headquarters of a medical laboratory to build out a Leadership Academy.

A few years later my long-term retainer client left to form his own consultancy, snagged a similar assignment with another 100-year-old plus company operating in the food industry.

He (110 SAAS Analytical Specialist) brought me in to create a similar leadership curriculum for his client who was a 109 SAICA Internal Change Agent to inject change into their Strategic Leadership. He worried that their organization had operated at the stage of growth for years for so long that the up and coming current managers (112 SALS Loyal Survivalists) hadn’t experienced any other way of operating . It was a prescription he felt for a disaster on their career watch.

Well, like at Fluor anytime you try to maneuver a mature organization away from what had worked so well for so long the entrenched management resists the opposite set of key success factors like your immune system repels diseases.

Summary

What makes Sustaining-Associates tick?

112 SALS Loyal Survivalists anchor the Sustaining-Associates culture. They manage people, technologies, processes, and organizational structures to sustain the innovation they’ve already mastered. Employees identify with the organization and have high affiliation needs that favor slower paced industries and cultures.

Brand Loyalty. 

Sustained Improvement, Affiliation and Mastery

Building predictably upon past history and loyal customer retention.

Motto?

“If it win’t broke don’t fix it.”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • Missing competitive threats and responding too late.
        • Resting on their traditional successes.
        • Preparing the next generation of leaders for a different competitive environment.

What are the takeaways?  

To mature and survive their brand needs to be accepted by the majority of the total available market.

A loyal affiliated talent culture needs constant retention so associates maintain the organization’s reputation.

Through their behaviors they develop a trust mark that keeps bringing long-term customers back again and again.

Next up — Systematic-Professionals.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Your knowledge of words and symbols will lead you to analyze a situation and comprehend it so well that you’ll be a point of reference for others. You’ll contribute significantly to team decisions.” Taurus 

So, I’ll drink to that.  After field testing my original research in the executive MBA program hopefully my manuscript I’m tentatively calling WorkFit serves as a point of reference for you and your decisions. I know it has at the university level so far.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “With so much going on, your mind will toggle between being engaged, distracted, engaged, etc. Finally, you’ll have a heavenly stretch of time to ponder what you are and what you might be.” Sagittarius

Since this is definitely not legitimately meant for me, wouldn’t it go without saying that my research may contribute to your heavily stretch of time to ponder …

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “A joyful life is a custom job. No one recipe will work for everyone. In fact, if you were to do someone else’s joy-program it would bore you at best. Create your own adventure.” Aquarius

Am I wrong to loosely interpret this TauBit of Wisdom as living at the heart of my original research into Organization Types and Talent Profiles?

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “The thing that makes you call an activity ‘work’ is that it’s at least a little harder than doing nothing at all. However much effort it takes, it can also be exceedingly pleasant. That’s how it will go down today at least.” Pisces

And I’m guessing that’s how it will go down on each day going forward as I beat this content into submission to make it more palatable.

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead:  

In the early days of biology, many scientists believed that all beings developed from miniature versions of themselves, and these ‘seed germs’ were the same in microscopic form as they were in forms full-grown. 

The radical transformations of some creatures, and the ability of certain creatures to reproduce in various ways, including asexually, could not be explained with this theory, which eventually had to give way to ideas of generation more varied and plausible.

There are many ways in which we, as individuals, grow in spirit. Sometimes, we do stay about the same as we simply grow bigger until our soul and personality fill out the space in a way that feels more ‘full-sized.’ But more often than not, the spiritual aspects of our being thrive in more unusual, varied and transformative ways. Often we don’t grow so much as change.

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 4397 to 4427.

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

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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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.  

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.

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 

“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

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

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S2 E80 — Unrealistic Expectations Hatched Green Box Lessons the Hard Way

Oops, this first example turned out to be my bad.  I thought all technology companies were Paradoxy-Moron companies so even though this one turned out to be a worse fit, I chalked it up to not understanding differences in Organization Types yet.  I simply held unrealistic expectations, but learned several valuable lessons.

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “Books have the power to change people, but only people who read them. You’ll love the way information is presented to you today, and the more you find out, the more you want to know.” Cancer

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 80 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 17th 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 E79 — Ain’t No Paradoxy-Moron? How About an Emerging-Entrepreneur?; S2 E78 — What Do Paradoxy-Morons Want and Need?; S2 E77 — 10 Years of Field Research for Better or Worse

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

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; S1 E77 — Why This Caper Is Breaking My Mind

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.

Here are some examples from my list of best fit companies and clients for to illustrate what it means to love Emerging-Entrepreneurs the “green box” organization with it’s unique blend of talent profiles:

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

Oops, this first example turned out to be my bad.  I thought all technology companies were Paradoxy-Moron companies so even though this one turned out to be a worse fit, I chalk it up to not understanding differences in Organization Types yet.  I simply held unrealistic expectations, but learned several lessons.

12.  Director Electronics Distribution Company — 

Regional distribution company first tried to grow nationally and then internationally.  

Sure they valued affiliation and speed, but they really weren’t creating new knowledge in the sense I craved.  Their business model placed them in the middle of technology manufacturers which needed to extend their sales volume and technology companies which sourced components from manufacturers that first would work and could be trusted and then could be bought in volume to match expected market explosions.

As a middle player, they needed to “lock up” with exclusive franchise agreements the best known manufacturers and supplement their capabilities with second tier manufacturers which specialized in emerging new technologies.

It took resourceful 105 EEMA Marketing Athletes in technical sales capacities to meet with their customer technology companies (often Paradoxy-Morons) and offer technology support, feasibility assessments and establish sales distribution channels. 

Working directly with their (potential) customer’s  103 PMCI Commercial Innovators with limited resources provide the missing marketing infrastructure as well. It was their job to intimately understand new disruptive innovations of their customers and propose how to take them to market in a way that leapfrogs established industry leaders.  Or, they establish new markets.

The pinch points showed up between inside and outside sales efforts. In isolated sales offices throughout the region inside sales people fielded calls from customers, technical sales people from clients wanting to know prices, terms, discounts, availability for parts and components.  The answers remained buried in manufacturers manuals.  And, of course SKUs didn’t match and the technology conversion hadn’t made things better and easier.  In fact inside sales people turned over at an alarming pace.

My initial success happened when my team streamlined what had been a two week training conference for all new hires. We cut the time in half, identified the regional gurus who made sense out of clunky technology, turned them into trainers and mentors, and switched face-to-face time from classroom to practice session.

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. 

Summary

What makes Emerging-Entrepreneurs tick?

They rapidly introduce new products into new rapidly moving niches while capturing emerging knowledge no-one else has and based on that experience introduce tweets to early business formulas.

Bias for Action. 

New Knowledge, Affiliation and Speed

Knowledge creationists — teams introduce new products and apply emerging new knowledge for a competitive advantage.

Motto?

“There’s no time like the present”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • The 20% accomplish 80% of the results.
        • They learn rapidly by doing.
        • Figuring out what has to happen to boost performance with fewer and fewer trials and errors.

What are the takeaways?  

Imagine a relay race with individual record holders.  But, it takes flawless baton passing as a team to achieve world-class status.

Affiliation bonding is to the team.  It’s up to the team to learn the fastest way to take a new idea and introduce it into the marketplace.

They need to guard their organization’s core capabilities and emerging proprietary processes while quickly managing increasing degrees of complexity as they grow.

Next up Sustaining-Associates.

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You’ll reach the point in an endeavor in which you’ve done as much as you can do, or as much as you really need to do, and the best next move is to open your hands and let it go. Further work would be a waste.” Scorpio

Oh, no.  Don’t tell me that.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:  

You’re a light in the world, and you bring a lot of creativity to the role. You’ll keep people on their toes with your humor and the delight of your attention. You’ll make a financial move and be a leader. Don’t let up on improvements just because things get easy. There are six wins that will get you named your team’s most valuable player.

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “Books have the power to change people, but only people who read them. You’ll love the way information is presented to you today, and the more you find out, the more you want to know.” Cancer

Yup, they do.  And I gotta tell you as an idea packager books helped me find the latest and greatest for building mind-blowing seminars, workshops and training programs and made enough of a living to not have to work anymore so I can chase these passion projects.

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62: “The origin of problems is a wonder, although not entirely worth spending a lot of time on. No matter where a problem came from, once you pick it up, it’s yours to love, solve, keep or give to someone else.”  Capricorn

Shouldn’t you try to understand why?  Maybe it’s a wonder, as in Stevie.  You had me going there and I felt somewhat depressed until you told me I can give it to you.

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “You have the opportunity to improve your condition and this you will sweep up and make the most of. Then you’ll share all you’ve gained and learned so that others can do the same.”  Aquarius

Well, isn’t this special!?  Part one, check.  Part two, 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 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

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CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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S4 E30 — Green Bay’s Conspiracy-Theories-R-Us from The OC

The “Green Bay Sweep” was intended to implement a strategy laid out by the John Eastman memos for the purpose of overturning the 2020 election results.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Stories get exaggerated, pictures get altered, facts get tampered with. You’ll get a better sense of things you witness firsthand, but even then, there are obstacles to perfect perception.” Libra

Hi and welcome to Friday’s 30th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 22nd day of April in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

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

Table of Contents

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E29 — How Much Mo Did He Pay for the Brooklyn Bridge?; S4 E28 — Why Do Those Who Know the Least Talk the Longest? ; S4 E27 — Who Cares If It’s The Right Thing To Do Anymore?

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E30 — Steal These TauBits, Please. It’s Only Fair!; S3 E29 — Why 83.3% of the Time I Swiped Your Tau; S3 E28 — Why I Stole Your Daily Horoscope for a Year; S3 E27 — What the World Needs Now Before It’s Too Late 

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t?; S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World; S2 E28 — Hosting Norwegian Zooms While Trump Eliminated the Virus in April; S2 E27 — Why I Have to Keep Leo da V on a Leash and So Should You

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E28 — Day 28 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E27 — Day 27 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

If you haven’t been following along, the previous 4 episodes illustrate political turmoil in this Disruptively Resilient Year which add to our summary in S4 E25 and which updated the original in S4 E18.

In December 2020, a month after the November election, Peter Navarro published a report alleging widespread election fraud. In line with Trump’s infamous election night appeals to stop the counting and before that his mantra to Stop the Steal before the election,  The Guardian revealed the report beat the election results to the finish line.

In March 2022, The Guardian reported the original version of the allegations in Navarro‘s report had in fact been prepared by individuals in Navarro’s own White House office beginning two weeks before the 2020 Presidential elections.

Conspiracy-Theories-R-Us

The report repeated widely discredited conspiracy theories regarding claims of election fraud and listed various allegations that had been dismissed by the courts, and debunked by Trump’s election security task force.

Navarro cited many biased and unreliable sources of information, such as: 

      • One America News Network, 
      • Newsmax, 
      • Steve Bannon’s podcast “War Room: Pandemic”, 
      • Just the News, and 
      • the National Pulse.

In the report, Navarro suggested impropriety as the reason why large initial leads by Trump evaporated in battleground states as vote tallies continued. 

Just the Blue Shift

But, Wikipedia’s sources accounted for what was really going on.

Navarro was actually describing the well-known phenomenon of the “blue shift“, caused by the fact that mail-in votes in many states cannot be counted on Election Day itself; those votes tend to lean Democratic, so that an Election Night lead by a Republican candidate can turn into a Democratic lead as the later counts come in.

After the 2020 Report, Navarro published a book, “In Trump Time” in 2021, describing how he and Bannon with others planned to delay or overturn Congress’s formal count of the election results. 

In the major scheme former VP Pence rejects some Biden elector slates.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Days before the January 6th insurrection, in another scheme Navarro,  Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, participated in a call with Georgia election officials on January 2, 2021. 

It’s the now famous one when Trump urged them to overturn the results of the election.

According to Wikipedia, during a January 2, 2021 appearance on Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News program 

Navarro asserted “[t]hey stole this and we can prove it”, and falsely asserted Joe Biden’s inauguration could be postponed to allow for an investigation. 

100 Congressmen on the Wall, If One of Them Happens …

Let’s see what else? There’s the flooding of the zone …

“We spent a lot of time lining up over 100 congressmen, including some senators. It started out perfectly. At 1 p.m., Gosar and Cruz did exactly what was expected of them… My role was to provide the receipts for the 100 congressmen or so who would make their cases… who could rely in part on the body of evidence I’d collected”.

Two days after the violent storming of the Capitol Navarro was making the rounds.

He appeared on Fox Business Network’s Making Money on January 8, telling host  Charles Payne 

 … that Trump was not to blame and specifically saying that Lindsey Graham, Nikki Haley, and Mitt Romney “need to shut up”. Days later, Navarro reiterated false claims that Trump had won the election.— Wikipedia

Even 11 month later he was still at it. With a slight twist.

By December 2021, he was still claiming his falsehoods were meant “to lay the legal predicate for the actions to be taken” despite no evidence of voting fraud being found. — Wikipedia

Finally in February 2022, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack subpoenaed Navarro to provide testimony. 

Navarro said he would not comply, citing a claim of executive privilege made by the former president, although only the current president can make such a claim. — Wikipedia

The House took the next step by holding Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt for their refusals to testify before the House Select Committee on the basis of Executive Privilege claims.

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Theme: 

Earth Day is different in these urgent times. We’ve moved from a mindset of remembering to take care of Mother Earth to fast-tracking all efforts to preserve the natural world. What were once behavioral afterthoughts are now necessary habits.

“4” Steve Zahn, 51: “The logic you followed before suddenly seems less reliable. You’ll navigate with something different. An innate knowing rises up to move you past other kinds of processing. It’s like the decision is making itself.” Scorpio

Because we worked at the same university and I responded to Dr. Navarro’s request to edit his (then) wife’s resume and talked to his students on breaks in his Executive MBA classes, I had always given him the benefit of the doubt.  But that logic became less reliable and gave way to the slow realization that he wasn’t what he seemed to be.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Being generous feels wonderful but don’t cheat yourself, or feelings turn to shades of loss, sadness, anger and pain. When in doubt, do nothing until you’re sure about what you can afford, emotionally and otherwise.” Taurus 

So this reminds me more about my father who every once and a while would complain about how his purchasing agent customers would want more and more from him than he felt was appropriate for a sales guy for Union Carbide.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Stories get exaggerated, pictures get altered, facts get tampered with. You’ll get a better sense of things you witness firsthand, but even then, there are obstacles to perfect perception.” Libra

So, yes we all activate filters as shields against what we don’t already believe or feel are distractions to what we need to focus on and concentrate, or we now see repeated over and over and over again like propaganda from sources like InfoWars and Fox News.  Oh, and on Twitter and Facebook, too.  We fall victim to digital cults reinforced by consistent messages in social media.

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “It’s as though you can feel someone thinking about you and sense the subsequent reach out before it happens. It’s because you are connected at a deep level, working through a joint karma.” Capricorn

So, I haven’t felt you thinking about me, but I appreciate it.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12559 this week to 12654 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 216 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins

While the horoscope I stole from you today or yesterday probably isn’t of the Super Simplifier variety on that slippery slope to becoming a True Believer, it may be its second or third cousin. It’s all relative if you get my drift. Even more so.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You, like the other animals, respond and adapt to your environment. The people, things and routines that rule your days have a stronger effect than willpower. Changing your lifestyle is what changes your habits.”  Aries

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 38 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 1st 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 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?; S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context 

I’m your host, a Steve, who feels lucky for having you join us. Is it just clean fun? And entertainment, like the Comics Page of Los Angeles Times’ print edition warns?  Or does following your own horoscope grease that proverbially slippery slope to conspiracy theories and insurrections?  Wait, that itself sounds like a conspiracy theory, right?

Slippery slope or not, you and I are back at Report’s Conclusion Section of The One-Year Natural Experiment which previously explored why Super Simplification is a potential reason for why so many people fall for “Lies you can believe in.”

While the horoscope I stole from you today or yesterday probably isn’t “of the Super Simplifier variety” on that slippery slope to becoming a True Believer, it may be its second or third cousin. 

It’s all relative if you get my drift.

Even more so. 

Why?  

Today’s 24 hour mediascape feeds us bewildering information and misinformation.  Who has time for tracking down the truth behind chem trails when our jobs and way of life are at risk from artificial intelligence and machine learning?

Instead it’s only human to search for an idea or single neat equation to explain all the complex novelties like 5-G speeds and mRNA vaccines so we can focus on the tasks we need to complete by the end of the day.

And then along comes conspiracy theories. 

How Does It Work?  

Too much stress can trigger delusions, according to Kurt Andersen, and engaging in fantasy can provide relief from stress and loneliness. 

      • We know that religion flourishes more in societies where people frequently feel in economic jeopardy. 
      • And, we also know that belief in conspiracy theories flourishes among people who feel bad about themselves and powerless to improve their lives. 
      • So becoming knowledgeable about all the circulating secret plots gives true believing, super simplifiers a huge jolt of what power feels like. They’re in the in crowd, feeling good with a growing sense of belonging.

Andersen is the first to admit that his explanation in fact appears to be “… condescending, but it is also true that the least educated are almost twice as likely as the most educated to be highly predisposed to believing conspiracies.”

What’s The Harm? 

A conspiracy theory can be revised and refined and further confirmed, but it probably can’t ever be disproved to a true believer’s satisfaction.

      • Misinformation, disinformation and more lies in circulation! 
      • Their beliefs, like religious faith, are unfalsifiable by facts. 
      • Conspiracy constellations, is what Andersen calls them. 

Here’s an example, 

“He no longer recognized the world in which he lived. Fake news now carries as much weight as real news.  A data constellation, describing what amounted to a collection of seemingly random and disparate data points or factoids that conspiracy theorists were encouraged to analyze and connect in meaningful ways to create possible ‘constellations.’”

Secret Plots 

It may seem counterintuitive, but the more fantastic the better. 

“Fantastical conspiracy theories tend to imagine secret plots of colossal scale, duration, and power. Appealing to true believers a paranoid style seems to resonate the best given their conviction that an exclusive monolithic structure has imposed a purposeful pattern on otherwise unpredictable events.”

“Skepticism,” Andersen explains “after all, is an antonym for credulity. But when both are robust and overheated, they can fuse into conspiracy-mindedness. (M)ix epic individualism with extreme religion; mix show business with everything else; let all that steep and simmer for a few centuries; run it through the anything-goes 1960s and the Internet age; reality and fantasy are weirdly and dangerously blurred and commingled.”

Whew, and that’s how we got here.  To the here and now.  

Evidence

To today’s Holiday Tau. Other than a growing frustration because Zahnny’s Tau didn’t measure up to anything worth mentioning, is it worth going to jail for stealing Tau from any of the other Steves?  Looks like it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Whoa, now I remember why we designated you our Patron Saint!  If we could sum up the conclusion section of my 1-year natural experiment your Holiday Tau is my candidate.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You, like the other animals, respond and adapt to your environment. The people, things and routines that rule your days have a stronger effect than willpower. Changing your lifestyle is what changes your habits.”  Aries 

Other than banning Alex Jones and ex-President Trump from platforms like Twitter, how do you do that? 

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “One approach to the problem at hand is to starve it out. Don’t give it the fuel that your attention so readily provides. Ignore, neglect and shun the thing until it goes away.” Taurus

Hey Coach Kerr, if your Holiday Tau suggests those new places are social media groups, will your TauBit of wisdom be wise?  Or am I missing your point metaphorically?

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “The places that used to energize you have gone stale or no longer exist. In these weird times, ‘new environments’ can be taken as a metaphor. Go out in search of that very alive feeling.”  Libra

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • 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.” 
    • “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.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

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S2 E79 — Ain’t No Paradoxy-Moron? How About an Emerging-Entrepreneur?

If you’re driving the discovery and re-application of new knowledge at an accelerating pace within trusted teams (high affiliation) you’ll also bristle at the slow pace required by (Systematic-Professionals) …

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “If you want to hook into a new habit, figure out what’s in it for you and what feels good about it. Otherwise, you’ll be pushing and struggling and it will be impossible to keep up the willpower for very long.” Pisces

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 79 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 16th 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 E78 — What Do Paradoxy-Morons Want and Need?; S2 E77 — 10 Years of Field Research for Better or Worse;: S2 E76 — Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Paradoxy-Moron?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E79 — Can I Keep It Up? For a Year?; S1 E78 — Drag Me to Obsolescence, Clear the Way to the Future; S1 E77 — Why This Caper Is Breaking My Mind; S1 E76 — “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Context

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

In a recent episode we began breaking out talent profiles for each of the 4 Organization Types starting with Paradoxy-Morons.

We identified the top four talent profiles most likely to find a great fit working for the “red box” organization:

    • 101 PMBI Breakpoint Inventors
    • 102 PMTL Thought Leaders
    • 103 PMCI Commercial Innovators 
    • 104 R&D Experimenters

In our last episode I returned to my list of my better fit work assignments in and for Paradoxy-Morons to better explain my attraction and describe what it is like meeting their challenges and special opportunities.

Like me, if any of those profiles described you to a high degree, then you’d love working for them, but would hate working for the opposite “tan” boxed-organization, the Sustaining-Associates Organization Type.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here today, because we’re “sliding down” the high speed in a counter clockwise direction to the “green” intersection of speed with affiliation and emerging knowledge to dig a little deeper into Emerging-Entrepreneurs.

But, first since we’re here, suspend your critical judgement for a moment, and notice that while these four talent profiles describe folks who love working in “green” they’d hate working for their polar opposites, the “blue” Systematic-Professionals.  And, to be fair the reverse holds true.

Right.

Now,  directly “below” the Paradoxy-Moron talent culture is a “border” with 103 Commercial Innovators and 104 R&D Experimenter Profiles where lie the first two of four more Talent Profiles found in the Emerging-Entrepreneurs Organization Type, 105 EEMA (Emerging-Entrepreneur)  Marketing Athletes and 106 EEOA  (Emerging-Entrepreneur) Operational Accelerants.

Emerging-Entrepreneurs share the “Speed” dimension with Paradoxy-Morona, but they add “New Knowledge” and “Affiliation.” This Organization Type “box” lies next to Sustaining-Associates and shares the “Affiliation” dimension with it.

Rounding out Emerging-Entrepreneurs are 107 EERPT (Emerging-Entrepreneur) Resilient Product Teams and 108 EECBG (Emerging-Entrepreneur) Core Business Groups.

Just as 101 Breakpoint Inventors prefer the intersection of the highest degrees of Disruptive Innovation, Independence and Speed for Paradoxy-Morons, 107 Resilient Product Teams prefer the combinations of the highest degrees of Speed, New Knowledge and Affiliation and anchor Emerging-Entrepreneurs.

Except for sharing a higher degree of Affiliation with 107 Resilient Product Teams the magnet for the talent profile 108 Core Business Groups is its preference for medium degrees of speed and new knowledge.

Here’s something to consider when it comes to avoiding worse fits throughout your career.  So far we can say both 101 Breakpoint Inventors ( worse fit: Sustaining-Associates) and 107 Resilient Product Teams (worse fit: Systematic Professionals) would struggle the most if employed in their diagonally opposite “boxes”.

Both embody the highest degrees of dimensions that define their Organizational Type and share no other “box” border usually defined by one or more medium degrees.

If you’re driving disruptive innovation at a rapid pace and accustomed to being able to call your own shots (101 Breakpoint Inventors) you don’t have the patience to endure higher degrees of sustained improvement, identity with a brand or company (high affiliation) and the perceived time it would take to master a process or system.

If you’re driving the discovery and re-application of new knowledge at an accelerating pace within trusted teams (high affiliation) (107 Resilient Product Teams) you’ll also bristle at the slow pace required by (Systematic-Professionals) for mastery of embedded and embodied knowledge within  an organizationally independent identity.

Before moving on to Sustaining-Associates,  let me pull from my list of best fit companies and clients for my next episode to explore what it means to love Emerging-Entrepreneurs the “green box” organization with it’s unique blend of talent profiles:

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

Then we’ll return in the following episode and move in a counterclockwise direction to break down the “tan” box and differentiate its new four profiles and find out why they are better suited to work for Sustaining-Associates and not Paradoxy-Morons.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:  

You’ll learn techniques and approaches that make life run better. For instance, you’ll develop greater objectivity and your performance at work and in relationships improves. You’ll stop personalizing certain aspects of your behavior, opting instead to accept yourself wholly. You’ll achieve healing and attain goals. 

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You’ll come to a point in which you really don’t know what to do next. Don’t fret; any move will do. Once you’re in motion, you’ll fall into the groove that eventually leads to the next move.” Virgo

For writers just type.  Don’t wait for divine inspiration, but just do. Your internal voice knows how to expressitself, even if you don’t.

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Whether you have a knack for today’s task or not matters very little. Action teaches you and allows your natural talents to emerge at the same time, if you have them. And if you don’t — well, the deed will get done either way.” Libra

Get moving, just do it, eh?

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Rituals assist and power you. Doing the same thing over and over is a kind of magic spell. There’s an aim you’d like to accomplish and it’s time to develop some repeatable daily actions to help you get there,” Sagittarius

Repeatable daily actions.  Yup, I’ve got them.  But, sometimes you find a hole in the sidewalk you’ve been traversing.  Be careful not to fall in.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “You (and everyone you know) are vulnerable to distraction. Each time your attention goes to something other than what you meant to be doing, it costs you. Take preventative measures to stay on track.” Capricorn 

Where’s the fun in that?  Squirrel! Yip, Yip, Yippie.

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “Lateral moves are seldom painful but the rewards they offer will be mild to say the least. More often than not, the way forward is through discomfort. Your willingness to endure it allows for your blossoming.” Aquarius 

Discomfort.  Haven’t suffered enough?  Endurance and resilience flow from that willingness.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “If you want to hook into a new habit, figure out what’s in it for you and what feels good about it. Otherwise, you’ll be pushing and struggling and it will be impossible to keep up the willpower for very long.” Pisces

If you want a better fit, check out the differences among Paradoxy-Morons, Emerging-Entrepreneurs, Sustaining-Associates or Systematic-Professionals.

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

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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S2 E78 — What Do Paradoxy-Morons Want and Need?

Welcome to the pressure-packed nearly no-win world of 103 PMCI Commercial Innovators.  What’s more important — driving revenue or scheduling yet another series of non-productive meetings?

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “When you say what you need to say but no one seems to be listening, take it as a signal to repeat. Many people will not even begin to understand until you’ve said it seven times.” Scorpio

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 78 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 12th 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 E77 — 10 Years of Field Research for Better or Worse: S2 E76 — Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Paradoxy-Moron?; S2 E75 —  Guinea Pig Projections

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E78 — Drag Me to Obsolescence, Clear the Way to the Future: S1 E77 — Why This Caper Is Breaking My Mind; S1 E76 — “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”; S1 E75 — Dreams and Schemes and Workarounds

Context

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

In our last episode we began breaking out talent profiles for each of the 4 Organization Types starting with Paradoxy-Morons. 

At first I couldn’t figure out how I could contribute most to each Paradoxy-Moron-like company for which I worked or later advised. 

But, of course over time patterns emerged. 

Take for instance …

23.  Organizational Development – Technology —

Working for a 101 PMBI Breakpoint Inventor was right up my alley.  Ed, the General Manager of a technology division in Southern California had a vision for advanced manufacturing in the future.  He subscribed to the “lets-use-our-own-technology” to see what it makes us become.  

He wanted to chunk out unneeded steps in the process, break down manufacturing lines into small groups and cross train everyone.  And he wanted to “pull expertise” from engineers who supported the operations to “upskill” the teams.

This wasn’t a startup.  It wasn’t met with open arms by the engineers or the factory supervisors or even the manufacturing teams.

Really at the core the biggest obstacle was how the “rank and file” used to being told what, when, and how to “do it” couldn’t grasp his unproven vision of doing things in a new way.  So our role was to help Ed communicate in more tangible ways what his vision was so people could begin to participate. 

We set up Minimum Viable Product demonstrations on the factory floor and challenged the old timers to compete.  When they couldn’t they knew it was time to trust where he wanted to take us to the future.

Climate for Innovation — that’s the theme my team got three local leaders of manufacturing, software engineering and firmware engineering to sponsor in the California division of an east-coast headquartered company.

They were on the hook to finish products on their roadmaps, but to figure out ways to shrink development time before their competitors did. 

We scheduled a communications program that interviewed each leader and gave them an opportunity to describe what was important to their group and how each of the other groups fit together.  

It wasn’t technology or talent as much as it was product team formation, storming, norming and performing that sped progress on the relentless time to market. 

By sailing to Catalina, holing up in a local hotel and hashing product roadmaps teams were literally able to think out of the box away from the mainland and return to their work with a fresh perspective.

If anyone is going to render our technology obsolete, so Paradoxy-Morons believe it better be us.  It’s only a matter of time — faster than they or you may think — before someone else develops the next generation

Easier said than done, but how do you stay one or two steps ahead of the technology and competition?

You enlist an intrepreneurial network of 104 PMRDE R&D Experimenters (people closest to the products) for matching ideas and developing new concepts, for  finding like-minded co-conspirators and influencing decision-makers with budget to invest.

It’s not always about exploring what’s “out there” as it relentlessly pursuing was to re-engineer and leapfrog their own products.  If anyone is going to render our technology obsolete, it better be us.

It’s only a matter of time — faster than they or you may think — before someone else develops the next generation.

Sometimes you literally need to remove yourselves from the internal politics and status quo, like across the street with fewer resources as in a startup to meet your goal of bringing in a much smaller footprint to huge computer, that was faster and easier to program

What makes Paradoxy-Morons tick? Faster, better,  brighter,  smaller, cheaper. 

What are their unique challenges? Willingly and frequently jumping out your habitual ways, accelerating teams to keep pace with the time-to-market demands, and then soaking up “proprietary” processes converting them into best practices and circulating them to whomever needs them as they need them.

25 — Director Continuous 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.

Welcome to the pressure-packed nearly no-win world of 103 PMCI Commercial Innovators.  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?

26 — Emerging Desktop Projector Company —

With 200 roughly employees generating revenues of roughly 200 million dollars. Not enough time.  Spread too thin.  Unforeseen obstacles.

Not only isn’t there enough time, but as a 103 PMCI Commercial Innovator when you begin your new product, you only have a smaller set of engineering and technical people at your disposal,  No-one remains idle.  The “good ones” aren’t available until they complete  their current assignments.  If something delays their product launch, your  own kickoff with a full team is in jeopardy.  

103 PMCI Commercial Innovators worked with me to facilitate their teams using their product (multimedia projectors) but in a reverse engineered way.  Instead of lecturing or teaching from a laptop, we connected one to Tegritys’ whiteboard system on the company’s intranet.  Instead of projecting we were co-creating PowerPoint-like output.  We were able to share drawings, schematics, intentions and changes in near realtime and as a “place” for each person who missed a key part — traveling, still on a product-delayed team — and catch up quickly.

104 PMRDE R&D Experimenter and 102 PMTL Thought Leaders collaborated with a small group researching how lasers could project images over great distances hoping for a breakthrough.  A San Diego University’s foundational research partner shared the cost and provided needed resources to launch a minimum viable product as a proof of concept for commercialization.

Summary

What makes Paradoxy-Morons tick?

They notice how limited the traditional, status quo solves the really complex problems and challenges

Disrupting. 

A fast-paced, innovative culture that attracts and retains the best of the best. 

Motto?

“It’s better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.”

What are their unique challenges? 

      • They champion paradigms based on new science discoveries.
      • Once is not enough. From one world beater to several again an again
      • Finding commercial applications of disruptive innovation in the form of new product categories — which haven’t been proven until flawed prototypes and buggy technology work themselves out

What are the takeaways?  

Innovations have to come faster.  Concurrent overlapping talent demands.

In the start up stage they are capable of anticipating something new and act decisively to establish a new market, industry, technology or a new scientific discipline.

Next up Emerging-Entrepreneurs.

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “When you say what you need to say but no one seems to be listening, take it as a signal to repeat. Many people will not even begin to understand until you’ve said it seven times.” Scorpio

If you find yourself attracted to 105 EEMA Marketing Athletes, you’ll already know about how nothing happens in a marketing and sales effort until roughly the 7th contact.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You know who you are and you tell the world today, mostly by how you move around in it, what you say and the feeling you bring to interactions.”  Aries

OK, so I do know who I am, but in today’s world I gotta tell you there isn’t a whole lot of maskless interactions going on in my daily life.  My message?  Wear your mask or get out of my space. Haha

“4”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You’re not trying to do a job. You’re trying to turn a job into art. This is why you’ll put more thought into your task than the others do, and this is why you’ll get better results.” Leo

Well, let me stipulate I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where I don’t need a job, but I do have a lot of left over “art” from earlier careers to keep me busy.

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You root for the underdog before you even realize how the odds are stacked. It’s because you see merit where others do not, and you’ll be correct in this too. Your cheerleading will make a difference.” Virgo

While this is true, I’m always amazed that my team can measure up to that team which seems to be flawless compared to mine.  And, at work during my careers, I did side with the underdog, the employees called associates, when it came to maneuvering through their organizations.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “The effort you make doesn’t always directly correlate with the results you get, which is what makes today mighty fine. You’ll be able to see how you’re making a difference in real-time.” Sagittarius

So either I’m lazy or I’m barking up the wrong tree.  Squirrel, woof, woof …

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You’ll engage your life honestly, at least in your head. This is the start of all clarity. The day will bring you many gifts as you move toward your own excuses and faults with love.” Pisces

Wow.  The first two sentences made me grab this TauBit early in the day.  It promised so much, until it lost me in the last two words.

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead:  

The battle to change is challenging enough when it’s you you’re trying change, but when it’s someone else, it’s not only hard, it’s also probably futile, possibly selfish and likely impossible. 

Of course, all around us transformations are occurring without mental effort, intention or any willpower at all. 

Tides go out and in and out again. Planets travel; naiads become dragonflies; babies learn to stand and sing and leap. 

When you quiet your mind, breathe easy and do very little of anything at all, you align yourself with the ever-changing nature of nature.

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

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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S2 E77 — 10 Years of Field Research for Better or Worse

In my nearly 10 years of field research I noticed something I should point out.  Let’s take the first, Paradoxy-Moron Organization Type.  Its four talent profiles share variations of higher to medium degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’re so brilliantly inventive now that leaving things in the idea stage, or even in the discussion stage would be a crime. Follow through. Bring things into being.” Taurus

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 77 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 11th 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 E76 — Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Paradoxy-Moron?; S2 E75 —  Guinea Pig Projections; S2 E74 — Summing Up Your Situation in an Intensely Psychological Game

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E77 — Why This Caper Is Breaking My Mind; S1 E76 — “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”; S1 E75 — Dreams and Schemes and Workarounds ; S1 E74 — You Know What To Do, Yeah Right!

Context

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

So, the purpose of a scenario exercise is to differentiate among at least four alternatives with easily identified distinctions.  

In our previous episode  the HR Executive team identified organizational talent culture scenarios that describe four different types of work arrangements: “Paradoxy-Morons,” “Emerging-Entrepreneurs,” “Sustaining-Associates” and “Systematic-Professionals.” 

Which is best for you?

Before you answer, let’s drill down into each of those organizational talent cultures.

In my nearly 10 years of field research I noticed something I should point out.  Not everyone who fits a “talent profile” in any of the four, what I am now calling, Organization Types, shares the same higher degree of the three dimensions which shape that organization.  

Let’s take the first, Paradoxy-Moron Organization Type.  

Its four talent profiles share variations of higher to medium degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed.

In the upper left hand corner, you’ll notice the intersection of higher disruption, independence and speed.  We’re calling that talent profile 101 PMBI (Paradoxy-Moron Breakpoint Inventors).

Next in numerical sequence to the right of 101 PMBI you find 102 PMTL  (Paradoxy-Moron Thought Leaders).  Thought Leaders share the need for high degrees of independence, but only medium degrees of speed and disruptive innovation.

103 PMCI (Paradoxy-Moron Commercial Innovators) share high degrees of disruptive innovation and speed with Breakpoint Inventors (found right above them in the graphic), but only a medium degree of independence.

Next in sequence, on the bottom and to the right of Commercial Innovators you find 104 PMRDE (Paradoxy-Moron R&D Experimenters).  They only require medium degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed.  

Each of these talent profiles represent better fits in a Paradoxy-Moron organization for anyone who may be:

    • 101 PMBI Breakpoint Inventors
    • 102 PMTL Thought Leaders
    • 103 PMCI Commercial Innovators
    • 104 R&D Experimenters

Can you guess which Organization Type would probably be a worse fit for these four Paradoxy-Moron talent profiles?

In most cases, pick the “opposite” Organization Type, for example “red” Paradoxy-Morons suffer if they choose to work for “tan” Sustaining-Associates.

Next up, we’ll revisit my list of 33 jobs sorted into worse fits and better fits first, then sorted according to higher degrees of independence and speed and for affiliation and mastery.

Now we’ll sort those lists to a smaller list still of Paradoxy-Moron organizations and clients favoring higher degrees of disruptive innovation, independent identities and accelerated pace dictated by the speed of their markets and industry to see what made them tick.

And, finally we’ll continue in a counter clockwise sequence and dive a little deeper into “green” Emerging-Entrepreneurs Organization Type.  

If we’re on the same wave-length you’ll imagine that its four Talent Profiles will select it if they’re looking for a better fit while avoiding its opposite, the “blue” Systematic-Professionals.

Until then let’s shift gears and see if any of the Holiday Tau feels relevant today.

Evidence

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “At the heart of love is acts of forgiveness. How many times should you forgive a person? How many times should you forgive yourself? If the love is unconditional, the forgiveness is endless.” Scorpio

Scorpios harbor grudges and seek revenge.  “Beware of the Scorpio sting”  But, both Emma the Baroness and I share the Scorpio sign.  But at the heart of our love is forgiveness, right?

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’re so brilliantly inventive now that leaving things in the idea stage, or even in the discussion stage would be a crime. Follow through. Bring things into being.” Taurus 

Oh sure, just as I was about to switch passion projects along comes this.  My struggle lies in the graphics and the tables rendition of my field research and theory.  

“5”  Steve Smith, 30: “You used to think that once a certain problem got solved, you would coast on easy street for a while. Alas, there will always be new obstacles, so it’s important that you make each day fun for yourself in some way.” Gemini

Especially when it comes to fitness and being in shape.  As you age the aches and pains add up.  Why can’t I have fun and coast on easy street for a while?

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

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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S4 E29 — How Much Mo Did He Pay for the Brooklyn Bridge?

What was it my mother always asked me when I told her Billy did it too?  “If they all jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, should you?” I always said sure!  What she should have said was, “If you believe that, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.”  She didn’t even know Mo Brooks, thank goodness.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Being in the midst of change can feel painful and difficult. On the other hand, having changed feels like life-affirming vitality — something to keep in mind as you’re slogging it out to get to the other side.” Taurus

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s 29th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 21st day of April in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

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

Table of Contents

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E28 — Why Do Those Who Know the Least Talk the Longest?; S4 E27 — Who Cares If It’s The Right Thing To Do Anymore?; S4 E26 — What Happens If No One Asks a Question?

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E29 — Why 83.3% of the Time I Swiped Your Tau; S3 E28 — Why I Stole Your Daily Horoscope for a Year; S3 E27 — What the World Needs Now Before It’s Too Late; S3 E26 — Following Alice Down the Rabbit Hole

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World; S2 E28 — Hosting Norwegian Zooms While Trump Eliminated the Virus in April; S2 E27 — Why I Have to Keep Leo da V on a Leash and So Should You; S2 E26 — Rethinking the N-Word

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E28 — Day 28 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E27 — Day 27 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E26 — Day 26  of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

After Joe Biden was projected the winner of the 2020 presidential election, House of Representatives Mo Brooks staunchly defended Trump and repeated claims of voter fraud. 

According to published reports summarized in Wikipedia:

    • Brooks argued that most mail-in voting was unconstitutional, and 
    • That “if only lawful votes by eligible American citizens were cast, Donald Trump won the Electoral College by a significant margin”, but 
    • His assertions that the election was stolen by extraordinary voter fraud and election theft measures were unsupported by evidence.

Ever the foot soldier for Trump, on December 10, 2020, Brooks was 

One of 126 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election. — Wikipedia 

What was it my mother always asked me when I told her Billy did it too?  “If they all jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, should you too?”

What she should have said was, “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge I can sell you.”

Even stacked with conservatives, The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Basically they were asking WTF?  Everyone knows one state can’t challenge another state’s election results.

But, go figure.  

Anything goes in Texas, so why not?  Even though most of the sponsors for the brief were attorneys by former profession and could predict the outcome since the official ruling was they lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.

So it couldn’t have been just that, right?  Something else was going on.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of election subversion. 

She also reprimanded Brooks and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: 

“The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions”.— Wikipedia

2021 Attack on the Capitol

Well, let’s take matters into our own hands. Brooks was the first member of Congress to announce his objection to the January 6, 2021, certification of the Electoral College results.

But, let’s not jump off the bridge (let someone else) instead let’s sell them a bridge.  

In December he organized a series of White House meetings between Trump and a dozen Republican lawmakers to strategize about how to overturn the election results on January 6. — Wikipedia

First one again.

On January 6th you might remember from streaming coverage, Mo was the first speaker at a pro-Trump rally. 

In the speech he harshly criticized other Republicans in Congress for not aiding him in his efforts to overturn the election and said, 

“Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass”.— Wikipedia

So what else is new?

At the rally Trump gave an hourlong speech claiming that the election had been stolen and urging people to go to the U.S. Capitol to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” — Wikipedia 

Trump called for his supporters to “walk down to the Capitol” to “cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.” 

According to streaming video footage and  Wikipedia’s cited sources:

    • He told the crowd that he would be with them, but he ultimately did not go to the Capitol. As to counting Biden’s electoral votes, Trump said, “We can’t let that happen” and suggested Biden would be an “illegitimate president”. 
    • Referring to the day of the elections, Trump said, “most people would stand there at 9:00 in the evening and say, ‘I want to thank you very much,’ and they go off to some other life, but I said, ‘Something’s wrong here. Something’s really wrong. [It] can’t have happened.’ And we fight. 
    • We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore”.
    • He said the protesters would be “going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country”.
    • Trump also said, “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. 
    • We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated”.
    • Starting at 11:58, from behind a bulletproof shield, President Trump gave a speech, declaring that he would “never concede” the election, criticized the media, and called for Pence to overturn the election results, something outside Pence’s constitutional power.
    • His speech contained many falsehoods and misrepresentations that inflamed the crowd. 
    • Trump did not overtly call on his supporters to use violence or enter the Capitol, but his speech was filled with violent imagery and Trump suggested that his supporters had the power to prevent Biden from taking office. 

According to Wikipedia, the same afternoon, Pence released a letter to Congress in which he said he could not challenge Biden’s victory.

    • Later that night, Congress reassembled to certify the Electoral College vote; Brooks raised an objection to Nevada’s votes, but it did not succeed because no senator joined him in objecting.
    • Despite cheering on the riot as it happened, Brooks later said the rioters were associated with Antifa, citing a Washington Times report that was later retracted.

On January 11, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine said that he was looking at whether to charge Brooks, along with Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr., with inciting the violent attack.

Not quite two months later on March 5, 2021, Representative Eric Swalwell filed a civil lawsuit against Brooks and three others (Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Giuliani), seeking damages for their alleged role in inciting the riot.

    • Brooks tried to claim immunity on the basis that he had given the speech on January 6 in his capacity as a federal employee, but the Justice Department said the speech was not part of his duties as a member of Congress.
    • In a sworn affidavit, Brooks stated that his fiery language in the speech was about the 2022 and 2024 elections. 
    • On March 9, 2022, a federal judge dismissed Swalwell’s lawsuit, saying that Brooks’s speech was protected by the First Amendment.

2022 Senate campaign — Mo Brooks switching from the House

On March 22, 2021, according to Wikipedia Brooks announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Richard Shelby in 2022. 

    • He positioned himself as a staunch ally of Trump, 
    • Repeated Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and 
    • Alleged that socialists were taking over the government.

Trump rewarded Brooks loyalty by endorsing him in April 2021, but later rescinded his endorsement in March 2022.

Brooks ascribed that to Brooks having refused to work to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.

    • In March 2022, one year into Biden’s term, Brooks acknowledged that “the law doesn’t permit” him, as a congressperson, to work to remove Biden and install Trump. 
    • Anyone telling Trump that there are such “mechanisms” for replacing a president, he said, is “misleading” Trump.

For further information: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

Evidence

Holiday Theme for The Day: 

… the down-to-earth … season…, we are reminded that there are lows lower than the lowest valley, but you have to dig to get to them. There are also highs higher than the highest mountaintop, but it takes the effort of flight… accepting the natural parameters of a thing.

The first season felt normal.  The second season felt so disruptive.  Surely by the third season the valley lows would have given way to heights scaled, but … 

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Unresolved feelings can feel very uncomfortable indeed as they rattle around in your body and mind, looking for somewhere to settle. On the bright side, this is the chaotic buzz of enormous creative potential.” Scorpio

Sure, I guess you could say those unresolved feelings about the health of our democracy is what drives these episodes in Season Four.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

The reason this will be a shining jewel of a year is well expressed by the words of Abraham Lincoln: “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” Your spirit of determination will spread to a network who will root for the completion of one goal after another.

Or, Abraham Lincoln may be the first President to govern during a Civil War, but not the last if the Trump party has its way.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Being in the midst of change can feel painful and difficult. On the other hand, having changed feels like life-affirming vitality — something to keep in mind as you’re slogging it out to get to the other side.” Taurus

Okay, okay.  I get it.  Keep my eye on the prize while slogging.

“3”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “You prize efficiency and gravitate to those who can make things happen cheap, fast and right. Usually, you do not get all three. Typically, two of those qualifications are the most you can hope for at once. But today you’ll get lucky.” Gemini

Sure, cheap and fast and right.  Who could argue with those convenient consumer values? I guess I’ll wait as the remainder of the day plays out.  

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “You’ve mastered the tasks, ridden the rides and learned the personality quirks of everyone involved. But just when you think you know all there is to know, a surprise will inject some adrenaline into the scene.” Cancer

Wait, is this about the political conspiracy characters before, during and after the January 6th insurrection or just characters in my extended family?

“4”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Even if you have a map and the wind in your sails, forward motion still takes internal fortitude. To make it to the brave new world across the ocean, you must have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Leo

No, Emma the Baroness and I aren’t sailing across the ocean to a brave new world together.  We’re driving from California, first to Prescott, Arizona to revisit Jay and Elle who did travel with us to Italy.  And then we continue on to Sedona, Arizona to check out just how recovered my newish replaced left knee has recovered.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “Your success comes from being aware and responsive. While many around you are ignoring or resisting the facts of reality, you are managing them deftly.” Virgo

It’s at the heart at how I earned my money, especially over my more recent careers. I’m a trend curator more so to notice patterns among them driven by technology, politics, economics and demographics.  A lot of where we find ourselves today had been influenced years ago and defines the facts of life in Season Four.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “The same challenge you faced last month is coming back in new forms, affording you the chance to test out different responses. Later you’ll count this problem among your finest teachers.” Capricorn 

Sure, this makes a lot of sense.  So there’s something unresolved that keeps recycling and I get to try something new and different to solve it?  I like it.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12559 this week to 12654 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 216 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

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