Tag: Hawaii

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S2 E94 — Sustained Growth: Slicing Turnover and Grooming Experts

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.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King,72: “Study past successes and failures for the keys to victory. To skip the research phase of a project is to waste time, as there is no use in repeating what didn’t work before.” Virgo

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 94 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 9th day of August in the summer of 2020.  

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E93 — Who It Takes to Keep Growth at It’s Peak; S2 E92 — Herding Cats Towards a Tornado; S2 E91 — How to Master Rapid Growth Without Gifting Your Competitors

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E94 — Wasn’t There a Movie about the Tau of Steve?; S1 E93 — Why is it easier to Hate than to Love the other Half?; S1 E92 — Shh … Secrets Husbands Keep to Ourselves; S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?

Context

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

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

110 Analytical Specialists in the Sustained Growth Stage

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Let’s explore what it’s like behind the scenes working in a Sustained Growth company.  We’ll break it down into two parts. 

Part One describes the trials and tribulations working in an electronic distribution company.  Our next episode focuses on the growing pains and challenges of a disk-drive technology company in Part Two. Both in their own unique ways recruited Analytical Specialists to join their talent cultures.

Third Growth Stage for 110 Analytical Specialists

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Part One

12. Director Electronics Distribution Company 

Professionalize to Stabilize 

They were described as a Wild West sales organization in their early days — as in anything goes as long as you get the sale.  

They grew from a local to a regional player during their emerging and rapid growth stages across the Western United States with ambitions to grow nationally and then internationally.

International Aspirations

They ran into complications with the technology required to translate currencies for product ordering.  Instead the acquirer from Europe already had systems in place. 

I seriously misjudged the “technology” component, because I discovered after the first 90-days it was less about innovating and more about sales.

Maturing Business Model 

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 would work,  could be trusted, and then could be bought in volume to match expected market explosions.

As a middle player, they needed to “lock up” exclusive franchise agreements with the best known manufacturers while at the same time add to their capabilities with ties to second tier manufacturers which specialized in emerging new technologies.

Keeping a Pulse on Emerging Markets

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. 

They provided the missing marketing infrastructure working directly with their (potential) customer’s  103 PMCI Commercial Innovators with limited resources.

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.

Pinch Points

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, from their own technical sales people and 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.

Consequences of Not Mastering Growth Crises

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

From High Turnover to Time to Mastery

My initial success happened when my team streamlined what had been a two week training conference for all new hires.

Wyle planned to grow in a cutthroat industry.  

When you’re on the hook to orient new internal sales and external sales people, you need to reference how great the opportunity is now and will be or else you experience high turnover rates.  

Which is what they already had.  If you fly in new hires from the field offices, pay for their hotel and food, while they endure the blah blah blah of their new company’s history over the course of two weeks, the costs keep climbing when those new hires figure enough out to say adios.  

But, that wasn’t the half of it.

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.

Experts in the Field, But Not at Each Office

We cut down the two week orientation process in half, we put a lot of nice-to-know stuff online, and focused on practice — sales calls, how to use the computer system, where to find tips and tricks, and we identified the best people in the field offices who knew how to get things done.  They taught and they became ongoing mentors.  

It was so successful that we created a problem when people, who had been hired a year ago, said they didn’t know the stuff the rookies had just learned.  And the mentors loved the recognition.

Professionalizing Human Resources with Specialists

The Vice President of Human Resources, my boss,  and I held several meetings once I signed on. He introduced the other HR people in compensation, recruiting and general administration.  He told me about where the regional offices were located.  How the distribution company operated.  

Kind of the typical onboarding stuff you’d expect.  

But not the one key bit of information — the strategy going forward.  I always determine how much leeway I have when I’m brought in to start up another training and organizational development department.

Neither the CEO nor the Chief Operating Officer told him.  They said he didn’t need to know.  Which meant, the whole Human Resources function he headed up was only transactional.

Closely Held Plans

Wyle planned to not only expand from the western region to become a national player, they figured if they represent the Motorolas and the Intels and all the tech manufacturers who need to grow their sale efforts, why not represent them in Europe?  

But two things operating in the background accounted for their top secret strategy.

The first turned out to be sad.  Our CEO suffered from a moderate form of multiple sclerosis and his symptoms started to show.  

The second resulted in attempts to acquire a European distribution company who also exclusively represented the Motorolas and Intels and all the tech manufacturers on their continent.

Instead we were acquired by Rabb Karcher — the European distributor. It boiled down to technology.  Rabb Karcher solved the language problems and the currency problems and operated at a much higher, what I would call organizational intelligence level.  

They mastered all the challenges Wyle hadn’t as they tried to grow nationally.  Rabb Karcher already had and they operated cross-borders.  So they were able to describe a more compelling case to the manufactures that both companies represented.

After the CEO Stepped Down

Karcher did have a much smaller distribution company with limited “manufacturing franchises” in the US.  It was located in San Diego.

The president moved into our Irvine headquarters.  To tell you the truth I thought he was better than the old regime — younger, and he had survived Raab Karcher’s management pressures in the US.  

Oh, and the inside sales and outside sales representatives loved the fact that he came up through the sales organization.

Sales Suffered from Delayed Marketing Communications

Wyle’s marketing function didn’t inform sales of their discounted offerings.  If they did, it was an afterthought.  

Let’s say one of your current or potential customers — an engineering company — operated at an accelerated pace and needed parts like yesterday.

Their purchasing rep gives you a call.  And, they tell you the specifications they need.  Normally, you’d compare potential manufacturers you represent to give them the best deal, then you give them the quote. 

And they tell you that couldn’t be accurate, because they heard you were running a special price that you didn’t know about.

Corporate Communications 

Even before the acquisition in the rapid growth period people in the field felt under trained and out of the loop.

The COO did the “Joe Show” on video and sent it to the regional offices. I brought in crazy creative Dave, from my Unisys days, who had been consulting in corporate communications.  

We expanded the content to include people we asked the offices to identify for the next edition and we highlighted some of the mentors.  So both things reinforced each other.

Recruiting Overlooked Sales Engineers

The joke told internally was “How do you tell who’s an engineer at a party?  They’re the ones looking at their shoes.  How do you tell who’s the sales engineer? They’re looking at your shoes.”

Let me set the scene — we, mostly they, interviewed successful sales engineers and discovered they weren’t the best and brightest of their classes in engineering schools.

So they were overlooked when all the other recruiters came on campus.  

Actually the campaign focused on socially-adept engineering students.  If they were in a fraternity or sorority, that was good.  If they happened to be the rush chair person that was better.  We simply invited them for pizza and beer when the recruiting team hit campus.  The team passed out a comic-graphic filled story about Wyle and why they could shine as a sales engineer.

We learned  they just had to know enough technical jargon to nod and turn the closing back to the sales people.

The graphic comic didn’t sit well with Wyle’s top dogs, and by then I could see the merger writing on the wall.  In fact, I always wished I recorded the announcement from the CEO circulated over group voicemail.

He announced the Rabb Karcher acquisition and his plans to step down, but also insisted it was all in Wyle’s best interests and nobody would be laid off.

Yeah, right.

Next up, Part Two when I describe how the heavy resistance to transitioning to continuous improvement with its emphasis on statistics was a lot tougher sale than I imagined.

Summary        

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

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Evidence

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51:“When you are doing it your way, unselfconsciously and unapologetically yourself, you have no competition. No one can be you better than you can be you.” Scorpio

I’m pretty sure this is the definition of being in the flow — peak performing as an athlete or musician or in any creative endeavor.

Random ones that make me want change my sign. 

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “You’ll find yourself mentally weaving an alternate version of things. Not all fantasy is escape. Sometimes it’s a creative way of understanding reality.” Cancer

My mind houses a flaw which causes me to search for the pun in what I read and a humorous alternative of what just came out in conversation.

“3”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “The guitarist can’t play with silk gloves on. Friction is what vibrates those strings. Don’t be afraid to dig into life with your nails. This day is waiting for you to give it a rhythm and sound.” Leo

Sure.  Friction and vibration.  Rhythm and sound, hmm … let me incubate for awhile on this TauBit of Wisdom.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King,72: “Study past successes and failures for the keys to victory. To skip the research phase of a project is to waste time, as there is no use in repeating what didn’t work before.” Virgo

Here’s my twist — do the 180 degree opposite as you pass through organizational growth transitions. 

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “You were not born with a serene air of confidence, rather the aura is well-earned through the extensive planning and preparation you do long before the moment of truth is upon you.” Libra

Thanks for noticing.  Every time I scheduled a workshop to teach Executive MBA students, I finalized my materials days ahead of time, and practiced and practiced and practiced at least 5 times.  What I noticed was how easy it became to add nuance and humor throughout my delivery.

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62: “People become associated with that of which they speak. You are drawn to intriguing facts, stories of warmth and kindness and descriptions of beauty. No wonder people feel elevated around you.”  Capricorn

Sure, that’s me alright. But during this pandemic can I really stake this claim for today?

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You’ll absorb some enthusiasm as you find yourself with bright, curious and passionate people. What you may not realize is how much you are rubbing off on them, too, in a very positive way.” Pisces

Maybe not today, but I’m reminded of positions and consulting assignments during which I had to pinch myself, because how wonderful it was to “play” with others.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

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

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

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

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

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S2 E93 — Who It Takes to Keep Growth at It’s Peak

They’re early adopters of “academic” methods, certifications, standards and proven practices for solving complex problems. So, they open the door to more fact-based approaches critical for Sustained Growth.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Most of the people around you now are making assessments within a narrow scope of understanding. Do not fear their disapproval and neither should you thrill to their approval.” Libra

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 93 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 8th day of August in the summer of 2020.  

 

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E92 — Herding Cats Towards a Tornado; S2 E91 — How to Master Rapid Growth Without Gifting Your Competitors; S2 E90 — How Many Road Warriors Does It Take to Fuel Our Growth?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E93 — Why is it easier to Hate than to Love the other Half?; S1 E92 — Shh … Secrets Husbands Keep to Ourselves; S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?; S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment;

Context

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

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Organization Type

16 Talent Profiles by Organization Type

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

As a Sustaining-Associates Organization Type, my military experience (in the “3.  US Army — Worse Fit”) thrived with 111 SAAT Agile Tiger Teams and 112 SALS Loyal Survivalists primarily with 110 SAAS Analytical Specialists in administrative and headquarters functions.

The first two private companies (6. Vocational Rehabilitation Services — Worse Fit) that hired me as a specialist had spun out of insurance companies — filled with 112 SALS Loyal Survivalists and 110 SAAS Analytical Specialists.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Sustaining-Associate Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Growth Stage

Neither organizations could primarily be described as being in their Sustained Growth  phase.  If they were, then they’d entice  110 Analytical Specialists to join 111 SAAT Agile Tiger Teams and 112 SALS Loyal Survivalists from the Rapid Growth Stage which would insure all that hard work from Start Up to Emerging Growth to Rapid Growth continues.  

110 Analytical Specialists in the Sustained Growth Stage

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

You may recall, while their degree of orientation to affiliation is medium, they favor high in degrees of improvement (of past innovations) and of mastery.  They bring with them a professional background — usually with certifications, association standards, or specialized degrees.

You may also remember that a worse fit for them is in Paradoxy-Moron organizations with talent cultures that thrive on disruptive innovation, speed and independence.

Third Growth Stage for 110 Analytical Specialists

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

The 110 Analytical Specialists are more loyal to the organization as a whole rather than to a leader or team. They’re eager to take on promotions that require them to specialize.and inject professional traditions into the organization. 

They’re early adopters of “academic” methods, certifications, standards and proven practices for solving complex problems. So, they open the door to more fact-based approaches. 

But there’s a dark side in some cultures, because 110 Analytical Specialists are often seen as internal enemies by 111 Agile Tiger Teams. 

Why?

Rightly or wrongly they’re seen as wanting to take away the people element and the need to address special situations out of the equation for success.

Which we’ll discuss in our next episode.

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “There is nothing wrong with pleasure or pain but living according to what feels good or bad is a precarious way to go. To live by an ideal is to do what it takes to uphold that ideal regardless of how it feels.” Scorpio

Wow, I feel my limited understanding prevents me from grasping the meaning.  

Random ones that make me want change my sign. 

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “If you’re still making excuses, then it’s time to ask for real: Do you want it, or do you just want to feel like you want it? Happiness will follow your honest answer to this question.” Taurus 

Am I still making excuses?  I can’t think of any today.  But, if I’m later reminded — seems like this is good advice to follow.

“4”  Steve Smith, 30: “People are often kept on a righteous road by the threat of unhappy consequences associated with straying from the path. It’s fine, but not as ideal as choosing a path because it’s where you want to be.” Gemini

I first read this as “… threat of unhappy consequences associated with straying from the past.”  Of course now after reading it three times it makes better sense.  “Anything is one of a million paths.  Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; If you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions.” Carlos Canstenda

“4”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You are like a candle that can light dozens, or even hundreds, more candles, giving them the gift of fire and light without diminishing anything that is yours.” Leo

I receive this with all humility, especially since today this ain’t no TauBit for me and I swiped it before they had a chance to bask in its glory.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Most of the people around you now are making assessments within a narrow scope of understanding. Do not fear their disapproval and neither should you thrill to their approval.” Libra

Look if my MBTI holds any weight, then I’m an introvert on most days — an innie.  And being a 113 Idea Packager aka INTP equates into about the 5% range of commonality.  In other words 95% of introverts don’t share the same orientation to life and work.  Doesn’t represent a narrow scope of understanding of me?

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Things will go undiscussed and maybe this is for the best. Words will have a way of reducing an experience. Besides, it is too soon to define and name all that’s going on.” Sagittarius

Now this one is a little eery. Does this mean stop talking to myself and just experience directly?  Feel don’t categorize?  Pure artistic expression?!

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

Wow, I really didn’t see the ending twist … you will find freedom.  I gotta tell you it feels like a case of analysis-paralysis in the set up,  Just not as relevant for me today.

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 4516 to 4636.

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 E92 — Herding Cats Towards a Tornado

It took several types of engineers to work together on a team.  When you had multiple teams going simultaneously you’d run out of certain kinds of engineers, usually at critical stages which caused delays.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You’ll amuse yourself like it was your job, and though it’s not, your professional life will benefit anyhow, as it spurs the relaxed frame of mind you need to come up with brilliant ideas that can be widely applied.” Scorpio

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 92 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 7th day of August in the summer of 2020.  

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E91 — How to Master Rapid Growth Without Gifting Your Competitors; S2 E90 — How Many Road Warriors Does It Take to Fuel Our Growth?; S2 E89 — Garage Bonking and Chasm Jumping

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E92 — Shh … Secrets Husbands Keep to Ourselves; S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?; S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It!;

Context

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

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Emerging to Rapid Growth

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

26. Emerging Desktop Projector Company — 

Part One described Proxima’s early navigation from a Start Up to an Emerging Growth stage.  

Today’s Part Two focuses on its path to Rapid Growth.

Growth Stage from Emerging to Rapid

“The purpose of the bowling pin model is to approach niche market expansion in as leveraged a way as possible, to bowl toward the tornado. Each niche, you will recall, requires its own whole product to be fully complete before it can adopt the new paradigm. At the same time, it finds it much easier to buy in if vendors can supply references from an ‘adjacent niche,’ one within which it already has established word-of-mouth relationships.” — Geoffrey Moore, “Inside the Tornado”

Three Market Niches Inching Towards the Tornado

    • I represented an obvious market niche — the classroom trainer. It was a tough sale because underfunded human resources and department budgets would dictate the dollars for replacing what they already had with Proxima projectors.  
    • Maybe a tougher sale was to road warriors who had to be convinced to refrain from stuffing their laptops in the overhead bin for what would eventually become an iPhone years later in your pocket and stuff a smaller foot print projector above your Delta seat. 
    • The toughest sale would be to consultants like me who facilitated product development teams of engineers coupled with an intranet represented a third niche.

Talent Culture

We worked in a technology cluster of buildings in a parking lot shared with a super-computer company. Down a hallway, my office was on the right-hand side just past my boss’, the Vice President of Human Resources.  Frank, who was shorter than me with dark receding hair line and a mustache loved inspirational mottos.

He retired from the Navy having largely been influenced by a chain-of-command demanding allegiance to his boss and orders given him. He didn’t have the fast-paced technology experience, although to be fair he was fair and empathetic and believed in all those people development processes and procedures.

Looking back, he probably figured more structure, procedures would only help this technology company while building out his traditional HR department.

I wanted little to do with recruiting — thankfully Ian originally from Great Britain, who disliked my promotion of the principle of “collaboration” preceded my hiring.  It meant betraying your country to the enemy, as in England with Germany in WWII, he teased.

An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

Why his executive recruiter liked my background  which led to my offer.

    • 10 years experience working for Unisys and Fluor in the Mature Growth Stage
    • Including cross-silo adventures in Engineering, Software and Manufacturing, Shipping
    • Traditional Training and Development with an emphasis on applications at work
    • Organizational Development addressing resistance to change
    • TQM, Just-in-time, Continuous Improvement, Reengineering required to master current and future challenges

What attracted me was my vision of where innovation and technology was headed with that adrenalin rush.

    • It appealed to my build-it-from-scratch department bias 
    • An experiment or knowledge laboratory for discovering things on the cutting edge.
    • I tried to avoid classic supervisory classroom training-only. Proxima didn’t have many supervisors anyway.
    • I wanted to consult and facilitate teams, being more fascinated with the software and hardware engineering and research and development opportunities.
    • Each functional area was led by someone in over their heads, but with VP titles
    • Someone could parachute in from a larger company take a quick look around and tell everyone what to do in a 10th of the time an insider could do.
    • Major immune-system reactions — high change, transition management 

3rd CEO  

The newly recruited CEO didn’t have public company experience.  But, he had written book about how to combine US-style with Japanese-style leadership that Frank read and liked.  However, some of us realized later that he didn’t really follow those practices. 

We looked to him for leadership for building capacity to rapidly grow.

His Japanese contacts in the projector business helped us cheat as we sourced a lot of the components in our  projectors when we met our audacious goal of launching 6 new products into market niches in 6 months. 

My boss described him as someone who always “looked through a 40 foot straw.”  

Stuff that should have been on his CEO radar was missed.  

Product Road Map

Internally, I promoted “just-in-time” training bites, instead or “ just in case education” because trainees forgot 50% as they left the classroom,  and more of a focus on knowledge in circulation.  

My timing couldn’t have been better. A small startup named Tegrity showed how you could capture what was projected on a whiteboard during a presentation and bring edited markups back into your presentation.

Accelerating the Work of Engineering Teams  

We’d place the projector connected to a PC on a conference table and present one of their engineered “drawings” on a whiteboard as a slide. 

An engineer would say, “Look at that the metal case footprint — it is too small to include a fan.”  She’d stand up, walk to the whiteboard, draw a circle around the area, make other notations and I’d click the Tegrity button to add it as an updated slide in the “deck.”

We used to say working with engineers was like herding cats.  

    • In meetings they’d wander all over the tangents landscape.  
    • With Tegrity and a projector and a whiteboard you could focus their attention.  
    • With fewer arguments, misunderstandings, or differing frames of references you could progress must faster — which was the mantra — make it faster, lighter, smaller and brighter. 

And It Solved a Major Time-to-Market Problem

It took several types of engineers to work together on a team. 

    • When you had several teams going simultaneously you’d run out of certain kinds of engineers, usually at critical stages which caused delays.  
    • Small companies couldn’t hire and afford to keep all the technical talent it needed.
    • Like the engineers who were in charge of cooling down the projector while increasing the power required to work in a smaller “box.”  
    • They were in short supply.  

Ian would go to tech parking lots in Silicon Valley and intercept potentials before and after work for meetings dazzling them with San Diego.

One product manager came from Apple and most of us thought he walked on water.

So, if they were on Team A, they weren’t available to Teams B and C.  And, if they finally finished one team, they’d kind of roll from Team A to B.  

That’s when the shit would hit the fan.  

Sorry, but that’s when the team that was 75% of the way to their launch realized they messed up, would have to do some serious work around and miss their deadline.

Using Tegrity and an internal Internet we could capture that team’s oversight and correction and share the schematics almost in real time.  

Rapid Knowledge Circulation 

And, as other team members dispersed to join another team, they took the knowledge of that solution with them, showed it to the next team and in a way they cross trained each other.

So they would know when to check out the cooling and venting requirements earlier in their design

When I first experimented with it in a team meeting I got to the third slide the product manager and I made and an engineer called for a time out.  

I thought, oh no, here we go off on a cat-tangent.  

But, instead, she waved her hand between the bottom of the projector and the top of the conference room table and said the heat from this unit will warp the wood finish if we don’t do something about it.

Summary

Adding Two Sustaining-Associate Profiles

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

They develop the tools and manage the process of multiple new product introductions. They have to optimize the availability of internal and external team members — rolling people on and off projects — as the critical path for each product dictates.

That transition from organic free flowing ways of creating a company turned out to be the opposite of what helped them in the second stage.

Consequences of Not Mastering Growth Crises

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Start Up: Loosen — Leadership Crisis — Tighten

Emerging Growth: Tighten — Functional Crisis — Loosen

Rapid Growth: Loosen — Autonomy Crisis — Tighten

 We’re building on each of the 16 talent profiles so they may find a better fit at, not only in a particular Organization Type, but at a stage of growth as well.

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

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You’ll amuse yourself like it was your job, and though it’s not, your professional life will benefit anyhow, as it spurs the relaxed frame of mind you need to come up with brilliant ideas that can be widely applied.” Scorpio

Who knows if this turns out to be a “5” day after all, but I’d love it if amusing myself was my job.  Oh, wait it was.

Random ones that make me want change my sign. 

“4”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The point will be just to show up and see what you discover. If you can lower your expectation or, better yet, go in totally without one, you’ll be primed for a stellar day.” Aries  

Maybe not so much for today, but I invested a significant part of my life doing this and I have to say I encountered more stellar days than I ever expected.  I felt I embarked on an adventure of my life.

“4”  Steve Smith, 30: “When you really think about it, you have some beliefs that the people around you might be surprised by. It’s those rarified ideas that will open new thought processes to you and move you in a fulfilling direction.” Gemini

This could be relevant in two ways.  The first is political in the face of not heeding the science when many voters from across the aisle are dying from this pandemic in overcrowded hospitals.  The second could apply to this original research I’m writing up having grown tired of jigsaw puzzles.

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “Those who think they know are at a disadvantage, as their assumptions put up a barrier between themselves and the truth. It’s the ones who understand their own ignorance who will learn the most.” Cancer

True.  But, but not number one for me today.  Although the day is still early, eh?

“3”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Those who have had happy hearts feel capable of achieving that state again and will take every opportunity to recreate the status. Those who don’t know what’s possible will take longer to come around if they ever do.” Pisces

I have to admit, this I’d be really stretching this TauBit of Wisdom to what happens if you just don’t know what you’re missing in your career.

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 4516 to 4636.

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 E91 — How to Master Rapid Growth Without Gifting Your Competitors

Rapid Growth is the stage when you need to build out your brand.  And it’s the time when you are most vulnerable to high turnover, which translate into major knowledge leakage.  And something your competitors will thank you for later.

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 91 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 6th day of August in the summer of 2020.  

 

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E90 — How Many Road Warriors Does It Take to Fuel Our Growth?; S2 E89 — Garage Bonking and Chasm Jumping; S2 E88 — Convincing Family, Friends, Fools and Angels

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?; S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It!; S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him?

Context

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

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move. 

Emerging to Rapid Growth

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Just a quick recap.  To bridge the gap between a Start Up to the next stage the venture has to address its Leadership Crisis, or in reality the lack of leadership. The founder is content to grow organically, until, well the company doesn’t grow any more and angel investors may be ready to pull the plug.

To land in Emerging Growth the venture needs to tighten its operations with good old structure.

Stages of Growth

Start Up: Loosen — Leadership Crisis — Tighten

Emerging Growth: Tighten — Functional Crisis — Loosen

Let’s continue by adding to the first five of  16 talent profiles  we’ve covered so far.

Where to Find Best Fit

Talent Profile Growth Stage Organization Type
101 Breakpoint Inventors Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
103 Commercial Innovators Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
105 Marketing Athletes Start Up Emerging-Entrepreneurs
107 Resilient Product Teams Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs
108 Core Business Group Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Rapid Growth is the stage when you want to build out your brand.  And it’s the time when you are most vulnerable to high turnover.  Which translate into major knowledge leakage.

Rapid Growth: Loosen — Autonomy Crisis — Tighten

Back to that Yin-Yang cycle thingy.  The good news up until now was how we resolved the loosey-goosey lack of leadership crisis during Start Up by tightening and structuring operations in the Emerging Growth stage.

But, too much of one thing, like an overuse of a strength creates the next crisis.  And the prescription for over-tightening is, you guessed it, loosening by delegating and spreading autonomy around during Rapid Growth.

So if you’re building a “sticky” yet competent talent culture, you want to attract two talent profiles from the third of our organizational types — Sustaining-Associates.  If you recall, they are known for a high to medium mix of affiliation, improvement and mastery.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

111 Agile Tiger Teams thrive on the challenge of doing whatever it takes in high performing teams more than 50% loyal to their team leader.  They cultivate extraordinary teamwork as their core competency by emphasizing knowledge sharing in a culture of reciprocity, trust and community values.

112 Loyal Survivalists apply their skills as a marketer, in effect extending individual product brands into an organization known for multiple brands you can trust.

At the rapid growth stage one major challenge is how to make certain the organization sustains past innovations while renewing itself without losing sight of its core identity.  

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

So let’s update our career options.

Where to Find the Best Cultural Fit

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

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

But, wait there’s still more … nine more to be exact.  

Evidence

Move along, nothing to see here. For the first time, no relevant TauBits of Wisdom for today.

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 4516 to 4636.

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 E90 — How Many Road Warriors Does It Take to Fuel Our Growth?

Early employees wore a lot of hats and loved it.  They also expected to be first in line when it came to heading up new functions. But, they were pissed off when outsiders from bigger companies stepped all over them when they were hired instead.

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Today’s problem isn’t so tough. Ask a few people, do a thorough internet search, read an article or two and you’ll know enough to make an informed decision.” Sagittarius

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 90 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 2nd day of August in the summer of 2020.  

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E89 — Garage Bonking and Chasm Jumping; S2 E88 — Convincing Family, Friends, Fools and Angels; S2 E87 — Start Ups Aren’t For Everyone. Are They a Better or Worse Fit for You?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It!; S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him?; S1 E87 — Pipe Bombs Destroy Vacation Bliss

Context

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

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move. 

Now we’re building on each of the 16 talent profiles.

16 Talent Profiles by Organization Type

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

For the next few episodes, we’ll show how they (you and I) can take advantage of opportunities in stages of organizational growth from Start Up to Maturity and from Decline to Reinvention.

Consequences of not Mastering Growth Crises

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Key points to keep in mind:

    1. Every organization, including our 4 fundamental aspires to grow.
    2. The growth stages follow one after another from Start Up to 3 Growth phases to Maturity and Decline unless a Reinvention transformation kicks off before it is too late.
    3. Each new stage of growth requires a different talent culture than the previous one. One or two “talent tribes” dominate at each stage.
    4. There’s no guarantee a specific company and organization will master the gap between stage its current and potential next stage.
    5. That fact represents a second set of better or worse fits.

Bridging Leadership Gap Between Start Up to Emerging Growth

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

In our last episode we identified two more Emerging-Entrepreneur talent profiles, 108 Core Business Group and 107 Resilient Product Teams who join 105 Marketing Athletes in the Start Up phase to tighten operations and bridge the leadership gap into Emerging Growth. 

In a Start Up the founder sells a compelling vision of their future.  Just like our clients’ at Think!City did.  Or what happened to Proxima’s early employees who wore a lot of hats and loved it. 

They also expected to be first in line when it came to heading up functions.  That transition from organic free flowing ways of creating a company turned out to be the opposite of what helped them in the second stage.  And pissed off a lot of them when outsiders from bigger companies stepped all over them when they were hired.

Emerging Growth

26. Emerging Desktop Projector Company — 

A smaller more manageable sized company of 200 employees generating revenues of roughly 200 million dollars required a full-time director of organizational development and training. Hot damn, that’s me.

Growth Stage from Emerging to Rapid

In the next stage the directive management style required to bridge the gap between start-up and early growth actually plants the seeds for a new crisis at the end of that Emerging Growth Stage.

WTF?

In general it goes like this: 

Too much DIRECTION causes a crisis of AUTONOMY which forces DELEGATION in the next phase.

I learned after I took the job that growth danced between loosening and tightening and between innovation and efficiency.

    • So the early growth phase which Proxima had experienced was about tightening and efficiency in the evolutionary part of the lifecycle.
    • More than anything Proxima’s leaders craved accelerating growth. It competed in the emerging multi-media projector business.
    • Nobody really understood how the market niche would grow rapidly.
    • They were in the midst of extending, improving, and modifying the proprietary formula they had discovered by trial-and-error. 

In other words they set up methods to improve those things that worked but struggled to discard those things that didn’t.

Customers

Proxima’s market mostly consisted of “road warriors” — all those making presentations in sales and marketing meetings.  

And those addressing audiences and students in conference rooms and classrooms. 

What I liked was the hype about their growth and how immediately I saw the advantages of their projectors over the old school overhead classroom projector with the film slides you dropped or mishandled or …

They created presentations in their computers.  

Proxima sold a projector for each of those settings that connected to your computer for the first time.

You created a powerpoint in your computer and projected it on to a screen in front of a group of people.

Founder

Proxima didn’t start out in the multimedia projector business.  

Proxima had been an electrical and electronics supplier at its inception.  Eventually they evolved into selling all the accessories you’d need for PCs — you know the cords, connectors, power packs and eventually projectors — all before my time. 

Early employees loved their flip-flop, cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirt wearing founder.  

2nd CEO

Their CEO focused on policies and procedures more than taking care of business as the “outside” voice to the marketplace.

But, they continued with the new leader who wanted to provide more structure and loved writing policies.

Long Time Employees Loosing Out

Most of the employees from day one believed they would always be in line for promotions. They wore so many hats in the beginning, surely they figured, when they hung up most of those caps in the closet they’d be entitled to freely move up the organizational chart and place their remaining hat on their office’s rack while claiming a position yet to be formulated.  

Instead, those positions at the top level went to people like me who had larger company experience, than they did. Nothing wrong with them,  but they had yet to experience by trial and error what would be required when the pace accelerated and risks grew exponentially.

Summary

To answer your question, yes you can find happiness in one of the Organization Types and  in a growth stage — even if it’s not your type! 

How can that be true?  

Hint, it has something to do with unique challenges at each stage of growth and decline which challenge the key success factors that, well, bred success. 

And, therefore a different set of talents and abilities are required to navigate the transformation from the old to the new.

    • We’ve known for some time now that there’s this kind of yin-yang cycle working itself through organizational developmental stages. 
    • In the first stage the yin expresses itself as a loosening, organic, seeing what will work as the start up iterates its way into existence.  
    • Then too much of a good thing ushers in a tightening to regain control over what is working and what hasn’t worked and needs not to be repeated.  
    • And then having tightened up operations  to restrict control over resources far too much demands the cycle reverses  itself into a newer loosening phase.  

And, so on and so on through maturity, decline and reinvention. But remember, these transformations — think of them as a metamorphosis in the natural world when a caterpillar spins a cocoon, develops, and then emerges as a butterfly — a completely different insect.  

The point is loosening in the start up phase and loosening in the rapid growth stages require similar activities, the two stages are not the same animal or insect as they used to be or will become.

Stages of Growth

Start Up: Loosen — Crisis — Tighten

Emerging Growth: Tighten — Crisis — Loosen

In many cases a strong manager is needed who has the necessary knowledge and skill to introduce new business techniques to help them bridge the widening gulf between start-up and early growth stage.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Often it’s up to 107 Resilient Product Teams to develop “the formula” by reducing the amount of random experimentation while accelerating new business by learning from early customers.  They streamline the rapid product development process and convert emerging knowledge into repeatable processes.

Emerging-Entrepreneurs in a 108 Core Business Group expand the number of products and variations available often preceding the need to break the organization into functional specialties.  They manage through the variable demand, but focus on building the capacity for higher growth with efficient ramp-ups for initial products.

Where to Find Best Fit Cultures

Talent Profile Growth Stage Organization Type
101 Breakpoint Inventors Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
103 Commercial Innovators Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
105 Marketing Athletes Start Up Emerging-Entrepreneurs
107 Resilient Product Teams Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs
108 Core Business Group Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Founders hate to step aside during this turning point, even though they don’t have the temperament to be managers.

If they don’t, they prolong the inevitable. But, as we see in the next stage the directive management style plants the seeds for a new crisis at the end of the early growth stage.

Part Two: Evolution from Emerging Growth to Rapid Growth

Evidence

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Social status is one of those things you don’t really feel like you care too much about until you’re in a position to gain or lose it and become surprised by your behavior. You are, after all, only human.”  Scorpio

Aren’t we all?

Random ones that make me want change my sign. 

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “Even if you feel you have no news to share, make an effort to connect with friends and family. You’ll be surprised what fortuitous information comes up when there’s no particular agenda to the conversation.”  Cancer

I guess when all around you feel trapped by this pandemic, news and information bubbles up naturally in conversations, eh?

“3”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “What you desire will not come about through direct means. There is no pushing, buying or persuasion involved, only attraction. The most attractive mode is modesty and moderation.” Leo

In my own natural experiment gathering intelligence about what might work for me in this manner won over enough people in my 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon method who volunteered to refer me to other like-minded people and introduce me to enough decision-makers that opportunities appeared beyond my wildest dreams.

“3”  Steve Kerr, 54: “The wise choices are easier to make when you know what you care about. When you don’t know yet, don’t worry about being wise. Anything you choose will teach you more about what you care about.” Libra

Not so much as evidence for today, but more for the years I’ve put into the theory and the field testing in my own life and with clients and students I’ve advised, I find this relevant.

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Today’s problem isn’t so tough. Ask a few people, do a thorough internet search, read an article or two and you’ll know enough to make an informed decision.” Sagittarius

An informed decision about what positions you best in your career with a type of organization or a gnarly problem to solve in the next stage of organization growth, decline or reinvention is that this original research has always been about.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “It will be important to check off all of the daily habits you hold so dear today because it is only after these rituals are complete that you feel you have the space to share freely.” Pisces

As I work my way through this manuscript, Volume Two — Workfit, I fess up that if it weren’t for my daily habits which became rituals it would be awfully hard not to work 24/7 plowing through this content that I know it’s time to shut my office door and walk into my life.

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead: 

Some believe that love is an entity that is either present or not, that it must be found, not created, that shows up with its own characteristics and cannot be changed or manipulated. 

Then there’s the school of thought that depicts love as an emotion no different from other psychological states such as fear or satisfaction. In this model, with the right elements, the feeling can be conjured up, led around, intensified and molded …. the role of the subconscious in relationships. 

Below the thinking of which we are aware, there is a vast neural network buzzing with the activity of keeping us alive. This hardworking mind takes in all the sensory and cognitive information of living and processes it at lightning speed, organizing those cues so that only the most relevant information comes into consciousness. 

As for our attractions, by the time we realize them, they have already been vetted by the subconscious against hundreds of criteria, some superficial, some ancient and animal. An awful lot of psychological gauges are involved, too, having to do with our family of origin and how much the other person feels familiar and has similar strengths and weaknesses to that of our parents.

I’m afraid the TauBits of Wisdom offered by the Steves today pale in comparison with what lies ahead for us.  I love this on so many levels, don’t you?

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 4516 to 4636.

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 E59 — See What You’ve Been Missing

“You know the sensation you get when you look back on old photos? Be happy now. Cast worry aside. Trust time. It will handle so much for you.”

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Eventually, you’ll be able to handle more and move faster. But this is still the early stages. You’re still learning, and you won’t regret taking the time to learn it right.” Sagittarius

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 59 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 6th day of June in the summer of 2020.  

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E58 — Check Back in 18 Months; S2 E57 — Science and Medicine or Politically-Motivated Misinformation?; S2 E56 — What Iffing 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E59 — Where Did All the Dillon Millennials Go? Eureka!; S1 E58 — Judging a Stroll from the Hotel Santa Barbara to the Lobero Theater; S1 E57 — More or Less in the Know; S1 E56 — It’s Frickin’ Summer and So Are You

Context

When will we be able to travel?  When will we be safe?  Enjoy this week’s episode:

Feeling Frustrated and Exhausted? 39 New Photo-ready Memories for Summer

Aren’t we all yearning for those special summer moments? Beach vacations. Back country adventures. Family road trips. Fishing and floating trips.

Practice the art of anticipation.  Sometimes looking forward to fun and sun is almost as good as the experience itself.

Remember, while we’re getting closer to re-openings we here on the Atoll don’t expect or encourage you to go check them out immediately.

The Tau: Week Ending 6/6/20

Tags: Beaches, Canyons, Climbing, Deserts, Festivals, Forests, Hiking, Islands, Lakes, Mountains, Parks, Regions, Resorts, Rivers, Road Trips, Seas, Trails

Instead we hope our articles inspire your bucket list ideas for future memories!

But, today there’s no reason not to join our growing group of 3783 followers …. 

See what you’ve been missing.

Check out this week’s headlines pulled from our daily “Top 30 Digest” delivered, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.“

Where … ?

Mountains, Rivers and Lakes

          • ”The Natural Swimming Hole At Emerald Pools In Northern California Will Take You Back To The Good Ole Days”
          • ”The Best Kayaks for Fishing and Floating”
          • “Back To The Great Outdoors: Climbing Tahoe’s Via Ferrata”
          • ”The Best Things To Do In Mammoth Lakes During The Summer”
          • ”Is South Lake Tahoe open for visitors? The city won’t fine you, but the state might“
          • ”What A-Basin Looked Like on Day One of Its Reopening”

Pristine Treks

          • ”These Bay Area parks and beaches just reopened their parking lots””
          • Parking lots at 144 California state parks reopen”
          • ”Backcountry Must-Do: Liberty Cap”
          • ”Quintessential Nearby Adventures”
          • ”The Redwood Canopy Trail At Trees Of Mystery Is Northern California’s Newest Aerial Adventure”
          • ”Bald eagles return to nest in Orange County neighborhood”
          • ”With fire season ahead, Eldorado National Forest enacts campfire restrictions”
          • ”The Grand Canyon will reopen this summer. Here’s how it will go”

Deserts, Slopes and Ranges

          • “Echo at Rancho Mirage by Studio AR&D”
          • ”Sanitas Brewing Co. Reopens This Weekend After Shutting Down Roving Beer Truck”
          • ”George R.R. Martin Joins Investor Group To Buy & Restore Sante Fe Southern Railroad”
          • ”Terrific Time Capsule! Designer Arthur Elrod’s ’60s Vision Still Pristine in Palm Springs”
          • ”Where To Find Colorado Restaurants Open for Dine-In Service” 

PCH Regions

          • ”Weigh In on Santa Barbara’s Wildfire Protection Plan”
          • ”Magical Field of Light in Paso Robles”
          • ”Rams employees help with cleanup effort in Santa Monica”
          • ”Image of Santa Cruz police chief, mayor kneeling packs a punch”
          • ”‘It is heartening’ Long Beach overwhelmed by volunteers helping clean up after looting”
          • ”The Best Beaches in Southern California”
          • ”Ventura County to extend stay-at-home order while continuing to ease restrictions”
          • ”Coronavirus concerns: Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival canceled for 2020”
          • ”Face Masks Are a Simple Gesture of Shared Respect”
          • ”How To Spend A Perfect Weekend In Quaint Ojai, California”
          • ”America, unmasked: The public health nightmare I witnessed on Santa Monica beaches this week”

Islands and Currents

          • ”Sea, sand and social distancing: Caribbean reopens to tourism”
          • ”Dogged pragmatism’ needed to save Ocean: UN Special Envoy”
          • ”With Tourism Halted, Hawaii’s Housing Market Takes a Big Hit. Can It Bounce Back?”
          • ”The Art Of Anticipation: Hawai’i Is Still Here For All Of Us”
          • ”Hawaii is effectively closed to visitors, but here’s how to support it from afar”
          • ”10 Reasons Why Hawaii Offers A Safer Vacation In A Coronavirus World”
          • ”Between two storms: Caribbean braces for hurricanes in coronavirus era”
          • ”The Perfect Weekend Getaway: Catalina Island From Los Angeles”
          • ”Caribbean flights: When can you fly to Caribbean? Rules for Jamaica, Barbados and more”

The Tau 12 Months Ago 

“If you don’t take the opportunities that come, you’ll regret it.  If you do take them, and they wind up being foolish, that’s still better than having no story to tell.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The urge to complain is a natural reaction to frustrating circumstances, though the mature response is to move past words and into solutions and action.” Aries

Let’s hope these quality-of-life destinations inspire you to plan, rather than add one more thing to how frustrating and angry you may feel during this extraordinary disruptive time.  Is the end in sight?

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “Mistakes are not only opportunities for growth and mastery; they are the best relationship glue there is. Nothing will go wrong without producing an obvious upside.” Virgo

Not feeling this one today, although who can argue with the sentiment if you are a glass half full person?

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “The requirements of the day are pretty awesome. You don’t have to solve problems or answer questions. You don’t even have to ‘just be you.’ All you have to do is relax.” Libra

Sure, it’s exactly what summers and Saturdays are for.  

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Eventually, you’ll be able to handle more and move faster. But this is still the early stages. You’re still learning, and you won’t regret taking the time to learn it right.” Sagittarius

It’s all about the burden of the unexpected when normal expectations just aren’t met.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “You’ll bring together the best of all worlds — a spiritual person with a practical point of view. Your open mind will lead you to test theories and run with what works.” Capricorn 

Who can fill those shoes?  I’d be flattered if someone thought it would be me.  But, overall if there is an underlying theme to Season Two and a reason for me to continue my natural experiment into a second year, it would be exactly that combination — wisdom and practicality.  Or what Benjamin Franklin supposedly pursued — practical knowledge.

“3”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “To accept differences and tolerate others is only level one. The next level is a celebration of diversity. A world where we honor not only our own traditions but everyone’s could be heaven on earth.” Pisces

Who politicizes mask wearing as preventative medicine during a pandemic.  Which of the four scenarios we are tracking will describe our path forward?

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 3188 to 3634.

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 E55 — Dreaming of 30 Tempting Getaways

Looking for that Perfect Weekend Getaway?  30 Tempting Escapes to Consider Now! Shifting from trends, opportunities and foresight this episode focuses on the quality-of-life adventures for planning when the pandemic abates.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Working hard and solving many problems doesn’t always tire you out. In fact, now you’ll find it invigorating due to the fair amount of adrenaline coursing through your day.” Scorpio

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 55 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 30th day of May in the spring 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 E54 — 90 Days to Future-Proof Your Career Trajectory and Lifetime Investments; S2 E53 — The Fourth Step’s Passing Storm Botched Beyond Belief; S2 E52 — What’s So Wrong with Conventional Wisdom Unless … 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E55 — All Roads Lead to the Future; S1 E54 — A Version That’s a TauBit Grander; S1 E53 — High 5’s for Tau Secrets Revealed; S1 E52 — Missing Chapters and Paths Not Taken

Context

Shifting from trends, opportunities and foresight this episode focuses on the quality-of-life adventures available.

“Telling yourself to change without changing the environment, too, rarely works. But if all you change is the environment, chances are good that what’s inside will follow suit.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

The Tau: Week Ending 5/30/20

Tags: Beaches, Camping, Deserts, Islands, Lakes, Mountains, Regions, Resorts, Road Trips, Seas, Trails  

Precious insights could come from anywhere. Try new environments for fun and for changing your routines in the best possible way. Choose from any of these 30 habit-shifting getaways. 

Remember while we’re getting closer, we here on the Atoll don’t expect or encourage you to go check them out immediately. Instead we hope our articles inspire your future adventures!

But, today there’s no reason not to join our growing group of 3484 followers …. 

See what you’ve been missing.

Check out this week’s headlines pulled from our daily “Top 30 Digest” delivered, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.“

Where … ?

Mountains, Rivers and Lakes

            • ”The Perfect Weekend Getaway: Mammoth Lakes and Mono Lake From Los Angeles or San Francisco”
            • ”The Perfect Weekend Getaway: Lake Tahoe from San Francisco”
            • ”David Coverdale Lowers Price For His Lake Tahoe ‘Paradise’ Home”
            • ”Montanans Will Never Forget Their First Time Visiting Saint Mary Lake”
            • ”Tough lesson: Bear breaks into Bay Area family’s car in Lake Tahoe, forages for food”
            • ”Big Bear Lake to stop communicating or enforcing state’s coronavirus stay-at-home order”
            • ”Planning to visit South Lake Tahoe for Memorial Day weekend? Expect to pay $1,000 fine”

Pristine Treks

            • ”10 Orange County Hikes to Take You From Sea to Summit”
            • ”Explore Over 8 Miles Of Hiking Trails At City Of Rocks State Park in New Mexico”
            • ”Evergreen Artist Julie Leidel Will Donate 50 Percent of Her May Sales to the Red Cross”
            • ”SoCal campgrounds start to slowly reopen, some in time for Memorial Day”

Deserts, Slopes and Ranges

            • “Top 10 Best Luxury Hotels In Napa Valley”
            • ”Colorado Restaurants Can Reopen for Dine-In Service On May 27”
            • ”Heat wave will bring excessive heat warnings to Southern California desert areas”
            • ”Santa Fe To Gallup: A New Mexico Road Trip Steeped In History And Culture”
            • ”Inside Sylvester Stallone $3.3M Palm Springs getaway mansion featuring fire pit, hot tub and stunning mountain views” 

PCH Regions

            • ”The Perfect Weekend Getaway: San Diego From Los Angeles”
            • ”Coronavirus economy: Silicon Valley wields tech shield against layoffs”
            • ”Here’s how the Golden Gate Bridge was actually built”
            • ”’Long Beach-based Virgin Orbit set to test orbital launch system today“
            • ”Homebuying is an adventure’: Bigfoot found sheltering in place at million dollar Santa Cruz house for sale”
            • ”Opening Half Moon Bay beach lots proves hard”
            • ”San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara can reopen restaurants for dine-in service”
            • ”As California reopens, shops will see if customers feel confident or cautious”

Islands and Currents

            • ”Craving Caribbean sunshine? Saint Lucia planning phased reopening on 4 June”
            • ”Hurricane season 2020: When is hurricane season in US and Caribbean?”
            • ”COVID-19 Has Turned Paradise Into a Privacy Nightmare”
            • ”Wish you were here: Caribbean tourism reels from coronavirus”
            • ”Can Hawaii open up to tourists without letting in the coronavirus?”
            • ”These Caribbean countries are reopening for tourists next month”
            • ”COVID-19 Update: It’s Still Not Time To Travel To Hawaii”
            • ”Hawaii is enforcing 14-day self-quarantines with single-use hotel keys” 

Tau 12 Months Ago 

“If wisdom were a needle in a haystack, you’d find it.  Precious insights could come from anywhere.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Working hard and solving many problems doesn’t always tire you out. In fact, now you’ll find it invigorating due to the fair amount of adrenaline coursing through your day.” Scorpio

Truth be told, I may unconsciously overcomplicate challenges and problems to experience that adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “When you plan, deliberate and make big efforts you create your life. When you wing it, you create your life. When you do nothing, or just whatever, you create your life. You’ll come up with a brilliant mix of modalities.” Virgo

So where’s the lesson here?  Do nothing, plan everything, wing it too?  Or something else?

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “You’re melded to another and are so incredibly close that you sometimes wonder if you have the qualities necessary to withstand such an intense synthesis. Stop overthinking. Believe that collectively, you’re stronger.” Libra

I kinda look at it this way.  Until you meld, you cultivate your Remembering Self which you refine over and over again.  When you meld you become one Remembering Self together out of two separate Selves.  Emma-the-Baroness-Steve is a thing.  

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 2839 to 3188.

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 E47 — 27 Adventure Regions for Your Remote-Working Bucket List

Put some adventure into your remote working options. Build a new bucket list of remote-enabled resort towns. Here’s how.

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

Steve Smith, 30; Stevie Nicks, 72: “What task will move the needle for you today? What is the one thing that’s going to make you feel accomplished when your head hits the pillow tonight? Start with that. Anything else is gravy.” Gemini

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 47 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Experiment” on this 16th day of May in the spring of 2020.  

Season 1 and 2 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 E46 — Whimsy Passion Project or Epic Novel of Adventure?; S2 E45 — Wildcard What Ifs and Doobie Bros Bias; S2 E44 — Celebrating Emma the Baroness Tribal Quarantine Style 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E47 — Day 47 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E46 — Day 46 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E45 — Day 45 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E44 — Google Me Some Chopped Liver

Context

I hit the groove, publishing to my platform on Patreon with:

27 Adventure Regions for Your Remote-Working Bucket List

“Your need to explore is as real as your need for food, and you’ll find a way to adventure wondrously.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

The Tau: Week Ending 5/16/20

Tags : COVID-19, climate, deserts, horizons, islands, lakes, migration, Millennials, mountains, Pacific Coast Highway, rafting, ranges, regions, rivers, remote, road trips, slopes, sunrises

Here on the Atoll, we don’t expect or encourage you to go check them out immediately. Instead we hope our articles inspire your future adventures!

Join our growing group of 2839 followers …. See what you’ve been missing.

Check out this week’s headlines pulled from our daily “Top 30 Digest” delivered, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.“ 

Where … ?

Mountains, Rivers and Lakes

              • ”A Year of Painting Outdoors in Tahoe”
              • ”The Best Things To Do Around Lake Tahoe In The Summer”
              • ”California’s tourism-dependent towns cautiously prepare new marketing for reopening”
              • ”With our ski resort closed, we’re working at a food bank and feeling all the emotions”

Pristine Treks

              • ”National Parks Are Suddenly Flooded with Wildlife. What Happens When Humans Return?”
              • ”Running in the Time of Coronavirus”
              • ”VIDEO: Trio of mountain lion kittens on the prowl in Napa County”
              • ”Hiker In Marin Finds Unexploded, Possibly Historic Ammunition Along Hiking Trail”
              • ”Escapes: Keep the fire for travel burning”
              • ”Why whitewater rafting could be the safest way to a family vacation this summer”

Deserts, Slopes and Ranges

              • “Colorado (Officially) Has a New State Park Near Trinidad”
              • ”The Water Is A Brilliant Blue At Box Canyon State Park, A Refreshing Roadside Stop In Idaho”
              • ”11 Must-See Spots In Sedona”
              • ”Historic New Mexico Road Trip: Santa Fe To Taos”
              • ”Live out your Santorini dreams in this Palm Springs house asking $3M”

Islands and Currents

              • “Mauna Kea has had more than a million deep long-period earthquakes over the past 20 years”
              • ”Hawaii plans to extend stay-at-home measures, travel quarantine until end of June”
              • ”9 Things To Consider Before Booking A Hawaiian Cruise”
              • ”The Pandemic Strands Some Ship Crews at Sea, Others On Shore”
              • ”Transplanting Staghorn Corals Could Help The Species Recover In The Caribbean”
              • ”Hawaii Just Showed Visitors Its Future. It’s Truly Eerie”

PCH Regions

              • “8 Small Towns You Should Visit in Oregon”
              • ”How To Spend A Day In Monterey, California”
              • ”The Best Things To Do On San Diego Bay”
              • ”In California Wine Country, A Family Campground (Plus Lap Pool) – Remodelista”
              • ”Orange County harbor anchorages are packed as boats offer socially distant safe harbors”
              • ”Surfer dies after shark attack off Santa Cruz County coast”

The Tau 12 Months Ago 

“You’re a part of nature, and it will feel better to think and act in accordance with that.” — Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc

Evidence

 Which bits of wisdom were nudging me in that direction?

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “If you are working too hard at something, then you’ll become resentful and bitter. To figure out a better, smarter, shorter route is not the lazy thing; rather, it’s what’s best for all.” Scorpio

Trial and error, that’s how I’d describe the ongoing learning process I encounter with the Patreon platform.  Is it ideal?  Hell, no, wait is that bitterness?  

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everywhere you look, you’ll see the attention-seeking traps of our narcissistic age. You are called by modesty and service; in this way, you’ll stand out from the crowd.”  Taurus

Hi, would you mind taking a photo of Emma the Baroness and me?  We don’t want everyone to notice how frequently we’re posing for our selfies.

“5”  Steve Smith, 30; Stevie Nicks, 72: “What task will move the needle for you today? What is the one thing that’s going to make you feel accomplished when your head hits the pillow tonight? Start with that. Anything else is gravy.” Gemini

Not sure I’m looking forward to gravy stains on my pillow, but publishing moves the needle to mix metaphors.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “Creation is one process. Analysis is another process. Separate the two, and you’ll be comfortable and focused inside each separate process. This will bring about your best work.” Virgo

Well stated.  Either I’m so analytical about my work that I second, third and fourth guess my creative talent.  Or I’m so scattered following the squirrels and all the distractions of my creative process following my intuition that I have no idea how far off the mark I’ve become.  Wait, what should I do?

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Relationships are collaborative, creative efforts.  Whom you get into a relationship with makes a huge difference.” Sagittarius

If you only knew Emma the Baroness like I do you wouldn’t need this reminder.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 2663 to 2839.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Just picked up “Bob Dylan In America” by Sean Wilentz.  Maybe because of the subliminal messaging like the times are a changing and the answer is blowing in the wind, but I kinda like Sean’s fanboy becomes music critic becomes historian surrounding Dylan’s life and times. 
    • 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 E43 — See What You’ve Been Missing …

Patreon’s limited editing capabilities suck.  Their format choices totally changes how each of my publications originally appear in my WordPress blogs.  

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

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “There’s no easier way, no shortcut available, no hack or guide that will provide the answer. You just have to find it as you go along. Luckily, this hard way is also the fun way.” Pisces 

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 43 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Experiment” on this ninth day of May in the spring of 2020.  

Season 1 and 2 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 E42 — It Was Short and Sweet, but Heart-Felt; S2 E41 — A Pandemic End to Real Estate and Consulting?; S2 E40 — The Profound Impact of the Pandemic on Nouns

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E43 — Desperation on Such a Summer’s Day; S1 E42 — Love on the Run; S1 E41 — The Dream Was Over, Long Live the Dream; S1 E40 — Nothing to See Here, Keep Moving On

Context

My new end of the week publication habit works.  Here’s what my early experimental attempt for Patreon became:

The Coming Millennial Migration — Will Remote Work Set You Free? 

“More sunsets are caught than sunrises because a greater number of people are awake in the evening than are watching for the break of dawn. Get on an early tract. There’s something spectacular in it for you.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Los Angeles Times, Catharine Hamm, Photo: Yang Lu

The Tau: Week Ending 5/9/20

New horizons. Grab some bucket list ideas to go — for deferred itineraries and remote-enabled resort towns. Curated from stories about local communities stretching along Pacific Coast Highway, in mountain resorts and on lakes, islands and in the great outdoors. 

But, here on the Atoll,  we don’t expect or encourage you to go check them out immediately. Instead we hope our articles inspire your future adventures!

See what you’ve been missing. 

Check out this week’s headlines pulled from our daily “Top 30 Digest” delivered, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.”

Where … ?

PCH Regions

          • “San Diego mayor: Compliance with new beach rules bodes well for state business reopening”
          • ”Pismo Beach: Where To Eat, Stay, And Play”
          • ”Whale that washed ashore in Ventura County towed out to sea”
          • ”Wineries Sue Over Cannabis Operation”
          • ”The Malibu Beach Inn Is Offering a Unique Social Distance Dining Experience for Mother’s Day”
          • ”Video captures coyote going for a morning stroll by Levi’s Plaza in SF during shelter-in-place order”

Islands and Currents

          • “Hawaii’s Proposals To Safely Reopen Travel…”
          • “I Was Stranded in Hawaii by Coronavirus — and the Magical Islands Completely Stole My Heart”
          • ”Hawaii wants to ensure a sustainable relationship with tourism post-COVID19”
          • ”Hawaii arresting rogue tourists for violating mandatory quarantine”
          • ”30 Best Bucket List Trips For Your Lifetime: Sailing The Hidden Caribbean”
          • ”Here’s how Sandals plans to re-open its Caribbean resorts to guests”
          • ”I’m Quarantined on a Yacht in the Caribbean. It’s Not What You Think”
          • ”Squid are back in abundance along Central California coast”
          • ”On Catalina Island, Unemployment Is 90%. A Local Food Pantry is Making Sure No One Goes Hungry”

Mountains and Lakes

          • ”Why whitewater rafting could be the safest way to a family vacation this summer”
          • ”Prediction tool shows how forest thinning may increase Sierra Nevada snowpack” 
          • “9 Things To Know About The North Lake Tahoe Ale Trail”
          • ”Cute Video: Mama bear rescues cubs, swimming them to safety one-by-one in South Lake Tahoe “
          • ”Introducing The Mountaineers Statement on Climate Change”

Pristine Treks

          • ”Outerbike cancels Deer Valley mountain bike demo event”
          • ”How To Spend A Weekend In Historic Truckee, California”
          • ”This Colorado Doggo Has Hit More Than 5,000 Summits“
          • ”California Snowpack Already Nearly Bare As Drought Worsens”

Deserts, Slopes and Ranges

          • “Western Slope Farmers Forge On Despite Losing 90 Percent of Peach Crop”
          • ”An Ace Hotel Gift Card Is a Win-Win Purchase“
          • ”Live out your Santorini dreams in this Palm Springs house asking $3M”
          • ”Take a Peek Inside Walt Disney’s Former Technicolor Dream House”

The Tau 12 Months Ago 

“You’ve been happy with your choices, but now you’re starting to notice that there are new options on the horizon.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Tags : COVID-19, climate, deserts, horizons, islands, lakes, migration, Millennials, mountains, Pacific Coast Highway, rafting, ranges, regions, rivers, remote, road trips, slopes, sunrises

Evidence

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Pain is a signal. It is possible to feel pain and not be hurt by it. For example, endurance sports enthusiasts may experience this as they push through a workout. Pain is part of the process. Hurt is a judgment.” Scorpio

I’m guessing that pain means frustration on my part.  If so then, yes, it definitely part of the process.  I get that.  There are no short cuts, there is only doing.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “You know your limits and your triggers, which makes you more powerful, not less. But take into account that things like that change. You get stronger and braver. Test and push yourself today.” Sagittarius

I detect a theme.  Quit bitching if you’re so powerful.  Push through today.  OK. Got it.

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69: “Your confidence comes from a wellspring of integrity. You know what you’ve done, what you have and who you are. You don’t require constant reminders of your greatness or tons of reinforcement to feel good.”  Taurus

Don’t be so sure for this career reincarnation. Some reminders of greatness would be nice.  Or maybe just 500 pounds of reinforcement.

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “You think about things in a certain way that you may not even be aware of until you express what you’re thinking to a friend. The act of articulating yourself brings about new insights.”  Aquarius

Not only for me, but I noticed this early on in my one-on-one advisory career with “C-Suite” executives.  I put on a brave face before each engagement fearing my lack of answers for someone operating at the top tier of an organization.  Until, that fateful day when I simply asked a VP what she had been doing already about the problem or challenge she faced.  Then, my natural instincts and intuition kicked in.  Get them to tell you and in the telling their answers reveal themselves.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “There’s no easier way, no shortcut available, no hack or guide that will provide the answer. You just have to find it as you go along. Luckily, this hard way is also the fun way.” Pisces

Theory is one thing.  Explanations and instructions are just that.  Until you take all the teachings and advice and apply them is when the true knowledge is revealed.  No hacks or shortcuts to building your own experience into wisdom.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 2,170 to 2300.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • Just picked up “Bob Dylan In America” by Sean Wilentz.  Maybe because of the subliminal messaging like the times are a changing and the answer is blowing in the wind, but I kinda like Sean’s fanboy becomes music critic becomes historian surrounding Dylan’s life and times. 
    • 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 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?

To be honest, I didn’t expect to continue this natural experiment beyond the first year, until COVID-19 isolated us and I just had to find out in what way would my Holiday Tau change? 

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

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Emotions are more attention-getting than facts. So while the true bits are the most relevant and necessary parts of your story, mix in some emotion or no one will hear them.” Aries

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 35 of the Second Season’s  My Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment, on April 25th in the spring of 2020 here in California.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?; S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

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

Context

It’s the end of this first month of this second year experiment. 

    • Yesterday I reached out to the first phase of my LinkedIn network for answers about how well each was coping with the new realities at home and work.
    • Today, I published a companion piece on Patreon and shared it on LinkedIn with tags. 

Here’s a sample of it:

Reimagining Life and Work. Will COVID-19 Accelerate the 4th Industrial Revolution?

“Trying to push something out of your mind is a sure way to drain your willpower quickly. You’ll have greater wells of self-control when you face what’s going on and create some if/then strategies.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

The Tau: Week Ending 4/25/20

A special welcome and thanks to 81 new followers in just the last 6 days. Like, share and join our 1735 community members to see what you may have been missing.

Headlines from our daily “Top 30 Digest” of stories and trends brought to you, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.”

Helping you face what’s going on and create some of your own if/then strategies.

What if … ?

Trends

              • “Why coronavirus will accelerate the fourth Industrial Revolution”
              • ”10 ways COVID-19 could change office design”

Local stories from towns along Pacific Coast Highway, mountain resorts and lakes, islands and the great outdoors. Bucket list ideas for deferred itineraries.

Where … ?

Regions

              • ”Day Around the Bay: San Mateo County Orders Non-Residents Off Its Beaches”
              • ”San Diego Parks Reopen, But Beaches Remain Closed”

Mountains and Lakes

              • ”Following coronavirus closure, Mt. Baldy ski resort reopening in limited capacity”
              • ”Lake Tahoe Luxury Estate From ‘Godfather II’ Lists for $5.5M!”

Islands and Currents

              • “‘It’s beyond frustrating’: tensions peak as Hawaii locals urge tourists to stay out”
              • ”Empty resorts spell long crisis for Caribbean as coronavirus hits”

Outdoors

              • ”The New Rules of Hiking During Quarantine”

The Tau 12 Months Ago 

“Remember the time when the unexpected change shook up your perspective and then something truly positive came out of it? You’ll get more of the same.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Tags : COVID-19, climate, crisis, deep learning, future, islands, lakes, life, mountains, regions, travel, trends, work

Evidence

Zahnny, Zahnny, Zahnny what am I going to do with your Holiday Tau? I mean a closet, a museum, and sifting through artifacts.  I kinda get it, but not enough to value it much today.

“2”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Cleaning a closet can be more interesting than going to a museum. All the artifacts are specifically related to something you did in the past, even if that something is simply putting an item in a closet.” Scorpio

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Thanks, Steve.  Being someone who relies on my intuition, thinking and perceptions your TauBit of Wisdom probably identifies one of my weaknesses as a writer — one I need to incorporate for articles on Patreon, my blog, in my books and shared on social media.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Emotions are more attention-getting than facts. So while the true bits are the most relevant and necessary parts of your story, mix in some emotion or no one will hear them.” Aries

Okay, Aoki it seems like your Holiday Tau comes closed to what we identified as time-to-mastery once an offer had been accepted, an orientation completed, initial training and coaching initiated and for the newbie to contribute to the cause.  It certainly underlines my frustrations with mastering WordPress and now Patreon.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “The more complicated a game is, the better off you’ll be when you understand every nuance of the rules. While it’s possible for a beginner to win a poker hand, the expert has the best chance at taking the night.” Sagittarius

I see how it is, Nash.  You and Aoki sit in the locker room playing cards — poker — and listening to country music about when to hold them and when to fold them.  Meanwhile Emma the Baroness and I have become the undisputed champions of jigsaw puzzles during this pandemic!

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “In cards and in life, much depend on the hand you’re dealt. If it’s crummy, you have to figure out other ways to play it. A bluff, a clever play, folding early and waiting for the next round… you’ll figure out the best move.”  Aquarius

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 1703 to 1735.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life 

Long-Form

    • Just picked up “Bob Dylan In America” by Sean Wilentz.  Maybe because of the subliminal messaging like the times are a changing and the answer is blowing in the wind, but I kinda like Sean’s fanboy becomes music critic becomes historian surrounding Dylan’s life and times.

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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