Lessons drawn from our seven mini-cases demonstrate when organizations are reinventing themselves there are at least 9 pitfalls they should avoid to ensure a successful transformation.
“4”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Recognize when you’re being obsessive, which is, at least in today’s case, another word for self-interested. Then open it up by focusing outside of yourself.” Aries
Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 113 in Season 2 of“My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 12th day of September in the fall of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Now let’s summarize what we learned from our Reinvention mini-cases operating from within a technology company,Part One,Part Two and Part Three and from a different industry with similar needs, but from a consulting assignment. We profiled Part One , Two , Three and Four in our most recent episodes.
9 Pitfalls to Avoid
Across our seven mini-cases, when organizations are reinventing themselves there are several pitfalls they should avoid to ensure a successful transformation:
Lack of Clear Vision: Of course this might be the most difficult of all.Who really knows what lies ahead at the end of a successful transformation? (Part One Technology company, Part One PRERS, Two PRERS) Avoid embarking on a transformation journey without a well-defined and communicated vision. A clear direction is crucial to align efforts and goals.
Resistance to Change: Without a clear vision and a reason to believe how can you avoid resistance to change from within the organization. (Part OneFlipping curmudgeons,Part One PRERS marketing campaign Two PRERS and Four PRERS participating with 5 Innovation Teams)Encourage open communication and address concerns to gain buy-in from employees at all levels.
Overlooking Employee Engagement: Neglecting the involvement and engagement of employees can hinder the success of the reinvention process. (Part One in and outside partnerships, reason for my department; Two what is PRERS’ core foundational story Four PRERS participating with 5 Innovation Teams) Employees are key stakeholders and should be active participants.
Rapid and Unplanned Changes: Abrupt and poorly planned changes can disrupt operations and demotivate employees. (Part Two Technology company fear of merger and Part One PRERS closing sales offices, well intentioned notices like pink slips) Gradual and well-structured changes are generally more effective.
Copying Competitors Blindly: While learning from competitors can be beneficial, blindly copying their strategies may not be suitable for your organization’s unique needs and goals. (Part Two during merger, who wins vs. what will win and Four PRERS participating with 5 Innovation Teams, strategy conversations instead of copying competitors)
Short-Term Focus:This may be the most difficult obstacle for mature companies to acknowledge and overcome. Avoid concentrating solely on short-term gains.(Part Two technology company sailing to Catalina boondoggle) Successful reinventions often require a balance between short-term wins and long-term sustainability.
Neglecting Data and Analytics: Data-driven decision-making is crucial in the reinvention process. (Reinvention team member selection and Part Two technology company employee survey, but delay in feeding back) Neglecting data and analytics can lead to uninformed choices.
Ignoring Company Culture: A successful transformation should consider and align with the existing company culture. (Three technology company’s factory of the future Two PRERS, Three PRERS 580) Disregarding cultural aspects can lead to internal conflicts.
Underestimating Resources: Be realistic about the resources, time, and effort required for the reinvention. (Three technology company) Underestimating these factors can lead to project failures, especially if the company has been conditioned to produce short-term results.
By being mindful of these potential pitfalls and actively working to address them, organizations can increase their chances of successful reinvention and achieve their desired outcomes.
Evidence
“2”Steve Zahn, 51: “Self-awareness is where it’s at. Everyone has it to varying degrees, but the ones who have it more keenly are usually better off. So, if you pick on yourself a little, count it as an asset.” Scorpio
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“4”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Recognize when you’re being obsessive, which is, at least in today’s case, another word for self-interested. Then open it up by focusing outside of yourself.” Aries
Telling this story now during this pandemic qualifies, doesn’t it?
“3”Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “The bottom line is that you shouldn’t have to shell out much money to follow your dreams. In fact, you can be paid to chase them. At this time, internships are better than classes, which will cost you.”Leo
Swap out “internship” for “consulting” and “freelancing” and it fits better for me.
“2”Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “Rainbow chasing can be a lovely pastime. But don’t chase the ones that promise effortless, fast results for the low, low price of BLANK (insert high, high price).” Virgo
Probably good advice in general, but not for today.
“2”Steve Kerr, 54: “If you want a job done right, give it to someone who is already working. Working people are following physical laws like the law of inertia: What moves keeps moving unless acted upon by force.” Libra
Hard one to keep in mind while quarantined.
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 4990 to 5060.
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.
As we began running out of steam along the cement sidewalk, me with my Trekking poles in anticipation of exploring Sedona in a couple of days, Jay turns to me with a puzzled look that came over his face after staring at Montezuma.“They really got the shaft, didn’t they?”
Ever searching for connections and patterns, I fell back in time while staring up at Montezuma’s Castle.
Back to our adventure in Mesa Verde.
The ranger said to visit the museum and the Spruce House since we could visit without tickets or a guide.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Not until we hiked down to the Spruce House, did I begin to appreciate the severely shortened stopover. We climbed down into a Kiva and then I forgot about our time constraint.
Like I was transported into a different world, a different time. I could begin to use my imagination.
Here at Montezuma’s Castle access to a similar experience could no longer be allowed.And hadn’t for decades because of the growing deterioration.
It would make sense that just like in Colorado, if warring tribes or other threats challenged the ancient Sinaqua’s existence, they moved to the cliffs for protection.
In Mesa Verde we barely had enough time to take in cliff dwellings that now appeared in the shadows across the canyons from a turnout.
We stopped and photographed like so many other tourists before and after us — until the rain moved in.
The centuries of inhabiting this area begins to sink in when you stand here next to our SUV with digital cameras in hand and gaze out across the canyon to the complex of early Anasazi cliff homes — what, some 1400 years before the first European explorers laid eyes on the territory – or even stepped on North American shores!
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Maybe Mesa Verde felt grander because, well, it is and you can climb through it and view it from across the mesa.
I remember the Anasazi people — Ancestral Pueblo-ans — lived for roughly 700 years in Mesa Verde, having migrated from the Four Corners region.
That’s three or four times longer than the United States has been in existence.
The heart of the Anasazi region spanned northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado —a land of forested mountain ranges, stream-dissected mesas, arid grasslands and occasional river bottoms.
So, here we are in Arizona and I wonder how the Sinaqua are related to the Anasazi, or if they are.
Because in the 12th or 13th century over a period of one or two generations the Anasazi vanished from that mesa. They left no written records, so their story is incomplete.
Image Credit: Mesa Verde National Park
At Montezuma Castle the Southern Sinagua flourished in the Verde Valley, just as for thousands of years hunters and gatherers had preceding their period of agriculture and architecture.Apparently they were influenced by the Hohokam and the Northern Sinagua in southern and central Arizona.Hohokam moved north into the valley between 700 and 900 CE (Common Era) and grew corn, beans squash and cotton in irrigated canals.
Northern Sinagua culture in Flagstaff featured above ground masonry dwellings something around 1125.Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot villages reached their maximum size in the 1300s while remaining occupied for another 100 years.
Why did the Southern Sinagua, like the Anasazi, migrate away from this area by early 1400s? Both mysteries remain.Both may have resulted from overpopulation, depletion of resources and diseases or territorial wars.
What began as a small trickle grew into a flood as several million Europeans and their descendants forced their ways upon the indigenous people of the New World over the centuries to come.
For four centuries, from 1492 — 1890, Europeans convinced the “heathens” they found, to adopt their ways.
In 1539, for instance, Franciscan Friar, Marcos de Niza, followed by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s Spanish expedition first came looking for trade routes to the orient and Seven Cities of Gold, as well as to colonize the New World.
Disappointment over the lack of physical riches soon was replaced by Spain’s legendary missionary zeal.
And the Spaniards were sorely tempted by the wealth of the American Indian souls ripe for conversion.
So, by the end of the 16th century Juan de Onate officially had claimed this area for Spain.
It certainly seems clear, that while the Anasazi had abandoned the mesa before the Spaniards came, they had mastered community living — taking advantage of nature by building their homes under the protection of overhanging cliffs.
Apparently, analysis of the ruins and excavated artifacts point to a civilization using rectangular shaped sandstone blocks held together with cement made from mud and water.
It says in the official park brochure that their rooms averaged about 42 square feet and housed two or three people. They stored crops in isolated rooms and in the upper levels.
Ironically, garbage heaps, from years of tossing over food and broken tools — knives, axes, awls, stone and bone scrapers, and pottery — have yielded the most knowledge about the Anasazi.
I’d hate to think what story a lifetime of garbage would tell future archeologists about me!
But from their’s, we know they farmed beans, corn, and squash crops. They hunted deer, rabbits and squirrels and domesticated turkeys and dogs.
Before they learned how to make pottery, they had mastered the art of basket making using a spiral twilled technique for hauling water, storing grain and perhaps even for cooking.
And a thousand years before the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries arrived, around 550 A.D. pottery obsolesced basket weaving. They created pots, bowls, canteens, ladles, jars and mugs.
They stored and cooked in them. Rituals and ceremonies incorporated them.
They managed to produce a surplus of goods that gave them an advantage in a trading economy — stretching all the way to the Pacific coast, as evidenced by seashells.
In similar fashion, the Southern Sinagua mined salt deposited a few miles from present-day Camp Verde nearby, and traded salt widely throughout the Arizona region.
They also fashioned stone axes, knives and hammers and “man’s and metates” for grinding corn.Beyond survival they Made bone awls and needles, cotton-woven clothes with shell ornaments together with turquoise mixed with a local red stone called argillite.
Back in Colorado, about five hundred years after their first pots appeared — by 1100 to 1300 – the Anasazi entered the Mesa’s classic period when about several thousand tribal members concentrated in compact villages with many rooms, kivas, and round towers seen today.
We know more about their history than we do about the Southern Sinagua. Most of the Anasazi cliff dwellings were build from 1190 to 1270, ranging in size from one-room house to 200-room villages — Cliff Palace.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
With a kiva — a Hopi term for the ceremonial room — underground chambers in which they performed healing rites, prayed for rain, luck in hunting or for good crops in the upcoming seasonal harvest.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
And kivas may have been the community center where weavers and potters gathered to practice their craft. A small hole in the floor, called a sipapu, is the symbolic entrance to the underworld.
But, they lived in the cliff dwellings for less than 100 years. By 1300 Mesa Verde had become a ghost town. Why?
At Montezuma Castle, the Southern Sinagua reached their maximum size in the 1300s and were occupied for another century, until they too migrated away in the early 1400s.
Probably due to a draught, scientists theorize. Crops may have failed. Or after literally hundreds of years of intensive land use the soils, the forest and their animals may have become depleted resources.
Or maybe the political and social climate made it intolerable for the tribe to remain.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
What remains today at Mesa Verde in Colorado are three major cave dwellings on Chapin Mesa. The Spruce Tree House. Cliff Palace. Balcony House. Driving the loops of Ruins Road from canyon rim vantage points can see other dwellings.
But whatever the reasons, they traveled south into what is now Arizona and New Mexico becoming reacquainted with relatives already settled there, right?
As we already found out in Arizona, some of the Pueblo people and other tribes in the region are direct descendants of the cliff dwelling Anasazi.
And we already know that those Pueblo tribes chafed under Spanish occupation, especially in New Mexico – culminating in the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion.
“Are you alright?” The question Emma the Baroness asked snapped me out of my memory of the Anasazi cliff dwellers.
Oh, yeah I told her and asked if she too remembered our Mesa Verde adventure?
Sure how could I not was her answer.
As we began running out of steam along the cement sidewalk, me with my Trekking poles in anticipation of exploring Sedona in a couple of days, Jay turns to me with a puzzled look that came over his face after staring at Montezuma.
“They really got the shaft, didn’t they?” Jay says rhetorically.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
“5”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “A habit has served you well for a very long time, and yet you can do much better. This you’ll find out as you make the switch to less costly and more fulfilling options. Eventually, the new choice will come easily to you.” Pisces
We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year.
Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.
Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year
“4”Steve Zahn, 51: “The enemy of communication is noise. To increase the clarity of your signal, you need to eliminate everything that is not the message. Being succinct and direct will earn you respect and status.” Scorpio
I get your message and will work on editing down what isn’t relevant about these two ancient people who seemed to flourish around the same time and in the same manner.
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
Today’s Holiday Birthday:
Love in many forms will fortify and support you. You’ll find yourself on a mission so important, you’ll tune out the rest of the world and anything distracting from your goal. You’ll push past the point when others would have given up. Good fortune rains on you as you reach the mile markers at extraordinary distances.
So mile markers and extraordinary distances, could be twisted to mean our roadtrip only enhances to love that has flourished between Emma the Baroness and me.I like to think so, even if today’s birthday isn’t one either of us can claim.
“4”Steve Kerr, 54: “Morning brings a strong inclination toward the things that will make your life better. Evening brings a strong inclination toward ease. So, what can you do to make a desired behavior easier to accomplish, no matter what time it is?” Libra
Hmm.This is one of those questions that requires a little solitude while pondering the answer.
“5”Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “It’s a long way to the end of a project, and trying to extend your mind all the way there might produce feelings of overwhelm and anxiety. Instead, think about the next 10 minutes, and then the 10 minutes after that.” Sagittarius
Unless I’m misreading these two, aren’t they in direct contradiction?This TauBit is one I subscribe to the most.Just power up this MacBook Air.Put aside the feelings which come when you consider the crippling magnitude and focus instead on what’s directly in front of you to make incremental progress.
“5”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “A habit has served you well for a very long time, and yet you can do much better. This you’ll find out as you make the switch to less costly and more fulfilling options. Eventually, the new choice will come easily to you.” Pisces
I’m associating your TauBit with this very long and by extension very, very long passion project.I’ve mastered a template which greases the whole process along efficiently, but I’m feeling twinges of pivot opportunities.Maybe this vacation serves as a catalyst into something else entirely which I’ll find less costly and more fulfilling. I’m looking forward to an easier decision.
Long-Form
“Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.”
David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too smalland didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
“Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President.
“A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.
“Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden.
“Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.
To find out which ideas have made it off the whiteboard, been placed into practice, and are being tested to see what works and what doesn’t.So teams, what have you been working on, what have you discovered, and how can we help?
“5”Steve Nash, 45: “Your mighty purpose today is to make people smile. Indeed, there may be none mightier, or more challenging, considering the moods of some of the people you’ll come across.”Aquarius
Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 110 in Season 2 of“My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 6th day of September in the fall of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
We described a mini-case of a major decline,Part One, Part Two and Part Three. And, before that we profiled two mini case studies about what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature company in a financial, in a consumer industry and two more in another century-old university system — Part One and Two.
Now turn from our 3-part Reinvention mini-case operating from within a technology company,Part One,Part Two and Part Three to a different industry with similar needs, but from a consulting assignment. We profiled Part One in the last episode.
Crazy creative Dave and I had mini-case experience at Unisys — how do you build a common culture around a new direction when all employees experience is fear, uncertainty and doubt.With this major project, sprinkle in a failed “Agenda for Change”.
We described the challenge as an internal branding, marketing and advertising campaign.Somehow PRERS top management had to rebuild trust and flip the low morale of the now into a new vision of something employees could see, touch or feel.
We had to translate our marketing-speak into something top management could understand and support.During our presentations Gasper’s major coup came when he described company paradigms as — the most fundamental and all-encompassing expression all employees feel, but can’t necessarily describe.It’s a classic “We’ll know it when we see it.”
Gasper somehow convinced our client that a company’s strategic intent (an integrated PRERS) “Vision or mission statements, and core values constitute its paradigm or world view.”And to build back trust, internal brand development follows three acts.
The first act begins “… as the back story leading to a catalyst point which catapults the character into act two, which is the migration path to the new state.”
We first described “our Migration Paths to the Future” by highlighting Innovation Teams (Alliance Management, Relationship Management, Operational Excellence, eBusiness, and People Leadership), and how they have been thinking-out-of-the-box about our core competencies and imagining totally new ways of doing business.
As Gasper told top management, “Here action (and reaction) builds character, brand is strategy in action, and what you will be doing is building belief.”He told them that their “Unique Organizing Principle” is what we will describe and help them craft an internal interactive communications “brand” or “identity”
The idea is to discover the core values of the organization (transformation of customer) and to create 4 C’s: “context, content, connections and conversations around deep principles of shared learning, yet still keep it tied to strategic initiatives.”
My role with crazy creative Dave was to catch early successes, circulate stories about first steps into the future, and make them exciting and fun.
It took weeks to earn the necessary approvals.Then the hard work began.
What the hell is their organizing principle — their new core foundational story?How can our marketing and advertising gurus translate it into something completely different, but on a subliminal level feel true and inviting.Inviting enough for employees to suspend their critical, widespread FUD-dominated thinking and consider their new story?
We struggled and struggled in late night brainstorming sessions to come up with an answer. Until John Googled some company history and their logo — the Rock of Gibraltar.
What from a distance looks like a huge, barren rock we discovered, is the home of 530 unique species of fauna and flora.
That’s it.We can work with that.530!
Images flowed.Sketches on our white board connected to other sketches.“530 equals overlooked employees — unique PRERS species of talented people.”Innovation teams need to be nurtured.
They need to be given a safe place to grow without reprisal.People not on the teams could contribute to them if:
1) they knew the teams existed,
2) what their missions were, and
3) how to contact and contribute.
“New ideas = seeds! Maybe there’s a horticulture theme for innovation teams.”
Timing is everything.
We required three things to be in place for the launch.The first was a distribution of white with green package of seeds to every employee.That was followed by a glossy 530 journal telling more of the new core foundational story.But, PRERS delayed its distribution.
During the delay our 530 website, initially banned by their IT department, launched on our servers.Waiting and waiting for formerly FUD soaked employees to arrive.
Our strategic intention was about to be activated:
IdeaVirus approach: in fits and starts they cross-fertilize and nurture radical new ideas in “small learning experiments”.
To propagate micro-communities around their discoveries, spawn new opportunities, and to infect us with a renewed sense of passion.
And it is “for the rest of us.” To question. To volunteer.To add to the understanding.
“To find out which ideas have made it off the whiteboard, been placed into practice, and are being tested to see what works and what doesn’t.”
“So teams, what have you been working on, what have you discovered, and how can we help?”
Evidence
“3”Steve Zahn, 51: “Sometimes you treat everyone the same, and other times it feels right to be more flexible, taking your lead from the needs of those around you. You’ll be somewhere in the middle today, consistent but ready to adjust.” Scorpio
I hear you.I used to take people at face value, except for all of the degree of decisiveness that has permeated almost everything.Why must everything be so politicalized?
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“4”Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Here you are, unready and in a position to choose. You don’t even have enough data to make an educated guess, although, in a strange way, you’re at an advantage with this, forced to rely only on your gut.”Taurus
Intuition and instincts.For some people choices made on them alone only bring more poor choices.For others educated guesses work.For everyone, we’re hardly ever ready for a lot of what life throws at us, like this pandemic for instance.
“3”Steve Smith, 30: “The early days of every relationship and endeavor lay the groundwork for what happens later, which is why it’s so important to reveal some basic truths and establish key expectations on day one.” Gemini
Maybe if I combine yours with coach Kerr’s it will add up to more relevancy. But, aren’t these conflicting TauBits of Wisdom?
“4”Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “All it takes is a few inquiries, and suddenly, you’re off in a fascinating direction. Go on and get involved, as new influences will spark favorable changes in your day to day.” Leo
So this one seems less suited for me today, and more suited when I was working on the Conclusions chapter in the Tau of Steves Report chronicling my Natural Experiment.
“5”Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “When you give attention, you are giving your life force, which will be spent no matter what, though some ways are more of an investment, and others are just waste.” Virgo
Life force. I like it.Now the key seems to me as an introvert how to differentiate between energy and directing towards an investment.Hmm …
“3”Steve Kerr, 54: “In the beginning of a relationship, you’re mainly trying things. You might not see it that way, because the process of getting to know someone is so intuitive. Just know that if it’s not working, you can pivot and try something else.” Libra
I’m not in the beginning of a relationship, pandemic or no, so feel free to steal this one if your intuition says to.
“4”Steve Aoki, 41: “There’s an art to self-discipline. Knowing how far to push yourself is key. If you drive yourself too hard or place too many restrictions on yourself, you’ll rebel. To rebel against yourself is far worse than rebelling against others.” Sagittarius
I agree.The art of self-discipline organizes moments in which I let the “flow” of writing happen.But, I also mindful of when the flow begins to trickle and that’s when I force myself to stop and take up another task.
“4”Steve Harvey, 62: “Just as a story without conflict is barely a story, a day without an obstacle would hardly be worth remembering. At least today’s problem will have you laughing a little.”Capricorn
This ongoing pandemic obstacle doesn’t leave much room for laughter.But laughing does ease the feeling of dread.
“5”Steve Nash, 45: “Your mighty purpose today is to make people smile. Indeed, there may be none mightier, or more challenging, considering the moods of some of the people you’ll come across.”Aquarius
This 530 branding effort hinges on offering a quirky mood-shifting trial for knowledge sharing to work.Humor couldn’t hurt.
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 4990 to 5060.
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.
“Stop” I yell as movement to my right catches my eye. Jay slams on the brakes.He’d been glancing off into the trees on the left side of the road. “What?”
Jay began to twitch.He needed to stretch his legs and he had more on his mind, like the agenda for our afternoon sightseeing before we hit the road for Sedona in a day and a half.
Elle and Emma the Baroness were all for it, but first they wanted to check out where the music came from near where the cyclists entered Whiskey Row to our right as we walked out the front door of The Palace.
There he was in the flesh.Kind of like the Greeter in Laguna Beach, only instead of a Scandinavian named Lars, it was a local costumed in Wyatt Earp cowboy with dark pants, a holstered revolver, a billowy white shirt with a dark vest, handlebar mustache and Stetson.
He nodded.
We nodded.
We crossed the street, retraced our steps to the left of the old white courthouse past Buckey O’Neill’s statue and to the street parallel to Whiskey Row.Picnickers stretched out on blankets on the green grass in the shade under towering trees.Some leaned their bikes against the trunks.
Just like how the Prescott streets were barricaded for the race the area in front of the bandstand so too was with an orange mesh barrier that sagged and with traffic cones.
Image Copyright 2022 Stephen G. Howard
The message was clear.It was a pay to hear them play.Jay twitch returned.He negotiated with Elle as only husband and wife can out of earshot.Elle directed us across the intersection to jump into their SUV for the continuing tour.
“Where we going?” I asked Jay after resuming my post riding shotgun in the passenger front seat.
“You’ll see.”
He took us on a tour of the Prescott suburb so we could see luxury homes overlooking distant vistas and the lush fairways and greens in the valley below.
Elle suggested stopping in at the Club as the sun began casting long shadows where she would host a Derby-day party for members on the day we headed out.But, an ‘80s themed party was just started which meant only partiers were allowed.
Now what?
“I know,” Jay said.
We hit the road for the wilderness.
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022
“I think we can get close to where your Uncle Billy worked his 400 ft. claim at Lynx Creek.”
Surprisingly it wasn’t that far in the late afternoon.Soon we meandered down an asphalt road deeper into the forest.
Oops.We encounter a road closed sign.Fire threat.
I crane my neck as we begin to turn around down to where Jay had pointed towards Lynx Lake.
But, except for the place you can rent boats I couldn’t see through the trees to anything that would fuel my Uncle Billy imagination.
Moments later I turn to look straight ahead.
“Stop” I yell as movement to my right catches my eye.
Jay slams on the brakes.He’d been glancing off into the trees on the left side of the road.
“What?”
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
A half a dozen deer clear a fence on the passenger side road and leap in front of Jay’s black SUV and down into a wooded meadow.Three more do the same behind our vehicle
Through the one-way street maze which throws Jay into a frustrating loop we just can’t seem to find our way through to our destination.
Wait, there’s a city truck with workers in yellow safety vests hanging off the back end grabbing orange cones which allows Jay to navigate through two malls side-by-side.
We only half to walk a block and a half to the entrance of El Gato Azul.
At 316 W. Goodwin, EL Gato Azul’s reputation was “Preskit’s Quirky, Cozy, Friendly Place to Meet!” and known as “Southwest Inspired Tapas & Cuisine”
El Gato Front pic painting
The small yellow building with a blue door framed by a variety of flowers in a dark purple and gray containers in wood and cement.
Our waitress doubles as bartender, she tells us.El Gato Azul is by popular restaurant standards.And that equation translates into a small, cramped kitchen and bar.
Our hostess leads the way to our table.Not known for ambience, a sheet of plastic separates our table from 3 tanks of propane.
Looking up and out onto the street, we see couples and groups of couples returning from the square which we sense is closing down — party over.
Instead of passing in front of the restaurant, they follow a path down a green overgrown slope onto what would have been a creek.
Jay says it’s a shortcut to a parallel street behind El Gato Azul.
We pass on any hint of dessert, I pick up the check and we climb up to the street from the restaurant’s entrance, turn right and make our way back to the strip mall’s parking spot.
Before the night is over I describe the article about Prescott, prefacing it with how infrequently Siri finds something for me in Apple News.
“We know her.”
The headline read, Aggressive coyote attacks woman walking dog — and nips at others, Arizona police say” and, get this it ran in The Kansas City Star.
Jay’s daughter, who lives in Northern California,saw it too and sent it to him.Elle said she’s a fitness instructor and used to getting out on the trails around their community.
Joe stood up, poured more wine from the bottle we brought as we continued to relax on their back patio and then he put more wood in their outdoor fireplace to take away the chill.
“Adding insult to injury” Elle said .“She had to get all of those rabies shots too.”
“It’s pronounced like ‘Havelina’” Elle corrected me.Like La Hoya instead of La Jolla she suggested as I brought up the other Apple News story about a Javelina in Sedona, “Hungry Javelina Gets Stuck in Car, Goes for a Ride in Arizona” from Chedder News.
Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons
They have a family of Javelinas that pass through in their back gravel and rock “yard” into their neighbors.
We thought they were a wild pig or something, but apparently they are their own species, they said.
In Sedona the Javelina rooted around in an empty vehicle, knocked it out of gear into neutral and took a joy ride.
Not quite as accomplished, nor as notorious as the Lake Tahoe bears, we trade stories about bears demolishing cars and trucks and breaking into kitchens usually through Tahoe garages and hibernating under second homes while unintended.
The next morning I swore I heard that Javelina family outside our window in the guest bedroom, but now I believe it was just Jay sweeping dust off his sidewalk and front entry.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You’ll notice you’re of a different mind entirely from where you were last year. You’ve dispelled a few myths and course-corrected accordingly. You’ll get a chance to go back and pick up something you lost along the way.” Leo
We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year.
Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.
Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year
Many tall buildings avoid naming the 13th floor and go right to the 14th (or more conspicuously to “12B”) in hopes of getting around the bad luck. There are airports without a 13th gate and teams without a player No. 13. What superstition do you keep alive to avoid bad luck or engender good luck? Is it working?
“4”Steve Zahn, 51: “Some say everything happens for a reason. Others say life is random. You’ll have a little evidence for both arguments today and whatever you get you’ll leverage into a tidy chunk of good fortune.” Scorpio
Okay, this appears to be sufficiently mysterious.Yes, my mother after something bad happened would say, “Everything happens for a reason.”She never could tell me why.Now I should wait for my good fortune to appear, right?
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You’ll notice you’re of a different mind entirely from where you were last year. You’ve dispelled a few myths and course-corrected accordingly. You’ll get a chance to go back and pick up something you lost along the way.” Leo
Wait, isn’t this all about how events conspired to entice me to drag this natural experiment into four seasons now? But, what was it that I lost along the way?
“4”Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “There will be pressure to take life at a hurried speed. Push back — change lanes or remove yourself from the race entirely. You’ll be happier going at your own pace.” Sagittarius
Well, I am an introvert.And like all introverts, our brains are wired differently.It just takes more time to process what’s being shot at us through a firehose of events.Is that why I’m an advocate for anticipating how the convergence of trends shapes our futures?So I have more time to plan contingencies?And at the slightest hint of a pivot or a new direction required I’ve anticipated enough that I can activate if this, then that plans.
“4”Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “‘No matter how brilliant your work may be, it won’t play in the wrong crowd. Do your research, find out what appetites you’re dealing with, and aim your efforts to serve those desires.” Capricorn
This just seems to be a lesson I still haven’t learned the hard way.
“5”Steve Nash, 45: “It’s weird, but it does happen… people can be good, enjoyable company and yet be, nonetheless, bad for you. For whatever reason certain people bring out a side of you that you’d rather keep in. Noted!”Aquarius
I don’t know if it is arrogant or from a streak of elitist in me, but just like Ian one of my clients told me, “I don’t suffer fools” easily.If you’re asking my opinion, I believe our former President took advantage of the ignorance of his followers like PT Barnum had all those decades ago.
“4”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You have something that the others need. Position yourself to be available to those who have best earned your offering or those who most desperately need it.” Pisces
Except for making myself available for people one-at-a-time I don’t seem to command a wide enough audience for those who desperately need something from me can find me.
Long-Form
“Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.”
David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too smalland didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
“Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President.
“A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.
“Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden.
“Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.
Tomorrow they drop a bomb on the organization — the closing of 6 regional offices and the recombination of the key personnel into one location in Phoenix (over a two year period). They spent a lot of energy on crafting the announcement, but none on what they would do as follow-on actions to manage the shock.
“5”Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Sometimes, it’s as though you can read minds and tell the future. But right now, it’s better just to ask people what they are thinking and to respect the future as a question mark.” Leo
Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 109 in Season 2 of“My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 5th day of September in the fall of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
We described a mini-case of a major decline,Part One, Part Two and Part Three. And, before that we profiled two mini case studies about what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature company in a financial, in a consumer industry and two more in another century-old university system — Part One and Two.
Now turn from our 3-part Reinvention mini-case operating from within a technology company,Part One,Part Two and Part Three to a different industry with similar needs, but from a consulting assignment.
At Think!City a boutique consulting firm we crashed our models together — learning and development, knowledge creation, media production, internet communities, strategy, advertising and marketing.
We worked together in a highly creative environment within a corrugated metal building designed by a local architecture firm in Laguna Beach, on a curve in Laguna Canyon Road.
I fell headlong into sharing new knowledge that springs out of new innovations.
We pioneered a way of capturing the essence of a brand on digital video, searched through audio tracks for the touch points and reused portions of the interviews for orienting new coders hired at accelerated rates.
From our studio we continued internal and external branding with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100.
This is about our work with a Fortune 100 Mature Real Estate and Relocation Services, similar to the financial case already described.
After conducting knowledge labs for two disruptively innovative fast companies, the opportunity presented itself to apply what we learned to a mature, bureaucratic company responding to the internet threat.
Their greatest challenge was to convince survivors and potential survivors to stick around as the East Coast headquarters called the restructuring shots.Their situational challenges mirrored those of the Engineering and Construction company in decline — history of miscommunications, changes in top management, merger of two different operating units, a move to Phoenix and the closing of regional offices.
I received an update from Gasper about our potential engagement.
Steve,I was unable to connect with Bob in New York (about our Start Up consulting project there). He was shuttling around two candidates who were being interviewed: a potential VP of Product Marketing and the new VP of Marketing. I will connect with him tomorrow.Meanwhile, I have a meeting with Steve of Prudential at noon tomorrow to further explore the relationship — get enough information to propose something.
He has gaps in his organizational development plans. He is running an “agenda for change” and wonders why it is scaring the shit out of everyone. Tomorrow they drop a bomb on the organization — the closing of 6 regional offices and the recombination of the key personnel into one location in Phoenix (over at two year period)
They spent a lot of energy on crafting the announcement, but none on what they would do as follow-on actions to manage the shock.
Gasper
From the outside it was obvious that in the real world, in their industry, no one was framing their actions by asking:
How would a great company handle this major transition, so in before, during, and after the move it is easy to attract, retain, and develop key talent?
Requires talent transition team of key influencers from day one with this charter, and an open invitation for employees at large to contact, question rigorously, and contribute ideas.
Self-selection out and in.
Manage unintended consequences.
PRERS divisions never really formed a common identity – their cultures so different.One culture lost their beloved leader as a result of the restructuring.
The surviving CEO attempted to reengineer a solution, but it never took.He had a vision of what a wired future would look like and attempted to lay the foundation for closing the gap between their current dysfunctional culture and the desired state by launching an agenda for change.
However, without any real leadership, 5 teams set out to identify core competencies and to make recommendations about how to close the gaps.
All five teams eventually reported their findings, but nothing substantial happened as a result.
Except, the top 2 executives left the company.
The chairman and vice chairman inherited the baggage.
Fear Uncertainty and Doubt
It began with what was supposed to be a 2 year advance announcement to give everyone affected plenty of time to consider their options — move, retire or stay and look for another job in Orange County.
That was the intended message.
But we found out “the suits” got a hold of it (lawyers) on the East Coast, and rewrote the bulk of the announcement to protect the corporation from any liability.
What was communicated was loaded with buzzwords and phrases like consolidation, without any details.So the only real message received triggered negative implications. And watercolor estimates about when will the other shoe drop?
After several of their false starts, we proposed a campaign of communications releases in a variety of formats to help reshape the culture, to support the transition to a new desired state, and to support thinking and acting more innovatively.
We Started Immediately
Crazy creative Dave with his digital video gear and I drove to San Diego to meet with volunteers from the other division who were attending their regional meeting — which included, by the way, an afternoon check in session in which employees could talk about any and all issues they’re challenged with by working remotely.
Since one half of the organization had already successfully navigated the transformation from working out of an office to working out of a home office, cut off from former social ties, we interviewed a dozen “experts” who had been there and done that.
And they were eager to advise those about to confront what they had to years earlier:
One woman remembered how she felt others working in the office would assume she was loafing at home.So she put in longer and longer hours in her home office at her computer, until she burned herself out.No one felt she was slacking off.
One analyst told us that he wanted to make the FedEx guy his new best friend.Everyday he’d deliver packages and pick up packages for work, but declined a cup of coffee and a danish each time.
One vice president told us on camera how he was in shock when word came out that he wouldn’t have a luxurious office with all the other senior executives.“I mean here I pushed and pushed and climbed up each rung of the ladder, and then what?They want me to work at my new townhome’s kitchen table?”
Others told us how they had to mimic their office routines.In the morning after coffee and a light breakfast, for example, some would walk, or jog, or work out at the gym before returning home.Then they’d shower, change clothes, and commute from their second floor to their first floor office and close the door.
Mothers told us they established the same routine basically, but still had to monitor what was going on with their kids in another room, even when grandma helped babysit.
Some said they carried the office routine to extremes by locking their office door in the evening.As a reminder to them, that work was over and even if the computer pinged or the office phone rang they weren’t falling for it.That took extreme effort to avoid the temptation to return.But, they learned how to manage customers and bosses about their hours.
Those digital video interviews spawned two newsletters full of tips and tricks, video tapes for review in meetings of those eventually moving to Phoenix, and set in motion a series of on-camera appearances by the chairman and vice-chairman which helped them formulate their new leadership messages.
We (they) had a long way to go, building trust doesn’t happen overnight.
Evidence
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“3”Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Today, you’ll learn how badly you want something. Either you won’t get it and you’ll use that loss as a gauge, or you will get it, and your subsequent satisfaction will teach all.”Taurus
One can only hope, right?
“5” Steve Howey, 42: “Bad moods are caused not by what happens, but by two culprits: negative thoughts and distorted thoughts. Everything that occurs is an opportunity to practice your interpretive skills.”Cancer
Not necessarily for today, but Part One, boiled down to countering how poorly the East Coast description of what was about to occur over the next 24 months triggered.
“5”Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Sometimes, it’s as though you can read minds and tell the future. But right now, it’s better just to ask people what they are thinking and to respect the future as a question mark.” Leo
Not necessarily for today, but when Crazy creative Dave and videoed the San Diego survivors of forced remote work we learned more tips and tricks and advice than what we could have created to share with the other division.Plus, real people, sincere people shared secrets that worked for them.
“3”Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “As you relate to family, help friends, get after work projects and do more, you’ll notice that everything you take on is a little easier than it was only a month ago. You’re just better.” Virgo
As far as the Pandemic goes, sure we’ve figured out our routines so we don’t catch the virus.As far as this passion project goes, yeah, but, Duh!
“3”Steve Kerr, 54: “Though you feel emotionally bound to the people and projects you care about, it will benefit you to ask this thought exercise: What if your only real duty is to your own sense of adventure?” Libra
Probably sound advice, but today I’ve got more than enough things to think about!
“5”Steve Aoki, 41: “There’s a new goal to strive for, but you’ll accomplish it with the same approach that’s worked for you in the past. You’ll start with a sketch — an outline of a general vision — and then fill in the blanks.” Sagittarius
So, I have this pandemic to thank?It’s given me time to sketch out and fill in this work-in-progress at least.
“4”Steve Nash, 45: “There are many situations that are helped by black-or-white thinking, for instance, when you have to assess quickly, act decisively, commit deeply. But for most things, allow for as full a range of color as you can.”Aquarius
Am I wrong or as a nation don’t we have this inverted?The black and white thinking which should be objective, is really what passes for red and blue polarized extremes.
“4”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You might not like the information that comes your way initially, but it will be good to know, as it will deepen your understanding of the scene you’re in, thus giving you more power in it.” Pisces
Information is one thing, misinformation — not mistaken, but politically motivated is another entirely.Why do we as a country have to politicize everything?Dealing with this pandemic is more than enough, right?
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 4906 to 4990.
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.
We called them curmudgeons.They couldn’t see how that could work.They had no experience in their 20 years, except what they were used to doing.We had to brainwash them.And we came to find out they were the most valuable champions for the new way we could find.
“5”Steve Smith, 30: “When change is in the air, you sense it before anyone else. You notice that something feels different before you know exactly what it is. On high alert, you’ll figure it out soon enough.” Gemini
Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 106 in Season 2 of“My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 30th day of August in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
We described a mini-case of a major decline,Part One, Part Two and Part Three. And, before that we profiled two mini case studies about what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature company in a financial, in a consumer industry and two more in another century-old university system — Part One and Two. Now we turn to a behind the scenes Reinvention mini-case.
My Plan A dreamed I’d be working for a high-tech company with very bright engineers that worked on bringing products to market in record time.
When I was recruited to my first large technology company I followed my own advice and negotiated for a preplanned Maui Vacation first, in a timeshare which sat just on some sort of magical weather curtain.On one side it rained and rained.On the other it stayed tropically bright and sunny. “Here I am sitting in the living room of our Maui condominium on vacation, after my first 60-days of coming on board,” I wrote.
Part of my orientation was to gather hard and soft information to cast a long range vision for “Training and Development” for the position I was hired into from Fluor.
I saw my role as anticipating how the HR function would change to accommodate our plans, and pitch a communications plan for a branding campaign as an attracting highly sought after engineering and software talent.
Partnership
Ray acting as 102 Thought Leader needed an 113 Idea Packager.
He introduced me to my HR boss, Dick, told me how Ed, the General Manager and his management team had been working on a strategy that would take the division to the forefront —a model for what the large corporation could become.
But, I couldn’t cut Ray out of his gig and in return Ray would grease the wheels for the “internal team” to “operationalize and execute”.Basically, he had the ear of my boss’s boss and could provide “cover” when needed.
So between the lines, my boss represented the old school, a 116 Institutional Traditionalist and a conspiracy was afoot.
Ed represented manufacturing which accounted for 90% of the physical building.The other 20% was split between engineering and product assurance.Software engineering worked out of another two-story office in another location about 4 or 5 miles away.
Going in I wanted to focus on strategic issues …
How this organization can be fluid and proactive enough to anticipate computer industry changes,
the shifting business cycles, and specific changes in broad areas of the US and international economies,
to shifting demographics of both customers and employees,
social and technological forces (that the Orange County division should respond to driving the state of art) and in a sense become the tail that wags the East Coast dog.
What I wanted to do was to have our division management examine those issues with my facilitation so we’d have a guide for development efforts that Ray and Ed’s team already endorsed.
Staffing Came Next.
The year prior to my arrival “training”functioned with a half-time person who would be transitioning to a full-time role with my help.
So my immediate goals included maintaining and upgrading the current training offerings for consistency while assessing what else needed to be developed to address unmet “internal operational” issues.
In concert with that I wanted to develop other internal talent for delivering generic classroom and “lower” management level classes.
And then have a successor fill in while Sue, the full time HR representative, develops her own instructional design capabilities.
Anyway it was a start. And I was on vacation.
List of Hard and Soft Needs
I’d fill in more details after returning to the main land.But, I kept in mind the randomly generated list of hard and soft needs I already collected:
Corporate (in Detroit, Michigan) has no idea how training breaks down today.SPG-OC (the formal name for our division) doesn’t have a training system in operation.
All the divisions are isolated—not only in the human resources and training functions.
Very little corporate training direction exists aside from printing a catalog of classes and coordinating them.
SDG hasn’t had a professional trainer full time-only model.The other divisions (Pasadena, BMG, Orange County and Ranch Bernardo) have or will soon have new human resources development folks in position.
The regional meeting showed most of the other divisions are grappling with how to handle career development needs.
Our division doesn’t operate as a high-tech company internally.
PA&S (software developers) specifically believe they need more technology training. Also the group in the City of Industry hasn’t received any in over a year, even though they are customer facing and therefore a priority.
Managers in SDG feel uncomfortable with only a career facilitation class — too much time away from work — no systemic place for them to rely on.
Other divisions in the area (Santa Ana, City of Industry especially, and maybe Lake Forest) feel slighted or not part of “Mission” — in division memos.
10. Ed and John — manufacturing GM and Software and Engineering VP — have two distinctly different leadership styles.Ed is ore people supportive.John is task and time/ results oriented.
SMG (manufacturing) is budget squeezed.SDG (software and engineering)has to use up all of their past year’s budget or they won’t get more allocated in the next year.
Notmuch hiring is expected as occurred last year — not as much “expansion”.Many feel a tightening is about to happen.
Software has a technical training coordinator, but engineering hasn’t recognized a need for hardware training.
B-20 operating system doesn’t run PC software, which means off the shelf applications can’t be used for managing human resource, training and development operations. issues and strategy for 1st 90 days and beyond
Those were heady days as we checked off priorities.
Knew It When He Saw It
Working for a 101 PMBI Breakpoint Inventorwas right up my alley.Ed, the General Manager had a vision for advanced manufacturing in the future.He subscribed to the “lets-use-our-own-technology” to see what it makes us become.
So our role was to help Ed communicate in more tangible ways what his vision was so people could begin to participate. This was my first lesson learned from Dave, my communications co-conspirator.
Ed knew what he wanted if he saw it, but he couldn’t describe it.The demands on him in the work setting gave the part of his brain no time to bubble up his vision for the division.
Into Nature to Discover the Factory of the Future
So, Dave and I drove him into Trabuco Canyon with the “old California” vibe.
We drove a few more miles from the winding roads leading to Saddleback Mountain to let nature work its miracle.
With a video camera on his shoulder, Dave directed Ed to sit down on a boulder next to a meandering creek and gaze out onto the valley below where our division sat off in the distance.
While he picked up some pebbles to toss into the creek at first I prompted him off camera with open ended questions.
I told him not to worry about any kind of logic or succinct description, but just to start painting a picture of what he saw.
After a couple hours, Dave softly said cut.We had enough to take back to the division’s studio to edit hours into minutes.
He wanted to chunk out unneeded steps in the process, break down manufacturing lines into small groups and cross train everyone.And he wanted to “pull expertise” from engineers who supported the operations to “up skill” the teams.
This wasn’t a startup and it wasn’t met with open arms by the engineers or the factory supervisors or even the manufacturing teams.
Our Loss is Our Gain
Really at the core the biggest obstacle was how the “rank and file” who were used to being told what, when, and how to “do it” couldn’t grasp his unproven vision of doing things in a new way.
All they knew was they were losing proven processes for scary new ones.
Instead of keeping the line moving faster and faster, even working overtime and on the weekends, Ed borrowed Japanese techniques by introducing just-in-time focused product lines.
We got called in because the old line manufacturing supervisors resisted as hard as they could.They never allowed the line to shut down even if a newer solution worked, or if a part wasn’t available.No Peter. No Paul.
We called them curmudgeons.
They couldn’t see how that could work.
They had no experience in their 20 years, except what they were used to doing.
We had to brainwash them.
And we came to find out they were the most valuable champions for the new way we could find.
Sorta like AA evangelists.
Dave came up with the idea of blocking off the factory floor section, like the construction tarps you can’t see over on a street undergoing a new building construction.You could hear stuff going on, you couldn’t see it though.
Dave figured out how to get everyone’s attention.
We Set Up Contests
We set up Minimum Viable Product demonstrations on the factory floor and challenged the old timers to compete.When they couldn’t, they knew it was time to trust where he wanted to take us to the future.
One manufacturing line from the old school way competed with the new way. Seeing is believing.Or experiencing is believing.And once they converted, we made them Product Line Managers.
A New Home 4 Miles Away
Our marketing people always wanted a mole in manufacturing. As far as I know they never were successful, but as word got out about our “Factory of the Future” advanced manufacturing facility in Rancho Santa Margarita, Ed and his team insisted on a reservations system.
As a good corporate citizen, Ed knew for every potential enterprise-sized customer who accompanied their sales executive, 90% ordered almost immediately.
We couldn’t keep up the pace, if hordes of sales people popped in with a customer’s representative at the beginning of a sales cycle.
We, Dave and our communications team, helped in the design of a walk way balcony on the second level with kiosks at different stations which told the story of what each was about.
But, you had to reserve a time, which became more scarce as demand picked up.
Up next:A wild card merger thrown into the mix.
Evidence
“4”Steve Zahn, 51: “Even though you are not, strictly speaking, a newcomer to a situation, going in with a beginner’s mind will increase your luck exponentially. Innocent and unbiased reception allows you to see and absorb more.” Scorpio
Boy, is this ever true when you have just landed a new position which feels like a new beginning and a clean slate.Only you are actually entering a fully functioning culture with its own norms and rituals.The sooner you realize it the better off you will be.
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“4” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “The novice is proud of and wants full recognition for talents and skills. The wise would rather go unlauded, realizing the strategic advantage in being underestimated.” Taurus
Oh how zen this TauBit is.I used to be a novice, but agree there’s a strategic advantage to being underestimated.
“5”Steve Smith, 30: “When change is in the air, you sense it before anyone else. You notice that something feels different before you know exactly what it is. On high alert, you’ll figure it out soon enough.” Gemini
Once you live though a major restructuring while a corporation experiences a series decline, you adopt a healthy paranoia which signals here we go again and here’s what needs to be done.
“3”Steve Howey, 42: “There is a beautiful new influence coming into your world, one that seems like it would need to be organized for and around, but that is not the case. It doesn’t need to be arranged, only allowed.” Cancer
At this time in the morning, I can’t for the life of me figure out when that will occur, but I can say maybe this is off by one day, because last night was wonderful.
“5”Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74;Steve Wozniak, 69: “Learning takes place in several modalities. You move your body to learn. You talk your subject out, listen on it, write about it. Trying to learn using only one modality is like trying to walk on only one leg.” Leo
Wow, I’ll say.This pandemic year and the adjustments required strain learning modalities almost on a daily basis.
“5”Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “What were the underlying issues that started your journey to change? It may be hard to remember this, but try because it’s worth noting the differences and similarities between then and now.” Virgo
It was a change from a declining organization to what looked like a high technology company from the outside, establishing solutions to a list of problem areas, and then from out of nowhere the call of the unknown was triggered by a surprise merger.
“5”Steve Aoki, 41: “Rituals are, essentially, habits with a heightened sense of meaning. You have a fantasy about incorporating certain rituals into your life. Start small, by attaching a small action to an already established habit.” Sagittarius
For today, yes.But more so for what we called peeling away the layers of an onion.During the merger right after the regulatory quiet period, we were stuck with two onions with very few rituals in common.Our goal, though was to find where the two cultures began, identify their separate foundational stories and then build a common one for translating elements into a new enterprise.
“5”Steve Nash, 45: “You’re looking out for others. You’ll focus on risk. You’ll dig with excellent questions. What are the unknown unknowns? Which solutions fare better than the alternatives?” Aquarius
Maybe not for today, but definitely during the task force initiatives for defining and communicating how the merger would play out.
“4”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You know your values, and you think often about what you really want. But these things change. The shifts are palpable today. Reassess. You will surprise yourself.” Pisces
Is there ever a bad time not to reassess yourself?Especially during a merger?
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 4906 to 4990.
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.
We’d been meeting like this twice a week. She told me to flip over while she began massaging the back of my knee.
“5”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Here comes the reshuffling of your deck of priorities, a process outside of your control, followed by the giddy anticipation as the cards are being dealt. What will you get? It matters but not as much as how you play what you get.” Aries
Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 48 in Season 3 of“MyParadoxically Normal Year” on this 20th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
In the end my physical therapist agreed. I’m guessing one of the missing cards, in addition to curiosity I wrote about last time for the “Conclusions” section, is the critical thinking card.
But first she asked, “So what are you going to do the rest of the day?”
I told her work on my blog.“Oh, what is it about?”
I told her I steal people’s horoscopes mostly and am writing up a report covering one year.“Why?” she wanted to know.
She knew her sign, Sagittarius. I told her Steve Aoki (using celebrity Steves) always was better than mine, Scorpio.She helped me pronounce his name, so obviously she knew who he was.
What I’m working on now, I told her,is critical thinking, how in the ‘70s when I was in my first career there was a whole movement starting with the uncertainty principle that upended psychology at the time of Esalen in Big Sur by psychedelic pioneers.
It was a scene I left for another career, but I told her this passion project allows me to revisit it.
“Right there,” I said.
It would be one more day before I’d get the results from the MRI and we guessed there might be some damage to my ligaments.I felt not being able to keep up the strengthening and balance exercises set me back.
I asked her how she ended up working in this sports rehab office.She told me it was the second of her rotations.When she completed it they asked her to join them.
“How did you start your first career?” she asked, probably only half listening.
“Let’s see when I moved here after my masters in clinical and experimental psychology I did the typical.I sent out 100 resumes to places between Ocean Beach in San Diego to the northern part of Orange County.”
“Oh?”
The only real offer I told her came from Dr. Lichter who was starting up a clinic in Newport Center called the Behavior Modification Institute. “We offered biofeedback sessions as a way of reducing stress and making it easier for clients to find a meditative state.”
“BMI?” she said.
“Yeah, but in the mornings I’d work at a State Hospital and in the afternoons in Newport Beach trying to sell time in a white, egg-shaped biofeedback chair for producing those alpha waves.”
“Uh-Huh.”
“Do you know who Sam Harris is?”I asked after she focused more on my knee therapy.
She heard of the name.I said he’d been interviewing neuroscientists on his podcast which allowed me to update my understanding of the brain … even psychedelics were now being used to treat addictions and help cancer patients.
“Critical thinking,” she nodded.
We agreed as I flipped over to my back on the black cushioned table was in short supply these days. She never checked her horoscope except sometimes in magazines when she came across it.
Though what I was doing was interesting and she said should check it out.
Evidence
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“5”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Here comes the reshuffling of your deck of priorities, a process outside of your control, followed by the giddy anticipation as the cards are being dealt. What will you get? It matters but not as much as how you play what you get.” Aries
She never checked her horoscope except sometimes in magazines when she came across it.Though what I was doing was interesting and she said should check it out.
“4”Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Allowing yourself to get distracted will drain your precious energy unless those distractions are so quality they inspire you. You’ll know immediately. Unless you get hit by a “wow” factor, keep moving along.”Taurus
I’m not sure if our brief conversation with my physical therapist worked on my knee after my accident, but I didn’t feel drained at all.And, after my hour-long exercises topped off with icing my knee down I felt no pain — not even the dull ache or sharp jab under my knee cap.
“4”Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “You’re carrying more than you know. It’s like your mind has pockets you haven’t checked in a while. Go through, gather up the useless and dated ideas, and then release them to the trash.” Virgo
Seriously, G&G I struggled with your Holiday Tau until I realized I’ve been finding out what no longer holds up against the latest brain research about consciousness and what I used to believe about functions housed in the right- and left-brain
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
@KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines jumps from 8203 to 8218 organically grown followers.
“Why?: What Makes Us Curious,” by Mario Livio. “… socially shared myths, rituals, and symbolism were most likely the first sophisticated responses to nagging why and how questions and were therefore the fruits of curiosity. The chain reaction that resulted from the positive feedback between curiosity and language turned Homo sapiens into a powerful intellect, with self-awareness and an inner life.”
He was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician,Georgist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona. His nickname came from his tendency to “buck the tiger” (play contrary to the odds) at faro or other card games. He later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and died in battle.
As we strolled around, waiting for the cycling race to slow down so we could safely cross Whiskey Row without altering the race results, I wondered who that statue represented — somebody like Wyatt Earp?
Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/
It would makes sense, because Prescott tourism definitely played up the Old West Themes.
“No,” Jay said as we entered the dark wood old west bordello and saloon-themed restaurant “he’s a Rough Rider named Buckey somebody who was a mayor.“
Turns out a little later on Wikipedia I discovered Bucky O’Neill was a man of his time like Wyatt Earp— a Permanently Temporary.
He was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician, Geologist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona. His nickname came from his tendency to “buck the tiger” (play contrary to the odds) at faro or other card games. He later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and died in battle.
But, aGeorgist, WTF? Not a typo? I never heard of that and it can’t be a version of his name like Esquire, right?
Single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including from all natural resources, the commons, and urban locations—should belong equally to all members of society.
He believed in what today’s Representative to Congress from his district, Paul Gosar, would openly consider as socialism.
But, I couldn’t contain myself once my eyes grew accustomed to the dark interior having passed the famous western bar — brown wood walls with dark wood trim — and pictures and paintings and drawing on every wall. I browsed one wall after another.
After we ordered some appetizers to share and I took pull on a long neck bottle of Corona I excused myself to visit more history on both sides of the hallway to the lavatory.Once in the head standing at the urinal I couldn’t help but laugh.
Image Credit: WikiCommons
Not everyone remembers William Boyd aka Hopalong Cassidy a stable of cowboy westerns filmed around WWII and later shown on television in the ‘50s, but there he was with his white hair in black hat and black shirt and pants looking down at me in what seemed like a 4-foot poster astride his trademark white horse.
“Anybody remember the name of Hopalong Cassidy’s horse,” I teased Jay, Elle and Emma.Jay had it on the tip of his tongue.I then said, “Champion and I’m pretty sure I peed on his feet.”They laughed and Jay announced he wanted to see for himself.
Anyone driving towards Mammoth Mountain for a ski holiday slows down to 35 mph while passing through three small towns before accelerating back to 70 on Hwy 395.
Is it Independence?Or Lone Pine? I should look it up, right?
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022
Each time we pass we tell ourselves we should stop one time and explore the museum dedicated to all those western movies filmed in the Alabama Hills, including those staring William Boyd.
As Betsy, our dyed blonde server sauntered over in her corseted costume with a knife in a sheath fastened over the small of her back, you know like you’d expect for sex workers here at the faux brothel upstairs, I noticed a little history on the menu.
The Palace is the oldest frontier saloon in Arizona, and the most well-known and historic restaurant and bar in the state.Past patrons include Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate. Virgil was Prescott’s Town Constable.Originally built in 1877, The Palace was destroyed in the Whiskey Row fire in 1900.Patrons moved the bar and lower back bar across the street and drank and watched Whiskey Row burn to the ground.It was rebuilt in 1901.Today, The Palace maintains its history, grandeur and old west atmosphere, is a favorite for locals, and attracts visitors from all over the world.
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022
Sitting at our round wood table I glanced at the wall almost directly behind Jay’s shoulder.A glass display of mining tools used back in the day caught my eye.
But immediately to the left of the display I saw a small brown framed black and white picture with a brass black below the photo,
“Yavapai County, Burro Man Circa 1890s.”
Two seemingly unrelated factoids tumbled in my mind and came together like a conspiracy theory.
Could it be?
In the photo a gold seeker in a broad-brimmed hat kneels next to a small makeshift wooden sifting structure.To his right you can see two pails and a home made scooper — a short wooden handle attached somehow to a metal can.
I vaguely recall pieces of a family story about someone my father’s aunts wrote about in a newsletter which told the story of our extended family ancestors.
Image Credit: WikiCommons
And something I discovered about O’Neill.
O’Neill arrived in Prescott in the spring of 1882. There he rapidly progressed in his journalistic career. Starting as a court reporter, he soon founded his own newspaper, Hoof and Horn, a paper for the livestock industry. He became the editor of the Arizona Minerweekly newspaper in 1884 to February 1885.
That’s it.Uncle Billy ended up in two Prescott articles and with a little research I discovered one story appeared in the Arizona Miner.Is it possible Bucky interviewed Billy?
Roughly five years apart Uncle Billy made both the Arizona Miner and the Prescott Enterprise.Seems as though my great, great uncle’s letter got published in the Prescott Enterprise in 1871.
He wrote it to the Honorable S.C. Miller telling him he is living in Castle Rock in Douglas County, Colorado. Uncle Billy wandered from Osage County, Missouri sometime after the 1850 census listed him – as it had Confederate War casualty Nathan – my great, great grandfather.
That got me thinking about Samuel Clemons who began his writing career by sending letters to newspapers signing them “Mark Twain”.Like Mark Twain, he was drawn to the West to find his fortune working mining claims.
Twain roamed California and Nevada, while Billy mined his 400 feet lode on Lynx Creek in what is today a quaint vacation spot near Prescott, Arizona – north of Phoenix and south of Flagstaff.
Did he strike it rich?
Like almost everybody else, he made and lost a fortune in the Gilpin County gold leads.
In an 1871 report on mining, he’s described as “… a fine specimen of a Western Pioneer, one of the men who have always kept in advance of railroads, and who doesn’t feel well unless separated from civilization by hundreds of miles of Indian country.”
Indian country before trains, huh?
Continuing in the 1871 Arizona Miner interview he describes an incident while going from Prescott to Walker’s Camp, at the head of Lynx Creek.
Near Yellow Jacket Gulch, he sees a huge fire and rising smoke. He says parties recently from Skull and Kirkland valleys “report Indians aplenty down that way. They are around, sure, and there is no telling when or where they will strike the first blow.”
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022
So, I’m not saying that photo on the wall next to the glass display is Uncle Billy, but I do know we passed through Skull and Kirkland valleys on the way to Jay and Elle’s Prescott home.
And, the timing is off by a decade or more for Bucky O’Neill to have interviewed Billy, like it sometimes is when you do any ancestry research.
In letters he wrote back home to Missouri he describes the struggle between guarding against Indian attacks, robbers and the long distance he has to travel for supplies.
Before Bucky sauntered into Prescott, I’m fairly certain Billy had pulled up stakes already.
Forced to move on due to bad luck, he tries his hand mining in the Black Hills and tries settling for a short time in Castle Rock, before finally returning to his family farm in Missouri.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
“5”Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everyone is not on the same page. Some around you are not even in the same book. For this story to go right you must establish common ground and build from there.” Taurus
We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year.
Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.
Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year
Your victories will be satisfying and numerous. Through the next 10 weeks you work unwaveringly, with unshakeable focus and resilient intelligence. A complicated relationship irons out. As a result of your efforts to broaden your intellectual horizons, your earning potential will increase.
Ten weeks you say?That’s ending sometime after the middle or the end of July, but I shouldn’t get my hopes up because this is probably your birthday and not mine.
“5”Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everyone is not on the same page. Some around you are not even in the same book. For this story to go right you must establish common ground and build from there.” Taurus
Well, so far so good.Elle and Jay have been long-time friends even having traveled to Italy for our anniversary vacation.But, in terms of politics I don’t hold out any hope that we’d be in the same chapter.Common ground, yeah that’s the ticket.Fingers crossed.
“3”Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You may decide to do things differently from how your predecessors did because new tools are available. Experimentation takes time and the risk doesn’t always pay off, but you’d be remiss not to try. The future is for the brave!” Virgo
So my predecessors wrote long-hand letters, but my mother typed all of hers and posted them by mail.She included clipped articles from her newspapers or magazine subscriptions.Me?I didn’t want all the clutter from paper and files, so I always looked for digital alternatives.But, even now I feel I can’t keep up.
“4”Steve Kerr, 54: “As for the one who doesn’t understand what you’re doing… it could be a perceptual limitation of theirs, but it could also be that you’ve yet to effectively impart the vision. How can you explain it differently?” Libra
So true, I’m in the weeds on most of my passion projects.And, because I’m one of those endangered introverts, at least by percentage of similar temperaments, I get how most (95 to 97%) won’t understand what I’m doing until I can simplify and simplify some more.Am I getting closer?
“5”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Here’s an argument for keeping it simple: If the issue at hand grows more complex, and the stakes are raised too, the analysis of choices will consume more energy, which may lead to decision fatigue and delays.” Pisces
WTF have you been eavesdropping?I couldn’t put it any better than that.Nailed it!
Long-Form
“Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.”
David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too smalland didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
“Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President.
“A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.
“Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden.
“Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.
I started down this path a week ago on Friday when I felt lost. What I did next didn’t fill me with pride.
“5”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Take a step back and remember why you wanted to do a thing in the first place. Much has happened since; your purpose has evolved to fit the circumstances. But that initial kernel of intention is still the heart of this venture.
Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 46 in Season 3 of“MyParadoxically Normal Year” on this 15th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
“Projects have a beginning, middle and an end, though that is not the best order of approach. Begin with the end in mind. If you don’t have an end in mind yet, assist someone who does and you’ll learn a lot.”
Thanks to Coach Kerr and the Los Angeles Lakers living legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar I’ve been reworking the 1-Year Natural Experiment Report.
Intelligent imagination is vital to this sort of deduction!However improbable a hypothesis, it cannot be discarded.
“Mycroft and Sherlock” by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Introduction
Definitions
What Does Tau Mean?
Life as an Art Form
Life as a Natural Experiment
Chain of Events Leading to the 1-year Experiment
Two Fortune Cookies and Dove Dark Chocolates
Here’s the Pitch for Bringing More Steves into the World
Steve is on an Endangered List
Top 10 Steves Organized by Horoscope = 120!
Three Phases
Finding Aphorisms Worth Handing Down
Priming the Pump for Input from Real Steves
Soliciting Wisdom from Steves with Identical Names
Methodology for Phase One
Changes along the Way
Extension to total 1-Year
Day 196 of 1-Year (Pre-Pandemic) overlaps with Day 20 of Pandemic Year
Findings for Phase One
Total Possible Horoscopes, Originally 4536 vs. Extension 4548
From Representative Sample of Famous Steves
Break Down: Practical Projects, Work, Legacy, Dreams and Relationships
Results Relevant to Me
Specific to Scorpios
From Any of the Remaining 11 Signs
Conclusion
Horoscopes
Biases
Intuition
Synchronicity
Pattern Recognition
Serendipity
Do I Feel Lucky?
Superstitions
Rituals
Super Simplification
True Believers
Filters
Selves
Heuristics
Associative and Lateral Thinking
Appendix:
Holiday TauBits of Wisdom From Representative Sample
Steve McQueen
Steve Carell, Steve Martin and Steve Wozniak
Steve Jobs
Evidence
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
I guess if I had known I would have added our Patron Saint, Steve McQueen to Kerr and Kareem’s inspirations.
“5”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Take a step back and remember why you wanted to do a thing in the first place. Much has happened since; your purpose has evolved to fit the circumstances. But that initial kernel of intention is still the heart of this venture.” Aries
If I twist the meaning of your Holiday Tau slightly Howey, I interpreting your message as confirmation of this whimsey passion project which led to more tangible and practical insights I’m working through in the “Conclusions” section of the report, right?
“4”Steve Howey, 42: “Whether consciously or unconsciously, you keep placing yourself on the path of self-discovery. The respect and love you gather up is a natural byproduct you’ve earned along the way.” Cancer
Don’t get me wrong Coach Nash, but I’m not feeling the relevance for today.But thanks anyway.
“2” Steve Nash, 45: “When loved ones want your assistance, your response is automatic. Today’s situation warrants a contemplative pause. Consider that, sometimes, the very best way to help is by not helping.”Aquarius
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
@KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines jumps from 8138 to 8193 organically grown followers
“Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear.We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process.The result is a slower reaction time.
Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow”describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts: “System 1”which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. I’m learning a lot about my energy levels first described from within an introversion frame now, from within differences between System 1 and the harder working, energy depletion System 2.Self-control, for instance is hard and takes a lot of energy to accomplish.When I write the concentration requires effort until I can find the “flow.” Implications for True Belief — it’s easy to stay in System 1 vs. critical thinking — System 2.Set some marketing and working on the business goals — System 2 and then ignore them by following the lateral thinking and associative thinkingwhich Leo da V invites me to do — System 1.
Attempting so much, so fast to meet the more drastic measures in a shorter time frame while in steep decline, created larger than expected stress levels in a climate of fear, uncertainty and doubt.Large scale, mature organizations, I learned resist change like an immune system does.
“5”Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “When you can’t be knowledgeable (no one can know all things, and if they could, they’d be insufferable) then be versatile. The ability to adapt and respond is more important than the ability to know and stand correct.” Pisces
Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 103 in Season 2 of“My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 27th day of August in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
We described two mini case studies of what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature companies in a financial, in a consumer industries and in another century-old university system — Part One and Two.
Consequences of Not Mastering Growth Crises
Image Credit: Stephen G. HowardCopyright 2020
We now shift to a fourth example of a century-old mature organization, a multinational engineering and construction company, but this time caught by surprise which led to a major decline. We continue with Part Two describing restructuring initiatives.
This was amatrix organization of large scale construction projects staffed by engineering disciplines which for performance and salary reviews made management administration difficult and complex.As oil refinery and energy construction orders disappeared in the “income pipeline” minor initial adjustmentsturned more drastic as the industry downturn lasted much longer than expected.
Then Came The Restructuring
And, then the industry-wide turn down blew into town.During the downturn doing things the way they had always been done gave way to cutting back — introduction of new project efficiencies, quality improvements, new technologies, expansion of sales and marketing tools and orientation, and outplacement for hundreds of employees receiving their Friday pink slips.
So Much Change = FUD
Attempting so much, so fast to meet the more drastic measures in a shorter time frame while declining created larger than expected stress levels in a climate of fear, uncertainty and doubt.Large scale organizations, I learned resist change like an immune system does.
My Colleagues
A crisis threw me and all my colleagues in our internal consulting unit into high alert. For us trainers the announcement that the entire Supervisors Certificate program had been cancelled caused a group panic.
But, as it turned out we huddled with our new leader who filled the 30-day leader vacuum and launched a conspiracy.
We focused on applying lessons learned in consulting engagements.We partnered with another internal consultant in our group for coaching and advising reluctant formerly high potential leaders into entrepreneurial or cost-cutting projects that would test their meddle.
Sales Training, Situational Leadership, Quality Improvement, OD team building
before the new boss, Dr. Paul assumed the position.Luckily, his vision for the department was pretty much a reinvention of what it had been years earlier — internal consultants
New Technology Introduction
From a trial demonstration and research into technology introductions I helped shape the initial drafts of new plant design and 3-D graphics proposal,
Key components:
Management Strategy and Role,
Employee Involvement,
Formal Education Considerations,
Organizational Design, and
Rewards and Incentives,
Each section generated a different set of problems and challenges to be worked through.
If the new technology was to have a positive rather than a costly non-productive impact, those issues needed to be addressed.
Distilled from USC and UCI 102 Thought Leaders one major conclusion was it didn’t matter what the specific technology was, the reception of it by the employees could lead to a sabotaging disaster or a career advancing success.
Sabotage Followed from Shock and Surprise.
No advanced warnings.Just execution.Career advancing ended with execution, but began with widespread organizational planning.
Out of that naturally flowed the development of requirements.Not everyone had to be involved, but they needed to receive communications about progress, especially during the planning about implementation and integration strategies.
Why, who, what, when, where, and how it would impacted those affected.If you laid the ground work, then and only then do you entertain bids and select the best fit technology solutions.
And finally, you execute.
Upskilling Sales and Marketing
Sheila, a Ph.D and 102 Thought Leaders, like our new leader Paul brought a more academic, yet faster paced urgency to new initiatives.
I partnered with Sheila and Irv in the complex Sales Training Program
Sales and marketing presentation case studies of wins and losses replaced boom time deals done over country club handshakes We addressed pressures on sales and marketing when the backlog of new major projects dwindled and new proposals met with demand by the huge clients to interview not just the executives, but the technical staff and project administrators as well.
If each person in group panels contradicted another person’s expert assessment, that multi-million project would be awarded to a competitor. In one actual deal gone south two engineers argued over the company’s “bottom of the barrel” extraction capabilities in front of the client team charged with choosing among competitors.
It didn’t go well!
First came the classroom training emphasizing presentation skills and sales techniques that most engineers cringed at, being Systematic-Professionals, 116 Institutional Traditionalists and 114 Brand-as-Experts as they participated.But, during the competing teams challenge they appreciated the additional skills required once a real case study had been analyzed, compared to competitor strengths and weaknesses and a sales theme emphasizing our strengths and their weaknesses against the stated and unstated client requirements.
Then each team member presented a portion of the proposal to a team of judges taped for debrief and prizes. One-on-one individual feedback sessions followed.
Quality Improvement Program
As more managers got the cost-cutting imperative message I began facilitating meetings using agendas from one of our canceled classes, which emphasized collaborative problem solving including inviting cross-department participation, brainstorming potential solutions, assessing the best ones, getting buy-in for implementation and scheduling action steps.
In my partnered quality consultant role, I enjoyed working “in the snake pit” with the maverick process engineering department.One of the major issues to emerge was activating our “unsatisfactory counseling procedures” to help resolve an older opinionated employee who hated working for a newly assigned rookie supervisor.
I advised the quality improvement steering committee set up in the process engineering department.Sometimes it boiled down to just “giving permission” for them to be creative in their own coordination of their approach to QIP implementation.Initially the process engineers were the biggest skeptics of the “make certain” and “do it right the first time” slogans injected from a popular canned program bought in from the outside.
They are the Prima Dona department.On any project they are the ones who design the processes and technology to be engineered.Many times it is trial and error in the beginning and is by its nature creative
But, they are isolated.Having only one department meeting someone remembered happening 20 years ago.Therefore, they didn’t act as a team or have a core identity.We began low key with setting up informal get togethers to help boost their morale, define themselves and to one to grips with their unique quality issues and dilemmas.
Eventually, they figured out the benefits accruing to them as they participated, especially when after they took off their “training wheels” the tackled the problems and challenges they all wanted fixed “by someone” else.And they enjoyed it.
Evidence
“4”Steve Zahn, 51: “Part of you has been making plans without the other part. Get all sides together for a sit-down talk aimed at naming a few common goals. You’re as powerful as you are unified.”Scorpio
During declining restructuring from a position of leadership, you can be a good corporate citizen, but know your best interests may not be what the executives have in mind.Therefore, plot out a plan A for surviving, but a plan B for when you don’t.
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
“3”Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Nice isn’t always good, and not nice isn’t always bad. There are many reasons people have for doing what they do and for being in the mood they are in. Stay aware of the bigger picture.”Aries
During conditions of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) sometimes a more directive leadership style is required due to the urgency.
“5” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “When you can’t be knowledgeable (no one can know all things, and if they could, they’d be insufferable) then be versatile. The ability to adapt and respond is more important than the ability to know and stand correct.” Pisces
Engineers often require a fail-safe perspective because what they design can endanger workers in the field, in the plants and in their offices.A strength taken too far — deployed over and over again no matter the situation — becomes a weakness.Analysis-paralysis leads to overthinking at a time when action is required.And resistance turns to indirect sabotage.
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 4733 to 4807.
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.
“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Recognize when you’re being obsessive, which is, at least in today’s case, another word for self-interested. Then open it up by focusing outside of yourself.” Aries 
“5”
“5”
We crossed the street, retraced our steps to the left of the old white courthouse past Buckey O’Neill’s statue and to the street parallel to Whiskey Row.
“We know her.”
“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You’ll notice you’re of a different mind entirely from where you were last year. You’ve dispelled a few myths and course-corrected accordingly. You’ll get a chance to go back and pick up something you lost along the way.” Leo
“5”
“5”