Saturday night – help

“it’s the end of the world as we know it… and I feel fine…..”

 

Well.. the apocolypse has come and gone and we’re still hanging out..   and having quite a nice day, besides..      I guess today isn’t the day predicted in Revelations..

 

Speaking of Revalations, I had one today.. it’s about help… asking for help actually.. Like many folks I sometimes look at asking for help as a sign of weakness .. On the other hand, folks ask me for help all the time.. and I generally say yes without thinking… or at least without thinking enough.. that’s what always gets me in such binds with time.. Not only hat , i love helping people.. in fact.. it’s one of the things I enjoy doing most.. so why the asymmetry.. if I like helping.. why not ask for help more often.. THis whole train of thought came into my head today because  I realized that over the past 2 weeks I’ve asked folks to help me out on a number of projects.. some I didn’t have time for.. some I didn’t know how to do..   Jerome’s helping me on my Echo project, Seth on an art electronics project, Tom filled in for me on a talk I didn’t think I could handle. Mike and Jim are helping me immensely at work. these days and today Scott offered to help me debug my wounded tesla coil ..

I was thinking about all of htese. and kinda beating myself up for being such  poor time manager.. and getting so far over myh head that I needed to ask folks to bail m out… but then…

I as reviewing a talk I’m about to give.. it’s one of my standard ones.. called ‘ Lessons from the Colony’.. ita about the TV show adventure and the 10 lessons I really took away from that expereinse.. Lesson number 1 was ‘ask for help’

If it’s good advise to give.. I guess it’s good advise to take..

night all, night sam

-me

Friday night – the end of the wrold as we know it…

Well folks, this is it.. judgement day.. that’s what Harold Campion of the christian Family Radio on-air church has been saying for the last several years..

Believe it or not, I’ve been listening to Campion on and off for more than 20 years.. usually on long night drives by myself. You might wonder why an ultra liberal Jewish-agnostic would ever listen to ultra conservative christian radio.. I wonder, too , sometimes.. but somehow Campion’s strange but patient handling of the questions he gets from believers and hecklers on his radio show.. his bizzarre but consistent world view and his robotic but paternal speech have some sort of draw to me..

“.. thank you for sharing.. and may we take our next caller, please… welcome to Open Forum, what is your question ?”

I love hearing the certainty in Campion’s voice even thogh the things he says run counter to everything I believe..

Well.. Brother Campion has been predicting that tonight.. 2AM EST specifically, will begin the Day of Judgement..  All the rightious will be swept away and the time of tribulations will begin for those left behind.. then sometime in october the real end will supposedly come..

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. Revelation 9:5

Campion and his followers have been driving across country in a bus caavan proclaiming the end, they’ve taken out TVand newspaper ads.. and every news channel is full of their message..

What’s it mean ? ..,.. We’ll I’m enough of an anarchist to say.. it would be so cool if they were right.. if the word had to end in fire and brimstone during your lifetime. .. wouldn’t it be cool to see ?

on the other hand . the world is full of love and beauty.. and I’m not ready to let it go…

besides.. the world has already ended for me once..

 

gnite all, gnite sam..

-me

 

 

Thursday night – love my job ?

The other week I got an email from a friend in my company’s communications groups A women she knew runs a blog called ‘Lead Change Group. The blogs author, Leigh, focuses the blog on topics relating to workplace leadership (I think). For this installment she  was looking for a “wildly happy idea person working inside a large organization”.. somehow that request came to me.. The blog interview was in writing .. and I’d had a tough day at work.. but I dutifully filled in the questions.. I took a second pass in the morning to make sure it was constructive.. and this is how it came out

Am I ‘wildly happy’ at work ? I sure wouldn’t say so.. in fact I think I love only about 60 percent of my work.. but.. a funny thing has been happening over the pat two months.. people keep telling me that I love my work.. or at least that I act like I do.. It happened twice today.. once the day before.. It seems nearly every day now someone makes a comment like ‘you seem to love your job’.. or ‘I wish I had your job’..   but it sure doesn’t always feel like I do..why the disconnect ? am I sending our false signals ? Am I a good liar ?

Tonight I had a funny revelation.. maybe I do love my job.. or at least enough of my job that I should be happy. Maybe the universe is telling me to lighten up and enjoy what I do as much as I seem to enjoy it …

Does that make sense ?

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

ps. Here’s the text from that blog.

 

Cultivating Idea Leadership—Views From an IBM Fellow

Literally hundreds of “idea people” are wilting in Corporate America today. Many feel they are talking to a brick wall when they propose process improvements or new product concepts to their employers (see case study in prior post). They voice frustration with “we’ve-always-done-it-this-way” thinking and silo mentality.

In exploring this topic, I did find one wildly happy idea person working inside a large organization and interviewed him for this post. Meet IBM Fellow John Cohn, Ph.D., an idea powerhouse who has been at IBM for 29 years. He offers six pieces of wisdom for employers who want to keep their creative talent engaged and on board. Enjoy.

Employer takeaway #1: Recognize your organization’s need for “wild ducks.” Show them a career path and help them channel their enthusiasm toward your greatest business needs.

Cohn: “IBM is a funny place. It has a reputation for being buttoned down, yet it still has a strong underground culture of ‘wild ducks,’ as our second chairman T.J. Watson, Jr., called them. I think large, structured organizations like ours actually recognize the need for a few creative loose cannons to keep things fresh. In fact, when I think of my most senior technical colleagues, the IBM Fellows, they’re nearly all a little offbeat.”

Employer takeaway #2: Equip idea people to work across silos and give them permission to do so. “Hands off, not your department” is a quick way to lose an idea person’s motivation.

Cohn: “The most important thing for a company of our size is to make it easy for folks to network and connect with employees in very different disciplines from their own. IBM has a variety of programs to bring folks together around ideas. We use a mix of face-to-face and virtual collaborations. In my experience, having at least some in-person interaction dramatically improves the speed and quality of cross-organizational collaboration. Great thinking can happen over a beer or coffee.”

Employer takeaway #3: Invite employees to challenge obstacles respectfully.

Cohn: “Here’s what I tell the people I mentor. ‘When you allow external constraints to shape your life or your work, you are letting others define you. You need to use your passion for your ideas to stand up to the many constraints you may encounter in a large organization.’

“I think people at IBM have the power to do what they know to be right, although many folks lack the confidence to push through obstacles. You have to know when to listen to constraints given to you by your management…and when to move beyond or around them. You need to do this respectfully…but you need to do it. Clearly, the more senior you are, the easier it is to push big ideas. But you are never too junior here to start pushing.”

Employer takeaway #4: Coach your boundary-pushers instead of slapping their wrists. They may need gentle guidance on how to assess feasibility, how and when to present new ideas, etc. (My next post will look at this in more detail.)

Cohn: “You may have to start small and push the envelope just enough to accomplish your goals. When the organization sees you’ve been successful, you will find you have a little more leeway the next time you need to stretch the bounds.

“I’m not saying it’s OK to push the bounds just for the sake of doing so. Ultimately, it all comes down to results. You’ll only be able to exercise your full Jedi powers if you’re seen to be accomplishing things for the organization. In my experience, this works best when you’re motivated by doing the right thing for the organization, as opposed to just focusing on what’s best for your personal career.”

Employer takeaway #5: Provide time and space to learn, think and formulate. Chronic deadlines, overtime and excessive focus on costs will kill your organization’s creativity.

Cohn: “One trend I see in the tech industry is the amount of work expected from each employee is increasing. Any organization that wants to regain its innovative spirit needs to find ways to give employees back the gift of time.

“In the interest of efficiency, many organizations unwittingly remove the ‘space’ necessary for their employees to innovate. A culture that only focuses on the ‘cost’ of things—like face-to-face travel, exploratory projects and even mistakes—fails to see the value of these activities. Spontaneous innovation is the life blood of a technology firm. A company that fails to invest in allowing its employees time to meet, think, explore and take risks will lose its creative energy and its creative people.

“Ultimately, I see the responsibility here comes back to the individual. Whatever the demands on your time, you need to ‘make’ time to do the things that allow your creative juices to flow. Maybe it’s taking a class. Maybe it’s reading papers, writing patents, doing a ‘skunk works’ project…or even just thinking. This may sound a little subversive, but sometimes you need to push back on the system and take that time back for yourself.”

Employer takeaway #6: Help employees identify and nurture their passions. Passion leads to high performance.

Cohn: “The most important advice I give to folks I mentor is to stay passionate about your work. It’s not always easy to do that, but nothing fuels innovation like passion. Nothing kills innovation, loyalty and performance faster than lack of passion. The key to remaining ‘in love’ with your work—or at least part of it—is to think hard about what you enjoy doing and work relentlessly to keep that element in your job. A company that recognizes employees need to find and nurture their passions is going to be much more innovative than a company focused purely on day-to-day metrics like cost and quotas.”

*********************************************

CEOs: Do you agree with the six takeaways? What other points do you glean from John Cohn’s remarks?

Managers: Are you thinking, “This sounds great, but IBM is a technology company and we’re not?” What prevents you from acting on the six takeaways?

Idea people: John Cohn advocates taking personal responsibility for idea leadership. Do you feel this is possible in your workplace? If not, what holds you back?

Photos of John Cohn, Ph.D., courtesy of IBM

About Leigh Steere

Co-founder, Managing People Better, LLC—a management research firm/think tank. Professional kettle-stirrer. Writer. Curriculum developer. Connect with Leigh on her LeadChange profile, website, or Twitter and check out the Managing People Better assessment where you can get some feedback on your management style and help with a research project.

Wednesday night – more pics from Max’s graduation

Here are the rest of the pics from Max’s graduation weekend… I know there’s too many.. but.. I’m such a proud popa !

Here we are at Pratt on Sunday for the Film department reception

Max took us ll on a tour of Pratt’s beautiful campus…


which made us hungry for ice cream !

OK.. next day.. here we are at graduation.. these are the pics from the bigger camera… the rest of the days sequence was on my smaller camera.. I posted those yesterday

ah..max is just about to go for it !

the shake  !

there’s a proud kid !!!

post graduate life begins…

we found  jack !

jacks folks

and her family

maxs garb…


the grad…

his brother always with him

then downtown to see maxs movies (and just max’s movies) on the jumbotron

we could watch his movies from our restaurant

Wow…

Now..on to the rest of our lives !

 

We love you max

 

nite all, nite sam

-me