Many learning stories come from youth and the experiences of charging into the world head first sometimes feet first and sometimes flat on our back. It is knowledge that can only come from the collision of innocence and reality; the best knowledge made more dramatic perhaps by the larger proportion of innocence back then.

One bright high school summer day while driving early to work at Santa’s Village (oh yes I have been blessed) I saw a clown standing in the parking lot of some retail establishment waving to the early commuters. He was a real clown of the circus variety with big orange hair, big red nose with big red shoes to match waving with big animated motions. I was impressed. Here was a real clown on his day off picking up a second job promoting the opening of some window shop; got to like a guy who loves his work.

Fulfilling life’s calling, doing what you need to do to make ends meet, second jobs all could have been enough life-learning for one day but what came next meant more. I should disclose that I love clowns. They make me smile; even the tragic ones. I was never traumatized by them as an infant having no older brothers or drunken uncles to taunt me. I know that I am one of the lucky ones.

It’s early on a beautiful summer morning windows down radio up flying to work and I see a clown on my horizon. Life is good. I am approaching the clown and in the groove. This being the mid seventies I do what so many of us did at all things cool – flash the peace sign. Two fingers in a V recognition that all is well with the present; a happy high school kid sharing a moment of work related bliss with this puritan work ethic clown who I had come to admire deeply in those few brief seconds.

As I flew by I felt connected; the waving clown and the peace-out kid. I passed him in a flash and seeking confirmation of my spontaneous humanity I checked the review mirror. What I saw freaked me out. Standing in the middle of the highway was my clown jumping wildly up and down throwing me the finger; actually two of them. I mean this clown was jumping up and down waving his arms from side to side back and forth in highly exaggerated ways – even for a clown. He was mouthing something too. Couldn’t hear but I could guess. I just stared at my rear view mirror as the jumping finger thrusting clown zoomed out to a little dot on the historical horizon.

My instant reaction was confusion mixed with a heavy dose of horrified. And then it dawned on me. As I was barreling down the highway approaching my clown to the left I flashed the peace sign with my left hand. What he saw was the back of my hand with two fingers raised from an angle that apparently let my middle digit extend a bit beyond the fore letting him know he should go do something unnatural with a balloon poodle; which of course was the farthest thing from my mind. But that’s the point.

I had my intention and no time to think about how it would be received if my intention delivery was flawed. Had I used my right hand it would be a wonderful clown day my hand showing flat against the widow with no angle issues impacting perceived meaning; perhaps.

I think about this a lot. Not a lot a lot but more than many other experiences. I wonder how the rest of his day went and whether it carried over to others. Did he stop waving or with less enthusiasm. Did it take a little piece of him away? Or did he have issues which triggered. I mean jesus I would feel terrible if this was the thing that threw his life over the edge. Maybe he wasn’t the happy clown I imagined but rather an unemployed plumber let go for his drinking broke in debt unhappy with his cheating wife and tired of visiting his oldest son in jail. These are the guys that burn down motel rooms with any family members they can round up that day. Or maybe he was just an ass. Andy the Ass Clown.

I learned a great deal in that moment about any number things not the least of which is that if you ever piss off a clown just keep driving. Do NOT look back just keep driving. Past your original destination if needed.

I also learned the unintended impact of actions regardless of their intent. I do think of the residual effect I might impart when trying to communicate, but certainly not enough. Much of dialogue is transactional – I tell you something of little consequence and you reply likewise; it’s the score, the news, the grade, the car. Sometimes it is more and it’s then that we need care. It is a habit hard to break and even more so when there is some disconnect between our own interpretation and theirs.

No, we really can’t plan for it all. But we can more than we do.

Jim

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As a Six-Sigma trained black belt and a Lean Manufacturing coordinator for a steel mill, I got a great deal of first hand experience with continuous improvement in all its glory and downfalls. Some approaches seem to work better than others; that’s for sure, but all incorporate the basic sections of define, measure, analyze, improve and control.

Whenever we are looking at changing a process you have to consider the customer at the top of the list. I would define customer as the end user, but also as the next operation in the process. Often these two are overlooked as changes are being implemented and later people ‘downstream’ are heard from as the change impacts them.

This is part of the overall “internal communication” picture. Effective communication within the business is essential to continuous improvement. By disclosing performance measures, everyone understands what the business is trying to achieve and where it stands in relation to where it wants to be. Only if employees have this information will they gain commitment to and accountability for the way forward.

This in turn leads to the buy-in from the shop floor which is critical to the success of any system implementation. If you have buy-in from the employees and give them some level of control over the process you are sending the message that they have the authority to match their particular level of development and expertise.

Continuous Improvement is only one of the fifty topics covered in the personal development bulletins that are included in the packages available at The PEOPLE Academy, Inc.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

So I am sitting here doing what I do (when I sit here) and just in front of me moving quickly from left to right across the ledge is a little tiny ant. If I was sitting here doing what I do at a picnic the little thing would have gone quite unnoticed. He (I am assuming he) would have been in his natural environment (at least as defined by me).  But here’s the thing. I work from home and home and ants are antithetical. At least as defined by me.

My office sits towards the back of the house. A small room filled with windows on all three sides. It is very light and breezy and easy to keep an eye on my nosey neighbors when I feel so inclined as to return the favor. But it is on the second floor. The second floor.  How he got here is beyond me and WHY he is here is way beyond. I don’t know much about them but ants strike me as ground creatures. They live in the ground, they walk around on the ground, they eat stuff off the ground or at the very least eat stuff on my first floor kitchen floor on those occasions where invasion has been successful; but, the second floor?

I am thinking that there may be something wrong with him; a little bug psychosis. It made me a little antsy. Don’t you have to be a little crazy to stare straight up at something a thousand times taller than you and come to the conclusion that climbing it in hopes of finding something to eat is a good idea? It would be like me climbing up the outside of the Empire State Building because I had heard at some point in my past that there might be some guy with a cracker in his pocket standing on the observation deck. That is not sound thinking.

Maybe it’s not about food. Maybe he’s desperate. Maybe he’s a jumper. Maybe he stole the G4.  I opened my window and looked down the two stories expecting to see a small gathering of several dozen ants chanting “Jump! Jump!”  (Wow, they look like ants from way up here . . .).  I was all ready with the little finger flick thing (oh come on now, I couldn’t spend my entire afternoon waiting for him to make a decision) but saw nothing really and sat back down.

It then dawned on me that I really do know nothing about ants. Just a bunch of non critical observations along with some assumptions and a decayed memory of faded facts from some old 70’s Animal Kingdom television show. I was in no real position to judge the motivations (and/or instincts) of one of god’s creatures. He knew what he was doing. He saw his purpose. He was built for this and was doing it, my understandings and questions not withstanding.

How many times have we done the same with one of our own? “Why is he here”? “What was she thinking”? “Why are we doing this”? “That thinking has no place here”? “The neighborhood is changing”.  “I can’t”. Those preconceptions, generalizations and sloppy cognitive record keeping that limit each of us, whether said by us or others, discourage and in fact prevent everything that is possible on the second story ledge. Not suppose to be there! Who said so?

At work, at home and at play we need to learn more and judge less. Help others see where the possibilities are. Walk with them on Purpose. Help others reach their second story.

Jim

www.thepeopleacademyinc.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece 

I was helping my landlord while he was working on the hot water heater at our house. Even writing that sentence seems strange to me. Thinking that we had a landlord, instead of owning our home. With two of our ‘children’ in their twenties and out of the house and a third heading to college in a month, choosing to downsize really was the right move, but being in a rental property hadn’t even been a thought.

However, I have come to realize the degree of freedom that we now have. We’ve lived here a year now, and are on a month-to-month lease and can pretty much pack and go anytime we feel like. Haven’t had that option in over twenty years. Our rent is about half of what our mortgage payment was and mowing the lawn turned from a three hour job into a half hour. (With about a six month mowing season, that is saving 65 hours of my time, and I’m sure a few dollars in gas)

Why am I sharing this? It’s not to brag that I am a renter. It’s frame of mind. Two years ago I would have thought that renting was a poor choice, throwing money away instead of building equity. Perspective. Advantages can be found in any situation, but sometimes we don’t even consider the options that we have. That can be where coaching or a mastermind group comes into play. That can bring “fresh eyes” to your situation, and your fresh eyes can help someone else’s circumstances.

We often feel like we are trapped in the thing we call our life, but you aren’t stuck without options. Sometimes the options aren’t easy ones, or even ones that you can see. Maybe it’s getting rid of the Lexus and driving a Honda. That might be an easy choice. Harder might be realizing that some of your friends are holding you down and it’s time to move on without them, or without them being a large part of your life. Harder still is realizing that perceptions we hold about ourselves and our circumstances are mostly in our own heads. You can take that Honda to the carwash and pressure wash away the dirt that has built up over time, but where do you go to clean out the garbage that can fill your head?

Rob Britt

Oh sure. Look at the picture. Nice hair there sonny. I have had a lifetime of nice hair as judged from afar (and very near and close up with the senior citizens as a 16 year old bagger at Jewel). Boy, if you are not from the Midwest then that statement ‘bagger’ could make me some (R) Senator’s date. I am talking groceries here not gross-eries.

So, I have nice hair and can attribute that to nothing but genes; mainly from my mother’s side as my father’s had none; hair that is. But what happens when an attribute of compliment churns to the south? My hair, I’m told, looks good in June and September but holy s* when July and the dog days of August hit the street. Not unlike that Life magazine picture of July 1945 when we decided over Nagasaki that enough was enough.  The only real difference (except for the tens of thousands of disintegrated Japanese families) is that my hair is in color. My only real chance of hurting anyone is driving down the highway windows open hair flailing like some old feather duster on acid.

The point is that sometimes, through forces not our own, gentle natural properties become not so gentle. Qualities that are complimentary do sometimes become our own worst enemy.  As we work with those we love and those we don’t (but who pay us) remember this. The discord of humid laden hair is not a ‘fault’ it is nature’s way of calling attention to the unmanageable while sometimes rising to the unimaginable. It’s that way with personal development and it is that way with organizations too. There are natural causes underlying organizational “humid hair”; the natural state gone astray.

The answer then is to understand the nature of the humid-ic unmanageability and to plan accordingly. We are familiar with many of these forces on behavior; social issues sometimes from home, lack of proper training or, more likely, proper managing, and a lack of direction or sense of worth. Responses range from the preventative to the reactionary. While all situations cannot be predicted many more than are now could be; with some awareness.

It is only important that responses be appropriate. And they can only be appropriate if we understand. And we can only understand if we consider the other. In life and at work and with all the relationships that intertwine it is the same.

Be aware of who you are and understand the forces that move you away from that.

Jim Reece

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece

jim@thepeopleacademyinc.com

Some things are just meant to be. I just finished reading a great interview with Roy Spence author of the new “It’s Not What You Sell. It’s What You Stand For.” In it he describes the success of several great companies who continue to succeed even in today’s rough economic climate. He credits their ability to define their purpose - the difference you are trying to make in the world. Not touchy feely but a serious way of approaching bottom line decisions.

I imagine myself not unlike you. A little spinning trying to catch the catchable while the wind blows as bad as the economy - juggling feathers in a spring Nor’easter. Business if not gone away is in neutral idling for some sort of signal that it IS okay to make a decision about tomorrow. Remembering too that no decision is in fact a decision itself; and not one without consequences.

I’ll be honest. We have struggled a bit over the past two quarters as we scrambled to adapt to the complete and utter change that just showed up. It was really (seemingly) that quick. Things that were for sure now weren’t and the unsure things just vanished. So you scramble the flight deck and launch what you know. We have been able to stay afloat and even inch ahead a bit. We have never done any direct to consumer product and we have a glorious little tome coming out later this month (more on that some other day). Good things do come from the challenge of change. However I am not sure that this one was on purpose.

The point is that we focused on product, reaching into gut for the sense of direction. (I think a lot about gut and happen to love mine). Our marketing messages continued to focus either on product (yuck!) or to some degree end user benefit (smaller yuck! but yuck! nonetheless). In the building momentum of recent history I really have not been able to gain the space I usually need to clarify. And then I read his interview.

Purpose - the difference you are trying to make in the world. Really - why did you get into business in the first place? How many times have you asked a client that very question? Time to ask yourself - I did.

I joined this company because I believed in the difference Toni was trying to make for people in the world (of work originally). Now, we never verbalized it in exactly those terms but exercising the ideas from “purpose” that is exactly the genesis of The PEOPLE Academy when Toni formed its predecessor nearly 15 years ago. Coming from the faceless, nameless (read unhuman) organizational environments so many of us are familiar with she decided that there could be, should be, ways of accomplishing great organizational success using the power of people and their knowledge, ideas and investment in outcomes that matter.

She started a company based on the deeply held belief that one could make a difference in the way people experienced work and that experience could reach beyond the organizational parking lot all the way home. The success of that purpose is evident in the fact that The Academy has been around for 15 years. Over that time we have evolved the business model more away from direct delivery ourselves and closer to product development that supports those coaches, trainers, mentors, and others who do direct delivery. The power of the approaches was so universal that it is used extensively by those in private coaching now was well.

I mean it IS the PEOPLE Model, right?

The heart of those products hold the passion of the original purpose - that we CAN make a difference. I remember in the early years the Toni tears that would well inside a story of an assembly line woman who had told Toni that never (and I mean NEVER) had someone at work asked her what she thought. It was a successful company on many measures but I wonder at the lack of upside or longer vision (by the way they are REALLY hurting right now). And no, it doesn’t make me feel good. What kind of question was that anyway?

The purpose of all this is exactly that - purpose. You will see a more intentional rememberance of our purpose going forward. A rethinking of the website and other vehicles we use to tell our story. It is not about the products. They are the way in which we fulfill our purpose (mission). But they are not our purpose. I forgot that. You may have too in your own right.

And so tomorrow as we continue to create the HOWs I will certainly be keeping the ‘difference we know we can make’ in facilitating dignity at work and in life (engaging the human element and making people people again).

I am really glad I learned to read. Now go away . . . and think on Purpose. And don’t forget the wine.

Jim

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece

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As with most traditions I have no idea where this one came from. Except that I was present and complicit. How the hell does that happen?

For me forever the holiday has extended well into January perhaps out of comfort (there is nothing quite like sitting the evening away wine in hand under the glow of twinkling lights) or perhaps it had something to do with the Epiphany. Whatever that is. But extend it did. And I was fine with that; a certain comfort/peace.

But somehow creepingly over the past several years there has been this internal campaign to shorten the joy (NOT the intent but the result nonetheless) and to, in other words, get on with it. Truly I never got it. I thought it a matter of attention span, or to mitigate the sometime sadness that can be remembered around the holidays.

I have an extraordinary Aunt - my mother’s sister/only who died several years ago. One of the great memories of this theatrical soul (among many great memories) happened at their home in New England following the burial of my grandmother - her mother; my mother’s mother. Amidst the joy of celebrating a life of a century-minus-one-day there was the sadness of missing one who had done so rather magnificently. Wait. There really was not a tearful sadness (the daughters had already) but a longing for the spirit of what made her life. Where was that in us? And I guess along with this the realization that we will, to a person, be the subject of funeral conversation ourselves one day. Personally I will not miss the certainly embarrassing (to me) banter thrown about at my own. But I certainly wish those willing to give up a days pay to attend the very best.

At any rate Carol was theatre! And the spirit she brought to the close of our meal that evening was life confirming if not altering. Not altering in the “Oh my god I have never felt that” or whatever. More confirming in the sense that it made sense. And in a way not imagined before. We have all had the experience at one time where we said (to our Self), “Gosh, I knew that, but never in that way”.

I have had a thousand meals and cleared as many tables. And while sometimes accompanied by friends, or a kid, or wife (we do the I cook you clean deal - very fair) or a cat or sometimes alone it is a fairly unimaginative mechanic - something not thought about even though the surroundings vibe pleasant. Not with Carol. And here’s the power.

At the end of the meal (and remember that she and Bobbie had just buried their mother (or perhaps because of it) while most relaxed in the post meal fog of conversation Carol rises and lungs out a hearty, “Strike the table”! How perfect. In the theatre of life why not call out production assignments to get us on the road?

Because at the end of life (or the day) we have done all that we can do. We did it well and those who saw agreed. The performance is finished yet our script’s intact for tomorrow’s interpretation. We shall start anew tomorrow. Strike the set. Strike the table. Strike the holiday.

Enjoy what you have done today. Tomorrow brings another show. Another audience. Another chance. And perhaps a deeper interpretation of the script. Characters grow.

Toni was right. Christmas lights and the everything accompanying needs to be struck on the first day following the last day they were relevant. Christmas (and all of the religiously non - but otherwise - related) is yesterday’s show in Dubuque. I laughed I cried. Great performance - but it was yesterday. Not to mention Dubuque. Welcome to today. And to your own town.

I have come to not only accept but embrace with all my being my lesson from Toni. That it is our knowledge and lessons learned which should LEAD us into the new. Not our sluggishness to release yesterday’s performance and the comfort of our “shtick” (read mind map). It is indeed time to strike and to get on with today. Be in today with the knowledge of yesterday and the anticipation of tomorrow. It is the presence of this trinity that makes today the only real day. Be in it.

Strike the old. Strike the mold. Strike the status quo. Or for at least gods sake strike the immobility.

Strike the (08) holiday (with a nod to 09). Fa la la la la la la la la later . . .

Jim
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece
jimreece on twitter

While it has been said (I’m sure by someone somewhere) that this Thursday is just another day, very few of us can mentally escape its significance and the opportunity to reflect. What can become better? What can be forgotten? What can be forgotten better?

I have mentioned that Change’s biggest gift may be in the re-thinking it causes. Just as imposed change brings re-thinking, re-thinking can bring change. We just reverse order.

So go re-think something. Make the world a better place; even if it’s just in your head and only for a moment. You see, there are Moments that become real big real quick and you never know which one it will be or when it will be there. You can improve your chances of ‘real big real quick’ logarithmically by giving yourself moments.

It IS hard in the hustle bustle of each of the other 51 Thursdays. So there is a pleasant convenience in a holiday being centered around Moment creation. Sort of forced upon us like a door held opened for you on a rainy windy day while you hurry towards it unaware. You don’t stop to converse about why he’s holding it or any other trivial pursuit. You don’t analyze it. You just walk through with a ‘thanks’. Happy for the convenience provided. New Years is convenience provided.

Here’s to meaningful moments, some Happy in the New Year.

Jim
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece

jimreece on twitter

Well here it is Friday and for all practical purposes the final day of the week to engage the agenda. Certainly things - some things - can be done behind the scenes and throughout the weekend. But for the majority of traditional business this is it. That is my intent.

But wait a minute. There was a little rain this morning on the way out of the gym which turned to a little bit of freezing something which then has turned to a light snow with a forecast (which looks like it might actually be accurate) of a lot more freezing and even icy roads getting worse throughout the day.

Agenda interruptus. An intent blockade!

Imposed change is among the most difficult to manage; and the difficulty increases by degree. My little Friday story is NOT the story of a GM worker with three kids. But it illustrates the point.

Does Change change intent? Does it change the agenda? Or does Change change the strategy; a different PATH to intent? My intent - my Friday agenda was to accomplish certain things. I will now find another way to get them done - see if I can switch a Monday thing with a Friday thing. Re prioritize. Rethink.

That may be Change’s biggest gift. A chance to rethink.

Jim

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece 

Well then. There’s that positive attitude I coach my organizations on. But today is a new day and I am resolved to do this on a very regular basis (somewhat very regular basis). Got to cover.

Today was the first day back in the gym. I profess engagement and so it is time to engage with my Self; which is not possible without my health. I am encouraged by my good friends Deb and Rob who also recently returned to the gym. I am reminded that they too were nauseous. I consider the first day a success when I don’t cut my face to shreds shaving with trembling arms. But this will pass. Now that I have “broken the seal” it will become a bit easier each day.

At least I am not Blogojovich.

Coaching is the process of engaging one in the path of their choice. So even if you do not consider yourself a coach try engaging someone you care about in a conversation about THEM and their path. They will most certainly appreciate it.

Jim