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

jim@thepeopleacademyinc.com

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The bottom line is that a manager manages people to perform tasks and achieve objectives. Beyond that you have to have ‘people skills’ so everyone working for you feels they are personally appreciated and important and their work is also appreciated. So how do you go about doing that?

1. Know your objectives - Unless you know your objectives clearly and precisely you cannot communicate them to the people under you.

2. Make sure team members know their objectives - Everyone should have well defined objectives and timelines so they know exactly what is expected of thm and when it needs to be completed. They should also have an idea of how their conribution fits into the ‘big picture’ so if priorities and deadlines shift, they have some idea of why things have changed.

3. Know each member of your team personally - As things ebb and flow in people’s personal lives it inevitably spills over into their work life. This is to be expected, and it should be minimalized as much as possible, but as a manager (and a human) you should be aware that sometimes their is that spillover. If you know each person personally (and it doesn’t have to be intrusive) it can help you to understand why your star performer has an off day or is distracted. People know when someone has a sincere interest and will appreciate your understanding.

4. Show interest in their output and be appreciative - It is easy to set objectives and collect results, but you still need to realize that peope want you viewing their work and showing genuine interest and being appreciative. The tasks are expected, after all that’s what they were hired for, but it only takes a half a minute to acknowledge it.

5. Meet one-on-one on a regular basis - This goes right along with the previous two points, but still bears saying. It is easy to make the daily or weekly comments and communications, but there needs to be ongoing regular meetings to make sure that everyone is on the same page and to ensure continued understanding. These don’t have to be long meetings - ten to fifteen minutes is generally enough time to touch base, but you also shouldn’t have meetings just for the sake of meeting. Have one or two specific items to talk about, and know the real purpose is to listen to what they have to say.

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 

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 simple simply aren’t; at least at first. While chatting recently over cocktails I was reminded (thank god for cocktails) of a past life career that took me overseas on a number of occasions. While there were many experiences during that tenure which helped me grow in a number of different ways (inside and out) it was my very first trip to my very first site that was the source of the memory.

It was (I say ‘was’ for in capitalism one should have capital) a little company with a great big mission that involved kids and their holistic well-being. The vehicle was well ahead of its time; physical activity but there was much more to it than that. It was one of those simple things that isn’t. Until you get it – then it is. Like tying your shoes. We franchised the concept through the US and internationally. My role was to help them ‘get it’. It was consulting in nature and it was awesome.

After nearly a year with the company I knew enough to be helpful (but at the same time not knowledgeable enough and so therefore dangerous). This position is familiar to many and I did what we all do – the best I could. In prepping for the trip, to open the first Thai facility, I asked the company founder about language – what are the challenges? I had trained the owners here in the States for nearly six weeks and knew they, at least, spoke better English than me. The founder’s answer was not to worry – he’d never encountered any issue at all. I accepted his answer gladly and well before I came to find out that he did not know what he was talking about.

After landing and several meetings with senior Thai management, who spoke English well enough, I headed out the door and down the facility’s main hallway to the meeting room where I would do the first day orientation for the folks who would actually be running the children’s programming on a daily basis; college educated PE people. I was prepped and prepared materials in hand imagining my positive imaging message – let’s get psyched we have important work to do! I walked down the hall with Sompit, the Thai owner, and heading into the conference room she says, “Now don’t talk too fast. No one in the room speaks English so I will translate the best I can”.

WTF? (I was WTF before WTF was). Twenty smiling faces newly hired excited at, for some, their first professional job working with kids. Little did they know they were about to learn nothing. I have, like you, been thrown curve balls before and expecting something different you change your stance move the mitt and catch the ball.

What followed in the next four hours was exhausting AND exhilarating. I did slow down – but not my language first – it followed. What I had come to learn is that translation is not a ‘you say this word and I will go find it in my language and then use it’. Translation is culturally contextual in that after I said what I said she washed its meaning and then spoke to the thoughts and ideas behind my words in her native language. I can’t even imagine how that happens – but it does. So my thinking slowed down as I worked to choose words that more clearly expressed the meaning of whatever topic I was on at the moment. I was mindful to check on clarity much more often than I ever had previously. The day was a success and I know that I learned much more than they in very many ways.

We translate too everyday – English to English. It too is culturally contextual but on a more micro basis – the differences are more subtle – a crack versus a chasm. We usually succeed in the effort but not always. We take much for granted like tying our shoes. But it is only easy once we ‘get it’. And that takes a little awareness and even more practice.

That is unless you use loafers in your language.

Jim

jim@thepeopleacademyinc.com

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

@jimreece

There are a many transitions in our lives.  The first birthday, the first bike ride, the last diaper (not in that order necessarily). However, there is one that affects both the transitioner and the transitionee. 21.

21 is the birth of the adult. Well maybe not the birth but at least the bar mitzvah. The coming of age. We can die at 18 in war (16 at home if we include driving) and vote as well. But the full regalia comes at 21. Kill someone and it’s capital murder (unless unless you are 11 and black then the age thing is less relevant). But it remains a line in the lifeline sand. 21.

It might be the one time in life when you realize both fallibility and infallibility at the same moment. I can drink until I die and oh my god I drank and think I may die . . .   (Your dream-home bathroom is never the same). And as parents we relive our own experience of 21 and think, “oh my god isn’t that cute” while at the same time thinking they could die. Parenting is hell in heaven.

As we search for the balance between the giving and the forgiving we learn that all we have done has some effect. They are different than they were. Having to navigate the left and the right – the up and down – the inside and the outside – the wrong from the not so wrong – they learn.

It’s like that with us as well. The model of learning doesn’t change but our ability (willingness) to does. Life is a lesson for those who chose to learn it.

And women too. In most cases when asking a question the answer comes back with the responders auto-reply switched on. Not always but more often than not. This is not to say that the reply is insincere or deceptive. It is simply, well, simple. (Unless they are on the third glass of wine in which case it is probably just stupid. Entertaining but stupid none the less). I know this as fact as I have myself answered many a question while actually searching the house for where I left my third glass . . .

In everyday conversation this simple back and forth does no harm and in some ways most likely facilitates actually getting through the day. However when the question is important (to either person) and the answer even more so then a bit more effort is required.

When the response to your first question comes vollying back a contemplative form of “why” should follow from you in return. As in “why do you feel that way?” or something of the same flavor. The response will unveil a bit more honesty but as in the proverbial onion still only dried paper-like skin. To get to real it takes two more ‘whys’.

The response to your first why should be followed with another. And to that response yet one more. And be adult about it - use it in a sentence. For you parents out there one of life’s little irritants (cute at first with a quick fade) is that period of toddler development called the “why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?
why?why?why?why?why?why?why?wh?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?
why?why?why?why?why?why?why?wh?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?” stage. And no, you weren’t at that moment filled with pride at the level of intellectual curiosity. Even though that’s the way you told the story.

‘Whys’ are respectful and allow for the opportunity to get more thoughtful. Again the first level response is not shallow it is just simple. We are built for speed and getting to ‘next’. Our minds grab responses from the thoughts floating on the surface. But meaning is built from thoughts just below and it takes a couple of whys to form the connections that allow the respondent to finally say, “Oh yea. I guess that’s why. I hadn’t thought about it that way. Thanks.”

It takes a little more time but then meaningful often does.

Jim

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

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

jimreece on Twitter

So there I found myself. Nowhere near any real food but with yogurt in hand. I had planned it as a mid morning snack - always proper after early morning exercise with its protein and all. I had planned to eat it, I just (apparently) did not plan how to eat it.

What is it with spoons? There is ALWAYS a spoon here where I am but not today. Why not today? I need the spoon today not yesterday when I remember there being plenty. But there was a fork. So I used it thanking myself for not planning soup.

The yogurt was good and I was able to get most of it creatively turning the instrument around scoring the bottom blobs with the end of the handle. And I did all of this while maintaining a fairly healthy ego. Not a bad snack moment after all.

Here’s what I learned in that yogurt moment. We all have our bucket of tools that we draw upon to get us through whatever. If you have a little time under your belt most of these tools are reflexive - yogurt - grab a spoon. You don’t go through a checklist or call your lifeline. You just grab a spoon. We do it all the time. “Oh here’s a problem but I know how to handle that. I just do x y z”.

But what happens when we are confronted with a seemingly common problem and the tool isn’t there? Or a variation on the problem theme and a quick glance later it seems the tool might not fit? A little panic - a little freaking out. Or we don’t engage at all (always a great choice that never has any back-end consequence).

We think because we don’t have access to the tool we always use to solve ‘this’ we can’t or at the very least we must invent something or go learn a new way of doing whatever. And that ain’t always the case. What tool do you already have that is in the same category of what you don’t have?

A fork is in the same category as a spoon. They are both used to facilitate the courteous path of plate to mouth. (If you said they are both used ‘to eat’ you would kinda be wrong). You can eat with your hands which is yet another tool not normally included in the subject category. Unless of course you have the pleasure of indulging in a traditional Indonesian meal which is consumed utensil-less. So even in some places things not considered here are there in their category list. It is always helpful to remember that your list is not the only list.

So what else do you have? What will work here if I just take a moment to consider the options. Not every category item is useful in every situation but take a glance at the drawer and look.

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