Friday Filosophy v.8.27.21

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FRIDAY FILOSOPHY v.8.27.21

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, 30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965 was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was a Sandhurst-educated soldier, a Nobel Prize-winning writer and historian, a prolific painter, and one of the longest-serving politicians in British history, he was a Member of Parliament  from 1900 to 1964.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to a wealthy, aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Widely considered one of the 20th century’s most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe’s liberal democracy against the spread of fascism. He is also praised as a social reformer.  

  • We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
  • A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
  • Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
  • The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
  • Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
  • A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
  • I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.
  • It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
  • The price of greatness is responsibility.
  • My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

The Time is Now

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Friday Filosophy v.8.20.21

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FRIDAY FILOSOPHY c.8.20.21

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell

18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British polymath.

As an academic, he worked in philosophy, mathematics, and logic. His work has had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, and various areas of analytic philosophy, especially philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics. He was a public intellectual, historian, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate.

Russell was one of the early 20th century’s most prominent logicians, and one of the founders of analytic philosophy. Together with his former teacher Alfred North Whitehead, Russell wrote Principia Mathematica, a milestone in the development of classical logic, and a major attempt to reduce the whole of mathematics to logic (see Logicism). Russell’s article “On Denoting” has been considered a “paradigm of philosophy”.

Russell was a pacifist who championed anti-imperialism and chaired the India League. He occasionally advocated preventive nuclear war, before the opportunity provided by the atomic monopoly had passed and he decided he would “welcome with enthusiasm” world government. He went to prison for his pacifism during World War I. Throughout his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, although he later wrote he had “never been any of these things, in any profound sense”.

  • Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.
  • The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts.
  • A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
  • The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
  • Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
  • I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
  • The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
  • To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

The Time is Now

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Why do I do what I do?

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Why do I do what I do?

In tonight’s blog, guest writer Ryszard Chciuk asks a question I think we have all wondered at one time or another: Why do I do what I do? 

Contributing to someone’s improvement and understanding is the reason I do what I do.

Who said that? If you don’t know yet, please keep on reading.

This article is about the meaning of one’s live.

Jim Collins said in Good to Great: … it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.

Victor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning (over 12 million copies sold) says: … striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. Victor Frankl also claims that Man … is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values! He also said: There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life. It has been said by a man who survived three years in four German concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

In that book Victor Frankl reminded results of several public opinion polls:  The results showed that 89 percent of the people polled admit that man needs something for the sake of which to live, around 60 percent of the people polled conceded that there was something, or someone, in their own lives for whose sake they were even ready to die. In the statistical survey of 8 thousand students of 48 colleges, conducted by social scientists from Johns Hopkins University, students were asked what they considered “very-important” to them now. 16 percent of the students checked “making a lot of money”; 78 percent said their first goal was “finding a purpose and meaning to my life.”

The polls were made some time ago, but my experience tells me the latest results would be much worse. I mean there are much more students and adults interested in earning more money and fewer people searching for the meaning of their lives. Using Frankl’s words: they are caught in that situation which I have called the “existential vacuum”. For such a man No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).

To complete this long introduction, I will remind only one sentence from Friedrich Nietzsche: He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.

A company does not have its brain (at least at the beginning of the 21st century), so it can not suffer from the existential vacuum. The feeling of meaninglessness is not painful for a company. But no organization exists without the brains of its employees and managers. If you, as their leader, are aware that a significant part of your staff is searching for the meaning of their lives or suffering from the existential vacuum, you should help them. I do not expect you will create an internal department of logotherapy. Nevertheless, why you could not extend the medical healthcare package and allow some of your people to visit a logotherapist?

Anyway, I believe the person searching for the meaning of his life will be inspired by the mission of the team he is a part of, and adopt it as a kind of response to his problem. And those who already have a sense of meaning will find that working for you helps them to fulfill their life mission.

My life mission is to leave the world when it is a little bit better than it was before I arrived here. Does it sound general, audacious, pompous? Not for me, but as a manager, I made my mission’s definition more specific. I utilized over twenty years of experience collected during my service for the construction company. In that time, as a machine user and an internal service provider I believed I had learned the basic expectations of all machines’ users:

  • The machine is ready to work always when it is needed
  • The cost of operation is the lowest possible

When I got a chance to attend the creation of a new dealership for Volvo CE, I expressed my new after-sales department mission as follows:

  • We provide machine users with the highest machine availability at the lowest cost of operation,
  • by delivering service works exceeding customers’ expectations,
  • and keeping profitability on the level assuring steady development of the service department and securing financial liquidity of our dealership in a downturn in the economy.

That mission statement became a basic foundation for defining our department’s vision and the main principles (values).

The life mission has to be adapted to the changing conditions, so since I got retired, I feel personally obliged not to spoil our planet to a higher degree than the average homo sapiens does. It comprises also sharing my experience in the construction industry with my successors. I would like them to avoid my mistakes. This is the reason to write posts for the Learning Without Scars blog and to publish articles on my blog dedicated to construction machine users and their closest collaborators – after-sales departments personnel (only in Polish – note: and they are all excellent).

I owe you a response to the question I started my blog post with. This is Ron Slee answer to the most important question a human being has to ask himself: why do I do what I do? Helping students of The Learning Without Scars to succeed is his, and his company mission, his WHY.

Dear reader, what is your mission, what is your WHY, have you already found the meaning for your life?

As Ron says, the time for your answer is now.

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Friday Filosophy v.8.13.21

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Friday Filosophy v.8.13.21

Our Friday Filosophy v.8.13.21 offers thoughts from Aristotle with quotes that highlight the thinking of one of the most influential philosophers the world has ever known. He was a student of Plato and the Tutor to Alexander the great.

Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as “The First Teacher” and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply “The Philosopher”, while Dante (one of the most important poets of the Middle Ages) called him “the master of those who know”. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and John Buridan. Aristotle’s influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.

Aristotle has been called “the father of logic”, “the father of biology”, “the father of political science”, “the father of zoology”, “the father of embryology”, “the father of natural law”, “the father of scientific method”, “the father of rhetoric”, “the father of psychology”, “the father of realism”, “the father of criticism”, “the father of individualism”, “the father of teleology”, and “the father of meteorology.”[8]

  • It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
  • The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
  • The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
  • Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
  • It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
  • You will never do anything in the world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
  • You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
  • The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
  • What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.

The Time is Now.

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Friday Filosophy V8.6.21

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FRIDAY FILOSOPHY V8.6.21

Our Plato quotes put the spotlight on one of the most influential philosophers the world has ever known. He was a student of Socrates and an instructor to Aristotle in the middle fourth century B.C. He grew up in Athens, Greece, and was also influenced by Parmenides and the Pythagoreans.

As Socrates never put anything down in writing, Plato is also known for being Socrates’ primary author and most reliable.

  • Thinking – the talking of the soul with itself
  • Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another
  • The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men
  • Love is a serious mental disease
  • Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom
  • The measure of a man is what he does with power
  • Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact, we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly
  • Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance
  • The greatest wealth is to live content with little
  • The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life
  • Wonder is the beginning of wisdom
  • The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

 

The Time is Now.

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The Five Bs for Baby Boomers

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The five Bs for Baby Boomers to cultivate a culture of innovation

In this week’s guest post, Sonya Law offers an explanation of the five Bs for Baby Boomers and the ways in which they can help to cultivate a culture of innovation.

What’s the most important part of being a leader today?

It’s not about being the smartest, wittiest, or being politically astute.

It’s about being innovative, leveraging the talent of the people around you, and thinking beyond today to solve the future problems that society will encounter.

How the best leaders make everyone smarter is to utilize the talent of everyone in the organization through effective listening, communication, and collaboration.  The book Multipliers by Liz Wiseman explores why some leaders drain capability and intelligence from their teams while others amplify them to produce results.  Post the pandemic, the number one skill employers seek in their people is Innovation.  Prior to the pandemic, we expected innovation to be the top skill for startups and tech firms but now it is a requirement of all employees in today’s world.

However, those for whom being innovative, open-minded, curious, and experimental comes most naturally that is Millennials, are being overlooked which erodes agility.  Especially in work environments where both Millennials and Baby Boomers cohabitate, they are often not on the same page and speaking the same language.  In some cases, not all, Baby boomers think Millennials can’t focus are distracted by their mobiles, and are not motivated or ready to be taken seriously.  So how do we get baby boomers and millennials working together to better understand each other and leverage their combined talents, we everyone serves each other.

The five Bs for Baby Boomers when communicating with Millennials:

  1. Be an empathetic listener
  2. Be prepared to give informal feedback more regularly
  3. Be clear about the goals and connect us with our WHY
  4. Be socially aware of how we are making a difference in the world and share these good news stories on social media
  5. Be open-minded to take a different route and open to using digital platforms as a collaborative workspace

The most comfortable with technology are Millennials so why would you not capitalise on this if we are to be smarter aren’t we best to leverage what they know?

Millennials are digital addicts and want to do and share everything online whereas baby boomers in most cases they draw a line between their work and home lives and do not necessarily live out their entire life online, across multiple social media platforms.

This disconnect is real and endangers the passing down of valuable knowledge cultivated by the baby boomers and all their hard work they have poured into organisations, at the risk of this not being passed on, legacy yes but innovation no.  If we could harness the knowledge of the baby boomers, this intelligence could be used to inform the innovation of the future.

In a global economy where we are experiencing climate change and pandemics, the challenges that we are facing together are the responsibility of our leaders to unblock your people.  To leverage the talent of all the people to think tank, unlock potential, work more innovatively, learn to fail fast and move on, adapt, grow and thrive if we are to compete.  The success off the backs of the baby boomers’ hard work has laid the foundation on which to build, so let’s build in collaboration into our workspaces that leverages the talent across the whole organization.

So why not leverage technology to innovate, collaborate and even assign tasks and set priorities?

Stratappsaas.com is a connected workspace that facilitates innovation and enables execution of the strategy in real-time, where everyone works on one connected workspace, a focused workspace that eliminates inefficiencies of switching between emails, apps, and static documents and is especially attractive to millennials, who want to use technology as a platform to get work done and share ideas.

This idea of leveraging technology is not only useful for Millennials it is a practical one given the shift toward hybrid work models and work from home becoming the norm, the need for technology to enhance communication, collaboration, and execution has become a necessity.

The five B’s for Baby Boomers are applicable for all leaders in attracting, motivating, and sustaining talent in any workforce.

Especially at a time when there is a war for talent in a candidate short market.  It is also a good idea for leaders to get familiar with spending time away from the desk, especially true of Baby Boomers who prefer to man their post but a step away from their command-and-control leadership style can be refreshing and good for innovation.

Remember the last time you went for a long walk how good it felt, to clear your head and the solutions came up freely, this is what progressive leaders practice, it is expansive and visionary.  This big picture thinking inspires innovative thinking and essential to staying ahead of the curve in coming up with better products and services for your customers.  If we get too stuck in the weeds of operations and forget to step out and come up with new thinking it stifles new ideas and innovation.

It is good to seek new thinking and challenges, but stability also matters too, so it is a blend of the two generations – baby boomers’ steadfastness and the millennials’ enthusiasm – which will inspire the future of work!

Leaders who leverage the talent of all their people will cultivate a culture of innovation … take care of your Millennials and they will solve the problems for you!

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Return to Work after a Workplace Injury – The Power of Words

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Return to Work after a Workplace Injury – The Power of Words

In this week’s guest post, Return to Work after a Workplace Injury, Sonya Law highlights the power of words for our readers.

Exploring how the power of words can impact the recovery trajectory for an injured worker.

An employee who injures themselves at work feels immediately vulnerable and for the workplace it is a very serious incident, the priority should be the employee receiving immediate medical care. And for the workplace to contain the area where the incident has occurred where practicable to prevent any further injuries to other workers and subsequent investigation to take place.

If the injury is to the hands in particular, if we talk about manual workers as a group, their hands are used to perform all sorts of functions, when they are injured, it has a huge impact.  Their whole career flashes before them, with questions, like, am I going to be able to do my job, am I going to be able to work again. The hands are an extension of our brain and injuries to the hands can have multiple impacts physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional overwhelm and trauma from the incident.

So, when we think about employees who have injured themselves at work, it is important to use language that shows genuine care and compassion towards them as people.

Five important tips, think of the injured employee:

  1. Are injured until proven otherwise
  2. Needs a medical diagnosis
  3. Doesn’t want to be injured
  4. Needs assistance and support
  5. And time to be made comfortable physically and emotionally, before you commence questioning them or complete a safety investigation.

When people are returning to work, the words we choose to use can change the way they feel, they need to feel cared for as a human being first.  Safe in the knowledge that they are supported and are a valued member of the team.  The emphasis needs to be on empowering them to take control of their injury, by providing them with medical attention which will give them knowledge about their injury and prognosis. Which will help them to heal and recover and be back to work with their friends and colleagues as soon as they are medically able, we are talking post-injury management.

The words we use can change the recovery trajectory from being a smooth and positive experience to being negative and difficult.  As a return-to-work coordinator or manager in charge of an employee’s return to work, it is important that you keep the lines of communication open.  It is already difficult for the employee who has experienced the trauma not only of the workplace incident and resulting injury but also being cut off from their fellow workers and workplace.

It helps when we listen and ask open questions like, how do you feel? This signals to the employee care, that you are taking the time to check in on them and their recovery.  Talking allows the employee to process what has happened to them and take ownership and responsibility for their recovery and healing which has positive impacts to the timeline for returning to work.  Talking about the injury and experience allows them to open up and verbalise how they are coping and come up with strategies that assist them in their recovery. When an employee feels genuinely cared for, they are more willing to take responsibility for attending medical appointments and follow up on rehabilitation and physio exercises that aid their return to work.  Physio is not an easy option, physio is difficult and sometimes painful, so acknowledge their effort and energy required to persevere.

A return-to-work coordinator who is disinterested and continually hard to get hold of sends a negative message to the employee that you are too busy to care.  Layer upon that the use of negative language and closed questioning, can put the employee on the defense and have a negative impact on the trajectory of their recovery and return to work timeline.  What could be a positive and progressive return to work experience then becomes a complex case.

An example of some open conversations could be: I am calling about your hand, how are you feeling? Are you feeling ready to come back to work? Sounds like it is healing up nicely and you are feeling more comfortable than last week? You are making great progress; what physio are you doing this week?  Are you getting around okay with not being able to drive, are you sleeping and eating, okay? Do you have someone to care for you at home or family or neighbors who are helping you?

Let them know the positive improvements to safety in the workplace as a result of their input into the safety investigation: We are going to make the modifications you suggested and some improvements that came out of the workplace investigation, that are going to make a real difference to your colleagues and make your job easier and safer for you when you return to work.

The biggest risk to the injured workers is not only the lack of support from managers but negative interactions with work colleagues when they return to work.  An example of this is a conversation, where their colleague says: We had to pick up the slack while you were away, because of you we were so busy and stressed.  The injured worker feels on the outer and starts to feel socially isolated at a time when their resilience is already low.  Their mental health starts to suffer they feel pain and it may impact their recovery, productivity, leading to absenteeism and an interrupted return to work plan.

If they are feeling a bit anxious or sensitive about returning to work, let them know that’s normal and that you are there to support them.  Talk with their work colleagues and ask them to be patient and supportive in the days and weeks that they return to work.  Encourage colleagues to use positive language, that it’s good to see them back, they were missed and to take care and if they feel any discomfort to speak up.  So that they don’t feel alone, this support and comradery will help the injured worker to feel happier and good about being back at work and possibly prevent re-injury.

The injury is not only a physical one sometimes it can take the injured worker time to build up confidence again to do a task that they routinely did before without a problem, reassure them it takes time and its normal.  Try to avoid putting tight deadlines on them, where there is time pressure to complete tasks until they feel more confident with the work.

Regularly ask them if they are experiencing any discomfort are they managing, okay?  Being thoughtful and using positive language supports their recovery rather than using negative and inflammatory language, which will make a difference to their return-to-work experience.  Questions like: How are you feeling, how comfortable are you, are you feeling more comfortable this week than last week, do you feel better?

The power of words can improve the recovery trajectory for the injured worker, by being supportive and using positive language the chance of recovery is better.

Look after your people, the way you talk with them will affect their recovery.

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Goal Setting

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Goal Setting

Tonight, our returning guest blogger Sonya Law talks to readers about goal setting. 

We will explore here how fostering a dynamic workplace incorporates the macro environment in setting goals where People are at the center of creating your competitive advantage…

As an employee, our manager will set goals for us which flow down from the strategic goals of the organization, and these goals are communicated clearly so that we understand how our performance is measured.  Traditionally this usually takes place as part of a mid-year and end-of-year performance review cycle.  The review is also an opportunity for two-way feedback, for the employee to receive performance feedback that will guide their growth and performance and for the manager to receive feedback on where the employee needs support to remove roadblocks that are limiting their potential, efficiency, and effectiveness in achieving the goals of the organisation.

Human Resources play a dual role, firstly to support employees in setting their GPS and aligning them with the strategic goals of the organisation.  Secondly, to support managers and employees when performance diverges away from the expected behaviors that lead to the achievement of these goals.

Quite often, overlayed are external factors for example the current Global Pandemic, which forces organisation to reorientate towards goals that respond to a changing macro environment.  The Pandemic continues to require us to have a workforce that is adaptable, agile, resilient, and able to respond to new problems and anticipate future ones.  And work creatively to come up with solutions to customer, supply, service, and delivery issues.

Three scenarios that put the achievement of employees’ goals at risk are:

  1. New Manager
  2. New Team
  3. Changes in process and technology.

These scenarios can be navigated safely, with minimal impact to employees when a dynamic work environment is fostered that supports employees to solve problems as they arise.  This grassroots level problem solving, therefore enabling managers to invest more time on the strategic side of the business.

This is a common problem in organisations where management gets stuck in the weeds fixing problems in their day-to-day and not enough time creating value for shareholders.  Human Resources’ role is to work together with the senior leadership team to create flow and foster a dynamic workplace where time is equated across the operational, tactical, and strategic needs of the business.

A dynamic workplace is a space that can easily be reconfigured to meet the company’s needs, accomplished by using resources, collaborative spaces and technology. It is meant to follow an employee’s needs, as reflected in the state of the world.

Organisations that become too linear and micro instead of a macro view, lose sight of the big picture, this narrow focus leads to inefficiencies in utilisation of your human resources and non-productive time that does not generate income to the business and cannot be recovered.  Further cracks start to appear in a reluctance to explore new markets or business opportunities, they leak resources, people, profit, and stifle innovation.  You will see a decline in quality and an increase in rework, warranty issues, product failures, and a damaged reputation, which is value eroding rather than value maximising.

Organisations gain a competitive advantage as compared with their rivals by empowering and enabling their people, they innovate, fail fast, and recover quickly, creating value for the business.

When employees are empowered to make the changes necessary in order to respond to customer’s needs, they can fix customer problems right then and there boosting trust and confidence in the product, aftercare, leading to repeat business.  When managers see their role as removing obstacles and roadblocks and empowering their team and involving them in setting their goals, this ultimately will lead to improved employee and customer satisfaction.

Managers can support the business operation by:

  1. TIME – blocking out some uninterrupted time regularly to ask employees what are their roadblocks and where do they need support
  2. REINFORCING – what we do and why we do it, connecting them with the vision of the company
  3. POSITIVE FEEDBACK – provide employees with positive feedback about their unique and valuable contribution
  4. ALIGNMENT – help employees where there is misalignment with the goals and support them to self-correct
  5. STRENGTHS – play to the employee’s strengths
  6. STRATEGIC GOALS – link employee goals with the strategic goals of the organisation
  7. VALUE CREATION – when you involve employees in goal setting, they will be more driven and committed to achieving them

A few human resources tools that foster a dynamic workplace are:

  1. Career Anchors – supports employees’ re-engagement with their work
  2. VIA strengths – identifies employee’s strengths and how to leverage them
  3. What makes me tick – helps employees to resolve conflict by understanding different communication styles within their team.

The benefits to the organisation and culture in fostering a dynamic workplace are:

  1. Higher levels of innovation
  2. Increased engagement
  3. Greater productivity
  4. Increased customer satisfaction
  5. Improved quality
  6. Lower staff turnover
  7. Stronger financial returns
  8. Agility and adaptability in responding to a changing macro environment.

Ultimately, a dynamic workplace constantly is striving to create a competitive advantage through its People that is unrivalled when it comes to your competitors, that is so unique that it cannot be replicated.  Many products can be replicated but not people, they really are your greatest asset and competitive advantage if you take care of them.  Demonstrate to them with your words, actions, and behaviors that reinforce their valuable and unique contribution to the organisation.

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Understanding How to View Success

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Understanding How to View Success

When we work on setting goals, understanding how to view success is a key component in the process. Please read tonight’s blog from Ron to learn more about this critical process, and all of the viewpoints that go into it.

Most of you are by now aware of our goal of helping each employee identify their potential and then put them on a path to achieving it. The keyword there is “goal.” Each person needs to establish goals in their lives. It starts from a young age in how we are treated by our parents and grandparents. They teach us right from wrong and good from bad. In this manner, we start on a developmental path of understanding what we should do. It is our first experience with goals. Be a good person. As Colin Powell is known to say “don’t do anything that will embarrass your parents.” Then we have a transition from family life as a very young person to our school phase.

We go to school and we are taught to read and write and perform arithmetic calculations. That puts us on a path of learning that is aiming at helping us develop our intellect. That is the goal. We also start to experience socialization with a peer group, first our classmates and then our friends, another series of goals in getting along with others. In some cases, we get involved in music or sports and then learn how to get along with others in different backgrounds, again more goals. We have the family, the school, the peer groups, the sports teams and clubs, music and other groups all helping us grow into a complete person. All goals.

And then we have to make a choice at the end of High School or in some cases before, about what we are going to do next. This is, for many, the beginning of making our own decisions and establishing our own goals. This is the next transition from basic learning to specialized learning. To become able to provide ourselves with sufficient knowledge or expertise to be able to look after our own needs. Another transition. A more serious one.

We then go on to Junior College, or a Trade or Vocational School, or a University. We choose the classes we are going to take with a goal in mind. Sometimes that goal is a particular job. Sometimes it is simply getting more knowledge and then deciding what to do with that knowledge. But we are establishing our own goals.

Then comes the next step, another major transition. Getting a job. Finding a career. Becoming independent financially. This is a more difficult transition. Most people do not know what they want to do for a living. Some are very fortunate. They know they want to be a doctor or a teacher or a mechanic. But most people don’t have a clue.

How are we supposed to get the right answers if we don’t know what we are trying to do? We need to establish goals. We need to do a sort of audit on what we like and what we don’t like. What we are good at and what we struggle with. What kind of people we like to be around and which people cause us to want to be somewhere else?

I didn’t have a clue of what I wanted to do. Like most of us, I had been working in part-time jobs. I taught swimming and tennis at a country club. I sold things, encyclopedias. I did telemarketing, selling newspaper subscriptions. I played piano in a bar and organ in churches. I taught education at a University. I wanted to work in data processing but in those years, it was nearly impossible to find work in that field. So, I struggled. I am sure that I was not and am not alone in that fact. I think that most of us struggle to try to find our place in the world, in society.

Let me start by saying that I believe that we all want to be a success. But that is the challenge. What does that mean? Who teaches us or guides us on that path? Is success wealth? Or Status? Or Fame? I submit to you it is none of those things. I would like to say that it is simply being able to lead a healthy and productive and happy life. But what is that and who helps us to understand how to obtain it?

Education has changed today. The choices that a person has in classes are mind-boggling. Ed Gordon, a respected voice in education in America, in a recent newsletter stated “Many parents also believe that their local school is providing a good education to their children. Regretfully this is often not the case. Education levels have not kept pace with skill demands in workplaces.”

We, at Learning Without Scars, are strong advocates of the use of an annual performance review with each employee. This is an opportunity for each team leader to have a productive discussion with each employee and help them understand what they can do to become better as an employee. What they can focus on to be capable of another opportunity in the Company. How the team leader is there to help them. Goals can be established and then the path to success becomes clearer. Wouldn’t we all want that, for ourselves? Someone to help us establish the goals that would help us have a successful life. Don’t you think that would be helpful?

The Time is Now.

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The Power of Identifying Your Potential

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The Power of Your Potential

I like to tell the story of a young person, at the age of sixteen, being told that they have a lot of potential. That person feels proud and is happy with themselves. Then talking to the same person when they are at the age of sixty-six and saying the same thing. What would be the reaction then? Perhaps it would be what have you done for the past fifty years.

Potential is an interesting element, isn’t it? We have used and heard about many tools used to measure or determine someone’s potential. SAT tests to qualify for University, ACT used for the same purpose. Briggs-Myers, and Caliper to name a few. In sports you have seen qualification events, you have seen auditions for the arts. All of these things leave out something I think which is very significant. The individual freedom to choose their own path.

Let’s start with a definition of potential that we can use as a foundation to this discussion. Potential is “the skill and the will to develop and perform at a higher level or better level in the future. Potential then sets some kind of benchmark against which the individual can measure progress toward their goal potential. Many of you know that I swam competitively when I was a teenager. I have often said it was through swimming that I became aware of potential. I was always chasing a clock, not another swimmer. I was constantly pushed to beat my best time. To stretch toward a higher level of performance. I have translated that thinking into my views on potential.

Today we have Intelligence tests (IQ) and Emotional tests (EQ) to determine cognitive skills. We have personality tests to determine behavioral attributes. Then we try to determine the principles and values of an individual. Then we pay attention to the motivation of the individual. We try and determine the decision-making skills of an individual. Then we apply situational case studies or put people into a mockup example. We test the heck out of people. Then we interview them for a particular job. Then we make a hire-no hire decision.

Flash forward with me now and we have hired an individual who passed through all of these tests and you want them to work with you on your team. They are hired. Can you imagine their excitement? They got a job. They got a job that they were looking to get. They wanted to work with you. They wanted to do that particular kind of work. I call that person “An Enthusiastic Beginner.” They are all pumped up.

What happens from that point forward is dependent on the leader. How do you handle onboarding a new employee? Once the onboarding is done how is the employee introduced to their work? How are they trained? How often does the leader communicate with the new employee? I often see examples where the leader has seriously impacted the employee. The employee can become disillusioned with the Company and their job. This can be caused by the leader not being attentive enough to the needs and goals of the new employee. Or the employee can become very cautious about how they do the job. The leader can use bullying tactics. All that the company wants is a self- reliant employee. All the employee wants is an opportunity to make a difference.

As people move from being at home as a youngster and transitioning to school, or from school to the workforce they are presented with obstacles. At some point we are told that everything is possible and you will do great things only to find out that it is not true. Not everything is possible and it is hard to see how you can do great things. At other times we become sensitive to other peoples’ needs and wants for us. We are afraid of hurting their feelings if we decide that this job is not what you want and you choose to leave. Or there is the BIG dog in the room, we are afraid that we will fail in the pursuit of our dreams. Some people are even afraid to succeed. This is tough duty. Finding your place in the world, finding your passion is tough enough. Finding your potential is even more difficult.

In our Learning Without Scars business, we want to help in this process. We have created job function skills assessments, with the sole purpose of providing an object measure of an individuals’ skills and competence in the job. This is not opinions anymore. It is not subjective. We suggest to our clients that they use these assessments in many ways:

 

  • The hiring processes
  • The performance reviews
  • The salary and wage administration
  • The development of career paths

In the education world the students are classified as developing, beginning, intermediate and advanced. We use the same structure and the score obtained in the assessments to allow the employee and the company to design an individualized learning program for each individual. This is the product of the thousands of students we have had in classes and webinars first with Quest, Learning Centers and now with Learning Without Scars. We know which subject specific classes apply to each level of skills for each job function. We provide guidance with eight classes being available to fill in the gaps of skills and knowledge. The employee chooses. They know better than anyone where they need the additional knowledge. This approach allows us to be engaged in the process with our clients of helping each individual identify and strive to achieve their potential.

The time is now.

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