Clean energy, strong body, clear mind.
It’s Not about Me
Happy Holidays
This blog is dedicated to great thinkers and great thoughts. Many are gone but their spirits live on in their words. The ideas they gave us live on unless we act foolishly and stupidly ignore them. Stop listening to dummies preaching and wise up. You may wonder what I’m doing just sitting here thinking. Watch these short videos and learn. Then sit and think for yourself: then get up and do something that makes sense.
This is the first generation that realizes they must do their own thinking.
We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.
B. Fuller (C: 1974)
I happened upon Bucky in Philadelphia in 1977. He was a fascinating guy to watch from two tables distance. Watch his hands. He talks with his whole body and uses words he created. Listen close or you may get lost.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYtQ_-rpAUo]
Listen closely and check out related videos. Hear what Bucky has to say. Listen to him. He is one of my favorite heroes without a cape.
Smedley Said it – “War is a Racket”
Two Medals of Honor and 30 years of service: These are words to trust. He knew then what our youth are finally standing up for today.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oMEI8bnbw1o?rel=0
The question is this: How do we turn things around? There are some interesting ideas out there and you relly need to look for them to make sense of them. Check out VetPowerUSA.net for our non profit experiment in veterans affairs .
If Ike wasn’t clear enough
Here is Ike’s son and others commenting. This is the information and ideas I was exposed to as a kid of nine and ten. Be sure to watch the last half to get what I discovered while working for the war machine.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/eIDuRQ7ioaM?rel=0
In my opinion, the only way to end war is to make it remove protections for those who produce such tools. If something can be made and used for peace and then converted to protective purpose, that’s one thing. However, building for war requires war as a client to exhaust the product and demand more. That’s supply and demand capitalism. Metaphorically, it means we kill our children to feed the fat cats.
We still Like Ike!
In Germany a faulein told me about President Eisenhower but all I knew was, ‘We Like Ike’, since I ws ten when he left office. She changed my way of thinking and I lef the war business to become a minister for peace. That move cost me millions but blessed my soul. Now you can see an hear what he said. Listen up! This man was the bomb.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/rd8wwMFmCeE?rel=0
Now, here’s a note on the Military-Industrial Complex, Fifty Years On – from the Council on Foreign Relations
On Monday, January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address warned the nation to guard against the influence of a rising “military-industrial complex.” That nexus of military, industrial, technological, and congressional interests has expanded considerably since Eisenhower’s cautionary speech, says military affairs analyst Leslie H. Gelb. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has invoked Eisenhower’s warnings in the past year, recently promised $78 billion in cuts over the next several years, but Gelb says it’s unclear whether this will happen and what those cuts will be. Stressing the need for the federal budget to focus more on bolstering the economy–rather than a huge military–Gelb says he would advise President Barack Obama to make a strong case to the public for why the economy and jobs are “essential for the maintenance of democracy, for the maintenance of our economic competitiveness and our schools, and for our military security in the world.”
via www.cfr.org
All this goes to prove there was a time when Republicans had enough sense to know money rattles like a snake. Stay ‘way or git bit! You simply must look at supporters to find the profiteers on every thing. Want to make a difference? Live for peace and turn your back on the war machine. It cannot run without fresh blood. Follow the path of the prophets and live to do good for others. When you see somethin wrong, do what is right.
Remember to make noise and focus on productive change. Productive mean it’s gotta produce more good and less bad. You must have a direction that’s solid not act like a fool from loser school.
What I Said
Global civil society is being threatened by a system based on power and not on human values. Day after day it represses basic freedoms and consistently favors the greed of the few over the needs of the many. This power finances wars, food and pharmaceutical monopolies, it sponsors dictatorial regimes across the globe, destroying environments, manipulating and censoring information flow and transparency.
Charity Rewards Network
Charity is compassion in action. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds are the signs of a charitable heart and a compassionate soul. I am very interested in having others express themselves on this idea, this concept, this behavior, attitude, feeling called, ‘Charity’.
While recovering from an injury suffered training Marines, I discovered that charity is in short supply when you need it. That’s because charity is not really what anyone needs to get: Charity is what people need to give. Charity provides a n avenue for expressing that which cannot otherwise find expression. We need more charity in the world.
Imagine if our leaders were all charitable souls. How differently they would approach their offices and their others. Charity is an expression of love. An attitude of caring to repair and empowering to walk on in faith if not in comfort. Still on target with its original objective, Charity Rewards Network was founded to funnel giving to supported causes.
————– original model using the HELP card ——————–
The model social community cares enough about its own financial problems to creates a perpetual fundraiser in order to achieve a significant financial objective.
Here’s how the perpetual fundraiser and community that cares works:
- Businesses pay our members for shopping with them by providing a rebate upon acceptance of the Charity Rewards HERO card.
- Our members share at least half of their rebates with their favorite charity.
- Charities maximize their donations by promoting the businesses providing rebates to their network.
- Charity supporters join together to shop the merchants a pledged amount to achieve a set objective.
What is created is a network of virtuous triangles of support between merchants, consumers and charities. Charity Rewards Network provides the platform that makes it all possible. I am most interested in having our business model examined, criticized, and publicized. I am especially interested in having it looked at for inclusion by TED and BFI, as I believe it is fully compliant with and deserving of the Buckminster Fuller Prize.
Mapping ‘Efficient’ on the ChangeGrid™
Are you or your organization efficient? What does that mean in a sub-optimized work force being driven to produce maximum output? How effective is it to be efficient?
In a recent webinar sponsored by the Tension Management Institute, the idea of being ‘EFFICIENT’ was discussed with respect to its use in the DiSC profiling system and its appropriate placement on the ChangeGrid™. The widely used DiSC model (Dominance, influence, Steadiness, Compliance) emerged in the late 60’s through the work of Psychologist, John Geier as a behavioral profiling system based on the 1928 book Emotions of Normal People by an early champion of feminism and creator of the comic book superhero, Wonder Woman
For Marston, efficiency is about achieving one’s goals without conflict or aggression through compliance with antagonizing forces, like a reed bending before the wind or waves and then, through internal tensions, returning to upright once the outer pressure abates. In the ChangeGrid, being efficient is paired with being just and straightforward. Together, these adjectives are located at coordinate 8,7, as shown below.
ChangeGrid Location (8,7): Efficient, Just, Straightforward
Coordinate (8,7) indicates a moderate level (8 out of 12) of self-perceived ability (skills, knowledge, resources, talent) to achieve a slightly more moderate level (7 out of 12) of self-perceived challenge or difficulty regarding a specific, measurable, and time-bound objective or goal. In other words, this Grid location aligns with having sufficient ability to accomplish the objective with some reserve to deal with external variables and still get the job done as required without the need of additional support.
The combination of adjectives for this Grid location (efficient, just, straigtforward) are very suggestive of Marston’s concept of efficiency. From a somewhat Zen perspective, consider a reed that bends under the pressure of wind or wave yet returns to stand straight when the external force is removed. When not under external pressure, turgidity (internal tension) supports an upright form aimed at the sun. This internal pressure is not so great that the reed is uprooted or broken in the face of external forces but rather bends to accommodate or comply with the external force. This bending or giving way to stand again is the compliance aspect suggested by Marston. The reed does not fight its antagonist but gives way until it passes and then returns to its natural form. We see the same giving way response in some of the martial arts.
However, Marston also argues that compliance carried too far is weakness. As such, the reed that remains bent over long may become diminished relative to the challenge of standing and is no longer empowered to do so when the external forces are exhausted. This is the case of executive burnout and a serious warning to businesses that rely on a sub-optimized workforce for maximum output.
For those who are interested, additional study of the ChangeGrid will demonstrate that surrounding coordinates are indicative or adaptations through adding or discovering latent abilities (skills, knowledge, resouces, talents) as well as reducing the perceived nature of the challenge. While a discussion of these is beyond the scope of this article, it is encouraged for human development professionals in general. Such study will certainly expand the repertoire of understanding for anyone involved with using the DiSC . To learn more about this fascinating new field of study, see the Tension Management Institute website and contact me when you are ready to take the next step at Daniel Latch dot com.
What Happened to Performance Improvement?
The answer to the marquee question is important and largely answered incorrectly by executives and corporate leaders today. I can attest to this from the standpoint of one who has championed performance management since being trained by two formidable forces in the mid seventies: Marine Corp Leadership School and four days with W. Edward Deming in Yakosuka, Japan. Today’s economic issues make a mandate that everyone responsible for economic recovery through the leveraged use of human capital and natural resources must know the answer to this question or at least understand its importance and have strategies under discussion and review.
Recent economic trends have focused all eyes on trimming the fat, cutting expenses and preserving capital at all costs. And even with encouraging signs for a recovery, controlling expenses and maximizing productivity and profits are still major goals for every organization. Yet survey data shows that less than 50 percent of executives and corporate leaders truly understand what drives profits in their organizations.
Remember the 80/20 rule and the Peter Principle. Both help to explain why things go the way they do and why performance management is so darned important. From the 80/20 rule: 80% of the work gets done in the last 20% of the time allotted; 20 percent of the customer base account for 80% of revenue; 20% of the product line account for 80% of sales. Any of this ring true. How about, 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. If you could only turn the ratio around, you would achieve an instant 400% increase in performance.
This is a rule of thumb you can use to understand where to look for solutions. Rules of thumb are not principles. Rules of thumb are derived through heuristics and pattern recognition. This rule was derived from a pattern noticed in ship yards, progenitor of core project management tools we use today.
If the current economy makes you feel under the thumb, consider the 80/20 rule in your business. Where does it exist? Is that effective? How can you make changes that leverage performance up. Let’s face it: 20% of your customers could destroy 400% of you final declared profit and destroy your business.
The Peter Principle is not a rule of thumb but may be derived from one. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “The theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent.” The Peter Principle essentially states that the true talent of ‘A’ players may be to protect their positions, income, options, bonuses, benefits, etc. Likely the executive corps drains 80% or more of the companies employment fund. Senior executive compensation is now over 400% of average employee pay.
I believe that I can speak for all in saying:
Damn the company that protects incompetence at the top
while impoverishing their communities through layoffs and cutbacks and
driving a deeper wedge between humanity and profitability.
This is not the path to a great society or economy but to social ruin and class rule.
It has been my experience that like attracts like. Bright people seek to work with and learn from even brighter people. Corruptible people seek to learn from those who are practices at corruption. Our recent Wall Street debacle and the Bernie Madoff scandal make this point crystal clear. The brightest are promoted to positions where their lights may shine but not in the dark places of the corrupt, the incompetent. This is why some formerly admired hi-tech companies, companies that actually make things, created dual channels for advancement: engineering management and business management. Their fall came soon after they divorced themselves from a history of development led by brilliant people who cared for more than profits and they focused development on people who understood how to manipulate the ‘trickle down’ economy and for whom profit is king.
While every organizational culture is different, the Peter Principle is alive and well in those which are highly bureaucratized and demand adherence to rigid rules: Where following ineffective status quo is mandatory to job retention and future advancement.
So, the above issues aside, what are the rational barriers to successful implementation of performance management and how can organizations overcome them? These questions were the focus of an interactive Webcast sponsored by CFO magazine, BetterManagement and SAS which sought to dispel myths about performance management, explain the slow rate of adoption in spite of economic urgency for improvement, and lessons learned from successful performance management deployments.
I’ll have more to say and share about the survey in future posts but you can view or download it now by clicking the link below.
What is Performance Management?
According to Gary Cokins, Manager, Worldwide Performance Management Solutions for SAS. there is a lot of ambiguity, confusion and lack of consensus about what performance management is.
Performance management is not something new but the integration of the already familiar. Just as the ancient Romans found nothing new in sand and rock, it was mixing them with mortar that produced an aggregate and the wonders of the Roman Empire. Consider performance management to be an aggregate archwork made up of a strategic map blueprint, balanced scorecard keystone, client profitability analysis columns, and a thoroughfare of activity-based systems like lean management, six sigma, customer relationship management and more.
You cannot make a performance management arch by pursuing any of these methodologies in isolation nor without using a setting and bonding agent. Aggregate must be properly mixed, placed, and allowed to set and bond to produce lasting artifacts. Upsetting it before it is cured produces weaknesses, the starting points for catastrophic collapse. The same can be said for performance management systems. They almost always fail when interrupted them before they have time set and produce results.
The problem is that, due to the Peter Principle, most organizations haven’t the foresight at the top to understand that aggregate is made of more than throwing a few rocks together. The rocks have to be the right size and in the right ratio. Water and cement, must be added in the correct amounts and the slurry mixed well or the resulting construction will weaken and crumble. Even properly prepared and set and bonded aggregate, suspended without support or reinforcement, will collapse under it s own weight. Creating an executable and workable performance management system is performance engineering. If the mix is not right, it will simply not work over time.
Implementing performance management methodologies in sequence or in isolation of each other is like throwing rocks, pebbles, and bits of stone together. You may build something that look like an arch, but it will be ugly and only the foolish will trust it. This is what happens when senior executives buy into a program they will not give the time or resources for success. Managers and employees may know the vision and the mission and they probably already know where action needs to be taken and what needs to be done. What they do not know and cannot understand is why the company starts such projects and then either get in the way or drops the initiative before it can bear weight. The problem is that the senior decision makers want results and are not interested in the science or the principles or the methodologies. All they want are facts that say it’s working or when it will work and to what extent they can predict the pay-off and divert profits.
The brilliance of the ancient Romans was to realize that you get a lot more when you integrate synergistic materials and processes. They monitored each construction process to learn and improve. There was the size of the aggregate, the quality of the aggregate, the composition of the aggregate. There was the water, the surface tension and salinity of the water, and even its temperature all combined to produce different effects of strength, stability, and beauty. The Romans did something modern business all too often refuses to do and that is to embed analytics into each methodology. Given today’s technology, we have an opportunity too often ignored; that is, to use predictive analytics to support arguments for a more proactive executive management style that supports effective performance management instead of tearing it down before it can do its work.
Just as the mix of aggregate material, requirements for reinforcement, and setup conditions is different for a road and a sculpture, implementing performance management methodologies is not a simple constant. Each organizational situation demands a special formulation. Engineering performance management means putting the right mix of methodologies, principles, and practices into a system to create a feedback loop of information that informs and guides the organization toward its vision and contributes to achieving its mission with value and sustainable profitability.
The ChangeGrid presents the common denominator of all activity-based concepts by defining their merits on two primary dimensions: Challenge and Ability and two secondary measures of size and importance. The ChangeGrid is like the water in the aggregate. Each system, from lean management to CRM, is made up of certain critical activities which present challenges and require resources and abilities. The ChangeGrid is the only system in the world that allows monitoring the probability of success for the critical activities in any methodology.
Like an oracle for performance management, the ChangeGrid provides a common platform for senior executives and others to understand where they need to intervene and what form their intervention should take.
While strategy maps can enable an organization to articulate its strategy and understand which key performance metrics are meaningful measures of success. The ChangeWorks! System looks at each performance measure as an objective, and maps the probability that it will be achieve if nothing is done to support it. The information underlying the map provides profound solutions for maneuvering to close the gap on excellence and ensure the mapped strategy is optimally pursued.
The focus of this article was an interactive Webcast sponsored by CFO magazine, BetterManagement and SAS which sought to dispel myths about performance management, explain the slow rate of adoption in spite of economic urgency for improvement, and lessons learned from successful performance management deployments.
I’ll have more to say and share about the survey in future posts but you can view or download it now by clicking the link below.
