Tyranny of the OR....

It was a great learning week for me, traveling too and from ACRES gave me quite a few hours to study. One of my main take- homes this past week is a contrast of philosophies.

First, from the book The Toyota Way, as they were working on designing the first Lexus vehicle, they stated the vehicle needed to…

1- Have great high speed handling YET A pleasant ride
2- Fast and smooth ride YET Low fuel consumption
3- Super Quiet YET Light weight
4- Elegant styling YET Great aerodynamics
5- Warm YET Functional interior
6- Great stability at high speed YET Low friction

Toyota was not willing to accept the word OR- they demanded a third alternative.

It seems demanding a third alternative is one of the keys of true innovation. This it a huge difference that I see between Toyota and much of the organic movement. There is much I learn and appreciate from the ACRES conference, but I do not agree with their methods of change.

Common thoughts in the ACRES/ organic movement

1- being independent OR cooperating with regulation
2- Healthy food OR the food we can get at Wal-Mart

There are many other ways where it seems this group is not looking for a third alternative. They want to confront and downgrade regulators rather than working with and educating them.

In order for us to have access to great food on a large scale in our society, people in power are going to need to be educated and accept change. I am not naïve enough to think this is a simple task, but attempting it seems more productive than fighting them.

The backwards way that the organic movement approaches change may increase the amount of time it takes to get real food in the hands of the masses.

I am grateful for a great reminder for the need to look for third alternatives.

Some quotes from the 5000 Year Leap…

After eight years in exile as a communist- living in the USSR, Eldridge Cleaver asked to be allowed to return to the United States and pay whatever penalty he was due. He and his wife were no longer communists (or atheists). Bitter years behind the iron and bamboo curtains had dispelled the propaganda concerning “equality” and “justice” under communism. Cleaver told the press: “ I would rather be in jail in America than be free anywhere else.”

The founders distinguished between equal rights and other areas where equality is impossible. They recognized that society should seek to provide equal opportunity but not expect equal results; provide equal freedom but not expect equal capacity; provide equal rights but not equal possessions; provide equal protection but not equal status; provide equal educational opportunities but not ensure equal grades…

Benjamin Franklin’s view on counter-productive compassion-
1- Compassion which gives a drunk the means to increase his drunkenness is counter-productive
2- Compassion which breeds debilitating dependency and weakness is counter-productive
3- Compassion which blunts the desire or necessity to work for a living in counter productive.
4- Compassion which smothers the instinct to strive and excel is counter-productive

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpation pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

The government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people and that, when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a MAJORITY of the community have an inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish it, in a manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.
The reason I feel this last paragraph is so significant is because we do not have the right of MINORITY revolt. Starting a militia and blowing up the Oklahoma City Federal Building is not an option. It has to come at a time when the majority of people are willing to stand up and say- NO MORE. Many of the same arguments that were used to justify our seceding from England exist today- some of the abuses today are much worse- but until we all get fed up enough to stand up and say “no more” as the majority of the people- we have no right to real change. I am not sure I see that happening any time soon although I am very frustrated with the politics of today…

For years Becky has been sending me to the store with "a list". For someone as prideful as me, a list is so limiting. I KNOW I can remember everything on the list, my mind is a steel trap. Becky is starting to agree, once somethings gets in my mind, it is never getting back out-like "what was on that list anyway?" At times I have difficulty "remembering" to get everything on the evil list. I am taking a big step today- I am coming out of the closet and admitting that from time to time I forget things. For this reason, I am changing the way I use this blog. Until now I have been using this blog only as a catalog of a few thoughts from some of the significant books I read. The blog has become much too serious and impersonal. My intention is that I will use this blog as a more encompassing journal of what is going on in my life and the lives of my hot wife and kids. I am doing this because it seems I may not remember everything that happens in my life. I would have much rather stayed in my little utopia- thinking that I remembered everything, it would have taken much less effort than writing everything down. I mean really, if I don't remember it than I obviously don't miss it right? I could have gone through life perfectly happy- if not for the list.

The picture I posted above is my son Brock in the Gooseberry mountains. We went deer hunting this year and he was the GPS man, in charge of not getting us lost. It was a perfect deer hunt. We went on some great hikes, saw a lot of beautiful animals, caught about 30 fish and did not have to take one shot at a deer. Times like like these need to be remembered, it is good I had the list to remind me of that...

Maverick- Ricardo Semler

Last week I read a great book- Maverick by Ricardo Semler. He is also the author of 7 day weekend.

So many things at Semco- Semler’s company, are similar to what we do here at Redmond. They are organized into many small companies to allow them to be nimble and decrease bureaucracy. They also believe that making a profit is not the goal of business although it is essential.

A few good quotes from the book…

“It’s so easy to blame employees when a business does badly, but often they haven’t had the freedom to work or the motivation to perform as if the business were theirs.”

“it took us almost a decade to learn that our stress was internally generated, the result
of an immature organization and infantile goals.” We should probably ask ourselves
where our stress originates from.

He also told the story of the three men working. One said he was laying bricks, one was
building a building and one was building a temple. How often at work do we have the big picture and realize we have the opportunity to build temples in our own realm of responsibility.

“We simply do not believe our employees have an interest in coming in late, leaving early, and doing as little as possible for as much money as their union can wheedle out of us. After all, these same people raise children, join the PTA, elect mayors, governors, senators, and presidents. They are adults. At Semco (Redmond) we treat them like adults. We trust them. We don’t make our employees ask permission to go to the bathroom. We get out of their way and let them do their jobs.”

Some beliefs that Semler held the he found was faulty…

1- The belief that effort and results are directly proportional
2- The gospel that the quantity of work is more important than the quality of work.
3- “Things are a little irregular at work right now, I will just need to work a little longer until they straighten out.”
4- “Fear of delegation and it’s cousin, fear of replaceability. – we sometimes do not delegate things that we probably should…
5- I no longer wear a wrist watch- it struck me that life should be measured in years and decades- not minutes or hours.

“Without rules, all answers are suggested by common sense. No, I can’t define what common sense is, but I know it when I see it..”

“Growth through acquisition is exciting, cancerous and ulcer-inducing.”

“Much about growth is really about ego and greed, not business strategy.”



“It is not worth it to me to have a company at which you do not trust the people with which you work”

Semco changes their team leaders responsibility every few years. It would be akin to Kyle and Boyd switching jobs and Sammy and Deran changing roles at the end of the year.

Some things that I do not agree with that Semco does- they subsidize employee lunches for some employees- treating them as inferiors. On one hand they tell their employees that they are adults and that they want them to succeed, and on the other hand they caudle them and do not treat them like equals.

They also vote on all decisions making it democratic. I feel that everyone should be heard- that everyone should have a say in decisions. But in the end the decision should not be left to a popular vote. Popular vote assumes that everyone with a vote has the same amount and quality of information and in some instances this is not the case.

One of my favorite quotes…

“At the heart of our bold experiment is a truth so simple it would be silly if it wasn’t so rarely recognized. A company should trust its destiny to its employees.”

"Communication"

We had a good discussion in our Shared Experience meeting about the relativity of truth. I do not espouse the idea of moral relativism and believe that there are absolute truths. I appreciated our discussion, because since then I have been thinking about the fact that even though absolute truth exists, we may sometimes err in thinking that because we are aware of and believe in a truth that our actions are in alignment with that truth.

As in most areas in life, when it comes to absolute truth, the errors come in the application. When we see a thing, we assume that we are seeing it correctly, when in reality we have filtered it through the lens of our experiences and beliefs and made it into something that is only real to us. We get in trouble (at least I do) when I project my “truth” onto someone else and not only expect them to see it, but to abide by it.

I think (here I go, with my own version of the truth again…) this is one of the fundamental problems with communication- that when we speak to someone, we expect that they hear what we say. They do not hear what we say they hear words that they filter through their own lens and then nod politely as if they actually understood what we were getting at.

I really like the quote- “ The problem with communication is that we think it has actually taken place.” With my new learning I will try to do two things…
1- be more tolerant of other people’s truths.
2- assume less in communication. It is very hard to over-communicate, and being busy, I too often err on the side of just expecting that the other person understood- understand?

The Anatomy of Peace
I finished a book by the Arbinger Institute last week called The Anatomy of Peace It discussed some of the same principles as Leadership and Self Deception, but focused more on the effects of treating others as objects- as tools to be used to accomplish our goals. I am sure that without knowing it- I have treated people like objects instead of people. The busier we are- the easier this is to do. It was a good reminder for me to
Make sure I am taking the time to treat everyone I meet as a person instead of an object.

Over the past few years I have noticed something that is sad to me. When I go to a hotel, I try to make it a point to talk to the ladies that are cleaning the rooms. A good majority of them are Hispanic or Black depending on where in America the hotel is located. I talk to these ladies as equals (because they are) and I can tell they are usually shocked that someone is acknowledging them. These are the kind of people I feel it is all too easy to treat like objects- a tool that happens to clean hotel rooms. There are people like this all around us- the lady that drives our kids home on the bus- or the retired man who works at the crosswalks to help our kids cross the street. Maybe we should do more to let these people know that what they do, really matters. It seems to be more a matter of our awareness and gratitude for the contribution of others than a lack of caring. At times we get just a little too busy to notice….

Atlas Shrugged

I have been reading Atlas Shrugged- I should finish it tonight. It has been a very expansive book. It covers many topics of the philosophy of the individuals relationship with society, with our obligation to our self and to each other.

The book has caused probably more questions in my mind than answers. Ayn Rand’s over-all philosophy is that we should never shrink from our greatness and that if we acted in perfectly selfish ways, we would never do anything to harm someone else because of how it would affect us in the end.

Rand proposes that there are three groups of people…

1- the producers- those who produce much more than they need for themselves

2- The maintainers- those who only produce what they need

3- The looters- Those who live off of the production of someone else.

I agree with Rand that these groups exist. The place I disagree is the proportions of each. I feel that over-all people are good and that they want to produce. They want to make a difference if given a chance.

In this book- the producers go on strike- and the looters are left to find other means to take care of themselves because there were no producers left to live off of.

One of Rand’s characters state… “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

This is one of the main tenants of her philosophy. I agree with it in the context of the man who CHOOSES not to take care of himself, but what about the man who CAN’T take care of himself? If everyone espoused Rand’s philosophy, those who need our help the most get left behind, and we all become judges of who that man is.

The producers in this book leave society as we know it and create their own society. As I read about it, I kept thinking about how wonderful it would be to live in a place where everyone was passionate about making a positive difference in the world and producing more than they consume. I am all for it as long as we can take those who can’t take care of themselves along with us. I would hate to see them left to the looters, talk about adding insult to injury…

1984

I read a great book last week- 1984 by George Orwell. It was written in 1949 and is a look at what the world may look like when we give all decision making power over to the government. The government in the book was called “Big Brother” and they made all decisions and “took care of you”. There were three groups in society- the Inner Party (the ruling class) the Outer Party- (those striving to replace the ruling party) and the Parols- The 80% of society being controlled by the small minority. Orwell talks about the latent power that the 80% hold. They have the ability to shake off their oppressors at any time they decide as a group to rise up. This has happened many times in history, and it is always a bloody situation. Why do we humans give such power to so few and expect them to “take care of us” when we know that the world does not work that way?

The main learning of the book for me was that it is much easier to protect our freedoms than it is to get them back once we have surrendered them. A very thought provoking book.

The Inner Game of Work

I have continued reading The Inner Game of Work I will complete this book this week- I have really enjoyed it. There is great power in “being aware” and not pushing things. The more we push, the more we get in the way of our own success. I am at the point now where I am trying to square this fact with the need to have a plan and be deliberate about things. The book has given me much to think about. I would put it in my top five business books. I have heard so many people say the same things about awareness, alpha, self one, getting in the flow over the past few years, that I have realized I have been pounding the nail way too hard at times. In Physics there is an equation that states

Work = force X distance

a corrilary may be real progress = awareness X following correct principles - force

force may be needed to do work in some definitions, but in life, force is a detractor at best.