Month: January 2012

Maybe Your Boss Is Right?

Posted on by Carl Weber

Okay, okay, bear with me on this one.  I was listening to a friend talk about not railing against your boss, your employer, your job or your organization.  The message really resonated with me and I realized how often we hear this in everyday conversations. Are there bad bosses?  Yes, they made a movie about that.  Are there bad jobs?  Again, yes.  Is the boss always wrong?  Maybe not.

The benefit of working with so many individuals across various workplaces is themes begin to appear.  This theme or sentiment seems pretty ingrained with a lot of us.  A while ago while working with a leader, they described that the real conflict was with their boss. The lack of trust, and second guessing that their boss did made the situation impossible for this leader to function.

The more we talked, the more I asked questions about what was actually happening in this leader’s workplace.  Towards the end of our time together I had one final question.

“Now that we talked about what is really happening in your operation, was your boss right or wrong?” I asked.

There was a long pause.

And another.

“Right, [expletive], it.”

The revelation was clear.  The boss was trying their best to coach this leader about an identified problem in their operation.  The boss was right.  The leader could not see the problem, but focused on the issue with the boss instead.  The whole time this leader was fighting against the boss, valuable time had been lost and the situation was getting worse.

My friend’s message and this meeting made me think about my own life.  How often do I take something personally or let my ego get in the way of becoming a better leader, manager, husband, father or employee?

I am taking my friend’s advice to identify these situations and try to be a little more humble.  Whenever I find myself disagreeing or saying that someone is “wrong” I take a step back.  Maybe the boss (or whoever is trying to tell me something) is right.

Marketing, Product Placement, and Us

Posted on by Carl Weber

As part of this collective challenge I have been avoiding the news.  At the same time, I began a new marketing class online.  The class is helping us understand how companies market to existing or potential customers.  This has created a renewed awareness of the existence of the marketing, advertisements, and product placement all around us.

Not that I didn’t see these attempts in the past, but with the more limited self-imposed access to normal media outlets, my senses seemed to notice the attempts more and more.

With the onset of the DVR, I typically fast forward through most commercials, and seldom watch live TV, but while on the treadmill (no DVR down there) I do see ads, but not as often as I should.  This is what I noticed yesterday.  Apparently I should be alarmed that I am being held hostage from my cable company, should switch my car insurance – but not to “one of those cut-rate” companies, need to eat lots and lots of fast food with more chili on it, and pepper has antioxidants.

By the way, I am not opposed to ads.  I watch the Superbowl ads, and I always enjoy a good funny ad.  Just last night we were sitting around talking about the VW ad with the barking dogs singing Star Wars (at first I thought I had dreamed it which made for a pretty funny conversation last night, but yes it is real) that is a preview for their next Superbowl ad.  Does this make me want to buy a VW, no but the dogs are great.

Companies must be on to me, and the rest of us.  They know we don’t buy news papers, get most of our news online (except for this month), throw away junk mail, but still purchase things.  Product placement appears to be the next way to get our attention.  Back to VW, I was watching a show the other night, and the entire episode was essentially a VW commercial veiled in a sitcom…sneaky.  My family is beginning to notice the product placement as well.

“A DSW shoe box, right there on the shelf!”

“Look at all the Macs, everyone uses them in this show.”

“That looks like an iPhone, but they blurred it out.”

Companies are trying to be creative in their way to find us, but I am curious, do these ads or attempts change your buying habits?  How do they find you?  Why do you buy the things you do?  (Feel free to respond, I am curious about how ads or product placement work with real people…with you.)

Keep up the challenge, we only have eight more days!  If you haven’t participated in the poll yet, please do, the feedback I get from each of you is great.

P.S. Sometimes pesky ads appear at the bottom of this blog, and I will fix that soon, I need to upgrade it and will do that shortly.

Collective Challenge Day 17 (the check in)

Posted on by Carl Weber

Day 17.  We are past the half way mark in our Collective Challenge.  I took a few days off for two reasons.

1.  Since we are refraining from the news in the hopes to break off some of the negativity of the news cycle and quiet things down a little, I didn’t want to become just another source of noise for all of you.

2.  I started my first fully online class last week and a big part of the class is online postings, and that consumed a lot of my time.

During one of the online conversations (the folks in class are all over the country, from Vermont to California) I shared that a group of us were collectively trying to avoid the news.  They found it interesting and wondered how it impacted me.

So far, despite my initial discomfort with changing my routine each morning, it has been a great experience.  I feel less negative about things: life, the state of the world, my own community.

How is the challenge for you?  I wanted to hear from you to see if this little experiment is working.  Keep it up, just a few weeks left.  You can do it, you are going to make it.

P.S. Yes I still watch football, just not the news about it before or afterwards.

Collective Challenge Day 9 (a new week, a new opportunity)

Posted on by Carl Weber

For those of you keeping track there was no post for Day 8.  I took the day off to rest because I was tired.  I hope each of you took the day off, rested, and are ready for the upcoming week.  Taking a day off, a day to yourself is important.  This rest is not only important during this collective challenge, but important in our lives to maintain ongoing balance between our work and our life.

Recently at work, a few people from another department were heading to lunch together and saw me in the parking lot.  They shouted out to me.

“What is the deal with that SKOOK sticker on your back window?  We noticed some members of your team have it too.”

“It is a long story, come and find me later.”

They found me later that day.

It all started a few years ago.  My team and I spend a lot of time in the car driving all around New Hampshire.  Just north of Franconia Notch there is a road sign.  It reads: Skookumchuck Brook.  To give you some perspective it is just under 100 miles from my house.

Over the years it became a ritual when you passed that sign to stop, snap a photo, send a message, or call the team and yell “SKOOK!”  SKOOK was our way of saying, “hey, I am 100 miles from home, but working hard, finding opportunities, and most likely putting in extra hours to make this happen.”

Everyone who received the message would chime in with encouragement and sometimes a little taunting, and it became a little club, or almost a subculture.  We would notice the times of these messages: 6:00 AM meant someone was on the road around 4:00 AM, 6:00 PM meant that someone still had a few hours until they were home again.

Striving to be a SKOOK on the team meant you thought about each day, how to make a difference, and how to maximize the opportunities right in front of you.  Being a SKOOK required a little more effort, a little more dedication, but the reward of knowing that each of us was giving their all to a cause larger than ourselves made it worth it.

After about a few years of this, I was searching the web and found a website that sells SKOOK stickers.  Apparently Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania (the Coal Region) has a nickname: SKOOK.  And they sell merchandise!  And from that moment forward we have stickers on our cars.

There is another week before us.  We have a choice.  We can let the time pass by like any ordinary week, or we can try to be a SKOOK.  We can make the choice to see each day, each hour as an opportunity to make things happen.  An opportunity to make a difference.  Let’s get out there and earn our stickers!

Collective Challenge Day 7 (Week 1 Recap)

Posted on by Carl Weber

Week 1, done.  Just three weeks and three days left.  Today seemed a bit harder than normal to stay away from the news.  I had gotten into the habit of spending Saturday mornings getting caught up on the news and happenings in the world.

During this week I found myself spending more time in silence, especially in the car.  When the particular podcast I listened to was complete, I couldn’t switch to the radio or news. Instead, I just shut it off.  It was strange at first, but as the days wore on, I found comfort in the absence of noise.

Silence is important.  It gave me time to think, process, and just let go of a few things.  As I was reflecting in silence, I remembered a book that I read by A. J. Jacobs, “The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment.”  A.J. takes on different experiments with his life and one that came to mind was when he decided to “unitask” (only doing one thing at a time) because in his words:

“I’m trying to do this because I realize I have a problem focusing.  My brain is all over the place.”  Chapter 8 – The Unitasker

I related to his words and the need to be less scattered and more focused.  And this challenge has helped bring some of that.  In my attempt to also be healthier this year, I have been trying to bring my lunch to work each day, and take 15 minutes or so to actually eat it.  This “lunch-time” has also been a great time to either watch a video on Ted.com or just read.  Coincidentally,  A.J Jacobs was on the front page this week and I watched his talk and he spoke about the importance of silence.  His talk appears below.

So far this week has felt less stressful, and the large sense of impending doom around the world seems to be slowly lifting away.  It is January and here in New Hampshire it is going to be sunny and 50 degrees today.  Let’s see what week two brings.

Collective Challenge Day 6 (My 50th Post!)

Posted on by Carl Weber

Two ceremonious events collide today:

1.  We are just about done with our first week of the challenge, and the comments (especially from yesterday’s post) and the phone call from a friend confirmed that we are doing something great together.  Sometimes I wonder if these ideas, questions, or challenges are just ramblings…and it is typically when I am doubting this blog or myself that one of you confirms the impact it has had on your actual life. It is this confirmation that helps us press on together.

2.  This is my 50th post!  This is a milestone.  As I shared with you before, I have not always been the type to sit down and set yearly goals.  Last year I did.  One of those goals was to actually write on a regular basis.  I was inspired by a friend who helped me realize that I didn’t have to write an entire book in a weekend, but could begin by regularly disciplining myself to write.  

Remember part of this challenge is to Dream Big.  Sometimes once you identify that dream, trying to figure out how to accomplish it can be overwhelming.  But the first step is making a decision to start towards that dream.

It was gaining the understanding that a small decision made every day could really change your life that helped me know where to begin.  I didn’t have to do it all at once, and neither do you.  This blog is the result of a small scary decision made on a regular basis!

I know I say this a lot, but thanks again for being part of this journey together.