Author Archive

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

People Problems

February 28, 2024

My parents taught me no social skills. Sometimes I reflect on my youth and cringe. Now I am an old man and getting better.

Unfortunately, or fortunately in terms of my growth as a human, I’ve placed myself into a variety of leadership and professional roles where some amount of social skills are required.

I’m wrestling with a problem right now that involves several people with widely different views. I need to bring people together to end misunderstandings and focus on our purpose. This problem has consumed far too many emotional and intellectual cycles.

This is hard for an introverted nerd to do. How do I bring out empathy within my thinking and feeling such that I can feel for all sides? 

That question leads to the understanding of just how important a skill that is for us living today. We are as polarized as ever not only in the US but also worldwide. Resistance weight training is a proven tool for improving health and prolonging a better life. 

We need resistance training for our empathy muscle. Of course we are right in everything we think and do…right? Well, maybe others could be right? Maybe when we all come together the melding of ideas leads to better ideas. Maybe when I facilitate bringing people together goals are achieved.

Fifty years ago as a new manager in the department my boss told me, “Your biggest problems will not be technical problems. They will be people problems.” He was so right. If I am going to proclaim my core values as peace and justice, then it must begin with flexing the empathy muscle and bringing people together.

Posted in emotions, Relationship | Leave a Comment »

Simplify Your Thinking

February 27, 2024

Occam’s razor is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. Another interpretation holds that the simplest answer is often the best.

The story goes that a second-year university chemistry student asked the professor at the beginning of class “why doesn’t water burn?” The professor, now blissfully diverted from the day’s topic, proceeded spend the hour filling the blackboard with equations as he sought to explain the problem.

The students, meanwhile, were left puzzled. So, a couple students went to their high school chemistry teacher with the question. “Well, water doesn’t burn because it’s already oxidized.”

We tend to overthink many things.

Didn’t Jesus often take complex questions thrown at him by adversaries, turn them around on themselves, and then offer a simpler, but difficult, answer?

What are laws and the prophets? “Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.”

What should we do? “Follow me.”

At the end of his physical life on Earth, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

I didn’t say simple was easy. But the simplest answer is easiest to remember. And therefore the clearest to follow.

Posted in Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Privilege

February 26, 2024

Few arenas of life reveal as much as youth sports does about—parents. I remember my own good times and, with much chagrin, my bad ones. Thirty-five years working as a referee in youth and high school soccer revealed the growing trend of “helicopter” parents who hovered over their kids to protect them and “snow plow” parents who tried to pave the way for them.

I have written a blog on technology, leadership, and industrial applications for just over 20 years. Many, many PR agencies have me on their radar. Sometimes I get strange releases. Here is one I just received where a data company did an analysis of TikTok and Google search data.

Job Shift Shock is the most popular work trend with a total 1.7B TikTok views and nearly 121K monthly searches on Google. The trend leads the list as it describes the transition from initial excitement of beginning a new job to the disappointment of unexpected responsibilities.

I can think of few clearer signals about what happens to young people when they have always had someone there to smooth the way for them. I remember hiring a young man recently graduated from university. He wondered how long (a year or two?) before he would be in line to be president of the company.

The book of Proverbs contains some excellent advice for raising kids—as long as you are not a literalist reader. You must provide guidelines, guardrails, and discipline. And also appropriate and increasing measures of freedom to go play and learn to get along with other humans. 

Posted in Attitude, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Trust

February 24, 2024

Nassim Taleb wrote in his book of aphorisms, “I trust everyone except those who tell me they are trustworthy.”

I have observed in my business career “I trust everyone except those who tell me they are evangelical Christians.”

I have done business with many Christians (and non-Christians) in my life. Those who wear evangelical Christianity on their sleeve have cost me much money and grief.

Suggestion for us all—If we are going to be outspoken about that faith, perhaps we should pause every evening before bed reflecting upon our day. We ask at what points would Jesus have been pleased and at what points would he have given a reprimand. Weigh the balance.

As for me, I am challenged and humbled every day by things I have done or left undone that belie my belief of really being a follower of Jesus. 

Posted in Trust | 1 Comment »

Sometimes You Just Have to Say I Don’t Know

February 23, 2024

Sometimes You Just Have to Say I Don’t Know

Thomas Jefferson (and most of the other founders of the USA) were children of the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. They were suspicious of things that couldn’t be figured out by reason. Jefferson famously went through his Bible and cut out all the stories of miracles.

I knew a guy who (I am positive he was mostly joking but I love the metaphor) when he got to a difficult passage in a letter that Paul wrote would say that it was time to get the big black magic marker and just blot out that paragraph.

Aren’t we all very much like that? If there is something we read that is either uncomfortable or we cannot understand, we prefer to blot it out of mind.

I suggest another strategy.

Try saying, “I don’t know.”

Then cultivate curiosity and imagination.

There was so much contained in the letters of the Apostle Paul that I had trouble understanding. I thought about those issues often. Then I happened to come across an 1,800-page scholarly work that taught me more than I could have wished. 

But I was ready to learn.

Had I decided to just ignore uncomfortable passages and roll with my prejudices, I would have missed a tremendous education.

If the first step of personal growth is awareness of where we are, then the first step of learning is saying “I don’t know” and “I wonder why…”

Posted in Learning | Leave a Comment »

Metanoia

February 22, 2024

Sorry for the Greek word as the title of this meditation. I have been thinking on this word since I heard it on a podcast recently.

I shun as much as possible to use traditional Christian words due to the historical and emotional baggage that often accompanies those words.

What is the first picture or thought that comes to mind when I say

Repentance!

I immediately think of the preacher who comes to No Name City in the play and movie Paint Your Wagon. He hopes to convert all the heathen to Christianity by shouting at them.

In your Bible, you may see the word Repent or Repentance. Translators often render metanoia that way for principally historical reasons.

Perhaps a better rendering of the meaning involves the concept of changing the direction of one’s heart. Or changing the direction of one’s life. 

Another concept would be transforming. This might mean becoming aware that our heart will not accept new things, new people, new ideas. It is “hardened.” Then it somehow becomes transformed into a generous, loving, peaceful heart. 

Metanoia. I was once that way; now I am this way. And I, as well as all those around me, am better for it.

Posted in Awareness, choosing | Leave a Comment »

Servant Leadership

February 21, 2024

Right off I will admit that I have no clue just what servant leadership means in practice.

Christian business leaders sometimes like to talk about servant leadership. I recently listened to an interview with a woman who was CEO of a turnaround business effort. She mentioned servant leadership but never really explained it. But I also heard how she built teams within the company focused on the essential factors that would lead to business success.

I also knew a man who was CEO of a small technology company. He gave people statues for their bookcases of Jesus kneeling before Peter while washing his feet. That, of course, is the hallmark of servant leadership. Jesus then taught a lesson that his followers had to learn the hard way about “if you want to be a leader, you must first be a servant.”

That man in the end showed no courage and disappeared when the investors forced a sale. That is an image that will always stay with me. And color my impressions when I hear someone say they are a servant leader. It’s not in the words. It’s in the actions.

Drawing on the stories of Jesus and reflecting on these two brief examples, I offer some thoughts:

  • Have a vision of the end—changing people’s lives, what a successful business/organization looks like
  • Inculcate a measure of humility in your life—recognize you don’t know everything and you just may not be king
  • Build teams that work with a focus on what’s important
  • Support and guide people
  • Don’t be the person who “Lords it over people”, but be a fellow traveler on the journey
  • Have the courage to tell people the bad along with the good

There is probably more. I will give it some more thought.

Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

Wasting Time

February 20, 2024

“What fools call ‘wasting time’ is most often the best investment,”wrote Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his little book of aphorisms The Bed of Procrustes.

Some of us feel that we must fill every waking second with something. Work. Reading a book. Scrolling social media. Meetings. Shopping.

Sometimes boredom is a good thing. Just sitting doing nothing. Thoughts wandering like a summer breeze. 

Sometimes taking a walk outside. Going nowhere. No music; no podcasts.

Yesterday during my afternoon walk I greeted a number of people…and dogs. I watched two otters swim in the creek behind my house. I listened to Sandhill Cranes squawking until one that was in front of me decided to fly just over my head to join the others.

And I was refreshed. And percolated ideas for writing. And appreciated what God has created outside and in me.

Posted in Disciplines, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Heroism

February 19, 2024

Historian Heather Cox Richardson writing in her newsletter Letters from an American on January 14, 2024 had this to say about heroism:

When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.

When I was but a lad we were given many stories from World War II about men who performed heroic deeds. Those stories resembled the insight that Richardson expresses.

Heroism is not limited to war. Stories about regarding people who have put others before their own health and welfare. The Jesus Movement grew exponentially in the early days of the Roman Empire when a plague struck the city. Officials and leading business men fled to the hills. Christians crept from their hiding places in order to minister to the health and souls of the stricken. The courage and selflessness of these Jesus-followers served as inspiration to a generation.

In our own times, we can look to Mother Theresa who served the poorest of the poor in India.

Or think of the many women you may know who give up time and energy to serve food and clothing to the poor and homeless of your city.

What can I do today to put others before me in service? And you?

Posted in Service | Leave a Comment »

Encouraging a Routine

February 16, 2024

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer and led it to greatness. He famously picked up ideas from many sources. He was in the process of dropping out of Reed College when he heard about a calligraphy class. He audited it. That led to the innovative fonts and interfaces of the Macintosh.

He traveled to Japan to observe manufacturing. All the workers wore uniforms. He thought, if I wore the same thing everyday, I wouldn’t waste any time figuring out what to wear every day. Therefore his trademark black turtlenecks and jeans.

My first job entailed a lot of walking around the manufacturing facility. After a few years, I was “promoted” to a desk job in a rather small office area. I didn’t notice anything until April when our church league softball team began practicing. I could barely run from home to first base. From then on I got up a half-hour or more earlier and went outside to run. One little routine which evolved to run (outside where possible), weight training, Yoga in the mornings followed by sauna then start the day.

Following a hectic six-week period in February and March 2020, we moved to a new city and state the first week of the pandemic shutdown. No more gym, but up every morning to run or walk around my new environment. Be outside in nature. Birds and a variety of little furry critters. It was the routine of up, exercise, breakfast, contemplate and write every morning that kept me sane.

There are things you can do that you don’t have to waste time thinking about every morning. And now you are prepared for your day. 

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »