I recently finished a new book by Dan Pink, the author of "A Whole New Mind". "Johnny Bunko" is written in the Japanese comic format known as manga. I really enjoyed this book because it explodes several misconceptions, and it is a quick, informative read.
This is one of the great ones!
Check out the Johnny Bunko blog.
Check out this video by Tom Chapin about the US educational system. It takes a serious poke at No Child Left Behind.
HOW TRUE!
Think about this: If you have $25,000 in credit-card debt at an interest rate of 22%, and you make only minimum payments (2.5% of the running balance), it will take you 53 years to pay that debt off. And you will pay a total of $67,590 in interest. That’s staggering, and it gives us an idea of the malignancy of unsecured debt.
I’ve learned the hard way, folks! 6 years ago, I found myself in poor financial condition; overextended and swimming in credit card debt. And it didn’t happen because of over-spending or shopping addiction; rather, it happened because of outside circumstances. I was also guilty of inattention. What got my attention was a letter from a credit card company indicating that I was in default (1 day late with the payment), and my interest rate would now be 36%! That’s when I put together a legitimate long range plan to get my finances in order.
Here are the elements of debt reduction and re-direction that worked for me:
The bottom line is this. Getting out of unsecured debt isn’t impossible. It takes spending discipline and a “never give up” attitude. It is made more difficult by this superficial, media-driven, materialistic world, but the reality is that “things” never make us truly happy. Think about just how long having the new car remains appealing; the excitement wears off in about a week!
Here are some good links:
Credit Card Interest Calculator (my spreadsheet) (30 sec. on DSL)
My copy of Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds arrived on Friday. By Saturday evening, I had finished reading it, and I took notes along the way too. This book was worth waiting for to say the least. If enough people read it, the world of business presentations might be revolutionized!
This is much more than a "how to do" book; it is more appropriately a "how to think" book. The writing is excellent and the supporting visuals are elegant. The foreword by Guy Kawasaki is unexpected and effective.
This book didn't just change the way I think about presentations, it changed the way I look at our world. Definitely worth reading, and a great reference tool!
Just check out my book list and you’ll see that I’ve spent lots of time reading all types of books on management and leadership. The main focus of many of these books is that people are a business’s greatest asset. The real focus of many books on management involves understanding people; what motivates them and why they behave the way they do. So that brings me to the subject of today’s blog entry; Ego.
The fact of the matter is that our ego is a motivating factor in our lives; it’s about the view we have of ourselves, and how we believe we are perceived by others. Our ego runs deep inside of us and it drives our relationships.
Have you ever met someone that has an inflated ego? Dealing with someone like that leaves us with the thought that they are selfish and uncaring about the people around them. Then you meet others that, for whatever reasons, have a view of themselves as inferior. That extreme self-deprecating behavior is annoying too.
So let’s try to discover what a healthy ego really is, especially in relation to leadership.
I always tell people that when they come to work, they should leave their ego at the door. We all know, of course, that our ego is part of us; it’s an inseparable part of who we are. The problems in organizations occur when people’s what’s in it for me (WIIFM) feelings take precedence over the purpose of the organization. Every organization has some purpose, some mission, and some reason for doing what they do. Defining the reason that an organization is in existence is what we call a culture.
Building a culture that people can buy into is the challenge of every organizational leader. When the focus of that culture is shallow, like make profits for the stockholders, employees and other stakeholders don’t feel as if their contribution is worthwhile, and those feelings of WIIFM take over. On the other hand, when the culture is defined in terms of people first, where customers/consumers are the focus, great things can happen. The funny thing about organizations that define themselves first by people and then by money are that they make money anyway! Richard St. John says it best in his book Eight to be Great; “Serve others something of value, because that is the way people truly get rich”.
So, a healthy ego involves caring about yourself AND others. And when an organizational culture is built on a mentality of service, most people step up to the challenge, and overinflated egos become less of a problem.
It’s the challenge of all organizational leaders to build an overarching culture that compels people toward a true mentality of service. When you create that environment, the processes and mechanics involved in the operation have meaning, and people now can associate processes with results.
It is a formula that works!
I very much enjoyed Richard St. John’s book, “Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and RICH”. It was a best-seller in Canada, and now Richard has authored “8 to be Great”, a condensed version of his earlier work. “8 to be Great” is a better fit to the U. S. market for that genre of books; less cost and a fairly short read. It’s based on many interviews that Richard did with successful people from all walks of life. The common thread among these successful people is that none of them do what they do just for the money. They are all start with passion, and the money comes anyway. That’s a refreshing message in our sometimes shallow, materialistic, media-driven society!
Check out his 8 to be Great blog and his short video introduction of the book. Spike, the nice little character used before, remains in this new book. I will be sharing “8 to be Great” with students at the career school where I work. This is an outstanding book for everyone, but has an especially inspiring message for young people. Richard’s style of writing is entertaining and enjoyable, and the message is significant and potentially life-changing!
I spend a good amount of time in the blogosphere through my RSS feeds. I stumbled on a blog by Gretchen Ruben called The Happiness Project. She also has her own website about her books, and has authored books about JFK and Winston Churchill that I will be checking out.
Gretchen is an attorney and writer who takes the time and effort to research happiness. Her twelve commandments portray a true common-sense approach to leading a more fulfilling life. I like her writing style, and her Saturday happiness quote is something I look forward to each week. Gretchen is well read and down-to-earth in her approach. Check her out!
I’ll take the risk of sounding simplistic and say this; I believe that many of the problems with US schools can be summed up in one word, “incentive.”
Our US public schools are run by government bureaucracies that lack incentives. Anyone who has spent time dealing with a government agency knows that efficiency isn’t a priority. Why? It’s because people within government aren’t stakeholders. Their attitude is dependent on their own personal sense of service. And, if the job is done poorly, the bureaucracy continues anyway. There is no competition and no urgency toward improvement.
I believe that for our schools to compete, we need incentives, urgency, and a connection to the businesses we serve. Our schools are detached from their “customers.” As a result, we generally fail to produce people who are prepared for work. If you're a business owner, you know what I am talking about.
We operate schools on government mandates like No Child Left Behind. These mandates create negative incentives; “if you don’t do such and such, this will happen….” And the problem gets only a partial fix.
Experience has shown that mandates and curriculum changes fix the symptom, not the cause.
So what can we change about the US public school system?
In other countries, the schools are to varying degrees removed from government, and industry plays a more central role. The system creates incentives because industry is a stakeholder. It works better because there’s a connection created between the school and the “customer.” So the discipline in business and industry is reflected in schools, and better prepared workers result.
We desperately need to change the way we do it in the US!
I’ve worked many years at a school that is under a separate arm of government called career education. It’s mandated to operate with industry involvement, but remains under the control of the government bureaucrats. Since we teach job-related skills, however, the teachers aren’t the same as those working the academic side. Many career teachers are people from industry with a training background. They usually aren’t as insulated from business and industry as other teachers might be.
And even within the school bureaucracy, there are many teachers have what I call “the soul of a teacher.” They positively affect the lives of their students every day. We just need more of them, and we need incentives so that others step up. The system is the problem, not the people!
Getting industry involved won't in itself fix the school system, we know that! But I think it is a good start and would promote other incentives.
Jack Welch (CEO of GE) said “bureaucracy frustrates people, distorts their priorities, limits their dreams and turns the entire enterprise inward”. I couldn’t agree more.
My main job is business manager at a mid-sized public career school which enrolls students from local school districts. As with all public schools, we are simply an extension of the department of education bureaucracy. But as a career school that stresses hands-on learning, we need to large amounts of consumable materials. So the business office handles more than 800 purchase orders in the course of a school year.
The problem was simple; too much time was elapsing from order submission to material delivery. We needed to simplify the process.
Our first dip into innovation was digitizing the request form. That wasn't real innovation since it didn't account for process overview, so deploying system-wide innovation to the entire procurement chain was the next obvious step. As part of that innovation, orders are no longer prepared inside the accounting system software, reducing one repetitive process of re-typing the order. We developed an order form using Excel and the school’s e-mail infrastructure, with the the only interface to the accounting software being encumbering the funds. Since the PO form is digital and portable, it can be sent to a vendor in e-mail or by fax. The digital PO is stored centrally, and the inventory person checks off materials and approves invoices from this central file. Before, this step was done by both the inventory person and the payable secretary.
We also added a procurement card that works like a debit card but with zero fees and rebates paid for using it. It's administered by a school consortium that also handles our investments. Using this card, we eliminate some paper check processes, further subtracting from the bureaucracy.
Overall, this system has:
· decreased paperwork
· eliminated duplication
· decreased the delivery time-frame
· decreased errors
· promoted a better relationship with vendors
· given teachers more time teaching, less time doing procurement
We estimate a 30% increase in efficiency. But our original intent was helping teachers have more student interface with less bureaucracy. That has been accomplished, but innovation is never a one-time process.
Some business owners look on ADA legislation as just another compliance issue that's going to cost them money! Let's take a fresh perspective......
Business owners who make "readily achievable" changes are tapping in to something big; "disabled" Americans have $175 billion of discretionary money! 20% of the population is considered disabled. That's a substantial market from any viewpoint. Remember, the issue isn't just ramps, doorways and blue paint, this is an issue of UNDERSTANDING more than compliance.
Access to your business is a win/win proposition, and when you make accomodations, you are part of that win/win. It is really simple; people with disabilities want reasonable access to your business, so advertise how you do it.
Do some research! Here are some suggested sites:
DOJ site for businesses http://www.ada.gov/business.htm
Visitable homes http://www.concretechange.org/
Deaf/hard of hearing site http://www.hearinglossweb.com/
National Org. on Disability http://www.nod.org/
