Appreciation: Week 4

The potential return of Devil Winds didn't materialize in San Diego. However, they did in Malibu, where more houses were destroyed in the last two days than during last month's fires. We did have a minor incident near Ramona, but crews and equipment were on hand and it was quickly put out. We were prepared here, but not as well in Malibu, though they did put out the fire quickly. It seems lessons were learned, but we'll see if they stay learned.

With the combination of having a major deadline due and the Thanksgiving Holiday I didn't make my exercise goals, but I am finding it much easier to plan my week. The weekly planning and daily reassessment is now becoming a habit. I also checked more lingering items off my to do list and we have been able to clear two more rooms of clutter. Bottom line: I backslid on exercise and advanced in other areas.

One of the reasons I didn't make my early morning exercise goals is I stayed up late more than one evening working on various projects for work and the courses I teach, when perhaps I didn't need to. One of my team mates observed, "You seem uncomfortable writing the High Level Design." I was. When I feel that way about something I tend to slow a process way down until I can get a handle on it. This is a good habit when trying to master unfamiliar things, but not conducive to making deadlines. She simply plunged in, wrote some of the design work, then sent me what she did to help me get started. It did jump start me and I finished the work on time. I was still up late, but didn't have to pull the all-nighter I expected. I need to get to the point where I simply plunge in without hesitation, too.

If It Weren't for the Last Minute
However, my normal modus operandi is to think allot about what I need to do, make some stabs at it around the edges, then, just before it's due, scramble to finish. I really want to develop the habit of working ahead and pacing myself. I usually have to trick myself into doing this by making incremental deadlines for parts of a project before the final deadline. When I worked in advertising I had a sign on my bulletin board that read, "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done." I just have to make some mental adjustments about when the last minute arrives.

Consistency
Doing things consistently seems to be the real difficulty for us all. Often it takes an outside event or someones intervention to wake us up. For instance, the rap on the SD Chargers this season is they are inconsistent, brilliant one quarter, terrible the next. Because of their embarrassing losses team members are soul-searching and finding the cause in the mirror. Recently Mike Huckabee, presidential candidate, has been talking about his 100 lb. weight loss. He said his constant stabs at yo-yo dieting resulted in his weight going up, not down. It took a embarrassing event -- he collapsed a chair at a public committee meeting -- to finally force him to make the needed changes. The Palestinians and Isrealis don't have the determination to make peace yet themselves, they need outside intervention or a crisis to bring them to the peace table. Apparently the crisies or interventions haven't worked yet. We have to wait for a series of natural disasters and the melting of icecaps before we do something about global warming, or even admit it exits. Fires have to knock on our doors before we come up with better prevention methods.

Consistency is one of most desired business practices as well. It's what Six Sigma is all about. More on that in a future post.

I'm reminded of the old joke: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: One. But the light bulb has to want to change.

Do I want to change enough yet? Do we want to change enough yet? Time will tell.

Appreciation

In order to be motivated to change and make greater efforts on the job, or whatever we do, an important ingredient is expressing praise or appreciation. With that in mind I participated in two activities this week centered on appreciation.

My son and I marched in the Mother Goose Parade on Sunday with his boy scout troop carrying a big banner thanking the firefighters. Then Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving Day. A day to reflect on what we should be thankful for.

My son got an extra lesson in being thankful by volunteering to help serve Thanksgiving meals to the homeless. He's led a sheltered life in our home and has not yet been that exposed to the less fortunate. All the servers had to wear the same clothes, long sleeved white dress shirt, black pants and black dress shoes. The reason for the dress code is to show respect to the people they were serving. They may be poor, but they all deserve to be treated with dignity. He came home a little subdued from the experience, but with a new appreciation for what he has.


After Thanksgiving
The Saturday after Thanksgiving I took my son and one of his classmates to the local mall to see the 3D version of Beowulf. Walking from my car to the theater I saw two of my ex-high school students. They were both very happy to see me and they seemed to be doing well. They both asked the same thing, "Mr. Dean, where is my DVD." I created a DVD of the best work the students did last school year, but haven't printed out and distributed it yet. Guess I better do that to show my appreciation for their hard work. They both made wonderful videos.

The Beowulf visuals were pretty amazing. The level of detail down to the minute facial hairs were faithfully rendered. The mo-cap animation is still not perfect, but it's getting there. 3D glasses still give me a headache, though. Can't wait for the technology that doesn't require glasses.

Appreciating the Troops
If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com; you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.