Author: Mark Brown

Open and Authentic

There are times in my life when I have felt hurt or betrayed. Those feelings can come from situations where I was not told the truth, and then blindsided by something for which I was not prepared.

As I spent some time reflecting this week, I realized another benefit for being open and authentic with others. You enable yourself to tell the truth and prevent those types of hurt feelings.

Leading an organization and being open can be difficult if you are dealing with confidential data. Here are a couple of practices that can help you be authentic in these situations.

When an organization makes personnel changes, rumors have a tendency to propagate  because of information leaks. The best policy is to announce changes immediately. Once the change is decided and approved, just make the announcement. It is the simplest way to minimize the time for rumors. It also reflects openness.

Secondly, if someone asks me about a rumor of an upcoming change, I would be honest and tell them I could not answer. But I would always be able to tell them that changes are being considered, and that as soon as they are approved, I would announce them. This too is being open.

For me, these two practices help create trust and authenticity with the organization. What has helped you be more open when faced with difficult questions?

One Key Lesson in Effective Goal Setting

Lean manufacturing drives improvement through continuous data driven analysis, experimentation, and problem solving. It is a never ending process. Two of the main targets for manufacturing improvement are cycle time and cost.

One example, from my manufacturing history, was the discovery of a new cleaning process for a lens on a laser welder. This lens required replacement after a fixed number of production cycles, and it was expensive. Through a development process, we were able to implement a new cleaning routine that extended the life of the lens. It also proved to improve the weld reliability by reducing variation in the process.

Another example, was a nylon fixture used in a punch press operation. Nylon was used for specific characteristics, but it wore quickly in the process. The base of the fixture needed replaced at least every month. It was not expensive, but we had multiple machines and fixtures. To reduce cost we were able to redesign the base so that it could be reversed and used on the opposite side after the first side was worn out. Effectively we doubled the life of the base, and cut our monthly costs by 50%.

Goals at work can be very clear. Usually they are data driven, measurable, and have financial impact. Goals at home are quite different.

If I were to apply work goals to my house, I would vacuum my furnace filters every week so I could use them longer without replacing them. Would it work? Sure, but why would I spend my time doing that?

At home, cost effectiveness and efficiency are important, but they are not the most important.  What is my point?

We can accomplish great things. We have minds that are creative and imaginative. We have a human spirit that perseveres hardships and obstacles. But if we don’t have a clear sense of what we want to achieve, we are going to waste our potential.

My big lesson in making a goal more effective came through understanding the perspective through which the goal was set. 

When is the last time you evaluated your goals? For me, it is an exercise worth completing every six months.

Are Your Angry or Sad?

Media headlines are designed to evoke our emotions. This week I have been asking people if the recent events (the Dallas shooting in particular) has made them angry or sad.

When you first heard about the Dallas sniper that shot and killed five police officers, what was your initial reaction? For me, it was grief, sadness, and a touch of bewilderment.

Based on feedback from many people, I think this was a common reaction. In fact, not a single person told me their first reaction was anger. Yet it seems the media is always able to capture a feeling of anger.

My prayers are with the victims, and families of this tragic incident. We will never understand why it happened. But because of our media, we can be sure that it will be repeated. There will be someone else that steps forward to copy this crime.

I wish our freedom of the press was used for better purposes.

I encourage you to evaluate all situations not only from the perspective of others and the media, but from your own perspective. What is the true emotion that comes from within, not planted by someone else? Our world needs empathy, not anger.

 

Contentment or Driving Change?

I, like most people, want a better future. if you have a sense of optimism, you believe that the future will be better than the present. Unfortunately that means to have a better future, you have to change.

Keeping the status quo will not give you the future you desire.

But who likes change? We enjoy being content. Contentment feels good.

It is a daily battle. Charging forward with change and progress, or taking time to enjoy the life we have created for ourselves.

E.B White said it best. “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

I think it would be a great idea to do both. I could start by asking myself these two questions every day.

1. What can I do to improve my world today?

2. What can I do to enjoy my world today?

The answers are different for each of us. That is why I used the reference to “my world”. How would you answer those key questions for today?

For those that really want to have a better future, we have to fight through those moments of doubt, the fear of change, and the challenges. We can stuck on the enjoyment, and on our routines.