Green n Growing

You are awesome!

2009-03-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

This video, Validation, has been around for a while. I just found it again and realized I'd never posted it here.

One of the keys to creating and maintaining Green and Growing relationships is to become skilled at affirming and appreciating those around us.

No "BONES" about it!! Enjoy.

It's a great time to innovate

2009-03-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

I saw a recent article, Putting the Recession to Work for Innovation. It's based on the work of Andrew Razeghi of the Kellog School of Business. The article points out many examples of how some of the most creative and innovative products and services come out of tough economic times - because of the times, not in spite of them.

I recommend you Read Razeghi's original work here.

Here are the main points from his article:

Listen to the market. It's quieter when it's less crowded. Unmet needs abound.
Invest in your customers. Now they need you most. Loyalty hangs in the balance.
Rather than reduce price, offer more value to your customers and demand more value from your vendors.
Increase communication with your customers.
Move longer term projects forward, not back. Now is the time to grab market share.
In a recession not all costs are created equal.
If you don't have the money, at least spend the time.

One of my favorite quotes from the paper is this one:
"... if you are already in the process of tightening your belt anyway, you might as well consider investing in a new pair of pants."

Stretch

2009-03-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to my weekly yoga class. It was interesting how much grumbling was going on. The class meets in a building that opens at 9 am and the class is supposed to start at 9 am. So here were most of the class, including our instructor, standing by the door. And nobody opened the doors until about 9:02. Grumble, grumble.

And then - the room had tables and chairs set up, so we had to move the tables. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

Near the end of our class - just before we did a final meditation (or nap, as I like to call it) - an aerobic class started next door and some of the sound creeped through the walls. Grumble, grumble.

And yet, today I stayed above the grumbling. I just let it roll. I remember at the front door mentally deciding to NOT let circumstances affect why I was there. Since my word this year is "FITNESS" I knew that being at that place at that time was clearly "on purpose" for me. So why should any of the world's Resistance be an issue.

I was there to do a job. That job was to work out. And I did. End of story. The cool part is that as I reflect on it, the whole experience was also a victory of attitude. Small thing? Maybe. Repeated over a day, a week, a lifetime: Big thing!

Slip, Sliding away

2009-03-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my wife Ellie and I spent some time in Colorado cross country skiing. Have you ever tried cross country skiing? Or maybe you've tried a Nordic Track machine in a gym? cross country is quite different from downhill skiing - safer, slower, cheaper and less crowded. It's a terrific sport and in some ways it's like taking a walk or jog through the woods in the winter.

If you go where we go, you'll be skiing on groomed trails that have grooves, or tracks, set. That's right they actually put grooves in the snow and you keep your skis in the tracks and ski along the grooves.

And we like it best when the terrain is pretty flat - not too many hills or too many curves. But of course the real world of trails is not like that all the time. Sometimes there are hills; sometimes there are sharp curves; sometimes there are no tracks to follow. While in Colorado we skied one very beautiful area with lots of hills - many were steeper than we were comfortable with. In one case we were skiing our way up and up a trail. After about 200 yards of uphill, Ellie decided she'd take off her skis and walk the rest of the way to the top. I heard her say, "Oops" - not my favorite word to hear. I looked and saw that she'd taken off her ski, but the ski was still in the track.

We watched as the ski went slip sliding away - down the hill and gently around a curve. I volunteered to walk down - and back up - to get the runaway. I couldn't resist taking a picture looking back at Ellie way up the hill!

But can you see the bigger picture here? Sometimes I think my life should be like the ideal cross country ski trail: smooth, clearly marked, just enough change in terrain to make it interesting, but never bad enough that I could fall or fail.

But life is much different than that. Just when we think the trail is smooth and we've got everything well planned - circumstances change. We lose a job, or a friend, or a loved one. The market crashes - or our car does. These changes can happen to us as individuals, as a family, as a workplace or as a community.

One of the benefits of a "green and growing" attitude is that no matter what life throws at me - I can use it as a learning opportunity.

Test Post

2009-03-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

Test post

The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs

2008-11-18T12:42:00.000-08:00

The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs
Author Unknown. Found on an old newsletter from Dale Carnegie Courses.

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.

He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he had no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs.

He put up a sign on the highway to tell people how good they were. He stood by the side of the road and cried: “Buy a hot dog, Mister?”

And people bought.

He increased meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He got his son home from college to help him out. But then something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? There is a big depression on. The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.”

Whereupon the father thought, “Well my son has been to college. He reads the papers and listens to the radio and he ought to know.”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.

“You are right, son,” the father said to the boy. “We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”

Don't criticize condemn or complain.

2008-10-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

Principle number one in Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People is “Don’t criticize condemn or complain. Easy to say; easy to remember; challenging for some of us to implement.

And it’s very weird – criticism seems to be defined by the criticized – not by the criticizer. Have you ever been just giving information and someone – like your spouse – says “Stop criticizing.” In my mind it wasn’t criticism.

Anyway today the reverse happened. Ellie and I were doing our annual “Put the deck furniture and the hoses into storage for the winter” exercise. Ellie wanted to be sure the chairs were clean of bird droppings before I hauled them to the garage attic. So after she’d cleaned them, and they had dried in the sun, I started to carry them. And I noticed one chair still had bird pooh on it.
I said “Didn’t you clean this chair?” Now I know that wording a question that way can – and often is – heard as criticism. It’s possible that I was even a little sarcastic (maybe). But Ellie took that comment as helpful information. She appreciated that I noticed!

So here’s a clue to criticism. In an area where the other person is confident and competent – like seeing dirt, making things clean, taking care of stuff – a comment like mine is helpful. Had I made the same comment in an area of less confidence or competence, it would have been seen as negative criticism.

So I guess that brings us to how important it is to know the other person. That’s another idea from the same book: "Try to honestly see things from the other person’s point of view."

Words can make a difference

2008-10-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

This video has lots of meanings, I suppose. It made me think of how I can use my talents, gifts, resources . . . to make a difference.

It's called "The Story of a Sign." Stay with it.

The Owl in the Back Yard

2008-05-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, you might not believe this story. Wednesday morning, Ellie called me and said, “Steve, there’s an owl on our deck!” So I ran down stairs from our bedroom, looked out the deck off the kitchen and there was an owl – about 18” tall.

It flew to a tree about 30 feet from the house and sat there all day! Apparently it went hunting that night, but it was back again the next day. Friday morning he was gone!

Why Green and Growing?

2007-01-29T11:37:00.000-08:00

According to his biography Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s had a sign in his office with the saying: “As long as you’re green you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot.

So to be green and growing, or to be a lifelong learner, or whatever you call it: That’s for me. Wouldn't you rather be green and growing than ripe and rotten?

Romans 12:2a. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."