Industrial
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What Socrates Can teach You About Dealing With Your Boss A child's school essay summarized the life of Socrates in a short essay: "Socrates was a Greek philosopher who went around giving people a lot of advice. They poisoned him."Whether you’re working with a new boss or one you’ve been reporting to for years, the following suggestions may keep you from being "poisoned:"
—en Route Magazine One who cannot lead and will not follow becomes a roadblock. Roger von Oech On Creative thinking is not only constructive, it can also be destructive, Roger von Oech tells us in his highly readable book on business creativity and innovation, A Whack on the Side of the Head. Faced with a problem, we may have to break out of one pattern in order to create a new one. The best way to do this, says von Oech, is to play the revolutionary and challenge the rules. He offers the story of the Gordian Knot as an example: In the winter of 333 B.C., the Macedonian general Alexander and his army arrived in the Asian city of Gordium to take up winter quarters. While there, Alexander heard about the legend surrounding the town’s famous knot, the Gordian Knot. A prophesy said that whoever was able to untie this strangely complicated knot would become King of Asia. The story intrigued Alexander. and he asked to be taken to the knot so that he could attempt to untie it. He studied it for several moments, but after fruitless attempts to find the rope ends, he was stymied. Then he got an idea: He pulled out his sword and chopped the knot in half. Asia was his. Copernicus broke the rule that the earth stands in the center of the universe. Napoleon broke the rules about the proper way to conduct a military campaign. Beethoven broke the rules on how a symphony should be written. Think about it, von Oech urges: Almost every advance in art, science, technology, business, marketing, cooking, medicine, agriculture and design has occurred when someone challenged the rules and tried another approach. So, if you’re looking for a better marketing strategy, engineering process, accounting system, or any other thing, don’t be afraid to look outside the usual rules and guidelines. Breaking the rules won’t necessarily lead to good, creative ideas, but it’s one way to go. Staying on the same road too long will eventually lead to a dead end. —Leadership Make Sure You're Using ‘Yes I am," the boy cried, exasperated. "No," the father said calmly, "you’re not. You haven’t asked me to help you." —Bits and Pieces When someone says that he's laying all the cards on the table, count them. —Gene Brown Hey You! Why Do You Treat Me This Way? I’m responsible for the clothes on your back, the roof over your head, the food your family eats, the car you drive—for just about everything you may need or want. You say I mean a lot to you, yet you don’t show it by your behavior. Some days you give me only half your attention, and other days you don’t bother to show up at all. You treated me quite differently in the beginning, but now you just take me for granted. I’ve been patient and quiet, waiting for you to realize just how much I mean to you, and that you need me. If you were smart, you’d wise up, and value and take care of me as I take care of you. Who am I? Your Job! —Productivity Plus Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness. —Cullen Hightower Many arguments have two sides and no ends. What We Can Learn Many of the world’s finest Oriental rugs come from little villages in the Middle East. Each rug is hand-produced by a crew of men and boys under the direction of a master weaver. Since ordinarily they work from the underside of the rug-to-be, it frequently happens that a weaver absent-mindedly makes a mistake and introduces a color that is not according to the pattern. When this happens, the master weaver, instead of having the work pulled out to correct the color sequence, will find some way to incorporate the mistake harmoniously into the overall pattern. It is a useful object lesson, for we all can learn to take unexpected difficulties and weave them into the greater pattern of our lives. There is an inherent good in most difficulties. —Norman Vincent Peale Diplomacy will get you out of what tact would have kept you out of. —Brian Bowling |
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"Will to Win" An eager young reporter once asked a baseball coach if it was the "will to win that put his team ahead of all the rest. The coach laughed. "The will to win" may be important," he answered, "but it won’t win any games by itself. The will to prepare is what makes winners." The reporter was understandably confused. We’ve all been told that the will to succeed (in a game or on the job) is all that’s important. But this isn’t so. The will to win doesn’t mean anything unless you have the "will to prepare" as well. Whether you’re on a team or on the job, the following can really make a difference:
Careful training and plenty of practice prepare you for success—the will to win means nothing without the will to prepare. — Productivity Plus Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and the old buzzard won’t be hanging around underfoot all weekend. Tug McGraw And His Tug McGraw had a wonderful philosophy of pitching—his frozen snowball theory. "If I come in to pitch with the bases loaded and Willie Stargell is at bat," McGraw would explain, "there’s no rational reason I would want to throw the ball. As long as I hold on to it, nothing bad can happen. But I’m aware that eventually I have to pitch. So I remind myself that in a few billion years the sun is going to burn out and the earth will become a frozen snowball hurtling through space. And when that happens, nobody’s going to care what Willie Stargell did on this particular day with the bases loaded!" This point of view may help you through some of your tough decisions at work. —The Umpire Strikes Back Drive as you wish your kids would What We Can Learn From In a speech to over 300 Ford Motor managers on the difficulties to be expected with some upcoming changes, management consultant Tom Peters told the story of the San Diego Zoo’s metamorphosis from a classic command-and-control hierarchy to a fast, flexible, team-based organization. The mention of the zoo hit a hot button with the executive responsible for the closing remarks of the session. He abandoned his script and began to talk about Willie B., a majestic silverback gorilla, who for 27 years had lived in isolation in a dismal bunker at the executive’s hometown zoo in Atlanta. The executive had helped to raise money for a new state-of-the-art gorilla habitat. When the new exhibit was completed, Willie B., for the first time in his captive life, would be able to feel the sun on his shoulders and the rain on his head. But it took Willie several days of venturing a few small steps at a time to fully explore his new domain. A photographer caught the moment when the gorilla gingerly tested the grass with a toe, and the treasured portrait hangs in the executive’s office today. "It’s there," he said "to remind me that no matter how attractive new surroundings might appear, it takes time and courage to leave the comfortable security of a place—even an ugly, cramped space—that you know well."—Working Woman If today is one of those days, maybe it's because last night was one of those nights. —Thought Starters— Reading the same journals, newspapers and magazines all the time limits your exposure to useful ideas and creative stimulation from different points of view and different reporting techniques. Review your list of subscriptions each year and replace those that have gotten stale with fresh ones. Consider publications whose editorial positions conflict with your opinions. Reading these is a great way to provoke fresh thinking and brainstorm new ideas.
Get your long-term goals in mind and identify the short term milestones that will get you to these goals.
Think about your day’s activities during your travel time to and from work.
Just do your own job—not that of superiors, subordinates or those around you. Your own job is what you will be evaluated on.
Match personality characteristics to the type of job being done, and you will deliver services much more effectively and efficiently. This means identifying and looking for the positive personality attributes that match the service appropriately. In a restaurant, for example. "Charming." is an important trait for a maitre d’ but irrelevant for the busboy. "Helpful" is a characteristic more relevant to the waiter than to the chef, who should be "creative."
Schedule jobs in such a way that allows you to do your best work. With a little study you can determine which times of day you are best at different functions.
Waiting time need not be wasted time. There is always something you can read or write while you wait.
Operate the machines in your office often enough to understand their use—then you won’t be dependent on others in case of a rush project after hours.
Question the need for every piece of paper that crosses your desk. If you don’t need it, get yourself off the distribution list. Certainly don’t file it.
Forget these rules occasionally when flexibility becomes more important than structure. |
| © 1999 Derkin & Wise, Inc. | |