After a cool and wet spring in much of eastern North America, last week we finally started those lazy, hazy days of summer. Relaxing in a shady spot or sandy beach with a good book sounds pretty good. Since I am an avid reader, and I have just finished writing another book, here are some of my favorite nuggets on one of my favorite pastimes.
“A room without books is as a body without a soul.”
Cicero, Roman statesman, orator, and writer
“He was going to write a book… but then he found out you can buy them for $19.95.”
Unknown
“Your library is your portrait.”
George Holbrook Jackson, British journalist, writer and publisher
“I have sometimes dreamt that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesman come to receive their rewards, the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without certain envy, when he sees us coming with books under our arms, ‘Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.’”
Virginia Woolf, English novelist, critic, and essayist
“Employ your time in improving yourself by others’ writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”
Socrates, Classical Greek philosopher
“A best seller was a book which somehow sold well simply because it was selling well.”
Daniel J(oseph) Boorstin, American historian, professor, attorney, and writer
“When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.”
Clifton Paul Fadiman, American writer, editor
It’s finished! After six months of intensive research and writing I’ve sent the manuscript for my latest book, Growing @ the Speed of Change, to be typeset and printed. Of course, I’ll see page layouts and final proofs so many more times until I’ll clearly need some time off on a few long car cruises with the top down in the summer sun.
I’ve really appreciated Susan Chilton’s strong editorial skills – especially her headline-writing experience from her newspaper days – in adding powerful punch to the magazine-style format used in this book. Susan is Dave Chilton’s sister. For the past 20 years, Dave has been a good friend, an inspiration, and source of invaluable publishing advice (having sold over two million copies of The Wealthy Barber, he does seem to know a few things about the book business.) And we got another bonus with Bob Chilton (their father) applying his eagle-eyed proof-reading skills to the final manuscript. Since both Susan and Bob originally helped Dave with his book, I can only hope a bit of the Chilton magic has rubbed off here!
This is my best work yet and I’m extremely pleased and excited to be publishing my seventh book. In large part, it’s because I was able to draw from thousands of people who’ve influenced my thinking or contributed to my own life experiences. These include keynote, workshop, and retreat participants as well as Leader Letter readers. Some of their quotes, experiences, and perspectives are featured in Growing @ the Speed of Change. And after decades of practice I hope my writing is continuously improving.
Last week’s post included this quote from The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler: “Without cultivating a pliant mind, our outlook becomes brittle and our relationship to the world becomes characterized by fear. But by adopting a flexible, malleable approach to life, we can maintain our composure even in the most restless and turbulent conditions. It is through our efforts to achieve a flexible mind that we can nurture the resiliency of the human spirit.”
After reading this post, Patricia Katz sent me this insightful comment:
“Not getting too attached to an elusive and imaginary status quo - now that is indeed the central challenge of change!”
Pat has a wealth of excellent and thoughtful articles on balancing our busy lives and giving ourselves “permission to pause” at http://www.pauseworks.com/library/articles.php.
The full blog posting that featured this quote (“Thriving on Turbulence by Growing for It”) is at http://www.jimclemmer.com/blog/?p=793.
One of our free services allows subscribers to receive a couple of my featured articles every month. We seem to have a wide variety of subscribers ranging from magazine editors who reprint my materials as regular columns or articles, bloggers, internal newsletter editors publishing development material for their employees or association members, large member based websites like www.hr.com and e-zine publishers. Some subscribers are individuals on a path to continuous personal growth.
Here’s what we sent out this month:
This month’s articles are, in the words of Law and Order, “ripped from the headlines.” Here in Canada, business leaders, and politicians at all levels of government are tripping over themselves trying to avoid responsibility and shift blame instead of tackling real issues. It’s a perfectly natural instinct, but it’s not helpful when it comes to dealing with real “moose-on-the-table”® problems.
Leaders Take Responsibility for Their Choices
We were having a lively discussion in a management workshop about the prevalence of “blame storming” in many organizations. The problem, we agreed, was that instead of tackling the problem, poorly led teams devote their energies to allocating blame and avoiding responsibility.
http://www.jimclemmer.com/attitude_and_outlook/leaders_take_responsibility_for_their_choices.php
Leaders Go First
We’ve all heard about the importance of leading by example. Unfortunately, this phrase has become such a worn-out cliché that it has lost its meaning. Everywhere we look today, there are examples of our failure to recognize words and actions that don’t match.
http://www.jimclemmer.com/personal_integrity_and_values_alignment/leaders_go_first_3.php
If you’re interested in checking out this service go to http://jimclemmer.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=897&Itemid=128 to sign up.
Unpredictable, unexpected, rapid, and even unfair change is rocking governments, businesses, and people worldwide. And the history buff in me finds lots of evidence to show this really isn’t a new trend – and will never stop. There’s no “getting through this crazy period” to some mythical place of stability, or predictable sameness. Whether these changes are deadly threats or growth opportunities often depends upon how they are dealt with. When our rate of growth and learning is slow or stalled, any change can be sudden and overwhelming. It leaves us scrambling to catch up with its impact, learning, or skills we need to just cope – never mind thrive.
Building a flexible and adaptable team or organizational culture is more critical today then ever. In their book, Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness , Professor Edward Lawler III and research scientist Christopher Worley of the University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations write, “Organizations that are built to change must view people as open and willing to learn and as eager to try new things. They must have structures that are constantly refocusing attention and resources on both current and future problems and opportunities. They must have reward systems that encourage learning and growth as well as current value-added activities. Finally, they must have financial processes and other systems that support innovation and the start-up of new products and services.”
As I am finishing the last editing stages of my latest book, Growing @ the Speed of Change, I am running into huge number of speaking and workshop Clients wrestling with massive personal and organizational change. It’s a powerful reaffirmation of the focus and message of this book. And I don’t think it’s just me seeing what for what I want to see. Inspiration and advice on dealing with change, adversity, and turmoil does seem to be very timely.
While researching and writing Growing @ the Speed of Change, I came across the following wisdom from the delightful and insightful book The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living Written by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler they describe a central tenet of Buddhism critical to thriving in tumultuous times: “Without cultivating a pliant mind, our outlook becomes brittle and our relationship to the world becomes characterized by fear. But by adopting a flexible, malleable approach to life, we can maintain our composure even in the most restless and turbulent conditions. It is through our efforts to achieve a flexible mind that we can nurture the resiliency of the human spirit.”
Mystics, philosophers, and spiritual teachers have for centuries emphasized that a fundamental key to dealing with life’s turbulence is acceptance of life’s impermanence.
There’s plenty of evidence to show that we’re in the midst of a major world shift. We’re living through another of dozens in a centuries-long line of disruptive pivot points. Part of nature’s rejuvenation is a phase of cleansing and purging. This usually rocks our current frameworks, expectations, and maybe too-comfortable lifestyles. Cleansing and purging makes room for the new order.
Depending on our perspective, a hinge of history like we’re currently experiencing is either an invigorating or a cursed time to be alive. If you choose to thrive on turbulence and change, this time is a rare gift to participate in, and help shape, new ways of doing and being in our personal lives, organizations, communities, and societies. Years from now, we will look at this hinge of history as an era of upheaval and renewal that inspired us to a higher and different order of prosperity. If we continue history’s long trends, we’re moving toward a great renaissance of spirit, cooperation, love, redefined wealth, and care for the earth’s environment.
During our workshops, team-planning sessions in particular, we often compile a list of major trends rocking our world. And it is a long, long list: technology, customer expectations, competition, globalization, business/organizational models, product or service response or development times, workforce demographics and cultural diversity, government regulations and policies, employee attitudes and expectations in the workplace, environmental issues and concerns, and economic gyrations between rapid expansion and sharp contraction…
I could go on, but you get the picture: these are all things shaping us or within our power to shape. This is an invigorating and great time – or a threatening and disastrous time – to be alive.
The June issue of my monthly e-newsletter, The Leader Letter, went out last week. In it I included an item from my April 30 blog posting responding to a workshop attendee who read one of my articles with a chart on moving from casual or moderate to intense levels of customer service. She also asked for ideas on how to accomplish this top level of service on a small scale inside a large organization. I then asked for examples on increasing internal service levels with support groups like HR, IT, or Admin and Finance.
Kevin Claerhout responded with this post shortly after reading this item in The Leader Letter:
“Hi Jim,
I love your newsletter, Improvement Points, and recently Growing the Distance read (loved it too)!
Regarding “internal service”… I spent the first 18 years of my career in my company’s IT organization, providing service to many different business areas over the years. When members of a business area approached me with problems or new opportunities the first thing I would do is learn as much as possible about the business area involved. I wanted to know as much as they did about how their processes were supposed to work, the information they used, the issues involved, how success is measured, etc.
What I enjoyed most about my role was that I was learning the business and not just dealing with the technology. I also found that I could propose much better solutions, work much more effectively with people and even propose new opportunities when we were “playing on the same field.”
As a result, about 4 years ago, when one of the business areas had an opening in their group they approached me to take the job (which I did). Now that I’m on the other side of the fence and needing service from the IT organization, I find that too often the person I’m dealing with just simply asks, “what is it you would you like me to do?” If only they understood what I now do… that you can give much better service (and get ahead) if you seek to understand more than just the specifics of a single request.”
Kevin gets at the heart of a big problem with many technical service providers. Most of us “non-techies” aren’t especially excited about the technology itself nor do we understand enough about how it works to technically define what we want. It’s like that old marketing example that customers often don’t go into a hardware store to just buy a ¼ inch drill bit. They are looking for a way to get a ¼ inch hole. They want to ever accomplish that in the easiest and most inexpensive way.
Kevin also demonstrates a high level of Emotional Intelligence (EI.) Unfortunately, low EI is a big problem with many highly technical people found in most IT departments. Fortunately, EI skills can be learned. Back in 2007 Writer, Diann Daniel, interviewed me for an article she was writing for CIO and CSO magazines. She also interviewed Daniel Goleman and other leading EI researchers and writers. The resulting article (“Soft Skills for CIOs and Aspiring CIOs: Four Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence”) is excellent. You can read it online here.
Click on “From Casual to Moderate to Intense Levels of Service” to read the full blog post that triggered Kevin’s response. To peruse a large selection of my articles and excerpts on various aspects and applications of Emotional Intelligence mind and skills sets go to http://www.jimclemmer.com/emotional_intelligence/emotional_intelligence.php.
Last week we sent out the Improvement Point below to subscribers.
“Despite all the talk - passionate speeches, glossy brochures, clever ads, high tech videos, convincing sales pitches, snappy slogans, strategic plans, and solemn annual reports - the service and quality action delivered by most organizations is mediocre at best.”
- from Jim Clemmer’s article, “How Total is Your Quality Management?”
Read the full article now!
I originally wrote this article back in the day when Total Quality Management (TQM) and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) were popular. Many organizations used these powerful tools to dramatically drive up their service and quality levels. My previous company, The Achieve Group (now part of AchieveGlobal), and The CLEMMER Group worked with some of those highly successful organizations.
Unfortunately, those organizations were rare then – and still are today. Many claim high service and quality levels but few deliver. So an Improvement Points subscriber was right when he asked “how do you make it Great??”
That’s a very simple question with a complex answer! I wrote an extensive book, Firing on All Cylinders: The Service/Quality System for High-Powered Corporate Performance, on what it takes to build a high service/quality organization. You can peruse a series of my articles on Customer Service at http://www.jimclemmer.com/customer_service_title/customer_service.php. I tried to boil most of this down to one article summarizing what’s needed at http://www.jimclemmer.com/organization_development/bolt-on_programs_or_built-in_culture_change.php.
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