Companies at there most elementary level make money by either selling more or spending less.
Humans at there most elementary level are motivated either by desire for pleasure or fear of pain.
Is there an analogy here?
People do what you pay them to do.
My college years were a time of new ethical growth. Many new opportunities and choices are made during the time between school and the working world. To my regret, my choices in some situations do not demonstrate integrity of character. I will reflect on one situation in particular.
During my senior year, I was a tutor for freshmen taking intro to programming C++ course at my college. One of my friends new I tutored programming and he was attending the community college on the other side of town and taking a C programming course. He asked me to tutor him in exchange for payment each week for a couple hours. Unlike the students at my college whom I tutored for free and earned credits for, this was some easy money.
After a couple weeks he was frustrated with the material and offered to pay me twice the amount if I would just do the homework for him. I am not proud to say that I didn’t hesitate long over the decision. I needed the money, I was interested in the material and he needed credit for the course. The programming course did not relate directly with his major so he wasn’t interested in to toil to learn a topic he wasn’t very good at. These rationalizations for (using logic/reason to fool yourself that your indecent actions are acceptable) were justified by the use of utilitarian philosophy.
This was justified using a utilitarian thought pattern because it benefitted the most people. My friend got what he wanted, I got what I wanted, and no one was injured in this situation. It could be argued that my friend was injured because he didn’t struggle with the course material. But he was still able to get his degree without it.
When I hear these question asked, they often give me pause to reflect.
What does that mean?
Why did that happen?
Why did you do that?
My own conclusion has been that meaning is a product of our sentient human condition and it is the biggest contributor to defining our experiences. The question “Why?” has significant consequences and at its core is asking for an answer that provides meaning.
Meaning is one of the few things that is completely intangible but absolutely necessary to function day to day. I believe that meaning can be applied too liberally, meaning is a necessity to live day to day. We have to put meaning behind the traffic signals, mathematical and grammatical symbols and common day to day knowledge. Those are the things that bind the factual and functional. The personal things that we apply meaning can are windows into who we are and how we perceive the world. Personal meanings are comprised from something as simple as a glance from a stranger in passing to complex far reaching events like major catastrophes.
From the examples above, while day-to-day meaning is necessary to communicate and to function as a society, the second is arguably a lens that shades our perceptions. These lenses come from any outside influence; family and friends, politics, religion, or media.
There is something therapuetic when we take the time to ask ourselves what does this mean? If something tragic happens or major changes shock us, grasping for meaning can give us a moment of cognitive clarity to look backwards and forwards and give the situation a judgement to settle in our minds.
What is fascinating is that people rarely come to the same conclusion when asked why. “Why” is a translation task, a higher operating though pattern that relys not on formulas or rote fact, but on experience, desires, opinions and environment. For this reason I found that meaning is better to be avoided when dealing when personal issues. Asking why in events that it does not makes sense is a waste of energy and can cause erroneous assumptions.
There are people who live by the heart and ideally say “Everything happens for a reason.” The people I have met who perscribe to this epitaph are often religious, feeling people. To them, perhaps God is the meaning behind all things. That there is nothing that binds the varied events of time together but God’s grand scheme. But does it follow that all happenings must also make sense and a meaning is meant to be found? I think this is a personal question for every person to answer on their own merit.
Meaning is our reconciliation between the subjective world and the objective reality. Objective reality is not sorry and the subjective world is not penitent. Choose your side and be ready to defend. You can believe that meaning is of all things or you can choose to see meaning and then let it go. And if something happens that you cannot explain, you can choose to not give it meaning. If you choose to give it meaning, do not be afraid of it being right or wrong. The meaning you give to something is personal. If someone asks what does it mean, just take it as a rhetorical question.
I have been out of town since last week Friday. The time away was spent with my wife on a trip out west. I had much time to reflect on how things are going. I was able to also spend this Sunday with my parents since my mother’s birthday was Friday. I do believe that I am on the right track in life, though I do not feel that I am doing a better job of performing my ideology then when I first wrote it. My main point is that progress should be coming, it is coming slowly.
My absence from work leaves me feeling anxious to return. Nervous that what I go back to will devour me. The only defense I have is hope and my best effort. I will complete my tasks as best I can each day.
This week, I will look for recognition of good work as much as possible. I will make sure that I implement an effective communicaton strategy that includes active feedback about how I am doing as a communicator.
I have been able to get my hands around my own workload. I will admit I am very busy right now. But I know another coworker is struggling to keep up with his own workload. I may have the capacity to take on more, but I will strain myself greater. So do I volunteer and say I will help with my coworkers extra workload or do I be quiet and keep my capability to take on more to myself? I think that by not volunteering I would be able to complete my current tasks successfully and without fail. With an upcoming vacation, taking extra work just wouldn’t be wise. Although, if I do not pick up the extra slack, other work may sacrifice in quality due to the over stretch team.
What principles am I adhering to with this decision? Trust: If I don’t speak up I do not think that I am showing that someone cannot trust me. In fact I may be more trusted because I am being cautious with my judgement. Fidelity: I am being faithful to the tasks assigned. I am not being faithful to the team. Contrition: I am sincere with my analysis and I am certain that this is accurate. Duty: I do have a responsibility to the tasks at hand and I do not have a duty to do the work assigned to others. Dignity: I may tarnish the dignity of my coworker if I volunteer to take over his workload. Idealism: I think that volunteering would be the idealistic thing to do. Keeping my mind on my own business is more practical. Humor: is not applicable in this situation. Teamwork: keeping to myself is not a sign of teamwork. Teamwork is doing what it takes to make others look good. I could volunteer my help for some of the work. Individual Responsibility: I need to make sure my work is done before I volunteer to help someone else out. Similarly, before I take the speck out of my neighbor’s eye, I must first remove the beam from my own.
I must apologize for the lack of entries. This has not been a sign of non-commitment as much as it has been a sign of having my evening time reserved for other activities.
I would like to reflect on a statement from Mahatma Gandhi
Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive, because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive, because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.
This statement is outlining a cause and effect relationship of of thoughts into our values, though this process is over time. There is a sense that we must be watchful of all the items, not just thoughts, but thoughts, words, bahavior, habits and values. The sentence about values is the last item which makes me question whether I may have jumped to a forgone conclusion that defining my values distinctly will provide direction for the habits, behaviors, words and thoughs. The passage seems to say to me that I need to have focus on all these items if I wish to change my destiny.
I must take action as well to protect my thoughts, words, behaviors and habits and focus them towards my values statement or else this is all a charade.
Thing about salt is that not enough and the food is bland, too much and the food is nearly inedible. Today, salt is so plentiful that its dirt cheap. Like water, without it we would die. My values need to be my salt in my life, to avoid being bland and indifferent. When food is without salt it may suffice to eat but it will not be devoured with great urgency. People in our lives can be indifferent to the world around us. We can be the salt that may knock them from indifference.
Co-workers will often group people in 1 of 3 buckets. The buckets are: agent of change, holding status quo, or going back in time. We each find our place of comfort. Some people advocate for the changes they want to see and act it out in their lives. Other people find that they hold what is good and comfortable about how things are run now. Then there are others who loved how things were in the good ol’ days and they often remember how things did run.
I observe myself in all three roles at some point. There are times when reflection on how things used to be can help us realize how we got into a particular situation. Then there are times where upholding the process and enforcing the policy will make for the best outcome in situations. There are also times when we see that change is imminent or that change is needed to resolve and issue and we swoop in to help facilitate the inevitiable. In short, we aren’t born in a bucket, we can move between them as the situation allows.
I will be making a list of ways that our team makes or saves money for the company. I will post that visibly in my office and make sure I promote efforts towards those activities.
I will work to show that my values will make people want to be lead by me. I want to exude an attitude that attract people to my leadership guidance.
I will conciously delegate more tasks and make sure I follow-up on delagated tasks. I will also reward positive results.
Overall, I want to improve my management skills to beware that I make sure I balance which bucket I am in. I will make sure that I take the actions above to improve how I lead at work.
