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Update 3: Creating vs Recording

I’ve been in training all week, plus my wife underwent a surgical procedure over the week end. So in short, I didn’t meet my goal for this week for publishing material on Monday or Wednesday on FamMijangos.com. I don’t know if it’s sad that I broke my stride so early in the year, I don’t really feel sad.

I do wish I had more time to work on this project; but I realize that the primary goal of FamMijangos.com is to document our family adventures. Focusing on documenting, missed the point of having adventures. Having to choose between spending time with the family, and documenting our time together; spending time will always win. I rather have my family remember my participation, rather than a memory of me editing last year’s pictures.

Have other bloggers experienced this paradigm? How have you dealt with it?

365 Photo Challenge

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Playing Catch up

Our family went to Guatemala in September, we spent about a month out there with our family, it was a great trip.  Now I’m trying to play catch up and preserve our adventure in our family blog.  It almost feels like a part-time job; editing pictures, laying the format and flow, and then writing the post.

Each post I try to limit to about 300 words, but it seems like I can’t put everything in such a limited word count.  For most I’m close to 1,000 words, and the last one was 1,200 words.  And it’s not that I sit down to write so much, is just that I want to convey the feeling and preserve the memories.

I’m very grateful that I have the medium to remember what we did and share it with others.  I still get excited about doing it, and I like it so it is not a burden, I just look back and I’m amazed.  I really hope that someone finds as much value to what I’m doing, but if not I am fine with just how rewarding it is to remember.

I started with the desire to write 15 posts of our adventures in Guatemala, it looks more that I’m going to write 11, and I just have 3 more posts to write; meanwhile I’m behind on the things we are doing, so it’s a catch up game.  Hopefully I’ll have some quiet time to finish, yeah right ::SIGH::

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Week Post-Mortem :: 6/6/2014

I’m having trouble coming up with good topics each week, or at least each week, so I’ll do a post-mortem on Mondays.

Stop

  • Making excuses for not going to the gym in the morning; I don’t know why I am having trouble getting up at 6 and going to the gym.  I just need to do it! I should re-read about habits.
  • skipping Monday Planning; when there is not much going on I tend to skip my weekly planning on Mondays, I need to reboot this, things are getting complicated.

Start

  • Reading “Up Your Game” by David Bradford; I’m really excited to read this book, looks like something I enjoy already.
  • Making your quarterly Updated List; I want to have a list of people who I connect with at least each quarter.  I have a good idea of who should be on the list, but I just need to write it.

Continue

  • Learning about Spigit; this is a great ideation tool.  We kicked this off last week and I continue to learn new things.  I’m really happy with this tool
  • Working on the Cummins BYU MBA group; there are few things that get me  really excited.  This past few weeks I’ve been really immersed in helping with the new interns and new full-time employees.
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NTEA Truck Show

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My path to giving feedback

Whale getting feedback

Giving feedback has never been something that I can do easily.  It is not that I don’t have an opinion on subjects, more than likely I feel that it is not important for the other person to receive it.  When things get so big that I believe that there is benefit on expressing my opinions more than likely I will try to either schedule a meeting or write an email.  By that point I have stung together so many things that the message probably feels like I go bonkers over petty things.  It is hard to express that the accumulation of it all is the cause, and most meeting end with: “You should have told me sooner that those things were bothering you.”

Over the past 4 months I’ve been meeting with consultants that are helping my team develop stronger relationships as we deploy a new business process in our business unit.  One of the traits I chose to improve was the way I give feedback.  Although this journey was hard for me, I’m sure that it is incredibly easy for others; but if you are in my camp they you understand.

Thinking about feedback I started remembering a trip I took with my family to Sea World.  Looking at the magnificence of the whales and their interaction with their trainers I started remembering the cues and feedback these animals receive as they do what they are told to do.  I think I always thought that was the only feedback needed, encouragement on the things we do well, but we are no animals and as humans we want to improve on the things we are lacking.

I didn’t have a way to effectively give feedback, I thought that I should meet and have this laundry list of things and we could all just mark each of the items off.  I’ve learned a few ways to give feedback that allow both parties to come out of it  positively.

XYZ-Sandwich1First is the XYZ Sandwich, which I learned is an easy way to express behaviors.  Read the link, it explains what it is, for me what it meat was that I had now a structure, a script that I could use to express my ideas.  For someone who didn’t even know which words to pick, this was a great help.  I was still uncomfortable with just saying this phrase to a coworker as things happened, but I could connect with them after I had written down what I wanted to say and  just express my ideas.  What happened was that people would improve or I would find out more information about their motivations and perspective.

Martlage Mischief ModelAnother tool that I’ve learned comes from Ken Martlage from the group Phoenix Images.  From this I was able to understand that before giving feedback I needed to separate reality (facts) from my perception.  When my perception is incorrect I can attribute the wrong intentions for why people were doing things.  Having understood this I now could talk to someone and discuss each angle separatly: (1) what are the facts? (2) how did these actions impact me? (3) what drove the facts? (4) what am I requesting? what am I offering?

The final piece in this journey is doing it.  You have the tools, now pick something that you feel someone needs to improve and take a stab at their intentions.  Words like: “you probably wanted X…” or “I guess your intention was Y…” and finally propose an alternative.  Write these things down on a piece of paper, also do an assessment on yourself and offer possible alternatives on behaviors you should improve.

The first time I did this I was really scared, I couldn’t believe I was asking a colleague if they wanted my input on their performance.  This colleague had been struggling in a few meetings and I felt that I needed to help them out, but we weren’t as close that I could just say: “hey, they really put you through the ringer; next time you should do this…” I was also being assigned tasks my boss thought I could tackle better than them.  So I sent them a note that just said: “How are you feeling about all this pressure? I have a few suggestions that could help you improve.  Do you have time on Friday to go over them?”  My colleague agreed and we met.  I had my notes in front of me and we just had a conversation.  For some intentions I had them wrong, others were on point.  At the end we ended the meeting on a high note, higher than what I would have anticipated.  We had a higher level of trust and a deeper respect one for the other.

I had read an article in the HBR Blog about negative feedback.  The authors show that employees want that negative feedback, even more than the positive praise.  I guess in my n=1 this was also true, and it felt good.

 

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Your Alumni Network

I still remember the talk during orientation where our group was told the importance of the school’s brand.  How we were to go out and remember our school, the students, the professors, and the alumni.  We were not just getting a degree, were were being meshed into a network.

I can’t deny that I was excited, I really was.  I met second year MBA that were just great.  They taught me how to improve my resume, how to go after interviews, they even connected me to other second year students that had worked at places where I wanted to work.  I also met faculty and staff that lent a helping hand in finding a place for me.  I can’t deny that I also met a few alumni, most older professionals that thought our program  was great and wanted to contribute.  The one group that I didn’t really see, were recent grads.  The people that had graduate year before I started my MBA.

I didn’t give it much thought until I was a second year students, and there were first year students that I thought should meet recent grads that I knew, “my” second year students.  I discovered that they were very willing to help, but few were being asked to contribute.  They were recent hires, so there were in no position to extend offers.  They had very little experience in the field they were working in, so I guess people didn’t think they were important.

I thought differently, I thought that they held key knowledge of how company’s recruited.  They knew enough people to connect first year students.  They were not influencers, but they were people of trust.  They also had all the interview and resume knowledge and could critique the work of MBA Students.  They are also the link to past generations of MBA Alumni, and that would grow the overall network.

It has almost been a year since I graduated, so I am a recent grad.  I talked to the person responsible for Alumni Affairs and also to the head of MBA placement.  I told them that I did not want to be the missing link.  I wanted to continue being involved with new students and help in any way possible.  I was particularly interested in international students, I being also an international student felt that I could bring some additional knowledge.

Over the past 10 months I’ve been trying to be involved with recruiting for Cummins.  I have been able to meet wonderful students, and tried to make myself available to as many as I can.  I don’t know all the incoming class, but I do know quite a few.  I don’t believe in karma, but I do fell that we need to pay forward for all the help we get in order to get a job.

I would be more than happy to help our school. Regarding the interns, I would be more than happy to talk to them. Feel free to ask them to give me a call anytime and I can talk to them too. — Alumni

The other wonderful think I have discovered is tapping the shoulder of the Alumni Network.  I have sent a not to all BYU MBAs at Cummins a personal note, just introducing myself.  All have responded positevely.  Next I have asked them if they would like to be involved in the recruiting efforts of the company; all have agreed.  Right now I know of 15 BYU MBA Alumni that work for Cummins, imagine how the 6 interns this summer will feel when they will meet, face to face or virtually, all of these people.  These are Alumni that want their peers to succeed, and before had not participated because they hadn’t been asked.

I now live the teachings from that day in orientation.  I can see how I am part of a network bigger than my graduating class.  Many times I struggle to expand my network at work, forgetting that there are alumni that are more than happy to connect with me and further my career.  I also want to make it explicit that there is an onus on you to be available, to be open, to engender trust to your fellow alumni.  It is my hope that we can all be more open and find that strength in OUR alumni network.

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Changing my Ways

UPDATE: It has been a month and I’ve lost 12 pounds and almost 2 inches in waist.  I feel well, but this winter continues to make it really hard to go running.

Imagine that you are hired to do a marketing campaign for a new product.  The product has worked on other segments of the market, but you are specifically to target a specific segment.  This segment, has a very small population, it is one individual.  There is an extraordinarily high pay off, this segment is YOU.

What do yo do to engage this market segment?  What is the strategy, where your planning and objectives are so transparent that there cannot be any hidden agenda.  Here are some of my thoughts, but alas, they might not work with your chosen segment.

I want to change my eating habits, I want to reverse the effects of insulin resistance, and want to be and feel healthier.  I am now on a no-sugar, no-starch diet; or low-carb high fat.

Marketing directly to me has proven both insightful and difficult.  Market research becomes a very deep introspection about my habits.  One thing that has been helpful is remembering what I wrote about the book: “The Power of Habit.” I do have many habits that are tied to my lifestyle, and I want to break them.

So the things that are not habit based, but rather availability of product and reasons to believe are also important.  I need to inform myself about how I can change and the why.  You can see the resources I’ve been using to have those RTB. I understand that I have motivation and ability which require information, rather than just cues.

My KPI right now is only weight and waist size; those 2 parameters should indicate progress.  I am measuring my glucose levels, but right now they are normal so it wouldn’t show progress.  Also overall wellness and energy levels are important, but hard to measure.

I hope to add some updates into this adventure.

Resources

https://www.grc.com/health/lowcarb-podcasts.htm

 

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Do mere mortals need secure email?

The more I learn about the NSA spying into emails and all other information I have to think if we really need to move to a secure way of communication.  The problem with email is that the only way to have secure communication is if both endpoints encrypt the information going out and decrypt once the information is at the other endpoint.  You can achieve this, like in most corporations, when you control both endpoints and the system in between.

Continue reading “Do mere mortals need secure email?”