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Showing posts from April, 2013

"...through a glass, darkly."

This morning I took a medication that should be taken with food....said so right on the bottle. I didn't. Within a half hour or so, my body reacted...and with it my mood....in a bad direction. We don't use the term malaise enough in the common vernacular, but it describes my day well. I raised my voice to a coworker...not that this is a big deal as my team uses raised voices, and impassioned gestures as a part of our communication process...punctuated often with expletives....it works for us...normally. But today, it was more short tempered irritability and was poorly misplaced emotion. It served no purpose, and was most likely counterproductive to my desired end. I was passionately indifferent. I seemed to look for things to not care about. This is highly atypical for me and not a state that would allow me to survive long in my field....but my 'give a shit' was busted. I expressed, in what I would classify as a warning to my coworkers, that I was in an ill mood.

Because I have a banana.....

If you have a banana, and only a banana, selling a banana seems a grand idea. But not everyone wants a banana. Let's expand on this a bit.....a VERY large online retail site, oh....ryhmes with Blamazon....has a whole lot going for it....a regular fruit salad (if sticking with, but expanding on, the banana metaphor). Huge online inventory...check.....great pricing.....yep.....ease of use....yep....great return policy....indeed....avoiding state/local taxes....still yes, sort of, most places....unparalleled logistics and distribution....can't argue.....same day delivery.....wait..what?? Same day delivery? Really? Maybe someone will look back upon this post and think "Gads, what a Luddite."....but same day delivery just seems unnecessary...and a bit anathema to why I personally LOVE using....umm...rhymes with Cramazon.....oh, screw it, it's Amazon. Let's take a look at same day delivery....what are we buying? Books...scads of books....suits, blazers, elec

There is no "I" in "Mistake"

See what I did there....funny, no?? When a mistake is made, and they will be...and often....so very often, how do you look at it? How do you process it? How do you approach it? "Stupid _____ department.", "Damn support team", "Those ____ guys screw up everything.", etc, etc. Sound familiar? If you hear someone saying this, go correct them (I'll give you details below)....say it often yourself? Then you should either change, or find a new job...maybe some therapy. Medication, maybe. Step 1: Mistakes are inevitable. Human, mechanical, electrical, clerical, etc, etc, etc.....plan, take ownership, mitigate, embrace, learn, coach, mitigate some more, learn some more. For those who have followed this blog for a while, you may recall the saying "Keep the shit to shoe level." This is what I speak of, expect it and see it coming. Step 2: You just uncovered or were made aware of a mistake. STOP...breathe. DO NOT assign blame. Blame is a meani