Monthly Archives: May 2008

Ancient Secret Finally Revealed

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Author John Gardner once said: “Most ailing organizations have developed a functional blindness to their own defects.” We seem to have more ailing organizations today than at any time in our recordable history. Today, there are a multitude of businesses who are involved with a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or simply going out of business.

“Functional blindness” appropriately describes many of today’s company policies. Some are so antiquated it causes one to pause and wonder if anyone ever reads the manual any longer. Where did these ludicrous thoughts, posing as policy, originate?

The National Association of Human Resource Absurdities conducted extensive research in the 50s in hopes of answering that very question. Their findings were both revealing and authenticated via multiple experiments and findings. However, they chose to conceal their findings for the simple reason that they felt society was not ready for such a revelation.

Fifty plus years later they have apparently decided that the business world has matured to the level that the truth can and must finally be accepted. For those of you who may doubt the authenticity of the research results, please feel free to conduct your own experiment. It’s actually very simple.

Begin with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.

Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result, and all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon the monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Project Hope Creep

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Professional Speaker Jeffrey W. Drake has made presentations on subjects such as communication styles, creative problem solving, goal setting, leadership, project management, stress management, teamwork, and time management.Our custom-designed “Project Management: From Concept to Completion” seminar contains many basic tools for project managers. Project managers have many challenges to deal with. One area of challenges frequently addressed is that of project creep.

There are many excellent books on project management in the marketplace. One particular book, Effective Project Management by Wysocki, Beck, and Crane, very clearly addresses the project creep area and in particular the topic of hope creep.

Project management is much more than procedures. Effective project managers know how to work with the people in their project team. Hope creep can be a major problem for the project manager. A project manager may assign team members to be activity managers within the project.

Team members are typically nice people, and they may not want to give the project manager any bad news about the slow progress. The team members “hope” they can catch up by the next report period or project team meeting to be back on schedule. As a result, the project manager needs to check the accuracy of the status reports and closely monitor progress at project team meetings.

About Jeffrey W. Drake

Jeffrey W. Drake, Ph.D., is a professional speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a firm specializing in custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Jeff has made presentations ranging from leadership to empowered teams and project management to communication styles for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, and manufacturing. For more information on Jeff's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

The Need to Read

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Mark Twain once said: “The person who does not read good books has absolutely no advantage over the person who can’t read. At all!”

Reading is a primary source of new knowledge and skills for more success in life.

This is the “Information Age.” Half of what we know today, we did not know fifteen years ago.

The amount of knowledge has doubled in the last fifteen years and is said to be doubling again every eighteen months.

95% of all the books in America are purchased by only 5% of the people. The other 95% of the people purchase the other 5% of the books. (They probably don’t read them; they don’t have the time; they give them away as gifts.)

The average person reads at approximately 200 words per minute.

The average person, reading just 15 minutes per day, can read one book per month, 12 books per year.

The average person retains only 5% of what is read once, after 30 days. Therefore, take notes, file your data for easy access at a later date.

We receive more information in one day than people in the early 1900s received in their lifetime. So if you feel you don’t have the time to read, try “driving a book.” You’ll be amazed at how productive this method can be.

Commuting distances and times are still growing each year, with the average commuter now spending about 90 minutes per day in the car, just getting to and from work … 45 minutes each way. Therefore:

90 Minutes a Day is:
Approximately 7.5 Hours a Week
X 50 Weeks a Year (two weeks vacation) =

 375 Hours Per Year Or
47 8-Hour Days

Today, you can find a wide variety of books on audio cassette or CD, providing you with the opportunity to listen to your favorite book while driving to and from work every day. Consider how many books you could listen to in 47 eight-hour days! That’s how you gain a competitive edge rather than falling victim to the stresses of your daily commute!

For those of you who would rather read your book than listen to others read it to you, there is still another choice for you. Remember the very helpful Cliff Notes we all used in high school as we denied their existence? Well, today there are several companies who are doing the same thing with current best sellers. Check out www.summaries.com and www.bizsum.com for examples!

Today’s typical 200- to 300-page book can cost you anywhere from $20 to $40 and can take up to 20 to 25 hours to read! These new services have condensed the content to no more than eight pages which take about an hour to read and can cost as low as $1.92 per book when purchasing in quantity and even FREE on other sites!

Increasing reading speed and comprehension is an essential tool in today’s competitive environment, and it is the most immediate and easiest time management tool to increase your career success. As our challenges change so do our opportunities to cope with them. Take a moment to do a little research, and you’ll certainly reap some great benefits.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Wendy Weeps

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The nation’s third-largest hamburger chain, known for its square hamburger, chocolate Frosty dessert, unique commercials, Dave Thomas, and his red-headed, pig-tailed, freckle-faced daughter is now owned by Atlanta-based Triarc Companies, known to most as Arby’s. Triarc will pay about $2.34 billion in an all-stock deal for Wendy’s, based in suburban Dublin. Wendy’s now operates about 6,600 restaurants in the United States and abroad while Triarc operates 3,700 Arby’s restaurants.

The deal comes as Wendy’s struggles with declining profits and weak sales compared with rivals McDonalds Corp. and Burger King Holdings Inc. In the past year, Wendy’s has spun off its Tim Hortons coffee-and-doughnut chain and sold its money-losing Baja Fresh Mexican Grill. Triarc also owns shares of Tiffany & Co. and The Cheesecake Factory Inc., according to regulatory filings.

Wendy’s has failed to connect with consumers in several advertising campaigns since founder Dave Thomas’ death in 2002. Thomas, always wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and red tie, became a household face when he began pitching his burgers and fries in television commercials in 1989.

Triarc also said expansions for both brands are planned for the U.S. and overseas and that the company will look at a dual-concept unit in high-cost real estate markets. Triarc said it will also change its name to include the Wendy’s name.

Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas opened his first restaurant in 1969. Thomas, who died in 2002, became a pitchman for his burgers and fries in 1989. The deal caps two chaotic years for Wendy’s in which it has sold or spun off operations, slashed its corporate staff and had its wholesome image tarnished by a woman who falsely claimed she found part of a finger in her chili.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

If I Had It to Do Over

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The majority of the Generational Gems we’ve shared with you thus far were revealed to me in my late 20s and early 30s. I firmly believe that had I been exposed to this wisdom a mere decade earlier, it would have altered my career path in a much more productive way.

That’s why we’ve decided to share these gems with you … in the hopes that you may find them educational, entertaining, humorous and worthy of being passed on to younger generations. Maybe, just maybe, exposure to one of these gems might just cause someone to pause, consider other options, re-frame their thinking or simply be a little more open-minded to a different approach.

Today’s gem is another that has been passed down from generation to generation and happens to be created by my favorite author … “Anonymous.” It has certainly stood the test of time because of its simplicity and the vivid images it thrusts upon every reader.

There is a legend of three horsemen crossing the desert in the middle of the night. Suddenly, out of the darkness came a thunderous voice commanding them to dismount and fill their pockets with pebbles. After they had obeyed and remounted, the voice declared, “Tomorrow at sun-up you will be both glad and sad.”

When dawn came, each of the three horsemen reached into their pockets and discovered not pebbles, but diamonds. Then they were both glad and sad — glad they had taken as many as they had, sad that they had not taken even more!

And so it is with opportunities! Life presents us with many possibilities. We sacrifice far too many for reasons we no longer remember … fear, uncertainty, timing, lack of education or experience, possibility of failure and the list goes on. You can change that pattern TODAY.

Take a calculated risk! ACT outside that proverbial box! Expand your current comfort zone. Try something new! Find a mentor. Ask questions. Do research. Take a class. Benchmark. Read. Observe. Listen. In short … take action! Although each of these activities appear simplistic in nature, their value as critical strategies cannot be denied.

To avoid the regrets of the three horsemen who missed an opportunity, consider adapting the above strategies in your search and recognition of the many opportunities which await all of us. Hopefully you’ll never have to utter those sad words: “If I had it to do over.”

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.