Make the Move to Make a Difference! Be a Mentor

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

January is National Mentoring Month … an annual campaign created in 2002 to promote youth mentoring across the U.S. This organization is the brain-child of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Corporation for National and Community Service and MENTOR.

Each year since 2002, President George W. Bush has endorsed the campaign by proclaiming January as National Mentoring Month. The declaration has been endorsed by both chambers of the Congress. Sponsors include The MCJ Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and The Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation. Media partners include: Time Warner, Viacom, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC; Comcast; and the National Association of Broadcasters.

Designated nonprofit and governmental agencies are responsible for coordinating local campaign activities in communities across the country, including media outreach and volunteer recruitment. Local lead partners include state and local affiliates of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, Corporation for National and Community Service, Points of Light Foundation and Volunteer Center National Network, America’s Promise Alliance, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Communities in Schools, and United Way of America.

General Colin L. Powell has been chosen to headline the 7th Annual National Mentoring Month campaign for 2009. The campaign’s goal is to recruit volunteer mentors to help young people achieve their full potential. The campaign’s theme is “Share What You Know. Mentor a Child.”

General Powell is currently appearing in public service announcements (PSAs) on television and radio to promote the recruitment of volunteer mentors. His message focuses on the importance of mentoring, and the benefits to the mentor as well as the child. Ten years ago, prior to his term as U.S. Secretary of State, General Powell founded the America’s Promise Alliance, the nation’s largest multi-sector collaborative dedicated to the well-being of children and youth; his wife, Alma Powell, is the organization’s current Chair.

A highlight of the campaign is “Thank Your Mentor Day” in which Americans thank and honor their mentors. People are encouraged to contact their mentors directly to express appreciation, become a mentor in their own community, make a financial contribution to a local mentoring program, or post a tribute on WhoMentoredYou.org.

If you’re interested in learning more about this very rewarding movement check out the following links …

http://www.mentoring.org/
This site will provide you with a connection to the Mentoring Partnership in your home state; latest mentoring articles in the news; mentoring stories; and much more.

http://www.mentoringcanada.ca/resources/aboutus.html
This site contains all of the same information as the site above for Canadian residents. Get involved today and make a real difference at a time when it is so crucial for everyone involved. You’ll be glad you did!

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.

Have We Become Too Complacent?

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

I am far from being a radical person. However, I can’t help but wonder if we, as a society, have grown too complacent for our own good. At what point do we simply say “Enough, already!” Again, this is not a political concern. This is definitely a leadership issue.

TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet have done a pretty good job of allowing us to get some insight into how our “leaders” in Washington, D.C. are dealing with what very well may be the greatest financial crisis in the history of our country. To be honest, it scares me!

Remember our initial exposure to the financial sector bailout? All focus was on the figure of $750 BILLION … yes, $750 BILLION! Say that figure out loud slowly. Isn’t it amazing how mundane it sounds? It’s almost as though that was the amount we spent at the mall over the weekend. And yet, that’s quite a bit of money.

How much is it? Consider this:

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

As I said, a BILLION is a large number. Now consider the fact that Bloomberg TV analyst Mark Faber, author of the “Gloom Boom Doom” report, recently declared that the initial proposal of $750 BILLION for the financial sector bailout will actually cost closer to $5 TRILLION!

How much is a TRILLION?

Short and sweet, a TRILLION ($1,000,000,000,000) is 1,000 billions!

If you counted to a TRILLION out loud, one number per second, it would take you 31,688 years to complete the task! A stack of $100 bills totaling $1 TRILLION would be 789 miles high OR 144 Mt. Everests stacked on top of one another!

Now consider the fact that our political leaders in Washington, D.C., from both parties, are so effortlessly tossing around both terms while never mentioning the fact that this bailout money will come out of OUR pockets. This is complacency.

What really concerns me is the fact that WE have accepted this rhetoric with very little, if any, rebuttal or concern. This too is complacency!

Dictionaries define complacency as: “the feeling you have when you are satisfied, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.” Does this not describe our current status in light of the financial sector bailout and the auto industry rescue? $5 TRILLION plus!

This entire scenario reminds me of an age-old Generational Gem involving a complacent frog and a kettle of boiling water.

The story’s origins are rooted in nineteenth-century physiological literature. An article co-written by G. Stanley Hall from 1887 indicates that many experiments were performed on frogs in the 1870s and 1880s for the purposes of determining how reactive their nervous systems were to various types of stimuli. Another source lists an experiment done in 1882 at Johns Hopkins which produced similar findings.

The theory was simple. They say that if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger.

However, if you put a frog in a kettle that is filled with water that is cool and pleasant, and then you gradually heat the kettle until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late. The frog will soon pass out and eventually die … unaware of any threat. The frog’s survival instincts are geared towards detecting sudden changes.

This parable is often used to illustrate how humans have to be careful to watch slowly changing trends in the environment, not just the sudden changes. It’s a warning to keep us paying attention not just to obvious threats but to more slowly developing ones.

Remember a tough little Texan businessman, Ross Perot, who ran for President in 1992? He appeared on network television with charts and graphs to warn us of the very financial industry threat we now face. His illustrations were ridiculed by seasoned politicians insuring his defeat.

Threats of the U.S. auto industry demise have been evident since the 60s. However, at the time, the water in our kettle was obviously room temperature. Are you starting to feel the heat?

This same complacency has led to the extinction of tens of thousands of U.S. businesses in the past year. It’s all a matter of leadership.

The next time you hear a politician use the words “billion” or “trillion” in a casual manner, remember our friend the frog. Inform your “leaders” in Washington, D.C. that the water in our kettle is reaching the boiling point!

About Harry K. Jones

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Indra Nooyi

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

Indra Nooyi is the Chairperson of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PepsiCo., the world’s fourth largest food and beverage company. Nooyi has been named the #1 Most Powerful Business Woman in the world in 2006 and 2007 by Fortune Magazine. According to the polls Forbes magazine conducted, Nooyi ranks third on the 2008 list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. She was also named one of America’s Best Leaders of 2008 by U.S. News & World Report. Today, Indra Nooyi presides over 185,000 PepsiCo employees in nearly 200 countries.

Indra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1955. Her father worked at the State Bank of Hyderabad and her grandfather was a district judge. She completed her schooling in Madras, India. She went on to earn her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Madra Christian College in 1974 and immediately entered the PGDBA (Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration) program at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. After graduating from IIM-C in 1976 with a Master’s degree in finance and marketing. She worked in India and played lead guitar in an all-women rock band in her hometown of Madras, India.

Against her parents’ advice, she came to the United States in 1978 at age 23 to earn her M.B.A. in Public and Private Management at Yale where she worked as a dorm receptionist—opting for the graveyard shift because it paid an extra 50 cents per hour. She also played cricket in college and sang karaoke at corporate gatherings. Her parents thought she should have stayed in India, gotten married and raised at a family. “I always had this urge, this desire, this passion,” she once explained, to “settle in the United States,” where she is now the married mother of two daughters.

After earning her Master’s degree from Yale in 1980, Nooyi started at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). From there she moved on to strategy positions at Motorola and ABB. She then went on to become the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Strategic Marketing for Asea Brown Boveri (ABB—the world’s largest builder of electricity grids) and Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning at Motorola. She also had stints at Mettur Beardsell (textiles) and Johnson & Johnson.

Nooyi came to PepsiCo in 1994 as the company’s chief strategist. From the start, she helped executives make some tough decisions. She played a vital role in starting Tricon, which is currently known as Yum Brands, Inc. Seeing less future in fast food, she moved the company to shed KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell in 1997, arguing PepsiCo couldn’t bring enough value to the fast food industry.

Betting instead on beverages and packaged food, she helped engineer a $3 billion acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and a $14 billion takeover in 2001 of Quaker Oats, maker of Gatorade. The moves proved prophetic choices. Company earnings soared, and so, too, did her stature.

According to BusinessWeek, since she became CFO in 2000, the company’s annual revenues have risen 72%, while net profit more than doubled, to $5.6 billion in 2006.

On August 14, 2006, she was named the CEO of PepsiCo, becoming the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 42-year history. By 2006, Nooyi was one of just two finalists to succeed CEO Steven Reinemund as leader of one of the world’s best-known brands. She got the nod in August becoming the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 42-year history. She then immediately flew to visit the other contender. “Tell me whatever I need to do to keep you,” she implored. They had worked together for years, both loved music, and Nooyi was persuasive, offering to boost her competitor’s compensation to nearly match her own. He agreed to serve as her right-hand man, creating her version of a team of rivals.

As CEO, she has continued to pursue her unusual, and tremendously ambitious, vision for reinventing PepsiCo. She is now focusing on taking the company from snack food to health food, from caffeine colas to fruit juices, and from shareholder value to sustainable enterprise. That is an ambitious goal which she plans to attain.

In doing so, Nooyi is attempting to move beyond the historic trade-off between profits and people. Captured in her artful mantra—”Performance with purpose”—she wants to give Wall Street what it wants but also the planet what it needs.

By 2010, Nooyi has pledged half of the firm’s U.S. revenue will come from healthful products such as low-cal Gatorade and high-fiber oatmeal. The company will also abandon fossil fuels in favor of wind and solar and will campaign vigorously against obesity.

Nooyi faces many challenges in today’s globally competitive, financially challenging world. If she can lead her organization to the goals she’s established, and her historic record indicates that she can, Nooyi can pretty much choose her next challenge.

With annual revenue of $39 billion, the enterprise she leads is as large as many federal agencies, and moving to run one of those agencies could be her next venture. “After PepsiCo, I do want to go to Washington,” she has said. “I want to give back.”

For all that, Nooyi remains profoundly personal. She told the BBC in March that she calls her mother in India twice a day. “At the end of the day,” said the CEO of one of America’s biggest enterprises, “don’t forget that you’re a person, don’t forget you’re a mother, don’t forget you’re a wife, don’t forget you’re a daughter.” When your job is done, “what you’re left is family, friends, and faith.”

Nooyi is a Successor Fellow at Tale Corporation and serves on the board of several organizations, including Motorola, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue Committee, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2007, she was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India. In 2008, she was elected to the fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In March 2008, Nooyi was elected Chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), a non-profit business advocacy organization representing nearly 300 of the largest U.S. companies doing business in India and two dozen of India’s global companies investing in America. Nooyi leads USIBC’s Board of Directors, an assembly of 25 senior executives representing a cross-section of American industry.

Among her friends are former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who describes her as a “wild New York Yankees fan and a caring CEO.” Though raised on cricket, she has become an expert on New York Yankees statistics and Chicago Bulls teamwork. Nooyi is a master of substance, knowing PepsiCo’s product lines and financial metrics in depth.

Keep an eye on this dynamic leader as you are going to hear much more about her in the coming years.

About Harry K. Jones

Work-walking for Health and Productivity

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know that this “Out-of-the-Box Thinking” series was originated to share unique modern day examples of people and/or organizations that have demonstrated their willingness to venture beyond conventional thinking.

In so many of our creative-thinking seminars and keynote presentations, the following concern has emerged at one point or another: “This subject is a lot of fun, interesting, and educational; however, it’s difficult to actually apply in the workplace.”

That’s fear, doubt, or lack of confidence speaking. I say that because I find examples every week in my travels that prove creative thinking is alive and well from coast to coast—today more so than ever before as continuous workplace challenges demand creative responses.

Here’s an example I’m surprised hasn’t surfaced long before now. By the way, I’m not talking about futuristic possibilities … I’m talking about present day realities. This example emerges as a result of time pressures, health concerns and even proven statistics reflecting increased productivity.

Want to lose up to 57 lbs. in one year?

Can’t find enough time to get to the gym?

Spend lots of time in front of a computer?

Then you’ll want to learn more about the office treadmill. Yes, I know those two words sound contradictory, and it’s a challenge to envision the two in the same image, but it’s a fact … and a rapidly growing trend.

Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, conducted a study revealing that people can burn 350 calories a day by doing things like fidgeting, pacing or simply walking to the computer from their desk.

As a result of his study, Dr. Levine constructed a treadmill desk by simply sliding a bedside hospital tray over a $400 treadmill. That is “out-of-the-box thinking.” Can you imagine the thoughts and comments of those viewing his efforts for the first time? You can pretty much bet there was laughter and/or ridicule involved at one point.

However, the Mayo Clinic research acknowledged that, without breaking a sweat, the so-called “work-walker” can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour.

Today, choices range from homemade monstrosities to a sleek $4,000 all-in-one treadmill desk which comes in your choice of 36 laminate finishes with an ergonomically curved desktop from Details (a Division of Steelcase). Its quiet motor is designed for slow speeds.

Work-walking may very well inch itself into the mainstream as dozens of businesses have already invested in the equipment to let their employees walk and, ideally, lose a little weight, at work. Hundreds of these workstations have been sold from coast-to-coast to organizations including Humana, Mutual of Omaha, GlaxoSmithKline, and Best Buy.

Some employees feel this whole ideal is a bit freaky, and others simply can’t seem to walk and work at the same time. While it may sound like a recipe for distraction, devotees say the treadmill desks increase not only their activity but also their concentration. Several call-centers have discovered an increase in productivity, while reducing employees cholesterol, weight, and blood-sugar levels.

Want more information about this unique concept? Go to http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/treadmill-desk/MM00706 to view a short video of Dr. Levine explaining the advantages and research data on the Treadmill Desk. He believes that if individuals were to replace eight hours a day of sitting at their “normal” desk with a Treadmill Desk, and if other components of energy balance were constant, a weight loss of 57 lbs. a year could occur!

Current plans range from “The $49 Treadmill Desk” (http://www.treadmill-desk.com/2007/06/anders-burvall.html) to commercial offerings near the $6,500 price tag.

You know this is a growing trend when you discover that there are more than a dozen work-walking blogs on the Internet already (for example: www.treadmill-desk.com and treadmill-workstation.com and www.bookofjoe.com/2007/10/treadmill-works.html to name a few). There is even a blossoming social network (officewalkers.ning.com) available for those interested.

What appears to be “freaky” to some appears to be a Treadmill Desk revolution to others. This bizarre trend may join the ranks of the hula hoop, roller blades, and the convertible … once an oddity, later a staple. Creativity is alive and well.

About Harry K. Jones

Twilight Zone Prediction? Do We Ever Learn?

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

I’ve been watching with great interest as the nation’s banking institutions continue to act and react in ways that are unacceptable, unexplainable, and unchallenged by those in Washington, D.C.

I’ll spare you the details you’ve been hearing daily for months now. However, I can’t help but wonder if someone in authority didn’t see this coming. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had received some advance warning that would have allowed us to prepare for this crisis?

Well, it turns out that we did have that much needed warning, and it came from someone we’re quite certain knew of what he spoke. And he gave us plenty of time to prepare.

In 1802—yes, more than 200 years ago—Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States (1801-1809) and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), said:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

On a more personal note, I recently received this quote in an e-mail from my son, Chad, who today is a budding businessman and proud father of two young sons of his own. Upon reading the e-mail, I had to reflect back on his high school days when I tried to inspire him to take an interest in business, politics, and what was going on in his world. Of course, at that time, my words were falling on deaf ears. Or so it appeared. He seemed to have other more pressing concerns such as his friends, his car, music and sports. Unbeknownst to me at that time, maybe he was simply practicing the fine art of prioritization. Maybe he just filed away my words of wisdom until a more appropriate time. I must admit that I often hear him advising his boys with words which sound fairly similar to what I shared with him years ago.

And the frosting on the cake … today he’s educating me. We’ve come full circle and he, too, will someday experience that joy with his own boys.

About Harry K. Jones

Exposure of a Hidden Asset

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

It was two years ago that we published our first blog article. Our opening paragraph read:

Welcome to the AchieveMax® Blog … the blog created to provide you with the latest buzz from the business world in addition to a constant offering of C.A.N.I. (Continuous And Never-ending Improvement) tips, tools, and strategies.

We created the blog at the request of many clients who wanted access to more of the kind of information they were finding in our seminars and keynote presentations. We were more than pleased to accommodate those requests.

However, prior to that cold December two years ago, I thought a blog was something that happened to your sink which required the services of a plumber.

Melanie L. Drake focuses on the publishing and marketing sides of the AchieveMax® company. Enter Melanie Drake … a very talented and experienced webmaster and AchieveMax® Vice President, boasting more than 15 years of web marketing, graphic design and blog development. During her career, Melanie has served as editor of various publications, such as the Michigan Times and Kwasind literary magazine. She is also the past Director of Publications of the Mid-Michigan Chapter of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD). Melanie is currently the editor and designer of the articles on the AchieveMax® blog. In short, she makes it all come together.

In two short years, we have produced close to 450 articles in 19 various categories and are currently approaching 200 book reviews on our web site.

I share all of this for several reasons.

To introduce Melanie to our rapidly growing audience of readers.
To thank her for a tremendous contribution that has provided our readers with a great deal of information which they obviously appreciate and support. Considering that she has been on maternity leave, it took a good deal of planning for the blog to continue seamlessly for our readers while she has been away.
To encourage our many readers to expose themselves to a somewhat unknown benefit of our blog. I mentioned the appreciation and support of our readers not as an assumption but as a result of the feedback we’ve received from coast to coast in the U.S. and from many others worldwide.
The unknown benefit I mentioned is easily overlooked even though it’s readily available to everyone. After each article on the blog, you’ll see the word “Comments.” Click on this link and you’ll find a very simple form which enables you to make a comment concerning content or ask any questions you may have about the articles. If there is a number such as “(2)” after the word “Comments,” you’ll know that two readers have shared their thoughts or asked a question about that particular article.

Example of Blog Comments

I encourage you to investigate these comments as I am constantly amazed and impressed by the experience, intelligence, and observations of our readers. I have found their comments to be very informative, humorous, and revealing and am certain you will as well.

If you’re interested in reading all of the comments, simply click on the “Comments” link in the upper right corner of the opening blog page.

Of course, we also encourage YOU to continue to share your thoughts and opinions with us as often as you feel the urge to do so.

Finally, we thank you for your continued support, response, and participation in our efforts to keep you informed, educated and entertained.

About Harry K. Jones

Patrick Lencioni

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

Here’s another author whose work adorns the bookshelves of many organization presidents and C-Level leaders (CEO/CFO/CIO). I also find his books in many of the corporate libraries I browse among our clients all over North America … and for good reason.

Lencioni’s books feature fictional characters facing familiar organizational problems. Readers at every level of the organization can relate to complex issues being addressed, the characters facing those issues, and the settings in which they evolve.

Lencioni’s work will never be confused with that of your typical academian. I’m quite certain that’s by design. Each of his eight bestsellers, selling 2.5 million copies in 20 different languages, is a quick and easy read. Readers quickly identify with his fictional characters and welcome his simple solutions to these complex challenges.

A former Bain consultant and HR exec at Oracle, Lencioni, started his business, The Table Group, in 1997 because he felt most consultants ignored organizational health. The name of his firm speaks volumes about the man and his associates. The name is based on their belief that the single most important and effective tool in business, even in this era of technological advancement, remains the table. There is simply no substitute for the basic idea of people sitting down together around a table to resolve the critical issues around their business, whether those issues relate to operations, strategy or teamwork. Yet, how many organizations invest the time and energy to do so in today’s chaotic business environment?

The Table Group is a firm dedicated to helping organizations, and the people who work within them, become “healthier” and more effective. They provide consulting and speaking services, as well as a host of products and tools to leaders who want to improve teamwork, clarity and morale within their companies.

Over the past decade, the firm has worked with a variety of world-class organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, churches, schools, military and professional sports organizations.

As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives and executive teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500s and high tech start-ups to universities and non-profits. He has delivered dozens of keynote addresses on leadership, organizational change, teamwork and corporate culture.

He is frequently interviewed for national media including features in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Fortune Magazine has listed him as one of “10 new gurus you should know.” He is on numerous advisory boards and sits on the National Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

In addition to his seven successful business books, he has recently applied his management insights to assist overwhelmed families—who, he says, need the same kind of help his clients do. The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable about Restoring Sanity to the Most Important Organization in Your World is destined to be his next best seller.

About Harry K. Jones

How Much Is Enough?

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

According to ASTD (American Society for Training and Development), the average American worker spends 26.3 hours in the classroom annually.

Read that sentence again slowly and let it sink in. How do you feel about that number? Does that seem high to you? After all, that’s a full day plus a couple of hours. Long time to sit in a classroom, don’t you think?

Of course, all of that training doesn’t take place at one time. If you want to take it to the other extreme, we’re each investing a full SIX MINUTES a day working to improve ourselves for future success! Now how do you feel about that number?

Now let’s re-frame once again and view that training time as a little over 3 eight-hour days a year investing in our future as well as that of our organization. How do you feel about that investment? Is that enough? Not if you expect to compete in today’s global environment!

There’s a good chance that anyone reading this article is a professional based on the following definition: “A person who earns his living from a specified activity; Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the standards of a profession; That is carried out for money, especially as a livelihood.”

Let’s take a quick look at some other professionals … airline pilot, brain surgeon, engineer, clergy, architect, social worker, professor, electrician, plumber, clinical lab tech, pharmacist, veterinarian, certified public accountants, financial analyst, professional athlete, entertainer, astronaut, etc.

Do you think they train more than 26.3 hours per year? Of course they do! Why is it that all of those professionals listed above feel the necessity to continue to learn new tools, techniques, technologies, and strategies? Why do they benchmark regularly? Why do they study those they serve and those with whom they compete? Why do they feel the need to learn more, continually grow, and enhance their skills? Why do these professionals continually train … and only “businesspeople” don’t seem to think it’s necessary? It’s also a very safe bet that these other professionals invest more than 26.3 hours per year in their pursuit of excellence! How about you?

About Harry K. Jones

Are You Tapping Your Full Potential?

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

I’m currently in the process of facilitating several leadership programs with some terrific clients. Each is a long-term series in which we cover a wide variety of leadership tips, tools and strategies.

We tackle one exercise which is a lot of fun but, at the same time, illustrates the power and importance of tapping our full potential as individuals by simply utilizing the many resources we possess but often overlook or take for granted.

In asking just ten basic, very simple questions, I quickly illustrate that seldom can any one individual in attendance answer all ten queries correctly. In fact, rarely does anyone even come close. However, at the same time, we quickly discover that collectively, by combining the education and experience of everyone in the room, we quickly answer all ten questions correctly in less than 30 seconds!

The point of course is quite obvious. This same truth holds true in the workplace as well. We all bring something different to the table in the areas of education, experience, creativity, enthusiasm, and attitude. By tapping the collective resources of the entire team, there are few, if any, challenges which can’t quickly be transformed into opportunities.

It is only the wisest and most successful organizations that practice this obvious strategy on a regular basis. This simple philosophy leads us to the following Generational Gem. To better understand the true moral of this story, one must be aware of the definition of resource: “a source of supply, support, or aid, especially one that can be readily drawn upon when needed.”

A very young boy wanted to play catch with his daddy. However, there was a stone in the middle of the baseball diamond that needed to be moved before they could play. The enthusiastic youngster told his dad, “I’ll move it and then we can play.” He struggled very hard but simply couldn’t budge the stone.

His dad asked, “Are you sure you’re using all your strength?”

“Yeah Dad, I am.”

He tried again but the stone simply wouldn’t move. His dad then walked over to the youngster and helped his son move the stone. As he did so, he said to his little-leaguer, “Son, until you ask me to help you, you aren’t using ALL your strength!!!”

What a great lesson for all of us. We each have many resources at our disposal at all times that we may very well be overlooking. We need to use ALL our strength, all our resources at all times!

PAUSE, IDENTIFY, UTILIZE, SUCCEED, APPRECIATE, CELEBRATE!

About Harry K. Jones

A Universal Indicator of Tough Times

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

During a recent trip to the west coast, I had occasion to spend some time with a client in the historical Silicon Valley.

Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, this high-tech economic center is home to a large number of innovative business leaders, such as: Yahoo, Google, eBay, Oracle, Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco.

It seems peculiar, indeed, to be able to view so many iconic trademarks gracing state-of-the-art structures situated in such close quarters. In short, it’s quite a neighborhood!

The Silicon Valley originally referred to the region’s large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally recognized as a leading high-tech sector. This technical hub boasts a large number of engineers and venture capitalists.

In this lap of luxury, one could easily assume that local residents were weathering the nation’s current economic storm better than most. Then, of course, one should never assume.

My first night in town, I visited a grocery store located a few blocks from my hotel in the center of the city in search of a few office supplies. Entering the store, I must admit I was shocked to see a large end-cap display of SPAM luncheon meat … known to many as “America’s Mystery Meat.” SPAM, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork, may be among the world’s most maligned foods, dismissed as inedible by many food elites. However, through several wars and recessions, Americans have turned to this glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table.

Apparently, it’s happening again. At a time when U.S. unemployment numbers continue to grow, employees at the Hormel Foods plant are currently working at a furious pace and piling up as much overtime work as they want.

Two shifts of workers have been making SPAM seven days a week since July, and they have been told the relentless work schedule will continue indefinitely.

Apparently consumers are rediscovering relatively cheap foods, SPAM among them. A 12-ounce can of SPAM costs about $2.40 and is reported by many to be quite tasty. The Hormel plant is producing about 150,000 cans of SPAM per shift. This iconic hard-times food must be popular as it has produced a SPAM fan club, a SPAM museum, a SPAMmobile, a SPAM store, and even SPAM festivals.

How ironic to find this economic offering stacked head high in the heart of what is considered to be one of the wealthiest regions of our country. It is certainly a sign of the times.