jamesridgers

Greater Than The Sum

Greetings all! Yes, it has been quite a long time since I posted something other than a picture of beer, or indeed anything of any such substance. External forces at work, etc.

I want to talk for a moment about the intangible ‘12th man effect’ that can and often does occur during moments of perfected teamwork. Like many organizations, success at my company requires huge collective efforts and widespread teamwork. Without these and all they encompass, the success we enjoy would not be forthcoming in the manner that it does, and any other kind of success would be much harder won.

Operating in silos is easy for us as people to do. Generally speaking, we fall in to one of two categories. Either we say “if you want a job doing right, do it yourself’, and refuse all outside help and input, or we go the other way and make somebody else entirely and singularly responsible, staying far enough out of the way to not be responsible, but micro-manage enough to take the credit.

Neither of these scenarios are helpful or healthy. They are, in my observation, just natural tendencies of the human nature in the workplace.

Examples are all around us of what can be achieved when we become part of a team, however. Hollywood has made movies on the subject. Consultants make huge amounts of money showing others how to be a team. Successful sports franchises win silverware because they exemplify teamwork.

Something immeasurable happens when like minded, enthusiastic people join together to passionately pursue a given goal or outcome. Furthermore, sharing in the positive results enriches the reward. An experience isn’t really a full experience unless you can share it with someone!

Become an enthusiastic team member. Build an enthusiastic team. See how contagious it become. I’m a firm believe that enthusaasm attracts more people enthusiasm. There’s nothing more important that you can do today for your team than be enthused, happy, and energized about your business, your team, your product, or your life. In fact, the word ‘enthusiasm’ comes from the Greek word ‘entheas’, meaning ‘filled with the divine.” So embrace teamwork and get enthused about it.

Choose to become something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Teamwork has its own arithmetic. Combine two or more people with a common goal, and suddenly one-plus-one equals more than two.

Our City. Our Home. Our Cup.

Breaking from protocol for a moment, it would be completely remiss of me if I did not share the good news with as many people as possible…

Don’t Agonize; Organize

It’s 4:09PM on Friday. It’s the last day in the office before a short business trip and then the Thanksgiving holiday. Ergo, it’s the last day in the office for 9 days. Your inbox is out of control and your phone has been ringing off the hook all afternoon with “can you just…” and “before you leave…” requests. It’s chaotic and out of control. What do you do?

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a tendency to sink in to a moment of anxiety, decide that you can’t do it all and thus won’t do a thing, and simply let the train wreck happen. Then, momentarily, you’ll realise that this is a bad idea, and you’ll getting organized.

With the number of free-to-use tools available today, there’s no excuse for poor organization. Even when original organization has disintegrated, and the order has become chaos, there’s no excuse for not get reorganized.

Don’t panic.

Don’t stress.

Don’t walk away.

Take a deep breath, keep calm, and carry on. With proper prioritization, workload structure, placing focus on the important and not the urgent, anxiety can give way to productivity quickly. Bottom line: Don’t agonize; organize.

Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #8

Beer Thought #8

When it comes to beer, there’s really only two opinions you can hold: Either you love it, or you’re wrong.

Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #7

Beer Thought #7

In wine there is wisdom, in whisky there is strength, but beer is the water of life.

More Than Machinery, We Need Humanity

The following passage is a transcript from Charlie Chaplin’s famous ‘democracy’ speech in ‘The Great Dictator’. In a fictional, comedic role, Chaplin provides for us a speech as inspirational as Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, or John F Kennedy’s moonshot speech before Congress.

My hope in posting this is that it will serve as a reminder that, at the core of who we are as a species, whether leader or follower, thinker or doer, is perhaps the most endangered aspect of our existence: Our humanity.

I don’t want to be an Emperor; that’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, gentile, black, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.

In this world there is room for everyone, and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls. It has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness hard and unkind.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for the universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now, my voice is reaching millions throughout the world; millions of despairing men, women, and little children; victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, “Do not despair!”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed; the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people will return to the people, and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Don’t give yourselves to brutes; men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, and treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate. Only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke, it is written; “The kingdom of God is within man.” Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.

You, the people, have the power; the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You, the people, have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then, in the name of democracy, let’s use that power. Let us all unite.

Let us fight for a new world; a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promises. They never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise.

Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason; a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world; a kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us.

Look up.

Look up.