"It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear...It's like being in between trapezees. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to."

Marilyn Ferguson

American Futurist

"If you want to succeed, double your failure rate."

Thomas Watson Founder of IBM

                                  [From "The Drunkard's Walk"; Pantheon Books, New York, 2008]

This is a theme, restated, that is repeated by many successful and well-known people.  As we get older we appreciate this more.  The young seem to believe that all things are either easy or impossible.  We must keep trying, keep practicing, keep rehearsing and keep failing if we want to succeed.  Most things are possible if we try, but the caveat is that trying only once is not enough.  Do an honest appraisal to determine if the task is doable and then keep trying.  Pay attention to the failures because you will learn from them what you should not do.

"But ability does not guarantee achievement, nor is achievement proportioinal to ability. And so it is important to always keep in mind the other term in the equation - the role of chance.

       Leonard Mlodinow

[From "The Drunkard's Walk"; Pantheon Books, New York, 2008; p217]

'We are told never to cross a bridge until we come to it, but this world is owned by men who have 'crossed bridges' in their imagination far ahead of the crowd."

                                                            Speakers' Library                    

There is a fine line between thinking ahead and thinking too far ahead.  Another well worn quote is "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." But how much should you plan?  Some people think so far ahead that they lose sight of today and what is happening

now.  There is no precise answer to the question of how much to plan. We must constantly check both the future and the present to make sure we are accomplishing what we have to today, while being prepared for tomorrow.

"One man with courage is a majority."

                                                             Andrew Jackson

It is not that one person can do everything, but one person with courage and conviction can lead others to accomplish great (or disasterous) activities.  A great leader may be willing to do everything, but s/he knows that great actions usually require the cooperation of many.  Having the vision and the charisma to lead others to great actions is what makes a leader.

Fear is born of ignorance and is used as a weapon or a policy. Combat fear with knowledge - easier said than done.

                                                              Donald A. Dinero

I said this in response to a comment from a colleague who said he was tired of failure that is attributed to fear.  Dr. W.Edwards Deming listed Fourteen Obligations of Top Management and one of those was "Drive Out Fear."  I know many managers believe there is not much fear in the workplace, but in my opinion there

is.  We become afraid when something disasterous is about to happen which we don't want to happen.  In the workplace, however, there are usually options we can choose to change a sitution, but often we do not know what they are.  We are afraid

of the unknown and knowledge of that unknown can reduce of limit that fear.

“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility… in the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have…is the ability to take on responsibility.”

                                                               Michael Korda

It seems to me that this is a more important statement than it appears at first glance.  I suggest that today people want success without taking responsibility for their actions. When they try something and it fails, it's always someone else's fault

and they want to gain by shifting blame.  If you recognize that you are "the captain of your ship" then you will realize that when you fail, you must analyze the situation, take correcive action and try again.  Although that's more work than shifting blame, it's also more productive.

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

                                                                Andre Gide, French novelist

  People might be more comfofrtable with uncertainty if they viewed it as a vehicle for discovery.  When we do not know what is about to happen,, we often learn something which we had no intention of knowing.  Sometimes that can be beneficial.  We often want to know much of what is going on around us when we embarck in a new direction, but that can be a detriment to creativity and imagination.

  Ten thousand hours is equivalent to 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year for five years.  When we talk about achieving mastery in something, we are talking about a skill such as playing golf, writing novels, solving math problems, performing brain surgery, etc.  In addition, when we talk about a specific skill, for example playing golf, we are actually talking about the individual tasks that make up the entire game. Thus, the game of golf includes hitting a ball off the tee for the initial drive, driving out of various hazards, putting, etc.  Aside from breathing, no one does any of thes activities for 40 hours a week. A professional golfer might spend three hours a day

driving a ball off a tee.  If he does that for five days a week, he will accumulate 10,000 hours after 13 1/3 years.  He will achieve mastery after that time only if he gets corrective feedback from a coach.  If he doesn't and keeps on repeating the same mistakes, he may never reach mastery.  When you find out how experts in their fields spend their time, you will realize that people like Lebron James (basketball), Tiger Woods (golf), Tommy Dorsey (trombone) and others have spent most of their days practicing their craft.

"The TWI programs are distinctive, not because of the accepted principles of good management that they cover, but because they are successful in getting these used."

                                                          Alan Robinson & Dean Schroeder; CA Management Review article, 1993

   The TWI Programs are still successful after 70 years because they contain basic principles of adult learning and they are very succinct. Many people attempt to improve them and modifications can be made, but the core material must remain the same becaise it is fundamental. Too often newer programs try to do too much and do not give the participant the freedom or opportunity to use his own creativity to accomplish objectives.

"But if I had a dozen toolmakers I'd bet you'd give me a warmer reception. I don't have the toolmakers, but I have something that will help you get along without them."

                                                                     Rome Collin - introducing JIT to a corporation president - 1942

 This quote underlines what TWI is all about and it answers Frederick Taylor's quote, which appeared here last.  We will never find the ideal people we want to do a job and thus we must train them.  We should look for the best people we can, but we should also realize that everybody will need some training.

When concepts are repeated throughout the years, we should start paying attention to them.  Taylor is sometimes criticized for his "Scientific Management" ideas, but the idea above is repeated within the TWI Service (1940's) and Toyota believes it today. No one will ever be exactly what we want and so some training is always necessary.  What many people don't realize is that before some of that training can take place, the individual usually must "unlearn" some habits from their previous employer.  The overall cost is usually much higher to hire a new person than it is to retrain an existing employee.  Some people are finally learning this in our recent economic downturn. Instead of laying off employees, the are retaining them and, if necessary, retraining them.  This is also a good time to train them for other skills or to improve their existing skills.  Developing the workforce this way makes the organization

significantly stronger in skills and allegiance.  Naturally, it is not good for an organization to become too inbred, but most organizations should take more responsibility for training than they do, since you can't buy everything.

Mr Holtz sums it up quite succintly.

"Success is an illusion when you confuse work with performance."

                                                                                    Anonymous

Too often people work hard and do not really think about what they are doing. Because they have worked hard, they often believe they should be compensated for their efforts.  If they have not added value, they may not be rewarded and this can cause disagreements.  Before we engage in a task for which we expect

compensation, we should always make sure we understand the value we are expected to add and the requirements for that value.

“Education lays the foundation of a large portion of the causes of mental disorder."
(Jarvis had studied 1,741 cases of insanity and concluded that “over-study” was responsible for 204 of them.)

                                                                                    Edward Jarvis, US Commissioner of Education, 1871

It is interesting how our thinking changes over the years.  "In the education journals of the day, there were constant worries about overtaxing students or blunting their natural abilities through too much schoolwork."  Horance Mann, perhaps better known, was part of this thinking.  To see such a dramatic shift in thinking in just 138 years should give us pause to realize that many of today's  "absolute truths" should be given deeper thought. [This quote and the above  are from Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown, 2008.]

“Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum, the forces that are within you.”

                                                                                    David Sarnoff

Everyone has their own idea of what success is, which results in people succeeding at various objectives. I could post many more definitions of success and they would all seem reasonable, but they might not all be acceptable to you as a definition you would follow.

"In order to succeed we must first think we can."

                                                                                      Michael Korda

    This goes along with Henry Ford's quote that appeared here a week ago.  One point that should be made is that in a group environment, not everyone must think the task can be accomplished as long as the leader does.  Often we are assigned a

seemingly impossible task to find out that we could do it after all.  However, if the leader does not not know that the task can be accomplished but wants to "stretch" the people's abilities, s/he must be ready to accept that the task actually is not possible if they do not accomplish it.  In order for that to happen, the leader must have confidence in his/her people and believe that they have tried their hardest.

The underlying presumption is that we will be allowed to fail.  This must be true because humans cannot succeed every time they try something.  The realty is that many people will not accept faiilure in others, perhaps because they see it as a weakness.  Although, I believe it is generally known that people must try something that they do not know they can do in order to grow, failure is often seen as stagnation or loss instead of growth.

Henry may not have been the first person to say this, but he has probably been quoted more than any one else regarding it.  This goes to attitude and desire.  When research is done on succes and we surely do not want to "die trying," but often we underestimate of what we are capable.  The key is knowing our own capabilities and that is very difficult to do.

“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”

John Homer Miller

Attitude is everything, but this doesn't mean that you have to walk around acting like a pollyanna.  We have to recognize the good and the bad in events, but we should  not start thinking the sky is falling.  Bad things happen to everyone.  Successful people have the atitude that recognizes that and drives them to turn "lemons into  lemonaide."

"Training is not a function that you can delegate. You can get help, but the best training man in your plant is the president of that company — he has to train his organization."
Walter Dietz, In a speech October 16, 1943

Many people view training as a formalized process where a trainer is instructing a trainee how to do a specific task such as operating a drill press or entering a purchase order.  In its truest sense, training should be considered as the act of transferring knowledge.  Considered in those terms, one can realize that any one who gives instructions to another is, in effect, delivering training.  That is why training should be considered as the responsibility of all supervisors, whether they are the CEO or on the assembly line.

"Don’t, whatever you do, go into another plant talk to Mr. XYZ, and come back to your plant with a ready-made training program - it will not fit your company. Unless a training program meets current needs, it is no good, it won’t work."
Walter Dietz, In a speech October 16, 1943

This is true not only of training but also of all other management tools and techniques. Basic principles can be carried from one organization to another, but attempting to transfer more than that usually results in less than desired results.  The simple reason for this is that organizations are composed of individuals with unique personalities.  Various personalities result in various behaviors, which in turn result in various cultures.

"— real training is done by the operating force.  This responsibility for training cannot be delegated. If management tries to escape this responsibility it means that so-called training becomes an employee activity — very interesting, a builder of good will — but it doesn't’t produce results.

Walter Deitz, in a speech October 16, 1943

Management often thinks training is a function of the "training department," but in a broad sense, training is the transfer of knowledge and thus management's responsibility and duty.  If it is not driven and monitored by management, it won't have the desired outcomes.

"You cannot separate supervision and training any more than you can separate living and breathing. When you stop living, you stop breathing and when you stop breathing, you stop living. It is the same with supervision and training — whenever you supervise you train."

Walter Deitz, in a speech October 16, 1943

Training is an integral part of supervision, whether done formally or informally.

"Three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying: autonomy, complexity, connection between effort and reward."

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, Little, Brown, 2008

Consider this when you see someone who is not performing well or who does not like his/her job.  Autonomy means the person has some control over what s/he does.  Complexity means that it must be mentally challenging with respect to the individual's abilities. Connection between effort and reward means that the person must see some purpose in what s/he does and that should match what they are given for the task.

"Just as there are no little people or unimportant lives,, there is no insignificant work."

- Elena Bonner

"Three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying: autonomy, complexity, connection between effort and reward."

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, Little, Brown, 2008

Consider this when you see someone who is not performing well or who does not like his/her job.  Autonomy means the person has some control over what s/he does.  Complexity means that it must be mentally challenging with respect to the individual's

abilities. Connection between effort and reward means that the person must see some purpose in what s/he does and that should match what they are given for the task.

"Don't try to be a great man.  Just be a man and let history make its own judgment."

- Commander Riker, "Star Trek, The Second Generation" Television Series

Quote contributed by Jim Huntzinger

Sometimes we try too hard and lose sight of the objective.  We should do our best and strive to do what is right and the consequences will be appropriate.

1: Our society is so entrenched in reward systems that thinking about living without them is traumatic. 2: It is much easier to use a reward system than it is to create an environment where people are intrinsically motivated.