The Current Crisis - A Blessing Or Wound?

One of my favorite authors is Patrick Lencioni. We have used his Five Dysfunctions Of A Team as a text to improve our MHBT Construction and Bond Team. His new thing is The Simple Wisdom Project - a source of perspective and common sense found through rediscovering simpletruths.
Here's his latest email on our financial crisis.

For your own free subscription go to: www.simplewisdomproject.com.

Enjoy!


"Simple Wisdom Project POV: March 2009

A Blessing or a Wound?

Okay. This financial mess we’re in is definitely a crisis. The full extent of the problem is unclear, but a few things are likely. It is global. It will be long. And for those of us under the age of seventy five, it will probably be unprecedented and, thus, will change our lives.

The big question we need to be asking ourselves is “how will it change our lives?” And there are only two possible answers to that question: for better, or for worse. That’s right. Sometime in the future we will look back at this time and see it largely as a blessing or as a wound. The key to determining which of these will occur—in our families as well as our nation—lies in how we view suffering and the decisions we make as a result.

Ironically, I’m not as worried about our collective ability to survive this crisis—people are always more resilient than they think they are—but rather about what we might do before we feel its full impact. That’s because the anticipation of pain and suffering is often worse than the suffering itself.
I remember when I was a boy waiting for my dad to come down the hall and give me one of his rare but much-deserved spankings. It was misery. But I also remember that the spanking itself was never all that bad, and that when it was over I felt no resentment for my usually gentle dad. In fact, I quickly came to feel a sense of gratitude and relief because I had endured the punishment and pain, and could move forward stronger and better for it.

However, if you would have asked me before the spanking what I would have done to get out of it, I would have said ‘anything.’ Lied. Begged. Faked remorse. Sold my baseball cards. And that’s what worries me. Will we be so desperate to avoid or delay or even anesthesize ourselves from pain and suffering that we will make dangerous decisions which will only prolong and exacerbate our problems? Or will we take our medicine and allow it to make us stronger?

For families, desperation and danger can manifest itself in small and large ways, from over-investment in the time and energy we give to our work or the adoption of an unhealthy diet, to more serious vices like substance abuse, infidelity and gambling. These are particularly tempting during a crisis because they seem to provide a sense of distraction and relief, albeit a false one.

On the other hand, a crisis can be an opportunity to recommit to what is most important in life. It is a chance to cut back on unnecessary or non-critical activities and pursuits, and work to appreciate the real joy and blessing of being a family, which has much less to do with money than we seem to believe during times of prosperity. I realize that this might seem like a meaningless cliché to people who are already struggling to pay bills in their families, but in the end, proving that we can endure a crisis without sacrificing our principles really is its own reward. The fact is, even if we have to move to a smaller home or take a job that we had thought to be beneath us, we can emerge from all of this with what is far more valuable than any financial asset.

Now, when it comes to a nation, these ideas apply as well. Before and during times of difficulty, countries are often tempted to abandon principles that have always served them well but which are temporarily inconvenient. National leaders often justify policy decisions that they know to be wrong because they hope that they will somehow reduce or delay pain and suffering. But just like a family, these decisions usually prolong or exacerbate the pain, and sometimes in ways that are irreversible.

One of the examples that come to mind in the United States right now is a readiness to spend money that we don’t have to prevent some companies, agencies and other institutions from facing their mistakes. Another is the well-intentioned but misguided willingness to “forgive” unwise homeowners or others who have lived outside of their means, thereby rewarding them for bad behavior. In the end, we will find ourselves moving closer and closer to socialism, something that is dangerous but worthy of another POV of its own.

All too often, what looks like a life preserver in a storm often turns out to be an anchor for the individuals and society who swim toward it. This has proven to be the case again and again throughout the past century, and yet, when the going gets tough, we often forget history.

It is my hope and prayer that we, as families and as a nation, will have the courage and strength and wisdom to endure whatever pain and suffering comes our way, and to emerge on the other side with our principles and confidence and future intact. And that we will look back at this crisis not as a wound that scars us, but as a blessing that will rain down on our children for years to come.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Yours,

Patrick Lencioni"

Great perspective.

TPE3

Fort Worth Project Substantially Under Estimate

Today the Fort Worth Press indicated construction costs are down on current projects:

Stakes marked the ground March 3 for the pending Will Rogers parking garage in Fort Worth and some city officials couldn’t help but think they got a steal of a deal on the project, which locked in a winning bid of nearly $4.5 million less than engineering estimates drawn up last fall.

A steal or not, engineers for the Western Heritage Parking Garage at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum estimated the project would cost about $21 million. But with a winning bid of $16.5 million, the garage is just the latest example of public projects saving a bundle as construction prices drop. W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. will be building the garage.

“Those estimates were based on a garage that was done last year before things really turned in the real estate industry, but there was concern that [$21 million] wouldn’t be enough,” said Randle Harwood, program management office director for the city of Fort Worth. “This is about a 25 percent savings for us and that’s a big difference that can make a big difference. And other bids weren’t far off – the next one was $17 million – and when bidders are close like that, it’s the right price, which is great for us because this will allow us to stretch those dollars allocated to get more roads and better buildings.”

Harwood said the costs of construction products such as steel and asphalt have gone down because of a combination of lower diesel prices and the global economic slowdown that has put many commercial projects on hold, which has increased competition among contractors.

For entities such as the city of Fort Worth, this means a trip back to the drawing board. “As we move forward we’ll continue to see this impact from the pressure on bidding and it’s forcing us to go back and re-look at all of our cost estimates,” Harwood said.

For entire article go to www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=9710

Fort Worth Business Press
BY ALESHIA HOWE
March 09, 2009

Living in Color

Guy Kawasaki's blog, How To Change The World (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/), pointed me to a couple of articles at Edelman, a global PR firm (http://www.edelman.com) I thought you might find interesting. More about the articles later. I was fascinated with Edelman's concept, Living In Color. Here's how they describe it on their website:

"At Edelman, what we do inside our offices is only half the story. 'Living in Color' is the other half. Living in Color is part of the Edelman culture, an aspiration for every one of our employees to be curious about the world around them, to explore the world outside their cubes and offices, to immerse themselves in the arts, culture, politics, literature, charitable organizations and/or wherever else their passions and interests may take them.

Edelman believes that its staff's personal growth and professional growth are intertwined. In keeping with that belief, Edelman has committed itself to aiding its employees' efforts to 'Live In Color'.

What does 'Living In Color' mean?

It means leading a culturally rich and rewarding life outside of work. It means spending time with family. It means giving back to your community. It means taking the time to learn about the world around you and your place in it.

While Living In Color can mean a lot of things, perhaps one Edelman's employees provided the best interpretation when she wrote:

'Living In Color Means...
...reading one or two (or three) newspapers every day. It's developing an ever growing interest for the place you live in, the world you live in. It's watching the news. It's expanding into new interests, opening doors. Living In Color is not "what you do after work" - it's what you do with your life. It never stops. It's agreeing to work for a pro-bono client, and helping another team - or office - with a project, so you can get exposed to things outside your area of comfort. It's understanding how what you do fits into the bigger picture. It's becoming an active, joyful participant in whatever you think is worth your time. If you are a contributor to making this office a better place beyond your account work, you're living in color. If you vote, you're living in color. If you volunteer, you're living in color. If you spend yourself in a worthy cause, you're living in color.

Living in Color doesn't "take time." It's how you fill the time you have. It's realizing you're part of something bigger than you.

If you think living in color is expensive, or something you can't afford, you're missing the point. Living in color is like living. It's yours. It's free.' " Isn't that fantastic?

Now the articles . . . First is:

Five Digital Communications Trends You Should Know

In Edelman’s latest white paper, Steve Rubel, Director of Digital Insights, highlights five of the more compelling digital trends to watch for in 2009, that impact how you effectively engage audiences online:

• Satisfaction Guaranteed - Customer care and PR blend as consumers use social media to demand service
  
• Media Reforestation - The media’s reinvention as it transitions to digital
  
• Less is the New More - As information overload takes its toll, friends are helping to filter
  
• Corporate All-Stars – How workers are building their personal brands, yet offering employers a new way to market
  
• The Power of Pull - The benefits of creating content that people discover through search
  

Read the article at www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/EdelmanDigitalTrends0109.pdf

The second article is:

The Social Pulpit - The Change Brought By Barack Obama’s Success

Barack Obama won the presidency in a landslide victory by converting everyday people into engaged and empowered volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, e-mail advocacy, text messaging and online video. By combining social media and micro-targeting in the manner that it did, the campaign revealed force multipliers that are already being adopted as part of a new communications model. This examines the tactics of this revolutionary campaign and what it means for communicators in a new era of public engagement. How will your business be affected?

Full article: www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/Social%20Pulpit%20-%20Barack%20Obamas%20Social%20Media%20Toolkit%201.09.pdf

Understanding Our Current Financial Mess - The End Of Wall Street's Boom

Michael Lewis, author of Panic, has written an article that clearly gives the complex details of how we got into our current financial mess. The article has many quotes of some of the players with language that is pretty rough. Here's how the article starts:

The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.

To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street is to allocate capital—to decide who should get it and who should not. Believe me when I tell you that I hadn’t the first clue.

I’d never taken an accounting course, never run a business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job at Salomon Brothers in 1985 and stumbled out much richer three years later, and even though I wrote a book about the experience, the whole thing still strikes me as preposterous—which is one of the reasons the money was so easy to walk away from. I figured the situation was unsustainable. Sooner rather than later, someone was going to identify me, along with a lot of people more or less like me, as a fraud. Sooner rather than later, there would come a Great Reckoning when Wall Street would wake up and hundreds if not thousands of young people like me, who had no business making huge bets with other people’s money, would be expelled from finance . . .

To read the entire article go to: http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom

Revised I-9 Form Must Be Used After 4-3-09

All employers are required to document that each newly hired worker is authorized to work in the United States. Each new employee must complete a Form I-9 and furnish acceptable documentation. The employer is responsible for ensuring that the form is completed properly and prior to the date of hire. This change was effective 2-2-09 but has now been extended to 4-3-09.

Employers must examine evidence of identity and employment authorization and record the required information in Section 2 of the form. The employer is required to retain a copy of this form.

For a copy of the NEW form and detailed instructions including acceptable documentation go to: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-9_IFR_02-02-09.pdf

Prepare For The Future Turnarond In The Economy NOW

One of my favorite authors is Patrick Lencioni. We have used his Five Dysfunctions Of A Team as a text to improve our MHBT Construction and Bond Team. Here's his latest email on preparing now for the turnaround in the economy. For your own free subscription go to: http://www.tablegroup.com/.

All The Best For A Great 2009,

TPE3


January 2009


The “Down Economy” Bandwagon


It seems like we’ve been preparing for this current recession for the past two or three years, constantly predicting it and staving it off as long as we could, all the while listening to the media tell us that it was just around the corner. And now that it is here—and it is here—we’re witnessing a new media-inspired cottage industry building up around the “down economy” and the bad times that are upon us and that lie ahead.


Every news story seems to have the addendum “in a bad economy” attached to it. I suspect that soon there will be a new “Recession Barbie” doll on toy store shelves, complete with a frown on her face and a copy of the job listings from the newspaper in her hands.


Well, so far I’ve resisted jumping onto the “down economy” bandwagon, not wanting to contribute to any self-fulfilling prophecy or culture of victimization that can make a bad situation worse. But after numerous requests, I’ve agreed to share my own perspectives about how leaders can survive and even thrive during difficult times.


The first thing we have to do is ask ourselves a fundamental question: do we believe things will get better? If we don’t, if we believe this is the definitive end to any upside in the economy and that it’s all downhill from here, then I’m afraid I have no good advice. Aside from moving somewhere that does have an economic upside.


But most of us would admit that this, too, will rebound. Maybe not the same way it has in the past. After all, there are some fundamental problems that we haven’t yet faced. But even in the absence of that, there is a good chance that we will experience an economic upturn sometime in the not-too-too-distant future. And if that is the case, our call to action is clear: use this time to invest in your organization’s future, especially when the investment is not a financial one.


The best place for an investment right now is in the general health of an organization. I’m talking mostly about improving the functioning of the executive team, and their clarification of and recommitment to the organization’s values and purpose. Doing this will require a little time and energy, but very little money. And it will yield significant returns now, and even more when the economy rebounds. How?


A wise executive team will take this opportunity during slow times to build greater trust and behavioral cohesiveness. This will benefit the organization by minimizing politics and infighting, that are common during difficult times, and it will allow the team to make better decisions about which programs and employees need to be retained and which shouldn’t. All of this will allow the organization to emerge stronger than ever when the economy turns around, and with a meaningful advantage over competitors.


That’s because most of those competitors will probably flail during down times, frantically searching for a tactical way to swim upstream and defy the current, leading to even more frustration and angst than is necessary. In the end they’ll simply be more weary and scarred and unprepared.


Of course, like so much of the advice that people are repositioning these days for a “down economy”, none of this is really new. Even during good times leaders should be investing in the health of their teams. But with so many shiny opportunities in front of them, they often fail to slow down and do what it is best for the long term. Now that there are fewer and fewer of those shiny opportunities, there is no good excuse. And that may turn out to be a good thing.


Yours,



Patrick Lencioni

The Art Of Laying People Off

One of my favorite bloggers is Guy Kawasaki (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/11/the-art-of-layi.html). This post is from his blog How To Change The World and from his new book, Reality Check. This seems particularly appropriate in these times. Read on & learn . . .

The Art of Laying People Off
Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World November 18th, 2008 - 11:47 PM

I hope that you never have to lay off or fire people, but the reality is that you will as you advance in your career. If you are scoffing (“Guy, you are clueless: We’ll never downsize, because we’re growing so fast, and I’ll never make a bad hire”), then you’re my intended reader.

• Take responsibility. Ultimately, it is the CEO’s decision to make the cuts, so don’t blame it on the board of directors, market conditions, competition, or whatever else. In effect, she should simply say, “I made the decision. This is what we’re going to do.” If you don’t have the courage to do this, don’t be a CEO. Now, more than ever, the company will need a leader, and leaders accept responsibility.


• Cut deep and cut once. Management usually believes that
  things will get better soon, so it cuts the smallest number of people in anticipation of a miracle. Most of the time, the miracle doesn’t materialize, and the company ends up making multiple cuts. Given the choice, you should cut too deeply and risk the high-quality problem of having to rehire. Multiple cuts are terrible for the morale of the employees who have not been laid off.


• Move fast. One hour after your management team discusses the need to lay off employees, the entire company will know that something is happening. Once people “know” a layoff is coming, productivity drops like a rock. You’re either laying people off or you’re not—you should avoid the state of “considering” a layoff.


• Clean house. A layoff is an opportunity to terminate marginal employees without having to differentiate between poor performers and positions that you’re eliminating. It’s good for the marginal employee because he’s not tainted with getting fired. Finally, it’s good for the employees who remain because they will see that you know who’s performing and who isn’t.


• Whack Teddy. Most executives have hired a friend, a friend of a friend, or a relative as a favor. When a layoff happens, employees will be looking to see what happens to Teddy. “Did he survive the cut or did he go? Is it cronyism or competence that counts at the company?” Make sure that Ted is dead.


• Share the pain. When people around you are losing their jobs, you can share the pain, too. Cut your pay. In fact, the higher the employee, the bigger the percentage of pay reduction. Take a smaller office. Turn in the company car. Reassign your personal assistant to a revenue-generating position. Fly coach. Stay in motels. Sell the boxseat tickets to the ball game. Give your 30-inch flat-panel display to a programmer who could use it to debug faster. Do something, however symbolic.


• Show consistency. I cannot understand how companies can claim that they have to cut costs and then provide severance packages of six months to a year of salary. You would think that if they wanted to conserve cash, they’d give tiny severance packages. Typically, there are three lines of reasoning for generous severance packages: Cutting head count, even with severance packages, is cheaper than keeping the employee around indefinitely, and we don’t want any lawsuits; We have lots of cash, so our balance sheet is strong, but we need to cut heads to make our profit-and-loss statement look better, and Wall Street (or your investors) is expecting dramatic actions, so we need to do this to show the analysts that we’ve got what it takes to be a leader.
  None of these reasons makes sense. If you need to do a layoff to cut costs (and conserve cash), then provide minimal severance packages, cut costs as much as you can, conserve as much cash as you can, and deal with your guilt in other ways. If nothing else, it’s a consistent story.


• Don’t ask for pity. Sometimes managers go to great lengths to show the person they’re laying off (or firing) how hard it is on them. This reminds me of the old definition of chutzpah: A boy murders his parents and then asks the court for leniency because he’s an orphan. The person who suffers is the one being terminated, not the manager.


• Provide support. Usually, the people getting laid off aren’t at fault. More likely, it was the fault of top management—the same top management with golden parachutes. Hence, you have a moral obligation to provide services like job counseling, résumé-writing assistance, and job-search help. There are firms that specialize in helping employees during “transitions,” so use them.


• Don’t let people self-select. We had a joke at Apple during the dark days of the late eighties that went like this: We would announce that employees who want to quit should come to a big meeting. Those who want to stay at the company should not attend. Then we would let the people go who didn’t attend the meeting and keep the ones who wanted to quit—because the latter were smart enough to know that we were in bad shape or that they had better opportunities elsewhere. The point is that if you let people choose to get laid off or retire, you might lose your best people. Deciding whom to lay off is a proactive decision: Select the go-forward team to ensure that you never have to lay people off again. Do not leave this to chance.


• Show people the door. With few exceptions, all you should do is let people finish the day, maybe the week. (My theory is that Friday is the best day to do a layoff because it lets people have a weekend to decompress.) Showing people the door seems inhumane, but it’s better for both the people leaving and the people remaining.


• Move forward. Let people say good-bye and then get going. This is when leadership counts. In bad times, you separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls. After the layoff, this is what the remaining employees will be wondering about:
  Guilt: “Why did I survive the cut and my colleagues didn’t?”
  Future of my job: “Will I survive the next round if there are more cuts?”
  Future of the company: “Will the company survive at all?”
  So you set—or reemphasize—goals, explain what everyone needs to do to get there, and get going, because the best way to move beyond a layoff is to get back to work.


• Immediately after a layoff, you might want to retreat to your office, turn off the phones, stop answering e-mails, and avoid everyone. These are the worst actions to take. This is the time for you to motivate by walking around. Employees need to see you, talk to you, and get your help and advice. They don’t want to think their leader is cowering in some foxhole. The brave face that you put on may be a charade, but it’s an important charade.
  

Reprinted by permission from Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. In other words, I asked myself if it was okay. If you liked this chapter, there are ninety-three more where this came from.