UU Wisdom

It was a lay-led service yesterday at church. The topic was 'Getting Old Ain't For Sissies'. Tom, one of the church members, gave a warm, funny and moving description of the challenges he is facing as he ages and deals with Parkinson's Disease.

Tom is 72 and has been diagnosed with Parkinson's for 10 years and aging since birth. He spoke about the compromises he's made over the years to curtail his activities as his physical capacity diminishes. Tom told us that one of the oddest features of Parkinson's is that his handwriting is shrinking. It keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Tom thanked other older congregants for modeling aging with grace. He became emotional when talking about his mother-in-law, who at 96, remained a vibrant, encouraging and non-judgmental person.

Tom's story was one of hope and attitude. In fact, as a foundation for his talk he used an essay by Roger Cohen titled 'Do not go gently into the night.' Tom is not going gently into the night. He still splits and stacks cord wood for his wood stove, although now he does it with his brother. Tom still rides his bicycle, now cycling 150 miles over three days rather than 300. And Tom refuses, at this point, to float into the 5th stage of grief - acceptance.

Tom's is the story of the human condition. To be alive is to be dealing with a death sentence. All of our stories end the same. How we live in each moment creates our character and either fills our lives with joy or with despair. Sometimes both.

For today, for now, I choose to follow Tom's lead and create and maintain a positive attitude.

Paris Planning

I hope visiting Paris isn't as exhausting as planning for it. Man, that was tiring. K and I went down to Panera yesterday, bought a coffee and began pouring over our trip. Not surprisingly, we shared a mutual desire to visit many of the museums and sites.

We are planning all the major museums - The Louvre, Musee des Orangeries, Musee des Orsay, Musee des Picasso - and even a few of the smaller ones as time permits. We've planned three walking tours, a Segway tour and a Seine River cruise. We avoided the dinner cruise, preferring local restaurants to the limited selection on the cruise boats.

Of course, we are planning to visit the Eiffel Tower and walk down Champs Elysees which will get us to the Arc de Triomphe. I'm going to invest in a pair of SuperFeet because we're going to be on our feet 10 - 14 hours a day. We may only get to Paris once.

Trying to arrange the Segway Tour was an exercise in frustration. I used my plastic to schedule and pay for the tour only to be denied because of the international location of the rental shop. Stupidly, I then tried my ATM card only to get the same results. Both cards were shut down by the respective banks. Fortunately, my ATM bank called me, determined that it was not fraud and switched it back on. Waiting for the other credit union to contact me about the credit card.

The weather looks to be good when we get there. Not warm by any stretch, but mid-50s and fortunately no rain.

Bonjour!

In Wherein I Discover Bullet Journaling

This was a real Wow moment for me. I'm really not sure how I stumbled upon bullet journals - I think I might have been looking for a way to organize my note taking and this just jumped off the screen for me.

For those that don't know, a bullet journal is an analog system that takes advantage of index (really just a table of contents), calendars, future logs, daily logs, collections and trackers. It's brilliantly simple yet you can get as elaborate as you like. Many practitioners use calligraphy and very creative and skillful drawings to augment their journals.

I'm digging it because of the indexing. At any given time, I have four or five journals going. At first, each journal was dedicated to a specific subject. Of course, as time goes on, and one journal is left at home, another in the car, I begin to misappropriate the use of each of the journals. As you might guess, that makes looking for notes I took on a meeting like looking for a needle in the haystack event.

I've used the journal for the better part of a week. A few mistakes have been made and I already see a brilliant hack for special projects or vacations or any topic where I might want a dedicated journal. This involves only the index, calendar and daily logs. I may also include collections because it would be handy to have a page for 'project ideas' and include this in the index.

March will be the first full month for its use and I think any useful errors will be made here.

Put Me In Coach

Managing for performance is a drag. The effort that this takes subtracts from energy that is better used coaching for development. 

It may sound like a distinction without a difference, but these are separate concepts that produce wildly different results. Managing for performance is tracking and measuring; accountability and planning; direct supervision and explanation. Coaching for development is guided exploration of possibilities; allowing what is important for an organization to emerge through mindful conversation and discussion; expanding the capacity of the individual and the organization.

Coaching for development does not take the place of managing for performance, but it makes it less important. Staff who are being coached and developed properly will find it in themselves to set goals and take on new initiatives. The measurement system becomes obsolete and the leader's time is spent on more developmental concerns. It creates a virtuous cycle.

Managing for performance is a rat race. Especially if there are members of the staff who deflect and resist, even passively. Understanding the energy required to manage performance effectively, disengaged staff can hide behind policies and rules, co-workers and clients and simply claim, once the failure is duly diagnosed, that he did not understand the expectation. The manager failed. Again.

Even after the leader recognizes and understands the patterns that are emerging with disengaged staff, it takes a commitment to 'insist' to begin to change the patterns. The follow up becomes the key, because it is here that the experienced and passive-resistant staff live - the land of no follow-up and accountability. 

It means building systems that are easily measurable and represent the values of the organization and the leader. For me, this has more to do with effort than with actual results. It sounds odd to say that as someone responsible for the output of a department, but there are so many variables in what will produce results. The value that weaves its way through all results, however, is effort. Finding a way to emphasize work ethic and effort and building faith that the results will come are critical to moving staff and clients away from the existing, non-productive dynamics.

These dynamics do not exist in a vacuum. They are self-reinforcing and have, over the decades, created a vicious cycle of inertia. Both parties have low expectations for each other and then live up to those standards. If we achieve that low bar.

To reach the goals I have set for this year means a new approach. Leading with heart and backbone. Building in accountability and follow up without micro-managing. Setting the minimum entry fee, measure it and provide feedback on the basics. Do this as efficiently as possible so that coaching for development and building capacity can move in and take over.

I'm starting with me.

Entering the No Innovation Zone

During a conversation at work last week, a staff member stated, matter of factly, that we were in the 'no innovaton zone' on a project he was working on. He explained that he wanted to introduce no new ideas to a committee he believed could not handle anything more than what they always do. Adding anything new would work only to upset the stuttering, clunky operation that was barely capable of getting to the finish line.

It's hard to describe how that hit me. The last 20 - 25 years of my career have been built on breaking the status quo and refusing to cede any of my power to the arbitrary expectations or standards set by others. The great work that I am most proud of exists outside of most norms - from community-built projects to political campaigns to organized labor. I see breaking the status quo as a feature not a bug.

It was also a brief glimpse inside the thinking of a senior staff member in the organization. The 'no innovation zone' says more about the person holding the thought than the committee he was referring to. His self-censorship of new thinking and extremely low belief in the people he is working with are indictments on a culture stuck with no place to go.

Figuring out where the challenge is for me here is tough. It seems more a matter of people not wanting to put the effort in to break the inertia than either not knowing how or why. There's no desire to break new ground and experiment with ideas.

Bright, Bright Sunshiny Day

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” MLK.

Belief is a powerful remedy. Particularly in the face of adversity. For labor unions, belief in the mission in the midst of the political adversity is what will help us succeed. Our story is not written - and it has no ending. We get to participate in each chapter. Believe it.

The NH House will be voting on so-called Right to Work this coming Thursday. The Labor Committee voted the two RtW bills Inexpedient to Legislate. Essentially, ITL is a recommendation from the committee to the House to defeat the bill. Despite the strong 14 - 7 committee vote, the vote in the full House will be close. The anti-union, out-of-state forces that support union-busting are heavily invested in making NH the first New England state to adopt so-called Right to Work. There will be a furious effort from far-right groups to make this a reality in the coming weeks.

So-called Right to Work impacts all workers. Study after study show that, by any measure, Right to Work hurts working families by reducing wages, benefits and retirement. Modern day union-busting is about continuing to clear the way for the wealthy elite to tilt the economic playing field to such an extent that there is no recovery for workers.

Labor unions have been in retrenchment since the early 1970's. It has been a long period of isolation and delusional protectionism, thinking that if we just look out for our own interest. It hasn't worked - it is never enough. Capitalism is a system that is designed to keep eating everything in its path. It is a system that is producing exactly what it is designed to produce; a very few winners and billions of losers. If left unchecked, capitalism will eat us all.

This is why it is critical to abandon what we are against, and begin building a future based on what we are for. We are for better wages and benefits for workers. We are for leave time for young families and improved retirement for seniors. Labor unions support dignity, fairness and respect in the workplace. We are for liberty, justice and freedom for ALL. We support equal rights and pay for women and minorities.

It is a strong, challenging mission. It is understandable that people who are in a daily struggle for existence would find it difficult to believe that a better future can be created. But it can, if you believe it can. Our current circumstances are dictated by what we believe to be true about ourselves. The limits we see are constructs of our minds and are not governed by the laws of physics - only by our limiting beliefs.

Believe in a better future. See it. Revel in the visualization. Dr. King inspired people by putting words to his 'Dream'. He was helping us to see it so that the universe would conspire with us to make it happen. 

See the bright, happy future. Make it happen.

Duckspeak

We're living through a political environment without precedent in this country. Trump is a demagogue and a charlatan. He has no special skills or knowledge that will assist him in the management of our country.  He has surrounded himself with sycophants and yes-people and he and his team are working overtime to create an alternative universe for his supporters.

The combination of racism/bigotry masquerading as nationalism plus the ability to manufacture the alternate facts has me the most worried. Trump is creating a political environment that has the potential to turn violent when he is held accountable by the checks and balances in our system.  Or, worse, there is the possibility that Trump incites violence on citizens who are protesting his actions.

Trump's campaign rhetoric is still in full force. He attacked a federal judge for ruling against the executive order that Trump issued regarding the immigration ban from Muslim countries. He is systematically undermining every institution we have in an effort to advance his agenda unchecked.

It's a truly remarkable moment in our history, unlike any other time. There is no rational way of working through the uncertainty because Trump has ripped up all political playbooks and is flying by the seat of his pants. It's not sustainable - and when it flames out, it has the potential to be a cataclysmic catastrophe.

There will be no ducking from the fallout.

Rep Kurk has his hands in the pockets of current and future State of NH employees.  He's digging to find cash to give tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.

Make no mistake about it.  This is a robbery.  There are no guns or masks.  Only hostages and victims.  There is a concerted effort to transfer more money and power into the hand of the 1%.

Take Action Before Your Retirement Benefits Get Taken Away by the Legislature Representative Neal Kurk of Weare introduced two bills in the New Hampshire House that, if passed, would destroy retiree health insurance protection. HB 653 would institute a minimum of 12.5 percent health insurance premium contribution from over-65 and Medicare-eligible retirees, instating an income tax of sorts on a targeted group of people. HB 645 would end retiree health insurance for any state employee hired after July 1, 2017, and puts ALL RETIREES IN THE STATE, present and future, into a voucher-style system, which rather than providing a defined insurance benefit, provides a set amount of money with which to buy insurance on the open market. Read these bills here: HB 653 HB 645 Both these bills are imminent threats to all State of NH employees. You must act! Contact your representative and tell them to VOTE NO on these bills.  Click here to find your representative on the NH House of Representatives website. The State of New Hampshire must live up to the obligations it has made to public sector workers. After dedicating years of public service, workers hope to retire with dignity and have the assurances made to them remain intact. Many spend years carefully planning their retirement around promises made to them when they began work. Instituting a premium contribution on our senior citizens will have a cruel impact – many will easily wind up spending their retirement years living in poverty. The State of New Hampshire is grappling with recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce across all segments of state service. The classification system is antiquated and ineffective, with many jobs lagging so far behind the pay scale some vacancies remain open for months. Reducing retirement benefits will only serve to increase the recruitment and retention gap that exists.  Finally, it is outrageous the supporters of these bills will force current and future retirees into poverty and reduce the state’s ability to attract quality candidates, so they can turn around and provide tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. Giving tax breaks at the expense of seniors who dedicated their lives to public service is immoral and absolutely unacceptable. Take action today. If you are a nonmember, consider joining the SEA today. Because retirement benefits are not part of our collective bargaining agreement, we are prohibited from using agency fee funds to advocate for these benefits. The fight to protect retirement benefits is borne solely by members. Please join today and add your voice to our growing chorus calling for the state to live up to the promises made to us. If you know a non-member, share this message. Persuade them to join us in this fight. Click here to join.