Lots of businesses this time of year are working at improving processes to better compete in the marketplace. The goal might be to increase quality, decrease cost, increase safety, better satisfy the customer, or a combination of these worthy goals.

I was in a meeting recently where we were planning to change and improve a process in the way a certain task was to be done. One of the people said with a sigh, “we’ll explain the new procedure and hope for the best.” Suddenly alarms started going off in my head. I heard bells and sirens. I saw big flashing red lights. Then, inside my head, a booming voice yelled, “Hoping for the best won’t work… make it a process designed for success and get help from those who will actually be doing the work!”

So, I offered a different approach. Start with telling those doing the task what the expected outcome would be, tell them why the change was being instituted, tell them how and when the results would be measured, and then once the new procedure was in place for a short while, ask for further input to make the procedure better.

That’s the “Managing by Intention” model. Start with what you “intend” the outcome to be and then figure out what you need to do to get that outcome. There is a much higher possibility of success this way than if you dictate a change and hope. Why? Because the people who are actually putting the change into practice will know and understand the background for the change – the who, what, where, and why. This way, you’ve answered their questions before they’ve formulated them. You’ve eliminated, or at least diminished, negativity. When it’s all explained, it isn’t as if the change is being instituted as an arbitrary whim or “change for the sake of change.”

One of the goals of every change is to get the people who the change affects to embrace it, or at the very least, to embrace it enough to give it a try. Then, if you ask them to go one step further to co-create it by evaluating and tweaking it to make it stronger and more productive, you will have a much better chance of success than if you force it on them and cross your fingers and hope.

When engaged people are confronted with a challenge, chances are they will use their creativity to create a positive outcome.Question or comment to Larry: larry@larrygaller.com

Sure, we can all blame something some times in our lives. It takes the genuinely enlightened person though to simply correct themselves instead of fume with hate, anger and impatience. When I say things that seem like “tripe” like: “We all love to win and get to the mountain top, but who loves to train or climb up there and do the work.” That is exactly what I mean in life, if we really want to get where we want to get we must do the foot and leg work, or fake it all the way, appropriating or whatever. I am not going to mince words here! We must all be real or genuinely nothing at all.
Sure, in this game of life, the night bird flies on when we fake it without the genuine work. That statement means that when we cheat, we genuinely cheat ourselves.
When I think about the work ethic my Dad Joe Clayton had, the above statement is what I genuinely think of. When I think of his opposite Clifford Northern/Samad Ali who did time in the Lompoc, California penitentiary, I still genuinely think of that work ethic being worth something genuine, good, honest and worthy of consideration for all who really want to win in life. My Dad used to say, there are not any real short cuts or easy ways to do it, you just work at it until you get it or get the genuine result you want. On the other hand, Samad used to say, you cannot do anything with what you steal except have irrational “fun” with it, and when you try to act like you earned it or do something lasting, serious and earned with it, the efforts dissolve into nothing “mysteriously”. The “mysterious nothing” factor is that the unearned cannot be appropriated as the earned can be. It can never be “the real thing” or have the factor and seriousness that the earned realities do.
God and patience are in the earned. The devil and impatience are in the unearned. Both in a very pure, realistic and always working way. Reality is what is? Well, that is what it all comes down to. In everything, you have the good and bad? That is what it comes down to. In all fact, if the reality of life can be changed to accommodate a fantasy of not needing to do the foot work, what is it worth?

What makes some people more successful than others, even when they have come from the same backgrounds, attended the same schools and universities and even achieved the same grades? Darren Hardy, the Editor of Success Magazine, has an answer. He says that those people who have achieved great success have found their “Why” and that’s what motivates their action, not money, or the desire for power or status. He tells this powerful story about finding our “Why”.

He tells it like this to his audiences:

If I put a plank across the stage from one side to the other, about half a metre from the floor and offered you $20.00 to walk across it, who would do it?

Almost all the hands in the room go up.

If I put this plank between two buildings, ten storeys up and offered you $20.00, who would walk across?

No one puts up their hand.

If the building at the other end of the plank was on fire and one of your children was lying unconscious at the end of the plank with the flames about to reach her in a few minutes, would you walk across the plank?

Most people put up their hands.

So what’s the difference?

The difference is the WHY.

WHY is a little word that poses a big challenge for us. It is what feeds our motivation.

When we don’t achieve the success we want, it is often because we are not clear about WHY we want it. When it doesn’t happen quickly enough we become depressed. We have nothing to motivate us at a deeper level.

When we give up on our goals a few weeks after we set them, it’s often because we are not clear WHY we want to achieve them. When the going gets tough, we let go and take the easy road to nowhere.

When we fail to differentiate what we do from everyone else who does the same thing, it is usually because our WHY, which is our differentiator, is not clear.

When we have a big enough WHY, the HOW is never an issue. We just do it! We keep on doing it until we achieve what we want.

It’s not easy to find our WHY. It means we have to stop and reflect. Unless we do find it, however, we will always live and work feeling we are not quite making it, feeling there is more to us than we are tapping into.

So find your WHY and let it motivate and drive your life.

How? Find a colleague to help you. Speaking it to someone who keeps coming back to you, asking questions to clarify it, until that colleague is inspired by your WHY and it resonates with you. You then know you have it.

What role does meditation play in Buddhism?

That might seem like a strange question. It plays an important role, certainly. It’s one of the key pillars of the faith.

But what, exactly, does it do?

In Christianity, the purpose of prayer is to connect you with God. Some see it as literally talking to Him, while others see it as opening yourself up to receive what He has to offer.

There are elements of this in Buddhism, sure.

It’s also completely different.

Meditation is nothing short than the pursuit of freedom. I’m writing this a couple of days before the United States celebrates the 4th of July, so maybe freedom is on my mind. I stand by it, though. The practice offers nothing short of total liberation.

Freedom and liberation from what, though?

The world holds many temptations, lures and distractions. These aren’t all bad things. For an altruist, helping people in need is deeply rewarding.

Virtue is a vice when it’s something you can’t ignore.

Then there are the real distractions – what most people think of as vices. People chase these things, even if getting them won’t help them.

Think of someone desperate for a promotion so they can move from a suburban box to a larger suburban box. This goal might consume years of hard work and frustration. As soon as they get it, they feel unsatisfied. They start looking for the next bigger box to acquire.

Ambition and commerce have their place. Things go awry when people believe that they’ll be happy once they reach the next milestone.

They work for years to build themselves a prison.

Maybe you don’t own a house. That doesn’t make you free if your prison is made of other pursuits.

For some, they must keep up with the latest fashions.

Others buy gadgets they don’t want or need.

Still others drudge for 11.5 months of the year to afford a brief holiday.

If these are what give life meaning, they’ll always feel less than fulfilled.

There’s always something new to chase. So what would happen if they stopped chasing? What if, for a moment, they ripped their eyes away from the distant horizon and looked around them?

The moment they find themselves in the moment, they begin to feel free. This might be for the first time in their lives.

What happens next is up to them. Maybe they’ll still pursue the promotion, only this time they do it with both eyes open. They don’t defer satisfaction to some future event outside their control. They seize their attention and bring it to the present.

In a world where everyone looks forward or back, being present is true freedom.

Looking back over my life I honestly can say, giving it a great deal of thought, the biggest problem I have is when I actually think. Thinking can get me into more trouble than anything else I do.

This was no more evident than recently we got a phone call from the bank. I hate it when the bank calls because they never call to wish me happy birthday or wonder how in the world I am doing today. They always have an agenda. Usually, that agenda has to do with my money.

When I answered the phone all I could say was, “Here we go again.”

Much to my relief it was not about my account, but rather it was the bank account of the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. I cannot tell you the smile that slapped itself all over my face when I heard this.

Immediately I called my wife to the phone and said, “It’s your bank calling you about your account.” Smilingly I handed the phone to her.

For years, we have had separate accounts and it has worked out rather well. I remember when we first were married we had a joint account and it was always getting messed up. We had two checkbooks for the same account, which did not make any sense at all. Everything was messed up and checks bounced all over the place.

To solve this dilemma we decided to have our own checking account in separate banks. I am not quite sure about her account, but the checks keep bouncing in my account and I am not exactly sure why.

The bank was calling my wife because there had been a suspicious activity on her account. I thought about telling them that other activity on her bank account was also suspicious, but sometimes I know when not to speak.

According to the bank, my wife bought a package of wine costing $600 and they were wondering if she was buying it for the church communion service. I heard my wife laugh and figured out there is something going on. We do not use wine in our communion service, we use grape juice. However, the bank did not know why my wife was buying wine.

The only wine in our house is me, who whines all the time and believe me, according to my wife, my whining is very intoxicating. At least to her it is.

We finally had to go down to the bank and try to sort this mess out. My wife tried to tell them that she did not make such a purchase.

I would like to tell you how delighted I was to go to the bank with her and see her in a dilemma that I did not create. I know I create a lot of dilemma in our home. The fact that we been married as long as we have been married says a lot for her tolerance of whiny old people like me.

“We did not think,” the bank manager said to my wife, “that you were buying wine like this. We thought perhaps you might have been buying wine for the church communion service.”

All three of us laughed a very hearty laugh because she knew we did not use wine in our communion service.

However, the truth of the matter was, there was this activity on her account in the amount of $600. My surprise was that she had that much money in her account. I scratched my head a bit and thought, where did she get all that money? Immediately I had to unthought that and get back to the basics of our visit here in the bank.

The bank manager got out all of the paperwork with this transaction.

The first thing of note was that it took place in a liquor store in Southern California where my wife had never been.

My wife looked at me and said sarcastically, “Why are you smiling?”

I thought about telling her, but then I unthought that and got back to the details of the transaction.

In looking at that transaction, the bank manager happened to notice that it was on a particular Sunday when it took place. That Sunday my wife was in church. In fact, the time of the transaction was when my wife was playing the organ.

“Can you verify that she was playing the organ at that time?” The bank manager asked me.

A thought that came into my mind was to tell the bank manager that my wife was so talented that she could be in two places at the same time. After further thought on that, I unthought that idea.

The bank manager finally took care of that transaction and we were able to leave the bank knowing us, or rather she, was free from that transaction. I did not say anything on the way home, but I was smiling on the inside.

Thinking can be a very hazardous occupation, but I was reminded what Paul said. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

I am trying to learn to think about important things and not things that are negative and damaging.

There are a great many places on the internet where you can read about and discover what gps tracking is. One of the difficulties is choosing who the best companies are and what si the best system for you to use. This problem is even greater for businesses and commercial groups looking to buy large volumes of this technology.

It is almost mainstream now that gps tracking is a useful technology. It is often featured in films and TV and shows the ability to spy and locate almost anything. In reality this isn’t true as there are some technological barriers to making almost anything trackable in the way you see in the movies.

GPS tracking is now an industry made up of many companies who specialize in particular applications of it. This can include gps vehicle tracking, package tracking and container tracking which are three of the most popular. But it can also involve more sophisticated systems such as offender tracking or ship tracking.

As a potential purchaser of a gps tracking system, you should be careful as to who you are deciding your make your purchase from. You need to ensure that the quality of the tracking device is high and that company has successfully implemented your required type of gps tracking in the past. Many companies may occupy a high position in search engine results on the internet but their quality of business many not equal it. Post implementation support is the most fundamental issue as once the system is up and running you as a new user of this technology will need to be carefully and sensitively supported by your gps tracking service provider. Careful research before purchasing will save you a lot of money and potential problems later.

“Consultants borrow your watch to tell you the time, and then walk off with your watch”. So said Robert Townsend, a former CEO of Avis, in his no-nonsense observation on management sillyness – Up the Organization…

This is often interpreted as meaning that consultants will question you and your colleagues, capture your knowledge, and then not adequately document and share with you what they’ve learnt. Or that consultant’s do not themselves actually have useful knowledge to share. Or that if they do, they are going to be very careful about sharing their knowledge asset with you in a way that would reduce your dependence upon them.  And when it all goes wrong, who is it that gets blamed? You do, for not controlling them properly.

Many people believe that this problem is as relevant today as when Townsend made his widely accepted observation. And the catalogue of disasters and frustrations suggest this is so. But there are consultants out there who have overcome this problem, consultants who offer a high quality service and get used again and again because they have addressed this most fundamental of problems. How do these ‘good consultants’ do it?

First, if ‘good consultants’ have real knowledge to donate, then they externalise it in a way that stays with their client when they leave – the knowledge is codified. Second, if they don’t have the knowledge themselves then they facilitate the client to externalise what they really know but can’t easily verbalise – again the knowledge is codified. And if they are working on information systems, they make sure it’s very clear WHAT needs to be done, HOW and WHY – again the knowledge is codified.

And if you contact us, we can give you a list of consultants that can be relied upon to be ‘good consultants’ – they won’t borrow your watch to tell you the time, and they won’t walk off with your watch!

We must be what we want to be, before we really have what we want to have in life as well as do what we want to do during all that. That is how I begin this spectacle of an article, with that dramatic a realistic statement. Success is being first though, not having first, or doing before anything else. When I think about success, it all starts with a consciousness, not any physical “success” outside of ourselves. That reality explains why so many people are not seemingly successful even with the trappings of success. They expect success to be outside of themselves, not an inside job within themselves to start with.

Being is a condition that starts within the spirit and mind and branches out to doing and having. It cannot be any other way if we want the genuine success model or paradigm to work genuinely for us. Sure, I could say the “usual” if you get a lot of money, then you are successful. If you have a lot of prestige, you are successful. No, even Abraham Lincoln and Jay Gould knew that you must have the consciousness of success before the outward trappings of success. Abraham Lincoln failed at almost everything he did before he became President of the United States, Jay Gould was a great and intelligently “ruthless” businessman who did not care about how he looked in the eyes of others as long as he made intelligent and realistically prosperous decisions. These two I mentioned may seem to be opposites, but they are united by the fact that they cared more about being successful before “looking successful”. Indeed, we must be, then do, then have if we really want real success all the way through our realities.

Proper action on all levels is the key. It all starts with a patience, understanding and tolerance of what it takes to be really successful.

Success starts with a successful consciousness, everything else will be added. After all what do you think that verse in the Book or Gospel of Matthew, chapter six, verse thirty-three in the Bible really means about Jesus Christ saying seek the kingdom of heaven first, it all starts in the consciousness and all that in the Bhagavad-Gita and The Upanishads about purifying yourself before seeking success really means. Success starts with a purely successful consciousness and works its way outward. Success starts at personal reality and works its way outward.

‘Family Values’ since the coining of this word and before described a set of principles that have been a tradition in the family since ages with generation after generation respecting them, maintaining and taking them to a higher level. They may differ from family to family but the basic essence behind it remains the same that is, teaching the new generation something that was inherited from the previous one and which is tried, tested and improved upon.

Family values also aim at making children fine elements of society when they grow up. Everyone wants to be well accepted and niched into the norms of society. Family values help children develop such habits from childhood itself.

But is this true today?

Children are walking out on their parents, cheating their friends and loved ones for their selfish needs to be fulfilled, doing things that are completely against the wishes of their elders, running after nothing but money and not only treating it more than man, but more than God itself.

Family values no longer stand together. They have separated into two words, rather two different worlds, family and values, where both the words have lost not only their meanings but also their essence.

Family now means some relatives whether close or far off both are treated in the same way and value is now the monetary amount associated with everything.

Today values, morals and principles are only limited to reaching the top notch of success. Any and all ways and means that help one achieve that are morals and values of the society, however unethical and unacceptable it might be, it is ignored under the fame and success attained.