Action

I know a company where the CEO and the COO decided to stop acting on QA reports. I guess it seemed easier for them to sign-off waivers than to fix problems.

Quality went down and customer satisfaction went down with it.
At a certain point they decided they did not want to pay for reports that required them to act and fired the QA department.
Quality, they quoted, is everybody's job.

Quality went further down and customer satisfaction followed suit.

The last time I heard about them, the CEO and COO had been let go after a takeover and the company was hiring auditors.

Fungus

Sales

Some times I just feel I've been left outside.

I believe sales techniques should inform potential customers about the true characteristics of a product or service, so that the customer may take an informed decision to buy or not.

When the advertised quality is that the product is worth walking a mile, or that it will make me smell soo good that girls will fall for me, or that it's so delicious that a handsome teenager would kiss an ugly old lady to get Klondyke's double chocolate bar, I just don't get it.

I feel that I've been left outside looking in, and glad to feel so.

Fungus

Esteem

Lets suppose that...
1. My self esteem is an indicator of how well I am doing.
2. I am doing well if I add value to my community.

My self esteem can be expressed as the quotient of the value I have added to the community divided by the value that I reckon I should have added. If I am as good as I can be, my self esteem is 1.00 (or 100%). If I did not make my best effort to prepare my class, then my self esteem is hurt, and I may get 0.95.

Self esteem (aka conscience) is the measure of what I do compared with what I should do.
Subjective? You bet!

If my Project-to-Live includes respecting others, and I don't respect them, my self esteem lowers.

The late Mr. Alphonse Capone's Plan-to-Live included zero tolerance for people who did not pay on time. Late payments would have affected his Plan to Live, and his self respect (and his self esteem) would have lowered.

Fungus

Mirror

A good friend asked me what are my top three pain points, and how do I deal with them.

I've never read Schiller, but Isaac Asimov in "The gods themselves" quotes him as saying that: "Against stupidity The gods themselves Contend in vain."

My nominees are:
Third place: Stupid peers that are so stubborn to open their eyes (and ears) to understand my point of view. Stupid peers that don't support my hidden agenda.

Second place: Stupid bosses that do not express themselves with enough clarity that I understand what they want me to do. Also stupid bosses that freely (of their own free will) believe that I want to do what they want me to do.

First place. Me.

How can I get around the pain point which is me?
By looking inside and laughing at what I find.
Once I solve this small problem, I'll tell you what to do about the other two pains in the neck.

Fungus

Acceptance

Birds of a feather flock together.

I like to be around people who look like me. I don't like to be around people who don't look like me.
Oops... Looks ain't everything... let me rephrase that.

I like to be around people who share my world view. I don't like to be around people who don't share my world view.
That's a preference, not a limitation.

How can I get them to do what I want?
Oops... let me rephrase that.

How can I influence and lead them?
Should I send people who are different to the back of the bus?
Should I wear a sheepskin or imitate the duck call so that they let me approach them?
Should I try to make them into my image so that I can like them better?

I believe that to make friends or business associates it is more sensible to let them know who I am, and understand who they are. Show our different world views. And find some common ground. Then we can develop mutual trust. I believe that cats and dogs can agree to collaborate if they have a shared goal. They don't need to like each other.

I don't want to get people to do what I want. Much less by lying to them. I want us people to open our eyes, understand who we are without embarrassment, accept our differences, and get to work in the design and construction of a healthier community.

Fungus

Fear

I have the feeling that we want to run away from something...

If I have learned something from the movies, it is that when you run away from fog and darkness, you fall in the arms of the Werewolf.

We will be confused as long as we look back and focus on what we don't want. We need to look forward, and focus on what we want.

Elsewhere I have described my vision, and I will not bore you with it now. I will just remind you that in my vision there are conversations where we can speak without fear of being judged, and without the expectation of getting something [material] in return.

Let's go on.
Let's go on describing, enacting and practicing the future we want.

Fungus

Better

I have faith that things will get better.
Not blind faith, but faith based on experience and method. Things will not get better if we leave them alone. We must turn the tables.

We must listen carefully to the bad news and understand what they mean to us. Where exactly are the doors of opportunity, and what kind of key (skills) do we need to open them.

In this context, “better” means a healthier society, where everybody has choices, information and resources.

Fungus