A Sign of the Times

On a flight to Korea last December, I sat in First Class on the short haul flight from San Diego up to San Francisco International, then boarded the long 11 hour flight to Seoul...so in the early morning short flight, a nice surprise happened.  The Captain sent me a nice personal note of gratitude for my loyalty to United, written on the back of his business card.  I thought it was a real nice gesture, had seen it once before, in fact.

I happened to have a copy of my Four Flashes book just published with me, and gave it to this Captain after the landing with my own comments penned inside the front cover.  I saw him and wished him well.  It felt good...another of my books out there....give forward....

Last weekend I received a surprise email from the United Captain.  He was working on some mundane paperwork, and there my book was for some short inspirational minutes....I guess it made it easier to get through the tough part he was dealing with.....he said it felt that he had an angel on his shoulder,  Reading the book lifted some of the stress.  I thought what a nice note eight months later. 

Today I was already boarded and in my seat on United 395, Chicago to San Diego, and the Captain emerged from the cockpit.  He looked at me with a sign of recognition and showed thumbs up.  For a split second, I thought it was this Captain.  Later I would ask just to see if that miracle would happen.

Two minutes later he came back to me and said, "Michael, you are the author of the Four Great Flashes book...I stood up, we shook hands and said "Another major serendipity!"  We both stood in awe.  He was very kind.  He said a heartfelt "welcome on board!"...

He flew it well, nice landing, eight minutes early...

As I said goodbye, I gave him my new book....  It felt good.  I wished I had grabbed a picture to capture that moment.

White flash gives us gifts of each other, mostly always good, mostly reminding us we have some rivers of lives that bring us amazing moments, against all odds, far beyond chance...., in this case  even a second or third time.

The landing was smooth this evening....it was a white flash landing all the way....

This is a true story....
I think I needed that or something to lift my spirits....

I hope to see him on a future flight...when my next book is ready to give over....

How can we ever imagine the chances of that happening.....
Like it has so far....

The Second Hurdle

You and I love each other....we know that in every human way....now we have cultures and OMG...languages....

OK, so Very much to do

... I mean very much can be sorted out from bed to kitchen on how the day will go, but the finer points of love and who does what next....that requires some friend or expert who can step in and really do the job of excellence.....translation.....helping out

They, the helpers, the translators, are there to help....

When Love prevails....everybody learns each others' language...

Passion is the great communicator!

The First Hurdle

We are so electronic in our relationships, even our life, love and living for life...

We spend hours in email...and may misfire in it....

We hug our phones....hours....

Where are the hours we hug whom we love....

Where are whom we love...so far away....

How many days and nights do we actually spend....

Minutes...are real....they are ....

....all we have....

Seoul...Asia

When I see passion in people of a country like Korea, even if it is passive-aggressive passion, it matters not to me.  It may not be the conflicting values at the surface, but the passion underneath...thus, I dedicate this, my August, 2011 voyage to Korea...

Passion...fashion...

The minite...the hour..

Can we shorten...the flour....

...baking...waking...

...Time, so fast....

Love...that lasts...

Rain, so long...

Sun, so strong...

Sun, you are me...

Your light set me free...

But your eyes...

Remind me...

and ...bring .....

...like tea...

....the life in we....

and,  always,

...you set me free...

Main Street Forgotten...

Whipsaw!  Wall Street cries that it is a victim of Standard & Poor's downgrading US to only AA+ from AAA+ status...markets tumble...it is a weekend...late summer...Congressmen and Congresswomen are on vacation....Main Street sleeps away...

Back street and back market people are enjoying the ride of their life with volatility.  It is a market for the most seasoned Vegas minded investors...they might be enjoying this....

Main Street people are sleeping...seeing the TV news...not sure how to do anything....how could they anyway?  401k's?  Pensions...forgotten...

Who is Standard & Poors anyway?  What man made this decision?  What committee?  Names, please?  Transparency?  No, they cry out for it, but are their home addresses in Connecticut listed?  I can't imagine why...

Main Street is ubiquitous.  No address.  No Connecticut suburb...no address, no name...

Huge losses.  Societal toll.  Global market chaos.

It will be a nice peaceful, sunny afternoon on the weekend in Connecticut... 

Emergency-Urgency Environments

What we know from much research is that the temperamental fit between an individual and an occupation is relevant.  Personality types are attracted to personality types of work environments.  Secure and serene and safe attracts type B personality.  High urgency, multi-tasking, life-death environments attract type A personality.  In business we say "life death" means customer buys or rejects you!

Type A requires brave, bold, risk embracing people.  They thrive on adrenalin, oxatocin, endorphins of high urgency.  They get high on this.  They hopefully function well.  They save lives and jump in high waters.  They are our action heroes and some unsung heroes.

Everyone needs balance, even type A people.  They need occasional weekends with nothing but pure peace and love.  Ordinarily, they thrive on chaos, but they need regeneration to nurture their spirit.  These warriors are among us.

Type B people do the main jobs of what we all need in every society...they are stable and take care of the most urgent and most safe situations.  They bring peace and calm and love.

How can we know who we are?  Which type? 

Let the urgency tell you.  Your true temperament will come forth....

The whole world needs all of us....

We are all the world!

Micro-Teambuilding

We all talk "teamwork".  But do we really know what we mean?  Are these expressions just feelings or are they skills that can be applied in seconds?  In critical, life-death environments?

Try this idea on...there are micro environments like operating emergency rooms, air traffic towers, international banking centers, military combat, police protection, life saving, rescue, air-sea, and on land.  Situations where hand to hand coordination among team members may mean life or death.  Environments of work or play where there is no room for error....nearly perfect situations.

In my teaching for many years I have struggled with this idea and how to bring the lessons dramatically to students beyond words...right to their knees...but without the real pain that actual errors may mean in real world work.  Thus, I have designed a simulation experiential learning module which simulates the approach to nearly perfect teamwork found in real work environments like emergency rooms, air-sea rescue, and piloting of aircraft.

It is an exercise with TinkerToys where students are given the chance to compete in teams to build a free standing tower (height only, not elegance) within thirty seconds.  We give them thirty minutes to plan and thirty seconds to execute.  They nearly all fail through the third or fourth try...then they get it and perform as an Olympic team, with deft skill and precision team play and handwork.  We have seen all kinds of groups from LAPD heavy duty males to surgical nurse teams to undergraduate students to executives.  All are the same.  All fail....until they learn finally to succeed.  Only one team ever was successful on the first try...a team of ER nurses who already worked together.

The exercise in micro teambuilding brings out the best and worst. 

Finally, teams learn their mistakes and dramatically and physically show success.  Most participants are blown away with how they learn this and how they see the connections with real world, real time workplace situations and in general life.

There are roles...people must get this clear.  There may be a perfect design...this must be learned...There is sub team assembly work...there is the critical role of timekeeper and process coordinator.  Leadership emerges.  True leaders come forward.  Frustration shows its face....ethics show...some people violate the rules...and in the end, teams celebrate and give each other high fives.....

Across cultures, old and young...this is the same.  Planes crash and pilots and crews must respond....ER teams must respond...surgeons and those who support them must save lives....and some are lost....this always has happened, always will and goes on....

We can learn in some micro-environments, what precision,Olympic quality teamwork looks like.  Engarde!  Celebrate!  Beware!  We are of one family.  We must learn how to be a team.  If only for sometimes seconds!

Beyond California

Three people were overheard in a rather intense conversation.  They were from different places on the planet, not all living here in California.  The conversation was about the difficulties in starting a business in an Asian city.

One person talked intensely about the imediate difficulties....upstart legal problems.  This perspective I would call "local"...

The second person said that if the passion was strong, these problems would soon fade away...a perspective I would call "the California perspective"....anything is possible.

The third person just listened.  He was thinking about something even larger than local success with a "can do California spirit"....he was into the thought of making the project go global....not local, not California, but truly global reach.  Thus it would be not the sport college of a city, not the sport college of California, but the sport college of the world.  World sport.  Not too much larger than that!  California thinking got the conversation to a higher level, but the third stage took it to the planetary level.

Most of us think that California thinking is as about as great as we can get in scope.  In fact, world thinking is the ultimate challenge.

All three perspectives in international business study are vital.  But passion comes into play when we get beyond the local.