Thank Goodness It's Monday #373

 

A TREE GROWS IN MANHATTAN

The 9/11 attacks of infamy took place on a September Tuesday eleven years ago.

We were – and are – in New Jersey, very nearby the World Trade Center site. 

-- Spring 2012 --
 The Survivor Tree
in bloom
with the under-construction
"Freedom Tower"
 

As I’m writing this, the weather forecast for our metropolitan NY area tomorrow on September 11, 2012 suggests the day may be “partly cloudy” but otherwise similar to Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

But is anything else “otherwise similar”?

Certainly I’m not the one to say. In fact I have argued that none of us can answer for any other, the implications and ramifications of that day and all the interrelated actions on all the days that followed being so personal.

On the ten-year anniversary (see TGIM #321) I maintained that, while we all share the experience and/or the aftermath of 9/11 in our collective psyche, no one version of it aligns directly with any other.

That’s the oddity of our human experience.

And yet we keep trying to connect and, I suppose, that’s part of our “human” nature as well. 

Unfortunately, locally, the attempt has become contentious at the Twin Towers site. And the result to date is, in my experience, an odd mix of symbolic and impersonal on a monumental scale.

As many of you will know, the “footprints” of the towers have become cascades of falling water, each surrounded by a bronze parapet recording the 2,983 names of the men, women, and children killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. 

A planned museum there is having difficulty getting opened. Newly constructed buildings that surround the site are nearing completion; most notably One World Trade Center (intended to be known as “Freedom Tower”) arguably the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere by “pinnacle height,” with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet in reference to the year of American independence. 

All in all it’s being billed as “a tribute to the past and a place of hope for the future.”

But -- I’ve been there. And, right now, though the site does provide much to contemplate, for me it’s going to have difficulty living up to its billing.

However … To me nothing manmade at the Manhattan 9/11 Memorial is remotely as inspiring as what has become known as –

The Survivor Tree
 

The tree was originally planted in the 1970s in the "old" WTC complex, in the vicinity of Buildings Four and Five.

The tree (a Callery pear, I learned by asking) is compelling for being the last living thing pulled from the smoking ruins -- long after recovery workers expected to find anything alive at the site -- and for having grown back from a charred and splintered stump to a full 30 feet. 

Workers freed it and it was nursed back to health when it arrived in November 2001 at the Parks Department’s Arthur Ross Nursery in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. And even there it had to survive a devastating hurricane before it was replanted in 2010 at its current location in Manhattan.

New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the tree is a testament to New York's "ability to endure" and "unshakeable belief in a brighter future."

I agree. And that ability and belief leads me to this observation – 

The tree is there.

And it’s Growing.

TGIM TAKEAWAY: Isn’t growing what we all must be doing; what we all must do as part of our human experience and human nature? 

If we are to find a “place of hope for the future” we can’t be mired in the past. We must continue to grow; actively work at creating the envisioned “brighter future.”

But wait. There’s more. 

I’d like to point out: The lesson and example of The Survivor Tree does not lie in the tree alone. Its survival did not happen by coincidence … or luck … or “good fortune” … or happenstance … or (pick your own “wishful thinking” mantra). 

The tree, and its continued existence and “growth” into iconic status, is more than symbolic. It’s evidence of what can be accomplished by the involvement and commitment of many.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Continued growth is seldom successfully accomplished by individual effort alone. It may begin with some enduring inward fortitude. But that alone is seldom sufficient.

The charred remnant that was salvaged from the rubble needed much nurturing. Without the interest and activity of many, many others, there would be no “A Tree Grows In Manhattan” story to tell or lesson to be gained.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Good can come from bad, but it takes foresight, a vision, leadership, teamwork and cooperation. Skills – some specialized, some simply heart-felt human caring -- need to be in place. 

Then they need to be rallied. The project needs supporters and cheerleaders (and these are not necessarily the same). There needs to be an understanding that setbacks may happen, but they need not be fatal. And if and when success is achieved, praise and recognition for the deserving is in order.

How about your brighter future? Starting today -- or maybe on September 11, 2012-- the singular thing we can each do to insure we get the “good” from the bad is to “grow” the relationships that benefit us all.

That’s would be the happiest ending to the “A Tree Grows In Manhattan” story.

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

Parks Department employees
Robert Zappala (at left)
and Richie Cabo
nursed The Survivor Tree
back to health. 

P.S. Rebecca Clough, an assistant commissioner in the city Design and Construction Department, recalled the surreal moment when she spotted a speck of green amid the lifeless gray.

"It had one branch that had one tiny little shoot coming out of it, with a leaf on it," Clough said. "It was like the only glimmer of hope there was."

 

"I think of the way the city bounced back and the way the tree keeps bouncing back," Cabo said.

"It's a New Yorker."

Thank Goodness It's Monday #372

THE LEGEND OF JOHN HENRY

MEETS LABOR DAY 2012

Few of us “labor” like the steel-drivin’ man of folklore and folksongs is said to have labored.

Hey, it’s the 21^st Century. We’ve got remote-controlled vehicles cruising around the planet Mars laser-blasting rocks, analyzing their composition and sending that data across millions of miles of space. 

 

So the idea of Man vs. Steam Drill is pretty archaic.

Or is it? Writing in Yes! Magazine, Michael Schwalbe observes -- 

“Every year, thousands of men in the United States die like John Henry, albeit with less drama. They quietly work themselves to exhaustion, bad health, and premature death. Or they take risks and suffer fatal workplace injuries. Women workers die, too, of course, sometimes in exactly the same ways.”

What do you think? Before you answer, let’s review the classic version of the John Henry tale: 

Folksong John is a black man of exceptional physical gifts, a former slave who, to save his job and the jobs of his mostly black steel-driving crew, refuses to bow to the superiority of a machine. He races the steam-driven drill and wins, though the effort kills him which, in some versions, leaves his wife a widow and their small children fatherless.

There seem to be historical roots to elements of the story, but nothing very solid. One research I particularly favor argues that John William Henry (prisoner #497 in the Virginia penitentiary, released by the warden to work on the C&O Railway in the 1870s) is the basis for the legendary John Henry.

The Labor Day connection: Because of his strength and pride, John Henry is usually celebrated as a working-class hero. 

He’s also sometimes derided as an exploitive capitalist’s dream: a worker who devotes his last ounce of energy to generating profit and then conveniently dies just when a cheaper technology becomes available to replace him.

Either way, I think there are 21^st Century TGIM lessons suitable for a Labor Day post.

In today’s still-striving-for-equality workplace, we can interpret the extraordinary efforts of John Henry in a race neutral, genderless way … across almost all strata of class -- working-, middle- , upper-middle … and “work” – blue- and white-collar … and industry – service, manufacture, construction, retail, what have you. 

And that opens the door for this -- 

TGIM TAKEAWAY: The emphasis on being competitive has many of us “laboring” in the workplace and the marketplace just like we imagine John Henry labored, even if it’s to our own detriment. 

·         We behave as if working long hours is noble.

·         We strive mightily to outdo “the competition.”

·         We compete for advancement.

·         We risk our long-term wellbeing and keep plugging away despite pain or sickness.

·         We forgo safe and sensible measures that we suspect might slow our progress.

·         We put work first even when it threatens other interpersonal relationships and family.

Not good, right? Hey, it’s the behavior that kills John Henry. And that’s not an end result we want to strive for, is it? 

Not me. So consider this in-the-spirit-of-Labor Day –

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Labor not to beat the system or gain status, power or domination over others, but to realize rewards that you can enjoy without sacrificing being human. Channel your enthusiasm for an effort well made into a mindset that serves your needs, not one that makes you the servant. Don’t be blind to the toll your work places on you personally as well as those who surround you. 

And now for a –

Big Surprise. I’m going to suggest that the folklore/folksong legend of John Henry that I’ve put forward as a cautionary tale also contains often-overlooked, good-then and good-now strategies for successfully coping with pressures of a system that “beat John Henry down.” 

You see --

The story itself is NOT the triumph of “the Everyman” over the system. John Henry dies; that’s not good. You know the steam drill is destined to replace the steel drivers. 

But the John Henry secret of workplace survival is today’s --

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Success is in the tempo at which everyone sings together. 

These days the song is treated as a up tempo blues ballad or dance tune and played at a frenetic pace that suggests folkloric roots as a jig or a reel. But it’s pretty clear that at its roots --

John Henry is a work song. Its pattern tells you gangs of workers sang it on the job to help keep the rhythm and pace suitable for the work they were doing. (Or that the words were plugged into a commonly known chant pattern used to synchronize action as well as provide some “uplift” on the job.)

Do it at the right pace and in unison and the song tells you what to do and how to survive even when “the Boss Man” is hard on you.

Try it. Imagine you’re swingin’ that hammer, then sing, slow and steady and with feeling – 

When John Henry was a little baby (Clink!)

Sittin’ on his Pappy’s knee (Clink!)

Picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel (Clink!)

Said this hammer’s gonna be the death of me, Lawd Lawd (=Clink!)

This hammer’s gonna be the death of me (Clink!)

More proof: In Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend, Scott Reynolds Nelson, the associate professor of history at the College of William and Mary who made the prison labor gang/C&O Railway connection, points out that --

...workers managed their labor by setting a "stint," or pace, for it. Men who violated the stint were shunned... Here was a song that told you what happened to men who worked too fast: they died ugly deaths; their entrails fell on the ground. You sang the song slowly, you worked slowly, you guarded your life, or you died.

Labor Day “Aha!” moment. Live your workday at a proper steel-drivin’ pace. Hammer away, but hammer away with others at a tempo that enables you all to go the distance and accomplish the greater result with greater ease. 

Get in tune. Assuming this is a Labor Day you have the good fortune to be able to celebrate, sometime between checking out your local parade or similar civic celebration and the last official beer and burger before the pool is winterized, appreciate what we all have gained since the first Labor Day.

Don’t let ‘em beat you down. “A man ain’t nothin’ but a man.” Success is in how everyone sings together. 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S.  And speaking of labor, and taking a break to celebrate it, even the ancient Greeks and Romans understood the concepts. They tell us: 

“Without labor nothing prospers.”  Sophocles (c. 497/6 BC – 406/5 BC) said that.

“The end of labor is to gain leisure.” Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) said that.

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18) said that.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #371

CHECK YOUR ATTITUDE THEN

STRIVE TO EXPRESS, NOT IMPRESS 

Why do so many executives, lawyers, scientists, and engineers sound like executives, lawyers, scientists, and engineers when they write? 

As a mentor of mine – John L. Beckley -- a prominent executive noted for his clear writing would routinely point out --

 

“Because they wouldn’t want people to think of them in any other way.”

 

His analysis continued: “They’re more concerned about the personal impression they make than about the message they deliver.”

Attitude check. 

 

The biggest stumbling block to clear communicating – especially via the written word – isn’t a matter of technique or even writing ability. 

It’s a matter of mental attitude. Mr. B (and yes, he was known and addressed as  Mr. B or, sometimes, JB) maintained, the reason most people don’t write better is –

Because they are too self-centered.

Self-centeredness is the curse of good writing.

In all good writing, one person – and one person alone – is important:

THE READER

Yet what happens when the average exec or business person sits down to write a memo or report or bit of ad copy or blog post or online bio or social media commentary or …or …?

Somewhere inside his or her conscious or unconscious mind an insidious thought raises its head:

What will the reader think of ME?

The more that thought interferes with concentrating on the reader -- answering the readers ever present question “What does this mean to me?” -- the poorer the writing will be.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: In writing of any kind, the important thing is to plant an idea in the reader’s mind or to stimulate feelings or emotions.

·         Perhaps you work for the largest, most powerful organization in your industry.

·         Perhaps your entrepreneurial business is uniquely linked to traits or skills that are uniquely yours.

Either way, or at any place in between, when you start to write – 

FORGET IT! Remember, your audience, your corporation or market, consists of people.

You are writing to people.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Write to express, not impress. Write in the same language you would use if you were to carry on a conversation across a pleasant restaurant table during an enjoyable meal. As much as possible given the subject matter, keep the tone pleasant and friendly. Get politely to the point, wrap it up, and wish your “correspondent” well.

And what happens when an executive or entrepreneur comes along who isn’t trying to impress anybody; who’s just trying to get his or her ideas across in the simplest, clearest fashion for the reader?

Impressive payoff: More often than not, this person impresses far more than those who are striving to be impressive.

Thanks for everything JB. I hope I’ve done right (and write) by my old mentor and there was something worthwhile in this TGIM for you. 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S. “And how is clarity to be achieved? Mainly by taking trouble and by writing to serve people rather than to impress them.” F.L. Lucas (1894-1967), a quite impressive English classical scholar, literary critic, poet, novelist, playwright, political polemicist, and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge said that.

One Final Step For A Man

WHAT'S REQUIRED OF YOU?

One small step for a man.

"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream."
Neil Armstrong
(August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012)
said that.

"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."
This is the August 25, 2012 statement from his family.
 

 

Thank Goodness It's Monday #370

MORE ON R-E-S-P-E-C-T

AND WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU AND ME 

Go ahead, sing it. I know you want to:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Take Care – TCB. Oh --  

[Now, with the back-up singers ]

(Sock it to me, sock it to me,

 sock it to me, sock it to me)

 A little respect

(Sock it to me, sock it to me,

 sock it to me, sock it to me)

 Whoa, babe (Just a little bit)

 A little respect (Just a little bit)

For those who have just joined us: Last Monday’s message (TGIM #369) was titled “Get The Respect You Expect.” And when I handed it over for proofreading before publishing, (You don’t? You should. It may still be imperfect but far less than relying on a single set of author eyes) just a glimpse of that headline brought the comment –

 “Oh. Rodney Dangerfield?”

My reply: “No, Aretha and Otis,” and then I delivered the above chorus complete with creaky dance steps. (Sorry you missed it.)

But all that’s by way of pointing out: 

The line after the R-E-S-P-E-C-T spelling lesson -- and before the “Sock it to me’s” -- is often misquoted as – 

"Take OUT -- TCP"

or something similar.

Do/did you sing “Take OUT -- TCP”? And if you did, what did you think it meant?

Don’t feel too bad. “Take OUT -- TCP” is just a mishearing of the extraordinarily popular Aretha Franklin version.

But it does lead us toward a TGIM Takeaway or two.

First, let’s set the record (or 8-track tape, or cassette, of CD, or digital download;  pick the music delivery system of your generation) straight.

Spelling R-E-S-P-E-C-T and TCB are not present in the original Otis Redding versions. (He wrote it and had the first successful recording.) They were included in some of his later performances after Aretha’s breakout success with the song. There even seems to be some confusion over who first used TCB in the song.

And even “back in the day” (= mid 1960s) published sheet music which included the lyrics had the incorrect TCP line in them. 

TCB is an abbreviation which stands for Taking Care (of) Business -- widely used in African-American culture in the 1960s and spreading more broadly in the 1970s.

("TCB in a flash" later became a motto and signature phrase for Elvis Presley and his so-called Memphis Mafia.)

So in the song’s earliest days, TCB was somewhat less well-known which, in turn, provides a possible explanation for why it was not recognized by those who transcribed Franklin's words for sheet music.

Good story. And a fitting coda to a TGIM message about keeping promises. 

Want that R-E-S-P-E-C-T? 

TAKE CARE

B & P

Take Care of Business

AND

Take Care of Promises

Since we reviewed some TCP strategies last week, let’s move on to TCB today.

Do you Take Care -- TCB? 

Taking Care of Business isn’t just “work.” It’s tackling every day with a healthy dose of gonna-get-it-done attitude. Almost a personal philosophy, TCB is about – 

“Doing what one is meant to do;

coping with life as it is.”

Do you do that? Every day?

Take Care -- TCB describes an energy, fervor and inspiration that people exude when they take on the day with enthusiasm – like the performances of Aretha or Otis, the “business” they’re famous for. 

Enthusiasm is associated with zeal, focus and enjoyment. It spurs us to act immediately. It gives the extra energy to get through times of difficulty. It comes to pass when you believe in your mission and yourself. And –

It’s contagious.  Indifference turns off people, but enthusiasm is magnetic. If you have zest and enthusiasm you will attract zest and enthusiasm. 

TGIM Takeaway: The end result of coupling Taking-Care-of-Business enthusiasm with Taking-Care-of-Promises promise keeping is –

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: People don’t necessarily follow or implement the best ideas but they are attracted by ... are supportive of ... and tend to view more favorably, the folks who project enthusiasm, dynamism and positive energy. 

TGIM TCB/TCP IDEA IN ACTION: Couple your great ideas with enthusiasm and promises kept and you and those who you influence can soar to stratospheric success. 

Sock it to me!

Sock it to me!

(Just a little bit.) 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S. Since we’re in a Monday musical mode, let me put one more TCB musical moment in your mental playlist for the week. A decade after Otis, Randy Bachman penned the Bachman-Turner Overdrive big hit, “Taking Care of Business.” It’s opening lines, suitable for an August-in-NJ Monday morning: 

You get up every morning

 From your alarm clock's warning

 Take the 8:15 into the city

 There's a whistle up above

 And people pushin', people shovin'

 And the girls who try to look pretty 

And if your train's on time

 You can get to work by nine

 And start your slaving job to get your pay

 If you ever get annoyed

 Look at me I'm self-employed

 I love to work at nothing all day

And I'll be...

Taking care of business, every day

Taking care of business, every way

I've been taking care of business, it's all mine

Taking care of business. and working overtime

 Work out 

P.P.S. This Thursday – August 23, 2012 -- you can TCB and TCP and hone your sales skills and empower you on your way to amazing outcomes at: 

Business Breakthrough III

Attend … Build Skills … Network with likeminded go-getters

Get on board NOW, HERE 

(Sponsorship opportunities still available. Inquire Immediately.) 

I’ll be there.

If you are as well, maybe we can entice Eric to lead a Golden Oldies sing-along.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #369

HOW TO GET THE RESPECT YOU EXPECT

Be known as the person who keeps promises. 

That’s one of the best ways to win the continued loyalty of customers as well as the continued best efforts and respect of coworkers, friends, family and the community at large.

“Duh!” you’re probably thinking. “Kind of self-evident. If that’s the promised payoff of the Get The Respect You Expect headline, I think you’ve broken a bit of the How To promise there, Geoff.”

Got your point. More to the point, pointing out the rewards of keeping promises also misses the point that promise keeping is often –

Robert Frost

(1874 – 1963)

About those promises …

The poem portrays a speaker who stops his sleigh in the

midst of a snowy woods only to be called from the inviting
gloom by the recollection of practical duties.

Written in 1922, Frost's most famous and most perfect lyric

(according to critic J. Mc Bride Dabbs) Stopping by Woods

on a Snowy Evening, conveys "the insistent whisper of death

at the heart of life."

Frost called the poem “my bid for remembrance” and observed

that it is the kind he'd like to print on one page

followed with "forty pages of footnotes."

Easier said than done.

In 1923 Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) articulated that difficulty factor quite poetically, closing his famous Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening with the lines: 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

If you sometimes (or worse, often) feel you have “miles to go” to keep your promises –

Perhaps you are making promises --

Too Big,

Too Quickly

Ouch! But just why are we so quick to make overly generous promises?

TGIM INSIGHT: Probably because it’s easy to do.

Promises seem like a quick and painless-at-the-moment way to motivate people; a no-cost-now way to get them to buy in now to what you think is in your best interest now. 

Eventually, however, the time comes when the buy-in equation must be balanced. And if it can’t be, or isn’t, that’s a broken promise. And that initial moment of motivation goes right out the door, taking a big chunk of the respect that the promise receiver once had with it. 

So –

No Promises = No Problem

Right?

Yeah, but … Making promises DOES motivate when you’re not able to deliver the goods directly. 

And, maybe because we’re so used to being disappointed in the promise equation, when you DO deliver on a promise made, it’s virtually assured to elevate you in the estimation of the promise recipient who initially acted in faith on your behalf.

So here – as promised – is a respect-retaining --

TGIM ACTION IDEA: There’s nothing wrong with making promises, provided you know – without a doubt – that you can deliver your part of any bargain you make.

And even with that “given,” be guided by a classic rule when you put the –

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Under-promise and over-deliver.

It’s classic advice for a reason. This way you’ll find not only do promises work their no-cost-now magic but, your stature will rise even higher when you deliver more than people anticipated.

And …

To ensure you keep on the respect-building track and don’t shoot from the lip, also observe these additional promising “What-To-Do” and “How-To-Do-It” precautions:

► Hold optimism in check. That way they’ll be less likely to unintentionally over-promise or mislead people. A good people-empowerer isn’t reluctant to talk to people about their future prospects, of course. But be realistic when you do. Don’t create false hopes and expectations by painting too rosy a picture.

► Weigh your words. A pound is not 15½ ounces. “Almost” only counts in horseshoes. Forcing people to settle for something less than they’ve been led to expect leaves a bad taste that never quite goes away. 

If you want continued cooperation, always settle in full, however inconvenient or painful you may find it. 

► Never forget. They won’t. Under everyday pressure it’s easy to promise something then forget all about it and assume they will too. 

Well, they won’t. More than likely, they’ll think about it constantly while they go about fulfilling their side of the deal. And, actually, this is what you want them to do if the promise has been made to motivate them. But, if you want to avoid repercussions, you’d better not stop thinking about it either.

So on that note –

Did I deliver on the promise of the headline?

Respect! (“Got to have it.”)

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S. “It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.” Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC – c. 456/455 BC) Greek soldier and playwright, often described as “the father of tragedy” said that.

P.P.S. Summer casual is a dress style, not an attitude. If fact, while others Laze Away their Summer Daze, you can build more skills that empower you on your way to amazing outcomes, here:

Thursday, August 23, 2012 …

Business Breakthrough III

Attend …
Build Skills …
Network with likeminded go-getters

Get on board NOW, HERE

(Sponsorship opportunities still available. Inquire Immediately.)

I'll be there (if you care).
I look forward to seeing you, too.