A HEALTHY SERVING OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES...

As I've just mentioned, I just returned home from an incredible five days in Florida...

No, not on vacation, although vacation is an interesting concept. This was business: and, high-level business at that.

Have you ever tried to condense thirty hours of fast paced, very intense, high level learning in a single conversation? You know, the kind of conversation that follows one of those... "So, how was your meeting?" or, "So, what did you guys talk about?" questions. It's impossible so don't try.

Instead, I've broken it down into what I consider 'bite-size' pieces and started the process Monday morning as soon as parked my car at work. If the truth were to be told, I actually started the process during the meeting trying to determine exactly what I would be bringing home in the first place. Refined it somewhat at the airport and then a bit more Sunday evening after watching our son finish the L.A. Marathon and taking everyone: son, future daughter-in-law, daughter, future son-in-law, future daughter-in-law's best friend and one of Ryan's (son) co-workers and his wife, to lunch and then visiting my Mother on the way home...

Note to self: Celebrations are cool! Create more reasons to celebrate! We need them...

I managed to get through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated during the week I was gone, signed the checks that needed to be signed and mailed the bills that needed to be mailed. I survived yesterday and managed to meet Frank - my Service Manager - for breakfast this morning to de-brief last week's challenges and events. In the process, we established a deeper understanding of where we are headed, what we believe it will take to get there, the role a new set of Goals & Objectives will play in creating the operating model we will need to embrace in order to "Get 'er done!" and how last week's meeting impacted all of the above.

It was a great meeting! I'm not saying that because I think Frank will stumble across this blog... I'm not even sure he's aware of it. I'm saying it because it was a great meeting.

What constitutes a great meeting? Well, the obvious answer would be great results... And, that's always the goal. But, in this case, I would define a 'great meeting' as a meeting in which ideas, information and a deeper level of communication occurred. If that definition is accurate or adequate; this was a great meeting!

It will be followed by another great meeting involving our whole team in which we - both Frank and I - will show them how all these new goals and objectives will impact all of us as a team and each of them as individuals. I'll let you know how that goes after we get everyone together.

The most interesting part of all of this is the incredible energy I brought home with me from Florida, but then again with high winds and fifty degree weather, energy is just about all I could bring home. After all, there was no sun and consequently no chance for a tan!

We've already started one exercise guaranteed to improve both our internal communications and a sense of consistency on the shop floor... I'll talk more about that later.

Right now, I'm too excited to get back to work to write anything else... I'm not sure, but I think it's a result of the healthy serving of goals and objectives Frank and I had for breakfast.

Life Is What Happens...

Do you know what happens when you've had a difficult week, you're up later than would be considered prudent, you're really tired; and, angry just in general - you hit the wrong combination of keys on the keyboard and the five or six hundred "perfect" words you've just written disappear just as the software decides to "SAVE NOW!" 


Do you know what's even worse? How about trying to reconstruct or, better yet, remember; what you've just written! Bet you can't do it... I know I couldn't: not last night, not this morning, not this afternoon.


Now, we're another day deeper into the first month of the second decade of the 21st Century and I still can't remember. Although, I'm sure it had something to do with doing too many things at the same time, being up later than would or should be considered prudent, being really tired... Especially, when there is a full moon to contend with! 


Essentially, that's the problem. I start each day with a list of things to do - if you asked my wife, she would tell you that my problems begin with that list, because it is unreasonably ambitious. I go over the list in my head trying to ensure it is, in fact, reasonable: reasonable, as in possible. I write everything down. And, then I head for work with every intention of working my way through the list: every intention of following the plan. But, I never do... 


It's not that I don't try. I try very damned hard most of the time; sometimes when I don't really feel like trying. And, there are days I get closer to successfully working my way through that list than others. But, to tell you the truth I'm not sure I've ever actually gotten through a whole one. At least, it's been long enough so I can't remember finishing if I did. 


Someone with the brains G-d gave a duck would think about building a shorter list: a list not quite so ambitious. But, I guess I don't qualify. The best part of the whole story is the fact I've actually managed to 'shed' a number of responsibilities and was actually looking forward to living with fewer "To Do's." But, 'stuff' keeps bubbling up through the floor until my socks get wet and I find myself adding more stuff to an already impossible list.


When things begin to fall apart, as they often do I can hear my Grandmother laughing in the background. Her favorite saying, although it loses something in translation, was: "Man plans, and G-d laughs..."


John Lennon said it another way in "Baby Boy:" "Life is what happens when you're making other plans..." I think he should have said, "making ANY plans!" 


I'm starting to think it's just plain futile.


Oh, and before you suggest it's just a matter of organization - I'm not sure it is. In fact, I have a row of books on time management - although, I've never understood why they call it that. You can't manage time... It won't cooperate. All you can hope to do is manage yourself - in time. Consequently, it should be called "Personal Management." In any case, I've got a library full of books on the subject filled with systems and suggestions galore. I know how to prioritize. I know how to attack the most difficult tasks first. I get it! The problem is dealing with other people whose priorities, wants, needs and expectations differ from my own. Throw in a service business: a retail service business, and you know that my plans are subject to change at any moment based upon someone else's needs or wants.


When you own and operate an automotive service business someone else's crisis does justify an emergency in your world!


So, I wake up, plan the day, make my lists and try to force the day to comply... at least, a little. 


I make my plans and life happens. I make my plans... and, G-d laughs.


Let's see, what was it I had to get done tomorrow morning...