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.

A.D.D....

If I were a kid in school today there is no telling just how medicated I'd be. So medicated, the very thought scares me!

I'm sure they would try their best to muffle the chaos in my head: chaos I just couldn't wait to share with everyone in the classroom either by accident or on purpose. If I had to paint a picture of what's going in there it would have to look a little like those television editing booths they sometimes show on screen. You know, the ones with two dozen screens showing two dozen different shots of just about everything going on around you.

Well, that's pretty much the way it looks and feels to me... With a producer shouting, "Give me Two on my count: three - two - one - Now!"

I've got an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of white paper taped to the filing cabinet across from my desk with the words "STAY FOCUSED" printed in 60-point, bold type; but, it might as well say, "Pink Bunny." Or, better yet, "Squirrel!"

Between the incoming phone calls, the work I have to catch up on by close of business tomorrow, the work coming in, payroll, the constant barrage of problems, challenges, opportunities and solutions... Well, I don't stand a chance. In fact, it's a wonder I get to accomplish anything at all and I'm sure I wouldn't if it wasn't just a matter of sheer force of will.

The most terrifying part of all? I've been doing it so long that crazy seems normal: so long, I actually crave it!

In all fairness, it's a little worse because I was gone for five days and the five days I was gone were spent attending an industry conference that has me so pumped up it must look like I'm vibrating around the shop. It could have something with the "To Do" list I brought with me or the commitment I've made to continuing education and improvement. Either way, I know the people closest to me are going, "Buckle your seat belts: Here we go again!" And, they're right!

As a result of the conference, I've made the commitment to bring a number of the possibilities I was exposed to back to our shop, changes that are almost guaranteed to enhance our ability to serve our clients. In fact, I've already started implementing some of those changes.

The goals are relatively simple: expand, improve and serve.

Now, all we have to do is do it!

As the weeks and months go by I'll be bringing some of those changes here and then opening them up for discussion. If there really is anybody out there, you're more than welcome to join in.

Even if you don't join in, it should still be one hell of a wild ride: one worthy of your consideration, especially if we are successful.

I know that even though I don't know how it will end or what it has to offer, I still can't wait to get started.

To confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards...

I'm sitting at my desk trying to get a handle on my feelings about an impending business trip that will begin this coming Tuesday, March 16.

The problem stems from my participation in the group sponsoring the meeting itself. You see it's almost impossible to articulate or explain what the group is all about: at least, it is for me. You see it’s more than the sum of its parts. That really shouldn’t be a problem at this point as I’ve already been to a number of these conferences. Nevertheless, it still is.

I could say it’s a consulting company. After all, they do consulting. I could say it’s a ‘coaching’ company. I have a coach. I could say a lot of things about the company, but in reality it is perhaps the most important business resource I have ever found or employed.

More than that, it works! But, that hasn’t helped me to describe it to someone else or to get my arms around it on a personal level. The funniest part of it all is what is currently swirling around in my head: so strange, I’m not even sure I get it myself. What I see if I close my eyes is one of the final scenes of “The Wizard of OZ,” the Hollywood film classic.

Now, you’ve got to understand that as a kid growing up in the 50’s, “The Wizard of Oz” was magical: everything about it. Each element was indelibly etched in my memory: the subtlety of going from Black & White to Technicolor, the characters, the Wicked Witch, the Winkies, the Palace Guards, the Wizard himself, Dorothy, the special effects – which really seemed pretty special at the time, all of it.

So, in a way, my being fixated on a specific scene as I sit here and agonize over leaving shouldn’t really be all that much of a surprise, even it if is troublesome to me. Which scene… Well, the last scene in Oz, of course: the scene in which the Wizard announces he is leaving.

This is what it looks and feels like:

LAP DISSOLVE TO:

Ext. Public Square, Emerald City -- LS -- The Wizard and Dorothy in the

basket of balloon -- Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion standing on platform with

them -- people of Oz grouped about them -- the Wizard speaks to them as

the CAMERA MOVES forward -- the people cheer --

                                                WIZARD

                        Good people of Oz, this is positively the

                        finest exhibition ever to be shown --

                                    (stammers)

                        -- yes -- well -- be that as it may -- I,

                        your Wizard par ardua ad alta, am about to

                        embark upon a hazardous and technically

                        unexplainable journey into the outer

                        stratosphere.

MCS -- Wizard and Dorothy in the basket -- the Wizard speaks to the crowd

o.s. -- CAMERA PANS to left to enter the Tin Man and Scarecrow, then PANS

right as the Wizard points to the Lion --

                                                WIZARD

                        To confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob

                        with my brother wizards...

Well, I guess if I really had to explain where I was going and what I will be doing to anyone interested enough to ask, that is precisely what I’d have to say: I’m going to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards…

Why? Well, because that’s what Wizards do!

All kidding aside, that’s pretty much it! I’m going to spend the next few days with a fairly large group of very forward thinking, extremely committed, very involved, automotive service professionals absolutely focused on just about one thing and one thing only: improving their businesses so they can deliver the best quality products and services they are capable of in ways almost guaranteed to delight their/our clients.

The agenda is packed with classes, programs, speakers and discussions all designed to make me… make us… even better at what we do, and that is serve you.

Despite the density and richness of the program and the fact that it goes from early in the morning until late at night, I think I’m going to at least try to drop you a line from the meeting. But, for now, I’m going to have to click my heels together three times and say, “There’s no place like Oz! There’s no place like Oz!”

Tiger Balmy...

Well, if you've been following this series of posts you know I've been struggling with my swimming and a reinforced, reinvigorated commitment to 'wellness'... not necessarily in that order. Despite the desire to do more or better, I've been dealing with a body that seems more interested in going home or to bed than in going to the next level.

I haven't let that or the aches and pains slow me down or stop me... At least, not yet. Instead, I dragged myself out of bed in what felt like the middle of the night to be in the water and ready to swim at 6:00 A.M. If the number of headlights and tail lights on the road at that hour are any indication of the number of people up and about, I can tell you with absolute certainty there aren't many people up and about at that hour!

Nevertheless, I was... And, I was in the water warming up before Jessica - the Master Class coach - arrived on the scene.

Again, that sounds easier than it was. As certain as I am that there were few others up and about, at or before 6:00 A.M., who were not coming home or heading to a workplace somewhere: I am equally as certain, the one place in the world your body does NOT want to be is submerged! I am also pretty sure the reason fish don't hate swimming as much as I do is because they don't have shoulders or elbows, hips or knees! Shoulders, hips, knees and elbows can and often do get sore...

Does anyone out there actually know if fish can get sore? It would be reassuring as hell to know!

I did six or eight laps of various different strokes before Jessica realized there was someone in the water she didn't know and a lot more after she did. I learned a lot for a first class. I learned that I have a 'natural' breast stroke (It was news to me too...). I learned that you can - with an emphasis on 'you' so far - swim while practicing "bi-lateral" breathing: you can alternate breathes from one side of your body to the other, which actually seemed to work better for me than breathing only on one side. I also learned you don't have to breathe once every three or four strokes: but, that you still have to breathe! I learned that I have no endurance, at least not yet. Which was disappointing. And, that I still get winded much too easily... Even more disappointing.

Did mention that I've only been in the water eight or ten times and that I'm terribly impatient; or, have you already figured that out.

The good news was finishing more laps and more different strokes than I have ever - emphasis on: ever - completed in my life and I didn't drown, as evidenced by my typing this message some twelve hours later!

I should be back in the water Wednesday morning... Maybe, even tomorrow morning depending upon when I get done tonight and how my right elbow and shoulder are feeling. If I don't go to the "Y" to swim tomorrow morning I'll probably return to Krav (Krav Maga) tomorrow night. My thinking is, as long as my shoulder and elbow hurt anyway; why not.

Oh... And, if you read the last post: applying Tiger Balm before you get into bed at night is something you really shouldn't do unless you're sleeping alone. If you aren't sleeping alone, it isn't something you ought to do without first asking your significant other if that would be OK. If you don't heed my advice, it is almost certain you will be back in the water again, a lot sooner than you thought you would... Not at the "Y" and in the pool, but back in your bathroom and in the shower!

If you're lucky, any remnant of the "Eau de Tiger Balm" will find its way down the drain. And, you may find your way off the couch!

Everyone Back In The Pool

I went back to the pool again late Saturday afternoon. It was wonderful!

Well, almost wonderful... I went to swim, and the pool was wonderful. In fact, with the exception of a few little ones and their respective parents, I had an Olympic-size pool just about all to myself.

The part that wasn't so wonderful was the 'getting older' part of working out. It's that; "Eighteen-Year-Old Brain: Sixty-Three Year-Old Body" stuff again.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I haven't been to the gym in a while and when I was going I wasn't swimming.

How long is "a while?" Let's just leave it at "a while," and move on. You can fill in the blank if necessary. However long it's been, it's been too long and now I'm doing something I've never done before and my body is crying, "Foul!" as a result.

So, tomorrow morning I'll be at the "Y" before it opens to take a class. What kind of a class? A swimming class so I can move from something that must look almost like drowning, to something that looks almost like swimming. I've decided I have to become more comfortable in the water... which is hard to do when the water is one of those places you are the most uncomfortable. I'm going because Saturday's sojourn at the pool was a definite improvement over my previous attempts at drowning. And, it was an improvement because I stopped trying to muscle my way through the swimming and slowed everything down to a "crawl," if you'll pardon the pun.

I focused on the obvious skills: floating, breathing, relaxing in a foreign environment and just moving through the water. Instead of trying to cover as much distance as quickly as I could, I keep things under control and focused on 'smooth' instead: no thrashing, no splashing, no gasping and no trying to breathe water! And, to tell you the truth, it actually worked... a little. I didn't run out of air as often. I didn't get as tired. My heart didn't try to explode out of my chest, and as a result I felt a hell of a lot better when it was time to get out of the pool.

Why swimming, if it's so uncomfortable; so unnatural?

Because...

Because it is uncomfortable and unnatural; at least it is to me. I'm doing it because I don't want to do it. And, because I know the results will be more than worth the effort if I prevail. If I can manage to stay with it, my endurance and stamina will increase as well as my overall fitness. I know this to be true because I can see the difference it's made in my son's Tri training and the training he is doing for the Iron Man he's enrolled to participate in.

All I have to do is work my way through the injuries, the pain and the discomfort. That takes a lot of positive self-talk and the encouragement of friends and family: and, a healthy sense of humor. I'm working on the self-talk and my son is both a great example and a wonderful cheerleader. The sense of humor part seems to be taking care of itself and we'll have to wait and see how or if the rest of the family signs on.

In the meantime, I've got to get ready for tomorrow morning and that means a hot shower, ice on my elbow and shoulder, followed by a little Tiger Balm on both.

I'm not exactly sure how the Tiger Balm rub down is going to go, however. It may turn out to be part of the sense of humor and the being able to laugh at yourself you really need to get through something like this, especially after a long absence.

I was applying some Tiger Balm in the locker room after my shower and before I got dressed on Saturday when one of those 'little ones' I referred to a minute ago, turned in my direction and said, "Yuch! What is that, and why does it smell so bad? That stuff is really strong! "

I told him it was Tiger Balm... And, that I was using it because I was sore.

Do you know what happened next? He looked at his Dad, and then at me, and said, "Mister, I been to the Zoo and I seen the Tigers... And, know what! None of 'em smelled anything like that!"

I'm going to shut down, take a shower and apply some Tiger Balm to my elbow and shoulder before I go to bed... and, and wait to hear what my wife has to say about the stuff. I'm not sure, but I'll bet it won't be as funny!

Complacency...

There are few things in the world that get me crazier than average. Average drives me nuts!

No one I know strives to be average, at least no one I actually want to know or continue to have a relationship with.

Striving to be average is all about giving up, coasting, taking the easy way out, accepting 'good enough' as good enough. It's about complacency... accepting things as they are because doing nothing is less complicated and takes far less energy than doing anything.

I'm not talking about someone who is trying the best they can but can't prevail because of circumstance, limited opportunity or limited ability. I'm not talking about the people who can't do any better or try any harder... By definition, they are trying as hard as they can to be the best they can be; to do the best they are capable of doing.

I'm talking about the people who could make a difference, who could do better: but, after careful consideration, choose not to. Generally, at the risk of putting themselves or someone close to them in danger of some sort. They would rather work at 'getting by,' than work at getting better. And, I think what bothers me most of all about this social or cultural phenomenon is that it seems to be growing.

People come by the shop to take an order or solicit our business either representing themselves or other companies and they just barely manage to follow the script as if showing up was enough. They don't bring anything of value to the relationship, they don't create anything of consequence, they don't move information up or down the pipeline. Hell, sometimes they don't even say Hello!

I can't live like that. I don't think I would even if I could: could, as in allowed. I'm not wired that way and neither are any of the people I work with. They are constantly trying to learn more, get better, accomplish something significant, overcome obstacles, attain success. Now, they may choose to define success a little differently than the majority might define it. Their success isn't always about 'stuff' or money. More often than not, it's about that feeling of satisfaction that can only come from doing something extraordinary. And, extraordinary rarely occurs without a serious compliment of exertion.

I think the answer is not only simple, it's obvious. This level of performance - Or, perhaps, more appropriately - this level of non-performance, should no longer be accepted as adequate by anyone anywhere anymore. Complacency should be banished, and its practicioners and advocates no longer tolerated or accepted.

I think I'm going to give it a try... And, the sign at the driveway will read: Average No Longer Tolerated Here!

Have A Good Day!

How many times a day do you do you catch yourself directing someone you know or perhaps even a few people you don't, to "Have a good day!"

It's become a reflex, hasn't it... A smile. A wave. And, a friendly, thoughtless edict.

Meaningless.

What does it mean when something becomes meaningless, especially if it is a 'something' you yourself  are guilty of doing countless times a day! I know I just said it a few hours ago when the last person to pick up a vehicle before we closed paid their bill and started toward the door: "Thank You. Have a good day!"

Absurd!

No matter how you determine what a 'normal' day is, at 6:15 in the evening that day is just about over. There certainly isn't a lot of time left for something 'good' to happen. So, why bother suggesting it?

I could understand wishing someone a "good day" if we could all agree on what a good day looked or felt like. But, that hasn't happened... Has it? If it has, I must have missed it and I don't think I did. And, if that's the case, now might be a good time for us to give it a shot. What have we got to lose? Directing someone to have a great day would certainly be a lot more meaningful if everyone could agree on what it really meant to have one.

My son called this morning after he ran in the rain for an hour-and-a-half, and with his best John Wayne, declared that "A day without training is like a day without sunshine, Pilgrim!" 

Does that mean a day with training is a "good day," or at least the start of one? I'll bet it does.

If you are in business, is a good day a profitable day: a day where you have somehow managed to make a little more than you spent? It certainly would be "good day" in this economy! Is it enough to define a "good day" simply as one that hasn't managed to become a bad one? What do you think? I've experienced more than my share of days like that: days where just having nothing bad happen looked and felt pretty damned good by the end of the day! But, is that really enough?

I'll bet most of us have had enough bad days to recognize a good one if we came across one. It would probably have a lot more to do with content than with meaningless activity. It would be filled with more laughter than tears, more satisfaction than frustration. I'm sure there would be a sense of service thrown in for good measure. There would be at least a little appreciation, some recognition and maybe even the sense you actually managed to accomplish something that day floating around as well.

Maybe, that's what we're really trying to say. And, if it is, then we should just say what we mean...

Thank you! And, have a meaningful day! Thank you! And, have a rewarding day! Have a day filled with satisfaction and accomplishment, a day filled with love and respect! Have a day filled with people who make you laugh and smile, people you are genuinely glad to see and be around!

Now, that would be a "great day," wouldn't it! And, if you think about it, I'll bet it was!

Because It Gives Me Peace...

I'm relatively new to this 'Blogging' stuff.

I tried my hand at it in August... unsuccessfully.

I really didn't have a handle on what it was supposed to be all about, but that didn't stop me. Although, it probably should have. I was subsequently inspired to try again by my son who is more or less keeping an electronic journal of his preparation for the 2010 Tempe Ironman event, Seth Godin and Tom Peters.

Reading my son's blog (theironmadman.blogspot.com) and becoming addicted to Seth Godin's have helped me to understand that there is no right or wrong way to go about this which has in turn quieted my perfectionist neuroses to a manageable level: You know, that not so small voice that demands everything you do is done flawlessly lest someone find out you are somehow less than you appear to be... somehow less than you think they might think you are.

Did I just say that out loud?

The result of of this exploration has me taking another run at it, first on my company's website: schneidersauto.net, and then again here. Realistically, I haven't decided if the content will be the same, similar or different. You know, one focused on our automotive service business, the automotive aftermarket, broken cars and broken people: more or less the heart and soul of the columns I have written to the industry for the past twenty-five years, and my 'other life...' the one that begins and ends on the other side of the driveway at 607 E. Los Angeles Avenue; a world of family, friends, kids and community.

Realistically, it isn't all that easy to separate the two. I lean toward obsessive/compulsive behavior... a lot. And, tend to carry my professional life home with me every night and every weekend mixed in with the stack of papers and folders I drag back and forth every night. In fact, I'm sitting here right now bracketed by one of the 6 1/2" x 9" spiral notebooks I've started carrying everywhere on the left pull-out writing surface of my desk, and that five-inch stack of papers and folders I just mentioned, crying out for attention on my right.

It's Sunday and I just finished watching a digital recording of the The Sunday Morning Show, something that has more or less become a ritual around here: a recording because I refuse to get up at "0:Dark:thirty" in the morning to watch it when it actually airs, and a ritual because it is something that both my wife and I take great pleasure in doing together.

The motivation for this post is something that was said upon the conclusion of this week's episode and my subsequent response. After my wife and I finished talking about what we had just finished watching, I got up and started toward my office. She asked where I was going and I told her, although there aren't all that many choices in the small, 4-bedroom tract house referred to with love as "the Baronial Estate," purchased new thirty-six years ago.

She asked me why... And, I told her I was heading to my office to write. After all, that's what writers do.

She asked me why... And, without a second thought, I replied... "Because it gives me peace!" And, at that moment I achieved a blinding insight into something a dear friend and client said to me more years ago than I care to remember... "Work is prayer..."

Suddenly, I realized that work is prayer and that the purpose of prayer is to elevate; to communicate with powers in the universe greater than one's self. And, that through this dialogue we can achieve peace - Or, at least, I can: if not on demand, then, at least, at times! And, even though I may be writing about something that happened in the "real" world, the world in which I struggle to confront every day - the very act of writing about it transforms whatever it was that happened into something somehow more objective: something, somehow less personal and subjective. And, there is a very real kind of peace to be found in that simple transformation. There is a very real peace to be found in moving from the direct to the indirect...

So, in a way, my ultimate reason for my return to blogging is somewhat selfish: it is at least in part a search for the kind of peace most of us are probably struggling to find. In another, it is totally altruistic: altruistic in the sense I hope that by sharing my search with you, you may discover a door or a window leading to the kind of peace you are struggling to find.

Who knows... We may even find what we are looking for together. But, right now, it's time to pray: time to work for the peace I seek! In other words, I have a deadline to meet...

More later...