Brucisms - Thoughts on Life, Leadership, and The Pursuit of Happiness

photo by Trey Ratcliff

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.

T.E. Lawrence

photo by Matthew Sullivan

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes.

All is a miracle.

Thich Nhat Hanh

photo by Matthew Sullivan

Photo Gallery: The Art of Matthew Sullivan

I had to share the work of a great photographer that I found on Flickr! I originally came across his work when looking for a picture for an upcoming article. As I looked through the amazing collection of photos that Matthew has on Flickr - I just had to feature a portion of them in a post of their own. Enjoy!

photo by Ania Ceglinska .

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart… Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”

Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

My Country Awake

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high; Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore

photo by Fabrizio Lonzini

Book Review: Blink* The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

It would seem that first impressions really do matter, that our subconscious mind can make high order decisions in the blink of an eye that are more accurate than those that we may ponder over for days and weeks. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the power of “thin slicing” and the human mind’s ability to see below the surface.

photo by iStockPhoto

The Leadership Compass

As any sailor or woodsmen knows, the compass is the most basic and essential tool for navigation. Leaders, likewise, need a compass to navigate the turbulent waters of problem solving and the wilderness of decision-making. It is a core set of values that when followed will always keep you on the path to success.

True North: Creating Value
Just as the needle of a compass always points toward magnetic north, the leadership compass must always point toward actions that create value – for the individual, the team, and the organization.

Navigation: Finding your way
A compass works only because of the underlying law of magnetism. This law is a constant that can be depended upon. The leadership compass must be supported by governing values that provide a constant direction as well. There is a wealth of leadership and management knowledge available today. As a leader, the more you absorb, the finer you will hone your leadership skills. The following four concepts and behaviors will provide a solid foundation for your leadership compass to follow.

Kaizen

(kai: change); (zen: good)

Kaizen literally means change for the better” or “improvement”; the common English usage is “continuous improvement” or “continual improvement”.

Kaizen is a daily activity whose purpose goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (both mental and physical), and teaches critical thinking and problem solving skills with the intent to spot and eliminate waste in business processes.

To be most effective kaizen must operate with three principles in place:

• Consider the process and the results (not results-only) so that actions to achieve effects are surfaced;

• Systemic thinking of the whole process and not just that immediately in view (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view) in order to avoid creating problems elsewhere in the process; and

• A learning, non-judgmental, non-blaming (because blaming is wasteful) approach that insists on the consistent re-examination of the assumptions that resulted in the current process.

The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as: standardize an operation -> measure the standardized operation (find cycle time and amount of in-process inventory) -> gauge measurements against requirements -> innovate to meet requirements and increase productivity -> standardize the new, improved operations -> continue cycle ad infinitum. This is also known as the Shewhart cycle, Deming cycle, or PDCA.

Hansei (han: to change, turn over, turn upside down); (sei: look back upon, review, examine oneself)

Hansei literally means “profound reflection”. Figuratively it describes being conscious of your behavior and its impact on others and to acknowledge your own mistake and to pledge improvement. Hansei also means greeting success with modesty and humility. To stop hansei means to stop learning. With hansei one never becomes so convinced of one’s own superiority that there is no more room or need for further improvement.

Unlike a traditional “post-mortem”, hansei is a behavior as much as it is an event. Both successes and failures are looked at with the same scrutiny. An example may be a project that delivered ahead of time or under budget – rather than celebrating this “success”, hansei would lead you to ask – Why were our estimates so wrong?

Nemawashi (ne: root); (mawasu: to go around)

Nemawashi literally translates as “going around the roots”. Its original meaning was literal: digging around the roots of a tree, to prepare it for a transplant. It is often translated as “laying the groundwork”.

Nemawashi in Japanese culture is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides.

I.D.E.A. Loops

Matthew E. May in The Elegant Solution proposed a modification to the Deming cycle that he calls I.D.E.A. loops.
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