Why Wait?

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It’s Monday. The start of the business week. It’s a good time to get moving on “that thing.”

You know “that thing.” The one that keeps nagging at you; the one you’ve been postponing.

What’s the issue?

That thought you keep waking up with when the mind is clear.

That recurring issue that keeps presenting itself

The boundary that needs to be set

The pattern that needs to re-start

The complexity that needs to be simplified

The “why” that needs to be clarified

The “what” that needs better definition

The “who” that we need to connect with

What’s the risk if it gets started? What’s the risk if it stays the same?

Think “game-changer” activities. Prioritize biggest leverage items first.

Why not stop delaying, stop fearing, stop putting up barriers?

Entropy always tends to pull us in the direction of not acting. Resist it.

One thing, today. Why not?

Go get after it.

Days

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A Sunday blog post

If we live to be 80 years old, we will encounter and participate in about 29,200 rotations of the earth with respect to the sun; sun rising, sun setting, one day to the next. That’s a lot of days. Let’s break down just the days between age 18 and age 75 and assume them to be productive days of choice as adults. That’s still 20,805 days. Still a lot of days, yet a finite number.

What’s the visual look like? If 6 grains per second fall through the neck of a hourglass, the device contains about 21,600 grains. So the number of days in our reality on planet earth are similar to the number of grains of sand in an hour glass, each grain equating to a day, or about 24 hours.

The Old Testament Prophet in the book of Lamentations writes in Chapter 3 verses 22 and 23: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

New every morning. New each revolution. Every morning. One day at a time.

We get a new day every day. New mercy, new refreshment, new opportunity, new choices, new love that doesn’t consume us, if we choose it.

Choices, awareness, opportunity.

How then shall we live today?

Telling the “Story”

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When your material strength-to-weight ratio has not been optimized in the aluminum and steel buy-out items and you are spending more than you need to (or more than what’s in budget)…….

When there’s a leak on the carpeting in the CEO’s corner suite in the new corporate headquarters and no one can trace where it’s coming from…

When the wall has allegedly been designed to meet thermal criteria but occupants are uncomfortable with excessive cold or warm air entering their space…

When the vapor barrier has been breached and what seems like a leak in the wall is actually condensation flowing from exposed metal….

When the transitions between wall systems have been left to “by others” and now there are endless call backs about water infiltration in an occupied building….

When that “Value Engineered” item is now a 2′ x 2′ metal panel blowing in the wind after being pulled off the building, and has become a life-safety issue….

These are all introductory statements to real-world experiences we’ve been called in on, or for which we’ve been able to show a better way.

What’s the cost of engaging a consultant or specialty engineer on “that project”?

What’s the cost of “not”?

Choose wisely.

Engineering and Value

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I learned a long time ago that engineering is a means to an end. The process and expression of engineering should deliver value to the client, and the end user, to create safe, serviceable, components, parts, and systems, and in many forms. Engineering is part art, part science. It becomes a way of thinking as we do the work. My familiarity is with building systems and components, building science, structural and systems engineering for buildings, and most specifically for specialty systems know as curtain walls. These systems also are described as cladding, facade, architectural components, and building envelope. I am going to break down some items and factors that I’ve found to be important in executing engineering work in the proper context. It applies to the broad categories of engineering as well as the specialties I’ve noted. Value-based engineering has these types of mindsets and expressions:

Connected: It’s connected with client. It begins with the end in mind. Work backwards from the clients goals and desires, whether labor savings, redundancy, risk mitigation, manufacturing efficiency, optimization, or all of them.

Collaborative: Create a context where we are working in a shared reality with the client. Break down barriers, seek collaborative solutions. A shared reality puts us figuratively in “the same boat” or in “each other’s shoes.”

Competent: The fundamentals have been mastered so that the principles and practices can be utilized in an increasingly elegant manner, and with confidence in the accuracy of the solutions

Codified: One must be aware of the minimum requirements as outlined in building codes, standards, or applicable governing authorities.

Communicative: Keep an ongoing dialogue with the client. Let them know what is being done, inform them of our progress. Use email, instant messaging, phone calls, virtual meetings. Clients appreciate concise, informative, ongoing feedback to support collaboration. Engineers typically struggle with the idea of need to communicate regularly and just the reality of being communicative. Communication is the differentiator.

Concise: Solutions should be understandable, able to be interpreted, and as straightforward as possible to implement.

Clear: Solutions, drawings, reports, sketches, narration, should be clear and logical, simple to understand.

There’s more to this conversation and additional categories to discuss, which I will do in future blog posts. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading.

The Podcast

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Today is my every-other-Wednesday Creating Structure Podcast day. This afternoon I’ll record an hour session on Building Envelope Consulting, backgrounds, contexts, and values. This will be the 11th session and will be the 2nd one with people from my company, Wheaton Sprague Building Envelope. We will post the session next week around this same time. I hope you’ll listen and join our podcast community. We talk about people’s backgrounds, values, education, business, entrepreneurship, architecture, facade, glass, glazing, curtain wall, engineering, products, innovation, life, value, relationships and more. It’s quite organic, but we manage to hit the important points of the topics we want to discuss.

We’ve got 10 other podcast posts on our Buzzsprout platform. You can also listen via most of the other major podcasting platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, IHeart Radio podcast, and more.

Podcasting is a terrific platform and I am blessed to have a studio, a production engineer-content manager, and great guests. You are invited to subscribe. Make it a great day out there!

https://creatingstructure.buzzsprout.com/

http://www.wheatonsprague.com

Sales

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My dad shares a story about how one of his former colleagues, the General Manager of a large industrial business, had a phrase on his office wall that said, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.”

This is true. In business, selling something triggers all the resulting downstream actions. No need for operations meetings, organizational charts, job descriptions, operational infrastructure, and more revenue supporting activities, until there’s a sale. Selling implies the creation of some tangible good or service that has value to the buyer. No sale, no sustainable business. It’s so easy as a business grows, to focus more and more on internal matters. That’s the space where I hire staff, since as a firm grows, the doer-seller model needs a larger and larger support team, including distribution of client relationship management and operations.

My experience (and that of many I have polled and talked to) has been this; for everyone twenty people that can “do” there’s one or two that can “sell.” Sales is the rarer skill. If there’s a choice between selling and doing, pick selling. Own the relationships. Support the brand and the value. Stay connected to the client, the market, the messages outside the business.

Who sold something today?

Disruption and Change

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Love Disrupts Hate

Light disrupts darkness
Truth disrupts lies
Peace disrupts violence
Unity disrupts separation
Inclusion disrupts exclusion
Integration disrupts Segregation
Justice disrupts injustice
Resurrection disrupts death

These disruptions are not met with ease and appreciation by the systems and people that create them (systems and attitudes governed by power, fear, division, etc.)

Change doesn’t happen by fighting the symptoms of the problem in the same manner as they are manifested. Change happens by disrupting it in the opposite manner.

A fire isn’t stopped by adding fuel. Arguments stop not when the last person has their say or outlasts the other, but when one of the persons chooses to seek understanding, listen, or create a boundary. If we want to change something and bring about a different consequence, we’ve got to do the opposite of “the thing.” Shouting loudly when others are shouting only works when we have the loudest voice. Try whispering instead.

Change happens first on the individual level. We can model bringing positive change in our homes, families, businesses, workplaces, and broader circle of relationships. We don’t have to wait for others to do it. We own our responses and attitudes. When this is connected together in common cause with others, it can bring significant change in communities. Darkness can’t stand against light. Light drives out darkness. The brighter the light, The less the darkness. The more lights strung together, the bigger the impact.


Jesus, the God-Human, who bodily resurrected from the grave embodies all those qualities of change and more. I’m not talking about the versions of Jesus that are manipulated in the wrong way for personal gain. I’m talking about the real, authentic, middle eastern, Jewish carpenter, Jesus, the Son of God who is the way, truth and life. Light in the darkness. Healing in pain. Resurrection instead of death. Love instead of hate. Disruptive to a world set in it’s ways. A still soft voice. May those of us who are Christians, show it by our love.

Authenticity

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“Authenticity is the new apologetic.” I heard this quote from James Thomas Talbot, one of the brothers and pastors at our church, Citizen’s Akron. But this isn’t about church. This is about the quote; about the statement; about the truth portrayed in it. I’ve been seeing this and stewing on it for some time. I’m watching the reality of it unfold more and more.

“Apologetic” is about one’s ability to defend, justify, appropriately argue a belief, belief system, theory or religious doctrine; systematic argumentation and discourse.

But people are tired of words. I’m tired of words (as I type words). Actions and realities are the best defense. People and groups can sniff out a lie quickly these days. So many words, so little fruit. So many words, so many incongruencies.

Authenticity, the visible reality of the manifestations and consequences around our life, this is the new apologetic. Our life, the fruit of the life, what we do, how we act, these are the defenses. “Show me don’t tell me.” It’s not easy to argue against a life well lived, or against specific results surrounding our life. It isn’t about what we say, it’s about what we do.

Our actions, which flow from our identity, should support our words which support our thoughts. What’s visible on the outside of our life is a result of our choices, behaviors, thoughts. Rather than speaking and expecting people to believe us, we should be doing.

We may as well choose authenticity. We aren’t fooling anyone forever if we are saying one thing and doing another. The person that is typically most deceived in that way is ourselves, but that’s another topic for another day.

Authenticity is the new apologetic. In business, in spirituality, in life, in relationships. Thanks James.

The Wilderness

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Ah. The wilderness. What is it about the wilderness?

“And the child (John the Baptist) grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.” Luke 1:80.

John the Baptist came out of the wilderness before many came to hear his message; before he created a real stir. It says that he became strong in spirit in the wilderness. The wilderness has a way of making us or breaking us. It could be a physical wilderness, literally in the wild, alone, humbled by the magnitude of nature and the need to survive. But there’s many more wildernesses. The wilderness of isolation, pain, regret, doubt, struggle, COVID19, being misunderstood, and more. We can live in a wilderness of a particular day, negative family news, a new diagnosis, endless cloud cover, and more.

Jesus spent time in the wilderness according to the accounts from the gospel writers. He was there 40 days, alone, fasting, and hungry. He knows the pain of wilderness, and also the victory of conquering the loneliness and preparation.

We can learn in the wilderness. We can grow in the wilderness. Something as simple as a quiet walk alone, reflecting, can be cleansing, meaningful, allowing the important stuff in our mind to surface to the top. The more we come to the end of ourselves, the more the clarity.

There are forced, chosen wildernesses, that we create in an effort to grow, and then there are those which are brought upon us through circumstance or providence. But it feels uncomfortable until we get familiar with it.

Often in the wilderness it feels as if there’s no fruit. The wilderness of preparation can feel endless unless we have some idea of what’s on the horizon. The horizon requires vision in order to stay on the path through the wilderness.

Training, education, new ventures, relationships, new places, transitions, can be part of a wilderness experience.

The wilderness; the unknown, the wandering, the refinement, the experience, the message, the growth, if we allow our mindset to help shape the experience instead of simply letting it shape us.

What’s your wilderness right now?

Getting Back on the Path

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I’ve always got ideas in my head. I’m in a constant dialogue, whether with myself or with others. Yet, I don’t always know what to write. I’ll get part way into a draft, save it, and then when I come back, I’ve lost the essence and the post is moved into the trash folder. So here I am again, just writing. Connecting. Putting out random thoughts today.

It’s been over a month since my last post. I don’t like that. I agree with Seth Godin; people talk about “writers block” but no one has ever heard of “talkers block”. We talk every day, all the time, but can’t write a thought? Maybe it’s like the difference between talking spontaneously to those we know, versus presenting a speech to a group of people. We put pressure on ourselves and create barriers.

Speaking of barriers, the biggest obstacles to our success and advancement are typically the ones we create. Mindset is everything. We have to believe that we “can” first, and then we can do the “what” or “the thing.” Control the mind, control the actions. Otherwise, the mind controls us.

So anyway, that’s it for the day. Just a simple post. To break through the blockage; to establish the pattern again. One day at a time.

I hope you are well.