GEO Principle Blog

The benefits of smoking and drinking

David Zach, the Milwaukee-based futurist I wrote about last week, concluded the presentation he delivered to 200 business people with a few suggestions about how to get more out of life. His top to suggestions: start smoking and start drinking!

He was kidding, of course, and his suggestions drew a big laugh from the crowd, but these two tips were not without their point.

Smokers, he said, take breaks, and that's a good thing. Too many people work all day without ever taking a break. In fact, some people even boast about never taking a break, but the fact is, we all need to take breaks. Even if only for two or three minutes, a break refreshes, it gives you a chance to stretch, it rests your eyes. If you go outside, the fresh air surely will do you good.

Furthermore, Zach noted that people who smoke bond with other people with whom they would otherwise never mingle. In the break room or outside the back entry to the office building, you may  find the CEO or other high-level manager chatting with an entry-level employee as they both smoke a cigaret. 

With respect to drinking, he encouraged it in the context of a mid-day meal. He said people should go out to lunch more often. "The average American spends less than 15 minutes having lunch, and people usually eat lunch alone at their desk," Zach said. Most people spend far more time with their computer at work than they do with another person, Zach observed.

The point is, make time to visit with other people. Don't discount the pleasure of a good meal. Take time to enjoy the beautiful things in life, including good food and conversation. Furthermore, make an effort to enjoy these things in the company of others. "Go out for lunch," Zach encouraged. "When you break bread, you break barriers."

A look at one firm's approach to sabbatical

If you've read The GEO Principle, you know that I am an advocate of sabbaticals. We get lots of instruction from scripture about pacing ourselves in our work. God worked six days and then took a day off, not because He needed to, but because He wanted to give us an example. This is why we traditionally avoid work on Sundays. Moses declared a "Sabbath year" every seven years, when farmers would let their land go fallow in order for it to rejuvenate. On a larger scale, the Israelites acknowledged a Jubilee year every 50 years, when debts were to be forgiven, slaves freed and some work suspended. The Sabbath year and Jubilee year are the inspiration behind the sabbatical concept where one might take extended time off once or twice in a working career.

Most people reject the notion of taking a sabbatical because, unless they are a tenured college professor, they think it is impossible. Most people can't imagine how they could leave the work world for any meaningful length of time. Furthermore, they are unsure about what they would do, even if they could get the time off.

It helps if you work for a company that encourages its employees to take a sabbatical. One such company is Eide Bailly. The accounting and consulting firm has offices in several states, including Minnesota and both Dakotas. The publishing company I run has worked with Eide Bailly for a long time, but it was only recently that I learned of its innovative sabbatical program.

Eide Bailly requires partners in the firm to take a sabbatical every five years. The company gives them six weeks paid time off, and they further encourage employees to match that time with two weeks of vacation so they get an eight-week sabbatical. I was talking to a friend at the firm who explained to me that the requirement accomplishes several goals.

First, it helps the employee keep the right perspective about their work. During the sabbatical, the employee's email is disconnected and all the employee's clients are routed to someone else in the company. This helps the person taking the sabbatical realize that the company can operate without them. This is a harsh message for some folks, but no one should assume that everything will come to a halt if they're not around. 

Second, it helps the firm figure out how to service its clients when the main contact for those clients is away. This is simply good management. All companies should have contingency plans about how clients are served when primary contacts are unavailable. The sabbaticals force Eide Bailly to follow through on this planning.  

Third, the sabbaticals help the employee to prepare for retirement. Accounting can be a consuming profession, leaving little time to develop hobbies or other interests. A sabbatical forces an employee to develop other interests which may become very important in retirement years. How sad it is when someone retires and they don't know what to do.

And fourth, the sabbatical makes the employee a better employee. With rejuvenation and a little time to think about other things, employees inevitably return to the company with new energy that typically translates into better client service. 

Think about the things that are permanent

I recently had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of David Zach, a futurist based in Milwaukee. I invite you to contemplate something he said, something I have been thinking about for the past few days.

Zach commented that people typically start their day getting the news. They watch the morning news programs on television as the eat breakfast and prepare to go off to work, or they read the morning newspaper. News is a summary of things that change.

Zach said that rather than focusing so much on things that change, we should spend time thinking about things that don't change, about the things in life that are permanent. That a significant suggestion.

Consider the kinds of things that change, that fill our newspapers everyday: what team won last night, where the bad weather is expected to strike next, which government official is saying what, and what celebrity is getting married or divorced. Now think about the things that don't change: truth, beauty, right and wrong, God. These things are permanent. They don't change so they don't get much attention in the media but Zach says we should give them a lot of attention. 

I think it is a great message. Sometimes, we focus so much on the things that change, that we forget about the permanent things all together. That's a huge mistake. It is the permanent things that give the changing things context. If we don't consider the permanent things, our consideration of the changing things is very likely to be off base.

The best way to make sure you take time to consider the permanent things every morning, is to start each day with prayer. This is key counsel from The GEO Principle. If you find you don't have time to pray in the morning, but you are spending time reading or watching the news, take some of that time devoted to media and use it for prayer. If you take time to contemplate the permanent, you put yourself in a much better position to understand the things that change.

Make a statement

I wrote a while back about the impact meeting planners could have on hotel managers if they expressed their desire for pornography-free rooms. Well, here's one group that is taking this issue seriously.

Surprising to me are the number of comments at the end of the newspaper article arguing in favor of pornography.

I hope the commissioners in the county vote to give "clean" hotels priority; any organization communicates a lot by the way it spends its money.

Gratitude and the moon landing

The 40th anniversary of the moon landing gives us an opportunity to look at an interesting example of someone bringing their faith to work. Shortly after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, Aldrin conducted a communion ceremony inside the Lunar Module.

I was a space fan as a kid when the Apollo program was in full swing, but I didn’t learn about this personal religious event until I read about it in volume 2 of Bill Bennett’s America, The Last Best Hope. A Washington Post writer comments on it as he reflected on the 40th anniversary. 

Aldrin brought wine and bread with him. He poured the wine into a cup and broke the bread. He asked Mission Control for silence so he could pray.

In a secular culture, Aldrin’s actions sound unusual, but I think they are appropriate for someone who has just arrived in a new world. After the flood in Genesis, we are told that Noah made an altar where he offered sacrifices to God. (Gen. 8:20) I would be willing to bet Christopher Columbus and later, the Pilgrims, made gestures of gratitude toward God upon landing in America.

“Eucharist,” the word many Christians use to refer to the sacrament of communion, comes from the Greek word that means “grateful” or “thankful.” It is entirely appropriate that Aldrin would be thankful to God for their safe travel to the surface of the moon.

Although communion rituals are unusual at work, gratefulness and thankfulness should not be. Particularly during recession where the unemployment rate in many states is north of 10 percent, employed folks should be grateful for their work. God provides for us through work (our own and others), and that is no small thing.

No matter where you go to work -– an office, a construction site, a school, a hospital, or even the moon –- take a moment to give thanks to God.

Personal audit, encouragement are marks of a leader

Andy Hickman is a professional speaker from Texas with a motivating and entertaining message. I had the opportunity to hear him present to a business group in Iowa yesterday. He made three points that I believe are worth passing on:

1) Your checkbook and calendar reveal what you value. He noted that a lot of people say they value family, yet their money and time goes into everything but family. He suggested that everyone conduct a personal audit of their checkbook (particularly with respect to discretionary spending) and their calendar. See if the information revealed is consistent with what you say is important. "If there is misalignment, then make a change," he said.

2) Encourage others. He reminded us that words matter a lot. People listen to what you are saying, even if they pretend they are not paying attention. You can make a huge impact on your environment at home or at work with the words you use. Build people up and you make a great environment; criticize unnecessarily and you dampen everyone's energy. "Since you have complete control over what you say, why not choose to say things that encourage others?" he asked.

3) Superficial qualities do not make a leader. Hickman noted that the world tries to tell us that you have to be extremely intelligent, good-looking, and have money in order to be a leader. But, in fact, the greatest leaders in history -- Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, for example -- had none of these qualities. More importantly, their actions were consistent with their message and they encouraged others.

Hickman has written a book called "Stuff That Really Matters." Learn more at his web site (don't let the music startle you). Click on "online store" to get to the book.

Etiquette is about respecting others

We all know that we are supposed to "love our neighbor;" the GEO Principle contends that includes people at work. Your work colleagues are as much your neighbors as the guy who lives next door.

So how should we love our work colleagues? It is easy to say we should love our colleagues but what does that actually mean? Well, this article posted at Career Builder, is a pretty good start. There are no shocking insights presented, just common sense suggestions for getting along. But each suggestion in the article is a good reminder.

Etiquette is about respecting those around you; respect is the basis of any loving relationship. If you are going to love your neighbor, including those at work, you need to start with basic respect.

Loving someone at work ultimately means wanting what is best for them, even if it means a little less for you. It might take a while to get to that point in a relationship with a work colleague, but a basis of respect is a great starting point.

To tell the truth

Perhaps none of us need to be as blunt as the fellow in this article, but most of us understand that honesty is the best policy. There is a commandment about telling the truth, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what that means. But, in fact, being honest can be much harder than it seems upon initial consideration.

We Minnesotans are famous for avoiding confrontation. The term "Minnesota nice" was developed for a reason. Most of us will smile and nod in agreement, even if we don't really agree because we want to avoid making a scene. (This is unlike my friends from the East Coast, who seem to be very comfortable making a scene.) No matter where you are from, however, there is a human tendency to tell people what they want to hear more than what it true.

Nobody enjoys delivering bad news. At work, it is much easier to tell the boss what he or she expects than it is to tell the truth. It is easier to avoid the truth than to share it. So when the commandment says "Thou shall not bear false witness," the challenge is actually quite significant, even for faith-filled people.

I also think of that story in Matthew (21:28-31) where the master asks his two sons to work in the vineyard; one says he will and then doesn't do so; the other says he won't but changes his mind and decides to go to work. We readily acknowledge that the first son is wrong to go back on his word. We all know a person should do what they say they are going to do. They should tell the truth. But maybe this first son was a little like us Minnesotans; maybe he didn't like to disappoint others. It is easier for him to say what the master expects and then disappoint in private. At least by saying "yes," he gets happy face-time with the master, leaving the disappointment to a time when he is someplace else.

We need to find the courage to say what we mean, to follow through on our commitments, to refrain from making commitments that we have no intention of keeping, to be honest. Clearly, it is not always easy. Sometimes saying "no" will disappoint. But disappointment is better than deception.

Consider seriously the concerns others bring to you

Bringing God to work means loving those around us; let me give one example of how to show those around you at work that you love them: take their concerns seriously. 

Do you know what it is like to have a concern and have others dismiss it like it's not important, as if it's no big deal? I think we all know when it has happened to us. Here is a very small example. I go to a store to buy a pair of pants. They fit okay but the legs are too long. The salesperson says, "no problem, just hem them up." The salesperson dismisses my concern about the length of the pants. Inside, I'm thinking "Where am I going to get them hemmed up? How do I do that? I don't have a tailor. I can't do this myself." The salesperson didn't solve my problem, he dismissed it -- and me in the process.

Or I think about a recent experience I had buying a refrigerator. The salesperson encouraged us to get one of those models that automatically makes ice cubes. I asked how that works and the salesperson said a pipe connects the refrigerator to a water pipe in the house. I know little about plumbing and this sounded complicatedto me. I was concerned about how I would connect to my home's plumping. I shared my concern but the salesperson dismissed it as insignificant. "It's simple," he said. "There are written instructions included." I ended up going somewhere else for the refrigerator.

In both these cases, the salesperson dismissed my concerns, which I admit may have seemed trivial to them. To me, nonetheless, they were serious concerns. I was the one who would have to take care of the problem, and I was the one who would have to live with the results. If I connected the refrigerator to the wrong pipe, I am the one who would be stuck fixing yet another problem. In both examples, I would have felt much better if the salesperson had discussed my concern at greater length and then offered real solutions to help me, not solutions that merely made it obvious he wanted to complete the sale and move on as quickly as possible to the next customer.

These are sales examples, but I am sure most of you reading this can think of examples in your work setting -- perhaps with a boss or colleague -- where you have been earnestly concerned about something and the other person does not take your concern seriously. This attacks your dignity. This makes you feel bad, a little less human. Knowing what it feels like to have your concerns ignored or dismissed provides motivation to fully consider the concerns of those around you. You do not want to make others feel as you might feel when your concerns are dismissed.

When someone brings a concern to you, you cannot always solve it. But what you can do is let the person tell you about their concern, listen patiently, try to understand the concern as thoroughly as possible, even if you don't think the concern is particularly serious. Don't tell them their concern is unimportant. If the concern seems unimportant to you, then share the information you have which mitigates the situation. But share the information in a manner which comforts them, not dismisses them.

If someone brings you a concern, suggest solutions. Offer to be a part of the solution, if you can. Don't downplay the cost of the solution. The refrigurator salesman told me I could get a plumber to set up the icemaker in my new appliance for "a few bucks." Hiring a plumber always costs more than a few bucks. Downplaying the cost of a particular solution is just another way to dismiss the concern.

My point is, take the time to work through concerns when people bring them to you. If people take you seriously enough to bring a concern to you, then the best way you can respect their human dignity is to consider their concern seriously enough to help them truly resolve it.

Authenticity, a key to business success, starts on a personal level

I had the opportunity to listen to B. Joseph Pine talk about customer service recently. He has this new book out, in which he describes the importance of delivering authentic experiences. People can easily detect insincerity and if they detect it in your business, they will choose to go elsewhere.

I found his argument compelling. Pine was talking about authenticity from an organizational perspective, but my experience is that authenticity has to start on the personal level. An organization cannot deliver authenticity unless its employees are doing so on an individual basis. This is where the GEO Principle is essential.

Authenticity starts with knowing yourself, and I will contend that you cannot truly know yourself without knowing God first. As a person grows in faith, he develops a relationship with God that allows him to see himself more accurately. Personal relationships blossom when people present themselves sincerely and honestly. If a company can do the same, I have no doubt its business will blossom as Pine suggests.