Too much connectivity

http://business.time.com/2012/02/16/should-companies-force-employees-to-unplug/3/

The modern world has fundamentally changed the expectations of communication.  Where we used to have no way of contacting a friend or family member if they weren’t home or available at the office, we will now get frustrated if they do not pick up their phone or send a text immediately from anywhere – even the car, plane, or beach vacation.  With the growth of the cell-phone and texting user-base, I don’t see this trend changing.  And, because people are more me-oriented from the start and as a result of having this kind of contact reach (I can contact you anywhere, anytime as long as you have your cellphone – which I expect you to have), there will probably be a greater number of cases of depression, burnout, and suicide.  Man wasn’t made to work 24/7.  And, six days from sunrise to sunset in the fields can be fine, but that’s only during the toughest season (not for all of them) for a man who, it is supposed, already has the Lord as his hope and includes seasonal celebrations that are weeks long.

This is another reason why our society is removing itself from society-improving activities (volunteer community improvement, nonprofits without big names, church).  It’s hard to serve your neighbor for free while constantly thinking about clients and bosses who can cost you income and job security.  That anxiety brings the whole issue of trust into the picture.  Do employers trust you to be working hard/smart enough from 8-5?  Will you get a raise if you don’t go overboard?  What are your expectations, and is there an unwritten level of commitment related to work time beyond 40 hours every week? Moreover, consider those who work on the east coast with clients on the west coast, overseas, or vice versa – 8:00am and 5:00pm aren’t fixed.  This is spiraling out of control, and without a connection to a transcendent purpose for rest – a biblical understanding and appreciation – it will continue, taking many men to their grave (consider increasing heart attacks), leaving many distraught families in its wake (from the death or from the absentee fathers).

HBR Article

The article “Positive Intelligence” (Jan/Feb 2012) reaffirms the scientific position that positive people are more productive.  It also pointed out that there is a stronger correlation between happiness and social support than between smoking and cancer.  And, giving support was even more important than receiving it.  Disciplining one’s self with easy, healthy habits, it noted, dramatically improved individuals’ positive attitudes and had the force to even rewire the adult brain’s networking.  These were the habits conducted for three consecutive weeks with accountants at KPMG in December 2008:

·         Jot down three things they were grateful for.
·         Write a positive message to someone in their social support network.
·         Meditate at their desk for two minutes.
·         Exercise for 10 minutes.
·         Take two minutes to describe in a journal the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours.

Other points of note:

Ochsner Health System…uses an approach it calls the “10/5 Way” to increase social support among employees and patients. We educated 11,000 employees, leaders, and physicians about the impact of social support on the patient experience, and asked them to modify their behavior. When employees walk within 10 feet of another person in the hospital, they must make eye contact and smile. When they walk within 5 feet, they must say hello. Since the introduction of 10/5, Ochsner has experienced an increase in unique patient visits, a 5% increase in patients’ likelihood to recommend the organization, and a significant improvement in medical-practice provider scores.

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Employees who score low in “life satisfaction,” a rigorously tested and widely accepted metric, stay home an average of 1.25 more days a month, a 2008 study by Gallup Healthways shows. That translates into a decrease in productivity of 15 days a year.

….

Researchers at Gallup found that retail stores that scored higher on employee life satisfaction generated $21 more in earnings per square foot of space than the other stores, adding $32 million in additional profits for the whole chain.

Loving mothers cultivate larger-brained children

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240992.php

[C]hildren whose mothers showed them love and affection from the very beginning have brains with a larger hippocampus, which is a key part of the brain involved with memory, stress response, and learning.

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These scans showed that the kids who did not show symptoms of depression and had been nurtured earlier in life possessed a hippocampus close to 10% bigger than the ones whose mothers did not act as nurturing.

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Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.” (Proverbs 4:1-9)

Power and Responsibility

http://www.economist.com/node/21542716

The XM25, as the new gun is known, weighs about 6kg (13lb) and fires a 25mm round…[I]nstead of having to be aimed directly at the target, this round need only be aimed at a place in proximity to it. Once there, it explodes…the fragments kill the enemy. It knows when to explode because of a timed fuse. In Shrapnel’s shells this fuse was made of gunpowder. In the XM25 it is a small computer inside the bullet that monitors details of the projectile’s flight.

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When the round is fired, the internal computer counts the number of rotations it makes, to calculate the distance flown. The rifle’s muzzle velocity is 210 metres a second, which is the starting point for the calculation. When the computer calculates that the round has flown the requisite distance, it issues the instruction to detonate. The explosion creates a burst of shrapnel that is lethal within a radius of several metres (exact details are classified). And the whole process takes less than five seconds.

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The bullets, which have to be made by hand at the moment, clock in at several hundred dollars each.

This is a game-changing weapon – smart, miniature grenade-like bullets.  Immediately, imitations are arising.  I wondered why.  Then I thought, perhaps in the “engagement” of enemies forces, this weapon would allow for greater destruction with less accountability/responsibility to be able to see and target combatants.  If you drop a bomb on a bad guy and kill civilians, you’re liable.  But, if you shoot at a single combatant and injure civilians, you may be free from responsibility…

Transformed environment

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/apple-invades-3-8t-workplace-market-with-ipad.html

“We haven’t seen a single pharma deploy on anything but the iPad,” said Matt Wallach, co-founder of Veeva Systems Inc., a Pleasanton, California-based maker of sales software for drug companies.

“I’ve seen a lot of devices come and go over the years. Nothing touches the speed of adoption of the iPad.”

Information control

http://www.economist.com/node/21543555?fsrc=rss%7Cbus

Boeing’s assembly plants are the final stage in a long and hugely complex global supply chain. It has about 1,200 “tier-one” suppliers, which provide parts directly to the planemaker from 5,400 factories in 40 countries. These in turn are fed by thousands more “tier-two” suppliers, which themselves receive parts from countless others. Beverly Wyse, who oversees production of the 737, admits that it has sometimes been a job to persuade all these suppliers to invest enough to meet future demand. To do so, Boeing has had to learn to be more open with them about its production plans, and a bit less paranoid about whether such information might reach the ears of its competitors.

Such an action is probably less difficult for a company like Boeing that doesn’t have competitors.  They have a single competitor:  Airbus.  And, as the article points out, both have queues of orders four years (Boeing) and eight years (Airbus) out.  That might seem great for Airbus, but those deals are on models that will be outdated by the time Boeing has secured additional orders (and the global oil situation may change, calling for even greater fuel-efficiency over against other qualities).

When negotiating, one needs to balance this wisdom of sharing for partnership and withholding for protection (based on the relationship).  “Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts” (Proverbs 20:14).  He boasts because he got what he wanted for the value he thought it was worth.  This is one great aspect of free enterprise.  Excepting government regulatory demands, you don’t have to buy something you don’t value more than the money is costs you to buy it.  Thus, the buyer boasts because he didn’t feel cheated.  He felt he was shrewd.  The seller sold.  He may have felt cheated, but we don’t know from the proverb.  We do know that, in general, sellers don’t sell if they can afford not to when it isn’t in their interest.  And, buyers have traditionally had greater leverage in business.  The U.S. business culture is one of the most egalitarian when it comes to profit-sharing between buyers and sellers.  Most countries’ business cultures favor buyer bargaining power.

Also, regarding the flow of information, when evaluating how much to share, business leaders need to consider this question:  Are you cooperating or collaborating?  Cooperating is working together toward a common end today.  Collaborating is choosing to work together toward a common end tomorrow.  The future focus of collaboration allows for more fearless information-sharing.  Cooperating today is evidence that what is being done today is still in the other party’s interest.  But, that must not be confused (as we saw with Oracle and HP), that I should expect the same relationship tomorrow.