7 Quick Takes Friday #60

See more 7 Quick Takes Friday contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

I am certainly glad that this week is over! Unfortunately, I am likely to feel that way every week until the end of June! Well, read on. The explanation follows.

1. This morning we senior managers learned that we have a major inspection from our headquarters for which we have to prepare and which may (probably will) result in programs being cut. Please pray that all will go well with this inspection the third week of June. Until then, we are preparing all our presentations with many, many rehearsals and several murder boards (aggressively negative questioning by listeners who will be helping us to prepare perfect presentations). Every other day until D-Day we have something due or a rehearsal. Hm...a month of no-sleep days? Is it possible to exist in that manner that long?

2. Yesterday we took our triennial organizational picture. We all gathered in the park and smiled for the photographer. Unfortunately, I forgot that we were taking the picture, and I decided that since I could not do casual Friday this week because of some serious Friday meetings, I would do casual Thursday since I had no meetings on my calendar. I wore a Bahraini dress -- comfortable -- and a Syrian shawl -- warm. Not business attire, however. Now, my ethnic attire will be memorialized on our headquarters wall for three years! Oops!

3. Wednesday afternoon I crashed a party -- in spite of a busy week of somber meetings, I have ended up at a number of parties and lunches. Thank God! That maintained my sanity in an otherwise stressful environment. I was able to attend noon Mass on Wednesday at a local chapel. After Mass, two friends from the secular Franciscan order to which I belong scooped me up and pulled me into the room where they have morning Bible studies. It was the birthday for one of them, and they wanted to share "lunch" (the party leftovers) with me. Fun!

4. I definitely gained weight on Wednesday. (The scale confirmed a two-pound addition, but I lost it in the next two stressful days, which the scale also confirmed. Is that what is known as a yo-yo diet, or is that yo-yo string too short?) After the Wednesday afternoon birthday party, I came home to a cookout at my house for our final Bible Studies class. Too much good eating. Just right amount of good conversation and good friends.

5. Earlier this week I found myself between the proverbial rock and a hard place. My colleague had presented a project that he especially likes to his boss. The project is very problematic. I know that because I know more about the topic than he does, but he did not ask for my input. The CEO turned to me, knowing that this was an area of expertise for me, and asked my opinion. Ouch! Should I support my colleague and lose the respect of the CEO or present my understanding of the truth and risk the resentment and anger of my colleague. I finally decided on the latter; the truth is always the best policy, right? Well, the next morning I get a note from our finance office, telling me that the CEO will not accept the project for funding unless I approve it. I cannot because I think that there are some serious problems with it that can actually harm our organization. Once again, I stated my opinion honestly, this time in writing. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

6. In spite of this morning's moribund meeting about the coming axe to fall, the rest of today was great. After the meeting, I met some friends for lunch. Willie was my teacher years ago, and has been retired for more than 20 years. He is married to our personnel director, and once a year he and I go to lunch. We joke that I have to ask her to make our date! This year she joined us, and it was such a nice relaxing moment after the dire conversation of the morning.

7. Today day ended on a bittersweet note. My very able, even beloved, assistant of three years, Sean, is retiring, and his wife had arranged a retirement party. My boss's boss said some very nice words, and I presented my assistant with a plaque. The program had the quote from the Bible that says, "Here I am, Lord, send me." I guess that must be his favorite verse. I had asked God to lead me to the right parting words, and that prayer was answered. When I saw that verse, I knew how to end my speech, which had remained unfinished until that point. In ending, I read the verse from the program and added, "God must love me because he sent Sean to me." Sean told me he was very touched by my words, and so did many others. They were not my words, though. They were the words God gave me to say.

And now I am going to look forward to a 3-day weekend! I hope you have a peaceful three days, as well.

7 Quick Takes Friday #49

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

Maybe I am just a bit frustrated this week, in spite of our great holiday party today and even though I gave up frustration for Lent and rarely give in to it these days, having learned how to handle it during Lent. Maybe it was the pending 1787 emails that faced me after the holiday party, keeping me there until nearly 9:00 p.m. just to get through the most urgent of them. Maybe it was finding out in the early evening that three of my senior managers had made a couple of serious mistakes, and everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else, with no one taking responsibility for his actions or even fixing them. I ended up calling the East Coast office involved and walked that junior manager through what had to be done, including coming back to work at nearly midnight. I also had to take both senior managers in the junior managers' chain to task for not having done what needed to be done. Dealing with their cavalier attitude, "oh, we will take care of that on Monday," Monday being too late to handle it, also irritated me. I ended up telling them that they could come in and do the work that was supposed to have been completed six weeks ago tomorrow (Saturday), or I would do it on Monday for them, with related repercussions. In any event, I thought that today's seven quick takes might focus on the wide range of folks I deal with on a routine basis, especially the ones who challenge me to remember that there is a God-seed inside them.

1. The Demjin model. Demjin came to me a while back and said that she wanted one of our open positions. I pointed out the skill set needed; she admitted that she did not have any of the necessary skills but insisted that she would like the job, anyway. It took some doing to get her to leave my office. I get someone of the Demjin model in my office about once a week; when not appearing in person, I get the notes in the mail or email. They simply do not understand that if they were to get the wonderful job after which they hanker their chances of being able to perform well are quite low, resulting in the possibility of being fired. Risk-takers? Nah! Delusional!

2. The Jingle model. Jingle (not the proper pronunciation of her odd name, but it is as close as I can come), a new temporary employee, complained to me because she was not selected as a permanent employee during the annual selection process for which she had limited seniority. She told me how wonderful she was. She persuasively argued that no one could touch the quality of her work. She told me how creative her products are. She told me that I could not judge her because I had not spent any time evaluating her work. I stood my ground against her self-aggrandizingly proud words. Some months later, I visited Jingle's unit, and, by golly, her work is wonderful; no one can touch it; her products are creative; I indeed could not judge her work because I had not seen it. The Jingle model keeps me humble -- after first humiliating me.

3. The Donald model. I have mentioned a member of the Donald model on this blog before. Talented, ambitious, and overachieving, Donald is shocked when other team members pick on him. His reaction is to come to management and ask for support. Walking him through the process of forgiving his team members for their cruelty is possible but takes a good deal of of my time. Still, I consider my time worth it because I see great potential in Donald, but then, just as I feel justified in spending the extra time with Donald, he tells me that he really needs to defend his honor from something that happened much earlier, something that I thought we had gotten past, something for which I thought he had forgiven his teammates. Can one really forgive if one does not also forget? Sigh! We are back to square one. (That was one of my meetings today; perhaps another event prompting this particular post topic.)

4. The Ronald model. Ronald is a naysayer and someone I have to work with routinely to get my personnel actions through the organizational obstacle course. Ronald is supposed to help me. Ronald is supposed to be objective. Instead, Ronald sets up obstacles when he personally does not like the person I am trying to hire, promote, pay more, etc. He especially does not like positive actions that I take for secretaries and support personnel, whom he considers "lowly" and interchangeable. They, of course, are neither. Sometimes I am forced to go to our attorney to force Ronald to move along the actions requested. If our own folks are against us, why would we ever need competitors, let alone enemies?

5. The Ansel model. Ansel retired. (Some Ansels resign.) After retiring (or resigning), Ansel discovers that he cannot live on the income he imagined he would have. So, he sues our organization, claiming that he had to resign because of a hostile work environment. Off we go to court. Of course, Ansel never wins, but he takes up a lot of my time.

6. The Madden model. Madden is a religious zealot, but the only religion that has any meaning for him is his own. At the same time, he is working in an organization that has ample representation from all three Abrahamic religions, as well as other religious persuasions, including atheists. Madden seems to get his jollies by pitting one religious group against another, distracting people from the work at hand. You see, Madden has few talents and would otherwise end up being counseled for poor performance. However, his machinations result in his being counseled for conduct issues instead, conduct issues of the type that would be difficult to use as a basis for firing him, so his manager's attention is diverted away from the real problem: his poor performance, general laziness (often skipping out early but in a way difficult to prove on paper), and lack of skills (which he has no interest in improving). Getting by with the minimal effort is his modus operandi. It takes nearly full-time effort by his managers to control him, motivate him, and keep his peers from killing each other over their religious differences. I have only a few Maddens. Thank God!

7. The Nigel model. Obsequious to the nth degree, Nigel follows me around like a puppy dog. He panders to what he thinks are my needs. I have none. He panders to what he thinks are my special interests. I have none. He fawns over those he thinks are my favorite people. I have none. What I want from him instead is awareness of his job and the availability of information about the specifics of his job and the people/programs he supervises when I need it. Instead, he slathers me with compliments and deprives me of statistics when I really need them, especially in public meetings. It takes much effort not to show my impatience with him. I don't always succeed.

There is a God-seed in these folks. There is. There is? There is!

And I am fallible. I am. I am.

So, where does this leave me? In great need of God's intervention in the workplace -- and, oh, blessed life, I get it and therefore survive to support the 99% of the diligent, loving employees who like coming to work every day, who not only enjoy and appreciate their workplace but also go out of their way to help me in supporting and empowering their colleagues. So, thinking about it, it ain't so bad after all!

With that thought, I am going to get some sleep. I hope all of you are already in bed! Wishing you all a great weekend, spent with fully normal people. However, if you meet any of the models above or other unique types, please remember that there is a God-seed in all people; there is, there is!

Monday Morning Meditation #65: Dwell Together in Unity

Now that I have been reading the Psalms for quite a number of weeks, it is amazing the number of times I run across quotations from them or mention of them. Psalm 122, about which I blogged in a Monday Morning Meditation a few weeks ago, has come up no less than four times this week! Perhaps it is a matter of what Jung would label synchronicity, or perhaps it is just that I now notice it more.

This week I continued reading through the psalms until six psalms later I discovered one that is as pertinent to my life, particularly my work life, as it was to the life of the times in which it was written. It is about harmony and peace. So many centuries we have been chasing peace! Here is what the psalmist wrote:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!

Does that sound familiar? It seems like an appropriate wish for this Christmas season.

Reading: Psalm 133

Meditation: Ah, unity! That is a daily goal that I work through -- to get 400+ employees to work together in unity. Sometimes I reach that goal for an hour or day. I know we are closer to that goal in 2010 than we were in 2006, when I inherited this particular division. The division was fraught with factions: Christians vs Muslims, men vs women, senior employees vs junior employees, and, in general, each ethnic group strongly involved in self-promotion. Bickering predominated as each individual employee contended for top rooster position in the pecking order.

Today I don't see these factions very often. Partly this is because the "goodies" are more evenly distributed, with most decisions reached by committee with diligent effort made to making all processes and criteria for selection "transparent." Partly this is a result of the prevalent willingness on the part of all senior managers to sit down with employees, explain the rationale for their decisions, frankly describe where they see brilliance as well as need for acquiring greater skills, and actively mentor all employees on an equal footing in order to develop their professional skills and potential. (Most of the earlier senior managers exhibited reluctance to mentor and speak honestly, frankly, and openly with employees; these managers I have replaced over the past four years with ones who are servant leaders by nature and commitment.) And, finally, partly the more harmonious atmosphere of today is an outcome of the annual reverse evaluations that I hold, in which employees are able to provide anonymous information about what their supervisors, including me, do that hampers them in doing and liking their job. A visiting manpower team remarked two years ago that my division appears bonded to each other; the head of the team said, "I have read that such unity is possible, but I have never seen it in action; I would like to work here."

Still, from time to time, there are serious incidents of disunity that make me despair of reaching the point where all in my division are willing to put aside personal ambition to support each other and the mission. Is that too great an idealism? In contrast to those times when the entire division pulls together in prayer to support someone who is ill or to offer up their own annual leave to support someone out on long-term sick leave without the hours to keep an income going, there are those times when people exhibit some of the most selfish behaviors. I will give two entirely opposite examples.

The first example is a woman who starts psychological warfare against any person who is assigned to her team who has greater job skills than she has. Until her supervisors noticed this, they lost a number of very talented, new people, who decided to leave because of the hostile work environment in which they found themselves. The woman creating that environment was given a warning, which she did not heed. On Monday, she will be told that she cannot stay in this team but must move to another location. Everyone believes that she will probably resign since she has many reasons for wanting/needing to stay in her current geographical location. Whichever happens will be a gift to the rest of the team. Clearly, unity thereafter will prevail. Somehow, though, I cannot help but feel that her supervisors and I have failed her.

The second example is someone on the receiving end of a hostile environment created by an employee very similar to the woman in the first example, but in another location. The abused employee came to me on several occasions. At one point, considering his reputation slandered, he espoused a whole list of retaliations he would like to invoke. I asked him to forgive them. He said he could not. In response, I asked him to remain in my office, deliberating, meditating, praying -- whatever helped, until he could forgive them. An hour later, he was ready to forgive, and he left the office. Still, problems continued. Part of the problem was his lack of humility. We discussed that. He wanted to make a plan for learning to be humble. I told him that it was hard but easy: consider everyone else more important and put them all first. He began to do this, but the rest of the team, with whom I also met, could not, as a group, overlook the past. Because they were many and he only one, they would provoke each other to torment him upon occasion. Ultimately, I moved him to another team, where he is happy. His old team, however, indignantly accused me of playing favorites with him. He should have been left with the team, they said, so that they could torment him more. (Well, "torment" was not the verb they chose, but it does describe what they would have done.) Again, I feel that I have failed my employees, both the team and the individual, even though I know have unity and harmony in both cases. Neither "side" ever learned to work together, to love each other as children of God regardless of whether or not they liked each other.

I understand the reasons for God wanting us to leave together in unity. However, helping that happen in the work place, either as a supervisor or as a team member, is clearly not easy.

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I now retire to private prayer to repent all the ways in which I have failed to help my employees achieve unity, to thank God for being with me and my colleagues as we strive to build unity among ourselves and with Him, to praise God for the wonderful vision He has of the ways in which we should and could live together (we are the ones who "blow it"), and to ask God to help me remember that unless He is with me, my efforts are in vain, whatever it is that I am doing. I may not be able to create unity, but He can. Then I will move on to contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you now to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I think you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too, as do readers of this blog who have taken the stroll over to his blog.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Going to the Ball

As I emulate Cinderella and head off to this year's ball, I will leave a post for the sharing in my absence. First, let me say that I am not the ball type. I would rather be hiking mountains than sipping tea. But, I do not always get to choose. As one of the more visible leaders of our organization (combination of high post and big mouth), I cannot ditch the annual ball, much as I would like to.

Last year I wrote a post that garnered a fair amount of comments and discussion about my dilemma in what to wear. (I had actually been able to avoid earlier balls for acceptable reasons, but I had no acceptable reason last year, and so I appeared upon demand.) I could not bring myself to spend hundreds (or dozens) of dollars on the required attire: tuxedo or gown. There was so much more I could do of value with that kind of money, and there was also that Franciscan vow of poverty. So, I decided to wear a dress from Jordan that I had purchased there for $5 and that would look dressy in the USA although I had some serious doubts when I arrived and started to mix in among the tuxedos and ball gowns. (You can read the post here: VIP or VOP or Both? It includes a larger discussion of the decision-making process and results).

The most evident result was the reputation I gained by wearing ethnic dress. Everyone who did not attend the ball heard about it. This year, a few weeks ago, several people who had been to their home countries in the last few months brought me local dresses, asking me to wear them in honor of their culture. (I ensured that they had bought them for $25 or less, the ethical limit our organization places on gifts from employees to supervisors.) I understood the intent. They were not bribes; they just wanted to feel that their senior supervisor respected and even liked their cultures. Of course, I do. I have been to most of their countries and speak most of their languages. Wherever I am, I try to blend and often succeed. I felt honored by the requests. The situation, however, contains its own dilemma: which of the six ethnic dresses and four ethnic shawls should I wear?

Actually, I have decided on none of them. I will wear that $5 Jordanian dress again. Then, I will find other occasions to honor all those who have requested it through the gift of their ethnic attire.

Interestingly, I may have started something. This year's ball announcement again listed tuxedos and gowns as acceptable attire but added "or culturally appropriate attire." Never think that one person cannot create change!

[Note: Image above drawn by Tom Dubois -- click here to see more of his beautiful art work, which is for sale.]

7 Quick Takes Friday #44

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

1. The week started out with a mild but continuing annoyance: every time I answered my cell phone, the call would drop and the phone would take a picture of my ear. At least, I thought it was my ear until logical Donnie told me that this is not possible because the camera faces outward. The phone was taking a picture of my hand. So, okay, I don't know my hand from my ear. That does not solve the problem, though. For now, since I don't have time to deal with that, I have solved the problem in a different way: I have stopped answering the phone. I have an adequate number of pictures of my ear (or hand), already.












2. Halloween was a fun evening. Lemony did a great job on the grandkids' costumes (Above, Nathaniel as Dr. Who is on the left and Nikolina as a little lamb on the right). Doah bought himself an Ironman suit, and I took him around to a few houses. He has not grown up in that respect. Then he came back and helped Donnie and me hand out candy (we have two accessible doors -- each on a different street), so that was very helpful. Then Donnie took him home. It is a different world for all of us now that he lives nearby -- so many more possibilities for interaction.

3. November 1 was Donnie's birthday. It was also voting day (about which I have already posted). After voting, we wanted to celebrate Donnie's birthday at a Grilling and Chilling restaurant before going to a movie. Unfortunately, everyone in town had the same idea. We would have had too long a wait, so we went where the lines were short: Jack in Box, where I ended up with some inedible tacos (no worse than my own cooking, though). There were only a handful of people at the cinema, so we had some excellent seats for Hereafter, a movie I had wanted to see but ended up not really liking. Oh, well, the important part of the day was that we got to celebrate Donnie's birthday and spend some quality time together.

4. After Donnie's birthday, however, the week turned grueling. We had two rehearsals with the big boss for a presentation that we four senior managers will be making at the Pentagon on Tuesday. A Congressional advisor, whom I have known for years, was in town and helped out our boss by listening to the first rehearsal and murder-boarding it (providing ruthless feedback). A truly debonair gentlemen from a nearly bygone generation, he is not capable of ruthlessness. I was second to present and left after that to deal with other work issues. As I departed, I held out my hand to shake goodbye with the advisor; instead, he held it and kissed it. Indeed, a nearly by-gone generation... [image from Tine Kameer gallery; click on image for link to some fine art work]

5. In spite of a crushing workload this week, I did, for the most part, leave my office door open, which is an indication to employees that my open-door policy is in effect. It seemed a big week for a little problems, and getting my regular, introversion-required work done was difficult. I did ask one employee to come to me if he would. His first-line supervisor was about to give him a letter of reprimand for refusal to do a particular task for a short period for another program manager, and I knew him to be an excellent, cooperative, and diligent employee. I asked if he would talk to me if there was some justification for his behavior that he felt he could not share with his immediate supervisors. He came, revealed having been egregiously abused through false and pernicious rumors started by the program manager for whom he would be working, and then said, "If you personally ask me to do this, I will." Wow! Of course, I would not ask for that. I talked to his first-line supervisor and got the letter of reprimand cancelled, and I will be talking to the other manager's supervisor this week. I did talk to the other manager about having to find someone else without revealing the confidential information given to me, but if he is smart, he will figure it out, and if he is not, he will be counseled by his own immediate supervisor. I very much dislike finding out that these kinds of things continue in spite of a servant leader orientation that I insist upon among managers. I have two managers out of about 40 (this one is one of the two) who just don't get it. Both those managers, who otherwise do an excellent job, received negative comments from me about these things on their annual appraisal; I am hoping that those comments will get them to listen to their boss and to me more actively.

6. Speaking of appraisals, they are one reason it has been hell week at work. I had nearly 400 to turn in, of which I was the first-line rater of only six (yes!), but second rater of a couple dozen. The remaining I just had to ensure were completed. Of course, these being all computerized, we had a number of recalcitrant computers (I negotiated with the Personnel Office to turn in some the old fashioned way: hand-signed on paper) and, by the end, we were down to one functional photocopier and that one would take only feeds one page at a time laid on the glass. Everyone should be happy this weekend: hell week is over until next year!

7. Hell week, though, did not end with the appraisals for me. We had four sets of materials to get into the office in Afghanistan where I visited last month. It was a promise, and I always meet promised deadlines. Three teams turned in their materials either early or by COB (close of business). One team told me that they would finish either next week, or if I insisted, on Saturday. "No," I told them, "neither alternative is an option. They are due COB today, and your business day will close when you hand me the materials." They worked until 9:45 p.m. Their managers stayed, and so did I. So, our COB today was very, very late, but the materials did get to Afghanistan within the promised November 5 deadline. I have a half-hour drive home, so I am now truly, truly tired. All I want at the moment is to tumble into bed. My eyes are drooping even as I write, trying to keep them propped open long enough to finish.

I hope that you have had a much easier week than I and that your weekend will be just a whole lot of fun. (Mine will continue in a similar vein: ball for work on Saturday and red-eye to Washington on Sunday -- and a journal to edit before I go. I dream of sleep, but it appears not mine to have for a while!)

Work and Spirituality

I read a post today on Catholic Spiritual Direction, a wonderful blog, listed on my blogroll in the right sidebar, to which I would refer anyone interested in very insightful posts on living a godly life in today's world. The question a reader had posed was "how do I deal with issues of advancement and self-promotion at work?" The answer was splendid, and I suggest you wander over there to read it.

I have often commented on work issues on 100th Lamb, and its predecessor blog, Blest Atheist. As with anything else, if one lets go and lets God, as the saying goes, work goes better. One does not need to tout one's accomplishments. God will ensure that they become known and noticed when that is important, and otherwise it is not important. Among the things that I have noticed when it comes to inviting God to take over my work life are the following (far from a full litany of benefits and blessings):

(1) Servant leaders become powerful leaders even though that is not their intention. Jesus showed us the way to be good servant leaders when he washed the feet of his disciples. I ask of those managers who work for me that they think constantly of when the feet of their employees need washing and to tend to that task with alacrity. Recently, a would-be leader who had run into some complications with his team members asked me as someone he considers his mentor how to handle the situation, and I told him he needed more humility, to throw his inflated ego in the trash because it was doing him no good, and forgive those who were creating problems for him. Oh, he found that hard, but he tried all of it. He even sent me a self-learning plan for developing humility, at which point I called him to my office to explain that one does not achieve humility; humility simply comes as a result of something that is so easy that is almost impossible for some people: always put others first. Others can say whether or not our actions are examples of our humility; we cannot begin to measure our own level of humility without being arrogant about it. A strange characteristic this humility! But so desirable!

(2) Power grows the more you give it away. This fact is one of the most counter-intuitive realities with which immature managers must cope. Most new managers want to hang onto power. They want their employees to defer to them, even sometimes to call them "sir" and "ma'am." They want overt respect. As a result, they get the titles, the overt behavior, and the public respect. What they don't get is the implicit respect that is not demanded but freely given, the love and support that comes with it, and the willingness to go the extra nine or ninety yards, as needed. I am tickled pink with employees who point out some shortcoming or inconsistency in my behavior. It means that we are working as a team, and teams are more powerful than individuals. I also notice that when both responsibility and authority are delegated to them, employees are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the tasking. In turn, if the manager asks them to do something that they would prefer not to do, they do it anyway, without grumbling, because of the bond between them. That is real power. The power that comes with position is multiplied a thousandfold when it is bestowed upon a manager not by his/her superiors but by his/her subordinates.

(3) Dealing with difficult people becomes easy, fun, and rewarding. I have said it often, and I truly mean it. I love difficult people. They are my greatest reward for being a manager. Watching a disaffected employee become a contributing team member produces one of the warmest fuzzies that any manager could ever want. I have very few difficult people among the 400 or so who work for me although four years ago when I began this position the division was considered riddled with difficult people. Now the division is called the "black hole" of our organization by the EEO office and by the Union because even people who used to practically live in those places, complaining about their supervisors and work conditions, no longer visit. They are happy contributors to their teams' work. Once a senior manager, who no longer works for me, asked how to deal with difficult people. I told him that the key was so simple that most managers won't use it: genuinely love them. He told me sorrowfully that he could not do that and not long after resigned. I replaced him with someone who could do that, and the 30 or more chronic complainers in that particular subdivision now appear in the corridors and at group meetings with big smiles. When the new manager first appeared, many stopped me in the hallway to thank me for the change in leadership. Now when they are unhappy about work conditions, they do not run to the Union or the EEO officials for help; they come to their supervisor.

(4) The workplace becomes a place of worship as well, a place where people are inexorably drawn and from which they do not wish to depart. Many a night I have chased people home with the words, "we work to live; we don't live to work." Actually, it is not the living to work that compels people to stay in the office after hours. It is the palpable presence of God in our workplace. Who would want to leave that? Once I had a manpower team from headquarters visit for a week for the purpose of determining staffing needs -- were we understaffed (yep), overstaffed (nope), or staffed just right (not that, either). After spending a week of visiting and talking to employees, during which the visitors had open access to everyone, thanks to a building schematic and names/titles of employees that I gave them with the invitation to go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted and talk to whomever they wanted. They did. The head of the visiting team came to my office at the end of the week, ostensibly, I thought, to talk to me about staffing levels. Instead, she told me that she wanted to talk about the atmosphere in the work place. "I have read about places like this," she said, "but I have never actually seen one -- where people love to come to work, support each other, and willingly remain to make sure that all tasks are completed and everything is ready for the next day. I wish I could work here." There is nothing to my credit in what she found. Rather, that is what happens when one lets God into the workplace.

(5) Moreover, once God is in the workplace, God does what God does best. Miracles happen. Chestnuts get pulled out of the fire by unseen hands. Cutting-edge and seemingly-impossible-because-no-one-has-ever-done-it-before work gets done with amazing ease. Where task and mission require, 48 hours of work finishes itself in eight hours. Pride in the accomplishment of the division and not in the accomplishments of individuals appears; employees give credit to each other, supervisors to employees, and employees to supervisors. People talk about God and even pray together -- in an institution where separation of Church and State is the norm, the expected, the required. The most amazing, though, are the real miracles. We have had several people literally on the brink of death who have reappeared in our midst. I have blogged before about some of them, among these being Jackie, who ended up with a blog clot in her lung and comatose after surgery but survived and will be returning to work, and Tareq, an Iraqi immigrant to the United States who suffered from cancer and heart failure and did eventually die but not before a miraculous post-surgery recovery that gave him an additional year at work and at home, a year he desperately needed to put his family matters straight and save the life of his son who had to be rescued from Iraq when he was personally targeted by insurgents. For all these people, we have had employees of several faiths praying together, our own little ecumenical world, where religious flavor and fervor come second and God and each other come first.

Well, this is not at all the post I had planned to write today, but the writing of it took on a life of its own, inspired by my reading of Fr. Todd's response to the questioner on Catholic Spiritual Direction, and here it now is. So, I shall post it. Tomorrow I will post what I had planned to put up today.

(Note: I know that the image is not entirely appropriate, but it is also not entirely inappropriate. I found it on the web and could not resist including it!)

7 Quick Takes Friday #37

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

This week seemed to sort itself into themes. Here are seven of them:

1. Reading short things. I did not read any novels this week, but I read many short things, starting with Mass last Friday. There were two readings, a long one and a short one, and I had to choose on the spot which one to read because the regular reader was absent, in which case I often end up reading but without preparation. I chose the short one. Fr. Thomas had prepared his homily based on the long one! He adjusted! Then I gave away the most recent translation of one of my favorite Persian poets, Rumi, the original whirling dervish. His poetry is delightful, and I was able to read most of the new collection before handing the book over to a visiting employee from our Georgia office. I had told this employee, who hails from Iran, that I had recently acquired this book, and when I saw him salivating over that information, I offered to loan him the book. When he arrived earlier this week, he asked if the offer was still good. It was, and he got the book. I told him I would pick it up next year when I am scheduled to once again go to Georgia, but if he keeps the book, that is fine. The poems were short; I have read most of them. Then there were memoes, articles, concepts of operation, proposals, reports -- for some reason, many more than usual this week. Some non-critical ones, in fact, are still in my email for next week! I probably did read a novel this week if you put together all the paperwork and all the topics within them; in fact, it would have been quite an engaging novel!

2. Love. Love flooded this week, beginning with Mass on Saturday. I walked in just seconds before Mass was to start. Everyone was lined up to proceed down the aisle; they were just waiting for the song to be announced. I slipped in the side down and walked to the back of the church to pick up a song book. Fr. E caught the movement, got out of line, met me partway, hugged me (as he would have anyone walking through the door at that moment), then returned to the line-up. At the back of the church were three of my catechism students, deciding where they would sit. Hugs all around! Then, as I made my way to the pew where I usually sit, several people reached out and squeezed my hand as I passed. That is why I am devoted to Old Mission and to San Ignatio. The town swims in love.

3. Humility. One does not usually talk about humility with one's employees. Work performance, sure. Achievement, certainly. Development, yes. Needs, you bet. Skills, yep. Family matters, yeah, sometimes. Humility? Now that's not your everyday boss to supervisee topic, but it was an important one this week. Since it is a rather long story and I already posted the details on Modern Mysticism, I will let you go there if you wish to read all about it: Humility.

4. Caring. Another topic I became involved with that I blogged about earlier this week is the situation in Pakistan and the efforts of an acquaintance of mine in Karachi to help her fellow countrymen, along with the details of how we can help her if there is interest in doing so. Details are here: Come Along on a Journey to Help Pakistan One Family at a Time.

5. Fellowship and fun. Where can greater fellowship and fun be found than at a pizza party? A dozen employees from six different regional offices came to town for some training from an exceptionally famous guru. I grabbed them over lunch to reacquaint myself with them and their concerns, share recent developments here locally, and bond a little. For bonding, we needed some "glue," so I ordered pizza. Just the thing! By the end of the noon hour, there was a considerable amount of camaraderie, which was especially delightful because some of the individuals had never met, e.g., those working in Hawaii and those working in Georgia or Maryland. Great fun, smack in the middle of the week!

6. Trust. One successful way I have found to build bonds, team spirit, and trust is an annual reverse evaluation. I recently asked some outside experts to evaluate our evaluation. In telling my employees about this, they pointed out how much trust has developed from the reverse evaluation, so much that perhaps it is no longer needed in the way it was earlier. People feel free just to send critiques and concerns directly to me or to their managers through the email with their names attached. Of course, we will continue the reverse evaluation. It is one of the primary tools that has changed my workplace in a mere four years from a dysfunctional workplace full of suspicion and hostility to a loving, supportive, spiritual, TRUSTING place where even I like to come to work every day even knowing the number of challenges that will have to be addressed to complete our tasks and missions successfully, given how far-flung worldwide our operations are.

7. Fatigue. I would be less than honest if I did not admit that this has been a very tiring week. Except for Monday, when I returned home in time for our evening prayer group, I have worked until late into the evening every day. Combine that with going in early every. I had several early morning meetings, including this morning at 0730 when I had the pleasure of spending some time with the guru mentioned above. Some days I went in early because I wanted to get ahead of the 1800 emails in my mailbox that greeted me when I opened email toward the end of the day on Monday, Monday being so full of meetings, including one excruciating 3-hour meeting going over line item by line item all of our contracts, that I never got to my email until near the end of the day. I am pleased to report that when I decided to call it quits at 7:00 this evening, I was down to only 883 emails!

Monday Morning Meditation #46: Please Don't Kill the Messenger

Good morning! It hardly seems like a whole week has passed since the last MMM, yet I know it has because it was a brutal week that I am glad is in the past. I look forward to an easier week this week -- says the eternal optimist! And speaking of work, how ironic that I as I moved fluidly through the various chapters of 2 Chronicles, I should get stopped by a chapter (18) that totally reminded me of work. Absolutely reflected, thousands of years ago, what I have experienced in the 21st century.

What is it that captured my attention? The killing of (or at least turning on) the messenger. But first, let me relate the story.

Jehoshaphat, the grandson of Solomon and great-grandson of King David, came into power as King of Judah. in this position, he decided to ally himself with Ahab, King of Israel. Together, they considered waging war on the Aramians in Ramoth Gilead. Jehoshaphat agreed to support Ahab but wanted him first to consult with a prophet of God. Ahab turned to Macaiah, who prophesied destruction. Since this is not what Ahab wanted to hear, he had Macaiah imprisoned and fed only bread and water to ensure that he would return -- the proverbial blaming of the messenger for the message. Not heeding the message, Ahab did what he had wanted to do all along: he want to war. And he was killed. Not listening to messengers can be dangerous!

Reading: 2 Chronicles 18.

Meditation: "Don't kill the messenger" is a message that I deliver to new managers at least once every year. That is during the time that we have our annual reverse evaluation.

The reverse evaluation is a management tool that I have introduced into every organization that I have overseen in the past 20 years. It is a highly effective tool, but it is rare that I can get others (peers) to use it. However, a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, someone who served as a member of the Board of Directors for an organization over which I presided 15 years ago, fell in love with the tool and has disseminated it as part of his consulting practice. I don't know how many of those companies may have adopted it, but one thing is certain: It only works if you don't kill the messenger.

Essentially, in the reverse evaluation representatives from each subordinate unit collect anonymous feedback about what management policies work and don't work for productivity, motivation, positive organizational culture, and general happiness of the work force. Sometimes, employees feel like they are rating their bosses, and I suppose that to some extent they are. The representatives provide the feedback publicly at an offsite. This can be somewhat embarrassing and off-putting to managers if they are interested more in what they can get from the workforce or their image than the truth (i.e., like Ahab, wanting to have the truth twisted to match what they want).

For new managers, this can be a very difficult experience. Most survive it and come to respect their Maciahs and welcome their insights and information. We have a saying in my division: "We love and protect messengers." However, there are upon occasions those new managers whose egos (like that of Ahab) will not let them accept the truth. As a result, also like Ahab, they perish. I nearly always have to replace them.

As for me, I make a promise to the unit representatives (the Micaiahs) that I keep: there will be no repercussions from telling the truth regardless of how difficult that truth may be to hear. That goes for everyone, beginning with me. If I am doing something that is impeding employees' productivity and/or happiness, I want to know about it so that I can avoid it. I have no intention of marching to Gilead if that is not where I should be going!

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I must retire to private prayer to thank God for giving me so many good "prophets," to praise Him for the ways in which He helps me suppress the ego that would otherwise rise up during moments of receiving truths I do not want to hear, to repent for any times I have closed my ears to such input, and to ask Him to help me develop the much greater humility that I need. Now I retire to spend as much time as I can in contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

7 Quick Takes Friday #31

What a week! I am not certain that I can even recall every day so I shall simply point out the high points (or, in some cases, the low points). I decided to illustrate each point with flowers, mainly because I am feeling the need for something pretty to cheer me up as I look back over the last week! (Check out Jennifer Fulwiler's blog on the same meme; she hosts the meme on her Conversion Diary blog, and this week her post is far cheerier than mine, I fear.)

1. The week started out not at all well (little did I know that it would be downhill from there) with the announced retirement of our Director of Operations. Now, retirements are good events, things to celebrate. However, in this case, the director, who has been retired in place for a while, decided to make a point about his boss being too demanding. (Let's see: the boss demanded that the director come to work to work every day, that he show up sober, that he put in a full day of work, and that he actually accomplish work, such as meeting deadlines on supplying equipment and desks for new employees. I suppose that was pretty off-putting.) Actually, the boss can be abrasive, for which I have informally counseled him on several occasions, the problem being that he does not know when he is. The director wanted to talk to me, stated that the retirement decision was not an act of defiance but a matter of his health (he does indeed have health problems), and that he would stay to help out with making sure our ops needs for the year were met if I would ask him to do so. Well, hm, now what to say? I told him we could not put his health at risk for any selfish need. He accepted that, but I am sure that he was frustrated because this was clearly an attempt to walk back his decision to retire. However, since he has essentially done no work for six months and two bosses in a row have not been able to keep him at work for more than 2-3 hours a day, letting him follow through on his retirement, the coward's way out perhaps, seemed the gentlest thing to do. I did ask him not to leave bitter, no matter how angry he was with his boss, because the emotions associated with his last days at work may color how he remembers his entire tenure with us for years to come. He left my office not entirely satisfied.

2. Sunday was our annual fiesta at the mission. Donnie, Doah, and I had signed up to be the clean up crew for the first shift, 11-1. It was fun, a nice release from a difficult week with no idea that the one to come would be even more difficult. The fiesta started with our local Indians dancing and pulling the community into their dances. Clean up chores provided relaxation by comparison. After our turn at clean-up, Donnie, Doah, and I had some BBQ chicken and prepared to enjoy the fiesta activities when I noticed that only one person had showed up for the next shift, 1-3. I looked at the volunteer book, and, gulp, there was no one signed up for 3-4 or 6-7 and only one person from 4-5. The crowd, at any given point, numbered about 300, with many people coming in from out of town. After some discussion, Donnie decided to take Doah back to his group home by himself after the two of them had spent some fun time with the games. I tracked down the fiesta chair and asked her about the empty clean-up list. She said she had been unable to get others to volunteer so she was going to handle it herself at the end of the day. That being clearly a formula for disaster, I offered to fill in for all the other shifts. I enjoyed some of the activities in the midst of cleaning and got some time to talk to a priest who had just arrived from Nigeria to fill in while our parish priest is on a pilgrimage to Europe. I dragged myself home around 8:30, putting one foot slowly in front of the other until I reached the house and collapsed on the couch, where I spent the night sleeping. Morning came far too fast, and after all the bending over to pick up trash (golly, grown people can make worse messes than kids) the day before, I could barely move but by the end of the day, I had run around so much taking care of crises that I had forgotten all about my stiff legs. Oh, right, they actually were not stiff anymore!

3. In the middle of all the cleaning on Sunday, my brother Rollie called from Ohio. It being Father's Day, Noelle had called her uncle to wish him a happy day. Then,they got talking. "Did you know," Rollie asked me, "that the doctors are planning to go ahead with amputation of Noelle's legs soon?" Ah, no. She had called Donnie that morning but somehow the conversation had not gotten around to that. It is a discussion that we have had. For years, Noelle's legs have been nothing more than impediments to her ability to move around. Her view is that she will be more mobile without them. Moreover, she is tired of having to daily clean infections; this has been going on for more than two years, with long periods of time spent on a pump. She is tired of it. As she says, "My legs are not value-added. Why would I fight to keep them when they threaten my life?" It is a reasonable question. (I will provide updates on the Twitterlets and Clan of Mahlou.)

4. Miracle! Miracle! After eight months of searching, interviews, and lost opportunities, I have a new admin assistant! Oh, blessed help! Janie showed up Monday afternoon after in-processing with Personnel. It is so wonderful to have someone keeping my calendar, doing my filing, managing people in the outside office, answering the nuisance calls, photocopying. All the things that were causing me to work until late hours in the evening so that I could do my real job during the day. Yes! I feel truly spoiled now! This was definitely the brightest spot of this week.

5. One day later, bam! There went my happiness bubble. My boss called an emergency meeting and announced that my division would be fractured into pieces, with the best projects going to a couple of my peers, leaving me essentially with the most troublesome, but visible and glitzy projects, with a higher level supervisor to step in for the glitzy part, leaving the troublesome part for me to handle. Well, there is more to the story, but since I blogged about it yesterday, I will just refer you to that post: The Price of Success.

6. The icing on this week's cake was Thursday's visitor: one of the senior members of the Board of Directors in from Washington. Brand new to the Board, he had already made his mark by firing one of the most senior people among others on the board over which he has oversight -- well, not firing precisely but rather forcing her to resign. So, at least, that is what we heard. My boss and the CEO senior here fretted about how best to receive him, nervous about an axe falling on them. As it turned out, he turned out to be quite charming. When it was my turn to present our programs, I combined the dozens of them into like groups and quickly ran through all of them. When I finished, I asked if he had questions. His response was, "No; I am speechless." Gee, now I have confirmation that I am overworked! ;) Everyone was quite taken with him, and he was quite taken with all of us. Yes! Perhaps it was that prayer I said before the formal meeting? The one where I asked for help for all of us? It would not be the first time that God came to a staff meeting with me!

7. The week ended with an hour of brainstorming with my boss on a new project we have to provide support to some programs in Afghanistan. My staff is having some difficulty getting its hands around the various things we need to do to make the programs successful. Several have visited there to gather information and provide on-site help. I will be heading in that direction soon. It was wonderfully peaceful and re-invigorating to put aside all the concern, worry, and potential frustration (I'm still putting aside frustration after having given it up for Lent this year) and spend some time on positive activity. We came up with a plan to handle one sticky problem, and I left for home a bit re-heartened.

So, some ups, some downs, and life goes on. Wishing you all a weekend filled with flowers, cheer, and relaxation!

7 Quick Takes Friday #19

This week has been so concentrated on preparation for our annual review, entertainment (well, most people considered it hosting and briefing, but I find visitors entertaining), and conduct of the meeting all day Thursday that I wondered if there were even seven different "moments" to write about. But apparently they were -- barely. In fact, the time for this week's contribution to the Quick Takes Friday meme hosted by Jennifer Futwiler at Conversion Diary appeared all too suddenly; it just stole up on me.

1. I might as well start with yesterday's potted plant duty. That is what the three other directorate chiefs and I call those kinds of meetings, hosted by our CEO and board, where all we are required to do is come and sit for hour after hour while the CEO briefs the visitors. Thursday was no different. A full day of sitting is difficult for me because I am hyperactive. At least, there was one interesting interlude where one of the regulators put the CEO on the defensive and the barrage of questions was turned over to me to answer; the answers were accepted, even liked (God always seems to give me the right words to use in these kinds of tense situations -- a quick silent prayer helps a lot), so it was important that I was there, if only for that one talking plant moment. (Photo from Jeg's web.)

2. In the evening, I got to expend some of my pent up energy by leading the Stations of the Cross with our catechism teens. We went to the garden walk where we have a set of the stations. It was a bit chilly, but these are teens; they always seem to have warm blood. The kids loved the fact that Suli, the parish's feral cat whom everyone watches out for and who sleeps in the garden and attends Mass, was very interested in our prayers. She walked from one station to the next with us, sat down and waited as we did the readings at the station, then moved with us to the next station, just as if she were truly understanding what it was we were doing. After we got back to our classroom, our faith formation director found out what we had done (we have done it every year, but I guess no one knew) and told us that we are not allowed to walk in the garden with the kids because of potential liability issues. Someone might get hurt. Huh? What has the world come to?! Donnie and I used to take Girl Scouts 8-10 years old, on multiple-day canoe trips and backpacking trips deep into the wilderness in the "old days." There was great opportunity to get hurt; no one would ever think of suing us or the Scouts. Sheesh! Let's turn the clock back!

3. Yippee! Shane passed his security clearance late last week. On Monday, he got a conditional job offer from California Highway Patrol, where he worked for 12 years when he was in his early twenties (started at age 19, the youngest dispatcher ever accepted at CHP, and immediately won an award given to him personally by the governor of California for saving the life of a fellow dispatcher who had a heart attack while dispatching a three-county chase and for successfully taking on the dispatching in that two-person office so that the police officers had no idea that he was also doing CPR; the other dispatcher lived and the criminal being chased was caught); he clearly has a solid reputation there. The conditional offer is contingent on passing a medical exam, which he took on Tuesday. Everyone knows the dilemma with him needing medical insurance for his two kids with birth defects, so they have been kindly pushing the preliminaries rapidly. It looks like he may be able to start work on April 1, just about the time that Donnie and I would start to struggle with continuing to pay his COBRA.

4. Several months ago, Lizzie took on a personal trainer at her local gym -- she is a professor in South Carolina these days. She has dropped so much weight (and gained muscle and tone) that she had to have all of her clothes taken in this week. I have lost two dress sizes, as well, and now I can pass along my outgrown clothes to her because she has dropped to what I was. Donnie is now intrigued, but he wants to lose weight a third way (I count calories and Lizzie trains). He bought some kind of diet plan that he is following. We shall see how well it works. I think the old-fashioned ways are probably best: eat less and exercise more.

5. Saturday night Donnie and I had a pleasant good-bye Mexican-style dinner here in one of our beloved San Ignatio restaurants, Los Jardines (the gardens). This particular employee has been stationed in Egypt for two years now, so he makes it back here very rarely. I had needed him to direct a new project until we could get a permanent director in place, and he willingly came back for three months. He is young and from Jordan, where Donnie and I lived for a couple of years. I met his mother once, and she was very worried about his safety in the USA. (Just like Americans tend to think of the Middle East as an unsafe place, so do Middle Easterners think of the USA as an unsafe place.) His mother was quite relieved by my promise to be her son's American mother. I know she took that promise seriously, so I, too, take it seriously. We enjoyed the dinner, but it was sad to say good-bye again.

6. As part of the regulatory board meeting, I had two visitors to my office this week. One was a two-star general, who was the most pleasant person; it turned out that we had a lot of experiences in common. I heard later that he was very impressed with my directorate's work. That is always a double-edged sword. First, one does like to be appreciated, and it is often a relief when someone with great authority considers one's efforts at least competent. Second, and on the other hand, it often means being given increased responsibility, more programs, and more money (but not more resources!), creating a greater span of control and even more stress. The second visitor is a very high-ranking person within the US government and someone I met many years ago when I was working for the US government in a consulting capacity. So, I have trouble being highly serious with him; I just enjoy talking to him, bringing him up to date on our activities, and sharing funny stories of our getting into and out of trouble. He told me that whenever we meet or he is briefed by me, he leaves on a high note. Aww! :) Maybe it is because I don't worry about making a good impression on people; I only ask that God splash His love onto them through me -- and God seems to answer that prayer a lot.

7. Nikolina has a new pastime. I posted the pictures that are here earlier this week on the Twitterlets, but those will be replaced with new pictures over time, so I am including them here to preserve them, as well as to explain them better. Nikolina is entering such a fun age as she approaches the end of her first year, surprisingly healthy and on target for all developmental milestones. All her surgeries and months in the hospital seem to have taken little from her. Rather, she has developed quite a sense of humor at a very young age. It reminds me of both Noelle and Doah, who spent most of their first year in the hospital yet were very happy babies, toddlers, children, and teens and are adults whose personalities are dominated by a sense of humor and enjoyment of life, even the wonder of it all. Shane captured Nikolina at her bottle-throwing game. She heaves the bottle, watches it fall, then cracks up at herself for doing it. It's a joy to watch!

And now I wish all of you a joyful weekend!