See Jack Listen. Listen, Jack, Listen.

I saw “Jack Reacher:  Never Go Back” recently and watched it for what I wanted to see:  entertainment, action, and some learning.  I’m always looking for something to learn – a reminder or an impressive nuance that speaks to my quest for the best in people.  In the case of Jack Reacher, in addition to a ton of action I saw a story of integrity, relationships, discovery, and humanity.  The moment or rather the instant I’m writing about happens when Jack Reacher’s (Tom Cruise) “daughter” Samantha (Danika Yarosh) tells him and Turner (Cobie Smulders), “Strong guys don’t hurt you.  Weak guys do.  Strong guys have little sisters or want one.” 

You can get many messages from the well-delivered line alone.  Check out the Brian Dodd On Leadership Blog espousing “11 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Jack Reacher:  Never Go Back.”  Brian also took from the movie what he wanted.

What stuck with me in this exchange was not her expert delivery but Jack Reacher’s subtle and intentional reaction.  He was listening.  He was learning.  Sure, Reacher is a tough guy, but what I like seeing is his well-honed high-level of awareness and consideration.  Samantha was new to him and his experience with her to date could have led him to be dismissive.  She was young, aloof, distrusting, and unreliable.  We dismiss people, their comments and their potential contributions because of our previous experience with them.  For our purposes, her line could be restated, “Strong people don’t dismiss you.  Weak people do.”  In paying attention, maybe he was reminded that weak people can be more dangerous. . . maybe the value to him was learning about her experience and knowledge.  More broadly maybe the reaction was his internal acknowledgement that she was not just an idiot kid.  Or even further, it was all of this plus some empathizing with a young lady whose life had led her to this conclusion. 

Concern for Man’s Fate

I attended the Ohio SHRM Conference “Play Like an HR Champion” in late September.  It was a bit of a last-minute decision for me and my first time at the Ohio Conference.  Congratulations to Sheri Caldwell and the extensive team for putting on a nationally competitive and highly impactful conference. The investment and commitment to excellence was evident in its every aspect.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have attended.  If Woody Allen is right that “showing up is 80-percent of life,” I was living large from early morning until the end of each day when my brain could not take any more.  Every presentation provided good reminders, new information, new perspectives and I took a lot of notes.

There was one note I did not need to take as it has stuck in my head since hearing it.  The quote was in Youngstown State University President and former head Ohio State football coach  Jim Tressel’s closing keynote address “Macte Virtue.”

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

This was coming from Albert Einstein through Jim Tressel – the kind of “relativity” that spoke to me and what I evidently have a predisposition to see and long to have validated.

The debate over technology vs. touch has been around for decades.  The genius has always been to keep the fate of man at the forefront of our technical pursuits and improvements.  In any business organization, it’s easy for man’s fate to get lost in getting things done.  Where is the conversation?  Discovery?  Possibility?  To challenge my notion and at the risk of including it like in a middle-school term paper, I looked-up “organization” and found in businessdictionary.com a definition reflecting, “A social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals.”

YES – the definition starts with “social” and “people?”  There are others who also defined organization – and most included “people” in their definition.  BAM – take that Mrs. Kaple (middle school teacher).

While the high-technology/high-touch deliberation is not new, the conversation around artificial intelligence is heating up.  That conversation may be recycling that of mechanization in the 1800s or of automation in the early 1900s.  As much as there is concern about AI negatively impacting people’s jobs – physiology and safety, I’d like to think we can use it to climb higher up Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

For example, it’s nice that Google anticipates what I’m trying to type –  aiding me in research for my writing – so that I can focus on my themes and ideas.  Physiologically I can get more sleep that way…and frankly I sleep better with some research and annotation behind what I’m writing.  This allows me to focus on my self-expression and the outpouring of love and support I get from you in response to my thoughts.  Constructive discourse is also welcome, but only from people, not from robots.

It strikes me that we are simultaneously concerned about AI driven job loss while facing a shortage of talent in many areas.  In the latest Manpower Talent Shortage Survey, the following roles were shown to be most in need of talent.  It seems to me that several seem to be exactly the type of roles suited for support from artificial intelligence.

Certainly this shortage combined with the shift in skills required to thrive is disconcerting, but I have to believe that with cunning commitment, we can navigate through this predicament once again.  Threats can also be opportunities for the benefit of people and not the cost of.  If the people of the 19^th and 20^th centuries  – the people of “Downton Abbey” can persevere successfully through the societal and technological changes they experienced then certainly with an eye on the fate of man, so can we.  Disagreement and debate will continue as various options and directions are discovered and evaluated, but let’s not fool ourselves or worse yet lie to ourselves and to each other.

Let’s be both conscientious and courageous in taking on what’s next* – the inevitable evolution of our experience.

To paraphrase  Jim Tressel’s Einstein quote, may we all develop and demonstrate a chief interest in our concern for man and his fate as we go about our endeavors; never forgetting this in the midst of our diagramming and calculating and frankly in our debating and driving.

*– shout out to Cy Wakeman who also spoke at the conference).

Dancing with Beyonce

Like many we spent the night of Wednesday, November 2nd flipping between the 50^th Annual CMA Awards and Game 7 of the World Series.  There are so many rich stories behind and within each of these events, I could go any number of directions.

The fact that there WAS a Game 7 between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians is alone evidence of their journeys and perseverance to it. The Cubs, the long-time cursed team destined it seemed to be relegated to their lot in the league. The team was able to focus on something besides the curse and triumph prevailing through a three-game deficit and a rain delay in the final game in Cleveland.

From Cleveland’s standpoint, the series ended in a fashion similar to how the season had begun – with a rain delay and a loss. The team’ legacy earned movie credit reflective of an adult version of Bad News Bears. I hope that title speaks for itself. Like the Bad News Bears, the Cleveland Indians of “Major League” were able to adjust for idiosyncrasies and to work together to produce remarkable results. Life imitates art – you’ve got to be a winner to get to the World Series!

My focus is on people coming together to produce remarkable results – expressing their own excellence while accentuating the excellence of others.  I’m convinced that that’s how you get to the World Series and the CMAs.  I turn to the Beyonce and DixieChicks’ performance of “Daddy Lessons” at the CMAs to exemplify this specifically.

Here are some headlines regarding the performance:

A crew of people behind the scenes worked together with the approximately 20 performers to weave, own, kill and evidently help Matt McConaughey dance like no one was watching.  Let’s be honest though Matt always seems prepared to seize an opportunity.

The entirety of the collection on stage seemed to be performing effortlessly and well in sync fully enjoying themselves.  You don’t get that level of performance and ease without considerable experience and passion as well as time in diligent and disciplined collaboration.  More eloquently translated from the Roman Philosopher Seneca, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”  This is evident visually in this picture (I took of my TV screen showing ABC’s broadcast).

What I see appears to be complete immersion and expression of two amazing artists.  One, around the world, is recognized with a singular name and a few nicknames.  The other is Leo Pellegrino, playing the saxophone and dancing with “Queen B.”  Leo, I learned having Googled for him like a few thousand-other people is a graduate of Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School and has been a member of Lucky Chops Brass Band and Too Many Zooz. (Pittsburg Post-Gazette)  The article quoted Leo saying “She saw the video of Too Many Zooz in the subway, and she liked it and got us in the studio.”

Preparation meets opportunity!

Lucky and fun to be so skilled; so confident; so collaborative and open as to be in such an intense collective flow for 5-minutes.  Maybe they are mostly lucky to have the experience to know the extensive preparation required to make it look so effortless.  Maybe they are lucky to have learned their crafts and built their confidence so as to be able and open to flexing their style, lyrics, and allowing others to shine.  Beyonce’s original “Daddy’s Lessons” has country overtones and “the Dixie Chicks have been performing a countrified version. . .  since the song was released earlier this year” (RollingStone).

By working to co-create something new enough to warrant an official version for free download on SoundCloud, they collectively show us the power of individual excellence expressed collectively.  I attest that the same was going on in Game 7 of the World Series; each team having worked to co-create new versions of themselves earning the Chicago Cubs their first championship since 1908 and the Cleveland Indians having earned themselves the American League pennant for the first time since 1997.  None of this happened overnight – hard work, disciple, sacrifice and some disappointment were prerequisites.  On the Cleveland Indians’ official website, Indians ace Corey Kluber is quoted regarding the league championship saying, “Nobody has shied away from the challenges that we’ve faced.  It speaks to the kind of guys we have. Nobody is backing down from anything. Everybody is just trying to go out there and do their jobs.”

It sounds like people coming together to produce remarkable results – contributing their capabilities while accentuating those of others.  If the Cubs and the Indians can do it.  If Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks can do it.  If Leo Pellegrino can dance with Beyonce at the 50^th Annual CMA Awards.

If we have time to cheer them on then we have time to invest in our own capabilities and our own remarkable results!  Game 7 lasted 4+ hours.  The CMAs were ~3 hours.  How much could you grow personally, professionally, in YOUR craft, in your passion with just four (more?) hours per week?

The process can be arduous for sure – learning and working our craft and contributing to the craft of others, doing our homework and practicing independently and collectively to make great work look easy.

Maybe one day people will want to pay to watch you do your job.  You are an artist.  You are a player. Your season is upon you.  Get ready to dance!