Day 63 / TUE

Some Days Are Totally Different From What You Expect..
Monday I believe primitive instincts kicked in.  Several cords of wood were moved closer to the location or point of anticipated combustion.  A good woodsman is several years ahead of that point.  Twice during the day I hooked up the trailer and moved some nice split and dry oak.  I could have put it off for another day but it just seemed to be needed to be done.

This morning I awoke to 8" of wet snow.  The plans were adjusted and changed to 'snow removal' activities'.  Fortunately I'd just retrieved my snowblower last week.  Making things happen under stress such as time constraints causes poor thinking and the ever reliable machine would not start.  That made no sense so I walked around and looked at the beauty about me, wondering why I would want to leave such a place (or screw up the morning with noise and gas fumes).  Not getting the beast started was a message.  It changed my day. 

It's amazing that after 63 years ( and today only, 63 days) that you can forget how nice snow looks.  Sometime in November I start to think about the last two weeks of January and the first two weeks of February, but winter is not all that harsh.  We tend to think about the worst twenty percent of winter, the coldest days, the biggest blizzards or falling on the ice.

A few years ago we were in the midst of management training and started in on a never-ending list of 80/20 rules.  As managers we spend 80% of our time on 20% of our employees and most often they are the problems or the low producers.  That's just the way it works.  That's the way organizations work and remain dysfunctional.  We talk and talk and talk and make performance plans, etc.  If good managers put 80% of their time into the top 20%, giving them all the resources and support they need we would be much more productive.  Good managers are usually not as bright, as good or as productive as their best employees; they know their value is in providing support and running interference.  Good employees leave because managers cannot do their job.  The top 20% of employees leave because 80% of the managers (or the collective 80% of company 'management') spend their time in the wrong place.

Monday was guided by intuition.  I mange by intuition.  You have do do what feels right, not necessarily what your want to do or what is logical or what 80% of the managers do.  It differentiates you.