Do it For Joy

Why would a young man talk to a pretty girl that he did not know?  

Why would he ask her out if he could get rejected?

Why do people climb mountains when they could die in the attempt?

Why rock climb when you could get injured?

Why would someone use their life savings are take out a loan to start a small business?

The answer in all cases is, for the reward, or said another way, for the satisfaction of success.  Getting a date could be the first step in a deep and meaningful relationship.  Climbing the moutain or cliff face brings a sense of accomplishment that will last a long time.  Owning your own business brings freedom and potentially, wealth.  The risk is worth the reward.

Why would someone willfully accept beatings, whippings, insults, abandonment, and ultimately death by crucifixion for ungrateful people.  Hebrews 12 says Jesus did all that for "the joy set before him".  He endured everything he endured for the reward.

God asks us to participate in the mission of saving souls.  He wants us to share the good news of salvation with our friends, neighbors and co-workers.  That is scary.  That is risky.  People will find out who we really are.  We may be ridiculed.  People may get angry with us.

Or, people may listen to what God says to them through us.  People may find something to fill the god-shaped hole inside of them.  That would be wonderful.  It would fill us with joy knowing that someone who needed God found him.

Knowing this, we should take the risk.  We should boldly be a witness for Christ.  The reward is worth it.

The JCI Way #5

JCI has a bonus program for Area Managers and above. There is no annual gift for the average Joes like me. However, JCI adjusts the 401k match amount based on the company's performance. When I hired in, they were matching $1 for $1. Then, when the recession hit, it dropped to 50 cents for $1. Now, it just went up to 75 cents.

That seems like a nice way to do something for the masses that also encourages people to care about the bottom line and the long-term health of the company.

"For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." – 2 Cor 12: 10

JCI Way #4

JCI has a corporate HR department that handles payroll and other global HR initiatives. Also, HR has a separate IT group just for their department. It is completely separate from the rest of IT. I suppose they do that because the main IT group is very focused on helping the Operations side of JCI. Non-production departments often receive little attention from IT and other support groups in general. The money and time is spent on the plants.

Companies that have similarly focused IT groups might consider having dedicated application support IT people for the G&A departments (HR, Finance, Marketing). The rest of IT can support Sales, Operations and Engineering. The G&A IT people could be shared by multiple departments at smaller companies.

"For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." – 2 Cor 12: 10

The JCI Way #3

The IT group at JCI has three kinds of work related to helping the business: projects, customer service requests (CSRs), and help desk issues.

Help desk issues are problems people have that can be handled relatively quickly -- usually in a few days. The issues are mainly how-to-use the system, bugs, data corruption, training, etc. JCI has a dedicated staff of people that handle these kinds of issues. If they can't fix the problem, they may get help from Business Analysts, Programmers or other experts.

CSRs are changes to a system that can be done in less then 20 hours. The IT department has a budget to perform CSR work. Once the budget is spent for the fiscal year, only emergency CSRs will be done. CSR requests are sent to IT by business customers. They fill out a form and send it in. All requests go to a steering committee made up of "subject matter experts" from the business and IT people. The steering committee reviews all requests, decides which ones are worthy of working on and then assigns a priority to each request. IT then works on CSRs in order of priority until the money runs out. The reality of the business is that we rarely finish all priority one requests. We keep priority two and below requests on the list but everyone knows they will probably never get done.

Projects are just what they sound like. Each year during budget planning, IT gets a list of projects from each area of the business. We write up mini statements of work that estimate what it will take to meet the business objectives, what it will cost, and what resources are required. All dollars and resource hours (by person) are put into a spreadsheet and organized. This lets us know how much money and people are needed to meet the business needs.

At that point, we start sorting projects by priority and negotiating with the business. The money to pay for each project has to come from somewhere. IT does have a budget for projects but each department in the business needs to get capital dollars for projects as well. The goal is to know what we will be working on next fiscal year and make sure that we have the resources lined up ahead of time. JCI will use consultants in the form of programmers, business analysts and project managers to complete entire projects if internal resources are unavailable. However, the requesting department has to come up with the money.

This appears to be a good way to help plan and to give IT the opportunity to have the resources needed to help the business. A company that never outsourced resources could still use this method to "budget" internal resources. It takes effort to plan on both the business and IT side. The good thing is that the business will see that IT does not have unlimited resources. Making a list of 20 projects and realizing that the business can only afford to do 5 can be an eye-opening experience.

The JCI Way #2

JCI has full wireless capabilities across our entire building. So, I can undock my laptop and take it anywhere in the building and still have connectivity. That is great when you want to have a meeting somewhere and still collaborate.

Not only that, but every JCI facility that I have been to so far is the same way. I can show up at the Arizona facility, plug my laptop in to the network there, login and have access to all my stuff just like I was at my desk. I could also use wireless there as well.

There is no on-site IT staff at any JCI plant at all. Everything is managed remotely and it just works. That really helps productivity to be able to go somewhere and not have to spend an hour or so trying to get connected.

That would be a good goal for any geographically diverse enterprise: fast, hassle-free access to the wireless or wired network at any company facility.

This is the second post in "The JCI Way" series.

The JCI Way #1

I recently started working at a company with the initials JCI. Its a nice company to work for and they have a lot of great ideas. I'd like to share some of these ideas mainly to keep track of them and possibly to help anyone who stumbles onto this blog.

Everyone in my department and many people in my building have to have cell phones. We may get work related calls at the office. So, its important that the cell phones get a good signal. My building has a cell phone signal booster on each corner of the three story building where I work. We get good reception everywhere. That's a good idea for any company that expects their people to use cell phones to communicate with each other.

"For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." – 2 Cor 12: 10

Do you smell something burning?

Some day, I'm going to write a book.  The title will be, IF I get to heaven, my clothes will smell like smoke.  I hope to expound upon the dichotomy of Christianity that says, on the one hand, I am totally depraved and on the other hand, I am perfect.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul lists some bad stuff that his readers had done.  Then he says, that they were bad people, but now are not.  Does that mean that they stopped sinning?  I don't think so.

Hebrews 10 says that "if we keep on sinning" we are in danger of hell.  What does it mean to keep on sinning?  How do we become new creations?  How do we act as sanctified Christians?

I think the difference is that we struggle with sin.  People who do not know Christ accept sinful ways as okay.  They "keep on sinning" because they think their choices are okay.  Christians still sin, but they regret it.  Is that hypocritical?  I don't think so.  Its human nature to sin.  Its God's will for us to feel contrition and seek forgiveness.

Hmmm...  So, what am I saying?  Anyone who feels guilty about bad things they do is a Christian?  Only people who can do bad things with no remorse are on the highway to hell?  That can't be true because the vast majority of people feel bad about things they do from time to time.  If you ask the average person if they are good or bad, they will say that they are "mostly good."  They realize that they do bad things, but they do good things at least 51% of the time so its okay.  That may be true.  It may be that most people are mostly good (from a worldly standpoint) and feel bad about things they do wrong.  So does that mean that most people are going to heaven?

Maybe its not so much making individual choices or even repetitive choices and not regretting them that is important.  What does make the difference is making life choices and not regretting them.  So, adultery is not the unforgivable sin, but living with someone who you are not married to, sleeping with them and refusing to get married or acknowledge that what you are doing is wrong, is.  This type of behavior is what indicates that a heart is hard and closed to God's call.

Getting drunk may not put one on the road to perdition.  Being an alcoholic may not either if one fights against the urges.  Its giving in to the lifestyle or not feeling Godly remorse that is damning.

That is why the bible talks about how Christians need to warn other Christians who are caught up in sin.  We should not judge people for the sins they commit individually.  We should cast a discerning eye on people's lifestyles and warn them if their persistent behavior is potentially destructive.  It is the persistent nature of sin that is damning.

Now, I am not saying that simply fighting against evil is enough to keep someone out of hell.  It is only faith in Jesus Christ as savior that gives a person the key to the pearly gates.  What I am saying is that every person struggles with sin.  We have all gone astray.  We all fall short of the goal of perfection.  This struggle does not disqualify a person from heaven or mean that Christians are phony.  It simply proves that we need a savior and shows how great God is to help us.

Scoring System for NFL Draft

Scoring System for NFL Drafts

NFL teams could use a scoring system to ensure that they get the most quality player for each pick.  This means that they draft the best combination of player / position need for their team.  

There are two parts to this scoring system.  First, rate each position on the team in terms of need.  Each position would get a rating from one to five.  Here are what the ratings would mean.  Rank each position based on the value of the current starter.

• One = should be on the practice team


• Two = would ride the pine on other teams


• Three = average ability starter


• Four = Pro-Bowler


• Five = franchise player and future hall of famer

Each position on the team would be ranked.  The coaches may want to rank sub categories for each position.  So, they may have different rankings for left and right guard.  There may be rankings for the #1, #2 and #3 receivers as well as linebackers vs. nickel backs.  Rank as many positions as make sense for the team.

The second part of the scoring system is to rank players that are eligible for the upcoming draft.  Each position coach should come up with a point system for there positions.  The way the points for are determined for each position can differ, but the maximum number of points available for each position should be the same.  

For example, lets say that all positions have a maximum of 100 points that can be awarded to a player.  The wide receiver coach comes up with the following criteria:

• Speed: 0 to 20 points


• Hands: 0 to 25 points


• Yards after catch: 0 to 15 points


• Route running: 0 to 30 points


• Attitude: 0 to 10 points

The corner back coach comes up with the following criteria:

• Speed: 0 to 20 points


• Tackling: 0 to 15 points


• Pass defense: 0 to 40 points


• Knowledge: 0 to 15 points


• Attitude: 0 to 10 points

Again, each position coach comes up with a ranking system for players at their position.  The total points a player can earn can not exceed 100.  Once the coach has a ranking system, they will rank the top 10 or so players eligible for the draft who can play the position.  If a player can play multiple positions, they will get a ranking for each position.

Finally, the position and player ranks are entered into a database.  The head coach and general manager can run a report that will multiply the position rank for each position by each player’s rank for their position, sort the score in descending order and display the results.  Here is an example.

PLAYER; COLLEGE; POSITION; SCORE
Brett Favre; Southern Miss.; Quarterback; 350 (70 x 5)
Kordell Stewart; Colorado; Quarterback; 325 (65 x 5)
Herschel Walker; Georgia; Halfback; 240 (80 x 3)

On draft day, when the team gets their pick, they simply draft the player with the highest score who has not been drafted already.  With this system, there is a lot of up-front work, but draft day should be a breeze.

Successfull Leadership is all Random

I was reading an article on “Great Leaders”.  The article said that all great leaders have “an innate ability to read the forces that shaped the times in which they lived—and to seize on the resulting opportunities.”  

My question is, “Did they simply get lucky?”.  It seems like there are many people who think they know what direction the world is moving.  If you read any stock website or investing newsletter, there is no shortage of opinions about the “times in which we live” and how to make money.

There is also no shortage of people who are willing to invest in some scheme hoping that it turns into the next Amazon.com, McDonalds or Avon.  Some of these ventures are successful.  A few are wildly successful.  The majority are break even or worse.

There is a popular theory that says, “given enough time, a chimpanzee typing at random will eventually type out a copy of one of Shakespeare's plays..”  Is that same thing true about entrepreneurs?  There are millions of entrepreneurs around the world with millions of ideas.  Each one is hoping to get rich.  Is it only hard work and some kind of sooth-saying ability that makes the difference between great success and average success or even failure or is it just inevitable that a small percentage will get it right.

I would like to see someone do a study about people who thought they had some great, world-changing idea and failed.  Are those people like the Ray Kroc’s and Sam Walton’s?  Are they just as smart, just as hard-working and just as educated?  Was there problem simply one of timing or luck?

Take Dean Kamen for example.  Everyone says he is a brilliant, hardworking, successful guy.  He has many wonderful inventions that changed healthcare.  He also owns his own island, so he is doing something right business-wise.  His one main failure is the Segway.  He thought it would be an invention that would change the world.  He said that third-world countries would design cities around the Segway.  Well, its been a few years since it was invented and the world has not changed.  Apparently, he could not read the forces shaping his time.  Maybe if he would have introduced the Segway at a different time or was able to sell it for a lower price, it would have caught on.  Could it be circumstances that is keeping the Segway from being successful?

I’m not ragging on Doctor Kamen.  He is a great scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.  I am saying that he may not be included in the list of great leaders because of timing and luck.

Six Sigma

The September 2005 issue of Fast Company has an article called “Six Sigma Stigma”.  The author was in Japan visiting a car-making facility in Toyota City.  Toyota is renowned for its quality.  In fact, Toyota had the #1 ranking for auto manufacturers in JD Power and Associates 2005  Initial Quality Study.   The funny thing is, Toyota does not use Six Sigma.  The engineers at Toyota had never even heard of it.  On the other hand, Ford, who has been using Six Sigma since 1999, finished below average on the JDP survey again.

The article also lists Xerox and Sprint as Six Sigma adopters whose quality scores fall below that of their peers.  Canon, Toshiba and HP have better quality then Xerox.  Verizon beats sprint.  None of the companies with better scores are Six Sigma disciples.

What does this say about Six Sigma?  Is it a bad tool for management?  Does it help improve quality?  Six Sigma is a good tool that can help improve quality.  The problem is most likely with management’s attitude.  The people at the top might want excellent quality.  They may realize that it not only improves sales, but it saves money—so, it affects both the top and bottom lines of the income statement.  That is all well and good, but one other thing management is looking for is an easy fix or a sure thing.  They don’t want to have to work hard at quality.  Quality is not what gets them a bonus.  Higher stock prices lead to higher bonuses.  Management doesn’t really believe in quality because it takes too much effort and takes time away from “growing the business”.  So, they sign up for the sure thing or the latest buzzword that will meet the immediate need with minimal effort on their part.  The board of directors signs off on the huge expenditures needed to train everyone because Jack Welch said it’s a good idea.

Here is a truth about managers, especially at the upper-level.  They don’t do real work.  They think, plan, manage and DELEGATE.  Programs like Six Sigma are great because they let management do what it does best—lead.  However, that is the big problem when it comes to quality.  Management can not simply dictate quality and go back to analyzing sales reports.  They must stay engaged.  They must review quality reports and continually ask why the company is not meeting its goals.  They must fund projects that focus on increased quality.  Six Sigma makes it too easy to issue the order and forget it.

Why are companies like Toyota successful at having high quality when they don’t even know what Six Sigma is?  Because they work hard at it from the top of the organization on down.  Other companies who talk about quality should start working at it as well.