eCommerce and

Google recently announced that they will not continue to develop Google Wave as a standalone product. Back in November, 2009, I wrote my first impressions of Google Wave. I have to admit, at the time, I was incredibly excited to get a developer invite. I love to geek out and try new things (naturally I love to try new Google products). I fully expected to use it for collaborative efforts and projects; but honestly, I rarely logged in. The reason? Low adoption. This is the same reason that Google sited for discontinuing development. I wanted to like Google Wave, I even wanted to use Google Wave, but none of my friends or colleagues did. Even when I recommended it as a collaborative platform, others plainly said “No”, instead opting for something that was already comfortable for them.

One of my developer friends, Matt, even said to me in one of my first Waves, “Google Wave will be one of Google's biggest flops yet. This is hopelessly worthless, inefficient, and out of touch. This is NOT what email would look like if we designed it today.” Though I disagree with Matt that Wave is “hopelessly worthless”, I do have to admit that it flopped. However, I have hope for future Google products though, and I can’t wait to see some of the real-time elements introduced to Google Apps.

There are countless possibilities when remodeling your kitchen. Blend style and innovation with a pull out kitchen faucet, upgrade your design with a modern stainless steel Kitchen Sink, help conserve your food waste with an InSinkErator garbage disposer and keep your kitchen free of smoke and odors with Kitchen range hoods.

• Entrepreneur.com reminds us that companies are not democracies. It’s a harsh reality if you are employed by an owner that you don’t care for or don’t believe in, but if that isn’t the case than I think it’s important for us non-owners to remember this quote from the article:
  
  In today's warm, fuzzy, politically correct environment, where conventional wisdom is all about collaboration, fairness and listening to your employees, many small-business owners forget one important thing: They have to execute their battle plans with as few flaws as possible. A company is not a democracy. The only opinion that counts is that of ownership. Have a suggestion box in case someone comes up with a good idea, but don't make it a bible."

• I liked Business Insider’s tip of the day today:
  
  "Having recently concluded four years of interviews for a book on the topic of making ideas happen, I can say one thing for sure: Hard work is the single greatest competitive advantage. Ideas don't happen because they are great. The genius is in the execution, aka the "99% perspiration" that has become this site's namesake.  Perspiration implies sweat, self-discipline, and (yes) occasional exhaustion. I think this is what Malcolm Gladwell teaches us in his book Outliers when he proposes that a true mastery of anything requires 10,000 hours of doing it. There are no shortcuts to lasting success."
  -- Scott Belsky, Founder and CEO, Behance

• Get Elastic posted a great article with some basics for improving your website to increase sales volume.

• Mashable highlights a study done by inside view about how the World Cup has affected our economy and productivity globally.  In fact there is evidence of this in a Business Insider story posted today:
  
  FT reported this morning on Brazilian traders who complained about having to work while Brazil played Netherlands:
  "'Nobody is very happy, but we have to work, don’t we?' Pedro Galdi, a trader at the SLW brokerage house, said only half seriously.
  'Our experience of the previous games tells us that it will be quiet. Clients aren’t making transactions when the matches are on,' said Luiz Roberto Monteiro, a trader with Souza Barros brokerage. 'But still, we have to be here.'
  Sure enough, Banco do Brasil (BBAS3.SA) shares have lost steam from yesterday, down nearly 1%.
  And Brazil is up 1-0."
  

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon Kitchen faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

As a team leader I understand that people make mistakes, just as I make mistakes. However one of the best things to see as a leader is someone who acknowledges when they make a mistake, instead of providing an excuse for it.  I understand providing reasoning, but I would much rather see that acknowledge the mistake and learn from it, then to hear a list of excuses. Here is the bottom line when it comes to excuses - You will NEVER succeed in life or at your job if you don’t stop making up excuses.

I have read many articles on how to help employees overcome the urge to provide excuse after excuse. Kelly Ketelboeter’s article on employee excuses provides four steps to helping employees: listen, ask questions, use empathy, and sell the benefits. “Keep in mind when an employee is feeding you line after line of excuses they are really saying, ‘I’m not comfortable. I don’t fully understand. And I don’t see what’s in it for me."  Using the four skills outlined above will help you work through and overcome any excuse they throw your way.” As true as this statement may be, the truth is that we can only help employees to a certain extent. If you want to succeed at your job then work on listing the excuses you have used before, start addressing those excuses and take action.

Of all the excuses I have heard over the years, the worst thus far is “I didn’t know.”  My immediate response back is “Then why didn’t you ask?!” It truly is that simple. If you are given a task and you have questions, or red flags, then ask.  Don’t just proceed do the work and hope for the best, especially because chances are you are doing the job wrong. Asking questions will help you understand your task and will allow you to accomplish it correctly, not only will you get your job done but you will also show your leaders that you are truly engaged in the process, and interested in having a clear understanding of your job. Believe me, anyone interested in learning their job well is noticed when it’s time for employee reviews.

Blaming others for your mistakes is also far too common. When some people realize they have made a mistake it can be a natural reaction to try to find someone else to blame it on.  Cowardice is the only word I can use to describe people who blame others and in reality this is just another form of an excuse. Eventually this employee will realize that they are slowly but surely losing respect from their manager and colleagues – guaranteeing their failure at the company. Throwing others under the bus to cover your own misgivings will only lead to a reputation of being someone who is untrustworthy.

If you have been giving excuse after excuse for every mistake you have made, it’s definitely time for you to change. The next time you think about giving an excuse, whether it’s for a mistake you made, the unmet goal, or late project, try to remind yourself: No Excuses! Like Skipper the Penguin from Madagascar said “Don’t give me excuses, give me results!”

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

Identifying the “Knobs & Levers” that drive your company’s profitability is only the first step in a successful business. The second, and perhaps more difficult, is fine tuning those knobs & levers for a desired result. One such knob or maybe it’s a lever, is salaries and wages as a percentage of gross sales.

Focusing on balancing salaries and wages as a percentage of gross sales generally starts with the question, “When the heck are we going to hire someone to support our growth?” A few thoughts…

Explore all Available Avenues

While piles scattered about your desk, burning the candle at both ends for days, weeks, months, maybe even years and skipping one or more meals a day all potentially point to hiring reinforcements, these are not sole indicators hiring will be the silver bullet. Redistributing responsibilities (we like to call these buckets) can provide the efficiencies necessary to effectively manage the do-to list. You may just find a current employee stepping up to not only take on the additional responsibility but thrive on the opportunity to shine. Technologies within your current infrastructure may be able to offer more than you are aware of.  I’m not the expert on this one, I simply keep adding to the “request” list and IT finds a viable solution when available. With that said it’s amazing what the techies around here can accomplish when they put their heads together and look for alternatives that positively affect the bottom line.

Paint the Picture and Back it Up

Do properly identify a focused picture of what you’re experiencing, providing hard data that brings clarity to you or your departments needs. Let’s say you’re experiencing an elevation in outstanding returns (meaning your warehouse is backlogged on the returns it is receiving and needing to inspect and process).

Paint the picture…

New returns come in as one of two things, cancellation requests or RMA (return merchandise authorization) requests. Our Returns Team reviews the request, plans a course of action, and moves the issue to the appropriate bucket. For simplicity, cancellation requests generally move on to the reorder or refund tabs to be closed while all RMA requests require the attention of the Warehouse Team. The Warehouse Team is responsible for creating call tags (Call Tags tab) to get the product back and subsequently all product inspections (Inspections tab). The tabs are named and uniquely identified in our administration system where the processing takes place. Once an inspection has been performed the return is either approved as is or adjusted accordingly; moving the return on to the Pending tab awaiting a supplier RGA, Damage Claims tab initiating a carrier damage claim, or to the Reorder or Refund tabs to be closed.   As you can see quite a few different scenarios can take place, but it’s a system that’s been pretty well refined over the years.

Provide the data…

The simple snap shot shown above, while not indicitive of any real data will work for the purposes of what we are trying to accomplish for this post.  The chart provides the number of “transactions” open at the end of each day over a two week period by bucket. The work flow moving from left to right for each bucket has an identified outstanding target in red and subsequently highlighted anything greater than that target on any given day that it was not met.

In our example, with the exception of a single day the Returns Team is processing new cancellation and RMA requests within the target; driving the numbers down as they work through the week preparing for the weekend increases. A single instance can likely be attributed to a known issue or decision. The first Warehouse Team bucket (Call Tags) although significant is being met. This is an important step in the returns process as it sparks the products physical return. The first hint of bottle neck is at inspection, this is a time consuming, detailed, physically and mentally challenging step that sets the tone for the customer’s return experience. Although once the inspection has been completed the Warehouse Team technically moves the return back to the Returns Team via the Pending, Damage Claims, Reorder, or Refunds tabs, they’re not out of the spot light.  Once a supplier provides the required RGA from the Pending tab the Warehouse Team is responsible for shipping the RGA back to the supplier. Likewise, the Warehouse Team is physically involved in the damage claim if for nothing else than disposing of the damage once completed by the carrier. Finally, even a reorder has the potential to impact our Warehouse Team. That reminds me, they’re also responsible for inventory and order shipment including: domestic, LTL (light truck load), and international shipments. If you’ve ever shipped LTL or internationally you know you don’t just slap a label on it there’s a lot more that goes into it than just boxing up a product.

Analyze the Data

In this example if we’d looked simply at the Returns Team’s elevated outstanding returns we might have identified the need as an additional Returns Team member. With a more focused look at what’s being experienced throughout the returns process it becomes clear the Warehouse Team is struggling to support the volume moving through the numerous buckets they impact in the process. Assess and insure that the Warehouse Team is working as efficiently as possible taking into account their inventory, shipping, and returns responsibilities before moving on. Review available technologies for assisting those responsibilities. Pay attention to your bottom line, does the cost benefit impact to your knobs & levers more significantly impact the cost benefit of considering additional Warehouse Team support?

Connect the Need to the Big Picture

For our example:

• Overwhelming responsibilities may be heading your Warehouse Team to an elevated turnover rate. This only accelerates the issues currently being experienced in the returns process.
• Hiring warehouse support may also free additional time up from your Returns Team. The Returns Team may be working outside their responsibilities to help the Warehouse Team in an effort to meet their own targets. This inadvertently leads to inefficiencies in their own respective fields. Unaddressed, the same elevated turnover rate could result.
• Never forget the desired result of any returns process is a quality customer experience. Consider how you’re impacting the initiatives of the Customer Service department.
• As part of the inspection process (our examples bottle neck), the warehouse team works closely with the Data Team to identify discrepancies in data quality.
• Every effort is given to make inventory accessible to the Marketing Team’s initiatives to capture high quality images.
• Product that’s made its way through the returns process identified as unsellable is managed as salvage for philanthropic opportunities.

If you’re already sleeping at the office it can be difficult to slow down enough to move beyond the emotional desire for more support. Keep your eye on the prize; paint an accurate picture supported by data, coupled with connecting the need to the larger picture. It’s like asking, “When the heck are we going to hire someone to support our growth” but with an interest in affecting the salaries and wages knob or lever for a desired result.  Oh yeah, and in the end… turning a profit.

The possibilities are endless with a bathroom remodel. Discover your classic side with a clawfoot tub, experiment with fresh bathroom vanities and coordinate it all with matching faucets. Shop PlumberSurplus.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for all of your bathroom needs.

As an IT Manager at a small to mid-size business, it's always a delight to see any system updates that are useful, well-designed, and fully functional. When these things are encompassed in an operating system, it's even more delightful. We operate a few different web properties and I've always wanted to maintain a good variety on our network (mostly for live testing purposes). You know, some users on Windows XP with Internet Explorer, some on Windows XP with Firefox, some on Windows Vista with Google Chrome, some on Mac with Safari, etc. I have been using Windows XP for some time, so when Windows 7 was announced, I was half dreading the transition; especially since I was due for a system upgrade and I knew I'd need to lead the charge. Also, Vista hadn't proven to play well with all of the software we used on its initial launch.

So, when I finally ordered my new system and started my transition from Windows XP to Windows 7, I was naturally trepidatious. I was also transitioning to a 64bit OS. How big a headache would it be? As it turns out, it's been the best operating system transition I've experienced thus far. New Dell laptop, check. Fresh install of Windows 7, check (also, the install was faster than I expected, and I didn't have any of the install issues that have been reported by some users). The only two things that have been a hindrance were easy to fix. The first was obtaining new drivers for a network printer; no problem. The second was some software with known compatibility issues on 64bit operating systems; no problem, Windows 7 has some great features to help with this, which I'll explain shortly.

While trying not to sound like a broken record with every other reviewer of 7, here are some reasons why I love the new Windows:

• It takes all the best features of Vista. The aero interface and more "favorite-present" functionality work well. While I haven't always been a fan of all of the wizards Microsoft includes in progressive versions of Windows, I like the additions that were made to 7. For most of my users, and most home users for that matter, I can see how the "hold-my-hand" style menus and wizards are useful.


• I love keyboard shortcuts and Windows 7 adds some really useful functionality. One useful shortcut is WindowKey+P to switch monitor modes (Computer Only, Duplicate, Extended, or Projector Only). We use multiple monitors at Gordian Project, so the strong multi-monitor support is appreciated and works well. Another set of new keyboard shortcuts for multi-monitor that I love is the ability to manipulate an active window; WindowsKey+UpArrow to maximize, WindowsKey+DownArrow to Restore/Minimize, WindowsKey+LeftArrow to dock to the left side of the active screen, WindowsKey+RightArrow to dock to the right side of the active screen, WindowsKey+Shift+RightArrow to move the active window to the monitor to the right, WindowsKey+Shift+LeftArrow to move the active window to the left monitor. Pretty cool.


• The taskbar now includes keyboard shortcuts, too. Press WindowKey+{Position#OfTheTaskbarItem} to open up or switch to the taskbar item in that position. The new taskbar may bothersome (one user has complained to me that it's sometimes difficult to discern which items are open and which are shortcuts), but I think it's a drastic improvement. The last keyboard shortcut that excited me is WindowsKey+B to access items in the system tray. This one has been a long time coming. You might be say that I should just use the mouse, but I hate to take my hands off of the keyboard and anything that saves me time while I'm working is a welcome improvement.


• The last thing that I've noticed, so far, about Windows 7 that's impressive is the improved compatibility engine. Not only does Windows 7 do a great job of utilizing the generic compatibility engine to make recommendations on compatibility settings, Microsoft has also made available Windows XP Mode. Windows XP Mode leverages Windows Virtual PC in a unique way that blew me away. First you download and install the Windows XP Mode package. Then, you download and install Virtual PC. This gives you access to a full version of Windows XP as a virtual pc, which, in itself, is pretty useful. But Microsoft took it a step further. Any application that you install in your Windows XP Mode virtual pc appears in the start menu of your Windows 7 machine! So, you can "Publish and launch applications installed on virtual Windows XP directly from the Windows 7 desktop, as if they were installed on the Windows 7 host itself." Not everything I needed to install and use is compatible with the 64 bit version of Windows 7, so this feature alone makes the upgrade far less daunting...at least for me.

For those of you IT managers out there wondering whether or not you should upgrade, I recommend it.

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My partner recently sent out a neat article:

11 Business Lessons From The Battlefield

As I read through the lessons I naturally began asking myself “Do I do that?”, “How am I on that one?”, and “I wonder how my managers would rate me on that one.”  So to make things a bit easier, I went ahead and turned the 11 lessons into 44 more specific questions.  Here you go:

Eleven Lessons Become Forty Four Questions

1. Do I genuinely respect the people who work for me?
2. Do I help my employees reach their career goals in tangible ways?
3. Am I more interested in what is best for my employees or what is best for me or the company?
4. Do I conduct myself in a sober, professional way?
5. Do I make employees feel degraded or humiliated?
6. Do I provide relevant, positive reinforcement?
7. Do I criticize more than I compliment?
8. Do my employees know who I believe the star performers are?
9. Do I actively listen to people?
10. Do I allow employees to choose their own path much of the time?
11. Do I overrule my employees plan too frequently or without giving them a chance?
12. Do I bend or give in on nonessential issues or questions?
13. Do my employees believe I can distinguish between essential and nonessential?
14. Do I seek clarity on an issue before correcting or reprimanding?
15. Do I know when and how to give an order?
16. Am I timid about giving orders?
17. Am I condescending when giving orders?
18. Am I direct about what needs to happen when giving orders?
19. Do I make eye contact when giving orders?
20. Do I remain cool and firm, without yelling, when giving orders?
21. Am I passive aggressive when giving orders?
22. Do I validate grievances when giving orders?
23. Do I explain why an order is being given?
24. Am I afraid to insist on a standard?
25. Am I afraid to tell people what to do?
26. Am I afraid to demand quality?
27. Am I a “yeller” or “nice guy freakout yeller”?
28. Am I meek?  In the “poor leader” way or the “inherit the earth” way?
29. Do I do an appropriate level of inspection of work?
30. Do I care about output and results?
31. Do I allow employees to become lazy and complacent?
32. Do I care about the unglamorous tasks?
33. Do I see myself as above the unglamorous tasks?
34. Am I clear about expectations?
35. When giving a task, am I clear about what the task is, who has to do it, and by when or clear that my employee needs to identify the task, assign it, and establish a due date with his/her team?
36. Do I believe everyone gives a crap about my credentials, or should?
37. Do I give a crap about my credentials?
38. Have I established a reputation for competence, common sense, and listening?
39. Once a path is established, do I balance small, firm corrections with steady, disciplined execution?
40. Do I have a tendency to waffle on initiatives or change direction frequently?
41. Do my employees have a clear understanding of the paths/initiatives I believe are important?
42. Do I address problems in a clear, timely manner?
43. Do I have a tendency to side step problems and let them fester?
44. And lastly, if I sent these questions to my managers as a survey, would I do anything tangible with the responses?

If you’re interested in more leadership insight from a military perspective, here is a link to the widely distributed 18 Lessons in Leadership by General Colin Powell.

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

If you work in eCommerce, it is almost guaranteed you work on a computer all day.  If you are like me, you are at the computer all day at work and then maybe a few hours at home in addition to work.  All this repetitive movement that your hands and wrists do can be really wearing and painful.  Even more so if you have experienced an injury to your hand (I've personally had over 50 stitches between both my hands). Experiencing pain while trying to work can affect your performance and ultimately lead to long term injury, neither of which is good for you or the company.

Through my therapy sessions and experience I have various exercises that can be done to help cope with the repetitive strain that comes with using computers at work and home.  These exercises focus on flexion, extension and stretching.

Flexion is when you curl your fingers or make a fist.  When typing at a computer one is naturally flexing their fingers when pushing down on the keys. To work on flexion the following are available:

• Hand Grips: A hand grip is a spring with two handles that you squeeze together.  They come in many different resistance levels.  I like doing a set of 20 in each hand once a day.

 


• Squeeze Toys: These are easy to get at conferences, they make great swag and companies will gladly hand out a squeeze balls with their logo on it.

 

Extension is when you straighten your hand and fingers, it is the opposite of flexion.  Since typing uses flexion more than extension it is important to work on extending your fingers to keep a healthy balance. To work on extending your fingers:

• Rubber Bands: One wouldn't really think about it but rubber bands are great for providing resistance.  Just put the rubber band around the tips of your fingers and straighten them out.  Double up or add more rubber bands to provide increased resistance.

  


• Therapy Putty: Also called “Thinking Putty” is good for extension and flexion.  For flexion as you can squeeze it and for extension you put your fingers in the putty and press them forward.

 

Stretching increases flexibility and range of motion for your fingers and wrist.  It also helps to prevent stiffness in your joints.

Of course, it’s important to meet with your doctor before starting any exercise program or if you are feeling pain.  I have also found the following resources useful.


http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/arthritis/AR00030
http://www.stretchnow.com.au/exercises/hands.htm

For the best prices, on the largest selection of faucets, from your favorite brands like Kohler, Danze, and American Standard shop PlumberSurplus.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Being the other Verizon customer in the office I thought I would follow up on Trevor's post about the Motorola Droid. I have been a Verizon customer for quite a while, and didn’t really have any complaints. Their coverage is great, and most of my family is on Verizon, but until recently, they did not have a great selection of smart phones, especially if you are not a Blackberry fan. I jumped on the Blackberry bandwagon a couple of years back, picked up a Blackberry Pearl, but recently it was feeling antiquated and it definitely lagged in features compared to many of the phones my friends and coworkers had. I was very close to switching to AT&T simply because of the iPhone and the fact that a refurb could be picked up for $50. I am however very glad that I didn't and instead decided to buy the HTC Droid Eris. The second Droid branded phone from Verizon which definitely has not had the hype of the Motorola Droid, but in my opinion is a great phone for an even better price.

Firstly, Trevor wrote a great post and I agree with all that he said about his phone and the OS. Google Android is a fantastic mobile platform; I am very impressed with how fast it is and with the features and applications available. Because I was running a Blackberry and had all of my data pretty much synced with Google sync, phone setup was literally putting in my Google credentials and letting it sync my contacts, calendar and mail (it took less than five minutes). I literally sat back and asked myself if that was all it took, Google mobile sync is truly amazing. Characteristics like these speak to the business professional and the entrepreneurs that value every minute of every day as they try to chip away at their overwhelming workloads. Thus far I have had very few issues with the phone, as well. I am definitely hooked on touch devices and hope they continue to make more great Android phones. 

I went ahead and put together a little list of upsides and downsides associated to how well the HTC Droid Eris will adapt in a business environment.

Upsides:

• Slimmer and Lighter than the Motorola Droid (4.23 ounces) (4.45” (L) x 2.19” (W) x .51” (T)) - I really dislike giant heavy phones, one of the reasons I went with the Blackberry Pearl as my last phone. The HTC Droid Eris is practically the same size as my Pearl which is quite amazing.


• Six Home Screens - HTC has customized the Android OS to include six home screens, that’s three more than the Motorola Droid. This has to be one of my favorite features as I am able to take full advantage of the screen real estate with full screen widgets and program shortcuts.


• HTC Sense - On top of the home screens HTC has what is called HTC Sense, which sounds like their general customization of the Android OS. The HTC Droid Eris has multi-touch support at least for the browser which is another feature the Motorola droid does not have.


• Great custom widgets and a good set of default applications.


• Cost effective - With my Verizon phone credit I was able to pick this phone up for $50, that’s pretty amazing.


• No physical keyboard - Some would call this a downside and that’s why its listed in both sections. I was concerned about this as I was switching from a Blackberry but I am very impressed with the on screen keyboard and the text prediction. It’s been a very easy transition and I am definitely hooked on touch screens.

Downsides:

• No Android 2.0… yet - The HTC Eris did not ship with Android 2.0 and some of its new snazzy features like GPS based navigation, multi-touch which is a bit of a downside. I certainly like android 1.5 and all indications point to HTC updating the Eris with Android 2.0 soon.


• Battery life - Probably my first main issue with the Eris was the battery life, because I had my Google account synced and I was running a lot of applications my battery life was getting drained within a full day. My fix was turning off automatic syncing for my mail and getting a tasks killer. This has seemed to extend my battery life with decent use past 1 day but not much, I still need to charge it every night and I also bought a charger for work just in case.


• Complexity - Even for someone who is fairly technical, this phone is complex. There are a lot of menus, settings, and notifications in a variety of areas. I feel confident that I have explored the phone thoroughly, but I am sure there are things I have missed.


• Cases - I ordered my phone a couple of weeks after it came out and I was sorely disappointed with the available case options. Not only was there very little to choose from, but many were overpriced.


• No physical keyboard - Again some might call this a downside but it wasn't for me, if in doubt try it out.

Below are some pictures check them out...

Oh yea those look kind of crappy because they were taken with an iPhone, here is one with mine:

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Our lives are garden hoses, long, coiled conduits whose utilitarian value lies solely in their output. While it is important to closely monitor what comes in to each, a cursory Google search found approximately zero statistics associated with garden hose input, or for that matter, storage capacity. Our lives, like garden hoses, are designed for one use: action.

It is wildly unimportant to evaluate the amount of water a garden hose can contain. We measure the usefulness of a garden hose by its demonstrated performance and reliability. Our lives are much the same way; while there are dozens of higher-species dynamics at play, our lives are evaluated (professionally, physically, relationally – even spiritually) by what comes FROM them rather than what comes into them. A push and pull, tug-of-war between input and output. Any nurturing or care taken during the inputting stage is done wholly to improve the expected output.

Examples:

1. A man diets and exercises (input) to feel and look better (output.)


2. A woman enrolls in graduate school (input) to increase self-confidence and professional opportunities (output.) – If the learned information does not guide new decisions or bear fruit within her life, she is, by our measure, unsuccessful.


3. An investor purchases stock in a company (input) because he believes in the success of the company, and the eventual growth and profit of the stock (output.)

The largest, most expensive garden hose is useless unless it reliably and consistently facilitates the output of water. Similarly, a decade of medical school might add a few initials to your name and might even land you a job at your local hospital, but the second you do not perform (output) is probably the same second you’re terminated – hospitals tend to be very serious about output.

So often we pride ourselves in our potential, in our latent intellect - It might be wise to understand that a valuable life isn’t the one that consumes, but the one that gives, produces, and, like a garden hose – pours itself into the world.

Just pouring isn’t enough. This is part 1 of 2 in the Garden Hose series. My next blog will discuss why your output must be refined in order to reach your maximum distance.

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With an understanding of Gordian Project’s required results, as a manager, I’ve spent countless hours process mapping the “buckets” of responsibilities related to supply chain. Buckets such as new business, fulfillment, and returns. These buckets can then be further broken down;

•  New Business into new suppliers, new brands, and new products
•  Fulfillment into supplier performance and carriers
•  Returns into RMA Team and Warehouse Team

Follow this to its natural conclusion and you’ve created not only job descriptions but detailed processes in which to successfully fulfill those descriptions.  But it’s not full proof, at least not when it comes to the results.

We recently received a past due notice from UPS Supply Chain Solutions as a result of A Series of Unfortunate Events (I love this movie). The details of which are not important for our purposes here, what is important is where this series of unfortunate events began. PlumberSurplus.com and OutdoorPros.com both ship internationally via UPS Supply Chain Solutions which performs the export, export in this case being shipments from the United States to Canada. A process was “perfected” for creating shipments using UPS.com and was followed successfully for more than a year.  My first response was then to immediately assume UPS had made an obvious clerical error and by clerical error I mean point the finger. With a bit of digging it became clear that an update to UPS.com resulted in our “perfected” process inadvertently charging import fees to ourselves as the shipper rather than to the receiver.

All eyes turned to the warehouse team. Given that the process was followed to the tee, and UPS.com had clearly been updated I still had to ask, “why hadn’t the error been caught?” To the warehouse team’s credit, and you know who you are, I didn’t get the expected, “That's not my job.” A spirit of complete responsibility was evident, but was it solely their responsibility?

In answering this question a statement in Rick Darci’s article, When 'It's not my job' isn't the answer, hit me square between the eyes; “Descriptions (Read processes) are task-focused. They do not describe how the role fits into or contributes to the success of the entire organization. The incumbent can operate in a vacuum without concern for what is happening around him - how she affects customers, co-workers or the organization.” The results originally desired of profitably and successfully shipping internationally aren’t accurately communicated, nor can they be insured, in processes. Let’s just say I’ll be communicating with a new sense of fervor the importance of big picture results, balanced with providing processes; sorry warehouse team.

Do your employees know what they’re ultimately trying to accomplish?

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