The Business of Life

Choices and Transactions Negotiations and the Bottom Line.I am young of mind but old of heart when faced with the thought of Business. The above terms are also values in the business of being an artist.The Choices are shape , colors, mediums and canvas The Transactions Are between myself and the "voice behind the sky", or the boundaries of my time. Negations are between Truthfulness and Beauty., and the Bottom line is of course, what I am willing  to accept as the final product.

Both the Idea of Business and the production of Art is as old as the oldest known ocher paintings on cave walls.


Life is business, clearly, the terms change according to the tools and currency. Both take up a different portion of our bicameral mind, but not necessarily so, I feel. Julian Jaynes, findings point to a developmental sequence to the adaption of the Brain as a receptor and processor of information. As humans develop and adapt to their environment, which seems to be manipulated with the intention of creating more information to process, the relationship between the halves of the brain change, as it did one before.

The manifestation of the change in this relationship may be demonstrated by analytical process being approached in a creative and non-linear manner. Also the processes of creativity that once were "out there" are now seen as definable occurrences in the material matter of the brain.

The New Business models may be changing to a more Quality Relationship model. Quality Communication will be the defining factor of a Quality Business as social networking gains a foot hold in ways that people communicate.

My understanding of The Idea of Business, is that people developed business as a way to survive. As the ways to survive change so does the nature of business.

Food, shelter, and clothing. may be the key elements, still, in surviving, but what else does it take to survive these days?

The Path to Success

How do you define Success? Clearly, not everyone has the same criteria for what Success is.

I had originally started this blog in response to the request by the company I work for to outline the steps I had taken to be successful in the position I am in. The path to doing a better job at what I am asked to do. The path to meeting my metrics.Success in the context of this business in particular is basically just doing what I'm supposed to do on a consistent basis. The request was not to outline a path to Excellence, or the steps taken to excel but rather to keep my job. I was over thinking the request.

When one sets out to build a paper airplane, say, and the paper airplane actually flies, that is a success. When one sets out to catch a fish and a fish is caught, that is to have succeeded. When one sets out to mow the lawn, and the lawn gets mowed, that was a success. The path to success, in the context of the request by the company I work for, is basically to pay attention to what I am doing with a minimum of errors while meeting the metrics that have been determined for the job I do. I get to work another day.

All that is required really, is a grade one professionalism, that is I get paid to do what I am asked. Anything else creates waves, and could even be construed as a criticism of the business.

Success in business is one thing, success in life is something completely different.

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
-Albert Einstein

Social Media and the Professional

Social Contract Social Media and the Nooesphere are all part of the same process of human systemic development.

As I see it, Professionalism is Darwinistic, in that the best and most accomplished survive. Wouldn't you rather deal with someone who is concerned about what they do and have the confidence to do it?

In as much as Professionals determine the norms of a social contract,  that Social Contract is only as valid as the agreement of the society at large of it's validity. That has always been facilitated by communication on all levels.
We now have new levels of communication and that more than anything will determine the underlying tenets of a new revised Social Contract. How we communicate will determine what is acceptable and what is not.

The Professional usage of the tools of communication can radically change the face of business and any other social relationship. I do not think I am saying anything new. I think it is time for the Professionals to step up and make the changes happen. Through intelligent dialogue that happens at the speed of music, the speed of sound, the speed of light.

I would like to quote Seth Grodin, who is really onto some thing,...how not to lose an argument online(or anywhere else).-

"Earn a reputation. Have a conversation. Ask questions. Describe possible outcomes of a point of view. Make connections. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Align objectives then describe a better outcome. Show up. Smile."

The Consummate Professional (tm)

The Consummate Professional is only known by her or his qualities. Those Qualities that are manifest determine the tone of a room. The atmosphere changes subtley. A sense of maybe this person knows what is going on. The  True Professional radiates the sense that just because a thing isn't known doesn't mean it can't be known. A True Professional will assess any given situation and if the knowledge is there, will apply the means necessary to bring to what ever that, situation, task, project,  whatever, to a higher level of Quality.
   Get a room of Consummate Professionals together and on the same page, there isn't anything that can't be done. For instance, The professionalism needed to put people into space. The Professionalism of people who set out to create a new Social Contract, the Constitution. This is not a blog to navigate some personal tempest of political or Ideological maelstrom.I am only looking at personal and organizational intent.The focus that is required to apply so much skill was and is immense.

Undertaking a singular task, the consummate Professional, in a society based on integration, will make sure any effort applied will maximize the quality of the whole.

 Professionals are needed. -"Oh , please know what you are talking about." echo's through phone lines and   antiseptic cyber-realms.

Think about this, earliest profession- Marketing. Everything else is customer service.Customer Service is nothing if it is not applied soft skills. 

I am going to go off and apply some soft skills with my family right now as a matter of fact.


Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.”
- Grace Paley

Professionals

I remember a time, sitting around a wooden spool in a dingy apartment jacked up on condiments and ramen. Coffee, the spark that lit the fuse behind the eyes.A gathering of like minded souls, a few not many. On a mixed diet of equal portions of Hope and Rage. A pinging of internal zeitgeist resounded. Phantom waves of purpose were as heady as the dollar store incense that wafted around as if a drunk half interested ghost.  Plenty of ramen, coffee and cigarettes. These are the new professionals.

  It took some time but  this group of kids  became well respected, engaged, worried, thoughtful, talented, tight minded people .Influential in their own right within the sphere of influence they inhabit

   It is just an Idea. To actually envision and define what a Professional is. Maybe make one more definition for the word. Be that as it may, it is for these, this network of Professionals, that I write for and to. Those that learned to be interested in their own life, and the things they do. Those that have learned that accomplishment and self worth mean more that any store bought, pre packaged  ideology that promises little more than temporary laudation and not worth putting on a resume.

There is no Truth, Truth is ubiquitous. Every known thing is ripe for redefinition. To be Professional is more than a matter of self respect, it means taking responsibility for ones actions.

Professionals are the bedrock of society, the bones, nervous system, circulatory and respritory foundations, the absolute and actual infrastructure of society, because without them, who's going to care?

Ethics in Leadership by Six Sigma - Lean Six Sigma & Quality Resources | Six Sigma IQ - IQPC

I over heard some one, while at work the other day say, "We're not in Business to be good citizens, we're in business to make money." that shook me from my rose hued cloud of Idealism and wishful thinking that I normally swim in. I had to stop and think, if that is true, if that is an underlying social norm, do I want to be part of a business that thinks this way, and secondly is there a way to counteract that thought process. Is it really true? Do business's in general, exist in some kind of ethically ambiguous netherworld that ignores social contract and what ever it is that allows people to live within a social organism? The video below, introduces the concept of Leaders defining Ethical norms by example. Is there a way to run a business Ethically? `

1Ethics in Leadership by Six Sigma - Lean Six Sigma & Quality Resources | Six Sigma IQ - IQPC

Can Professionals be Trusted?

`Trust is almost as mythical as a Unicorn these days. It doesn't do any good to refer to it as a Real Quality if no one believes in it. It hangs off our consciousness like some kind of psychological appendix, an organ that is an irritant at best.There are 8 dictionary results for the word Trust at Dictionary.com. It's starting to seem  to me that the more definitions there are for a word the less it means anything.

It happens differently from person to person and age doesn't seem to matter. One day you're walking along and some small thing happens that snaps the string of trust between you and everyone else. Or it could be huge, that one big thing that makes you flinch forever, Trust, an amputated appendage. No one can be relied upon. Everyone is out for themselves.

That's a hard way for a person live, either as a person or a professional. But what are you going to do? Lack of trust is nothing more than blatant fear.

Trusting is relying upon, the Professional knows, before they can rely on anyone else, they need to be able to rely on themselves, and be Reliable.Once they have become reliable in there own estimation, they have a standard of reliability they can use to estimate others reliability. There is an old adage, 'those who do not trust are not trustworthy'. Trust builds trust. Communication strengthens and more can be accomplished. I am not channeling Dolphins here. It's systemic, your cells and organs and systems trust one another, if you cells don't trust one becomes ill.

Professionals set the standard for trust. It's just a thought. Care to share any examples to the contrary?


“Depend upon yourself. Make your judgement trustworthy by trusting it. You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body - by judicious, daily exercise. To be known as a man of sound judgement will be much in your favor.”
-Grantland Rice

Professionals are Omnivores

Professionals are omnivorous in the sense that they aren't exclusive to one source of information, or subject for that matter. What does matter, is the Quality of the information, a true Professional can smell a bad idea a mile away. Yet quality is such a slippery word, almost as slippery as Professional..

This voracious need for new information, high quality information, has it's dangers though.

The Bane of a True Professional (tm), is the engaging video game. Woe be to he who suffers under the agonizing guilt of having spent four maybe six hours playing a video game. There is nothing like the crushing dreaded realization that you have just spent 24 hours nonstop, playing some hack and slash or something equally nefarious. Hunched over and gray, reeking of cigarettes, beer, mountain dew and chips. You greet the dawn only to find out it's midday, some other day. Disoriented and pale, you try and recognize yourself in the mirror, an ashen dispirited soul, with red rimmed eyes.

This I have done, I confess. don't get me wrong, I still  take a few digital laps now and then, and then, I realize, I have other things I can, not necessarily need, to do. Something else. Read. Paint. Draw. Work in the garden, play the guitar, speak with my child, my wife, my friends, my neighbors.

As Ominivore, a Professional must know their limitations

we think ...

I find that Charles Leadbeater is thought provoking in his recognition of the adaptive skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century. One of the qualities of the New Professional is their ability to be creative, and adaptive is a world that is constantly in flux, dynamic and uncertain.

The Wise Professional tm

“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”
William Bernbach


Professionals are Wise, in my estimation, (remember this blog is here to create dialogue not a diatribe) not in a self-important, wise-ass kind of way, rather , the kind of wise they emote is that of experience, craftiness, consideration and dare I say, Vision.

The Wise Professional tm knows, that for all practical purposes, all problems have solutions. They are secure in the knowledge that any issue they come across can be addressed, if not resolved, by consideration of the knowledge and tools they have at hand. They desire and are adept at problem solving.

The Wise Professional knows which details are important. They have perspective and a certain humility before themselves due all the mistakes they made in order to learn anything. They know that the lesson taught is not always the lesson learned, the carrot at the end of the stick is is not always the meal at the end of the journey.

The Wise Professional may approach a problem and resolve it with either, utterly practical or strikingly counter intuitive, solutions yet they are not Quixotic.

Can you think of any Wise professionals? Please leave a comment.

Dan Pink on Motivation

Jim Collins on Motivation

The BORG are not Professional

First of all I'm pretty sure, but I might be wrong, they don't get paid for being BORG. However they are Process driven.
The BORG don't care about truth, and especially truth in advertising. The have a very low budget for that I'm sure.
The BORG are not Polite, and at first what may seem like Confidence is actually an insatiable drive to meet their QPH (quantity per hour) of BORG recruitment.

This does not mean that The BORG don't have an upside to their Process Driven mania. Not at all. They are efficient and have very little turn over. There is no Personal Conversation at work which improves their QPH immensely. They never need to be re-directed by there Team Leader to stay on task. They dress as if they mean business. I would imagine that one would rarely see a BORG dressed in flip-flops.

There is no place in the BORG community for Sarcasm or Passive/Aggressive behavior. If a BORG questions why they are doing something or complains that a supervisor was rude to them, They merely get a larger chunk of there brain replaced by a higher quality Bluetooth inspired transmitter relay. The Borg rely on being very Modular.

Now, some may interpret my evaluation of The BORG as being a thinly veiled critique(by way of analogy)to how the Business world works.
However, I cannot say for certain that there are some Business Owners who do not wake up every morning a little sad and depressed over the fact that the BORG have not visited us yet.

My intention with this blog is not to question the validity of highly reputable and proven business models. My intention is to improve the experience of PEOPLE,( i.e. humans)who work in the world of business.

Undoubtedly I am out of line and uneducated to the fine details of how a business is run due to the fact I am for the most part an Autodidact, and not worthy of having any valid insights that may enhance, even a little, the quality of the Business world. I am no threat to the status quo.

The Word

"`That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.' "
 -Alice in Wonderland

Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE. 
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
 -Princess Bride

To Profess: To affirm openly; declare or claim, To practice as a profession or claim knowledge of...and the definitions go on and on. I find it interesting that to profess is not the opposite of confess.

So, Professional is not the opposite of confessional.One is never lauded at being confessional, but people are frequently accused of being unprofessional.

I find that in my exploration of the term Professional I have been laboring under the delusion that it is, somehow, synonymous with principled which it clearly is not. There are Professional thieves, liars and drug lords. One can be a Professional, well, anything as long as they can make a living at it. So when someone says," Oh, he/she was very professional", I now take it to mean the exhibited a degree of skill.However, skill alone, a good person does not make.

Perhaps this blog is about something else entirely.

I had wanted to believe that Professionalism included the attributes of politeness, clarity and good intentions. Perhaps I spent too much time with the Fairy Dust in the early 70's.

I guess I am an Idealist. I can't help but think that it is not a bad thing to be an Idealist, but perhaps it is an impractical attribute to have when trying to thrive in the Business World. Idealism is an expensive commodity that many choose not to invest in.

Many businesses find themselves professing to a Neiman Marcus Ideal  but have a Wal-mart mentality.They want to declare Rolls Royce affinities but meet a Ford Pinto production schedule.

As a closing note, a quote by Eric Hoffer ,
"In a time of drastic change, it is the Learners who inherit the future.The Learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

APPLICATION

Here I would like to interject  some of my own personal experience into what it means to be a Professional.

I worked as a Bartender in an East Indian restaurant in Seattle. The Dishwasher was a very good Dishwasher. He told me that he was studying a spiritual practice. He told me that the key to being successful at what you are doing, is:: When you are washing dishes, know you are washing dishes, and do the best you can.

That stuck with me.What I took from that was, care about what you are doing.

There was a time when a trade was handed down from father to son. I was from my own family experience destined to be a third generation Journeyman Electrician. I almost lost my life three different times in the space of 6 months pursuing that profession.

I was 19 years old, almost too old to be an apprentice Journeyman Lineman. A professional.

There is a question I have to ask. What makes a person care about what they do?

Perhaps an ancillary  question needs to be  asked, what makes a person not care about what they do?
Please  see the second question listed as the second quesion listed on the right side of the screen..

FUNDAMENTALS

I'd like to start out by stating  that in researching this topic, I did not just enter PROFESSIONALISM in Google  with the intention of copying and pasting articles from people who have written books or other blogs on this subject.

With that being said, I do hope to reference people and resources that shed light on what it means to be, not only a professional but but what it means to exhibit professionalism.

I think it is important in this exploration, to share a common understanding of the words and terms used  to address all things pertaining to Professionalism.

PROFESSIONAL-following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain. I think we can all agree that a person who works for a living, is by the loosest definition a Professional.
I am referencing Dictionary,com for my definitions.

As an adjective, Professional is used to describe someone  whose occupation is for monetary gain. Such as a professional builder, landscaper, dishwasher.
As a noun, it is used in reference to a person who is an expert in their chosen field, as opposed to being a hobbyist or amateur.

PROFESSIONALISM-the standing, practice, or methods of a professional, as distinguished from an amateur.This will be explored further. The standards for what is considered to be a Professional differ from occupation to occupation, state to state, country to country. In general though, Professionalism is the  expression of a demeanor that lends the person who exhibits it to expectations of quality associated with that persons profession, or occupation.

MISSION STATEMENT

The purpose of this blog is to inspire dialogue, and develop a resource for those interested in bettering themselves and the environment in which they live and work.

I hope to review definitions of what it means to be Professional.
I hope to review the history and future of Professionalism.
I would like also to discuss whether or not professionalism matters and if it does, how  it manifests.
I hope to include all avenues of endeavor whether it be Poets, Scientists, Bankers, Lawyers, Businesspeople, and something that is near and dear to me, Customer Service.

I encourage involvement, by means of dialogue, statements, questions, anecdotes, etc.