Update 11.10.07: Sanity prevails…the Vikings decide that a funeral for a dead grandmother is actually more important than a football game (link via ESPN)
Most employers actually care about their employees when a loved one dies…which is why the owner of the Minnesota Vikings should immediately pull his head from his posterior and see the stupidity of his ways. (link via SportingNews.com)
I heard a great story the other day which emphasizes how important our actions are…even when we think we’re not actually doing anything important. It involves the infamous Ice Bowl football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers for the 1967 NFL Championship.
This games isn’t referred to as “the Ice Bowl” for nothing. It was played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin in December. The gametime temperature was -13F degrees (-25C) with a windchill driving the temperature down to -48F degrees (-44C) making it the coldest NFL game on record. It was so cold that referees couldn’t use their whistles because they froze to their lips. To this day, some players still say they suffer from the effects of frostbite. It wasn’t just cold, it was bone-numbingly frigid. So, you can forgive some players for doing all they could to try and stay warm.
In the end, Green Bay won in dramatic fashion as Bart Starr scored the winning touchdown with 16 seconds left. One key to their win came from the actions of a Dallas player, Bob Hayes, who was a wide receiver and considered one of the fastest men alive. Turns out his hands were cold (remember this is before players started wearing gloves) so when a run play was called, he shoved his hands in his pockets before the snap. When he did this, he communicated that he wasn’t going out for a pass and unwittingly tipped the Green Bay defense to play the run.
What’s interesting about this story is that it offers an example of how we influence the action around us, even when we’re not actually a part of the action itself. Everything is connected and we’re never truly out of the play…no matter if we think we don’t have a role in the action.
I’m not sure about you, but the Super Bowl ads this year sucked like nobody’s business. Can someone explain to me how you can justify spending all that money ($2.6 million by some counts) to get your name out there and produce such lousy, uninteresting, and tepid commercials? I usually enjoy the ads as much as the football - hell, there are times when the ads trump the actual game action for sheer entertainment value. This year though, the ad agencies must have all taken a vacation and left the work to a bunch of college interns.
Out of the bunch, it seemed like CareerBuilder.com at least made an effort. I do admit, however, I missed the chimps of old and was sad to see them go. I’m curious as to how they resonated with others. Take a peek at all three new ads and the older chimp ones here.
Do More Than Just Survive The Workweek. Each ad plays off our typical fears we have of a nightmare job:
Darts
“looking for volunteers for a training seminar” As sad as it is, most professional development and trainings are worth running from…even if there is an abyss on the other side. Only be concerned if your Director of Human Resources has a good aim.
Promotion Pit
“last one standing gets the promotion” Man, you know you work in a toxic organization when getting a promotion means you have to draw on your inner Russell Crowe and battle your shipping guy. Crafting a helmet from a three-ring binder seems to be a must.
Performance Review
“Mr Watson will see you know…please remove your shirt” Hot coals I think I can handle, maybe even the dozens of binder clips fastened to my upper torso. Super-wedgie from my boss? Nope. But then, I guess it’s better than the verbal teardowns that some employees get for their performance reviews. Folks, you know it’s bad when you’d rather get your underwear stretched over your head than have a sit-down with your manager. Maybe it is time to find a new job, eh?
I’m happy the Colts won. I like Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning. Of course, it would have been better to see my Steelers in it again.
And maybe I’m just a child of the 80s, but I thought Prince put on one hell of a halftime show. And how many can say they didn’t get a little shivery at his closing number of Purple Rain while the downpour continued in Miami? It’s an odd thing when the halftime show pretty much beat out the football and the commercials for entertainment value.
If you’re a manager or other stripe of executive who happens to leave one organization for another, I implore you not to pull an “Erickson.” What’s an Erickson, you ask? It’s a decidedly anti-leader move that firmly and publicly announces how much the current company and its employees have held you back from greatness. Why is it called an Erickson? Consider this most recent scenario as reported by ESPN:
Dennis Erickson informed his players of his plans to leave Idaho at a team meeting Sunday before he boarded a private jet to Phoenix for the official announcement that he would become head coach at Arizona State, and the players’ reactions were mostly indifferent — until he left the room.
You know you have a problem when your head honcho tells his players he’s leaving and all he gets is indifference. But then, after your coach tells you that he’s off somewhere else to claim his glory…well, perhaps that might explain it. Here’s how one player recalls the meeting:
It was kind of weird with Erickson talking and telling us he thinks he can win a national championship at Arizona State. It makes us realize the doubt he had in us. I guess he has to do what he has to do.Â
Most of us have left organizations for reasons connected to our own sense of purpose. We need to move on in order to fulfill our purpose. Sometimes we might just leave for reasons like the ones that Erickson offered: the current organization isn’t set up for our own success. But for Pete’s sake, don’t go and broadcast it to your staff! Here’s why…not only does it insult your past work, but it likely will follow you in the future. How are you feeling if you’re a player at Arizona State right now? How many of them are thinking, “Oh goodie, Dennis Erickson thinks he can bring a National Championship here.” Perhaps the sentiment is, ”Crap, here’s yet another coach who will leave us when something better comes along. Just a month ago, his players at Idaho thought he was there to build a program.”
Again, we all leave organizations when we are ready to move on (unless we’re kicked out or laid off which is a whole other topic). The lesson that Dennis Erickson teaches us is when we do move on, do it with some grace.
Well, leave it to Kathy Sierra to inspire me to do something else. She asks a seemingly simple question about why many people (and I’m included here) don’t like to exercise when most animals crave it.
She muses…
Take a human out of his work cubicle or off the couch and turn him loose outside. What happens? Hmmm… for far too many of us, nothing happens. Or we turn around and walk right back in the door and head for the couch or the chair in front of our computer. The one thing that usually does not happen is the kind of physical exuberance–the sheer joy of being able to run and jump–that so many other animals do.
She offers some explanations but I know for myself that it’s a matter of just not enjoying the process of exercising. Or, at least, that was my old story. This old story continues that exercising is boring and pointless (forgetting all the pointed stats that it’s actually good for us to break a sweat). So, to make it less boring and pointless, I always tried to initiate a set of goals and keep a log to track my progress. This always worked great…for a while. And then something would happen like I’d get sick or my work got heated up. I’d miss a few workout sessions and before I knew it I’d be back to where I started. Only this time, frustrated and depressed to have to begin the long progress back toward my goals. I wager this might be a familiar pattern for most folks.
So, in keeping with my new living philosophy of rewriting my personal story, I’m taking a very different approach to exercise: I’m giving all these goals the boot. I’m rediscovering whatever exercise I’m doing and focusing on the fun of the activity. I’m running again and leaving the stopwatch at home. Rather I’m listening to my body tell me when to run, when to walk, when to just enjoy the time outside.
Now my recrafted personal story is that I love to exercise and that my body is a finely tuned system that will always tell me what it needs. I don’t have to impose any artificial goals to force me to workout. I’m more than able to find the fun in things without creating structures.
If you find yourself on a treadmill going nowhere (exercise, work, relationships, you name it), slow down and let the rhythm of a playful life take hold.
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