 When you are actively making the decisions that lead to your experiences, you will always learn from them.
Decision Points are part of Scott Arney's online educational series, The Serial Decision Maker. Medium: The song ”One” performed by U2
Line(s): One love, one blood, one life You got to do what you should One life, with each other Sisters, brothers We’re one, but we’re not the same We get to carry each other, carry each other Classic U2, makes me want to fire up the karaoke machine! This post is part of Scott Arney's series entitled, "Arney's Notable Quotables."  Beyond Bleu Cheese
The preparation and enjoyment of food has long been one of the centerpieces of the family time that my family and I enjoy together. Over the years, we have created our own recipes and discovered new favorites along the way. We have tried different foods and combinations that required small leaps of faith and have generally been rewarded for our adventurous spirit. We have enjoyed a variety of restaurants and we have maintained our family dinner as an essential part of the day despite the many growing demands on our collective time and energy. We have also travelled together and often built at least part of a trip around the culinary attraction of that area. So, on a recent trip, when I was asked the following question, I made sure to give my answer some considerable thought. “Dad, why I am the only one of my friends who likes bleu cheese?” My short answer was that you tried it without being told that you wouldn’t like it. You tasted it before you had developed a pre-conceived notion of what it might be like and, therefore, were open-minded when you took your first bite. The longer answer is that we all grow as human beings if we create our own experiences without bias, especially if the tendency toward a bias is present in the color of something or the smell of something or just the unfamiliar nature of something. Sticking with the food example, my wife and I have always enjoyed split pea soup, especially on a cold night. If you know anything about split pea soup, the color isn’t particularly appealing, and the mention of peas doesn’t necessarily whet your taste buds. There is something about the combination, however, of split peas, ham, and either potatoes or dumplings that really works. You can imagine that the presentation of split pea soup to a kid, particularly a little kid, would be a hard sell. Being prepared for this, my wife came up with the brilliant idea of renaming it Halloween Soup. What kid doesn’t like Halloween? All of a sudden, the color was a little more appealing and the idea of tasting it was sounding pretty good! That ended up being the first step, of what was to be many more, toward a now lifelong pursuit of trying new foods and the willingness to enjoy new experiences. I certainly understand that food adventures aren’t for everyone, but I believe that when you are open to trying new things and creating new memories, you’re probably on track to maximize your overall enjoyment of life. Perhaps more importantly, you are on track to maximize that enjoyment without unnecessary bias or potential regret. Generally speaking, I think that you only regret what you don’t try. You may try your hand at a sport or a career and determine that it is not for you, but at least you will know that is the case and not be left to wonder what would have happened if you just would have given that sport or career a try. I am also certain that if you are open to try new things, food or otherwise, that open mindedness will lead you to experiences that you would not otherwise have had, and you will be richer for it. Of course, there are some limits to this train of thought. I know, without having to ever try it, that I am not going to enjoy combing my hair with an ice pick or sleeping on a bed of nails. Short of the obvious, however, what things have you not tried? What conclusions have you jumped to in the past without having sufficient information on the topic? If you have not actually experienced something before determining that you wouldn’t like it, on what basis are you making that decision? Either way, once you decide to go “beyond bleu cheese,” you win. You will either try something that doesn’t work for you or you will open a new door that otherwise would’ve remained closed to you. If it is not for you, cross it off your list and move on with the knowledge that at least you know for certain because it was your experience using your senses and processing it with your mind. If you are fortunate enough to open a new door, what’s next? A new friend or a new career opportunity? A surprise or a different and enlightening perspective on a previously settled topic? You won’t know unless you decide to go “beyond bleu cheese” and try something new. This article is part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker.  Saving money is a matter of habit, not finances.
Decision Points are part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker.  You have aspired to be a manager since the start of your career. You have been a dedicated student and you have followed directions. Along the way, you have gained the knowledge and the expertise that is necessary for you to continue to advance and to add to your level of responsibility.
You have taken some big steps toward management, but the know-how that you have gained won’t necessarily make you ready to be an effective leader. There are still at least two things that you will need to fully understand in order to be prepared when promotion day arrives. First, you must realize that the primary change and biggest difference in your job going forward is the addition of the responsibility for others and the fact that you will no longer be assessed solely on your work results, but on the results of those for whom you are now responsible. Second, if you are now reliant on those for whom you are responsible, you will need to quickly figure out how to put them in the best possible position to succeed. The best way to do that is to understand the difference between teaching and telling. I occasionally hear people say, “I can’t wait to be the boss so I can tell people what to do.” If that is your perception of what it means to be a manager you are in for a rude awakening. Knowing how to do your job is very different than knowing how to help someone else know how to do their job. Anybody can tell someone else what to do, but that will not help them understand why they are doing it or what its correlation is to their success. Let’s start with this premise. Don’t say it if you can’t explain it. If you have kids, you already know that you can very quickly lose control of a discussion and look like you have no idea what you are talking about the second you use a word or repeat a saying that you cannot clearly explain to your inquisitive child. You must understand what you are talking about if you are going to have any chance of assisting your child to understand what you are talking about. The same is true when you are working with employees. Most vocations have their own lingo. The police definitely use their own vernacular. Lawyers like to throw a lot of Latin around. In the credit union world, we like to abbreviate. That’s all great and maybe even necessary, at times, but if you are going to talk the talk you better first understand what you are talking about. Another must in teaching is to understand the “why” behind what you are relating. If your answer to the question of why a procedure is in place is that “it’s just the way we have always done it”, you are likely falling into the trap of telling and not teaching. By the way, this also applies to your interaction with clients. If you have an unhappy customer on your hands and you find that you are unable to articulate your policy and its application to that person, you are going to be in a very uncomfortable situation. Your ability to teach will not only help you develop employees and effectively resolve disputes with customers, it also directly correlates to your ability to advance. In a similar way that a student who thoroughly understands the subject matter is much more likely to get an “A” on the test, the employee or manager who demonstrates command of her area of responsibility will likely be the first one considered when a promotional opportunity presents itself. Conversely, a student who simply repeats what his teacher has said and an employee who merely recites the employee handbook are not likely to be the ones next called upon to lead a collaborative discussion or take on an important assignment. Telling someone to do something or that a project is due takes very little time at all. Effective teaching, however, can require significant time. Account for that by preparing your employees well in advance of a key deadline or progress measurement. A successful teaching and learning process generally relies on some repetition, a little bit of positive reinforcement, and at least one real life application of the concept or procedure. If you realize this ahead of time and plan accordingly, you will put your employees in position to advance, which will help you to continue your success. Telling is essentially unilateral and the act of telling someone what to do does not necessarily require an understanding of the situation or even two willing parties because there is no guarantee that the person being told wants to be part of the process. Teaching is collaborative by its very nature because it requires at least one party to teach and one party to learn. Collaborative efforts lead to a greater understanding of each other and the needs of your organization. Whether you are already a manager or you aspire to be one, whether you are working with students or co-workers, when you are next given an opportunity to teach, take it. In fact, make it a habit and you will undoubtedly move forward as will those around you. This article is part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker. Medium: The song “Gamma Ray” performed by Beck
Line(s): And the heat wave's calling your name She's got a cactus crown With a dot dot dot on her brow And she speaks inside a cloud With her countenance turning around A funky little song by a funky little dude. This post is part of Scott Arney's series entitled, "Arney's Notable Quotables."  A theory of evolution
The objective of your ongoing evolution is the constant commitment to purpose and forward progress, specifically YOUR purpose and YOUR forward progress Before we get started, please note that the title begins with an “A” not a “The” and that the rest of the title is deliberately not capitalized. This is not a thesis on “The Theory of Evolution” nor is it even an alternative view on the subject. The evolution that this title refers to is the type of evolution that you need to initiate and continually experience if you want to live a fulfilling life and to pursue your hopes and dreams with purpose. There is a long-standing debate on the topic of whether people, especially adults, are capable of change, as in the type of change that involves your personality and the traits that help to define who you are and what is important to you. Sometimes, the concept of change and that of evolution are intermingled. I am not suggesting that you should try to change who you are, if you are happy with yourself and you are not someone who texts while operating a vehicle. In my opinion, a change represents a different direction. You decide that you are going to head east when you were previously travelling west. An evolution represents an improvement or a strengthening of the direction you are already headed. You have always gone west, but now you are going west a little faster. I have no idea what percentage of our composition is innate and what percentage is learned, but I do believe that we are all our own unique individuals and those of us who figure out exactly what that means and then address our weaknesses and maximize our strengths will have a heck of an advantage over those who don’t spend anytime thinking about that stuff and are content to stumble through life without much of a direction or a purpose. Building upon who you are is an evolution and one that is important enough to never stop. As a student, if you take the time to figure out what subjects are of interest to you and which of those align with your skill set, you will be much more likely to select a major that is consistent with your future goals. If you take the added step of researching the job market for your intended career as a decision point along the way, you will be more likely to earn your desired reward for the hard work you put in as a student. As you evolve from a high school student to a college student and, ultimately, to a full-fledged member of the workforce, your evolution will be purposeful and efficient because you have taken the time necessary to set your course. If you select a major only to determine that, despite your best intentions, it is not the way forward for you after all, that’s okay too. Evolutions rarely follow a straight line nor are they symmetrical. If you are already in the workforce and you feel like you have reached a dead end in your current career, it is important to figure out why that is the case. You certainly don’t want to make the same mistake again, so at a minimum you will want to know why it went wrong so you don’t end up inadvertently going down the same path again in a different career. You may also realize that the stagnation you are experiencing is your own doing. Perhaps you stopped learning new things. Maybe you convinced yourself that you had been in your job long enough to know all there is to know. It is possible that you found too large of a comfort zone and stopped seeking new challenges. In other words, you may have stopped evolving. I have often heard people express concern about retiring from their job. It is certainly true that some people are not well suited for retirement, but I believe that most people who worry about retiring are really worried about finding a new purpose. Sounds to me like a great time to continue to evolve, to re-calibrate. If you have found purpose in your work, you are already ahead of the game. Now, it is purely a matter of identifying the things that you enjoyed and helped to form your purpose so that you can find a similar pursuit in retirement. You did it once, you most certainly can do it again. The objective of your ongoing evolution is the constant commitment to purpose and forward progress, specifically your purpose and your forward progress. There will be times when you will feel as though you are not making the type of progress you had hoped for, but if you are following a plan that represents who you are, and that plan includes ways that you will learn from past mistakes, appreciate your life’s experiences, and improve upon past efforts; you will ultimately get to where you are going. You may ask how I can be so sure. Simple. Your evolution ensures your relevance, your purpose, and ultimately your survival and you don’t have to wait for it to occur. You are perfectly capable of creating it yourself specifically for your own benefit. This article is part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker.  Observation is a key component of participation and being an active participant in your career and your life is so much more rewarding and fulfilling than when you are standing on the sideline as a disinterested bystander.
Decision Points are part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker.  The Importance of Goals and Incentives
In case you haven’t noticed, most of the world surrounding you is moving toward or already using a goal oriented, incentive based system. The reason is simple. It works. Credit unions and banks often provide incentives in the form of reduced lending rates or increased savings rates to their members and customers for using more than one of their products or for using a specific service. Credit card issuers reward you with airline miles, cash back, and a host of other gifts when you use their credit card to make your purchases. Grocery stores discount certain items if you carry their check-cashing card. Most employers have created a merit-based, incentive-laden environment that rewards employees for adapting behavior that is consistent with organizational goals. For the most part, incentives are the rewards you receive for reaching your goals. In the same way that people are much more likely to achieve their goals if they are written and specific, businesses have found that they are likely to do more business with customers who are incented to do business with them. Knowing how to establish your goals is the most essential aspect of developing any useful and relevant plan and there are several key ingredients of successful goal setting. Understand the Purpose When you set out to establish your own goals, you should begin the process by defining what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it. Understanding the purpose of your goals will help you develop a plan and to stick to it accordingly. In fact, understanding the purpose of anything that you do will lead directly to increased personal awareness and perspective as well as the gratification you experience when you understand your role and how it relates to the world around you. Remember that stress only comes from what you don’t know or cannot control. If you understand your purpose and you follow the plan that you create to achieve a desired outcome through effective goal setting, you will absolutely reduce, if not eliminate stress in your life. Be Specific Your goals should be specific and personalized to you and your individual need or aim. Being specific will ensure that your goals remain relevant during the time period they are in place. Personalizing your goals will help you to stay motivated and engaged in your pursuit of achievement. Relevancy and personal motivation cannot be underestimated in a world in which you continually face a host of new challenges and are subject to getting side-tracked, losing focus, or losing direction. When something remains relevant to you, you are more likely to persevere and see things through to a positive conclusion. Establish Measurements Setting goals that are measurable will help you be able to determine whether or not you are successfully achieving your goals, whether they are short-term or long-term in nature. Establishing measurements that are applicable at the onset, up through and including the completion of your goal, will help you to maintain your motivation and enthusiasm for achieving the goal. In most cases, the more tangible and quantifiable your measurements are, the more helpful they will be. Examples of useful measurements include, but are not limited to, numeric references, timelines and deadlines, and benchmarks. Make them Attainable Even if you successfully complete all of the other steps, you will waste your time if you do not ensure that your goals are attainable.. Setting attainable goals does not mean setting them so that they are easily achievable, rather that they are realistic and rooted in reality. In determining the attainability of a goal, you should make sure that you would experience a sense of accomplishment if the goal were achieved. Align Incentives Accordingly Goals and incentives are further related in that they are both indicative of deliberate behavior associated with a specific plan and their value applies to any situation you will encounter. You will increase your chance for success in any situation if your goal oriented behavior is properly lined up with incentives designed to encourage you and keep you focused on achievement and forward progress. Just as businesses have found out that people respond positively and consistently to incentives, you will find that if you include your own meaningful and personal incentives in your planning and goal-setting, the whole process of achievement will be even more worthwhile and rewarding. Just as is the case with the goals that you set for yourself, incentives must be understood and carry personal significance for you. Once those elements are established, incentives can be as elaborate or as simple as you would like them to be as long as they are reflective of the achievement you have earned. You should never hesitate to celebrate your successes and reward yourself for your accomplishments no matter how small you feel they may be or what step along the way they represent. Sometimes, the small celebrations are the most important because they help you to build momentum and develop better habits. They also invariably lead to bigger celebrations! Positive recognition is always a part of any useful incentive, even if that recognition is something you only give to yourself. Incentives can be monetary or non-monetary. They can include a night out, time away, or extra time off of work. They can be activity based or relaxation based. Ideally, the amount of reward you earn from your pursuits in life is equal to the amount of effort you put toward those same pursuits. The simple act of setting goals and determining incentives will set the course for anyone to live their life in that manner. When you take the time to regularly set personal goals and balance them with worthwhile rewards, you take a big step toward creating more opportunities and greater freedom of choice. It is the type of freedom only felt by those that have taken command of their life by creating and following their own plans and making their own decisions. **** This article is part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker.  When you prioritize your direction, you will create an opportunity to be more aware of the power of your own decision making and the results that you can achieve as a direct result of those decisions.
Decision Points are part of Scott Arney's educational series, entitled The Serial Decision Maker. |
The Serial Decision
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