Budget is tight. All hirings are frozen. Economy is bad. One of your employee is not performing. If you manage him out, you won’t get replacement. What do you do? This, of course, is a decision after you have exhausted other means to make this employee productive.

Retaining him keeps your organization full. You will not lose your charter, since someone is assigned. Your influence in the company maintains the same level, so you think, since the size of your organization stays the same. (See my “Myth on Size” post.)

You will spend disproportaional time managing this employee. He will make you look bad, since he cannot deliver the projects. He will drag down the teammates, who will either have to cover for him, or resent his not pulling his own weight.

If you manage him out, you get credits from your boss for “doing the right thing.” You get a perfect reason for not meeting some of your goals. Other employees will most likely be motivated, since now everyone hates the teammate that make them look bad. But you will have less budget and therefore less slack should something goes the wrong direction. You and your organization will be a bit more vulnerable.

When I was trying to convince a manager to do the right thing. He said, “I have a ‘no bench warmer’ policy.” I was taken aback. What a punchy way to express this. Needless to say, I did not spend much time convincing him.

Kid, on Easter, finished Bible (NIV). Unlike other books, this one took her several years. Bible is not a book to finish in one sitting. I attempted the same, when I was just a few years younger than she is today. I probably skipped many pages, but did finish.

We did not raise kid to be religious, but she is not an atheist either. Many of her friends are devoted Christians. She went to churches with them, not regularly and not to worship either. Faith is clearly not a big part of our family life. It is also not the topic of this post. The book is.

An long-time friend, in his 70s, visited me several years ago. He observed religious activities in my house, made assumptions, and proceeded to save me. My biblical knowledge surprised him, so were my strong opinions on theological topics. At the end, he said, “No reasonable people will insist that Bible is literally true.”

Not doing so is a necessity to faith.

But not necessary the one with highest SPF. First, we should understand what SPF is.

If you get sun burn, without any protection, in 10 minutes, using an SPF 15 lotion will make you last 150 minutes. Simply put, SPF multiplies the amount of time exposed to sun. If you plan to stay under the sun for 4 hours (240 minutes), there isn’t much point using anything higher than SPF 24.

Why would you use SPF 100 products then? Either you will get burnt in 3 minutes without any protection, or you plan to stay under the full strength sun (noon time) for 17 hours.

It is a much better approach to use cheaper sun block products, and re-apply them periodically. People tend to use less higher SPF products, since they are more expensive. Remember, you are supposed to use about an ounce if you are wearing only swimming trunks or bikini. This means the 3-ouncet tube should last only several times.

Bottom line? Stick with SPF 30, apply them generously.

Several references:
New York Times, Life Hacker, WikiPedia.

Like it? Thanks to Karen for her critique and suggestions.

Bob Sadler introduced Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) to a group of managers at Juniper. As he explained the concept, it dawned on me. This is the EQ for a team, or a company.

There are many ways to measure a company’s IQ, or its operational effectiveness. Most typically we have financial performance numbers, usually expressed as acronyms: ROE, EPS, CCC, DSO, EBIT, etc. Then we have measurements such as employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, new product successes, talent metrics, diversification in various ways, leadership quality, etc. Executives in modern corporation are obsessed with those metrics. In fact, some argued that senior management’s main job is to select the metrics and design the corresponding rewards. The cadre of managers will automatically deliver the rest.

Except when the company tries to change — a must-do every decade or so until it dominates an industry. Even then, companies perished when resting on their laurels too long. This is when EQ, defined as the ability to change, matters more.

OCI surveys a company and measures if the company is constructive or defensive. It further measure if the company is aggressively or passively defensive. A constructive company is humanistic, affiliative, achievement-oriented, and self-actualizing. An aggressively defensive company opposes changes; is competitive internally; over uses power; and is made of perfectionists that are overly concerned with deadlines and details. A passively defensive company hides behind approval processes, sticks to conventions, creates complicated dependencies, and in general avoids changes.

Bob said that he can pretty much predict if the change process will be successful or not by their OCI. He, over the 35-year consulting career, has collected tools for different kinds of companies.

Unlike IQ, people can change their EQ, so can a company if its employees choose to. There are books teaching people to get better at EQ. I wonder how would a company changes its OCI.

Would changing an OCI require a high OCI to begin with? Hmm…

	Star Trek Movie, 2009 Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto
	X-Men Origins: Wolverine Hugh Jackman

Don’t choose. Watch both, if you still have any doubt.

Star Trek is nostalgic as well as formulaic. It rekindled my passion for this old TV series that became a franchise.

Honestly, I stopped watching after the Next Generation. I never got into Deep Space Nine or Voyager. I watched Enterprise for a while. It did not stick. Not for the lack of effort, I wanted to become a modern trekkie. But none of them hooked me like the original series or Next Generation did.

Most Star Trek movies are second rated. The Wrath of Khan was the best. The Search for Spock was great. Nemesis was disastrous. First Contact was OK. Yes, I watched them all. This one is worth going.

Non-trekkies need not worry. You don’t need to know anything about Star Trek to enjoy it. It is simply a well made, action packed, sci-fi flick.

Wolverine touched me deeper. It is a poignant story of one fighting to hold onto self amid betrayal, exploitation, massive manipulation, and deep-rooted discrimination. We would watch Wolverine losing everything that was loving, kind, or descent. And we watched him trying so, so hard to stay true.

As a movie, however, Wolverine is not for someone who did not know X-Man. In a way, this movie targets the cult more than Star Trek.

The art of persuasion (rhetoric) has three elements: emotion (pathos), deference (ethos), and logic (logos). Imagine this attempt to persuade you to get a dog:

President Obama conducted extensive research and concluded that Portuguese Water Dog is the best choice for families of young children. When Sasha and Malia play with the puppy, no one can stop smiling.

Here we enlisted a respectful figure, presented data, and painted you a heart-warming picture. Studies showed that people are persuaded by emotions, deference, and data — all three, in that sequence. Over-using logos: data, statistics, facts, or logic, sometime to the point of ignoring the other two elements is a common mistake.

Modern knowledge workers, you engineers, designers, architects, and, yes, managers are frequently in the business of persuasion. You need to motivate your staff, make alliance with peers, and align your boss (it works both ways). Your career does not move without persuasive skill in your toolbox.

I interpreted ethos as deference, not authority. Deference comes from respect or trust. It is a powerful persuastive tool, sometime enough by itself. It, however, is completely associated with the individual and takes long time to cumulate.

It is dangerous to persuade by authority. Positional power is addictive, since it is effective, fast, and easy. But many argued it is not really persuation if commanded. Modern knolwedge workers must understand, agree, and communicate with others for the organization to succeed. Authority, best displayed but not used, usually does not work. It is also one tool easiest to lose.

Pathos need not be Hallmark-style dramas. Just stay connected to your audience. Find points that they care. Have eye contact when you deliver the message. Smile and show that you are a human being, not a voicebox that happens to be carbon-based.

This is persuation 101, the basics. Those who have finished this class may proceed to Robert Cialdini.