People Create the DNA of Their Organization

Organizations stay stuck, repeating yesterday’s mistakes when the people leading the team remain stuck personally. People’s personalities, beliefs, and styles of relating become the genetic instruction-the DNA of the organizations they lead.

When the CEO is hard-charging and unforgiving, then the organization becomes hard-charging and unforgiving. When the CEO is respectful, well-balanced, and humble, their company culture mirrors those traits.

When attempting to solve business challenges like, why Hard charging and Unforgiving has an abnormally high employee turn-over rate compared to their competitor, Respectful, Well-Balanced and Humble, it helps to start at the top, as Jim Collins in his book Good to Great names, the people driving the bus.

The way forward is to dualistically explore growth options with the individuals running the organization and the organization itself. People create the DNA of their organization.

Become Apart of The Solution

I remember taking over a sales organization, and on my first conference call one individual openly said, “We can just lie to the customer.”

You’ve heard it too.

“It is just a white lie.”
“We can gloss over the truth.”
“We can just stay in the gray areas.”
“Just avoid the topic-don’t tell them.”

The pressure for profit can work against the moral fibers of the best of us.

Here was my response, “On my watch, we will not lie to any customers. We will admit our mistakes and work through the issues that result. That is how we are going to win.”

They were not an immoral person. They just took the path of least resistance. They’d never received an alternative invitation where goodness and honesty, was a viable winning strategy.

It’s easy to succumb to lesser tactics to achieve success. The problem is you have to live with yourself afterward. Deep down people recognize half-truths.

The high-road strategy is to own your mistakes and deal with the fallout.

Stand up. Be the adult in the room. Graciously decline participation in the broken system. Become apart of the solution.

Best Camp Spot In the Middle of Nowhere Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert located between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is known for isolation. Inside this vast 2,500 square miles national desert preserve, there are only two designated campgrounds. Driving the 275 miles from Las Vegas to Los Angeles feels pretty desolate and much of the interstate is fenced prohibiting access to the bordering Mojave preserve.

On my recent trip to Southern California in our 1974 VW Bus, I discovered this FREE gem of a campground 17 miles outside of Barstow, CA.

Over 3,000 miles and ten days, this was one of my favorite camp spots.  Sawtooth Campground for some reason is FREE offering solitude, fire pits, and desert awnings. Maximum stay is fourteen nights.

Once you get further towards L.A., your wilderness options shrink. The Sawtooth Campground was a perfect staging ground for a morning commute into SoCal.

The campground requires a one-mile gravel road access suitable for most passenger cars. The desert sky was incredible there and I only had two other neighbors. Worthy of adding to your list of great spots to rest your weary head.

Tucked in the Mojave Desert Sawtooth Campground Barstow, CA

Get Out There: Mesa Verde National Park

At Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado, discover ancient cliff dwelling cities of the Ancestral Pueblo people. For near seven hundred years, these finely crafted carve-outs housed thriving communities.

We romped to views of the cliff dwelling clusters of Cliff Palace, Balcony House and Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park. From May through September, you must purchase tickets for ranger-guided access to climb long ladders and scooch through short tunnels in the popular cliff dwellings. nps.gov/meve 

Select cliff dwellings are open Year-round. Check the visitor schedule for planning your adventure.

  • Perfect for kids
  • Lots of scenic driving. Made for great roads for my daughter to log some permit driving miles.
  • Sleep in a bed April-October @ the Fair View Lodge $130+ per night.
  • Rough it at the $30-$40 x night Morefield campground inside the park April-November. Tents, RV’s & trailer hookups available.
Joy Bus driving lessons in Mesa Verde NP
Mesa Verde in late March. Perfect Spring Break Road Trip Destination

Changing Your Mind

What you believe today, you probably won’t in five years. You might change your mind. You might decide you lean more to the middle than the left or the right. You might ditch the kombucha and conclude that an IPA goes better with a fancy salad.
Maybe you’ll decide to ride your bike to get the mail is entirely inefficient. Today, you’d never waste that much time on a mundane task.

Changing your mind rides tandem with growth and adaptation.
New information comes in.
Discoveries arise.
Persuasive viewpoints surface.
You adapt.
You are fluid.
Your experiences shape your position, your ideas, and your beliefs.
Your change tribes.
You discover empathy.
Everything is subject to change.

The Importance of Your How

I’m watching the sun’s last shadow tuck behind the front range mountains, and remembering the importance of how we do what we do. My daughter and I just left our VW mechanic’s shop talking about how they are creatives more than mechanics. They know their craft well, but beyond their craftsmanship, there is an enthusiasm of reclamation. If you can dream it, they can build it.

There is too much emphasis on what we do, what we accomplish, what tasks we complete, and what conquest we achieve. The differentiator, the superpower, the unique selling proposition is how we do what we do.
Brave standing out.

Brave standing out.
Risk taking the road less traveled.
Stand up and be noticed.
Take a stance.
Don’t fit in.
Stop following the herd.
Believe that your enthusiasm is meaningful.
Go with your weird.

Looking to the Finish Line

I yelled his name printed on his race bib, “Tim, YOU’VE GOT THIS.” I didn’t know him, but he picked his head up, stared 1,000 yards ahead and got going again. I was working an aid station at the Hawaii IRONMAN World Championship triathlon. These athletes were thirteen miles into the final leg of the 140.6-mile race.

He had hours to go before he’d cross the finish line, but his eyes were fixed beyond the present moment, the pain and the fatigue. He had a vision for what was waiting at the end. The party, his family, settling the profound life questions.

I’ve found incredible strength when I can look beyond what is immediately in front of me to the more profound truth, the more significant goal. I believe we can transcend predicaments, setbacks, upsets, disappointments, and detours when we can gain a grip on the truths that keep us going. Sometimes we just need someone, anyone, to yell our name and call us back into the game.

Check Engine Lights and Life Dashboards

My check engine light is on in my 2004 Honda Pilot. I’ve had it checked, but they said it was okay but for how long? How long can I drive with red lights flashing warning signs? A couple of years ago, my life’s dashboard was flashing red also. I kept pushing hard and ignored the symptoms assuming they too were “fine.”

Dashboard lights help inform us of hazards, problems, early indications of pending issues. For most of us, we assume something must be wrong with the indicator light. In reality, the blinking lights deliver essential messages that warrant our acknowledgment.

  • Slow down
  • Pay attention
  • Stop
  • Check performance
  • Take it easy
  • Pullover
  • Repair
  • Perform maintenance

I made this dashboard for my life to gauge in simple terms how things are going.

Red=Bad. Not sustainable

Yellow=Needs Attention

Green=Doing great

Give it a try and see if any of your dashboard lights are flashing or if all systems are healthy and operational.

Life Dashboard: Work, Life, Play, Relationships, Health, Money, Spiritual. How’s it going?

Drafting On An Elbow

Joe was a recovering alcoholic who upgraded his addiction from booze to running. He told me if I tucked in close to his elbow and ran hard, he promised it would be tough, but he wouldn’t drop me. He’d won duathlon world championships, and I was trying to complete a Xterra off-road triathlon. Predictably every day there was a workout-no two-days the same. There was banter before the run and color commentary and coaching afterward.

Drafting behind his 150lb frame eased my pain while my legs and my mind trained to sustain the pace on my own. I became known as the apprentice, “Schoolboy.” On his elbow, I became capable of running faster than I could accomplish on my own. The principles of aerodynamics made it possible, but his commitment to pull me along changed my life.

Where are you drafting, gaining an advantage provided by someone else?
Whose elbow could you tuck into for a time?
Where could you become the apprentice for a season?

*Photo credits Kurt Williams

Don’t Waste Your Time

When people say, “We don’t do it like that or we tried that years ago and it didn’t work.” The norm is to follow the rules, replicate existing steps, color within the lines and don’t risk being wrong again. Somebody was wrong, and they tried something that failed. The legend grows of why something new will never work and why things have to stay as they are.

People like us believe that the past doesn’t always equal the future. We believe that experimentation yields new possibilities, containing renovations and revolutions. You be the judge of where your curiosity invites you. The world was supposed to be flat until someone decided it was the perfect waste of time.