BAD NEWS BEARS?

Maybe A Recession Would Be Good

The “bears” are in control of Wall Street. Stock prices have been plummeting or extremely volatile since August. The US dollar is weak against foreign currency benchmarks and the price of oil is at an all-time high. Do you feel like you are spinning out of control?

Well here’s a shot of reality: the US economy has been weak since 2000. It had been artificially propped up since then by over-spending consumers and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were putting band-aids on a hemorrhage. It was a false economy.

Credit was easy to get. It helped fuel grotesque spending sprees by consumers and the US government. Now, the “bills are due” and people (and our government) can’t pay. So the housing market collapses (a tragedy as people do need a place to live) and the dollar is weak (thanks to ignorant politicians who keep printing more worth-less money).

The fear on Wall Street (and in Washington) is that people are going to stop spending money, or more precisely, using their credit. They are going to stop being consumers and tighten control over their discretionary income. Well isn’t that what we tell people they need to do to be financially successful?

If credit had remained tight during the early part of this century, people would have sacrificed and not spent money on worthless consumer items. The average family would not have $10,000 in credit card debt and the housing market would have accommodated people respective to their incomes and not to some whimsical credit wizardry.

So maybe a recession will be good for the American psyche. It will take away the notion that a high standard of living is a US citizen entitlement. Any standard of living is earned through hard work and dedication and paid for with diligence and reasonable expectations, not magical, hard to understand credit.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

INSPIRATION

Everybody Needs A Lift

There are days that seem impossible. From the moment your feet slide out of bed and touch the floor, everything appears to go wrong. That’s why it is so important to have family and friends that are supportive. Those “kind of days” are also why it is great to have inspirational movies to enjoy and inspire.

Such a movie is The World’s Fastest Indian starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins plays Burt Munroe, an aging inventor barely surviving on his pension check. The story of Munroe is based on actual events. It illustrates one man’s quest to fulfill his life-long dream: riding his re-tooled Indian brand motorcycle at top speed at the Bonneville Salt Flats (Munroe is from New Zealand and traveling half way around the world to the USA would be no small feat in itself).

This is a heart-warming, gently told story of Munroe’s quest. His demeanor and struggles are an inspiration. At every turn you’re pulling for him to complete his dream. His courage leads others to help and eventually he rides his home-made motorcycle on the salt packed course.

You watch this film because you want a piece of Munroe for yourself. You want to be understanding even under great duress. You want to be generous even when you have very little. You want to complete your life-long dream even against terrific odds.

Take a couple of hours to watch this DVD. Watch it with family, friends or even by yourself. You’ll feel good and you’ll feel invigorated. More importantly, you’ll find the courage to keep daily troubles and issues in perspective.

If is part of life. You can’t control everything. Not everything will move in a positive direction, no matter how noble the cause. You do your best. Inspiration helps keep your focus and perspective positive.

That’s the lesson from the story of Burt Munroe.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

CAPABILITIES

Comfort Zone Limits Potential

If you wanted to run a 10K next spring, you would start building endurance and strength by running each day. At first your goals would be simple: run up to 10 minutes at any speed – just achieve the time and repeat it every day. Eventually, you would translate time into miles and then add speed to reduce your time – more miles, less time. Your plan would be to be able to run the 10K distance comfortably several times before you enter a race.

At some point during your training you begin to realize that your body has responded to the physical test and you feel like you can push harder. The question now is when do you leave your comfort zone and push your limits?

Pushing your limits helps you realize the breadth of your physical capabilities. How often can you apply a burst of speed, maintain it, slow down and recover, ready for the next sprint? The more times you practice this staccato regimen, you become stronger and faster. This is how athletes improve their performance; this is how you improve by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. (You can actually measure your performance improvement by mapping your heart rate. Your resting heart rate goes down and the time it takes your heart rate to recover between sprints becomes shorter.)

When you physically leave your comfort zone the rewards begin to mount. You get faster beating your previous 10K performance; you lose weight and feel stronger; people congratulate you on a good performance. It is invigorating!

Mentally, the strategy is the same. Too many times people work from their comfort zone. It’s an autopilot that leads to the observation that the person is mailing it in, a reference to the lack of effort. In school, most students work in his or her comfort zone. A teacher gave assignments and tests and the students offered a measurable performance. Even students who garnered top scores were pretty much on autopilot since meeting teacher expectations are fairly easy.

Schools give students what they need: a foundation for learning. It is the student’s responsibility to move out of the comfort zone and challenge his or her ability to build thinking to higher levels. Just like preparing for the 10K run, that kind of movement from comfort zone to higher performance does not come without training and dedication.

Resistance to new ideas is a result of people unwilling to leave their comfort zones. We all like the idea that today will be much like yesterday. The problems, the preparation and the meetings will resemble familiar territory. We like to change but at a slow pace. This allows for gradual integration of change into our comfort zone without much stress. As the saying goes, “Insanity is the belief that doing the same thing over and over again will yield different results.” Stress is the foundation for higher performance.

Just like you can’t run a 10K without practice and training, you can’t become a top level critical thinker without practice. Building thinking skills starts by reading. Set aside 30 to 45 minutes a day to read. Your reading doesn’t always have to be boring – it can be a combination of fiction, non-fiction and books and magazines. The goal is to train your mind to focus on the content and improve your comprehension.

A great learning tool while reading is to have a conversation with the author. Read a passage and talk it out: Do you agree? How can you use that information in your work?

Use the white space along the edges of the page to write notes. At the end of the session, what do you have that you can use now? Every session should end by finding at least one nugget of learning that you can immediately apply. Maybe you just read about a breathing trick to help you get faster in your next 10K!

Your mental goal is to be able to switch gears – just like when you sprint during a run. You want to be able to go from watching TV or having fun with family or friends to cracking open a book and immediately focusing on the content. You want your mind to switch gears from autopilot to focusing on text. You want to be able to do it quick and for a sustained period of time.

You want to train your mind to create role-playing scenarios based on the text that puts you into situations and how you would react. Your creative daydreaming sees you employing new thinking and being successful. You do not want an untrained mind that reads several sentences and then starts wandering off to thoughts about work or “what am I missing?”

It has been asserted for a long time that people fail to use all of their capabilities. Part of the problem is we don’t have much experience or opportunities to push our limits. You learn that from participating in physical activities. If we don’t extend our reach, we don’t improve.

Mental capabilities are the same. If we don’t push our thinking to new levels, we are stuck in our comfort zone. Hence, there’s a good chance we’ll miss the next great opportunity.

Exercise your capabilities today.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

HIGH PRODUCTIVITY

US Workers Top Productivity Study

According to the International Labor Organization, US workers are more productive than any other worker in the world producing $63,385 of wealth per person per year. Also, US workers put in an average 1804 hours of work in 2006, again leading the major economies of the world. (Note: a full-time employee equivalent is 2080 hours per year; that includes vacation, holiday and sick time.)

The recent update in the US Census reveals that the average wage is $17.52 per hour or $36,441.60. The median salary for men is $42,261 and household income is $52,423.

Basically, each worker in the US produces 80% more than his or her wages. In general, men produce about 60% more wealth for their employer as compared to the median salary.

These numbers reinforce the age-old axiom that a company’s best resource is its workers. Considering the poorer productivity output in Asia and Europe (in addition to the massive recalls of Chinese made consumer products), does outsourcing really pay high dividends? Has the furor surrounding outsourcing been over-blown? Are the numbers regarding outsourcing sensationalized to capitalize on fears held by small sections of the US population?

Capitalism is built on making profit. US companies are not going to sacrifice profit just to say they have a global presence. The lower annual wages now makes US workers more attractive to companies both in the US and from the global market. The last piece of the puzzle that needs to be addressed is universal health care. Once that is out of the employer’s domain, US workers will be hired, paid competitive wages and retained.

The most productive workers will always win the employment game. It is the individual’s responsibility to make sure they have the right training and education to be ready for the next employment opportunity.

Credit Follow Up

In the last column it was stated that money makes money and to avoid credit card debt. The latest figures on debt from Cardweb.com indicate that the average credit card debt per household jumped from $2966 to $9659 since 1990. That represents long-term debt that will never be paid based on the upswing in trends.

The US economy may be based on credit but it doesn’t mean you have to sell your future. Smart credit is buying a house or real estate; dumb credit is buying a plasma TV.

Quote

A business leader without character is just slime in packaged in tissue paper.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

IN OTHER WORDS

3 Words You Need to Avoid

When coaching athletes, the rule is always say what you mean. For example in baseball, if a coach offers a strategy to his pitcher about the next batter, which scenario is better understood?

1. “This guy is a power hitter so keep the ball high and tight or low and away. Don’t throw down the middle or give him any fastballs. Don’t be afraid of him, just don’t give him anything good to hit.” or,

2. “Throw curveballs low and away.”

You probably agree that the second statement is exactly what you want to hear if you are that pitcher. The instructions are clear.

In the first scenario, you probably heard those three little words that are so often used in conversations, “In other words”? If you need to explain what you just said by using different terms, you just lost your “audience” and their minds are already off to another venue!

A good coach knows that you must give concise instructions on the first pass and not long winded explanations. A good trick to use is to role play your thoughts in your mind prior to the conversation. What do you anticipate the person’s response will be to your instructions? Will it be the outcome you are seeking? If not, work backwards from the outcome and provide step-by-step guidelines, just like a recipe for a great dessert. Make your instructions “right” on the first attempt and eliminate vague or conflicting statements. Here’s another example that is very common when getting driving directions from someone (and yes, GPS units are making these types of instructions passé).

1. “Go to the intersection and stop. On the left there is a gas station. You’ll see an old building on the left. Straight ahead there’s a supermarket. Go right and in about a mile the road splits and on the left there’s an apartment building and on the right there’s a bank. Go straight. I’ll be waiting for you on the left side of the street about a half more mile.” or,

2. “At the first intersection turn right; continue to follow the main road for about 1.5 miles and I’ll be waiting for you on the left side of the street.”

Again the second choice is clearer than the first option. When it comes to giving instructions of any kind, “less is more.”

Sometimes the reason why people trip over their words and make instructions difficult to follow is because they may not know the subject area well enough to coach others. Other times is because they know what hey want to say but failed to either role play the conversation or write it down and study the sequence for clarity. Many times people fall victim to the 30-second sound bite mentality where they keep talking hoping to “hit” on the right words.

If you are on the receiving end of one of these “ramblers”, try to capture the essence of what you thought you heard and repeat it back to the person. If you want to support the person because you know for some reason they were in an awkward situation, tell them that you want to go and write down what was said and bring it back for a final run through before you begin. This promotes a great working relationship and does not make either side feel foolish because of a misunderstanding.

The hardest communication we do is to make our thoughts understood by others. If you catch yourself saying “In other words” you know what you said has a good chance of being misinterpreted. The strategy now would be to “call a timeout” and go write down the instructions. This will eliminate wasting time because of a misunderstanding.

One final thought: watch your use of double negatives when giving instructions. A classic is the use of “not only but.” Again if you have more than one instruction, present them as a list and forget the cutesy stuff like not only but.

Money Makes More Money

You have heard the old phrase “put your money to work.” Saving your money in an option like a mutual fund provides you with dividends and capital gains that can rapidly increase your savings. Even a conservative portfolio of stocks, bonds and funds will significantly outperform a typical savings account every year.

According to the Federal Reserve, about 50 percent of US families own stock. Among the wealthiest 10 percent of the US population, 91 percent of families held stock with a median value of nearly $200 thousand. Among those at the bottom 20 percent of income, 12 percent of US families owned stock with a median value of less than $7500.

If you want to be wealthy, you need to follow the saving habits of wealthy people! A credit card will never offer long-term financial security.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

UBIQUITOUS

Language Skills Add Leverage

Albert Einstein once stated: The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limitations.

So here’s one of those stories so incredible, it must be true. During a recent political campaign, one politician called his opponent an extrovert. The comment deserved no attention as most politicians are extroverts. But the way this politician presented this word led voters to believe that an extrovert must be bad and possibly evil. The politician won his election as the opponent’s camp could not overcome the label of being an extrovert.

The use of key language skills coupled with people’s desire not to look unprepared or under-educated can be powerful. The key is to use 2 or 3 words that people are not likely to use in everyday conversations (avoid too many underused/unknown words). Since “day one” of school we are drilled to know answers and that saying “I dunno” is unacceptable. So, when you use a word that people don’t know they are not likely to ask for an explanation or clarification.

This is not a ploy to make people look stupid (not a good idea especially if they are to be your source of income in the near future). It is a competitive advantage. The use of advanced language skills keeps the focus on you and not your detractors or competitors. A smartly worded presentation keeps questions at a minimum and focused on your proposal.

So here is your big business word of the day: Ubiquitous. According to Webster’s, ubiquitous is defined as seemingly being everywhere at the same time (by the way it is the first word under “U”). According to Webster’s Thesaurus, you could use “everywhere” or “allover.” Admit it: those words don’t sound as impressive do they? (However, you could choose to use “omnipresent” which sounds both impressive and spiritual.)

In a recent issue of Business 2.0, an idea they advanced to create a profitable business was to Exploit the blind spots of a ubiquitous service. Wow! What a great lead to sell your consulting services. You’ll be an instant expert because not many people in the room will have any idea what you just said.

That is a really good business idea further enhanced by using the word ubiquitous. It sounds impressive; much better than saying you are going to exploit an opportunity that already exists allover.

The beauty of the idea is its simplicity. There’s no need to “reinvent the wheel” or to find financing to create a world market. Pick a successful product that already exists and find a niche that will enhance that service.

That’s the kind of thinking that led to highly profitable accessories for iPods and cell phones. The products already existed and had a world wide audience –- wouldn’t it be nice to have a leather cover or high-end ear buds? The whole marketing point behind BASF is: “We don’t make the products you use, we just make them better.”

Take note educators and others responsible for adult vocational re-training. The highly successful entrepreneur of the future will use “right brain” thinking to develop enhancements for products and services that are ubiquitous.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

READING and WEALTH

Financial Freedom Begins By Reading

According to the US Department of Education, a family’s socio-economic standing is linked to reading skill. Using 4^th grade reading scores and associating those scores with wealth versus poverty, the results show that children from the wealthiest families score an average of 589. The US average score is 542. Children from the poorest families score 485.

It is unlikely that you found those results to be “earth shattering.” It is well-known that grade-level reading proficiency leads to success in school, success in college and ultimately, access to higher paying job opportunities.

The service economy now accounts for 9 out of 10 jobs. The higher paying positions require college degrees. A person can either work in retail or they can be a manager in that same store. The difference in pay and benefits are significant.

The lack of individual reading proficiency is degrading. In the 19^th century, slave owners outlawed reading among slaves because the ability to read would encourage a fight for freedom. Unlike the time of slavery, today’s poor reading proficiency is self-imposed. The decision made by too many people today is to forego reading and instead practice video gaming skills or just watch TV.

The lack of reading skills limits the choices people have to be successful. For a person to become an entrepreneur or run a small business, reading comprehension at the 10^th grade or higher is essential. The business owner needs to understand how to create marketing and advertising; how to operate a computer; how to select support services such as accounting or legal; how to fill out tax forms or apply for bank loans and services; and, how to network with others in the same business in order to minimize failure and reduce the learning curve. Without reading comprehension equal to the task, failure is eminent.

When a person realizes the reading skills and time necessary to be a successful entrepreneur or small business owner, they tend to retreat and stay “with their day job.” Unfortunately for too many persons, they will be tempted by pyramid schemes or MLM scams in an attempt to “get rich quick with little or no effort.”

Testimonials used in these scams are impressive and the promises appear real so why not take a shortcut and invest the last chunk of family savings? Scam artists prey on those with poor reading skills. They purposely create long and sometimes rambling product information sheets where the only easy-to-read items are the testimonials. They know people won’t read the entire article. That’s their legal loophole – it was “all explained” but the person didn’t read it. The focus (or quick reading/scanning) is always on what people will notice: the testimonials.

The people at the top of these scams become wealthy; the “investor” ends up with a basement full of products no one needs and an empty bank account. This financial tragedy can be traced to poor reading comprehension.

Certainly the inability to read at a high school level opens the door for scams and fraud. A person’s intuition and use of good judgment will always be compromised by illiteracy. And the cycle of poverty continues.

Mortgaging the Future

In the documentary, Why We Fight, President Dwight Eisenhower in his 1961 Farewell Address warned Americans about the dangers of the military-industrial complex. He made the statement that for every B-1 bomber built with taxpayer money, 3 elementary schools don’t get built. This from a person who had spent his entire non-political life in the military! Eisenhower knew, like most educated people, that the strength of a country comes from building value in its citizens.

How expensive is the war in Iraq? Well according to data compiled by the New York Times, the $300 billion spent so far, would have totally rebuilt the US education system from pre-K to graduate school. New medical and nursing schools could have been funded, modern vocational schools featuring heavy equipment training would have been made available and the capital improvements necessary for inner city schools to become more competitive in attracting quality teachers and providing more diverse programs (music, art) to those in the most need.

If the Iraq War never happens, the US would have had enough money to fund a universal health care program for every US citizen for the next 30 years. Or, part of the financial surplus could have been used to address the new economy built around alternative energy development.

Instead, it will take generations to recover financially from this political folly. Given the many economic obstacles that the US needs to overcome, recovery may never happen. As stated in Why We Fight: “It is nowhere written that the American empire goes on forever.”

Let’s hope that a return to compromise, negotiations and peaceful intentions are the cornerstones of the next election.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

Teens Opt Out of Work

Numbers Declining

According to the US Department of Labor, for the first time in 60 years, the percentage of working teens has dropped below 50 percent from the available age group. In 2000, over 60 percent available teens entered the summer job market.

Part of the drop in summer work interest is the need for teens to take additional or advanced education courses in order to get ready for college or to compliment high school courses. Teens and their families realize that their future depends on educational readiness. It is estimated that about 38 percent of teens are taking more coursework this summer. That’s about 3 times more than 20 years ago.

While some authorities, notably those with a vested interest in cheap labor, argue that summer work adds to teens’ experiences and builds tolerance for diversity in age and race, education scholars agree that summer work is more distracting than helpful. If you are an educator or a parent of a teen, take a look at Beyond the Classroom by Temple University psychologist Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D. After reading his arguments, you’ll be less likely to support the notion of working teens as an American tradition.

Rarely can a summer job add value to a person’s résumé unless that person has supervised a group of workers. A teen would draw more attention and accolades by volunteering time to a worthwhile community project. Add the traditional low wages and work tends to be more about lost time than money that can be used for education.

There was a time when summer jobs could go a long way to paying for college. Before the collapse of manufacturing in the US, high school students had a quality choice between college and employment. With the competition for “bodies” college costs were very affordable. I worked a summer job unloading box cars for General Foods at $7 dollars per hour. A summer of work netted over $3500 (including overtime). What was my tuition at the University of Delaware? An extremely reasonable $500 per year for two semesters of unlimited credits. That lead to a college degree in four years for around $2000 with no debt of any kind. That would be a very difficult task today without significant family support.

Paying for College

Starting July 2007, variable rates are 7.22 percent for student loans and 8.02 percent for parent loans. Federal student loans have 10-year repayment terms while consolidated student loans (7.25 percent currently) can be repaid over 12 to 30 years depending on the amount of the loan. For example, a $40,000 loan can be repaid over a 25-year term.

The average cumulative debt for all programs of higher education is $42,406 according to FinAid.org. A Ph.D. will set you back around $41,540, while a graduate law degree costs around $80 thousand and a medical degree well over $125 thousand.

Ironically, the higher the income a person makes after graduation, the less likely the student loans will be tax deductible. Tax deductions phase out between $55,000 and $70,000 on individual returns.

If you need to declare bankruptcy, student loans still need to be repaid. Only in the most desperate of situations will student loans be forgiven.

The bottom line is that college is expensive and paying for college has many options and pitfalls. As was revealed recently in the investigation of the college-based preferred lender scandal, it is hard to find people who are honest and will act with integrity in guiding you through this process.

When it comes to money and financing, do your homework and know what options make the most sense. Depending on others may lead to a very costly mistake.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

WHAT’S A BETAMAX?

Changes Are Accelerating

In 1975, Sony introduced a wondrous machine called Betamax. It was huge, occupying a large space by or under an equally large TV. It was heavy and would only record when you were present to press the “Play-Record” buttons. Tape size was about the size of a small book and expensive.

Betamax was awesome for its day. To be able to record a program and watch again anytime you wanted to was very impressive. Keep in mind that TV was basically 3 channels and cable was still a one or two channel connection for people in rural areas.

The next year, 1976, VHS was introduced. The equipment was smaller and a lot less expensive (around $995 in 1976 money). The real difference was in the lower cost of blank tapes (albeit a 2-pack of VHS tapes would cost you about $50 in today’s money). The battle was on – Betamax in one corner, VHS in the other.

The winner would ultimately be VHS. (Some observers speculated that VHS won because the porn industry had adopted the VHS standard because it was less expensive.) By 1985, VHS was a clear victor in the recording and playback wars. Betamax now only exists in the annals of electronic folklore.

Today, VHS is just about extinct as a Betamax thanks to DVD player/recorders and TIVO. It took 10 years for VHS to “beat” Betamax. Less than 20 years later, VHS no longer matters. Instead DVD equipment makers are fighting over which high definition format will prevail.

Change used to occur over generations; now change can happen overnight. In a consumer-driven society, new products appear weekly and render still useful products to the “old bin.” The launch of the iPhone will undermine the entire cell phone industry making current products useless.

Here’s the point of the above comparisons: how do you prepare people for the future? What do you teach in school that can still have meaning 20 years from now? What technical training do you offer unemployed people?

Prior to 1995, very few K-12 students had access to computers; 10 years later the computer would exist in every classroom. Now students can get high school and college degrees using a computer and the Internet. The Internet was in its infancy 10 years ago; now it is such a high value commodity that lack of access sends companies scrambling for “work-arounds.”

There are two answers to the preparation questions posed above. First, the core subject areas of reading, writing, arithmetic need to have the highest degree of priority. All three subjects need integration into all aspects of student learning through the end of high school (for example, football players would have reading assignments about football; they also would write summaries about game experiences). Comprehension and skill needs to be standardized at no less than 11^th grade level. If a person can continuously learn, they will survive in a fast changing employment environment.

Second, there needs to be an emphasis on creative thinking using art, music, theater, sports and clubs like chess or journal. Education needs to engage both sides of the brain to encourage lifelong learning. Teach people how to think, not what to think.

The next greatest idea will be revealed somewhere tomorrow. Do you think you are ready?

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

AN IGNORANT QUESTION

“What Would You Do If …?”

In case you missed it, both the Republicans and the Democrats are holding “debates” to sell people on who is the best candidate for the next President of the United States. These debates are held in public forums with a moderator from the news reporting media. At some point during the “debate” the moderator will ask one of the most asinine questions ever uttered by a supposedly intelligent person: What would you do about another terrorist attack on the US?

To illustrate how robotic each candidate is, not one candidate will put an end to this silly question by stating that, Americans don’t live in fear of “what ifs”. The real threat comes from those who use fear to manipulate the government and legal system to reduce the freedom of all US citizens. To quote FDR: “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” The US needs the media to stop playing the fear card and instead play “the future is exciting” card.

The US, just as other democratic civilizations in bygone eras, can expect to be attacked by those who want to dominate and rule “free” cultures. And these attacks on the US didn’t just start on 9/11/2001. There was the British invasion of Washington, DC in 1812 (including the Battle of New Orleans after a truce had been declared), the attacks on US merchant ships by the pirates off Tripoli (that led to President Jefferson creating the US Marines), the sinking of non-military US ships by German warships prior to World War I, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the hostile takeover of the USS Pueblo, the bombing of the US Embassy in Lebanon and numerous other incidents of kidnapping and murder, the unfortunate result of collateral damage.

But, world terrorism is not our biggest homeland security worry. The majority of our worst terrorists are home grown, using handguns and assault rifles to attack and kill thousands of Americans every year. According to the NY Times, over ONE MILLION Americans have been killed by gun toting criminals and deranged family members over the past 30 years. That’s more deaths than all the casualties of all wars fought by US soldiers over the past 200 years. For children under 16 years of age, only deaths by auto accidents and cancer outnumber the deaths due to handguns (legal and illegal). Think about it: is there ever a week that doesn’t end or begin where some gunman enters a building/house and kills multiple victims?

The real threat to the future of the US is its domestic policies. Healthcare is undermining employment; it is getting much more difficult for men over 50 to find high-wage employment as employers don’t want the added burden of higher insurance costs. According to the US Department of Labor less than half (48 percent) of men ages 55 to 65 are working full-time, down from nearly 70 percent 20 years ago. Healthcare has already reduced the manufacturing workforce by over 70 percent since the 1980’s.

Retirement is becoming more elusive as Social Security and Medicare become increasingly more fragile. The fastest growing bankruptcy filings are among those over 65 (mostly because of medical bills and medication needs). According to Fidelity Research Institute, among the top three reasons that prevented 58 percent of working Americans from saving for retirement needs were paying basic living expenses and paying off credit card debt. Less than half (44 percent) feel they will have a financially stable retirement.

Finally, there is the entire issue of consumption versus conservation. Everyone acknowledges that the consumption of petroleum products cannot continue at the current rate. Higher fuel prices will eventually limit the ability of people to maintain a quality standard of living. Yet, candidates on both sides stammer when asked what his or her plan would be to create a more energy-efficient society.

For the sake of our culture and society it is time to stop focusing on “what-ifs” and fear mongering and begin addressing real needs.

Follow-Up: Elite Students

In the June 14, 2007 issue of USA Today, the editorial dealt with the discrepancies between state and federal reading and math test results. In the discussion, one of the solutions was to forego the challenge of having every student achieve the same results: “Making ‘every’ child proficient in math and reading by 2014 is a nice political soundbite, but it’s about as realistic as Garrison Keillor’s Lake Webegon, ‘where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.’”

Concentrating limited resources on the very best students will yield the most favorable results that benefit everyone.

Reading Is Fundamental Even For the Wealthy

According to USA Today research, the 2008 Lexus LS600h L owner's manual is 1097 pages! (A Kia Rio is 256 pages). Compare that volume of reading with its unending pages of technical understanding to entertainment such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (784 pages) or Gone With The Wind (960 pages) and it's easy to understand why everyone should have reading comprehension at the college graduate level.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

ELITE IS A GOOD WORD

Too Much Leads to Mediocrity

(Sports are a microcosm of our culture. It is constantly measured and evaluated and the seasons represent real-time project management. Sports can be useful to draw parallels to other social issues.)

If you discuss professional baseball with purist, they will say that there are too many teams in the major leagues and as a result, the sport has been diluted. The claim is that there are not enough elite professional athletes that can keep all teams competitive. A look at the current leagues standings and the woeful performances of the bottom half of teams and it is hard to disagree.

The result of major league team expansion has been to create a few outstanding teams, a majority of mediocre teams and a few very poor performing teams. The winning percentage of the teams create a bell shaped curve where the bulk of the teams fall within one standard deviation of the mean and the extremes with around 10 percent of the outstanding good or bad teams.

To preserve the concept of players that comprise the major leagues are the elite athletes of the sport, it would be necessary to eliminate the lowest performance teams each year and stock the remaining teams with the best players. The result is 12 to 16 teams that survive and the quality of the game ultimately defines the standards for an elite professional baseball player.

Considering that this is a sport played by young men across the world, plus the hundreds of thousands of US-born ball players, it is hard to imagine that there are not enough quality players to stock all the pro teams but the reality is a shortage of elite players.

Players are drafted, given professional coaching, play in the minor leagues to sharpen their skills and eventually, if they are good enough and they avoid injuries, they reach the major league level. These athletes are seasoned veterans at that point having played five or more seasons in the minor leagues before the call-up to the “big show.” So why aren’t there more elite athletes? Dilution because of quantity.

With so many young men vying to become professional baseball players there are not enough quality coaches available to teach the game, its strategy and develop skills. As a result only a few continue to advance, mostly based on talent not coaching. The sheer multitude of numbers prevents most players from advancing as coaches can’t spend enough time teaching. Instead of a higher quality product because of well-coached and talented athletes, the game is dominated by average players with minimal chances for long-term success.

It seems contrary to think that fewer would be better, but in the case of creating elite talent, fewer are better. In professional sports were the individual is the focus such as golf, tennis, swimming or track, athletes are coached one-on-one. There aren’t as many participants just the elite athlete representing his or her sport.

So where does this analogy lead us? The questions surrounding a political concept like Leave No Child Behind. Do we really need every student to succeed at every level through grade 12? Or is it only necessary to be proficient in reading and math at the eighth grade level? Is it realistic to expect high performance from a large volume of students or just from those in the upper percentiles as measured by academic performance?

In the real world, be it sports or business, there is a funneling effect where only the best continue. In school, only those students demonstrating a talent and dedication for learning should continue. The very best or elite students are the high school students who go on to college. (The ripple effect means that there will be fewer students at the college level thereby increasing access to professors and individualized teaching.)

Just like the case of individual one-on-one sports, elite high school students are now engaged in small classrooms where teachers are focused on the needs of each student and students choose to excel because they are part of a highly-motivated select group. Mediocrity is now out of the equation; even the lowest performing students will be above the mean.

So does this suggest that there will be a greater distinction among the classes? Yes; and it has always existed and it will continue to exist. The difference is the enhanced preparation of students to embrace quality thinking and problem solving creating new opportunities ultimately benefits everyone.

Does this mean there will be an even greater number of people under-educated and dependent upon social systems to live? No. From the very first day of school until the end of eighth grade, all students get the same fundamentals of reading, writing and math. The goal is to eliminate reading and math illiteracy and create a functioning society.

At the end of eighth grade, school becomes one of two tracks: education or training. Education prepares students for the scholarly pursuits of learning that creates the critical thinkers needed to address future needs and problems. Training prepares students for a variety of work related opportunities (apprenticeships or service skills such as practical nursing).

This solution is about maximizing resources. It is not a closed door or one-shot deal. Some scholarly-bound students will drop out and choose to go into a training curriculum. Conversely, some training students will realize they underestimated their talents and choose the scholarly track. This should be allowed to occur at any age, not just before 18. As it is often stated, commencement is the beginning not the end.

If we embrace the concept that education is a life-long commitment, the idea of high school for all and finishing 12 grades is irrelevant. What we need are options that develop the best students at the highest possible levels and at the same time provide employment training opportunities for all others.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Freedom Is Not Always About Choice

About 400 years ago, the Pilgrims came to this land to escape from religious persecution. Since then, the United States is known to be a country where a person can freely choose his or her religion without fear. Further, persons can choose to sample many religions and be a member of several faiths, if that is his or her choice.

But the real benefit from freedom of religion is the ability to choose no religion at all and still be an accepted member of the community. That is the part of United States democracy that is unequaled anywhere in the world. A person has the right to believe or not to believe in God, practice morals and standards that are acceptable in their community, and to live and work unencumbered by a commitment to a religious organization.

That is the true essence of religious freedom. On any given weekend, you can be sure that less than 50 percent of your community (provided it is not a homogenous religious community) will be attending religious services. It is highly unlikely that non-attending individuals will be attacked or driven from their homes in shame. In fact, both attendees and non-attendees will mingle the rest of the week, unlikely to ever exchanging words about “going to church.”

The US religious freedom must really seem odd to other countries that attempt to force (or deny) religion. And for all the rhetoric about the United States and its devotion to God and religion, the reality is that the majority of US citizens are more interested in breakfast, specialty coffees and the Sunday paper.

Major Sporting Events

Which of the following sporting event is the oldest in terms of when it began as a competitive event in the United States? (Answer below)

World Series (baseball)

Kentucky Derby (horse racing)

US Open (golf)

US Open (tennis)

Dumb Jocks?

Top high school football recruits, also known as “blue chip athletes”, are getting an early start in college by enrolling for spring semester courses instead of staying in high school. This allows those exceptional athletes to practice with their team. This practice of early admissions to college is gaining a higher percentage of popularity every year.

So why not allow all exceptional high school students a chance to start college early, maybe even at the beginning of their senior year? Does anyone really think that advanced placement courses offered in high school are equal to the actual college educational experience? If the objection is questioning the maturity of a 17-year old, well no one seems to be worried about football players.

The real issue is that high schools don’t have the educational, vocational and virtual resources to fully engage today’s senior students. Most students have the necessary requirements needed for graduation completed by the end of their junior year. Sports and social leadership are the common reasons for seniors to stick around; it’s not about acquiring vocational skills or advanced academics.

Of course all the above statements do contradict research studies that indicate that high school seniors are poor at math and reading skills. Maybe 12^th grade students should go back to elementary school to re-visit basic educational skills instead of early admission to college?

Answer

The oldest US sporting event is the Kentucky Derby first held in 1875. Surprisingly, the second oldest is the US Open for tennis (1881), third was golf (1895) and the World Series was a distant fourth beginning in 1903.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

LISTEN TO ME

Leaders Listen to Others First

Leadership is an attitude. Leadership is a lifestyle. Leadership is a moral compass. Leadership represents the “will” of an organization. Leadership is a powerful presence, yet the leader is humble.

Leadership is not something that a person “turns on” in front of co-workers. A leader leads by his or her actions. As Aristotle said, excellence is a habit and you can apply that to leadership.

The 3 words that will kill leadership are: Listen to me. The lack of leadership is characterized by a person using his or her influence to coerce or manipulate people into action (fear is a common tactic). You know the type who stands in front of people and pronounces, “It’s my way or the highway.”

This lack of leadership from a person is connected to his/her narcissistic attitude. From Greek mythology, narcissism refers to a person who is in love with his/her own reflection. Freud felt narcissism was a failure to suppress childlike behavior in adulthood. Leadership and narcissism are direct opposites; a leader cannot be a narcissist.

The cornerstones of leadership are sacrifice and a genuine interest in the well-being of others. Mother Theresa is one of the truly great examples of leadership. She could have done her humanitarian work from the comfort of Vatican City. Instead, she refused the Church’s offer and continued to live among the people she served until her death. Her lesson: never distance yourself from those who need you.

Narcissistic behaviors are the opposite: self-centered and greedy. Narcissistic people are abundantly represented by those spiritual and political leaders so enamored with him/herself that a scandal is inevitable. They only pretend to serve people, instead advancing their own agenda.

So when a person says, Listen to me instead of I want to hear you, you know what kind of person who employs you. You may have no choice but to stay under those conditions; just keep you expectations and opinions in check. There is no freedom of speech in a workplace without quality leadership. (In the classroom, the quickest way to alienate students is to say listen to me. By the time the words are spoken, those students’ minds have already left the building. An essential part of learning is the presence of student challenges.)

If you are working on sharpening your leadership skills, the most productive actions are your physical presence and active listening. People want to be heard, they want to be involved and they want to feel that what they are doing is meaningful. It’s not difficult to walk around, greet people with a smile and ask how they are doing today. Like Mother Theresa, spend your energy among your people.

In Lee Iacocca’s new book, Where Have All The Leaders Gone?, the title leaves no doubt as to his purpose. Iacocca’s framework is his 9 C’s of Leadership: Curiosity, Creativity, Communication, Character, Courage, Conviction, Charisma, Competency and Common Sense. According to Iacoccca, no one has mastered all of these attributes, but everyone has a foundation that includes pieces of each trait.

Here’s a suggestion: start with your strengths and then build. Take those 9 traits and begin a list of how you see yourself in each category (the strongest are the easiest to identify). Find a confidant to help you sharpen your list and give you objective feedback. Look for mentors, read books, establish a list of admired people and why you admire them and finally, be genuine to those around you so they will feel comfortable offering advice that will help you grow.

(Ironically, I think his leadership advice misses the mark: pick good people, have a good team around you and set priorities. That is a recipe for success reserved for a few, for example, assembling a potent baseball team like the New York Yankees. Leadership in everyday settings is about taking a diverse set of people, creating a vision, help them attain success and as a result they freely choose to follow their leader.)

Here’s one final tip: when asked, “Are you a leader?” respond with a “No.” Tell them you are a learner and the people around you are the teachers.

Unbelievable Healthcare Spending

Medicare became law in 1965, as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. In 1970, Medicare costs were $7.5 billion.

In 2006, Medicare’s budget had ballooned to $408 billion and in 10 years, it is projected to be $863 billion! Given the monthly premiums paid by seniors, medical co-payments, deductibles and the shameful prescription coverage plan, where is all that money going?

Access to affordable and quality medical care is a basic right in modern society. It is not an opportunity for healthcare-related companies to make record profits from the pain and misery of citizens.

America has enough resources to provide the best healthcare in the world. Unfortunately, America cannot overcome, or hope to survive, greed.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

COMPANIES NEED TO TRAIN EMPLOYEES

Same Complaints Everywhere

They have finished secondary school but they can’t add without a calculator.

A quote from a US politician seeking election? A comment from a freshman college math professor? A discouraged small business owner from anywhere USA? No; though that kind of quote does pop up frequently in US dialog.

Actually that quote belongs to a director of human resources from a Brazilian company. Brazil has many of the political educational issues found in the US. Many of their traditional educational strategies have failed in the eyes of Brazilian businesses and politicians. Brazil’s economic growth has fallen behind other developing countries and the blame is directed at education. Brazilian politicians are vowing to change the system and create a new legion of 21^st century workers.

Another political effort that will ultimately fall short, much like the US-based No Child Left Behind legislation. The problem is that knowledge in every arena is growing faster than schools can teach and re-tool. Teach any work skill you choose. By the time the person graduates and is hired, the information is dated. Education will not be any more successful anticipating future workplace needs than was Sisyphus with his boulder. Completely modernized a school, spend millions of dollars in capital improvements, books and computers, hire the best instructors and for one, maybe two years, your school will be relevant to the workplace. By year three, it will be dated.

The answer is two-fold. First, schools need to take a liberal arts approach to K-12 education. Teach all students the basics in reading, math and writing and blend those skills with creative programs such as art, music, debate clubs, chess and school writing projects. Wait a minute you say; don’t schools already do that? Yes and No.

Schools teach those skills in K-6 and in nearly every instance, standardized tests reveal that teachers and students are doing an excellent job. In fact, on the world scale, K-4 results in reading and math ranks as one of the best. But by eighth grade, most of the momentum is lost and by the eleventh grade, the US is mediocre at best in world rankings.

The reason for that free-fall from best to mediocre is the transition of the classroom from student participation to blackboard lecturing as students get older. The connection between learning and creativity is squelched in favor of preparing for standardized tests. Plus schools in their effort to be efficient and seen as improving fail to make education relevant to all students (especially those students with no intentions of attending college).

In many school districts, nearly 50 percent of the students have no focus for their education other than graduation (for the majority of students that is a given as long as they maintain attendance). For these students they are just there. Schools focus on students who are college-bound by offering more challenging courses, AP courses, labs, creative writing and extra-curricular activities such as leadership academies.

Schools need to create learning environments that benefit all students and at the same time prepares student with the same degree of engagement that is evident in K-4. If every student can read and write at their grade level, much of what is currently missing will be resolved. (Successful attainment of these skills is reinforced with creative outlets.)

The second part of the solution is industry training and development. This used to be part of every industry: train the workforce and promote workers through a system. As knowledge changes, it is much easier to tweak workplace education rather than let outsiders anticipate what is necessary. But workplace education issues are two-fold.

One, industry and business don’t want to cut their profits by providing training and development. Providing education means having an education department and employees who leave the job to attend courses. This kind of commitment cost money and in the short-term productivity and profit will decrease. While it is less costly to push those efforts into schools and adult training programs, the long-term effects reduce productivity and profitability as companies are ill-equipped to respond quickly to new developments.

Second, the more a company invests in their workers through education and training, the harder it is to justify termination during slow periods. An investment has been made and losing that worker also terminates years of training and preparation.

Once again, short–term company profits are desirable over long-term benefits. If companies can’t arbitrarily terminate workers, how can they weather downturns and recessions? Unfortunately, this is not an argument but a self-serving attitude. By having a skilled and veteran workforce, downturns and loss of productivity are less likely to occur.

From another perspective, record profit in industry and business makes it difficult to accept the notion that there are inadequate numbers of skilled employees. People must be doing something right to be that productive. And that means schools are readying people for today’s job market.

One final comment about industry and business training. Only companies know what they need from an educational standpoint. Only companies know the most effective means of training and education to fit their needs. Company sponsored education and training is the answer to future growth and productivity.

Does the US have a workplace training and development issue or is this another round of politicians attempting to justify privatizing the public education system? Is it really education’s objective to provide human cannon fodder for companies? Or is education the act of developing minds and bodies to be good community citizens?

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

PERSONAL SUCCESS

Hard Work Not Enough

Remember that old axiom of work hard and you’ll be successful? There are so many clichés like Keep your nose to the grindstone and Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. For generations people in America believed that hard work and success were synonymous. Unfortunately, not anymore, unless you re-define what success means to you.

When US employment was over 90 percent in manufacturing and agriculture, hard work could be your ticket to financial and emotional success. Most manufacturing jobs didn’t even require a high school diploma. A person could earn a substantial wage and live the American ideal. It was hard work but the rewards reinforced a view of success. There were set work hours and plenty of time for family and friends.

Now manufacturing jobs are part of American folklore and hard work means longer hours and earning a few dollars above minimum wage, hardly enough to support a family nevertheless spend any time with them. And if you really work hard and are rewarded with increasing pay, today’s companies terminate you because you have become too expensive to keep.

If you ever needed a reason not to buy electronics from Circuit City, remember the 3400 people who were terminated recently because they did a good job, worked hard, got pay raises and then were terminated because of pay that was out of line with the industry. Whenever a company states it is offering competitive salaries, interpret that as paying you a wage that is in line with the industry and that pay increases could eventually cause you to lose your job. Circuit City is not the only service industry employer terminating employees because of higher pay. A spokesman for the company said they were just following service industry standards.

Hard work in today’s economy means that you need to have a high level of critical and creative thinking. Today’s jobs are sitting down and office based or standing on your feet teaching all day Working with your hands means using a computer, telephone or a whiteboard.

Do not underestimate the difficulty of good thinking. It is hard work and not everybody can do it. Remember Henry Ford’s comment? If thinking were easy everyone would do it.

Hard work today is not as much physical as it is mental determination. The hard part of today’s job is staying on the task and not being distracted by the 100 things that pass by you everyday. Focus is the hard part of today’s jobs.

Unfortunately, good thinking coupled with determined focus does not yield high pay. Ask any of today’s recent hires in the K-12 educational system. The average salary for new teachers is under $35,000. Currently there are 66 baseball players earning over $10 million per year. Both teachers and ball players work hard but only one gets paid what they are worth. (Wouldn’t it be great if these 66 baseball players started their own private schools and paid teachers a respectable middle-class salary?)

Look around at people in your community. Many of them are working multiple jobs. They work long hours. Yet, they are not financially or emotionally successful. They have a difficulty saving money and time to spend enjoying the company friends and family.

Is there an alternative? Yes. People need to end their commitment to consumerism and start living small. Lives need to be simplified by removing the excess. Instead of working hard to have money, work hard to have relationships.

No matter how much money you earn it will never be enough if you keep buying things. Instead, cultivating friendships and developing quality family life is both rewarding and provides renewable sources of satisfaction and contentment. Do you really need Blu-Ray HD-DVDs?

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

BUILDING CHARACTER

11 Principles

From the Character Education partnership, here are 11 principles for comprehensive and effective character education the group is promoting:

1) Promote core ethical values as the basis of good character

2) Define character comprehensively to include thinking, feeling and behavior

3) Use a comprehensive, intentional, proactive and effective approach

4) Create a caring school community

5) Provide students with opportunities to engage in moral action

6) Provide a meaningful and challenging curriculum that helps all students to succeed

7) Foster students’ intrinsic motivation to learn and to be good people

8) Engage school staff as professionals in a learning and moral community

9) Foster school moral leadership and long-term support for character education

10) Engage families and community members as partners in character education

11) Evaluate the character of the school, its staff and its students to inform the character education effort

This list is admirable and necessary but these principles need to start with parents not teachers. Schools are the partner to supplement character building enforced by parental guidance.

Schools are only part of the solution for building good character and leadership skills among the today’s youth. Beyond parents, other community institutions responsible include church/spiritual, government, business and social/recreational outlets. Without community and parental involvement, schools are powerless to effect widespread change.

Once again it looks like public schools are being asked to take control for something that is the domain of parents. Like childhood obesity, schools are powerless to correct this behavior without the help of parents. Character building cannot be a subject imbedded in a curriculum. It is part of culture and of civilized society and must be constantly demonstrated and reinforced by everyone.

Isn’t it interesting that he institution most closely associated with character building is not demanding to “lead the charge”? Spirituality is supposedly a high priority among US citizens, so where are the people representing the various ministries offering to provide character building studies? Aren’t these individuals the character builders?

Students need character building education but don’t expect teachers already burdened with trying to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind to be the solution. They are support and they lead by example but they are not the solution.

Job Loss

A person losing their job has been a way of life since the early 1980’s when the world (notably Japan and Germany) caught up with dominating US companies. Manufacturing was the major force in the US job market 25 years ago but it was undermined by an emerging world economy that could build quality products for less money. The era of “jobs for life” had ended.

According to the US Department of Labor, the US averages about 2 million lost jobs per year. In 1997, 1.44 million jobs were permanently lost. The best year came in 2000 when only 1.1 million jobs were lost (during the economic boom) and the worst year in 2003, when 2.85 million jobs were eliminated (the tech bubble burst). In 2006, 1.69 million jobs were terminated. Because change can come quickly instead of taking generations, employment is dynamic (new jobs are created and old ones eliminated).

The point is that people should not be preparing to do one job and instead should have the attitude that employment is a constant state of change. Instead of trying to anticipate what might be the next great job, prepare for everything and anything. The best way to accomplish that goal is to read and to practice your writing skills.

If you can learn, think and translate your thinking to paper, someone will hire you.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

REGRESSION TO THE MEAN

Average Is Natural

It takes much work and energy to reach and sustain excellence. Dedication to excellence is against our natural being. As humans we are more suited to enjoy life, be average and stay among the masses. We know this by observing nature.

In laser physics, a powerful light is created when an electron releases excess energy (a photon) because it is unable to sustain a higher orbit. By releasing new found energy, an electron returns to its original orbit.

The electron will stay there indefinitely and without much effort until a new external stimulus occurs such as a new source of energy. The process begins again with an excited electron absorbing this new energy, rising to a higher orbit and, in time, releasing that energy and returning to its “comfort zone.”

It is absurd to think of electrons as “people” but people are electrons. Billions of electrons connected together with a magnetic attraction that defines our human presence. People are bundles of energy; stand near a person and feel the warmth.

Hence, we need to be stimulated in order to be innovative, creative and productive. Ignore people, but give them the basics of life and they are quite content to stay in the huddle of the masses or just be average.

Teachers are external sources of energy who stimulate students to reach new levels of energy. Unfortunately, not all students have access to dynamic classrooms. There’s not enough time or resources to create a learning environment for innovation and creativity that energizes students. It’s more efficient, money and time wise, to lecture, test and evaluate the methodology. It is a formula for average.

In the workplace, leaders are the source for energizing employees to be innovative and creative. Unfortunately too many employees do not have access to dynamic leaders who get them involved and energize their thinking. It is more efficient to give directions or plan a day’s work and have managers who oversee that effort. It is a formula for average.

It is our nature to take it easy and enjoy each day. If you plop people in front of a TV or video game console, they will spend the day being amused by these activities. Provide new video content to enjoy and you may never get them to leave the room. It is a formula for average.

To effect change, we need to energize people to attain new orbits. Everyone likes the thrill of new energy and it doesn’t have to be based in fear. Energize people by asking them to get involved and then teach them how. Even though it is impossible for people to sustain their new found energy, they will release new ideas, innovation and creativity that will stimulate others and keep the process going.

Here’s another lesson from physics: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle basically states that the more you observe an object the less likely it will be seen in its original state. In essence, the mere action of observation changes the observed object. This is why leaders interact with people. When a person knows you are interested in them, they respond. We can energize people by paying attention to them. (Cautionary note: Heisenberg’s principle also states that if you only focus on one object the other object will atrophy creating an imbalance; hence take time to offer equal attention to everyone.)

So our choice is to either to take action to be a stimulus or allow people to regress to the mean. Given all the uncertainty in the world the one certainty is that people are not naturally attracted to achieving excellence.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

More Workplace News

Study Indicates Sources for Teenage Spending

As a follow-up to the last column about teenage workers, a study by the Harrison Group and reported in USA Today (3/15/07), indicates that the purchasing power of teens (ages 13-18) totals almost $200 billion annually. The top spending categories are clothes, food, cars, movies and cell phones.

The source for this money comes from parents either as part of family expenses (over 50 percent) or allowances based on “chores” (about 10 percent). Earnings from jobs accounts for less than 20 percent of teens disposable income.

Knowing that school achievement studies suggest that students who work have less success at school than their non-working counterparts, does it make sense for teenagers to work? Does having less than 20 percent discretionary income to spend on the aforementioned categories make a teen’s life incomplete?

Again the key question remains: are communities really interested in promoting academic achievement or do they prefer a cheap labor force?

(Note: teens that work to support family financial needs are not the targets of this curiosity. And there’s a good chance those teens were not the subjects of the above study. Asking teens to carry the burden of helping families pay for food or a utility is a community issue that needs a solution. Otherwise, communities are guilty of promoting generational poverty that will continue adding to the ranks of under-educated and under-prepared persons unable to cope with requirements of the service economy.)

Growing Business

An annual survey of CEOs completed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers revealed the following regarding how they plan to grow their respective businesses:

~~ Over half (57 percent) will focus on new markets, mergers and acquisitions, new products and innovation;

~~ About a fourth (23 percent) will focus on better penetration of existing markets for existing products; and,

~~ About 16 percent will focus on better customer service and employee retention.

What this data should suggest, if you are currently employed and want to advance (or if you are unemployed and want to be hired), that you need to focus on creating or exploiting opportunities that builds new business for your employer. Clearly, 80 percent of CEOs want ideas to improve the financials of their company by increasing customer base.

CEOs are not saying they want leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking, more communication skills or other such ideas commonly promoted in business literature or by “gurus”. They want to know how to “get” and sell to customers.

This means you need to be creative and exploit technology to expand the number of customers. Or, use your creativity to develop the next social network website, the next video gaming system or the next high performance, high mileage car.

Companies focus on the bottom line so prepare to address that basic need. Here’s a hint: look at social trends. For example, the US Census projects that the number of people ages 65 and older in the labor force will double over the next 10 years. How would you get your company ready to absorb workers represented by this age group? If you are unemployed, how do you position yourself as an expert to offer training and development for people who want to return to the workforce?

Staying employed and enjoying a satisfying lifestyle is easy if you know how to create profit!

You Knew This!

The estimated number of hours the average American spends using various types of media is:

TV @ 1555 hours

Radio @ 974 hours

Internet @ 195 hours

Reading a newspaper @ 175 hours

As long as TV, with its ever increasing time devoted to commercials promoting the insatiability of consumerism, dominates people’s free time, can we really expect this country to maintain its position as a major economic and critical thinking power?

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

TEEN AGE WORKERS

Too Many Activities Affecting Achievement

According to a study in the March 2007 issue of Pediatrics, US teenagers 14-18 are working an average of 16 hours per week, many times after 7 pm on school nights and in jobs that violate federal law, such as serving alcoholic beverages. Unfortunately parents don’t see this as a problem because it fits the profile of the American work ethic. Parents with working teenagers view this as a source pride and include their child’s employment in conversations when describing them to friends.

In his book Beyond the Classroom, Professor Laurence Steinberg states that work competes with school. It is not the complement to school many parents believe it is. His research revealed that students will take easier courses so school doesn’t interfere with their job (isn’t that backwards?). The title of chapter nine in his book is All Work and All Play Makes Jack a Dumb Boy and places the blame of low achievement not with schools or teachers but what students do after school. Think about how many times you have heard over the past year that boys are under-achieving in school and not going to college at the same pace of previous generations. Do you think the lure of earning $100 a week and living in the parent’s basement may have anything to do with that trend?

The average teenager now spends up to 80 hours a week on activities that have no relationship to school or achievement (for example, jobs, social activities, gaming, TV, Internet). That’s almost 50 percent of all available hours during the school year. A person under 18 first impulses is to have fun and today’s distractions don’t help keep them focused.

If these kids sleep 8 hours per night, that only leaves 32 hours for school and related activities. If you did the math, your conclusion is they are not getting 8 hours of sleep per night since school takes up about 40 hours per week. Can you picture these kids snoozing, dozing and sleeping during school hours? Even if they can stay awake, fatigue will prevent them from concentrating and achieving excellence in school activities. Not getting a full night of sleep is extremely counter-productive and can be dangerous.

America is the only industrialized country with this imbalance towards work and school. It is ironic that the US public school system was created at the beginning of the 20^th century because it was politically the best way to get young children out of sweat shops. Parents wanted their kids to work to help support the family and businesses liked the cheap labor provided by these kids. The law requiring attendance at school settled the issue.

So now in the 21^st century, a kid with a part-time job means that parents don’t need to provide spending money (allowance) and businesses have a plentiful source of cheap labor. Working students that have a steady amount of discretionary income means these kids fuel the American economy (they are called the greatest consumers in the world). Isn’t 14-18 the target demographic for TV advertising? And of course, once they roll past 18, let’s be sure to bombard them with credit cards so we can keep them hooked on being good consumers.

It would seem the US has a choice if it is serious about improving scholastic achievement: either make working under 18 illegal or make going to school beyond age 14 optional. The country can’t have it both ways.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC