Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Do you know anything about tomorrow?

Every so often I judge a book by its cover but if first impressions determines the distance the heart travels…I’ve gotta wonder why someone would suggest the book The Dream Manager as a must read.

Its opening pages feed the curved and constantly changing river banks of an ocean floor not yet shaped making no room for snails and starfish to paste themselves to. That’s my poetic way of saying, “There’s a disconnection between the head office and worker bees with no mediator to bounce the ball back into play.

No wonder the NBA is locked up and fans are without!

Matthew Kelly and Patrick Lencioni pen out, “Even the most cynical manager will admit that one of the most important competitive advantages a company can have is the ability to keep and motivate the human capitol that is in short supply.”

Short supply? Is the NBC Nightly News propaganda?

From this side of the white picket fence the media has painted rose colored glasses on spoiled Gen Xer’s, Boomer’s and the unemployed occupying New York, LA, Atlanta, Charlotte and other major corporate cities around the world. Radio talk show hosts come across as selling out to big business because if they chose to support the occupation they risk losing valuable fourth quarter advertising revenue.

The distant image softly represents a presence created by a companies need to create a short supply. Then to complain they’re losing the competitive edge that made them a success?

Who’s playing Robin Hood?

I’m thinking the The Dream Manager has the upper hand, “Manager’s and Human Resource professionals have traditionally focused most of their attention on levers like compensation and benefits. They’ve raised salaries, increased bonuses, awarded stock options, increased vacation time and let people bring their pets to work. The end result is limited success.”

Shocking and almost as unsightly as SAW1-2-3 and 4 is this quote, “Few people, if any, work for money alone. But when it comes to inspiring people and creating the kind of environment where employees laugh at the notion of leaving there’s something far more powerful and less expensive that companies have largely overlooked…”

Please fill in the blank ____________________________________________

The Dream Manager clearly believes employees are actively disengaged. People don’t feel connected not only with the organization but those they work with. Like a wildfire set free on a mountainside it infected morale, efficiency, productivity and profitability.

But that’s big business talk!

Where are the books and blogs that embrace the overworked, underpaid now divorced or turned into a drug abusing alcoholic because numb was better none? Where are the voices of radio, television and newspaper that represent real people?

We lost Andy Rooney and John Stewart is too funny to take serious. Brian Williams is reimaging his NBC presence with a Monday night variety of conversations while Anderson Cooper has gone daytime. If Howard Stern took the filth out of his performance he’d be the only radio voice of reason.

One hundred years from now a brilliant media executive will do a VH1 Behind the Music special on the early decades that shaped the 21st Century and within a single breath he’ll captivate the imaginations of Gamer’s and Iphone 64 junkies when he text, “Lost…”

We are the Lost Generation.

I can hear my Mother’s voice, “its 7:30!” It was her way of saying the chickens needed to be fed, the trash taken out,

Cocoa needed a fresh bed of hay and school demands need to be met.

Like Buddhist Monk Tich Nhat Hahn who was invited to protest the presence of American forces in his home country of Vietnam; he raised no banner, he shouted not once, he didn’t gather with angry at heart…he walked in peace…that’s who I am.

After four years of truly being misunderstood which led to multiple arrests due to protests, in August of 1980 Lech Walesa put real people on the map in Poland when helped negotiate ground breaking agreements that began the process of protecting the people.

The Dream Manager continues, “The right people are an organizations greatest asset. Large or small for a business to become successful employees need to become actively engaged. The goal should be to retain talent.”

Why can something so simple be so visible but neither side feels inspiration or influence to move?

We are the Lost Generation. Does anyone have Lech Walesa as a friend on Face Book? Just checked…he ain’t there. The Queen of England is though. So is Casey Kasum and Gene Simmons of KISS.

What were we talking about before this?

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

No comments:

Post a Comment