Eternal Focus in the 21st Century

"Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal..."

...where the check engine light comes on, where your dishwasher won't drain, where the wifi keeps dropping and your cell-phone bill keeps going up...

"Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."

"Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?"

"So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?" 

...what shall I drive? What phone shall I choose? What house shall I buy?

"These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Matthew 6:19-34

People-Projects-Profits

A couple of months back I was pondering our company's goal to grow and be more profitable. This is the goal of pretty much every business, I guess, and there's nothing wrong with it. And yet I wonder if we're missing something by focusing primarily on the money. During my pondering I penciled down an idea that motivates me and wonder if it would motivate others. It's simply:

 "People before projects before profits"

People

OK, so my main thought is that we should focus on people first.  There are two motivations for doing this with very different perspectives and so I think it covers a broad spectrum of experience:

1. People are the ones driving the projects to ultimately generate the profits.
2. People and human interactions are intrinsically more important than profits.

Item 1, is the business case for putting your employees, clients etc. as a primary focus so that you can drive up profits.  Southwest Airlines is the poster child for this.  Focusing on their employees, and encouraging them to be customer focused ultimately drives up profits in part because of their motivated workforce and generally happy customers.  I'm OK with this motivation, but it's not one I own, because it's really not focused on people for their intrinsic worth, but as a means to an end.  It feels like you're just using them to get what you really want aka increased profits.

So, to item 2.  Without getting to moralistic or "high and mighty" let's think about  our  daily life in general.  The majority of the working population spends 8+ hours a day working and interacting with people.  We can see this as drudgery and a means to an end to make money, pay bills, survive to the weekend etc.  OR we can see this as a significant portion of our life, where we can engage with people, enjoy the interactions, solve problems, have fun, have a positive impact on others, etc.  Now I'm blessed with have a job I enjoy, working with awesome people whereas others are not so fortunate and have to endure a job and coworkers they really don't like.  But isn't that the point of shifting our focus?  I'd hazard a guess that many of the people who're not happy in their jobs have missed the point that people are more important than just making a dollar.  A couple of years ago I was a little disheartened to chat with a coworker who'd decided to retire early.  When I asked him why he said "it's not fun any more." That's sad. I hope I never get there.

OK, so shifting back to the positive, who are the "People" within whom we interact and how could a shift in perspective energize our businesses? In a business setting, we usually think of employees and clients or customers which covers the bulk of the people with whom we interact. For sure, we should focus on having good, positive and affirming relationships with coworkers and clients.  But we should also widen the envelope to include vendors, partners, people we know through professional organizations and... dare I say it... competitors. Gasp! "Be nice to the enemy?" If the end goal is just profits, then we don't need this wider view perhaps, but looking at how we live our lives and aim to enjoy work, then we shift to civility toward everyone, including our competitors ("friendly rivalry" anyone?). 

Projects

As an engineering firm we have a strong focus on projects. Doing them well, doing them on time, doing them to a high standard. This is all good, and it's very rewarding to execute a good project.  But with this, I think we still need to keep in mind the human side of work. I have heard the expression "best for the project" used to create some really dysfunctional work/life imbalance. Doing something "for the project" misses the point if we don't keep in mind that the project is ultimately to benefit someone. It's not a thing with it's own worth or a god to which you should sacrifice your health, your relationships and your family.

Profits 

OK, I'm not naive enough to think that we can all just be nice, have fun, sing kumbaya together and all will be fine.  We do need good business sense, plans, and financial goals. But I would like to think we can decrease our emphasis on profits, profits, profits, and take time to consider people, work/life balance and the more important things in life.  Ironically, focusing on your people, should improve your projects and profits (back to the Southwest example above). In other words:

"Valued people doing projects bring profits"

And the motivation becomes a little ambiguous!

So, what motivates you?

Reading. Writing. Praying

As the year comes to a close it's the time to think about New Year resolutions.  There are three things I'm going to focus on for 2017: more reading, more writing and more prayer.

More Reading

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

I enjoy reading but I'm very sporadic. Sometimes I read through a book in a few days and other times I go for months stuck on the same chapter without reading anything.  Anyone who's following me on Goodreads will note I started reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in early November, having read an excellent and inspiring book on his life called "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" by Eric Metaxas.  But I'm still stuck on chapter 1, having not read it since I first started.  I could blame work, but it's more that I've been playing with my iPad too much during my downtime!  CSR2 is particularly addictive.

I also have some technical books I'd like to read, but haven't got to yet (see photo!).  In 2017 I want to soak up more spiritual, technical and fun stuff!

More Writing

"Of making many books there is no end..."

Through my career I've helped with several technical books including a fun collaboration for the called the Guidelines for Using Activated Sludge Models where I made some lifelong international friends in the Good Modelling Task Group. I also helped on several special publications and "manuals of practice" (MOPs) for the Water Environment Foundation (WEF) including their modeling publication: Wastewater Treatment Process Modeling. OK, enough for my shameless plugs for books I've worked on (I get no royalties so it's kinda pointless anyway).  I have also authored or co-authored technical papers, and, of course, blogs!
International Water Association (IWA)

So, do I need to write more?  I was reflecting on this a bit and it dawned on me that of all the things I do, writing is probably the most impactful for future generations. Not that I'm a particularly great writer, but my small impact on the world is most noticeable in whatever I leave behind in written form - in electronic written form of course! So in 2017 I want to be a little more active in blog writing and I'm even toying with a couple of ideas for fiction... yup a poop engineer thinking about writing a novel, and no, the title won't include any mention of fecal material!

More Prayer

"Pray continually..."
In recent years I've learned that my walk with God is strengthened by me spending more time with Him. The old theological term is "progressive sanctification." (And I'm no theologian so forgive me if I've misunderstood the terminology... you get my gist though). But knowing about it and doing it are totally different. It makes sense that if we want to honor God, grow in Him and follow his lead, then we need to spend time with Him in His presence.  One of the best ways to do that is to pray.  The method, the timing and the substance of the prayer may vary, but the ultimate thing is that I need to pray with "all kinds of prayers."  So in 2017, in addition to reading more, maybe writing more, I want to be praying more.  That way I'll be more in tune with Jesus and what He wants me to be focused on.

How about you? What are you going to do more in 2017?

Top 5 Coffee Shops in the World (According to Andy Shaw!)

I'm not the world's greatest traveller by any measure, but I was fortunate to live in Western Australia for a little while where I discovered that espresso coffee drinks can be way better (and less bitter) than the average Starbucks in the US. Now, my blog is not to slam Starbuck's but to commend to everyone my top 5 favorite coffee shops! (By the way, I often go to Starbuck's when there's no better choice, but usually go for a dirty Chai rather than a straight espresso drink like an Americano or cappucino). Here they are in particular order...

1. Brew Ha (Subiaco, WA) - this is where it all began. I actually remember the food was awesome too, but this is where I first started to appreciate decent espresso coffee
2. Bloc Coffee (Cincinnati, OH) thank Siri for this one! I was visiting a wastewater treatment plant in Cincy and wanted a decent coffee. My smartphone took me to a neighborhood you wouldn't expect to see a coffee shop and there it was! This place is a gem.
3. Latte Land Kaldis (Prairie Village, KS) - My local and an awesome coffee. This is where I ruined my colleague by introducing him to good espresso (usually an Americano). Before that he was quite happy with his McDonalds or QT drip coffee. He's not been the same since (nor has his wallet!).
4. Dimbulah (Singapore) - whilst looking for a decent coffee shop in Singapore I stumbled on this place thinking it was a chain shipped over from Oz (there are several and all pretty darn good). It turns out that this small coffee shop chain is only in Singapore and they ship their beans from Dimbulah in Queensland. This is probably the best coffee I've ever had. My wife and niece were also spoiled by the delights of this coffee when we lived in Singapore for a few months. I think it was the coffee, or maybe the charming staff!
5. Caribou (US Midwest) - now if I have to drink at a chain coffee shop, this is my favourite. Not sure if its the coffee or the white chocolate rasberry scones, but I was very happy when one opened near our house. Now it's just a negotiation with my wife if we go to the Starbucks which is closer or the Caribou which is better (in my mind)! Wow, these 1st world problems eh?

Enjoy the brew wherever you go! What's your fave?

 

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2015

It's the season for reflecting on the past year, thinking about the New Year and maybe making a few resolutions. This past year was a little different for me in a number of ways. I've just finished a short- term assignment in Singapore with a different kind of project, in a different part of the worId, and with a different way of working. We went to a different church. It was also the year when health issues came to a head and I eventually realised that they were pretty much all linked to stress.

All of this gives me a different perspective moving into 2015 and so hopefully my resolutions have a little more weight this year:

1. Work less - I guess a fancy way to say this is that I need a better work-life balance or that I need to work smarter. ln my case I think I just need to work less in order to redress the balance and be smarter in my work.
2. Exercise more - me and several million others in the world I'm guessing! But my reason isn't to lose weight but, linked to the first resolution, to lower my overall stress levels. Plus I'm not getting any younger!
3. Serve God in community - I recently read a book called Community by Brad House. It re-affirmed to me the importance of small groups in the church but added an emphasis on those groups being invested in the community. I want to be part of a group like that.
4. Finish my PhD - I've done the coursework and written the papers. I just need to pull together my dissertation, defend it and I'm done with my degree at IIT.

And that's it. Four resolutions are plenty! Anyone else have different resolutions this year?

Happy New Year !

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U Shaped Curves and Work-Life Balance

I'm not a sociologist, nor a psychologist. In a different blog I might open up about my opinion on the latter so-called "profession" (hint-hint) but for this blog I wanted to give some thoughts on the former. I have a growing appreciation for sociology and my favorite sociologists are probably not on anyone's list of conventional sociologists... I have a high regard for Robert Lewis and particularly his book Raising a Modern Day Knight in which he addresses the topic of raising healthy young men in the modern world. My other favourite is Malcolm Gladwell.

I recently finished reading David and Goliath in which, typical Gladwell style, he covers a myriad of topics from the London Blitz, to entrepeneurship, to school class size, and tries to tie them all together. His device for doing this was the "inverted-U". The argument goes that life is not linear and that more of something (or less of something if it's a bad thing) is not always better, but that beyond a certain point things stop getting better and actually turn downwards again. On the topic of class size he makes quite a convincing argument that there's an optimum class size somewhere in the high teens to low 20's and that going smaller doesn't work so well.

The concept of U-shaped curves or inverted-U curves resonated with me as it's common to see this in engineering where there's often an optimum point on a curve for all sorts of things... pH for biological systems, lifecycle costs of capital vs operating costs, improvement in my pool game vs number of beers I've had... OK the last one wasn't strictly engineering!

It struck me that the inverted-U could also be applied to work-life balance. It's obvious that if you're a lazy git or a "jobsworth" that does the bare minimum then you're probably not the most productive employee for a firm. What's not so obvious is that if you maximize your effort and try to do so for year after year then you might just burn out and then you're worse off than a lazy git (plus you'll have stress issues and have no life outside of work). Sure, people talk about "working smarter" instead of harder, but they still mean work more overall, I think, or at least it still seems to work out that way. The figure below puts all this into a graph.

 

From a personal perspective I've recently realized that I'm way too far to the right on the curve and have been that way for a couple of years now. My goal for 2015 is to figure out how to dial it back a bit and get into a sensible zone where my life is balanced and I don't burn out. How about you?

 

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Power made perfect in weakness

I'm currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's latest book David and Goliath. It's a fascinating read. In the first section he talks about how more and more of something is not necessarily the best thing but that an inverted "U" curve points to something more optimal, including wealth and school class size. As an engineer and modeler it makes sense to me as I often run into "U" curves that indicate a sweet spot for something.

In the second section he talks about "The Theory of Desirable Difficulty" and discusses how certain impediments and disabilities can work to your advantage in the long run. He talks about the fact that a lot of entrepreneurs are dyslexic and gives a compelling argument that their dyslexia was a big part of making them entrepreneurial!

At the start of the section he quotes the following verses from the Bible:

I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7–10

This morning I went to the local Wesleyan church to worship and the topic of the sermon was exactly the same scripture! The speaker challenged us to think about the "thorn in my flesh" that God has given us that drives us to Him and makes us depend on Him. She said it could be a physical condition, a temptation or some other difficulty in life.

For me it's either my bad sense of humour or my mental state. More likely it's the latter, as the former is more of a thorn for everyone else around me! Over the past couple of years I've slowly discovered that I don't handle stress very well. It started with a panic attack about two years ago (thankfully the only one I've had, but not fun), followed by stomach and throat issues - the doctor called it NERD, no joke - then mild heart arrhythmias last winter and finally insomnia, particularly when I had a month-long stint living alone in Singapore this summer. I remember my mum having stress related stomach issues and taking early retirement in part due to stress, I think, and as I take after my mum in many ways, it's not completely surprising that I have similar leanings.

Adding them all up I think I've had 8 out of the 11 physical symptoms of stress listed on webmd though surprisingly few of the emotional, cognitive or behavioral symptoms. You could argue that the British stiff-upper-lip means I hide things well, or maybe I just didn't notice the other symptoms!! I'd like to suggest another possibility, which is that God is the one keeping me sane! I honestly think that without God's hand on me and the Holy Spirit in me, I'd be in the loony bin or worse already. I've heard folks say that religion is for the weak-minded. In a way, I agree, because I see the fragility of my own mind and I'm extremely thankful for Christ taking hold of my weak mind to make me strong in Him (at least outwardly to others). The worst thing you can do is delude yourself that you've got it all together and don't need God at all. The best thing is to admit your weakness and let Him make you strong.

So, what's your weakness and how can God make you strong through it?

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