Brotherhood

About 30 years ago I joined the 1st Presentation Sea Scouts and began a journey that probably had the single most significant effect on my life. It was at 'Pres Scouts' that I learned to swim, row, sail, cook (well... ), pitch tents and build campsites out of bamboo, play the drums and bugle... and lots more! We would do three camps each year - including a foreign travel camp - to Venezuela, St Lucia, Barbados, Grenada...

The troop was essentially run by the older students, with a strong emphasis on personal responsibility, leadership and brotherhood... and it was all quite authentic stuff -we didn't role-play - we really had to erect campsites and cook on outdoor firesides as we removed ourselves from civilization for ten days/nights of survival. The lessons in leadership were also real - and the brotherhood that emerged would endure... treasured lifelong friendships.

This week I reconnected with Pres Scouts and the good news is that as I looked on from a distance I recognized the strong underlying elements still running through... despite the distractions and distortions of the modern world... and I am reminded of the powerful influence of traditional institutions.

+ve vibes,

Mark

Judgement

Funny thing how we can easily be blinded in our judgement of people because of perceptions. This morning my 16 year old daughter (Toni) had a squabble with my 12 year old son (Matthew). Now if you knew these kids, 9 out of 10 times Matthew would be the offender (actually, it's closer to 10 out of 10!) - he's just a bit on the mischievous side:). Anyways, when I heard the rumble, I automatically thought that he was up to his usual mischief and was about to reprimand him. As it turned out, Toni, made a judgement of him, without hearing his side - as I was about to do... and after hearing him out, it turned out that he was quite innocent... this time:)

So, Toni, based on her perception that Matts is usually the offender never gave him time to explain himself and as you realize from the trend of this email, so too did I. I guess the lesson learnt here is that we need to learn to be more patient and open to listening and appreciating (and valuing) people - even when we may have a biased perception of them based on past experiences.

+ve vibes,

Mark

Innovation

Pres College Past Students Association (San F'do, Trinidad) organized a Town hall meeting last night to discuss the national budget (presently before parliament). Outstanding contributions from the panelists - unfortunately, not a single student (no staff either) were in attendance!!!

Anyways, what stuck with me was the contribution by the young (but very experienced) Dr. Rolph Balgobin who suggested that if we (T&T) really wanted to move toward developed country status (economically and otherwise), we needed to become more innovative. He noted that it was interesting that the businesses that surrounded the local (well really regional) university (UWI) were mainly accommodation, rum shops (bars) and food outlets! He wondered why there wasn't more evidence of innovative entrepreneurship in close proximity to this tertiary institution - well the answer is simple, UWI by design was never intended to breed innovative thinkers, but rather to maintain the status quo...

The good news is that the newly established (local) university - UTT is free of the history that seems to keep UWI in bondage... and hopefully, we'll begin seeing a new breed of graduates that embrace innovation as an authentic pursuit of excellence... and not only as an academic discourse.

+ve vibes,

Mark

Stop pretending!

I had a discussion this week with a close colleague who runs a small operation that employs about a dozen or so persons. He was faced with the challenge of sending home one of his employees who had not been demonstrating the required quality of work to maintain the standards of the organization. The difficulty here was that my colleague was convinced that the young man had both the skill set and the capacity to deliver... and after repeated attempts at diplomatic persuasion, my colleague had decided that this was just not working. Of course the young employee defended his work ethic and productivity and insisted that he was committed, bla, bla, bla... My position on situations like this is that we need to stop pretending - good leaders need to sometimes cut to the chase and let employees know when they're not meeting the standard... and employees need to be honest... to themselves and to their employers.

The interesting thing for me here is that I figure that when employees truly make valuable contributions to their organizations - they'll feel better about themselves; they'll reflect their true value and they'll surely reap the rewards to which they are entitled... so stop the pretending and let your true value shine through!

+ve vibes,

Mark

Getting things done!

For some time now (a long time really), I've been challenged to manage all of the things that I truly believe that I need to get done (the things that are connected with my purpose in life)... and of course, that hasn't stopped me from taking on more stuff... This week I was sharing with a close colleague the challenges faced with balancing all of the projects that we often take on - so here's the scoop, we can choose to do maybe one or two things and get them done 100% perfectly packaged and completed... or we can choose to get involved in five or six (or ten, twelve....) and do them about 80 - 90% well. I'll go for the five or six and do them 80% well any day... we don't need to be perfectionist - we need to get things done!

+ve vibes,
Mark

Relationships

I'll probably be writing a lot about relationships - I sincerely believe that it's the single most important underlying element in life... and if we really want to progress (to move forward!!!) we need to give consideration to the ways in which we can best facilitate the nurturing of relationships in every realm of life... and that doesn't necessarily mean that we must set out to please everyone... when relationships are strong we are better poised to be objective and honest without fear of fall-out. So how do we nurture positive relationships? Here are my recommendations:

1. Show respect (never be disrespectful) - even if (especially if) you have a different point of view. I see this on a continuum from respecting to appreciating to valuing. As we mature and our relationships mature, we move from respecting (other points of view) - then to appreciating (other points of view) - then to valuing (other points of view).
2. Stick to your principles (but be humble about it). Don't compromise your principles as a strategy for strengthening a relationship.
3. Remain focused on your purpose in life - a purpose driven life facilitates the enhancement of meaningful relationships. It may be difficult to establish meaningful relationships if your life has no purpose.

+ve vibes,

Mark

The Beginning

This represents my first (of hopefully many more) blog postings under the heading of positive vibes... or as I prefer +ve vibes.

So, my intention is to share daily... or maybe weekly experiences - personal ones - and to capture the positive message/s emerging from that/those particular experience/s.

Today was a good one - listening to colleagues try to resolve challenges associated with voluntary work that turns out to be often demanding... and sometimes more (unnecessarily) complicated than we ever anticipated. The two main challenges tend to centre around time and money - we never seem to have enough of either... but we keep a positive outlook and for whatever reason... God alone knows..., we stretch our already overloaded schedules and dip into pockets to ensure that we make the project successful... and when the end product emerges... we know that it was all worth the effort.

+ve vibes,

Mark