Global Vision

In class, we've been talking a lot about global vision. Buying and selling items across the globe. I've never realized how big of an impact something can have on the world, that is happening elsewhere. If the Unites States starts having financial problems, then the jobs that have been outsourced will be the ones to be laid off first. The rioting and revolutions going on over in the Middle East have been affecting oil prices. This causes all of the prices around the world to increase, and in turn causes everything else to increase in price. Business owners across the world have to learn how to have an edge on all of the events happening in the world. If they don't they will fall behind, and lose customers. I've never really thought about things like that until the past few days in class, and it's made me realize how important it is to have global vision in the current market.

Dylan Lewis

"Do not believe them when they say, ‘your strength lies in diversity' this is a liberal lie. The truth is that your strength lies in unity." This is a quote by Mike Fry, my physics teacher, speaking at my high school graduation. He also happens to be the smartest person I have ever met. The man does physics problems in his head faster than his students can punch the problem into a calculator. I have often remembered this quote when people are talking about making the school, workplace, etc, "more diverse." I have found in my personal real world experience that a diversity of opinions and thoughts just slows things down, and so I held my position with that of Mike Fry, that strength lies in unity. It was not until our study of Covey and the maturity continuum that I discovered the reality, that diversity is in fact a help to productivity, provided that the individuals involved are sufficiently mature. What I have seen happen is that one person will present a plan for getting something done, someone else will say "that a dumb way to do that, you should do it like this..." and a third person will insult the first two, present his method and so on until someone in charge says "this is how it is, don't argue, just do it." While studying Covey I relished that the people who have these troubles are people who are not mature enough to have their ideas criticized without getting defensive. When you have people who do not feel threatened when someone presents an idea different from their own, and know how to work together to a common goal, that is when diversity becomes an asset. That being the case I think it is important to first cultivate maturity in an organization then you can move on to making a diverse workforce to help generate fresh new ideas. I am glad to have learned this, now when I hear someone say "our strength lies in diversity" I will add to myself "as long as they have maturity" instead of hearing the echo in my mind saying "that is a liberal lie." I believe my live will be better for it. And that is my post for today.

Bryan

A while ago, I received an email from my grandma with this story and the accompanying pictures. It is incredible and I wanted to share it. Here is the story.

"In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs.

Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery suddenly started to decline in health.

Although physically she was fine, the veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression.

The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother.

The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment.

Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species.

The only orphans' that could be found quickly were a litter of weanling pigs.

The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger... Would they become cubs or pork chops?

Take a look...you won't believe your eyes."

I think that is incredible. It really goes back to the idea of looking past our differences and working together. Pigs and tigers don't go together, and a lot of times, we might feel the same way about people around us. But just like these animals did, if we try, we can find a way to not only survive, but to thrive through each other.

Mark Israelsen

Okay, well I realize it's been over a month since we've discussed Covey, but when I saw this I couldn't help but think that this guy is great at carrying his own weather. What a hero! Watch this!



This guy for sure should have been in Covey's book! He could definitely make the choice to be miserable with his life, but he has made the decision to make the most with what he has. He focuses not on what he cannot do, but he looks for things that he wants to do, and he finds a way to do it. If we could all be like him, the world would be a lot farther along than we are now, because we wouldn't be so concerned with what we are unable to do, but what needs to be done, or what we want to do. Then we would do whatever it takes to make it happen. Attitude is Altitude.

'Cat Herders'

While this commercial is funny, I think it also really applies back to a lot of what we have discussed in class. I've never tried to herd cows OR cats but I can imagine that while neither of them is easy, the cats would take a lot more innovation. Sometimes we have a challenge before us and we try our hardest to fix it but it just isn't working. This is when we are trying to treat a cat like a cow. It isn't that we have a hard time herding cats, it's that we're trying to herd them like cows.

Cows are great and all, but are kind of stupid from what I can tell. They sit around all day, conform to the movements of their fellow cows, give you blank stares, etc... Cats are very different. Each one is unique, feisty, and presents it's own challenges. Yelling, roping, and poking probably won't get you the results you want. We have to treat each new challenge we come across in the business world and in our lives with this in mind. Whether it is a person you work with, a child, a customer or a problem, each one is different and will take creativity and ingenuity.

Unethical

While writing my response to Inside Job, I came across something I didn't consider before. An interesting fact that I noticed through the film, was that the Securities and Exchange Commission conducted no official investigation during this bubble explained in the film. Generally I think of people being unethical by doing unethical things, not necessarily ignoring the unethical business. When one thinks of being unethical, one tends to think of doing unethical actions, but here it is pointed out that one could be unethical simply by being blind or not looking too closely.

This is very interesting motif for me, because this crisis could be avoided somewhat by people simply being more ethical, including those who were meant to be monitoring the financial markets throughout this time frame.

The financial bubble was going to burst. The financial institutions knew this in advanced, which is why they insured their investments thoroughly. It was just a matter of who would be the failures when the market crashed, they were only interested in protecting themselves and their individual investments. This is something that I can apply to my life, in respect to not simply turning my head to ignore the unethical decisions of those around me.

Hannah Heninger

Inside Job- How We Recked Our Own Economy.

Before watching this movie, when many people spoke about the recession they mentioned I felt like they gave broad but simple reasons—loans were given to individuals too freely and consumers were greedy, many of them spending significantly over their incomes. After hearing all these aspects to the recession, it was my point of view that the recession was caused by people too incompetent to know that by spending more than they earn they were digging a hole for themselves, and with a mass majority of individuals doing it had a dramatic impact on the economy. While I know that Inside Job was slanted and meant to change views on who caused the economic crash, it definitely opened my eyes that it was more than greedy consumers wanting more material possessions. But while watching Inside Job,  I could have easily placed the fault of the whole economic crash on high powered, greedy executives. In the end though, I tried to balance between the two as I'm sure both have some responsibility to carry some fault for the current situation our country is in. Overall though I was surprised by these companies. I was amazed to see that it wasn’t just one case or company working around regulations and respectable values. It was a combination of greedy consumers wanting more they can afford and companies using and abusing both the people that keep them in business and the rules meant to regulate their organizations for the best interest for the economy. Honestly there is no way that the whole economy could be pin pointed to one, or even a few individuals. While it is easier to blame the executives of these important companies, there is more blame than those individuals could ever be responsible for. The slipping of top executives, consumers, government officials and some additional individuals was how so much changed in so little time. In my opinion, the economic crash was bound to happen because of the overall downward slope of living the values that we as a society used to cherish, but are now considered “old fashioned”. Now not only do I see a broader perspective about some of these nation wide issues, but also am more grateful for individuals like Stephen Covey and Jon Huntsman who stand for integrity and as positive leadership examples.