"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.

Group Six Discussion

-Group Six-
Since the invention of currency, some people have attempted to gather money unfairly. From the absurdly high leverage of risky banks to the unsustainable business model of Charles Ponzi (seen to the left), the many ways to pilfer money are only limited by the imagination. The catch of course, is that business models are marked by an equal amount of instability as unfairness - No-one wants to lose their money through scam or guile. Conversely, win-win business models promote much more stability, as do ethical models in general. Bill Gates is renowned for his philanthropy and "billionaire's club" of charity, while maintaining his position as the richest man in America. Buying from Microsoft is akin to making a minor donation. Huntsman intends to leave an even more remarkable legacy of kindness, he intends to donate his entire fortune to charitable causes by the end of his life. Covey's 7 habits all point to ways in which we can build good business attributes and help others succeed without being "shady" in our approach to life and business.

After reading "Winners never cheat" and watching the movie about the current recession, do you believe it is easier to obtain success through honest principles, or is the better way to succeed in business is to cheat, lie, and steam roll other people over?

Remember that there are always two sides to the story. Carlie brought up examples from her economics class about how her Professor thought that the "Bribes" in other countries to get a foot in business was a part of the culture, a tax (If you will). Please be open minded with your thoughts and feel free to share them, this should be an easy way to share your feelings on business and what you feel is ethical. Responding to this can also be a great way to share one or more of the 5 required blog posts that have to be done in four weeks.

Work Space

My group read Tom Kelley's book, The Art of Innovation. This book is about the company IDEO and the process that they take to create new products. One of the keys to being creative and innovative that Kelley pointed out is the importance of working in a great space. So at IDEO they have a very creative and energetic work space, where employees are allowed to express themselves. A couple of days after reading this section in the book, I saw a story on the news about another company that also promotes having a fun and inviting work space. The picture above is one of the desks that can be found in a Zappos office. If you don't know, Zappos is an online apparel and home goods vendor. These are the types of desks that the customer service representatives sit at as they take calls regarding customer's complaints or problems. I personally have ordered products from Zappos before, and found that I needed to call in to the customer service department with a question. I have never talked to a more friendly and helpful sales representative in my life. They were very accommodating and gave me store credit, even when they were not at fault. After connecting all of these together, I wondered if there are even more benefits to a creative work space, besides just giving the employee that environment to be more creative with new ideas. Both IDEO and Zappos employees have the freedom to decorate their space how they want, which could then make them feel more at home while at work. Is it possible that having more of an emotional connection with a workspace would make an employee more comfortable, happier, and therefore more willing to be loyal and give their best effort to the company? I also found another example of this in the Pixar movie, Monsters Inc. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert) the monsters realize that children's laughter gives more energy than a scream does. So when the monsters change their focus on getting kids to laugh, the atmosphere of the work space changes, literally. The monsters put more work into their job, because they love to be there. I'd love to hear any of your experiences or opinions that relate to this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-jzSuYb9Y Jaimie Beazer

Criticism pains?

Discussing the benchmarks in class today made me think of a quote by Winston Churchill (1874-1965). He said,

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

I think a lot of us who struggle with criticism may never have stoped to think of it in a such a light. --Pain is uncomfortable, but it is necessary to bring mortal danger to our awareness. If we ignore pain, we ignore our very survival and well-being. Criticism is much the same thing except its function is to alert us of other hazards that are holding us back from our potential success in all other walks of life. It hurts, but ignoring it will always render us worse off. The Covey Benchmarks are a great resource for constructive criticism. If we can view these criticisms as merely our "alert" of the qualities in our life that need to be remedied, and honestly strive to understand and act on them, then our benchmarks will in fact be one of the greatest tools for our life success.

Cason Wortley

Greed is Good (Group 8)

What did greed do to this country?

The deregulation of the banks was not necessarily the problem that led to the downfall, but rather the people in charge at the time of deregulation. The banks in 2008 saw greed and personal gain as being more important than the welfare of others. They had a mindset of getting wealthy quick, no matter the cost to others. How could the principles in "Winners Never Cheat," by Jon M. Huntsman, have been applied to help prevent the economic crisis of 2008?

Group 8: Michaela Ferguson, Blair Jensen, Blake Brinkerhoff, Cason Wortley, and J.D. Ogilvie