I knitted some baby sweaters, hats, and booties. How should I was them? I used acrylic yarn for everything. I have some baby body wash. I've heard you can wash it with that, is that true? They are for a gift, so I have to be careful with them.
Look on your label. If you want them perfect, just wash in something like Woolite. I would, however, throw a swatch into the washer and dryer and see what happens. Normally, you can machine wash this stuff - it's the dryer that fuzzes them out. I wash and dry most of my acrylic yarn afghans in the washer and dryer on delicate, low and cold water. But, I also test with a swatch to see if it fuzzes first.
# what are those noises at the beginning of this video kelby Kilmer
Defining a Refreshed and Irreplaceable Type of Organizational Leadership: The LeaderShaped Leader
Included with this full Bison Group text:
1. Article Summary
The Idea in Brief – the core idea
The Idea in Practice – putting the idea to work
2. LeaderShaping as a Philosophy
An attempt to perceive what things really are, not how they appear to be, and to discern how things really work, not how they appear to work – a comprehensive overview on the differences in “leadership,” “management” and “LeaderShaping” – and why LeaderShaping matters today.
3. Further Reading – Experiential Learning
Realize that you are becoming LeaderShaped; flawlessly execute to reach your breakout point – this is what is called “Breakthrough Execution for Peak Performance.”
THE IDEA IN BRIEF
Organizational Behavior (OB): Emerging Realities that Transforms the Workplace. This paper presents an overview of the Bison Group’s executive education program on the theories and practices of organizational behavior and the techniques of applied management – Defining a Refreshed and Irreplaceable Type of Organizational Leadership: The LeaderShaped Leader. This course is being taught at Temple University and focuses on individual and team behavior (leadership development, accountability, a contextual blend of the paradoxical combination of deep personal humility that achieves Personal Proficiency with an intense will to achieve Professional Mastery) in life and in organizations.
Taking a passive approach to influencing peak performance will most likely lead to exasperating results that you will regret later in life. LeaderShaping continues the trailblazing innovations that make other studies that develop healthy workplace cultures less appetizing. Integrating the strategies, practices, tactics and principles of the United States Marine Corps, discussions of traditional behavioral theories, organizational dynamics, current trends and transformative directions to develop the archetype for a solid Future Picture offers new “OB” realities and knowledge that everyone needs in and around organizational environments.
Acclaimed for its readability and presentation of current knowledge, the course’s philosophy is that OB and strategic-execution knowledge is a “must” for everyone, not just traditional leaders. The Process of LeaderShaping is unparalleled in its ability to engage participants by bringing cutting edge military-style battlefield concepts closer to reality through the “OODA Loop” approach: Observe, orient, decide and act – it has become an important concept in both business and military strategy. This military strategy, when applied to the concepts in LeaderShaping, allow participants to connect OB theories to emerging workplace realities (the developers of this concept emphasized that “the loop” is actually a set of interactive spheres that are to be kept in continuous movement during combat; hence, the phase of any competitive engagement has an important bearing on the ideal allocation of one’s energies).
Accordingly, decision-making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe-orient-decide-act. An entity (whether an individual, a team or an organization) that can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby “get inside” the opponent’s decision cycle and gain the advantage. LeaderShaping’s use of this strategy provides a much deeper, richer, and more comprehensive “set of lenses” to glean instruction from OB best practices. The Bison Group’s interpretation explains how to direct one’s energies to separate emotionally from constructive conflict, defeat an adversary and survive – both in business and in life.
What is LeaderShaping and WHY should it matter?
A synonym for “Fearlessness,” LeaderShaping provides the cultural influences and the collective behaviors used for facing the reality of your current situation, to recognize what you can actually achieve given the powerful organizational and relationship dynamics without thinking that you cannot actually achieve success through your own will, and become more powerful than you are. And then, at the same time, while moving equal amounts of energy from the depths of your character, you decide who you want to be, so that you can stand firm on personal conviction and the practices of life that you believe most deeply in so as to accept criticism and achieve greatness. This is the beginning stage within an expected healthy debate about the nature and effectiveness of employing transformational thinking and change across organizations that is seeking to achieve a well planned Future Picture for generations to follow.
Simplified: LeaderShaping is the stimulus that moves a decision into reality and away from a state of fearlessness by increasing two very different perspectives in a person’s life – “Personal Proficiency” and “Professional Mastery!” LeaderShaping works to provide summary answers to key questions about why it is important for people to accept change using transformational thinking: What is it? How is it applied? Why is it critical to my current circumstance? How will it help me to respond to problems and challenges? Can it help me with influencing positive change within my point of view? How does it help me to respond to the pace of my changing environment? How does it help me to respond to rules and procedures set by others? (Personal Proficiency)
As it relates external organizational relationships, LeaderShaping prepares your voice to be heard in answering these key questions: Where does your organization want to be in the future? What will the organization apply its resources against to achieve its Future Picture? How will the organization apply those resources? When and under what conditions will the organization exit from its current strategic plan? (Professional Mastery)
LeaderShaping provides a performance DNA using the Bison Group’s Breakthrough TTI Performance DNA™ LeaderShaping instruments that is designed to increase the understanding of an individual's talents. The instruments provide insight into three distinctive areas: Behaviors, motivators, and competencies. Understanding strengths and weaknesses, “Strength Finders,” in each of the three areas, the user is led into an achieved level of personal and professional development along with a higher level of satisfaction.
The Prerequisites
A willingness to achieve a successful life, business, organization, team and future by learning to apply the skills and acumen “not” previously used in order to get greater returns on your behavioral deposits and withdrawals, and human capital investments.
THE IDEA IN PRACTICE
“Personal Proficiency + Professional Mastery = A LeaderShaped Leader”
How do ordinary people manifest humility to achieve significant Personal Proficiencies that deliver extraordinary results? They remain on a continuum for learning to achieve greatness, become an agent of change through positive organizational behaviors and establish a leadership signature that links their leadership to their legacy.
Most importantly, when the unexpected happens and the results are less than expected, they carry the pains and burdens upon their shoulders without blame to others – relying on a Memorandum of Understanding – the collective behaviors and cultural influences from the trusted people, their teams, within their employ.
A Memorandum of Understanding, the inspired standards and code of conduct, demonstrate the LeaderShaped Leaders’ unwavering will and drive. Intolerant of mediocrity and failure, they are determined to do whatever must be done to produce extraordinary results – terminating everything that has the potential to get in their way. And, they develop others to successfully complete succession planning to ensure that the torch can be carried by competent men and women into the future.
Can you become a LeaderShaped Leader?
The LeaderShaped Leader sits atop a hierarchy of six significant leadership and organizational behavior stages – and possesses the skills of all six. Individuals without these skills have gaps in their understanding of producing exceptional leadership for the 21st century and beyond. Gone are the days of good and great; the future requires exceptional and extraordinary. With these six skill sets, leaders are able to perform in ways that leaves others amazed because of their ability to make it look so easy, yet effective.
The LeaderShaped Leader
Perhaps the most important component in the transition from ordinary to extraordinary is what our faculty calls, the “Process of LeaderShaping: the ‘intellectual and emotional thought space’ for value creation.”
Stage 1 is the “Recruit, the good-to-great highly capable individual who makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits. This individual is the one person in the environment that understands ‘people first, then the organization;’ hence, the development and achievement of the desired effects within the expected Future Picture.”
Stage 2 is the Experienced Manager “who is working to establish his/her ‘Leadership Signature’ to integrate their newly found skills to the achievement of team and organizational objectives (mission) and work effectively with others in a team-led environment. The Experienced Manager begins his/her growth by learning the constructs in the Memorandum of Understanding to find a voice; then, influences others to find theirs.”
Stage 3 is the competent Fleet Leader who “understands the criticality of employing organizational behavior across environments – organizes people and resources to develop an effective strategy forward using the critical Centers of Gravity to achieve the desired effects.”
Stage 4 is an effective Breakthrough Executor who “outlines the specific cognitive abilities that will be sought and cultivated by other leaders in the years ahead using the Five Minds for the Future: the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind; the leader who remains committed to a vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards using team maneuvers."
Stage 5 is the Team/Project Leader who “employs the highest standards of customer service by achieving the five disciplines of greatness – these are the leaders who understand maneuver warfare and the disciplines within a Five Paragraph Order: SMEAC. They know an extraordinary organization is one that is driven by extraordinary people who make a distinctive impact and deliver superior performance over a long period of time – as a team unit.”
Stage 6 is the LeaderShaped Leader “who employs organizational strategic execution tactics (The OrgSx Paradigm) to permeate enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. All successful organizations have a single component in common; they have a strategic-executor at the helm who knows the disciplines of ‘strategic agility’ and ‘flawless execution.’ These leaders are described as being tactical in their approach, ferocious and fearless, yet modest with an unwavering commitment to high standards.” This is the leader who knows how to win!
A synonym for “Fearlessness,” LeaderShaping provides the cultural influences and the collective behaviors used for facing the reality of your current situation, to recognize what you can actually achieve given the powerful organizational and relationship dynamics without thinking that you can actually achieve success through your own will, and become more powerful than you are.
And then, at the same time, while moving equal amounts of energy from the depths of your character, you decide who you want to be, so that you can stand firm on personal conviction and the practices of life that you believe most deeply in, so as to accept criticism and achieve greatness. This is the beginning stage within an expected healthy debate about the nature and effectiveness of employing transformational thinking and change across organizations that is seeking to achieve a well planned Future Picture for generations to follow – greatness requires a LeaderShaped Leader for influencing the same from others and from within the growing organizations they are a part.
MAKING IT HAPPEN – LIVING THE WORK …Doing the STORY for the GLORY!
In this day and time, there are some people who are willing to have the glory before the story. Let me be the first to say that this is the wrong thinking that results terrible outcomes. Nothing in life, and certainly not in leadership, comes easy. Having the story before the glory prepares anyone for the tough road ahead and allows for the proper amount of “humility” along the way. A question to ask yourself and those individuals who trust in your leadership is this: what do we do to prepare our people, our teams and our organizations for uncertainty – a plan for the future that exceeds everyone’s expectations? The answer is a complex, yet simple one; keep pace with today’s rapidly changing business environment by engaging and improving your emotional intelligence and organizational behavior skills to recognize, adopt and adapt generational expertise, to include concepts of team-building practices and high-performance perception and values that result realistic winning solutions into the future.
Are you ready to challenge yourself to a higher purpose of leadership?
Taking on a leadership role in today’s environment is like signing on for a constant race against change. You have to stay several steps ahead of the trends...strive to develop new strategies and keep ahead of the crowd. It’s up to you to ensure that your department or team is on track for success. And now you can achieve your leadership goals!
Here is your opportunity to learn how to identify and manage the challenges you face with practical and proven-in-action techniques. The following information explains what it takes to become a “LeaderShaped Leader.” In-class exercises, coupled with updates on current research and performance management assessments, allow you to practice new ideas, military stratagem, gaming/simulation and to try out shared insights. In this highly interactive executive education program, participants will have the opportunity to learn from their team associates and peers as they stretch their leadership driven minds and methods for learning to assert their role upon return to their workplace, organization and home life.
LeaderShaping as a Philosophy
In general, philosophy is the search for sense, meaning, cause and principle using logical thinking and rigorous thought. Philosophy unearths foundations and stresses being and mechanisms, discerning what things are and how they work. It is an attempt to perceive what things really are, not how they appear to be, and to discern how things really work, not how they appear to work. Philosophy seeks ultimate, irreducible truth.
Philosophy claims to be able to make sense out of any human awareness or endeavor, however massive or minuscule. Perhaps we will find interesting things about the nature of investing in humanity. But how? The answer lies within the Process of LeaderShaping’s hierarchy of six significant leadership and organizational behavior stages.
As you think about how individuals are by nature, you quickly realize how selfish people really are. They consider their own actions first: How will this affect me? At the same time, we try to disguise our selfishness with an authentic portrayal of interests that ultimately show its true face that leads to problems. This brings us to the alpha and omega on influence. It is important to acknowledge an individual’s ability to get along well with others while achieving their cooperation and shared-vision for reaching mission objectives and assigned tasks.
Bydefining the differences between “leadership” and “management” (this is still, to some, confusing phenomena) as the prior and “LeaderShaping” as the ladder, we can identify noteworthy differences and commonalties, clarify what LeaderShaping includes that the other omits, and identify significantly fruitful ways that a marriage of the three can engender an interesting new concept or philosophy.
Leadership is frequently defined as the ability to exercise influence across a group or team of people with the expectations of meeting the mission objectives established for the future. The ability to exert such influence can derive formally from one’s position, office, title, function, control of resources, control of rewards and punishments, or role; or informally from one’s abilities, skills, experience, expertise, behavior, style, charisma, or charm. A given leader may have at his/her disposal either or both formal and informal sources of influence, but it remains his/her potential to manage them to decide just how successful they are as a leader. Regardless of the level of influence, a social relationship exists.
There are two forms of social relationships to consider; one with people and the other with the environment. So far, we’ve spoken about the people aspect, but the relationship with the environment, also known as “Social Learning Theory: the reciprocal relationships between behaviors and environments,” focuses in the area of “Organizational Behavior: the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, groups and teams act in organizations, while being influenced by others.” It does this by interpreting people/organizational relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole team, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. As you can see from the explanation above, the study of organization behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership and management, teams, execution and more.
It is important to be aware that leadership does not exist in a social vacuum, but rather is socially defined and determined in terms of one’s influence on others. Leadership only exists if there is someone to be led who accepts the leader’s influence in order to attain a goal, while management is all about managing process. Leadership, by its very nature, is an entity of influence through choice and changing environmental reality. As we think about popular culture and its belief for what leadership may be, the conclusion would bring most individuals to the conclusion (and not an assumption) that there is a greater state that achieves leadership itself. Leadership focuses on the long-term, but management places its focus on the short-term.
Leadership keeps its eye on the horizon, while management keeps its eye on the bottom-line. Leadership will tolerate failure or missteps as long as the direction provides instruction toward the goal for both the individual and the organization to learn from the failure or the lessons learned.
Failure, therefore, is viewed as a significant opportunity to learn – only when it is managed and turned into a precise process. It is therefore safe to say that when thinking about how individuals comprehend an ability to influence environments to become successful at meeting its objectives, it would be OK to acknowledge the current state of leadership does not fit into a single mold. There are six characteristics that provide a framework for people in leadership that helps them to achieve a state of understanding for its being. By gaining a thorough understanding for the framework’s place, the six characteristics define the leader’s intent and builds his/her level of trust with others – the framework is also the core discipline that increases credibility across the environments that leadership has a significant presence. The six characteristics within the framework are known as the 6Cs: Consistency, Courage, Conviction, Commitment, Contrite, and Captivating.
Consistency. Leaders steadily act to influence greatness. They achieve all accomplishments through collaboration by fostering a warrior culture and the ultimate obligation of a winner rather than an uninspired drive that results significant under-achievement.
Conviction. Leaders communicate their convictions boldly.
Commitment (Model the Way). Leaders understand that the only thing necessary for the triumph of greatness is for the chosen to fail at not trying! Allowing your walk to mirror your talk demonstrates by example “what” should be done and “how” it must be done to execute task and responsibilities strategically and flawlessly.
Contrite (Encourage and Inspire the Heart of a Winner). Leaders know when to be humble and willingly demonstrate ability for being flexible in their way of thinking, hence transformational thought. Be prepared to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate the contributions from all persons involved in the winning process.
Captivating (Inspire a Shared-Vision). Leaders are tactical in their ability to positively influence a journey within the community that helps the stakeholders to find their voices. Individuals must envision the future picture that includes a sense of vitality and creativity that appeal to the desires of all stakeholders who act and contribute to the realization of an established vision.
The characteristics that make-up this framework for leadership helps individuals to become the maverick conformists that stimulate a community’s ability to change its perspective to current reality, using best practices, when needed. As time matriculates as a changing paradigm, so does a vision and the expected outcomes within an environment of trust. And, as this happens, an individual in a position of leadership will assert or affirm positive influence that transfers an attitudinal approach for achieving excellence to others within their community. In doing so, recognition is achieved at all levels and places individuals on a continuum for future examination of proactive change.
Here are some other things about leadership for consideration. Leadership must reinforce the values of the mission outlined by positive organizational behavior. Because all actions are based on internal and often unexpressed motivation and behavior, leaders recognize that achieving buy-in from their associates is the way to success.
In contrast, management focuses exclusively on the actions and behaviors of their associates with little or no interest in the reasons behind those actions. One of the greatest attributes for effective leaders is that they are unafraid of looking vulnerable to their peers when they don’t have the answers that others are seeking. In the same light, some managers when they don’t have the answers to the information tend to place emotional distance between themselves and those seeking the information. Leaders will listen to the people around them, knowing that they may glean lessons from their peers.
Old school managers were known to talk at the people, thinking that they can not learn from people who may not be on their level. Leaders quickly and effectively learn to openly embrace diversity and multiculturalism, while managers might try to encourage traditionalism. Effective leaders inspire the heart of a winner, while a manager may focus exclusively on the mind of a player. Leaders will courageously embrace change if they feel that change is eminent for the system to experience growth.
Managers will have a difficult time overcoming resistance to change and might hold the reins tightly to preserve the status quo. Leaders inspire and develop emotional bonds to the mission at hand, but managers will tend to create compliance issues and stick closely to the status quo that might lead to a commanding perspective. Leaders create, inspire, and support ideation within their peer groups, while managers dictate based on the inflexible approach to leading.
Leadership, therefore, is crucial in creating exceptional performance. Leadership and management skills are complementary. Leadership combined with management creates synergistic opportunities and engage the mind, body, heart, and soul of the associates influenced by the actions of a winning team of great leadership qualities and positive influence. Leadership is the successful influence of management in human behavior in and away from the environment. Those chosen to lead lay foundational structure for the leaders they develop and influence to no longer just give words to lofty, ethical values; now they are required to walk the talk and deliver at high performance levels with significant implications for effective results.
Success into the future requires not only leaders who can manage, but managers who can lead systems, people, and environments into greatness, only now, at a much higher level. The people who are able to accept “command” as the exercise of authority and “control” as feedback about the effects of the action taken. This is the outcome and most significant difference from those who are LeaderShaped and the people who are not.
A discipline of leadership that works to develop an intense, custom learning experience used to understand leadership and management to increase the leadership ability – personally and professionally – in people seeking a better tomorrow means that a process must be endured. This is a process that helps individuals to drive fundamental change and to achieve communal commitment by applying a unified framework of understanding a significant body of knowledge – the body of knowledge that encapsulates leadership, management, organizational behavior, team building and strategic execution – hence, the essential and key disciplines in LeaderShaping!
In addition to what has been explained thus far, LeaderShaping too, inspires and encourages a shared-vision of making “deposits” and “withdrawals” that both profit individuals and organizations and creates winning attitudes within the race of change. There are several questions to consider here: how would one go about creating new paradigms to current reality and norms? How do you overcome resistance to change? A third issue to examine is the outcome of the Future Picture (a state that you intend to make happen as a successful platform for forward motion or an end-state). How do you stimulate change and own it as a requirement for transitioning your life, relationships, teams, or organizational development? The answer to these questions lie in your ability to comprehend the profound implications of both the social aspects in leadership and the centurion principles that each LeaderShaped Leader possesses: a rise throughout the ranks of leadership while demonstrating exceptional mental sharpness and discipline, and physical endurance to understand and deal with the strategic and tactical thought …and it all comes at a cost; “emotional restraint, sweat and sacrifice.”
The LeaderShaped Leader’s sword is his/her ability to outthink his enemy using a strategic and tactical philosophy and approach, touching the enemy first before anyone else in battle (the first to engage) to win them by leading from the front with strength, honor and unyielding integrity. The key is not to engage the enemy on their terrain, but to change their behaviors by engaging them prior to arriving to the battle – you win by changing the way they think by keeping them on the offensive with a well designed Battleplan.
An interesting state of affairs exists between leadership, management and LeaderShaping – people, both as followers and leaders themselves, and the complex dance along the way. To be an effective leader, an individual must possess certain qualities or certain sources of influence that other people do not possess. They seek to readily employ these qualities as credible resources to address various burning platforms before they flare up when required or needed.
In a sense then, a leader is someone who differs from all others. If leadership was easy, more people would be doing it and recruited for it. However, when you add the additional ingredients that are needed for the 21st century and beyond, LeaderShaping, the leader must perform a very difficult balancing act, to be like their followers, but also to behave differently than their followers. Expressing this balancing act in a somewhat different manner, a leader must be in front of followers, (no longer leading from the flanks, rear or middle) taking people from a an ordinary group to an extraordinary team, where they must want to journey or be influenced to go.
LeaderShaped Leaders must be able to do the following, much different from leaders:
Transform their way of thinking from simply thinking outside of the box; they must have the know-how to bury the box and be damn certain that the enemy cannot find the box and dig it up.
Understand that failure is the greatest teacher; “victory” instructs the simple, “failure” the wise; success teaches few lessons, but failure teaches many. Debrief for lessons learned and learn from them – the failures that is!
Know “how-to” use fresh ideas, hone them for efficient and effective integration, and model for reproduction using the ideas as the basis for modeling to learn, teach, and lead into the future: Instruct a shared-vision by influencing trust through balance; Demonstrate by example the benefits and features found in success; Experience the glory after executing process and procedure flawlessly; and Assess all areas of the environment to reshape and reconfigure process to ensure enduring success.
Understand the know-how for using the Seven “D’s” of Courage: (1) Desire: Become a champion of change; a major part of a solution; (2) Dream: Achieve a preferred future picture with just leaders; (3) Decisiveness: Recognize the process of trust, competence, and influence to encourage and inspire a journey to find your voice; (4) Dare: The courage to act outweighs the fear to not! (5) Dedication: Remain committed to fulfill the responsibility within a call; (6) Direction: Achieve a clear plan of influenced and proactive change; and (7) Dependence: Rely on achieving greatness – not effectiveness.
Transfer the knowledge and use of the “The Morale Constructs Strategy.” The secret to building a shared-vision across an organization is to get the associates to think less of their motives and more of the mission at hand. Achieving this measure requires trust, credibility, character, and an understanding of your situational awareness at all times. Ensure the members of the community each understands the competitive forces against the system and the potential outcome should the forces breach the talent fields of the organization. Turn the mission into a crusade that everyone is a major influence to narrow the competitions base of support and room for tactical maneuvering. Always lean on “right,” as the good guy’s White Hat never hits the ground due to his convictions and disposition for righteousness.
Practice the skills found within the Memorandum of Understanding and ensure that everyone does the same.
Our research shows that building extraordinary people and organizations requires a process that facilitates a hierarchy of six disciplined stages with a foundation that also translates the process into increased effectiveness and efficiency to raise the overall performance value and growth – specifically within the individual and organizational life cycle. The foundation is a simple code of conduct, known as the “Memorandum of Understanding.”
Establishing Principles to Achieve Personal Proficiency and Professional Mastery
You now have before you the opportunity to take the steps that achieve a high level of personal mastery for your life. It requires the adoption of a “code” as a living organism into your life. How can you build awareness, use your experiences in implementing a new approach to deportment, and develop a strategy, which includes resolve and ethical conduct? This is the task before you.
It sounds like the normal work that we all know and do so well. But be cautioned, it is not! When we bind the code with rules and regulations, reporting and accountability to force conformity to standards, we will fail – to oppose change by way of fear is not what we want. Rather, achieving personal mastery is a continuous, yet discontinuous pursuit of ethical behavior that ultimately manifests into a quest of improving the human spirit; to pursue good, to do the right thing in our lives, work and in the workplace. The code says that who ever should adopt it into his/her life, will possess a level of courage – both physically and emotionally – to execute the necessary task that drives performance that exemplify the highest level of personal conviction.
Why establish a code to live and operate by? The answer is simple; establishing a code or set of principles ensures a level of conduct (code of conduct) for healthy lifestyle living and workplace etiquette. This code of conduct is also known as a “Memorandum of Understanding.” As a code of conduct, the Memorandum of Understanding provides a resource to assist people in their personal development, growth, guidance, and assessment in the leadership of self. The Memorandum of Understanding establishes a strict perspective for instructing successful practices, theories, and beliefs that drives people to achieve a successful future (how you intend to conduct yourself into the future for others to emulate).
The Memorandum of Understanding, followed by and inspired from the LeaderShaped Leader, is also designed for people to learn broadly; to inspire the service out of generosity for others; and to prepare them to lead courageously into the future. A Memorandum of Understanding must encourage a perspective to become firmly grounded in the potential for successful growth using the following constructs (A Portfolio Management Series):
The Cardinal Rules
The Guiding Precepts
The Forms of Disposition
The General Orders
The Strategy Forward – Establishing Professional Mastery
The Centers of Gravity
The Cardinal Rules. The Cardinal Rules are a set of guidelines that are invaluable for people and organizations to follow while planning and executing at the strategic or tactical level. These rules, once established by the individual(s) or teams are the rules that govern forward movement and must not change.
The Guiding Precepts. The Guiding Precepts are designed to inform people what they should and should not be doing in accordance with executing a well designed strategy to win. They also inform of the reasons “why” an action must occur and the repercussions should the individual and/or organization fail at meeting such a task.
The Forms of Disposition. The Forms of Disposition offer a substantive transformation in “thought” about how people achieve a perspective on things in life. It refers to an orchestrated, systemic and revolutionary new world-view resulting in a “change” of societies, cultures, and marketplaces due to behavioral perspective. This is today often called "systems theory," which sees a web of relationships coalescing to become something greater than the parts. Individuals must be able to look at things from a perspective that they are always changing and evolving into new forms – thinking “out-of-the-box!” We are doomed to a slow death unless radical change occurs in the way we think. Change your way of thinking or die a slow death.
The General Orders. The General Orders are broad, community-wide "need statements,” designed to encompass a variety of related issues in a person’s life or within the life cycle of an organization. These related issues are referred to as “Guiding Objectives,” which are specific items that need to be addressed. The Guiding Strategies (developed to fit current and future circumstance) are the methods identified for addressing the Guiding Objectives, and the Guiding Policies are the specific action steps that are recommended to implement the Guiding Strategies. The General Orders, all eleven of them, offer the ability to explore implications in an open and reflective manner and reinforce each other in providing a coherency and wholeness often lacking in life cycles.
The Strategy Forward – Establishing Professional Mastery. The traditional values are the foundation of the modern day; that was yesterday. Tomorrow, you have an opportunity to create commitment and the needed momentum to establish, publish, share, and teach a different set of life’s code, values, and ethics to journey into the future. After much hard work, you are prepared to develop a strategy to move forward and plan the next steps to target critical successes for winning the Future Picture. What a legacy you will leave when executed with personal and professional bearing for others to follow. This is the way of the future. This is a new chapter!
The Centers of Gravity. Just as time changes, so does the internal and external influence in your life and in the life cycle of an organization. The Centers of Gravity are the dynamics within a process that offer the greatest impact on the overall system when change happens. They offer a high level of “value” and return on your energy “investment.” When combined with the concept of parallel deposits (creating energy from various perspectives in a short period of time), the Centers of Gravity make possible the seemingly impossible task of realizing success in changing paradigms. The Centers of Gravity places significant influence on the five established epicenters of any changing system to receive desired effects: Leadership, Processes, Infrastructure, Population, and Action Units.
In summary, this Memorandum of Understanding offers an opportunity to free up our actions as public servants (leaders responsible for influencing social relationships). It is empowering, it is enabling and it grounds us in a public way on the fundamentals that we all must share. There is no ethical malaise.
It is important to realize that the “new” is not a finding from what has been lost. Rather, we are like the journey of the Scarecrow in search of a brain (brain power in this context), the Tin Woodsman in search of a heart, and the Lion in search of courage in the Wizard of Oz. Your value system is intact and has been with you the entire way thus far. This Memorandum of Understanding simply articulates and reaffirms the core value and behavioral perspective that already underlie your personal and professional conduct to achieve significant growth. The key is for everyone to have the discipline of following it to ensure successful organizational behaviors in leadership and beyond.
Summation
The challenge with overcoming the many barriers in life and in the workplace lies in our abilities as adults to stop making things so hard. Everything in life, both personally and professionally, can be achieved if we will only begin to think back to our childhood (if you remember that specific time in your life). Growing up as children reminds us of how fearless and invincible we were.
For most of us, it didn’t matter how tough the issue, we would try anything to fix a problem. All that it required was for us to think differently from the way we did prior to beginning to solve the issue that lay in our way. And, in most cases, the issue was brought to a resolution and was quickly forgotten about before moving on to something else or a bigger issue. Well, the same should apply for leadership and organizational behavior. For the LeaderShaped Leader, the journey begins by becoming a participant in an exciting, fun filled 2 hour special topics session based on the classic film, the “Wizard of Oz.”
While the metaphor of The Wizard of Oz receives light treatment in the opening session for LeaderShaping, The Seven “T’s” of Oz: Getting Results Through Critical Thinking, Effective Decision-Making and Team Building Maneuvers, uses the characters in the story as a powerful illustration to demonstrate the positive impact the seven principles gleaned from them can have on an individual’s life. Each of the six characters in the story unlocks the Steps to achieve Personal Proficiency that is required for the journey from ordinary to extraordinary.
Keeping in the tradition of providing clever instruction for people to grow their lives our team felt that there is no greater time than today to use a creative and innovative approach to provide dynamic instruction that entertains, guides, teaches and facilitates thought provoking insight for anyone to use in life. After watching the famed film classic, Frank L. Baum’s 1939 adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland et al, we noticed how the characters, through no fault of their own, found themselves in circumstances beyond their control.
Dorothy Gale from Kansas finds herself ripped from her home by a tornado and transported, beyond her will, to the Land of Oz. The Scarecrow was cosigned to life in the fields because he had no brain and, therefore, no options to make effective decisions. The Tin Woodsman was frozen with an inability to act because he lacked the heart (passion) and drive to move. And, of course, the Cowardly Lion was robbed of his courage and ability to live the life as the king of the jungle he was destined to live. Lastly, the Wicked Witch of the West was very upset because her sister was killed by Dorothy’s house when it landed on top of her from the tornado. This happening caused a snag in her plans to torment the Land of Oz with her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East!
This timeless story brings together each of these seemingly helpless characters, all of whom felt victimized by their individual circumstances and shortcomings. Feeling powerless and unable to change their situations, a unique thing happened during the journey to Emerald City. They became a team and pooled their many resources during their journey on the yellow brick road to the Land of Oz in hopes to find the great wizard to solve their problems and help them with winning the many obstacles that stood in their way. However, upon arriving in Emerald City much after a very dangerous journey, Dorothy’s trusted companion Toto pulls the curtain back to reveal a powerless Wizard who is controlling levers and blowing smoke and who can actually do nothing for them. In the end, we see each character eventually rise above their circumstances and shortcomings to achieve the results they were looking for. Their success came not from the magic of the wizard, but from each of their own willingness to change; “change is an inside-out process.” Working together to find the unique talents required to win found their way to surface to help each character achieve their own successes.
We encourage you to begin a refreshed journey of leadership for your life by enlisting in a Seven “T’s” of Oz session. The seven principles outlined in the session each demonstrate how to make significant deposits into your life and the lives of others. You’ll see glaring similarities between your life experiences and those of Dorothy Gale from Kansas, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard of Emerald City. You will be required to think “outside-the-box” for learning the uniquely creative approach for adding a new set of guiding precepts into your life.
While you will not find much more in the session and materials about The Wizard of Oz than you have already read, you will find a set of transferable skills, seven of them to be exact that begin the journey to be LeaderShaped. These skills will deepen your understanding for achieving your Personal Proficiency and Professional Mastery in life – valuable and necessary changes from the status quo – what we like to call, “a long walk on a short path on becoming a LeaderShaped Leader!”
Have a bit of leadership news, feedback on this article, or to learn more about the Process of LeaderShaping and becoming a LeaderShaped Leader, please send me an email at: Dpitts@thebisongroup.com.
I want a St. Louis Cardinals cowboy hat. Red with the STL logo on the front of it. I'm willing to pay top dollar for this priceless item. However, I'm dealing with some issues trying to find someone to do it. Who makes the best custom Cowboy Hat? Texans should know this.
There is a hat company that's been in St. Louis over 100 years. They sell a lot of manufactured product but also have access to custom made hats. If any one can get this for you, they can. They are Levine Hat Company. They are at 1416 Washington (downtown) 314-231-3359. They also have a web site where they do sell some hats on line
http://www.levinehat.com
Hope they can help you find exactly what you want.
Go Cards!
Many Hospitals Move to Disposable Scrub Hats - Are Cotton Surgical Caps Less Sterile
Several hospitals across the nation have shifted from allowing reusable, washable cotton scrub hats to strictly requiring disposable caps in the operating rooms. The change is one that is still under debate: are disposable surgical head coverings more sterile than washable cotton scrub hats?
Disposable Surgical Hat
An operating room is sterile, as most know. What some may not know, however, is that before a surgeon or any medical professional enters the operating room, the scrub hat goes on before any other part of their uniform, even before their scrubs. Because bacteria is most numerous near the surface of the epidermis coupled with hair having the possibility of carrying potentially pathogenic bacteria, covering the head and hair is of the utmost importance. So why the concern for disposable hats vs those that can be laundered and worn again?
Studies as to whether surgical infection rates when disposable scrubs versus cotton scrubs are worn are few and far between and there is no conclusive evidence on either side. That being noted, each hospital sets its own policy which determines if medical uniforms must be removed after leaving the O.R. and then fresh scrubs donned prior to re-entry of the surgical unit or if the surgeons are permitted to cover their scrubs with gowns or lab coats between cases. Consensus states that when scrubs have become soiled (or wet, regardless of the reason), then they must be changed. However, the odds of a scrub hat needing to be changed due to collecting fluid is not likely, but even so, the surgical staff can carry numerous changes of caps in the event that one does need to be replaced. If scrub caps are changed as often as all other non-disposable surgical attire, then once daily should suffice. The bacteria that hair can carry is directly related to its length, its oiliness, and its curliness; however, if the hair is contained in a hat, then the bacteria, theoretically, is no more likely to be passed to the patient during surgery whether the surgeon is sporting a disposable hat or a reusable cap. Considering that the hats are laundered under controlled conditions with the proper detergent and heat, then a cotton hat is just as sterile as its disposable counterpart.
The cotton versus disposable preference has been debated for decades. Without sufficient research to determine the impact of surgical infection directly related to attire, cotton hats will always be more prominent across the country's operating rooms than disposable hats. Besides being just as sterile as disposable hats when properly washed, cotton hats have much less of a negative impact on the environment.
For the time being, many hospitals plan to continue to allow their surgical staff to decorate the operating rooms with their colorful, cotton scrub hats, while other facilities are searching for a fashionable alternative to the bouffant so that those who want to operate in style can do so without wearing a reusable cap.
About the Author
About blue sky scrubs
blue sky scrubs are the makers of the finest and most fashionable medical scrubs and scrub caps available. blue sky scrubs have quickly become a must-have accessory for doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other medical professionals worldwide. blue sky's nursing scrubs and scrub hats are not sold in any retail stores, they can only be purchased online at www.blueskyscrubs.com.
Contacts
blue sky scrubs
Andrea Mueller, 512-420-9018
admuel@gmail.com
Best Heavy Winter Jacket and hat?
After walking down to the bus stop each morning in 7 degree weather, with only 2 hoodies, i would like to find a nice acceptable jacket. Any ideas on the best type of jacket?
I started thinking of a hunter's jacket, i dont know what they actually call them, but i assume they are pretty heavy and warm.
Also, i am looking for a type of hat. I assume its a skaters hat, but im not positive. It is like a cotton or wool hat i guess. It has a point and part of a cap on the hat.
For cold weather like that, down jackets are the best. Only downfall to those kind of jackets would be their price and maintenance, washing a down jacket can be pain! Price wise, a good down jacket can cost a couple hundred bucks such as The North Face Nuptse which sells for $200.
My own recommendation would be a snowmobile jacket. Warm, stylish, rugged.....you can get a great snowmobile jacket and not pay too much. One of the best brands is Choko. This is the brand of winter jacket I wear. My jacket kept me warm in below 0 temps. Here is a link to their website:
Best of all you can purchase a Choko jacket as an outfit with snow bib pants. Their CDI outfit retails for $130, can't beat that price for top to bottom warmth, some winter jackets alone retail for that price. The 400 outfit sells for $160.
You can Google search for other retailers that sell Choko or look on eBay for an even better deal. As for the hat your looking for.....I'm not familiar with what your looking for, but just a regular knit hat, more commonly known as a beanie works great.
funny cap,hat,EL Flashing Cap hat--EL Light, Electro Lumines
My boyfriend is turning 16 soon and I'm paranoid about what to get him. I'm planning on mailing him cute packages prior to his birthday - the gifts would have to be small. In a few of them, I planned on buying him a Hot Wheels car, a hat inscribed "You will always be my favorite baseball player" in the cap, and getting him a "Baseball Legends" book and taping his picture in the front cover. What else could I put in the packages? As well as, what could I get him for the "big present"?
We've been dating for almost a year and a half. He's into baseball and golf. He doesn't have an X-Box anymore, unfortunately. He does, however, have an iPod. I've already done "100 Reasons Why I Love You" and I've made him a CD. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Although, we are not sexually active and don't plan on that anytime soon.
Get him some fuzzy dice to hang from the mirror of his car. This will be cute, since 16 is all about driving!
One of the most popular costumes at Halloween always seems to be the Ghostbusters costumes, if you are inspired by the classic Ghostbusters films from the 1980's then there are various ways in which you can dress as your heroes this Halloween. There are various options available for people looking to buy a Ghostbuster costume over the internet. Usually the costume consists of a beige all in one jumpsuit with Ghostbuster logo on the sleeves, front and back, also many costumes come with an inflatable gun and backpack so that you can truly feel like a Ghostbuster. Also some added extras are needed which include black boots or shoes and black gloves, these can also be purchased from army surplus shops.
Making your own costume
The Ghostbuster costume can be a difficult costume to make but can be done relatively cheaply. Firstly you need a beige/white jump or flight suit, these can be found at most army surplus shops and then attach the Ghostbusters logo to the sleeves, these can be bought online. You will also need some black gloves and some black shoes or boots. Don't forget about the red and black name tags attached to the front. If you are interested in creating the full back pack then it can be made using wood and plastic and eventually painted black with added green and red buttons. Use house hold implements attached to a wooden board such as washing up bottles or toilet rolls. Obviously this is the hard part and I thoroughly recommend fully studying pictures and the film before attempting to do this element of the costume. If you use a wooden backing don't forget to sand down the edges in order to make it completely safe and use light wood such as MDF in order to make it as easy as possible to carry.
Family Costume Ideas
If you want to go as a family of Ghostbusters there are various characters from the film you can go as, including Dana Barrett from the film played by 'Sigourney Weaver', or you could dress up as Slimer which would be perfect for children or if you are feeling particularly adventurous you could try out a 'Stay Puft Marshmallow Man' costume. This can also be a difficult costume to make for yourself and there are few sites that sell the Stay Puft costume, so it will probably be a very unique costume at any Halloween party. Firstly it should start with a set of painter's overalls, make sure you buy the biggest size you can, and then fill the inside of it using billows. Then buy some blue felt for the bib around the neck, some white material to stitch into it and then some red cloth to tie around the neck. Finally buy a sailors hat and stitch 'STAY PUFT' using white thread into the front of the hat. Again make sure you study pictures from the films in order to make the costume as authentic as possible.
US $8.89
