Bryan Strawser

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Archives for 2004

The Patriots of Massachusetts

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Those of you that know me, know that I am not a fan of Senator Ted Kennedy. He is the senior Senator of the state in which I reside and other than that, I don’t really have much kind to say about the man.

I watched his speech tonight, and while most of it went as I expected from the Senator, I was rather impressed with this section of his speech:

The roots of that America are planted deep in the New England soil. Across this region are burial grounds, many so humble you find them without intending to. You’re in a town like Concord, Massachusetts, or Hancock, New Hampshire. You’re visiting the old church there, and behind the chapel you find a small plot. Simple stones bearing simple markers. The markers say ”War of 1776.”

They do not ask for attention. But they command it all the same. These are the patriots who won our freedom. These are the first Americans, who enlisted in a fight for something larger than themselves — for a shared faith in the future, for a nation that was alive in their hearts but not yet a part of their world.

They and their fellow patriots won their battle. But the larger battle for freedom, justice, equality and opportunity is our battle too, and it is never fully won. Each new generation has to take up the cause. Sometimes with weapons in hand; sometimes armed only with faith and hope, like the marchers in Birmingham or Selma four decades ago.

Sometimes the fight is waged in Congress or the courts; sometimes on foreign shores, like the battle that called one of my brothers to war in the Pacific, and another to die in Europe.

Now it is our turn to take up the cause.

One of the things I am most amazed by, as I walk the streets of Boston, or find myself out in Concord, or Lexington, or as I pass by the Old Granary Burying Ground, is that I’m walking the same places that these men walked – trodding the same ground that these men walked – and looking over the same sights as they did – though they are much different now.

They were the men who stood at the bridge in Concord, Massachusetts and refused to yield:


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Senator Kennedy is right. As you walk through the town square, you’ll spy the church just off of the village green. You’ll be drawn through the front doors, off to the side, and then out the door that leads into the church plot out back. You’ll spy the more modern stones of recent years – but you’ll be drawn to the dull white one at the edge of the field. And there, you’ll come face to face with a man that died in 1775.. or 1776.. or 1777.. and you’ll hear his call from beyond.

That’s one of the wonders of living in this place where our country was born as an idea in the heads of men like John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, John Hancock, Sam Adams, Paul Revere… and many others.

Accountability and Leadership

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A few days ago, Lex made a posting about Zero Tolerance and accountability – in his case, about the Navy’s stance on the drug issue – but, more generally, about accountability overall.

I am fortunate, I think, to work for a company that takes accountability very seriously. As a mid-level manager, accountability is a large part of my job. And yet, it is something that took me many years to truly understand – and an issue that I see many of my peers struggle with as they try to achieve the results expected of them in their job.

My own sense of accountability in the workplace came from my first real job out of high school, with the Fountain County Sheriff’s Department. During my tenure there, a deputy was suspended for five days without pay for not following proper procedures that had been laid down by the Sheriff. It was a tough punishment, but one that the Sheriff clearly felt was required given the infraction.

When I first became a manager in 1995 in Columbus, Indiana – accountability wasn’t my strong point. It’s easy in most cases to sit down and talk with someone about an ethical issue – theft, fraud, sexual harassment, etc. The issues are clear cut – and almost everyone realizes that this behavior is wrong. It’s far more difficult to sit down with someone, look them in the eye, and talk with them directly about their shortcomings as an employee – or as a manager. And took me years to both fully understand – and to develop the self-confidence and courage needed to do it effectively.

And there’s still room to grow.

I’ve been promoted a few times since then – and I’ve learned that the stakes are higher the farther you move up the chain. In my current role, if I sit down with a direct report and talk with them about their performance – I’m no longer dealing with an entry level hourly employee – I’m talking to a mother or a father – someone with years invested in this corporation – and who is likely the breadwinner for their family. Most of my team owns a home. Almost all of them are married – and half of them have children. Dealing with someone’s lack of performance now could result in a serious issue for many people.

The counterbalance though, of course, is that it must be done. The great leaders on a team want the team to be held accountable – because they’re only as good as the weakest link on the team. They want to be held to a high standard – but more important – they want to win. And to do that, they want only the best as a part of their peer group.. their team.

And it’s my job to help create that environment for them.

And unfortunately, that means sometimes I have to fire people. It’s not fun… in fact, I hate it. But I do it.

But like Lex, I take it as a personal failure. Particularly if I brought them into this company. It means I made a bad hire, I did a bad job with their training, a bad job coaching and mentoring them along, a bad job developing them, a bad job supporting them, or just a bad job leading them.. or some combination of these…

I originally had something in mind on how to end this entry, but in the midst of everything else I had going on tonight, I can’t remember what that was.. so we’ll end things here.. Accountability is a key part of being a leader – but it requires appropriate self-confidence and some courage to be willing to do the right thing.

A Letter from Michael Moore?

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Last week, I wrote a posting about Michael Moore. Not long afterwards, I received the following comment via the website:

IP Address: 24.177.171.21
Name: Michael Moore
Email Address: mmoore@michaelmoore.com
URL: http://www.michaelmoore.com

Comments:

Bryan,

You like to report negative information about me. Why don’t you see my documentary first before you criticize my film. People like you live off of other people’s review. Why don’t you take a stance and be a true american. For once in your life, make up your own mind after you have the facts!

Mr. Moore

Now, I’m a skeptical guy. I checked the IP Address – which returns to Michigan.

So Mr. Moore lives in Michigan, the e-mail address appears to be his. And the posting sounds like something he would write.

So, what do you think, is it really him? I sent him a reply e-mail to see.

New Laptop

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Nothing like coming into work and unexpectedly finding a brand new Dell Latitude 600 w/ integrated Wi-Fi waiting on my arrival.

My work laptop has been in use (by me) since October 1998 – this for a guy who typically lives on the cutting edge of technology. So the new laptop (and now new PDA) is quite welcome.

It’s certainly not going to replace my Apple Powerbook for general day to day usage, but it’s certainly going to help while I’m in the office.

Retirement

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Tim, the writer at CPT Patti is retiring from blogging now that his wife has returned from her fourteen months in Baghdad:

Finally, I’m going to borrow a phrase from Naomi Judd and “Resign as general manager of the universe.”

Patti and I have fourteen months of stressful separation to overcome. We have a home and a relationship to rebuild, and we have immeasurable thanks to return to Him, by whose hand Patti has returned safe and whole. There is much on which I need to focus. Moreover, I need to be fully present in the real world. So…I’m pulling up the stakes in cyberspace and replanting my feet squarely in The America I Live In.

I’m grateful to those of you with whom I’ve walked the last fourteen months. Many wrote to encourage, some wrote to praise and others wrote to politely challenge. Some shared photos, others joy, and a few, tragedy. You filled the vast loneliness of a tiny apartment, and some of us formed an odd little 21st century family, brought together by a common event.

Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for sharing with me. I wish you well. I wish you joy.

CPT Patti was one of my daily reads in my tour around the blogosphere. Tim will be missed.

Farewell – and I’m glad that you’re both together again.

Heroes

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From today’s New York Times:

Of the 33 passengers on the plane who were not hijackers, at least 10, and two crew members, spoke to people on the ground. At least five of the calls included discussion of the World Trade Center. At 9:57, about seven minutes before the end, one of the passengers ended her conversation saying: “Everyone’s running up to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”

The report indicates that Mr. Jarrah, at the controls of United 93, did what many airline pilots have fantasized about since the hijackings: tried to maneuver the plane sharply, rolling and pitching, to keep control of the cockpit. It apparently did not work; the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

The report does not clarify whether the hijackers’ goal for Flight 93 was the White House or the Capitol, but indicates that the hijackers tuned a cockpit radio to the frequency of a navigation beacon at National Airport, just across the Potomac River from the capital, erasing any doubt about the region of their intended destination.

At three seconds after 10 a.m., Mr. Jarrah is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?”

But another hijacker responds: “No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off.”

The voice recorder captured sounds of continued fighting, and Mr. Jarrah pitched the plane up and then down. A passenger is heard to say, “In the cockpit. If we don’t we’ll die!”

Then a passenger yelled “Roll it!” Some aviation experts have speculated that this was a reference to a food cart, being used as a battering ram.

Mr. Jarrah “stopped the violent maneuvers” at 10:01:00, according to the report, and said, “Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!”

“He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, `Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?’ to which the other replied, `Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.’ ”

Eighty seconds later, a hijacker is heard to say, “Pull it down! Pull it down!”

“The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them,” according to the report, which seems to indicate that the hijackers themselves crashed the plane. “With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes’ flying time from Washington, D.C,” according to the report.