Are you serious?

Cirque du Soleil = Wow!

Have you ever been?  Go!  Astounding.  Magical.  Athleticism meets ballet meets crowd-pleasing showmanship.

Riddlee o’ the day:  Why did Rudolph have to stay after school?  (Answer at the bottom.)

How is your holiday Hallmark movie-watching coming along?

Each and every Hallmark plot is centered on a devastating erroneous assumption made by the hero(ine) just prior to the story’s climax; love wins in the end.

I will confess to having watched at least parts of a few; usually you only need to have watched the final ten minutes to enjoy 99% of the story.

How often do each of us make erroneous assumptions to our own detriment?

• A passenger ship five times larger than The Titanic is under construction in Finland.
  • It will hold 10,000 humans — 75% customers and 25% staff — who choose to sail the high seas together.
  • Anyone sense a disaster-in-the-making here?
  • On a positive note, it is reportedly much greener than most of its predecessors, fueled by natural gas and featuring a self-contained sewage system.
  • Not sure, but we don’t think the two are connected.
• Try, go ahead, just try to choose a favourite story from the latest Smithsonian.
  • Surely, among your nominees will be the mountain of perfectly white marble at Carrara from which Michelangelo sourced the best product for his most iconic sculptures.
  • And, you knew this was coming sooner or later:  Can Artificial Intelligence sculpt a masterpiece equal to the Master’s in one-hundredth the time?
  • And, if it can, as by now we’ve witnessed it can, will the robotic art arouse in the soul the same stirrings of wonderment and emotion as David or The Pieta?
  • Does it matter?  Will it matter?
  • Out on Ziolkowski’s mountain in the Black Hills I’m wondering whether those workers, having been hard at work for 75 years, will abandon their hand tools in favour of Hal?
• Nurses rule the day — and the night — when it comes to honesty, integrity, and trust.
  • And, by contrast, members of the United States Congress are in the cellar.
  • Less than ten percent (10%) of U.S. citizens rate Congress as having high ethical behaviour, while eighty-one percent (81%) rank nurses on the other end of that continuum.
  • Judges scored thirty-eight percent (38%) and clergy thirty-six percent (36%).
  • Perhaps most troubling is the perceived ethics of almost all businesses and professions is lower than at any point in the last twenty years. (Gallup)
• Wanna munch your Cheetos while on a ZOOM call or chatting with your Bestie/ BAE/ BOO?
  • The Cheetos company has launched crunch cancellation software that removes the sound of chewing from voice chat, ZOOM, or any call using headphones.
  • “It works on anything that accepts a microphone,” said Fashbaugh, lead developer at Smooth Technology which worked with Doritos to create the free application.
  • “Crunch is one of the (more) distracting features that could throw someone off their game,” said Shamseldin, chief marketing officer of international foods at PepsiCo.
  • Snack while you work, snack while you game, snack without the sound of crunch and munch!  Genius.
• Stolen from Harvey McKay:
  • “Years ago a salesperson told me a story about his daughter.
  • She insisted on buying her favourite gumdrops from a particular candy store run by Nick, even though a more convenient candy store had recently opened.
  • The reason, she said, ‘Nick always gives me more candy; the people at the other store always take it away.’
  • Nick knew to put less than a pound of candy on the scale and to add to it,
  • while the other store put more than a pound on the scale then took some away.”
  • The visual makes all the difference; you aren’t just selling products, you’re developing and sustaining relationships.
• “Dead people receive more flowers than the living because regret is stronger than gratitude.”  (A. Frank)
• This next section, informed by Brassey, Etc., et al. (2023), is so powerful we will conclude with it:
  • (If you ever get serious about this, we can help you to conduct an internal audit of your organization.)
  1. • Do we treat employee mental health and well-being as a strategic priority?
• • • (Spoiler alert:  One of our clients DOES have this as a written strategic imperative; hooray!)
  • Do we effectively address toxic behaviours?
    • (Spoiler alert:  This is a hyuuuge one because avoidance of the issue will not cure the disease.)
  • Do we create and sustain inclusive work environments?
    • (Spoiler alert:  Experts identify sixteen — 16 — different practices and the measurement of six — 6 — different outcomes… wanna get serious about this?!)
  • Do we promote and enable individual growth?
    • (Remember this topic from a few weeks back?  How can the team grow if the individuals on the team don’t grow?)
  • Do we promise sustainable work?
    • (Spoiler alert:  Each day features achievable fresh actions and tasks addressed with enthusiasm, high morale, productivity, and satisfaction.)
  • Do we hold leaders accountable?
    • (Spoiler alert:  Gone are the days — hopefully, but not everywhere — when the leader is always right no matter what.)
  • Are we effectively tackling stigma?
    • (Spoiler alert:  Culture will win out over goals and rhetoric every single time.  You are who you are by the evidence and not by your words.)
  • Do we allocate resources consistent with our mental health/ well-being goals?
    • (Spoiler alert:  Follow the money, rarely is something achieved without having made it a financial priority.)

Next week:  Another Primer on so-called Imposter Syndrome.