« October 2009 | Main | December 2009 »
Thanksgiving is a traditional holiday celebrated in the US and Canada, originally set aside as a day to celebrate the annual harvest. In modern times, Thanksgiving is a day where family and friends gather to catch up, reminisce and share thanks for all of the good things in life.
At Friday Reflections, we're thankful for all of our wonderful readers and the comments and feedback you regularly share with us. You make Friday Reflections what it is, and we appreciate it.
"Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution" - Hank Aaron.
Story Line:
Jeff Kent, former second baseman for the San Francisco Giants, and five times all star, won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 2000 and is the all-time leader in home runs among second basemen. In 2002, Kent had a stellar year for a second baseman (37 HR, 108 RBI, .313 BA, and a .978 fielding percentage) which helped his team to reach the World Series.
Kent retired in 2008. In an interview a few months ago, he was asked about his most memorable moment as a Giant. One may assume that he would have mentioned his MVP year or the years with All Star selection. But what Kent said surprised most of the audience. His most memorable moment was the World Series Game 6 where Giants were three innings away from winning the World Series and ended up losing that game and final game on the following day. To him, the team winning the title was more important than any individual honor.
Reflection:
"Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Reflection: Try not to make snap judgments.
Sometimes the real reason for something isn't immediately apparent.
Story Line:
I recently saw a CNN report about hospitals guilty of surgery errors. A person went for eye surgery and came back with his/her tonsils removed. In another case, the surgeon operated on the wrong child, and in the third case, holes were drilled on the wrong side of the patient’s head. According to the report there is a daily dose of such errors across the country.
This report brought back memories of my two experiences (can be termed Near Misses) with the medical system, taking place almost 20 years apart.
In 1980, I had changed my health provider and had made an appointment to see new doctor for a cholesterol related checkup. After describing to the receptionist why I was there, I was asked to be seated. A few minutes later, a lady in white gown appeared and called out my name with a strange pronunciation.
Yep, that’s me. I got up and she asked me to follow her. On the way, she asked me what was I there for, and for the second time, I described the reason for my visit.
As soon as we entered the small room, she gave me a gown and said "Take all your clothes off except your underpants, (reemphasizing) make sure you keep your underpants on, wear this gown and wait for the doctor."
Amused and realizing that she may have missed my reason for visit that I had described on the way to the room, I tried once more to tell her that I was there for Cholesterol Test.
“But Mam” and before I could utter any more words, she interrupted and said in a stern voice, “Wait for the doctor.” Having watched the movie “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” several times, the memories of Ratched (THE NURSE) came alive and I submitted to her orders without any further protest.
A few minutes later, the door opened and a person came storming in at jet speed. It seemed that his body was ahead and the unbuttoned gown was flying behind; he reminded me of Superman or Flash Gordon. Behind him was THE NURSE with some kind of a checklist and asked “Doctor, one more question, when was the autopsy done?” Doctor gave her the answer and then looked at me and said “That was my last patient.” Seeing my reaction, he smiled indicating that it was just his sense of humor to break the ice.
Then he pulled out a reflexomer from his gown pocket and hit my left knee. My leg showed reaction. He hit it again and my leg moved again. Wondering if he was looking at the wrong knee, he then hit my right knee with reflexomer. And it moved too. (All this time I was wondering if there was a breakthrough in medical technology where they can check cholesterol just by hitting the knee or this person in front of me was a magician instead of a doctor.)
He looks at me and said “There is nothing wrong with your knee.”
I answered, “There was nothing wrong with my knee.”
“Then why are you here?” The Doctor asked.
“I am here for Cholesterol checkup”
“Then why do you have your clothes off?”
“Your NURSE asked me to take them off. I tried to tell her but she did not want to listen”
He went fuming out calling her name. In the meantime, I quickly dressed up and just about the time I was trying to escape, both of them stormed in, the nurse with an open file in her hand.
“Aren’t you Anal Shah?”. she asked (Now before I go any further in this saga, let me assure the readers that “Anal” is an authentic Indian name. It means Fire. But I also know what it means in English.)
“I am Anand Shah, not the name you just said.”Reflection:
Fast Forward 20 years. New Provider. New Hospital System. I went to the receptionist window at specialist office and gave my name.
“Weren’t you just here?”, she asked.Link to CNN video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/11/04/nr.cohen.medical.mistakes.cnn
This week, we're highlighting an interesting article on The Positivity Blog.
It seems like these days, there's a nearly endless list of things to worry about. However, hard times aren't new, and people have always found ways to overcome them. This article shares some great tips that have been useful for the past 2500 years.
To read more click here
If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good." - Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Story Line:
History is filled with stories of people and organizations who have lived upto the message of either part of above quote. FR has covered many such stories about people and organizations. Two notable ones in organizational area were, "Secrets of World's longest surviving companies" (published before FR went on web so link not available) and "Where are they now?" http://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2007/03/where-are-they-.html.
There are two types of situations that drives conformity behavior. One situation is where one does not want to ruffle any feathers, in other words just play it safe. Follow whatever rules that are laid down even if they do not make any sense any more, maintain status quo and count the time.
Reflection:
I started my career in 1975 on Middle Field Road in Mountain View California. There were close to 100 companies in two blocks area at that time. Most of them had great products and growing very fast at the time. But many companies became victims of their success and got complacent. New ideas were rejected, any one who brought competitive information that looked better than their own were ruled out or disciplined (still not as bad as Ancient Empires where people used to get executed for such noble acts).
While 99 of them perished, one of them is around and has become one of world's leading company. Secret, in my opinion: Acknowledging competitors as real and good; and getting aggressive to get better than them. Like world's longest lasting companies, already reinventing itself three times in it's young life.
