Get out of the way, daddy wants to see the floats!

Are parades really for children?

Years ago I went to the parade for my small suburban town with a group of adults and kids. My son was just about to turn two so I figure he would enjoy the sounds and activity. Firetrucks, cheerleaders, candy and some well decorated floats.

I found myself filled with a sense of pride as the armed forces cars drive past; standing up taller, puffing out my chest.

I found myself evaluating the cheerleading squads and identifying the loose ones, one ones that should not be in skirts and really, how much energy do you have as you cheer for the cross-town game.

Six minutes past the leading police and fire department vehicles my two year old son is already board but was moderately entertained by the family next to us while I felt compelled to stay and keep watching. So I started to question, why do we really go to parades and why are we, as adults, so interested in them? 


Break down the different types of participants that were in there.

Social activity clubs from school (e.g. Football, soccer, rugby, band, cheerleading)

We are watching these in remembrance of our youth and in the hopes of what I child will be. One of the guys we were with leaned over to remind me about his great 'almost pro' freshman football experience, I revisited some amazing moments in gymnastics in grade school. This is the reflections of what we could do and remembering when people would be excited about what we do day to day, now we just work. With that I look down at my son and explain to him the significance of him playing baseball in the future and what it will mean to our time together when he is a boy schout; I am sure he was intently listening as he drooled in his stroller, fast asleep.

The Attention Whores (e.g. Homecoming king & queen, politically elected, candidates and clowns)

No, I don't see much difference in the people in that list, do you? These are the people who won't stand on the side lines and enjoy things, they need to have attention focused on them to enjoy the day. These are the people that will use the phrase "don't rain on my parade" because to them, that is it, MY parade, not OUR parade. They need to be dressed up with music, energy and entertainment because on their own, we wouldn't care. Their saving grace is they are normally tossing candy into the crowd.

The Pride Groups (e.g. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, religious groups, Millitary Forces, Fire and police)

They are the organizations that make us happy to be part of something greater, and if it isn't for us there is normally just a hushed underhanded comment. Otherwise you look at these groups with admiration and remind yourself you should get involved in helping the world more. Last is...

The Chance to Change Your Life (e.g. shriners, red hat society, church groups)

These are the 'now do something ADULT' options and you really should embrace them. These are the people that, at the core of their mission, are trying to better society in their view of beter. Isn't this the core of what we are as parents, people who now have a responsibility to better the world we are handing off? At least take a picture as a note to yourself to look at their website or calendar, that you really want to be a better person and make the place you live a better place.


Parade Announcers Take Note these are the reasons we go to parades, these are our thoughts as the participants pass. Put them in this order and help make your community a better community.


Parents get your kids from the first group as they finish the parade, distract them as you reverse up the parade route and they won't notice the attention whores and finally find a seat to show them the last two sets of participants. Then explain to them why it matters so much that they are involved, why you want to be involved and why we are going to come back next year to see this again.


See you after that last police car passes and we all flood the streets...

Alton Brown is Smarter Than Most CEOs and TV Personalities

My father will tell me over and over, 'If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.'

That goes for:

• falling off skateboard ramps
• talking to girls
• spending / saving money
• buying cars
• work & my career in just about every aspect.

Every time you change something, you impact the end result.  In business, we decide we are moving to quickly to look at WHAT we changed that made the difference and more concerned with fixing the fallout or basking in the adulation of the win. 

It is time to explore the use of a scientific tool in the business world with all the data already sitting in a corner waiting to be tapped. We have experiments, we just don't document them and often, people are not honest about the variables, effort and thus results.

So where can we look to for examples and variations?  The news is now digital, there are plenty of business articles & books out there and of course there are blogs, us spewing our minds from the perspective of what we have experienced.  With that in mind, I am going to make an effort to add more retrospective views on situations and the point I think they changed direction, the variable.  This is loose on the scientific part since the variables are plenty in daily life and we are focusing more on the research.

What is the scientific method at its core?

A seven step process to getting where you want to be.

1. Question; build your 'what if'.
2. Research; utilize what others already have learned/experienced.
3. Hypothesize; If we <insert change here> then <result> will happen.
4. Test; In business this is more of an implement/take risk idea.
5. Analyse and Conclude; Determine if your change got the desired result.
6. Proclaim the result; If your hypothesis was true state 'I knew it all along' or, conversely, 'Here is what I learned'. Don't take the easy way out and say I would have been right but something else made it happen different.
7. Report on it; Who cares if you learned something, add to the greater good of the knowledge that exists in this world.

Want a more detailed, simplified, actual version of the Scientific Method, check out ScienceBuddies to occupy a little more space in your brain. I was inspired that this method does apply to the office by a great research project that was done involving personal happiness and giving people envelopes of money covered on Ted.com.

Here is how the steps can apply more to business life and not just the IT guys in the corner, although some of them can use a refresher on the scientific method. (I'm talking to you Mr. 'we are going to have to re-image your laptop' for any damn problem.)

Step 1 Question Development

This is the day to day decision making we do at work. What if...

• we hire a less skilled member and train them instead of paying for a sales-pitched expert?
• send the team home early every so often?
• do just enough testing instead of being thurough?

You have these questions coming at you every part of the day, these are not the problem. It is identifying the one you want to learn & teach from and tracking it, documenting it and growing from it.

Step 2 Research

You have the internet right? So fire up your modem (anybody else hearing 9600 baud sounds in your head) and start typing away. Do the research on your phone while waiting for a train, sitting in the meeting nobody is on time for, whatever. Searching on what you would use as the headline for your report would be a good starting point. "Is it worth developing a skill instead of hiring it in?' might bring a few decent results from your search engine of choice... I tried it, it does... go ahead, verify it, I'll wait.

Satisfied, ok on to...

Step 3 Hypothesize

This is where you take your question, stack your research on top of it and proclaim you are going to use your environment to determine just how genius you are. So from the ones above I would have:

• IF I hire a less expensive, semi-skilled employee and train them then I will have a productive worker that cost less in the first 2 years than hiring that skill set in.
• IF the team leaves early on slow days and let them work remotely then I can increase morale and get more out of them on a regular basis.
• IF we test basic functionality then the additional, rarely used features will go unconfirmed but we would save time.

That seems pretty straight forward so on to the next item.

Step 4 Test

In the business world, this would mostly consist of implementing the change or observing what happens AS the decision has been implemented.  Your organizations is rarely going to let you set up a control group and a hypothesis group of employees to do the same job.  This is where we are going to be questioned by the scientific community on the validity of our results but this is the best measure we have right now or implementing change so we roll with it.

Step 5 Analyse & Conclude

Look back at your belief at the beginning, look at what happened, OK, now look at it again and be honest with yourself.  You are likely clouding your judgement so go ask somebody else to confirm they saw what you saw.  This is the point you have to be honest with yourself and say, 'meh, that didn't work', without giving yourself the option to dismiss it because of another variable.

Step 6 Proclaim Your Result

This may be a personal proclamation as in an email to yourself or a note stating a recognized behavior or a discussion at a team meeting.

Step 7 Report It

Figure out how you are going to do this during these experiments / learning exercises / growth opportunities.  It may be as simple as writing a blog entry or journal page about it or something as formal as a report to a superior or colleagues for their understanding.  This will give you some sense of finality to it and a growth for next time.

Cost to Business of the Scientific Method


To perform true experiments inside of a business structure would be significantly costly and not tolerated by stakeholders, executives and clients; that is what colleges are for. What I am proposing is use a similar approach, acknowledge the multiple variables but don't dismiss every problem as NOT MY FAULT. At the end of every corporate experiment do some documentation so you, and maybe others can learn from it.

Teach, Learn, Build Relationships at Work

Did you know there is somebody in your office that likes to collect gems, play the kazoo and ride a unicycle? There may be.

In the age of a mobile workforce, globally distributed teams and 'stay in your lane' organizations it is all that more important that we develop a persona/image within the organization.  (I HATE that phrase by the way and it deserves it's own conversation.)  Take an interest you have, discuss it amongst the people you talk to every day, it isn't important if you are the best, you are building a learning group here.

Why is this important?

Companies are product factories.  You take the information they have, use your smarts on them, create product, rinse repeat. For human enjoyment  (read: better work environment) we need to interact, build relationships and look forward to conversations beyond 'nice weather', and 'how is your work going?'.  When I am in the office/city with a few people that share my interest, I send them an email, come see them at their location and we talk about our topic and a little work.  This is networking for the sake of sanity.

OK, but what are good ideas?

I am the worst guitar player in our company potentially, but I talk to a group of guitar players weekly about what they are studying.   I know something about investing, but I have learned plenty from people I am talking 401k investing with, and researching topics so I can teach others.  Right now I am communicating around my new found passion for motorcycles and before that it was cycling.  I find people that are into both and want to talk to me about these passions as well.  Spending your day hearing about data can put you in a trance, break that up with a bit of a conversation about an upcoming ride and your day became much more interesting.  These become your driving conversation starter for coffee, lunch or a quick break.

Sample ideas:

investing/401k, fishing, knitting, brewing, cycling, motorcycles, musical instrument, computer building, foreign language.

I have discussed with HR departments about forming groups within the organization and have found most are OK with it as long as you avoid a few things.

• Don't use company funds for anything involved (buying them all lunch)
• Hold meetings / discussions on non-work impacting time (e.g. lunch or after work)
• Keep them aware of any HR relevant concerns that may happen during these events.
• Make it clear to those attending 'This is NOT a company sponsored/involved gathering.'

We want examples.

Figured you would...

1. Guitars - There are about five of us in my company who talk weekly about guitars, current lessons we are working on and equipment.  This is more of a relationship builder and a motivator to keep picking up the guitar that sits in the corner of the room that may otherwise be collecting dust. 
1. What I get from it - Motivation to keep practicing and people to bounce ideas off of in an interest to keep learning.  My life schedule doesn't allow for a weekly lesson schedule with a teacher.
2. What others get from it - Everybody likes to teach and show other how to do things.  Not to mention, it is great to find a group member that understands the passion for just picking up a stick & strings and making something flow from it.
2. 401k & Mutual Fund Investing - We have an email group that talks weekly on topics and meets monthly for lunch to decide topcis for the coming month.  We also offer a competitive environment where we track % change year-to-date to give a motivation to stay aware of your position and see where you relate to others.
1. What I get from it - I learn more about the topics I already know and am motivated to keep on top of my investment portfolio.  I have learned a few new topics as well that I was not aware of.
2. What others get from it - First, same as myself, they get the motivation to continue keeping on top of their 401k investments.  Second, they are learning to get better knowledge about something they have little experience about it. Third, people learn they are not alone in knowing just a little about this thing people say drives your future so much.

So there are some limitations, right?

Don't be afraid to be different, but do avoid trying to form the 'Left Handed, Left Leaning Financial Investors Club' or 'Bondage Fanatics Play Group' at work, they just cause to much exposure and are opposing topics.

Basically anything that is politically dividing or emotionally polarizing should be avoided, you don't need that kind of turbulence in your life or work environment.  While on the topic, don't allow gossip, conspiring or poor performance to be part of these topic groups.  There is no place for 'Did you hear about the blowout Manager X and Director Y had?', that is not part of your topic and not productive to a professional team.