Investing

Two Lovely Ladies Last Night

Every now and then I try and pass on some experience from work that I think will be helpful at that distant point in the future my grandchildren (hope still abounds for use of the plural) read this blog. I did something yesterday that I think fits the bill. A couple months ago I formed what I’ve taken to calling a “Driver’s Council”. I selected (after some hooking and jabbing with union leadership) some experienced drivers to meet regularly to discuss future changes or possible improvements to the transit schedules and routings. We’ve been meeting for several months now and they’ve already seen some of their ideas come to fruition in the form of modified schedules. Yesterday I took the entire group to the weekly high level meeting I have with the political leadership and they were awesome.

Drivers Council at Yesterday's Meeting

The lesson here is – find a way to give employees a voice. It’s important to get the right mix and to get employees who actually care (the hardest part of the process). The involvement not only provides empowerment but it can be deadly to the inevitable bottom feeders every profession is cursed with. The “lobby lawyers” have had their feet cut out from under them by this move as their seemingly constant negativism is countered by management who actually listens to their more professionally gifted counterparts. It’s a lot like life and politics, the nosiest ones aren’t always the ones making the most sense, find the quiet professionals and tap into their knowledge and experience.

Wingman Was in Baltimore Yesterday

Strangely I learned this from my early days as a lieutenant. Most outsiders think of the military as this monolithic “Yes Man” authority structure but the truth is far different. The really good young (and old for that matter) officers listen to their subordinates (especially NCOs) who normally have a vastly wider range of experience in things that matter. The same holds true for this current situation. These drivers spend 40+ hours a week behind the wheel driving a bus on the schedules I’m charged with overseeing. To think they wouldn’t have something valuable to add to any discussion of those schedules would be blind arrogance; plus their good ideas make me look better (and we all know I can use all the help possible there).

My Sister Asking The First Blog Reader Her Opinion on a Blogname

My comment yesterday on the blog about my elder sister wanting a Blog Name as sexy as the newly crowned Soxfather drew some spirited discussion. I’ve decided, due to the critically important part she’s played in my life, she deserves a Frail Deeds nickname. I floated the concept of her childhood nickname yesterday – Miss Oh So Perfect – which elicited the expected response. I might be on to something because apparently the name has staying power as none other than the august personality of the Cantankerous Friend weighed in with an opinion (I know – shocking). Since we jointly misspent a lot of our youth together he was able to recall the nickname without reading the blog, so maybe it should be “Ms. Oh So Perfect”. Some of the possibilities that came to mind were: Softouch (for her approach to pet discipline); Cupcake Aunty (for her early cooking interventions with my children), Clydesdale (for her novel approach to descending stairs), Poolgirl (for her dedicated immersion time), Kringle Killer (for her penchant to lynch Santa Claus effigies on her front porch), or Elderosity (for her documented chronological advantage over me). So those of you who know her and her idiosyncrasies please help me out and propose possible names for her. This might be fun.

Cat: "So I noticed you Started Eating Chicken"