Speaking of Good Works

…speak those things which are not, as though they were…

(Romans 4:17)

I am a firm believer that when you speak your desires into the universe, if they align with God Will, He begins to move things around in your favor. Two years ago, I challenged our son to participate in a 5k event with me and reminded him of the purpose of the races, to train to endure and complete. (For the entire blog post, read http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-light-of-good-works.html). Fast forward to now:  not only has every Saturday of this month been consumed with charity races, he currently runs for his high school cross country team. In fact, he’s at a midweek race in Batesville as I type this.

The words that resonate for me are to train to endure and complete. That’s how I am feeling these days about the workforce preparedness efforts in this region. Getting to the desired outcome is a marathon and not a sprint. If the work were easy, the problem would have been solved years ago. The more I learn, the more I see the degrees of systemic institutional and generational layers that must be penetrated.

The funny thing for me is that I find myself stepping out of my comfort zone of operating as process driven and leaning on my relational skills. For a self-proclaimed non-people person, no one could have ever impressed upon me that one day, I would be consumed by community relation activities and that my motivation could be summed up by this meme: I am not in this work for the income. I do this work for the OUTCOME…changing lives. The marathon analogy (to train to endure and complete) holds true if we have any hope of changing the systems and processes most impacting our desired outcomes of our workforce development efforts.

I wondered how I got to this place and started to examine my actions. I believe in the power of I AM. It is no coincidence that about two years ago, I began a morning routine of reciting a list decrees that I speak over my life. One of them is that I decree that I AM a community servant. In ways that I never imagined, I am witnessing God move some things around and open so many doors that I never knew existed.  What are you speaking over your life and your purposed work? What is your expected outcome? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Profit for Good Works

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world 

and loses or forfeits himself?

(Luke 9:25)

I have a hard time believing that an organization can operate as profit motivated AND be genuinely committed to helping people and changing lives. As the saying goes, you cannot serve two masters. Devotion to one will take priority over the other because of human nature. If you disagree, I challenge you to educate me on an organization that has managed to do both, effectively helping the intended benefactors.

My experiences in workforce readiness have exposed me to a lot of generational poverty phenomena that I never knew existed. I thought that since I grew up poor, I had a baseline understanding of “the struggle,” that would allow my current middle class situation to be a bridge to inspire others of what they too could achieve. Wrong! My first mistake was not having a real understanding of the differences between poor and poverty. I thought we were poor because although my parents worked, there was never enough to cover our wants, so we always heard our parents praying for us to do/have better (education, jobs, homes, etc). The difference is that people living in poverty do not have the luxury to hope for tomorrow because they are trying to overcome basic needs (food, clothes, shelter, etc.) today. For a better explanation, visit http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-poor-and-vs-poverty-and-vs-scarcity/.

Living in the mid-south, I have become mindful of the economy driven by the poverty industry. I started paying attention after I was sarcastically informed that while agriculture and transportation/distribution are both leading industries, a close third is the poverty industry. While many people are quick to point out the profit margins from payday lenders, pawn shops, casinos, and lotteries, has any one questioned the motivation of many of the so-called not-for-profit organizations? In my opinion, I have seen a lot of government funded programs, written on the back of poor people, where the resources are not directly disseminated to the intended benefactors.

As I go about my purposed work, I find myself getting frustrated in trying to do the right things in workforce preparedness, but constantly battling bureaucracy that does nothing to help overcome generational poverty dynamics. This work is not as simple as merely providing training and helping people to find good works, or better jobs. There is a societal disruption out there waiting to be examined and executed. Can you help me to discover it? So I ask the same question that I posed earlier. Are there any examples of profit motivated companies genuinely affecting change to pull whole communities out of poverty? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Habit Forming Good Works

…rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands,

so that he may have something to share…

(Ephesians 4:28)

 

I am wired a certain way and I cannot deny it if I try. I like order, routine, consistency, and predictability.  A few weeks ago, I shared that I had a technology breakdown and decided that I would no longer be a slave to my gadgets (http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/2015/03/it-really-is-good-works_4.html). The reality is that I am so process driven that detaching from technology is not an option for me. I am wired so that most things in my life become an opportunity for process improvement. Let’s use my 10k steps per day goal to explain this more.

I am not concerned about distance, but I am obsessed about averaging 10k steps per day every month. If I miss the goal one day, I calculate how many additional steps I need to take the next day to stay on pace. And speaking of pace, I have predicted that if I have 5000 steps completed before I leave the house in the mornings, I have a high probability of reaching 10k steps for the day. Thus my morning begins with a walk around our neighborhood where I have a set route equivalent to 3500 steps. I walk the same path everyday, so I know the landmarks for where I should be after 10, 20, and 30 minutes.

After that event in March, I made a purposed decision to be more attuned to my surroundings. That is really how I discovered and started monitoring my takt time (process time for me to 3500 steps in 30 minutes). I leave the house at the top of the hour and I have a hard stop at 30 minutes. The first couple of weeks, it took me 32 minutes to get the steps on the predetermined path. Because I was adamant about 30 minutes, I knew I had to increase my walking pace (I am not a runner). So, I started walking faster and realized after a few days that my step count and landmarks changed at the 10, 20, and 30 minute time/process checks. Over several weeks, I improved from 32 minutes to 30 minutes to 29 minutes, to my current 27 minutes. If I can adjust my speed to comfortably walk the route in 26 minutes, I am planning on adding another segment to my set course, thus my new outside morning routine would become 4000 steps in 30 minutes. That gives me a little wiggle room in the other steps I take around the house in the morning to make sure that I have a minimum of 5000 steps before I leave home for the day.

I am a firm believer in establishing repeatable processes for achieving sustained results. A habit is defined as a regular tendency that occurs unconsciously. Some things we are naturally pre-disposed (or wired) to do; other things require purposed effort, or work. The following is a good process to follow when trying to establish a habit, or a repeatable process:

 

 

 
In my example for attaining 10k steps per day: The reminder is that I begin at the same time everyday. The routine is that I have a set route that I follow and monitor process checks throughout the activity. The reward is that I am on track of predictably increasing my morning step count from 3500 to 4000. I use this walking example to demonstrate that process improvement techniques can be applied to any process, whether business, home, or personal activities. How can you use these habit formation guidelines to improve some process in your purposed work? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/

Time for Good Works

He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, 

yet so that he cannot find out what God has done 

from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

I am not a sci-fi enthusiast, but I do follow all things Neil deGrasse Tyson. When I heard that my favorite astrophysicist, who has a comedic way of making science cool, was launching  new late night talk show on National Geographic TV, I knew I had to tune in. I missed the inaugural broadcast last week (mommy duty at an away track meet), but I did catch this week's episode of Star Talk.

The premise and tagline for Star Talk is "where science and pop culture collide." Tyson shot this episode at the American Museum of Natural History. His co-host is comedian Eugene Mirman, who expressed an affinity for science fiction, Star Trek, and time travel. Rounding out this week's panel of experts was Janna Levin, an astrophysicist who studied black holes, the science know as cosmology. The pop culture assignment of the week: sharing director Christopher Nolan's backstory behind the movie Interstellar.  

First, let me say that Ms. Levin became my shero when she gave the same advice that I use about solving complex equations and problems: Follow the chalk! In other words, do the math. Understanding of the concept comes from repetition. 

Back to Interstellar: Nolan wanted to do a movie to illustrate that scientists are people too. He wanted to shape a story, not from beginning to end, that detailed the complex layers of time. This allowed the panelists to have a discussion on relativity, Einstein's introduction to the dimensions of time. Time ticks at different rates. Using the example that when you get close to a black hole, time moves so slowly that one hour of travel is equal to twenty years of life. The scientists in Interstellar journey through a wormhole. How could the ability to visit your past potentially influence your future? 

So some cool things that I learned, or remembered, from watching this episode of Star Talk:

• Hydrogen is the only element that appears on the left side of the Periodic Table but has the ability to act as both a gas and a metal under certain conditions.
• Wormholes are three dimensional functions of time, space, and energy/matter. 
• Wormholes are formed through unstable conditions. There is nothing to keep the throat of a wormhole open. 
• An event horizon is the region around a black hole where gravitational forces are so strong nothing will ever come out. It is a place, not a thing.

Yes, my inner-geek was satisfied and I enjoyed this episode of Star Talk. I appreciate Tyson's purposed work in making science appeal to everyone, that it is not all rocket science. If you get a chance, I encourage you to watch the re-broadcast the next time it airs. Quality shows like this must be supported. How can we engage more young futurists to consider the importance of time in the collision of science, technology, and humanities in discovering their purposed work? Feel free to comment, or send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post, and want to  catch up on some of my previous discussion, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com.

Success in Good Works

I have learned that success is to be measured

not so much by the position that one has reached in life

as by the obstacles which he has overcome 

while trying to succeed.

Booker T. Washington

It's that time of year where prom season quickly transitions into graduation and new beginnings. In our family, my oldest niece is preparing to graduate from high school and head off to college in the fall. My middle niece is beginning to make decisions about whether her post graduation plans include vocational training or university studies. And my son is considering the courses he will take in high school, based on his CAP assessment. Three unique young minds with one thing in common, to answer the question, what do I want to be when I grow up?

When our mom grew up, the conventional wisdom was to get a good job and begin a family. A generation ago, we were told to go to college to position yourself for a long-term career. Our children, Millennials,  have so many options and possibilities, that it is challenging to make a decision today about finding career success in a world that is rapidly changing, that will not be the same a decade, let alone 40 - 50 years from now. So what advice are you giving to children trying to decide on secondary education paths?

Over the years, I have become an advocate of vocational training before deciding on a profession. If I had one regret about the decisions I made immediately after graduation, it is that I did not know how to do anything with my hands. I can solve almost any math problem put before me, but if I had to earn a living, I have no immediate skills to fall back on. Jokingly (and seriously), I always wanted to become a welder. Fast forward to present day and my imagination runs wild with the possibility what I could do in manufacturing if I owned and operated a welding shop!

If you look at the history of several well-known colleges and universities, many began as industrial training schools that met the immediate needs of the workforce during that era. Somehow along the way, industrial, or vocational training, became stigmatized as less valuable that university training, but is it really? When you consider the cost of attending a four-year institution, you have to ask, is the return-on-investment a real value in today's rapidly changing society. I challenge that notion.

Some of the most successful people that I know are entrepreneurs with in demand skills. I have a friend who followed his families' business as a master barber and has franchised beauty and barber shops around the region. By the same token, another friend is a plumber, a vocation whose skills always have and always will be in high demand. What both of these gentlemen have in common is they started with basic skills and transformed their companies into success stories not imaginable a few decades ago.

There are no particular route to finding success in the workplace and in a career. We used to measure success by the education required to obtain the job, or the job title earned. Today, our children have so many more options because the expectation is not to get a job, work for forty years, and retire from that company. Life and opportunity give them so many more options to consider that their measure of success will be different that how we defined it. And that is OK. The thing we have to instill in them is that regardless of the path they choose, it will require hard work and dedication to overcome the obstacles they will face along the way.  How are you encouraging the young people in your life to measure what they consider success in their purposed work? Feel free to comment, or send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post, and want to  catch up on some of my previous discussion, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Ordained for Good Works

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;

Before you were born I sanctified you;

I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

(Jeremiah 4:5)

I use this platform to share with others things that excite and/or inspire me along my journey of finding my purposed work. Last night, I watched the re-broadcast of #BlackGirlsRock! Founder Beverly Bond launched her purposed work through a youth empowerment and mentoring organization established to promote the arts for young women of color, as well as to encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are portrayed in the media. (To learn more, visit http://www.blackgirlsrockinc.com/). The fifth awards ceremony aired on Easter Sunday, honoring and celebrating the accomplishments and good works of black girls from eight to their eighties!

The Change Agent honoree, an educator, proclaimed that she “opened a school to close a prison.” Nadia Lopez is the principal at Brooklyn’s Motts Hall Bridges Academy, a school focused on STEM and arts education. She gained national attention when her viral campaign to send five students to Harvard raised over $1M in contributions. She said that before giving her acceptance speech, she paused and drew strength from Jeremiah 1:4-12, and delivered this:

“I wanna thank God for this day and appointed time. I also want to thank Beverly for your vision and conviction. To allow someone like me to even be honored. As women, we are constantly having to prove our worth, intelligence and having to fight for respect on our jobs, in society and many times in our homes. Ironically, when one of us women achieves recognizable success, we are taught to question the credibility of that success instead of expecting greatness and celebrating it.

The SHE that is great, whether recognized or not, lives in all of us. She is significant. She is heroic. And she is exquisite. God fashioned each of us with gifts and talents and abilities that I have been blessed to use. And I use them to empower children. So the daily question that I ask myself that I ask you is ‘What are you doing with God’s gift?’ How are you changing the world? And how are you making a difference in the lives of children?  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to remind my scholars that learning is a lifelong process and the reason why we wear black and purple is because we are descendants of royalty and they are bound for greatness.”

Transcribed  Speech Courtesy

http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/04/black-girls-rock-2015-recap.html

There were so many motivating and tear-worthy moments throughout the show. Ms. Lopez became a new shero, a woman walking in her purposed work. Instead of complaining about the education system in her community, she became the Change Agent, doing what she was ordained to do. How are you using your gifts to change your community or to make a difference in the life of a child? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Influencing Good Works

Iron sharpens iron,

and one man sharpens another.

(Proverbs 27:17)

 

Have you ever taken a look at the people in your LinkedIn, civic, or other professional networks to evaluate whether or not you have mutually beneficial business synergies? We were developing a marketing campaign for our workforce training solutions  and this question began our brainstorming exercise.  Why would key decision makers give us an audience to discuss our vision for educating and training through workforce readiness initiatives?


In this development process, one roadblock was evident: wanting to be an advocate for young people about careers in manufacturing and influencing the parents and community leaders of the value of our program required more than wishful thinking. To achieve success, our approach had to include a clearly defined direction, a disciplined doctrine/process, and above all else, a divine determination. Still, we needed someone to lay hands on us, or as I learned in SETX, someone whose endorsement could open doors one could not open alone…an influencer.


In today’s social culture, “friending” is an action verb, not to be confused with the more traditionally understood term of friendship. Friending has reciprocity, the practice of exchanging ideas and information with others for mutual benefit, allowing access, and sometimes, special privilege. Realizing that some efforts require access to people outside of a typical network, it is wise to “friend up” with leaders, or people with great influence.


When we finalized our proposal, we identified an influential community leader with whom we had an established relationship and pitched it to him. His immediate response was simply, iron sharpens iron. After a moment of reflection, he explained the mutual benefits, or synergies, that emerge when two blades rub together. The edges of the blades become sharper and more effective for the good works to be performed. Our children need more real world exposure to jobs and career opportunities available and our approach provided a hands-on, vocational, and valuable solution.

http://www.latrobellc.com/industrial-people.php

I still prefer face-to-face fellowship and meetings. In today’s social climate, I still value relationships and friendships, and feel that regardless of the size of the professional or civic network, people do business with those that they know and trust. I am guilty of “friending” to gain access to ideas and information, but my journey has revealed that no one achieves such alone. Iron sharpens iron, which sharpens our ability to deliver real value and mutual benefits in our purposed work. Who are you influencing by your good works? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Understanding Good Works

Wisdom is the principal thing…

and with all thy getting,

get understanding.

(Proverbs 4:7)

I have had the pleasure of taking a plethora of personality tests. The premise was that people who did not know me would have me answer a battery of questions, and based on my responses, he or she could assess how I might fit and function within an organizational culture. Off the top of my head, I recall tools used like the Meyers-Briggs type indicator (where I was classified as an INTJ, which stood for introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging personality type); the DISC assessment (for which I do not remember whether I was a more dominant, influential, steady, or conscientious type); and the CORE multi-dimensional awareness profile.

For the sake of time and space, I will not debate the pros and cons of any of these assessment tools. I will, however, use CORE to provide a summary of what each personality type may indicate. For example, words used to describe:
Commanders are ambitious, focused and extremely task-driven.
Organizers tend to be linear and logical.
Relators are loyal, trustworthy and caring.
Entertainers are enthusiastic, charismatic and energetic.

To learn more, visit https://www.coremap.com/

In looking at the descriptors, it is easy to understand that no one is all of any of the above all the time. My resentment with these tools was that I never accepted an assignment to a particular box or quadrant. I adjusted my fit and performance contributions to the situation. In my current season as a business owner, I can transform into any and all of these personality types in one meeting, depending on what I am attempting to accomplish!

I used the example of personality test to illustrate what I am learning on this journey of discovering my purposed work. The tools that worked successfully before may be irrelevant in new dimensions of work. In the past, I thought people sought my help because of my technical competency in manufacturing and my work ethic as the “go-to girl” who knew all the details that no one else considered important. These days, neither of these matter as I find myself doing more creative type of works than I ever imagined. Information requires revelation, so when I prayed, I received the spiritual instruction to stop seeking the external perspective of how others saw me and expected me to work. Instead, I am discovering new skills and talents. Wisdom helps me to see new possibilities.

Carl Jung’s work is the architecture from which many of these personality tests are derived, so it is only fitting that I use one of his quotes about the importance of understanding self in discovering your good works. What’s hidden inside of you waiting to be awakened for you to live in your purposed work? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Women of Good Works

Where are the women on our American currency?

March is Women’s History Month. This thirty-five year old tradition began as a weeklong celebration of generations of women whose commitment to nature and the planet proved invaluable to society.  Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”  To learn more about comprehensive contributions catalogued by the Library of Congress, visit: 

http://womenshistorymonth.gov

 

Social media plays a large part of creating buzz around current events. Last week, the hashtag #WomensHistoryMonth was trending on Twitter.  I clicked on several tweets and came across an interesting on-line campaign to change the face on the $20 bill from Andrew Jackson to a pioneering woman. A group, Women on 20s, has defined their mission to generate an overwhelming people's mandate for a new $20 bill, to be issued in time for the 100th anniversary in 2020 of the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. The privilege of voting can be honored by casting a vote from a slate of 15 inspiring American women heroes, including

Francis Perkins

Sojourner Truth‎

Alice Paul

Betty Friedan

Shirley Chisholm

Rachel Carson

Barbara Jordan

Margaret Sanger

Patsy Mink

Clara Barton

Harriet Tubman

Susan B. Anthony

Eleanor Roosevelt

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Rosa Parks

In the spirit of elections, the effort includes mock images of what the highest vote-getter could look like on the $20 bill. Additionally, the Primary Round allows participants to vote for three candidates on the ballot.  The top 3 vote-getters advance to the Final Round.

Image from the “Women on 20s” Campaign

 

To learn more, or to cast your vote, go to

http://www.womenon20s.org/primaries

My research on @WomenOn20s introduced me to a new she-ro, Barbara Ortiz Howard. With the Women On 20s campaign, she aims to literally raise the profile of a woman in a male-dominated field. Barbara is taking her purposed work to new dimensions by asking: isn't it time for #genderequality on our money? Will you participate? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.