Month: December 2017

Life’s Game Changers – The Power of Thanksgiving

Don Grier6 Comments

I will start the first of the Game Changer series with a story appropriate for the current holiday season. The event it depicts is both one of the happiest and saddest in my life. As I spoke about in one of my recent blogs, I learned many lessons on leadership and life from my dad -Big D. This story is the last one that I learned from Big D and one that I will never, ever forget. It is about the power of being thankful – the ultimate game changer. So without further to-do here is the story of the Thanksgiving Calves.

Big D and my mom moved out to “The Land” in the late 90’s when my Dad retired from Turbocare in Houston. The Land was a 30 to 50 acres of land (depended on how pumped up Dad was feeling that day) in a little town called Slocom in East Texas (population 250). On The Land there was a lake (built by my Dad and mom), trees (sycamore, sweet gum), acres of Coastal Grass, and 10 extremely overweight cows.

The cows were overweight because my Dad treated them like pets and allowed his grandchildren to feed them early and often. Each cow had a name – Rosie, Susie, Big Bertha, etc. – and each one was given to a grandchild for a portion of their inheritance. Dad use to point to a cow and say something like this:

Big D – You see Rosie over there.

Kerri – Yes, that’s my cow! She likes to eat this feed.

Big D – Well Rosie will have a cow and that cow will have another cow and that will be for you.

Kerri – Yeah, Grandpop. I love cows.

In the summer of 2002, each of those cows was ready to make the first deposit on the grandchildren’s inheritance. Each was pregnant and set to deliver sometime in November. Unfortunately, Big D was not to see it from here on earth. On November 5, 2002, Big D passed away from a heart attack out near the fence where we would feed the cows. This is the sad part of the story.

thanksgiving cows

Now let’s turn to the happy part and the moral of the story. I and my entire family went out to The Land for one last Thanksgiving to be with Mom. As we arrived, some light snow had fallen. As we rounded the bend to The Land, we saw two calves that were just born and starting to walk. The rest of that day and into Thanksgiving Day, nine of the ten calves were born. The only issue was Rosie and her calf – the one belonging to Kerri.

You see Rosie got extra feed from Kerri and Big D. This was on top of the prodigious coastal grass. Needless to say, Rosie was having trouble birthing her calves. With one hour to go to before Thanksgiving dinner, the issue had reached a crisis.

Rosie was mooing loudly and was running around with her half born calf. Jim Bachman in the farm over had come by to wish us well. He immediately assessed the issue and told my brother and me that we had to get Rosie to the vet. Jim went and got his truck and trailer. He also brought our other neighbor, John, another admirer of my Dad, and we started to try and corral Rosie into her pen so we could load her into the trailer.

So for the next hour and a half while the turkey was getting cold, we went up and down The Land trying to get Rosie into her pen. After many fits and starts (a cow in birth distress is really fast and scared), we finally got Rosie behind the plywood gate that passed as our pen.

The next step was filled with hilarity and near tragedy. My brother Gary before anyone could stop him got this great idea that he could rope Rosie. Doing his best rendition of John Wayne, he made a makeshift lasso and threw it at her. It did not land correctly but did serve to spook Rosie yet again. I was just outside the pen when a 700 lbs. cow broke through the plywood gate and straight at me! Let’s say that I moved faster than I had ever done before or since jumping away and landing face down in the mud. Rosie just barely missed me.

Although that last action nearly killed me, it also served to finally tire Rosie out. At 7:00 PM, we finally got Rosie in the trailer. John went back to what was left of his Thanksgiving Dinner after I and my brother thanked him profusely. Then off Jim and I went to see the vet who was on call 3o miles away.

On the way to the vet, I was secretly saying a prayer that the calf would be all right. Over and over again, I thought “Please let the calf be alright” while I and Jim told stories about Big D and how he would have dealt with Rosie and the calf. I knew he was up there somewhere smiling. We finally got to the vet about 7:40.

Now what comes next is amazing. I had never seen a calf being born and it is awesome site. The vet wrapped a rope around the half born calf and pulled. After a few moments that seemed like an eternity the calf was born – Rosie, Jr. After lying on the ground for a few moments, the calf made its first few steps and was alive. Rosie although in rough shape at the time fully recovered.

And at that moment in time, despite missing Thanksgiving Dinner, I was never more thankful. I was thankful for the gift of the cows from my Dad. I was thankful for the timing and the happiness that the birth of the calves gave to me and my family. I was thankful for Jim and John who gave up most of their Thanksgiving to get Rosie to the vet. I was thankful for the gift of new life facilitated by the vet.

Now, whenever I feel let down or frustrated, I think back to the story of the Thanksgiving calves. And that is a Game Changer. Being thankful can change your attitude. It can lift you out of the despair of failure and lift you toward the hope of tomorrow. Here are some thoughts on the power of giving thanks.

1. Like Jim and John who helped to catch Rosie, thank your family and friends that help you on a daily basis. No person is Island and our loved ones help us to accomplish the mission that God has given us!

2. Be thankful for your vocation. Your vocation gives you exciting, interesting work that quite frankly puts Thanksgiving dinner on the table (of course sometimes it prevents you from eating it).

3. Be thankful for the inheritance that was given to you from those that have led the way. Like the Thanksgiving calves that were the inheritance given to my kids from Big D, we all need to remember the people that helped you along the way.

Forward to F.I.T – The Tale of Pam *2

Don Grier3 Comments

Forward to F.I.T
First posted  on March 2016
This was a great week on my fitness journey – especially in terms of fitness. I broke a personal record for a single day on my FITBIT – 22,117 steps or 10.43 miles. Not quite back up to a half Marathon but close! And a lot better than the half mile which was all I could really do back at the start of 2015. For this blog, I would like to discuss three things that helped me to move Forward to F.I.T (more about this acronym later).
On January 1, 2015, I knew something had to change. I was at my peak weight and had a key event that I wanted to attend – my 30th Reunion at West Point. Everyone wants to look their best for a Reunion, but this is an imperative when meeting a group of former and current Military Officers. So I had a vision and goal to get fit by August 2015.
The first thing that I did was create a Vision Board. I learned this trick from Weight Watchers. They have confirmed studies that show people who visualize their goals have a better chance to realize them. So I created a Vision Board shown below.

vision board

In this Vision Board was pictures of my classmates both in the past and recent. My class motto – For Excellence We Strive, 85! (Now, you know my approximate age). And a few pictures of me reaching for my goal – note the cool retro headband my youngest gave me for my last Birthday. I looked at the Vision Board each day along with the goals assigned. It was on my phone (BTW it is called HayHouseVB on IOS – there are others).
The next tool of the trade is I joined a gym – LifeTime Fitness (Austin North). I always loved group exercise (hold over from Army morning PT). The only problem was I was not in shape for strenuous exercise. So I did the only thing I could. I did Water Aerobics every Saturday. For those just easing back into exercise it is the best thing. It is easy on your joints but can give a great workout. My instructor was a lady named Pam and she helped me to start to realize my Vision outlined on the Vision board. More about Pam later.
Soon, I could get out of the pool and do more strenuous exercise on the land. Not a huge leap yet – Elliptical training and walking with my Fitbit. One activity on the Fitbit – the Challenges – really helped me up my game. I love competition and the challenges allow you compete against others. Below, I show the challenge I won this week on the Fitbit – this is my first victory. For you with Fitbits, I recommend you get some friends and participate in some challenges. It will cause you to do some crazy things (yes competitors, I walked around in circles from 11:45 to Midnight to win. Woke up the wife and Boots the dog!) Here is a screen print of the challenge for those of you interested in jumping into one).

fitbit

Now to the conclusion and back to Pam and the acronym F.I.T. Using the above mentioned tools, I was able to go to my Reunion and hold my own with my classmates. Below is a picture of me at the Army Football game at the Reunion (Beat Navy – please one of these years!). I also got to meet Pam again this week in her other class Functional Integrated Training (F.I.T)  at LifeTime Fitness (Austin North). This is my gym’s rendition of P90X or Insanity – one hour of heart pumping; butt thumping; muscle aching; legs quaking exercise. When I was done and a puddle of sweat was on the floor, Pam came up to me and said I recognize from somewhere but you look a different. Is this really your first class, here? I said yes but I was the guy that used to have problems making arm circles in your Water Aerobics class. See the Vision; be the Vision!

westpoint

 

Lessons from Leaders – How to Get the Iron Out the Door (and not have it come back in!)

Don Grier2 Comments

This blog starts a series looking at lessons that I learned from Leaders.  In the next 5 weeks, I will deep dive into lessons learned from leaders I have known both within my professional life and out.   From each, I learned lessons that I find applicable to my daily life and hopefully yours.
So, let’s go back to this week’s profile.  The leader that I learned the most from (which is probably similar to a lot of you) was my Dad – Big D.  Yes believe it or not I am Little D or Donnie, Jr. to my family . Here SELRES_685daa2d-0d7f-4e23-9206-3cd7bea08b92SELRES_7fc0f629-707a-4c70-87ba-2d572ceec0b5SELRES_50767d2e-de8b-4c15-82ab-12ff627b7ed6SELRES_a27e4991-615f-43ae-92a0-10c1181a3ac0is SELRES_a27e4991-615f-43ae-92a0-10c1181a3ac0SELRES_50767d2e-de8b-4c15-82ab-12ff627b7ed6SELRES_7fc0f629-707a-4c70-87ba-2d572ceec0b5SELRES_685daa2d-0d7f-4e23-9206-3cd7bea08b92a picture of Big D and Little D.

big-d-300x293

One of my Dad’s favorite sayings was you have to “Get the Iron Out the Door”.  Coincidentally, that is the root of the title of the Quarterly Professional Services newsletter, “Getting the Iron Out the Door” that my team puts out at work.  Two of the lesson I learned from Big D relates to getting the iron the door.
What is the Iron?  Where is the Door?  The iron refers to large turbines that reside in dams to generate electricity.   Big D was a steelworker/machinist and later the manager of Turbocare in Houston, Texas.  These turbines would come in the “door” of Turbocare from all over the world (Columbia, US, India, etc.) for maintenance or emergency repair.

As soon as the turbine came in the door, it was Big D’s responsibility to drive his team to get the repair done as quickly as possible while fixing the root problem and maintaining quality.  You can imagine the pressure to get these turbines back repaired.  They powered cities like Detroit or Bogota.  Every day that the turbine spent being repaired, part of the electrical capacity powering the city was out.  A brownout could occur or even a blackout.  In addition, they could only be carried by a train or ship and for some of these places the ship or train schedules where tight.
Now “Getting the Iron Out the Door” did not mean rushing around and slapping a fix in, as Big D explained to me.   It was too costly to send a half repaired turbine out the door.  The shipping costs alone are enormous.  You first needed to physically and electronically inspect the turbine to determine the root cause of the problem which was usually a blade bent a fraction of an inch. Then and only then you could precision machine or weld the blade or rotor with the problem.  Lastly and most importantly, you needed to test the balance of the turbine to precise specification.  The whole while the clock was ticking and the ship or train was waiting.  If you made the right decisions on balancing speed with quality, the Iron went Out the Door and did not come back.  See the picture of a turbine going out the door of Turbocare below.

turbine

How do I take Big D’s lesson in leadership to my life as in overseeing software engagements?  Our job each day is to “Get the Program Checked In”, so we can meet the deadlines of our client.  In so doing, we cannot sacrifice quality for speed.  The “shipping costs” using our analogy are software users and clients not being served.  How do we like Big D see the clock ticking but not hear it, “Get the Iron Out the Door” without it coming back in.

  1.  Do a careful analysis to find the root cause of the code problem or a careful impact analysis to perform a comprehensive design.  This is analogous to finding the blade bent by a hair or the hair line fracture in the Turbine.
  2. Next follow the design and analysis precisely.  Use precision code and tools to fix the root cause of the problem or make the new functionality first time right!
  3. Lastly, test your application to specification.  A program not to specification will be subject to warranty (come back in the door) or worst yet not meet the needs of clients.

I miss Big D each and every day.  Let us heed his words of leadership well and Get the Iron Out the Door and not allow it back in!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Don GrierLeave a comment

Here is the secret of slow weight loss as opposed to rapid weight lost like Biggest Loser or Extreme Weight Loss.  When you lose weight too fast, you get saggy skin.  Indeed, cosmetic surgery is actually the prize in Extreme Weight Loss (I prefer the cash on the Biggest Loser).  When you lose slower, your body adapts and you are less likely to gain the weight back.

Last year, I lost 2.2 lbs. per week and got my health back with no surgery cosmetic or otherwise.  The key is  slow and steady progress is the best path forward.  That is why I celebrate each pound lost just as much as 10  lbs lost.  Like the Tortoise, Slow and Steady wins the health race!