The old adage of “Look at my long term history with an organization!” is of little value in an environment of here and now issues.  Today’s employees outlive the company in most cases, where as it used to be the other way around.  My suggestion: If you can’t answer any of the above three questions on at least a weekly basis, and have not shared your accomplishments or thoughts with your team and boss, you are not being proactive.  Avoid being a victim!

Our best wishes to you and your families for a very Happy Thanksgiving and a most joyful Holiday Season.

Warm regards from all of us at Miles LeHane

September 2, 2012: On our visit to see the new Hoover Dam Bridge, Melanie the eagle eye, noticed a sign for a historical train and train ride.  After spending the morning crossing both the original bridge on top of Hoover Dam and the new arch bridge, we decided to check out the Train Museum and potential train ride.  What a find by Melanie!  You have three options on the train: 1 – ride in an old renovated passenger car, 2 – ride in the locomotive with the two engineers, or 3 – be the engineer under their supervision!  We took option 1 for Melanie (only one guest in the locomotive allowed) and option 2 for me.  Option 3 was a big increase in price and we weren’t sure if it was really going to be worth the extra cost.  To my surprise, the two engineers gave me option 3 for the price of option 2!  What an experience.

• Here are a few facts: The train tracks were commissioned for the construction of Hoover Dam (formerly called Boulder Dam).  It hauled a majority of all supplies and workers into Boulder City and the construction site about 10 miles away from Boulder City.  Many supplies came from the Los Angeles area and ports of California.  What is more fascinating is the locomotive while not used during the 1931 to 1935 construction period, is the very first GE diesel locomotive produced.  It was used as a demonstration engine at various train yards to demonstrate how much better the new electric diesel is compared to steam locomotives.  Today it hauls museum visitors only two miles down and back on the track outside of Boulder City, formerly a ‘company town’.

What an experience taking control of this historical but reconditioned 12 cylinder diesel electric locomotive.  You certainly get a feeling of awesome size and power, but almost total lack of control.  You can either go forwards or backwards, not meant for speed, and it certainly cannot stop very quickly.  The loud horn and bell are your only defense at crossroads and pedestrian crossings.  The two engineers spent the entire trip telling me the history of the train and how they personally rebuilt the motor of the train.  On very limited funding, they truly bring the history to life!  What a great experience!

David “conducting” the historical train.

One last treasure we found is the historic downtown of Boulder City.  Certainly worth taking some time to explore the original historic hotel and walk the streets.  In addition, excursions were taking place through a dirt trail road to a remote Lake Mead campground.  Thank goodness we had a Jeep rental car. We plan to do this day trip again and enjoy some additional treasures outside of Vegas.

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On September 3, 2012 (Labor Day), Melanie gave me an early birthday present. For almost our entire time together, I have always made comments about wanting to ride in a real, full-sized bulldozer.  Never did I think that would come to a reality.  I did today! When in Vegas…

A few months back, she read an article in USA Today, about a company who was turning the recession into an opportunity.  At the north end of the Strip, on the opposite side of Interstate 15, there is a company devoted to fulfilling the fantasies of anyone who ever wanted to do a dig. You have two choices, a Cat D-5 bulldozer or a full size Cat Excavator.  An opportunity of a lifetime! I chose the Bull Dozer of course.

We started with a classroom instruction after having to take a “breathalyzer” test.  I passed!  Not surprising since I am once again trying to shed a few extra pounds that have crept on over the last five years.  After the 15 minutes of instructions, we were off to our equipment.  A hard hat, a head set and microphone to communicate with our instructor, and an air conditioned cab.  Thank goodness as it was 102 degrees today.  One more review of the controls (complicated but logical) and we were off digging our own 4 foot deep ‘foundation’ and creating a large mound of dirt.  We then drove over this a few times frontwards and backwards as if to compact the soil.  Amazing sensation going frontwards and backwards and almost standing the dozer on its front or back end!  In addition we pushed two stacked tractor tires around 6 cones both directions to learn coordination of speed, dozer blade tilt and angles and steering between tight barriers.  No penalties here for me!  I must admit the climbing of the mound of soil both directions was somewhat unnerving.

At the end, the entire group survived and enjoyed.  No accidents and thank goodness for ‘dead man’ controls. What a present!  The next time I am on my lawn tractor with 18 hp and my snow blade is on, I will think about the Cat-5 and the awesome weight and power and capabilities.  Anybody know of a spare Cat-9?

Melanie’s perspective of David in the bulldozer

]]> http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/david-and-melanie-in-vegas/feed/ 0 http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/skillsource-awarded-grant-for-veteran-employment-services/ http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/skillsource-awarded-grant-for-veteran-employment-services/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:27:38 +0000 MilesLehane http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/?p=385 August 26, 2012 – The SkillSource Group, Inc. (SkillSource), the non-profit arm of the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board (Workforce Area #11), was awarded $1,103,940 through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP). The Northern Virginia Jobs 4 Veterans (J4VETS) Initiative will deliver employment and training services to approximately 395 eligible veterans over a three-year period, resulting in veterans earning industry-recognized credentials and employment in high demand local businesses. SkillSource and Northern Virginia was one of eleven (11) sites selected in the United States for this initiative.

 
Dr. David C. Miles, the Chairman of the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board and the Miles-Lehane Companies, Inc. said, “Veterans face a number of challenges upon their return home, with stable employment being a critical need. The public workforce system has a responsibility to work together to help connect our veterans to training and to work with our Northern Virginia business owners to identify and hire talented veterans.”

 
J4VETS will transform the current system of veteran workforce and employment service delivery by establishing a coordinated partnership among veteran-serving organizations that will create a pipeline of skilled veteran job seekers. Of the 395 veterans enrolled, 150 (30%) are expected to have a service-connected disability. The program plans to enroll 80% of participating veterans into training, including on-the-job training and entrepreneurship training, and placing at least 277 veterans into employment. Project partners include the Fairfax County Department of Family Services, ServiceSource, Inc., Monster Government Solutions and its Military.com website, Manpower, Inc., the Business Development Assistance Group, the Virginia Community College System and the Virginia Employment Commission. Approximately 147,000 veterans live in Northern Virginia, or nearly 20% of all veterans residing in Virginia. Roughly 11,200 are veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns, with those numbers projected to grow over the next several years.

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The SkillSource Group, Inc. and the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board serve over 1.9 million residents and thousands of businesses within the counties of Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William and the cities of Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park. For more information, please call (703) 752-1606 or click here.

Friday, August 10, 2012: Today is my last day.  Classes will end around 3 pm today.  The students have the weekend off.  About half of them will be going to Paris this afternoon and spending 2 nights and see the area.  This is a fairly expensive trip (at least $1,000 each) for the Eurostar train plus hotels, etc.  For others, the reality of cost/value is a blockage.  There is plenty to do here as it could take days just to do local attractions.  For me, I am looking for the down time after class and getting caught up on business issues as Melanie has been holding down the fort with Scott on vacation also.

Dr. Catherine MacKenzie started today’s lecture with a focus on how international business deals with international issues.  The UN is the central source for global relations which include issues that may impact business, investments and treaties.  Each country has one vote and all are considered equal and sovereign. It started with 50 countries and now is at 192.  In addition to the UN, there is (founded at the same time) the International Court of Justice  (ICJ).  While it is an available resource, it takes an average of six years to bring a case forward.  It takes a couple of years to go through the process.  Once a verdict is rendered, even if you win, the only way a judgment can be enforced is through the sanction process.  It is probably not effective to utilize this approach unless absolutely necessary.

After this discussion, we moved onto peacekeeping missions.  There are currently 17 peacekeeping missions that are operating today.  They employ over 100,000 people.  While they do not have any authority to punish directly, their presence and observations may be supported by the local and country government, unless of course they are the source of the problem.  One of the big issues with peacekeeping is that they never come to an end.  There is no exit strategy.  It also takes about three to four months to launch a mission once requested.  The pay to the country government is $115.00/day.  This fee is considered to be a significantly high figure.  Two governments actually reimburse their workers at that rate.  Others are paid substantially less.  Most peacekeepers are female at 75%. Note the US funds over 50% of the costs of the UN.

Next we talked about International Environmental Law (IEL). This is Dr. MacKenzie’s area of interest.  Once it was believed that the best way to gain compliance with agreed upon policies and procedures were to utilize the court system.  After realizing that this could take five to seven years and still not have a significant enforcement process, they have changed their approach.  It is now focused more on creating policy agreements concerning all issues, and looking for, inspecting and focusing on voluntary compliance.  The laws that are created are usually reactive laws based on new technology.  For example, new methods of food processing were discovered and then new laws were developed for protection of the quality.  This voluntary compliance is then published by rating agencies.  These “seals of approval” directly impact the sale and price of the comm0odities being sold.  In essence, it is a seal of approval and an implied warranty on how the item was processed or created.  A great example is the “Kimberley” seal for diamonds.

We closed this session with three sub groups creating an “employee card” with 10 basic rules.  The focus was on the laborers that would be working on the WB or other Bank funding for a new project in three different developing countries.  The best source is to go to www.un.org and look at the information and statistics for the country.  This was an eye opener for the group and I, as there is a wealth of information on this web site. The session ended at noon.

The final session was at 1 PM for a two hour roundtable discussion in the Courtyard on integrating the week and reflecting on learning areas and integrating the program segments.  This took about 45 minutes as we walked through each presentation.  After that, the focused shifted to the book “Breakout Nations” by Ruchir Sharma.  We then “circled the globe” so to speak and discussed each geography.  This was indeed very helpful to have all integrate meaning in a new framework.  You could see a major difference in how they framed their answers and responses compared to earlier in the week. Dr. Good used the model from my Action Learning as a methodology.  We ended at 3 PM and said our farewells.

Some final Reflections

This is truly a University without Classrooms.  The Oxford style of learning is one of inquisition, reflection, discussions and searching for meaning.  This is not done in a classroom.  It is truly one-on-one or small group or cohort group.  While this is my personal preferred way of learning, there are only two or three rooms at the campus of Magdalen College for cohort work.  It is almost always a one-on-one experience.  Can you imagine a US university with no classrooms?

The next item of reflection is to project the full time student profile that would be at Oxford.  While they are only here for two 11 week college sessions, the structure and approach would give you insight to what it would be like to be here during full session.  First, they would be intellectually above most.  They would be cream of the crop intellectually.  No student could survive without being at that level.  The competencies of the professors are outstanding.  Second, they would most definitely come from the upper class.  One could not afford this approach to education unless wealthy.  At Oxford, the admissions is more about intellect and appropriate upbringing.  This also focuses on tradition.  Forget all the equality issues here.  It is a total approach of respect for the 600 year tradition, intellect and what it means to be at Oxford.  Simply astonishing in 2012!  I am sure it will still be that way in the future.

Another interesting note is that there was a tacit agreement during World War II that Oxford and Cambridge would not be bombed.  Those were the days when there was still had some level of civility.  I am sure glad that they were not bombed.

This ends my notes.  I will have dinner with Randy Boxx and RT Good tonight.  Tomorrow, I head to the airport and return home.  With Scott on vacation for half of the week, Melanie has pulled triple duty.  As always, she has done a spectacular job.  I appreciate having this experience while she carries the load for me. Love is!

Beautiful last day at Oxford

Neil Eibler, Randy Boxx and David

Church

]]> http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/davids-travels-in-oxford-part-4/feed/ 0 http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/davids-travels-in-oxford-part-3/ http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/davids-travels-in-oxford-part-3/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:26:00 +0000 MilesLehane http://www.mileslehane.com/blog/?p=366 From August 4 through the 11^th, David will be part of Shenandoah University’s joint study abroad program with the University of Oxford, focusing on Global Organizational Management and Leadership. From the UK, David has kept us posted on what it’s like to be experiencing the second oldest university in the world. Enjoy his musings!

 Wednesday, August 8, 2012: Had a great night’s sleep and am finally getting adjusted to the 5 hour time difference.  This of course will be a problem going back home but for me, it is usually less of an adjustment issue going west.  As every morning since I have been here, it appears we will have periods of rain today.  Weather has been like this every day, but temperatures have been between 55 and 75 each day. That is great since I have not seen any air conditioning in the dorms.

Today is a split day on activities.  We have lecture this morning and free time this afternoon.  We will be going on a visit to Blenheim Palace.

Our lecture today was presented by Dr. Liz David-Barrett.  Her focus was on Bribery, Corruption and Ethics.  She took a more participative approach versus straight lecture and power points.  This kept the group involved so that they needed to give some meaning and definition to the issues of doing business in foreign countries.  Overall, it was interesting and her style kept the program moving.  In the end, this is a subject that needs to be discussed versus taught.  Many shades of gray are intertwined in the process and it is very subjective.  One of the neat references she utilized was RepTrak, a survey that is done annually in 15 key markets and ranks the top 100 companies in terms of reputation.  Of interest is that BMW made number one on the list, then Sony, Walt Disney, Daimler, Apple, Google, Microsoft, VW, Canon and Lego.  No company made the top ten list in all 15 markets.  Her recommendations on how to do this within your company are: 1- Define your values, 2- Build a diverse set of relationships, 3- Seek local advice, 4- Be creative-within the law, and 5- Contribute to the community in ways that are appropriate.

After the morning session, I skipped lunch and ventured out to change money and purchase an umbrella.  Since it had rained everyday and we were on our excursion, I thought this might be a great idea.  Today, there was NO rain and the most gorgeous day since I have been here.  Oh well, be prepared.

Our trip was to Blenheim Palace, about a 35 minute bus ride after walking to the bus station for about 20 minutes.  The Palace is known for many of its residents’ including Winston Churchill who died in 1965.  Across the street was Chaucer’s house, a very conservative home.  The grounds and the Palace were beautiful and we spent roughly 3 hours touring.  I certainly enjoy these Palaces and wonder what life would be like living in one.

After the Palace we all went to a Pub and enjoyed refreshments.  I treated the group to a round.  All of 22 pounds. In my opinion, this was very inexpensive considering we are near Oxford.  You can tell the economy is not great here as could any tourist probably at the Olympics.  From there, we took the bus back to Oxford and went to an Irish Pub for dinner and had a great time with the students.

Thursday, August 9, 2012: Today we have two presentations.  Mine is after lunch, so I will have some prep time.  We also moved to a bigger room which will be more comfortable.  Dr. Catherine McKenzie presented this morning and will do part two tomorrow morning.  Her area of focus is on International Law and Development and Challenges in doing this.  Her program was one of familiarity given the focus on the multiple development banks:  the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Inter-American Development Bank and International Finance Corporation (part of the W.B. and operates as a Public Private Partnership), along with the Regional Development Banks.  She talked about the role they play and the difficult balances of granting or not granting loans to developing countries. A timeline is helpful in understanding global development:

19^th century to 1945: Bilateral treaties used to resolve disputes between countries

1945 – 1955: Establishment of the UN, IMF, etc (for redevelopment after World War II)

1955 – 1992: Proliferation of infrastructure development as 70 new countries were created by decolonization; clean Water a big focus and to life expectancy

1992 – forward: Integration of Economic Development into Health, Education and Human Welfare

Three classification levels were created to organize need for assistance by the “banks”: 1= Deeply Impoverished, 2= Stable and 3= Highly Developed.  1 gets grants, 2 gets low interest loans and 3 gets normal type loans.

She also talked about how agreements are made between countries.  The Treaties are a long process.  After negotiating the terms, which can take years, there is a document that is called the Treaty that is written up (much like a contract).  Once this is written, it is usually signed by a top official (maybe the President).  But it is not binding.  It then must be approved according to country law by the top governing body of the country. This ratification is usually by the US Senate by a simple majority vote or by the upper house in a Parliament government. Then, it is still not operative as it must wait 90 days and be filed with the UN.  Then it can become operative.  Many times, a Treaty is signed but NOT ratified.

We then focused on the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank.  In addition, she reviewed how in the past most loans were simple and discrete projects like building a bridge.  Today’s loans are more complex and the “Bank” not only lends money but Leadership and Government relations, etc.  They are forced to act as the leadership team around the project as they are more and more complex in the projects.  To showcase the complexity of these modern projects, Dr. McKenzie had the group bread into 3 smaller groups and each had a complex loan request to review and present.  This was a great exercise for them as it caused them to integrate their thinking.

Lunch was next.  This gave me time to set up and prepare.  My presentation was in two parts. In the first half, I had two different themes; the first one was “What constitutes Human Resources?”.  This was a surprise to the group as to how complex the profession really is.  The second area was fundamentals of types of businesses/organizations and drivers of each along with a few definitions of principles.  The group in general was not aware of a lot of these issues. In the second half of my presentation I focused on Global HR.  This was great and the class actually had some knowledge on this subject.  My thrust was the use of action learning as a tool to implement when solving complex issues. I ran out of time, but left them with the resource books.  Overall, we covered a lot of information in a short 3 hours.

Monday, August 6:  Classes begin!  Sunday evening before dinner was our introduction.  Monday at 9:15, classes start.  Our group’s first learning dialogue was on the creation and structure of the European Market — how the single currency came into being and the many ramifications of what exists today.  For example, the EU was officially created in 1999 with 11 members.  Today there are 17 States on the Euro with 27 States as members of the Union.  This was a fascinating discussion about how it was created, why it does exist and how current issues are creating a crisis with Greece, Spain and other countries.  The future will certainly be interesting as it challenges the core principals of the EU beyond what was ever conceived just 15 years ago.  The flow chart is interesting: Free Trade — Customs Union — Common single Market (9 members are at this level only and may not go further) — Monetary Union — Economic Union (18 members are at this level), with the final stage being a Political Union (none have agreed to this level as of yet, but may be key to the future or breakup of the Economic Union).  Fascinating overview of financial complexity.  Also, we had great discussions around Great Britain’s non membership at the EU despite being the 7^th largest economic GDP in the world.

The afternoon was focused on Global Environmental overview.  Our professor, and host coordinator, was Dr. Ken Addison.  While I personally am skeptical on some of the key issues, his presentation was very informative.  His focus was to educate, not convince.  Like a senior fellow of Oxford, he masterfully created dialogue in a non controversial way.  I concluded the program with a broader understanding of a global perspective on the multiple issues.

Monday evening was our formal reception in the Courtyard of one of the original buildings of the college dating back to the mid 1600s.  With champagne on the lawn and mingling with another group from Salem College, North Carolina, we had a typical Oxford social event.  One must be properly attired for these events.  Tradition prevails.  After this we went to a lecture on the origins of coins before our formal dinner.  Think of the dining room as you see in Harry Potter movies.  The rows perfectly lined up at a 90 degree angle to the “High Table”.  I had the good fortune to be invited to sit at the High Table.  Of course, the conversation as always is around the academic discussions of the day.  No texting or cell phones allowed!  We were also warned not to even leave the table for the rest room.  This almost 2 hour event was one I will always associate with this trip.  By 9pm, the formal day was over.

One other item of interest was to watch a Croquet game played on the lawn of the quad.  It so reminded me of the Rotary events we have hosted at Glenfiddich.  I now better understand both the need for the appropriate lawn (which ours is not) as well as the heritage of the sport.  Somehow, the game takes on a level of elegance when at Oxford.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012: Breakfast at 8:00 as everyday and off to our first class by 9:00.  Today, our first presentation was on Islamic History.  In true Oxford style, there is absolutely no connection between speakers.  In the spirit of providing an intellectual framework, this was excellent and true to Oxford. Dr. Adeel Malik is from Pakistan and has an intimate knowledge from his research on the historical developments of the Islamic countries and their growth. His subject: Looking at Development in Muslim Societies, which brings about the question, was it a legal or political failure that has caused the underdevelopment of the Islamic countries as compared to Western Europe? His overview focused on how the religious documents were then translated into legal documents which had unintentional consequences on growth and development from a business perspective. Law from Scriptures did not make a business foundation especially in the areas of Land Development and accumulation of wealth (through death redistribution which was mandatory) and no business laws that allowed creation of self-sustaining corporations.  Therefore, all possessions including money were tied directly to the life of the person without the ability to inherit from family or others.

In addition, the one bright spot was WAQF.  This is the process much like we have with tax deductible charitable donations.  These were allowed to be created typically around social good.  If wealthy enough, you could build a small hotel for travelers and have it there for free use, but have it operate through your endowment.  By putting your family name on it, this would create recognition for your success while alive.  A very interesting concept for social systems.  As an economist, his views focus on financial and legal issues as they relate to business and life.

In the afternoon Neil Eibeler gave a great overview of Rubbermaid.  He set a high standard for my upcoming Thursday presentation. We ended at 4:45 with an open evening.

Neil and I had the opportunity to have dinner off campus.  It was a great relaxing time to both reflect on the program as well as general business.  After spending 3 days in academia, it is always refreshing to return to my roots with another business professional!  I truly enjoyed his company.

Tomorrow’s entry: David visits the world famous Blenheim Park. See below for a sneak peak!

Inside the Park is Blenheim Palace. The UNESCO World Heritage Site contains one of the largest homes in all of England.