Author Archives: scbrant

What if we were nicer?

Two stories of bad behavior caught my eye this week. I get that it’s “business” not “charity” but there are examples every day of businesses with a heart – Costco, Lowes and Starbucks offer benefits to part time employees for example but President Obama singled out office supply retailer, Staples, for trying to prevent its employees from getting health insurance. I’m not saying that I always agree with the President or with his health care policies but you can read the story here: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/Obama_slams_Staples_big_companies_on_healthcare_Shame_on_them.html

Here’s a quick summary of the situation:

  • The Affordable Care Act requires companies with more than 50 employees to pay for health insurance for people who work 30 hours a week or more. Reuters has reported that some businesses are keeping staffing numbers below 50 or cutting the work week to less than 30 hours to avoid providing employee health insurance.
  • Staples, the No. 1 U.S. office supplies retailer, who just announced a merger with Office Depot worth $6 billion, has told its employees not to work more than 25 hours per week, according to a Buzzfeed report on Monday. Oh, by the way, Staples CEO Ronald Sargent brought home $10.8 million in total compensation in 2013. The company reported net profit of $620.1 million through Feb. 1, 2014.
  • President Obama said, “There is no reason for an employer who is not currently providing health care to their workers to discourage them from either getting health insurance on the job or being able to avail themselves of the Affordable Care Act.”
  • Staples responded with a snarky statement indicating that the president did not have all the facts (not sure I agree with them either).

It sort of all starts with leaders right? Leaders have to care and insist that their companies adopt policies that are people first. What if we use pay as a measure of fairness. Seattle-based REI has more than 12,000 employees and it’s CEO makes $750,000. That’s a pretty flat pay scale that most employees would look at and say, “well the CEO has more responsibility than me so he/she is entitled to make a little more.”

To quote some famous pop song, “it’s not all about the money, money, money…” right? What about how you treat people – are you nice to the people around you? Do a search for “who are the nicest business leaders?” The results include, the greatest, the best, the most innovative, but not a single result for “nicest.” I found a person who wouldn’t make the list this week.

Amy Pascal, former co-chairman of Sony Pictures who was involved in the now infamous cyber-attack on the studio and subsequently lost her job, commented publicly for the first time this week. Here’s the full interview with the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31434419

I don’t want to work for her. She doesn’t sound like a nice person or the kind of business leaders that we need in this world. She said things like:

  • “If we all actually were nice, it wouldn’t work.”
  • “Here’s the problem: I run a business,” she continued. “People want to work for less money, I pay them less money.”
  • And she closed out her master class on leadership (and niceness) saying that she “learned a lot from the hack about how to relate to people.” And said “You should always say exactly what you think directly to people all the time,” she said. “In the moment, the first time.”

So, do businesses have to make more net profit than $620 million to pay for their employees healthcare? Would it all work if we were actually nice?

That’s not farming

I know a lot about farming and I know what a farmer is, I was one for the better part of 20 years. When my kids make comments about how much fun they had at their soccer tournaments and sleepovers and ski trips, I jokingly say, “when I was a kid, I was working on the farm.” Yeah, I’m that guy.

I’ve written a lot about farming and every time someone makes a comment about organic this or GMO that or Free Trade or subsidies for “rich farmers,” I have an opinion. I actually hear the voice of my dad yelling in my ear and he’s using bad words. I saw a review of Super Bowl commercials this year and there were several comments that none of them were as good as last year’s “farmer” spot by Dodge with the brilliant voice of Paul Harvey – check it out here if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Well, my dad, Paul Harvey and I saw this story today and couldn’t resist commenting…

Apparently the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is intervening because a Fargo, ND-based “agriculture firm” is trying to buy 27,000 acres of forest land in north-central Minnesota to convert it to farm land. This particular agriculture firm is called R.D. Offutt and in addition to being the world’s largest potato producer at more than 65,000 acres and the owner of the world’s largest collection of John Deere dealerships (more than 82), they own tens of thousands of acres of land in other states and many other agriculture-related companies as well.

What do they want to do with this new land you might ask? Irrigate it, fertilize it like crazy and plant potatoes that can be turned into frozen french fries for the fast food industry. That doesn’t sound like a good trade to me. The world does have a food crisis but more frozen french fries (and less photosynthesis from trees) is not going to solve it. Now, when I say I was a farmer, I mean the kind that Paul Harvey describes – my family feeds animals by hand, my dad stayed up all night with sows when they were having piglets, we carried calves into our basement and bottle-fed them. I drove tractors and combines and spent hundreds of hours in our fields. That’s what a farmer is. An agriculture firm is not a farmer.

That’s what’s wrong with farming today – there are fewer and fewer farmers. Through its spokesperson, another thing that a farmer does not have, R.D. Offutt said that it was “committed to preserving ground and surface water quality.” I’m not sure that I believe them. My dad never cut down one tree in my whole life time so he could farm more land, in fact, we planted trees and cover crop and my nephew is planting more trees around the home that I grew up in. That’s what a farmer would do.

Disappointed…in leadership

I watched the super bowl. My family and I were so excited to cheer for the Seahawks. We had lots of good reasons. We sort of adopted the Seahawks after many years of disappointment with the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, call us bandwagon if you want but we started cheering for them in December of last year when my son said, “Dad, we need to find a new team.” So, I ordered him a Russell Wilson jersey and off we went. Little did we know that they would run through the playoffs and embarrass the Denver Broncos to win the city’s first super bowl.

So, we were ready this fall. With all the drama surrounding Adrian Peterson, we were solidly Seahawks fans again. They really played well towards the end of the season and their division fell apart and before we knew it, they were in the NFC Championship against the Packers. Being Minnesotans, we never like to see the Packers win, so that game was painful to watch. It looked like Green Bay was going to head back to the Super Bowl but the Packers found a way to lose and the Seahawks were winners again.

The whole world knows about “deflate gate” and when I asked my daughter, a non-football fan, who she was rooting for in the Super Bowl, she said “I don’t cheer for cheaters.” So, true. We were really hoping that good karma was on our side against New England. At the end of the game, I felt a little ill. Yes, I ate too much but I also couldn’t believe we lost. Then I searched my memory bank for some good sports quotes and came up with “you win some and you lose some” and “players win games; coaches lose them.” What really struck me today when I read about the aftermath of the Super Bowl and all the analysis of Seattle’s last play call, it was a study in leadership. When asked about the last play call, Pete Carroll, Seattle’s head coach, quickly said, “it was my fault.” No second guessing, no throwing anyone under the bus. He just took responsibility. As they day went on, the exhausting analysis continued and I heard the answer to the question of responsibility posed to Seattle’s offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell. He was actually the one most responsible for that play call and instead of following Pete Carroll’s lead, he blamed his wide receiver for not getting to the ball fast enough.

So, there you have it. Leadership 101 – Don’t cheer for cheaters and take responsibility for mistakes.

Basements and tornadoes

Growing up on a farm can be lonely. You could sit on the tractor for hours by yourself. I knew the words to every song on every radio station – we only had like two actually – classic rock and classic country. Feeding and taking care of animals alone – you find yourself talking to them. Pigs, cows, dogs, they are all pretty good listeners but they don’t give great advice. It’s a solitary life. One particular place on the farm that was lonely and terrifying was our basement. Now I’m not even really sure you could call it a basement. It was under the house but this wasn’t your typical suburban basement where you entertain with a wet bar and plasma TV. This was a basement from a Steven King novel. There were two ways to get there. First, you could get there from the house by going through a small door just off our living room. From there, you’d pull a string to turn on a light and make your way down some dark and creaky stairs. Or, from the outside of the house, you had to open a “Wizard of Oz” type cellar door that you pull up. That led you down some equally creepy concrete stairs through a crooked wooden door in the house’s foundation. Now the fun is just beginning, once you got in, you were struck by the smell of mildew and you were overwhelmed by darkness – not a quiet and peaceful darkness so much as an unexplained darkness. There were some tiny windows on two walls but for some reason, no light came in. I think the light was scared. The one similarity to typical suburban basements was all the mechanicals like the furnace and water heater and affiliated pipes but they were hidden in the shadows or by the shadows. Behind the furnace was a small room that I never went in. I think it used to hold coal or something but it may also have been the way to Hades. So, you get the picture, not a fun place to have sleepovers or play ping pong. You would think this would be a place that you could avoid if it creeped you out right? You could never go there unless you had your dog or pig with you, you know someone to talk to. Ironically, this basement was where my parents sent me to keep me safe from severe thunderstorms and tornadoes – alone. I wonder if that’s why I hate thunderstorms and tornadoes so much? You think?

Small town service

I pulled into Smith’s Sudden Service in my home town on a cold Monday morning. My car had been sitting in my mom’s garage for two months because I was driving my dad’s truck. It felt good to drive an F-150 down in the city. I sat up high, listened to country music, got 10 mpg – and I missed my dad and sometimes it felt like he was sitting next to me. So, after two months of inactivity, my right front tire was flat. Or, actually it wasn’t so much flat as it just wasn’t full anymore and I had to drive four hours on icy roads in subzero temps to get back to civilization so I thought I should get it checked out. So, I found myself parking my bright red Nissan in front of the station and walking in to look for Ron. A bell rang as I opened the door, not an electronic bell but an actual bell that was hanging above the door. Coming in out of the cold, I felt 4 pairs of eyes on me. The room was thick with smoke and smelled like oil. George Strait was on the radio. I recognized Ron, the owner, because I’d been in there with my dad, but he had no idea who I was. The other three characters must have been regulars. They were standing around, smoking and drinking Ron’s coffee. “Good morning,” I said tentatively because it wasn’t and I was nervous. “What can I do for you?” asked Ron in response as his regulars sized me up. I could almost hear their thoughts, “foreign car – can’t put air in his own tires – wearing a girl’s coat (North Face) – dress pants (J Crew) – and shoes with no laces (Cole Haan)” I broke through the stereotypes with “I’m Steve, my brother called about my tire.” “Oh yeah,” said Ron, “I was sorry to hear about your dad” and then he said, “I can get it in right now.” So, Ron left me with the regulars who continued to stand and smoke. Finally Ron came back after what seemed like an hour (about a minute). Just as he did, a regular’s phone rang and everyone said “You got Al” and laughed. Al waited for them to be done and flipped open his phone and answered, “You got Al.” Ron told me it would just be a few minutes for them to pull the tire off and check it out and then he handed me a cup of coffee saying it was the best in town. When he left again to check on my tire, one of the guys whispered that the coffee wasn’t good at all but it was hot and free. I laughed. My dad would have stayed there all morning.

State of the union?

Did you watch the state of the union speech by President Obama last night? I didn’t but not because I was watching something else, I just chose to spend the hour with my family instead. I did some research and read about it today from a couple of news sources and even though I am a little reluctant to feature politics in my blog but I have some thoughts.

white_houseFirst, I received a very interesting e-mail from the White House yesterday – take a look at a screen shot of the e-mail here. I have to admit that I have written to the President before. I’m one of “those people” who takes democracy pretty seriously and I’ve been inspired to contact government officials at every level to share my perspective. Have I heard back? Not always, but the closer the branch of government is, the more likely they are to get in touch with you. I think it makes a difference. So, when I saw that a “3M” – not the company, but a “Minnesota Middle-class Mom” was going to be in the First Lady’s box last night, I thought it was great. The President read her letter and came to Minneapolis to buy her lunch and invited her to Washington D.C. so he could use her story. It’s all good theater right? I just wish he’d done a better job staying engaged with “us” all along. He and his campaign team did a great job of getting people energized and involved during his first campaign but to tell you the truth, this is the first e-mail I’ve ever received from him. I think he’s missed a huge opportunity.

I also wanted to share Matt Bai’s article from Yahoo. You can read his entire piece from today here: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-declares-victory–way-too-late-043549344.html. There is one quote from Matt that deserves to be repeated in my mind.

“He’s gone on talking mostly about economic suffering and inequality, at a time when the broad base of the country might well have responded to a more hopeful message — especially from the guy who used “hope” as his campaign slogan…He missed the chance to say, “Guess what? Things are actually getting a lot better now. You’re welcome. But we still face a serious crisis for your kids not too far down the line, and that’s what I want to focus on next.”

So, whatever you think about this President, I think his time in office will be judged by huge swings of emotion – excitement of his election and what it meant to the country to the economic and foreign policy crises that had his approval rating at all time lows. It’s a tough job however you look at it but I think he could have been more connected to us – I think it would have made a difference for how I feel about the state of the union.

Something in the water

Tom was nervous. This was his first job after all. Oscar’s farm was right down the road and helping him take care of the cows and mend fences didn’t seem too bad but he just didn’t know what to expect. Tom loved the farm and after his family lost their land and animals and had an auction, it just didn’t feel the same at home. So, this was a way for him to stay connected and maybe make a few bucks too. Tom was a little scared of Oscar. Not scared for his life scared but just the way you’d be scared of a stray animal or of flying for the first time. He’d seen him around, at church and at the cafe in town, and he was always grumpy. He also walked with a limp, maybe he always had it or maybe he just wasn’t as spry as he used to be.

Tom’s dad dropped him off right after lunch because Oscar had a few hours of work to do but as he put it, he “didn’t want to feed the boy.” Oscar met them in the driveway when they pulled in and Tom’s dad motioned for him to hop out of the truck and then he backed out and drove off. I guess this is it, thought Tom to himself. His thoughts were interrupted by Oscar’s gruff voice, “Did you bring some gloves? We’re working with barbed wire and it will tear up your hands.” Of course Tom had not brought gloves. Oscar just looked at him disappointedly and shook his head. He walked towards the barn and before Tom knew it, a pair of gloves came flying at him. They were about 8 sizes too big but he put them on anyway.

They walked out to the pasture right past the cows. Tom had been around cows before but never up this close. As if he wasn’t nervous enough about today. He didn’t think that cows ate humans but they were certainly big enough to squish him like a bug. They didn’t, they just moved out of the way as he and Oscar walked by – maybe they were scared of him too.

After tugging on wire and holding it so Oscar could pound new staples into old wooden posts for what seemed like a hundred years. Oscar broke the silence and said, “Are you thirsty? It’s hotter than hell out here.” Tom answered “yea” skittishly. Oscar dropped his tools and started walking towards the barn. In Tom’s mind, he thought they would head inside for some lemonade and cookies. No luck. They stopped at the huge stock tank that the cows drank out of. It looked bad. It had some stuff floating on the top of the water, it was green and really disgusting. That didn’t stop Oscar, he reached for a big metal ladle that was hanging from a nearby post, dipped it into the water, brought it to his lips and took a big sip. Tom thought he would pass out and then Oscar would die. He didn’t take a drink from the tank that day or any other day that summer – he brought a water jug instead. Oscar didn’t die any time soon; in fact he lived to be 102. Maybe just like Carrie Underwood sings, “there must’ve been something in the water.”

Here’s to comebacks

Have you been watching football lately? There have been some great comeback wins. We like comeback stories and I wanted to highlight a couple of recent football examples.

First, I’d like to highlight the North Dakota State University Bison from Fargo, North Dakota. On January 10, the Bison capped a great game with a last second comeback touchdown for the national championship. That would make a great story all on its own right? That’s not the whole story though, this was their fourth national championship in a row. Actually, the senior class on this team had a record of 58-3, amassing more national championships than losses during their playing careers. A feat never equaled at NCAA Division 1 football. After the game, first year head coach, Chris Klieman, said “With our guys, I never saw any doubt in their mind.” That’s amazing right – no doubt in their mind.

The other comeback was from yesterday in the NFC Championship. I have a Seahawks fan in my house who stopped watching the game in the second quarter and being a lifelong Minnesotan, I wasn’t pleased with the Packers’ dominance at the beginning of the game either. For 56 minutes, it looked like Seattle’s season was going to be over. But, after a late touchdown, onside kick recovery, another touchdown and two point conversion, Seattle was ahead for the first time in the game. The Packers came back to tie and send the game into overtime but Seattle scored on its first possession when Russell Wilson hit Jermaine Kearse for an amazing touchdown – his only catch of the day. Doug Baldwin, another Seattle wide receiver, summed it up this way, “As a true competitor, you can’t have any doubt…we believed that we were going to find a way to pull it out. And obviously we did that.”

I find it amazing that neither team had any doubt. I had doubts watching these games and I have doubts about my own abilities all the time, it’s human nature right? What enables people to overcome doubt? I suppose for a team you need to have trust in each other, solid coaching, and a great game plan. What about for you, how do you overcome doubt? A positive attitude, a support system that encourages you, what else? Here’s to never having any doubt – that’s one story coming out of football that I like.

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for my blog. Thanks for reading. I have some interesting things planned for 2015 as well. Happy new year.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 770 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 13 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thankful For Cancellations

So, I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. We celebrated a couple days before my “real” birthday as the kids call it, because this was supposed to be my schedule on the evening of my birthday:

  • Leave work early to see my son’s basketball game
  • My wife and I go in different directions, she brings my son home, I collect my daughter from play practice
  • I grab dinner for my daughter and have her change into her soccer gear in the bathroom or na phone booth like a super hero
  • Bring my daughter to soccer practice
  • My wife and I cross paths on the road as I finally head home by around 7:00 PM, she is on her way to collect my daughter from soccer and bring my son to soccer
  • I sit at home by myself while my daughter and wife wait for my son’s soccer to be done
  • My family arrives home by about 8:45 and my kids shower and go to bed by 9

Interestingly enough, we had a fairly significant weather event (a.k.a. blizzard) on my birthday that resulted in all of our kids’ evening activities being canceled. All of them! It was the best birthday present ever. We ate dinner together and watched some television and laughed and I wouldn’t have traded it for any present! So, on Thanksgiving, I can say that I’m thankful for cancellations every once in a while!

calendarNow don’t get me wrong, I want my kids to be active and involved but to what end? I realize that we are doing this to ourselves. I know that my mom and dad didn’t get up and look at their iPhones and see the message “you have 11 events scheduled.” When I was growing up, there were no multiple activities in one night. We did one thing at a time for the most part. I had some busy times but when I played football, that’s all I did, which was the same with basketball and track & field. How bad is it? My wife is a teacher and she’s had 5th graders suffer from nervous breakdowns caused by stress because of being over-scheduled with sports, music, tutoring, etc. Now, you could argue like “Tiger Mom,” that music and tutoring in math and foreign languages should be the focus. At least you could get some lifetime benefits out of those. What about having fun and playing sports? Do we all think that our kids are going to get full ride scholarships and go pro? Very unlikely, but that’s how we train. Here are a few sports examples from my experience:

  • I know a little girl who is 11 who played more than 140 hockey games this year in multiple year-round leagues. Do you know how many games the professionals of the NHL play? 82 from October to April.
  • My favorite sport to play as a kid was basketball. Do you know the schedule of youth travel basketball leagues? They practice at least two days a week and play league games and have 10 weekend tournaments from November through March. Then they go to camps and play 3 on 3 in the spring and summer and start up again in the fall.
  • Soccer is no better, spring and summer leagues with out of town weekend tournaments for 11-year-olds playing up an age level, and for 13 year olds, flying to tournaments in places like Florida and Nevada. I know another 10-year-old girl who plays soccer 7-days a week right now and in case you hadn’t noticed – it’s winter in Minnesota!

At least Sunday’s and Wednesday’s used to be off limits for church and family time and major holidays like Memorial Day and Christmas used to be sacred too but now they schedule stuff every available day and have holiday tournaments as well! I could go on but I better stop now, I can feel my blood pressure rising.

Among other things, I’m also thankful that I don’t have many days with 11 events but we want our kids to be active and well rounded. How do you manage your kids’ involvement in athletics and activities? What’s your record for most events in one day? What does balance mean?