We continue.

Well, things have been pretty busy lately.

A few udates on school, my Teambuilding class is going well. I do enjoy our class discussions and seeing other perspectives on things.

We also have a group report on an assigned movie. Ours was "Lord of the Flies." Man, that movie was terrible. Just plain weird and terrible. Oh well.

My Written Communication class has reminded me how much I hate English. Dangling participles, subject-verb agreement, tense agreement, etc., they can all kiss my #%$.

And why, just because some guy made these rules, do we follow them? We're just a bunch conformists.

Whatever.

Also, I got an A on my Powerpoint class and Leadership Development. The "A" steak continues. That might come to an end after Written Comm.

We shall see.

Also, Anna is still in the hopstial going through tests. I urge you all to continue to keep her in your prayers. I know God has a plan for her, and He is doing this for the good of all. Keep fighting, little Anna. We love you.

For those of you who'd like to keep up with updates, my sister (Becky) has set up a caring bridge site at www.caringbridge.org/visit/annarogotzke

Thanks for your contined prayers.

See you when I see you all.

Jon

Scared

Hello,

This isn't one of my usual posting days. This isn't one of my usual subjects.

My 2 year old niece was flown to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis this past Saturday. After having stomach pains for awhile, they found what they suspect to be cancerous tumors in her belly. I can't even begin to describe how helpless and desperate I feel to want to help her. I can't imagine what her parents are going through.

I take comfort in the fact the I know everything that happens here on earth is under the watchful eye of God. I know she is in His hands, as we all are. And I know that Romans 8:28 says all things work for the good of those who love Him.

But man, this is hard.

I ask those of you who read this to keep Anna and her family in your prayers during this most difficult time.

Thanks.

Things are getting busy

Hello all,

Sorry for the extended layoff, but we had spring break last week.

But we'll make up for that as I now have two classes per week. I started Written Communications this past Monday. It was weird having an Andy-less class. New teachers name is Gary Heeler. He seems like a nice guy, and he made the class interesting. Let me know if any of you out there are English majors and are interested in proofreading my papers.

We also had week 2 of Teambuilding and problemsolving. We went through the inputs, throughputs, and outputs of teams. We also teamed up to review a movie and talk about the teams and leaders that develop in the movie. Our movie: Lord of the Flies. I haven't seen it yet so it should be interesting.

Till next time.

Jon

Leadership Development in the books

Hello again,

Last week we put the finishing touches on Leadership Development.

Everyone did their presentations on their leaders (ours was General Patton), and we had the traditional last class eat day.

We then watched a video from a series of videos put on by Stanford. Keynote speakers discussing leadership. The speaker talked about how we do not retain information given to us in numbers and bits and pieces, but how well we remember things when they are told to us in story form. Very true when you think about it.

It looks like I'll get an A for this class, and I start the next one tomorrow.

I'd also like to leave you with another poem called "Retirement" that our text ended with, written by James Autry.

It is early-6:30. The building is quiet.
Soon the place will come to life as it always
does with the rush of people working.
These days, though, it's the smaller, slower things I notice;
the droning of fans and compressors keeping us warm or cool,
the buzz of flourescent lights, the burble of the big percolator and
the smell of coffee.
As the time here grows shorter, I find myself thinking of other
times when I could not wait for the day or the week to be over-
The times I strained for Christmas or vacation; I think of
meetings that would never end, of hours stuck on a taxi-way,
airliners lined up as far as I could see;
of those eternal minutes right before someone was to come into my
office to be fired.
I understand now why every writer who ever lived wrote about time
and its paradoxes, and everything they ever said about
how fast time passes is true.
But, they never told us how many slow days we would have
to endure before we realized
how fast they had gone.

See ya next week.

Almost there........

Hello all,

We've finished up the final 6 chapters in the current book. Our final paperwork is all due next Tuesday. Our group presentation is the next week and that will close the book on Leadership Development.

I then start 2 classes so I'll be going to LTC twice a week. Should keep me busy.

I also finished up my Powerpoint class this past week. All I have to do is take the final test in the computer lab at school.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Till then...

2 weeks rolled into one

It just occured to me that I never posted last week so we'll have to cover the last two weeks.

Two weeks ago our assignments and conversations centered around communication and top down companies versus bottom up companies.

Did you all know that some of the most successful companies are the ones that listen to the "people"? This did not come to me as a surprise at all. Unfortunately, not enough CEO's and presidents subscribe to this belief.

Then last night, the topic centered around types of leaders, and what can be done to motivate others.

Andy asked what we do on a daily basis to motivate others in our family and in the workplace. It really hit home with me, because I don't feel I do enough of that. It is one of my immediate goals (along with getting out of the cellar in Biggest Loser, Kallies edition) to improve on that.

Here's to hopin'

Also, I am now a class rep. for our "cycle". What does this mean? It means I get to meet with people from the school and people from local businesses to discuss the program. I am very excited about this, as I think it's a great networking opportunity to meet all these different people. You never know what tomorrow will bring. I sure am thankful to God that he has blessed me with these opportunities.

One more thing, I'd like to post a poem that was in our textbook that I thought was really cool. It's called "The Cold Within" by Alexander Pope. It was on the chapter about working with a diverse workforce. Here it goes:

Six human beings were trapped one day
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story's told.

With dying fire in need of logs,
The first one held hers back;
For of the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.

The next one looking across the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes;
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should he give wood to use
To warm the idle rich?

The richest man sat back and thought
Of the gold he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight;
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

And the last man of the forlorn group
Did naught except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without;
They died from the cold within.

As Andy would say, "Scary, isn't it?"

Rate your employer

Last night we covered chapters 6-11. Let me start off by saying I've now read 3 1/2 textbooks cover to cover. Pretty impressive for someone who generally despises reading if it doesn't involve sports. Or dogs. Anyhow.

We had to do some exercises on rating our employer. Since I am rather new at my current job, I try to rate them and my previous. It's interesting to see what I think are the differences between the two.

We also covered what it means to be a good leader and the different styles of leadership. Using some more exercises, I fall into a more people-oriented than task-oriented leader. Hopefully, my direct reports will feel the same way about me.

Chapters 12-17 for next week.

Till then!