Service: A One Way Street?

We all enjoy those occasions when someone does a little extra for us.  I appreciate it when my wife brings me a glass of water from the kitchen just because she was getting one for herself and she knew I would like one too.

Most of us even look for opportunities to bless others with random acts of kindness.  If I am making popcorn for movie night, I will make enough for the rest of family without any of them having to ask.

We also know a few “characters” in our lives who don’t fit either of these models.  They don’t look for opportunities to serve others, and they try to manipulate the situation to compel others to serve them.  Service to a “character” is a One Way Street.  “Characters” often employ an indirect approach to get what they want.

“What are you making for breakfast? … Ok, I guess that will work for me too.”

“What are you making yourself for lunch?... That sounds good.  I will have some of that too.”

“Would you like some yogurt? … Bring me one too since you’re getting yourself one.”

“No I don’t want that but, you can bring me some water since you are already by the fridge.”

These sound a lot like the Jeff Foxworthy line “Sensuous was up, get me a….”

We are slowly working on a cure for our “character”.  Consider this antidote.

“What are you making yourself for lunch?”

“I am making soup.  What are you making for yourself?”

“Oh, that’s not the answer I was looking for.”

“I guess you should have asked a better question.”

Do you recognize a “character” in your life?  I don’t believe these “characters” are intentionally rude or inconsiderate.  They may simply lack the proper planning tools to consider service to others as part of their walk through life.

Mark 10:45:  “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

• What is Your Plan? -

Post Script: Experienced another behavior modification following my "characters'" review of this blog prior to posting. Service is turning into a two way street.

My “Perfect” Plan

Have you ever had a plan so tightly wrapped that you felt like success was a foregone conclusion?  I mean you knew, with 100% certainty, that everything would execute exactly according to the plan.  There were no holes in the plan and no room for deviations.  A perfect plan… the ever-illusive utopia.

Several years ago, my wife and I were set to embark on another military move.  We were moving from Fort Rucker, AL, and heading to Monterey, CA, for graduate school.  [I know, tough duty]

Our “perfect” plan:

Movers head out with all of our worldly possessions on a Thursday.  We were to expect delivery no earlier than 12 days later.  No need for storage.  We were doing a door-to-door move.  Everyone said a door-to-door move was a myth; it’s impossible.  We’ll show them.  Our plan is fool-proof.

We leave Fort Rucker on Friday and head to Atlanta to send the boys back to Minnesota.  They were staying with grandparents so they wouldn’t have to make the long drive.  Hurray for grandparents!

We leave Atlanta on Monday after Mary flew back from Minneapolis, complete with dropping off the boys.  Off we go on our relaxing 2,400 mile drive to Monterey.  The “perfect” plan included driving an average of 550 for 4 days and then an easy 200 miles the last day.

Once we got to Monterey on Friday, after our easy 200 miles, we would drop the dog off at the kennel and check into the Guest House.  Making the trip with the dog in the car would add some complexity but we could handle it.  We had a “perfect” plan for that too.

We would sign for our military housing on Friday and explore the city over the weekend.  Monday would come and we would be completely ready for the delivery team; ready with donuts, pizza and a few Cokes.

Oh how I love a “perfect” plan!

What really happened:  Everything was going great right up until day 3 (Thursday) of our drive.

While at a rest stop in Arizona, we get a call from the military transportation office.  The movers, apparently, are supermen and managed to be 3 days ahead of schedule.  What moving company has ever done that!  

They were going to deliver our household goods on Friday morning, not the next Monday, like we had planned.  Ok.  Only a slight change to the plan…  Then the next bit of good news.  If we were not at our house ready for the delivery at 9:00 am, they would put our stuff in storage for 30 days.

Noooooo…. don’t you understand, we are doing a door-to-door.  We have a perfect plan.  This is not happening.

Ok.  Wait.  We can do this.  

We will skip our last overnight stop and drive straight to Monterey.  We can do the remaining 800 miles in a day.  

We don’t have a place to stay!  We will call for new hotel reservations.  The Dog!  The hotel needs to take pets.  [Not an easy  find]  We have a reservation at a hotel on the beach.  Too bad we can’t enjoy it.  [another side note..we got lost getting to the hotel.  No GPS.]

Guess we can cancel the kennel reservation. [as a side note:  Arizona and southern California rest areas don’t have any grass.  The dog won’t relieve himself unless he has grass.  We found out that he has a very large bladder capacity.]

The housing office!  They don’t open until 9:00 am!  I called them and told them our dilemma.  They agreed to meet me so I could sign for the keys early Friday morning, while my better-half waits for the truck.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR PERFECT AND RELAXING PLAN?  Gone.

Everything turned out ok in the end, as it almost always does, despite our melodramatic panic.  We even completed the elusive door-to-door move.

The worst part of the entire change episode was totally self-induced.  Yours truly decided it would be a good idea, and quicker, to take the scenic route (HWY 1) up the California coast to cover our last 100 miles.  The last 100 miles of a 800 mile day.  It was not quicker and not very scenic with the sun on the horizon and in your eyes for 100 miles.  Not to mention it made my better-half sick. [Never a good thing.]

When will we learn to stop chasing the “Perfect” plan.

Romans 8:28  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

- What is your plan? -

“Making Tracks - A Week in Review”

No week ever goes as planned.  We all start with a well intentioned plan, but it never seems to go according to our plan. (Note: I wrote this a couple of weeks ago prior to a much needed vacation.)

My plan was to get a jump on the work week.  Get up early and be to work by 0730.  My plan was subverted the minute I walked down the stairs.  

The smell hit me like a three shot espresso.  I’m wide awake now.  It smelled like someone had slaughtered a deer and hit all the bad parts.  

The dog got sick and defecated all over the dining room, kitchen and hallway.  As he has gotten older, he is having accidents more frequently, but this...this was like nothing we’ve ever had to deal with before.  He started at the base of the stairs and decided to run an obstacle course while discharging.  He managed to create a  serpentine course under the dining room table, between the legs of the chairs, and continue the release into the middle of the kitchen.  He then, apparently, repositioned to the office area where he left a nice chocolate streak down the hallway toward the kitchen.  I guess he was “Making Tracks”.

My Monday morning started with 35 minutes of scrubbing on my hands and knee.  Thankfully, we have mostly tile floor downstairs.  This was not my plan.

Because of my decision to get an early start on Monday, my wife and I departed from our normal gym schedule.  We went to the gym separately to continue our quest to go From-Couch-to-5K.  This is our attempt to “Make Tracks” to healthier living.  I think it might just put us in the hospital.  Running is hard.

Tuesday was a good trek.  A few surprises, mostly positive, and certainly nothing like the dog squirts.  Tuesday night I found myself at our church council meeting.  Council nights are a little tough because Tuesday nights are family night at our house.  It is the only night we are all home together.  Busy teenagers.  The meeting went well with a few curves in the road as we welcome several new members and new ideas.     

Wednesday morning the dog decided to leave me a few surprises closer to home.  He decided it was a good idea to evacuate during his morning stretch.  He sleeps on the floor near my side of the bed.  Needless to say, I stepped lightly out of bed to avoid his #2.  Another early morning clean up.  Again, not what I had planned.  

My wife and I made it to the gym in the morning and completed our run.  My plan was to shower at the gym and head into work.  Work would have to wait since I left my belt and deodorant at home.  More “Tracks”, and miles on the car, as I had to return home because nobody wants my BO around the office, even if I am wearing a tie.

Thursday’s plan was to get into work early again.  I am trying to closeout several tasks as we are preparing for a much needed summer family vacation.  Thursday was my last full work day before we depart.  It was difficult to stay focused while I beat back thoughts of laying on the beach with a little umbrella drink in my hand.  My “Tracks” around the office were a little more hurried today.  My boss told me to put everything on hold and start concentrating on the vacation.  The work will be here when I get back.  I think that is why I’m afraid.

Remember earlier when I said that “we” had to deal with the dog’s accidents.  My wife and son got their chance to participate.  You got it.  For the third and fourth time this week, the dog left us a little treat.  This time in the living room.  Get out the Target bags, rubber gloves and rags.  And to think, my son loves animals and wants to be a vet.  This is good practice, but this was not exactly his plan.

At the time of this writing, Friday is yet to happen, but don’t you worry, I will have a plan.  Actually, we have great plans to spend the day together as a family on a harbor cruise and tour of Fort Wool.  It will be interesting to see what alternate “Tracks” await us.

Maybe I’ve stumbled onto the problem.  It is our plan, not God’s plan.  Consider, through prayer,  the “Tracks” He would have for you.  I bet it will make a difference in the way you approach each day.  Every week that I get to “Make Tracks” with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a great week.

Jeremiah 29:11  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

- What is your plan? -

“That is not what I expected.”

This post is about incentives, and more accurately, unintended incentives.  Have you ever set a plan in motion and the results were 180 degrees out from what you expected?  I bet if you looked hard enough, your plans include unintended incentives.

Plans with incentives involve people and we all know that humans are completely rational.  These “rational” humans can nearly always find the unintended incentive.

Need an example?

(Note: “S” asked that the next blog be about his brother since he didn’t like all the attention from the last one.)

“J” is my other teenage son.  He is at the age that he can shop for himself, and mom and dad see an opportunity to teach him about money matters.  Money matters like giving, saving and spending.  

He has job responsibilities around the house and, for his efforts, he receives weekly compensation.  We also decided to provide him with a small monthly clothing budget.  With this additional monthly income, he would now be responsible for buying his own clothing.  Sounds like a logical approach with obvious incentives.  Incentives like looking for sales, getting only what you need, and learning to budget monthly.

Recently “J” has developed the learned behavior of leaving his wallet at home.  What?  

Me - “How are you going to pay for your stuff?”

“J” -   “You can pay for it, and I will pay you back when we get home.” (which rarely happens)

or

Me - “Don’t forget your wallet”

“J” - “It’s ok.  There won’t be anything I want to buy.”  (repeat conversation above)

We had actually provided an incentive for him to “forget” his wallet.  The incentive was more money in his bank account.

Home is not the only place to watch out for unintended incentives.  How about an example from the workplace?

A couple of weeks ago at work, I helped conduct a large scale data collection effort in an attempt to track the outputs from our organization.  We built a spreadsheet to capture the information and we ended up with over 30 elements of data per line of entry.  We pushed out the instructions and the form with a short turn around time (as always).  The organization responded and the data started to flow in.  Lots of data.  Way more than expected.  We thought this was great support from across the entire organization.  What more can you ask for?  

Next step was data analysis.  We quickly realized that we unintentionally baked incentives into our data collection.  The category titles and selection choices provided enough indicators to drive the responders to a “preferred” choice.  

The results indicated that not one of our outputs was generated from a self-initiated project.  This is highly unlikely for my type of organization.  I suspect this is the same for others organizations.

Was this gaming the system?  Was the problem related to self reporting?  Maybe.  I think it had more to do with unintended incentives.  

It really doesn’t matter if you are dealing with a teenage boy or some other “rational” human, look for the possibility of unintended incentives in all the plans you set in motion.

Proverbs 16:3  “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

- What is your plan? -

"First Blog, Ever"

Let’s jump right in.  The first thing you need to understand is that planning is overrated.  Planning is for the weak, the unimaginative and those who are overly risk averse.  Understand?  What?

Do you always need a plan?  I should be able to just start working.  If I put out more energy, then I get good results.  

Not having a plan allows me to never be behind or ahead.  I will never be over budget (what is a budget anyway).  I will always achieve the expected outcome.

The expectations of others… don’t matter because I don’t have a plan for them to develop expectations.

The absence of proper planning can be seen in all areas of life: Physical, Spiritual, Financial, Family, Social, Intellectual, and Career.  I’ve convinced myself that I can fill this blog space indefinitely with examples from my own life.  

Luke 14:28-30  “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.  Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see it he has enough money to complete it?  For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ ”

Maybe we can learn something together.

Disclaimers:

1.  I am a Christ follower and I see life from a Christian world view.  

2.  I am a husband and a father of two teenage boys.  They read this blog.

3.  My wife proofreads all my posts.

4.  I will take liberty with the subject matter covered in this blog.

Thanks for joining.

-What is your plan?-

P.S.  What’s with the Blog name?  “Six Bottles to Paris” is a reminder of a very successful plan.  Two other couples joined my wife and I on a train trip to Paris.  There were 6 adults and 6 bottles of wine - a perfect plan!