Defenestrating Thoughts from the Bivouac

I haven’t given it much thought, but I’m beginning to think that identify theft couldn’t be all that hard. :-) When Crissy and I applied for a marriage license the other day and we needed our driver licenses and “proof of Social Security Number”. Since we didn’t have our SSN cards on us (who does?), we went to the Social Security Administration to get the requisite proof.

At that office, all we had to do was show our Driver’s Licenses and answer some questions to “prove” our identity. The questions were fairly easy like, “When’s your birthday?” or “Where were you born?” Once that was done, we had the option to have a new Social Security card sent to the address of our choice or just get notarized statements with our SSN and names on them.

That doesn’t seem like the most secure system at all. Hopefully, if we do end up with a national ID card system, it is a little more secure that our current system.

A (long) while ago, I finished reading Jack Welch’s new book, Winning. I picked it up because just about everyone at work was reading it and a bunch of changes at work were directly inspired by Welch’s writing.

In his book, Welch starts with his own management techniques, things like candor, differentiation, and inclusion. Then he talks about organization issues, like hiring. From there he talks about strategy, M&A, competition, and then some odds and ends. The book is very conversational and reads quickly. And, though most business books are extremely repetitive, Winning isn’t.

Overall though, I didn’t feel that there were all that many new ideas in the book. Though, it may be that the other books “borrowed” ideas from Welch in the first place. :-)

The book was also a bit Pollyanna-ish and self-serving. Yes, Welch’s tenure at GE was legendary, and a lot of credit is due for that. But, I would think that he would have spent more time talking about the people that helped make his track record so good.

Welch also seems to think that management is the most important part of a company. It’s obviously really important; especially in organizations where leaders can only be effective with organizational authority (which is probably most companies). But it’s important to remember that the workers actually do the work.

I feel that the management methods and tactics in the book are great as long as you have good managers. Once that is no longer the case, all bets are off. After all, A’s hire A’s, but B’s hire C’s, and D’s. And once you get one B in the org, it goes downhill.

I said earlier that the book was a little Pollyanna-ish; I wanted to hear more about what needs to be done in an imperfect scenario. For example, if the people in charge of product differentiation for resource allocation don’t have business sense, how is this recognized and fixed?

But, it’s definitely a must-read. After Welch was highly successful in his career, and his writing and speeches strongly influence what today’s leaders are doing. So, if you want to be in the know, you need to read. :-)

When I go to weddings, I usually end up giving the happy couple a check. I figure it’s the most useful gift. Easy to transport, accepted by most major retail outlets, and everyone likes money.

Plus you can measure how organized the new couple is based on when they cash the check. Some couples cash it the next day, presumably for some spending money on their honeymoon. Others will wait for months, confounding my ability to balance my checkbook.

I recently discovered a 3^rd category: those that just never cash it. This is happened for the past 3 weddings I’ve been at. I’m not sure if they lost it, didn’t get it, or really like the design of the check. Honestly guys, my checks won’t bounce!

So it makes we wonder if Crissy and I have some orphaned presents out there. There was plenty of opportunity for them to get misplaced, and the UPS folks could have easily diverted a few of the hundred or so boxes that came. :-)

Now that we’re sending all of our thank you notes, we’ve noticed we can’t find a gift or anything from some really close friends. We’re more than content to let the matter lie, but now I’m really curious if it’s normal to have a small percentage of gifts go AWOL.

Now that Pluto was kicked out of the solar system, Neptune is the last planet in the solar system.

I really hope that we kick out Neptune too. Then we can all joke, “The solar system ends with Uranus.”