Ideas - don't be afraid to share yours

TED (owned by The Sapling Foundation) fosters the spread of great ideas. It aims to provide a platform for the world's smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future. Core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea. Consider:

• An idea can be created out of nothing except an inspired imagination. 
• An idea weighs nothing.
• It can be transferred across the world at the speed of light for virtually zero cost.
• And yet an idea, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.
• It can reshape that mind's view of the world.
• It can dramatically alter the behavior of the mind's owner.
• It can cause the mind to pass on the idea to others.

OUR COLLABORATION ACROSS

THE 

INFORMATION DOMINANCE CORPS

IS CAPABLE OF CHANGING THE MANNER IN WHICH 

THE NAVY CONDUCTS  COMBAT AT SEA 

AND PREVENTS WAR. 

OPNAV N2/N6 is actively seeking your ideas.  SHARE THEM. Create a better future. It's where you'll spend the rest of your career.

Sometimes feedback takes awhile

I write MANY letters to a diverse group of people I've met and to people I'd like to meet.  I wrote to this officer seven years ago.  He'd been assigned to a job I had in Hawaii and I had some advice for him.  Turns out, it was useful advice and he took a moment to let me know.  I appreciate that.  It gives me hope that some of the senior officers in our cryptologic community will one day pick up a pen and respond to those long-unanswered letters I sent them.  Like the writer of this letter, they have NO EXCUSE (but may have a reason) for not writing sooner.

One of the things I like to do most is to send letters of CONGRATULATIONS to officers selected for promotion.  I've also sent a number of letters to non-selects advising them not to give up on the Navy and to stick around for another look.  It's worked out for most of them.  Generally speaking, people appreciate an encouraging word.  Pick up a pen and send someone you know (or would like to know) an encouraging word.

Write by hand

www.pen.com

I have enjoyed ample criticism

No words

Remember to

10 Reasons I Have Enjoyed Blogging Here

In no particular order.

1.  It allowed me to engage with a wonderful author and to write the Chapter 1 opening vignette for a New York Times/Wall Street Journal/Amazon best-selling business book.  Dr. Stephen Covey and Bono 'open' for me.  Multipliers by Liz Wiseman is available HERE.

2.  It gave me the opportunity to help a Pulitzer prize winning author with research for his story on The SeaWitch in TIME magazine with a link HERE.

3.  It has allowed me to remain connected to the Navy's cryptologic community, which I love. The community dissolved and was reconstituted.

4.  It earned me an invite to speak at a Women In Defense forum and to contribute ideas to numerous professional publications.

5.  It has allowed others to freely express their frustrations on a variety of topics important to them. 

6.  It allowed me to expand the network of Sailors of all paygrades that I mentor and with whom I share lessons learned.

7.  It allowed me to collaborate with the former CNO on avenues to gain recognition of the Navy as a TOP 50 Employer in the United States.

8.  It allowed me to keep alive the memory of some stellar Sailors.

9.  It has allowed me to write every day, which I love.

10.  It has connected me to some great Navy veterans and many others who proudly serve today.

Show a little courtesy

A courtesy is a form of polite behavior and excellence of manners. You will find that Navy life creates many situations, not found in civilian life, that require special behavior on your part. Customs and courtesies help make life orderly and are a way of showing respect.

Customs are regular, expected actions. They have been repeated again and again and passed from one generation to the next. Courteous actions show your concern and respect for others.  Take some time to show a little courtesy now and then.

He's served in many ships in the Navy

Except this one

leader SHIP !!

http://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/wp-content/uploads/sites/8070/2014/11/leader-needed.jpg

HANDWRITTEN NOTES NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE - Aaron Stearns - Bourbon and Boots

Check out BOURBON AND BOOTS

In the South, we love to be social.  It's part of our heritage and culture.  You know, waving at the driver in the car when you pass and speaking to a total stranger in the grocery store parking lot.  Another tradition still alive and well in the South is handwritten thank you notes.  Thank you notes never go out of style and express a personal touch that you took the time and effort to express your gratitude. There is something about a handwritten note that expresses a sincerity that just can't be emoted through a quick email or a text message. Since we are all tethered to our mobile devices it's certainly more convenient to shoot out a quick "thanks" text, but that 's the whole point, its convenient for you, not taking a level of effort on your part to slow down and genuinely gather your thoughts to show the person you cared enough to invest some of your time in them.  You may not like the hassle of sending them, but you know how good it feels to receive them. It's always a joy to see that handwritten note in the mail box.  Why not slow down a bit truly and truly express your feelings with a hand written note.  It is sure to convey your sincerity and will brighten their day.  We've put together some suggestions to ensure your efforts are as genuine and charming as an be.  We hope you enjoy, use this tips, and share with your friends.

• Buy stationery. Embossed cards with complementary envelopes look much better than folded notebook paper stuffed in a plain envelope. You don't have to splurge on embossed or monogrammed stationery from a specialty store. You can find decent sets at office supply stores and online.

• Personalize it. Not just in the personalized stationery, but in what you actually say. If you’re going to see the person in the future, refer to the event and say you’re looking forward to it. If the person gave you a silver picture frame, don’t simply thank them for it, but add, “I plan on using the frame for a wedding picture in my living room.”

• Even if it’s late, send a note. Don’t feel embarrassed. It’s better to send a late thank you than none at all.

• Take your time. An illegible note won’t do much good and neither will one with scratch marks all over it. Use a nice, fine point pen, so the ink won’t bleed or smudge. Traditionally, thank you notes are written in cursive. Sometimes this can look like a mess if your cursive is not up-to-par, so use your best judgment and do what you think looks best.

• Send thanks for trivial things. Why not? Whether it’s for a casual get-together or for a neighbor who collected your mail and watered your plants while you were gone, a hand-written note is the best way to show your appreciation. It may also ensure that you’ll get the invite or extra help in the future.

Moral Leadership - perhaps we need to bring back NAVPERS 15890

Today, many are focusing on lessons-learned in the Navy.  One might think about what we have forgotten in the Navy and what we have moved away from.  Progress is great, moving forward is useful - but, what have we forgotten?  We've moved away from some very sound principles in the Navy. Find NAVPERS 15890 and read it.  Moral Leadership is as important as ever.

This is from All Hands in 1958. . .

For your information, the Navy is starting a leadership program. In a sense, it broadens the character program of which you have heard. It applys to handling a ship’s boat, to servicing the guns, to scanning with radar.


It applies to the fighting man (or the man ready, able, willing to fight-if you prefer). It applies to leading and being led. Perhaps it most closely applies to the petty officer, the CPO and junior officer.  

For example, we were briefed on the program by an ex-POW. What he had to say opened our eyes. Inter-reliance; self-leadership; strength of character- these were the terms he used.  He used them to describe the men who had survived in POW camps. It was an object lesson to us.

We’re giving you some of his ideas, together with the principles of senior officers, past and present. A new manual, Moral Leadership (NavPers 15890), tells more about the program. You take it from there.

Going with the status quo is a euphemism for failure

www.sethgodin.com

Several years ago I received this compliment from a Navy Flag officer.

Mike, You're the colorful guy in the middle.

Remembering...7 short years ago. PO1 Ronny S. Vigilant is the first Sailor to be designated an Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare Specialist (EIDWS)

Ann Vigilant accepts a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, posthumously awarded to her son, Petty Officer 1st Class Ronny S. Vigilant, from Capt. Steven J. Ashworth, at Arlington National cemetery August 5, 2010. Petty Officer Vigilant, who died unexpectedly of natural causes on June 8, was instrumental as a subject matter expert during the initial phase of the Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare Specialist qualification program. For his critical contributions to the program, Ronny S.Vigilant was the first Sailor Navy-wide designated as an EIDWS.

IT1(SW) Ron Vigilant - "Sailor, rest your key. It's silent now.  Your message is eternal."

Tom Peters says that a great source of innovation is your angry people

Tom Peters has read hundreds of books about innovation and talked with thousands of people about it.  He has concluded that the best source for innovation is PoP: Pissed-off people. These are the people who are tired of the status quo and are determined to make a change. These are the folks who will go to the grave fighting to change things.  (Sound familiar - Sean Heritage, Rebecca Siders, Jason Knudson?)

They are the one who will overcome the inertia of stillness and change thing.  They overcome the resistance of the system. People universally don't like to be changed.  The people pissed off about the status quo are willing to take the heat and fury of the people/system they are trying to change.  (We need more pissed off people apparently - COs would be a good place to start - STOP maintaining the status quo; shake things up.)

Juan Trippe was the founder of PanAm. And somebody wrote about him and said this: “What drove Trippe? A fury that the future was always being hijacked by people with smaller ideas—by his first partners, who didn’t want to expand air mail routes; by nations that protected flag-carriers with subsidies; by elitists who regarded flight, like luxury liners, as a privilege that could only be enjoyed by the few; by the cartel operators who rigged prices. The democratization he affected was as real as Henry Ford’s.”

And I think whether it’s Juan Trippe and an airline or, again, whether it is a 26-year-old who thinks a purchasing process is the stupidest thing that he or she has ever seen in their life, that is the source of innovation. What’s the bottom line? Don’t get rid of your angry and furious people who are annoyed at you by the way you do things now. Sure it can go too far.  If you believe what I’m saying, fury, anger, irritation—pissed-off people—is the only serious source of innovation. Only. Period. One. Singular.