The Costco Connection - December 2013

I WAS DRIVING today and listening to one of my
favorite CDs, by the late O.C. Smith, who had a hit
record (remember records?) called “Little Green
Apples.” He began singing “Everything Must
Change,” written by Bernard Ighner. The song
mentions many things that must change: “Winter
turns to spring, a wounded heart will heal … the
young become the old … nothin’ and no one goes
unchanged.” I have heard the song numerous
times. This time the thought that immediately
came to mind was “I must change.”
During the last three years, I have been having
a deep spiritual awakening. For a very long time I
have wanted others to change. Some time ago,
during an impasse with my wife, when I was
working on getting her to see things my way, I
asked myself, “Why can’t I change?” I had never
asked that question before. Now I had broken the
barrier and made the leap to “I must change.”
If everything must change, because nothing
stays the same, then I am a part of that truth,
because, truly, nothing stays the same. I am
reminded of the old saying that you can never step
into the same river twice. You cannot grow and
stay young. Everything must change.
Another saying states, “When the student is
ready, the teacher will appear.” We often think of
the teacher as being a person. In my case, O.C.
Smith was the messenger. The teacher was the
simple truth that everything must change. It was so
clear and profound I could not escape it. In a
heartbeat, I had a transformative, liberating
experience.
There will be moments of forgetting. However,
I have the truth—everything must change—to
bring me back immediately.
What are you waiting on? What habit or habits
are preventing you from moving forward? What
behavior must you change? What value are you
receiving from being stubborn and demanding to
have your way? Commit to change some part of
your behavior today. Fight no longer. Everything
must change. Let go now and feel the chains fall to
the ground.
Everything must change. Bring on change! C

BRAINSTORMING IS A collaborative idea-gener-ation process that (theoretically) gets great results. Yet it takes only a couple of bad seeds to turn these sessions into unpleasant and unproductive nightmares. Mitchell Rigie and Costco member Keith Harmeyer, co-authors of SmartStorming (Dog Ear Publishing, 2013; not available at Costco), say every company has its share of underminers and identify the most common offenders. See how many of these troublesome types you recognize.

Attention vampires. They always want to stand out and be the center of attention. They can smother a brainstorming session by dominating the conversation, excessively pushing their ideas and ultimately sucking the life out of the whole group.

Dictators. They love every idea, as long as it’s theirs. These totalitarians feel they are the only ones with good ideas, or good taste, for that matter. Many bosses unknowingly become dictators in meetings (not on purpose, but their role in the company makes it too easy).

Idea assassins. These seasoned killers love to shoot down ideas—anyone’s and everyone’s. Under the pretense of being constructive, they find flaws, poke holes and pick apart promising ideas until they bleed to death.

Obstructionists. To them, nothing is simple or

MANAGEMENT EXPERT, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Costco member Peter Cappelli recently teamed with Turnstone, an office furniture brand, to search for the “Best Young Companies to Work For.” To be considered, nominated companies had to be no more than 10 years old and employ no more than 100 people.

Companies were not eligible to nominate themselves.

Finalists were then selected by a panel of judges, based on four main criteria: business goals and impact; leadership; culture and space; and success potential.

Thirteen of the 15 companies chosen are Costco members. They range from an e-commerce office and school supply company that gives 5 percent of all sales directly back to teachers (Chalkfly), to one dedicated to building the social media influence of celebrities and brands (Fanology), to one that helps consumers find and pay for parking (Parking Panda).

Costco congratulates all on this achievement.

Member companies are:

; Chalkfly (Detroit)

; Cloudability (Portland, Oregon)

; Fanology (Los Angeles)

; Greatist (New York)

; Hoopla.io (Kansas City, Kansas)

; Nexus IT (Overland Park, Kansas)

; Parking Panda (Baltimore)

; SocialRadar (Washington, D.C.)

; SpareFoot (Austin, Texas)

; Sparkhouse (Costa Mesa, California)

; Sprout Social (Chicago)

; Sputnik Creative (Austin, Texas)

; Thanx Media (Glen Ellyn, Illinois)

For more information, go to

http://myturnstone.com/best-young-companies-to-work-for.

easy. They overcomplicate conversations and procedures and bring up extraneous facts or considerations that derail the flow of the group. Obstructionists overthink, overspeak and single-handedly dead-end otherwise promising sessions.

Social loafers. These are the people who show up for a brainstorming session but rarely participate in the generation of new ideas in a meaningful way or contribute much of substance. They usually sit back, appearing bored or aloof, and let others do the heavy lifting.

Wet blankets. These are the pessimists who have the unique ability to instantly dampen the enthusiasm level of a session by being discouraging and depressing, and the majority of their comments don’t hold water.

To find out more about these brainstorming killers, and how to deal with them, go to http:// smartstorming.com. C

WALLY AMOS: BE POSITIVE
Wally Amos is the
founder of Wamos
Cookies. You can
reach Wally at:
www.thecookieman
hawaii.com.
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Everything
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