HB 3200

Ok, so the House has passed HB 3200, the sun came up and we live another day. What does this healthcare bill really say? What does it mean for U.S. Business? What does it mean to individuals? I actually read the bill and have a lot of thoughts about it. I am going to write (as often as I can) over the next few days and give my opinions.

Let me warn you. If you have strong opinions one way or another and haven't read the bill... you won't like my blog. My blog is going to have positives and negatives to both sides of the legislation. I will be opinionated (that is what you get to do in blogs) and hopefully make you think. I am planning on having a lot of fun.

Some of the topics I want to cover are:

1. Republicans and Democrats can sure tell you their side of the story.

2. What should Christians think about HB3200? What should they think about health care? What should they be doing?

3. How will this bill impact insurance agencies?

4. The bill makes 32 million people eligible for healthcare, but, how many people will the bill cover?

5. If Social Security and Medicaid has been helpful to many people since inception but are about to go bankrupt, why isn't doing the same thing again such a bad thing?

6. Just do it! It worked for Nike, why shouldn't it work for Health Care Reform.

7. How do I take advantage of this legislation?

8. Look at all the new jobs that were created!

9. The Government is required to create legislation that impacts today and doesn't worry about tomorrow.

10. The future plan will be excellent because this legislation passed.

In case you are wondering what I believe about this legislation let me give you a few quick summary points about me and some initial thoughts:

1. I am a financial conservative.

2. I am a social moderate leaning toward liberal (Don't know how I could do anything different with my Christian beliefs).

3. I care about people and struggle with the fact that people don't have healthcare.

4. I am not an idealist. I am more of a social economist and I don't just think ONE DEEP in the area of cause and effect. I look at multiple levels of complexity to understand the outcomes of decisions and events.

5. I believe this bill is going to be a good thing. I don't think the bill is a good thing, but I think the bill is "going" to be a good thing. You will have to read more of my blog to understand why!

6. Insurance Agencies (Brokerages) will benefit from this legislation, if they know what to do.

Look forward to seeing you and watching your comments. Tell others about the blog. It should be a great conversation.

Executing Your Highest and Best Use

We hear a lot about Unique Abilities, Natural Talents and Strengths. Many consultants and advisors will give advice about the importance of only doing what you do best. But, most executives continue to struggle with the execution.

Recently I was given great advice on how to get and stay in my unique abilities. The advice was focused on how you look at your life and job.

Most people look at themselves as a job label first and then they look at their contribution. A CEO will say, I am the CEO of XXX before he or she will state the value they bring to the world. This was me. I would respond to the question of what I do as, "I am the President of Sitkins International", or "The writer of Make the Noise Go Away", or other titles I have gained. Unfortunately, this focus on the job or product is forcing me into doing things that are not my unique abilities.

What should I say? "I am the voice". Let me explain the voice. The voice is speaking, writing, motivating, encouraging. The voice uses my unique abilities of creating intellectual capital and opening new files for people through my speaking and writing. My unique ability is my voice to others.

So why is this such a revelation and so important to doing what I do best? I am now able to look at the companies I work in, and the products I am involved with, and the world I live in (philanthropy as well) and be "the voice". That is my job.

My job is to be the voice at Sitkins International, Benefits Growth Network, Make the Noise Go Away, LGL Business Solutions, World Vision, and others. Now, this doesn't mean I am the only voice in these companies. It means I have to be focused on using the unique abilities and talents around the "voice" if I want to make the biggest impact for others and for me.

It is amazing how worthless I become when I get involved in the other stuff around the business. Now that I have identified this unique ability brand, I am free to do what brings the highest and best use of my abilities to the company.

My advice to anyone who wants to make a big impact on their work and world is to identify your unique ability and natural talent. Pull yourself back from the company title. Brand your highest and best use as what you do. Then serve your company with these skills. Treat it like a consulting gig that you only get paid for doing this skill. It will make a huge difference.

Consequence Decision Making

Ever heard of consequence decision making? Probably not. If you are like most Americans or Canadians you have been to the school of "don't bring me a problem, bring me a solution."

I was at a class about 15 years ago when I heard that message and I just couldn't accept it. It was early in my career but I had been around long enough to know that I didn't see how bringing a bad solution was any better than brining a problem.

Every problem has multiple solutions. When someone can't solve a problem and they continually bring those problems to management (or others) to solve, it may not be a lack of solutions issue. It may be that they don't know how to think.

Recently I was with a consultant who works with 20 somethings. He mentioned that one of his biggest issues is these 20 somethings were so scheduled all their life, and their parents made all the strategic decision in their lives, that they don't know how to think strategically. This is a current problem. Now look at the educational system and see that since the Industrial Revolution, we have been educating people under core strengths manufacturing principles. That means we want everyone to know the exact same things. Ever hear of "common sense"?

So what does this mean? We are not teaching people to think. So, if I was told to give authority to a bunch of people who are not trained to think, by asking them to bring me solutions not problems, I would quit my job.

In the book Make the Noise Go Away - The Power of an Effective Second in Command, I address this problem with a different solution; The Consequence Worksheet.

I found that teaching people to think past problems and potential solutions and into the consequences of those solutions will make them much better problem solvers. One employee came to me a few years ago and asked me what to do about a client situation. I asked her to brainstorm as many solutions as possible based on the desired end result she wanted. Then I told her to come up with as many consequences (positive and negative) that she could for every solution. I told her to come back for help after she finished that small project.

She never came back! I went to her a few days later and asked her if she still needed help. She told me the solution was very clear when she went through the exercise. She also told me she was surprised that every solution had both positive and negative solutions, but it was very clear what to do when all consequences were listed side by side. If we teach our people how to think through problems to the consequences of possible solutions, we will make more of our noise go away.

The Consequence Worksheet can be found in Make the Noise Go Away - The Power of an Effective Second in Command. It is a powerful tool to make the noise go away!

Leadership Challenge

Leadership has been written about more than just about any other topic. Consultants make big paychecks writing and speaking on the topic. Why is it such a hot topic that never seems to go away? Because people can't put their finger on what it really looks like.

Leaders come in many different forms. Jim Collins describes the leader in "Good to Great" as a humble introverted type. Most authors describe leaders as extrovert, driven, and strong people. We hear about encouragement, love, vision, innovation, speaking skills and many other attributes that leaders will possess.

Well, I believe these are symptoms of a leader but not the core. A leader expresses themselves in these ways but it is not why people follow them.

Lets start by defining a leader. We will use the simple definition of "one who is followed". Sorry, I am too simple to go any further than that.

So, why would someone follow?

Trust is the best answer I know. Stephen Covey expressed this in his book "The Speed of Trust" recently. He identified four areas of trust (in my words - Sorry Stephen):

1. Intentions

2. Behaviors

3. Skills

4. Results

If a leader shows great intentions to the people he or she is leading. They will have confidence they can trust them enough to follow. If a leader has behaviors that support the good intentions and they take the time to show how much they care about those who are following, the followers will want to follow.

Skills are a big one. Many people have great intentions and behaviors but they are not worth following. Why? They have nothing worth following. A follower wants to know a leader has intellectual capital, strong skills to get results, can offer to do something better than they can do themselves, or finds ways to bring new hope on a continual basis. They have to see a skill that makes them believe they are following something that will make things better.

The last item is even more critical. RESULTS. No results, no followers. Can you imagine being put into a battle troop where the commander has the highest loss of soldier rate? I would want to go out with a leader that has NEVER lost a soldier. I would want to work for a leader that has proven he or she will take you to great results.

The bottom line is a leader has to be trusted. To accomplish this trust they have to be others focused, listen, and enjoy others results more than their own. Then they can start filling these four trust buckets up with deposits to make people want to follow.

Thanks Mr Covey for the insights. I think it is the magical formula for leadership. Great speaking, introversion, extroversion, encouragement, innovation, and other media will be how we express this trust.

What to do with your money

My usual day includes reading 10 to 12 articles about the economy and business news.  Today I read the best advice from Liz Pulliam Weston on MSN.com.  

Liz gave 10 pieces of advice about what we need to know about the financial crisis we are dealing with after the government failed to pass the bail out package.  Her advice was pretty good, but it was actually number 11 that grabbed my attention.

After giving all the advice about banks, investments, etc., she said the best advice she could give was "to take out your wallet and give to the Red Cross".  We have many victims of hurricanes and other tragic losses in America and around the world that will have much greater losses that any of us will have with the mortgage/wall street crisis.  

Wall street hasn't caused any of us to die, deal with disease, lose our pictures and valued possessions, or anything worse than "some" asset reduction.  Maybe you have to lose the house you are in because of being over mortgaged or because of job loss.  It could be worse.  We could live in Nicaragua and never have had a house.  Or, we could have lived in China and been devastated by the earthquakes.

We are melting down at Wall Street and we may have a difficult time obtaining credit.  We may have to be careful shopping for food, budget a little tighter, not drive as much, not purchase as many luxury items, and maybe not go to the movies and buy extra butter on our popcorn.  This is probably good for all of us.  

As for me and my family, we are going to write a check so someone else can eat, have shelter, avoid disease, and extend life.

We Have Not Addressed the Real Financial Problem

Who is to blame for our current financial crisis?  Greedy homeowners?  Real estate agents? Is it builders, mortgage brokers, bank lenders, wall street businesses, congress, Al-Kida?

Let's look at the free enterprise model.  

Individuals are given incentives to own business that sell products to individuals.  By owning or working for one of these businesses, people gain wealth and have the buying power to buy products from other businesses.  The entire process is built on a core fundamental of supply and demand.

So, the businesses create product to sell to the public.  The competition for product sales drives businesses to create marketing strategies to motivate people to buy.  The buyers are given visual and audio stimulation to choose different products.  

Sounds simple and it is.  But let's look at where the problem exists in this model.

Business are motivated to "sell" and therefore do not have the ability to be a moral conscience for the buyer.  They do not have the ability to think for every buyer to help them know if they can really afford the product they are buying.  So, consumers buy based on what they are allowed to purchase.  If they can get a loan for a tv, car, home, clothes, or anything else, they have the freedom to purchase it.  This is what the sellers are hoping.

Our current crisis is because consumers purchased more than they can afford.  We consumed beyond what our paychecks and balance sheets could absorb.  If we don't buy what we can't afford, banks don't overextend themselves in lending.  The credit bubble (lending beyond what the balance sheets of consumers can handle) is the problem right now.

Ok, still haven't told you anything you didn't know.  Well how about this.  The problem goes deeper than the consumerism purchasing decisions.  I think the problem is lack of education. When was the last time your kid came home from school and asked you to help them with mortgage calculation homework?  What about check book balancing?  What about investment strategies or stock market short selling?  We don't teach these things to our kids but we let them loose in a world that will attack them that has no moral conscience.  

Our education system is to blame for this crisis.  The majority of American's are "starting" to learn about these issues in the newspaper and on the internet.  This is a little late.  Unfortunately, the majority of them still don't understand it because they don't know the fundamental financial basics.  So, we will continue to repeat this type of problem.

The rest of the world hates us because of our gross consumerism attitudes.  Even my best liberal Democrat friends, who hate the American free enterprise system, are deep in debt and can't help themselves when it comes to buying.  We teach that people are entitled to an American Dream of having "stuff" and having it NOW.  We teach the dream but we don't teach how to get it.  We inspire people to entitlement and only those who are lucky enough to get educated on the process end up winning.

McCain and Obama - Address this issue and you will make a difference.  Otherwise, we will see this problem raise its ugly head again.  American's have a very short memory and a terrible basic moral compass.  We think we are owed something for nothing.

History Still Repeats when we don't pay attention

Alert:  Banks get competitive pressure to perform and improve stock value and begin to loan money for real estate to people who can only afford the mortgage if the property values continue to increase.  The real estate market takes a down turn and the banks are left with a crisis.  People can't pay their mortgages, foreclosures become rampant, bank stock values decline, public confidence goes down and people start pulling money out of the banks.  The stock market has huge declines in daily trading.  The banking system looks to go into complete failure and the economy will not be able to survive.  So, the government steps in.  They provide a cash infusion to the banking system with loans that will impact tax payers for many years to come.  The public has to bail out the poor decision making of risky real estate investors and bankers.

I know, you have all heard this and are tired of reading about it.  But, what you don't know is this is a factual account of Japan in 2002.  Yes, they did the SAME things we have just delivered to the U.S. and global economy.  Our impact might be larger, though the global banking system was at risk when Japan's economy was hit in the stomach with a baseball bat.  Our problem is escalated because of the increase in the volume mortgage backed securities.  This simply makes the problem a little further reaching.

15 months ago I spoke to a group of people about where our economy was heading.  My "guess" was exactly correct.  But, I told them at that time that England and Japan had done the same things in the past and it was going to take some time to repair.  My advice to the group I spoke to was to get out of the credit world (quit borrowing money for a period of time), and make sure you are living your life in a way that does not require increased credit.  I was correct.  

My being right is not because of a great prophecy, it was because of an awareness of history.  The banking systems in England and Japan did the same things we are doing now and credit became a hard thing to get.  Credit card usage went up because people couldn't pay bills or get credit anywhere else.  Then they were unable to pay the debt they had accumulated on the cards and large bank write offs continued to put pressure on the banking system.  This is still happening in our system today.

THE BAILOUT:  Japan's government stepped in and did exactly what our government is doing today, they are letting the tax payer bail out the banking system and real estate crooks for the bad decisions they made.  I don't like it but it is the only way we will get out of this problem.  The good news is it took Japan four years to become profitable and healthy again.  That means about 3o months before life seemed to be back to normal.  I believe we will be 24 to 30 months.  We may go faster because American's have shorter memories and will be  more creative in building the next over risky proposition.

So, if you want to understand economics better, just look at history.  Not too many new things will be created, just an embarrassing repeat of the past when we don't pay attention.