The reason I mention this is that I recently found myself in conversation with a colleague and mentioned how I had thought an Argentine versus Germany final was going to happen in this World Cup several weeks ago-the colleague was highly sceptical though anyone can look through this blog and will see an article I wrote mentioning that Hitler was reported as having escaped the bunker and fled to Argentina-yes a spiritual leap of the imagination was perhaps required yet the information was there and was seemingly valid-up to a point.

I say up to a point of course because like anyone who has opted for the gambling methodology you get sucked in further and further into your belief that you are on a winning streak and then KAPOW the big one lets you down-this is also akin if you like to a more recent article I wrote speaking of IRONING OUT THE ROUGH SPOTS.

So further to that a rare comment is made among the blog posts here and that comment hedged my thinking cap into one big UH OH suggesting that Holland versus Germany will be the final-so whilst I did not make the bet for the German Argentina Final-if I had done and were to step into the shoes of someone who had placed an accumulator I could well imagine that Thousands of Pounds could be sitting on the outcome of tonight’s semi-final-I will be interested to see who reaches the final and loses to Germany-wishing it was myself that had made the investment.

Of course you might say that the issue is where my FOCUS is being placed yet as those who have followed myself regular know I recommended a book THE SIGNAL AND THE NOISE and far to often it is the decision or choice between knowing which is which that fails us when we most need it.

So where else can focus be placed well I woke up today thinking about the older generation Star Trek and our ENGINEER SCOTTIE famous for squeezing that last bit of juice out of the Enterprise when it was most needed-and likewise in the Star Wars Universe we had Han Solo speaking to his ship “Baby Hold Together”-so you might liken such a life to any environment that you have found yourself in for any prolonged period of time-whereby a love/hate relationship develops between man and machine and so on.

You might in fact say that you can become snow blind to warts and all when you spend enough time around any environment-and whilst (for instance) in the field of relationships it can be the small things that we ignore that can rescue relationships it can also be the small things that we ignore that blows them apart.

So I go into an environment and am told that this is my minimum expected work standard and as I learn and progress and time goes by managers stretch that standard and shift or tweak requirements a little here and there and I get the gist that we are not working in the absolute-we are working in the RESPONSIBILITY whereby if I can see that some area needs extra attention then I can perhaps be trusted to simply deal in giving that attention.

The problem for many can of course be that there is a fine line between becoming an automaton and  a thinker-in military terms you might liken it to the difference between a regular soldier and a Special Forces Soldier-one at least can imagine that whilst the special forces guy has been through all the basics of break them down to build them up disciplined training they also still retain enough of there own fire in the belly to be put through the fire because they have some greater aspiration or dream that they are following where they make it to the ranks of the few.

The problem of course can be one surrounding FEAR so for instance you think for yourself  and you get hauled before disciplinary hearing for not being an automaton-you then opt for the automaton approach that (for many people) ignores the taking in extra responsibilities and are not then considered worthy of achieving the status of the few-and further to that you have to consider MOTIVE-so whilst it is in my own INTEREST to be responsible-you do have to question where that begins and ends because in working life terms the few might be regarded as people or persons who are the next step up the ladder (managers and so on) and if you have a history of being rejected for those step ups when you have gone for them-then you can also doubt the motives of people or persons in those positions (possibly thinking that they are operating on some protectionist system for themselves rather than being genuinely responsible)-so a great big bagged bundle of understanding psychological motives and attitudes-where by someone such-as myself simply end up wanting to go to work, do a respectable job and go home without getting involved in any POLITICS-be it from colleagues or whomsoever-and that of course might be regarded as a BREAKDOWN IN FEEDBACK AND RESPONSE MECHANISMS.

So returning to the issue of MAN AND MACHINE love/hate relationships in the FEEDBACK and RESPONSE stakes greater CROSS-DEPARTMENT feedback is perhaps required whereby differing technical disciplines might spot things that the people in the other area of work have become blind too-for instance in my place of work we used to have a great working relationship with the engineers whereby we would highlight an issue and they always responded and they are perhaps as they go about there work better able to highlight some areas that we would not necessarily consider in our regular day-to-day routine-the FRESH SET OF EYES PRINCIPLE does work in terms of LINE MANAGEMENT yet could also perhaps be better utilised across departments and that is again one of those answers to the question HOW CAN WE IRON OUT THE ROUGH SPOTS?

Well enough from myself for today

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well 🙂