I have been much busier than I had expected to be on this trip! Lots and lots of late night conversations, philosophical, practical, ridiculous, some involving stories about rabbits and bears, and the pope have made an impact on me. So busy that by the time I get home every night Ive been hitting the rack and sleeping. So, Ill take time now to quickly recap my week and then I will write in detail about things over the next few days.
The week here has been spent learning a process on how to organize your thoughts. Taking a problem, or conflict or decision you have to make and organizing it logically and taking deliberate steps in order to find ways to break the conflict. The process is called Theory of Constraints. The process is simply a tool for a person to find his or her own answers and solutions to their own conflicts. It is not a self help program that tells someone how to behave in order to have a happy life.
I have met folks from many places. It has been a great opportunity for me. Physicists, engineers, stay home parents, writers, entrepreneurs, visionaries, students, teachers, and crazy Irishmen. All of whom have made an impact on me this week and I am grateful for that.
Ok. Breakfast time. Ill write more at lunch.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Arriving in town
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Woke up, got out of bed, stole two pillows from the hotel. Ok, borrowed two pillows until next week when Ill be back and return them. Drove up to Nottingham along the same path that I took on Thursday via the M1 motorway. Much better and faster with company along.
Arrived in Nottingham and again, sans map, got completely lost within minutes. Took an additional 25 minutes to navigate the roundabouts and back streets looking for someone, anyone who could tell us where the Nottingham Trent University was located. Excuse me, do you know where Nottingham Trent University is located? Nah.
Well. Ok, then. Er, thanks? Excuse me, We are a bit lost, can you tell us how to find Nottingham Trent University? Ok, you see that sign down there where it says “Rib Tips?”…
Finally found a policeman who gave us decent directions and found the campus. Large group of folks playing Cricket on a huge pitch greeted our arrival. Im going to have to hang out one day and meet some cricket batsmen so I can find out exactly what the hell that game is all about. The dorm rooms are small, but functional. There is a large group of Italian high school students here. Since I don’t speak Italian and they all had English phrase books, I haven’t had enough beer in me to approach them and begin the international incident that is definitely brewing if they keep up the loud banter outside my window as I try to sleep off the jetlag.
Lunch was good. I love that restaurants here include vegetarian portions of the menu and also a good selection of Indian cuisine in addition to the English fare and typical items found on American menus. There is always something different to choose. My beef curry lunch was very good.
We will be meeting in an hour for dinner and drinks before starting the next 8 days of meetings and introspection and more drinking and networking and relationship building. Probably the most interesting aspect of this week ahead is meeting and forming new friendships with folks from all over the globe. South Africans, English, Welsh, Americans, Japanese, Belgians, Israelis, who knows? Sharing cultural differences is quite enjoyable. It also gives one a natural point to start conversation.
As soon as the sleep kicks in and the jet lag fog clears, I will be ready. Perhaps some Guinness will help.
Lessons
OK, so its a bit late, sue me. The internet access sucks here. Plus, there is beer.
Lesson one: Never follow directions from the counter girl at the rental car agency after even she freely admits that not only do they not provide maps but she isn’t even from around here…
Lesson two: Always have a good map with you when you travel.
Lesson three: A good guide book contains a good road map, even if it’s a simple one.
Lesson four: It’s a good idea to get some sleep before trying to navigate in a foreign country where none of the roads are straight or marked similarly as in the US.
Lesson five: Honking is never polite, no matter what country you may be travelling, so watch it Mr. Angry British Motorist, it may be a tired, lost, hungry American simply trying to find his B&B and pub who is having a bit of difficulty navigating the ridiculous roads in this tiny shoebox of a town where every road inexplicably narrows to one lane because, again, inexplicably people simply park on once side of the road facing any direction they darn well please. Sigh.
Lesson six: Englishmen are wonderful people who will INSTANTLY engage you in politics. Love it. Plus, they aren’t conservative windbags! Cheers!
Lesson seven: When picking a place to stay in England, please consider getting as lucky as I have been in picking a pub/restaurant/B&B where the food is excellent and the beer sublime. Wait, That isn’t a lesson, its simply boasting. Too bad.
Lesson eight: Getting to bed by 10:30pm after a marathon day of travel is a good thing. One’s body clock waking up automatically after 6 hours of sleep is annoying when one is on Greenwich Mean Time and its 0430. Ugh. I should be back on schedule (said with a very British accent, schedule) by tomorrow.
Lesson nine: This one is incomplete. I have no idea what I will be charged for overseas text messages. I prolly should have found that out before I left… J
Lesson ten: Never forget a raincoat when travelling in Great Britain.
Lesson eleven: home shopping channel in England is hilarious. Lovely! And the game shows on the BBC are fantastically English. I love it. I could watch the telly every day. Im always fascinated by mundane and ordinary things in other countries. Ill do a better job having the camera ready. It is a bit much to ask for an exhausted, jetlagged, American driving on the left for the first time in a manual transmission car with the steering wheel on the right side to also keep a camera at the ready while driving 80 plus MPH on the motorway. But Ill do better today. Oh, there is a cooking show on the Beeb now with a guy cooking a small pheasant and some cabbage stir fried with bacon and chestnuts. Mmm…bacon…
Friday, July 24, 2009
Lessons
Lesson one: Never follow directions from the counter girl at the rental car agency after even she freely admits that not only do they not provide maps but she isn’t even from around here…
Lesson two: Always have a good map with you when you travel.
Lesson three: A good guide book contains a good road map, even if it’s a simple one. I dont have a good guide book. :(
Lesson four: It’s a good idea to get some sleep before trying to navigate in a foreign country where none of the roads are straight or marked similarly as in the US.
Lesson five: Honking is never polite, no matter what country you may be travelling, so watch it Mr. Angry British Motorist, it may be a tired, lost, hungry American simply trying to find his B&B and pub who is having a bit of difficulty navigating the ridiculous roads in this tiny shoebox of a town where every road inexplicably narrows to one lane either because, again, inexplicably people simply park on one side of the road facing any direction they darn well please OR the road narrows into a suicidal one lane with a small sign that reads "Give Way". Sigh.
Lesson six: Englishmen are wonderful people who will INSTANTLY engage you in politics. Love it. Plus, they aren’t conservative windbags! Cheers!
Lesson seven: When picking a place to stay in England, please consider getting as lucky as I have been in picking a pub/restaurant/B&B where the food is excellent and the beer sublime. Wait, That isn’t a lesson, its simply boasting. Too bad.
Lesson eight: Getting to bed by 10:30pm after a marathon day of travel is a good thing. One’s body clock waking up automatically after 6 hours of sleep is annoying when one is on Greenwich Mean Time and its 0430. Ugh. I should be back on schedule (said with a very British accent, schedule) by tomorrow.
Lesson nine: This one is incomplete. I have no idea what I will be charged for overseas text messages. I prolly should have found that out before I left… ☺
Lesson ten: Never forget a raincoat when traveling in Great Britain.
Lesson eleven: home shopping channel in England is hilarious. Lovely! And the game shows on the BBC are fantastically English. I love it. I could watch the telly every day. Im always fascinated by mundane and ordinary things in other countries. Ill do a better job having the camera ready. It is a bit much to ask for an exhausted, jet lagged, American driving on the left for the first time in a manual transmission car with the steering wheel on the right side to also keep a camera at the ready while driving 80 plus MPH on the motorway. But Ill do better today. Oh, there is a cooking show on the Beeb now with a guy cooking a small pheasant and some cabbage stir fried with bacon and chestnuts. Mmm…bacon…
Lesson two: Always have a good map with you when you travel.
Lesson three: A good guide book contains a good road map, even if it’s a simple one. I dont have a good guide book. :(
Lesson four: It’s a good idea to get some sleep before trying to navigate in a foreign country where none of the roads are straight or marked similarly as in the US.
Lesson five: Honking is never polite, no matter what country you may be travelling, so watch it Mr. Angry British Motorist, it may be a tired, lost, hungry American simply trying to find his B&B and pub who is having a bit of difficulty navigating the ridiculous roads in this tiny shoebox of a town where every road inexplicably narrows to one lane either because, again, inexplicably people simply park on one side of the road facing any direction they darn well please OR the road narrows into a suicidal one lane with a small sign that reads "Give Way". Sigh.
Lesson six: Englishmen are wonderful people who will INSTANTLY engage you in politics. Love it. Plus, they aren’t conservative windbags! Cheers!
Lesson seven: When picking a place to stay in England, please consider getting as lucky as I have been in picking a pub/restaurant/B&B where the food is excellent and the beer sublime. Wait, That isn’t a lesson, its simply boasting. Too bad.
Lesson eight: Getting to bed by 10:30pm after a marathon day of travel is a good thing. One’s body clock waking up automatically after 6 hours of sleep is annoying when one is on Greenwich Mean Time and its 0430. Ugh. I should be back on schedule (said with a very British accent, schedule) by tomorrow.
Lesson nine: This one is incomplete. I have no idea what I will be charged for overseas text messages. I prolly should have found that out before I left… ☺
Lesson ten: Never forget a raincoat when traveling in Great Britain.
Lesson eleven: home shopping channel in England is hilarious. Lovely! And the game shows on the BBC are fantastically English. I love it. I could watch the telly every day. Im always fascinated by mundane and ordinary things in other countries. Ill do a better job having the camera ready. It is a bit much to ask for an exhausted, jet lagged, American driving on the left for the first time in a manual transmission car with the steering wheel on the right side to also keep a camera at the ready while driving 80 plus MPH on the motorway. But Ill do better today. Oh, there is a cooking show on the Beeb now with a guy cooking a small pheasant and some cabbage stir fried with bacon and chestnuts. Mmm…bacon…
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Taking off
Im sitting in the lobby of the international terminal at Thurgood Marshall International Airport, or BWI, waiting for the 767 to arrive. This is my first trip to England. Its my first trip internationally, not counting a deployment to Okinawa when I was enlisted in the Marines. Deploying to Japan did teach me a valuable lesson; never drink so much alcohol while on a nine hour layover in Honolulu that you end up hungover in Guam. The airport in Guam is no place for a hangover.
I decided to blog this trip for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I will be away from my family for two weeks. Ill be away from my farm for two weeks. I have undoubtedly left many strings untied at home, and Im sure that there will be many small emergencies with the pig's waterer, or the lamb's hooves or some fox in the henhouse tragedy. My wife, Annette is more than capable, even if she is scared of the pigs. But then who wouldnt be? They are probably close to 225 pounds apiece and they romp like teenagers at a Judas Priest concert. Well, thats probably a bad analogy since most of the people at the Judas Priest concerts these days are older than I am.
Another reason I decided to blog during this trip is to help participants at the conference who are attending for the first time. I wont be able to have in depth conversations with everyone I want to so I will try and put down as much as I can every night so that everyone can see how I am working through my PUDE's and UDE's and D and D' clouds. If you dont understand what Im talking about, just wait. The cloud will begin to evaporate next week.
The Odyssey is a 5 day course on Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Eli wrote a wonderful book about his theory called "The Goal". I understand that it has become standard fare at most business and engineering schools around the country and world. It really is a fabulous book. The Goal is written as a love story. A fictionalized account of a manager at a manufacturing facility faced with being shut down that just happens to be a love story. Theory of Constraints, or TOC, is an elequent way for solving problems. It requires you to step back and reexamine the way you are operating, either in a factory or in your own life.
Obviously, I dont work in a traditional manufacturing environment, I have a farm, but its really no different. TOC exists as a tool to help people understand that things are not as complex or difficult as they might imagine. It forces you to challenge your assumptions, rethink what you think you know and identify behaviors to change and then how to change them and keep improving. You can never be satisfied that you have achieved all that you can achieve. You must keep improving. Otherwise, as Eli might say, (If I may be so bold as Ive only met him one time) if you dont set goals and spend your life trying to reach them, you might as well give up now because if you dont, you are simply waiting to die.
I heartily agree.
I will be examining my own personal goal over the next 2 weeks and writing about it here. Of course, I will probably be posting photos and stories and other interesting and fun travel experiences. If you can bear with the photos of crazy English toilets and Third Largest Balls of Twine in the Free World posts, I think you may learn something.
I decided to blog this trip for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I will be away from my family for two weeks. Ill be away from my farm for two weeks. I have undoubtedly left many strings untied at home, and Im sure that there will be many small emergencies with the pig's waterer, or the lamb's hooves or some fox in the henhouse tragedy. My wife, Annette is more than capable, even if she is scared of the pigs. But then who wouldnt be? They are probably close to 225 pounds apiece and they romp like teenagers at a Judas Priest concert. Well, thats probably a bad analogy since most of the people at the Judas Priest concerts these days are older than I am.
Another reason I decided to blog during this trip is to help participants at the conference who are attending for the first time. I wont be able to have in depth conversations with everyone I want to so I will try and put down as much as I can every night so that everyone can see how I am working through my PUDE's and UDE's and D and D' clouds. If you dont understand what Im talking about, just wait. The cloud will begin to evaporate next week.
The Odyssey is a 5 day course on Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Eli wrote a wonderful book about his theory called "The Goal". I understand that it has become standard fare at most business and engineering schools around the country and world. It really is a fabulous book. The Goal is written as a love story. A fictionalized account of a manager at a manufacturing facility faced with being shut down that just happens to be a love story. Theory of Constraints, or TOC, is an elequent way for solving problems. It requires you to step back and reexamine the way you are operating, either in a factory or in your own life.
Obviously, I dont work in a traditional manufacturing environment, I have a farm, but its really no different. TOC exists as a tool to help people understand that things are not as complex or difficult as they might imagine. It forces you to challenge your assumptions, rethink what you think you know and identify behaviors to change and then how to change them and keep improving. You can never be satisfied that you have achieved all that you can achieve. You must keep improving. Otherwise, as Eli might say, (If I may be so bold as Ive only met him one time) if you dont set goals and spend your life trying to reach them, you might as well give up now because if you dont, you are simply waiting to die.
I heartily agree.
I will be examining my own personal goal over the next 2 weeks and writing about it here. Of course, I will probably be posting photos and stories and other interesting and fun travel experiences. If you can bear with the photos of crazy English toilets and Third Largest Balls of Twine in the Free World posts, I think you may learn something.
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