What To Do With a Found $20 Bill?

My friend Ken and I went for supper last night. As we walked into the restaurant, there was an ATM right by the front door. Now since Ken is 6'9" tall and I am ... well ... not, I am able to see things closer to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something that caught my attention: a $20 bill in the tray of the ATM.

I picked up the bill, held it up to Ken and the two of us immediately looked around. No one was even near the ATM nor did anyone look like they had visited it recently. What was I to do with the $20 bill. Ken wouldn't even let me buy part of supper with it.

This morning as I awoke, I saw the $20 bill and brought it with me into the office. I asked some of the staff in the office if they knew what to do with a found $20 bill, superstitions or otherwise. No one seemed to have an answer. No let me re-phrase that: many had an answer that simply said, "give it to me" or a variation thereof.

I went on-line looking for the "protocol" of found money. There is nothing on-line. So what I have come up with is to give a portion of it to a charity and spend a portion on a lottery ticket or something like that.

What is your suggestion? I will hang onto the $20 for the time being and wait to hear your suggestions. Spend it as you wish. What should I do?

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It Just Takes A Little Effort

I have just finished my breakfast at the Halifax Airport. As I stood in front of the trash containers with my leftover garbage, I was met with bins displaying four choices:

Refundables - for those items which can get one a refund (bottles, cans, etc)

Recyclables - for those items which can be recycled but perhaps may not be able to get a refund on a deposit (plastics, cardboard, etc)

Organics - for those items which will break down in the environment (unprocessed foods, paper, etc)

Garbage - for all of the other items which would not fall into any of the other categories.

I really had to think for a moment about which bins I would use. Then I realized the magic of this system: I was forced to think consciously about my trash. There was no choice to act unconsciously.

Congratulations Halifax. You forced me to make a conscious decision on the environment today. Well done.

Now about your harbour...


Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!

http://www.kevburns.com

1-877-BURNS-11
Read/Comment on Kevin's Blog http://www.kevburns.com/blog.html

Winnipeg Ridiculous

The following is a recollection of events which actually occured last week in my desperate attempt to watch the final game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as it was being broadcast.
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As I and a band of hearty Canadians prepared to board a Regina-bound flight out of Winnipeg, we were stunned in silence that the Winnipeg Airport Authority (WAA) refused to broadcast, what turned out to be the last game of the season, the Ottawa Senators-Anaheim Ducks hockey game on the television sets in the boarding area, even after being asked repeatedly by the passengers awaiting their flight.

We asked the security guard to help us out at which point he offered up a phone number to the Data Centre - the obvious only ones working during the game. The Data Centre fed us some cock-and-bull story about the WAA not being in possession of licensing rights to broadcast a transmission from our public broadcaster. However, they are able to provide a scintilating program of political pundits on the future of the Liberal Party in Canada. I'm sure you yourself missed that one as you were likely watching the game.

To make matters worse, the Tim Horton's in the boarding area was closed. I'm sure the staff were home watching the game since they couldn't get the game in the terminal. .

When I attempted to stream the game to my Blackberry from cbc.ca, the message filling my Blackberry screen was, "We are sorry but this game can only be broadcast in Canada."

When did Winnipeg leave Canada? No hockey game? No Tim's? No kidding! How can Winnipeg say it will support another shot in the "Bigs" when you can't watch the game in the airport while having a hot cup of Horton's - the brew of a former NHL'er himself.

Is this stuff for real or did the entire plane full of passengers have a simultaneous bad dream.

How can a bar in the airport broadcast the game to their patrons (the sight of thirty people gathered around a 21 inch screen is something to marvel at - hockey die-hards for sure), yet the airport itself says it can't broadcast the game because it hasn't purchased the rights. The game was being brodcast on our public broadcaster - which just happens to be funded by the same people who wanted to watch the game.

This , by the way is the same airport in which many of those same players will be travelling should Winnipeg ever be granted another NHL franchise. Things will have to change then.
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Hmmm, in reading this, I perhaps got caught up in the heat of the moment. Maybe it's a good thing hockey is done for the season. Now I can focus my attention on other issues of importance. Sorry for my ramblings. It's hockey. I'm a man. I am Canadian. 'Nuff said.
Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!

http://www.kevburns.com

1-877-BURNS-11
Read/Comment on Kevin's Blog http://www.kevburns.com/blog.html

Boss Tip #11 - There's No Such Thing As Teambuilding

OK. So I imagine the headline has piqued your curiosity. So here it comes: there are no such things as teams which means any money you have spent or are spending on teambuilding, teamwork and team-player attitudes is being wasted.

Let me explain. If you, as the boss, were to walk into the office tomorrow and make one announcement to the entire staff, you would see that you really don't have a team. Here's the announcement you would make: "Three people from this department need to go. Three people are being laid off. Which three? You decide. I want your answer by the end of the day."

And now pandemonium ensues.

For all the work you may have put into building a "team" you would have to agree that this announcement would pit one personality against the other. You would have to come to the realization that there really aren't any teams, but there are a bunch of individuals all pointed towards a common goal. That is not a team.

Take a look at any professional sports team and you will see the same thing: there just a bunch of players who have each given a commitment to achieve a common goal. Does that make them a team? No it does not. Because when it comes right down to it, each person is, at the end of the day, looking out for his or her own best interests.

Is that wrong? Of course not. But please understand that in the same way people will compete for a job, compete for a promotion or compete for that corner office, they will also compete to keep their jobs too. If that means pointing out the weaknesses of others, justifying why they should stay or agressively stabbing someone else in the back, they will do it.

I doubt that there are many people who, when faced with the above-noted situation, would say, "I am the weakest link in this department so for the good of the team, I will go."

A good coach understands that in order to get the best performance out of each player, he has got to figure out where the players' "hot-buttons" are and find a way to push them. Each player will respond to different stimuli. A blanket approach to coaching a team can be a lesson in futility. Each players needs to be coached differently. Each player needs to buy into the common goal and each will do so in their own way.

Each player has a different set of values, strengths and attitudes. Therefore each player needs to be coached separately. The same rules apply at work.

If you're the boss, you're the coach. You had better understand that in order to make your department function at peak performance. At no time can you expect everyone to be on the same page, to bring the same skill-sets or contribute equally with the same strengths as the rest of your people. It's not possible.

You don't have a team. You have a group of individuals all pointed in the same direction each with differing talents and each with different roles. Stop training them as all equal and coach their individual strengths instead. Their performance will improve and so will your bottom-line.

As for the trainers who think they offer teambuilding workshops? Think again.

Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!

http://www.kevburns.com

1-877-BURNS-11

Read/Comment on Kevin's Blog http://www.kevburns.com/blog.html

Employee Tip #5 - Steer Clear Of Cynical Co-workers

Robert is in a management position. As much as I know of him, he seems to have his head and heart in the right place. He just seems to want the best for his people and does his best to get them give their best. That would seem to me to be the "win-win" attitude at work.

"It isn't always easy," he admits. "Sometimes there are one or two who become a little jaded and that can spell trouble for the rest of the staff."

Truer words were never spoken. Once a small group of employees decide that they would rather sit back and be cynical and view the world and their jobs with the "stink-eye," it requires either a firm commitment from the jaded ones to commit to improving themselves and their attitudes or it's up to management to surgically remove the cancer begore it spreads through the rest of the staff. If that happens, rest assured demands of the staff will increase and productivity will plummet.

In the same way that it is your responsibility to stay physically healthy to be able to fulfill your responsibilities, you are just as responsible for keeping mentally healthy and steering clear of the cynics and those with a seriously negative attitude.

The more time you spend around the complainers, the more you will desensitize to their points of view. Your defenses begin to drop in the same way unhealthy eating and lifestyle choices make you more succeptible to colds and flus. Cynicism, suspicion and negativity are as contagious as flu bugs. Just like you can build up defenses to germs, you can build an immunity to cynicism and negativity.

You see, if you only subscribe to a cynical point of view, you will become cynical. If, however, you constantly put yourself on a diet of self-improvement, you will constantly improve and so will your thoughts, your decisions and naturally, your results.

The better you get, the more you begin to see how petty, meaningless and sad a cynic's life really is and how dangerous that attitude is to others. You owe it to yourself to defend yourself from these cancers. Do whatever it takes to make sure cynicism, suspicion and negativity never invade your workplace.

If, however, you are the cynic, prepare yourself. The sooner you're fired, the better it is for company productivity, customer service and for you to finally get the message that we don't want your kind where we work.

Bottom-line: it is your responsibility to not become jaded nor take on the cynicism of others.

Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!

http://www.kevburns.com

1-877-BURNS-11
Read/Comment on Kevin's Blog http://www.kevburns.com/blog.html