Blog Smith: November 2021

4.6 miles 1701 Airport Blvd. San Jose, CA 95110

As a general rule of thumb, and in accordance with the law from the FAA, you may not fly within a 5 mile radius of any airport. In 2012 the FAA enacted the Modernization and Reauthorization Act which requires hobbyist drone operators, meaning residential, to contact air traffic control and/or airport management if they are operating within a 5 mile radius of a local airport.
This is enacted nationwide, not only in California, under Part 101 of the Act, being Special Rule for Model Aircraft, to ensure that drone operations under unsafe conditions are disapproved before the drone can be launched.

Civil Code 1708.8.

(a) An individual is fully liable for any physical invasion of privacy if/when they knowingly enter owned land or airspace that is above another individual without permission or permit and has committed a trespass for the purpose of capturing any type of sound recording, physical impression, or visual image of another engaging in family, personal, or private activity and deemed offensive to the plaintiff.

(b) An individual is fully liable in the case of constructive invasion of privacy when an individual attempts to offensively capture, to a reasonable degree, any type of sound recording, physical impression, or visual image of another individual even if no physical trespass has occurred, regardless whether or not the information taken was unable to be done without the device

(c) False imprisonment or an assault has been committed with the clear intent to capture a sound recording, physical impression or visual image take of the plaintiff is subject to the subdivisions of (d), (e), and (h).

Requires FAA registration if the drone weight over half a pound.

california-drone-laws

drone-laws-california

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

The Politics of Using and Abusing a Scandal: Hillsdale

politics-means-use-abuse-scanda

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

You’re a Leader, Now What?

You’re a Leader, Now What?

Takeaways

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you’re a leader.” Jack Welch

Leadership in Action

What it Means

Why are these modules called “Leadership in Action”?

Because leadership is defined by action. Leaders get pulled in a thousand directions a day. Leaders can, and must, energize, motivate, reward, appraise, differentiate, strategize, celebrate, and deliver results. And above all, they need to do everything it takes to build great teams and pour confidence into their people.

Great leaders lead by example. They practice what they preach. They show their team the ways to the top by what they do, the decisions they make, and the action they inspire.

Why it Matters

Because if you can’t take action and if you can’t motivate your team to take action, you will never win.

Action Plan

Looking Back and Looking Forward

“Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch

When you started these modules, you were invited to consider a few opening questions. These questions are presented again here:

1. What are your greatest leadership challenges right now?

2. As a leader, what do you want to be able to do better after completing these modules?

3. What stands in your way? What are the top barriers that are keeping you from winning? Think both about your own behaviors and about conditions at work that limit success.

4. If you could change one thing about the way your team or your organization runs today, what would it be?

Take some time to review your answers at the beginning and reflect on where you have gotten to. These modules can’t turn you into a great leader. No one can. But it can give you the tools to start making changes. What you can do with those tools is up to you.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

What steps can you take to get the most out of these modules and retain what you’ve learned?

1. Go back and review. Take a look at your notes. Refresh your memory on key points and get a jolt of energy when you need it.

2. Stay connected to Jack Welch insights and communities on LinkedIn.

· Share your successes

· Share your challenge

· Gather insights from others

· Ask questions

· Support others

3. Get moving. Every module has “Quick Wins” ideas to get started. Most are low-cost or no-coast and many require very little planning. Use them, try a few out, then try a few more. You don’t have to do everything all at once. In fact, you shouldn’t try to do everything all at once. But as you see the impact that even a few simple actions can make, you’ll be anxious to push on and try more.

4. Keep notes. Revisit the material in the modules for ideas and to make notes on your progress as you implement new strategies.

5. And last, but not least . . . always. . . always…know your team is watching you.

You lead by your actions. Don’t ever be a phony or say things you don’t mean, or expect your team to behave in a certain way while you behave the opposite. You have to live the values you want your team to live. They are looking to you to lead them. Don’t let them down.

Game Pages

“Leaders aren’t just born. They’re made.” Jack Welch

What Leaders Do

· Make sure employees and colleagues not only see a company’s vision, but live and breathe it.

· Reward the behaviors they value.

· Build trust, cutting through BS, politics, and bureaucracy.

· Deliver candid feedback at all times, and especially, in performance appraisals

· Unleash the transformative power of differentiation in their organizations.

· Energize and empower the people who work with and for them.

· Use every opportunity to infuse confidence into their people.

· Exude boundless positive energy and generate excitement.

· Paint a picture of a greater purpose that the work is driving to.

· Execute and over-deliver.

· Have the courage to make tough calls.

· Display authentic passion for their work and the work of others.

· Recruit, hire, and motivate the best people regardless of the resources available.

· Build teams that are creative, productive, and can find a basis for cooperation, even in contentious circumstances.

· Rejoice in victories and rally teams with the power of celebration.

Monday, November 1, 2021

What’s in it for Me?

What’s in it for Me?

Takeaways

“Change is a lot more difficult when a business is doing well.” Jack Welch

What’s in it for Me?

What it Means

From small reorganizations to massive paradigm shifts, internalizing the impact of a change is what every individual does if the change matters to them. Since making a change mean leaving a comfort zone unless you, as the change leader, can effectively communicate a compelling argument for the change, then you will be constantly struggling with people who “just don’t get it” and your change initiative either won’t happen or it won’t last.

Why it Matters

· Many initiatives fail because there isn’t a shared belief that the change is necessary.

· Generating passion for a cause spreads the ownership for driving forward.

· Since change is happening in the world anyway because of customers, competitors, technology, and a variety of other forces, it should go without saying that some of today’s practices and solutions simply won’t be the right ones to survive the future.

“To get ahead of the competition, a change leader must create urgency and a need that isn’t obvious to the general population.” Jack Welch

Action Plan

What’s in it for Me?

In this module, I’ll cover how to develop and communicate a shared need for change. We’ll also delve into where to get the date to create that compelling story. The activities that follow will focus on helping you to:

· Articulate a shared need to create a “burning platform” (even if the crisis isn’t evident)

· Conduct an analysis to determine what really needs to change. This includes:

1. Internal Benchmarking

2. Industry Benchmarking

3. Innovation and Best-in-Class Benchmarking

4. Data, Demonstration, and Demand

Your Starting Point

1. What are your customers saying about your “current state” of the things you are considering changing? Are they happy or unhappy with what you’re delivering now?

2. What are your competitors doing in this space to change the game?

3. What is the likely outcome if the change is abandoned?

4. Is anyone demanding this change? If so, who are they?

5. Is there feedback from the organization’s associates that the change is needed?

6. If all the previous answers indicate that the change isn’t necessary, what is the compelling reason to do it (i.e., economic forecast, environmental, regulatory)?

Quick Wins for Managing Change

The following three simple actions are a great first step that can help define a need for change.

1. Conduct a focus group with a small number of employees from areas in the organization who will be impacted. Ask for their opinions and ideas about your reasons for change. Be open to their suggestions and have at least three options or scenarios for them to consider.

2. List three positives that will result after making the change and three negatives if the change is not made.

3. Run industry-specific internet searches on what your competitors are doing in the area of your change initiative. There is a lot of information that is publically available, and if you’re not keeping up with what your competition is doing on a regular basis anyway, this is a perfect opportunity to get your team up-to-speed.

Note:

In this and in many other change initiative activities that you will be undertaking, you will need to rely on the support of others, and that can mean asking people to take time out of their busy schedules to lend a hand. Be sure to thank anyone and everyone who helps with their effort. Simple things like a hand-written note, buying lunch for the team, or (depending on the hierarchy) sending a note to the person’s boss (with a copy to the associate) praising the support you have received can go a long way.

Building a Compelling Need for Change

Helping others understand the underlying need for change generates support for new behaviors, but truly effective change leaders create “passion” around the ultimate objective and energize the organization to want to reach beyond the status quo.

A shared need for change should:

· Be understandable by everyone affected

· Explain the rationale for change

· Address the “what’s in it for me?” question

· Clearly communicate the danger if change isn’t made

· Be based on facts, or a strong case to back it up

When explaining the need for change, everyone in the organization should be able to relate to it. Be sure to include what could happen—both good and bad—if the change doesn’t occur. This is necessary to help associates voluntarily step out of their comfort zone.

What is a “Burning Platform” and why does it matter?

To make the point resonate, a “burning platform” can be used to instill passion and a shared need for change. If the urgency is apparent, such as major government spending cuts or technology leapfrogging, then the burning platform is easy to build. If the urgency isn’t obvious, then the change leader must paint the picture of the storm coming and show what the future will hold if change is not embraced.

Note:

Remember, that rationale for change can’t just be opinion; the more objective and irrefutable the data that all associates can relate to, the stronger your case, and the easier it is to win support.

Benchmarking

The wheel only had to be invented once. Finding an emulating practices proven to get the best results is much easier than constant innovation.

There are three types of benchmarking that are used to collect data to show the potential of what change can bring as well as to show what competitors are doing to change the playing field.

1. Internal Benchmarking

Internal benchmarking occurs with your entire organization and it’s an important place to start since the information and data are credible and should be easy to access. For internal benchmarking, there are three questions to consider:

· What are the best practices related to the change that can be replicated by other parts of the organization?

· What lessons learned from past projects can lead to better decision-making in the future?

· Are there any parts of the organization already embracing the change, and what are the early results?

2. Industry Benchmarking

Industry benchmarking is focused on the competition and like institutions. Using competitive intelligence find out:

· What are your competitors doing well?

· What do competitors do better than you?

· Do your competitors have “best-in-class” approaches you can adopt?

3. Best-in-Class Benchmarking

Innovation and Best-in-class Benchmarking look at best practices wherever they are found. This can be easier to get than industry intelligence because there is no competition, so information is often shared from the source. Seek out:

· Who is known for best-in-class in the area of your intended change?

· What is different about their approach, look and feel, or process than other organizations?

· What do they do differently than your organization does?

· What do they measure to evaluate (and maintain) their level of excellence?

Data, Demonstration and Demand

Too much information can be as challenging as not having enough. It’s sometimes necessary to categorize the evidence for change to determine in where to focus first or to identify what’s missing.

The 3-D’s, allows you to summarize the information you may already have or need to get:

· Data can be collected from both internal and external sources. In short, data can be tracked, calculated, or measure. Data highlights trends, measurable performance and benchmarks to support the need for change. In creating a shared need, you can be pretty sure that the majority of people you need to win over will need hard data to be swayed.

· Demonstrations are examples of best practices or evidence of new behaviors in your organization. If one field office is already demonstrating a certain behavior and their results are superior to the other filed offices, it provides proof of concept and demonstrates the real value of the change.

· Demand is about the expectations senior leaders will communicate regarding the change. An organization striving to be more customer-focused benefits when leadership demands new metrics and behaviors that are based on the viewpoint of the customer.

Game Pages

What’s in it for Me?

Your Starting Point

The 3 D’s

	Summary of Evidence
Data
Demonstration
Demand