Life, Death and the Pursuit of Happiness

As a person goes through life you encounter a roller coaster of events that always leave me wondering what am I supposed to take away from all of this.

My day on Friday started with the news that a co-worker's infant son had to be been flown via life flight from Holdrege to Omaha because he had been found unconscious at day care.  After hours of medical treatments and heroic efforts to save the young life nothing could be done and sadly the boy died.  A tragedy in anybody’s book.  Nobody can understand why a young life is taken from us.

The second piece of news I received on Friday was also involving death.  Long time principal at Lincoln Christian Levi Kroeker had also passed away.  Earlier in the week Levi had collapsed at home.  Levi had just returned home from teaching the sixth grade Bible class.  It wasn't  a coinsidance that Levi ended his life teaching a Bible class.

Levi was in his 70's and spend his life teaching elementary students about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Again friends and families are left wondering why now.  But in the case of Levi we can look back on a long life and praise God for all his servant Levi had done.  He made a direct impact on thousands of people including the Chapin family.  He was a true missionary in our mist.

The third piece of news was delivered by my sister, Nancy.  She had received a call from our Mom telling her that our Dad was in a Florida hospital and they weren't sure what was wrong with him.  They thought it was something like an appendicitis or gall stones but they were unsure.  It wasn't a life or death situation but it does bring home the idea that one day we all receive a call that does line out a  dire situation.  I was relieved my Dad would be OK but yet it was a chilling reminder that someday the news won't be this "good."

That was Friday. It was time for the weekend.

So what did a do with my weekend?  If this was a novel things would take turn for the worse and only get more dramatic.  This is just a long note, not  a novel.

Over the weekend I went to 3 basketball games, enjoyed a drama at the local high school, watched football, went to church, coached a baseball practice and read the Great Gatsby.  For the most part pretty meaningless. 

My daughter's basketball seemed to be very dramatic coming down to free throws with 3 seconds on the clock.  The teammate made the free throw and the won by 1.

The football was also nail biting. 

Some might even think that I think baseball is life.  I fact I have 2 tee shirts that say that just that!!!  But it's not.

Friday's events kept the weekend's fun in perspective with the realization that life is precious and I should treat it as such.

Since you are retiring I won't confront you

I dont talk to very many people within a close range. Those of you that know me know I like to maintain about 10 feet of personal space.

A few summers ago Ben Nelson and I found ourselves face to face, about a foot apart, discussing Obama's health care plan. We were having a one on one conversation about several issues in the halls of congress and he told me "the President's plan was reaching to far and he could never support it." So I believed him.

Six months later he was the deciding vote in the overall passage!

He lied to my face. Eyeball to eyeball.

Two weeks ago we we had a editorial battle in the Omaha World herald about the National Labor Relations Board. He did lie this time, most just was misleading.

The next day he said he wasn't running for reelection.

I know many people think politicos tend to mislead from time to time. But my person experience is that Ben Nelson outright lies.

So today he sat behind me on a plane to Denver. We again were face to face. Many thought ran through my head. If he was going to continue is career I likely would have confronted him and imbaressed him with a few voters around. But since he is retiring I decided to simply let him go in front of me.

See I don't alway speak my mind.

Happy Birthday

As many of you may remember January 6th is my Grandpa Elmo Chapin’s birthday.  In past years I have sent out reminders that it is his birthday and explain way that matters.

It matters to me because my Grandpa is one of my heroes.  One thing that I remember about my Grandpa was his attitude toward his fellow man.  His loved to serve people and to make sure that he left every place he had been a better place than when arrived.  Sometimes that was as simple as picking up a piece of trash off the floor and throwing it away.  Other times it was lending a hand to somebody in need.

He did more behind the scenes favors than anybody I have ever known.  Giving people a lift up was what made him happy.  Often he did it for strangers.  He loved to find somebody that needed a hand and then help them out. 

So I challenge you to take hold of this tradition on January 6^th and give somebody a lift up. 

(if you are looking for an extra credit project, shut the lights off when you leave the room!)

P.S

Today when reading the Bible I came across a verse that fits the theme of this post perfectly.  It is Romans 16:1-2.  Paul’s letters typically open and close with what typically can seem like meaningless personal greetings.

 

But in the context of my Grandpa’s birthday I learned a few things from reading these verses.  One of the things I learned was every word in the Bible is applicable.

Back to Work

It has been a long time since I posted anything.  Travel before the holidays and taking time away during the holidays has kept me away.

I love the Christmas break.  It is fun to see the extended family and we spent a few days in Minnesota with both sides of the family.  It was very relaxing and extremely fun. 

Gift exchanges are always fun.  New clothes to work everyday this week and into next week.  Coffee mug, calender with pictures of my wife, a fire pit, iPad cover just to hit the highlights.  It is also fun to see the joy on the face of the people that you give gifts to.  Few moments in life top giving a phone to a Junior High student. 

Reading books is fun and relaxing as well.

But more then anything else I love the time off because it gives me time with my wife and kids. 

***** Warning: I might sounding like an old man*****

During breaks we get the chance to slow life down and enjoy the people in our lives.  It is a great way to build stronger relationships with the people you love.  People that you consider your number one priority.  But when the break is over we go back to the rush.  Could it be that we don't need to go back 100% into the rush?  Maybe we can keep some of the slow pace in our lives.

Hopefully I can. 

Commercial Real Estate Revolution

Like I mentioned in the last blog I was tipped off to read a book called "The Commercial Real Estate Revolution by Rex Miller.  It is truly an excellent book.  It discusses "nine transforming keys to lowering cost, cutting waste and driving change in a broken industry."  The book hits the nail right on the head.  If only construction would follow its model. 

Let me give you the 9 keys and hopefully you are intrigued enough to read the book yourself.

1. Trust-Based Team Formation
2. Early Collaboration
3. Built-In Sustainability
4. Transformational Leadership
5. "Big" BIM
6. Integrating Project Delivery
7. Trust-Based Agreements and Client-Centered Incentives
8. Offsite Construction
9. Workplace Productivity

As you can tell I love this book.

Fixing the Industry

Last week a friend and colleague of mine suggested the book "The Commercial Real Estate Revolution" by Rex Miller (et al).  It is a great book and I hope people within the construction industry put the ideas from the book into practice.  The bottom line of the book is that we need more partnering.

Construction has lagged behind nearly every industry when it come to productivity improvements.  This book lays out a system for reversing that trend.  The solution is pretty easy but change isn't.  For a summary of the book go to http://rexmiller.net/wp-content/downloads/ebook.pdf.

If the summary peaks your interest then i would suggest you get the book.

They aren't accidents they are injuries!!!

Like we have mentioned in previous articles we find workplace injuries to be extremely saddening.  But often times we do two things with regard to safety that send out the wrong message.

The first mistake that we make is we call our injuries, accidents.  Too often we say things like we had an accident at project WYZ.  Butch Mellom, our Safety director, doesn’t use the word accident.  We need to change our terminology and only use the word, injury.  Seldom are the injuries the results of an accident.  In nearly 100% of the cases we realize that we could have changed our behavior and avoid the injury.  By using the word injury we reinforce the point that a person was hurt or disabled.    I think we need to keep in mind the personal side of the equation.  Somebody got hurt and it was the result of our actions.  We can change our actions.

The second mistake that we make is we use statistic to describe how things are going with regard to safety.  Again the problem with this method is it implies that some level of injuries is OK.  That concerns me because I don’t want any individual to suffer an injury.  Thinking of the injuries as people rather than numbers helps us eliminate them.

Let me give you an example.  Which of the following two statements makes you want to make sure we have a safe workplace?

A.      In the year 2012 we will have only one recordable accident.

B.      The only recordable injury next year is going to be you losing a finger.

The first sentence might leave you thinking something along the lines of, while accidents happen but we had a good year.  If we think that way they injuries will continue to happen and odds are it is going to involve you soon or later. 

The second sentence should leave thinking, I like all my fingers (toes, my back, eyes, ears and don’t care to have any scares)!   If you are the one recordable injury you won’t be impressed with the statistic highlighted in sentence A.

If we all work with the idea that you aren’t going to get hurt while at work we can all consider ourselves blessed.   My goal for next year is that you have an injury free year.  It is a two-step process. 

1.       Stop thinking in terms of accidents and start thinking in terms of injuries.

2.       People aren’t statistics, stop thinking stats matter.

What do you think?  Do you want to go the entire year injury free?