This week was my first spent entirely in the office and provided me with a much needed opportunity to work on the documentary.  Watching video of our trip for ten hours while intermittently trying to engage myself in real world conversations has left me red eyed, frazzled and unnecessarily brazen.  Our trip promoted a certain sensibility, characteristic of irreverence, spontaneity and indulgent personal analysis. 

One moment I’m inside the RV moving at 80 miles per hour, blitzing up the northwest coastline while eating month old baked goods, listening to Bob Marley and arguing with Noah about the fundamental nature and significance of work.  That’s when Brett taps me on the shoulder and tells me we’ve got a strategy meeting for the PTP Program.  I was about to interview the Director of Shoe Design at Jordan! 

Everyone else is in the present while I’m resurfacing from this fictional world that hardly seemed real while it was happening.  Let’s just say I’m slightly unpredictable at that point.  Brett wants to know who’s driving to lunch and I think we should hitch hike.

But, I have to say I love the creative process and the task of building something from the bottom up.  As I’m watching footage the themes are taking form in my mind and I’m allowed a chance to evaluate a significant time in my life on a level few are permitted.  I get to decide how to tell my own story…  Hopefully someone wants to hear it.

As I waded through hours of PTP video archives yesterday I came across a video Brett shot after our first month on tour.  The clip consists of Brett interviewing me about my impression of the first month and what impressed me most.  The primary issues I focused on were two I had since, nearly forgotten…

First I expressed a genuine sense of surprise and encouragement at people’s candor and need to talk.  I had very few expectations going into the trip.  A primary reason; I couldn’t envision the interview process.  My preconceptions were that many people would not want to speak with us and that those who did were unlikely to volunteer anything truly personal and therefore valuable.  This skepticism was put to bed on the first day and the month that followed was characterized by adventurous activity and conversation unlike any I had previously experienced.

The second idea I expressed was my surprise at how little I had previously asked questions.  I felt that every person, at some point, should travel for an extended period with a question they hope to answer.  The nature of the question is not important.  It could be trivial or profound.  The important part is that it gives you an excuse to speak with strangers’ everyday.  Once I became aware of peoples willingness to talk I began to feel irresponsible in my neglect to ask questions.  The knowledge and experience that a simple conversation can yield are incredible and yet we allow countless conversations to slip by un-had or executed insincerely. 

As we tramped across the country we kept attempting to explain the conflicting feeling that the world was much bigger than we envisioned, but smaller than we imagined.  What we were beginning to understand was that the size of our world and its potential for opportunity far exceeded our prior expectations.  But, our proximity to opportunity and the obstacles that stood in our way were much smaller than we imagined.  The best way to understand our world was to experience it with those we shared it with.

Last night I got home from work at about 8:00 with every intention of going to the gym.  But, after making dinner, clearing a multiday dish pile up, starting laundry and packing for a work trip I found my ambition fading.  When I finally sat down to relax I caught the second half of the movie “Invincible”.  It’s a cheese ball sports movie with all the customary elements; an underdog story, the term “heart” used like it’s going out of style and a miraculous come from behind win validating the main character and the struggle they’ve endured.  Regardless of these facts, all apparent to me at the time, I found myself throwing on my workout clothes and leaving for the gym at 11:00.

My point is that inspiration is a funny thing.  The biochemically driven, hormonal jump start that get’s us off our… rear and enables us to accomplish something is a powerful tool.  While my story is a silly and trivial example of this it speaks to a bigger concept. 

For most of us accomplishing our goals is simply an issue of motivation.  It’s not often a question of skill (innate or practiced) or even opportunity.  The real issue is that anything worth having takes work.  This can mean a lot of time and sacrifice before you get any real satisfaction.  I’ll venture to guess that most of us have set out to try something with a genuine inspiration that ensured our success.  However, as that initial jolt of motivation faded so did our efforts.  So how can we avoid the pitfalls of time induced apathy?

While I won’t pretend to know the answer I do have a theory.  Long term success and realization of goals is heavily dependent on environment.  Most of the people we interviewed on our trip had been involved with some individual, organization or community that held them accountable to what they wanted and fostered their ambitions when personal motivation died down.  It’s the idea that not only should you love what you do but make sure you’re doing what you love.  Everybody’s excitement has peaks and valleys, no matter how sincere.  If you aren’t around people who remind you why you are working so hard, quitting becomes a far more attractive option.

I’m writing this post as much for me as I am you. The term “workforce crisis” haunts me every day as co-workers casually toss it around while authors cash in on educating employers on the topic. The term has become ambient noise to me, and I’m not a hundred percent sure on what it is. In two days I have to explain what the workforce crisis is to three hundred high school students that probably will care less, that is, unless I can make it interesting. So here goes.

The workforce crisis is an issue of highly knowledgeable, experienced workers making their way out of the workforce, either retiring or cutting down their hours to a part time level. Their substitutes are less skilled, responsibility adverse workers. The B team basically, that expects A level pay and benefits. Additionally, a numbers game issue has found its way into this crisis. While grandma and grandpa were popping out three, four, five, thirteen children after WWII, which eventually equated into a huge labor pool, the next generation had significantly less babies, making the labor pool a little slimmer. That means that not every job will be able to be filled with the talent afforded by a large pool. The workforce crisis is a case of not being able to fill the shoes as well as they had previously been filled.

Being a huge San Francisco Giants, baseball, and Barry Bonds fan (in that order), ignoring this crisis is like what the Giants will be experiencing this year. For years everyone from the guy selling peanuts to the average fan to Barry himself knew that he could not play forever. The Giants faced an impending crisis of life After Barry (which will hereon be referred to as A.B.). But what did they do about it? Nothing. They operated as if he could play forever. They couldn’t find a replacement because of the shortage of talented players in the free agent market. And then they ended up paying WAY too much for Aaron Rowand (5yrs, 60 million), a B minus level outfielder that won’t be able to attract nearly as many fans or put up half the production. Barry’s locker, larger than some apartments in Manhattan, has not been occupied by any player because it represents the shoes any player who assumes the locker will be expected to fill.

A.B. will be ugly for the Giants this season. Don’t let the workforce crisis be ugly for you.

“Remember to say your please and thank you’s. Sit up straight. Wash your hands. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all. Stop picking your nose.”

Things our mothers told us apply to office etiquette.

“Did you brush your teeth? Did you comb your hair? Are you going out dressed like that?”

Things our mothers told us apply to appropriate work attire.

“Do you think I’m made of money? What do you think, money grows on trees? Go ask your father. When you have your own house, then you can make the rules!”

Things our mothers told us apply to the way our boss makes business decisions.

“What did I say the FIRST time? Don’t use that tone with me. How many times do I have to tell you? You could have called.”

Things our mothers told us apply to office communication.

“Where do YOU think you’re going? You can go out and play…after you do your homework. You can go out and play…after you pick up your room. When will you be back?”

Things our mothers told us helped construct office hours.

“Who said life was going to be easy?”

The things our mothers told us as children have an impact on the way we behave, think, and operate as adults, employees, co-workers. After all, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Today I will be speaking to the third group of students, in two days, about an in class Pursue the Passion Project at Gateway Early College High School.  Yesterday was our first time speaking about the idea with a group of young people and I couldn’t have been more stoked.  All four members of our tour were conscious about what an incredible experience we were having and it’s potential to change the way we experienced the world around us.  At the same time we realized that the potential benefit of what we were doing would be unfulfilled unless we could find a way to share the experience with others.

The most effective way for us to do this is by sending students out on their own PTP interviews.  Having us speak to them about our experiences and show videos absolutely has value.  However, quite possibly the most important part of the PTP process is the exploratory aspect.  Analyzing where your interests lie, deciding who to speak with and setting up the interview are critical elements.  In addition a 45 minute dialogue that one experiences first hand and can direct to their liking will fly by and resonated with myself in a much deeper way than I had ever expected.

I have full confidence that the Pursue the Passion has the potential to affect lives in a profound way and give students an invaluable and unique experience.  It will be an experiment in personal responsibility and exploration at a time when development of these traits is essential.  I only hope the students are half as excited as I am…

If you know of any schools or student organizations that may be interested in taking part in the PTP program, please email me at zach.hubbell@jobingfoundation.org.

Through the process of understanding how best to help students through our experiences on the road I have become entrenched in a world of great concern and speculation.  Employers all over the country are concerned with how to deal with issues of “workforce readiness”.  The incredible number of articles and theories published concerning how best to exploit the varying talents of our millennial generation are astounding.

Conventional wisdom is that there are fundamental differences between the millennial values and those of their predecessors (and superiors) from generation x and the baby boomers.  There is a constant debate over how to diagnose the needs of an entire populous of people and deal with them through some type of broad sweeping initiative or gesture…

First of all, this type of generalized, populous driven initiative goes against the fundamental realization that understanding an individual’s specific needs can improve work performance, reduce attrition and help the bottom line.  Second of all, I disagree that, fundamentally, there is a big difference in the interaction that employees of any generation desire with their employers.  The workplace has become an incredibly diverse environment characterized by innovation and change.  Everything from the way employees are compensated, to the nature of their work and the technology they use has changed drastically in just the last 5 years. 

No one generation, let alone one person deals with these changes in identical fashion.  If employers want to become more adept at dealing with an environment characterized by growth and change, they need to work on their ability to remain flexible and focus on unique solutions.  I believe in the past there has been a focus on process to achieve a parody in results.  The problem is that this rigid structure has alienated a diverse working populous and made companies slow to react to industry change.

Managers now need to focus on the end, while adopting flexibility concerning the means.  By working in a results driven environment employers can allow their employees more flexibility in the way their job is performed.  This can foster a sense of ownership in ones job and assign personal responsibility to the outcome.  This will, ideally, promote a sense of personal responsibility for ones perpetual education and professional development, ultimately yielding greater innovation and involvement from employees at all levels.

In summary let’s work smart, not hard.  Rigid process and structural mandate doesn’t necessarily equate to better results.  Let us bridge the generational barrier with the one thing we all have in common, self interest.

Yesterday I received a page on effective storytelling that was adapted from Gustav Freytag’s Technik des Dramas (1863), also known as Freytag’s Pyramid. The pyramid identifies three major points in a story such as the “Moment of Last Suspense” and “The Climax.” The point on the pyramid that interested me most was the “Inciting Moment.”

The Inciting Moment is where a story starts. It does not necessarily mean the moment we are born, but it is the moment where we consciously decide to go in a new direction. It takes guts, confidence, and oftentimes, a little bit of luck to have one of these moments. I know because for the past two years, I have studied the turning points of about 250 people while experiencing a few of my own.

Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts, who we interviewed on our Pursue the Passion tour, was watching an old timer’s softball game on television when he conceived what is now the NBA’s All-Star weekend (which will be coming to town in 2009). Brian Mohr was unemployed and at a Coyotes game when a Jobing.com banner ad caught the eye of his wife. That night he went home and checked this website. With an application, lots of persistence, and loads of hard work, Brian not only got a job with Jobing, but has worked his way up to a prominent executive position. Bruce Haffner witnessed a helicopter land at his school assembly in the first grade. Admitting the impact that moment had on him while we flew over the Valley of the Sun, Bruce now flies a chopper around for ABC’s Good Morning Arizona.

The opportunities to have these moments are all around us. Our problem is that most of us are waiting for the twenty foot wave to come overwhelm us with an epiphany. But it is a conscious decision, a mindset, to be aware that such a small thing in life can have such a big impact. We have to be open to these moments, or else they won’t “incite” us.

Before our book is due to be on shelves (or at least available on Amazon) this summer, Pursue the Passion has found its way into another hardcover publication with Barry Moltz’s new book Bounce. Barry asked me after the first tour to provide a page about passion, and the role it plays in developing confidence. So I was pretty excited to see us referenced in the index with a few page numbers after receiving a copy last week.

Barry has been a long time mentor and an extremely generous sponsor of PTP, doing way more than I could have asked from a blind email I sent to him in January of 2006 requesting an interview. I would highly recommend that you check out his second book in publication if you want to learn about accepting failure and bouncing back to success.

I got home last night and the Goodyear blimp was circling around my neighborhood. I guess it was 50 Cent’s limo that I passed on the way home, but it easily could have been Michael Jordan’s, Paris Hilton’s, or Snoop Dogg’s. The Valley of the Sun is in Super Bowl swing, and Scottsdale has temporarily turned into Vegas.

There are expected to be one million football fans, party goers, and vacationers coming into town this weekend. I have six friends alone coming in, which will join the nine other guys scheduled to crash on my floor in sleeping bags.

Bottom line, the local economic impact is projected to be around $400 million to $500 million dollars, affecting everyone from hotel operators to restaurant owners to bottled water street corner retailers. That’s a lot of money.