Everywhere has bad seeds. We have to weed them out. Everything has its place, but at the end of the day only the strong survive. Planted items with heavy roots compete for water and nutrients in the soil. Plants with larger leaves block the smaller plants from getting sunlight. When a person is taking out weeds in their yard, its like meditation. It's actually relaxing. You don't rush. You take your time. You're focused. You're determined to finish what you have started. When one weeds a garden, mental prep, the emotional satisfaction, the physical work is so rewarding when completed.
You must understand what weeds do. Weeds wait until you buy the plants and seeds, till the soil, plant the plants and seeds, and then the seeds come up to choke the life out of the potential food for the table. One doesn't just pull weeds out once. One must constantly continue to pull weeds out of their garden. You must continually keep watch.
Yes, it's frustrating. But that is what needs to be done. Planting seeds requires a certain amount of time and devotion. We have to love it, take care of it, and serve it. I say that to mean, we need to learn new ways. We need to truly love what we are about to take on. We need to be able to serve the mission and do it from the heart. And maybe then there will be change.
Government can only control what it has its hands in. If we do something in the private sector can they control that? I ask, because I am not as familiar with on goings in Haiti? If they can not, maybe we can treat the younger generation like young plants coming up.
With young plants, good characteristics begin showing in my life, like self-control, patience and contentment. We must try to keep that, preserve that innocence, educate and mold it before something happens.
Weeding takes a lot of time. You can’t just go out there and start ripping them out. You don’t want to just tear off the leaves. You want to dig them out by their roots.
Tearing off leaves makes the garden look good for a few minutes but the weed is still intact. It’s like trying to quit a bad behavior without being willing to root out the compulsion for that behavior. The idea is to remove the whole root which is hard to do especially since they will never disappear completely, which in turn causes us to worry, have fear, and insecurity. Worring is often borne of our care for a loved one, so it gets tangled up in our feelings for them. And once it grabs hold, it sends out runners of other fears, and at that, usually when we get over one fear we land another one.
Telling someone, "I’m worried about you," is often considered an expression of love, but it is not. The Bible says in 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." Love and trust in God uproots the weeds of worry and its insidious runners.
Some things we just need to lay in the hands of the "One" above. Whatever name we might call him.
Ground ivy is like a weed of the self consciousness, the ego, the way we want people to think of us. They can get pulled up easily, but they return just as easily also. Just when you think you’ve gotten them all up, there they are again.
And so it is easy to turn attention from ourselves in order to care genuinely for another person or group of people. But it’s just as easy to revert back to trying to appear wonderful, and sometimes we get the two mixed up. Do we really care about this person or these people? Or do we want to appear to for the sake of impressing the world?
Like weeds, all these faults, bad behaviors and hidden motives can drive us to our knees in repentance. Sorry to use a religious word, but sorrow, combined with a real desire to change, is the only way to rid us of these faults, these weeds that prevent us from bearing the good fruits of love, joy and peace.
Perhaps, this is why Jesus prayed with his eyes open, out in the woods and fields, on hillsides, and, at the end, in a garden, he had to always keep watch.
4/18/2005 12:04 AM Updated 4/18/2005 3:06 PMOAS_AD("Zaplet1"); OAS_AD
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Let people know where they stand, Welch says
Q: You call it "differentiation," but the name on the street is "rank and yank." You're known for your candor. Which describes it best?
ByTeru Iwasaki, APWelchA: Rank and yank doesn't sound like the right way to go at it. It's too harsh. Rank and yank is not what differentiation's about. It's about letting people know where they stand, how far they can go and the things they can improve on.
Q: That sounds innocent enough. But isn't it really about firing the bottom 10%?
A: You've got a bad take on it. It's letting the bottom 10% know where they are and then giving them a chance to move on. About 70% (of the bottom 10%) leave on their own. Who wants to be on the bottom once they know it? You don't fire them. That's being mean. This is not a mean-spirited thing. It's you sitting across the table from me and telling me, "Jack, you're not measuring up. You're going to have to improve." If I don't, you tell me that it's best for me and my family to find someplace else to work.
Q: Where did you first learn this lesson?
A: Out on the playground picking a team. The best players get picked first. If you're the last, you might go to right field or second base. We've all been there. Business is not much different.
Q: Is this the only system that works?
A: No. Assume there's a downturn in the economy. You have to go because you're not one of the better players. But until then, you have never been told that. You have all this rancor. Is that a better system? It's not. I'm not saying differentiation is perfect, but it's the best I know of as long as it's built on trust.
Q: You've gone through some life-changing events, including a heart attack. You started attending church frequently. Has any of that softened your position?
A: What would that have to do with it? I'm trying desperately to make the case that this is the kindest way. Is it kinder to never let anybody know their shortcomings and then surprise them with bad news? People should know where they stand.
Welch offers business tips
The kindest thing is letting workers know where they stand. Tell workers when they rank low. It's more than just good business.
Most workers who are told they are in the bottom 10% leave on their own.
Don't weed out employees overnight. First build trust with an honest evaluation system.
The evaluation system must be rigorous to avoid politics.
Compensate star players, but don't show favoritism or meanness at the office.
Q: You're saying this not only makes companies stronger, but is kind to employees?
A: Without question. How can you have a system where people never know where they stand? They'll figure it out when there's a layoff or reorganization.
Q: Drake University studied this. It determined that a company would improve solidly for three or four years. Then the dead wood is gone, and new hires are unlikely be better than those let go.
A: Take a look at General Electric for the last 25 years. Where do you think (Home Depot CEO Bob) Nardelli came from? Where do you think (3M CEO James) McNerney came from? I know there are people and professors who feel the other way. I think this system is proven to work very well.
Q: OK, if weeding out the bottom 10% is so effective, why not 20% or 50%?
A: This is not precise. This is taking care of your very best, being sure the valued middle is cared for, and weeding out the weakest. I don't have a magic number. I've always talked about 10%, but it might be 7% one year and 15% the next. Look at those on the USA TODAY staff. You can write down a distribution curve. That's all I'm asking. Some don't carry their load.
About Jack Welch General Electric CEO 1981-2001.
Irish-Catholic former altar boy. He once traveled more than an hour to attend mass in Tokyo, but four years ago told USA TODAY that he was so "angry and mad at God" when his mother died of a heart attack 38 years ago that he lost his heart for religion. He's a regular church-goer again.
Will he go to heaven? He answers in his new book, Winning: "I'm not perfect, but if there are any points given for caring about people with every fiber of your being and giving life all you've got every day, then I suppose I have a shot."
Donated the proceeds of his $4 million book advance to the John F. Welch Jr. Foundation, whose primary interest is inner-city education.
Second-best CEO golfer in 1998 and beat No. 1 Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems in a 36-hole match. Once beat professional Greg Norman over 18 holes. He's given up golf.
Married the former Suzy Wetlaufer a year ago after their affair cost Welch his second marriage and Wetlaufer her job as editor of the Harvard Business Review.
Q: Newsweek reports that you have performance evaluations written for your household help. Is that taking this to extremes?
A: No. I'm evaluating a couple of people who work for us, what they do well, what I like and what they might improve on. They tell us what they like about the job and what we can improve on. You have to have candor and openness. You have to get trust built, OK? You can't put in a 20-70-10 system if there hasn't been an honest evaluation system for a long time.
Q: Some experts say most every worker is salvageable. If a company decides to weed out a worker, isn't that management's shortcoming?
A: That's not something I believe. I don't say this is the only way. But it has proven results. You can spend a lot of time working on the bad seeds rather than nurturing the winners and those who are growing. This is the way Jack Welch says to do it. I'd stack up my results against anyone.
Q: Do unions make it hard to differentiate?
A: When I was running GE, I had some interest in putting stock options in the hourly workforce. But the only way the union would want it was if everybody got the same, which defeated the purpose in my view.
Q: When you rank people, does it pit them against one another and undermine teamwork?
A: No way. It's like football. If people didn't work as a team, their manager would quickly fall because their people wouldn't be working together. He'd be asked to move on. Building a team is what a manager has to do; it's one of the things they are evaluated on.
Q: Detroit Pistons Coach Larry Brown is a proponent of positive coaching. He says don't treat stars and B players differently. Best players are rewarded with the most money and public adulation, but in the locker room and on the court, they are part of the team.
A: I totally agree. It's the same in business. The rewards come from stock options and pay increases that are more significant than others. But at the office, you don't treat the middle group differently. You can't be showing broad favoritism and meanness, or you won't build a team. But the rewards are different. Business is not much different than sports.
Q: When you force managers to rank employees, how do you prevent them from picking the people who kiss a little rear end? How do you keep politics from interfering?
A: You never have a perfect system. Tell me a better one. Don't tell me what's wrong with this one. There are politics everywhere. Is it perfect? Of course not. But what's a better one that takes politics out? If managers played politics, their reviews would stink. They would have no promotions. A rigorous evaluation system restricts politics. But it's got to be rigorous.
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