I paid my homeowner’s insurance on my credit card today: 424 frequent flyer points. Gotta love that. Instead of my regular $500 move to savings for the month, I moved $1500. Gotta love that even more.
I attended a seminar at work today about Managing Organizational Change. There were two salient points I took away from the seminar. The first was the distinction between loyalty and commitment, and the second was about being engaged, or not, in your commitment.
Loyalty versus Commitment
- Loyalty: Emotionally felt affiliation to an organization, no matter what. (An Emotional Response)
- Commitment: Decision to follow a mode of conduct or course of action. (A Behavioral Response)
Most people lump the two together; that is, if you’re loyal, then you’re committed. Actually, they are separate entities as indicated — one emotional, the other behavioral.
So, you can be loyal without being committed. An example of this is believing in something, such as a cause, but not doing anything toward its end.
And you can be committed without being loyal. An example of this is being a soldier who doesn’t believe in the war s/he’s fighting, but fights anyway. S/he is not loyal, but s/he is committed. In other words, “I don’t believe in it, but it’s my job and I’m going to do the best job I can.”
Engaged Commitment versus Disengaged Commitment
The presenter argued that you can’t remain committed very long without being engaged. An example of this is when organizational change comes, and you stay at a job because you are committed to it. At first, as you are adjusting to the change, and learning your way in the new organization, you may not be very engaged. However, before too long, you’ve got to find something in the “new world” that engages you. Not doing so will eventually lead to decreasing job satisfaction, and potentially, poor performance. If you find yourself unable to get engaged for a sustained period of time, the best solution is to “get out”; that is, quit.
I left work at 5:00, stopped by home to pick up my book bag, and change into my workout clothes. On my way to meet “the Blue Team,” I called mom and dad to tell them that the cruise is booked, and they owe me $500 for their deposit.
I met Will and Amelia at the Global Village coffee shop on Hillsborough Street at 6:00. Actually, it was about 6:15 before I got in there, as the parking situation was atrocious. I parked way up on Clark Street. There was actually one spot in the parking lot I first tried, but even though I was in the lot longer than another car that pulled in, by the time I saw the spot, she already had her turn signal on indicating she was taking it. Good thing I didn’t get nasty as it turned out to be Amelia.
We had a good working session on our Test Plan, which is due early next week. I felt like there was good give and take, and everyone contributed. Angel “called in sick,” but she did send email letting us know that, and indicated that she wanted some assignment(s) so as to do her 1/4 share. We all left with tasks to do, though we didn’t think any up for Angel.
Will and I walked to our 7:30 class. At the beginning of class, Bobette came over and handed me a business card. “I thought of you when I saw this, and picked it up for you.” This is truly a most intriguing business card:
| Themed Obituaries: Sports, Movies, Mystery, Religious, Revenge, etc. | |
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Tim Coffield
Renowned Custom Obituaries One hundred percent satisfaction References Available (704) 839-3659 tlcoffie@ncsu.edu |
Also Available:
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Because the Last Impression is the Lasting Impression
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Okay, you have got to love this. I particularly like the Revenge option! 🙂
Funny about creating your own business or profession. Just today, partly as a result of that seminar I attended this morning, I was thinking, “How could I market myself as a Professional Blogger? I wonder if I could put my resume out on monster.com, and put something like this in the ‘Professional Goal’ field: To be a prolific blogger for a respected company or a specific company product.”
Is there a market for this skill? What would my credentials be? I hardly think a personal journal style blog for four years would give me any credibility, except perhaps in the area of persistence and commitment. It would be interesting to see what kind of response such a posting would garner. I might just do it. Might as well get paid for it.
That reminds me of my sweet boyfriend, who can be a little “dramatic” at times. He was trying to decide on a class to take one semester, and he said, “There’s a drama class available; do you think I should sign up for that?” I replied, “You might as well get credit for it.” We laughed and laughed and laughed about that one.
I found class totally engaging tonight. Several people didn’t seem to, though, as they seemed to be “surfing,” presumably on some class-related subject, but I’m not so sure that was the case. I wondered how I would handle that as a professor. I’m not sure I would say anything, but I am sure I would be frustrated, or at the very least, distracted by it.
Most people seemed interested in turning our upcoming assignment, which will have us visiting a local museum, into a class field trip. Dr. Swarts is going to look into that. I think it would be fun, if it can be arranged. I’m going to send Robert Mlodzik a note about it tomorrow, or perhaps even call him at work.
After class, I stopped by Carmichael and worked out for 30 minutes — and a 500-calorie burn. Shortly after I started, this guy two machines down, who looked to be of “normal weight” to me, said to the guy between us, who was very heavy, “Do you mind if I ask you how long you’ve been working out?” The heavy guy answered, and then the other guy said, “And how much weight have you lost?”
I thought this was a very interesting interrogation, and the normal weighted guy went on to say how he had recently lost 60 pounds, and how you have to keep the exercise up every day, eat 5 or 6 small meals, etc. etc. etc. I tried to decide from what place this conversation was coming, and went back and forth from it being from a place of wanting to be helpful and encouraging, to one of bragging and sounding like he was now a trainer and a nutritionist. Just an interesting conversation between two men who are strangers.
When I got home at about 9:50, Courtney was sitting in her car in front of my house. I thought she was having another “key incident,” but it turned out she had just pulled up, and was on the phone. She motioned that she’d be just a little bit, and I went inside and starting cooking my dinner — Seafood Newburg, butternut squash, and a mixture of celery, onions, and 1 oz. of cheese in some balsamic vinegar. Yum.
Courtney caught me up on the tons of things going on in her life right now, one being how she got engaged over the weekend. What a sweet, sweet story, which she related to me showing me the book Ben had created for her. So beautifully done.
After that, I opened my Nutrifood. Not that I’ve been looking forward to its arrival, and felt a little celebratory, but, well a picture (from Courtney’s cell phone camera) says a thousand words…
