A Rock Through The Window - There Goes The Comfort Zone

Right around five PM yesterday, a loud noise, like a shotgun blast, got me out of my office and into the dining area of our house. There was a big hole in the shade covering the picture window. There was glass all over the rug, and all over the dining room table and chairs. I drew the vertical shade, and saw a very large hole through the middle of the thermopane window. It looked like a shotgun hole. It wasn't. Lying on the carpet near the window was a good size rock.

Someone had thrown that rock with quite a bit of force - enough force to blast through the double pane window and then through the shade - leaving shards of glass as far as fifteen feet into the room!

We called the police - they came in 10 minutes, recovered the rock and filled out a report, and looked at the area around the house. We had heard nothing, seen nothing, and had no clue as to what might have happened and what caused it.

After the police left, my wife and I got busy cleaning up - a process that took close to an hour. Then I taped over the hole in the window so it was sealed, and so that the remainder of the window would stay intact.

Nothing like this had ever happened to us before. No acts of violence, no vandalism, no feeling of being threatened. The house had always seemed like a real comfort zone. The closest thing to this was the theft of a car from our driveway some years ago. The car was old, there was no evidence of forceable entry, and the police were rather droll about it.

Now we feel uneasy - this rock throwing could be interpreted so many ways. A deliberate act directed at us - for God only knows what reason? A random act of vandalism? A mistake - whoever did it didn't mean to do it - at least not to us? Some kind of destructive impulse that just happened to target us? We'll never know. What we do know is that a comfort zone can change in a flash - without warning, without reason.

So what do we do? First thing is to accept that we will probably never know the cause - so it's a waste of time reflecting on it. It's a waste of time to look with suspicion at the people that walk, drive or run through the neighborhood - although doing so is a really human response. It's a waste of time trying to guard against a repeat - chances of it happening again are very small.

So we will get the window fixed, make sure the replacement thermopane window is shatterproof so we don't get glass spraying into the room if it should happen again, and then forget it.

Except. Our comfort zone took a little hit. It will never be exactly the same again. And our empathy for victims of real violence and circumstance has gone up a few levels. And that's good.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com;Website:www,coxconsultgroup.com; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved

Captain Sullenberger, Preparation, Routine and Opportunities

Hats off to Captain Sullenberger and his crew and their rescue - I can't think of a better word to describe what they did - in saving the passengers and themselves when they had to ditch in the Hudson River. The accolades and gratitude and respect that the crew have received are well earned.

And there is a real lesson for all of us as we go about the business of our lives - every day - some routine days, some difficult days, some boring days, some really special days.

The lesson can be summed up in a quote I read in the book "The Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors" by James D. Hornfischer.

"It has been written that so much of life is preparation, so much is routine, and so much is retrospect that the purest essence of anyone's genius contracts itself into a precious few hours."

The quote refers to the heroism of the small destroyers and destroyer escort ships of the US Navy at the Battle of the Samar Sea in WW II. They turned into the teeth of a large Japanese fleet bent on destroying the carriers they were protecting. Outgunned and outnumbered, the tin can sailors attacked - and all the preparation, routine, habit and response they had accumulated contracted into the collective genius necessary to give the carriers time to escape - but at a very high cost to those sailors and their ships.

Captain Sullenberger and his crew saw all of their preparation, routine and retrospect contract into a brief period of genius that was the product of everything that came before it. Everything I have read about the Captain tells a story of a man constantly striving to be better, to rehearse scenarios, to understand the dynamics of what he spent so much time doing. And when those birds hit, all of that contracted into his - and his crews - particular genius - and lives were saved.

In these times when so much negative is reported, stories of true genius, of competence, of heroism, of people just doing their jobs can help us keep perspective. And realize that our own times of preparation, routine and retrospect can contract into a few hours when an opportunity presents itself that can be life changing.

It's tempting right now - when everything seems mired in negativity - to ask ourselves "what's the use?" Answer that question by remembering and thanking the Captain Sullenberger's and the Tincan Sailors - draw inspiration from them - and press on.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com;Website:www.coxconsultgroup.com; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

How To Hire The Right People

"The first thing you have to do is hire the right people." Have you ever heard that profound piece of advice? Of course you're going to hire the right people - if you know who the right people are. If that's the case, why isn't more time spent defining what the job requires of the right person as the first step in any talent selection?

If you Google the keyword phrase "hire the right people" you will get 76,000 responses. If you Google the keyword phrase "hire the best" you will get 872,000 responses. You will find the great majority of responses deal with ways to evaluate candidates. Lots of information on tools - checklists, questions, how to structure an interview, how to write a job description, recruiting practices, and so on. But very few of those 948,000 Google responses address the key question - How to define the best person for the job - the right person for the job - based on the job, not the applicant?


Most organizations focus on the technical benchmarks. education, experience, industry knowledge, certifications, level of accomplishment and contribution, recommendations - hard information of high value - fairly easily obtained. And so these technical benchmarks and the intuition of the interviewers become the basis for the selection decision.

But the benchmarks critical to success or failure are often treated with a few statements about working in teams, ability to communicate, listening skills, sense of humor, and so on. Hard to define, describe and agree on. So the benchmarks that make the difference in success and failure - ever more so the higher up in the organization the job is - remain only vaguely identified - certainly not agreed to by the interviewers. And that is the weak link in the selection process.


It doesn't have to be that way. The stakeholders of the job, the people that have done the job, the people to whom the job reports, the peers the job works with, all have knowledge of the Behaviors, Personal Skills, and Motivators that make the difference between success and failure. Getting that information in a form that could be used in selection has been a real challenge. But now there are tools and processes that can benchmark Behaviors, Motivators or Attitude and Personal Skills that those in the know feel are necessary for success. And those benchmarks can then be used in the selection process - to see how candidates measure up to the job, not to some measure of "good enough," or "best we could find." And let's face it, no person will bring the ideal profile to the job. The benchmarks can then be used to develop the person selected so they can be more successful, quicker.


Intuition is the force guiding most selection decisions. But intuition is influenced by many different inputs, as well as the biases created through life and work experience. By adding to intuition the benchmarks of Behavior, Personal Skills and Motivators, and the consistent application and comparison of those benchmarks to the selection process, intuition can be much more secure in its decisions. And that leads to commitment toward the person selected - and that's a good thing. The "throw them up against the wall and see if they stick" approach can be replaced with a commitment to success. And when that happens, turnover goes down, retention and productivity go up. And the right people for the job - the best people for the job - strengthen the organization.

With so much more talent available, it's a good time to examine selection practices to ensure the right people are being selected for the right jobs. It's tempting to hire the best people - whatever that means - out of a large talent pool. But it's critical to select the best talent matched to the right job for that talent.


If you would like more information on how to benchmark jobs in your organization, and multiply the success of your selection efforts, give me a call.

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com;Website:www.coxconsultgroup.com; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com

Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved