November 27, 2015 By B. Baylis 1 Comment

Why Organizations Need a Chief Eleemosynary Officer

In my previous post on organizational CEO’s, I offered the suggestion that organizations should have a Chief Eleemosynary Officer. What in the world is an eleemosynary officer? Where did I get the idea that organizations needed an eleemosynary officer? I will admit that prior to last week I don’t think I had ever heard of the word eleemosynary. As with most word trips since my traumatic brain incidents of 2009 (the implosion of a benign meningioma and four tonic-clonic seizures within a thirty-minute time span), the journey to finding the meaning and significance of eleemosynary was not a straight line.

As I prepared the post A Proposal for Changing the Definition and Expected Behaviors of a CEO, I sat in on a number of diverse webinars. Two of the webinars dealt with creating a positive workplace environment and the benefits that accrue from such a setting. These webinars both concluded that the happy workplace was a healthier workplace, physically, psychologically and emotionally. One of the webinars presented some research data that confirmed that healthier and happier employees worked harder and produced more. Both webinars pushed the idea that the tone of an organization begins at the top. If the CEO of an organization habitually broadcasts happiness, the organization is a healthier and more productive work environment. By broadcasting happiness, I am not talking about being a clown, constantly laughing and telling jokes. Happiness or positive psychology has become a legitimate branch of science. The Declaration of Independence affirms the right of every American to posses life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One place to begin broadcasting happiness is to make the effort to encourage those with whom you have contact, particularly anyone who is having a rough time. Happiness is contagious. It spreads more quickly, if it begins at the top of an organization. To more fully understand the attributes and benefits of a positive workplace, I highly recommend the work, and webinars of Shawn Achor, Michelle Gielan and others at Good Thinking Inc. For such a workplace to exist, the organization needs a Chief Encouragement Officer.

A third webinar looked at organizational cultures and structures, and the thorny question of how one changes an entrenched, but badly functioning culture. One suggestion popped out at me. The presenter repeatedly used the word “engagement.” Employees were more productive when they were engaged in their work. When did individuals feel more engaged? The key to employee engagement was a sense of self-determination, authority and empowerment. This webinar reminded me of one of the management principles that I claimed as an operational strategy very early in my administrative career: “Push decision making down to the most appropriate level.” This is the essence of empowerment. Very early in my administrative career I also learned that empowerment must begin at the top of the organization. If the chief executive officer is not on board with this program, people will get mixed messages and eventually gridlock will set in. Thus the chief executive officer must also be the chief empowerment officer.

Two more webinars dealt with the topic of ethics and ethical behavior within an organization. As I reflected on the content of those webinars, I remembered some of the academic conference presentations by Greg Lozier, Deborah Teter and Lawrence Sherr that I had attended over many years in higher education that focused on high performing campuses. One common theme from their work was that one characteristic of a high performing organization was the existence of a code of ethics that was well established within the organization, publicized widely across the whole organization, well known by everyone within the organization and adhered to by all members of the organizations from the top to the bottom. If the ethics of an organization is a reflection of the ethical code of its leadership, then doesn’t it make sense for an organization to have a Chief Ethics Officer?

Therefore, there were at least four different visions of a CEO: 1) Chief Executive Officer; 2) Chief Ethics Officer; 3) Chief Empowerment Officer; and 4) Chief Encouragement Officer. My mind started wandering and wondering if there were other types of CEO’s lurking out there. I needed E-words to build this model. Those of you who know my story, know my struggle with words the past six years. As part of my therapy program to hang onto and improve my memory of words, I have spent hours writing and doing crossword puzzles. It’s not uncommon for me to stop in the middle of a thought and say to my wife, “I need a word.” She usually plays along with this game and gives me the first word that comes to her mind. I will shoot back at her, “That’s not the word I need.” I proceed to explain what I want the missing word to do or mean. In my writing and crossword puzzle endeavors, in addition to Google and my wife, I have come to rely heavily on three books, The American Heritage Dictionary, with over 70,000 entries, Webster’s Basic Thesaurus, with over 150,000 synonyms and antonyms, and Webster’s New Explorer Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, with 350,000 answer words in over 150 categories. In this case, I first went to the crossword puzzle dictionary, since it was physically the closest to my computer. As I read through the e-words, I easily found 10 more options for defining a CEO.

E-Word Cloud

About halfway through the e-words, I came across one that hit me right between the eyes. Eleemosynary. I don’t remember ever seeing this word before. I know I have never used it previously. As I read the suggested crossword answers to the clue “eleemosynary” I said to myself, here is another option for CEO. The word “eleemosynary” has been used as a clue for the following list of answers:

humane, generous, altruistic, beneficient, benevolent, charitable, munificient, openhanded, humanitarian, philanthropic.

“Just click the Donate button, fill out the form that pops up selecting your favorite charity, and the company will match your gift.”

“Let’s make this is a Merry Christmas for every child in our community by making sure they recieve at least one toy this year.”

“Hello! Let me welcome you to our company and family.”

“Here, give me your hand. I’ll help you up.”

“Lean on me! I’ll help you get to where you’re going.”

This is a great list of adjectives, that would describe a great organization. In order for an organization to be truly humane or philanthropic, the leadership of the organization would have to define such a vision, set such an example, and encourage such behavior within the organization. Leadership would have to empower the individual members of the organization to demonstrate these traits. Does the organization give to charitable causes? Does the organization encourage employees to give? For non-profits, does it make it easy for employees to give back to the organizationa? Does it match charitable contributions? Does the organization have a volunteer program? Does it encourage employees to volunteer on their own time? Does the organization treat everyone fairly and equitably within the organization, without discrimination? Does the organization welcome new members and help them acclimate to the organizational culture? Every well-functioning organization needs a Chief Eleemosynary Officer.

Since this is Thanksgiving week, I am taking a break from my list of planned blog posts and preparing my next post on the meaning and celebration of Thanksgiving.

November 25, 2015 By B. Baylis 1 Comment

A Proposal for Changing the Definition and Expected Behaviors of a CEO

In organizational theory, the abbreviation CEO usually represents Chief Executive Officer. “What is a Chief Executive Officer?” “What does he or she do?” The CEO is the highest corporate officer of an organization. This individual is in charge of the total management of the organization. The simplest answer is that the CEO is the boss! All areas of the corporation and all individuals within the organization work under the ultimate direction of the CEO. What are some of the differences between terrible CEO’s and great ones?

What does a bad CEO say and do? The negative pictures of a CEO usually begin with a monster screaming orders at the employees.

“The last quarter was a disaster! It better not happen again!”

If the ogre is not yelling at everyone, then the cutthroat is making the poor employee who made a mistake walk the plank.

“That’s it! I’ve had enough of your mistakes. You’re fired!”

Many times the bad boss is a micromanager, who must control every aspect of the organization, and approve every decision in detail.

“The buck stops with me. This is my company. You will do it my way! Let me see what you’re doing!”

Bad CEO’s are often notorious for manipulating individuals in order to get their own way. They treat people like they are toys or puppets.

“You’ll dance until I say you’re done. Next time I tell you to do something, you’ll do it immediately, without question.”

Terrible CEO’s have lost the respect of their employees. How can you tell when a boss has lost the respect of the employees? Figuratively and literally, the employees turn their backs on the boss. They may follow orders, but their hearts aren’t in it.

“What are you idiots doing? Why isn’t anyone paying attention to me? Look at me when I’m talking to you, I’m your boss!”

If that’s what a bad boss does and says, what does the good boss look like? The good boss is a true executive officer who sets the vision and direction for the ship. The good ship’s captain is the individual whose very presence on the bridge commands respect.

“Be alert, the enemy has been spotted in the area. We’re in imminent danger. Every one to battle stations. Change course to 90 degrees. Engines ahead, full speed.”

The capable CEO must act like a coach of a winning athletic team. The coach serves from the side line, and many times behind the scenes, teaching and encouraging the players.

“Great tackle! Be ready to jump into the passing lane. Watch the quarterback’s eyes, just like you do in practice.”

Research has shown that high performing organizations have a set of ethical standards that are well publicized across the organization, known and followed by everyone. In these organizations, the CEO is the standard bearer and sets the moral tone for the organization.

“Do I take the shortcut, just this one time? I probably won’t get caught. NO! This organization, my reputation and my life is built on doing what is right.”

The good CEO encourages everyone in the organization, builds up their self-confidence, and urges them on to higher standards.

“This is great work, you two. I really like your proposal for the new ad campaign. Do you think we could tweak the sales goals just slightly?”

A great CEO empowers people, and enables them to be all that they can be.

“I really liked how you turned this failing store around. I think you have the right stuff. I want to make you district manager.”

The CEO definitely needs to be the Chief Executive Officer, the individual who helps formulate the vision of the organization and leads the management of its operations. However, the CEO also needs to be the Chief Ethics Officer, the individual who helps define the values of the organization, and sets its moral and ethic tone. The CEO needs to be the Chief Encouragement Officer, the individual who is constantly encouraging people to continually strive to do their best and achieve great things. In addition, the CEO must be the Chief Empowerment Officer, the individual who enables or authorizes individuals to do what they can and be who they are meant to be. These building blocks fit together to form the Leadership Pyramid.

In my next blog post, I propose that there is at least one more function that a CEO must fulfill. The excellent CEO must be the Chief Eleemosynary Officer of the organization. You don’t know what eleemosynary means? Neither did I until I started looking for E-words to fit in the title CEO. I’m not telling you yet what the word means. You’ll either have to look it up or wait until my next post.

November 16, 2015 By B. Baylis Leave a Comment

What Is the Difference Between Ethics and Ethical Behavior?

The past two weeks have been a huge struggle for me. I spent much of that time fighting the pain from an infected tooth which had a broken root. It took me several days to get an “emergency” appointment with my dentist. During that appointment the determination was quickly made that the very loose and painful tooth had to be extracted. Because of the infection, I had to take a full week run of antibiotics. In addition, I had to be taken off my blood thinners slowly. Thus, I had to wait another full week for the oral surgery. During that time, in the periods of calm generated by acetaminophen and benzocaine, I struggled with this post.

The question, “Why do people do what they do?” kept hitting me in the face.

When not sleeping, eating or working at my computer, I watched sports and newscasts on television. What did I see? 1) Two Presidential debates with candidates questioning the behavior of rivals and impugning their ethics; 2) A report of an automotive manufacturer installing software in its cars that only shuts off high carbon emissions when the car is being tested for those emissions; 3) A report of another automotive manufacturer not acting on knowledge of dangerous defects in its cars for years; 4) A report on dozens of judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys passing around hundreds of emails with pornographic pictures and offensive stories; 5) A report on a State Attorney General indicted for leaking Grand Jury information and the commission of perjury by lying about it; 6) A report on a township supervisor voting positively on a zoning petition and building permit for a family member’s project; 7) A report on what appears to be wholesale, systematic doping by a country’s sports infrastructure in a recent Olympics; and 8) A popular race car driver appearing to intentionally wreck another popular driver in retaliation for a perceived intentional wreck the previous week.

I turned off the television and went to my computer. What did I do at my computer? When I was not working on this post, I was cleaning up my email backlog and sitting through three webinars. What did I find in my email newsletters? 1) A report on scholarly authors attempting to “game” the JIF (Journal Impact Factor) by self-citing their own articles, or by bartering citations from friends and colleagues by citing their articles in a pyrimad-type scheme called citation stacking; 2) A report on a scientist who pleaded guilty to fraud for faking data involving a study of HIV vaccine; 3) A report on a recently published article entitled “The Mirage of Prestige: The educational quality of courses in prestigious and non-prestigious institutions” that attempts to measure the difference in academic outcomes between the so-called prestigious and non-prestigious institutions; 4) Reports on several institutions faking data on campus crime statistics, salary information on graduates and admissions profile data; and 5) A report that estimates the costs of complying with federally imposed regulations across the higher education sector to be $27 billion annually.

What did I hear in the webinars?: 1) The first webinar dealt with plagiarism. The primary assumption was that faculty increasingly believe that students do not know what plagiarism is. However, even in the face of that previous assumption, faculty increasingly believe the frequency of plagiarism is increasing and more students are intentionally participating in it; 2) The second webinar was a presentation from the field of professional training. The primary point of this webinar was that compliance training is one of the most difficult areas of professional development in which to produce quality eLearning programs, while at the same time, it is one of the areas of fastest growing demand. In this webinar one question was continually raised: “Should we train people to act ethically or just to meet compliance requirements?” No matter how we answer the previous question, the webinar suggested that the CEO must lead the organization by exhibiting a constant pattern of ethical behavior, because the organization will rise to a level no higher than the one set by its leader. 3) The third webinar focused on the teaching of ethics. One of the foundational assumptions of the webinar presenters was that ethics was only a matter of content knowledge that could and should be taught within the confines of an academic discipline. The presenters kept saying that within a given context, there were rules, regulations and obligations that had to be met. The presenters dismissed any comment or suggestion that there were universal principles that applied across disciplines. Ethics were situational and behaviorally oriented.

I return to my original question, “what is the difference between ethics and ethical behavior?” I admit that I come down on the side of the universalists on this question. I believe that there are universal rules of right and wrong. In this sense one’s ethical behavior is a result of one living ethically. It becomes a matter of living by principles, not according to specific rules that can change when circumstances change. For students and faculty, honesty requires telling the truth, not lying, not stealing or not cheating, no matter the personal consequence, no matter whether every one else is doing it, or whether you can get away without getting caught. Living the principled life means doing the same thing whether someone is watching you or not. The second great commandment “Love your neighbor” is a principle, not a rule dependent upon whether the individual in need is “like you” or is “very different.” The great requirement from Micah 6:8, “what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (KJV) presents us another set of principles. Ethics and ethical behavior are not only matters of content, but of values. They are matters of the head and the heart. They require not only comprehension and accession, but also action by the individual based on the individual’s knowledge and beliefs.

Ethics and ethical behavior are not the same thing. However, ethical behavior should be the outgrowth of ethics. One should act based on one’s principles. How do we discover our principles (ethics) and translate those into actions (ethical behavior)? Two suggestions from Scripture provide us guidance in this endeavor. The first is Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (II Timothy 3: 14-17, KJV) The second is Solomon’s advice to his son: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3: 5&6, KJV)

If we diligently seek God’s principles, He will show them to us and guide us in the way we should go. We can follow in His footsteps on the path to righteousness and salvation.

My next post continues this discussion by raising the suggestion that the CEO of an organization should be its Chief Ethics Officer and Chief Encouragement Officer in addition to being its Chief Executive Officer.

November 14, 2015 By B. Baylis Leave a Comment

Who Are My Neighbors and How Can I Love Them?

In my last post I noted that my next post would answer the question, “Who are my neighbors?” As I began to fill in the outline that I had developed for my post, I discovered that I needed to answer a second question: “How can I love them?”

Loving someone with whom we are very close, like friends and family, can be hard. However, at least 10 times in Scriptures, we are told to love our neighbor. The obvious questions are: “Who is my neighbor?” and “What does it mean to love my neighbor?”

Jesus answers both of these questions in the Luke 10 record of the encounter between Jesus and an expert in the Jewish law,

²³And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: ²⁴For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. ²⁵And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? ²⁶He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? ²⁷And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. ²⁸And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. ²⁹But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? ³⁰And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³²And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. ³³But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, ³⁴And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. ³⁶Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? ³⁷And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. (KJV)

Jesus, knowing that the lawyer was asking Him a “gotcha question,” turned the question back around to the lawyer. Jesus replies, “You’re an expert in the law. How do you read it?” This exchange reminds me of one of the modern talk shows where the host grills a guest with tough questions asked to catch the guest in a contradiction or lie.

The lawyer is trying to paint Jesus into a corner from which he can’t escape without stepping on the fresh paint.

However, Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer. The lawyer is now so unsure of how to proceed that he kicks over the can of paint, trapping himself.

Is the Old Testament more neighbor friendly than the New Testament? In the Old Testament, there are more than 120 references to neighbor or neighborhood; while in the New Testament are only slightly more than 20 such references. The lawyer’s response refers back to Leviticus 19:18,

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord. (KJV)

For the 1400 plus years between the time of Leviticus and the time of Jesus, Jewish lawyers and rabbis were continually debating the question asked by the lawyer: “Who is my neighbour?” Most of the strict constructionists said that because the first half of Lev. 19:18 only referred to the children of Israel (“the children of thy people”), the second half should also only refer to the children of Israel. These strict constructionists taught that Israelites had no responsibility to love Gentiles. Many taught that the Israelites had a responsibility to avoid Gentiles completely. In fact, this allowed the children of Israel to despise anyone who wasn’t a “full” child of Isreal. This was carried to the extent of excluding any Israelite who married outside “the faith”, and any “half-breed children” that descended from such a non-sanctioned union.

In His response to the lawyer’s answer, Jesus completely reverses the course of the strict constructionist’s view that neighbor only referred to other Israelites. HIs answer swam in the face of almost all of mainstream Jewish thought of more than a millennium.

Actually how did Jesus answer the lawyer? He tells a story about “a certain,” unidentified man being attacked and severely injured by thieves. In this story, three individuals, two Jewish religious leaders and an unidentified Samaritan, encounter this unfortunate attack victim . The priest and the Levite do nothing to help or even acknowledge the “half dead” individual. Then a member of a hated group of half-breeds, the Samaritans, comes along. This good man not only stops to see if he could help the unfortunate victim, he goes out of his way to get the victim extra help. Jesus then puts the lawyer on the spot with the question of the moment, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?” The lawyer is caught in his own trap. It is obvious that the two Jewish officials who did nothing could not have been neighborly. However, the lawyer could not bring himself to even say that a Samaritan could be a good neighbor. The lawyer responded, “He that shewed mercy on him.” Then I can see Jesus looking straight at the lawyer and with emphasis saying to him, “Go, and do thou likewise.”

So to answer the foundational questions: Firstly, who is my neighbor? It is any one in need with whom I come in contact.

Secondly, how do I love them? I provide the help that they need. It might be a hand up to help them get on their feet. It might be a shoulder to lean on to help them get around. It might be a roof over their head to give them shelter. It might be a meal to help nourish them. It might be medical assistance to help heal them. It is whatever they need that you can provide.

The point of most parables is to force the audience to place themselves into the story and figure out how to respond. So here’s the question to you: Who is your neighbor? and How should you love them? From this Good Samaritan story, we now have hundreds of Good Samaritan hospitals and shelters run by service agencies, offering love and aid to the needy. We also have hundreds of state and local laws, known as Good Samaritan laws, offering legal protection to individuals who in good faith come to the assistance of another individual in dire need. Paraphrasing the question from an old television game show, “Who do you love?”

My post next week asks the questions: Is there a difference between ethics and ethical behavior? Can we mandate ethics, or is our best expectation compliance at the behavioral level?

November 2, 2015 By B. Baylis 2 Comments

My Plan for Digging Myself Out of a Deep Hole

This post has been in the works for a long time. My blog posting pen has been essentially silent for a year. I apologize for the great delay. The delay was essentially due to ongoing medical problems, which were beyond my ability to remediate. Even my doctors didn’t really know what was going on. They refer to me as “Their special case!” Once during an extended EEG, I had a series of sensory dysfunction events. I asked my neurologist if they saw something in the EEG results. He replied, “Sort of! There was a lot of spurious activity going on in your head.” I asked him what he meant by that. He replied, “There was a great deal of brain wave activity recorded. However, it was occurring in parts of the brain where we weren’t expecting to see that kind of activity.”

During my long year’s absence from the blogging scene, I have generated a list of more than 300 blog posts which I want to write. I have committed to myself to knock off at least three of these posts per month for as long as I am able to write. If I add no more potential posts to my To Write List (UNLIKELY!)), it would only take me eight years to dig myself out of the hole that I am in. If I could dig myself out, I would be one happy little groundhog. With God’s help that is what I will be endeavoring to do.

Why only three per month? It could be more. I chose to allow myself the option of succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent, and writing no more than one emergency post per month. These would be topics that come up at the last minute and have a sense of urgency in terms of the timeliness of their publication. I would write these posts to put out small fires.This post is an example of such an urgent topic.

Almost all of my fires of the past six plus years have been health related. Even in the face of seemingly unrelenting illnesses, I know that God still cares for me and has a job for me to do. I know this because I serve the same God as King David and the Disciple Peter, These men of God urged everyone to rely completely and only on God.

²And he [David] said, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; ³The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. ⁴I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. (2 Samuel 22:2 – 4, KJV)

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (I Peter 5:7, KJV)

Jesus speaking to all His disciples shortly before His crucifixion, summarized the source of the power and joy that He was offering to them.

⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. ⁶If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. ⁸Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. ⁹As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. ¹⁰If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. ¹¹These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15: 4-11, KJV)

Note the stark contrast in verse 5, “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” Please pray with me that both you and I can abide in Christ. If we do, then He will abide in us, and we will be able to do much for Him. If we don’t abide in Christ, we risk being pruned and casted aside. What will it be? Abide or Aside?

In my November 2014 post ” Which would you find more acceptable in your back yard: A toxic waste dump or a murder of crows? ” I indicated that a post entitled Who is my Neighbor? was to be the next post in the series of posts on neighbors and the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) debate. I am announcing that I am finally getting around to writing that post which will be published next week. Please pray with me that God will give me the power and insight to answer the question: “Who is my neighbor?”

October 26, 2015 By B. Baylis Leave a Comment

Visual Story Board for Manuscript Title, Part V – Student Version

Image from GraphicStock. Used with permission

This post is the last in a series on the development of the title of the manuscript, An Explorer’s Guide to Biblical Life Planning: Student Version, on which I am currently working. By working, I mean interacting with my computer. This process is not as straight forward as it was prior to 2009. I am still generating ideas in my head. After my most serious bout with seizures in December, 2009, the ideas have almost always been in the form of visual images. Since I am not an artist, the coins in the realm of communications are words, I must translate the pictures I see into words.

This translation is a multi-step process. I first do a very rough draft in my head. I then mull over that draft several times before sitting down at my keyboard and inputting a more refined rough draft into the memory banks of my computer. I print out a copy of my work so that I can review it away from that machine that beckons me to investigate all the wonderful new reports on education, sports, world events, food and cars that it has to offer.

I usually leave my office, taking the hard copy of my document to review later. I have found if I try to edit the material immediately, I do not find problems or alternative ways of expressing my ideas. I am too invested in what I have just committed to my computer. I must wait minutes, hours or even days before I can truly edit my own work.

Why do I need the printed paper copy of a document to edit? There are several reasons. The first reason is that I am not a digital native. I will admit that, although I consider myself fairly fluent in digitalese, I am still a digital immigrant. In addition, the aging process has taken away some of my reaction time. Even spoken or hand written communications take much longer now than just 7 years ago.

Aging and other health concerns have also caused changes in how I do things. My middle range vision, i.e., computer screens, is deteriorating. If I enlarge the screen type font large enough to easily read it, some documents will not fit on the screen. In addition, the lines of type do not always run straight across the page for me. I get mixed up as to which line I am reading. With my changing vision, I have had to go to two pairs of glasses. One pair for distance vision and up-close “book” reading, and one pair for middle range (computer screen) and reading distance. I tried trifocals, but I couldn’t use them. They gave me severe headaches. Exchanging glasses has quickly become a pain, especially when I forget where I put the other pair of glasses.

This post concentrates on the phrase Student Version. With this phrase I am attempting to identify the target audience of the book. It is intended for mid-to late-adolescents. This phrase actually comes directly in verbal form from my pre-Traumatic Brain Incident days. As far back as 1990, colleges were looking for ways of addressing those traditional “college-age” individuals whom they were trying to attract to come to their institutions. Colleges had to walk something of a tightrope in addressing these individuals. Officially, in the eyes of the law, most of these individuals were not adults. They were still children in the eyes of many of their parents. Many parents were financially responsible for these individuals. Parents also wanted to protect “their children” from the harsh realities of the real world for as long as they could. The “children” were getting ready to leave the nest. They wanted to be on their own as much as possible. So as not to offend the parents or the young people, colleges started using the term “student.” This gave the young folks a sense of freedom, while still not completely off-putting the parents. In the ’90s at college recruitment or orientation days, we talked to parents about “their students.” When we addressed the prospective students, we used the term “students” to give them a sense of maturation. The term may not have completely satisfied everyone in either group. However, it didn’t disgust them either.

As these prospective students engaged in the college selection and preparation processes, there was one question that kept surfacing:

That’s the primary reason for writing this book. I wanted to help prospective students and their parents answer the questions that arise naturally in the processes of selecting, applying to and preparing for college or careers. This book is addressed to the students. I am also working on a second volume, addressed to the parents. I am intending to call it An Explorer’s Guide to Biblical Life Planning: PG Version. The abbreviation PG stands for Parental Guidance. This is not the parental guidance that the movies rating system suggests. The book is intended to provide guidance to parents as their students navigate their paths to college or a career. The PG Verision will contain all the material in the Student Version, but it will contain additional information. The added bonus material is meant to help guide the parents as they work with their students. I will encourage families to work through the common parts of the books together.