Chris Gratigny

Up High

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:21:39 -0800

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:35:42 -0800

Watching them live... It's hard to sit still.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

The difference a leader makes : Jim Harbaugh

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:55:00 -0800

John Harbaugh must be a really good leader. Even a great leader. If he ever writes a book on the way he leads, or if someone writes a book about it - I'm buying that book. Seeing what he has done with Stanford then the 49ers shows how much can be done by believing in your team.

If you aren't familiar with him, he's a little of what he has done. Stanford's records were:

2002: 2 - 9
2003: 4 - 7
2004: 4 - 7
2005: 5 - 6
2006: 1 - 11

Then Harbaugh was hired, and the records were:

2007: 4 - 8
2008: 5 - 7
2009: 8 - 5
2010: 12 - 1

It took a few years, but going from 1-11 in 2006 to 12-1 in 2010 is a significant change.

After the change he showed at Stanford, he was hired to coach the 49ers. The 49ers records were:

2007: 5 - 11
2008: 7 - 9
2009: 8 - 8
2010: 6 - 10

Now, this season with the 49ers he has turned the team around and they currently are 8-1 with the one loss being in overtime.

Sometimes what you need is someone who believes in you. There was a comment I saw in an article on espn.com today that shows how the belief from the coaches has changed the 49ers quarterback.

"Alex has been around here 6-7 years and has been dealing with a lot of B.S. around here, people calling him a bust, people not believing in him," 49ers safety Donte Whitner said. "But all he needed was a good coaching staff with the right tools and the right techniques, the right reads, to get in and teach him what to do. And he is leading this team, leading our offense. All throughout that game, they challenged him to beat them." - Source article

What I see between the lines it the new coaching staff believes in Alex. By believing in him, Alex is now leading the team in a way he couldn't have done without a coach like Jim Harbaugh.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:00:00 -0800

The most impactful part of this book that I encountered is the part that talks about the "miracle" method in therapy as opposed to the "archealogical" approach where one seeks to understand how someone got there. In the miracle approach you may be asked "if a miracle happens overnight and all of your problems are fixed, what would tomorrow look like?" In this approach there would be follow up questions asking more about what tomorrow might look like, how you would act, etc. I've realized that the beauty of this is when you are able to describe what your future should look like you're better able to change appropriately.

Another impactful point in the book is to motivate by identity, not consequences. Motivating by consequences tends to go against one's identity and that doesn't work long term!

I recommend you Buy on Amazon!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

A Family Update

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:20:00 -0700

Yup, Mirabelle is going to be a big sister. Melissa is pregnant and is due around the beginning of June!

Now… let the discussion about Charlemagne begin!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Centering Moments ... When Life "Slips" Away

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:29:24 -0700

There are times in life when the world seems like a complicated place to live; there are other times where life seems to go into slow motion. I'm currently in the latter. At this very moment, life seems quite simple. This is what I would refer to as a moment in which I stop, make sure I am pointing my life in the right direction, plan it out, then continue on with life. There are a few things that help me to know I'm going the right direction. When I am completely me, I am passionate, excited, growing, doing new things. I have endless energy to reach that goal that I'm working toward, whatever it may be. I'm excited about the future, today, about life. I'm learning. Growing. Eating up new things, doing new things. Every day is a brand new exciting day. Each day is an adventure that I'm starting on. It's an opportunity to experience something I've never experienced before. To learn something new, do something new. To learn a lesson that will potentially impact me for the rest of my life. Thinking through this, I've come to the conclusion that life will slip away from me and I'll lose touch with the big stuff without having gauges in my life. Or a compass. I like gauges better. Let's imagine life is a dashboard of gauges, I'd have a few. Excitement - am I excited about life today? Passion - am I burning inside about something? New - am I starting something new? Finishing - have I been finishing well recently? Learning - when did I learn something last? Resting - have I gotten enough rest? Maybe those are enough? Maybe too complicated? If gauges help keep a car on line, maybe gauges will assist me in keeping a steady direction in life.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Before You Start

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:50:00 -0700

I ran across a form that allows founders of startups to request testers found http://alphalist.co/pitch-the-list. These three questions are questions that everyone who is starting a business must be able to solidly answer.

What is the problem you are solving?
Who has the problem?
What is the solution to this problem?

I believe that every business and every person is driven to fix one thing in their life. Life takes on a new meaning when you are able to identify the problem you want to solve, who has it, and create a solid plan for how you are solving that problem.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Disagree Please

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:16:17 -0700

If people never disagree with you, it's not cause you're really smart. You aren't a genius, sorry. If you are always the smartest person in the room, you're delusional. People are smarter than you. There's a really good chance you're smarter than me! I've found that if at some point during every day I don't hear an idea that is far superior to my idea on how to do something, it's time for a reality check. Something must be going on there. If I have great ideas and other people always agree with me, or don't have their own ideas, I'm not approachable enough. I believe that the best leaders welcome feedback and input from everyone, and are relentlessly improving themselves. There's not much chance to improve and grow if you don't have people around you who disagree with you often. What I've tried to do is find really smart people around me who see the world differently than I do. And when I have a great idea, I tell them about my idea. I'm constantly pleasantly surprised to find out that my idea is lacking in ways I would have never imagined. I so value those around me who poke holes in my ideas, who disagree with me when appropriate. When someone feels welcome to grimace when I share an idea, that's when I've found someone I want to collaborate with.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

It's Easy

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:42:33 -0700

I'm sitting in Starbucks in Livermore, CA right now on my computer. I intended to work, and while attempting that the conversation by the two employees here is just so so interesting. The younger 24 yr old girl is going on and on about a relationship. Apparently she has a child, and is interested in a guy who feels like he should get to know the kid if he commits to her. And her take on it is very interesting. Interesting in the odd kind of way. I so want to walk up to the girl and give her advice, but that's inappropriate. All I want to say is "It's easier then that." It really is! When you find the right person for you, it's easy. It feels like they fit into your life, and life becomes easier, not harder. For anyone who is single and wants to know how to know if it's the right one, there's one thing I believe you can always ask yourself. Has life seemed easier or harder since I spent more time with this person. That's it. If life is easier, you may have found someone. If not, run. Life will only get harder. Here's a few practical ways that life may be easy:

Communication should be easy. If they are easy to talk to, like the same types of communication that you do, awesome. That's good.
You should feel like the possibilities in life expand, not decrease. Things that were previously dormant should come alive.
You may find yourself wanting to change to be a better person, and they will try to convince you that you are perfect just like you are.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Names

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 06:12:10 -0700

Each person has a name. One name. That name is spelled a specific way. It is pronounced a specific way. Please take care to learn how to spell people's names around you. Learn how to say them. It's not offensive to ask someone how to pronounce their name. Has it ever bothered when someone has cared enough in order to ask you how to say your name? Or has asked you how to spell your name? It's completely alright to ask people information about themselves. I think they will actually appreciate it. How often do people ask you, and genuinely care about how you spell and say your name?

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Necessities to Learn

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:31:16 -0700

To really "get" something, I believe you need to have:

Purpose in what you are learning so you know why that competence is important to learn.
A safe environment where, if you do it wrong, you are able to try again.
Feedback given so that you know when you did well, poorly, and what you can improve.

When learning, punishment is one of the biggest deterrents. If you are learning from someone who gets frustrated with you doing something wrong, while you are learning, will that motivate you to learn more? Avoid rewards as carrot when learning. (Read Drive). A carrot today will lead to lack of motivation tomorrow if that carrot isn't there. Rewards can take the fun out of what you are doing, because you end up doing what you are doing for a reward. The satisfaction of doing a good job, and positive feedback will be fuel that will take you farther. Hearing the words of your teacher/mentor who told you how quickly you learned something will go farther than a tangible reward. I believe that it is easiest to learn something when you know the purpose behind that. Purpose can be inspiring and cause you to have more internal motivation than external motivation. When you are able to see how what you do for the first time today will affect your career, learning will come more naturally. Toastmasters was a great experience for me because it is a safe environment to speak. You can get in front of a group of people and give a speech knowing that nothing negative will happen to you if you screw it up. You will get encouragement on what you can do better. Being laughed at, asked to leave, or being kicked out is never an option. You are speaking to a group of people who are all routing for you! This is the type of environment where learning happens the best. The safety allows you to do things you didn't think you could do. When you do something good, or bad, feedback can allow you to know exactly what you did, and how to improve or repeat that. Some tasks have built in feedback. If you are wiring a house, your feedback is achieved when the lights do or don't work. There are testers that will tell you before hand if things are wired correctly. If you turn something in to accounting, and they send it back - there's your feedback on whether you filled out the form properly. Othere things don't have the same feedback. They may not be as simple. Leading a meeting well is something that you need feedback from other people on. Did it go well? poorly? You can only guess. Feedback from team-mates who were also in the meeting is key to your success in leading the next meeting. Having a debrief after meetings, tasks, weeks etc. can allow for a good format to find out how you did, and how to do better. Since almost everything in life is a learning experience, having purpose, a safe environment and feedback are necessary in everything that we do in order to do it better next time. These things will give us long term accomplishment in what it is you've chosen to do.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:43:00 -0700

There are things that separate leaders from others, and this book very nicely showed what things can be priorities. The story about two companies, Telegraph and Greenwich Consulting. The CEO of Telegraph, Rich O'Connor, has four disciplines that he lives by, which were written on a post-it note on his desk are:

Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership Team
Create Organizational Clarity
Over-Communicate Organizational Clarity
Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems

What stood out to me is how simple the things that Rich focused on really are. The last three things that he focused on are all about having clarity in the organization, and to me it was about communicating clear priorities and mission to the organization. As a leader, communicating vision to the organization in a way that is able to inspire those working around you is key to success. With Rich's focus on clarity, he was able to take every decision his leadership team made and bring it back to the purpose of the organization, which made the decisions so much easier to make. The first thing that he focused on also meant that he focused on people. He was involved with every hire in the leadership team, and of training and orienting those people. When he did the orientation for new employees they were able to capture what the organization was about right then and it set the tone for them working there. Having the CEO do orientation communicates the culture clearly right away, with no questions about what the purpose is. Buy on Amazon.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Eating Break

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 18:36:00 -0700

We have to stop so frequently for Mirabelle to try to eat. Too bad right now she's refusing food. It's my job to find a place people won't be walking by.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Power outage

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:41:10 -0700

We had a really great worship set at Twin View this morning with the power out. it was as if we were able to really focus on worshipping with no power.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Birthday Generosity

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:45:12 -0800

On a friend's birthday,it's a perfect time to be generous! One of the most awkward things that you can experience on a birthday is going to any kind of meal, coffee, fun anything with a friend on a birthday where they pay for it. It's their day. If you go with them, plan to pay. Put it on the credit card if necessary. Please, please, don't let a friend take their own check on their birthday.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Mirabelle!

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:04:47 -0800

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Notes vs. Face to Face

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:12:17 -0700

I wrote a frustrated note today to our neighbor. It said something like "Please take responsibility for your dog. It was in our yard today. It tore the pond liner. When I try to take it back home it BITES me. Please send me your contact information. If you don't come get your dog within 1/2 hour next time it crosses the fence I'm calling animal control."

Then, I lassoed the dog by getting a strap around it's neck and proceeded to take it to the neighbor's. Once I got there... I realized that the neighbor was home. I took the note I had written and folded it up and went to knock on the door. When she answered, I didn't say "Please take responsibility for your dog." I said something more like, "Hey, your dog was in our yard..." and we proceeded to have a nice conversation about how the dog tries to bite, gets under the fence. Our neighbor is helpless and she's trying to find a new home for the dog.

I realized that as I took the note to the door I would be embarrassed to give the note to the neighbor face to face. It was meant to attach her and I wrote it out of frustration. Sure, there was an issue at hand; the issue wasn't grave enough to jeopardize a civil relationship.

Why is writing the note so much different than face to face? Why can't I write a civil note when frustrated when I can have a civil conversation while frustrated?

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Care Sooner

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:38:01 -0700

Countless times in life I've found myself apologizing for something. Fairly regularly I find myself apologizing for not doing something or another. You know that feeling that you have when you let someone else down? I know I sure hate that feeling. I've found so many times that we end up not caring until it's too late. Regret comes and you wish you would have done something earlier.

Slowing down when you CAN do something is such a good thing to do. Pay the bill early instead of waiting. Think now about what you should do that you'll wish you did when the time comes. It's as simple as living life without regrets... The practical way that you can do this is to think how if there's anything you can do to live more in the moment, care more now!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Rules, if you will.

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:00:24 -0700

Here are a few things that I try to live by that I haven't put into words until now. These aren't easy to follow.

Never, ever, ever

Do anything that in any way de-values another person.
Tell someone that they are stupid.
Tell someone that they have a bad idea.
Insinuate that another person is stupid.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Week Prep

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:44:58 -0700

I have this planned event on my calendar on Sunday nights. It's called "week prep" and I try to do it every week. I make sure I'm not behind on emails, see what the week's going to look like. The problem with this "week prep" is that I get latched onto something in order to get an early start to my week and stay up way too late. You know when you try to get ready for an event the next day and you stay up late getting ready for it? Every week it tends to happen. Why oh why.

It almost got me this week. Almost. I'm in bed writing this then hopefully sleep. The problem is that it's still weekend. I don't want to go to sleep because it means my weekend is effectively over.

Weekend, farewell. You were good. I'm refreshed, ready for a new week.

Permalink | Leave a comment »