Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

Entrepreneurs and small business owners have to learn to live with ambiguity, not knowing exactly how things will turn out. Part of the training in becoming an entrepreneurial thinker has to include a change in thinking about outcomes in life. In school, we learn that a given math problem has one answer. We learn that a chemistry experiment will nearly always yield the same results. (Is it really an experiment if it’s printed in a text book and we know the outcome in advance?) Finally, we learn that we should focus on that one career we want, get the education or training we need and we will be career ready. The problem is that the careers keep changing; always some becoming obsolete and others emerging. The new ones are emerging faster than we can come up with new educational and training programs.

Those that enter the real world thinking life is going to be predictable are in for some big and may times rude surprises. Hence we need to learn to live with ambiguity in a way that we can turn those big and sometimes rude surprises into our next greatest opportunities. This is what the old adage “Make lemonade from lemons is all about.” Learning to live with ambiguity doesn’t mean we should give up on planning or dreaming and live a life purely by chance. Living with ambiguity means we should broaden our vision of what we want to accomplish in our lives, our businesses and our organizations. The vision should have to do primarily with helping the lives of others and secondarily with making money while doing it, not the other way around.

Vision planning differs from strategic planning in that vision doesn’t include minute details of what we’re going to do to make things happen, but rather the broad outcome over time that is our vision. This is why so many business plans and organizational strategic plans end up on the shelf gathering dust. They contain detailed tactics to accomplish the outcome, but the world changes so much and so quickly that the detailed planning becomes obsolete just as the plan comes out of the printer or is otherwise distributed to the stakeholders.

We are learning to live with ambiguity at Fab Lab ICC. We try to envision how we can add value for our members and students without worrying in the beginning exactly how we are going to carry out those visions, figuring it out as we move forward. The other day, in finalizing the building plans for our expansion, the architect said “The electrical engineer wants to know what equipment you’re going to put in this other half of the shop space.” I said “We don’t know. It depends on what opportunities for new equipment come up over the next couple of years.” So, we’ve designed an electrical system to be versatile and adaptable to whatever kinds of equipment we’ll be able to buy, or accept as a donation, in the future.

I don’t think anyone ever becomes totally comfortable with living with ambiguity, but it’s like a muscle. The more you exercise your brain to accept ambiguity, the more capacity you build for it. More capacity for ambiguity means you’ll go through with a much more calm and peaceful attitude not worrying so much about the small details that don’t go as planned while you remain versatile in driving toward the bigger vision.

 

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

In our culture of the last 100 years or so, we’ve been encouraged to work hard, many times for a company, for a long career, and then retire. We’ve even coined the phrase “Golden Years” to describe the time you are no longer needed on an every-day basis at your place of work. There used to be this thing called a pension that would provide money to live on while no longer working. For the most part, pensions are gone so having the means to continue living becomes an issue. Many of those that have no purpose in life after retirement end up losing their reason for living. For many, the Golden Years aren’t so golden.

A news story the other day reported a study showing that retiring early may lead to premature death. There have been similar studies over the years. While it’s true that some early retirees may have done so due to preexisting health conditions there may be something else going on here. People are not made to sit around and do nothing. People are made to have a purpose in life and the purpose needs to be to help others. If retirement makes that purpose go away, things can go downhill fast.

After working in several professions, my father-in-law ended up settling in a career with the Boeing Company. A child of the Great Depression, his purpose in helping others was to provide for his family. The Boeing job paid well with good benefits. He moved all over the country with the Minute Man missile program meeting and working with many interesting people along the way. As he progressed through his career he noticed that many people died soon after retirement. It happened often enough that he set up a spread sheet (this was before Excel when spread sheet meant an actual paper tool) so he could figure out when he had enough money to retire early. He and his wife (mother-in-law) scrimped and saved until the day he could retire at 55. His purpose in life didn’t end, however. By then, his family was just the two of them and a series of dogs over the years but he still had to provide for his family. He set about to do and learn things in retirement for which he didn’t have the time while working. He built and flew an experimental aircraft (the Vari-Eze), bought a sail boat and became a self-taught sailor. He also became quite the vintner and his wines, all gone now, are still among my favorites.

When we see young people in the Lab, we encourage them that the key to a happy and fulfilling life is to help others by solving their problems and let the money take care of itself rather than just working for the paycheck. That way, whether working for someone else or starting a business there will be the satisfaction of solving problems and helping others.

The “Golden Years” should be a transition from one method of helping others solve problems, whether in a job-work environment or an entrepreneurial venture, to some other form of helping others. Those maintaining a purpose for their lives in the transition to retirement have a much better chance of their “Golden Years” really being golden.

 

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

When I was growing up, let’s just say it was several years ago, battery operated toys were just coming into existence. In those days, batteries (technically, energy cells) were expensive enough that most electric toys were sold without them. Hence, the phrase we still sometimes hear today “Batteries not included.” It was kind of a sign that you were up-to-date with technology if you got something for Christmas that required batteries. Parents wanted to give their kids the latest so why give those boring, non-electric gifts like Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs or erector sets when the kids wanted the electric toys that had lights, bells and the ability to move around on their own through simple electric motors?

One of my favorites from my era was a “robot” similar to those appearing in movies and shows like “Lost in Space.” Also, at that time, the “Jetson’s” animated cartoon show sported “Rosie” the robot maid. Although hokey by today’s standards, we didn’t know of anything else so the robot that would merely light up and move around the floor was as exciting to us as the more sophisticated cool robots of today. That early robot didn’t teach me much, except how to insert the batteries in the right direction but it was a cool toy. Fortunately for me, I kept on playing with the Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs and erector set.

The trend to electric and now electronic toys has continued over the last 50 years–admittedly, with some really cool technology always emerging. This keeps parents wanting to make sure their kids have the latest electronic gadgets. Unfortunately, this trend has contributed to two or three generations of folks who, by and large, don’t know how to make things with their hands. Actually, many don’t try to make anything with their hands or fix anything around the house as they lack the imagination inspired by playing with hands-on toys that required tinkering and making.

We see this all the time at Fab Lab ICC with people of all ages that are not very adept at using their hands. In the first year we were open, 2014, one of our ICC students was a wizard at creating complex 3d drawings in using a computer program, but he couldn’t make anything with his hands. He didn’t know a Philips from a flat-head screwdriver. He moved on before we could give him much experience at using hand tools and making things and will be at a disadvantage in his professional and personal life.

Over the last couple of years, when we bring kids to Fab Lab ICC for maker boot camps and other activities, we make sure there’s plenty of working with hand tools mixed in with the digital work of creating files that run the cool fabrication machines. Here’s the thing. The kids love making things with their hands as much as making digital files on the computer.

The most successful people in the future at work, at home and in business—and the future is now–are those who will make things using drills, screwdrivers and hammers combined with the latest digital technology. Even those in a non-maker profession will be better at solving work-related problems because of their ability to create and make.

I’m not really advocating a totally battery-free Christmas, however, the toys we give, and the activities we provide for our kids (of all ages) need to be a combination of the cool technology along with some hand-work with manual hand tools. The learning and increase in self-confidence that happens with this combination is phenomenal and very satisfying for the gift giver to observe.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

For years, companies, organizations and schools have initiated “Employee or Student of the Month” programs. The idea is to choose a staff member or student and celebrate their accomplishment. There is usually a celebration of some kind, perhaps picture in the local paper, poster on the wall at the workplace or school and postings on social media.

The thought behind these programs is good; celebrate accomplishments and inspire others to accomplish great things. The problem is that people learn, work and accomplish in many different ways and to make comparisons among people and choose one each month as exemplary many times becomes a popularity or political contest. A committee sits around a table and someone says “How about John Doe for employee of the month, he did a great thing last month?” John Doe is a popular employee so everyone agrees. Meantime, there may be many other employees that have accomplished great things in a more quiet way. They are not as visible and may not be as popular so their accomplishments never stand out to anyone on the committee. Moreover, the quiet accomplished workers are passed over month after month, leading to the impression that the program is a “popularity or political” contest. Once that happens, the program does little to inspire accomplishment in the future.

A better way would be to combine accomplishment with hard work and learning as the criteria with the supervisors or individual teachers each month suggesting those that meet these criteria. Once this pool is established, a random process would actually choose the person to be deemed the “Employee or Student of the Month.” All those in the month’s pool can be mentioned for their hard work as the chosen one is celebrated the “One of the Month.”  In Dr. Carol Dweck’s book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” she talks about rewarding the work instead of individual accomplishments as a more effective method of promoting learning and on-going accomplishment. Both of these qualities are of much higher value not only for the individual but also for the organization or school.

Another effective way to foster hard work, learning and accomplishment is by celebrating character. Promoting good character traits will eventually inspire employees and students to have more character. More character leads to increased learning and accomplishment. One way character is celebrated in the Strata Leadership “Character Core” initiative is to ask supervisors or teachers, on a cyclical basis to, for each employee or student, choose a specific event or occurrence of the individual that demonstrates one of a number of character traits. One local company has a character celebration lunch each month and each employee having an employment anniversary date that month is so celebrated for a specific character by example. A company or school emphasizing character in this way inspires more character and eventually a culture of character for the whole organization develops.

Picking out and celebrating one person’s accomplishments based only on the accomplishment does little to inspire others to work hard. Celebrating the hard work and character of everyone will gradually bring up the performance and accomplishments of the whole organization.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be