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In the business world, there is an old saying that there are three options for whatever you’re buying: price, quality, or speed – and you can choose only two.

A good example of this has been any retail item.  You can buy a certain item at a retail store, and you have chosen speed and quality.  You can buy the same item from a mail order or internet retailer and have it shipped to you, and you have chosen quality and price.  The store item is available immediately but for a higher price than the mailed item.  The mailed item will take a couple of days for shipping but will cost less.

The same concept applies to any business program, in particular regarding employees working on a project.  If a project needs to be done quickly, you’ll have to pay more by either paying employees overtime or hiring more people.  If it needs to be done quickly but you don’t pay more, then people will cut corners and do only certain items, sacrificing quality.  And if the project needs to have high quality and low price, then it will take a long time.

There are some articles that indicate that by improving quality, or by improving speed, you can reduce costs.  That is true, but it is true for a long-range purpose not individual projects.  Let’s say you bid on a project and you say that it will cost X and take two weeks to complete.  If the customer says that two weeks isn’t fast enough and he wants one week, you’re not going to be able to improve your processes enough to meet that demand.  What those other articles are talking about is long-term process improvement such that your initial quotes are improving.  But if you quote something accurately, changing one part of the “quality-speed-cost triangle” will affect one or both of the other parts.

If you are a manager, please pay attention to that concept.  Don’t demand immediate results from too few employees and then be surprised if problems appear later because of poor quality.

“each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”
– 1 Corinthians 3:13

Due to excessive spam on this post, comments have been closed for this post only.

Apologies to Lenore Skenazy for the title. The best way for kids to have good self-esteem is to earn it.  How do they earn it if their parents don’t let them do things on their own?  Give kids the independence to try things.  If they grow up expecting their parents to always help them out and protect them from everything, then they will end up being adults who will expect the government to bail them out of any financial problems they get themselves into.  We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;”
– Romans 5:3-4

I mentioned to a co-worker that I was leaving work to go pick up my child from school.  I also mentioned that they card you now, when you pick up a child from school.  You have to show photo ID and the name on the ID must match a name that has already been provided to the school as an approved picker-upper.

He said that was much improved from his days in school and it’s a lot safer, not having just anyone be able to come in and take a child.  I reminded him of the statistics though, that most abductions are by someone who is known to the child, not by strangers.

His response was that to improve child safety, schools should release children only to people they don’t know.  Statistically, that would be safer.

I had no response, other than to tacitly agree.  That’s the problem with statistics.

“A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
– John 10:5

We had nothing scheduled for this evening, so we decided to do some things in the yard. First was to plant some mums that we had bought recently. We didn’t really plant them – we left the mums in their pots but set the pots down in the dirt a little. That was somewhat for better curb appeal but more to keep the wind from knocking over the pots.

Next was to water the vegetable garden and the potted flowers. That’s an easy job – the kids are eager to volunteer. “Who wants the hose?” I ask, and they come running. The hard part is making sure they take turns and don’t drown some plants while ignoring others.

Then, since the hose was out and running, the kids asked if we could get out the sprinkler. I thought that would be a fine way to keep them outside, so I got the sprinkler. It’s the type that spins, but they don’t like it to spin. Once it was setup, they started pulling plastic toys out of the shed. They also pulled out the lawn chair. I think it was meant to hold their towels, but I commandeered it so I could sit and read the issue of the Inspire that came today.

It was quite peaceful – the kids had found the T-ball set and placed it right next to the sprinkler and were playing waterball.  There were no bugs, particularly mosquitoes.  I don’t know whether that was because of the slight breeze or because I had sprayed for them last week.  I was thinking “This is what summer is supposed to be.”

Then I noticed some dark pick-up truck stop on the side of the road, just after our driveway.  A couple of people came around the side of the truck and started moving things in the bed.  I figured they just had to adjust their freight.  Then some more people appeared.  I saw the freight, and it was a cooler.  The local high school cross-country team was on a training run, and they decided to place their water break right in front of our house.

That’s when I realized that summer was officially closing.  Cross-country camp, football starting across the nation, planting mums – they all add to equal the start of fall.  All good things, but summer needs to last a little longer.

“You have established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.”
– Psalm 74:17

Buy The Five Love Languages and also buy Love and Respect.

Those are two books that will help you understand your spouse.  People are different from each other, with different personalities, and the Five Love Languages addresses that.  Men and women are also different from each other in general, and Love and Respect addresses that.

I knew these as just books, but it turns out that there are study guides and DVDs and conferences. There are plenty of resources out there to help people with their marriages. Be sure to start your marriage on the right foot; read these books before your wedding ceremony.

“Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”
– Ephesians 5:33

“This is the song that my tree friend sang to me.”

I was driving home this evening and noticed that there was a tape in the tape deck of my car stereo. My Buick has both CD and tape (and AM/FM), and I knew which CD was in the CD part of the radio. But I did not know what tape was in there. I could not remember putting a tape in there. I ejected it and tried to read the song titles, but the print was small and I couldn’t read the titles very well. Nothing was familiar, and I figured the opposing traffic would appreciate it if I paid attention to the road and not the tape.

I caught the artist’s name and put the tape back in. It was an Evie tape. Now I had to listen to it. I started playing it and it was in the middle of a song. My son dislikes when songs start anywhere other than their beginning, so we had to rewind it. Before tonight, if you had asked me to name an Evie song, I would have been able to name only “Come on Ring Those Bells”. I believe that is true for most people who know who Evie is. For those who care, her last name was Tornquist during her early recording years, then she married and is now a Karlsson.

Now, after listening to the first few songs on that tape, I know other Evie songs. I knew the songs before, but I did not know they were Evie. For example, “Step Into The Sunshine” and the Tree Song referenced at the beginning of this post. They bring back good memories. How can anyone not like Evie? In case you’re wondering, my wife had the tape and put it in there on one of the rare times that she drove my car.

“Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy”
– Psalm 96:12

I know a couple different people who are officers in the military. My relationships with them are unrelated to the military – they are just regular people I know who happen to have jobs working for the government. Last weekend, I was with one of them and needed help moving something. When you ask a military officer for help, be careful of the terms you use. Officers do not like being enlisted for anything. Use any word other than “enlist”.

“For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
– Luke 7:8