Transmogrification in Chicago

Transmogrification noun: the act of changing or altering greatly, often with grotesque or humorous effect.

I grew up in Chicago, a while ago. I spent a little more than half my life so far there. That experience has given me a special perspective on transmogrification and it's time I shared it with you.

Not everyone knows this, but the Chicago Bears were among the founding members of the NFL and today they remain the only franchise in history to accumulate 700 wins. But my years in Chicago coincided with perhaps the lowest point in their storied history. Sure, they won the championship in 1963, but just my luck, that was the year before my parents allowed a TV into our house. After that, the Bears spent 13 long years without reaching the playoffs, and only twice had a winning record. Why? Well, I think it was a growing scourge I call QB transmogrification, visible to the naked eye only during playoff games.

The Bears finally made it to the playoffs again in 1977, and the first in a series of strange events took place. After leading the Bears to the playoffs, their quarterback, Bob Avellini, threw four interceptions against the Dallas Cowboys, setting a team record for interceptions in a playoff game--in a word, he was transmogrified. In 1979, the Bears were once again in the playoffs. This time, QB Mike Phipps was driving the team for the winning touchdown, only to throw his 2nd interception of the game in the end zone--transmogrified.

In 1982, the Bears drafted another quarterback, this one from Brigham Young University, Jim McMahon. McMahon had a knack for playing the game and was soon succeeding like few others had before him. He quickly established himself as the starter.

But the transmogrifications continued. In the playoffs following the 1984 season, with starter McMahon out for the season, backup QB Steve Fuller was sacked 9 times and threw an interception. The Bears were shut out, Fuller transmogrified. But why am I calling all of these events "transmogrifications?" What would you call it when a Bear suddenly and grotesquely turns into a goat?

I moved away to Atlanta the following Spring. What do you think happened next? Along came the 1985 Bears, led by Hall of Famers Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary and Walter Payton, with colorful QB Jim McMahon and track star-turned wide receiver, Willie Gault. They finished the season 15 and 1, and went on to win their first Super Bowl. My punishment.

It took 21 years, with numerous quarterbacks undergoing transmogrification along the way, but the Bears once again reached the Super Bowl in 2006 on the strength of their defense and a marvelous rookie kick returner by the name of Devin Hester. There the Bears' QB, Rex Grossman, coming off a breakout season in which he threw for more than 3,000 yards and 23 touchdowns, transmogrified just the same. He fumbled twice and threw two interceptions, one for a touchdown. The Bears lost.

Then, in 2009, the Bears made a blockbuster trade for a new quarterback, Jay Cutler. The following year, they hired a new offensive coordinator, Mike Martz, and signed three free agents, including Julius Peppers, committing $100MM to the task. The investments paid off. The Bears were crowned champs of the NFC North, and last Sunday, they played for the conference championship and the right to return to the Super Bowl. You probably already guessed this, but that quarterback, Cutler? He transmogrified--this time into a pussycat, leaving at the half with an injured knee. Their 3rd string guy, Caleb Hanie, came in and took over the goat--I mean quarterback--position, throwing an interception to a 400 lb. nose tackle he "didn't see" standing in front of his intended receiver. The 400 lb. guy ran it back for the winning touchdown.

Transmogrification is all over the entertainment sector these days, with the Twilight series and a new TV show "Being Human" about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf sharing an apartment.

But there's one more grotesque change that takes place now and again, you can guess what it is. It's me, I change from an ordinary human to a Bear (fan, that is) and I sing--

Bear down, Chicago Bears, make every play clear the
way for victory.

Bear down, Chicago Bears, put up a fight with a might so
fearlessly.

We'll never forget the way you thrilled
the nation, with your T-formation.

Bear down, Chicago Bears and let them
know why you're wearing the crown.

You're the pride and joy of
Illinois. Chicago Bears, bear down.

Socks On My Mind

Today I stepped out of my car to buy a paper and noticed something scary. I was wearing white socks and loafers. I stopped doing that in high school because it was so uncool, and now--- Who knows what's next. I called my sister with Merry Christmas on my mind and wound up sharing my horror about the white socks incident and she pointed out the only thing worse is wearing dark socks and shorts. I guess no matter how bad things are, things can always get worse. I say just shoot me if it ever gets that bad.

The question is, who will keep an eye on those things and punch my ticket when it needs to be done? No, not my dear spouse, I don't trust her with a responsibility like that--she is the sole beneficiary on my life insurance and pension, etc. I am almost afraid to go to sleep at night as it is.

I remember a novel with the plot line that someone orders a hit on himself, then wants to change his mind. Is that what would happen with me and the socks? No way! I will have taken leave of my senses if I wear dark socks and shorts, so revoking "the contract" would probably not even come to mind. Let me know if you will volunteer to cover this base and put me out of my misery if it comes to the point where I am wearing them. It's a job that needs doing.

Return Bear

He stands alone now, although I think he was already unforgettable. Again and again in 2006 he caught people off guard, until they began to fear him. Once that fear took root, they all just avoided him. Avoiding him was preferred to letting him even have the chance to beat you. Avoiding him cost people territory every time. The habit became so entrenched that nobody thought twice about the territory they were giving away. Until the mighty Colts decided they were not afraid. So, the opening kick in the 2006 Super Bowl landed right in his arms, and he taught them to be afraid again. As if they were surprised, they watched him sprint 92 yards for a touchdown. Last night, he "bearly" missed breaking Brian Mitchell's record of 13 kick returns for TD's, being stopped at the 6-yard line after returning a kickoff 79 yards. The announcers had barely finished recounting some of the highlights of his career as a kick returner, when he grabbed a punt and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown. If you get a chance, go to the Chicago Bears' web site and see the compilation of his fourteen TD's in just five seasons. As the Bears' announcers put it—he is ridiculously good. The Return Bear from Chicago.

A Christmas Carol

How many of us know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge? What do you think of when it comes to mind? I remember the old(est) movie, which dates back to 1938 and included June Lockhart in the cast. It turns out there have been seven movies, including Jim Carrey's Disney version from 2009. Whatever version comes to your mind, if you're like me, you are mostly recalling film adaptations and not the book. Oh, I know everyone remembers that it is based on Charles Dickens' novella of the same name first published in 1843. It appeared, to critical acclaim, just a few days before Christmas in 1843 (167 years ago today, in fact), and was immediately popular. You may not know this, but Dickens is credited with popularizing the term most of us have known all our lives— "Merry Christmas" (Wordplay: origins, meanings, and usage of the English language. University of Toronto Press, Robertson Cochrane 1996). Of course, he also created the terms "Scrooge" and "Bah, Humbug" that are in common usage today. But I mention all this because I have made it a practice in recent years to pick up the book itself and reread all or part of it. It is a remarkable piece of writing, and has far more depth than Albert Finney, Bill Murray or Jim Carrey provide on the screen. Pick it up and read it, if you have any time for reading this season. I think I downloaded it onto my Kindle for free as it is a public domain book.

If The Recession Is Over, Where’s That Great New Job I Was Going to Have?

Economists are unusual people, you know? There was big news last week when the Business Cycle Dating Committee met. Only economists would need to have a committee on dating and link it to the business cycle. What fun! The dismal science must be trying to upgrade itself! Now, seriously the Committee really exists to develop a consensus on the turning points of the business cycle, specifically, the beginning and end of the recessionary part of the business cycle. The real news is the National Bureau of Economic Research has declared the Great Recession ended in June 2009 (that's more than a year ago, folks). Why call it"the Great Recession?" Well, it was longer than any other since Word War II (18 months). Also, the drop in economic output (GDP) was larger than any other in that time period (4.1% drop). The point that declaring the end of the recession fails to make is that only declares when the economy hit bottom—not that things have returned to normal. Precious little solace can be found in noting that at least things aren't getting worse. We are slowly climbing our way out, and the risk of slipping backward persists. But the real question is where are the jobs? Estimates are that more than 7 million jobs were lost during this recession. Does that mean that just 7 million people are unemployed? No, there are way more than that. The number still actively seeking employment is more like 12 million (using a 9.6% unemployment rate and a total labor force of more than 132 million). Add into that number those who are discouraged and no longer actively seeking work and there are an estimated 16 million who are unemployed.

Need more bad news? Fact is this recession has had a greater effect on employment than most. Some recessions have been short enough that most unemployment was brief, and some got by with reduced hours. This time with 16 months of recession, we received 21 months of net job losses. But the government can save me can't it? What about the stimulus spending? Here's how Dave Barry puts it—"See, when the government spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when the money is left in the hands of taxpayers, God only knows w. Bake it into pies, probably. Anything to avoid creating jobs."

So, should you just give up? Noooooo, just as in every recession since World War II, millions of people are being hired each month. I am not making this up. In July of this year, more than 3 million people found jobs. At the lowest point in this recession, there were more than 2.7 MM job openings. Don't believe me? Go look it up. It can be found in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover series published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov/jlt). You might also be surprised to know that, on average, more than 1.4 MM people quit their jobs each month throughout 2009. Back in 2007, the average was over 2.1 MM per month, but the fact remains there are jobs available even now.

SO how do we decide what to do? Ben Stein (of Ben Stein's Money and Ferris Bueller's Day Off fame) says this: "the indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want." Richard Nelson Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute?, the pre-eminent book on finding a job, says the beginning is to answer the What, Where and How questions—what do you want to do, where do you want to do it and how will you persuade the decision maker to hire you. SO you really can't get there until you decide where you are going. Once you do, you need to know which methods for finding a job work and which do not. If you're like me, you believe that a resume is the first step, followed by the launch of a barrage of them to any employer that looks likely. Turns out that is one of the least successful methods of hunting for a job. Here are the five least effective means of finding a job today: Looking for employer's job postings on the internet, mailing out resumes to employers at random, answering ads in professional or trade journals, answering ads in local newspapers and going to private employment agencies or recruiting firms. How about the five most effective? Knocking on the door of any employer that you'd like to work for, whether they have an opening or not, Using the Yellow Pages to find employers in the field that interests you in the town or city where you want to work, then visiting the employers listed there to ask if they are hiring for the kinds of talks that you can do, asking everyone you know for job leads, joining a job club, and, doing the work of answering the three questions asked above in excruciating detail and planning your search on that basis. "But those five most effective sound so hard, " you say. Well, it's a free country; you can choose to do what you want. As P. J. O'Rourke puts it, "America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased. There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."

 

Light and Darkness

A friend of mine remarked recently that she was feeling much better. She had felt plunged into darkness for a time, and then it was like someone had turned the lights back on a couple of weeks ago and she felt much better about life. I asker her who turned the lights on and suggested it might have been her. We chatted some more about what accounts for differences in how one feels about their progress in life and whether there are gender differences in how we perceive the purpose of living etc. But the idea of living in the light vs. living in the darkness stuck with me. It reminded me of a metaphor someone once mentioned to me—the question was if the earth stopped turning, where would you want to live—on the side that was perpetually dark or the side in the light? It led me to asking myself whether I preferred morning light or late afternoon, whether gravity would cease or overwhelm us, etc., etc. It ruined the metaphor for the person speaking as it was intended to somehow make a point about caring for the environment. My point was the whole thing is impossible.

Anyway, where does that leave me on the subject of light and darkness? I guess in the same place. Light and darkness are yin and yang. One does not exist without the other. It is just as silly to deny the existence of light when we are experiencing a dark period, as it is to pretend when everything is light and happy that we won't ever have any darkness to face. Life if made up of both, as my friend later remarked-beauty is found in the interplay of light and darkness, the contrast, the shading, the combinations that seem endless. I will try to remember that the next time I'm in a dark mood.

Making a Virtue of Necessity

A friend of mine asked me yesterday. How, from a coach's perspective, is helping someone find a job for survival different from finding a job that serves one's purpose in life? My response was something like this—it likely makes a difference in what the client wants to be coached about. How to quickly network one's way into a job of some/any sort differs from making a career transition in lots of ways. If I were in a conversation with a client, I probably would have responded with a question. How is it different for the client?

To me, someone already employed, but itching for a change to a job that is—choose one—allows the client to do more of what she enjoys, is more satisfying, fits a higher purpose, allows the person to give back in some way, affords some generativity; has the opportunity to look at her life and search out those things that fit the particular need or desire that is at the root of the urge to make a change, i.e., where is this energy coming from? The authors of Don't Retire—Rewire depict in their "rewiring" process, a great step-by-step path to follow. That client can look at his life and see what drives him now, look at how he spends his time now. She can look back at her accomplishments and identify her strengths, and she can identify the possibilities and set about making it happen on her own timetable. The process can be full of endings and beginnings as he explores the possibilities. Finding one's passion isn't easy or even possible for some. There isn't time to find the perfect one thing, which takes us back to the first of the two types of job search my friend asked about—finding a job for survival.

In the survival mode, time is a major factor—the rent comes due every month, food is one of life's necessities, the bills have to be paid. Michael Gates Gill tells a great story in his book, How Starbucks Saved My Life, about the dignity of work, and the value of respect and service. He was one of those Madison Avenue 'Mad Men' who suddenly lost his job, and had his life unravel. Soon he found himself at the end of his rope. By chance, he was offered a job by a young African-American store manager at Starbucks. His book tells the story of his own transformation in the humbler life of a barista in a coffee house.

We live in a resort community and so have had, in the past; flocks of young people appear to take seasonal jobs in the tourism industry. They have usually been a mixed bag, some with lots of enthusiasm, but not a lot of skills yet. I am sure they grew from the experience and developed the skills because of that enthusiasm. They framed their work as an adventure and were having fun doing it. Others were bored, simply putting up with the people they served and they probably got little more than a paycheck from the experience. The way they framed their work was putting up with the customers so they could have the funds to have some real fun

By contrast, in today's economy, my wife observes the newcomers that have arrived for the relatively fewer, but still available, seasonal jobs, are without exception enthusiastic and eager to serve. It makes the experience of being a customer a good deal different, obviously much better. I suspect it is much the same for these jobholders, too. The value they place on having and keeping this job they are grateful to have shows up not only in how they serve their customers, but it seeps into everything about the job, including the satisfaction they get from it. The relative scarcity of these jobs reveals something that was hidden before. Customer service can be a satisfying occupation for anyone, depending upon how it is framed

Back to the person looking urgently for some type of work, overlooking the service jobs because we live in a judgmental society and no one wants to be looked down upon, as another underemployed friend puts it, is a mistake. There is dignity in work, value in service and respect. Another friend is working in a supermarket and says it's not fun. Knowing her, she will come around and begin to develop the attitude that will allow her, when she sees a friend come to her checkout line, tell her about the best new thing she's tried from the store or the great deal she saw in produce. When she translates that into how she deals with all her customers, she will turn the corner (at least that's my hope for her). So, if you need a job sooner than you can identify your purpose in life, find a store you like and apply for a service job, then make a virtue out of necessity—become an enthusiastic provider of excellent customer service. People will notice, and you'll have more fun.