Here’s a Switch: Cops Seek Out Good Guys, Not Just Bad Guys

Members of the Denver Police Department are interacting with their community much more these days, but they are not piling up arrests or writing more citations. Instead, they are rewarding people being "caught doing something right" by passing out $10-off pizza coupons.

            “Recognizing people for doing the right thing is a sure fire way to gain loyalty, respect and to motivate people to continue their positive behavior. This is true in any number of situations including a boss signaling out a worker who has gone the extra mile or, in this case, a community member who has obeyed the law.

            The Denver Police will hand out 500 pizza discounts courtesy of Alpine Bank and Papa John's Pizza. Individuals will receive the discount card when a police officer observes them doing such things as using a crosswalk properly and helping others.

            All of us respond in a positive manner when we are on the receiving end of appreciation. It’s human nature. The Denver Police is using this truism for community outreach, but employers can use it in the workplace and see the same kind of results.”

            The show of appreciation doesn’t have to be in the form of a monetary reward. Sometimes, just a "thank you for doing a great job on that proposal" or "I appreciate you staying late so we could meet our delivery deadline" is all it takes. Be sure to be specific about your appreciation. It makes it much more meaningful.

            For more practical workplace tips, go to http://www.noellenelson.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/HappyEmployeesEqualProfits or at Twitter.com/HappyProfits.

“The Lion King” and “Aladdin” Get the Best of a LaGuardia Situation

Travel delays are never fun, but from time to time they are bound to happen. You can’t expect the weather to cooperate every time you fly, and better they should repair those mechanical issues before you fasten your seat belt.

I’ve learned to take a deep breath, chill, remind myself it’s not the end of the world, and then look for a way to appreciate whatever extra time I’m now spending in the airport. Reading always works for me, so does getting in some phone-chat time with girlfriends, or cleaning out my inbox if all else fails.

But recently, the Broadway cast members of “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” took appreciating your unanticipated down-time in an airport to a whole new level. During their six-hour weather delay in New York’s LaGuardia Airport, they had a sing-off! It was truly an extraordinary event, captured on someone’s phone, and uploaded to YouTube [https://youtu.be/6ajHZWDP_Vk].

What a choice these cast members made! Rather than bemoan the hot, crowded conditions of the airport, rather than complain endlessly about what the delay meant to their plans, or how bored they were, or anything else, they turned to what they could value in that moment, they started singing. First one, then another, then the whole cast of “The Lion King” joined in to sing songs from their award-winning show. Whereupon the “Aladdin” cast responded with their songs--including an amazing free-style rap by James Inglehart, who plays the Genie in the show.

Not only did the cast members of these shows counter the potentially adverse effects of negativity on their well-being, they uplifted everyone within earshot in that airport! You can see the smiles on other passengers’ faces as their mood changed from “Oy ve” to “Hurrah”! Because everyone was in the same weather-delay boat; it took deliberate, conscious focus to switch from ain’t-it-awful to better thoughts and feelings. Something the cast members accomplished with ease.

Contrast this with the behavior I witnessed a few weeks prior at another airport. My flight was mechanical-issue delayed for three hours, then canceled entirely. We were transferred to a different flight, which meant another delay of about two hours. OK, such is life. Finally, we were in line to board our designated aircraft, just waiting for the previous passengers to get off the plane, and the few minutes required for the cleaning crew to do their thing.

A man standing at the head of our line was vigorously complaining to the ground attendant in charge of taking our boarding passes about how long it was taking the previous passengers to deplane. How he’d had it with all this waiting, and what a horrible airline this was, and what horrible service. There was more of course. I stood there, with my jaw dropped. Here the airline had kept us safe (off a plane not fit to fly), found us seats on another flight, we were about to board, and the man was first in line. It was probably one of the finest examples of complete lack of appreciation I have ever seen. At the very least, the man could have valued his position at the front of the line, and appreciated the fact that he only had another ten minutes, tops, to wait before getting to his seat.

I don’t even want to know what that man’s heart condition is like. What I do know, is that those Broadway cast members, with their ability to switch their focus to what they could appreciate, what they could do--sing!--as opposed to what they couldn’t do (get on a plane right then) had their hearts not only in the right place for the joy they brought themselves and everyone else in that airport, but also in the very best place for their long-term health and vitality.

    Now don’t you wish you’d had that travel delay?!

What Would (Insert Name of Favorite Action Hero) Do?

Your most recent attempt to persuade your boss of how much you deserve that raise/bonus/perk landed in the unfathomable depths of his "No way no how" with barely a ripple. You are depressed, disgusted, and yes - truth be told - massaging your hurt ego with liberal doses of self-pity.

Which brings to mind all the times your boss has been less than appreciative of your skills, talents, efforts, unpaid overtime, etc.  Like always! And down the road of history you go, your self-pity growing with each remembered slight until, virus-like, it pervades your whole being and you can barely function.

Now there’s a recipe for disaster! No doubt you’ve been wronged, and I'm sure it’s not the first time. But if you keep thinking about it, reviewing it over and over again in your mind, you’re simply replaying a very bad movie ad nauseam.

You’re way too savvy to pay good money to see a movie you hate repeatedly. So why are you going back to that hated/awful scene in your life obsessively?

Here’s the thing: the more you focus on "ain’t it awful" the less you see opportunities for something better. What you focus on, whatever you give your attention to, determines what you perceive. When you’re fixated on negative past experiences with your boss, you are missing what might benefit you here, now, in your present. You aren’t even considering what possibilities lie in the future - or in the next department over, or in that free-lance gig someone mentioned, or . . . you get the drift.

Get smart! Be like the hero/heroine of your favorite action movie. Shuck off the slime of self-pity, take a deep breath, and turn your gaze to what you want, not to what you didn’t get.

Put your imagination to work figuring out better ways to approach your boss, or influence him/her to that bonus or whatever it is. Get your solution mojo in gear and never ever look back.