The document provides guidance on personal and professional development using spiritual concepts and business tools. It discusses the importance of fixing one's thoughts to a more positive mindset, and using a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle of continuous improvement. This includes creating a current state diagram of one's life priorities and feelings, and a future state diagram with reordered priorities and improved inputs/suppliers to achieve a better state. The overall message is about investing in oneself to become a better person.

1. Invest in Yourself
Using business tools and spiritual concepts to
continuously improve personally and
professionally

2. My Premise
• Our country seems unhealthy right now!
• The government can’t provide the long
term solutions
• We provide the solutions to the root
causes
– We must become better people and
professionals
– Our standards for living must be adjusted
back to the foundations of our country

3. Objectives of Session
• Give you a positive message which sometimes
gets lost in the hustle and bustle of work.
• Learn two tools for personal and professional
development
• Complete a current state model of your life
process and a future state model for continuous
improvement
• Share what I am spiritual about and what I am
learning on my road to continuous improvement

4. We are Spiritual Beings
• Believing
– Have you ever believed in a concept, idea, or philosophy so
strongly that it seemed spiritual to you?
• This spirituality evokes passion in your voice and conviction in your
heart.
• Doing
– What are you “wired” to do? The book, First, Break all the Rules
talks about employee engagement and managing people
effectively to tap into what they are wired to do. (see next slide)
– Are you doing in accordance with your spirituality and what you
are wired to do? Are you convicted about certain ideas or
concepts but your actions speak differently?
• Example: Does your job allow you to exercise your God given
abilities every day?
– The things you are passionate about
– Do you apply them and share them with others?

5. Gallup Organization’s 12 Questions for
Measuring Employee Engagement
Question Score on a Scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree)
I know what is expected of me at work.
I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day
In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing
good work
My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a
person.
There is someone at work who encourages my development.
At work, my opinions seem to count
The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is
important.
My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality
work.
I have a best friend at work
In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my
progress.
This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

6. We Must Continuously Improve and Help
Others Continuously Improve
• Others
– Look beyond (and within) the walls of your workplace to apply
your spirit and God given skills
• Church, community, schools, organizations, etc.
• You
– Work should not define who we are
• Do you have a job or a career?
– Read New York Times obituaries
– I worked as an engineer but my career is a statistician
– Love your neighbor as you love yourself
• Start a genesis for your life
• Invest in yourself using the TPDCA cycle of
improvement

7. Step One of Continuous Improvement:
T(Thoughts)PDCA
• “Fix” Your Thoughts:
– Before the cycle can be used to improve your life
process, you must “fix” your thought process (T)
– Get yourself in the right frame of mind
• “Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows
will fall behind you.”-Walt Whitman
• Define the scope of the “fix”?
– Search on the web for “thoughts” and you find sights
stating the average human has twelve thousand
thoughts per day

8. What’s in Our Mind?
Type Thought 25% Positive 50% Positive 75% Positive 99% Positive
Thought Rate Thought Rate Thought Rate Thought Rate
Positive 3000 thoughts per 6000 thoughts per day 9000 thoughts per 11,800 thoughts per
day day day
Negative 9000 thoughts per 6000 thoughts per day 3000 thoughts per 120 thoughts per
day day day
These six thousand to nine thousand negative thoughts
are ball and chain to our attitude dragging us into a
bitter, inescapable quagmire.
They close our minds and hearts to wonderful
opportunities in life.

9. Thoughts (Cause) and Feelings (Effect)
Good Feelings (Effect) Bad Feelings (Effect)
Positive Strong correlation There is no relationship
Thoughts (r=1.0) between positive thoughts
and bad feelings
(Cause)
(r=0)
Negative There is no relationship Strong correlation
Thoughts between negative thoughts (r=1.0)
and good feelings
(Cause) (r=0)
The red zone is where we don’t want to be but sometimes find
ourselves stuck inside.
The negative thoughts keep us from seeing a way out to the
green zone

10. Leaders and Thinking
• Negative leaders manage negative departments:
– “Micromanager”
• Don’t trust employees
• Their number one priority is not their employees
• They focus mostly on employee’s weaknesses and can’t see
what they do well
• Positive leaders manage positive departments:
– “Motivator”
• Empower employees to do their jobs
• Put a vision in front of employees and lead them towards
vision
• Focus on employee strengths and effectively develop
employee weaknesses. Put employees in positions to
maximize their strengths.

11. A Diagram of Our Thought Process
Supplier Inputs Process Outputs Customers
Work/Home/Church People Sense Thoughts Family
TV/Newspaper/Rumors News Assimilate Community
Family/Hometown/Career Experiences Generate Friends
You Attitudes Congregation
Feelings
Metric
If we have, on average, twelve thousand thoughts per day and we stay awake, on average,
seventeen hours each day, we have, on average, eleven thoughts per minute. If we are being
fed by bad inputs, we waste approximately eleven thoughts each minute.
Think about the lost opportunities in the squandered thoughts:
Great ideas for a business
Another way to reach out to a friend in need,
A different way to deal with a “difficult” employee.

12. Changing Your Thought Process
• It is possible to change your thought process from mostly
negative to mostly positive!
– Overview
• If you accept negative inputs, you are altering (or causing) your
thought process to produce negative thoughts and thus, negative
feelings
– How to:
• To change your thought process from negative to positive, start with
your inputs
– Look at the suppliers of your inputs:
» Eliminate a supplier
» Change a supplier
» Improve a supplier
• Practice thinking positively: In the book, The Secret, one person
talked of carrying a rock which when touched reminded him to check
his thoughts

13. Validating Your Thoughts
• Do we Believe Ourselves?
– Often, we don’t trust what we think. Some of us need objective
evidence to validate our thoughts
• Get Objective Evidence:
– Take a personality test. There are multiple tests online that are free.
Most tests will give you a four digit personality profile. For example, the
first digit is typically an I (introvert) or E (extrovert)
– Take several different tests over time to see if your profile repeats. If it
does, you have your objective evidence
– Many sites match each possible profile with careers best suited for the
profile.
• Here are several sites offering free tests:
– http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
– http://www.funeducation.com/personalitytest/intro.asp?source=google
– http://www.similarminds.com/
– http://www.kisa.ca/personality/

14. Step Two of Continuous
Improvement: TP(Plan)DCA
• Create a vision
• Be process oriented more than results
oriented
• Organize your thoughts
• Ask for something
• Believe you will receive it

15. A Vision
• Positive thinking gives you energy to create a Plan
– I had a vision for holding a seminar. The more I thought of it, the more excited I
became. I booked a room and a date and started planning. This presentation
was used in the seminar and I also have the beginnings of a book. All possible
because of the energy created by my vision.
• A plan starts with a vision:
– “A mental image produced by the imagination”
– See yourself accomplishing something: A promotion, More money, A graduate
degree, Better health
• Leaders and Vision
– Maybe this sounds familiar to you. A new plan or vision comes from the top. At
some point, the communication breaks and the commitment starts to dilute.
• When the rubber hits the road, not all stay with the plan.
– Leaders must believe in the vision and unequivocally know it is the right thing to
do. If they do, they will have a steely look in their eyes, passion in their voice,
and conviction in their heart as they communicate the vision to their employees.

16. Be Process Oriented versus
Results Oriented
• If you only focus on result:
– You have a vision. There is incredible excitement. One week later, you fall into a rut and
give up on the vision. Why? You were results oriented instead of process oriented
– If you only focus on a result, this will be your only method of measurement. You either meet
the result or don’t meet the result
• If you focus on process:
– Good processes yield good results, bad processes yield bad results
– If you focus on the process, you will notice small successes that incrementally move you
toward a good result:
• Multiple emails during the day from potential clients
• A great lunch with a client or friend
• Several phone calls from clients asking for advice or help
• An employee solving a problem or getting recognition
• Example: Curtis Martin recently retired from professional football. In announcing his
retirement, he said that football was never his vision. Team ownership was his vision
and football was part of the process to realize the vision. He was asked why he never
showboated or engaged in self promotion. He quickly and firmly answered that such
behavior would not have been in accordance with his vision. He respected the
process needed to reach the vision.

17. Organize Your Thoughts: Current
State Diagram of Your Life
• Overview
– The diagram depicts the current state of your life process.
– This act of documenting should help you collect your thoughts.
• Step One of Completing the Diagram: Life Process
– Overview
• These are the priorities in our lives. We spend most of our time and
devote our energy to these areas
– What to Do:
• Starting with life process (P), list in order of your priority: Work,
Family, Play (self), and God.
– The priority should reflect where each stands in your life. Where are
you spending your time and thoughts? Your day rises and falls with
what occurs in these arenas.

18. The Output of Your Life Process
• Step Two of Completing the Diagram: The
Output of Your Life Process
– Overview
• The output of this life process is your feelings.
– What to Do:
• Give yourself one minute to write down (in the output
column):
– The negative feelings you have and the same amount of time to
write down your positive feelings.
» These are your emotions during the course of a day. You
know what they are. Think about this week and things you
encountered at work and away from work.
– When you are done, add up the total amount of feelings and
calculate a percent positive and a percent negative. Write the
percentages in the third row under output.

19. Record Your Feelings
Negative Feelings Positive Feelings
Total: Total:
Percent of Total: Percent of Total:

20. The Customers of Your Life Process
• Step Three of Completing the Diagram: The Customers of Your Life
Process
– Overview
• Your customers are the recipients of your feelings.
– What to Do:
• In general terms, use the 3F3C format:
– First (you): Signifies yourself as a customer. To be good to others, we
must be good to ourselves
– Friends: Friends are the people you enjoy being with
– Family: Family is your immediate family and extended family
– Colleagues: Colleagues are the people you work with. You spend a
significant amount of time with them so it is important to treat them as
customers
– Clients: Clients are the workplace; the recipients of your skill and work
tasks. They can be internal to your company or external to the
company
– Congregation: Congregation is your church.
• Write the categories in descending order according to the current priority in
your life. (highest priority first)

21. Inputs and Suppliers
• Step Four of Completing the Diagram: The
inputs to your life process and the suppliers of
the inputs
– Overview:
• There are two main inputs to your life process:
– Physical condition
– Thought process.
» The concept is sound mind and sound body.
– What to Do:
• In the Supplier column, list the suppliers of your physical
condition and the suppliers of your thought process

22. Draw Conclusions
• Analyze the Data:
– Study your life process, output, and
customers. What does this self reflection
mean to you? Hopefully, this allowed you to
organize your thoughts.
• What to Do:
– Go to the third row and summarize each
section of the diagram

23. Example of Current State Diagram
Supplier Inputs Life Process Output Customer
Alcohol Physical Condition Work Positive: Pride, Family
Exercise Family Comfort, First (me)
Family History Play(Self) Accomplishment, Clients
Diet Church Energetic, Enthusiasm, Friends
Newspaper Thought Process Euphoria, Eagerness, Colleagues
Talk Radio Inspiration, Joy Congregation
Other parents
Colleagues Negative: Envy,
Bosses Cynicism, Anger,
Television Despair, Fatigue,
Family Members Hopelessness,
Bills to pay Boredom, Lack of
Friends Direction, Pain, Apathy
My past
I don’t drink a lot but I can be in better Priorities are not in the right order Nineteen Feelings I don’t serve my
when I do, I feel physical condition. I 53% negative
47% positive customers well
sluggish. I try to have occasional back
walk every day but pain. enough. I need to
don’t always get to do My thought process do a better job of
it. I can lose about is one of accepting taking care of
fifteen pounds. I try where I was in life. myself so I can
not to eat fried foods No real goals or better serve others
but occasionally do. strong vision.
Paying bills depresses
me and puts me in an
ill mood. I let the
actions of other
parents throw my
thought process off. I
can be judgmental of
colleagues and others

24. Create a Future State Diagram
• Overview:
– Now that you have documented where you are, document where
you want to be by creating a future state diagram
• Step One of Completing the Diagram: Reorder Priorities
of Life Process
– Overview:
• Do you have your priorities in the right order? A reordering of
priorities is your first step towards change
– What to Do:
• Critique the order of the Life Process column of your current state
diagram
• Does the list reflect the correct priority order? If not, put them in
descending order (on the future state diagram) from most important
to least important.
– Often, my high school football coach told us to keep priorities in order.
His order was God, Football, Family, School, and all Else.

25. Inputs and Suppliers
• Step Two of Completing the Diagram: Change or
Improve Inputs and/or Suppliers
– Overview
• Focus now on the suppliers of your inputs. To improve or
change your physical condition and thought process, you
must improve or change suppliers.
– What to Do:
• In the supplier column, write the suppliers that you will allow
for your life process. The list may contain current suppliers
and/or new suppliers.
• In the third row, write comments on each supplier

26. Output
• Step Three of Completing the Diagram: What
do you want the output of your life process to
be?
– Overview:
• What you put on paper does not have to be correct. There is
no right or wrong. The significance is you are putting you
innermost thoughts to paper.
– What to Do:
• In the output column, write down what you want the output to
be. What do you want in life? In the form of a question
starting with “I ask for/that,etc.”, write down what you are
asking for in the output column. This is your vision.
• Write the question on the form in the appendix, fold it,
laminate it, etc. and post it to constantly remind you of your
vision.

27. Customers
• Step Four of Completing the Diagram: Prioritize
Your Customers
– Overview:
• How is your customer service?
– What to do:
• Critique your prioritized list of customers on the current state
diagram
• If the order is not correct, prioritize the list in descending
order from the most important customer to the least
important customer. They all are important but this helps you
maintain priorities.
• In the third row, write comments on the customers.

28. Example of Future State Diagram
Suppliers Inputs Life Process Output Customers
Alcohol Physical Condition God God, I ask that my Congregation
Exercise Thought Process Family company succeed in terms First (Me)
Diet Work of: Family
Family History Play (Self) • Giving back to you Friends
Bible • Supporting my family Colleagues/Clients
Prayer • Helping people and
Other “Doers” businesses
• Developing me as a person
I eliminated work related I need to call family
suppliers because I felt the members more during the
corporate work month.
environment was not best I will join at least one
for me and was not in line civic group to meet other
with my long term goals. I doers.
will start reading the Bible I will get more involved at
with the book of Genesis. church by joining a weekly
I will try to read daily for men’s bible study group,
at least twenty minutes. attending a weekly men’s
I will stop drinking. lunch at the church, and
I will walk at least three attending a weekly men’s
times each week for at study group. I will order
least thirty minutes. I will my prayer life according to
pray when I walk. this list.
I will quit eating fried
foods. I will get my family
to church every Sunday. I
will go to lunch at least
three times per month with
a friend or client.

29. Step Two of Continuous
Improvement: TPD(Do)CA
• Faith without works is dead
• Ask/Believe/Receive
• Be in a spirit of doing

30. Planners and Doers of the World
Poor Doers Great Doers
Poor Stuck in a rut and May not be doing
Planners may not know it the right things
Great
Stay at a macro Movers of the
Planners level world, leaders

31. Start Doing
• Overview:
– You planned and asked for something. You have it written down
as a reminder.
– Now, sit back and wait for it to happen, right? No, you must
move into the second phase-Doing.
• Faith Without Works is Dead!:
– You must act as if you already have what you asked for. Start
Doing in accordance with what you asked for
– My grandfather always told me “Hard work and perseverance”
• Consequences of Not Doing:
– What I learned from working in corporate America.
• Movers up the ladder: I and others were often critical of people that
moved ahead of us on the corporate ladder. We called them silly
names like brownnoser. But looking back, I realize that they were
doers. They expected to be promoted and acted accordingly. The
thought of not being promoted never entered their thought process.

32. Role Models for Doing
• Truett Cathy: Creator of Chick-Fil-A Restaurants
– Hard work and perseverance, doing according to principles
• Abraham:
– Consistent faith and consistent doing.
• Joseph:
– Strong faith and strong doing.
• If you think you have it bad, consider what happened to Joseph
before his thirtieth birthday:
– His brothers threw him in a pit and left him for dead
– His brothers sold him into slavery
– He was falsely accused of sleeping with his slave master’s wife.
This landed him in prison for two years.
» But in the midst of mass negativity, Joseph never felt sorry
for himself, never stopped trusting God, and kept doing
good deeds for others. He did not know when things would
get better but knew they would and the way he carried
himself influenced others.
• Moses:
– Tested faith and humble doing

33. In the Spirit of Doing…
• Overview:
– By doing and thinking positively, you open
your eyes and ears to opportunities:
• Three personal stories:
– Graduate school
– The story of my father
– The story of my business

34. Step Three of Continuous
Improvement: TPDC(Check)A
• Making Choices and Decisions
• Having Standards
• Keeping a balance point

35. Overview
• The Voices in Your Head:
– While continuing to Do, you may struggle with your thoughts and voices
may say you can’t. This is normal and you should take comfort in the
fact you are not the first person to experience this and you will not be
the last.
• If We Are not Careful, the 5Ds will Take Over Our Thoughts:
– You start doing with vigor and enthusiasm. When the results don’t
immediately come, you may encounter at least one of the 5D’s of
negative thinking:
• Doubt: You question what you are doing
• Discouragement: Focus on what is not
• Diversion: Makes wrong things seem more attractive
• Defeat: Makes you feel like a failure
• Delay: Makes you put off something so it won’t get done
• The Critical Moments:
– There will be points where you must make ethical and/or moral
decisions.

36. Making Decisions or Choices
• Good Quality Decisions or Choices:
– As we continue to Do, it is important to make correct
decisions and choices. We should not hastily decide
nor deliberate too long. But we must respect this
point of the cycle and approach it rationally:
• WWJD
• Poor Quality Decisions or Choices:
– Michael Vick
– Cain/Able
– Adam and Eve

37. Good Quality Decisions or Choices:
Manage Variation
• Be Prepared:
– When these decision points arrive, we must
be prepared to think correctly and rationally
respond to the situation at hand
• How to Prepare:
– A good understanding of variation helps
create this perspective:
• There are two types of variation:
– Common Cause
– Special Cause

38. Food and Drug Administration’s
Inspection of Chinese Imports
Food and Dr ug A dminist r at ion Mont hly Ref usals of Chinese I mpor t s
250
UCL= 235.1
hipment s Refused in Mont h
200
_
150 X= 147.3
100
umber of S
LCL= 59.5
50
N
0
Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Mont hs of 2006 t o Mar ch 2007
This shows the number of Chinese imports rejected each month by the FDA. Though no
rejection is good, this picture exhibits a steady process which appears to be in control. It seems
that the monthly number of rejected imports averages 147 and could be as high as 235 and as
low as 59. Performance between these extremes would be considered normal and resulting
from common cause variation.

39. Trend of a Person’s Body
Temperature
1
102
This shows the ebb and flow of a person’s body
temperature. Over time, the average temperature is
98.6 and the normal range is from 97.6 to 99.6. At
101 the end, something happened (ex. Virus) to cause a
spike in temperature. This event was not part of the
normal behavior and is due to a special cause.
100
UCL= 99.625
99
_
X= 98.613
98
LCL= 97.600
1
97
1 26 51 76 101 126 151 176 201 226 251

40. Teenage Behavior
Behavior Governed by Behavior Governed by
Common Cause Variation: Special Cause: Drinking,
Friends, Social Environment, Drugs, Breakup, Bad grade
Hormones, etc.
As a parent, your first Sometimes they do things
thought is often to punish that are not normal. Their
especially when they do action was driven by a
“bonehead” stuff. But if their special cause. They made a
action was driven by conscious decision and the
common cause variation effect was negative. In
they really were acting these times, punishment is
normal for a teenager. A certainly justified.
good dose of advice is the
right medicine.

41. Standards for Life
• Why are standards important?
– Checking a business process involves frequently comparing
actual practice to a standard which is typically a work instruction
detailing what must be done convert inputs to outputs.
• If the practice deviates from the standard, corrective actions should
be taken.
• We must have standards for living:
– The Books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers
– Truett Cathy: Never opens on Sundays
– Curtis Martin: Never showboated
• The consequences of missing standards:
– Without the standards, we will flail through life with no purpose or
direction and will never be able to check ourselves

42. The Spirituality of the Bell Curve
The bell curve is a graphical representation of a characteristic which has
been measured in a large quantity. The behavior of the characteristic
ranges from the left to the right.
The bell curve is symmetrical about a point in the middle. This “balance
point” is the center of gravity for the data.

43. We Need a Balance Point
• The First Commandment:
– The first of the ten commandments is “You shall have
no other gods before Me”. The others are anything
that rule our lives: money, selfishness, work. If we
break this commandment, we lack a balance point.
• Without Balance:
– We let a source pull us too far right or left and soon,
our priorities are not in the correct order.
– These drifts can be disastrous or hazardous to health.
They may affect or destroy families.

44. Step Four of Continuous
Improvement: TPDCA(Act)
• Overview:
– To this point, you have 5s’d your life-you see
opportunities and are more receptive to change
• Sort: You eliminated negative thinking
• Straighten: You asked for something
• Sweep: You cleaned up the trash in your life by reaching a
balance point and holding on to standards
• Now the task is to:
– Standardize and Sustain (ACT)

45. What Actions are Needed?
• Learning to see:
– In lean manufacturing, 5s is a technique for organizing the
workplace. Over time, workplaces take on personalities. Desks
become cluttered and items are stored wherever space is found.
Disorganization is not obvious because it is part of the scenery.
After a good 5s exercise, people see the workplace in a
completely different manner. They find items thought to be lost.
They throw away hundreds of pounds of junk. They start to take
pride in the way things look and vow to keep it that way.
– If you have lived the majority of your life, Not doing, With no
balance point, With no standards
• To take on all three gives you a completely, refreshing
perspective.
• At a minimum:
– If you stay balanced, keep doing, and check yourself to your
standards, the actions will fall upon your heart.

46. How Do We Know What Actions to
Take?
• Be Quiet and Listen
• Read and Learn
• Be thankful and grateful

47. Be Quiet and Listen
• How:
– We all need time and a place for being quiet.
– I find my mind is clearest when I walk which I
try to do at least three times each week.
When I walk, I talk to God. The topics of
conversation are ordered according to my
customers as they appear on the future state
diagram.
– If I consistently do this, I find that ideas come
more freely and I am more aware of “things”

48. Read and Learn
• How:
– One of the easiest ways to decide on actions is to
read positive material- Words that inspire and offer
new ideas and concepts.
– If preparing for a big exam, you would establish a
routine for studying. You can wait until the end to
cram, but adults know this is not the correct approach
for learning. Think of the times you studied late into
the night for a subject of no interest to you.
– Not many will argue that the Bible is a “How to”
manual for life. Surely we can devote a portion of our
day to reading and studying the book to understand
what it means for us.

49. Be Thankful and Grateful

50. Appendix

51. Form for Current State Diagram
Supplier Inputs Life Process Output Customer

52. Form for Future State Diagram
Suppliers Inputs Process Outputs Customers

53. Write Down What You Asked for, Fold it,
and Put it in a Visible Place