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dispatches from the new world of work

Christmas (Cookie) Greetings

Gingerbread Man cookie From 1984 to 1994 Tom had a weekly column, syndicated by the Chicago Tribune, which ran in about 100 papers. This Christmas column appeared, we think, in about 1988. Thanks to a blog reader named Dorothy Lyskowski, who sent us a scanned copy of the one she had saved all these years! So, our Christmas offering to all our readers:

Lessons About Life, Enterprise, from Baking Christmas Cookies

A couple of hours in a hot kitchen can teach you as much about business and management as the latest books on re-engineering or total quality management. That's my take, anyway, after a bout of Christmas-cookie baking. Here are 11 lessons for life (and enterprise), fresh from the oven:

1. Engagement. Watching others helps, but you've gotta get your hands dirty. I hadn't made cookies for years, so I observed a friend do a few batches. I thought I was learning something, and I suppose I was—but nothing really clicked until my hands were covered with flour.

Lesson (for trainers especially): Cut the lectures. Get folks involved in "real stuff" very quickly!

2. A plan. I'm not keen on planning in general, but a time-tested recipe is a godsend. First, it's roughly "right." More important, it gives you the confidence to get started.

Lesson: Any plan is a help; it gives folks the sense they aren't aimlessly flailing.

3. Art. The plan is an outline—not Holy Writ. Plans, including recipes, are made to be tinkered with—and eventually torn up. Cookie making, software design, and real-estate lending are art. And it's the artists, not the slavish followers of others' recipes, who land in the world's halls of fame.

Lesson: Blind devotion to any plan is downright dumb!

4. Trial and errors. Yes, I'd watched a master at work (or at least a pretty good cook), but in my first hour of hands-on work, with instructions close at hand, I made dozens of mistakes, large and small. And in business life, real life, and cookie-making life, error is the fuel that drives you.

Lesson: Don't "tolerate" mistakes. Embrace them!

5. The same mistakes. "Mistakes are OK," some concede, "but don't make the same mistake twice."

Rubbish! I made virtually the same errors, in something as relatively simple as cookie making, over and over ... and over.

Lesson: Nobody ever did anything (interesting) right the first, or 51st, time.

6. A sense of humor. I was awkward at the start. (And at the finish.) I turned the kitchen into a disaster area. Kids and adults made their day laughing at me (or so it seemed). Experimentation—the nub of life and business—depends on learning to laugh at yourself.

Lesson: Learning is precisely about making a fool of yourself—often in public.

7. Perseverance. An ability to laugh at yourself and suppress your ego is key—but so is steely-eyed determination. Sure it was "just" cookie making. But I did want to do it right.

Lesson: Winners want to do everything well, no matter how trivial; and that takes focus and unrelenting drive.

8. Perfectionism. Certainly, the kitchen was a mess. Yes, I was the object of ridicule. But to master one's craft requires nothing less than pain-in-the-butt perfectionism. Most see artists, and creative types in general, as scatterbrained. I'm sure there are scatterbrained artists (and bakers), but their work doesn't end up in museums (or cookbooks).

Lesson: Creativity and perfectionism are essential handmaidens.

9. Ownership. It was made clear to me: I was responsible for the Christmas Eve dinner cookies. There were no backups available—and a long ginger-cookie tradition hung on my frail (i.e., incompetent) shoulders. The monkey was ensconced squarely on my back. So I did the job.

Lesson A: No ownership, no passion.
Lesson B: No passion, no perseverance.
Lesson C: There is no half ownership.

10. Accountability. When I'd helped with some previous cookie making (the day before), I'd screwed up the baking time twice. Now I was on my own. That should have made things more difficult. But, to the contrary, I was so attuned to the task that I didn't come close to blowing it.

Lesson: Until you're engaged in all aspects of a job, you don't fully engage.

11. Taste. OK, I'll brag: I made good cookies. Greatness takes practice—and exquisite taste. I may or may not practice more, but I doubt I'll ever become to baking what Tom Clancy is to techno-thrillers.

Lesson: If we want great products, we need to find, attract, and retain great creators. Period.

* * * * * *

If you'd like to get a copy to spread around, you can download one here as an MSWord file or in a PDF version.

Below ... a different kind of holiday photo. Tom sent it with this caption: "Nothing to do with the post, and I do not confuse myself with the King of the Beasts. But this is how I plan to spend my holidays." Source: His July trip to Botswana.

Cathy Mosca posted this on 12/24/07.

Comments

I think that photo is amazing ... it's hard to believe that you caught a shot of him in that position, Tom. Scary, really. He looks just like a King, too, don't you think?

Happy holidays to everybody from all of us at tompeters.com!!!

Posted by cathy mosca at December 24, 2007 1:07 PM

Happy Holidays everyone!
And Tom: please take a ridiculously embarrassing gondola ride with Susan for me.

Posted by Shelley Dolley at December 24, 2007 2:23 PM

Merry Christmas and best wishes for all from Poland.

Posted by mielno at December 25, 2007 11:33 AM

Cathy, I have an old binder filled with many, many of those columns which I've kept and still find useful. If you ever need to find some, email me, I may have some!! I had my assistant at the time get a Chicago Tribune every Monday, photocopy it onto better paper and put it in the book after I read it.

Good stuff...and it keeps!!

Joe
West Lafayette, Indiana

Posted by Joe Ely at December 25, 2007 3:53 PM

Mery Christmas Tom and everyone here, and thanks a lot for another year teaching Us...

Posted by Guillermo Buelna at December 25, 2007 4:40 PM

Here is a star of a different kind, to wish us all happy holidays.

http://ideaburger.blogspot.com/2007/12/happy-holidays-from-hills.html

Jay, from Bangalore

Posted by Jayakumar Hariharan at December 26, 2007 7:25 AM

I make up that during that african "siesta" there'll be some (or much) time for "dreaming" or " re-imagining". Nice paradox, isn't it?. I can't wait for 2008 for the "dreams" to come and...still few days of '07. Enjoy!

Posted by Liberto Pereda at December 26, 2007 11:34 AM

Thank you for re-posting "Lessons About Life, Enterprise, from Baking Christmas Cookies". I'm going to laminate this & put it up where it will remind me of some fundamentals" Steve, Auckland New Zealand.

Posted by Steve at December 27, 2007 6:08 PM

Thanks for sharing that post. I wonder if the columns are collected anyplace?

Posted by Wally Bock at December 29, 2007 8:37 AM

wally,
some of those columns are collected over here:
http://tompeters.com/columns.php

Posted by erik at December 29, 2007 8:48 AM

Interesting tidbit inside that column, that hints at the present state of Real Estate finacial affairs: "Cookie making, software design, and real-estate lending are art" As always, life imitates art !

Happy New Year to All !
Chris

Posted by Chris at January 2, 2008 8:58 AM

Joe, thank you! I will very probably call on you. After I went live with this post, I searched in more depth at the Chicago Tribune website. Their archives go back to 12/1/1852! But I couldn't find this one. I'll keep trying on occasion. And chicagotribune.com will be the first place I try whenever someone asks about an old column. You'll be second.

Posted by cathy mosca at January 15, 2008 6:52 AM