01/03/2020
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Happy New Year MTAS,
Well, this Mustard will summarize most of the month of December, and I hope give you a little inspiration for the new decade and year ahead. I am very optimistic about 2020. Gee, are any of you like me and thought that the year 2020 was this grand, off-in-the-distance event that never really seemed like it would be real? It’s hard for me to believe that it’s here already. Let’s embrace it!
First though, how about a little fun? There was a news story this week (https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/01/tech/2020-predictions-we-got-wrong-scli-intl/index.html) about predictions for the year 2020 that were made in 1964. I got a few laughs from it and thought you might too. Here you go:
EXPERTS' PREDICTIONS FROM 1964
Here's a selection of predictions made in a 1964 report by the RAND Corporation, which put questions to 82 experts across various fields, and the earliest year they thought each could be achievable.
1980: Robots as household servants.
1980: Manned landing on Mars.
1995: Human lives artificially extended by 50 years.
1995: Automated voting.
1998: Directly recording information to the brain.
1999: A military force on the moon.
2000: Two-way communication with extra-terrestrials.
2015: Long-duration coma to allow a form of time travel.
2020: Breeding of apes and other animals for menial work.
Okay, so what’s been happening at MTAS the last few weeks of December? There were many birthdays that I’d like to celebrate, and one work anniversary. The anniversary belongs to Cyndy who celebrated on the ninth. Happy work anniversary Cyndy! The birthdays belong to: Ronnie (12-12), Justin (12-14), Rick (12-21), Armintha (12-23) and Nancy (12-30). I hope you all had splendid celebrations!
Also in December was the TREEDC conference. I attended, and I heard a multitude of compliments for Warren and the work of TREEDC. This always makes me smile – way to go Warren! Here is a picture of Warren in action at the conference:
But wait, there’s more... Did you know that Rex was honored by the TN Association of Chiefs of Police on December 5? Here are a couple of pictures of his recognition. The president of TACP, Richard Hall, is with Rex. Mr. Hall is also the police chief for Germantown. Well done Rex!
Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about another kind of celebration. When I was in the IPS Leadership Academy, way back in 2010, I read a book titled Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes, and Thinking Big written by Ralph Heath. The concept of the book is that if we don’t share our failures, we won’t get the benefit of learning from others’ missteps, and we’ll make the same ones ourselves; a waste of time and effort. So with that, I’d like to celebrate a failure of mine with you: requiring five goals for the 2019 work plan. My rationale in asking for five goals was to more easily tie your work plan to the annual performance review (APR) process. I thought that if you could pinpoint a work plan goal to each of the five categories in the UT required APR form, then you might have a better chance to extoll all your greatness that directly relates to your performance review. Okay, I’m admitting I was wrong. I heard loudly and clearly from you that five goals is too much. That is why this year there is a minimum of three, but you can set as many as five if you wish. You pick – it’s your work, and no one knows better than you what makes a difference for your customers (what we’re all about!). Expect more information about the APR process later next week, but for now, I want you to know that I heard you. One of my mottos is “It’s not a mistake if you learn from it” and so I’ll call this experience a learning event. I appreciate your patience as I learned, and I appreciate the gift of the feedback that you gave me.
Before we begin looking ahead too much, I really want you to know how much I appreciate what you do for MTAS, for IPS, for UT and our customers. The collective impact of what we do every day is quite impressive. You may think to yourself “I just answered a phone call” but to the person on the other end of the call, you may be his or her hero for solving something that created a road block. I hope that 2020 is free of traffic jams; that you and your customers experience smooth sailing as you head to the horizon of excellence. After all, this is our mission (we work with Tennessee municipalities to improve the lives of those they serve) and our vision (TN municipalities will be a national model of good governance). Let’s crush it in 2020!
Go MTAS!
Margaret
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