Foot in Mouth Disease Poultice

We've all done it..."putting your foot in your mouth"... saying something stupid or inappropriate for the circumstances.  When the realization hits, the awkwardness is so terrible it puts you into a kind of temporary shock, usually followed by even more awkward attempts to correct it, which serve only to drive the foot deeper into your throat.

Whoever said "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" was an idiot.  Words last so much longer than physical wounds, because words can injure the psyche and still have effect long after the conscious brain has forgotten the impact.  (Note to self:  no matter how skinny she is, NEVER ask if she is pregnant).

What can you do when you can't take it back?  You must apologize.  The apology is the outward sign of the inward desire.  But that isn't enough.  The Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue.  And in case you didn't know, everything ....EVERYTHING starts in the spirit.  So whatever damage might be inflicted has to be fixed in the spirit first.  So here is your foot in mouth poultice:

• Pray for forgiveness for any injury you may have caused as soon as possible.
• Admit you're a knucklehead to the person to whom you just said the stupid thing.
• Forgive yourself and move on.

If you are the person who has been the victim of a careless assault of words, you need a poultice of your own:

• Pray and ask the Lord to help you heal and forget the injury
• Choose to forgive the other person.  If it helps, ask the Lord to show you how you have been guilty of the same thing in the past (because you HAVE done it, being human and all)...
• Move on.

The enemy of your soul knows exactly what words to send you to "push your buttons".  The only way to prevent that is to remove the buttons so he has nothing to push.  The only way to remove the buttons is to seek the Lord with your whole heart, and believe Him... He shows us how we really are.  In Him, we are fantastic people! 

You CAN Handle the Truth

If I have to tell you I care about you as a preface to some difficult feedback, I am already the wrong person to give you the news.  It is hard for us to hear the truth from people we KNOW love us; it is nearly impossible for us to hear people we don't believe really care.

Truth about who we are could be divided into one of four categories:

• Truth everyone knows about us (including us)
• Truth only we know about ourselves
• Truth only God knows (and we don't even know)
• Truth everyone else knows that we are blind to

We will all have varying degrees of each category, but the most dangerous one is our blind spot. This is caused by us either deliberately closing our eyes to something, or we have not had anyone care about us enough to tell us the truth. 

Telling the truth to people about themselves is hard.  In the workplace, more and more companies are trained to look for talented people who are self-aware, because self-aware people need less truth telling... they are open to feedback as a normal path to growth.

When someone is sitting down with you to evaluate your performance, what do you remember from the encounter?  The good?  Or the bad?  And since the person telling you is not the Lord Jesus, how can they possibly be perfect in knowing any truth about you?  They cannot.  Which is why it is so much better to hear it from Him first.

The Lord is the only One who can tell us some challenging truths about ourselves without leaving us feeling hopeless about it.  He doesn't just editorialize then force us to figure it out.  His method is to bring it to our attention with the purpose of inviting us to let Him help us overcome.  Invite Him to show you. 

If you're the person having to give the difficult feedback, it is never wrong to question your motives.  If you are handing out advice to someone you don't care about, don't be surprised when it falls on deaf ears, or actually makes the problem worse.  Work on caring about them.  The Lord can give you His eyes for the moments of the encounter, where the delivery can be made in a way you could not on your own.  And don't pass off this difficult job to paper or email or another person if it is truly hard to do.  

As a young supervisor, I remember having a conversation with the Lord about people not wanting to hear the truth.  His answer to me was very clear: "Most people don't like to eat their meat raw."  Clearly, I had work to do on my delivery....and timing...and relationships.

Seek Him diligently, and He will reveal Himself to you.  In this revelation you will become more like Him.  His light leaves no blind spots.

Zero Degrees of Separation

All of us know at least one "name dropper"... the person who lets us know their connections, their sphere of influence, or the Styrofoam cup they kept from a famous person sighting.  At work, this can come to our attention as "elevating the issue" by someone who either thinks we can be forced to do something if someone more powerful tells us, or that processes can be skipped to get a certain something expedited.

Almost no one (no one I have ever met, anyway), looks merely at the facts when something is "elevated" to them.  They also take into account WHO is asking for the exception.  (Perhaps quite a few leaders have "Chicken Little's" working on their teams. All of us report to someone, so we have to use our power carefully if it is to remain powerful.)

My goal (and prayer) is to have favor with the decision makers I must influence.  Sometimes this is simply an instantaneous and momentary gift of grace given to me by the Most High God and it gets me what I need.  Most of the time, however, it is built slowly over time, through the integrity of who I am in Christ.  It means I must say what I mean and really mean what I say.  It means I don't over-promise and under-deliver.  It means I don't shout "the sky is falling!" unless I've checked my facts and have a piece of it in my hand as proof.  It shows the person I am elevating the matter to that I can be counted on to exhaust all avenues before having to involve them.  It also means caring to understand the people I'm going to need favor from and doing my best to see it through their eyes.

Certainly, favor created by a good reputation requires the people I need it from to know me... but when they don't, I am no less powerful in my influence.  I know THE ONE Who knows the beginning from the end.  When I have His favor, I have all I need.  As I recently heard, "An hour of favor is worth more than a year of hard work."  Favor can save your job.  Favor has saved nations.  Favor can save your life.

Favor with any one person is tenacious at best and usually fleeting. Favor with God, in comparison, is like the card that gets you in everywhere.  How do you get favor with God?  Work on your reputation with Him.  Get to truly know Him, not about Him (that's like repainting your car hoping it will fix your transmission.)  If you know Him already, just ask Him for the favor you need. You are at zero degrees of separation.

Snap Out of the Pavlov Coma

The way we approach problem-solving is quite revealing ...and predictive of how able we are to adapt to new situations.

This is the corporate season for next year's strategic planning.  It comes at an odd time... right at the height of doubt this year's goals will be achieved by year end.  Nonetheless, the ritual begins.  We all try to step out and dream big...or do we?

When you're so busy trying to reach this year's impossible goals, it can taint your mindset for imagining the barely possible next year.  And then, there is the "got stood up for the prom" syndrome where you are living the past pain of having planned and gotten approval, only to told at kick-off it was game off.  (Management's idea of "flexible" can seem psychotic sometimes).

If we are not careful, we can lapse into probability planning rather than possibility planning.  Probability planning is the reality curmudgeon telling us to not try another big plan because it will fail.  It is important to remember that even a really good idea has a season of acceptability.  This might not be the season.  But what if you could usher that season in?

Proverbs 16:3 says that if we commit our work to the Lord, our plans will be established (will succeed).  This remains true.  Because if you are working in concert with Him, He's already giving you the idea and the plan.  If you commit it to Him, He can help you usher the season in at the perfect time.  And there is that wonderful thing called "favor" with the decision makers to whom you are trying to sell your great idea.  He gives you that also.

Go forth and see what is possible.  This is the season of the impossible coming to pass.

The Anomaly of Mavericks in Harmony

Even as someone who prefers to work alone, I know that team work product is better than what I could do all by myself.  The very best teams are the most chaotic in the creation process of a project.  It requires a certain amount of thick leather hide to endure this chaos, and a singular understanding of the common goal by each teammate.

The end result is something quite remarkable.  As this process is repeated for each new project, endurance of the chaos evolves into an expectation that it is required for an excellent outcome.  A little like not wearing your formal attire out to work in the muddy garden, you mentally prepare to get messy.  (You can put your formal wear back on when you celebrate success with the team).

Sadly, most teams come together with the idea that they somehow have to leave their individual talent at the door to become some sort of milk toast collective, trying to preserve delicate feelings and egos in perfect political correctness rather than come up with novel solutions.  Great leadership that gives permission to be messy is essential.  But so are ground rules.

The chaotic process for true innovation can permanently damage people if the team does not care for each other.  You can only have constructive dialog with someone if you respect them.  If you do not value the PEOPLE on your team the process will take over and the people will be trampled.  This is the main reason teams break down.  They have a plan, a method that is proven, but they entered into the engagement without a will to care about the people they work with.

I suppose some people get very, very good at faking respect.  Call me a skeptic, but I don't believe that you can truly HEAR and leverage what the other person says if you are only faking respect for them out of protocol.  So how do you respect someone you can barely tolerate most days?

You have to see them with bigger eyes.  I cannot love people with the limited capacity of my own selfish heart.  I must ask the Lord to show me... to let me see them as He sees them.  As my vision changes of these difficult people, I see them as precious children, sometimes misguided, but always having intrinsic value.  And, I understand that the moments I spend with them are merely a slice of a very full and challenging life I can't possibly understand since I don't walk with them like He does.

People rise (or fall) to our expectations of them.  Let's expect the very best, so all our mavericks can come together and create something amazing.

Wewease the Secwet Weapon: Joy

If you don't know the difference between happiness and joy, think of it this way:  happiness gives you the strength of a pea shooter; joy is a nuclear weapon.  Happiness is the resulting feelings largely influenced by external circumstances.  Joy comes from the Creator of joy and dwells deep inside, undisturbed by temporal changes.

Joy is a powerhouse, and is like a force field against the pressure bearing down on us.  Even our brains cannot comprehend it, because it is mentally in congruent to be in the midst of tragedy and have joy, but it happens.  If none of this makes sense to you, it is possible you have never known true joy.

If it does make sense, but are wondering if your joy has been stolen or misplaced, it's time to recover it and put it back into use.  Poor eating, sleep deprivation, low blood sugar or hormonal imbalance can cause you to forget where your joy went.  Don't be discouraged if this is the case; just address the physical issue and you will be amazed to see your joy was right there in front of you the whole time.

The power of joy can reduce a DEFCON 5 stress level meeting to DEFCON 1 in no time at all.  It is a calming balm; a healing tonic.  Joy is one of the best relationship builders you can have.  People seek out and want to be with joyful people.  You will be twice as productive using joy as not.  You will be able to go the extra mile and take prisoners.

Stop saving your joy for Armageddon... it's okay to use every day if you make sure you replenish your supply by regularly connecting with the One Who Is joy.

Liar, Liar Won't Avoid a Fire

When I heard "everybody lies" I used to think, "not me" ...not unless I mistakenly believed what I was saying was the truth.  Then, I ran into a situation where the truth was too much for the person involved.  I caved.  I lied. You could say I was afraid to tell them the truth, and you'd be right.  I wasn't afraid for my reputation.  This person would have not believed the truth, possibly attacked my physically or had an anger-related accident.  This person couldn't handle the truth, even while intimating they wanted to hear it.

I'm fascinated at why people lie, simply because I find it so hard to do.  Some people do it to avoid conflict.  Some people do it out of fear.  Some people are so good at it they do it for sport.

In the workplace, lying is far more common place than we'd like to admit.  Most lies are told by us to ourselves.  Whoever said the road to hell is paved with good intentions could also say the mortar is made of unmet commitments.  Padded timelines, promised deliveries, committing resources we don't control.  We say it's better to under promise and over deliver, but sometimes telling the truth means not promising anything.

Lying to avoid conflict happens a lot in personal relationships.  You were waiting for the right time to tell the truth, but the wrong time was forced on you and well, you agreed to something you don't really agree with.  This happened to me a lot when I was younger; I hope it is happening less now.  It happened because true or not, I was perceived as someone who would not handle the truth without a robust discussion.  It was easier for the person to say they agreed even if they didn't.

When we don't make it "safe" for someone to tell the truth, we are hurting ourselves too.  We will think we have alignment when we don't. A number of subversive activities may occur that we know nothing about, all because we thought we had buy-in, agreement and support when really they just wanted us to get out of their face at the time.  It would be less painful to know this if it didn't happen with people we really care about, but this is when it happens most.

I can't make it safe for people to tell me the truth unless they know it is safe to fail in front of me.  Sometimes the most trust is created when the person falls down in front of me, and I pick them up and dust them off and say, "let's try again."  I've just made it safe for them to be real, because I didn't make them feel bad for failing.  They are more likely to tell me the truth now.  We are more likely to avoid a fire.

The Hyenas (Not the Wagons) are Circling

For all the talk about mutual respect and the importance of teams, it takes very little to create the "us verses them" mentality.  It's as if we can all make the temperature just by saying, "It feels hot in here."

When you're in a pack that runs fast, it is easy to let the weak ones fall back and get eaten.  It's even worse when we turn on ones in our own pack.

While we all might want perfectly performing teams, one or more of  us will always be the weakest. 
If a strong team player slips into disparaging an under-performing one, two things will result:  the weaker one will get weaker, and the stronger one will get weaker too.

If you have the fortunate opportunity to observe a healthy family in action, you should note it doesn't get that way by chance.  A conscious decision has been made to stick together, stick up for one another, and in times of trouble, circle the wagons...not turn into hyenas that look to prey on the weak one.  No matter what, it is "us," not "me". 

Having a healthy team requires self-monitoring.  You can love someone and not like them.  It means you continue to want the highest and best for them, even if you don't really want to hang with them in your free time.  It means YOU start believing they can be more than they are, and you treat them like the person they can become.  It means you exemplify behavior that helps them learn to be strong and not continue on in weakness.  It means you are kind to them, even when they are not around.

If you are surrounded by hyenas right now, it might be a conspiracy.  But it also might be your fault.  Over the years I've seen that the weakest team members are also those least willing to change.  Sometimes you need to really hear what is being said to you, and ask for honest feedback.  Sometimes that change means you go find a better pack.

You are of great value.  You were created to do great things.  If you are strong, hold yourself to a higher standard.  Help strengthen the weak ones and you will be even stronger still.  The combined effect will be synergistic, not just additive.  (That is, more than what could be achieved separately).

Work Life Balance: Self-Service Only

In case you haven't heard the corporate cliche, "work-life balance" is not letting your job eat you alive and destroy your home life.  Many companies encourage their workers to maintain a healthy "whole self" by providing education to promote a healthier lifestyle. 

What they don't say... what they can't say, is work life balance is totally on YOU.  If you are in the position of currently being devoured by your career, only you can stop it. This can be easier said than done, especially in down economy where you might fear not having a job if you don't keep up the pace you've established.

Going the "extra mile" for our employer should be something we want to do.  Sadly, too many of us equate working longer hours with going the distance.  This is rarely the case. 

Quite a lot of work is created by cumulative inefficiencies.   To remove these inefficiencies you have to be able to identify those seemingly unimportant things that will unexpectedly explode later, as well as know which things appear to be a house afire that turn out to be totally unnecessary in the end.  Impossible?  Not really.  Not if you know Who to ask.

I'm not ashamed to say that every day I ask the Lord to help me do what is important for that day.  I have a plan, but to be effective it must align with His plan or I am spinning my wheels... working hard but not smart.  I ask Him to show me possible land mines or to help me keep others calm when they want to shout "the sky is falling!"  It works:  we get the important stuff done and the rest was never needed in the first place.

You can't have work-life balance if you don't trust He is in control of your life and your future.  This means you work with Him to draw the line, and you keep that boundary.When a person is secure in the their position, it does not mean they will not have challenges or struggles.  It does mean they understand their value.  Their value as a precious person.  A person worth preserving and caring for.  A person who, if they are going to give their employer excellence continually, must take care of themselves as an asset.

If it is time to draw a line in the sand, it will be a very hard thing to stand your ground.  There are a thousand techniques out there for learning this new good behavior.  Just remember you are doing what's best for your company by doing it, because you are taking care of their most valuable asset: you.

Condescension

Even if we are children, we want to be treated as adults when the benefit of being an adult is perceived to be superior to being a child.

Condescension in the workplace is merely a soft expression of contempt.  Contempt is extremely unproductive as it creates a near immediate grudge in those on the receiving end.  The perpetrator moves on in ignorance of the damage to any future relationship.

Condescension is rarely found in absence of arrogance, blinding the perpetrator even further.  You might ask how this type of person even holds a job with the authority to exercise such attitudes.  Yet we see it all the time and all levels.

Recently I noted a comment in an email that evidenced condescension.  It was from one of the company's lawyers to the marketing teams.  (If you have ever worked with marketers you know what makes them "childlike" is their desire to push the boundaries...)  Legal is there to hold the line on the boundaries... continually... because marketers consider "no" a very temporal "in that moment" response.  Like peppering their parents, perhaps asking again at a different time in a slightly different way will produce the desired result.

When I read the email I did not take offense (I only put on the marketer hat some of the time and I am only a recovering rule follower).  I did wonder, however, at the source of the lawyers contempt since it was a subtle slip in professionalism.

Will anyone in marketing call this lawyer out on his condescension?  Not likely. Because in the balance of power the average marketer will have something else for this same guy to review next week that he needs to press up against the boundaries.

What is to be done then?  It is impossible to honor others properly if you have no self-respect or humility.  Being able to honor someone else requires at least an attempt to put yourself in their shoes.

In past when I struggled to show respect where I genuinely felt none, I had to pray earnestly for this one thing in particular: that The Lord would help me see these people as He sees them.  (Which, by the way, is much more mercifully than I would ever be capable of on my own.)

Empathy is a powerful force.  And fortunately, is very hard to fake.  To avoid being condescending, or to avoid being offended by it when it blows your way, be sure to wear your empathy glasses.  People might not recognize you in them, but you'll see them in His light. 

There is No Such Thing as Off the Record

The enemy of your soul, the great imitator, loves to invent false versions of the real thing, especially when the imitation can screw up your life without you realizing how you got there.

One of these imitations is false intimacy.  There are many forms, but the "just between you, me and the fence post" is one of the most insidious.  (The fence post simply cannot be trusted it seems.)

When someone we truly don't know that well initiates a confidence, if we think highly of them we are vulnerable to being sucked into the idea we are intimate with them when we are not.  On the reverse, if we are willing to trust people we hardly know with sensitive information, we are blinded by the same ego that desires to be valued... by our information and the sharing of same.

There is a sense that when information is shared "off the record" we can check our best behavior at the door.  We say things about people we would never want those people to hear us say.  We let our hair down, we lose our discipline and tact, and we lay our cards out on the table.

The idea that we can get away with things when no one (of "real importance") is looking is the same as thinking there is no cause and effect; there are no consequences for our actions.  Let's settle this:  if a trees falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, it still crushes everything it falls on.

I was recently present in a court room that was a court "NOT" of record.  This means the proceedings
were not recorded . The lack of formality in such courts permits private citizens who would normally be required to be represented by council to speak for themselves without having to know all the procedural rules.  This particular setting was a very small municipality.  Nevertheless, I was surprised to hear some of the things said by the prosecutor and judge.  It seemed they felt relaxed enough in the non-recorded setting to say all sorts of things that never would be permitted in a court of record.  It was not proper.  They are expected to follow the higher standard because they have been trained in it.  The grace in "not recorded" is meant for the weaker party.

I could lapse Pollyanna here and say if you just followed one rule you'd never be in trouble:  "Never say something about someone you wouldn't say to their face."  But if you're really going to go to that extreme, you'd need to add "...say to their face in front of their entire world and let them know in advance you're going to do it."  Realistically, however, sometimes evaluating someone's character or behavior is a conversation you cannot have with that person (at least not initially).

All of us struggle with the tongue. Many of us are fascinated with human behavior.  Some of us like to dissect it ad nauseam.  Perhaps this is appropriate for discussing movie characters.  Not appropriate for discussing coworkers, bosses, friends or family.

Use the experiences where you've said too much to evaluate your own attitudes about the difficult people in your life.  If you've gone as far as to spew unkind words about them, you must ask yourself if you have a heart attitude that needs to be addressed.  Forget about whether they deserve it or not.  This is about you.  If you can be disciplined about difficult people, you'll never slide into saying things about people you truly care about. 

The enemy of your soul would also like you to believe that words are only words.  The Bible says, "Life and death is in the tongue."  Speak life.  And remember Someone hears everything and sees everything.  We will be held accountable for it eventually.

Innovation

There is nothing new under the sun.  But there is value in discovering a new implementation of a timeless idea.  All of us are capable of innovation.  But innovation requires internal drivers that will overcome our current environment. Most of us are not motivated to innovate because in most environments (work, recreation, citizenship) we are intentionally rewarded for compliance. 

I spent some time listening to a conference speaker talk about innovation recently.  We were also given free signed copies of his latest book.  What his book didn't say was that innovation on a large scale (changing something quite unreceptive to change) requires a rare tenacity few of us have.  If you are young enough to have the energy to sustain a fight for change long enough to see it happen, you may also need a long attention span...a quality I do not see in many people.  Most of us would not be able to say,"my life's work"... Instead we would need to say, "my toil for the last 36 months" to which there would be oohs and ahs... I mean, weren't you afraid of stalling your career staying in one job for 3 years?!

Tenacity in itself is also not sufficient.  Seems those who buck innovation have tenacity aplenty.  I see quite a number of people being forced out because they fail to see that their inertia is far more expensive to keep than their experience is worth.

If tenacity is required to see innovation come to fruition, faith is required to keep tenacity from turning into stubbornness. (Stubbornness has a sort of "blinders on" connotation...I prefer the quality of steadfastness...which is fed by faith).

And because faith is a gift of God, true innovation comes from Him with a side order of the faith required to see it come to pass (or at least see my part through to the finish).

Lastly, innovation requires relationship.  You might come up with the inspiration all by yourself, but the very nature of innovation means you are changing something quite public.  Someone else is required to see the innovation implemented.  And, a certain amount of diversity of thought will help take something that is "ALMOST innovation" all the way to that amazing, brilliant and functional "new" thing.

Busyness Disguised as Productivity

The guy that runs around expending more than necessary energy to accomplish said task shows up at every work site from time to time.  It doesn't fool a smart manager.  I used to know a guy that did this.  He believed that if you always seemed out of breath and in high demand you were more likely to be thought of as important and also less likely to be given additional work.  The extra mobility often caused him to perspire, making the persona complete.

Christians everywhere, from nominal to those sincerely desiring to make a difference, get caught up in the lie that the urgent is always necessary and will neglect the important to keep up with all the emergencies.  The stress created by living in the urgent moment is not healthy, causing elevated adrenaline levels that will eventually result in illness.  We would do well to remember that the enemy of our soul would like to destroy us but will settle for rendering us totally ineffective through ignorance, illness or injury.

Recently I had to choose between missing a church event (again) and a conversation with a friend who needed encouragement in a 1:1 setting.  I wanted to do both, but having learned I don't have emotional fuel (or time) for both, I had to choose one option.  As it turned out, the Holy Spirit helped me choose correctly...and I was able to minister to a friend who in turn ministered to others in a very hard place.

In most every job worth having, there is far more to do than what can be done.  Choices have to be made.  In order not to be rendered ineffective I must daily pray for guidance on what things are important to do that day...even those things that are seemingly innocuous.  Time and time again, it has proven to be a great strategy.  It's like discovering land mines yards and miles before they explode (or even develop into land mines).

You can keep busy.  I'll take effective.

There Are Very Few Emergencies

Urgency is always a matter of perspective.  The closer we are to something, the more acutely we feel the urgency. 

It is no surprise then, that we will encounter individuals we must solicit help from (urgently) that do not share the same concern for our deadlines.  What is one to do to move the log out of the road?

While this is not a kind description, people unwilling to be stirred by our peril do tend to appear to us as logs blocking the road.  But let's back up here and look at the broader picture.  Let's look at it from the log's perspective.

Pretending I'm the log, it might interest you to know that I'm not normally a log. But you have successfully objectivized me by not including me in your plans prior to this moment.  Perhaps if I were a firefighter, I might work in response mode.  But I am not.  What you require of me requires someone else's urgency to lose its place in line.

I was waiting to pass through airport TSA recently and more than three times was asked by people in a hurry if they could go ahead of me.  I had arrived really early to allow for long lines.  What story did these people have?  Had they gotten away with the sad tale, "my plane leaves in 10 minutes" before... so they think this tactic will save their continued habit of failing to plan?  I didn't ask, I just let them pass, because it was possible this was a unique situation and it served no good purpose to ask them their story.  Nonetheless it's always annoying. They had no relationship with me prior to this event.  Thus, there was zero trust from my quarter at the genuineness of their need.  Yet, I was merciful, thinking if I were ever in a similar situation I would hope to receive mercy.

So there is one key---relationship.  If the only contact you have with needed individuals is your repeated emergencies when they didn't need to be, those individuals will become logs to you...joyfully.

The other viewpoint...you need to move a log you didn't anticipate (or you would have planned).  You unfortunately encounter a log that has lost the will to ever transform back into a human, having discovered some sort of sick power in holding projects for ransom.  In these situations remember there IS a person under the bark...and they may be moved by things a little as genuine eye contact and a kind word.  Or something slightly larger like the acknowledgement and apology (sincere please) that they are important to your process and you will not repeat the oversight.  Then, if they help, make sure their help is acknowledged to people that matter to them.   And please try your best to be okay with "no" or "you will need to wait".  Even the most compassionate people eventually can not handle the constant stream of emergencies without a break.  Nor should they...but that's a topic for another day.

Bottom line:  people matter more than projects or processes...always. Unless your project was to stop a world leader from pressing the red button, it will all work out all right in the end, even if you are delayed by a log jam.