Brian Cometa commented on Jean-Christophe Zufferey's blog post Saving the Planet, One Drone Flight at a Time

To help more of our readers with their crucial conversations, confrontations, and behavior change challenges, we recently introduced the Community Q&A column! Please share your answers to this reader’s question in the comments below. Dear Crucial Skills, I live in an apartment complex built around a grassy area and parking garage. Ten boys between five and ten years old (including my son) live in the complex and love to play together on the grass. Sometimes they get a bit too noisy, which upsets many of the neighbors. Those annoyed neighbors wrote an angry e-mail to management telling them to "do something about the boys." Ironically, those annoyed neighbors never speak to the boys’ parents about their concerns and even come out to tell the boys off when the parents are inside and run away when the parents come back out. I want to build a community spirit and get people talking, but I don’t know where to start. How can I get my neighbors talking so we can resolve this issue without involving management? Seeking Neighborly Dialogue Related Material:Community Q&A: Encouraging Others to Cut Back Community Q&A: Overcoming Cultural Differences with Crucial Conversations Community Q&A: Making His Ex-Wife Feel Safe

Utkarsh Sahu commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

Lee J. Schneider commented on Daniel Green's blog post Will Apple Watch Make Us More Productive?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I am one of three people on our executive team, and I am struggling with the excessive amount of time our CEO spends on outside issues. He spends about ten to fifteen percent of his time working on company issues and the rest on his outside activities. He has accepted positions on multiple boards that are not relevant to our company but provide networking and resume building opportunities for him. He reports to a Board of Directors who doesn’t know of or understand these time-altering behavior patterns. Our small company is struggling in the recession and yet all the oars are not in the water. Other employees see this and question why. What do I say to our CEO about his time-wasting behavior? Signed,Lonely Exec  Dear Lonely, For the sake of my response, I’m going to take your statements at face value. I need to point this out in advance because I’m going to make a very strong suggestion for how you should handle this. If my assumptions are wrong, then my response may be excessive. Based on what you’ve written, I don’t think it is. I’m going to assume the following: 1. Your CEO is paid a full salary. 2. He is truly working ten to fifteen percent of a full-time job (i.e., this number is not an exaggeration on your part). 3. He might be receiving compensation for some of the outside work—or at a minimum is receiving personal gain through networking. 4. Your board is a governance (not just an advisory) board. In other words, they are responsible to represent the shareholders by holding him accountable. 5. You have fiduciary responsibility as one of the executives. If these statements are even largely true, then I have three crucial conversations and one piece of advice for you. Crucial Conversation #1: You owe it to your boss to confront him about the enormous gap you see between a normal CEO’s level of engagement and his current performance. You need to do this somewhat tentatively to begin with because there is some possibility he has a special employment relationship with the board that you are unaware of. If that turns out to be true, then you will discuss your concerns about whether this arrangement is functional for the company or not. If there is no special arrangement, and as you suspect, the board does not know, then you must move to . . . Crucial Conversation #2: You must let him know he is stealing from the company and that you have been an accomplice through your silence. Furthermore, you must inform him that you cannot continue as an accomplice. You would prefer that he raise the issue with the board and gain their approval for whatever work pattern he is willing to provide. If he does not, then you must move to . . . Crucial Conversation #3: You must report this concern to the board. Since I don’t know your board, I don’t know if it would be safest to meet with the chair privately, another board member who is a confidant and would trust your views, or with the full board in session. You’ll have to decide based on what will get your data the best hearing. Most people would never do this—but would either suffer in silence or just resign and blow the whistle after they leave. If you follow the order above, I believe you will hold yourself to a higher standard of loyalty and integrity. You will give your CEO the chance to restore his integrity, you will honor your loyalty to him, and you will restore the integrity you have lost through your silence. This is a much lonelier and more emotionally difficult path than the easier ways out—and that’s why I suggest making this choice requires impeccable character. Finally, the advice. Obviously, this approach is fraught with risks. The CEO could turn against you and try to get you fired. The board could disbelieve your perspective (by the way, you had better have data when you approach them). They might believe you but feel they have to be loyal to the CEO (a weak but possible outcome). In any case, you will have left neutral ground forever when you start this series of conversations. So you should have a backup plan in place. It’s easier to feel confident jumping off the cliff if you’ve checked the water depth first. This is a matter of integrity. You need to take these steps. But give yourself enough time to prepare escape plans that protect your interests and those of your family as best you can. I have not given tactical advice for the conversation. Please know that the statements I made above reflect the points you need to make in the crucial conversations—but they are not a "how to" for the conversation. Use all the skills we’ve described over time in this column—make it safe, lay out facts before tentatively sharing conclusions, and invite disagreement. If you follow those skills, you’ll give the CEO the best chance of understanding your legitimate concerns without taking personal offense. I’ve seen it done before. Practice, practice, practice in advance so you can approach this in a healthy way. Please drop me a line to let me know what you do. I will be happy to respond to more specific requests for coaching if it will help you get through this most crucial conversation. Sincerely, Joseph Related Material:Wasting Time in Meetings

Richard Kastelein commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

Lee J. Schneider commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Al Switzler is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE   Dear Crucial Skills, One of my coworkers said I didn’t involve him in a decision I made, but I did. I told him I relayed his input—he is the expert in this area—to another person, as he asked me to do. He said I made the decision to meet with this person without inviting him. When I try to explain what really happened, it just gets worse. What do you do when you feel you are falsely accused? Falsely Accused  Dear Accused, The situation you described certainly qualifies as a crucial conversation. High stakes are involved—potentially the project and certainly the working relationship are at risk—emotions are high, and you see things differently. As I try to answer the question you have posed, I want to do so by looking at a couple of options. Option 1 - Prioritize the incident. Your first option is to find enough Mutual Purpose and Mutual Respect to create safety and talk this incident through. I’m referring to your misunderstanding as an incident because it seems this is a one-time situation. The core problem is that you don’t agree on the facts. You see the same incident so differently that you have arrived at different conclusions and emotions. In teams and relationships (and even organizations) where there is little trust or where processes involve many steps and many people over a long period of time, individuals are required to write commitments down. Doing so makes the facts clear, or at least clearer. Also, people don’t have to rely on memory—which is not very reliable and thus not very safe. If you and your colleague had done that, some of the facts would have been clearer. However, some facts might still be unclear. Perhaps neither of you would have articulated that he expected to be invited to the meeting, so you would be at the same point—arguing about the facts. I bring this up to suggest that, while helpful, writing down all commitments is not a completely effective strategy. I will add emphatically, however, that when the two of you had the initial conversation about what you and he would do, if you had made sure you touched all the bases of WWWF (Who does What by When and how you’ll Follow up) you perhaps could have minimized the assumptions and the frustrations. Because it doesn’t sound like you were able to discuss all of these factors, I suggest you prioritize the incident by solving it quickly if you can or moving past it if you can’t. Option 2 - Clarify how you’ll work together in the future. To begin this conversation, you might want to say, "It’s clear that we see the incident about the meeting with Sarah very differently and we’ve not been able to agree on the facts. I’m wondering if we could talk about what we learned from it and how we can work better in the future so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again?" If the two of you can focus on going forward rather than dwelling on an incident in the past, you can find Mutual Purpose and Mutual Respect that will allow for dialogue. The purpose of dialogue is to learn, clarify agreements, make better decisions, and take committed action. By using the incident as a learning point, you can make agreements that will make future work better. In such a conversation, you might agree that when you make commitments together you’ll also consider what you’ll do if you run into conflicts, changes, or barriers. How will you touch base? How will you modify the plan you created? How will you assume the best until you can talk to your colleague if you hear of changes? So rather than trying to "solve" every incident, you agree on a process that will help you anticipate problems and act in ways that either resolve them or prevent them. I want to touch on your statement, "When I tried to explain what happened, it just got worse." If you hold this conversation about working together in the future well, you should be able to talk about what to do if future conflicts arise. Then, rather than disagreeing about what has already happened, you can have a conversation about how you plan to move forward. When colleagues or couples have had difficulties in the past, a good option is to learn from these misunderstandings and let those insights influence future behavior rather than simply clinging to the past. I wish you well,Al Related Material:Responding to Accusations Responding to Unwanted Parenting Advice Responding to Confidential Feedback

Lee J. Schneider commented on Uschi Schreiber's blog post Is Tech Really as Advanced as We Think?

Attending Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations Training has been of great benefit to me both personally and professionally. I am diligent about sharing the books, audio companions, and the Crucial Skills Newsletter with my staff. I work in a non-clinical department within a trauma center staffed by very experienced nurses in emergency and/or critical care—which contributes to the amazing and thorough work they do in their current roles. I shared your recent Q&A article, "Coping with the Loss of a Loved One" with my staff and received the following e-mail, titled "I felt like a nurse again," in response: "Last Wednesday as I was leaving the ICU, I did something I have often wanted to do but didn’t feel comfortable doing. A woman was walking down the hall toward the waiting room, and she was crying—not an uncommon sight. I slowed down, walked along side her, and said I was so sorry for whatever she was going through. I thought it was probably related to one of my patients, but I wasn’t positive. She seemed relieved and said, "It is so hard." I kept walking with her and asked if she was alone and if I could get her a drink of water. She said family was in the waiting room and that she had a bottle of water in her bag. Just before we got to the ICU waiting room, she stopped and leaned toward me for a hug, then stood for a few minutes before going into the waiting room. At that point, I left. "If it hadn’t been for the Crucial Skills Newsletter you sent and a recent experience with another coworker who recently lost her husband, I don’t think I would have had the courage to actually approach this woman. I am very thankful that I did so. "Years ago, I read a book written by a man whose young wife died in the ICU and he says the longest walk of your life is from the hospital to your car after your loved one has died. I have often wondered if there is any way someone can walk out with those folks who stand alone at the bedside when their family member dies. This is just another example of how a small gesture can make a large impact." So, I want to thank you for making these resources available to me and my staff. We still contribute to the profession we love and demonstrate this commitment to our patients, families, and associates.

Victor Cruz commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

Othmane Zrikem commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

I hear this question from participants almost every time I facilitate Crucial Conversations. Here are some thoughts: I often ask participants, "When you are trying to push (interesting choice of words) your purpose? What is your strategy?" The common response, in one form or another, is usually "verbal persuasion." At that point, I usually pull a Dr. Phil on them and ask them, "How’s that working for you?" The response is often, "Not so good!" After some gentle questioning and exploring of others’ paths, many participants come to the conclusion that verbal persuasion is usually not a Mutual Purpose process but rather a "Your Purpose" process. I then ask, "So, what do you do when verbal persuasion fails you?" You can see learners put on their thinking caps. The customary response to that question is, "We usually compromise at that point." And that leads us to the following question: "Is compromise a bad thing when you are trying to create Mutual Purpose?" In life we make many compromises. We compromise in our homes with loved ones. We compromise at school with fellow students and teachers. We compromise at work with fellow employees, bosses, and other stakeholders. You may even have to compromise with the IRS! (Whoa—too much information!) Compromising is not a bad thing when you are stuck, but there are better options. Merriam-Webster defines a compromise as "a settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions." And there’s the rub. A mutual purpose feels good—both parties contributing to the Pool of Shared Meaning and achieving something they care about. A mutual concession doesn’t feel that good—the pool feels like it has sprung a leak. When you compromise, it is sometimes very difficult if not impossible to create a true Mutual Purpose. An old football coach I once knew hated ties. He had been quoted more than once saying that a 7-7 tie with your neighboring town’s team was like "kissing your sister." It’s a nice gesture, but not a whole lot of fun. The same thing can be said about compromising to try to get to Mutual Purpose. A compromise or a concession makes most people feel a little disappointed and not overly positive, which hampers the Mutual Purpose process. So what can you do when you are at cross-purposes? And if you live on planet Earth, you will often be at cross-purposes. Create Mutual Purpose using the following four skills: Commit to seek Mutual Purpose Recognize the purpose behind the strategy Invent a Mutual Purpose Brainstorm new strategies With these skills, you don’t give anything up in a compromise. You actually create new ideas that incorporate the important points from everyone’s original thoughts, ideas or decisions. The more I work with these four skills, the more I see how important they are in helping you align your ideas with others to get better results. One last big idea on creating Mutual Purpose: many people think that inventing and brainstorming are the most important of the skills, but I would argue that committing to seek Mutual Purpose and recognizing the purpose behind the strategy are the most crucial. These skills allow you to build safety with the other person and get to inventing and brainstorming in order to truly create a Mutual Purpose and get you the result you both want.

Ronald Shane Flynn commented on Elaine Chen's blog post How a Technology-Push Process Led to the Reboot of Google Glass

Ronald Shane Flynn commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

ABOUT THE EXPERT Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts. READ MORE This classic scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off comes to mind each time I prepare to train a new group. For those of you who have seen the movie, you’ll remember this scene. Ferris is absent from class. His teacher monotonously says his name during roll call in hopes that repetition will work its magic and Ferris will somehow show up. I’ve realized over the years that, like Ferris Bueller’s teacher, our participants are hoping that we show up—and not just physically. It’s one thing to be physically present, but the participants of today expect more. They expect us to be present with them, not just present in the room. Able to read the group’s interest level and respond accordingly. Able to apply the material to their circumstances. Able to inscribe a personalized message on their heart, mind, and soul! Well, or at least a personalized message on the inside cover of their participant guide. I think you know what I mean. So what’s your trick—what do you do in your preparation or during the session that allows you to be present with your participants? I’m interested in two categories of responses here: 1) what advice do you have for trainers who are fairly new to the VitalSmarts suite of programs and 2) what advice do you have for trainers who are so familiar with the suite they run the risk of phoning in their training? Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts below. Related Material:From the Road: Break the Plane From the Road: At the End of the Day From the Road: Do You Know Where Your Participants Are?

Ronald Shane Flynn commented on Jean-Christophe Zufferey's blog post Saving the Planet, One Drone Flight at a Time

Romney and Obama aren’t the only ones taking sides in intense debates this election season. According to our recent poll, 62 percent of Americans have found themselves in heated debates and the victims of verbal attacks when discussing politics—with their friends. According to the survey: Three out of five say they’ve had a political conversation damage a relationship with a friend, family member or coworker, and 14 percent say the relationship never truly recovered. Only 15 percent of respondents believe they can express their full political views to others without getting upset. Rather than risk an emotional verbal battle, 86 percent avoid political discussions and one in 10 report they stay away from political banter at all costs. You don’t have to be a pushover or stay silent in order to keep your friends this election season. Here are four tips for successfully talking politics with friends, family, and coworkers: Look for areas of agreement. Let the other person know you share common goals, even if your preferred tactics for achieving them differ. Avoid personal attacks. While you don’t have to agree with the other person’s view, you can still acknowledge that his or her view is valid, rather than "idiotic" or "evil." Focus on facts and be tentative. Consider the source of your facts, and ask the other person to do the same. Ask two questions: Could the facts be biased? Could they be interpreted differently? Look for signs of disagreement. If the other person grows quiet or starts to become defensive, reinforce your respect and remind him or her of the broader purpose you both share. Related Material:Crucial Applications: How to Talk Sports and Keep Your Friends Crucial Applications: Talking About Holiday Finances Crucial Applications: Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

Vicki Butler commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

Jonathan Marks commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Maxfield is coauthor of two New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I’m in a weight loss program to lose the first fifty pounds and had a breakthrough of why I sabotage my weight loss efforts. I realized that I am negatively affected by my mother’s years of criticism of me and others who are overweight. I want to rid myself of these negative feelings, but I don’t know how to do that. Can you help me overcome my negative feelings so I don’t keep sabotaging my weight loss efforts? Sabotaged Efforts  Dear Sabotaged, Thanks for your question. Many of us are working to lose weight or conquer other stubborn habits and your question taps in to several of the reasons we struggle. If we can answer your question, I think we’ll all benefit. I’m going to use concepts from our book, Change Anything, to suggest some possible solutions. Be the scientist and the subject. We are all subjects in other people’s science experiments. People poke, prod, and provoke us to see if they can influence our behavior. The challenge is that many of these people are marketers and salespeople who don’t have our best interests at heart. Even when they do want what’s best for us—as your mother probably did—their actions often backfire, hurting us more than they help. The solution is for you to become the scientist as well as the subject. Study your own behavior the way a scientist would. Instead of being discouraged by your setbacks, be curious about them. Notice, it was when you became curious about your self-sabotaging that you discovered the link to your mother’s criticism. This is a good first step. Turn a bad day into good data. What you’ve discovered is a crucial moment—a time, situation, or circumstance when your success is especially at risk. Your particular crucial moment occurs when broken records begin to play in your head, repeating criticisms you remember from years ago. The risk in these crucial moments is that you will respond the same way you did years ago—with defiance. For example, the record in your head says, "Nobody will love you if you look like that . . ." and your automatic response is, "Oh yeah? Watch me eat this dessert and prove you wrong!" Use a personal motivation statement. You need to find a way to replace your automatic, unhealthy response with a positive, healthy one. One tactic to try is a personal motivation statement. The statement should refute the automatic response and reconnect you with the positive reasons for sticking to your change plan. For example, it might say, "This isn’t about my mother or what she wanted. It’s about me, and what I want. What I really want is . . ." You might write this statement on a 3×5 card that you take out and read when broken records are playing in your head. Learn new ways to manage your moods. Many of our bad habits are misguided attempts to manage our moods. For example, we eat when we feel down or we smoke when we feel frustrated. My bet is that the records you play in your head don’t just provoke your defiance; they make you feel lousy inside. If that’s true, then you need a healthy, positive way to boost your mood without busting your diet. Managing our moods is a skill many of us never learned or never learned well. Our mood management attempts often involve spoiling or indulging ourselves. But there are far better ways to improve our state of mind. For example, recent research shows that doing something for someone else is far more effective than indulging ourselves. My mother says, "If you feel you need help, then go help someone," and she’s right. Become the scientist again, and look for better ways to boost your moods. For example, the Pleasant Events Schedule is a list of 320 different activities that people enjoy and is one place to begin your search. You can sort through the list and pick five or ten that might boost your mood. Try them. Test them out until you find a few that reliably work for you. Just make sure they boost your mood without introducing or reinforcing unwanted habits. My closing suggestion is to remain the active scientist. Be the one who takes the reins and designs the experiments that will move your life forward. And remember that many of our bad habits started as solutions to problems that were real and remain real. We can’t just stop these bad habits; we need to replace them with more effective and healthier ones. David Related Material:Crucial Applications: A Six-Step Formula to Help Kids Lose Weight Change Anything: A Weight Loss Mind-set

John Rampton commented on Mike Barton's blog post The Insights Community Is Taking a Break

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Listen to Kerrying On via MP3 To pay homage to the tens of millions of people out there who labor long and hard for all of us (often with little pay and virtually no recognition), today I honor my grandfather, The Merchant of Bellingham. During WWII, my father worked for Boeing as the team leader of a group of craftsmen. They produced the mechanism that makes it possible to lower bomber landing gear by hand (should something go wrong with the automated equipment). When the war came to an end and there was no longer a need for life-saving bomber equipment, Dad was out of work. That is, until he stumbled on the idea of owning and operating a small grocery store—the kind you could find just about every six blocks in the mid-forties. As it turned out, Dad wasn’t cut out for such employment (he ended up in apartment management), so Grandpa took charge of the store. He moved in, we moved out, and over the next twenty years, my grandfather (a fiery five-foot-two Irishman with a cigar stub perennially stuck in the corner of his mouth) became "pop" to everyone who stopped by the store to pick up a quart of milk and chat about the weather. One day when I asked Grandpa what he called himself (I knew what he did, I just didn’t know what to call it), he told me he was a "merchant." I haven’t heard anyone use that term since then, but when Grandpa claimed the title, it was clear that a merchant was something special. He always dressed in wool suit pants, a white shirt and tie, and a crisp green apron. And whether he was candling eggs, putting away redeemable bottles, or standing patiently as a child picked out five cents worth of penny candy, Grandpa attacked the task with the pride and precision of a physician performing surgery. After all, he was a merchant. I remember watching Grandpa patiently wait on people of every ilk and disposition. Since his store was located in a rather poor neighborhood, there was no telling who would walk in the front door or what they might require. Several individuals who were learning disabled frequently found their way to his establishment. They’d shyly point at the items they wanted, reach into their pocket, and pull out a handful of crumpled bills and loose coins. Then, without making a big deal of it, Grandpa would pick out the right amount of money, bag the groceries, and send the customer on his or her way with a hearty "thank you." One time, a couple of teenage boys who were in the store ridiculed an adult customer who had been unable to count his money, and later that day when the boys returned for a soda pop, Grandpa counseled them on showing respect for all people. Grandpa had spent the first forty years of his career as a bit of a celebrity in the lumber business. He was such a whiz with numbers that he could walk through an entire lumber mill and keep track of the board footage in his head. He had earned a great deal of respect performing these calculations, so you might suspect that in his senior years, he’d find the task of waiting on people to be beneath him. But he didn’t. Grandpa often told me it was an honor, even noble, to help others meet their needs. After all, he was a merchant. People counted on Grandpa and Grandpa knew it. After my first year of college, I prepared to travel abroad for two years. One Sunday afternoon, and at the very last minute, I asked Grandpa to attend my going-away speech at church. He replied with a look of utter shock, "I can’t close the store!" (He kept it open thirteen hours a day, seven days a week.) "What if Mrs. Eherenfieldt needs some cheese for her casserole? Or what if Ronnie Kepler falls and skins his knee? Where will Mrs. Kepler get a Band-Aid?" My father had made precision landing gear that saved whole bomber crews. Grandpa provided cheese and Band-Aids and saw himself as equally important. And he was. Along with the cheese and Band-Aids, Grandpa doled out friendly banter and helpful advice. I remember watching him celebrate with a young man who had just been admitted to a prestigious college. Granddad had watched him grow up. A penny-candy kid who excelled in math and who Grandpa saw as one of his protégés. Grandpa had taught him math tricks and study techniques. It was all part of the services rendered at Noonan’s Grocery. Sometimes, people came to the store, glanced around nervously, and then timidly whispered in Grandpa’s ear. Years later, I learned that they asked for credit. They needed food for their tables and Grandpa would be the one who supplied it. Over the years, I heard some criticize Grandpa for extending credit to people whom nobody else would ever float a loan. Most paid him back, but a lot never came up with the money so at the end of the day, Grandpa didn’t make much of a profit. When I asked him about the practice of making bad loans, he smiled knowingly and explained that his mission covered more than simply making money. One day, as I stopped by the store to pick up a loaf of bread, two rather somber looking gentlemen in dark suits were exiting the place. "Those fellows were FBI agents," Grandpa explained. "They come by every once in a while when one of the locals applies for a Federal job that calls for a background investigation. They talk to me about the candidate. You know, did he steal stuff as a kid? Things like that." Grandpa loved being a merchant who sat in the social and commercial center of the neighborhood. Partly because of the nature of the job and partly because he simply loved to work. In 1966, when my folks moved to Arizona, they invited Grandpa to come live with them in the land of sunshine and oranges. Grandpa wrote back that he’d enjoy the change in weather, but that he’d be staying in Bellingham. After all, (and I quote from his letter) "you know how hard it is for a man my age to find a job." Grandpa was eighty-six at the time and hadn’t realized that Mom was asking him to retire. The thought had never entered his head. Two years later, while fetching a cold bottle of soda pop for Tim Harmon (a young man with learning disabilities who had grown up hanging out at the store), Grandpa had a stroke and fell to the floor. Tim, not knowing how to operate a phone to call for medical help, ran out the front door and tried his best to flag down a passing car until someone pulled over to lend a hand. Tim gently cradled Grandpa in his arms until an ambulance eventually arrived. "Pop" had fallen and Tim, loving him like his own grandfather, gently comforted the man who had served so many for so long. "Call the bread man and ask him to remove the stock from the shelves. It’ll go bad," Grandpa managed to utter as the ambulance pulled off. "We can’t be selling stale bread. Mrs. Eherenfieldt will never be satisfied with stale bread." And such were the last words of the Merchant of Bellingham. Related Material:Kerrying On: Just a Child Kerrying On: My Favorite Gift Kerrying On: Tombstone Talk

Matt Stevenson is now a member of Innovation Insights