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Culture, schmaltzer.
We feel that this aspect of our business sets us apart from 99% of our associates in that we really take the time to contemplate how we are affecting people's lives. After all, we invest a good portion of our lives in our employment roles and it is essential to everyone's well being that we contemplate exactly how we're going to stand out from the crowd. Thank you for taking the time to read these philosophies and feel free to utilize some or all of them in your own enterprise and life.  Nothing else affects everything like integrity. In the book It's Not the Big that Eat the Small, It's the Fast that Eat the Slow, authors Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton tell the story about a banker who gave them this advice about integrity:
"Sometimes you have to bullshit your friends and tell them everything is okay when it's not; it's not right, but that's the way it is. Sometimes you have to bullshit your employees by telling them that everything is alright when it's not; it isn't right but that's the way things are. But show me someone who bullshits themselves and I'll show you someone who is headed for trouble." For
us, Integrity is about not bullshitting ourselves and this philosophy
must originate with the owners and managers of our company. We work
diligently to understand and respond to reality by keeping our ears to
the ground through regular meetings with our suppliers, customers and
inspectors.
 As
long as we're being honest with ourselves, how about contemplating our
willingness to admit mistakes (easier said than done...), learn from them and then adjust our
actions to produce better outcomes.
We pride ourselves in focusing on being a learning organization. Our working environment is one of zero blame & 100% responsibility. The way we see it, blame looks to the past while responsibility is a guide for the future. Responsibility demands full disclosure when things go wrong and not climbing anybody's frame because they made a mistake. Hey, crapola happens and the only way to avoid encountering mistakes is to do nothing... and that's not an option in our company.  We
want
our kids to play safe which means somebody better be looking out
for them at all times. This is also why we invest a ton of resources
into training to keep our folks safe. The way we figure it, there
isn't much sense in us focusing on building self esteem if we don't keep bodies intact.  To force a decision on such passionately held notions we must engage the full force of our universe by enlisting a powerful secret weapon which causes decisive hands to tremble in anticipation of a favorable outcome. Roshambo to the rescue. It takes guts, confidence and some pretty tricky hand movements to master this procedure but over time you too, can learn to wield the humbling power of this remarkable maneuver. At the height of disagreement the verbal combatants will face each other in a room filled with interested onlookers (kind of like gladiators) to release their influential capabilities of rock, paper, and scissors. To ensure the outcome is not determined by chance, we employ the old best out of three scenario. The procedure may not be perfect, but it works a hail of a lot better than backstabbing, denigrating and avoiding tough decisions due to some opposition. Through this minor but intellectually superior system, dignity, respect and idea generating machines live on to play fisticuffs another day. Roshambo man, that's what life is all about!  W.L.Gore and Associates
is a company we want to emulate. Bill Gore was the first to set up a
company that is able to operate effectively without hierarchy. They
describe their structure as a "flat lattice" interpersonal network and
it works much better for their organization than the typical top down
arrangement which most companies rely upon. We see this leveling aspect
of our company to be an equalizer which will generate more integration
and understanding of the challenges our associates face on a daily
basis.
We believe that leveling the playing field in our
business will allow for a more productive flow of information from the
people in planning to the people in operations and for everybody in
between.
 We ask the same thing and we try to do it before we need to beat the hail out of anybody. Most people would agree that respect should be the norm but sadly, that's not the case. We have snagged many employees from other companies because the old employer didn't have a clue about how to treat humans with a wee bit of courtesy or a dab of dignity.   What? You didn't think we knew any big words?! Participative meritocracy is a longish type phrase that means you won't be passed over for a promotion because our kids or their cousins are working in the company. (they're not, in case you're wondering) The participative part ensures our outfit is managed by everyone and not just to save us a ton of coin on managers. We invite partners into this endeavor for more than the use of their bodies. We want your opinions, experience and your voice because from day one you'll be making integral management decisions in this syndicate. You probably guessed that meritocracy has something to do with merit and if you did, you're right on the money and getting closer to becoming our favorite person. ;-) It really bends our bandanas how so many organizations today promote people based on their willingness to come in second at golf or sacrifice themselves by falling on the company's free overtime sword. We leave that crapola to the normal enterprises while we focus on promoting folks who deserve it because they've produced great results in the past and not because the CEO is their uncle twice removed. Sure, good attitude matters but that's just the drink that gets our party started. If there's no performance there can be no medals.  No Jerks. Period. Have you ever married the wrong person? (Yikes!) It all starts out innocently enough but quickly deteriorates into the kind of party only lawyers enjoy. We made a similar mistake when we hired an employee who could easily do the job but who eventually revealed an attitude which was pure poison for our corporate culture. Through nefarious means, this person wreaked havoc upon our entire company - eventually causing the demise of several employees within our organization. Robert I. Sutton describes these individuals clearly in his book The No Assholes Rule where he informs readers what to watch for when attempting to ferret out these undesirable employees before they crater an entire company. Our L. Kennedy Rule agrees with Sutton's rule which depicts the following unacceptable behavior; 1. Personal insults 2. Invading one's personal territory 3. Uninvited personal contact 4. Threats and intimidation, both verbal and non verbal 5. Sarcastic jokes and teasing used as an insult delivery system 6. Withering email flames 7. Status slaps intended to humiliate their victims 8. Public shaming or status degradation rituals 9. Rude interruptions 10.Two-faced attacks 11.Dirty looks 12.Treating people as if they are invisible (unless of course, it's Captain Invisible...)  We learned the value of anticipation only a few short years ago and it has worked wonders for us. This philosophy causes us to see a lot more of reality because we're always looking ahead to see what might be coming down the pike. And things are always coming... The
fast pace of life and business today means that we must be ever more
vigilant about the potential futures we might be living. So whether its
strategic thinking or dodging a bullet - our ability to anticipate is
one skill we can't do without.
 Not us. We understand that profit comes a-tap tapping on our front door AFTER we have provided a valuable service to our fellow earthlings. Profit is like friendship in that we can't seek it directly and it doesn't show up just because you still have your neighbor's boat. (yeah, maybe that wasn't a good example...) As our old friend Zig Ziglar said: "You will get what you want when you've helped enough other people get what they want." Boy, those are dang good words. Profit will be attracted to our business through these maxims:
 This is the Golden Rule
in action. Someone helps you, you help them. A person smiles at you,
you return the good deed and smile right back. A stranger does
something wicked to your in-laws, you buy that thoughtful person a nice
gift... ;-)
Reciprocity is a great philosophy to convey because our employees and business partners will come to understand that their good deeds will not go unrewarded. We could use a lot more of this "pay it forward" kind of attitude in the world. People need to know that beyond all the hocus pokus there are a pile of grand schemes and big dreams just waiting for some small sign of empathy and understanding. We are constantly on the lookout for folks who care enough about their neighbors to actually do something good and true and right.  Humans are awesome.
We see Dick run and Jane jump and in no time flat we can whip some copy cat on their arses to start running and jumping ourselves. Just before we have the run / jump thing figured out some non- conformist dasher tag-teams skipping & hopping with their hyper brothers, running and jumping, who together learn how to master a ball. See where this is going? Next comes tall socks, brightly colored knobby shoes and presto chango! Soccer. Then we change the shape of the ball (maybe round and flat) and give them helmets and a stick. Before long we're adding television, beer, pretty girls and marching bands. It never stops. Yep, humans are dang awesome. We like Human.  So you know that we know... here are the four levels of human comprehension: 1. Unconscious incompetence - You don't know you don't know. (Duh...) 2. Conscious Incompetence - You know you don't know. (D'oh!) 3. Conscious Competence - You know you know. (Uh Huh) 4. Unconscious Competence - You don't know you know. (Hmmm) Many
employees who come to us are at level one of comprehension - they don't
know what they don't know. Through asking questions and plenty of
'splainin', we can easily move them to the second level were they begin
to understand what they don't know.
See how easy this is?! Once we are able to show people what they don't know, we can move them to the next level - to knowing something. After a very short time, they know that they know - Level 3. Before we know it, this person who didn't know squat is now showing other people what they know. What the...? There comes a time when the knowledge we've gained becomes a part of who we are and we stop recognizing that we're so dang smart. Bingo! Level 4 - We don't know that we know! And therein lies the rub - you might be one smart cookie but not think you have anything to offer. Well, I'm here to tell you that you do have something we're looking for - and you know what it is! (See? Now I'm confused...)  Mr.
Laverty is an angry person and he wants everybody else to suffer from
high blood pressure, too. He rants, he raves and he is one of those
despicable scoundrels that hates to see people acting in a sane manner. We wondered if we should be doing business with him right from the start because he verbalized that everyone else who had worked for him were idiots, crack heads, and just generally retarded people. It turns out that we were dorks and lamebrains of the first order. Laverty raked us over the coals and then took us to the cleaners. He was SMOOTH! From him we learned more about how we should never ignore our gut feelings and that we should pay attention to that "still small voice within." Mr. Laverty showed us how vulnerable we were to being bullied and coerced into doing the wrong thing. Never again Mr. Laverty, never again!  He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still Which he may adhere to, yet disown, For reasons to himself best known
Have
you ever known someone who was so right that you just wanted to smack
the "right-ness" out of them? Being right isn't always good, especially
if you have a habit of polishing your correctivity in front of others. If fact, there are times when we have to go even further than not claiming rightness; we have to bite our supposedly intellectually superior tongues almost in half as we allow another person to claim a insignificant yet glaring factual error. "Prince Charles is the Queen of England." would garner our silence. Being right has its moments. Being LEFT is about choosing battles wisely, rolling with the punches, and taking our jobs seriously without forgetting this is a game for grownups, we cannot take ourselves so seriously. Foibles man, we collect 'em, talk about them and appreciate them. Our willingness to accept a less than perfect reality drops blood pressure, reduces unrealistic expectations and allows mistakes. The wise man was asked: "How do we attain wisdom, oh great one?" "Good judgement" says the guru. "Excellent!" exclaim the seekers. "And how do we achieve good judgement?" they plead of the wise man. "Bad judgement" he replies. At Thermal Optics, we're not about always being right. We're more about being confident and intelligent enough to realize when your point of view is worth fighting for. Life is interpretation and we've got to constantly remind ourselves that being right doesn't fix anything if you've just been kicked out of the game.  These
folks are larger, older kids who think the same way they did 20 years
ago. Constantly on the defense, these fake adults are easily
distracted, effortlessly go off the deep end and will switch teams in a
minute if it appears that a loss is looming. "It wasn't me!" is the oft
heard refrain from these sore losers.
Not at DuctHide Tough Wearalbes.
We encourage personal responsibility from our people and to be successful at this game we must be willing to recognize new methods of interacting between ourselves and reality. Recognizing, attempting and adapting - over and over, it never stops. In our leadership courses, we inform our folks about homeostasis and how it attempts to drown us in our own comfort zones. Hail, just knowing about this wondrous aspect of being human allows our people to work around any issues of resistance to change. At DuctHide Tough Wearables we recognize that change is inevitable so we might as well learn to adapt by controlling how we respond to it and then plan properly so we can direct the changes we encounter.  This
journey requires our total commitment to overcoming the serious
challenges which plague anyone who tries to operate on the edge of
their abilities. We make mistakes, correct them and apply our new found
knowledge in the pursuit of better methods of dealing with technology
or people. Continuous striving is so demanding that its not hard to
think of quitting but as soon as the urge to pull in our horns occurs,
we regroup and pour on the coal to reach the next level of our dream.
While
there's always some point at which we should take an informed look at
where we're heading - this is an alteration of course, not the end of
the trip. There will always be obstacles to whatever we're attempting
and its how we handle those hurdles that allows us to develop into
whomever we need to be to achieve our goals.
Besides, what we consider to be tough slugging can be a cakewalk to so many who went before us on the road less traveled. How about promising yourself today that you're gonna keep on keeping on no matter what happens? You'll be pleasantly surprised at what you achieve when you take that leap of faith! Say it... Regardless, Press On!  Call
it synergy, cooperation or teamwork. When like minded people get
together, there's no force in the world that can stop them. We are so
fortunate to have attracted some of the best minds on the planet to the
country of DuctHide Tough Wearables and we are honored to witness these
folks expanding their capabilities through coordinated effort.
Clear direction coupled with purposeful action is the catalyst which moves mountains and begins legacies. Our role as owners of Thermal Optics Inc. gives us the incredible opportunity of surrounding ourselves with people who are smarter than us and who can produce awesome results through their combined efforts. Its a job we take very seriously because if we do this right, the stage will be set for the development of an unstoppable company which provides a proving ground for anyone who feels the urge to change the world. C'mon dear reader, Lets get Gelling! He uses his intelligence to implore others to use theirs and he achieves this through simple directives like the one above. His book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People should be mandatory reading for anyone who desires a better way of living. This simple system has provided much needed guidance for millions of people who want to better understand their potential reality. Following Steven's simple guidelines will keep you on the straight and narrow, too. Take a gander at this simple process: 1. Be Proactive 2. Begin with the end in mind 3. Put First Things First 4.Think Win / Win 5. Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood 6. Synergize 7. Sharpen the Saw Hail, even old codgers like us can follow seven simple steps, how about you? questions@ducthide.com Items in stock ship within 24 hrs, 72 hrs if out of stock. Please see shipping rates HERE 
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Wearables
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Right On, 
