Category: The 10 Quick Tips

Ten Tips, Tactics, Approaches and Skills to Improve Leadership, Work Culture and Life.

Conflict or Clash?

  By ,

Apply Understanding and Awareness Before Resolving Conflict

By Kim Price

Chances are, you will work with someone that you do not get along with at some point in your career. When my kids complain to me about unkind teachers, or group work with peers that do not pull their weight, I tell them to view these experiences as valuable preparation for the workforce, where they will undoubtedly encounter bosses who lack empathy, co-workers who spend more time making excuses than producing results, and customers who are simply mean. And if you’ve ever had to take a stand on an issue, a decision, or a project, you may have found yourself in conflict with one of your colleagues and/or managers.

There are different strategies for handling conflict in the workplace, but before you jump into conflict resolution mode, take a moment to understand what the real problem is, what your role is in the situation, and what your motivation is for resolving it.

What is real problem? Is it a disagreement about a course of action on a project, or is it a clash of personalities? Is your reaction based on the merits of the action, or the behavior of the person who made the decision? If your conflict is based on a clash of personalities, it is important that you understand your role in the conflict.

What is your role? Always remember this: you can only control your own behavior. You may have developed strong active listening skills and worked very hard to demonstrate emotional intelligence traits like self-awareness, self-control, social skills, and empathy. But you cannot control the way another person hears your message, no matter how well you express your thoughts and ideas. Ask yourself, did you do everything you could to convey your point of view with clarity, consideration, and respect?

What is your motivation for resolving it? Take a step back and evaluate the value of the relationship in terms of how it impacts your job function, to determine if it is worth the effort. If it is a matter of clashing personalities (and not, say, a conflict over a business decision), and you otherwise rarely work with the person, would it be easier for you to just let it go? Can you work productively with somebody that you dislike (or who dislikes you)?

There is no doubt that conflict in the workplace can cause a great deal of stress, turning a dream job into 40 hours a week of misery. But if you are going to invest your time and energy trying to resolve a conflict, be sure that you understand what the problem is, what your role is, and why you want to resolve it, so that your energy can be focused on solving the real problem. And temper your expectations; there are bound to be personalities that you will never enjoy working with (and vice versa).

So are you stuck working with somebody you dislike? It might happen; if it does, let me share a strategy that has helped me work with the toughest personalities. I once worked for a boss that was very unlikable; this person was often rude and occasionally horribly insensitive to our customers, to my co-workers, to other leaders in the organization and (I’m told, behind my back) to me. But I really loved the job and the potential it had for advancing my career in a field I have a great deal of passion in. So instead of dwelling on the behaviors that disliked, I made a point of discovering something about this person I genuinely liked. For this boss, it was specific area of expertise. I found that by concentrating on a positive aspect of this person’s behavior, I was able to stay positive and productive in my own role (rather than dwelling in the negative – not great for productivity). I will admit that over time this person’s behavior led me to look for opportunities outside the organization. But I wasn’t making myself miserable while waiting for another job opportunity to arise, which helped me stay in a positive mindset for my next employer. Again, you can only control your own behavior.

Kim Price is an exceptionally gifted instructional designer and online learning content producer.

Kim’s love for technology opened the doors for her to teach in higher education; first at the College of Southern Nevada, and later at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. With over a decade teaching experience in higher education, Kim realized her passion for designing and facilitating learning experiences that make smart people even smarter. She continues to cultivate her passion for teaching and technology as a technology trainer in higher education.

Aegis Cares – More Than Just Words

  By ,

Actions Create Lasting Changes

Aegis Learning Cares

Words in a mission statement are easy to write.  

Core values are easy to craft.

What is harder is to live by those values and words and Aegis Cares is doing just that.

We have begun the year by working with and supporting the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, Special Olympics and the American Lung Association.  In March and April, we have two service events planned and hope you can join us as we help our communities.

#powerof1

#risetopurpose

Creating a Wave of Positive Change

One of our long-time Aegis Cares volunteers, Robert Rippee, has decided to form his own group of grad student volunteers from UNLV and serve at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission.  Well done Robert and what an exceptional example you have set for selfless service to our community.

Robert Rippee

Aegis Learning Cares 2018
Aegis Learning Cares 2018
Aegis Learning Cares 2018
Join Aegis Cares Facebook Group

Join our Facebook group to receive updates and to participate in Aegis Cares campaigns and events.

Collaborative Decision Making

  By ,
Tim Schneider, Coach, Speaker, Author and Trainer from Aegis Learning

Better Decisions Require Input and Collaboration

By Tim Schneider

Two great leadership fears are associated with collaborative decision making. Like most fears, they are baseless and concocted by the enemy that resides on your shoulders.

Some people in leadership positions fear using a collaborative approach in decision making because it would make them look weak and indecisive. Nothing could be further from the truth. First, the leader always retains the right and responsibility to make the final decision and veto the input from others. This is not always prudent but no one removes a leader’s ability to make the final choice after seeking input and collaboration.

The other fear that leaders often connect to collaborative decision making is that through seeking input the decision will become a popularity contest and the pig with the best lipstick will win. Again this is a baseless fear and collaboration is not about incorporating democracy and voting to an issue, it is simply about seeking input.

To obtain collaboration, the leader must create an environment in which team members and peer leaders feel safe and that their opinion is valued. There can be no besmirching, belittling or dismissing of input. All input, even those contrary to your opinion must be appreciated and valued. This is not about changing your mind but about selecting the best course of action and decision for the organization.

Many traditional methods of collaboration don’t work. Brain storming and the unwarned introduction of a topic yield very little results. To get someone’s thoughts on a subject, process or decision point, effective leaders have found that a private, direct and previewed approach work best. The leader will announce that one of the subjects during one-on-one meetings will be a particular decision or direction element and that gives team members or peers a chance to think about it and process their own conclusions. The privacy element also reduces any team member’s trepidation about public comment or fear of embarrassment.

Collaboration also implies that the leader will be open to suggestions and different perspectives. If that is not the case, future attempts at collaboration and seeking input will be hampered.

A collaborative approach to decision making is more time consuming and requires more effort but it yields significantly better decisions when done well. Ownership of the decision is enhanced through feedback and input. Unintended consequences are uncovered. Different perspectives are considered. New ideas are found.

Tim Schneider

Tim Schneider is the founder, CEO and lead facilitator for Aegis Learning.  

Without Failure, Who Would You Be?

  By ,

Create Safety and Learning from Failure Moments

By Camina Stevenson

For genuine football fans, this probably won’t seem like a new story. However, I would venture to guess, many haven’t heard the tale of a modern-day, football folk hero named Nicholas “Nick” Foles. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Nick possessed a natural talent for the sport but definitely wasn’t always a starting quarterback. He didn’t know he would one day grow up to defeat Tom Brady and help dismantle the New England Patriot dynasty to make Super Bowl 52 history.

As a kid, Nick just loved the sport. He practiced relentlessly, dropping, fumbling and launching hundreds of football passes day and night before earning his way onto the high school varsity team. He didn’t win any high school football championships. Nick graduated from Westlake High in 2007 and continued playing in college but ended up having to redshirt twice, once for the 2008 freshman season and again during his 2010 junior season. Despite these setbacks, he was selected by The Philadelphia Eagles as the 88th pick in round three of the 2012 NFL draft.

After four seasons, the team that drafted Nick Foles to the NFL, no longer saw his worth. He was traded to the St. Louis Rams and played one season. Foles was unhappy with the trade. His performance on the field languished to the point where Nick thought he had surely lost love for the game. He considered retiring from the NFL and giving up the sport for good but changed his mind after going on a camping trip and having a heart-to-heart with family. He turned to his personal faith and decided it wasn’t time to quit.

In 2016, Nick signed on with the Kansas City, Chiefs as a backup quarterback. When the Chiefs declined a second-year option on his contract, he departed as a free agent and through an ironic twist of fate, ended up inking a two-year deal with the first team he ever played for in the NFL: The Philadelphia Eagles. This homecoming was bittersweet. Despite his return to the Eagles and playing once again with the team he loved and had never wanted to leave, Foles found himself mostly on the sidelines as a backup to Philadelphia’s all-star, franchise quarterback, Carson Wentz.

Then, it happened. Wentz suffered a season-ending injury during the NFC playoffs and Nick Foles – The Backup, The Unlikely Hero, The Lost Quarterback – stepped in and lifted the Philadelphia Eagles to unexpected heights of superstardom and glory.

Foles made Super Bowl history as the first quarterback to ever lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl title and can now be celebrated as the first player to ever throw and catch a touchdown in one Super Bowl game. While being honored as the reigning Champion and Super Bowl 52 MVP, Nick was asked to reflect on his career success and his response to the crowd was simple, humble and true:

“I think the big thing is don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is a part of life. It’s a part of building character and growing. Without failure, who would you be?”

Take a moment and envision one major career accomplishment you have achieved in your life. You may not have won any Super Bowl championships, but think big. Choose an undeniably bright highlight from your own personal success story. Now how did you get there?

Whenever you imagine the string of events leading you to any defined moment of success, you will probably recognize the familiar faces of people who went out of their way to help you along the journey. But do you also glance back like Nick Foles and see the questionable decisions you made, the setbacks, the disappointments, the wrong turns and missteps, the embarrassing, humiliating falls? Do you recognize the countless number of clumsy, awkward attempts it may have taken while learning to master new sets of skills? How many times were you turned away or rejected? How many times did you fail before you could ultimately succeed? These failures, every single one of them, taught you one invaluable lesson after another to help you become the person and leader you are today.

As someone taking on a leadership role in your organization, you may already have an awareness and understanding that spectacular failure is the only true path to success. So, have you given your team members enough opportunities to fail gracefully and spectacularly on their own?

Without creating opportunities for your team members to make mistakes, where will your team be around this time next year? They will stagnate. They will lose interest or burn out. Your team members share a fundamental emotional need to work in a supportive, empathic environment where they are free to make (guided) mistakes in order to learn, expand, innovate and grow.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEAM MEMBERS TO FAIL GRACEFULLY & SUCCEED

• Encourage others to step beyond their comfort zone. This means, delegate! Know they will fail sometimes but that’s part of the progress. Coach them through the mistakes.

• Don’t be afraid to let your team members know that failure is the only path to success. We must try many times to succeed. Pushing forward and learning to be resilient will be an important lesson.

• Remind team members that we learn about ourselves when we fail. We learn how to work together or form new strategies. We learn what works and what doesn’t. We learn humility. Most failures are simply successes in training.

• Teach team members to embrace failures rather than bolt from their inevitability. Show team members that the work environment encourages an atmosphere of rolling with the punches thus making future mistakes less painful and more of a learning experience.

• Celebrate failures as a team! Yes, seriously. Invite humor, fun and laughter whenever possible. If projects take turns for the worse, encourage team members to regroup and build upon the camaraderie and lessons learned for better outcomes down the road.

• Help your team understand that failure is a part of life and not something to be avoided. Remind yourself and your team that failure is our greatest mentor. Failure builds character and the more we fail, the more we can succeed!

Camina Stevenson devotes her daylight hours as a Social Work Specialist and Mentor/Agency Field Instructor for undergraduate and graduate students attending UNLV and USC.

Near sundown, she morphs into her more natural state of being as an autodidact, logophile, documentary photographer and digital storyteller. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in English from California State University, Long Beach and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has served the Las Vegas community as a passionate advocate for social injustice (aka licensed social worker) since 2010.

Camina developed her love for travel at an early age having grown up on 3 continents. She has a deep affinity for laughter, music, nature, and the cosmos and feels most inspired when exploring the intricacies of the human condition or embarking on spontaneous (mis)adventures with Martine with whom she shares 1 Joaquin, 1 Nayeli, 2 Chi-Weenies and 1 Golden Doodle.

Looking for Happiness? Stop Multi-Tasking!

  By ,

Focus for Greater Results and Less Stress

By Kim Price

A few years ago, I stumbled upon an app called “Track Your Happiness.” The premise of the app was quite simple; at random points throughout the day, the app would ask me to report my mood, and ask me what I was doing, allowing me to discover what makes me happy. I immediate downloaded the app and faithfully reported my emotional state throughout the day.

It turns out, the app was part of a study conducted by psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University. After collecting data from over 2,200 volunteers (including me) they discovered an interesting pattern: when people reported negative emotions, they were more likely to report that they were not fully focused on the task at hand – no matter what that task is. In other words, when our minds wander, we are unhappy. And according to this study’s findings, our minds wander for approximately 46.9 percent of our waking hours.

Do we really spend nearly 50% of our day not focused on what we are doing? In their book “The One Thing,” authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan report that the typical worker is interrupted approximately every 11 minutes. Those interruptions take a real toll; according to distraction researcher Gloria Mark, it takes an average of 25 minutes to recover from those distractions and re-focus to the task at hand.

It isn’t just distractions that throw off our focus; many of us choose to multi-task our way through the workday. The problem is, according to Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and expert on divided attention, we just weren’t built to multi-task. According to Miller, “when people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so.” But many of us are convinced that multi-tasking is effective, even rewarding, because of a dopamine feedback loop which rewards our brain for breaking our focus and searching for different external stimulation.

So, if you are in the habit of multi-tasking, or find that your day is full of distractions, how do you learn to stay focused on one task?

One simple technique you can use to help improve your focus is the Pomodoro Method. Named for the tomato-shaped timer used by Francesco Cirillo (who developed the method), the technique is quite simple. Select a task that you will work on for 25 minutes; set a timer (it doesn’t need to be a tomato), and turn off ALL distractions: turn off mail notifications, silence the phone, close the office door, close your web browser (or if you are working online, close all other tabs). Commit to focusing solely on the task for 25 minutes; at 25 minutes, give yourself a 5 minute “reward” break when you can check emails, text messages, social media, etc. After you’ve repeated this pattern 4 times, give yourself a longer reward break.

At first it won’t be easy; habits take time to form – in his book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits,” psychologist Jeremy Dean found that it takes on average 66 days, depending on the complexity of the new behavior, for a new habit to stick. So even if you fail to make it the entire 25 minutes the first few times you try, keep it up. Once this new “deep work” behavior becomes a habit, you’ll find that you are able to complete more tasks and – bonus – find yourself happier too!

Kim Price is an exceptionally gifted instructional designer and online learning content producer.

Kim fondly remembers her first computer: a TRS-80. It didn’t have any games or programs, so with the help of a BASIC programming book, she learned to write simple programs for herself. This marked the beginning of her lifetime love for computer technology!

Kim’s love for technology opened the doors for her to teach in higher education; first at the College of Southern Nevada, and later at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. With over a decade teaching experience in higher education, Kim realized her passion for designing and facilitating learning experiences that make smart people even smarter. She continues to cultivate her passion for teaching and technology as a technology trainer in higher education.

Five Methods to Improve Your Leadership

  By ,
Matt Zobrist from Aegis Learning

Jump-Start Your Leadership with These 5 Great Approaches

By Matt Zobrist

There you were: an outstanding worker – extremely competent, skillful, and efficient at your job. And so, your organization decided to promote you. They gave you a title, probably a pay raise, and a supervisory (policy) handbook. Maybe you got a pep talk, or a “supervisory class” consisting of being told all the possible disasters and calamities you could now be held responsible for. Then they pointed you at your team and said, “Go, lead.”

Organizations often fail to prepare new leaders for their new roles. What can you do if your organization hasn’t prepared you or provided continuing tools for your leadership development? Take the initiative and begin to develop your leadership skills and attributes anyway.
Here are Five things you can start today that will help you develop and improve your leadership skills.

1. Focus on people. Probably the best leadership advice is this: Leadership is NOT about the leader; It’s about the team, more specifically each person on the team. Good leaders focus on taking care of their people. When a leader’s focus is only on results or procedures, he or she can become a micromanager, or worse, a tyrant. Leadership is not about production or inventory or equipment or even tasks – but about people! Care about each individual team member and they will ensure that productive results follow.

2. Build Trust. Trust is built through the heart, not the head. Leaders are respected for their abilities or position, but they trusted based on the relationships they forge. Sincerity and Honesty are two key ingredients to establish trust. For example, instead of just saying “hi,” ask your team members how they are doing and then: Listen to their reply. Listening is key to helping people feel that you truly care about them. People will remember how you make them feel. Team members who trust their leader are more likely to be engaged and productive at work.

3. New Title, New Job. Remember that even though you were great as a worker, you are now a leader. Your job is not to DO that job anymore, but to motivate and train your team to become great at their jobs. Two guidelines for this: First, remember your team doesn’t have your expertise and experience, so they can’t do the job as good as you did (yet). Part of your new job is to coach and train them to get to that level. Second, if they don’t do it like you did, that doesn’t make it wrong. Be humble enough to accept that there may be other ways to do it. Allow innovation and appreciate their efforts.

4. Appreciation. Say thank you. Even when things don’t turn out right, appreciate the effort. You will be surprised at how this simple act can build trust, strengthen relationships and improve attitudes.

5. Always Improve. There is always room for improvement. Read and Study about Leadership. Read books and articles (like this one) about leadership and incorporate the advice into your leadership style. Get an App. Download apps, like the free Aegis iCoach App, to have immediate access to leadership resources, tips and ideas anywhere you go.

Leadership competencies and skills can be learned. Be committed to learning and improving your leadership skills every chance you can.

Matt Zobrist from Aegis Learning

Matt Zobrist is an energetic and dynamic facilitator, coach, presenter and speaker with Aegis Learning, LLC.

Matt has a passion for helping others develop their leadership skills. He served successfully in various leadership over the last 20 years and uses his practical, real-world experience to deliver powerful messages about leadership, team work, communication and service. His animated, high-energy style, combined with humor and personal experiences make each presentation enjoyable and memorable, as well as educational, for the audience.

Leading Across Generations

  By ,

Cross-Generational Leadership Requires Empathy, Awareness and More

“We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach.”  Gloria Steinem

Baby Boomers
Born 1946-1964
71-53 years of age

Generation X
Born 1965-1980
52-37 years of age

Millennials
Born 1981-2000+
36-17 years of age

By Teresa Lowry

Recently, I was walking in the park with a friend who is an assistant department head of a large organization. As a leader who understands the value of self-care and exercise she meets with me to walk and talk several days a week. On this bright, crisp morning she wistfully commented “Well we lost another one…” referring to a talented millennial working in the IT department. She, a Generation Xer, and I, a Baby Boomer, pondered the challenge of leading across generations.

The greatest diversity in the workforce is now age. Disengagement costs companies $450 billion dollars a year. It can cost $15,000 to $25,000 to replace each Millennial. A leader who understands generational differences and drivers is better prepared to implement strategic and targeted engagement strategies.

Knowing that the Baby Boomers workplace objectives are security and stability, that Generation Xers look for opportunity and achievement while Millennials want contribution and enjoyment will allow you to craft an environment in which all team members feel valued and contribute to the success of the organization.

I recommend we first review our own perspective and remember that those we lead do not always share the same values or drivers. As a Baby Boomer, I wore my “workaholic” work ethic like a badge of honor. I believed this was the correct example to set for my team. Never mind my lack of work life balance or a complete lack of fun in the workplace, my 1950’s values were not resonating with many Generation Xers and Millennials. Until I was educated and understood that Generation Xers and Millennials value work life balance it did not occur to me that my value could be viewed by them as a misguided flaw.

Engage Baby Boomers by listening to what they have to say. Utilize them as experts and mentors. This also ensures critical knowledge transfer. Communicate to other team members the value Baby Boomer wisdom can contribute to their long-range career goals.

Generation Xers yearn for process flexibility. Communicate what the organization needs and then give them the ability to forge a new way of getting the job done. Provide a healthy dose of competition, praise them for their results and you will see increased engagement from this group.

Millennials thrive on disruptive innovation. They want the freedom to start the process over from scratch. And they want to have fun while they are doing it. Acknowledge their efforts not just results. Connect them to your organizational vision and mission in a way that fulfills their need to contribute to the greater good.

As a leader in your organization you want to value each group equally, foster empathy and respect for differences and honor what each generation contributes to the work place. This will drive your ability to recruit and retain different generations in your work place.

Teresa Lowry is a passionate advocate for learning, growth and generating real organizational change.

Fueling that passion are exceptional communication abilities, a great training room presence and the ability to connect with people successfully in mentoring and coaching.  Personally, Teresa enjoys serving on several community boards, volunteering with non-profit community groups and, along with her husband, you will find her in the gym every morning working out and training for distance and obstacle races.

Aegis CARES 2017 Annual Report

  By ,

Helping to Make Our Community and World a Better Place

Aegis Learning Cares

Our most important core value is to help the communities we serve and the world be a bit better place.

Through the hard work of many volunteers and our coordinator, Polly Walker, Aegis Cares supported:

  • Las Vegas Rescue Mission-Support for Homelessness
    Conducted a clothing drive, food drive, Thanksgiving meal fundraiser and provided three meal services to residents and community members.
  • Opportunity Village-Support for Intellectual Disability
    Provided an inspiration tree for the holiday fundraiser, Magical Forest
  • Compassion International-Support of Children
    Provided direct aid through sponsorship for 3 children in South America and Africa.
  • Direct Aid
    Gave in excess of $12,000.00 to the organizations above and others during 2017.
  • Support of Youth
    Contributed time and talents to Rotary International, Faith Lutheran Junior and Senior High School and Green Valley High School.

Thank you for your support, volunteering and contributions. We look forward to an even more committed 2018.

#powerof1

#risetopurpose

Join Aegis Cares Facebook Group

Join our Facebook group to receive updates and to participate in Aegis Cares campaigns and events.

Defining Process Improvement-Improve and Control

  By ,

More Technical Approaches to Process Improvement

This is the fifth in a multi-part series on process improvement written by Polly Walker and Amy McKee.

The strategies and people side of sustained and meaningful process improvement will be the focus and we welcome your feedback about this series. 

By Polly Walker

We have covered the “D- Define”, “M- Measure and A – Analyze” steps in previous issues of Leading Edge. This week we will discuss “I – Improve” and “C – Control”.

STEP FOUR: IMPROVE

10. Create the to-be workflow based on the recommendations and analysis conducts in the “Analyze” step.

11. Create a recommendations summary document, which includes:

a. Recommendations
b. Action Plan (including who is implementing each action item from the recommendations and an item for continued data gathering and recheck in 3-6 months)
c. Estimated Savings/benefit calculation
d. Exhibits (Graphs/charts to illustrate supporting data, as-is and to-be workflows, new policies, procedures (control documentation) and communications plan to support the new, to-be process, etc.)

12. Provide presentation to Project Sponsor for any recommendations approval that the workgroup was not empowered to implement.

STEP FIVE: CONTROL

13. Conduct follow up 3-6 months after project completion to determine if action plan items have been implemented and performance metrics are meeting target. If not, a follow-on continuous improvement project may be needed.

Improve and Control-The People Side

  By ,

The People Side of Defining Process Improvement

This is the sixth in a multi-part series on process improvement written by Polly Walker and Amy McKee.

The strategies and people side of sustained and meaningful process improvement will be the focus and we welcome your feedback about this series. 

By Amy McKee

Last week, we covered the Improve and Control phases within the DMAIC framework.

If you have incorporated people in the first three phases, it will make the improve and the control phases substantially easier. However, people are still a critical component of these two phases and setting the right conditions for success will ensure they walk away open to the possibility of more improvements in the future. Here are 3 more tips to include during the Improve and Control framework:

1. Listen To All Levels.

The biggest complaint from employees during testing is often that no one is listening to them. Start with the assumption that everyone is doing the best they can, then LISTEN to the employees during testing and implementation to ensure their concerns are being addressed. People are much more open to change when they feel like they feel part of the process.

2. Communicate Effectively.

The majority of people don’t change the way they do things because someone tells them to. They change because they want to.

a. Communicate how employees benefit from making the change. (If you didn’t make it easier on employees, it will be substantially harder to implement.)
b. When training is needed, remember that some people learn more by seeing, others by hearing, and others by doing. Hit their curiosity button based on their interests, explain the process, demonstrate the process, let them practice the process, let them teach others the process, and leave them feeling good that they can do the process well.

3. Celebrate Successes.

At the end of the day, people will remember how they felt about the project. Celebrate successes along the way and especially recognize everyone’s individual efforts at the end. This will motivate people, incentivize positive behaviors, and increase the likelihood that they will want to DMAIC again in the future!