REVIEW: Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by L. David Marquet (4-stars)

To be honest - I have never had a strong interest in military-oriented reading material, fiction or non-fiction.  Aside from my interest in pre 20th century piracy on the high seas (more of social class/mobility angle here) - I haven't really read any books about life on boats or submarines.

David Marquet has written an incredibly clear and easy to understand book - that happens to be about submarines and their crews.  The details about life on the submarine are sometimes a bit more than my interest can tolerate but overall the message about process and changing the structure from leader-follower to leader-leader is crystal clear.   His writing style is incredibly well structured and meticulous -- all the examples work really well for his story.

As noted in the introduction, the core belief is that we can all be leaders - and the best way to get to that is to have a leader who can help identify the shared goals and vision for the team, and then let them do their work, providing feedback on what is working best as a way to attain excellence (vs avoiding mistakes).  This is a system of empowerment that is focused on outcomes, and which worked so well for the author in his command that he DOUBLED the number of chiefs (who then transferred off to other ships the next day to new roles). 

He discusses situations where team members automatically executed incorrect instructions from their leader or where mistakes were made because someone was operating on "auto pilot."  Changing the processes to focus on the outcomes and goals rather than process/method made a huge difference.

The key concepts in this book include:

1.  Achieve excellence - don't just avoid errors.  

2.  Use "I intend to... " to turn passive followers into active leaders.  Avoid disempowered phrases such as "Request permission to . . . I would like to . . . What should I do about . . . Do you think we should . . . Could we . . ." (and I was always told "hopefully").   In empowering the officers to be responsible for their work - "the goal for the officers would be to give me a sufficiently complete report so that all I had to say was a simple approval."

3.  Enhance opportunities for informal communication -- encourage team members to "THINK OUT LOUD is a mechanism for CONTROL" and ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY.  Author says "when I heard what my watch officers were thinking, it made it much easier for me to keep my mouth shut and let them execute their plans."  This is related to "deliberate action."  For example - where there is a process that has a significant impact (whether it's torpedoes or sending out an e-mail blast) - it helps to talk through what you intend so that a peer can catch any potential mistakes before the actual action.  "Take deliberate action. We learn (everywhere, all the time). Don’t brief, certify."

4.  Search for organizational practices or procedures that would need to be changed in order to effect the change required - that means updating any documentation, handbooks, wiki etc.

5.  "Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control.  Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better (it's proven).  If you have doubts and don't fully commit to a new thing - it will come through so fake it til it feels natural and only then will you be able to determine the efficacy.

6.  Short early conversations make efficient work (another mechanism for control) - this is basically like a daily standup in Agile - it helps to talk through any questions and get an idea of where potential misunderstandings or misdirections may lie.  A standup isn't intended to solve all the problems - you may create more meetings out of this but it's a good touchpoint!

7.  "RESIST THE URGE TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS is a mechanism for CONTROL."   The leader has to create space for open decision by the entire team; in crisis situations - you can have the team brainstorm and then as a leader vet the best option for action.

8.  "ELIMINATING TOP-DOWN MONITORING SYSTEMS is a mechanism for CONTROL."  Marquet emphasizes the use of mechanisms that actually give ownership and describes a log of work requests that was owned and maintained but not accessible by the entire team so they could actually see the backlog of work and get things done.  He also says to avoid systems where senior personnel are determining what junior personnel should be doing as their day to day tasks - giving them goals and then reviewing their tactics (ie the "I intend to" reports).

9.  "EMBRACE THE INSPECTORS is a mechanism for CONTROL, organizational control."  Use the opportunities provided by inspection to learn where improvements can be made. 

10. "WE LEARN (EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME) is a mechanism for COMPETENCE."  This was a great  section on learning from mistakes without coming down really hard on the team members - everything is a learning opportunity. 

11.  "DON’T BRIEF, CERTIFY is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." - this was fantastic because instead of the chief reading off the process while everyone else's eyes glazed over, the person who would be doing the task would identify the steps that he would be taking and the others would certify that process was correct (technical competence).

12. "CONTINUALLY AND CONSISTENTLY REPEAT THE MESSAGE is a mechanism for COMPETENCE."

13.  "SPECIFYING GOALS, NOT METHODS is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." and CLARITY.  Two excellent examples were around fire drills - which weren't going well because of process (ie "I'm not in charge of this area/shift") to make everyone responsible and the crew members CLOSEST to the fire would be responsible for taking action.  On the ship, stealth (ie, not making loud noises) is critical so any time some loud noise is made - it can affect the sonar.  The goal of a stealth ship was emphasized and everyone was required to report noises instead of the sonar team trying to find the source of a transient noise.  This resulted in identifying a lot of other issues that they were able to fix and move even closer toward excellence. 

14. "BUILDING TRUST AND TAKING CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE is a mechanism for CLARITY."  Providing them opportunities and materials to improve themselves both in their professional and personal goals builds a much stronger, competent and empowered team.

15.  "USE YOUR LEGACY FOR INSPIRATION is a mechanism for CLARITY."  Note achievements and legacy - these are helpful for guiding the team.

16.  "USE GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR DECISION CRITERIA is a mechanism for CLARITY."  Development of guiding principles (see the book - fantastic list created by his chiefs) is critical to empowering a team.

17.  "USE IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION TO REINFORCE DESIRED BEHAVIORS is a mechanism for CLARITY." The author would provide immediate positive feedback vs submitting a form and waiting for a process to give the reward/recognition to the individual.  He also points out that "Simply providing data to the teams on their relative performance results in a natural desire to improve."

18.  "BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND is an important mechanism for ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY."  The author worked with his officers in weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions to discuss goals and what they wanted their evaluations to look like 1, 2 and 3 years hence -- working with them to develop goals that cascaded down from the organization's goals.  This turned into an opportunity for 2-way feedback and the end result was that his officers were able to achieve those goals by the end of their terms.

19.  "ENCOURAGE A QUESTIONING ATTITUDE OVER BLIND OBEDIENCE is a mechanism for CLARITY."

All in all - a really solid book with a ton of great examples from the author's experiences.  I'd LOVE to read a book written by one of the enlisted men on that ship to see his perspective and to see how that has carried over to other assignments on different vessels that may have had a top-down structure of leadership.

REVIEW: Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by L. David Marquet 

RATING: 4-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Whispers Under Ground (Rivers of London, #3) by Ben Aaronovitch (3-stars)

This was also a fun book - and honestly, I keep reading these and thinking that they are really written with a screenplay in mind, and I sure would look forward to watching this as a TV series!

The protagonist, Peter Grant, is funny, self effacing and bright but not always quick on the uptake with certain things. He's also got a huge hangup about his friend Lesley's magic-related injury to her face (despite one of the other characters in this story referring to her as "sex on legs").

He's doing his best to maintain a level of professionalism ("I took the wine but avoided the smile, what with me being on duty and everything." but disaster seems to follow him everywhere.

I now know that grapes are de rigeur when visiting someone in hospital in England.

There's an interesting bit of overlap with a concept from American Gods:

any system, such as an underground railway or indeed the telephone network, could develop a genius loci in the same fashion as the rivers and other sacred sites.

if a Scotsman introduced himself to me as the god of telephones I’d be inclined to take him at his word.

This is really similar to the idea that belief creates reality -- and I also thoroughly enjoy the references to other stories of time travel and fantasy (such as the Morlock) sprinkled throughout.

A COUPLE NITS

• Now that I'm into the 3rd book in this world - I'm finding there's a bit more backstory than I need. I'd like the "read straight through" version -- can we have all the books in the series together with the backstory repeats cut out of each tale?
• I keep reading this "urban fantasy" tag with these books and I can't figure out what on earth it is supposed to mean: are most "fantasy" or supernatural books in some sort of rural or wild setting? Like the hobbits charming rural English village setting or the True Blood rural Louisiana swamp setting with alligators and werewolves running around? Or is it "urban fantasy" because the chief protagonist is black? What's the deal with such a meaningless genre name?

ONE MORE NIT

How awful is Lesley's face? Seriously? Is it so awful that Peter really can't see past it and see the real Lesley who he lusted for and spooned with for so long? Is he really that shallow?

Facial reconstruction has come a long way - just look up face transplants (this one is safe for work) - and even Bonnie Culp looks way better than she did before her crazy ex husband shot off her face AND she's got a partner who loves her (unlike poor Lesley!).

Is Lesley's injury worse than any of those people you can see on the internet?

REVIEW: Whispers Under Ground (Rivers of London, #3) by Ben Aaronovitch  

RATING: 3-stars

 © Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) by Patrick Lencioni (5-stars)

This is one of the best books I have read all year about leading teams -- much more useful than the last multi-week project management course I took! 

I've worked in environments where strong team building was a priority and have always appreciated the extra effort made to organize team off-sites where everyone works together on many of the issues described in this book.  Even though I am not leading team and my department is huge and geographically dispersed, I feel like there's a lot of material here that I can take away to help with my projects.

Similar to some of the recent books I have read ("Power of Habit", "Reprogram Your Weight" and even "Outliers") - there is discussion of the "Fundamental Attribute Error."    

human beings tend to falsely attribute the negative behaviors of others to their character (an internal attribution), while they attribute their own negative behaviors to their environment (an external attribution).

That's a tremendous bit of human behavior that we should all keep in mind.  It's something I constantly repeat when one of my friends gets mad at some behavior in traffic, for example, "That person probably wasn't thinking of you at all - they were just thinking of themselves."  It's NOT personal. 

My biggest takeaways from this book are around meetings and metrics for success.  Even if I do not (currently) find myself in a position to organize and lead a team offsite based on the information in this book (wish we could do that!), there are some really great concepts I can apply.

First - meetings.  Boring meetings where everyone agrees or some people don't talk or where nobody comes to "consensus" indicate a lack of clarity of purpose, perhaps even the wrong people in the meeting and worse, the "ultimate penalty of boring meetings is bad decisions, not to mention wasted time." 

It is important to get buy in at the beginning of the meeting or discussion - raise the anxiety a bit.  This isn't just a status meeting -- let's have a meeting to commit to an decision that is important because it affects some goal that we all care about.  Status can happen in e-mail or on the wiki.

Second, the author stresses the difference between "consensus" and "commitment" -- one of the key qualities of leadership in moving forward to a goal is getting people to commit, "buying in to decisions when the “right” answer seems nowhere to be found."

Further, "Good leaders drive commitment among the team by first extracting every possible idea, opinion, and perspective from the team" and then step up and make a decision.  NB:  commitment cannot happen if there is not perfect clarity - and that's where "cascading communication" comes into play.  Recap "what did we decide here today?" in the meeting, and then send it out in e-mail, and make sure the team members communicate it to their staff right away.

One of the tips in this book is to start a meeting with a "lightning round," allowing "no more than thirty seconds to update the team about their three top priorities that week."  Another excellent tip is to track progress against specific goals and objectives -- so that the team can stay on track and ensure that decisions around changes in scope or priority are measured against those objectives. 

Finally - the author makes it clear that building a good team requires commitment to process and is like a marriage, it happens over time.  Being able to build trust on a team, using inquiry to hear all the ideas, making decisions based on specific goals -- these all can help a team make better decisions and be more effective & efficient. 

The last section of the book  provides an outline of the itinerary and directions for different exercises - pretty high level but still appears to be a very useful tool for managing a team building offsite.  I'll definitely keep this in my back pocket for future reference and recommend it to anyone who works on a team of any type!

Author website with tools & resources: https://www.tablegroup.com/teamwork

REVIEW: Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) by Patrick Lencioni  

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner (4 stars)

 This is a short story - not at all a "book" - and I found a version online. Quick read and creepy! It's interesting how people will look the other way when they know something is wrong or someone is up to no good, as a show of "respect." It's also interesting to me how Emily clings to tradition - the structure she has always known - instead of breaking free, into the unknown. She holds onto her father's corpse as a way of resisting changes to her life. She becomes a recluse. She even kills the man she loves to keep him around. In the end - she transforms into her father - controlling, secretive, manipulative. The larger, darker silhouette in the tableau. Analyses of this story are a great rabbit hole.

REVIEW: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner 
RATING: 4 stars
© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr (5-stars)

 First, this book is magnificently structured.  The quality of writing and clarity of concepts laid out from the preface to the last page is well organized and clear without being overly pedantic or repetitive.  The author refers to concepts and goals of previous sections of the book - even mentions upcoming areas that will be addressed later - and it all just flows really nicely.  Very tightly written book - it's only 202 pages (the rest are notes).

Second - this book does a really great job of talking about the need for solitude as a balance to the need for human relationships and interactions using the experiences of highly accomplished historical figures including Beatrix Potter, Kant, Dostoevsky, Newton and many others.  

This was originally published in 1988 - so many watershed events happened in the 80s, and most people in developed countries were on the precipice of previously unknown opportunity for connection, distraction and surveillance of each other's activities.

"At the time of writing, it is generally considered that the highly introverted person is more pathological than the very extraverted person. This is because of the current emphasis upon object relationships, and the disregard of processes which take place in solitude."

The premise is that people who want solitude or who are single are missing out and have something wrong with them.  We even use the Greek word for a person who lives alone - troglodyte - as an insult to indicate some kind of stupid or defective person.

Storr goes into detail about the intrinsic need for humans to spend time alone -- sleep, for example, and dreams -- they provide our brain with time alone to integrate and heal and process experiences, ideas and thoughts about things.  Humans always crave some kind of solitude -- and even in the face of social convention and obligation, we come up with ways to get time to ourselves -- Florence Nightingale feigned a health complaint so she could get time alone to study and write.  Victorian women would have time to "rest" in the afternoons after spending so much time being empathically focused on the needs of others.

So - why is it that 30 years after this book was written, it seems like we are still not allowing people to take or make space to integrate their thoughts, experiences and ideas so that they can be healthier, happier and more productive?

I'm thinking specifically here of corporate professional work and the move to crowd people into "open workspace" areas and the retraction of control over where one works (many employers are repealing remote/work from home policies).  It seems counter productive to require an "always on", in the office for 8 hours workday when that's not really how human brains function.  

Being alone is necessary not just for personal life - but for professional life as well.  While corporate culture values ideation, collaboration and consensus for decision-making -- where is the space for integration and problem-solving on an individual level?  

Lots of great material to dig into here -- it feels like this is just another spot on the tip of the iceberg of a subject that fascinates me:  the psychology of creativity.  If you enjoy reading "Finding Flow" and other books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi -- you'll enjoy this book.

REVIEW: Solitude: A Return to the Self  by Anthony Storr 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (5-stars)

 I confess that I only read this because I recently watched the TV series and I enjoyed both.  The TV series seemed awfully violent and bloody - especially the first episode.  There's a lot that was changed in the TV series from the book - and I truly marvel at the skill and imagination of the authors of the screen play -- what they created is absolutely in line with this universe.

The book was very enjoyable -- I found Gaiman's writing style to be very easy to read.   He's got a good sense of humor and I enjoy the small jokes that he weaves in.  Many of the characters were very likeable - and I really admire the way he created such a dense web of interrelationships, stories and sub-plots.  

It wasn't until I was nearly halfway through the book - that I asked, "Who IS Shadow Moon, anyway?"   Gaiman's interpretations of mythology and character development is a lot of fun to read.  I just wish I had the paperback version (not the e-book) so I could share this with someone.

If you've been reading reviews of the TV series written by fans of the book - you'll already know that the carousel scene is not in the TV series, and there are several other things that have been added which are very enjoyable (such as expanding Mad Sweeny and Laura Moon's characters, changing the location of the first meeting with Easter and her response, OMG the ice cream truck!).

I did read the expanded author's special edition which may have added scenes and content not in the well loved original version of the book.  The carousel scene was a really fun pile of events -- reminded me of the descriptions of hallucinations in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in some ways.  When Shadow Moon looks at Mr Nancy - he sees all the visual incarnations at once -- which is a stretch for a human brain, right?  

The idea that "gods" are created by a number of people growing to believe in a thing is the basic premise of this book -- people brought their "gods" with them from other lands, like cutting a branch of code off a tree -- that god came as a version of him/herself at the time, leaving behind versions in the homeland who may be having a different experience.  The "old gods" are basically subroutines.  The new gods are net-new -- maybe that makes them more powerful in some ways, but also less personally invested in the same kinds of things that drive the other gods.

One of my favorite concepts in the book was "Backstage" -- the idea that there is this place that looks like the world we see, but it's not quite the same. Even the passage of time is different - a few minutes backstage is like hours in the world we see, and so on. This alternate reality is a convenient mechanism for playing out important actions and conversations.

REVIEW: American Gods by Neil Gaiman 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter (2-stars)

 I really wanted to like this book -- the author's voice and personality shine through her writing very clearly.  She seemed like a snotty, self-important, shrill and unbalanced person.  I kept reading, hoping that the author would undergo some transformation that would redeem her, and thinking that perhaps she wasn't as self centered as she made herself sound -- but when it got to the section about how demanding and rude she was to the woman who butchered her pigs -- I realized:  the author is just a bossy, self-centered, judgmental hipster who can't even keep the streets straight (the Temescal street with the upscale Mexican, wood fired oven pizza and bakery is Telegraph, not Shattuck) because she's too busy obsessing over whatever non-existent drama she's invented for herself.  

Seriously?  Ghetto?  I know plenty of people who live off MLK Jr in the 25-33 range -- it's not what I'd call a "ghetto" and I don't know anyone who lives there who would refer to it as such as often as this cracker hipster does.

REVIEW: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter 

RATING: 2-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

Plum Jelly Round-Up

Earlier this year, tired of squirrel bandits on my bird feeders - I discovered that I could trap them in my Hav-A-Hart trap -- and relocated 3 of 5 squirrels to a park two miles away.  The unexpected upside of this is that my neighbors finally got tree-ripened loquats and I had a LOT more plums on the tree in my backyard this year -- I harvested about 125 lbs in the two days before July 4th!

I barely had room in my freezer and fridge to put all the juice and puree -- and this week I am making up jelly -- a lot of it!

Plum-Habanero
16 c plum juice + 1 c lemon juice + 4 c sugar + 5Tb & 1tsp pectin + 5Tb & 1tsp calcium water + 3.75 oz habaneros (seeds cut out) =

• 21- half pints plum habanero jelly

Plum-Habanero-Lemongrass

• 18 - half pints 
• 15 - quarter pints

 Plum
20 cups of plum juice + 5 c sugar + pectin/calcium water + 1 c lemon juice =

• 11 - 20 oz jars 
• 13 - half pints

Plum-Lemongrass
24 cups of plum juice + 6 c sugar + pectin/calcium water + 1 1/4 c lemon juice + lemongrass =

• 33 - half pints

Zucchini & Tomato Soup

What else do you do with a giant zucchini - or two - but make a pot of soup (if you aren't making my Zucchin-Carrot Relish!) -- here are a couple recipes I have made recently, and since I put the information in on a web app - actually have the caloric data for it!

I threw in 3-4 frozen cubes of home made basil-garlic-raw almond pesto - so made the almonds an optional ingredient here, as well as the olive oil.  I also have a lot of roasted red padron puree in the freezer from last fall - one ice cube is roughly 1/4 c, I think, and I added that in - you could substitute Harissa paste (if you want heat), or chopped fresh red or green bell peppers.  Or throw in any spicy chopped peppers!

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 c zucchini, skin on, cut into large chunks (remove pithy parts and large seeds) (168 calories)
• 4 c crushed canned tomatoes (312 calories)
• 2 oz dried shitake mushrooms (200 calories) - or - 16 oz fresh button mushrooms, sliced
• 6 Carrots (150 calories)
• 1-2 c broccolini greens & florets (45 calories)
• 8 Garlic, Cloves, Fresh (35 calories)
• 1/2 c chopped basil leaves (4 calories)
• 2 c sweet/Vidalia onion, chopped or sliced to preference (128 calories)
• 2 T dried Thyme (or double fresh) (16 calories)
• 3 c cabbage, chopped (66 calories)
• 1/2 c green onion, chopped (9 calories)
• 8 c vegetable stock (160 calories)
• 2 packages Westsoy Chicken Style Seitan (770 calories)    
• 1 bunch of chopped parsley (16 calories)

Optional:

• 1.5 T Red miso (the refrigerated kind) (45 calories)
• 3 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (120 calories)
• 3 Tb raw almonds, finely ground (102 calories)
• 1/4 roasted red padron puree (9 calories)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Break up the dried mushrooms into quarters or smaller and place into a heat proof dish or pan; pour boiling water over the mushrooms and allow to steep while you assemble the rest of the soup.
2. Pour the stock into the pan - note - I used tomato juice from canning tomatoes last year -- which is just the water that was around the seeds.  As I seed the tomatoes before putting them in the pot, I put all the seeds into a metal mesh strainer and then stir them around to get all that water out separately and save it for soups.  In this case, about 5 cups of my vegetable stock was tomato water (not sauce!).  If you like more tomatoey flavor, throw in another can or pint jar of crushed tomatoes -- they'll break down and give you plenty of flavor.
3. Add the Westsoy Chicken-Style Seitan - be sure to keep the broth in the container, it's tasty stuff - and tear up any extra large pieces of seitan with your fingers.
4. Add the carrots first - I slice them on the diagonal for nice big chunks, and put them into the stock first while it's heating up.  Add in the rest of the veggies items as ready -- and add additional water to cover if needed.
5. Reserve for last (as in - just a few minutes before serving) any fresh herbs and the red miso paste (which you can dissolve with a small whisk separately before adding in).
6. Salt & pepper to taste --  and yes, this a HUGE pot of soup but you can eat as much as you want because the entire thing is a whopping 2300 calories -- 12 large servings at 191 calories each!

   
   

Zucchini Vegetable Farro Soup (no onions/no garlic)

I made this giant pot of soup and shared it with my family - the corn kernels mix in with the similarly sized farro and provide a nice counterpoint of flavor and texture.  Tarragon & thyme provide the flavor - no onions or garlic in this soup, resulted in a soup that was sweet from the corn and carrots only.

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 c zucchini, skin on, cut into large chunks (remove pithy parts and large seeds if using monster zukes) (210 calories)
• 6 carrots (150 calories)
• 4 c crushed canned tomatoes (312 calories)
• 2 c farro (400 calories)
• 4 c broccoli or other sturdy greens like collards (140 calories)   
• 1 oz dried shitake mushrooms (100 calories) - or - 8 oz fresh button mushrooms, sliced
• 16 c vegetable stock (400 calories)
• 2 packages Westsoy Chicken Style Seitan (770 calories)   
• 2 ears of corn, cut off the cob (147 calories)
• 3 Tb "Mellow" white miso (90 calories)
• 4 tsp red miso (45 calories)
• Dried herbs to taste - I used lots of tarragon & thyme

DIRECTIONS:

1. Break up the dried mushrooms into quarters or smaller, place in a heat proof dish or pan and cover with boiling water to steep while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  When they are soft, add the pieces and the water to the pot.
2. Pour the stock into a very large pot -- if you cut down the stock by half and use water instead, the soup will probably taste just as good!  Use what you have on hand!
3. Add the carrots first - I cut them up into big chunks, and put them in the pot so that they cook up faster.
4. Be sure to add the stock from the seitan package - it's yummy!  If you don't have this brand available where you live - substitute your favorite seitan or even some nice smoked tofu (yum!).
5. Add the miso paste last -- you will want to take some stock or hot water and dissolve it so that it mixes into the soup better.
6. Don't cut yourself cutting the fresh corn off the cob - after cutting off the niblets, be sure to scrape the cob with the back of your knife over the pot to get all the juice and flavor out of the corn cob (yum!).