CoolSpark

8 Business Rules For People Who Don't Believe In Rules

2011-12-28T12:55:00.002-05:00

Ronen Shilo the CEO of Conduit, described as one of Israel's largest Internet companies compiled these rules for in a FAST Company blog.

1. Partner with people you’ve worked with before.
2. Believe in your core but don’t be afraid to change.
3. Don’t be shy about telling people they won’t fit.
4. Build your organization around the skills of talented individuals, rather than trying to find the right skill for a predefined job.
5. Try really hard not to give VCs control.
6. Leave your ego at the door.
7. Be honest about the consequences of growth.
8. Sharing success creates more of it.

go here for the full story.
Happy New Year!

Is Sony 3D Blu-Ray compatible with passive 3D HDTV? YES!

2011-12-03T11:38:00.001-05:00

Updated Dec 4, 2011 - After my 2nd contact with Vizio tech support and my third contact with Sony Support and some additional trial and error, I was able to get the 3D blue ray to play with my passive Vizio 3D TV. See the Dec 4 update below for how to do it.
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Dec. 3, 2011 - I wasn't planning to buy 3D when I upgraded from by 10+ year old 32 inch (20th century cathode ray technology) TV, but the price and capability looked so attractive, I couldn't resist. Now I'm wrestling with the challenge of getting a Sony 3D Blu-Ray to work with a Vizio Passive 3D TV.

I bought a Sony BVD-E780W 3D Blu ray home theater in a box from Best Buy, but so far I can't play play the 3D Narnia Promotional Blu-Ray included with the home theater system on my Vizio E3D420VX passive 3D TV. The Blu-Ray plays fine in 2-D, but won't play 3D. After talking with tech support at both Vizio & Sony, and not getting a definite answer from either, I'm thinking that the Sony home theater requires an active shutter sync signal before it will play 3D Blu-Ray content. I can play 3D content using the Sony online apps included with the home theater, so I think this limitation is associated with the integrated 3D Blu-Ray player.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has experience interfacing Sony 3D Blu-Ray to a passive 3D HDTV to find out if and how you got it working.

Here is what happens when I try to play a 3D Blu-Ray: After the introductory sequence and copyright notice the Blu-Ray menu says "play - set up - scene select". When I choose play, I get two choices, 3D or 2D. The default choice is 3D, but there is a pop up window that says: " This feature requires a Blu-Ray 3D player connected to a 3D display. Your Blu-ray player has not detected that it is connected to a 3D display. Please consult your Blu-Ray 3D player manual or player support website for more information."

At this point, if I am blocked from using the menu on the TV to select 3D mode. The 3D mode is visible as shown below, not selectable at this point. When I use the arrows on the remote to navigate the cursor highlight won't move to the 3D box.

There seems to be a communication stand-off between the TV and the Blu-ray at this point. Vizio tech support told me that as soon as the TV senses 3D input, it will switch to 3D mode, but Sony says the player will not play 3D unless it detects a 3D TV. Here is what the TV menu looks like at this point, but 3D is simply not selectable.

My firmware is up-to-date on both the TV and home theater, and they are connected with a 10.2 Gbps HDMI cable. I think the 3D TV & HDMI connection are OK because I can display 3D content from the Sony 3D Experience online app which is also part of the home theater system. Here are a couple of screen shots from the Sony 3D Experience online app.

Sony 3D Experience online App

3D content detected by the TV from the Sony 3D Experience App

When I select yes (switch to 3D) on the above screen using the remote for the 3D TV, I can put on the 3D glasses and view Sony's 3D demo clips.

The integrated 3D Blu-Ray player seems to require a signal from the TV before it will play 3D. The only signal I can think of that my TV isn't delivering is the active shutter sync signal, because it is a passive system.

I'm no expert on home theater or 3D TV, but here are the reasons why I think the Sony 3D Blu-ray player may not be compatible with some passive 3D TVs:

1. The Sony support website provides instructions on How to set up a 3D TV
Sony 3D TVs use an active shutter to synchronize the glasses. I wonder if the Blu-Ray player is looking for the shutter synchronization signal before it will play 3D content.

2. The box for the Sony BVD-E780W home theater does have a note that says: "3D viewing requires 3D content, 3D HDTV and a high speed HDMI cable (supporting at least 10.2 Gbps) connection. Other 3D accessories (including active 3D glasses) also required." [emphasis added on active]

If this is the case, it seems like a simple firmware update could provide another setting on the Blu-Ray player to select support for a Passive vs. Active 3D TV. If the passive TV setting it selected, The Blu-Ray player could bypass the synchronization check before playing 3D content.

Other notes:   Tech support ratings.

I think Vizio Tech support is very responsive. They seem to have an adequate number of knowledgeable techs available to answer questions in detail by online chat.

I give Sony Tech support lower ratings than Vizio.  Submission of online questions is limited to 450 characters.   The wait is longer. Answers so far were more general and haven't addressed my specific situations.

I followed up with a sales person at Best Buy, who:
a) Offered to sell me home theater installation, but said they are not familiar with Vizio because they don't carry that brand.
b) Put me in touch with Sony phone support, which was more responsive than online, but not much more helpful or knowledgeable.

So far I didn't get definitive answers from anyone, which is why I'm posting this in hope that people out there have already solved this problem.  I'm considering returning some (or all) of this stuff if I can't get it working so your input/ideas would be helpful.

Thanks!
Chuck

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Added Dec 4, 2011

Here is the support request I sent to Sony Support (my third contact with them on this case - with personal info removed for privacy)

Product Group: Sony
O/S : Select Your Operating System
Model : BDVE780W
Question : ref EventID #E####### I can't get 3D on a Vizio E3D420VX passive 3D TV from the 3D Narnia Promo blu-ray provided with my BVD-780W home theater. I think the 3D TV & 10.2 Gbps HDMI connection are OK because I can display 3D content from the Sony 3D Experience online app. The integrated 3D blu-ray player seems to require an active shutter synch signal from the TV before it will play 3D. Is there a firmware upgrade planned to fix this limitation?

Here is the response received from Sony - which is very close to providing the answer, but not quite right, and not enough to solve the problem.

Thank you for contacting Sony Support.

I'm sorry that there in no 3D when playing back the 3D disc in the 3D Blu-ray Disc Home Theatre System. Based on the information you have provided, I suggest that you set BD output to 1080P. Please follow the steps mentioned below to set BD output to 1080P:

# Press the HOME button.
# Select Settings .
# Select Screen Settings .
# Select BD/DVD-ROM 1080/24P Output.
# Select Auto.
# Press Enter.

If the issue is unresolved, please contact our telephone support staff who will be happy to provide further diagnosis and assistance at: (800) 222-7669 or (239) 768-7669 Intl

Currently, I do not have any information on future firmware upgrade.

Thank you for your time.

If you would like to be the first to know about our latest products and receive exclusive offers, please sign up for our newsletter:

The Sony Email Response Team

I looked at this setting when I received the above response, and found the BD/DVD-ROM 1080/24P Output was already set to "auto" . It didn't occur to me immediately to try setting it to "off", however, after 24 hours with no solution I decided to try turning that setting off to see what would happen, and guess what? PROBLEM SOLVED! Here is what the setting looks like on the screen.

Now when I play the 3D Blu-Ray, the menu comes up with 2-D or 3D. I can select 3D, the TV auto detects 3D mode and I confirm. I get a message to put on the glasses and I'm watching 3D Blu-Ray on my Vizio! Next I'll to send this info off to Sony & Vizio to help the next person who runs into this issue, and I'll update my product review.

Ho Ho Ho!

when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount

2011-09-15T22:18:00.000-05:00

Leonard Fuld at BPMA Sept. Meeting on Envisioning your Competitor's Strategy Map

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."
4. Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase the speed
more

SAP Mastering The Cloud in 8 Easy Steps recorded webinars

2011-06-25T07:10:00.000-05:00

SAP Mastering The Cloud in 8 Easy Steps webinar series.

Over the eight sessions, you heard cloud experts Kamesh Pemmaraju, who demystified the cloud with critical research insights, and Jeff Kaplan, who interviewed companies already leveraging the cloud to achieve their business goals.

To help you continue to benefit from this timely information, use the links below to access the recorded sessions and white papers. Please share this content with your colleagues.

Session 1: April 13, 2011 Beyond the Hot Air: What's really in the cloud? Hear Kamesh Pemmaraju of Sand Hill Group define the cloud and learn how companies like yours are already leveraging the cloud. White Paper

Session 2: April 20, 2011 Cloud Insider: Beyond the Hot Air: Jeff Kaplan of THINKstrategies talks with Sina Moatamed, former CIO of BendPak Inc. White Paper

Session 3: April 27, 2011 Cloud Benefits 101: What's in it for you? Kamesh Pemmaraju explains the cloud benefits in store for your company. White Paper

Session 4: May 4, 2011 Cloud Insider: What's in it for you? , Jeff Kaplan presents implementation success strategies from Eric Brown, CEO of Johnson Products Company, who achieved his start-up mandates within 90 days - in the cloud. White Paper

Session 5: May 11, 2011 Roadmap to Cloud Success: How to get there? Kamesh Pemmaraju defines eight mission-critical steps for mapping your route to success in the cloud.

Session 6: May 25, 2011 Cloud Insider: Roadmap to Cloud Success. Neil Briggs, CFO of WL Plastics, shares his roadmap to cloud success with Jeff Kaplan. White Paper

Session 7: June 1, 2011 Competitive Edge in the Cloud: Is the sky the limit?. Kamesh Pemmaraju recaps Steps 1- 6 and advises that a long-term cloud view is your ticket to riding this next massive economic and technological wave to ongoing growth and success. White Paper

Session 8: June 8, 2011 Cloud Insider: Competitive Edge in the Cloud. Jeff Kaplan asks Greg Dunn, CFO of Sambazon, about the innovative strategies that are enabling Sambazon to surpass business boundaries in the cloud.

convience strore pricing at the supermarket drove me online

2011-06-13T20:03:00.005-05:00

I never would have guessed that an offer for free shipping on a trailer hitch would have been the straw that motivated me to buy chili powder online rather than from my local supermarket.

I make a wicked mexican chili bean salad. The recipe has been available on this blog since 2007, although it's been refined over time. I never make it twice exactly the same, but chili powder is always a key ingredient, and a large batch takes 1 to 1.5 ounces of chili powder.

Did you ever wonder why you can buy 2 liters of soda at the supermarket for the same price as a 12 oz can from the cooler at a convienience store? Convienience. Convienience stores know that most of us are willing to pay more when we want it cold and ready to drink. I almost always buy soda from the supermarket, and keep a mini - fridge stocked in the basement. I rarely buy it from a convienience store, but that is a different story.

Since I go thorugh a lot of chili powder, I realized a while ago that my local grocery stores have been making huge profits by charging rediculous prices for small jars of cooking spices, including my beloved chili powder. I started shopping around a while ago, and found much larger containers are available, at very reasonable prices but, not where I shop. My store used to stock a 4 oz container of chili powder, which were priced just a little more than the 2.5 oz, and I bought them whenever they were available, however they must have realized the larger containers were cutting into their profits and eliminated them. I've asked about larger containers at the grocery store from time to time, but was told they don't stock them. For a long time, I wasn't inclined to order a monster size chili powder online. I didn't want to pay the shipping, and it just wasn't on my mind until I was making bean salad and found I was out of chili powder, so I just kept running out to the store and paying the rediculous price.

Then something happened. I bought a new vehicle, and needed to order a trailer hitch for it. While shopping at Amazon, I was offered a free 1 month trial of Amazon prime, with free 2nd day shipping for a year at a fixed fee of $79. I figured, with the price of gas, it wouldn't take long to make up the cost of running around shopping, and the savings on shipping the trailer hitch alone were substantial, so I went for it.

It happended again this week, I went to make bean salad, and found only about half an ounce of chili powder in the house. I finally said enough it enough. I ordered 2 16 oz jars of Durkee chili powder for $13.58, with free 2nd day shipping from Amazon and it showed up here 2 days later. My wife, VJ, stopped in the grocery store yesterday, and told me the usual 2.5 oz jar of chili powder was just under $5, and this was for the store brand, not some fancy gourmet brand, so I was pleased that she left it on the shelf.

I can't wait to taste the bean salad with the sweet taste of my bargain priced chili powder. I bet it will be much better than the rip-off grocery store powder becasue at less than a fourth of the cost per ounce, I won't be choking on the price.

Now that I'm over the online grocery hurdle, who know what additional business my local supermarket will lose? And all becasue of a trailer hitch...

4 key Steps to Pricing

2011-04-17T20:11:00.002-05:00

Nice overview of pricing methodology from Jim Schuchart on the MIT Entreprenurship Review.

1. Identify Alternatives: What is the next best competititive alternatiive? Sometimes the compeition is not making any investment in this issue.

2. Quantify Your Superiority: Use simple math. (the simpler the better) Apply basic, but conservative assumptions that are easy to understand and difficult to refute. Don’t worry too much about perfecting the numbers, just be conservative. Roughly right is better than precisely wrong. As you move forward, customer conversations, annual reports, pilot programs, and field tests will help refine the inputs. The important thing is to understand how we are driving value, and roughly how much it is worth.

3. Acknowledge Your Deficiencies: Your story must be fair and believable to gain traction, and a key step is to acknowledge that the next best competitive alternative may have some advantages. The analysis looses credibility if the audience thinks we didn’t look at the entire picture. Consider the cost of switching from the incumbent solution as a deficiency.

4. Put it Together and Capture Your Value: In most cases, you’ll have multiple positive and negative drivers to consider, but for now we’re keeping it simple. So now what?

If we are more valuable than the competitive offer, their price is a hard floor for our offer. Anything below this number leaves money on the table and can lead to dangerous price wars. Our ceiling is that differentiation plus the price of the next best competitive offer. Above this price you are asking your customer to make an economically irrational decision.

This approach creates a pricing band – from floor to the ceiling, and the range may be quite large. Decisions on how to share that value creation band with your customers (e.g. where to set your price) depend on company strategy, industry dynamics, and degree of innovation. In mature and highly competitive markets where innovation happens on the fringes, companies typically capture 10% of the differential value. More aggressive companies who focus on profit or operate in younger markets often captured roughly 30% of the net differential value. In some cases, such as highly innovative products where psychological drivers are in play or unquantifiable pain points exist, nearly 100% of that value can be captured.

Kohl's Kiosk - interesting idea, many issues remain

2011-03-26T15:48:00.006-05:00

I've been a fan of Kohl's for a quite a while,. They've been my primary source for sneakers for many years. Their quality and selection are way above Walmart, without the pricey "brand attitude" of say Macy's. I've been reluctant to buy sneakers online because I really want to try them on before buying. Recently however, as the inventory seems be more tightly managed, I've had trouble finding my size and style, especially during promotions, when stock gets depleted quickly. I've never ordered online from Kohl's because I don't like to pay shipping, so I've often delayed footwear purchases until I find my size during a sale. When I do find them, I've been known to buy more than one pair, because I don't mind stocking up when I'm getting a good deal. Recently, our local Kohl's store introduced a kiosk where you can order online and have it shipped to your home (or anywhere) with no shipping charge. Frequently I shop online from home and take advantage of free in-store pick up to avoid shipping charges.

I was shopping for sneakers today at Kohl's and found a style that I liked at a good price. Unfortunately, there was no 1o.5 wide available. I tried on size 10 wide - it was not bad, but a little short. I tried the 11 wide, it was definitely loose in the heel. I decided I would give the kiosk a try to get my usual 10.5 wide. I had a little trouble with the responsiveness of the touch screen, and finding the wide sizes wasn't completely intuitive, but I managed to get them into my cart. I navigated to check out, and realized I had 2 pair in my cart, a 10.5 regular, and a 10.5 wide. I deleted one and then scanned my Kohl's charge card; however, I then realized I had deleted the wide, and was about to order the regular, so I tried to go back before completing the check out, and got this:
bluemartini anyone? I pressed the button for assistance, heard a page, "Customer Assistance to the Kiosk in shoes." Reassured, I waited...., and waited. The page repeated. "Customer Assistance to the Kiosk in shoes." I waited some more. While waiting, I tried the home button, which was still visible at the bottom the screen. I tried the exit button. Neither responded. So I used the brick and mortar exit.

Closing thoughts. I would be a lot more inclined to buy from Kohl's online if I could do it from home with free or low cost shipping. Shipping to the store is preferable to me because I can pick up the order at my convenience. I certainly wouldn't wait in line to use their in-store Kiosk. I'm sure they figure if they can get people into the store many will buy something else while there. Have you ever waited for someone to pick a movie from Redbox? How long would you stand there waiting to use the in-store kiosk, while a clown like me tries to figure it out? Do you want an audience of fellow shoppers looking over your shoulder at the big screen while you shop online? Have you tried in-store online shopping? What did you think?
best,
Chuck

Where does pricing power come from?

2011-02-23T12:22:00.006-05:00

Warren Buffet was quoted recently as saying:

The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business... The extraordinary business does not require good management.

So what is pricing power? The ability to raise prices without loosing business.

Where does it come from? Pricing power derives from many sources. Bloomberg cited Buffet's holdings in railroads and utilities, which derive pricing power from their dominant market position. Buffet also has stakes in consumer companies like Coca-Cola Co. and Kraft with powerful brand appeal that attracts and retains customers. Businesses that serve value oriented customers who demand more than brand appeal and those without high barriers to entry rely on innovation, quality, extraordinary customer service, operational excellence, and value to achieve pricing power.

Bottom line: Pricing power is an indicator of a good business, but isn't the cause which makes a business great. History is replete with stories of titans laid low by disruptive upstarts, so I wouldn't discount the need for good management even in extraordinary businesses.

How NOT to label products

2011-02-21T21:19:00.005-05:00

I hate it when I buy something, take it home, and find I have to struggle with irremovable product labels. Note to Boise Cascade, Home Depot, and anyone else who is listening... If you are going to sell AB Plywood, put the #%&@! label on the B side, not the A side.

I'm paying extra to get a clean finish for my project. Do you think that means I want to spend 15 to 20 minutes scraping off your UPC that seems permanently glued near the middle of the sheet of plywood?

You would hope they would know better!
Now I feel better.

Diane Rheme interviews Eduardo Porter, author of "The Price of Everything" listen

2011-02-20T08:36:00.001-05:00

Diane Rheme interview with Eduardo Porter, member of The New York Times's editorial board, and author of "The Price of Everything" Podcast - I bought the book becasue of my interest in pricing, but it's much more about value and values. [~ 50 minutes of great listening]

Advice on Freemium Software Pricing

2011-02-12T22:54:00.002-05:00

Andy Singleton, founder and CEO of Assembla a SaaS provider gives an in-depth summary of experience with software pricing terms.

Secrets Of Freemium Pricing: Make The Cheapskates Pay

The post provides practical priorities for pricing, and many other pricing nuggets.
The number one goal: Maximize Revenue
The number two goal: Reduce Cost of Sales

Recovering from information overload: McKinsey Quarterly

2011-02-03T20:52:00.002-05:00

Always-on, multitasking work environments are killing productivity, dampening creativity, and making us unhappy.
JANUARY 2011 • Derek Dean and Caroline Webb

My favorite quote from the article:
"Multitasking is not heroic; it’s counterproductive."

Ann Deavere on hope & determination (heard on NPR)

2011-02-01T22:53:00.003-05:00

Philosopher Cornell West, according to Ann Deavere: Hope and optimism are different. Optimism, you look out the window, you say it looks pretty good out there. Hope says it doesn't look good at all. It doesn't look good at all. Evidence doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond the evidence, and create new possibilities based on vision, become contagious to allow people to engage in heroic actions always against odds, no guarantee whatsoever, that's hope.

Ann Deavere on rodeo bull rider Brent Williams" Think about it, we shouldn't be able to stay on top of bulls trying to buck you off cause we weigh like a hundred fifty pounds bull weighs over 2,000 pounds. but I think what keeps you on top of that bull is determination, something in side you.

Toughness is when you meet that thing that is going to defeat you, how do you ride that bull? The thing that keeps you going is this understanding that we are small, that we weigh a hundred fifty pounds, but the bull... What keeps you going is determination. And the determination is hooked into a belief that if you keep going, if you struggle, something really beautiful is going to happen.

Duncan Jones of Forrester on Pay-per-use Software Pricing

2011-01-26T13:35:00.002-05:00

Duncan Jones of Forrester Research focuses on software pricing and licensing and helps clients understand and address the effect of technology changes on software contracts.

Pay per use provides flexible, on-demand services, suitable for temporary needs, but is not suitable for regularly used applications. Jone's concerns include:

Complexity to define and track. How to measure time-based or transactional usage reliably?
Unpredictable and uncontrallable. How to prevent an unexpected, unbudgeted bills at the end of the month?
Expensive. Some people assume that it'll be cheaper if they only pay for what they actually use. That's an incorrect assumption. The per hour rate will always be sufficiently more than the per year rate to push customers to the latter. Price is driven by negotiation leverage and competition, not the licensing model.
Counter-productive. Software vendors want people to use the tools you've made available, so why create a cost disincentive by making customers wonder, before starting an application, "How much will this cost?"

Jim Collins Good to Great

2011-01-01T23:13:00.002-05:00

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Having invested over a decade of research into the topic, Jim has authored or co-authored four books, including the classic BUILT TO LAST.

Executives spend too much time wordsmithing vision statements, mission statements, values statements, purpose statements, and aspiration statements—and nowhere near enough time trying to align their organizations with the values and visions already in place.

6 Principles of Influence

2010-12-28T16:15:00.002-05:00

From the Inside Influence at Work Blog:

Reciprocity
People are more willing to comply with requests (for favors, services, information, concessions,etc.) from those who have provided such things first.

Commitment/Consistency
People are more willing to be moved in a particular direction if they see it as consistent with an existing commitment.

Authority
People are more willing to follow the directions or recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant authority or expertise.

Social Validation
People are more willing to take a recommended action if they see evidence that many others, especially similar others, are taking it.

Scarcity
People find objects and opportunities more attractive to the degree that they are scarce, rare, or dwindling in availability.

Liking/Friendship/Attractiveness
People prefer to say yes to those they know, like and find attractive.

The next step in online IP management: Zmags

2010-11-30T12:20:00.003-05:00

Interesting white paper about how to manage your brand image by preventing your content from being pulled apart by bloggers .

Zmags Social Media Whitepaper Series

As you can see below, it's not completely foolproof.

I really didn't like the blinking bullets embedded in the white paper.

Honoring fallen military and keeping facts straight

2010-09-25T21:21:00.011-05:00

I first saw this on facebook and then found it replicated all over the web, where it has been re-posted thousands of times in the last few days. I agree with the sentiment, but found the facts less than 100% accurate.

Lindsay Lohan, 24, is all over the news because she's a celebrity drug addict. While Justin Allen, 23, Brett Linley, 29, Matthew Weikert, 29, Justus Bartett, 27, Dave Santos, 21, Chase Stanley, 21, Jesse Reed, 26, Matthew Johnson, 21, Zachary Fisher, 24, Brandon King, 23, Christopher Goeke, 23, and Sheldon Tate, 27 are all Marines that gave their lives this week, no media mention. Honor THEM by reposting.

I rarely re-post something like that, but I felt this was compelling so I checked it out in more detail. It turns out that all 12 were killed serving in Afghanistan between July 10 and 16, not this week, all were Americans except Brett Linley, of Birmingham UK, who served in the 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment,The Royal Logistic Corps. Nine of the 12 served in the US Army, not the Marines. Extensive searching found no record of Justus Bartett, but I was able to find an obituary for 27 year old Marine Staff Sgt. Justus S. Bartelt , of Polo, Ill, and I concluded that his name was likely transcribed incorrectly at some point.

Here are more details on each individual with references. God Bless them and their families for their courageous self sacrifice.

Justin B. Allen, 23
Sgt. Justin B. Allen, 23, of Coal Grove, Ohio, died July 18, 2010 in Zhari, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot by insurgents while conducting combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.

refs: Warriors' watch Riders Forums
militarytimes.com database

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Brett Linley, 29

Staff Sergeant Brett George Linley of Birmingham, from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment,The Royal Logistic Corps, serving with the Counter-IED Task Force, died in Afghanistan Saturday 17 July 2010.

Staff Sergeant Linley was 29 and from Birmingham. He and his team were working to clear Improvised Explosive Devices from a vital route in the Nahr-e Saraj District of Helmand Province when he was killed by an explosion.

Sources BBC: July 22, 2010
http://www.thisisannouncements.co.uk/5913068

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JACKSONVILLE - Staff Sergeant Matthew W. Weikert, 29, of Jacksonville was mortally wounded on Saturday, July 17, 2010, while serving with the U.S. Army near Orgun, Afghanistan.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in August of 2001 serving three tours in Iraq over four years. He later joined the U.S. Army serving with the 101st Airborne completing a tour in Iraq and was currently deployed in Afghanistan. As a military team leader, Matt was adamant that his personal mission was to properly prepare the soldiers under his command and keep them safe from harm.
refs: legacy.com/obituaries
http://militarytimes.com/valor/army-sgt-matthew-w-weikert/4716077/

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Justus Bartett, 27 >> extensive searching produced no results for Justus Barett; however, there was a Marine Staff Sgt. Justus S. Bartelt, who Died July 16, 2010 serving in Afganistan

Marine Staff Sgt. Justus S. Bartelt 27, of Polo, Ill.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died July 16 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

The Associated Press

Justus Bartelt was born on the Fourth of July and decided roughly a dozen years later that he would to serve the country whose independence that day celebrates.

“He was a best friend to those who knew him as a friend,” she said. “He was a true and loyal family member and he was a true and loyal marine.”

Bartelt joined the Marines after graduating from Polo Community High School in Polo, Ill., in 2001.

When he was deployed in February, he instructed his mother not to worry.

The 27-year-old died July 16 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province during his third tour of duty. He was assigned to Camp Lejeune.
ref: militarytimes.com

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Dave Santos, 21

Marine Cpl. Dave M. Santos died July 16, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

21, of Rota, Marianas Islands of the Pacific; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died July 16 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Ref Military times database

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Army Spc. Chase Stanley died July 14, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

21, of Napa, Calif.; assigned to the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat), Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 14 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his military vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
Army Specialists, Stanley, Reed, Johnson, and Fisher were killed in the same IED attack on July 14.
ref: Military times database

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Army Spc. Jesse D. Reed died July 14, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

26, of Orefield, Pa.; assigned to the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat), Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 14 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his military vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
ref: military times database

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Army Spc. Matthew J. Johnson died July 14, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

21, of Maplewood, Minn.; assigned to the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat), Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 14 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his military vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
ref: military times database

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Army Sgt. Zachary M. Fisher died July 14, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

24, of Ballwin, Mo.; assigned to the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat), Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 14 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his military vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
ref: military times database

////////////
Army Pvt. Brandon M. King died July 14, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

23, of Tallahassee, Fla.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; died July 14 at Combat Outpost Nolen, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms fire.
ref: military times database

///////////
Army 1st Lt. Christopher S. Goeke died July 13, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

23, of Apple Valley, Minn.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 13 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.
ref: military times database

///////////
Army Staff Sgt. Sheldon L. Tate died July 13, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

27, of Hinesville, Ga.; assigned to the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 13 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.
ref: military times database

///////////

updated : Sept 27, closing the loop. Further searching seems to confirm my conclusion that the name of Justus Bartelt was misspelled somewhere along the way. Here is a very similar comment posted July 26 on a TMZ website. This version has 10 of the 12 names, with the correct spelling of Bertelt's name, and no reference to which branch of service they served.

Lindsey Lohan who? I cant believe the news coverage being given to a spoiled 20-something yr old. Here are a few 20 yr-olds worth knowing about: Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matt Weikert 29, Justus Bartelt 27, Dave Santos 21, Chase Stanley 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, & Sheldon Tate 27. These 20-somethings gave their lives for you this week. Repost if you support the Military
Posted at 10:33 AM on Jul 26, 2010 by tara at:
http://www.tmz.com/2010/07/26/lindsay-lohan-rehab-facility-california/4/

updated : Sept 28'10: Fixed a typo in my Sept 27 update identified by an anonymous commenter. Thank you for pointing that out!

ed 2-12-2011 corrected a typo and refined formatting.

updated: Mar 21 '11: Moved the note regarding the July 14 IED attack which was incorrectly positioned under Dave Santos name. Thanks to commenter Sara who pointed this out.

MS XL Index & Match functions

2010-09-11T09:57:00.003-05:00

I needed to reference the column heading for each row based on the max value of a series of columns. This post on the Ozgrid Excel Help & Best Practices Forums provided the quick answer using the INDEX & MATCH functions. http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67827&page=1

Shows how to reference the value of the row (or column) headings in a matrix at which a maximum value in each row (or column) of the matrix is located.

Recovered lost password for MS Outlook 2007 .pst file with pstpassword 1.12 from nirsoft

2010-09-09T18:58:00.007-05:00

I had success with pstpassword 1.12 recovering my lost password on an Outlook 2007 .pst file!

How I got in this situation in the first place: My backup program was generating errors related to an Outlook email archive, so my system admin advised me to close the archive to try to resolve the problem. Oops! I didn't think to reset the password on the pst file before closing it.

With a company policy that requires changing passwords every few months and at least one upper case, lower case number and special character, and being admonished, don't write down your passwords, the odds of me remembering the password on an email archive I created over a year ago were slim and none. So there I was stuck with all my 2010 emails through July locked just out of reach.

I went looking online for a freeware password recovery tool for Outlook and found plenty of commercial offers and dubious looking claims, but pstpassword 1.12 from nirsoft.com seemed to stand out from the noise. After extensive searching, I couldn't find anything really bad about it. There were some discussion on a PCReview forum in the UK about it being tagged as a false Trojan. The discussion made sense to me, so I downloaded it (on my home PC). I made a copy of the .pst file on my portable USB drive and was able to run pstpassword against it (after extensive scanning the download with antimalware and antivirus programs).

It quickly gave me three passwords to try against the file. The first one looked like part of an old password that I might have used, but didn't work. The 2nd didn't work at all, but the third opened it right up. I copied the emails out of the old archive to a new one and I'm back in business. And now that I know how easy it is to crack the passwords on an email archive. Don't think you can hide something in there that you don't want found out!

So I'm satisfied. I wanted to document this so hopefully people will find it assuring that a real person found pstpassword 1.12 performed as described for me.

Clayton M. Christensen article on personal success

2010-08-02T16:32:00.006-05:00

Clayton M. Christensen wrote in Harvard Business Review about allocating personal time, energy, and talent to ultimately shape your life's strategy. He asks his students use management theories to find answers to three important questions of life: How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Here are some highlights. The full article is a must read. Access to the article is free for the month of August.

1. Know your purpose: Christensen promises his students that if they figure out their life purpose, they’ll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered at Harvard Business School. If they don’t figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life. Clarity of purpose trumps many any other kinds of knowledge.

2. Allocate resources: Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent ultimately shape your life’s strategy.

3. Build a culture: There comes a point when parents wish that they had begun working at a very young age to build a culture at home in which their children instinctively behave respectfully and choose the right thing to do. Families have cultures, just as companies do.

4. Avoid the marginal costs mistake: It’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.

5. Remember Humility: If your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.

Quoting from the conclusion:

The metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.

Christensen is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Chuck

TurboTax price games just get better....

2010-03-27T21:37:00.007-05:00

After my last post, I decided to look further to see if I could find a better offer on the TurboTax State edition. I thought I was on to something, when I found a link to a 35% discount on TurboTax available through Bank of America. (see below).

Turns out when you arrive at the TurboTax - Bank of America Portal, the prices are marked up so much, that even with BOA's discount, the end cost of TurboTax Deluxe is 41% higher than what I paid through Amazon. Just in case you can't read the prices on the 2nd picture below. TurboTax Deluxe is shown for $69.95 marked down to $52.46. Now, if you do the arithmetic, taking $17.49 off of a $69.95 price is a 25% reduction, not 35%. If you took 35% off the inflated $69.95 price, it would still be 22% more than I paid at Amazon. Go figure.... Not a way to instill confidence or customer loyalty in either Bank of America or Intuit.

TurboTax state -pricing funny business is not funny

2010-03-27T21:03:00.009-05:00

I've been working on software pricing for over 5 years, and was very disappointed with the pricing to add an additional state return to TurboTax Deluxe. I shopped around for the best price I could find on TurboTax. I bought a downloadable distribution of TurboTax Deluxe which includes 1 state and efile from Amazon for $37.17. Because VJ, my wife, works in neighboring Massachusetts, I need to file two states. We've always done the MA non-resident return by hand, which is kind of a pain, so I thought I would splurge and do the extra state in TurboTax this year. However, Turbotax is asking more to add a second state to my return than I paid for the TurboTax Deluxe package, which includes the Federal, one state, plus efile. Not only that. If I order the extra state through the application, the price is $44.95, and if I download it from TurboTax.com, the price is $39.95, 11% less than downloading it from the application. Just to add the icing on the cake, the feds tell me that my tax preparation software is not deductible, because my miscellaneous expenses are less than 2% of my adjusted gross income.

Now granted, Intuit tells me I can file as many state returns as I like with the "extra" MA copy. I only need to do one. Yes, they can charge whatever the market will bear, but it doesn't seem reasonable to me to charge more to add one state than they charge for the complete bundle. And it seem even more unreasonable to charge 11% more if I order the extra state through the application vs. from their website.

Supporting details:

From TurboTax 2009 when adding another state:

From http://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/cd-download/state.jsp

From my Amazon download confirmation

TurboTax Deluxe Federal + State 2009 + efile [DOWNLOAD] [Software Download] , Price: $37.17 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

MS Excel 2007 Pivot Table Quick Reference

2010-03-22T10:20:00.002-05:00

PivotTable I: Get started with PivotTable reports in Excel 2007

Overview of PivotTable reports and PivotChart reports
Design the layout and format of a PivotTable report
Select different source data for a PivotTable report
Group items in a PivotTable report
Connect to (import) external data
Connect to (import) an OLAP database
PivotTable II: Filter PivotTable report data in Excel 2007

Elicitation in Competitive Intelligence

2010-02-26T21:00:00.003-05:00

Many research professionals invest a lot of of time sifting through electronic resources in search of meaningful information. Search engines fall short when it comes to efficiently delivering deep insight. The information primary researchers seek often doesn't exist in databases or accessible online repositories. It exists in the gray matter between the ears of other human beings.

Skilled primary researchers can glean tremendous insight through conversations with key industry participants, information that might otherwise never be found or is not available through secondary research. This is the main reason why primary researchers prefer to go to the source, and recognize the need for a deep dive into the watery recesses of other minds.

For skilled researchers seeking specific data or opinions, there is no faster path to current information than direct communication with a well-informed source.

Professionals within corporate Competitive intelligence departments are often constrained by the nature of their own employment arrangements. It is considered improper for a corporate employee to pick up the phone and elicit sensitive information from an employee of a competitor. This can raise contentious legal issues.

Read the full article by David Carpe from his drinking from the fire hose column in Competitive Intelligence Magazine here.

Amazon EC2 pricing, billing, use cases

2010-02-17T13:36:00.005-05:00

Here is an overview of Amazon Elastic Computing EC2 pricing, billing and use case info.

Annual Cost Comparison (100% utilization)
35 m1.small & 10 m1.large instances Linux/UNIX instances at steady state for 1 year.

__________Do-It-Yourself___EC2 On-Demand___EC2 Reserved___EC2 Reserved
________________________________________(1 Year Term)___(3 Year Term)

TOTAL COST ____$ 81,305________$ 57,951________$ 38,878.50_____$ 30,566

m1.small = 1.7 GB of memory, 1 EC2 Compute Unit (1 virtual core with 1 EC2 Compute Unit), 160 GB of local instance storage, 32-bit platform.
m1.large = 7.5 GB of memory, 4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each), 850 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platform

Conjoint Analysis (Pricing) - Introduction

2010-01-29T08:42:00.002-05:00

Conjoint Analysis is a market research technique that looks at how people make buying decisions and what they really value in products and services. Conjoint analysis helps answer questions like "Which should we do, build in more features, or bring our prices down?" or "Which of these changes will hurt our competitors most?"

The approach breaks a product or service down into it's constituent parts then tests combinations of the parts to determine what customers prefer.

more details at dobney.com a marketing research consultancy

Critical Thinking Resources

2010-01-27T13:00:00.002-05:00

The Headscratcher model is a working framework for Critical Thinking consisting of 3 components - Clarity, Conclusions and Decisions, surrounded by Discovery, Information and Ideas.

FastCompany article: A Plea for More Critical Thinking in Design, Please BY John Barratt Aug 2009

Motorola Droid voice dialing & bluetooth (not)

2009-11-28T20:15:00.003-05:00

I'm really disappointed in voice dialing and bluetooth support on the Motorola Droid.

I had a Motorola Razr for the last two years and had a great experience with tan inexpensive Motorola H505 bluetooth headset for hands free voice dialing. To place a call I could simply turn on the headset, and press the call button on the headset. It would give a voice prompt, "Say a command." To which my usual reply was "call home" or "call 111 222 3456". The system would then reply, "did you say call _blank_?" with the _blank_ filled in with my request, and the target number was correctly recognized most of the time.

Here is my initial experience with the voice dialer in a nutshell:

In three days of playing around, I don't think I've once gotten the voice dialer to recognize the contact I'm trying to call. I've tried speaking both names and numbers with the same results, neither works. Here is a video clip I recorded, you be the judge.

Bluetooth integration is another big disappointment. I was able to get the headset to pair with the phone, but I couldn't get it to do anything. Turns out that you need to press the bluetooth button which comes up on screen after you make the call from the handset, and then press the call button to get audio on the headset. Receiving a call with the blue tooth headset sort of works. The headset provides a ring, If I press the call button on the headset while the call is ringing, the call connects to the phone, but not to the headset. I have to press the bluetooth key on the call display and press the call button again to hear audio in the headset. I can end the call with the call buton from the headset. (at least something works....) Kind of defeats the purpose of hands free doesn't it?

I wonder if Motorola/Verizon/and Google will be hit with a rash of liability suits based on people crashing their cars while driving using this "so called" hands free option.

Here is a direct quote from the Motorola support site on Bluetooth and Voice Dialing with the new Android. (last update Nov. 23)

More about Bluetooth Voice Dialing

Droid supports one-touch voice dialing and full Bluetooth voice conversations.
It does not support hands-free dialing via Bluetooth, and Motorola is aware that it does not.
On Droid, you can answer a call or initiate the 'last dialed call' by pressing and holding the call button on your Bluetooth headset.
Voice dialing cannot be initiated from a headset; you must turn it on from the phone.

Will there be an update?

We are currently evaluating possible solutions for providing voice dialing over Bluetooth. The plan for Android phones is to continue to improve the consumer experience through software updates.
Some owners have found applications that meet their needs in the Applications Market. Though Motorola does not recommend or support specific third-party solutions, you may want to regularly check the new apps offered in the Android Market for additional dialing options.

I thought I would be writing high praise for this new "toy." Don't get me wrong, there is some really cool stuff on the Android, but it has a very long way to go in terms of maturity. I'm not usually a bleeding edge technology adopter, but I'm trying to embrace change.

Unofficial Droid Forums

2009-11-28T07:42:00.003-05:00

http://www.droidforums.net/

http://droidboards.com/index.php?action=forum

Copy & Paste on Motorola Droid A855 - menu key icon doesn't match documentation

2009-11-28T07:05:00.008-05:00

The Verizon Droid Quick Tips and Tricks guide appears to use an older menu icon than was used on the released model. The menu key icon shown below in an excerpt from the documentation (four squares in a 2x2 grid, with the upper left filled) appears to have been replaced by four horizontal lines, the top one being slightly longer suggesting a drop down list.

Still Giving Thanks... Peter Gomes interview on NPR's Here & Now

2009-11-27T11:33:00.003-05:00

my Dad carving the turkey- Nov 26, 2009

Yesterday, while driving to Plymouth, for Thanksgiving dinner with my family, we heard a terrific interview on NPR's Here and Now with Peter Gomes, a well known Baptist preacher and Harvard professor, who like me, grew up in Plymouth. He was the first African-American member of the Pilgrim Society and the Old Colony Club. Gomes got involved with the Pilgrim Society from a young age, despite warnings from his father that the pilgrims were not his people and they don't really like you. One of the best moments of the interview is Rev. Gomes' description of being questioned by president of the Pilgrim Society, Ellis W. Brewster, while working a summer job at the Pilgrim Society front desk. "Are you a member of the Pilgrim Society?" Brewster asked. "No Sir," Gomes replied, expecting to be fired on the spot. "Well we can't have non-members working here," said Brewster reaching into his pocket and handing Gomes a life membership in the Pilgrim Society, which Brewster had signed himself. Gomes went on to become president of the Pilgrim Society which he has been involved with for over 40 years.

Here and Now host, Robin Young and Gomes discussed the parallels between the Pilgrim's escape from oppression, crossing the ocean, entering into the promised land and the Moses story described by Bruce Feiler in his book, America’s Prophet Moses and the American Story. This is a universal human story of escaping oppression, being faithful to God, seeking the promised land, which has many parallels in history including the underground railroad, and the civil rights struggle. Ironically, Moses never actually entered the promised land. The Pilgrims were more fortunate. Although I grew up in Plymouth, and thought I was familiar with pilgrim history, I found this interpretation facsinating.

I get choked up by the Thanksgiving re-broadcast of Robin Young's visit with her now-late uncle, Lachlan McLachlyn Field, to see the migrating snow geese at the Dead Creek refuge in Addison, Vermont. Although we've heard this interveiw each Thanksgiving for many years, I'll never tire of it. Robin's Uncle Lach passed away in 2004 at the age of 91.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Motorola Droid... Day 1 first thoughts

2009-11-25T22:57:00.006-05:00

I got a Motorola Droid from Verizon today. I wanted mobile email and web access and looked at the iPhone, but we have better coverage where I live from Verizon than AT&T, so I went with the Droid.

I didn't have much time to play with it, but I tried out the Navigator. It worked pretty well, although just after I got in the car, I got a notification GPS signal lost. It took a few minutes to recover from that. The spoken directions were clear enough, although not quite as clear as VJ's Garmin Nuvi. It made corrections as appropriate when I didn't follow the route. The GPS navigation mode runs down the battery, and I didn't buy the car charger because I thought my Motorola USB auto charger would work with it but the micro USB connector is half again as thin as the mini pug. I see Motorola has a Mini to Micro USB adapter cable for less than $2, but I'll have to find a better deal on shipping. I had to wait in a waiting room for a little while, and it was very cool to be able to hop online with the wireless web.

Dell Mobile is offering an attractive price on the Droid ($119.99 with a 2 year contract). However, I got mine from Verizon, because I have a family plan with 3 lines. The "new every 2" credit from my old Verizon plan made it almost the same price, and it was a lot less complicated to just deal with Verizon instead of Verizon & Dell. I've been shopping for phones for several weeks. We found out recently that VJ is eligible for an employee discount, that makes Verizon more attractive than my employee discount with AT&T.

I was most disappointed when the sales guy said he couldn't print out the total for the plan until after the contract was signed... until I insisted that we weren't signing anything until seeing the total, then he found a way.

My first impression with the Verizon "Droid" leather case/belt clip MOTA855CAS which says right on the box, "fits Droid by Motorola" was underwhelming when I figured out that the micro USB charger plug is half covered by the spine of the case, so you can't leave it in the case while charging the battery (which looks like it could be often with the Droid). I think I'll be taking back the case when I find something better.

More later on the user experience, and how my fat fingers are adapting to the keyboard(s)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Pricing & Licensing Roundtable at ProductCamp Boston Nov 2009

2009-11-11T08:33:00.005-05:00

I spent a great day at the Microsoft R&D Center in Cambridge on Saturday, Nov. 9 collaborating informally with about 150 product managers and marketing professionals at ProductCamp Boston. This was the 2nd ProductCamp event in Boston, and another huge success.

I organized a session on Software Pricing & Licensing. I want to thank Jim Geisman founder of Software Pricing Partners, and Amy Konary Research Director at IDC for providing their expert perspective. About 15 people participated in the Pricing & Licensing session, and 11 expressed an interest in setting up a local online networking group as a place to gather and collaborate further. (I've been asked by the BPMA board to do this within the general forum while membership on our new online community builds up - once that reaches a critical mass, we'll split it out into a separate subgroup.)

You can download the slides from my session here in pdf format. The slides include links to some good pricing books and online resources.

my favorite highlights of the day at ProductCamp include:
Steve Johnson's Keynote on managing your career using the Pragmatic Framework

John Monsour's (of Zig Zag Marketing) session: How Product Mgmt. & Product Mktg. Can Drive Company, Market & Product Strategy.
Alan Armstrong (of eigenworks) session: Credibility and Authority for Product Management & Product Marketing: Practical steps. Alan has a great tag line: "NAIL IT THEN SCALE IT".

My Flickr photoset from the day is here.

I want to extend a big Thank-You to Brooks Rutledge for his extraordinary dedication, effort, and leadership in organizing this event which provides a huge value to participants. Also, thanks to the ProductCamp Sponsors for making the day possible.

revised FTC endorsement guidelines require bloggers to disclose "freebies"

2009-10-21T18:59:00.004-05:00

On Oct 5 the Federal Trade Commission announced revisions to the guidance it gives advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act. The changes affect testimonial advertisements, celebrity endorsements and bloggers.

The revised Guides include examples to illustrate the principle that “material connections” (payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. The examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the FTC Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

Here are examples citing bloggers related to endorsements and disclosure of material connections

Expert endorsements.
Example 8: A consumer who regularly purchases a particular brand of dog food decides one day to purchase a new, more expensive brand made by the same manufacturer. She writes in her personal blog that the change in diet has made her dog’s fur noticeably softer and shinier, and that in her opinion, the new food definitely is worth the extra money. This posting would not be deemed an endorsement under the Guides.

Assume that rather than purchase the dog food with her own money, the consumer gets it for free because the store routinely tracks her purchases and its computer has generated a coupon for a free trial bag of this new brand. Again, her posting would not be deemed an endorsement under the Guides.

Assume now that the consumer joins a network marketing program under which she periodically receives various products about which she can write reviews if she wants to do so. If she receives a free bag of the new dog food through this program, her positive review would be considered an endorsement under the Guides.

Disclosure of material connections.
Example 7: A college student who has earned a reputation as a video game expert maintains a personal weblog or “blog” where he posts entries about his gaming experiences. Readers of his blog frequently seek his opinions about video game hardware and software. As it has done in the past, the manufacturer of a newly released video game system sends the student a free copy of the system and asks him to write about it on his blog. He tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. Because his review is disseminated via a form of consumer-generated media in which his relationship to the advertiser is not inherently obvious, readers are unlikely to know that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the value of the video game system, this fact likely would materially affect the credibility they attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge. The manufacturer should advise him at the time it provides the gaming system that this connection should be
disclosed, and it should have procedures in place to try to monitor his postings for compliance.

Example 8: An online message board designated for discussions of new music download technology is frequented by MP3 player enthusiasts. They exchange information about new products, utilities, and the functionality of numerous playback devices. Unbeknownst to the message board community, an employee of a leading playback device manufacturer has been posting messages on the discussion board promoting the manufacturer’s product. Knowledge of this poster’s employment likely would affect the weight or credibility of her endorsement. Therefore, the poster should clearly and conspicuously disclose her relationship to the manufacturer to members and readers of the message board.

Example 9: A young man signs up to be part of a “street team” program in which points are awarded each time a team member talks to his or her friends about a particular advertiser’s products. Team members can then exchange their points for prizes, such as concert tickets or electronics. These incentives would materially affect the weight or credibility of the team member’s endorsements. They should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, and the advertiser should take steps to ensure that these disclosures are being provided.

You can download the new FTC guidelines here. (pdf)

In the interest of full disclosure, last April, I blogged about Pam Slim's book Escape Cubicle Nation, that I received at no cost.

An irresistable upsell - leaves money on the table

2009-10-17T17:31:00.006-05:00

I had to refurbish the utility trailer that I use to clean up the autumn leaves from my yard. I stopped in Home Depot to pick up a 1" spade drill bit. I already have a set of spade bits, but my 1" bit was just worn out. I expected to buy a single bit which was priced at $4.69/EA.

I noticed a 3 piece set adjacent to the individual bits at such a bargain price, I simply couldn't pass it up. The package of 3 bits, which included the 1", a 3/4" and a 1/2 inch, was priced at $5.97.
Those are all sizes that I use and my drills are usually dull, but I wasn't looking to replace them today. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick up two new bits for an additional $1.28 . The 1/2" and 3/4" bits were priced at $4.19 and $3.70 each. The cost of the 2 extra bits in the bundle was 16% of the individual pieces.

From a differentiation perspective, the shanks on the set are a little shorter than the individual bits. The shank length makes very little difference to me, this will only affect very rare instances when trying to drill through stock that's more than about 4" thick. In fact when I'm using my drill press, the shorter shanks are often easier to work with.

I have to wonder what Irwin and Home Depot were thinking when they priced this set. Here are some ideas:

It's definitely cheaper to package and deliver 3 bits on one card than one product per card.
Manufacturing cost is a very small fraction of the retail price.
Home Depot also offers Rigid auger bits which are a little more expensive than the spade bits. Home Depot sells the 1" diameter Rigid auger bit for $5.97. The Auger bits are promoted as 6x faster than a spade bit, and re-sharpenable. I'm not sure if Irwin was trying to grab more market share by differentiating from the higher Rigid price point.

I had already decided to buy, but boosted my current purchase due to an irresistible upsell. I don't really want Home Depot or Irwin to know, but I would have gone for the upsell if it had only been one additional bit for an extra $1.28. I would say they left some money on the table.

Best,
Chuck

The doable to do list

2009-08-25T11:46:00.002-05:00

Concise article on keeping an effective "to do list" by Gina Trapani, editor of Lifehacker.

I'll try the group function in XL to hide or show some of the details.

Five best practices for communication with acronyms

2009-07-20T16:21:00.007-05:00

How often have you been presented with unfamiliar acronyms without being told what they stand for? Acronyms, can streamline communications when used effectively, but acronyms create confusion, loss of productivity, and frustration when misused. Communications effectiveness and productivity can be improved by applying and promoting best practices when using acronyms. Before getting to the 5 best practices, it's helpful to understand some of the problems created when acronyms are misunderstood:
a) Different people may have different meanings for the same acronym which leads to confusion and mistakes. The medical profession has identified misunderstood acronyms as a serious source of medical errors.
b) People may assume they know the acronym and sometimes guess what it means, but if their guess is wrong, they proceed, thinking they understand the acronym, when their understanding is incorrect or incomplete.
c) By saving a few seconds, not defining an acronym, you risk losing the meaning of your message and the attention of your audience as they wonder what the acronym means.
d) The meaning of acronyms can be diluted over time. As some acronyms become ingrained within organizations, many people who use them, don’t know their correct meaning, and misuse them compounding the loss of communication effectiveness.
e) Acronyms create barriers to effective cross-cultural communication.
f) It is difficult, if not impossible, to build an effective culture based on cooperation and trust in the absence of clear understanding.
Five best practices for communication using Acronyms:
1. The best practice when employing acronyms in speech or writing is to define the acronym when it is introduced, then to use the acronym for subsequent instances. If you are not going to repeat the acronym, then consider if you really want to use it in the first place.
2. The key to applying acronyms effectively is to identify when their use is appropriate. Acronyms expedite communication within teams who work closely together, and are familiar with their meaning. When you are certain that you are speaking to someone who knows the acronym, by all means, use it to save time. However when writing, it’s better to define your acronyms. You may be writing to a team member, but your message may be forwarded to others who are unfamiliar with your terminology.
3. If you are uncertain if some members of your audience are familiar with your terminology, it’s better to err on the conservative side and explain acronyms. Even when the audience is from the same organization, they may not understand the acronyms and terminology.
4. Develop a culture that encourages people to ask what acronyms mean when they are not familiar.
5. Maintain a central reference for company and industry specific acronyms.
Let me know if you have recommendations for improving clarity and understanding when using acronyms.
Best,
Chuck

Yahoo email outage is pushing me to GMAIL

2009-07-08T20:52:00.005-05:00

Although there are many reasons why I continue using Yahoo mail, they seem to be doing everything to convince me that I should quit using Yahoo as my primary email source and switch over to GMAIL. Let's see how long this lasts.

Yes, my connection to Yahoo mail is still functioning - I got your pop-up message didn't I?

I guess I'll copy the contents of my message over to GMAIL

Escape from Cubicle Nation - offers more than an exit strategy for corporate employees

2009-04-30T06:12:00.008-05:00

Pam Slim's new book Escape from Cubicle Nation From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur has a lot to offer to corporate employees who aren't necessarily looking for an exit, but who are looking for ideas and practical advice on how to thrive within the corporate world. One example is the eye opening exercise Breaking the Grip of Destructive Thoughts from Byron Katie on pages 35 & 36, which provides a simple process for deconstructing doubts and turning around your point of view.
Best,
Chuck

Update: EscapeFromCubicleNation.com appears to be offline just before 10:30 am EDT - I'm sure that Pam is doing everything possible to get this resolved ASAP, but I'm sure she is not happy about this. This is the last thing anyone wants on the day of their book launch.
2nd Update: The problem appears to have been fixed by early this evening.

Too much litter on Twitter

2009-03-04T07:43:00.003-05:00

The world is going bonkers over Twitter, and frankly, I don't get it.

Robert Rosenthal posted this awesome video clip on his Freaking marketing blog.

Twitter could be useful, but there is so much drivel, I can't see how serious professionals can find it productive. (of course, Western Union once said something like that once about the telephone - "The telephone has too many problems to be considered a serious method of communication. The invention has no value for us")

We used to say there is a lot of litter in the literature. Now we can say with confidence: there is too much litter on twitter ©

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

ProductCampBoston Feb 2009 Photos and Take-aways

2009-02-28T20:57:00.009-05:00

The first ProductCampBoston was a great event today. About 100 people turned out to share information and best practices. I learned a lot. Thanks to the leading organizers Todd, Brooks and Sasha, and the presenters. Here are a few photos. I enjoyed making a lot of new contacts and look forward to continued networking & collaboration with you.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Summary of take-aways from the sessions I attended:
From Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing on the Four Roles of PM:
When writing requirements - short is better. Writing requirements isn't like writing a will - you should expect be around to answer any questions that come up along the way.
You have to know and love the industry you are in to be a Product Manager.
The job of the PM is to be one of the "parents of the product." It's possible to be a single parent, but it's a lot harder when you have to do it on your own.
As a "parent of the product" our job is to "get the child ready to leave and rarely return." In other words, the PM is supposed to give Development, Sales, and Marcom enough information so they can answer their own questions.

From Bob Levy (Former BPMA President) on Requirements Management Best Practices:
Resource material on managing relationships and building trust:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
Crucial Confrontations: Tools for talking about broken promises, violated expectations, and bad behavior

Contributors to Cognitive Distortion - (not seeing reality - or different people seeing reality differently)
The telephone game: messages get distorted when passed from one person to the next.
Over generalization: everyone does it. (duh!)
Recency effect: placing heavier reliance on recent information.
Observer expectancy: unconscious manipulation of results based on expectations.
Confirmation bias: trying to prove a point.
Status quo: resistance to change
Group think: going along
Projection bias: assuming that other share our own preferences.

Bob presented a systematic methodology for capturing, ranking and reviewing and maintaining requirements in three levels:
green: these are believable, attainable, committed requirements and should should include a description of the market problem, target customer, how it fits with the strategy, revenue estimate, co-requisites, political factors, win-loss history, development estimate.
yellow: these are unfunded stretch goals and should include a use case or scenario, ROI estimate, development effort/time SWAG.
red: future requirements, recommended only with additional investment, don't spend a lot of effort describing these because they aren't likely but should include a target customer.

Steve Haines of Sequent Marketing on Innovation;
Innovation is part of a strategy that enables taking chances while managing risks, focusing on the best return on investment, diversification through resource allocation.

Innovation requires
o Culture of ongoing investment in improvement
o Leadership nurturing an innovative environment
o Attitude mindset for managers and teams
o Process - integrated in new product development

Alyssa Dver of Mint Green Marketing: Seven Habits of Highly Successful PMs
1. PM's must know their products and their own limitations (clarified thanks to comment from Todd)
2. Listen first: start by asking, "tell me what you do."
3. Ask "why?", not "what?" Why to you need the product and how are you going to use it?
4. Decisive - based on market data - PM's make decisions with confidence when they have market data to back up their decisions.
5. Responsive: if people ask for information, if you can't respond right away, let them know when to expect a response.
6. Communicate concretely, frequently and concisely
7. Manage passion - you must be passionate, but not emotional better to be composed and display conviction based on concrete data than rely on emotional persuasion.

In summary an outstanding PM is:
A humble leader, careful, artful communicator and an avid student.

I asked Alyssa if she would add being organized and analytical as attributes of a PM, and she said yes, you need those skills, to perform at even a minimal level of competence, but they are not sufficient to make a PM outstanding.

Another recommended book: Portfolio Management for New Products - (thanks Cory!)

Thanks again to the presenters and participants for sharing their ideas and experience, and to the sponsors for making the day possible.

Closing note: One of my final activities at the end of my 2008 term as Director of Program Planning for BPMA was to champion approval for BPMA's co-sponsorship of this event. It took quite a bit of effort to establish consensus within the board on a package of financial and marketing resource support for ProductCamp. Helping to make this day happen ranks among my most satisfying experiences as a member of the BPMA Board. Thanks especially to my former fellow BPMA board members who supported PCampBoston.

US Airways Flight 1549 - Ordinary People, Extraordinary Heroes

2009-01-17T11:40:00.008-05:00

I'm compelled to express my admiration and appreciation for the genuine heroism demonstrated by the captain, crew, passengers, and both the professional and volunteer first responders who averted a huge potential tragedy when US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the icy Hudson River this week. Our society tends to idolize celebrities who attain their fame for dubious reasons. This event has captured the nation's attention because a group of ordinary people created a true life miracle by averting panic and cooperating under leadership of a few extraordinary individuals preserving the lives of all on board through this harrowing ordeal.

The pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III, is receiving well deserved recognition for his skill in landing the plane safely on the Hudson after loosing power. US Airways identified the the first officer as Jeffrey Skiles, and the three flight attendants; Donna Dent, Doreen Welsh and Sheila Dail, who quickly evacuated passengers, and preserved calm through their rescue.

A bulletin to members of the US Airline Pilots Association, said said Capt. Sullenberger personally accounted for all the passengers and remained on the sinking aircraft until he was sure the plane was empty.
"The fact that 155 people walked away from a very dangerous situation is a testament to the skill and professionalism of the entire flight crew."

The Association of Flight Attendants union, which represents the cabin crew members at US Airways, commended the three attendants for safely and quickly evacuating the passengers in the emergency landing. "Their years of experience and training made all the difference once the aircraft was in the water."

Ferry operators arrived on the scene within minutes and started the rescue. They were joined moments later by NYC emergency personnel.

The heroic efforts of this rescue undoubtedly benefited from good fortune, or as people of faith (including myself) say, "miraculous Divine intervention". I was touched by the "cartoon" published on the editorial page of the Providence Journal today reproducing the now famous AP photograph by Steven Day, showing the plane floating on the Hudson while passengers lined up, waiting for rescue on the wings and evacuation rafts. The illustrator added God's hands providing support from below the waters. I don't know the artist's name, but the drawing conveys a very powerful message.

Keep Warm,

Adobe Reader 9: how to turn off updates

2009-01-03T14:41:00.006-05:00

As part of my annual home PC clean-up, I upgraded to a 320 Gb drive and started from a fresh OS install to clear up all of the junk that slows things down. I was really tickled that the old machine was practically jumping off the desk after I installed Windows XP, MS Office, and my video editing software, but when I re-installed Adobe Reader 7.0, the performance fell off a cliff. I hadn't realized that Adobe Reader 7.0 was checking the web for updates every time it started causing my machine to become unresponsive whenever it opened.

I did a little reading on the web and didn't find an easy way to turn off the updates. After seeing a few helpful notes on various forums, (this tweak in particular stands out) I saw some favorable feedback on 9.0, although there are still complaints about bloat. Adobe added the ability to update preferences in Reader 9.0, which didn't exist in Reader 7, so I decided to give 9 a try. To disable updates, click edit, preferences, general, then remove the check mark from "Check for Updates" under Application start up. With automatic updates disabled, you can still Check for Updates manually by clicking on the Help menu. Here is a composite screenshot showing the setting to disable updates for anyone who needs a clear picture.

I'm very pleased with the result (I also disabled Adobe Java Script as recommended in the above tweak link above. (click: edit, preferences, javascript, remove check mark, click OK.)

PS. After the original post, I learned the same preference is also in Adobe Reader 8.

Happy New Year,

Chuck

Long Term Mutual Prosperity

2008-12-30T09:46:00.002-05:00

According to Michael Hoseus, Executive Director of the Center for Quality People & Organizations, and co-author of TOYOTA CULTURE, the heart and soul of the Toyota Way, to only be in business to make money is the lowest level of maturity that exists for a company. Long-term mutual prosperity is a goal shared by the company and the employee that brings the two together, and establishes a consensus, trust, and long term commitment to success that becomes the shared purpose of work. While the company targets profit, growth, and sustainability, and the employee seeks job stability, growth, and their development, the two can come together forming a mutual commitment around long-term mutual prosperity.

Happy New Year,
Chuck

My employer, SIMULIA, featured in the local TV News

2008-11-22T11:32:00.004-05:00

With Rhode Island leading the nation in unemployment (currently 9.3%), the NBC news affiliate in Providence filmed and broadcast a segment on my employer yesterday to highlight a high tech company that is bucking the trend. The clip includes images of our offices, and showing our software. I work directly with the people interviewed. Subham, Susan, and Ken. You can view the video by clicking the image above or at http://www.turnto10.com/, but I don't know how long the video will be available online.

Best,

Chuck

Steven Fransblow's presentation on building innovation dynasties at BPMA

2008-11-22T10:53:00.003-05:00

Steven Fransblow of Innosight gave an eye-opening talk this week at the Boston Product Management Association November meeting on the JOBS™ approach to successful innovation.

The JOBS™ blueprint focuses on four key issues:
J: Job - What is the problem to be solved for a specific consumer and set of circumstances?
O: Objective - What are the functional, social, and emotional metrics of purchase and use?
B: Barriers - What are the financial, skill, time, access, and behavioral obstacles that prevent the job from getting done satisfactorily.
S: Solutions - What are the products, services and compensating behaviors that can overcome the barriers, achieve objectives, and satisfy the requirements.

One of Steven's key points was that successful innovation does not mean making "perfect products". It means making products that delight customers without overshooting the requirements which often leads to schedule delays, cost overruns and uncessesary complexity that detracts from successful adoption.

In addition to books published by Innosight, and an MIT Sloan article, Finding the Right Job for Your Product Steven provided the following free online resources for more information.

Strategy & Innovation: Innosight’s newsletter focusing on strategies for business growth.

Innosight’s blog highlighting recent disruptive innovations

Best,
Chuck

Charter for Compassion

2008-11-13T06:50:00.002-05:00

3-1/2 minutes of inspiration worth watching. It came to me from TED Ideas worth spreading.

I Voted

2008-11-04T17:38:00.002-05:00

Product Camp Boston coming in 2009 - update

2008-10-24T18:50:00.006-05:00

Updated Dec 11- 2008: The date and venue have been set. February 28, 2009 -at Microsoft Startup Labs, Cambridge, MA. Check the wiki for updates.

I'm helping some BPMA members promote Product Camp Boston. The target time frame is the end of February 2009. Your vote will help decide the exact date.

ProductCamp is a collaborative gathering of Product Management and Marketing professionals who come together to learn, share, and interact with their peers. ProductCamp has no attendees, only participants. Everyone who attends is expected to actively participate in leading a session, round table discussion, speaking on the topic at hand, or volunteering.

Bar Camp has been around since 2005 - they tend to focus on technology, social networking and other topics, although Bar Camp might be of interest to some Product Mangers, our field is not typically a primary focus.

The first Product Camp was in Silicon Valley in Q1 - 08 followed by Austin Texas in June. Product Camp uses the Bar Camp format while focusing on Product Management Topics.

Get involved. It promises to be an exciting day!

keywords: ProductCamp Boston, PCamp, Product Camp

Marc Lesser: Accomplishing More By Doing Less

2008-09-21T21:28:00.001-05:00

I'll make time to watch this Google talk.

Boston Product Managment Association Career Panel

2008-09-20T06:46:00.004-05:00

The Career Panel and job fair organized by Leslie Ament was a memorable event. Space was tight, because the room was at capacity - breaking all past BPMA attendance records. The panelists were articulate, informative and sometimes humorous, keeping the attendees deeply engaged.

My favorite gems that came out of the panel were:

Sally Silver: Employers are looking for knowledge, skill, experience and accomplishments. Attitude and preparation, confidence and energy are the keys to communicate these characteristics.

I'm not sure if it was Lynn Tartaglia or Dora Vell who said: "Never turn down a job that you haven't been offered." They both talked about being willing to explore opportunities - you never know where they might lead.

Sally Silver: You cant be a buyer and a seller at the same time. If you want the job, you need to be a seller first. After convincing the employer you have the characteristics to succeed, is the time to become a buyer and let the employer convince you to join the company.

Lynne Tartaglia: How to stand out: 1) Capture my attention & leave me with a unique and memorable idea. 2) Convince me you know the technology without killing me. 3) Know what you want- keep in mind employers pay for value.

Dianne Condon, Patricia O'Neil, & Sally Silver: Develop relationships with hiring managers. Although they are busy and hard to reach, when they need help, recruiting is their top priority.

Great job by Leslie, George, Ferenc, Jon, Karen, Sarela, Jane, and the entire BPMA team who pulled this together!

photos by BPMA member Doug Bonin. Visit Doug's Flickr page for more

Understanding and profiting from variability

2008-09-06T10:01:00.003-05:00

Malcom Gladwell’s TED talk “What we can learn from spaghetti sauce” articulates a fundamental shift in science and economics from old school thinking. Until recently, the focus was identifying universal rules or the best single solution to a market problem. Over the last ten to fifteen years, the revolution in science and economics has been to understand variability and seek clusters of solutions that provide a better fit across the population and better satisfy market needs. In the past, scientists, psychologists, economists tended to seek universal rules that govern how everyone behaves. The recent trend is away from a single optimal solution toward understanding and taking advantage of variability.

“What we can learn from spaghetti sauce” describes how Howard Moskowitz learned to apply Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE) the systematic process of designing, testing and modifying alternative ideas, and products in a disciplined way so that the developer and marketer discover what appeals to the customer, even when the customer can't articulate the need.

The Boston Product Management Association (BPMA) will host a Career Night on Sept 18

2008-08-27T21:45:00.003-05:00

Being the Director of Program Planning for The Boston Product Management Association, I couldn't resist putting in a plug for the Career Night and networking event starting at 5:30 pm on September 18, 2008 at Oracle Corporation in Burlington, MA. Leslie Ament, the BPMA Director of Employer and Recruiter Relations put together a strong panel of senior-level human resources executives and recruiters to speak on "Memorable Candidates: How They Got the Offer or Promotion." This is a particularly relevant topic at a time when many area companies are cutting costs by freezing hiring, reducing staffs, and eliminating departments.
BPMA is a professional association dedicated to the career development of product management and product marketing professionals, and is a not-for-profit, membership-based association that offers both local events and a comprehensive set of online resources. Membership is comprised of product professionals such as product managers, product marketing managers, product planners, brand managers and other professionals engaged in the management and development of products or services. BPMA offers many opportunities for professional growth and development - including monthly professional development programs.
The senior human resource and recruitment professionals participating on the panel are:
Senior HR Experts:
-- Patricia O'Neill, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, ATG
-- Michael Quinn, Vice President Talent Management & Development, Thermo Fischer Scientific -- Lynne Milbury Tartaglia, International HR Director, iBasis, Inc.
-- Diane Condon, Director of HR, Phase Forward
Senior Recruiters:
-- Dora Vell, President of Vell & Associates
-- Kristin Motta, Director, CM Access.
-- Larry Kahn, Vice President of Recruiting for New Dimensions in Technology
-- Carla Marcinowski, Vice President, Sally Silver Companies
Moderator:
-- Judith A. Miller, Esq. has successfully helped individuals and businesses resolve employment issues for more than twenty years.
Location and Registration Information
When: September 18, 2008
Time: 5:30 -9:00 pm
Who should attend: Hiring managers, job seekers and employment professionals
Click for preregistration:
I hope to see you there.

Do we have time for beauty?

2008-04-07T19:14:00.008-05:00

When will we make time for something extraordinary?

I heard a great story on All Things Considered tonight during my drive home. Today, the Washington Post's Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer prize for feature writing for his story about what happened when he recruited Joshua Bell, one of the most accomplished classical musicians in the world, to appear incognito in a Washington DC metro station, playing some of the world's best music on a Stradivarius violin with an estimated value in excess of 3.5 million dollars. This performance was arranged as an experiment -- In an ordinary setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty overcome routine? The anonymous virtuoso performed for 43 minutes as over 1000 commuters passed by, with only a handful pausing for more than a moment. Bell promised not to “cheap out” on the performance: He put feeling into the performance, playing with enthusiasm, he leaned into the music and arched on tiptoes as the music soared. Here’s an excerpt from the article describing what happened. You can hear a recording of the performance and view video clips at the Washington Post website.

Three minutes went by before something happened. Sixty-three people had already passed when, finally, there was a breakthrough of sorts. A middle-age man altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that there seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it was something.
A half-minute later, Bell got his first donation. A woman threw in a buck and scooted off. It was not until six minutes into the performance that someone actually stood against a wall, and listened.
Things never got much better. In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

When interviewed after the performance, Bell said hadn't known what to expect, but for some reason, he was nervous.

"It wasn't exactly stage fright, but there were butterflies," he says. "I was stressing a little."

"When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, there was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my presence . . ."

Toward the end of the feature, Weingarten philosophizes about what happened;

In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In the Arts and Everyday Life, British author John Lane writes about the loss of the appreciation for beauty in the modern world. The experiment at L'Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic of that, he said -- not because people didn't have the capacity to understand beauty, but because it was irrelevant to them.
"This is about having the wrong priorities," Lane said.
If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?

My mind jumped immediately from the radio story to an article I had read yesterday in the Sunday Parade Magazine about the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

In September of 2007, Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who has terminal Pancreatic cancer and expected to live for just a few more months said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams," on his life's journey and the lessons he's learned. The Wall Street Journal called it "the lecture of a lifetime" and those who have seen it more than agreed. The video is long, but very worthwhile. I sent this link with the complete lecture video to each of my kids and my siblings. I'm offering prayers for Randy and his family as they face this very difficult challenge. Please remember them in your prayers as well.

In yesterday's Parade article, Randy Pausch recalls his childhood experience of the first lunar landing.

I was 8 in the summer of 1969, when men first walked on the moon. I was at camp, and we campers were brought to the main house to watch the moment on TV. But the astronauts were taking a while, and it was late. The counselors sent us to our tents to sleep, and we missed the first walk.I was peeved. I thought: “My species has gotten off our planet and is in a new world for the first time, and you people think bedtime matters?”

I'm making an effort to hear the music, smell the roses, and experience the people who come into my life every day.

Peace,

Boston Product Management Association Promotional Video

2008-03-27T21:12:00.007-05:00

Jerold Gefland, principal owner of Boston Digital Video shot and produced a short promotional video for the Boston Product Management Association. The video provides a glimpse of the March 20 meeting where the featured speaker, Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing provided an update on Product Management in 2008.

I made a brief appearance in the video along with several of my fellow board members. Check out this two minute video and see what BPMA is all about. Let me know what you think.
Best,
Chuck

Silicon Valley Product Management Association Newsletter

2008-03-23T20:10:00.003-05:00

Ivan Chalif, a Senior Product Manager at Strong-Mail Systems wrote an insightful titled, "I am NOT the CEO of my Product" in the March /April issue of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association Newsletter. He outlines several reasons, such as his lack of control over staffing / resource decisions and macro level strategy. He concludes that the product manager's role is much more like a Chief Operating Officer (COO) than a CEO. While the COO has some strategic responsibility, the role is more focused on tactical, and short-term operational management, which means he is responsible for the development, design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s products/services. The COO is more involved in the day-to-day operations working in a roll-your-sleeves-up and get-your-hands dirty function, which is more aligned Product Management activities.

You can register here for free email updates from the SVPMA

Celestial Events and Meaningless Probabilities

2008-02-21T12:59:00.008-05:00

Photo by Atomicshark via Flickr under a creative commons license

There were two fascinating celestial events last night. My wife and I were standing on the front lawn, bundled up from the cold, looking at the total eclipse of the moon, which occurred under clear skies from 10:00 to 10:50 pm Eastern time.

Earlier in the evening I was listening to the radio debate about the US Navy shooting down a disabled spy satellite in a deteriorating orbit. When I got up this morning I heard on the radio news that the Navy hit their target, then later in the story the newscaster said, "the odds of being hit by falling space debris are one in a trillion."

That is a completely meaningless probability.
Does it mean that each individual , such as myself has a one in a trillion probability of being hit or any person, out of over four billion people living today has a one in a trillion probability of being hit? Does the probability apply for today, for this event, or over my lifetime?

I later found an online AP article by SETH BORENSTEIN that went into more detail describing various probabilities related to being hit by space junk that were bandied about in the news this morning.

The AP story was a little more specific than the radio news report about the one in a trillion odds. The article said that Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies, which studies these issues, "puts the odds of anyone being hurt by any piece of re-entering space junk at one in a trillion, saying you are far more likely to get hit by lightning." This statement of probability is better than what the morning newsreader said, but still contains ambiguities. Does anyone refer to one specific person, such as me, or the entire human population? Does any piece of space junk mean any piece from this satellite, or any of the hundreds of pieces that re-enter the atmosphere every year?

The end of the article included a more sensible point by David Ropeik, a Boston risk communications consultant, and author of Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Dangerous "This is the type of risk that shouldn't be reduced to mere numbers It's the nature of the risk, not the number." Of course the morning drive time radio news isn't about making sensible points.

Heads up!
Chuck

Watch Chris Crowley talk about the key concepts in Younger Next Year.

2008-02-09T22:59:00.003-05:00

Chris Crowley is an amazing person. In this video he explores a few of the ideas that allow individuals to manage their aging process, improve their health, and become Younger Next Year. Anyone approaching or already in middle age must watch this 8-1/2 minute video.

If you have any doubts, consider this quote from Chris written in June of 2007 after he finished a three day Ride the Rockies bike tour.

"THIS MORNING, INDEPENDENCE PASS, 12,100 FEET and plenty steep. Hardest thing on the ride and a great crescendo. SO BEAUTIFUL! And so steep! Gain 4000 vertical in about seven miles. Something like that. A TEENY BIT YOUNGER THIS YEAR. I was surprised and relieved to notice that my time for my century ride this year (a blazing 102 miles, over one 9,500 ft. pass) was 14.9 miles an hour average..."

That's a considerable achievement for anyone and awesome for a guy who is a couple of years north of age 70.

See Harry's seven simple rules to learn more about how you can be Younger Next Year.

I'm a true believer and living proof that this apprach works. Just do it!
Regards,
Chuck

Update Feb-16-2008

I got an email this week from the subject of this post, Chris Crowley, I'm very proud to say that he considers me "a major centurion" in the Younger Next Year revolution. Thanks for the compliment Chris!

Innovations in Search

2008-02-06T12:32:00.000-05:00

An article in today's MIT's Technology Review discusses ongoing innovations in search.

Dan Crow, product manager at Google, says people are generally happy with the interface as it exists today. "The basic format hasn't changed much because it's been successful ... It works well for most of the users most of the time."

There is no argument that Google works well compared to what was available in the past, and been very successful; but there are huge opportunities for further innovation. The current implementation delivers results that are popular. It's often difficult to filter through a large volume of search results to find information that is meaningful, accurate and relevant.

I found Google's introduction to their public experimental search lacking. I joined the experiment for Right-hand contextual search navigation. Google's offering of alternate views for search results (list, info, timeline, and map views) didn't grab my interest. Although I'm enthusiastic about the value of the timeline view, the others didn't get me excited. I was a little relucant because it wasn't made clear up-front, what signing up for a Google experiment means. Now when I open a new browser window and search on Google, I get some extra GUI elements that provide context prompts based on my search results. I signed up in MS Explorer, and the features don't seem to carry over automatically to FireFox. My first impression of the new tools is positive, but I like to know what I'm getting into before I sign-up for something online. I guess the fact that I went ahead indicates that Google has earned my trust enough for me to take a chance on something new.

Related links:
Clusty Search clustering 2.0

Best,
Chuck

Are you Decent? The Naked Truth about Product Managment Performance

2008-01-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

An insightful article from Pragmatic Marketing by Alyssa Dver

Chuck

Improv Wisdom - Just Show Up

2008-01-27T19:56:00.000-05:00

More interesting reading.

http://www.improvwisdom.com/

Chuck

Interesting Reading on Innovation

2008-01-27T19:15:00.000-05:00

Lessons Not Learned About Innovation Q&A with Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School

Boston Consulting Group Measuring Innovation Aug 07
Boston Consulting Group Sr. Management Innovation survey Aug 07

Strategy & Business Magazine Online

from Manyworlds.com blog
Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation, James Andrew and Harold Sirkin lay bare the nature of cash traps and explain how companies can make more profitable innovations by using a four-phase “cash curve” framework. As Andrew and Sirkin see it, the purpose of innovating is “to generate cash.” Their framework structures the process of sorting through innovative ideas and managing them until they yield financial returns.

No time to draw conclusions yet, but I'll come back and revisit this topic as time permits.

Chuck

Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies

2008-01-26T08:21:00.000-05:00

Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior is a new book from Atlantic Systems Guild, scheduled for publication in February 2008. It is a collaboration by Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin, James Robertson and Suzanne Robertson. I met both Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister through the Boston Software Process Improvement Network and am a fan of their previous book Waltzing with Bears about managing risk in software development. Although the Atlantic Systems Guild general focuses on software development issues, this book really focuses on people issues and behaviors that are applicable anywhere.

Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies applies pattern recognition concepts to human interactions in the project environment. The Guild focused on the hidden notions that govern behavior and interactions on projects and teams Just as architect Christopher Alexander and his IT counterparts Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John M. Vlissides, deal with the technological aspects of software patterns, this new book focuses on the social and human aspects.

The book identifies 86 project and team behavior patterns, which often go unrecognized, and provides amusing 1-2 page vignettes describing each of them. The patterns are the unwritten rules that frequently drive behavior. People tend not to think about them, or acknowledge them for what they are. The first step to dealing with behavior patterns is recognizing their existence.
The book has been endorsed by:

Howard Look,VP, Software, Pixar Animation Studios

Alistair Cockburn, author of Agile Software Development

Ed Yourdon, author of Death March

Warren McFarland, Professor, Harvard Business School and others

If you are interested and willing to invest a few minutes, you can download an 18 page sample pdf that includes the table of contents,introduction, and a few patterns.

Dead Fish: From Day One, the project has no chance of meeting its goals; most people on the project know this and say nothing.
Film Critics: Film critics are team members or corporate spectators who have determined that the value they add to the project lies in pointing out what has gone wrong or is going wrong, but who take no personal accountability to ensure that things go right.
Hidden Beauty: Some aspect of the project’s work moves beyond adequate,beyond even elegant . . . and reaches for the sublime.

There is an aesthetic element to all design. The question is, Is this aesthetic element your friend or your enemy? If you’re a manager, particularly a younger manager, you might be worried that any aesthetic component of the designer’s work could be a waste, little more than the gold-plating that we’re all taught must be avoided. This aesthetics neutral posture in a manager acts to deprive designers of appreciation for work that is excellent, and to refuse acknowledgment of any valuation beyond “adequate.”The opposite posture requires that you be capable and willing to look in detail at your people’s designs, and be aware enough to see quality when it’s there.

The book is now available for pre-order through Dorset House or Amazon. (The current Amazon price is $35.95 with a 5% pre-order discount)

Best,

Chuck

Roller coaster image available under a Creative Commons License from Kalense Kid's photos

I'm an inventor.... well, a co-inventor anyway

2008-01-25T19:13:00.000-05:00

I was greeted at home tonight by a letter telling me that one of my patent applications has been granted. US Patent 7,321,699, Signal intensity range transformation apparatus and method. Abstract: A system and method for manipulating image data is disclosed. Generally, the system and method identifies useful grey-levels within an input image. The image is then scaled based upon the identified useful grey-levels.

The application was filed in September, 2003, while I was working at JAR Associates, Inc. and is assigned to Rytec Corporation, an innovative manufacturer of high speed industrial doors who contracted JAR for R&D services . It is a reminder of a very exciting time in my career when I worked on some extremely challenging technical problems with a very talented team of individuals on an exciting opportunity for a visionary customer.

Previously, I've been a co-inventor on four patents for automotive components. The patents include two for a combustion pressure sensor 5,038,069 & 5,126,617. The others are for transmission gear position sensors 5,902,975 & 6,518,525.

Best,
Chuck

2008-01-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

Here is a useful summary on writing good requirements by Scott Sehlorst on the Tyner Blain blog. Scott derived and refined the list starting from Pragmatic Marketing's Requirements that Work Seminar.

Attributes of good requirements:
based on Pragmatic’s List (1-8) + Two Three Four More

Necessary => Valuable
Concise
Design Free
Attainable
Complete
Consistent
Unambiguous
Verifiable
Atomic
Passionate
Correct
Stylish

Scott provides links to articles on each attribute that provide additional details.

Chuck

What is a wiki?

2008-01-22T12:48:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin blogged recently about a shortage of digital coaches. While I'm not a digital coach, I've been told I do a good job of boiling down a lot of information to explain complicated topics to non-experts. I maintain a website for my church, which includes a wiki, where other parishioners contribute content without any direct involvement from me. I received an email earlier this week from someone in the parish asking me, "what is a wiki?" After a quick search of the web- including wikipedia, I thought this would be a good topic for a blog.

The term wiki derives from the Hawaiian word for "fast." A wiki enables web pages and documents to be written collaboratively using a web browser without any specialized training or software. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, maintaining, browsing, and searching through information. A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted.

Wikis allow visitors to create, modify or delete the content of a web page from their browser, and usually record the history of who changed what. Wikis enable creation of collaborative community websites, and are trending toward eliminating the need for specialized skills and software to create and edit content on a web page.

The administrator of the Wiki decides who is allowed to modify the site. Some wikis are open to changes by anyone, others limit modifications to trusted members, and some use moderators to arbitrate disagreements. The Wikipedia free encyclopedia is the best known Wiki, where hundreds of thousands of users add to the collective knowledge. where hundreds of thousands of users add to the collective knowledge. On Wikipedia, an entry started by one person is often iteratively refined by other contributors who collaborate to produce a consensus.

Regards,
Chuck

Product Management Blogs

2008-01-04T13:06:00.000-05:00

One of my resolutions for 2008 is, as Steven Covey wrote, (habit # 7) "sharpen the saw".
Some blogs I will be watching more closely include:

Product Beautiful
The Cranky Product Manager
Silicon Valley Product Group
How To Be A Good Product Manager

Happy New year,
Chuck

Feeling Gratitude on Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T12:42:00.000-05:00

I'm thankful for many things.

My life is blessed with family, friends, home, health, faith, a successful career, a beautiful place to live.

Some of the things I'm thankful for include:

27 years of happiness in marriage to VJ. I'm especially thankful for VJ's increasing committment to personal fitness.

Our son Mike, finding success and independence with his first job.

Our son Nick, who is doing so well in college that he is likely to complete his BS in Computer Science in 3-1/2 instead of four years, while pursuing his interests in powerrisers and video production.

Our daughter Emily, who is getting off to a great start in her first year in college and whose intramural volleyball team won the college league.

My Mom, who raised over $3,000 this summer to purchase a set of steps to enable handicapped, elderly or disabled people to use the municiapal pool where my parents swim.

My Dad, who at age 84 is continuing on the recovery from triple by-pass surgery last May.

The rest of my extended family, my sisters, in-laws, nieces and nephews, who I am looking forward to seeing more often over the holidays.

The spiritual leadership of Fr. Bob, Fr. Matt, Fr. Ray Collins, Bishop Tobin, and the many members of St. Luke's parish family, especially Dave & Marilyn and the members of St. Luke's Alpha group, and the Men's Fellowship Group.

Friends around town, at work and online.

Boats, fishing, bikes, kayaks.

The ability and motivation to share these gifts with others.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chuck

Bill Cosby performed at URI Family Weekend

2007-11-05T21:09:00.001-05:00

Saturday night VJ, Emily & I, along with 5,000 of our close friends had the pleasure of listening and laughing at a live performance performance by Bill Cosby at the Ryan Center. I've been a Bill Cosby fan since I was a kid. I use to enjoy his records, "200 mph", stories about "my brother Russel... Awe man you broke the bed", "Dad & the BELT, Noah, and many others." We loved his show Thursday nights on NBC. He held the sell out crowd fascinated for over two hours entertaining, enlightening, and dispensing personal wisdom through humorous obervations on fatherhood and families which made ordinary life seem magical. Young and old, kids and parents alike felt like he was speaking to them.

He invited a fellow graduate of Central High school in Philadelphia to join him on stage where they sang thier Alma Mater.

He finished the show with his classic dentist routine.

The dentist drills some more and you hear him make a mistake. [He makes motions
and sound of a dentist drill slipping] And to cover it up, they all say the same thing: "Okay, rinse." After rinsing in a dentist's office, you're gonna spit into this miniature toilet bowl. You have no bottom lip so you let it all fall out and say, "Thank God for gravity." Now you want to sit back, but you can't because hanging from your bottom lip is a long line and you can't get it off your bottom lip. Oh, if you wanna be gross, you can grab it and throw it over there. But you try to be smooth about it. And there's breaking over here and there's breaking over there. You try to blow it off. Just vibrating. So you figure, maybe if you sit back, it will snap in half. So you sit back. Now you have a line from the bowl to your bottom lip. The dentist looks at it and says, "Oh, look, a rainbow!"

By the end I was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down my cheeks. I haven't had that good a laugh in a long time.

New Coffee Mug from RI Blood Center

2007-11-05T20:19:00.000-05:00

I dontated blood today and got my 2nd gallon mug from the RI Blood Center.

Here are four reasons why I make an effort to donate blood four times a year.

1. It fits with Harry's rule #7: Connect & commit.
2. It feels great doing something for others.
3. It takes less than an hour.
4. It really doesn't hurt.

Chuck

See what you mean

2007-09-13T22:21:00.000-05:00

A peek at the vision for 3D design and collaboration from Dassault Systemes

Sights & Sounds of Newport Harbor on Jazz Festival Weekend 2007

2007-08-16T05:27:00.000-05:00

Last week I had the great pleasure of spending a perfect weekend on the boat in Newport Harbor listening to great jazz and soaking up the summer the scenery. Click to watch.

Enjoy!
Chuck

Managing a web traffic surge

2007-07-24T21:27:00.000-05:00

I've been the volunteer webmaster for St. Luke's Parish for about seven years. I run the site on a very low budget site. Up to now, it's hosted at doteasy.com using their "$0 dollar" hosting service. The deal is you pay the domain registration, they provide server space, some basic management tools and a limited traffic quota, which has always been fine for out typical traffic of 50 to 100 hits per day up to now.

Last Tuesday, July 17 there was tragedy in our town, three seventeen year old boys were involved in a boating accident. One boy, who was kneeboarding behind the boat without a life jacket, was lost. His body was located the following day. He was buried Thursday, July 25. The autopsy said he died of blunt force and sharp (propeller) trauma. The police said alcohol was involved. The operator of the boat was charged with reckless operation, death resulting and refusal to submit to a blood alcohol test. More charges are pending. They say he could serve 10 years in prison. My heart goes out to these families, although I can rationalize that they brought it upon themselves, I can't help but think there but for the grace of God, go I. I did my share of stupid things in my youth.

Father Matt Glover, the Associate pastor at St. Luke's was on the waterfront Tuesday night, along with many people, especially youth from town as the search went on. Recently ordained, Fr. Matt is young and very close to the kids in town. In April, he took a group of high school kids to work at the Mustard Seed mission in Jamaica. These kids raised $50,000 through the parish to provide supplies for the care of Jamaican orphans. When they came home, Fr. Matt and his mission team spoke at the Masses giving moving testimony about their experience.

Our town has been plagued by a rash of drug and alcohol related teen tragedies. Two years ago three local boys were involved in a late-night high-speed crash in town. Two were killed. The survivor required nearly a year of rehabilitation to recover. Last week another 21 year old, who graduated high school a few years ago died unexpectedly.

Sunday Fr. Matt gave an emotional sermon about these tragedies. Last spring I started recording homilies from our Masses and posting them on the web as audio podcasts for parishioners. I was at a different Mass Sunday, so I didn't hear Fr. Matt's homily in person, but I was blown away by the emotion of it as I edited, produced and posted the podcast. The homily was 22 minutes. The MP3 file was 10 Mb. You can hear the entire sermon here.

Tuesday morning, I got up a 5:45 and walked out to the driveway to pick up the Providence Journal. As I opened to the front page, I knew immediately that we would have an overload of traffic on the website. The page 1 headline read "Barrington priest decries denial after teen's death." The Rev. S. Matthew Glover tells parishioners to own up to substance abuse problems in town. "Our kids drink because we drink, that's why," he says. At the end of the story it said the full 22 minute homily can be heard at http://www.stlukesparish.com/.

I knew that with any significant numbers, downloads of the MP3 would overwhelm the site's monthly traffic quota. I'll just upgrade the hosting service I thought. I logged in to my ISP's site management page, which informed me that "Upgrading to ultra or unlimited hosting requires moving the site to a different server which will take place within 24 hours of the upgrade request. I didn't want to take a chance on bringing down the site in the middle of what was then expected to be a busy day.

I quickly found an online service, http://www.switchpod.com/, to host the MP3, and I provided a link there from our home page. Switchpod offers unlimited traffic quotas on a free hosting site for a select number of audio clips. I re-hosted the file there and updated our link. Fortunately the print article only listed our home page, not the specific URL for the file. I headed off to the office for an 8:30 meeting. I was able to monitor traffic using the hit counter statistics which showed 900 hits by 9:00 am and 2,000 by mid morning. We exceeded our 1 Gb per month traffic quota early in the day. I was concerned that the ISP would shut down the site. I submitted a support incident, explaining the situation and asking for advice on managing the surge.

Around 11:00 am, despite relocating the podcast, the traffic on the site continued to skyrocket. I looked at http://www.projo.com/ and found the reason. The online version of the newspaper had linked directly to the MP3 file which was still hosted on our server. I phoned the journal newsroom, and explained the situation. They were extremely cooperative and promptly updated their links.

We were over 3,500 hits when I checked around 3:00 pm and on the advice of the hosting service, I put in an order to upgrade our traffic quota on the website from 1 to 5 Gb/mo. At 10Mb per play for the audio file that didn't take long.

So far there were no apparent service interruptions. By this time, Eyewitness News channels 12 & 64 also had links to the podcast. On their web pages. I talked to a couple of friends who told me that talk radio in Providence was buzzing all day with the story and were broadcasting the podcast over the air.

By evening, the hits approached 5,000. The total, when I went to bed around 11:30 pm was over 6,800.

Two days later, the web hits are subsiding, there have been several follow up stories in local papers and television stations. Between the hits on the website, the news stories and talk radio, I'm sure that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people got to hear Fr. Matt's important message, which in the old days, would have been limited to the parish. Although the circumstances are tragic, I feel really blessed to have had an opportunity to help Father Matt get out his message to a wider audience and to make a difference.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Links to related news stories: Overall, the news coverage of Father Matt's Homily and the response from both parishioner's and the general public was overwhelmingly positive.

Providence Journal Thursday July 19, 2007 Barrington teen's body recovered
Providence Journal Tuesday July 24, 2007 Barrington Priest Decries Denial
Eyewitness News 12 Tuesday July 24, 2007
Providence Journal Wednesday July 25, 2007 Bob Kerr Reverend says what needs to be said
NBC News Channel 10 Providence Wednesday July 25, 2007
RI Catholic July 26, 2007 (p. 9) Priest asks body of Christ to turn away from denial and toward God after teen’s death
Barrington Times Friday July 27 2007 Rev. S. Matthew Glover responds to tragedies

My morning paddle

2007-07-07T07:29:00.000-05:00

The interactive community at Younger Next Year is encouraging me to break out of the same old exercise routine and mix up my workouts. I need something more for the upper body, because my usual exercises focus mainly on the legs and lower body. I'm looking for an aerobic workout while giving my knees and hips a rest.

A friend, Jason, has stored his kayak in my yard for I don't know how many years now, since he moved from Providence to South Carolina. I haven't used it for several years, but this morning I was out before 6:00 am. I launched it at the Barrington Yacht Club and enjoyed a refreshing hour and fifteen minutes of paddling to the mouth of the river and back. The image shows my route. There was a very light breeze, slightly overcast skies, near low tide, so not much current to paddle against. I saw a mother swan with her cygnet, a heron, a lot of small baitfish running before the kayak and a few larger swirls chasing them. I was home before 8:00 ready to start the rest of my day.

I'll try to fit this into my routine. I'll have to get going quite a bit earlier than usual to fit this in on a workday.

I'm unbelievably blessed to live in such a beautiful place where I can enjoy this beautiful shoreline.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

broccoli chips - don't laugh, they're great!

2007-06-28T21:42:00.000-05:00

I recently tried some fresh broccoli slaw, made from stringed stems, and sold in bags in the produce section of the grocery store.

VJ & I ate a lot of broccoli when we were on the South Beach a couple of years ago. We each lost quite a bit of weight, then gained some back.

I discovered broccoli chips then, and figured I would try them again now that I'm trying to get back down to my college weight of 165#. I'm currently using a modified version of the South Beach diet, (a little less strict at the beginning and with more fruit).

You can make chips when you buy a bunch of fresh broccoli, rather than tossing out the stems. Try slicing them as thin as possible. I eat the chips raw. A dip in some light ranch salad dressing may make them more palatable if plain is just a little too rustic for you.

I'm here to serve,

Chuck

My healthy Mexican black bean salad recipe

2007-06-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

I previously posted this on the Younger Next Year community blog but am adding it here for easy linking. I made up a big batch this morning. It's high in Protein & fiber, low in fat, easy to make, keeps 5 or 6 days in the fridge and makes a great main dish, salad topper, pocket filler, side course or a quick snack.

Ingredients

2 - 2 lb cans Black Beans
1 - 1 lb can Chick Peas
1 - 1 lb can small red beans
1 - 1 lb can dark red kidney beans
1 large onion
1 tomato
1 large red bell pepper
4 jalapeno peppers
3 tablespoons (heaping) chili powder
Dash of crushed red pepper or other hot stuff. Sometimes I use “Hot Shot”
½ cup balsamic vinegar

¼ cup olive oil

Drain all but ½ cup of liquid from the back beans which is poured over the beans in the bowl as a base for the dressing. Rinse the beans – & combine in a large bowl. Dice the onion, tomato & peppers mix with the beans. Add chili powder, sprinkle crushed red pepper (to taste) go easy unless you like hot stuff. Drizzle balsamic vinegar & oil over the beans & mix well. Adjust hot peppers & chili powder to your taste. Sometimes I throw in chopped up black olives or sprinkle with cilantro for a little flavor twist.

Serve chilled – keeps well in closed containers in the fridge.

Approximate nutrition information: Serving size ½ cup: 90 calories with only 5 calories from fat 7 grams protein & 6 grams of fiber About 460 mg sodium – although rinsing the beans may reduce this a bit. A good source of iron

For more on the benefits of beans see: Dr. Perricone's 10 Superfoods In a large study of almost 10,000 men and women, those who ate beans four or more times a week cut their risk of coronary heart disease by about 20 percent, compared with those who ate beans less than once a week. It appears that this health benefit was independent of other health habits, since adjustments to account for other important cardiovascular disease risk factors produced minimal change in the risk estimates.

Other studies show that within two to three weeks, diets high in either canned or dry beans (3 to 4 ounces per day) reduce blood cholesterol levels by 10 percent or more: an effect that can result in a 20 percent decrease in the risk of coronary heart disease. Beans and lentils have the same potent anti-inflammatory antioxidants—flavonoids and flavonals—found in tea, fruits, grapes, red wine and cocoa beans. In particular, the reddish flavonal pigments in bean and lentil seed coats exert antioxidant activity 50 times greater than vitamin E, protect against oxidative damage to cell membrane lipids, promote healthy collagen and cartilage, and restore the antioxidant powers of vitamins C and E after they’ve battled free radicals.

There is a downside - beans are the "musical fruit" - don't eat too many when you will be sitting for an extended time in a confined space with other people...

Live Long & Prosper,

Chuck

S.M.A.R.T. Goals (improved)

2007-06-22T17:51:00.000-05:00

SMART goals are: Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timed.

I'm working on loosing some weight and I found several nice articles on S.M.A.R.T. Goals, but after thinking about them and working on them for a few days I think I improved on the S.M.A.R.T. acronym by replacing Attainable with Ambitious. Attainability overlaps heavily with Realistic. In order to have a significant impact, its crucial that our goals are Ambitious. We can't water our goals down to the point where success is always guaranteed. We will achieve more by taking a bit of risk and stretching to achieve our full potential.

Specific - A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal; answer these questions:
What: What specifically do I want to accomplish?
Why: Specific reasons or benefits of accomplishing the goal to aid motivation.
How: What are my strategies and tactics to accomplish the goal
Who: Are others involved? Do I need help? Who can I get to help?
Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
Where: Identify a location if it’s important

Measurable - Establish concrete criteria or milestones for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished? How many projects have you seen where the status reports said everything was on time, with no problems, until the deadline hit?

Ambitious – If your goal is set so easily as to be a sure thing, will you achieve all that is possible? While we want to set realistic goals that can be achieved, there is not much reward if success is guaranteed. With risk comes reward. The art is in balancing risk and reward. Identify what is achievable, then set a stretch goal that may require just a bit more effort, creativity or persistence. If you don’t reach the stretch goal, the outcome is not necessarily a failure. If you set your sights so low that there is no stretch, will you be satisfied with the outcome? Ambitious goals may be easier to reach because easy goals don’t provide much motivation.

Realistic - To be realistic, you must be both willing and able to work toward it. Do you have the right skills, preparation, tools and resources to reach the goal? If not how can you get them? If you understand the steps and resources needed to accomplish the goal and have the necessary skills it is much more likely to be achieved. If you’ve accomplished something similar in the past then your goal is probably realistic.

Timed - A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to the goal there's no sense of urgency and your ability to measure progress is greatly diminished.

I'm here to serve
Chuck

Four ways to Curb Appetite

2007-06-22T17:14:00.000-05:00

From Time Magazine June 11 2007 with a few of my own interjections...

1. Eat Fiber: Unrefined foods are high in fiber and stimulate appetite-suppressing hormones making you feel full.

2. Brush Your Teeth: The clean mouth and flavor change help you resist eating more, and good dental hygiene is good for your overall health.

3. Be Consistent: Eating breakfast and regularly scheduled meals keeps hormone levels steady and quashes hunger pangs.

4. Eat Slowly: It takes a while for the brain to realize that the stomach is full. slowing down gives the brain time to catch up with your stomach.

I'm here to serve,

Chuck

See more about health, exercise & nutrition on the Younger Next Year Interactive Community. I started a blog there to support my weight loss goal. 165 lb. by August 1.

You can read much more on the Science of Appetite at the Time Magazine website. I found the article interesting, but from my perspective, the above tidbits are the most useful.

Humor and Leadership

2007-06-09T16:48:00.000-05:00

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done" Dwight D. Eisenhower*

Studies suggest that humor useful in facilitating communication in difficult situations, relieving stress, and in clarifying mutual understanding of difficult topics in work groups. Humor can be used to convey information, break down behavioral barriers, highlight key points, and identify where tension exists.

Humor facilitates communication in difficult situations, such as when a supervisor needs to provide negative or sanctioning feedback and when broaching taboo topics.

Humor can be used by managers to communicate corrective actions without offending or threatening. Humor can also be used as a non-threatening way for subordinates to push back up the chain of command without overstepping customary lines of authority. Humor allows you to discuss taboo topics, including expression of certain emotions, such as aggression, fear, and sadness. Humor allows you to maintain lines of communication in spite of conflict. Humor's ability to facilitate communication is likely one of its most powerful and potentially useful aspects.

Humor makes it possible to communicate in stressful situations because it simultaneously conveys both the message and information about how to interpret the message. Through smiling, an exaggerated tone of voice, etc. humor tells us that the normal rules of behavior are temporarily suspended. Humor lets both the speaker and listener off the hook should conflict arise on the subject. For example, if you first establish, by smiles and voice tone, that you are joking around, you may be able to communicate ideas that would be considered insulting under other circumstances without jeopardizing the relationship. Humor provides the speaker the opportunity to deny that he meant anything by his comment, and it gives the listener the right to act as if nothing has been conveyed.

Humor usually puts people in a good mood, and people in a good mood tend to be more accepting and cooperative, reducing conflict and enabling deeper communication. Humor draws attention. Advertising executives consider humor an effective way to gain attention. Attention emphasizes the message and emphasizes the importance of related segments of the interaction.

Three important questions should be considered When using humor in difficult situations: Do the nonverbal signals clearly convey that the comment is not to be taken seriously? Will the humor leave listeners in a good mood? Is the humor calling attention to something valuable (e.g., the encouraging desired behavior, rather than emphasizing undesirable behavior)?
Humor can reduce stress or tension. Joking provides an energizing distraction for team members when the activity seems overly taxing.

Humor is an important emotion management tool to relieve tension and stress in interpersonal relationships. Many employers consider stress reduction to be the main benefit of humor in the workplace.

Humor allows group members to come to common understanding of our physical and social environment. It identifies situations as safer and less serious than they initially seem. People with a good sense of humor tend to suffer fewer negative outcomes when exposed to stress. Humor can also induce a positive mood, which alleviates stress-induced resistance, and it can draw attention away from the source of stress.

When using humor to reduce stress, remember that your objective may be to change the listener's appraisal of a situation as well as their emotional reaction to it. Is the content of the humor aimed at defining or redefining the situation as safe? Will the humor generate a positive rather than a negative mood? And will the humor draw attention away from the source of stress rather than toward it?

Humor can alert you to issues that others find stressful or problematic. Because humor gives both the speaker and listener the chance to deny that anything important was conveyed, leaders and listeners, should be aware of cases where humor has allowed a potentially contentious matter into a conversation. Your ability to "take a joke" opens an important back channel of communication through which your peers and subordinates may try to pass valuable feedback.

Because humor is often used to alleviate stress, its presence can serve as an important signal that the topic makes the speaker uncomfortable, or to identify issues related to interpersonal conflict. The presence of stress-related humor and laughter reflected the higher levels of stress and conflict in those interactions might be viewed as a warning flag of latent conflict.

Example: disarming humor:
How are you doing?
I have good days and.... better days!

I'm here to serve,

Chuck

* I picked up this quote from an excellent address given to the students and parents of the Barrington High School [BHS] Class of 2007 by Dan Monaco, a teacher, at the BHS Friendship Service leading up to graduation.

New Community Features at YoungerNextYear.com

2007-06-08T21:19:00.000-05:00

Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge, co-authors of Younger Next Year, and my favorite personal health, fitness, and nutrition gurus created an interactive community to share ideas and inspire fitness on the Younger Next Year website:

Community Features include:
HEALTH JOURNAL (Public / Private)You can now make your Journals PRIVATE or PUBLIC

PERSONAL BLOGS Post your own articles or "blogs" about living younger next year.

FRIENDS LIST Create a friends list to monitor their Blog and Journal and send messages.

FORUM Communicate with others on various health related topics.

The books have been a huge success, I expect the community will be too as the word gets out. The community is free to use, and will likely help you live a better healthier life.

This is a must visit web site!

Chuck

Software Licensing Messiness

2007-06-08T12:22:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the original document (from http://download.microsoft.com/) that Ed Bott wrote about on the ZDNet blog about the messiness of Windows Licensing.

Mislicensing occurs when a customer uses their Volume License Agreement to install the initial Windows License on a new PC. Volume License Agreements cover the Windows UPGRADE only, therefore these systems are not properly licensed—they are mislicensed. You must first acquire a qualifying underlying operating system license, such as a full version of the Windows Desktop, either preinstalled from your hardware vendor(OEM/system builder) or through Full Packaged Product.

The Microsoft document is not dated – so there is no way to know when it was published or what specific Windows licenses are covered, nor is there a way to know on what data the following statement is based:

we (presumably Microsoft) have found that nearly 44% of Volume License customers believe that Volume License rights include the full OS and 40% of Volume License customers report they have acquired naked or unlicensed PCs, putting themselves at risk of non-compliance with their Volume License Agreement.

I tried calling the phone number in the document in the middle of the business day. The phone rang and rang and I never even had an opportunity to leave a message with an automated attendant.

If you have further questions, please contact 1-866-606-3749 (8-5 pm CST).

My conclusion is that there is a lot of litter in the literature…

However; I find value in the 5 issues that Ed identified in the Microsoft License. These are pretty fundamental to many Software licenses. I’ve added some of my own comments to Ed’s below:

1. The license agreement is not understandable on its face. New license agreements are commonly infested with jargon and gobbledygook terminology, which is why most people don’t read them. It’s definitely not in the interest of the lawyers to provide a one-page summary written in language that anyone can understand. If vendors provided a summary, it wouldn’t be binding and you would have to understand the full document to interpret its meaning anyway.

2. Multiple license types cause confusion. Different license types are offered to address business requirements for different channels or sales models. They channels often overlap and transparency may be contrary to the vendor or channel business objective. The trouble is, most vendors provide don’t provide an easy way to tell which type of license you own. Why can’t vendors provide a simple tool that generates a license report showing your version, product ID, and whether the license can be transferred to another PC?

3. Multiple versions of media and product keys cause unneeded headaches. This problem is especially bad with Windows XP, where you need to find exactly the right type of Windows media to reinstall Windows. If you have a Dell system and a Dell product key, for example, you can’t use a retail copy of Windows to reinstall. This means you need to keep track of the installation media for the life of the system. Oh did media come with that?

4. Record-keeping requirements are burdensome. If you have a large shop, you need to keep a paper trail for every PC and be prepared to prove that each one is properly licensed.

5. There’s no way to deactivate a license. Even though you can legally transfer a retail Windows license from one PC to another, there is no way to de-activate the license. Wouldn’t it make more sense if you could deactivate a system as easily as you can activate it? Doing so could tell the activation servers to remove the record for the current system and would allow activation on a new PC.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

How to set the right price

2007-06-07T11:22:00.000-05:00

Peter Longini, Managing Editor for Inside Product Strategy discussed pricing strategies with Mike Naumuk of medSage Technologies in his latest Product Strategy Network newsletter.

Theory: Target the mix of offering to maximize customer value while at the same time meeting your own cost and revenue objectives.

In practice, more factors need consideration:

Competitive pricing - not just direct competitors, but also alternative solutions - maybe the competition for a software offering is not software at all, but a service.

Positioning the technology and business adoption lifecyle - Do you not charge for certain services that ultimately drive customer adoption.

What is the customer willing to pay? The price that sticks is based on what customers are willing to pay.

Revenue trails - Are there any opportunity for supplemental revenue from associated products or services?

The basic foundation of SaaS pricing for monthly or annual subscriptions typically uses a tiered subscription based on a metric such as: number of transactions, number of instances, activity thresholds or other value metric. The fee generally includes: use of the application, including periodic upgrades basic customer support and hosting services. The fee generally increases by a small amount each year to cover ongoing maintenance costs.

Pricing models for professional services are:

Fixed price for well defined bundled services

Menu based pricing where the buyer selects from a predefined list of services

Time and materials - where the cost is based on the effort required and associated costs

Mike Naumuk warns that the impact of future software releases on existing service capabilities is the most frequently overlooked cost driver. Customers ask for all sorts of value added features that tend to make applications more expensive to support. Factors to consider include pre-release testing, documentation, training materials, and configuration options.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

On choosing a college... how to decide

2007-06-05T06:32:00.000-05:00

The decision deadline for most colleges is past, and we had quite an experience with Emily, our third child, who is graduating high school this weekend and plans to begin studying pharmacy, (a six year program) in the fall. She was accepted at two well known private schools, including her initial top choice. (Here are a few relevant financial facts for her initial top choice: $43,000/year times six years less $5,000/year scholarship and $3,000 financial aid package = $210,000 before other living expenses) She was also accepted at our state university which has a highly ranked pharmacy program where she received a full tuition merit scholarship where our net cost for 6 years will be about $84,000. That’s still a LOT of money, but less than half of the private school.

I talked to many people asking the question, how to explain to an 18 year old that these are not just numbers written on piece of paper? How can I help my daughter understand this choice will have a huge impact on her long (and our) term finances? In the end, this is how we addressed the issue.

1) We told her she could go wherever she wanted, but if she chose a school that is beyond our means, she would have to take out loans to cover what we are unable to afford, and she would be responsible for paying back the loans.

2) We helped her understand the interest payments on student loans multiply the amount owed. The school’s financial aid offices provided information on typical payment schedules. We also provided her information on the amount of borrowing vs. future expected income from the College Board Workbook for families Meeting College Costs. (The book is discounted if purchased it when completing the CSS Profile).

3) We made it clear that if she took out huge loans, then decided later on to switch majors, say from pharmacy to teaching, resulting in a much lower expected annual income after graduation, she would still be responsible for the loans.

4) We helped her to confirm for herself that there was nothing at the higher cost private schools that she could not do at the less expensive state school.

5) For the field of pharmacy, it doesn’t seem like where you go to school has a huge impact on future career potential. For liberal arts, that may be less true.

6) If she chose the private school, at least part of the money she earned while working summers would have to go to tuition and board expenses, so she would have a lot less spending money while in school, whereas at the more affordable state school, we can cover her tuition and board, and she can use her earnings for her living expenses.

7) Originally, I wasn’t going to include this last point, but in the interest of full disclosure, I thought that I should, because I think that it had some influence on her decision. We have an extra car in the family for our kids to share, and with her two older brothers away for the most of the year at college. Emily had the car pretty much to herself for her senior year at high school. We dropped a few hints that if she chose the state university, she would be able to take the car with her to school, giving her a lot of mobility and freedom. This would have been out of the question at the private school because it’s in the city and none of us would have been able to afford to run it anyway. OK you can call it a bribe if you want. In the end, considering all these factors, we were thrilled when she chose the state school.

I hope that things work out as well for your family.

Best,

Chuck

more on Enterprise 2.0 and WPI 2007 Commencement Speakers

2007-05-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

More on Enterprise 2.0

Meet Charlie, Mr. Enterprise 2.0, - Slideshare Intro to Enterprise 2.0 which Tom Mandel posted on his blog. Oops! You can see in the screenshot below, Tom didn't tag his blog post.

- although slide 16 indicates that tagging is key to Enterprise 2.0.

I hope that's not an example of big hat, no cattle... (just teasing Tom.) From Tom's other posts, you can see this is an isolated oversight.

I also found Corante blogs, which examine critical themes and memes in technology, business, law, science, and culture. ( I admit, I had to look up memes in the dictionary ) -

An idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

I came across Corante because they produce the FastForward blog on Enterprise 2.0 for Fast Enterprise Search. I'm convinced that Enterprise 2.0 is here to stay despite what the editors of Wikipedia may do.

I enjoyed the Speakers Saturday at WPI's 139th Commencement, where my oldest son, Mike, took his BS in Computer Science, He will be starting a full time job after a short vacation. Dad and mom are very proud!

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director Hayden Planetarium and a Research Associate at American Museum of Natural History and host for NOVA, Science Now. Neil deGrasse Tyson received an honorary Ph.d. from WPI and gave a brief, and amusing, but unscheduled address that was one of the highlights of the ceremony. He couldn't resist the opportunity to address such a large audience of technologists and assured the graduates he remains a card carrying Nerd with Pi to 11,000 decimal places, the text of Newton' s Principia, and the screenplay to the original Matrix on his PDA (the original, not the other two). He did include a serious message for graduates telling them that technological innovation is the greatest driver of Economic development. He also put a new twist on the verse from the Beatitudes, Mathew 5, 5, "The meek shall inherit the earth", suggesting instead that the Geeks shall inherit the Earth!

The primary speaker was Barbara Dunsire, president and CEO of Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, who emphasized three messages, in a world of change, let integrity be your compass, expand your horizons to find growth opportunities, and be true to yourself. More on that in a another post. She has clearly had to make some difficult decisions. I have most of the commencement on video and will work on getting it posted as time permits.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

"Enterprise 2.0" equals "Next Generation IT" but does not equal "Web 2.0" (or does it?)

2007-05-15T11:54:00.000-05:00

Enterprise 2.0 = Next Generation IT by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- After Wikipedia deleted the "Enterprise 2.0" entry, the Enterprise Irregulars swarmed, responding to the critique of the term by a Wikipedian editor as a "neologism of dubious utility" and taking a crack at defining it.

Accprdomg to Dan, battle lines are being drawn over the term Enterprise 2.0 after the term was deleted by editors of Wikipedia (I found Enterprise 2.0 in Wikipedia redirected under Enterprise Social Software).

In his recent presentation at IDC Directions in Boston, Don Tapscott talked about a similar experience when the term Wikinomics was added, then deleted and subsequently re-added to Wikipedia. Wikinomics is currently #13 on the Business Week best-seller list based on February 2007 sales.

At a recent Boston-SPIN meeting Ed Yourdon gave an hour-long overview of Web 2.0 and keeps updating his Web 2.0 mindmap which has grown to about 25 Mb describing Web 2.0 themes, history, technology, vendors, business & cultural issues, references and conclusions.

There are some common themes with Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0.

Accessibility/Openness
Collaborative user generated content
Two way data flow in and out of the enterprise
-- prosumer = producer/consumer
Self Service
Low Barriers to entry
User Driven

Is Enterprise 2.0 a subset of Web 2.0 for business? Interesting topic.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Joe Thomas & the NFL draft - Keeping Priorities Straight

2007-04-30T02:42:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of a football fan, and had never heard of Joe Thomas until Saturday morning, but I have a new admiration for Thomas who became the third overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft. He was chosen by the Cleveland Browns . I heard about Thomas on my way to an early morning haircut, while listening to "Only a Game" on NPR. Bill Littlefield did a story about Thomas who, declined an invitation by NFL football commissioner Roger Goodell to the nationally broadcast draft ceremonies from New York City, electing instead to stick with his previous plans to spend the day fishing with his dad on Lake Michigan. (The story about Joe is about 7 minutes into the podcast.) It's a great example of keeping life in perspective. Keeping priority on family and not letting success go to your head. Thanks Joe for a breath of fresh air in a world where we need more roles models like you!

If people concentrated on the really important things of life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles.

This quote is attributed online to Herbert Hoover, Doug Larson & others. I'm not sure who really said it, but I know it's true. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about Joe signing a celebrity endorsement deal for a major fishing tackle company at some point in the future, and good luck to him.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Getting the job done faster by taking your time

2007-04-23T11:56:00.000-05:00

I had an experience that demonstrates how it's possible to get the job done faster by taking your time.

My son Nick is at college, about an hour's drive from home. When the weather started getting nice, he asked me to drop off his bicycle which had been stored at home for the winter. I had a busy weekend, but I told him that I would drop it off Saturday. I had also promised to take my daughter, Emily, out to dinner that evening, but I told Nick I would drop off his bike around 5:00 pm figuring that I would be able to get back home a little after 6:00 to take Emily out to dinner. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and I was working in the yard. I wanted to get a little more done, so I didn't start packing the bike in the car until almost 4:00 pm. It took me longer than I expected to get ready to go. I took the front tire off the bike to fit it in the car, because I wanted to save gas by driving VJ's Honda, rather than my Expedition.

When I went to load the bike in the car, I noticed the tires were flat. Not wanting Nick to have to deal with flat tires, I got out the pump and filled them with air. Then I remembered Nick had his own pump that went with the bike, but it was not to be found in the garage. I called Nick to ask where to look for it. It turned out he had a whole bag of gear that he wanted along with the bike. After a few trips between his room, the garage and the basement, I located all of his bike gear, but was more than half an hour behnd schedule when I loaded the bike, pump, helmet, riding gloves, etc. into the Honda. Off I drove, pushing the speed limit, trying to make up time, but knowing that I was going to late for my dinner with Emily. Fortunately I was able to reach Emily by phone from the car, to warn her I was running late.

I phoned Nick as I pulled into the parking lot at his dorm, "you've got to come down and meet me quickly so you can take the bike and I can be on my way for dinner with Emily." Nick joined me in the parking lot and after a quick greeting I opened the back of the car. I was incredulous as it was immediately obvious, in my rush to depart, I had left the front wheel of the bike at home. After pumping up the tire, I carried it around while looking for his gear, at some point I put the wheel down in the garage and completely forgot about it in my rush to locate his other stuff and get going.

This was an embarrassing moment for a father looking foolish in the eyes of his son, but I had to admit there was no one to blame but myself. I told Nick to leave the bike in the car. I returned home and took Emily out for a very nice Mexican dinner, then after putting the missing wheel in the car I made the return trip to Nick's school. Spending two extra hours behind the wheel gave me time to think about the benefits of taking an extra moment to check that I had all the mission critical components before departing. I arrived home, after my second trip, well after 10:00 pm, tired, but reflective.

Here are my lessons learned from this little mis-adventure.
1. Don't cram overlapping events into the schedule with no allowance for unexpected delays.
2. When you're committed to a tight schedule, don't try to squeeze in another unplanned activity.
3. The time allowed to complete a mission should include preparation as well as execution.
4. Preparation time frequently takes longer than originally estimated.
5. Don't get so wrapped up in the details that a critical success factor for the job is forgotten.
6. When the schedule starts to go south, open communication is the best policy.
7. If you don't take the time to do it right, you may have to take the time to do it over.

For more on the subject of avoiding rushing, I recommend Michael Mah's 2004 column written for the Cutter Consortium I WOULDN'T BE SO LATE IF I WEREN'T IN SUCH A HURRY... and his more recent writing on the same subject in his Optimal Friction Blog part 1 and part 2. Michael wrote:

there’s a rule in cosmos that says “There are times that 'fast' can actually be slow. If you stop to think about it, you can discover a hidden secret: slowing down just a little bit can actually allow you to go fast - without breaking your neck, or putting you on the sidelines from tearing up your shoulder.”

Michael also gave an excellent presentation to the Boston Software Process Improvement Network in the Spring of 2006 on the subject of Excess Friction: How Fast Deadlines Can Slow You Down & Ruin Your Life

So plan time wisely, keep deadlines in perspective, and go fast by taking your time.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Earthday 2007

2007-04-21T09:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo of South-Eastern New England taken from the Space Shuttle. This is my corner of the Earth. Cape Cod Bay is visible along the right hand (east) side of the photo. The sand spits about halfway down the right hand side of the photo form the harbor at Plymouth, MA which is where the pilgrims formed their colony when they arrived from England in 1620, and near where I grew up. Martha's Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands, Buzzards Bay, and the Cape Cod Canal are in the bottom right (south-east) corner of the photo.

Narragansett bay occupies the center of the image. The city of Newport, RI is where Atlantic Ocean meets the bay. I live in Barrington, RI about 14 miles up Narragansett bay, along it's eastern shore. Block Island, RI and Montauk Point, NY are in the bottom left (southwest) corner of the image. The space image reminds me that I'm a steward of a beautiful corner of the Earth, and I should do more to protect it and reduce my impact on our environment.

Today is a gorgeous spring day- sunny with the temperature in the mid- 60's. I added the lilac bud photo Sunday morning 4/22. The temperature hit 80 degrees F Saturday afternoon, and all many buds on the lilacs and forsythias popped during the day.

Although I'm avid about re-use and recycling, and am conscious of energy consumption, I haven't done anywhere near as much as I could. I'll try to do better. I'm looking for suggestions about what I should do about the gas hog vehicle I've been driving since 2000.

It has 100,000+ miles on it, but with two kids in college, I'm not really in the market for another car just yet. When it needs to be replaced, I will definitely get a smaller vehicle with better mileage. One of the reasons I keep it is because I have a boat trailer to pull around. With my current commute of 11 miles to work, I'm using a lot less fuel than I used to, when I commuted 30 miles each way. Should I consider getting a scooter to reduce my fuel consumption in nice weather? My only issue with a scooter is safety since I commute through very busy traffic in Providence every day.

Happy Earth Day!
Chuck

Space Photo ISS006-E-45447 courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. For more images, visit Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth."

Bill Nye the Science Guy says "You can change the world."

2007-04-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

I saw Bill Nye last week when he spoke on April 10th at Bridgewater State College's distinguished speaker series. The mission of this lecture series is to present a variety of leaders and luminaries to challenge the minds and thinking of students and the community. Their mission was accomplished in this lecture. Bill is a former mechanical engineer (like me) with a degree from Cornell, who worked for many years a Boeing, where he desingned a hydralic resonance suppressor that still flies on 747 airliners. Bill gave up his engineering career, becoming a stand-up comic and eventually becoming a passionate public educator.

Bill described his contribution of the concept and design for a sun dial installed on each of the the Mars Rovers which evolved from the need to generate a shadow on mars for the purpose of calibrating on-board cameras. The sun dial idea was inspired by Bill's dad, Ned, who became interested in sun dials to pass time while he was a POW in China where Ned spent 44 months after being captured on Wake Island in the Pacific during WWII. Ned evenutally started a business selling sundials and at one time proposed converting the Washington Monument into a sundial.

Bill observed that the cost of the Mars mission was a bargain when you consider the value of the resulting discoveries. He remarked, there are two Rovers that cost of $435 million each just sitting there on Mars, and they aren't even locked!

Bill both praised and derided Pluto's recent de-classification from planet status. The understanding and insight that lead to the re-classification of Pluto opens the door to a whole relm of intricacies and nuances in the characteristices of celestial bodies that were not even possible to consider 30 to 50 years ago. According to the International Astronomical Union, "Pluto is not a planet, it's a dwarf planet. " But Bill chided, if you say Pluto is not a planet, you shouldn't use the word "panet", even with a "dwarf" modifier to define what it is.

After discussing space exploration, Bill switched to the topic of carbon emmissions and global warming. He showed a graph of planetary tempuratures spanning back 1,000 years based on seven independent studies, which each show the same trend of significantly rising temperature over the last 100 years. I approach this data with healthy skepticism, because we have to acknowledge that global climate change is well known to go back to the ice age, about 20,000 years ago, long before humans had any significant influence carbon emmissions. Although I'm not convinced that reducing carbon emmisions will reverse the global warming trend - if there is a statistically significant warming trend, it's hard to argue that we shouldn't do as much as possible conserve energy and focus on renewable resources. My impetus to conserve energy is not to reduce carbon dioxide emmisions, but becasue its the only way we can eliminate our dependence on imported energy and hope to control the fate of our economy.

Bill wrapped up saying he wanted his audience to change the world and enjoy success of ¥€$ [yes] Yaun, Euro, Dollars. If you can design a better battery you can get rich in all three currencies. He encourages all to cut carbon emmisions 80% by 2050 by using high efficiency light bulbs and driving cars with high milage and riding our bicycles the HKEV, Highest Known Efficiency Vehicle. Bill drives a Toyota Prius Hybrid which gets about 46 MPG,
The lecture was enjoyable, entertaining, educational, and inspiring.
I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Celebrating Tax day, April 15

2007-04-15T12:28:00.000-05:00

I have two more days to file because of the local Patriot's Day holiday, but I'm celebrating because I just finished the annual tax ritual. VJ found this poem online, which I pass along for your enjoyment.

I think that I shall never see
A tax form plain enough for me.
A form that I can understand
without a lawyer near at hand
to guide this poor benighted me
so I won't own a pen-al-ty.
A form that I will not detest
or take as more than awful jest.
A form with pages I can read
and fill out ea-si-ly with speed
Such forms weren't made for fools like me
Nor ever God who made a tree.
(San Francisco Examiner, 1989)

My dad, a retired accountant, always tells me, "I hope you have to pay a lot of taxes. " Not because he wants to see my assets transferred to the government, but because if you are paying taxes, it means that you must be making money.

Here is my rant for the year: The federal 2006 standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business is 44.5 cents per mile, but the deduction permitted when driving for a charitable organization is 14 cents per mile. Of course, we are permitted to deduct actual expenses for gas and oil if we keep detailed records. Who does that? I don't know who wrote the tax code, but do they figure I get three times the mileage when driving for charity because my vehicle is carried on the wings of angels when I'm doing volunteer work?

I hope you are done too, and I hope you pay a lot of taxes this year and even more next year!

I'm here to serve,

Chuck

A pizza story with a lesson in business agility

2007-03-30T19:14:00.000-05:00

Johanna Rothman recently blogged about a restaurant experience - reminding me of a pizza story that teaches a lesson in small business agility.

In the early '90s I was working at a consulting company in North Kingstown, RI. We were small enough that the whole company took a working lunch once a week at a local pizza place to catch up on what was going on. The pizza was good, but ordinary. Pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers were the usual toppings. Black olives were about as exotic as we got. One time I was selected for jury duty and had to spend a few days at the court house in Providence. For lunch, I walked to Wickenden Street on the East Side which has an eclectic reputation, and this is was how I learned about some amazing Pizza toppings. Sliced fresh tomatoes instead of puree, pesto and feta cheese blended with mozzarella or spinach with garlic and feta. When I got back to work, and our pizza lunch the next week, I said we should try something different. Our usual place served Greek salads and spinach pies, so they had all the ingredients. When we asked for pizzas with toppings that weren't on the menu, the proprietor protested, "That won't come out right - you won't like it and you’ll blame me!" "It's OK," I insisted, "try making one, and don't worry about how it comes out." I assured him, " You are a talented cook, you can do it. Remember, we are engineers, you know we'll eat anything.."

When the pies were served, the “specials” disappeared quickly, and the usual pizzas were only touched after the new choices were gone.

The next week all of our pizzas were “special.” Other customers saw the new toppings and started asking for them. The owner started experimenting and soon introduced other “gourmet” toppings like sun dried tomatoes and imported Greek sausage. Within a short time these new toppings appeared on the menu and became some of his most popular selections selling for a premium (read - higher profit margin) over the conventional pizzas and drawing in a different clientele (read - expanding to a new market segment).

The owner had the culinary skill to pull this off successfully, but it took some convincing to overcome his initial resistance. Trying something new was an opportunity to differentiate what was essentially a commodity product from the competition. The agile owner-operated business quickly took advantage of this opportunity while the nearby national pizza franchises, being constrained by their parent companies, took much longer to adopt gourmet toppings.

YASSOU!
Chuck

George Santayana - Welcome the Future, Repsect the Past

2007-03-24T07:17:00.000-05:00

We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past remembering that once it was all that was humanly possible.
George Santayana - in Apologia Pro Mente Sua 1940

This quote caught my attention when it was mentioned by Don Tapscott in his keynote address on Wikinomics at IDC Directions 2007 in Boston. I scribbled down part of the quote so I could look it up later.

When I looked up the quote online, I found it attributed to George Santanaya (1863-1952), who was a very prolific writer and philosopher. My recent experience researching another popular quote led me to want to confirm what I found online, so I stopped in the libary to look for further confirmation. Through an interlibrary loan, I was able to obtain a 1940 first Edition of the "Philosophy of George Santayana" edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp and published by Northwestern University. This volume contains a bibliography of Santayana's writings to 1940 that fills 57 pages. This volume is a unique collection of the writings of Santayana critically scrutinized by his philosophical contemporaries - with responses from Santayana himself.

The quote appears on page 560 in Santayana's reply to his contemporaries, "Apologia Pro Mente Sua." Several page images, including the title page are provided here for reference.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Naomi Karten on Customer Satisfaction at Boston-SPIN / ASQ Boston

2007-03-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

Naomi Karten delivered a delightful presentation titled "Tales of Whoa and the Psychology of Customer Satisfaction" at the joint meeting of the Boston-SPIN and ASQ in Waltham on March 20. Before the presentation, I asked Naomi if the title was intended as a play on the words "woe" and "whoa".

From the Miriam-Webster online dictionary;
Main Entry: whoa Pronunciation: \wô, hô, hwô\
Function: verb imperative - Etymology: Middle English whoo, who Date: 15th century
1 — a command (as to a draft animal) to stand still 2
: cease or slow a course of action or a line of thought : pause to consider or reconsider — often used to express a strong reaction (as alarm or astonishment)

Main Entry: woe Pronunciation: \wô\
Function: interjection - Etymology: Middle English wa, wo, from Old English wâ; akin to Old Norse vei, interjection, woe, Latin vae Date: before 12th century — used to express grief, regret, or distress

Naomi intentionally substituted "whoa" for "woe" in the common expression. "Tales of woe" -- which is the wording that most people have heard before. Woe refers to the challenges people face in working with customers both in and outside of the software world. The definition of "whoa" -- pause to consider or reconsider -- is what we often need to do to identify ways to work with customers more effectively.

Her presentation provided a few simple and inexpensive steps to improve customer Satisfaction. Naomi admits that most of her advice is a simple statement of what should be obvious. Unfortunately many people ignore the basic principles of human interaction creating unnecessary friction in working relationships. Naomi's "Likability Lesson" focused on three ways to become more likable. 1. Listen - All people (including customers) really want to be listened to. 2. Be friendly - Smiling and taking time to build relationships smooths the road to success. 3. Lightheartedness - Nothing builds relationships like humor.

Naomi emphasized three key customer grievances that create perceptions of poor service.

1. Not being kept informed on matters of importance. No one likes to be kept waiting for answers.
2. Being made to endure excessive unexplained waiting.
3. Dishonesty: Having important information deliberately distorted or withheld. No-one likes doing business with someone they feel isn't being honest with them.

Naomi's advice on the delivery of bad news to customers is: "Don't delay." Naomi observed that most customers will understand when things didn't go exactly as planned; however, we need to acknowledge our responsibility to inform customers of issues or problems in a timely way, so they will have time to react and account for the bad news.

On the psychology of customer satisfaction and economics, Naomi provided the following insight:

While breaking a promise is bad, exceeding a promise is often not worth the effort. Nicolas Epley

This relates to setting and managing expectations. No one likes the disappointment of a missed promise, but in business, it often doesn't pay to go beyond expectations. Customers tend to adapt their expectations so the unexpected higher level of performance becomes the new standard expectation which can increase costs.

Naomi recommends making the following assumptions to avoid customer dissatisfaction :

1. People will interpret what you say differently than you intended.
2. People mean something different than you think they mean.

One of the things I liked best about Naomi's presentation was after each major point, she came back to the question, "What does this mean for you?" At which point, she passed along stories and anecdotes illustrating how to apply the concept in real world situations. For the assumptions listed above, "What this means for you," is that you should take time to confirm that customers understand what you said, and that you understand what you thought you heard.

Naomi recommended a couple of references for further reading:

A Mind of its Own by Cordelia Fine
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander

At the end of the evening, one of the regular SPIN attendees commented to me that this was the best SPIN presentation so far this season. I have to agree.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

"Whoa Nellie" Photo above by jahdakine via flickr under a Creative Commons License

Four Themes of Wikinomics - Don Tapscott at IDC Directions07

2007-03-15T04:44:00.000-05:00

I'm really fired up after attending IDC Directions07 in Boston yesterday. Key themes of the conference were: innovation, hyper-disruption, and opportunity.

Don Tapscott, Chief Executive of New Paradigm and author of "The Naked Corporation" and more recently co-author of "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" gave the closing keynote address, which summarized the four themes of Wikinomics.

1. Peering

2. Being Open

3. Sharing

4. Act Globally

1. Peering - Economist Ronald Coase was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Economics for his earlier work on Transaction Cost Theory to explain why corporations exist. As Henry Ford built his automobile company, he integrated steel, rubber and glass processing operations. The vertical company included stamping, forging, and machining and assembly operations. Ford also encompassed a trucking operation to move material and components and numerous other disciplines that are frequently outsourced in today's environment. The reason vertical integration made sense at the time was because it was less expensive to do those operations within the confines of the corporation than it was to purchase each item or service separately. Today the web enables collaboration reducing transaction costs to the point where open entities and individuals are collaborating to produce on scale that was previously the sole domain of corporations. Examples include Open Source Software, Boeing's development of the 7E7 Dreamliner and decentralized motorcycle manufacturing in China. This doesn't mean that collaborating individuals will replace corporations anytime soon, but it means that innovative upstart competitors are able to disrupt markets in ways never before possible.

2. Being Open - There is a huge potential to harness global expertise by sharing data and encouraging non-traditional collaboration. GoldCorp, an under performing mining company in Ontario turned itself around through the GoldCorp Challenge, an online contest where geologic data that was previously considered highly proprietary was published on the web for analysis by global scientists with over half a million dollars in prizes made available to entries that were able to identify where the gold was.

Synopsis of a May 2002 "FastCompany" article about the
GoldCorp Challenge:

Rob McEwen, chairman and CEO of Goldcorp Inc., based in Toronto, triggered a gold rush by issuing an extraordinary challenge to the world's geologists: He showed the world all of the geological data on GoldCorp's Red Lake mine online offering outsiders a prize to outsiders tell GoldCorp where they were likely to find 6 million ounces of gold.
The mining community was flabbergasted. Nick Archibald, managing director of Fractal Graphics, the winning organization from West Perth, Australia said, "The mining community was flabbergasted. "We've seen very large data sets from government surveys online, but for a company to post that information and say, 'Here I am, warts and all,' is quite unusual indeed."

For McEwen, the contest was a gold mine. "We have drilled four of the winners' top five targets and have hit on all four," he says. "But what's really important is that from a remote site, the winners were able to analyze a database and generate targets without ever visiting the property. It's clear that this is part of the future." McEwen knew that the contest was risky. But the risks of continuing to do things the old way were even greater.

3. Sharing - Give up on conventional wisdom about intellectual property. The new philosophy is "Give and ye shall receive." Companies need a portfolio of intellectual property, some of which they own and protect, and some of which they give away to build communities around their IP. IBM's investment in Linux is a prime example. In 2000, IBM announced a one-billion dollar investment in Linux. By January 2002, IBM had nearly re-couped the investment. By 2003, IBM was doing two-billion dollars per year in Linux related services (see The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler chapt. 2, p. 47.) A key concept of sharing is turning consumers into producers.

4. Act Globally In the US, Europe & Japan, corporations behave as multinationals. Multinationals think globally, but act locally. In China, India and other emerging economies, rising companies are adopting truly global business models. They think globally and act globally.

Don punctuated the talk with a few humorous quips such as: God may have created the world in 6 days, but he didn't have an installed base." He wrapped up with a bit of philosophy. We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will become the past, and we must respect the past, remembering that once it was all that was humanly possible. I thought Don attributed this quote to French aviator Antoine de St.-Exupery, author of the Little Prince, but my research indicates that this quote should be attributed to George Santayana.

I enjoyed Don's presentation so much, I stopped at Barnes and Nobel on the way home to buy the book. I couldn't wait to start reading it.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

Ten easy changes to increase personal satisfaction

2007-03-12T19:06:00.000-05:00

I strongly recommend this hour long exploration of satisfaction and happiness from The Infinite Mind radio show. On this episode, titled "Satisfaction," Fred Goodwin asks three authorities in the field of psychology for a few pointers to increase personal satisfaction. The list is simple, makes sense, and all of them are free. Remember, money can’t buy happiness!

[Click here to listen now Real Audio format.]

Barry Schwartz: professor of social theory and social action at Swarthmore College and author of “The Paradox of Choice, Why More is Less”
10. Develop realistic expectations about how good the results of your decisions will be.
9. Choose when to choose. Be willing to give up choice in certain areas of life. You don’t always need to assert your choice, give others the option to exercise their preference. You don’t always need to present yourself options then go to the effort of evaluating each possibility.
8. Make non-reversible decisions rather than always wanting to keep your options open. When you make reversible decisions you tend to second guess yourself, which leads to dissatisfaction.
7. Regret decisions less.

David Meyers: professor of psychology at Hope College in Michigan
6. Aerobic exercise is a powerful antidote to mild depression and anxiety.
7. Place greater priority on close relationships, investing time and energy in relationships that matter. Nurture relationships just as we nurture our career and bank accounts.
8. Recognize that our disposition is to an extent controlled by our genetic constitution.

Michael McCullough: associate professor of psychology and religion at University of Miami
9. Gratitude provides an important coping strategy in dealing with life’s challenges.
10. Grateful people are generally happier with life and more prone to spiritual satisfaction.Helping others cultivates feelings of happiness and satisfaction.

I'm here to serve,
Chuck

How to syndicate a feed using Feedburner & Blogger

2007-03-07T19:35:00.000-05:00

Feedburner provides free and easy to use tools that integrate with Blogger to create RSS feeds [Really Simple Syndication] that allow subscribers to view your blog in an aggregator or feed reader. If you need it, this article from TechCrunch will help beginners understand the popular options for online feed readers.

This tutorial explains how to burn your feed and embed it in a page element on Blogger.

The images below shows what the feed for this blog looks like when subscribed through:

My Yahoo:

Bloglines:

Regards,
Chuck

Workplace Leadership Sermon

2007-03-06T20:24:00.001-05:00

Workplace leadership is about knowing people, recognizing their contributions and building relationships.

Could you show up at work tomorrow energized by recognizing that work is about the creation of value, recognizing that workers, when they are well led, become better people in the process.

Guy Kawasaki recommended this 20 minute video sermon about the wonder and the gift of work by Nancy Ortberg, a dynamic church leadership consultant and speaker. The sermon is also available from Melno Park Presbyterian Church in other formats.

Spirituality in the work place does not need to be associated with bible studies at lunch or evangelizing co-workers, it is about recognizing people for their contributions, thanking them by name and valuing their service. When you serve, you most accurately reflect the nature of God.

Twenty years ago, the job satisfaction rate in America was around 61%. Today, according to a recent MSN survey, less than 39% say they are satisfied with their work and call their work meaningful and significant. It is incumbent on leaders to create work environments and cultures that remind workers of the nobility of service.

We tend to operate out of a false economy that weighs people according to their job titles in a way that compares and dismisses certain people as less important because we frequently loose sight of the nobility of service. We would be wise to remember that the person in the mail room, or the person who serves a meal are all performing meaningful work because they reflect what it means to serve. Workers need to understand the context and the vision of their work so they can recognize what the organization is trying to accomplish. Great leadership reminds people that they don't just fill a slot, they serve a greater purpose.

Encouraging relationships at work is a key to leadership by creating meaning and significance for ourselves and other workers. Anonymity and lack of recognition of the dignity of people are signs of a miserable job.

Anonymity: Nobody knows your name or your story. We can provide a place where people can be known. Workers need to hear the words, "I know who you are," and I've heard good things about what you are doing.

All people created in the image of God have a great dignity and people are motivated by recognition of their dignity.

We should remind ourselves and others that there is deep significance in work, and be grateful for opportunities to serve in meaningful ways.

Regards,
Chuck

updated video link June 21 2009

That's a good question!

2007-03-03T08:53:00.000-05:00

Often asking the right question opens the door to insight and makes achieving our objectives easier. Failing to ask the right questions frequently leaves valuable information undiscovered, making it more difficult to reach our goals. Sometimes when I hear a good question, I say to myself, "I wish I thought of that."

Here are two good questions that you can use or adapt to your own situation.

The first question is designed to qualify prospects in a sales situation, where the prospect inquires about your products or services, but may just be fishing for information. This question helps separate real prospects from tire kickers, but it also provides valuable insight that can help close the real prospects.

1. What is your ideal outcome for this discussion?

This came from Harry Joiner an executive recruiter. This question may also be useful when trying to clarify the objectives of a new assignment. This question can also be turned around and used as to start a meeting effectively. The ideal outcome for this discussion is...

2. Do you have any reservations about hiring me?

Penelope Trunk in her Brazen Careerist blog suggests using this question at the end of a job interview to identify and address any kind of miscommunication and to get real feedback from the interviewer. This question can also be used in performance review discussions. Do you have any reservations about promoting me? Don't wait for the performance review, this needs to be asked well in advance. This question can also be adapted to elicit feedback on any kind of proposal. Do you have any reservations about this proposal? Whenever possible, I seek feedback on important proposals before submitting them. I can almost always improve my proposals by addressing reservations expressed by independent reviewers.

Regards,

Chuck

Success: Finding a Gem among the Litter in the Literature

2007-02-24T16:44:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite bloggers, Pam Slim, wrote a great post recently titled, “Finding grace in the throes of gut-wrenching failure.” I thought Pam's choice to use the word grace was a stroke of genius when writing about dealing with failure so I left a comment on her blog along with a well known quote defining “What is success” that I had heard before, and which I quickly located on the web to include with my comment. The problem was the reference that I found misattributed the quote to Ralph Waldo Emerson, and because I didn’t cross reference the source, I further propagated this error. Shortly thereafter, I realized my error, and started looking to confirm the real author. My search was aided by two helpful reference librarians, one from my home town of Barrington, RI and the other at Providence Public Library.

We were quickly able to confirm that the quote was properly attributed to Bessie Anderson Stanley of Lincoln, Nebraska* by Ralph Keyes the author of the Quote Verifier, Who said what where and when, published by St. Martin's Griffin, NY in 2006. My local reference librarian tells me that Ralph Keyes is considered a very reliable source. According to Keyes, Bessie Stanley was awarded a $250 prize for her definition of success in contest sponsored by Brown book Magazine of Boston, circa 1904. (* See Post Script)

My curiosity grew when I read online that Bessie Stanley’s granddaughter, Bethanne Larson had written to Robin Olsen of Robinsweb.com indicating that the poem appeared in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations in the 1930’s but had been removed for some unknown reason by the 1960’s editions. I tried unsuccessfully to locate a 1930’s copy of Bartlett’s, but I learned that the quote had been re-published in 1911 in a book called Heart Throbs, Volume 2, which is a collection of verse and prose submitted by readers in response to an earlier edition published in 1905. Volume 2 was published by Grosset & Dunlap of New York and copyrighted in 1911 by Chapple Publishing Company Ltd. of Boston, MA.

I'm able to provide images from this collection because my contact at the Providence Public Library Reference Desk found a copy of Volume 2 in the stacks, right next to volume 1; although the second volume wasn’t listed in their computerized card catalog.

Bessie Stanley’s “What is Success? is the second entry in this collection of 840 selections and begins on page 1, with the last two lines flowing over to the second page. I’m please to provide here several images from the 1911 text.

page 1.

One final ironic twist is that in the index, of Heart Throbs Volume 2, the author of What is Success is listed as Anon (short for Anonymous)!

From this I re-learned the importance of confirming references, and was reminded how much fun it is to go to the library. The Providence Public Library located a fairly old book in their collection that they didn't know they had.

Regards,

Chuck
--------------------------

Post Script added March 23, 2007. Greg Williams of the Tampa Tribune was kind enough to comment on this post. He pointing out to me that Bessie Anderson Stanley actually lived in Lincoln. Kansas, not Lincoln, Nebraska as is written above. My first reaction was that I had probably mistakenly written Nebraska when I read Lincoln. Lincoln, NB stuck in my mind because I visited the city for a conference back in my college days. It was my first flight on a commercial airliner, from Boston to Lincoln, NB. I think it was in 1978 or 1979, but that's another story. At any rate, I went back and checked the Quote Verifier, and sure enough, Ralph Keyes had in fact written Lincoln, NB, as you can see in the following image. Greg has obtained copies of the original publication of "Success" by Bessie A. Stanley in the Lincoln Sentinel Lincoln ,Kansas . Greg and I traded several emails with some of the details about how difficult it is to track down what really happened, and when.

It would be very interesting to see if someone can turn up the original magazine article. Here is a site containing an online history of Brown Book Magazine which merged with Modern Women around the time of publication of Bessie A. Stanley's writing on Success. The URL's below provide some some cover images.
http://www.magazineart.org/magazines/b/brownbook.html
http://www.magazineart.org/main.php/v/womens/brownbook

I think its possible that an old library, has copies of the original magazine. The history of Brown Book company also suggests that copies may be located at the Library of Congress.

Regards,

Chuck