Lessons from a stone wall in the making

There is an art to building a stone wall. Stone upon stone, lying together. Supporting each other. Stronger together than alone. Something for us to learn from!

job search notes: nature lesson - persistence

The job search trials and tribulations require patience and persistence.

Take a walk in the woods and look around. Nature provides plenty of examples for success despite great odds.

If the tree can have such persistence, why not you?

job search notes: lessons from #the5

good morning, time for #the5 - PdF '10: Clay Shirky Argues for Raising the Bar on Online Politics http://bit.ly/cLSegu

Raising the bar on online politics is a good though-provoking video. Like TED, it runs about 18 minutes, enough of a chunk to get thinking without loosing too much time. No waste. Good ideas. Has some legs for the job search too.

ah, so that's why the tweet counts are off - What's Happening with Twitter? http://bit.ly/adYJpZ #the5

So Twitter as a service has been an issue almost since it began. Of course, they really didn't know how popular they were going to be, and so quickly, so trying to bring a better architecture and stability to an operation growing exponentially has been (and is continuing to be) difficult. Our choice, bear with it.

“What? A free copy of RADICAL CAREERING? …seriously??”http://bit.ly/afLqbs - a must for today's #the5, hurry there's time left 2 get yours

Caught up to Mitch Joel's Twist Image Podcast this week and found a couple of good books there. The first one is from Sally Hogshead and it is free. Since it is on career and I'm in the middle of the job search details (along with a few others) it caught my eye (ear) and might be a god one to dig into. Free has a good point of attraction! 

"perhaps one good idea in action just might trump hundreds of others that fly by" The Reaction Compulsion http://bit.ly/cIw3cmgood #the5

So take the one idea, the free book noted above and then spend time with it before doing much else.

"be like Thomas Edison in approaching social media and experiment" http://bit.ly/9sGCGI great advice from @kanter #the5

Spending time with it should mean trying the ideas on for size. Multiple times. Experiment. Live with the one book/idea for a while before moving on to something else.

50 Power Twitter Tips http://bit.ly/cVSMR8 joining the crowd but it is the ONE @chrisbrogan and hence good advice, bonus #the5

A bonus, and from Chris. Mark the link, put it aside and come back to it after you have spent time experimenting.

That's all for #the5, busy day ahead, I'll check back later to see what happened with twitter bingo http://bit.ly/c3Nrya - Enjoy!

reflections on the override

good morning, its raining here in Franklin and time for #the5 - 5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan http://bit.ly/aa052F

In case you did not hear, the override special election failed on Tuesday by 323 votes. Terribly disappointing. Terribly upsetting. Some folks were all NO and not willing to listen or comprehend the risks and benefits involved for the community. Their community was one. I was reminded of the wisdom that the Simon and Garfunkel sang not so long ago: "Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".

How Job Seekers Can Use Opportunity Channels To Find More Interviews http://bit.ly/bz0As1 #the5

I'll be continuing to explore ideas and ways to reach out to folks who normally don't use much of Franklin's services on a regular basis. The Betty and Bob couple, DINK possibly, busy about their respective roles, come home from the commute to relax, other than putting the trash out weekly what does Franklin do for them? They may not use the library. They are healthy and haven't called 911. Without kids, they are aware of the schools or multiple athletic groups and programs available, unless at that one time a year they get stuck in traffic behind the opening day little league baseball parade.

Can You Work From an iPad? http://bit.ly/93u3Kd - @chrisbrogantalks about his use of the iPad, do you have one? #the5

What's in it for me? needs to be the key question. I answered it and hence because Franklin Matters, I spend a good deal of my 'spare' time doing what I do. How do we get into what is in it for them?

Do You Need Your Social Media Expert To Have Social Skills?http://bit.ly/b4GmEN "many people ...don't actually have great social skills"

I know I am not the best writer in the world, but I practice a lot to get better. I am not the best networker in the world but I practice and believe I am getting better. I caught flack on the Milford Daily News comment trail for persisting in getting an elected official to answer a question. I knew he would vote no, that is okay. What was key I think was to find out under what circumstances he would vote yes. Maybe not today, maybe not next year, but sometime, the set of circumstances around the override decision would come to a point where he might say yes. I would like to know when that point is. How much will it take for Franklin to cut services before he is willing to step up for a change. Not because it was he, it was not personal. Because it would be instructive, insightful to others. I would feel better if he was just no, no, no. Indicating that his no is linked to accountablity of the funds is unacceptable. He is one who votes for those. If he knows something that he is not willing to share, then what does he know? Why shouldn't we know. His stand only feeds the conspiracy theorists who see something bad and nefarious behind anything the Town does. Transparency is required to build trust.

"many different things to many different types of people" The Two Types Of Twitter Stars http://bit.ly/aKfnoi @mitchjoel #the5

One of our opportunities is to help get folks to remember "e pluribus unum" "from many, one". We are in this together. Together we need to solve this. We can approach this in a respectful and honest discussion or we can roll in the mud and get as dirty as possible. John Perry Barlow's quote on "you need to learn how to disagree without being disagreeable" is so timely.

I believe that by learning something new each day, by sharing something that matters to someone, and by finding something to laugh about is what makes a day good. The day gets better when I get a chance to do more than one of each of those.

What makes your day good?

What advice would you share on how to address Franklin's problems?

Re-looking at the remix

Lawrence Lessig, the father of the creative commons, has a thoughtful talk at TEDxNYED.



What do you think of these lessons?

Lessons About Life, Enterprise, from Baking Christmas Cookies

Lessons About Life, Enterprise, from Baking Christmas Cookies

Peters on Excellence

A couple of hours in a hot kitchen can teach you as much about business and management as the latest books on re-engineering or total quality management. That’s my take, anyway, after a bout of Christmas-cookie baking. Here are 11 lessons for life (and enterprise), fresh from the oven:

1. Engagement. Watching others helps, but you’ve gotta get your hands dirty. I hadn’t made cookies for years, so I observed a friend do a few batches. I thought I was learning something, and I suppose I was—but nothing really clicked until my hands were covered with flour.

Lesson (for trainers especially): Cut the lectures. Get folks involved in “real stuff” very quickly!

2. A plan. I’m not keen on planning in general, but a time-tested recipe is a godsend. First, it’s roughly “right.” More important, it gives you the confidence to get started.

Lesson: Any plan is a help; it gives folks the sense they aren’t aimlessly flailing.

3. Art. The plan is an outline—not Holy Writ. Plans, including recipes, are made to be tinkered with—and eventually torn up. Cookie making, software design, and real-estate lending are art. And it’s the artists, not the slavish followers of others’ recipes, who land in the world’s halls of fame.

Lesson: Blind devotion to any plan is downright dumb!

4. Trial and errors. Yes, I’d watched a master at work (or at least a pretty good cook), but in my first hour of hands-on work, with instructions close at hand, I made dozens of mistakes, large and small. And in business life, real life, and cookie-making life, error is the fuel that drives you.

Lesson: Don’t “tolerate” mistakes. Embrace them!

5. The same mistakes. “Mistakes are OK,” some concede, “but don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Rubbish! I made virtually the same errors, in something as relatively simple as cookie making, over and over ... and over.

Lesson: Nobody ever did anything (interesting) right the first, or 51st, time.

6. A sense of humor. I was awkward at the start. (And at the finish.) I turned the kitchen into a disaster area. Kids and adults made their day laughing at me (or so it seemed). Experimentation—the nub of life and business—depends on learning to laugh at yourself.

Lesson: Learning is precisely about making a fool of yourself—often in public.

7. Perseverance. An ability to laugh at yourself and suppress your ego is key—but so is steely-eyed determination. Sure it was “just” cookie making. But I did want to do it right.

Lesson: Winners want to do everything well, no matter how trivial; and that takes focus and unrelenting drive.

8. Perfectionism. Certainly, the kitchen was a mess. Yes, I was the object of ridicule. But to master one’s craft requires nothing less than pain-in-the-butt perfectionism. Most see artists, and creative types in general, as scatterbrained. I’m sure there are scatterbrained artists (and bakers), but their work doesn’t end up in museums (or cookbooks).

Lesson: Creativity and perfectionism are essential handmaidens.

9. Ownership. It was made clear to me: I was responsible for the Christmas Eve dinner cookies. There were no backups available—and a long ginger-cookie tradition hung on my frail (i.e., incompetent) shoulders. The monkey was ensconced squarely on my back. So I did the job.

Lesson A: No ownership, no passion.
Lesson B: No passion, no perseverance.
Lesson C: There is no half ownership.

10. Accountability. When I’d helped with some previous cookie making (the day before), I’d screwed up the baking time twice. Now I was on my own. That should have made things more difficult. But, to the contrary, I was so attuned to the task that I didn’t come close to blowing it.

Lesson: Until you’re engaged in all aspects of a job, you don’t fully engage.

11. Taste. OK, I’ll brag: I made good cookies. Greatness takes practice—and exquisite taste. I may or may not practice more, but I doubt I’ll ever become to baking what Tom Clancy is to techno-thrillers.

Lesson: If we want great products, we need to find, attract, and retain great creators. Period.


Many thanks to Tom Peters for allowing this to be shared!