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- June 29, 2006
The Printable CEO™ V: Makin’ Rain
June 29, 2006Read more
Many weekends ago, three different thoughts converged on a new form design challenge. The triggers were from three separate sources:
- I was chatting with Ian at the last New Media Group meeting, and he commented that one of the sales and marketing guys at his company asked him about Task Tracker form he was using. Apparently he thought it was cool, but couldn’t quite see how it would be useful for him.
- My friend Joanne was commenting how it’s generally true that the more people you meet, the more opportunities you have to meet interesting people. It’s statistically true, anyway; other friends have pointed out the same thing with regards to dating.
- I had just rewritten The Printable CEO™ Series page, and was noting how the Concrete Goals Tracker has two kinds of goals: tangible stuff you make, and impressions you make on people. It struck me that ALL of the forms I’d made since the CGT were about making stuff. I had never addressed meeting people. That’s a big hole!
So in a fit of productive insomnia, I put together the Network Catch-o-Matic: a form that counts people you’ve seen and focuses on tracking the meaningful interactions you have with them.
As the Network Catch-o-Matic is a general tool for tracking the number of people you’ve met, it’s the sort of thing that salespeople would find potentially interesting. For the hell of it I’ve made a variation of the Concrete Goals Tracker: The Rainmaker Edition. It comes with a list of sales-related metrics, and has even more bubbles to handle the greater footwork that goes into landing a sale. I’m not sure if real salespeople will like it, but it’s based on my observations of the sales process in New Media agencies.
- June 28, 2006
White Hots
June 28, 2006Read more
Last May my sister Emily had a tremendous idea for Memorial Day: relive the hot dogs of our youth. Actually, that’s not quite correct…we wanted to relive the hot dog that our Dad remembers from his pastorin’ days back in the ’60s: the Rochester White Hot. Dad used to live in Upstate NY as an assistant pastor in Brighton before I was born. As it so happened, I went to both the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology for grad schoolin’, so this bit of Americana overlaps both of our personal histories. I must have even been the same age as Dad when he was in the area…eerie!
Every time Dad visits, we ask him if there was anything he misses from living in the US. Without fail he says, “White hots. And good cheese.” For a long time I thought this just meant any of the white hot dogs you can get in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, but Dad said these weren’t quite right. We even went to a German deli staffed by authentic German frauleins and looked at the white sausages there, but even these were not the hots we were looking for. They were good, but they not the White Hots of Dad’s memory. Not even close.
- June 27, 2006
- June 27, 2006
On Training
June 27, 2006Read moreI’ve been reading Alvin Soon’s Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) 101 series over on Life Coaches Blog. One of the underlying premises of NLP is that mind, language, and perception create a “subjective reality”; NLP itself is a set of methods and tools to explore those connections, if I am understanding Wikipedia correctly. I’m very interested in how people perceive reality, as that ties into a lot of the design work I do.
NLP aside, there is an article in Alvin’s series, So Dark the Con of NLP, that quoted this story:
There’s a famous story in the school of martial arts that I do. Once, an unsuspecting student asked the grandmaster of my school about politics in the martial arts. The grandmaster looked at him; and bestowed these golden words of wisdom: ‘Shut up and train!’
Ah, yes! Those are words I needed to hear!
I spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out how things connect together, what motivates people, and what the meaning of everything is. Sometimes that isn’t the point; you need to train to build capability and strength, so your skill is available when you need it. If you do not practice this, you’re just fooling yourself into thinking you’re prepared. I suspect a lot of my motivational issues would go away if I accepted that the pain of being UNproductive and UNcreative go away if I think of it as training, not production. There’s a big difference.
If you aren’t the type of person that responds well to Sensei busting your chops, another approach is play. However, you have to play a lot if you want to acheive some kind of mastery. It’s just a fact of repetition and reinforcement. It doesn’t take much, and it adds up rapidly if you make a concerted effort.
There’s something to be said for structured practice like training, but I think in the initial stages just finding some reason to practice those reps is enough. Take the burden of responsibility away from yourself, and stack up those repetitions because by doing it, you’re living what you want to do. This is a lesson that I didn’t understand when I was younger; it’s only now that it’s starting to sink in.
- June 27, 2006
When is a Cigar Worth Smoking?
June 27, 2006Read moreI chortled with glee when I came upon Leslie Russell’s “riff on the Printable CEO”: When is a Cigar Worth Smoking?. This is a great example of a concrete goals tracker list. Each list item combines personal satisfaction with the recognition of the tangible “worth smoking” metrics:
10 It has a complex flavor! Unique notes! 10 It’s highly recommended! 05 It’s new from a famous label! 05 It’s sharp visual design! Unique! 05 It’s well constructed! Blemish and plug free! 02 It matches well with a favorite drink! 02 It’s a gift from a friend! 02 It’s a social or business event! 01 It’s one you’ve never tried before! 01 It’s an old favorite!
I like to indulge in the cigar ritual once couples years or so, because they’re one of those luxuries that are surprisingly complex. Every good cigar is a handmade work of art that is consumed in a single sitting. Every cigar is susceptable to the history of its storage. Cigar smokers are sometimes ostracized because people think the smoke is especially disgusting (and it is, if you’re not the one making the smoke). But within every good cigar is a whole world of contemplative pleasure and solitude. Cigars are best smoked with a good friend, with a nice drink, somewhere away from the bustle of life.
» Check out Leslie’s Printable Cigar Tasting Guide on Flickr.
