RodeWorks » Lifestyle

Don’t get lost in the weeds – taking time to think

Randy — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:23:00 +0000

How do you take time in your busy day to just think and plan? Especially with the constant stream of operational demands – the weeds – knocking on your door and appearing at the email in-box. A recent article in CIO Magazine suggest tactics such as staying focused, setting aside scheduled non-operational time during the day, delegating to staff and outsourcing commodity work. I find blogging is a really helpful exercise, allowing me to pull together ideas I’ve gathered from various sources and think through how they relate to my own experiences. Conferences and workshops are always a great way to get out of the day-to-day and gain some perspective – particularly if you are also contributing through a presentation to your colleagues. It is all too easy to allow time to get eaten up through many small needs and distractions. We all owe it to ourselves to make a conscious decision to create time for planning, general information gathering, and strategic thinking.

How to Make Time for Strategy – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership

One item that showed up on every CIO’s top-three list was “You were hired to be strategic, but you are forced to spend most of your time on operational issues.” I spoke to five of the Council’s most strategy-minded CIOs about how they managed to get out of the operational morass.

A tale of two DIY’ers

Randy — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:35:00 +0000

Do-it-yourself (DIY) is back in style again and on bookstore (and library) shelves. I recently read two of these books which take decidedly different tacks on the perils and rewards of a DIY lifestyle. In Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World, Mark Frauenfelder, editor of Make magazine and Boing Boing (tech culture and weirdness blog) provides a pretty positive outlook on the benefits of doing it himself. Manny Howard in My Empire of Dirt: A Cautionary Tale isn’t quite so sunny.

Howard takes on a writing assignment where he is to turn his Brooklyn backyard into an urban farm with enough produce to provide all his food for one month. Perhaps in modern America’s supersize, convenience-food culture this seems like a tough challenge. But let’s face it – most of us could fast for 30 days and survive. Howard’s book has it funny moments, especially in the early chapters.—at one point I had to put the book down because I was laughing hysterically on the commuter train and was afraid my fellow passengers would think I was insane (at least more so than usual.) But by the fourth or fifth chapter I grew tired of Howard’s whole desperate approach which in many cases almost predicted his eventual disastrous outcomes.

Frauenfelder has his share of bad outcomes, but somehow seems to avoid disaster. Not so much because the outcomes are very different from Howard’s (although he does manage to keep all of his fingers attached, something Howard couldn’t avoid.) but because of his attitude both going in and coming out of a project. Is DIY more expensive and time consuming than buying pre-packaged? Yes. Is a successful outcome less likely to occur? Yes. So why bother? For Frauenfelder the reason is to enjoy a stronger connection to the world around us. Consider a package of shrink-wrapped lettuce purchased in the local sprawlmart vs. home grown, raised from seed, backyard lettuce. Backyard lettuce certainly has been chewed on by some of the local fauna (i.e. slugs or rabbits) and may not look as pretty, But it carries a personal satisfaction that shrink-wrap never will.

For Frauenfelder DIY is about the journey, not necessarily the outcome. A less-than-perfect outcome is not a failure and if it informs future iterations it may well lead to future successes. Embrace this reality, and you adopt an approach that keeps the size of these failures small and manageable. For Howard the focus is always on the outcome, with failure not even an option. As a result he too often seems to be fighting the world around him rather than embracing it. And ultimately he misses out on the fun and joy that Frauenfelder and his fellow DIY-er’s find.

Make a Cycling Cap

Randy — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:52:00 +0000

Check this out – an easy way to re-use old clothes to make something cool. Especially for the hair-challenged (like me.)

Cycling Cap Pattern on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Intellectual Policy vs. Book Technology

Randy — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:26:00 +0000

I like my Kindle. It makes it very easy to get access to books via the Amazon store. It is easy to use, convenient, good form factor, and easy on the eyes. It also is a great conversation starter on the commuter train (“ Is that a Kindle? How do you like it?) But despite all those positives, I find myself not using it much these days. Why not? It is a matter of policy, not technology.

As an avid reader I can spend a lot on book purchases. But it an effort to be more cost-sensitive I’ve lately made it a point to utilize local library resources to support my book habit. Inter-library loan is terrific. Through the service I’ve been able to find almost any book and have it delivered directly to my local library. But how inefficient – wouldn’t it make more sense to deliver that book to my eReader? Well with the tangled web of digital right management the short answer is no.

i recently saw a reference to The Craftsman, a book published by my universitys’ press. Our library has several copies, but all are currently checked out by faculty, with return dates sometime in the fall. But there is an online edition, delivered by netLibrary. I am eager to read the book ( and it is fantastic – look for a future post!) so I decided to give it a spin. In short the netLibrary user experience is AWFUL. First, I can’t download the book, so no reading it on the commuter train (where I do much of my reading.) Second I can’t print out more than 10 pages at a time, so again no reading out-of-network range. Third the user interface is really clunky. Nowhere near as nice as the Kindle, where I’d rather be reading this.

Look, book publishers. If you make it hard for your customers to access your product you are hurting your business, not protecting it. The greatest threat to your books is obscurity, not piracy. Stop pissing off your best customers!

Good news, Android owners! One of the iPhone and iPad’s best mobile applications, the Amazon Kindle app, is coming soon to phones running the Google Android mobile operating system. Like all Kindle products, the Android app will include Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which synchronizes reading progress, notes and bookmarks across devices including Kindle brand e-readers, desktop software and mobile applications.

Kindle for Android is Coming

Meeting the neighbors via the Internet

Randy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:27:25 +0000

The recent Yankee magazine has a story on a social networking service started in Burlington, VT that has a very local focus. Frontporchforum.com lets you create a social network for your neighborhood. Sound silly? With people’s busy schedules the days of talking to neighbors over the back fence are long over for most of us. With a format that sounds like a mix of craigslist and Yammer neighbors can connect on everything to loaning canoes to help out a teen boat trip to loaning a cake pan. Everything else is moving to a virtual existence — why not the back fence?

Yankee Magazine’s March/April Issue – Yankee Magazine

“Making Good Neighbors” — by Bill McKibben (page 86): Part two of Yankee’s series on “How New England Can Change the World” tells how local Web networks can bring communities together face to face.

Front Porch Forum

Your neighborhood’s forum is only open to the people who live there. It’s free and requires no work from you. Simply join and receive occasional email newsletters written by your neighbors. Contribute messages as you like. It’s all about helping neighbors connect.

A Growing Blog presence

Randy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:06:47 +0000

I have started a new blog dedicated to gardening and food-related topics: Growing Thoughts . I’m not quite sure yet what I’ll use it for, but between my home gardening, explorations of local agriculture, and general interest in food policy, I’m sure I’ll come up with something. Check it out and let me know what you think — all ideas and suggestions welcome.

garden.rodeworks.com/

5

Layoffs are bad for business

Randy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:48:43 +0000

Turns out layoff are bad for workers, the company and the economy. Consider this: SouthWest Airlines has never had an involuntary layoff in their 40 year history — and they are now the largest domestic US airline. Layoffs kill worker morale, erode loyalty, often lead to the best workers leaving with a loss of corporate memory. These negative effects linger long after the layoff event, even into periods of economic recovery. Conventional wisdom that they save the company money are also normally misplaced once all expenses, from payouts to departing workers to losses in productivity, are calculated. All this is not to say that companies don’t need to restructure periodically — it is just that management should be looking far enough ahead and watching current trends closely enough to know when conditions change. Reactive business strategy– like layoffs or across the board percentage cuts – is always too little, too late. Bad times reveals weakness.

Closing minds: How layoffs can be bad for business :: Spring 2008 :: Washington State Magazine

Workers whose jobs are in danger are less healthy and happy. That’s been common knowledge for years, says Probst. Countless studies have looked at job insecurity and its negative effects on employee health and morale. But businesses focused on the bottom line don’t really care about those results, she says.

The Case Against Layoffs: They Often Backfire – Newsweek.com

Our overreliance on downsizing is killing workers, the economy—and even the bottom line…Today the one airline that didn’t cut staff, Southwest, still has never
had an involuntary layoff in its almost 40-year history. It’s now the
largest domestic U.S. airline and has a market capitalization bigger
than all its domestic competitors combined.

Bike sharing through community, emergence, technology

Randy — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:35:30 +0000

When we were in Paris last summer I was intrigued to see the fleets of Velib bikes. These are available for public use across the city on a pay-as-you-go model. You use a credit card at a central kiosk to check a bike out and then return it to the closest kiosk when you are finished with it. With my frequent daily walks around New Haven CT and the Yale campus it looked like a sure hit to me. I’d love to have this type of service available. But it turns out, similar to Amsterdam’s white bike experiment, the Velib program is having problems with theft and damage. Another problem with these types of systems is often one of distribution — problems arise with too many bikes at the wrong place, and too few at a hot spot. These patterns shift through the day. Maybe there are some lessons from ZipCar, and its successful strategies. They encourage community feedback, keep it simple, invest in technology, and brand with personality. To this I wonder if the bottom-up ideas of people like Mark Gorton might help point in the right direction. Here is my quick brain-dump/brainstorm of thoughts on the subject of a community bike sharing service:

Simple community – have a membership plan similar to ZipCar’s. Only members can use bikes. Make the check out kiosks much simpler, or even eliminate then all together with some type of on-bike locking mechanism. Lock/unlock would be via cell phone.
Reservation only — again like ZipCar any bike use requires an advance reservation, which could be made weeks in advance or on a recurring schedule (think commuters.) Of course reservations could be made on-the-spot if a bike was available, also like ZipCar.
Commuters — have a special membership plan for commuters where they take the bike home at the end of the day. This assumes the greatest need for bikes is downtown, during the day. This gets the bikes off the street at times when vandalism and theft are more likely to occur, and gets members more empowered to help the system. It also helps with distribution.
Personality – let members name a bike and then share that information with their friends. When a friend uses that bike they would be shown the friends name and the name of the bike.
Sponsors — let building owners, businesses, universities, and other downtown organizations sponsor bike racks. And if they had a pre-existing concentration of members in a locations these racks might even be allowed at internal, more private locations.
Friends — link accounts with Facebook. In addition to naming bikes also let friends share bike use information with other friends. For instance when I reserve a bike the system would tell me if any of my friends has used the same bike in the past.
Advocacy — maybe the bike company operates as a service, with local community bike advocacy non-profit organizations handling the physical maintenance chores on the ground. The local group manages local services and gets a fee for that. But they also advocate for things like bike lanes and communicate with a membership base, both of which are needed to make the service successful.

So what are we waiting for?

How Fast Can This Thing Go, Anyway?

… it’s hard to argue with results. Over the past five years, Griffith has transformed Zipcar from promising start-up into a real force. Revenue has soared from $2 million to $100 million. In November, the company acquired its largest rival, Flexcar. Zipcar has about 200 employees, it has raised $35 million in venture capital, and it has a growing international presence. How did he do it? Here is Griffith’s game plan–a seven-point strategy for turning a great idea into a thriving company

French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality

“For a regular user like me, it generates a lot of frustration,” she said. “It’s a reflection of the violence of our society and it’s outrageous: the Vélib’ is a public good but there is no civic feeling related to it.”

White bicycles and the politics of consumption

The news that the Paris city bike scheme Velib is having problems with theft, even if over-stated, marks a throwback to the first “free bicycle” scheme, introduced in the 1960s by the Amsterdam Provos …who donated 50 bikes to the city to start the scheme off. Their scheme caught the public imagination – even prompting a cult single – only for the bikes to be confiscated by the police because they constituted an invitation to theft. Embedded in their story is a story about the role of failure in social innovation – and another one, about a politics of consumption.

5

Achieving balance – working with head and hands for better health

Randy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:54:03 +0000

Learning something new is good for the brain and the hands. L. Francis Herreshoff, the designer of some of the most beautiful man-made objects ever, wrote “there were among men a few, a very few, who used both their hands and their heads, and they achieved a happiness that nigh passeth the understanding.” (He was also a bit of a character). So in learning something it is not simply enough to just read about it, you also should also strive to create something. In A Place of My Own, Michael Pollan states an appreciation for “forms of knowledge that seem to yield most readily to the hands.” He goes on to say “Different kinds of work, performed with different sets of tools, can disclose different faces of the world…”

So don’t be satisfied as a spectator — get your hands dirty. Grow your own dinner – knit your own fisherman’s sweater — build a canoe and use it to transport the family on an exploration of a distant waterway. Make something — Craft something — Grow something — try something you’re not sure you can actually accomplish. Even if you fall short, you’ll be stretching a lot of muscles — both mental and physical — and the journey is more than half the fun.

Michael Pollan: “Food Rules”: A Completely Different Way To Fix The Health Care Crisis

#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself. There is nothing wrong with eating sweets, fried foods, pastries, even drinking soda every now and then, but food manufacturers have made eating these formerly expensive and hard-to-make treats so cheap and easy that we’re eating them every day.

CTS – Collections

“Sailing is a wonderful and unique thing, and the sensation of being noiselessly and smoothly propelled without cost of fuel is one of the most satisfactory pleasures known, but when you add to this the fact that the sailboat itself is one of the most interesting things which God has let man make–well, then you get a combination which is almost sacred.”

Lewis Francis Herreshoff – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

His books include The Common Sense of Yacht Design, The Compleat Cruiser, Capt. Nat Herreshoff: The Wizard of Bristol, The Writings of L. Francis Herreshoff, Sensible Cruising Designs and An L. Francis Herreshoff Reader. He published numerous magazine articles, notably the ‘How To Build’ series in the magazine The Rudder.

Daily Twits 2009-12-11

Randy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:00:00 +0000

RT @museummedia Open social media framework for museums http://bit.ly/5KDds3 — not much on the wiki yet, but an interesting start. 11:23:30

"Method to stimulate org. co-creation using a free application"-good idea, no? Social Festival Model http://bit.ly/8wPSrq #yam 11:25:12
Interesting ideas – 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010 http://bit.ly/5trUd1 14:59:25

RodeWorks » Lifestyle

Don’t get lost in the weeds – taking time to think

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