June 30th, 2006
Lifehacker, one of my favorite sites, has an article about not zoning out during meetings. This is a great question, as many of us end up in meetings and walk away thinking ‘there goes another hour of my life I won’t get back.’ In person meetings are the hardest, because you can’t do email and what not, but here is what I do.
- Take notes - this seems simple, but there can be a lot to learn, and connections to be made. Even if you never look at the notes again, it forms memories and you learn what is going on with others.
- Provide input/ask questions - even if not an area of expertise, it’s an opportunity to learn and throw out some quesions, be provactive, learn something new. Many times someone new has walked in, knowing little about a subject, and provided huge input by asking questions and sharing a new perspective. Don’t be afraid to sound stupid - chances are you’re not
That’s about it for in person meetings. What about conference calls? This offers a lot more room to be productive (in the short run) and less room to learn/offer new ideas. This is disappointing, but it’s just a lot more difficult to be engaged with conference calls if your aren’t the primary person. What do I do?
- Tune out - listen for key words and in the mean time catch up on email. This is tricky, because for about 3 minutes of the hour long call you are needed. You have to listen and respond - even if that means asking for things to be repeated, which everyone understands - they know you weren’t paying close attention and this has become accepted.
- Take notes - same as before, but can be really valuable as so much information is lost on conference calls. If you’re not one of the primary people on the call you have more opportunity to take notes and that information can be valuable later.
- Take another call - this is like the the first, but more difficult. Avoid if possible, but if you are really ADD you can take two at once (cell and desk phone) - just use the mute button well.
- Review documents - many times you need to review things for grammar or gross errors, but don’t need to put a lot of brain power in. A low value call is a good time to scan through these things will listening for the key words.
Of course, the best thing to do is talk to the meeting organizer and see if your input can be added before the meeting. It is a misconception that going to meetings is productive. 90+% of meetings are a waste of your time (10% of participants get a lot out of it though). If my part is small I try to share with the PM ahead of time and skip it, making myself available by cell or instant messaging to join if needed.
Maybe what I do is worthless to everyone else - but I think it’s good for all of us corporate types to think about our meetings/calls and evaluate what we do. We aren’t at work just to fill up time, we’re there to get things done and we each need to come up the most efficient method or risk working more hours than we can handle.
Categories: Uncategorized |
No Comments
June 30th, 2006
No, not me - or you - our fearless leader!
Here is a fun clip, obviously altered to slow it down, but , but it comes out amazingly drunken. More fun than anything. Here’s the Digg comments, just good fun 
Categories: Random/Funny |
No Comments
June 28th, 2006
The recent announcements from Bill Gates and Warren Buffet on their charitable giving plans have been quite momentous. The cynic in me wonders if Gates will take monopolize the world of charitable giving as Microsoft did with software. The optimist in me thinks that wouldn’t be a bad thing - efficiency in charity, strong business practices, getting more done with less.
Future Shift has some great quotes from Warren Buffet on the topic. One of the most poignant - Warren Buffet is a leader among the wealthy, if he is donating large sums maybe others will too. In our market economy we can look to the government or private charities to accomplish large, complex, expensive, probably-not-profitable projects - who can accomplish them better more efficiently?
Categories: Uncategorized |
1 Comment
June 28th, 2006
I have to admit, I don’t much like Florida in the summer. The spring and fall are great, winter’s nice, but in the summer, too much hot and humid. What’s really wierd is that four days ago Gina and I were in Alaska - pretty much the opposite end of the country.
Unusual for me, I flew Delta down here. One really nice thing about Delta - they still serve snacks in cattle class. That is really nice. I’m not sure, but I think coach has just a little extra leg room compared to Northwest. My travel companion this week swears the seats are far more comfortable, I didn’t notice that so much, but the flight attendents certainly seems above average compared to coach on NWA.
So NWA - what’s up? Why is it that Delta, Continental, Air India and Indian Airlines seem to have better service. This puts NWA in the lower end of the middle of all the airlines I have flown in the last two years. Why not merge with Delta and take the best of both? I’ve found NWA to overbook less than others, generally great first class service and top notch web site functionality.
Categories: Travel |
No Comments
June 26th, 2006
Q: how long can Gina stay away from a classroom after finishing her Master’s?
A: Exactly 6 weeks.
That’s right people– I am starting “Conversational French” at Alliance Francaise this week. 10 weeks course to get me back into my comfort zone. I technically do have a certification of fluency but as all of you know one needs to practice foreign language constantly in order not to lose it.
Bring on the homework!
Categories: Random/Funny |
No Comments
June 24th, 2006
On Friday we took a wildlife boat cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours. This was worth every penny (well almost, more on that later, and it wasn’t their fault), the captian was knowledgable and the boat was well outfitted. No problem spending six hours on it. We saw pretty much every type of wild life we could have hoped for - a humpback whale, many Puffins of different types, many murre, Steller’s Sea Lions, and Orca. This all in the first two hours or so. Here’s a few of the pictures of the Orca - the least expected sight of the trip:
This was all within Resurection Bay just off Seward. We then swung out to the more open ocean to Aialik Bay just west of Resurection Bay. This is when things started getting less good. A squall came up and left the waters a little rough. Gina’s motion sickness kicked in to yellow alert and left her skipping the lunch provided (chicken strips, halibut strips or for vegetarians Uncle Ben’s rice bowls). The whole point was to get to the Aialik Glacier (see the map view in satellite mode). Once inside Aialik Bay the water was calmer and we all enjoyed seeing the glacier. The pictures below really don’t express the immense size of the ice.
It was amazing how much ice was floating in the water, and when the glacier “calved,” meaning chunks fell off, it sounded like lightning and thunder.
The cruise was from 0800 to 1400 and by the time we viewed the glacier for a while it was noon and about time to get back to the dock. This is when things went horribly wrong. If you experience motion sickness you know that it doesn’t go away as soon as you stop moving (or are just moving less). The ocean had developed even larger swells and we were moving much, much faster. This did not go over well for Gina. We spent the next two plus hours at the more stable stern, mostly hanging off the back railing. The crew of the boat were great, making sure to stop back bringing water and paper towels and offering what help they could. We were glad to make it back to shore, and after some recovery time and Dramamine, back to Anchorage for dinner.
Categories: Travel |
1 Comment
June 23rd, 2006
On Thursday we went to Seward and spent the night at a B&B in that area. It took most of the morning to get from Chugiak to Seward, but we had a good walk, stopped in at the national park office (Kenai Fjords National Park has the main office in Seward) and the Alaska Sea Life Center. Gina got her first look at puffins and we saw seals, sea lions and learned how to sex crab and octopus (I’ll give you a hint, you don’t buy nice wine and play Barry White).
Here’s the pics:
Categories: Travel |
No Comments
June 22nd, 2006
We spent Wednesday in Anchorage sort of checking out the town. The dowtown area is a nice little historic downtown. Lots of tourist focused shops with little trinkets and a number of bars and restaurants. We went to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art for a while. They had quite an interesting exhibit on the history of Alaska from prehistoric to now. Many people don’t realize it, but Alaska is really close to Russia, and Russia first colonized Alaska before selling it to the US for just over $7 million dollars on April 9, 1867. There is still a healthy population of Russian Orthodox among the native population. Oddly enough, Alaska’s saint is St. Herman.
After the museums, we decided to ride bikes along the Tony Knowles costal trail. Like so many things in life, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
We rented bikes from Downtown Bicycle Rental, which has a very nice and enthusiastic staff/owner. The owner was kind enough to take our picture, emphasising the need to get his sign in the picture:
The problem was, the bikes sucked. Everyone’s had some sort of minor issue (none were dangerous issues), but I won for the most horrible bike. There was no front derailleur, leaving me with the 7 highest gears only, of which 5 worked. About 1/3 of the way through the chain slipped and I ended up with the middle 7 gears, of which 5 worked. I couldn’t figure out why everyone else was cruising along at modest speed while I was spinning and spinning and barely getting anywhere. At a stop I lifted the bike up and spun the back wheel - ah ha! The rear brakes were rubbing against the rim - a lot. No wonder I was working so hard. Of course, not having any tools I couldn’t fix it, but had to keep going. Upon bringing the bike back the staff seemed to think there was no problem with this situation and did not even offer an apology.
Round trip the trail is about 22 miles, needless to say, my ass is very sore, and I think most everyone has at least some discomfort. Case hadn’t been on a bike in years and was a little unstable at first, but quickly evened out. We did enjoy some good stuff on the ride though. We got up close with the fabled moose, the first we had seen.
I think Merideth was pleased - we had not seen anything resembling a moose the whole trip and she was starting to think it was her fault. We also enjoyed a great sign at the park at the end of the trail:
So today we’re going to Seward and will enjoy a wildlife cruise (weather permitting), should be interesting.
Categories: Travel |
3 Comments
June 21st, 2006
Evolution Shift, one the many great blogs I read on a regular basis has a story of trials of air travel and some excellent marketing.
There are opportunities for marketing everywhere, and I can bet that every person on that plane will be 1) buying more Dove chocolate, and 2) telling at least 5 other people what happened (not to mention the readers of Evolution Shift). These two should get employee of the month.
Categories: Uncategorized |
1 Comment
