Blog

‘Tis the night before Christmas,
and at the Low house,
I’ve been very busy
With keyboard and mouse.

Today I’m making turkey dinner for 5 (and pre-dinner cocktails for 9) and tomorrow we’re doing a Provencal dinner for 9. My approach to turkey dinners has always amused my family because, you see, I’m a planning sort of gal. So my first step in creating a turkey dinner is not to bring out the roasting pan but rather, to boot up Excel and plan out my every move for the day.

In case you’re facing your own turkey armageddon tomorrow, I’d like to share (in the spirit of the holidays) my #1 secret weapon for a happy holiday meal: my Turkey Dinner GANTT chart!

Insert your own side dishes, etc. as you see fit… and have a wonderful time!

Christmas Eve GANTT chart

Understanding your target market is absolutely crucial to making sales, and that boils down to knowing the unwritten rules that your client is playing by when you start talking to them about business. Every industry has some of its own unwritten rules, and the farther away from government you get, the thinner the written rulebook becomes. Every business community has some of its own unwritten rules which take a while to learn when you move into a new market.

Here are some unwritten rules I’ve heard of that I think might be among the “modus operandi” of the Victoria small business community. They’re not all good or bad. I’d love to hear what you think about some of these rules: do they have a good or bad effect? Do you believe they’re common in Victoria or not? If you’re from elsewhere, do you have these or other rules operating under the surface in your business community?

• Only do business with customers – that is, when you need to buy something, look to source it from somebody who already buys things from you. Good rule/bad rule?
• Always bargain for a better deal – never take the first price you’re offered. Good rule/bad rule?
• The starting budget is always zero when somebody wants to sell you something.
• Don’t tell somebody “no” right up front – keep your options open. (I’ve heard from a few newcomers to Victoria who find that decisions seem to take forever in this town, and not just in government!)
• Help new people figure out who is who, where to go to meet people, how to network, etc.
• The longer you’ve lived in Victoria, the more you “belong” or the more you seem to be trusted. (Is this really out there or am I just imagining it?)
• If you refer business to somebody, you should/can expect they’ll refer back to you at some later date. (Not sure on this one)

It’s worth reflecting on these and other unwritten rules to examine how these assumptions impact your business practices. Do they tie you down or free you up?

What other unwritten rules of business come to mind for you?

I was trying to type “dealing” with change but my little motorola keyboard input something else. This is an autocorrect mistake I can live with.

Just got off the phone with a client who has been dueling with lots of change this autumn. He has two new senior employees and a large stock of changes he has still to make in the company to keep his clients happy. This is the right moment for him to use an objective third party as a facilitator for the team. I will be helping them put together an action plan compiling and reconciling the myriad of projects on their plate for 2011.

This company has 20 employees, many of them telecommuters. When a company gets to this size it becomes a challenge to manage, because there isn’t enough scale or money to really have “middle management” but the coordination tasks become daunting. This is the sort of situation where my services have a big positive impact. And it just so happens that I ADORE working with clients like these!

This came today in an email from my aunt-in-law, a very wise and loving woman:

Reflect on this pathway for meaningful growth:

DISCIPLINE – To create change in our lives, we need to consistently focus on what we want.

DETACHMENT – Practice the art of detached observation. Let go of automatic defenses and patterns.

DISCERNMENT – Seek to discern the lower from the higher. What is self-serving and what is soul-inspired? Discernment carries no judgment. There are no goods and bads. Remain as a detached witness.

DHARMA – This is an East Indian word meaning “living your unique purpose.” How do you find meaning and fulfillment in ways that are natural to you? How do you best serve and contribute to the world?

I have read no further into Linchpin since my last post, but something about this Linchpin thing reminds me of the book idea I began to outline in summer 2008.

My big idea was that people need to feel a sense of connection with their work in a way that is nobler than pure wages.  That is what makes us happy – to spend our time in a pursuit of something we feel is worthwhile.

Seth Godin’s writing seems to imply that he thinks this feeling is only possible when one is employed in a creative or problem-solving capacity. He writes mainly about people in cubicles escaping their intellectual drudgery. Amen to that, but I don’t believe that the engagement needs to be exclusive to people in information industry jobs. I think every company needs to find a way to engage their workers beyond mere compliance with instruction. Plumbers, art galleries, concrete re-bar manufacturing… find ways for people to feel like they can be their whole selves at work.

The more I read, the more I find to agree with tangentially. I think I am coming at the same conclusions with a slightly different flavor.

Seth Godin is appallingly repetitive. I’m on page 87 reading about art as a gift and he has said the same bloody thing over and over for about three pages now.

There’s quite a lack of research or evidence or even real-world examples outside of the “celebrity” companies and CEOs everyone already knows about. A first year B.Com student could have been his research assistant.

All that said, his plea to companies to allow people to be their best human selves at work is very simpatico with my own ideas.

This is pretty elitist stuff, though. He speaks about blue collar workers as “them” while “we” avoid jobs that require heavy lifting. The movie Office Space comes to mind. Sometimes pure physical labour is the most satisfying option. There is nothing un-noble about that. Why try to be some kind of white collar linchpin when you can have a lot of satisfying, financially rewarding fun driving a backhoe and busting up rocks?

Battery running low… electronically and mentally.

With an hour to spare between meetings, I headed to the library to pick up my hold on a copy of Seth Godin’s “Linchpin”. As I delved into the introduction I found myself both irritated and enthused. Some initial thoughts… purely based on pages 1-11.
- I am not the target market for this book. I gave up hoping to be looked after by an employer seven years ago.
- are there people who are still expecting security in a job?
- how is being an indispensable employee any improvement?
- the industrial revolution and “factory-ization” of all work are at the very core of pretty much 90% of what’s wrong with the world right now. The other 10% is down to human nature.
- I am really not a misanthrope, despite the last statement.
- how I wish the library could exert quality control on the singers who inhabit the courtyard.
- behaviouralism is rampant in our society.
- I always thought Michael Gerber was an evil sort of genius. The system idea is great, but seeking out lower paid lower skilled workers to take on the work in your small business makes you no better than a factory boss. There must be an alternative which embraces talented people working in harmony and sharing the value of their combined accomplishments.

Ok, I’ll read some more. Dragging Michael Gerber through the muck wins my attention for at least 50 pages.

More thoughts to come!