yay! finally a tart jam

I work out across the street from Zabars. Not even across Broadway. Across 80th. It’s right there. Their tofutti cream of mushroom soup was calling me. I was astounded when I found out there is no cream, none at all. It’s amazing and I swear I feel the protein zing.

Today I rewarded my workout with a quick stop at Zabars. Haven’t done this in a while, I’d almost given up, I looked for a jam or jelly with no sugar. I bought a Zabar’s labeled raspberry fruit spread with little hope. It’s perfectly tart, really mouth scrunching tart. I could feel it as well as taste it. Sweetened by their own sugar released when they’re cooked. Seeds and all, I truly enjoyed my croissant this morning.

the new Edith Piaf movie is amazing

her life was incredibly tragic, it's astounding that she was able to make such beautiful music despite that.

this new yorker article made me want to see the movie and i was not disappointed.

just go!!

Mayor Mike gets risk

Mike Bloomberg, the CEO mayor of NYC who got us out of $4 billion in debt after 9-11 really understands risk and failure, in a way that most at his level simply don't.

"In business, you reward people for taking risks," he said in Business Week recently. "When it doesn't work out, you promote them because they were willing to try new things." Yes, promote, not make the fall-guy. He adds, "If people tell me they skied all day and never fell down, I tell them to try a different mountain."

I've been realizing lately, as much as I hate it, it is in my discomfort zone that I learn, am challenged, and quite frankly, feel most alive.

the self-confidence roller coaster

Once I got to a certain point career-wise, I thought I would always be as self-confident as the situation required. One of the things I'm learning is that as I try different things and stretch myself, my confidence needs to catch up. And the process is scary, annoying, frustrating, and a big ego downer most of the time.

I wanted to pass along a few things that have helped me deal with the uncertainty.

The Artist’s Way—Just because I work in business does not mean I’m not creative. I wept recognizing the symptoms of blocked creativity. Trying to do something differently is a creative process and learning to turn off my inner critic is, well, critical. I find myself constantly mumbling “don’t think, just do.” In fact, I’ve been drawing lately and it’s become my mantra. When I write a document, instead of rethinking, reworking and letting it sit, waiting to be perfect, I try really hard to DO not THINK. As soon as I start thinking, I’m done. I can find a 1000 reasons why it’s not right.

Not only is it important for individuals to stop second-guessing everything we do, it’s even more critical that organizations are more open to risk and even failure. It’s how we learn.

In this constantly changing, quarterly-results-oriented business world, how are we to bridge this gap?

“Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do
that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”

—Patrick Lencioni
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

We’re going to make mistakes. We can’t avoid them. We can decide how we’re going to learn from them and move on.

next is now . . . really

I rarely recommend business books because their prose is unwieldy and they can be boringly specific. Next Now, by Marian Salzman, the chief marketing officer at J. Walter Thomson, and Ira Matathia is definitely an exception.

The book covers a broad range of trends, though I concentrated on their new workplace predictions:

• definitely more of the same working anytime anywhere
• office hubs where individuals from many different organizations get services and work
(I really like working in spaces with people who do nothing like what I do, especially artists. On-demand camaraderie when you need it, quiet when you don’t.)
• office design will be more human/eco-friendly (I believe the cos who don’t get this, will find themselves out of business in the next 10-15 years.)
• “balance” finally gets substance behind the rhetoric
• real, true downtime, where we’re not connected
• learning how to create and innovate better.

The companies and individuals that are embracing these trends already have staying power, IMHO.

ads instead of care

I wanna know how much the US Army spent to have their recruiting ads aired during a brand new Simpsons Sunday eve, that could have been spent fixing Walter Reed.

Business Week bashed Wal-Mart

Business Week's April 30th issue details Wal-Mart's midlife crisis: slowing growth, dimming prospects.

See what being the meanest kid on the block gets ya!

spring has finally sprung in nyc

yesterday at shakespeare garden in central park, i just had to snap a few flower pics.

Gel highlights

my 5th gel conference, or good experience live, helped me refresh and renew with new ideas, perspectives and people to talk to.

my favorites:
- museum of natural history tour, esp. the discovery center
- knoll offices were way cool, great view and right across from chelsea market
- chris jordan's portraits of american mass consumption gave me chills
- hospitality makes all the difference according to renouned nyc restraunteur danny meyer and john williams creator of frog's leap vineyards
- ira glass of this american life told us stories sprinked with his wit
- i think i laughed hardest at marie lorenz' stories from her nyc tide and current taxi project

talking to first-year attendees, i realize i've gotten used to attending a conference with folks who really get it. hoping this soon will be the norm.

Wal-Mart makes the shit list

The first entry for 2007’s shit list (a.k.a. companies that have let us down) is Wal-Mart

for spending money on the reputation, while ignoring the spirit of community service Wal-Mart has been paying Edelman roughly ten million dollars annually to renovate its reputation on such issues as low wages, miserly benefits, sex discrimination, and union busting, according to an article in the New Yorker.

for excessive executive pay: Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s president and C.E.O., . . . last year earned $15.7 million in salary and bonuses. Early this month, the company announced that it was granting him an additional twenty-two million dollars in stock. In the past year, Scott earned roughly two thousand times the salary of the average Wal-Mart worker.

for crappy employee pay: Wake Up Wal-Mart notes that $10.51 may be the average full-time wage, but the company won’t disclose the average hourly wage of part-timers. “We think the true average is probably less than nine dollars,” Chris Kofinis, the Wake Up Wal-Mart spokesman, said. By comparison, Costco’s average wage is $17.46.

and for doing the right things:

• supporting universal healthcare . . . simply because it’s cheaper for them not to provide healthcare for their employees.
• Jobs and Opportunity Zones program . . . to get stores in urban areas which have been thwarted by residents.
• green campaign: cutting fuel and electricity use . . . saves money, provides positive PR

only to make more money (for the wrong reasons)

Profitable and fun? you bet!

Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for hasn’t been in the recycle pile all that long and Business Week comes out with its 75 best performers. I’ve known for years that a great work environment leads to profitability, but I wanted to see if these two lists by two different magazines would help prove my case.

Only 12 companies were found on BOTH Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for and Business Week’s 75 top performers.

Drum roll please

12 companies who get it:
Adobe Systems
Cisco
EOG Resources
Goldman Sachs
Google
Intuit
Microsoft
Nordstrom
Paychex
Starbucks
Synovus Financial
Valero Energy

Google taking the number 1 spot on both lists definitely proves that happy employees are more productive and absolutely impact the bottom line.

Most notably missing is Apple which did not make the best companies to work for list, but ranked 34th in performance from Business Week. Whole Foods-5, Yahoo-44 and Marriott-89 on best companies to work for didn’t make the top performers list.

Business Week top performers
Fortune's best companies to work for

listen to those suspicions

today i'm being reminded, yet again, to listen to the hair standing up on the back of my neck and the voices in my head that simply didn't believe the gig was worth it.

thought i'd pass along to everyone, especially those in a consulting role: if a potential client seems difficult, they probably are as dysfunctional as you suspect.

this is a problem for me because i seem to have a knack for enabling difficult people and unfortunately the corporate world is their habitat. there are some problems that can't be solved because the folks involved don't want them solved.

listen to your instincts. work with people who "get it!" that's my mantra

installing is easier than buying?!?!??

i just had to contact the place i ordered my hard drive from because, instead of ordering a power supply for the hard drive enclosure i've already received, they ordered me another enclosure.

working in technology, i'm generally frustrated that i only get all the answers i need when i manage to think of all the right questions to ask.

so far on my upgrade my powerbook project, i've spent more time ordering than i have installing. i must admit, i'm a bit apprehensive about installing a new hard drive--160GB is definitely worth the agida.

i just want the process to be over so i don't have to keep deleting music files to update software.

UGH! at least the instructions for taking out the old drive and installing the new one seem pretty straight-forward.

i'll keep you posted. in the meantime, winter is back with a vengence in nyc.

see where i get away from the city

web tools, publishing redux and video?

i've been in the internet biz since the beginning, so i remember how difficult things like registering a domain name were. it's laughable how simple it all is now with tools to create websites. kind of reminds me of when desktop publishing started out and folks without any design sense were putting out hideous, unreadable newsletters. (think wired in the early days with dark backgrounds and thin, light type)

using the simple tools that came with my mac and a circa-2000 video camera, i created a dvd of my godson's arrival and baptism, among other cute and cudly subjects. now i want to do more--i see how video gets a point across more quickly. as an editor, i can appreciate that so i'm trying to adapt to new tools. thing is, apple's pro tools like final cut and especially dvd studio have become industry standard. now i'm having to deal with video specifics the simpler programs used to handle for me. not that i'm complaining, i had outgrown them.

on the one hand, it's great to be able to easily create and edit websites and blogs since they mimic my world of pictures and words, publishing, technology and of course people. (i'll get to them in later posts) on the other hand, the pro apps mimic their environments, which i'm not familiar with. i guess it makes sense, but that doesn't make me any happier since i still can't burn that final disc. ahhh the joys of learning something new.

you know you're a geek . . .

if you cheer out loud when my powerbook recognized the new memory i installed.

i've been in the biz long enough to know how difficult a lot of this stuff used to be. lately, i've upgraded my system software effortlessly, upped the memory on my powerbook and i'm getting ready to install a new hard drive. this $500 upgrade will keep a 2.5 year old machine working for me.

if i can install memory on a laptop, how come we haven't figured out some other basic stuff? like how to fix global warming, feed all our children and ensure everyone lives without fear.