Let's be honest

I've not been very good about blogging since marrying that fabulous man I married. Let's be even more honest... my blog has been a big aimless even for a while before that. It started out being life as a single, Jewish woman in the social media field with some love of Sherlock Holmes thrown in. But it was aimless. I didn't feel like I had a strong topic. I found a voice when I was in Israel and Israeli life and Jewish learning was all around me. But I lost my voice when I came home... just as I lost my focus on Jewish learning.Well, recent events have given me a refocus. I will be cleaning us TSW and dusting the old girl off. Many of you readers may not like my blog anymore... it may not be your wheelhouse... I will still write about social media and technical 'stuff' every so often as it comes up but it won't be the focus.I am not ready to announce what the focus will be but I just wanted to prepare y'all. Thanks for sticking around.

Days like today...

When crisis strikes in Colorado, Israel or really anywhere in the world, my days look like this:Wake up.Learn there is a crisis.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online (in the case of the November 2012 Israeli engagement it was an awesome blogger giving blow by blow).Compile information and compare with my team.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Shout information from my office to my bosses office.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Make a recommendation to the CEO to open a fund (or he tells us that we have to).Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Write an "ePhil" (electronic philanthropy) to our community.Send said ePhil to team for fact/spell checking.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Send said ePhil upstairs for approval.Get told to add more pictures.Obsessively look at devastating pictures from the tragedy.Add them to ePhil.Resend upstairs for approval.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Nudge hard to get approval so we can send before 5pm.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Get some changes or approval.Send to community.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Post it on Facebook while... obsessively checking Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online until it is time to go home.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online at home.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online from bed before I fall asleep. Wake up.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online.Write another message from the CEO/ press release to news outlets.Obsessively check Facebook, Twitter, news outlets, any information I can find online. I think you can see where this is going...CO Fires FB pic_TH

Workplace Engagement

A few months ago, I came across an incredible article written by Chuck Blakeman. It was entitled Why Employees are Always a Bad Idea. Then recently, it popped up again on my Twitter feed. It still felt so relevant and was, again, a fresh perspective that I needed.

I have always been a huge proponent of a positive and encouraging workplace environment. People laugh at Google and other "young" companies that provide food or bean bags or an on-site gym but it makes employees feel wanted and that their company cares for them.Not only does your work environment affect your work output, but so does your buy-in. I saw this very clearly when I was employed at Target just after graduating college. The employees (or Team Members) who felt they had a stake in the company, their section, the outcome, worked harder and smarter. They didn't complain about coming in early or staying late, or doing something beyond their job description. The people I worked with who couldn't care less about their job were transient. They didn't stay long, they made problems, and were generally a pain in the butt.But there is a different, yet similar issue in many workplaces.

Chuck Blakeman says:

Employees are Children This view of work (and life) turned adults back into children. You were taught that the most mature person was one who obediently took orders, did what they were told, didn’t question authority, was blindly loyal to those in charge, and lived passively as others directed their lives. Pretty much what we want a four year old to do.In order to keep the children from ruining the house, and to make them extensions of machines, the Industrial Age boxed people in with extremely clear and narrow limitations on what they could do, the hours in which they could do them, and endless limitations on being human and “adult” at work. It stripped them of their need to think, create and solve because the machine didn’t need them to think, create and solve. It just needed them to do.

Let me give you a few highlights and then I suggest you read the whole article here. 

“Employees are “Silent”

Employees are Children This view of work (and life) turned adults back into children. You were taught that the most mature person was one who obediently took orders, did what they were told, didn’t question authority, was blindly loyal to those in charge, and lived passively as others directed their lives. Pretty much what we want a four year old to do.

Employees Are a Disease, not a Cure Because of the Industrial Age, the word “employee” has become synonymous with “child.”
Stakeholders are Adults
Stakeholders Require Leadership, not Adult Supervision
Stakeholders Focus on Work, not Promotion to the Next Title
Stakeholders Create Better Teams
Stakeholders are Self-Motivated
Stakeholders Make You and Themselves More Money

So why in the world would you want an employee when you can have (and easily so) stakeholders?Another article that came across my desk recently was entitled What I got wrong in the Peanut Butter Manifesto by Brad Garlinghouse. He originally wrote and internal memo at Yahoo that was leaked and "made it big." More than six years later he revisits this idea and addresses some gaps he sees. Here is a quote form his article:

Yahoo!’s strength had emanated from the passion and entrepreneurial zeal of its employees, but these muscles had atrophied. The company’s core culture no longer encouraged and celebrated innovation with the same zest and ardent ambition to change the world—too often this had been displaced by half-hearted maintenance of the status quo.

Marissa’s immediate focus on improving the company culture to make Yahoo! a great place to work again is evidence that this inertia endured. Though people can deride perks like free food and iPhones (or giving everyone an iPad mini for Christmas!) as buying loyalty with trinkets and toys, there is an underlying—and more fundamental—impact.

Whether you give people the latest gadget or deck your office space with beanbags and foosball tables, the point is to make work a fun, interesting and inspirational place to be. The Shower Principle (thank you, Jack Donaghy) states that great solutions are often conceived when your mind is not focused on the problem. Sometimes interactions need to happen beyond the ping of an email or the (god forbid) drone of a PowerPoint presentation.

Do you see the trend here? Abuse your employees, whether obviously or subtlety and they won't do the work as well as you want them to do. Honor their creativity as human beings and professionals in their field, understand that they have lives and issues outside of the workplace, and be compassionate and you will receive the work product you want and deserve.Now by no means am I recommending to be irresponsible or reckless in these tactics. They are just that, tactics... not meant to bankrupt a company or interfere with work but to enhance it.

So what do you think? Are employees and thin peanut butter here to stay or are we starting a revolution lead by stakeholders?

No Pants Dance...

I recently read the most awesomest article on my new favorite financial planning website. It is called LearnVest and offers tools for women. So I read this article about how this woman started a No Pants Challenge. Here is the article, I highly recommend it... Why I Gave Up Clothes Shopping for Six Months.Her journey really inspired me and this has been something on my mind as of late. My fabulous and incredible boyfriend is phenomenal about money. He doesn't carry debt and doesn't want to... then I realized, if we were to stay together (G-d willing, because did I mention he is fabulous and incredible?) I would be his biggest (and possibly only) debt... UGH! I always knew my financial choices or inability to make good ones were going to bite me in the tush but... wow. To meet someone who has it all going on and realize my credit cards and student loans could be a stumbling block? Wow. Not only a stumbling block but don't I want to model good spending habits for my kids? Yeah, I do. I've gotten better, now to put it to the test.So I am taking Lyz Lenz's challenge. To read more about her journey and how she changed her life, check out No Pants 2012.For the next six three months (I've got to go easy on myself guys... it's my first time) I am doing the No Pants  Skirts Dance.No clothing shopping. Unless it's an emergency. What is an emergency defined as? Freak squirrel accident where all my underwear is destroyed. Spontaneous combustion of all cute dresses. All bathing suits magically break. Or, most likely, I feel like I am going to lose it and go off my No Pants Skirts Dance and I get ONE cute thing to appease the demons. This might be hard because there is a lot of camping and fun summer activities in my future and I will NOT be allowed to purchase for them. Though I might go get hiking boots and/or a new pair of sneakers before I start since I do not have a decent pair of walking shoes.BUT this challenge will begin June 1.June 1st. Okay, I can do this... must unsubscribe to all the clothing newsletters... Ideeli, Kosher Casual, Coach, Fab, Gilt, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Nine West, Nordstrom, Target, JDeal, Groupon, Living Social... you get the idea... Oh dear. Send me words of encouragement please.Ah, I forgot the most important part. The money that does not go to shopping, will now go towards paying off my credit card debt. I am currently scheduled to have it paid off by March of 2013... here's hoping I can do it sooner...Wish me luck.

The 3six5 Denver Project

I was kindly asked to be a part of the 3six5 Denver project. It will be a diary of the year 2012, 365 days, 365 bloggers in 365 words.Very cool if you ask me.Here is part of my post for January 2nd. I was excited to post about the beginning of the year.

3six5_photo.jpg.scaled1000It’s January 2.

It’s a new day. A new year.So what are you waiting for?!Okay, well you can’t jump the hour and a half wait at Snooze. (Some things never change, right?)But I’ll take it. Today.Today is the big day. My friend Amanda and I are sitting down to work out a plan for our new business ideas. We spent the hour talking about different ways to bring our pie in the sky ideas to fruition. Maybe they aren’t so pie in the sky... they could actually work! At least that is what everyone keeps telling us.But how do you take an idea, a good idea, and make money off of it?Sweet potato pancakes and apple french toast sure helped the thinking process.Two women, dreaming in Denver, over a niche breakfast... that’s what Colorado is about, right?It’s the land of opportunity. The land where people go to start fresh, to start anew...Read the rest of the post here: January 2, 2012: Talia Hava Davis

And if you are interested in participating, read this: Author Guidelines then email the3six5denver@gmail.comEnjoy your 2012!