The Journal of Cultural Conversation: Titanic: The Exhibition

Happy Monday, all. My latest post is up at TJCC. On Saturday I visited Titanic: The Exhibition, now on view at the Discovery Times Center on 44th Street. The exhibit tells the story of the Titanic through items salvaged from the wreckage, eye-witness accounts, and scientific exploration. I found it to be equal parts fascinating and terrifying. Around every corner I was surprised by some new fact I never knew.

For the full article and to check out all of the other great conversations happening over at TJCC, please click here.

My Year of Hopefulness - Law of Attraction

I love getting daily quotes, thoughts, intentions, etc. into my inbox. I'm a loyal e-newsletter subscriber. My friend, Ken, turned me on to one put together every day by a duo that offers workshops based on ideas behind The Secret. I'm not into going to workshops, though I'm enjoying the daily quotes. 

Ken reads the daily quote first thing in the morning and then when he gets home at the end of the day. He meditates on the sentiments and meaning offered in each, and tries to be mindful of it throughout the day. I'm not saying that this is a magic potion, though it does make me feel better to read these ideas and consider them in my daily life. At this point, positive reflection on our current situation may be the best remedy. It's a technique worth trying. You can sign up for the daily quote emails at http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php

As a sample of what's typically on offer, here is the daily quote from today:

"You are on the leading edge of thought, taking thought beyond that which it has been before. Who cares what thoughts have led up to this. You're standing in the fresh now, and many of the thoughts that you vehemently oppose are the very thoughts that have given you the desire that has attracted the clarity of where you now stand. No matter how awful you think they might be, all were of value in the evolution forward. Every one of them.

Excerpted from a workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Tuesday, April 14th, 1998

Our Love, 
Jerry and Esther"

Acronym City

Ever have a conversation with someone, in English, and then all of a sudden feel like you've stepped into a foreign land without moving from where you are? My friend, Kelly, has the wonderful quality of being friendly to EVERYONE. On occasion this will get her into trouble, like one recent night at Joshua Tree. 

She was speaking to a guy at the bar (she dubbed him "Jersey Johnny" as his two favorite subjects of conversation were himself and New Jersey) who was there with his friends, though seemed much more interested in Kelly than in his friends. To be honest, she thought he was a bit of a jerk, but given her inability to be anything but friendly, she kept talking to him. He was going on and on about another party he was supposed to go to. "So then why are you staying?" Kelly asked. He leaned over to her and quietly said, "Well, I have some IOI here and I want to see what happens." Huh? 

Kelly though that my constantly-connected life would leave me well-versed in this type of acronym speak. Nope - this is a new one for me. Jersey Johnny went on to say that he felt some of the other girls in the bar were checking him out so he wanted to see if any of them might make a move - he had Indications of Interest (IOI) from them. 

Now this story left me ROTFLOL (Rolling On The Floor, Laughing Out Loud - one of the favorite sayings of my friend, Lon) though prompted me to consider all of the ways we develop and re-develop language, and how confusion could arise by not saying exactly the words we intend. For example, Kelly could have thought Johnny meant "Internal Operating Income" or "Index of Irritation". You see how easily this whole speaking-in-acronym thing could backfire?

So how wide spread is this possible acronym confusion, and how are we supposed to sort it all out if these handy little time-savers are creeping in to pick-up lines at bars? Fear not - there is an on-line acronym dictionary with thousands of common and not-so-common acronyms. (What we might really need is an iPhone app to whip out at a moment's notice, as evidenced by Kelly's situation with Jersey Johnny.) NFW, you say? LNKO, folks. This could be MC for your social life, particularly those of you who are into OLD. I am N/J - you really cannot take these suckers out of context, lest you could end up with a BFM on your hands. 

Here are a few common acronyms whose confusion could have dire consequences:

WTF - Welcome to Finland!, Wild Turkey Federation, What The Frick (polite version)

HOTD - Hottie of the Day, Hair Of The Dog, Head Of Train Device

BFF - Best Friends Forever, Black Footed Ferret, Buffered Flip-Flop 

STD - Sexually Transmitted Disease, Save The Date, Safely Tolerated Dose 

BFD - Big Frickin' Deal (polite version), Big Fat Disclaimer, Burger Fries Drink

 

And if you're wondering "AYS?" with all these acronyms, the answer is "YBBI"! 

The image above can be found at http://quinncreative.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/acronym-soup1.gi

Opinion as fact not accepted here

My friend, Kelly, always had a saying in graduate school that she'd repeat whenever someone in class decided to spout off their belief system to chew up class time and to hear themselves talk. She'd say something like, "why do people think it's okay to state opinion as fact?" Today at work I was reminded of that saying during my team meeting.

We were discussing some of the alignment issues our department has, not on our specific team but elsewhere in the organization. I think we might have all been getting a little too down on the structure of the business as a whole. 

One of the many things I love about my boss is that she has a great way of recognizing a negative attribute and then in the next breathe providing a unique positive that we hadn't considered. She's been at the company for a number of years in several different roles and one thing that she loves about the company is hearing the CEO speak. To quote her directly, "there is no CEO better to get you inspired about your business. In the world of CEOs, he is as good as it gets." Immediately I thought, "oh, he must be very good at keeping people's spirits up and encouraging them." My boss followed up her statement with, "it is fascinating to hear him speak because he speaks only about facts. He never gives a speech based on opinions. Ever."  

Now, I've heard a lot of speeches from leaders but my boss really got me thinking back to all the speeches I've ever heard. Some people throw a bunch of positive quotes and pretty pictures onto powerpoint slides and call that a motivational speech. They put up lists of books and websites they follow and reference and call themselves a resource. A lot of leaders do that. Many of them pace back and forth on the stage and say how much better they are than the competition, akin to cheerleaders. Most leaders do not base every speech in fact. Heck, some never base their speeches on fact. Now I find my new CEO even more remarkable, especially because our company, being in financial services, is under the microscope of every industry analyst, reporter, and rival. A tough climate to state just the facts, making my CEO's continued honesty all the more worthy of admiration.

For the last three weeks I've been standing tall when I tell people the company I work for. Now I know I can stand even taller, up on my tippy toes if necessary, because all of this pride I have in the company is not based on opinion or belief or a "feeling". It's based in fact, and that feels great.

Why a corporate culture matters and needs tending

No matter how much the culture of a company is discussed during recruiting events or in media, mainstream or otherwise, I am always amazed by how few companies actually actively measure it. I consider the quality of a company's culture to be as critical, if not more so, that any other business metric. They track sales, margin, expense rate, and investment. I've even heard some executives say that those are the only four numbers that a CEO can actively manage. 

But what about culture? It increases retention time, which certainly lowers expense rate. Dollar for dollar,  investing in retaining top talent is the best investment a company can make. And I am a firm believer in the idea that if a company cares for its talent, its talent will care for its customers, increasing sales and margin. If looked at that way, a CEO could possibly focus a sizable chunk of attention on culture and do very well. If he or she takes care of the culture, the culture will take care of the talent, and the other numbers will fall into line.     

The Financial Post ran an interesting article on culture this past week, and it's worth the short read. It discusses two companies, Maple Leaf and Starbucks Canada, who actively measure culture and adjust accordingly to preserve its integrity. Managing culture is no easy undertaking, though from the perspective of these two companies, the effort pays off handsomely. 

The picture above can be found at: http://grivina.ru/i/ill/049.jpg

Soil and seeds

I met with a group today who is interested in doing some consulting work with my company. We can't afford them, though I enjoyed the way they spoke about their projects. They think of them as soil or seed. 

Soil projects are those embedded in culture, building competencies and new skill sets. Seed projects are those that explore new opportunities or new systems. Though the metaphor is simple, it has a tremendous amount of power. A ground of fertile soil won't grow anything if seed isn't sewn, and the seed won't flourish if it's planted in concrete.

Companies are the same as soil and seed. No matter how many fantastic ideas we have, if we don't have a culture of innovation and comfortability with change. And if we have a strong culture without the creativity to create new ideas and concepts, the culture won't do us any good. 

There's just one snag in the soil seed metaphor. I am left wondering if one can generate the other. Can a creative culture inspire creative project ideas or can a collection of ideas inspire us to build a culture that brings those ideas to life?