Archive
Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
photo by kevindooley
Hiring is game of risk and resumes.
For me, its all about the interview. The one on one, the unspoken signals, the gut instinct and the conviction that personal energy is the dealbreaker.
I read an interview with Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos and author of “Delivering Happiness” where he described his hiring philosophy. Here is an excerpt:
Tony Hsieh: For us, the whole belief is that our culture should be our number one priority, and if we get the culture right then most of the other stuff — like great customer service, building a long term enduring brand — will just happen naturally on its own.
Every employee understands that part of their job description is actually to live and inspire the culture in others. We have passed on a lot of smart and talented people that we know can make an immediate impact on our top or bottom line but if they are not a culture fit, we won’t hire them.
For candidates we do the same thing: We pick them up, give them a tour, and then they spend the day interviewing. But at the end of the interview process, our head of recruiting goes back to the shuttle driver and asks them how they were treated. If they were not treated well when they thought they were off the clock then we won’t hire them, it’s not even a question.
Something else I believe in I learned from someone I trust and respect very much. My friend Jerry, who has recently retired from a long career in human resources, told me that at the end of the interview, you should ask yourself just one question.
And the question is…
Could you have dinner with this person?
Get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day
– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)
– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?
Get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day
– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)
– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?
Do you find it difficult to disconnect?
It takes me a couple of days to let go. Why I have to work so hard to relax is beyond me but thanks to all of you, I am happy to share Step #3 of my Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives. This Plan is for you who work hard and are passionate about what you do. There is this fabulous quote by Leo Tolstoy that opens Part One of The Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, two creative social media thinkers, which I want to share with you.
“Everyone thinks about changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”
I just got the book and am so thrilled that Beth and Allison have provided a “Google map” for nonprofits to navigate their way into a new and highly networked world. More on this book to come! Just do yourself a big favor and get a copy for yourself.
Back to Tolstoy.
This Plan is to help you change yourself into a relaxed and rested version of yourself so you can This is why it is so important for you to calm down!
I am so grateful for the suggestions you have sent me and will be writing them up for you every Wednesday.
In case you missed them, here are Steps 1 & 2
1 Get over yourself
2 Get off the grid
And today we have -
3. Get local
Slide your feet into those flip flops and stroll down the boardwalk to Rockaway Taco.
Check out the used surfboards with a fish taco in your hand. Somehow you will feel a strong desire to wear one of those tank shirts that say, “Eat, Sleep, Surf” and watch the tide roll in. I have been intrigued by the new patterns I have been seeing in board shorts.
“You got to take in a wave in clutch shorts, dude.” I overheard this fashion tip from a bunch of surfers so it must be true.
Lose yourself in a different world. Be a local in a different galaxy, one where the fire trucks sport rescue surf boards and the firemen look like surfer dudes. It is hard to get aufgeregt (Yiddish for agitated) with sand between your toes.
What do you think?
Get more Wow, dude!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day
– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)
– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?
photo by Neato Coolville
I am not happy with my recent iPad experience.
Self Serve is Not for the Faint of Heart
I am trying to enter my credit card information so that my data plan can renew automatically every month but I keep getting an error message asking me to validate my billing address. No matter what I do, AT & T will not accept where I live. They have cut off my service and everyone I have spoken to over the past few days cannot help me. They cannot even take my information over the phone because this is a “self serve account”.
When I am in the supermarket with Seth, we like to go through the Self Check-Out line where we scan, bag and pay ourselves.
Sweet!
I think the idea is great but I wonder if the cashiers will become as scarce as toll booth collectors since the rise of EZ Pass. However, you will always need to have a person standing by to help you out when something doesn’t scan properly, or if the machine cannot read the barcode.
To help you out.
So, imagine my shock when AT & T shut off my data plan because they needed 72 hours to find somebody to resolve on the problem.
Somebody?
I thought “self serve” means that iPad users manage their own accounts. That’s why the very nice people answering the phones could not fix the problem. Then who is the somebody who is going to fix it?
“I cannot take your information over the phone but I would be glad to walk through the self serve process with you again.” said the pleasant but useless AT & T service person on the phone with me.
Are you kidding?
Where is the person that fixes self serve problems? They always have one at the ready in the supermarkets.
Why doesn’t AT & T?
Get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day
– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)
– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?
here’s a sunrise on the beach for you
I always imagine things can be better.
I am constantly trying to lose those elusive ten pounds.
I want to be self improved, streamlined, and sexy would be nice, too.
Today, in all of its punishing heat and humidity, I dragged myself out of bed before the moon had a chance to escape and ran five miles along the beach in Rockaway to have a conversation with the universe. Standing by the water’s edge, I take a deep breath and start talking:
Hi, its me again! Wow, you’re up early. Just kidding, you are eternally up. Me, I am only here physically waiting for the rest of me to wake up and catch up with the rest of the world. Hey listen, before I get going I just want to say – thank you thank you thank you for everything.
I love being here to see the sun come up, I love standing on this morning beach, I love breathing in ocean scented breezes. I love feeling so alive.
OK, I have some questions for you about stuff that I could use your help with:
- Should I be a creative or a reactive?
- What does success look like for me?
- What am I going to be write about this week?
- Is what I do meaningful to anyone?
- Are you listening to me?
I could go on but this is typical of what I ask about. Most of the time I just listen. And run.
If we have a big discussion or a lot of stuff to figure out, I set my sights on the light house at the tip of Breezy Point and put in thirteen miles. In this distance there are lovely long spaces for me to ask these questions, close my eyes and run guided by the sound of the waves until I begin to get answers.
What does the universe say
It feels good to let the universe know what I am wondering about. I imagine myself shining a flashlight into the night sky, but instead of light, I am shooting my inquiries into the far far away. My questions are now a part of an immenseness that is at once inspiring and inconceivable.
Sometimes the answers come to me with a clarity that is embarrassing. How could I have not known?
Sometimes it feels good just to be out there with unanswered questions. Do I really want to know?
Opening your soul like that has unexpected benefits like the sudden realization that perhaps you already possess the answers to questions that have yet to be asked.
What is life without a little mystery?
Do you have something to ask the universe?
Get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day
– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)
– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?
photo by rexguo
In a year or two, all the computers in our office will splutter and shudder into obsolescence.
Quite frankly, I am a little tired of sitting next to this huge server and worrying about it losing all of our data when it starts gasping through its death throes.
What if?
I am sure things get invented because aggravated people like me start wondering about ways to improve our lives and ask, “What if?” And me, I detest being surrounded by stupidity and poor design. How can I make the workflow in my office Wow?
What I want less of
No paper. No big things sitting on my desk and on the floor holding stuff that can be sent cloudward. Why do we need forms to contain the formless? Who needs to be dusting all of that?
Our financials live in QuickBooks, our database is in Raiser’s Edge, our grant applications go through CueRate, and we communicate through email, e-newsletters, blogs and our website. Every morning I see an average of 50 -60 emails in my inbox, 1or 2 voice mail messages. All of this stuff lives somewhere in space. Why can’t we access this from iPads and laptops in spaces of our choosing?
What if we got rid of this big noisy server? Would we need to physically gather around a 9-5 schedule?
Is it possible for us, an arts service organization to:
- Work remotely, connect digitally
- Meet as needed, preferably in cool places with great food
- Produce independently
- Skype, conference call
What if we became officeless?
People need to connect. Nothing can replace a face to face meeting in building relationships. Gatherings generate social capital and are crucial in creating friends, supporters, audiences, fan bases, clients, inner circles. But working? Especially in these times when so many institutions are sinking into obsolescence, I can’t help but wonder if the way we work is a vestige of a manufacturing mindset that has been rendered outdated and out of touch with the potential that technology offers.
Get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day
– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)
– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?
?
