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!

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Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

?

All of you amazingly busy and creative people out there – stop what you are doing and relax, for crying out loud!  It is summer in the city of your soul and time to take a much deserved vacation.

In a recent post, I introduced the first step of  my Twelve Step Plan for everyone like me who needs to be accomplishing things all the time and asked you to help me create this.   Thanks to everyone who responded with great ideas for the Plan!

I always believed that one of us can be so much smarter with all of us.

OK everyone, the first step to get you in the right frame of mind is:

1. Get over yourself

Here is the next step

2. Get off the grid

This is really scary.

It works better if you accidentally jump in the pool with your phone in your pocket, but for the rest of us who lobsterclaw our phones in our sleep it may be more difficult to let go.  If you must must must have your phone with you, shut your ringers and alerts off and try getting used to the silence.  After a while you will start to feel disconnected, a little bubble drifting above the rest of us.  Suspended.

Like floating on your back in the ocean, suspended between sea and sky.  A sunrise, a fading moon.

Have a conversation with the universe.  No data plan required.

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?

I am at the sweet spot of the summer.

Early summer, just after the Fourth of July weekend, lazy wide open days ahead of me.

So what does any self respecting nonprofit executive director/momspy/artspy/nonprofit knitter do – angst!

That’s right.  I am frantically scheduling relaxing moments and down time into my Blackberry with alerts to remind me to calm down, take deep breaths, wear sunscreen, read, exercise and lose 10 pounds.  God forbid I forget to do something.

Another couple of things I have added to my evergrowing List of Things I Must Accomplish are blog related tasks.  I want to write, write, write and accumulate a cache of posts.  Then I want to work on some sketches, videos, guest posts, reviews – just a few thousand other things.

Sound familiar?

Why do we do this at a time when we are supposed to be on vacation from all of this?  Simple.  It’s a habit.  We are in the habit of overachieving and addicted to the challenge of being ahead of the game.  Since we do this more than we are on vacation, it is difficult habit to break especially if we don’t have something else to replace it with.

What we all need is a plan.

This is what you should do.  I will give you the first step and then I will need your help in completing this list that will make us happier:

A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives Like Me

1. Get over yourself

You are not as irreplaceable as you think you are.  If you go off the grid, believe me, everybody will somehow get along fine without you.

If you feel that the world will explode without you being part of everything, you are a bottleneck, not a leader.  Shared decision making infuses your team with an increased sense of responsibility.  You can delegate someone the authority to sign off on say, decisions revolving around purchases under $500.  Or all correspondences to committee members.  If it is something you need to weigh in on, have that someone evaluate the options and make a recommendation.  That way you can simply agree or disagree and move forward.

Get addicted to the gradual distancing between you and every little thing that has to be taken care.  Design a better system that removes you from doing it all.  This is a habit we can get used to.

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 John’s copper craft

People like to see things.

Your eye is naturally attracted to images, colors, interesting objects.  Less so to text.

Come on, admit it.  Don’t you like looking at book jackets that are zippy?  How many of you go into a wine store and really know the difference between all of those bottles of wine and end up picking a bottle because it has a nice looking label?

I like blogs that have pictures and videos.  When done well,  my respect for the attention paid to visual detail and artistry transforms me into a subscriber.  Make it easy for me to enjoy your content and I will be your biggest fan.

As with any communication effort, it is important to know how effective your tools are in building your presence.  How engaged are your viewers?  What is your Return on Investment (ROI)?

Video is the romance between text and image.

It is the energy that brings to life words and pictures on a page.

I am in love with the two minute video.  One minute is even better, depending on what the story is.  Video is a powerful way to bring faces of the people involved with your work to your viewers and to the world.  While this is a very compelling reason to use video,  it is just as important to know what your ROI is.

Here’s an excerpt from a post by Michael Hoffman of See3 on figuring out if  and how video is working for you.  He suggests  5 questions to help you think this through and does a great job at helping people become better at visual communication.

In fact, a Forrester study found that “any given video stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page that Google has indexed”.

Cast your eye over the full post here.

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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

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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?

A funder recently said to me that unless they saw a pre existing funding base already in place and money in the bank, they would not support the project.   Another funder said they preferred funding projects that were collaborative among specific genres or geographic areas.  And yet another funder asked for numbers – headcount, exposure and attention from new audiences.

What everyone wants is a networked nonprofit.

A nonprofit that thinks of itself more as  a network of influences, common and unexpected goals, social capital and access.  This mindset will propel this sector towards undermining existing practices and structures in funding, in governance and in missions.  Do you generate income in providing your programs?  You may provide valuable access to a customer base that you have in common with a business community.  Are you respected in desirable voting districts?  This can be leveraged into public funding of programs for a common constituent base.  Do you attract or create media coverage?  People do the craziest things around a camera.

Think what the world could look like if funders of like minds and missions also networked around similar passions?  What would projects look like?

Here’s where my head is:

• I am thinking teams of artists commissioned by real estate developers to create mobile phone apps supported by tech start ups that invite the arts curious to stake out and share their cultural discoveries with their friends via online social networking sites.
• I am thinking of an awards ceremony of grants recipients funded by a groups of funders, underwritten by sponsors representing commercial, marketing or philanthropic interests, keynoted by political supporters and captured by press, bloggers and media.
• I am thinking that a nonprofit can become its own angel investor to an emergent sector of its field.

There is an excellent book out by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, The Networked Nonprofit that I have just ordered, slightly disgruntled because it is not yet available for the iPad, but I will be a good sport about it.   The book explores the convergence of the nonprofit sector and technology.  This stuck with me:

Nonprofits must “reimagine” their relationship with supporters.

Those who can build those movements will often be more successful than the traditionally-prominent nonprofits. Kanter brought up Mark Horvath, who tweets as @hardlynormal. Formerly homeless, Horvath now films interviews across America with those still on the streets. While he doesn’t accept donations and is not a nonprofit entity, Horvath and others like him are what Kanter and Fine call “free agents.”

“Nonprofits who are really smart are going to be listening on social media channels and identify who these free agents are,” said Kanter.

She thinks the nonprofits that will have the greatest success are those that lead creatively and utilize free agents to catalyze their supporters.

Have I missed anything?  Do you have what it takes to be a networked nonprofit?  I’d love to know what you know.

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?

“Now is wow.”  said Diem.

Knowing he knew that I knew that he knew he was right is why I smiled.  It was the last thing I could do before I began to cry.

So many things to do,  a letter to answer, a room to clean, a son to feed.  And my writing, a daily ritual of teasing out a story on a keyboard.  How now?

Now.  Right now I am staring at another keyboard I have spent my entire life learning, traveling to Austria because of, and now somewhat afraid to approach.  There was a time where my days revolved around this keyboard, suspended in its power to enchant, determined to master its every nuance, challenged with every new work.

I also shared so many of these days with someone who is no longer here.

My sister and I were pianists.  Piano recital performers as little girls, four handed piano duet partners, chamber music and solo performers.  I cannot think of playing the piano without thinking of her.

I miss her every day.  By avoiding the piano in my living room, I thought I would avoid confronting her inevitable musical absence.  Her well worn book of Beethoven Sonatas, Book I lay unopened in  the piano bench where I could not see it.  The Schumann Papillons covered with her pencil markings,  the piano pieces by William Bergsma.  How foolish of me to think I would not hear them as they were not already recorded in my memory forever.

Now.

I walked away from my iPad, my laptop, turned off the desk computer.  I dusted off the keys of the piano and made a mental note to call the piano tuner.  Now.

Remy came out to the front porch, sitting, listening to me play for the first time since she died.  Such a hot evening, all the windows in the house were open, I wondered if people sitting by the bay wall could hear me.  I played as if I had been called to the principal’s office, tentatively, timidly, apologetically.

I played and I heard each note mourn.  As if the keys knew I had returned this time as a soloist.

How I wish I could say that I felt better, that the healing had begun, that music heals all wounds.  I only know that the time to play the piano again is now.

Thank you, Diem.

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?