Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Social Slam 2012, Part One
It is appropriate to describe my experiences at Social Slam 2012 (http://soslam.com) in a blog. Social Slam represents one of the greatest one-day gatherings of marketing minds in America. Here's a recap of the day and what I learned from each speaker and session. This may take multiple blog posts, so bear with me.
The first session that I attended was Social Slam ONE: 50 huge new ideas in 50 minutes. Here are my takeaways and application to ORAU/ORISE and training development. This was a session where each speaker had 10 minutes to list 10 innovative ideas to market or expand your message in 10 minutes.
Stanford Smith started out with 10 creative ideas about blogging. Stanford Smith is the founder of the popular blog, http://pushingsocial.com/ , a leading voice and resource for busy professionals who are using social media to transform their personal brands and business. His ten ideas are:
1. Micro-Niching: The large broad subjects are dominated by mega blogs with armies of writers. In 2012, blogs will succeed by identifying small audiences with specific problems that beg for novel solutions. If you are trying to write a general subject blog, pause, and rethink your focus. A smaller audience can help you zero in on a specific reader and give your blog more reach and engagement in the process.
2. Joint Blogging: Multiply your blog’s content and reach by partnering with up-and-comers in your niche. Bloggers are often solitary souls that pound out their posts in mood lit small offices. Reaching out to other bloggers isn’t our first thought. However, Joint Blogging is a smart way to expand your blog’s visibility, finding inspiration, and actually earning money.
3. Power Trio: Combine podcasts, blog posts and webinars. Blogging is more than text. Add Podcasting and Webinars to your content mix to attract larger audiences and build deeper relationships. Podcasting will introduce you to a growing iTunes audience significantly expanding your audience base.
...to be continued....
4. Guerilla promotion: Add your blog address to invoices, packaging and signature. Look for ways outside your blog to promote your content.
5. Mutant content:
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Alleviating work stress and related sick days
Stress is a reaction to an overwhelmed workload. Because of the economy, too few people end up trying to complete work that in reality requires more resources than they have. That leads to stress and stress leads to illness in many shapes, forms or fashions. Either the work needs to be reduced or the process for the work needs to be simplified and matrixed to help alleviate stress. A person can only give 130% for a certain period of time before their performance suffers and their health is impacted.
Stress is also instigated by lack of clarity on processes for projects. A well-defined and managed project plan that identifies milestones, tasks, resources and responsibilities can alleviate stress for many workers because they can clearly identify what needs to be done, by whom and when. Without a plan, sometimes a worker can feel like they are trying to 'sort confetti in a windstorm’.
In addition to a well-defined and managed project plan, quality control plans are helpful. Using a quality control plan like the Japanese Poke Yoke plan identifies where problems could occur and plans for ways to avoid or manage those problems before they happen. A sudden, unknown problem can spike incredible stress, incur health issues and cause project problems that impact the business results due to the loss of work time.
In a nutshell, all the issues that cause stress can be greatly reduced by effective leadership in people management, project management and quality control. Remember though that it is not micromanagement that is needed; it is effective collaborative leadership that helps workers and reduces stress. Leadership is a different creature than management. Leadership is influential, encouraging and supportive. It is organizational but not dictatorial. It can be transformational, democratic and is definitely influential. A good leader can help create healthier workers by reducing stress. If workers have a good leader, their sense of motivation, belonging and ownership of the work is increased and it becomes less ‘work’ and more ‘teamwork’ that offers a certain self-gratification and definitely can be less stressful and more intrinsically rewarding.
- Patti Mynatt (I sent this to Executive Briefing through skillsoft.com.)
Stress is also instigated by lack of clarity on processes for projects. A well-defined and managed project plan that identifies milestones, tasks, resources and responsibilities can alleviate stress for many workers because they can clearly identify what needs to be done, by whom and when. Without a plan, sometimes a worker can feel like they are trying to 'sort confetti in a windstorm’.
In addition to a well-defined and managed project plan, quality control plans are helpful. Using a quality control plan like the Japanese Poke Yoke plan identifies where problems could occur and plans for ways to avoid or manage those problems before they happen. A sudden, unknown problem can spike incredible stress, incur health issues and cause project problems that impact the business results due to the loss of work time.
In a nutshell, all the issues that cause stress can be greatly reduced by effective leadership in people management, project management and quality control. Remember though that it is not micromanagement that is needed; it is effective collaborative leadership that helps workers and reduces stress. Leadership is a different creature than management. Leadership is influential, encouraging and supportive. It is organizational but not dictatorial. It can be transformational, democratic and is definitely influential. A good leader can help create healthier workers by reducing stress. If workers have a good leader, their sense of motivation, belonging and ownership of the work is increased and it becomes less ‘work’ and more ‘teamwork’ that offers a certain self-gratification and definitely can be less stressful and more intrinsically rewarding.
- Patti Mynatt (I sent this to Executive Briefing through skillsoft.com.)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Finally Migraine Relief! (It's not all in my head, literally)
I received an accupressure chair massage last week for 15 minutes (my VP brought in a guy as a gift for the team). I had a migraine going in and almost didn't take my session. It was edging a thundercap cluster type headache which I've been getting alot lately too - it's in the same family as migraines and uses the trigeminal nerve to affect the face too. I couldn't take the reactive medicine and drive home, so I was toughing out the day. My mom calls it "soldiering on" so now I soldier alot.
I am SO GLAD that I went on - I figured that since I signed up for a slot, I should take it and not let Max stop me. (I named my migraine problem - he's around so much that we needed to be on first name basis. ::grin::) The massage guy did accupressure on my right cheek and temple and found a really sore spot on my right upper shoulder blade, where you would never be able to reach on your own, so would never know that pressure there would hurt like that! Amazing. It hurt while he was doing it like crazy, but seconds after he stopped, I realized that my head felt better, released somehow from the pain. Wow. I haven't had a migraine since then - ok it's only been a week but that's a long time for me as a migraineur. (I love that phrase - makes it sound exotic and French - like it's a privilege and not pain.)
I looked up to see where the trigeminal nerve runs through - migraines use the trigeminal nerve to send pain, as I said earlier. (Which scares me silly, as my mom has trigeminal neuralgia and she was a physical wreck, talking about dying so she could just escape the screaming pain, before she finally had cyberknife surgery 3 years ago - whole 'nother story...) Anyway!...
I knew about the trigeminal nerve and where it travels in the head but I didn't know more than that. I learned that the trigeminal nerve uses something called the spinal trigeminal nucleus to send nerve responses like pain to the face. Wow. If I hadn't had the 15 minute accupressure, I wouldn't have made this connection.
Check out this link to http://www.helpforheadaches.com/lyfiles/illus-pathways.hym - cool graphic that shows the migraine progression in the head. This link is interesting too for migraineuin rs - http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/what-is-migraine-the-scientific-story. It puts into plain English what happens with a migraine (and I guess the cluster headaches are similar). I work with alot of tech-y public health training and things that I never thought would cross my instructional design path (very Oak Ridge-y training development, if you have to ask, you don't live here), so this type of reading is getting very familiar to me. It's a bit funny when I realize how much that I hated Chemistry in high school!!! I swear it was my teacher and not me. (Would anyone from USCC think that I would be developing this type of training?? I love it and I've discovered that if you really like it, you're good at it! It's actually even fun. Maybe it's not the content of the training but the awesome workplace and support - plus the challenge of learning new things and getting respect for your work and your skill. The good leadership and the friendly rapport that is common to ORISE makes a world of difference. I haven't really had that since Jill stopped being my leader at USCC. Shutting up now.)
Anyway, there's the story - you can't imagine how this helps me. I like to know how things work. When I found out I had MS, it was scary until I did research and found a neurologist who was human (Dr. Wray) and didn't talk down to me (ok sometimes but not all the time). She explained it all and then once I understood what was happening in my brain, it was very freeing to me. Now I know this too, and I have a trick in my bag for migraines - let's hope I'm right and it works like that again when I need it to.
I am SO GLAD that I went on - I figured that since I signed up for a slot, I should take it and not let Max stop me. (I named my migraine problem - he's around so much that we needed to be on first name basis. ::grin::) The massage guy did accupressure on my right cheek and temple and found a really sore spot on my right upper shoulder blade, where you would never be able to reach on your own, so would never know that pressure there would hurt like that! Amazing. It hurt while he was doing it like crazy, but seconds after he stopped, I realized that my head felt better, released somehow from the pain. Wow. I haven't had a migraine since then - ok it's only been a week but that's a long time for me as a migraineur. (I love that phrase - makes it sound exotic and French - like it's a privilege and not pain.)
I looked up to see where the trigeminal nerve runs through - migraines use the trigeminal nerve to send pain, as I said earlier. (Which scares me silly, as my mom has trigeminal neuralgia and she was a physical wreck, talking about dying so she could just escape the screaming pain, before she finally had cyberknife surgery 3 years ago - whole 'nother story...) Anyway!...
I knew about the trigeminal nerve and where it travels in the head but I didn't know more than that. I learned that the trigeminal nerve uses something called the spinal trigeminal nucleus to send nerve responses like pain to the face. Wow. If I hadn't had the 15 minute accupressure, I wouldn't have made this connection.
Check out this link to http://www.helpforheadaches.com/lyfiles/illus-pathways.hym - cool graphic that shows the migraine progression in the head. This link is interesting too for migraineuin rs - http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/what-is-migraine-the-scientific-story. It puts into plain English what happens with a migraine (and I guess the cluster headaches are similar). I work with alot of tech-y public health training and things that I never thought would cross my instructional design path (very Oak Ridge-y training development, if you have to ask, you don't live here), so this type of reading is getting very familiar to me. It's a bit funny when I realize how much that I hated Chemistry in high school!!! I swear it was my teacher and not me. (Would anyone from USCC think that I would be developing this type of training?? I love it and I've discovered that if you really like it, you're good at it! It's actually even fun. Maybe it's not the content of the training but the awesome workplace and support - plus the challenge of learning new things and getting respect for your work and your skill. The good leadership and the friendly rapport that is common to ORISE makes a world of difference. I haven't really had that since Jill stopped being my leader at USCC. Shutting up now.)
Anyway, there's the story - you can't imagine how this helps me. I like to know how things work. When I found out I had MS, it was scary until I did research and found a neurologist who was human (Dr. Wray) and didn't talk down to me (ok sometimes but not all the time). She explained it all and then once I understood what was happening in my brain, it was very freeing to me. Now I know this too, and I have a trick in my bag for migraines - let's hope I'm right and it works like that again when I need it to.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Skunked...2
.... I'll be adding more as she finds ways to triumph over Pepe's unwanted aroma. I still have to tell you how she handled the vinegar skunk scent, the lemon skunk scent and the whole Brady Bunch tomato juice saga.... and a flashback about why she was wondering how this was happening again.
Argh....she was back in the house with one really really really really smelly dog, one sorta smelly dog and she herself warn't too fragrant either. Again??? Did ALL animals really have to like her? She would have been ok if skunks thought she was too icky to deal with. Really, she would. The last one took up residence and while she didn't want it to die, she certainly wouldn't have minded it moving to another country.
....Wavy flashback music....She's back in a condo in West Knoxville, not too far from her house in the present. It's somewhere around 2002 and no dogs are in her life yet. She wakes up to a horrble burning smell. Horrible. 'I'll call my neighbor Susan to see if she smells this too'. Susan is afraid one of her cats sprayed but no, it wasn't that.
Lo and behold, maintenance discovered that a skunk had died in the crawl space under her condo. She vacummed, she cleaned the carpet with a profressional machine, she scrubbed and she cleaned again. No dice. 'This stinks. Literally.' When she talked to the landlord, one the office ladies came and brought her little boy with her. From then on, she as known as 'the skunk lady' in the office. 'This is what I want to be called in my life.'
The apartments offered a new condo but she decided since she was traveling with work so much anyway, she would just move back home for awhile. There was NO staying in that apartment. Even her furniture reaked!!! When the office lady came back to check her out and go over the apartment with her, the lady brought a stick of some sort that when stuck into carpets, detected cat dander. No matter how many times she told her that she didn't have a cat, the lady just looked at her and kept sticking the carpet. Of course she didn't ever find anything. When the lady's back was turned, she stuck her tongue out at her. 'It's your stinky apartment now! You figure it out.'
....Wavy flashback music....Back to the present... She remembered that ammonia didn't work - law no! Almost as bad as skunk by itself is ammonia-scented skunk.
More to come.....we still have to learn about lemon juice, tomato juice and vinegar, as well as her smart Maisy, the only smart creature in the house! :)
Argh....she was back in the house with one really really really really smelly dog, one sorta smelly dog and she herself warn't too fragrant either. Again??? Did ALL animals really have to like her? She would have been ok if skunks thought she was too icky to deal with. Really, she would. The last one took up residence and while she didn't want it to die, she certainly wouldn't have minded it moving to another country.
....Wavy flashback music....She's back in a condo in West Knoxville, not too far from her house in the present. It's somewhere around 2002 and no dogs are in her life yet. She wakes up to a horrble burning smell. Horrible. 'I'll call my neighbor Susan to see if she smells this too'. Susan is afraid one of her cats sprayed but no, it wasn't that.
Lo and behold, maintenance discovered that a skunk had died in the crawl space under her condo. She vacummed, she cleaned the carpet with a profressional machine, she scrubbed and she cleaned again. No dice. 'This stinks. Literally.' When she talked to the landlord, one the office ladies came and brought her little boy with her. From then on, she as known as 'the skunk lady' in the office. 'This is what I want to be called in my life.'
The apartments offered a new condo but she decided since she was traveling with work so much anyway, she would just move back home for awhile. There was NO staying in that apartment. Even her furniture reaked!!! When the office lady came back to check her out and go over the apartment with her, the lady brought a stick of some sort that when stuck into carpets, detected cat dander. No matter how many times she told her that she didn't have a cat, the lady just looked at her and kept sticking the carpet. Of course she didn't ever find anything. When the lady's back was turned, she stuck her tongue out at her. 'It's your stinky apartment now! You figure it out.'
....Wavy flashback music....Back to the present... She remembered that ammonia didn't work - law no! Almost as bad as skunk by itself is ammonia-scented skunk.
More to come.....we still have to learn about lemon juice, tomato juice and vinegar, as well as her smart Maisy, the only smart creature in the house! :)
Monday, August 8, 2011
Animal Shelter Visit
I went a few weeks ago to take supplies and funds from Helping Paws. We took the supplies and monetary donations for the 37 rescued dogs (rescued from hoarder - you probably heard about it on the news).
I met Shadow that day and her puppies had just been rescued but she was left behind. She was not one of the 37 - just a beautiful black dog that was not wanted. The visit and the truth of the fate of many of these animals broke my heart. Yes I cried, but I learned respect and compassion for the shelter workers. They go into work every day, knowing that animals who they have cared for and loved may not be there the next day. I saw compassion and affection for each animal, so that the animals don't spend their days their (the last days for some of them) alone, without a friend. I saw workers give that kind of love to Shadow, knowing that she may not be one of the lucky ones.They didn't ignore her; they talked to her and gave her compassion and affection. I don't know if I have the strength for that job.
It’s so hard not to be able to save every dog or cat or any animal in need. They need us more than we acknowledge most of the time. It would be easier to turn our heads away so we don’t see and it doesn’t hurt. But that is not the call for me and it is not the answer. It's easy to say - 'you can't save them all'. I 've heard that too many times. The implication is 'so why try to save any?' or 'don't fret about saving one.' We can save some and we can at least help many. So as Winston Churchill said, never never never give up. We CAN make a difference.
Many of us are turning our heads away because it's easier. I don't believe in easier. If I don't see it, it's still there. Mother Teresa said - "if you can't feed them all, feed one." We can do that. We can help.
Donate where you can to help these animals - Helping Paws Animal Network is one place that can always use help and the many shelters and/or rescues in your town are others. It's easy to find needs; it's harder to find the ways to meet those needs. If you don't know where to look, ask me or just plain look in the phone book for shelters and/or rescues. They are everywhere.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
SKUNKED 2 - The Last Battle at the End of Rockley Road
There it was, almost 11pm at night. Three dogs looking at her with expectant eyes, quiet for a brief stillness in the air. One big black one, one small white one and one that had blue eyes that came out of nowhere in his hound dog coat. For just a small moment, they looked at her with such expectation and trust, waiting for her to take action. The love and peace she felt was overwhelming.
Then...the moment was over. All three started barking and jumping, knocking her into the deck door. "How can I open the door if you keep pushing me against it?! Hang on! Attendez! Arretez! Sit!". She reached for the key to open the back door to let them out to do their business for the last time that night, then bed. Once they were out, she closed the door - golly, was it hot! She went to the kitchen, drank some water and went back to the door to get them to come back.
Uh oh. Joey had something. She hated it when they got small animals like rabbits or squirrels and usually was able to divert them by running in the midst and being their pack leader. She had buried a few of their prey but some got away alive, thank goodness.
This one seemed bigger though. She opened the door to go take care of the problem and was smacked in the face with the worst, worst, worst eye-burning stench ever. The little dookey had a skunk. A skunk. You know when you have that moment when you absolutely know what you have to do and you do it but while you're doing it, you have a running dialog in your mind about why are you doing this,what you going to do and how the heck did this happen again? That was her - taking the lead to take care of everything while wondering how, just how, just how this is happening again.
She was two people in that moment- flying to take care of her boy Joey and at the same time wondering what she would do with a skunk when this was all done.
'Ok, I just have to get Joey away from this thing. How can I do that? Where's Jake? Where's Maisy?' All this going through her mind as she fought to hold Joey back. 'Ok, Maisy - you're a smart girl - other side of the yard...smartest one in the whole place, aren't you. Jake -there you are - just standing five feet away watching...I bet you got him going on this, didn't you. Just stand there - don't you dare get involved now.'
She ran back to the deck to get the old broom she kept there and ran back out to get the skunk away from Joey again. Right now there was no stink; there was just the adrenaline of the moment. She yanked Joey away again and he dropped the skunk. She put the broom against the skunk on one side and held Joey off on the other. 'Now what do I do? If let go of Joey, he's going to try to get it again. If I let go of the broom, I'll have to chase Joey anyway and what if Jake gets involved?' Ok....she dropped the broomstick, grabbed 62lb flailing Joey tightly and ran with him (more stumbled really) to the deck where she dropped him and closed the gate. The she went back to the skunk and poked it a bit to see if it was alive. It wiggled just a tiny tiny bit - but it could have been the wind.
No way in heck was she going to pick this thing up without lots of stuff between them. And wonder of wonders, Jake was still staying away and Maisy, bless her heart, was still as far away as the fenced yard would let her be.
She went back in, got two old towels, wrapped them up so she didn't have to touch the skunk and went out, picked him up and took him to the woods on the other side of the fence. Bugger was heavy!!!
Now, it sounds like that's the battle doesn't it? Well, that's only the preface. That's not the last battle. I'll be adding more as she finds ways to triumph over Pepe's unwanted aroma. I still have to tell you how she handled the vinegar skunk scent, the lemon skunk scent and the whole Brady Bunch tomato juice saga.... and a flashback about why she was wondering how this was happening again.
Then...the moment was over. All three started barking and jumping, knocking her into the deck door. "How can I open the door if you keep pushing me against it?! Hang on! Attendez! Arretez! Sit!". She reached for the key to open the back door to let them out to do their business for the last time that night, then bed. Once they were out, she closed the door - golly, was it hot! She went to the kitchen, drank some water and went back to the door to get them to come back.
Uh oh. Joey had something. She hated it when they got small animals like rabbits or squirrels and usually was able to divert them by running in the midst and being their pack leader. She had buried a few of their prey but some got away alive, thank goodness.
This one seemed bigger though. She opened the door to go take care of the problem and was smacked in the face with the worst, worst, worst eye-burning stench ever. The little dookey had a skunk. A skunk. You know when you have that moment when you absolutely know what you have to do and you do it but while you're doing it, you have a running dialog in your mind about why are you doing this,what you going to do and how the heck did this happen again? That was her - taking the lead to take care of everything while wondering how, just how, just how this is happening again.
She was two people in that moment- flying to take care of her boy Joey and at the same time wondering what she would do with a skunk when this was all done.
'Ok, I just have to get Joey away from this thing. How can I do that? Where's Jake? Where's Maisy?' All this going through her mind as she fought to hold Joey back. 'Ok, Maisy - you're a smart girl - other side of the yard...smartest one in the whole place, aren't you. Jake -there you are - just standing five feet away watching...I bet you got him going on this, didn't you. Just stand there - don't you dare get involved now.'
She ran back to the deck to get the old broom she kept there and ran back out to get the skunk away from Joey again. Right now there was no stink; there was just the adrenaline of the moment. She yanked Joey away again and he dropped the skunk. She put the broom against the skunk on one side and held Joey off on the other. 'Now what do I do? If let go of Joey, he's going to try to get it again. If I let go of the broom, I'll have to chase Joey anyway and what if Jake gets involved?' Ok....she dropped the broomstick, grabbed 62lb flailing Joey tightly and ran with him (more stumbled really) to the deck where she dropped him and closed the gate. The she went back to the skunk and poked it a bit to see if it was alive. It wiggled just a tiny tiny bit - but it could have been the wind.
No way in heck was she going to pick this thing up without lots of stuff between them. And wonder of wonders, Jake was still staying away and Maisy, bless her heart, was still as far away as the fenced yard would let her be.
She went back in, got two old towels, wrapped them up so she didn't have to touch the skunk and went out, picked him up and took him to the woods on the other side of the fence. Bugger was heavy!!!
Now, it sounds like that's the battle doesn't it? Well, that's only the preface. That's not the last battle. I'll be adding more as she finds ways to triumph over Pepe's unwanted aroma. I still have to tell you how she handled the vinegar skunk scent, the lemon skunk scent and the whole Brady Bunch tomato juice saga.... and a flashback about why she was wondering how this was happening again.
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