I read a tweet from @Scrappinmichele today that put into words clearly what I had been struggling with for a comment on the State of the Union Address last night. I have never met this tweeter. However, her tweet hit home.
"Your mission statement should be in your own voice, make it authentic"
My impression of the State of the Union was it was a well written and delivered oration by our President. However, it wasn't in his own voice or authentic. This President sounded like what the right wants to hear not what he believes in. I guess I wondered if someone handed him the Republican response by mistake. I just can't wrap my head around this President being for a five year spending freeze, vetoing any bill with ear marks or pork spending, and simplifying the federal tax code. By the way the new euphimism for spending or tax dollars is "INVESTMENT". Watch for this to be the overused word in 2011.
Sure, I would love to see a higher focus on math and science education in this country. I believe in investing in technology. I have to wonder if the public education system in this country is up to the challenge. Clearly we need longer school days, virtual classrooms, and computers WAIT- tablets in the hands every student. However, is this something that the teacher's unions are going to allow? Things I could see perhaps making a difference would be longer school days, virtual classrooms, paying teachers with Math and Science degrees more etc. I am guessing these will all be a no go in finding middle ground between School boards, administrator/teachers unions, and the individual tax payer.
In the end, I would have rather had President Obama get up and give a speech from his heart and his beliefs. I just don't think this is the case. Wondering in the heart of hearts of most liberals what did they think? I mean... was this the type of program of what they voted for in 2008?
This would have been a tune to President Bush getting up there and saying he was going to federally fund abortion and abandon the Homeland Security plans. It wasn't his own voice....
In social networking, one of the cornerstones of success is to sound human, real, and authentic. Find your voice and use it... people will respect you more for it.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
2011 Aspirations - Part One.
Some might balk that this post is late given that the date on the calendar is January 17th. However, I take goal setting very seriously. I don’t think it is necessarily the beginning of a New Year that makes it the only time that goals need to be set. New jobs, epiphanies and birthdays are all optimum times for looking hard in the mirror and finding ways to strive to be a better person.
That being said, I do typically establish goals for the New Year. I don’t call them Resolutions. They are goals with measurement and steps. I gave lip service to my goals in 2010 until June 16th. This date is now on my calendar as a day of a personal epiphany. I looked into my soul and found the root of why so many goals on my annual list made them appear year after year. I am delighted to be able to put together a list that is an evolution of what I can only say is a step forward.
1) Complete a Triathlon and learn how to spell it! Last year, I really tackled the need to exercise more with developing a relationship with my road bike. It drove a lot of other goals to completion as well. Let’s face it, when you are working your tail off literally, you begin to care about what you put in to fuel the activity. I also ran my first official 5K Road race on Thanksgiving morning with my rescue Brittany, Brodie. I have no idea what my time was but it was a great high. The next step is to train to complete a Triathlon this summer. My weakness is getting into the pool for workouts. Some subsets of this is to master the monkey of climbing hills on my bike and getting under a 10 minute mile over 3.2 miles. See, I am not just interested in finishing but not being last!
2) Tackle the clutter monster: I hate clutter. I hate the clutter especially caused by the clutter mail causes. The inability dealing with it has resulted in bills being lost. Missing a charge on a credit card that took a long time to clean up and spats with my husband. Now, I am going to need some help from him to really tackle this one. But I am ready. This also moves into the idea of putting stuff away. I am famous of leaving the vacuum out, not folding the laundry or leaving it in the basket (as a load is currently sitting). I have a new mission statement. “Put it away”. Part of this goal is to work through a cleaning out process. In reality, we have now been in the house for almost four years. Time to clean out the clutter. Closets, the basement, desk drawers, and bookshelves are all going to be under attack. One small problem is that I am also going to try to use coupons and savings a lot more. This is going to be a balance issue.
3) Take my vitamins. This one sounds weak. I have tackled getting soda out of my diet for the most part. I have been able to find a yogurt I like. I am eating a least one piece of fruit a day. Water is a staple in my day. However, I can seem to choke down the pills daily. I am seeing it as training for my old age.
4) Coupons and grocery bill: I am going to work on saving more at the cash register. I have always been something of a brand whore and snob. This means using coupons and paying attention to the grocery flyers. It also means planning meals. I am kicking and screaming not wanting to get the Sunday paper. (more clutter) I just never find coupons for items I use. However, I do use coupons. I need to get better about leveraging the free money out there for dinner out, dry cleaning, and not buying anything at a retail store like a Loft or otherwise without a sale or an offer. I am going to try to track the savings and see how I do. In reality, I would like to get the grocery bill under $100 a week. There are two of us. We do eat breakfast. lunch, and dinner, for the most part, at home. It will take work. I am close.
I have a couple of other ones that are more personal and need to work on the professional goals as well. However, I have also found that when the list of goals, aspirations or resolutions is too long. It never happens. By training for the race, I will continue with my healthy goals. By working on the clutter and the grocery bill, the house will naturally be cleaner and it will also help me to focus on some financial goals. I have also been able to identify what was holding me back from achieving these goals. Wish me diligence, as it is not luck, but hard work that allows each of us to turn a milestone in our lives.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Social technology moving past hype into a business process
There is a revolution coming. Social is about people collaborating on products, solutions, and innovation. If you check the reviews on a product, movie, or person (LinkedIn recommendations) or have written one, you have participated in the social revolution. However, Social isn't just about the ability to sell additional items it is about the connections and how to leverage them, access information, and move business processes along faster. Today, companies like Microsoft (client) are using crowdsourcing solutions to obtain feedback on the industries they serve and the products they produce. Who better to set your roadmap than your customers? Because, if they want it and you don't have it.. your customers can easily use Bing or Google to find your replacement.
The new frontier is looking at social technology as a business process. How can you leverage a comprehensive platform and strategy to target a number of business goals in 2011? Obviously, there are case studies on improving sales, customer retention, and cross selling opportunities. But what about non structured learning, shared resources with commenting and ratings on usefulness, global collaboration.. innovation, leveraging subject matter experts, company information, transparency, and more. If you are an executive tasked with daunting goals for 2011, how might social technology drive results?
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