Television, sometimes affectionately known as the “idiot box”, for the most part shows us nothing about the world.  Reality television has given us glances into human interaction that promote backstabbing, immunity challenges, and fist pumping. Programs that show us the deeper sides of human emotions can be passed over for programs that are full of drama. (Two exceptions come to mind: “The Biggest Loser” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”). TV is an escape and we don’t want to be “taught” anything from the things we do to distract ourselves from the stress of the day.

After the SuperBowl last night, CBS aired a show called “Undercover Boss”. The basic premise is a CEO of a major company immerses themselves in the day to day work of the average person in their company. Last night, we saw a CEO picking trash off a conveyer belt, collecting errant paper from a hillside, and steam cleaning port-a-potties. What things can we learn from this as business owners or management? I have some thoughts.

1.) Understanding your workforce will help you understand customers’ needs. Stream-lining processes, identifying understaffing issues, or changing the way things are done improves your productivity and directly affects your customers’ happiness.  Making it easier on the front line employee will help them make it easier for the customers.
2.) You can’t see the face of your company staring at numbers. Sure, numbers are the bottom line, and in the end, as the CEO it’s your responsibility to keep the company profitable. Remember that every “number” on the page is actually the face of someone who works tirelessly for you.

Did you watch “Undercover Boss”? Did you like it? I really enjoyed myself with it and I feel like it was trying to be socially relevant in a time when people feel like their head offices or CEO’s are a million miles away and have no real idea what goes on in their company. 

How are you going to connect to your workforce today?  

Happy Friday to you all.  No contest today, just a little display of artwork. 

We have these great saltwater tanks in the office and they are tons of fun to look at. 

That little orange fish is a bully. He's always chasing around the other fish. Amber took a little spin on the board today with her rendition of the fish tank.

Happy Swimming and Happy Friday all! 

A man vacationing in Germany had his life saved thanks to a woman trying to watch the sunset.

Streaming video has become very popular. Who hasn’t spent too much time watching little puppies sleeping or even watching their favorite radio station perform their comedy bits? I read an awesome story about how a simple web stream saved a man’s life.

Here’s a quick rundown of what happened:  A man was lost in northern Germany on an ice pack of the North Sea near St. Peter-Ording. He couldn’t find his way back, disoriented from his position versus where the beach would be, he began to use his camera as a signaling device. Each time he hit the button, the flash would go off like a cry for help.

In southern Germany, a woman was watching the same sunset the man had gone to take a picture of and noticed the flashing lights on the video stream that was in place. The woman, hundreds miles away, alerted the authorities who were able to rescue the man. Why does this matter?

This wasn’t a camera that was set up for security or monitoring. It wasn’t a parking lot camera or a red-light camera that just happened to see something happen. It was a camera that was set up and streaming purely for tourists.

The idea of the virtual tourist is really taking off around the world. Why shouldn’t it? You can be anywhere in the world, any time of day, and see anything you want too. It’s cold in Germany and this woman was sitting in her warm home watching a beautiful sunset over the ice all thanks to a video conference.

She even saved a life.

Pretty amazing huh?

Okay, I’m not, but a couple weeks ago I wrote a post about Cooking with Gordon Ramsey and how cool I thought it was that he was using a simple video conferencing process to teach normal, everyday American’s how to cook. As someone who spends a lot of time in my kitchen, it was easy for me to pick up on what I would consider simple things to do. Mince? No problem. Garlic press? Got one right here. While it was awesome to me, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would benefit for someone who didn’t like to cook the way I did.

I concocted an experiment. I would test the Gordon Ramsey theory on someone who had minimal knowledge in the kitchen – meaning she can cook without burning the house down, but has rarely made things from scratch. Our menu was simple: sautéed chicken with basil and butter and a honey mustard sauce. My goal here wasn’t so much to teach her how to cook but to test the theory that a video conference can be used just as well as a live demonstration.

My test subject?  Meet my best friend, Rachel. Her cooking skills aren’t terrible, but I would call her a novice and chicken is one of her least favorite things to cook. She doesn’t trust herself to know when it’s done, and even as much as I cook, I tend to find chicken very tricky and have experienced a couple of failures with it.

Being a writer requires creativity. Creativity takes time but we can sometimes find an experience that will make us sit up and take notice.

As writers, we all take the things we go through during our day and make them a part of what we’re writing. Taking a moment, creating something amazing or thought provoking, it’s a big part of being writers. A thought was posed to me last week:  At what point do you stop “creating” and simply begin “reacting”?

Can you tell when you’re no longer using your experiences to make a point, and are simply using the outlet before you to vent? I’m guilty of it, and I think we all are at some point. It’s a great place to find an outlet, right there on the page, hammering each key down hard enough, and hoping to push your frustration through the world.

I think there’s a very fine line between creativity and reaction. Some of the best thoughts are spun through being upset, frustrated, or having a bad experience, but there can be a point where that reactionary feeling starts to seep through you. When your readers notice, it could cause a problem.

How to combat this? Well, if an experience has inspired you to type out a blog, but as you start going along and you find that you’re putting a little more heat behind the keys than you wanted too, grab a notebook.

Write down what happened, why it bothered you, and the point you’re trying to make with what you’re writing.

After that, you walk away. Go jogging, go play Guitar Hero™, go take a nap, do something other than write that post. Work off all that frustration and anger you might feel.

You’re trying to make a point, not trying to pound someone into the ground.

Be creative and don’t react. Just walk away and work on it later. You have the information written down. If you can write, without the initial reaction, you might even come out on the other side with a better post in the long run.

I just spent nine dollars on a cheeseburger and fries, which doesn’t usually bother me, but today it did. I spent nine dollars and my lunch did not live up to my expectations. Sure it was edible, but it was lacking. When trying to decide what was wrong with my cheese burger, I realized there were just too many extras and not enough substance.

I started to think if we are guilty of not having the best “meat” on your products and services.  If you sell jeans, are you throwing fancy zippers and buttons on the denim while producing a product that completely shreds when you wear them? When buying a pair of jeans, we’re looking for something that is, at the bottom line, durable, aside from being pretty. Think about brands that make a killing on offering basic pairs of jeans that don’t shred apart in the dryer.

A brand that has earned my trust by providing reliability in the most basic sense is the one that I will be more likely to spend more with in the future. Extras are great but it doesn’t seem like you should neglect the basic product you’re offering.

So what do you think? Is the meat of the burger the most important part or should you focus on the added extras. Is your product worth anything if you can’t provide the basics?