Information vs. Conversation

A friend of mine was complaining about how she hates texting.  Actually it’s receiving text messages she seems to have a problem with.  Her issue is she often cannot grasp the emotional context of text messages.  “They always seem angry”, she said.

So I took to paying more attention to my received messages and, yes, most are abbreviated to the max.  They are stark, pointed and terse.  I love them.

You see, I see texting purely as passing along information.  No composition, no spell checking just “here it is let’s get back to work”.  I like texting for the exact reason I can’t stand IM’ing.  Where Instant Messaging is the worst of email with the worst of texting, pure texting was designed to pass along quick hits of information.

“at rest in corner by palm”

“in traf b thr in 10”

“r u home?”

 “go 2 espn quick”

Also, I don’t really use emoticons, I’m much too old to learn a completely new language.

I also agree with the old Lance Armstrong (sorry, guilty but still relevant) Radio Shack commercial where as the “Chief Mobility Officer” he dictates that no one over the age of 30 is allowed to use emoticons.  You know, the smiley faces

J

Texting was not designed for long, thoughtful, emotional conversations.  Frankly, neither is email.  If you want a conversation then pick up the phone or get face-to-face.

What I’m seeing is texting is becoming prevalent in the business world, which is fine as long as it’s used for information.

“part shipped today”

“confirming mtg 9AM Wed”

“flight delayed”

It shouldn’t be used for introductions, goodbyes, anything HR related, sarcasm or any emotion.  Although it could be a cool way to break up with someone.

;-)

 

I’m Baaaack….

"All of us learn to write in the second grade.  Most of us go on to greater things."  Bob Knight

Almost two years exactly since I signed off.  I’ve thought multiple times about jumping back in but each time would re-read my last post and realize that the words I wrote in December 2010 were still true.  This time, however, they rang hollow.

 It’s been an eventful two years with plenty of events to restock the cabinet with lots of new material.

Probably the most significant event is I remarried.  Those who followed “Tales” know of the loss of Bonnie and the path afterwards.  I have been fortunate to have found someone in my new wife Sandy who I love sharing life with.  It was not a quick process as we dated for quite a while but she was inordinately patient with me and allowed me to mentally mend.

So, as I was originally advised by Bob Corrigan and as I have since advised many times to others, don’t go into blogging if you’re not committed.  One per week, that’s my commitment.

So, here we go.  Watch this space.

All Done

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." Lao Tzu

Five new posts in the past six months. Yep, I've lost interest. I don't know if there's anyone still out there. Actually, I don't know if there ever was.

I started this blog three years ago as a way to offload as this stuff that was cramming up my neural ports and as a send off I just read all of the posts starting with the preamble.

There's some pretty good posts out there. Ten Simple Rules, You Can't Fix Stupid, Greg Shrugged, The Pleaser's Dilemma among them.

Then I wrote the eight-part chronicles about starting the wine bar, starting with this one The LBV Chronicles.

And I got to use this space to miss Bonnie.

But now I'm done and it's beyond just needing a break or needing material. I run across things each week that make for good blog fodder but I have no interest in composing.

So, if you were ever out there. Thanks for indulging me. It was very good and important to me once upon a time.

Updating the Rules

“The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.” Warren Buffett

Back when I started blogging – you know, when I actually posted more than once every couple of months – I published “Ten Simple Rules”. It stands today as my personal favorite and still the one I’ve gotten the most comments about.

I’ve always been proud of the fact that it’s short and factual. There’s just not a whole lot to disagree with. But it’s time for an update.

There’s nothing in the fundamental set of 10 that I would alter, but I am going to add a thirteenth bonus rule.

13. Treat Social Media sites as the thin-ice, potentially toxic, personal and career altering quagmires that they are.

OK Strouse, you always have a story. What’s this one?

Glad you asked.

I was talking to a guy today who had just lost his job because of something he posted on Facebook about his job. It wasn’t overly derogatory, though to be fair neither was it flattering. But in it he posted a picture of a white board with some company info on it.

Bang!

Didn't even get that second cup of coffee in.

Although this doesn’t break Rule #2:

Never (ever, ever)….(ever, ever, ever) lie, cheat or steal. It will create a stigma that can never be overcome.

It dances up close enough.

South Park had a great episode on Facebook titled “You have zero friends”. You can see a clip here: Zero

Look, I like Facebook. I follow my kids and grandkids through it. I use it for my business, BUT, I rarely post anything and when I do it’s benign. And I’ll tell you something else, anytime I’m wanting to check out a potential new employee, client, whatever, I go look them up on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al. And if they’re posting what I consider to be goofy stuff I pay attention. FWIW.

Anyway, as with the other rules, do what you want but just know…they’re out there and they’re watching and they’re paying attention.

Birthday Wishes

“When you lose someone you love, you die too, and you wait around for your body to catch up.” John Scalzi

Today is Bonnie’s birthday – she would have turned 58. Now approaching two years since her death it still seems inconceivable that she’s gone. So much for it getting easier. I think watching the grandkids grow makes it hard. They’re so damned cute and will forever miss out on the massive amounts of love and spoiling that would have been theirs. I know it’s tough on the kids too. Thankfully they’re all grown, responsible, and stable and have great sets of in-laws around them. But it’s still hard.

Her birthday can’t roll around without thinking of her 55th, just a little over a year before she died. She always wanted a Sheik of Arabic theme so the kids organized and built one. It was a blast and something she enjoyed immensely.

I’m hosting a fundraiser on August 1st with the proceeds going to the International Myeloma Foundation. The IMF provided incredible knowledge and support to Bonnie and me throughout the 4 years she suffered with it. I have attached a link to the International Myeloma Foundation here – IMF - who has included a flyer for the event on their website. I hope those of you that are local can attend. I know many of you are remote and will be unable to come; I would really appreciate any donation that you may be able to give so that we can help find a cure for this horrible disease. Please help me in this journey as I continue to help get the word out about Multiple Myeloma and to help raise funds for a cure.

Lisa Roberts, a friend who used to live here in Michigan and now resides in Florida, blogged about Bonnie the other day. Very sweet – you can read it here – Bonnie.

If you have a moment today or whenever you read this give Bonnie a “Happy Birthday”, she’ll enjoy it.

Finding Mark Knopfler

"You win some, you might get lucky now and then". Mark Knopfler

My buddy Brian took me to see Mark Knopfler in Ann Arbor at the Michigan Theater. It’s a great venue just off campus, nice and small with only 1,700 seats.

I have never really followed Knopfler. I knew him from Dire Straits but only their radio and MTV stuff – never owned an album.

So I go see him and POW, I realize I’ve been missing out on music of the type and style that I love. He’s a bluesy, folksy, kind of a C&W for the Celtic set with great lyrics, big voice and of course world-class guitarist.

So instead of being happy to make this discovery I’m pissed! I can’t believe I’ve been missing out for all these years. He has 8 solo albums plus all the ones with Dire Straits. Throw on to that the litany of composing for movies and it turns into a lot of catching up to do.

So now along with downloading his music to my iPod I have a Mark Knopfler station on Pandora.
It’s kind of crazy when you discover something that’s been all around you and then become a little obsessed with it.

So naturally I applied this little eye-popper to the business world. How many Knopfler moments have or do exist? Are there clients/solutions/people all around that you just haven’t discovered? This came about the other day when my Seattle-based company was looking for a particular, kind of hard to find, talent for a project and discovered one right here in the town where I live in Michigan.

It’s somewhat human nature to think all the good stuff must be somewhere else. We do it all the time whether it’s driving to other towns to eat as people in those towns drive to yours. In business we relocate newly hired people because they must be more qualified than anyone close (or god forbid inside the company). Or let’s spend zillions of dollars opening a new international market rather than increase our existing market share with people in places we already know.

Really, we all need to get better at paying attention to what's around.

We might get lucky.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I just got a note from Pandora that they’ve added a bunch of new stuff to my Knopfler station.

Fessin' Up To Messin' Up

“Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes” Confusius

Like a lot a sports fans I’ve been watching the trauma and drama unfold over the blown call by umpire Jim Joyce that spoiled the perfect game thrown by Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga.

It was a very unfortunate incident. Perfect games – where 27 batters come to the plate and 27 outs are recorded with no hits, walks or errors – are very rare. There have only been 20 in all of recorded major league baseball history. The fact that Galarraga wasn’t the 21st came due to the last batter being called safe at first when all the replays showed that he was clearly out.

But this little piece of trivia is not what has me intrigued enough to blog about it. What has transpired between the cast of characters since the game ended is what’s worth noting.

First was Galarraga immediately upon the runner being called safe. Since he was covering the bag on the grounder hit down the first base line he was within a couple of feet of the umpire Joyce. Rather than putting on some spectacular display of theatrics we’ve all become accustomed to with today’s athletes he smiled (in disbelief to be sure) and walked back to the mound to pitch to the next batter.

Next was the umpire Jim Joyce. Since there is no replay for situations like this in baseball he had no choice than to go with “what he saw”. But afterwards he watched the replays and knew he’d blown the call. So, he went to the Tigers locker, asked permission to come in and face-to-face apologized to Galarraga, manager Jim Leyland and the rest of the team. Then he went out and faced the media and said, “I blew the call and cost that young man a perfect game”.

Then manager Jim Leyland afterwards said, “We’re all human and make mistakes, he’s a good man and a good umpire and should be left alone”.

The next day the same umpiring crew was present with Jim Joyce being scheduled to be behind home plate. He was given the out to not umpire that day but refused saying “that’s my job”.

What then happened is Leyland had Galarraga take the line-up card out during the pre-game ceremony, the two pitcher and umpire shook hands then the rest of the Tigers came up and gave Joyce a slap on the back.

So, a potentially difficult player/umpire/fan situation was totally defused by simple acts of sanity. And it all started with the two people most affected – the pitcher and the umpire – doing the right thing. Galarraga acted like a pro and Joyce acted like the good man everyone says he is. No whining, no theatrics, no sniveling, no acting persecuted, no blame shifting, no hiding just a mistake made, regretted and apologized for.

How many business (and personal) situations should be handled this way. How much easier would life be if more difficult situations were handled like this one?

It all started with the person who was the most affected handling himself professionally. But from what I’ve read about Jim Joyce – who’s considered one of the best umpires working – he probably would have done the same thing regardless.

How about you?