I ran across this useful and well-written blog called Working Smart. The author of the site, Michael Hyatt, wrote a great article called How to Sell Your Boss. I think he's right that your success depends on being able to convince your boss of things. It's a good list of ideas; good enough that I'll pass it on to my team and peers. Briefly, his main points are:
- Meet your boss' needs
- Pick your battles
- Do your homework
- "Bullet proof" your proposal
- Make the pitch
- Accept responsibility for the outcome
Obviously, he has more detail in the post. The ideas seem obvious, but I can't tell you how often I've seen people (including myself) fail at one or more of these steps. Worth a read.
In addition to this article, he has good stuff on how to make David Allen's Getting Things Done work in Microsoft Outlook, tips on cool apps and add-ons to make Office work better, and some good life insight.
When I was in Seoul last week, I had a great evening with our awesome Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professional). (Joe - my VP - and I actually met with MVPs in Taipei, Seoul, and Beijing.) These guys (and they are almost all guys, unfortunately) are volunteers who are super enthusiastic about Microsoft products and support our users in newsgroups and via their websites and blogs.
Anyway, as you might guess, much of the conversation was around geeky stuff, but we had a great conversation where they discussed how to best sneak a cigarette on a trans-Pacific flight. Apparently, almost all these guys smoke heavily and find it difficult to make the long flight to the US with a smoke.
So, the strategies that seemed most popular were:
- Wait until the flight attendants eat. There's usually only one on duty then, so it's easier to sneak the cig.
- Find a charitable soul among the flight attendants, one who will take you into the baggage hold to let you smoke. (There might be other good applications of this location with certain flight attendants...)
- Smoke in the bathroom and then apologize profusely when you're caught (beware the bathrooms with automatic fire suppression systems, though.) Apparently, the flight attendants don't typically want to bother with the paperwork of arresting you when they land, so if you don't bug them again, they'll let it go.
It was a surprising but fun conversation. It was nice to get to know these guys as people, something I wouldn't have been able to do in the newsgroups or on email.
Every year, the Stanford Alumni Association brings a prof up to give a lecture here in Seattle. So, Saturday evening Michelle and I attended this year's lecture. We were very fortunate to have political science Professor David Abernathy talking about the current exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, "Spain in the Age of Exploration, 1492-1819."
Professor Aberathy was a very compelling speaker, setting the exhibit in the social, political, relgious, and scientific context of the time. He illustrated his points with slides from the exhibit, really providing a roadmap to view and better understand the exhibit.
I also need to give him credit too for being restrained with respect to tying the events leading to the downfall of the Spanish Empire with recent electoral events. There were some obvious parallels, but he avoided pandering to the crowd with easy asides.
While I love understanding how and why things happen in history, I'm not as well versed in the humanities to really profit from an exhibit like this. The talk unlocked the exhibit and really helped me understand what I seeing. Great stuff. Too bad the computer science profs at Stanford weren't all as lucid...
After hearing his talk, I'm excited to read his most recent book, The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980. If it's half as interesting as his talk, it'll be great.
Over the past few days, I've been eagerly reading a multi-segment article in Newsweek online about life on the campaign trail. Newsweek had reporters "embedded" with both the Bush and Kerry campaigns for the last year with the stipulation they couldn't publish anything until after the election.
The stories are pretty compelling. The Kerry campaign is painted as disorganized, with no clear message, Kerry unwilling to trust or delegate, tons of infighting, and mounting frustration. The Bush campaign, by comparison, was a machine with careful message control, clear leadership in Karl Rove, and institutionalized optimism.
Regardless of your political views, it's a good read.
"How Bush Did It" in Newsweek
My brother Ives and I went to see the Funk Brothers last night at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville. The Funk Brothers were the studio band for Motown during the heyday of the label. They recorded more number one hits than the Beach Boys, Elvis, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles combined, and were the subject of the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. This year they were award the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award.
As expected, these guys were really amazing. It was an incredibly fun show with tons of energy and the audience singing and dancing along. Joan Osborne opened the show and also sang a few songs. I hadn't really heard much Joan Osborne before aside from her big hit One of Us. She's got a great voice and was very entertaining.
If I could only listen to one genre of music, it would be Motown, so I really loved every minute. What a great, great show.
I had a five hour massage yesterday. No typo there. Five hours. It wasn't a normal massage like you'd get at a spa; it was more of a healing/balancing massage. It's a bit hard to explain, but it's a bit like acupuncture (sans needles) meets a chiropractor with a bit of reflexology and such thrown in.
The woman who gave the massage is a bit eccentric (her own words); she claims to be able to sense people's electrical patterns, and "see" events that your muscles have done (like my golf swing). I have to admit, she was very perceptive about things, deducing which hand I mouse with, what kind of alcohol I drink, and so on. Could have been good fortune telling type skills, but how bad could a five hour massage be? Especially for $120.
We'll see how I feel over the next few days, but I think I'll be going back.
This is fun and cool. You can now order custom photo stamps on Stamps.com. This is apparently legitimate US postage, customized with your images. Very slick.
On a side note, I met with these guys a long time ago when I was doing Works. They were interested in some kind of integration so we could print postage on envelopes directly, as I recall. Nothing ever came of it, but I recall being impressed with the people, but wondering if they'd make it. I guess they're still around, so good for them.
Bonjour! I'm blogging today from my hotel room in Nice on the French Riveria. It's a bit trite, but Nice is nice. I arrived yesterday afternoon (after a seven hour layover in Amsterdam -- more on that in another entry) and forced myself to walk around and stay up. The Vieux Nice (old Nice) is my favorite part of town, with narrow streets and lots of cool little shops and restaurants.
The beach scene is pretty wild and a bit different from the ones I'm used to. First, the beach is stony, not sandy. Big (albeit mostly smooth) pebbles all over; you need a mattress or you'll be unhappy. There are also a mix of private and public beaches all along the strip. The private beaches are fenced off, and appear to provide nicer chairs, food, bar, etc. And, of course, there's topless sunbathing. Viva la France!
I too the train to Monaco today on my friend Angie's advice. Turned out to be good advice. Monaco is like a French Singapore -- it's very small, very clean (almost too sterile), and rich. Actually, Monaco is grossly rich. I met a great British lady on the train. She had a fascinating background and was nice company as we walked around town together for a while.
I have lots more to write about and photos to share, but now, I need to get some work done so I'm ready for my meetings tomorrow. Right after the meetings I'm off to Paris for a day, then back home. Stay tuned for more exciting travel news.
There really is a site for everything -- in this case two. Seatexpert.com and SeatGuru.com have super detailed reports of the ins and outs of each seat on each type of aircraft flown by the major airlines. Who knew that not all first class seats were created equal? Want to know which seats suffer from toilet flushing noise?
SeatGuru has a more comprehensive list of American carriers, but both are sites are useful. Enjoy!
OMG, this is funny. The Morning News has written the FAQ for shopping at IKEA like one of those game walkthrough FAQs. Here's a little sample:
As you enter the main area, you will see an EKHARD oiled solid-oak dining sideboard. Quickly kick it apart to acquire the TABLE LEG WITH NAIL.
As you continue through the main SHOWROOM you will see groups blocking the walkways while chatting and others moving against traffic. These people should be killed immediately.
This may not be as funny if you don't play computer games or ever visited IKEA, but I have tested it on Michelle, who is thoroughly non-gamey (unless you count TextTwist. She also gets a little gamey after a weekend with no shower, but that's another matter entirely) She howled and forwarded it to Mike. Of course, that might be because they spent the summer at IKEA during our remodel.
In the end, I liked it, and it's my damn blog. So there.
