Improve My Business

OK, I’m going to fall on sword here and tell you about my gaffe.  I was using the bathroom in China, right before a big presentation.  I had dressed for the occasion, wearing a skirt, nylons, and heels, since I was going to be presenting to the company’s top management.  After coming out of the bathroom directly into the large (well populated) rotunda area, I proceeded towards the conference room — and noticed a few people coming up from behind me rather quickly.  Turns out I had tucked the hem of my skirt into the top of my hose — pretty darned embarrassing, and hard to project that “I’m the professional” image!  After a brief whisper into my ear, an even quicker yank on the offending skirt hem, and a final smoothing of the skirt, I proceeded into the conference room.  It reminded me of the episode of “Friends” when Rachel has her bridesmaid dress tucked into her panties…

Unlike the woman in this video, I was grateful to be told and the damage (other than to my pride) was negligible.

Technorati Tags: humor

Here I sit in a client’s office in Los Angeles, still trying to recover for the 5.8 earthquake that just rocked the area about an hour ago. I’m still a little queasy (probably adrenalin aftermath) and a little shaky (my insides as well as the building movement)…

I gotta tell ya, it’s really thrown off my concentration. I can’t focus on what I was doing when the quake struck; I can’t focus on what I’m supposed to be accomplishing right now; and just when I think I’m OK and ready to get back to it, the lights freekin’ flicker! Like, every 2-3 mins - just enough to be annoying as well as a reminder that “Things aren’t like they were this morning”. So, here’s my deal with myself: when the lights stop flickering, I’ll start working on diagramming a process again.

Till then, it’s hangin’ around on Twitter and hopin’ that I can continue to fake out the client with my perceived nonchalance - all while silently screaming “I want my mommy!” in my head… and I’ll gladly pay the big trucks that rumble by the building $100 if they take another route - their passing feels too much like aftershocks.

Technorati Tags: twitter

Yep, I’m going to follow the time-honored tradition of telling you some cool sites to visit:

Meryl Evans, from Meryl.net, writes the Bionic Ear Blog [can you spot the mistake on this page? She may be looking for a bionic ear, but she apparently has got time travel down pat!] as well as some great technical stuff. She had a links page which was fun to go to also!

Another blog I read constantly (much to the detriment of my work/sleep) is Jenny’s, in various incarnations - she has The Bloggess, and Good Mom/Bad Mom - both of which are a hoot. If you get easily offended, you may want to skip these sites… if you don’t, be prepared to laugh you *ss off. I have a bazillion more I could post, but I’m laughing too hard… and as a side note, did you realize that ‘blog’ spelled sideways is ‘glob’, which is what these posts are — globs of fun!

I also follow Guy Kawasaki who’s got some cool posts - I learn a little bit about a lot from his Alltop sites (I’d suggest a Quality listing, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t make it, an then I’d be crushed), and I learn the latest in Apple toys from him also. That said, he seems like he’s a cool dude and doesn’t take himself to seriously. Everyone should follow his Powerpoint Presentation rules (me included - they can easily be adapted from VC to Quality, right?).

Finally, I faithfully read Glenda Watson Hyatt’s blog. She’s got athetoid cerebral palsy due to being denied oxygen at birth, and as a result has limited body control… she types everything with her left thumb, and hence is AKA The Left Thumb Blogger. She’s got more humor, courage, and brains in her left thumb than most of us have in total, and I am constantly in awe of her. Most of all, her humor keeps me coming back…

That’s it for now, kiddos!

Technorati Tags: humor

[reposting after moving my blog... sorry if you didn't see this last week!]

I knew that blogging was one way to get more popular, but WOW! I’m overwhelmed by this…

Technorati Tags: blogging, humor

Watching our great moving team from Bouffard Transfer, I learned that improvement principles are, indeed, universal.

1. Think outside the box
2. Plan the work, then work the plan
3. Take care of the big things and the little things will take care of themselves.
4. Work smarter, not harder.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX - the refrigerator box, that is…

The frig won’t fit through the door — our obvious choice:  remove the door (frig door or front door, your pick).  The non-obvious choice:  rotate the frig 90 degrees, where it passes through with 1/4″ to spare.

PLAN THE WORK, THEN WORK THE PLAN

The really heavy office credenza needs to take 3 right-hand turns to get into the office — so our guys figured out how it needs to be laid out in the office before ever starting, and then oriented the heavy dang thing  once at the beginning, so it ends up where it needs to be without further fussin’.

TAKE CARE OF THE BIG THINGS, AND THE LITTLE THINGS TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES

When loading the truck, it’s loaded with an eye to what can be stacked on top of what, and what can’t.  We thought we were done, when one of the movers noticed that there was a bit of room at the very top of the truck asked if we’d like our closets moved also [they have rope strung across the top so we can move them on hangars].  We all trooped into the house, where my family each grabbed 8-12 hangars’ worth of clothes and trooped outside.  I was surprised that the movers weren’t right behind us — until I saw that they were carrying 35-40 hangars’ worth - on each hand.   JUST when we thought the truck was full of big things and we were done, we were able to load in another 4 closets’ worth of stuff - and save ourselves countless car trips to do it ourselves.

WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

The moving guys worked very hard, no doubt about it.  But they also worked smart - lots of verbal cues to make sure that nothing was scratched as it was carried down the curved staircase [watch the top left; bannister on bottom right; tilt up/back/left/right more]; that the guy at the bottom knew when he was on the last stair of the staircase [3 left; 2 left; 1 left; done]; and they weren’t afraid to ask for help if they needed it [did I mention the heavy credenza?].  Working smarter ensured that they had a happy customer, healthy crew, and were able to get to another job when done with ours.

Technorati Tags: improvement, principles of improvement, working smarter