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Digg it UP - Of September 11th, Business, and Team Building... Keeping What We Do in Perspective
I can’t remember who’s idea it was. It may have been Glenn my business partner, or maybe me. If I had to lay a bet, I’d say it was our manager at the time, Gary. The doors to our business had been open for about three years and we thought that we need a spruce up at the front of the building. First up was painting. A nice bright colour to make the building stand out. Vibrant purple! We choose that colour because it was in our logo. So the painting went ahead and it certainly made the building stand out, especially at night under the lights. But the original sign had to change. It was looking a bit tired. So, through who’s ever idea it was, we employed a chap to construct a BIG sign. He was actually a friend of our manager. He came and met with us and showed us his work. He had indeed done some BIG signs. 3D signs! Since we were in the music business, we decided on using a guitar. A BIG guitar. We thought that we’d get some press as well as create a landmark for musicians. So the sign man made some plans and began work. Now you’d figure that a thirty foot long 3D guitar would cost a bundle, right? Wrong. He had no idea how to charge. The total bill was only $1300.00 which included two ‘word’ signs in 3D as well. That price included delivery and installation
Team Building has come to America in a manner that theory, academic exercises or lecture can only reinforce in a seminar. We’ve illustrated it by our actions. The firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and “civilians” have reacted in a way that shows the best in people.
Everyone is helping and supporting, giving money and or blood, sending supplies, performing tasks that must be done in order to make things move somewhat smoothly in what otherwise would be a totally chaotic situation. And we do it. From psychological help to just talking with each other. We somehow realize that we need one another.
Then there are the flags. More than I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many are displayed out of respect, how many out of real patriotism and how many out of jingoism. I hope the former two far out weight the third. I glance up to read the sayings placed under old glory on the overpasses. My favorite one reads America, Diverse and Free. I think about how
The United States Department of Commerce did a study and found that there were 1450 or more mail order decree resume diploma mills. These are groups who would send you a degree in trade for money. A few of them were legitimate. In other words you would have to take tests and study and they would take into consideration previous work employment, experience and knowledge. But generally these mail order decree programs allowed people to compromise their resume honesty and sheets on applications for jobs.It is unfortunate that the team that goes along in high school, college and at the university level continues on into the workforce on applications for employment and resum?s to corporations. What we have here is a lack of integrity throughout our society and we had cheaters that are unwilling to study and go the distance and instead they cheat.Mail order degrees and resume dishonesty is only one problem that goes on as the human resource departments of America's largest corporations attempt to hire a workforce which can perform at the optimum level. Many people both in the private and public sector have been found to write down that they had graduated with a degree from a top university that they never even attended.As if they had gone to school there for four to six years completed all the
Team Building is the topic for this day, with four more to follow. How to build effective and efficient teams, communicate better, know your and your team members’ strengths and weaknesses, delegate, motivate and of course have some fun along the way.
What a great group of folks they are, a dozen in the morning class and the same for the afternoon session. I leave at around 5:30 to head home to Philly. On the road I’m mentally figuring out how much time I have to eat, make my calls, spend some time with my son maybe talking, just relaxing and or watching sports before going off to sleep. Tomorrow is a special day. September 11th and I’m to meet my clients Paul and Lynn in Trenton at 7:30 A.M. to catch the train to Manhattan. We have a day of meetings scheduled and a “surprise” Birthday Party in the evening.
The party’s for me, Paul had arranged it and even called people on his speakerphone while I was in his office to say “Are you coming to Dan’s surprise party on the 11th?” And we’d all laugh. September 11th is my Birthday. I can’t calculate how many times I’ve told people, “Do you know how much money I had to spend to get my birthday on all those Police Cars! 911….it wasn’t easy”?
Paul calls late and leaves me a message. “There’s a change of plans, we’re gonna take the eight twenty-five (or the train around that time)”. I call him. I don’t think he’s feeling too well, maybe he wants to get a few extra minutes of sleep in the A.M. “Check in with me in the morning” he says. Five forty is my call into Paul. “Dan I think we can take the 10:35, I just wanna lay in bed for a bit, but we’re definitely going, see you at the station”.
So I eat my breakfast, take my shower and get all my “stuff” in order.
Now it’s a few minutes after nine and the phone rings, it’s my friend. He asks if I’m still going to Manhattan. I give him an affirmative and he says, “Oh no you’re not, turn on the TV”.
I press the on button and there it is. I’m numb, frozen, in disbelief. Can this really be happening? I attempt to think, but disorganization gets thrown into the mix. Sometimes I’m fully cognizant of what I’m doing and other times I have to think and rethink to make sure that I’m comprehending even the “normal” things away from the commentary and pictures on CNN.
The calls go out, to my son, Paul, other family members and friends to see if everyone’s ok. And to tell them that I didn’t go.
I speak with Anne Marie who works in Manhattan. She was supposed to attend the dinner party. She tells me that a mutual friend, who she works with, had just dropped off a package to his roommate on the 102nd floor of Tower One, taken the elevator down and reached the lobby when the plane hit. He’s fine but he doesn’t know where his roommate is.
The party, the meetings, the business seems oddly meaningless and meaningful at the same time. How nice it would be to have the party, sit in a meeting and do the business of business. And how absurd it all seems at this time of tragedy.
The day passes painfully, my birthday will mean something so different to me and everyone else from here on out.
I try to call the Red Cross to give blood but all the lines are busy. Finally I get through and they tell me that there’s a blood drive being held in Flourtown (my Flourtown) tomorrow starting at 2:00. No appointments will be taken.
The 12th is more of the same, everything to do with business is cancelled and who would want to do anything anyway. I wonder about my friends in NYC and in North Jersey and hope everyone is ok.
I walk down the block and there, a few houses away is a makeshift shrine on the steps of a neighbor. Five or six candles and two photos, one of the photos is on a piece paper that looked so much like the photos I’ve begun to see on TV, held by distraught relatives and friends. Missing 102nd floor, Tower One (the same tower and floor of my friend’s roommate), followed by his name and the picture of a man smiling. How sad. What do you do? Or Think? Or say? My mind still shifts between thinking straight and the haze that so many people continue to say appears from time to time in their thoughts.
I get to the blood drive at 1:50 P.M. there are about forty people waiting. And the line continues to get longer. The day proceeds, I wait, and the realization hits me that I have to go back up to North Jersey the next morning. At 7:25 P.M. I’ve been thanked, my blood has been given and I head home. The Team Building Seminar Series is to continue in the morning.
Team Building has come to America in a manner that theory, academic exercises or lecture can only reinforce in a seminar. We’ve illustrated it by our actions. The firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and “civilians” have reacted in a way that shows the best in people.
Everyone is helping and supporting, giving money and or blood, sending supplies, performing tasks that must be done in order to make things move somewhat smoothly in what otherwise would be a totally chaotic situation. And we do it. From psychological help to just talking with each other. We somehow realize that we need one another.
Then there are the flags. More than I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many are displayed out of respect, how many out of real patriotism and how many out of jingoism. I hope the former two far out weight the third. I glance up to read the sayings placed under old glory on the overpasses. My favorite one reads America, Diverse and Free. I think about how
Corporate gift baskets are ideal to express your gratitude and goodwill to clients and employees. If you have a group of delegates coming in for a conference, corporate gift baskets are good to welcome or thank them. During the holidays, sending corporate gift baskets to your most valued employees who have assisted you through a rough period of business is also a great gift idea.One of the benefits of buying corporate gift baskets online is the convenience of choosing and sending these gift baskets from the comfort of your own home or office rather than driving all over the town and finally settling on something simply because you?re tired of searching. You can browse several stores in a comparatively short period of time to find a corporate gift basket you want to send at a price that will leave you feeling good.When buying corporate gift baskets online it is important to select a store with the best deals. Most of the online corporate gift baskets are filled with a range of delicious food items and may include collections of cheese, wine, chocolates, candies, meats, appetizers, seasonal fruits and seafood. Other popular items that can be included in corporate gift baskets are key chains, ties, cufflinks, leather purses, t-shirts elegant pens, pen holders, calculators, desk clocks or a pair of sungla
The party’s for me, Paul had arranged it and even called people on his speakerphone while I was in his office to say “Are you coming to Dan’s surprise party on the 11th?” And we’d all laugh. September 11th is my Birthday. I can’t calculate how many times I’ve told people, “Do you know how much money I had to spend to get my birthday on all those Police Cars! 911….it wasn’t easy”?
Paul calls late and leaves me a message. “There’s a change of plans, we’re gonna take the eight twenty-five (or the train around that time)”. I call him. I don’t think he’s feeling too well, maybe he wants to get a few extra minutes of sleep in the A.M. “Check in with me in the morning” he says. Five forty is my call into Paul. “Dan I think we can take the 10:35, I just wanna lay in bed for a bit, but we’re definitely going, see you at the station”.
So I eat my breakfast, take my shower and get all my “stuff” in order.
Now it’s a few minutes after nine and the phone rings, it’s my friend. He asks if I’m still going to Manhattan. I give him an affirmative and he says, “Oh no you’re not, turn on the TV”.
I press the on button and there it is. I’m numb, frozen, in disbelief. Can this really be happening? I attempt to think, but disorganization gets thrown into the mix. Sometimes I’m fully cognizant of what I’m doing and other times I have to think and rethink to make sure that I’m comprehending even the “normal” things away from the commentary and pictures on CNN.
The calls go out, to my son, Paul, other family members and friends to see if everyone’s ok. And to tell them that I didn’t go.
I speak with Anne Marie who works in Manhattan. She was supposed to attend the dinner party. She tells me that a mutual friend, who she works with, had just dropped off a package to his roommate on the 102nd floor of Tower One, taken the elevator down and reached the lobby when the plane hit. He’s fine but he doesn’t know where his roommate is.
The party, the meetings, the business seems oddly meaningless and meaningful at the same time. How nice it would be to have the party, sit in a meeting and do the business of business. And how absurd it all seems at this time of tragedy.
The day passes painfully, my birthday will mean something so different to me and everyone else from here on out.
I try to call the Red Cross to give blood but all the lines are busy. Finally I get through and they tell me that there’s a blood drive being held in Flourtown (my Flourtown) tomorrow starting at 2:00. No appointments will be taken.
The 12th is more of the same, everything to do with business is cancelled and who would want to do anything anyway. I wonder about my friends in NYC and in North Jersey and hope everyone is ok.
I walk down the block and there, a few houses away is a makeshift shrine on the steps of a neighbor. Five or six candles and two photos, one of the photos is on a piece paper that looked so much like the photos I’ve begun to see on TV, held by distraught relatives and friends. Missing 102nd floor, Tower One (the same tower and floor of my friend’s roommate), followed by his name and the picture of a man smiling. How sad. What do you do? Or Think? Or say? My mind still shifts between thinking straight and the haze that so many people continue to say appears from time to time in their thoughts.
I get to the blood drive at 1:50 P.M. there are about forty people waiting. And the line continues to get longer. The day proceeds, I wait, and the realization hits me that I have to go back up to North Jersey the next morning. At 7:25 P.M. I’ve been thanked, my blood has been given and I head home. The Team Building Seminar Series is to continue in the morning.
Team Building has come to America in a manner that theory, academic exercises or lecture can only reinforce in a seminar. We’ve illustrated it by our actions. The firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and “civilians” have reacted in a way that shows the best in people.
Everyone is helping and supporting, giving money and or blood, sending supplies, performing tasks that must be done in order to make things move somewhat smoothly in what otherwise would be a totally chaotic situation. And we do it. From psychological help to just talking with each other. We somehow realize that we need one another.
Then there are the flags. More than I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many are displayed out of respect, how many out of real patriotism and how many out of jingoism. I hope the former two far out weight the third. I glance up to read the sayings placed under old glory on the overpasses. My favorite one reads America, Diverse and Free. I think about how
Life change is unavoidable. The pace of change has increased to a record rate with the latest innovations and information technologies. Our body's primitive response mechanism has not been able to keep pace and we are living with "overwhelm" as a daily companion. We do not have time to adapt at a genetic level, so we must learn to use behavioral adaptations to survive and thrive.Each of us is a unique person with our unique habitual response to stress. Some of us respond to stress with anger, frustration, rage, or fear. Some of us get "uptight" and hold tension in our jaws, necks, shoulders, backs, or legs. Some of us want to run away as a response. Sometimes we tighten our stomachs, hold our breath, feel our heart racing, our blood pressure may rise, or our hands and feet may get cold. Sometimes we withdraw as if we could hide from the dangers of newness of our transitions.When we do not have any "control" over the transition and it is an "important" issue, then our stress levels increase. Our body responds, in the only way that it can, as if we were in a life or death situation. We must learn that in life's interactions, the only thing that we can control is our response to the event. If this situation is important to us, it is best if we can have some input in the change process. We must understand
The calls go out, to my son, Paul, other family members and friends to see if everyone’s ok. And to tell them that I didn’t go.
I speak with Anne Marie who works in Manhattan. She was supposed to attend the dinner party. She tells me that a mutual friend, who she works with, had just dropped off a package to his roommate on the 102nd floor of Tower One, taken the elevator down and reached the lobby when the plane hit. He’s fine but he doesn’t know where his roommate is.
The party, the meetings, the business seems oddly meaningless and meaningful at the same time. How nice it would be to have the party, sit in a meeting and do the business of business. And how absurd it all seems at this time of tragedy.
The day passes painfully, my birthday will mean something so different to me and everyone else from here on out.
I try to call the Red Cross to give blood but all the lines are busy. Finally I get through and they tell me that there’s a blood drive being held in Flourtown (my Flourtown) tomorrow starting at 2:00. No appointments will be taken.
The 12th is more of the same, everything to do with business is cancelled and who would want to do anything anyway. I wonder about my friends in NYC and in North Jersey and hope everyone is ok.
I walk down the block and there, a few houses away is a makeshift shrine on the steps of a neighbor. Five or six candles and two photos, one of the photos is on a piece paper that looked so much like the photos I’ve begun to see on TV, held by distraught relatives and friends. Missing 102nd floor, Tower One (the same tower and floor of my friend’s roommate), followed by his name and the picture of a man smiling. How sad. What do you do? Or Think? Or say? My mind still shifts between thinking straight and the haze that so many people continue to say appears from time to time in their thoughts.
I get to the blood drive at 1:50 P.M. there are about forty people waiting. And the line continues to get longer. The day proceeds, I wait, and the realization hits me that I have to go back up to North Jersey the next morning. At 7:25 P.M. I’ve been thanked, my blood has been given and I head home. The Team Building Seminar Series is to continue in the morning.
Team Building has come to America in a manner that theory, academic exercises or lecture can only reinforce in a seminar. We’ve illustrated it by our actions. The firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and “civilians” have reacted in a way that shows the best in people.
Everyone is helping and supporting, giving money and or blood, sending supplies, performing tasks that must be done in order to make things move somewhat smoothly in what otherwise would be a totally chaotic situation. And we do it. From psychological help to just talking with each other. We somehow realize that we need one another.
Then there are the flags. More than I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many are displayed out of respect, how many out of real patriotism and how many out of jingoism. I hope the former two far out weight the third. I glance up to read the sayings placed under old glory on the overpasses. My favorite one reads America, Diverse and Free. I think about how
Stationery is needed in each and every organization whether big or small. Stationery has equal importance for a small home based business or a large firm. Office stationery includes different items like envelopes, pads, ink, pen, paper and many other products.Office has to maintain stocks of stationery as it is used on a regular basis and the shortage of any type of stationery material can stop your working. The important thing to remember is the quality of stationery. By selecting the right paper, print and other material, a firm can define what it stands for.While making decisions for your office stationery, you have to make selection from different available sources. Such decisions are not to be made in a hurry. There are different providers of office stationery online. A small part of your success goes to the kind of stationery material you are using.The stationery you use eventually reveals your company and its moral principle. The quality of the paper, the color scheme and different symbols, all makes a disparity in the business world of today.Many business firms don’t care about such decisions and pick whatever is available. But this is wrong because the type or kind of office material you are using leaves an impression on your clients and other business associates. The quality of
The 12th is more of the same, everything to do with business is cancelled and who would want to do anything anyway. I wonder about my friends in NYC and in North Jersey and hope everyone is ok.
I walk down the block and there, a few houses away is a makeshift shrine on the steps of a neighbor. Five or six candles and two photos, one of the photos is on a piece paper that looked so much like the photos I’ve begun to see on TV, held by distraught relatives and friends. Missing 102nd floor, Tower One (the same tower and floor of my friend’s roommate), followed by his name and the picture of a man smiling. How sad. What do you do? Or Think? Or say? My mind still shifts between thinking straight and the haze that so many people continue to say appears from time to time in their thoughts.
I get to the blood drive at 1:50 P.M. there are about forty people waiting. And the line continues to get longer. The day proceeds, I wait, and the realization hits me that I have to go back up to North Jersey the next morning. At 7:25 P.M. I’ve been thanked, my blood has been given and I head home. The Team Building Seminar Series is to continue in the morning.
Team Building has come to America in a manner that theory, academic exercises or lecture can only reinforce in a seminar. We’ve illustrated it by our actions. The firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and “civilians” have reacted in a way that shows the best in people.
Everyone is helping and supporting, giving money and or blood, sending supplies, performing tasks that must be done in order to make things move somewhat smoothly in what otherwise would be a totally chaotic situation. And we do it. From psychological help to just talking with each other. We somehow realize that we need one another.
Then there are the flags. More than I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many are displayed out of respect, how many out of real patriotism and how many out of jingoism. I hope the former two far out weight the third. I glance up to read the sayings placed under old glory on the overpasses. My favorite one reads America, Diverse and Free. I think about how
Your audience cannot both listen to you and read your slides at the same time. Therefore, you should not show too much text on your slides. You will find that the best presenters hardly use text at all in their slides. It is useful to push technical, complicated or textual data into a handout.When you do write text on your slides, do not write out everything that you will say! Use text to write down a simple, brief statement that can serve as a summary or introduction to what you will talk about. The text must not tell the complete story – otherwise your audience would be better served if you simply emailed them your presentation. The slides should not be like subtitles on the TV – they should not be a text version of what is already coming out of your mouth.Slides should be used to support your presentation. They should not be able to stand on their own. They should not serve any purpose outside of the context of your live presentation. Presentation slides are ephemeral – something unique to that moment in time. Once your presentation is over, the purpose of your slides’ existence is over.The best slides may have no text at all. This may sound crazy given the dependency of text slides today, but the best slides will be virtually meaningless with out the narration that you provide. Remem
Team Building has come to America in a manner that theory, academic exercises or lecture can only reinforce in a seminar. We’ve illustrated it by our actions. The firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and “civilians” have reacted in a way that shows the best in people.
Everyone is helping and supporting, giving money and or blood, sending supplies, performing tasks that must be done in order to make things move somewhat smoothly in what otherwise would be a totally chaotic situation. And we do it. From psychological help to just talking with each other. We somehow realize that we need one another.
Then there are the flags. More than I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many are displayed out of respect, how many out of real patriotism and how many out of jingoism. I hope the former two far out weight the third. I glance up to read the sayings placed under old glory on the overpasses. My favorite one reads America, Diverse and Free. I think about how important it is for everyone to constantly remember that. America really is a Team, made up of all kinds of people. That’s one of the things that makes us so strong and makes so many people outside and inside our country so envious.
The seminar the next day brings those points to fore. What better example of Team Building? Instantaneously we’ve become a Team. Things go well under the circumstances that day and the next. The American Team Building has even spread to the Garden State Parkway on the 13th where motorists have pulled over, gotten out of their cars and stand next to their vehicles holding candles. It continues for miles. I leave North Jersey after more Team Building Sessions on the 14th.
The next week the haze remains to some degree. More Kenilworth Monday and Tuesday. I must say I really like the people I’m working with. They seem to realize their team building needs quite clearly and are already using some of the techniques to bring about change.
Thursday and Friday I’m in Maryland. Thursday night I go to sleep around 10:30. The workshop I’m doing starts early. Somehow I hit the pillow and I’m out, sound asleep until a blast wakes me up at who knows what time. I jump out of bed open the curtain look outside to hear sirens and see flashes of light. My hand reaches for the remote, I turn on the TV to see what has happened and there’s no signal. How my reference points have changed. Two weeks before I would have known it was thunder and lightening, now I’m not sure if it’s another attack. I figure if it is they’ll come and get me, if not I might as well make an attempt at more sleep.
At the Seminar I ask how many folks heard the thunder and how many of them thought that it was another attack. More than half the hands go up. Most of the rest slept through the noise.
The next week takes me back up to North Jersey again and Connecticut. The drive to Connecticut is strange. I leave Philly a little after 5:00 PM. I get on the Jersey Turnpike and take exit 13 Elizabeth.
In order to circumvent Manhattan I go through Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx on route 278. It gives me an incredible view of the Manhattan skyline. It’s so beautiful and majestic. I have time. The Battery Tunnel is closed. Traffic backs up and I look at the City while listening to NPR on my radio. Then I see it. The smoke is still there. The haze remains, not just in my thoughts but in the skyline. Those buildings that I ALWAYS looked for, the ones that signified that I was close to my destination were gone. All I could see were those other buildings, ones that have become familiar to me only through TV, the ones with the greenish domes that formerly were dwarfed by their neighbors, Tower One and Tower Two.
On my way home to Philly I thought about business and how those two towers had, to some degree, symbolized the motors of commerce and how their demise had slowed it down. I counted a scant eleven airplanes from central Connecticut to New York City. Eleven. How unreal. Then I realized that those eleven planes were more than I had seen in the sky in quite some time. We’ll make it I thought. A little more cautiously on one hand and a lot more determined on the other but we’ll make it.
Connecticut, Maryland and North Jersey are, for now, behind me.
Three weeks of life (and counting) filled with extreme emotions and the everyday chores we may treasure somewhat differently.
It may be me but I get the feeling that people are driving differently since the eleventh, I would even say more courteous. We seem to be a bit more grounded. Is it that we’ve been hugging our kids more often, understanding each others’ strengths and weaknesses with more tolerance, perhaps even putting our priorities in order.
What does this mean for business?
I hope it means a richer, slower more invigorating business climate. One that appreciates everyone and everything that makes our businesses work. It may mean that we have to look around at the folks we work with and tell them how much we enjoy seeing them each day, yeah, even those who used to annoy us. And perhaps it would help to smile at the people who pass us by each day, say thanks to all of those who clean our streets, pick up our trash, deliver our mail, put out our fires, protect our safety, check us out at the supermarket and sit in the offices and cubicles around us.
Maybe it really is time to put our business lives in perspective. Have more fun. Treat people with added respect. Continue the capitalist pursuit with a little smile.
Maybe it’s time to think about this amazing Team we’ve built and be thankful.
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