It's the end of the world as we know it?

You probably have read that some people think the the Mayans predict the world will end on December 21. If you are reading this on December 22, congrats! we're still here!

Now, I have no idea if the world will end but thought it would be good to be prepared with songs to listen to.  You can't have an event like this without a soundtrack. So here they are, the songs to listen to as the world ends.

'Till the World Ends - Britney Spears

Buy

You need to dance, so dance until the world ends...

Santa Monica(Watch the World Die) - Everclear

Buy

Love this song...We can live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind, swim out past the breakers, watch the world die

If Tomorrow Never Comes - Garth Brooks

Is the love I gave her in the past going to be enough to last if tomorrow never comes

End of the World - The Cure

  

Buy   

Robert Smith - enough said

1999 - Prince

Buy   

Party like it's 1999, then do it again

It's the End Of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - REM

Buy                

Great song by a great band

Christmas at Ground Zero - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Buy

Just too much fun!

What song(s) would you listen to? Drop a note in the comments.

I didn't travel over a 100 miles to be here

So here are some old jokes.

Q: How does a consultant answer the question "What time is it?"
A: "Can I have your watch?" (looks at watch) "It's 2:30"

Q: What is the difference between a consultant and an expert?
A: An expert traveled more than a 100 miles to tell you an answer you already knew.

Okay, before any of my consultant friends get upset, I love each and everyone of you.

I was asked the other day what I do for a living. My answer "I'm a practitioner of service management". Of course, the follow up question was "You're what?" So I went into explaining what I do. After a few minutes of discussion, my friend said "Oh, so you are like a consultant". I immediately said "No".

As I'm sure you have noticed, doctors are much like consultants. We tell a doctor our needs(ailments) and they suggest a course of action. The difference is a doctor calls what they do a "practice". If you Goolge this phrase (http://bit.ly/YSQLkD) you will find a myriad of mostly comical and a few honest attempts to answer the question. Quora has the best answer IMHO (http://b.qr.ae/Tw4My5). The word 'practice' refers to "exercise or pursue as a profession, art or occupation". The doctor is a "practitioner" (noun) who is trained in the medical practice. While the doctor does consult, his/her main job is to use knowledge to try to help improve the situation for the patient.

I am a practitioner. I practice service management. As a practitioner I must study, read, research, investigate, discuss service management. This does not mean I perfectly understand all parts of service management or that I will help build service architecture correctly on the first attempt. It certainly does not mean that I'm an "expert" either. Nor does it mean that I have to accept the "status quo" because it is written in a book. The essence of being a practitioner is continuing to work your craft until you have a suitable solution for your situation. You may fail many times and that is okay. Get up, dust yourself off, learn from the failure, try again. Or more simply put, keep on practicing.

Driving and...

There has been a really big push recently to promote no texting while driving. This is critical, and in my opinion, everyone should sign the pledge. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Here are some other photos of things we should rethink doing while driving.


Just remember that every time you get behind the wheel, everyone else on the road is your customer. All they expect is for you to drive your car with precision, 100% of the time. Let's meet this expectation of our customers!

Pole Valuting

So let's imagine that it's Monday morning. You come into work and your boss catches up with you to tell you about a new project. Your goal, jump over a bar that is 18' in the air. The process? Grab a long stick, run a fast is you can down toward the bar, jab the stick in the ground, and use your momentum to propel yourself up and over the bar.

No big deal, right? And how many of us would willingly do this?

I don't know what possesses someone to compete in the pole vault. I mean, who in their right mind would do this?

Okay, I'm guilty. I tried it once. Snapped the pole (no, I don't have pictures). Seems there is also a required component dealing with body mass (and I had way too much of it at the time). Of course, that experience taught me that maybe I should stick to shot put and discus. But some people look at the pole vault and say "no problem".

The interesting thing is that we ask people to pole vault all the time. "Can you cut a day off delivery?" "Raise customer satisfaction." "Our goal is to be a world class organization." So, do you run faster, plant the pole better, learn how to drive off your knee to get move bend in the pole, or push off the pole at a better apex? Or do you go "...we can't do that..."?

The cool thing about pole vaulters are they are never afraid to fail. If they are afraid, you can almost guarantee they will miss. When they are not afraid, the may miss, but they know what it takes to succeed.

The simple questions for us:

• Are we picking the right people to be 'pole vaulters'?
• Are we willing to allow our pole vaulters to fail in order to learn how to succeed?
• Are we setting up our pole vaulters to succeed?
• Are our pole vaulters 'afraid' to vault?

Good luck in your jumping and here's to clearing the bar!

One simple thing

Usain Bolt

The fastest man in the world. The only person to ever win back to back 100m and 200m Olympic gold medals. World record holder. Mr. Bolt has every reason to be proud of his accomplishments, every reason to talk about how great he is, every reason to feel superior. He could easily have "an attitude".

But take a look at this - http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/watch-usain-bolt-make-an-olympic-volunteers-l

It was only a fist bump. It became an incredible memory. A joyous moment.

Usain Bolt made a volunteer's day with just a fist bump.

What a great management lesson he gave us. There are many people who work for us and help us achieve our goals. Let's remember it's sometime the simple things that bring joy.

Well done Mr Bolt. Well done.

Service Management at Home

My wife and I have never had a fight. No, I'm serious. We have not yelled, threaten, or anything like that. In fairness we do get mad at each other and disagree of various topics but we always tend to work things out. A friend of mine made a casual statement about how he had forgotten to do something and it led to a "shouting match" at home. Another friend (@helpdesk_info) posted that "another day of rushing to do all the things she forgot to get for Sam's party...I need a ticketing system for home with SLA features". That got me to thinking about how I could use a ticketing system for home and how that could lead to a more pleasant home environment.

For everyone who just rolled your eyes or went, "yeah, right", you already have a incident/request system. It's called a "honey do" list. So my question is how effective is it? Do things get done? Do you forget things? Does not doing something or forgetting something lead to stress or fights? How do you know what is the most important thing on the list to do? When do things need to be done?

This bit me last night. My son went out our front door. The storm door handle has been loose for sometime and has always been one of those "I'll get around to it" items (full disclosure, I'm a bit of procrastinator). As my son went out the door, the handle popped off followed immediately by "Why haven't you fixed this?" My answer is simple, it is not a priority for me, I rarely go out the front door. But then I was reminded that I had not changed the burned out light bulb in the bathroom and forgot to take the trash to the curb. I sighed and promised to do better (do I sound like any of your employees?)

The problem - I keep the list in my head. It is impossible to do the "right thing at the right time"

Solution? I'm going to implement an home incident/request management system. I feel this will help me track the things that need to get done, the priorities, and time frames. Going to put it to the test so check back here in a few weeks and I'll update on the progress and challenges.

It's a trap!

It is one of the most popular lines from any of the "Star Wars" movies and has become an internet meme. "IT'S A TRAP!" is shouted by Admiral Ackbar as the rebel fleet is caught in an ill timed offensive assault. The phrase has been rattling around in my head over the weekend. Here's why.

I spent last week at one of my all time favorite events, the HDI Annual Conference & Expo. The event is filled with great session, the most wonderful people you will ever meet, and keynote addresses that simply inspire and motivate. I always come away from the conference with many ideas (both professional and personal) and somewhat anxious to implement the ideas. This is where my trap happens.

I walk right into it every time. I believe I can make a change and get excited. I think and form a plan, determine resources, go over how to execute. Then it starts....

You can't do this
Nobody will support you
Don't rock the boat
This idea is only important to you, nobody else will care

Defeated before I ever start, simply because, I walk into my own trap.

One thing I learned this week at HDI is that I am my own worst enemy. That's a hard thing for me to admit. I'm not always positive, convince myself of things that may (or may not) be true, and generally "beat" myself up. I don't know why I do this.

I do know this. I have a lot of great friends. Friends that care enough to tell me the truth. Friends that keep me honest. Friends that want to see me succeed.


It is my responsibility to change. I'm going to determine how to be positive. Because I know that I will struggle with this, I ask you, my friends, to help keep me accountable. I am going to be positive! I'm not walking willingly into any more traps.

Disruptive technologies

The computer. The telephone. The television. The car. The wheel.

Each upset the status quo. Each changed the how humans view the world.
Each can be used for good or evil.

It always interesting to see the reaction of people when something new is introduced. Many do not want something new or something different. Many will spend their time railing against the change in hopes of keeping the change from ever happening.

"Don't rock the boat" "Leave well enough alone" "It is a good as it will ever get" "You'll never make that happen" Common phrases of those who do not want change.

Do not be afraid of change. Take a chance. Be smart and take a risk.

Rock the boat, my friends. Rock the boat.

Culture

If you asked you're team what customers think about their service delivery, do you get answers like:
"I think we're doing okay", "We don't get many complaints", "That's the way it's been for years"

Not ringing endorsements for your team or your service delivery.

Do you have a culture of metrics? storytelling? excellence?
Does your team believe you have a great culture?