I was going to save this video clip (a rant on my part, shot off my deck in LA) for the book launch in September -- but I cannot contain the message! Please check out this video and pass it on. I'll likely repost it in September again.
Talk the Walk Video Clip
Leave it up to researchers at Harvard to prove the impossible: Email overload is good.
Harvard study suggests email overload gives us a unique perspective
What do you think? Has email given you a unique lens to see the world in ways your parents couldn't? Chirp in some comments or post to the my dedicated email excellent blog!
Visit EmailAtoZ for more ideas on how to iimprove your digi-communications.
Tomorrow night, I'll be a guest on the Dave Ramsey show on FOX Business.
He and I will talk about business relationships, email etiquette and the importance of developing emotional talent.
Check here to see if your city gets this show on Direct TV.
A call, that is.
On July 1, driving while talking on a mobile phone (without hands free) is illegal. Hurrah! I wish they would have legislated against driving while talking on a mobile phone PERIOD.
It's not so much that one hand used to hold a receiver is the issue, its the distracting conversation that we engage in that makes us terrible drivers. According to a University of Utah study, cell phone talking drivers are no better than drunk drivers at operating a car. The researcher's recommendation? Don't drive and talk at the same time.
I came to this realization a few years ago, and now unless it is a very urgent situation, I don't talk on the phone while I drive. I make all my calls before I leave home/office, etc. One practice I've been doing is to think about a call I might need to make in the time window of an upcoming drive, and make that call before I get into the car. I call it "one more for the road".
Honestly, most of our in-transit calls are low quality, irrelevant and silly. We make those calls because we can, and we love to multi-task. The reality is that we don't need to use the phone while we drive; anymore than we need to read the paper, knit or do crossword puzzles.
As I've said before, going green is a journey up Mount Sustainability -- not something easily accomplished with a few tweaks.
Whether you are a company, or just an individual, you must continually innovate to maximize your green-ness. The best way to do this is by focusing on a single weekly innovation. Think about everything you do as you do your workaday, and isolate areas where you can reduce your impact on the planet.
This week's innovation is to reduce the printing that I create via my documents. Frequently, we author presentations (PowerPoint or PDF) that, if printed by the recipient, could create a massive print job. Each page we use makes a difference, so I'm beginning to review my outgoing documents to make sure that I've reduced the page count -- making each page beg for its life. If the document is 3 pages, and the third page is just one paragraph, I reformat the document to expand margins or reduce the footer/header to turn it into 2 pages. Same goes with power points. I send them out in handout format, fitting 2 to 4 on a page if my recipients hit the print button without thinking.
Finally, I've started to use GreenPDF to add a little tag to my PDFs, encouring my recipients not to print out the document unless they need too.
If the automakers can green up by reducing how much gas they force their customers to use, I can think the same way as an information worker.
While I'm pretty excited about this new idea, it is only one of 50 that I need to come up with this year. I'll give myself two weeks off this year for good behavior.
Have you had an eco-innovation this week that you'd like to share? Post it in comments, and maybe, one of this blog's readers will adopt it as their weekly eco-breakthrough.
Today I'm reading my audio book (Saving The World At Work).
It's a 2.5 day grueling recording process, but very instructive. Of course, I'm making friends as I work. My newest BFF is the Tony Hudz, the producer of the project. Over the last few days, I've learned alot from Tony about the value of enunciation, correct word pronunciation and 'the beats'.
I'm also learning that, when you use your hands to communicate, you communicate with more feeling and accuracy. Over the course of the day(s), I've noticed that when I'm attempting to explain myself (to a listening audience), I still use my hands. Tony and I worried that these gestures might be hurting the recording quality by creating distracting noise or blocking the path to my mic.
When I glued my hands to my side, the producer told me I was going flat. By locking up my arms, I locked up a part of my expressiveness -- and it make an audio difference. I returned to using my hands, except I did so without waving them in front the mic. My energy was back!
This was a flash for me, because now I know why I have such better calls when I'm hands free. Because my hands are free to gesture and visually articulate, I'm more likely to get 'in conversation flow'. In these calls I'm doing a better job 'coming across' and conveying my intentions.
Take this idea into account when you think about having an important call with both hands glued to the wheel. It's like having an emotional muzzle on you. Think about it the next time you have an important call, interview or recording that requires an expressive audio performance. From now on, I'm going hands free whenever possible. And I mean free!
Today, the first of many "BBQ polls" came out, giving Oboma a slight lead over McCain.
These polls ask voters a simple question: "If you were having a BBQ this Sunday, which candidate would you invite?" While it may seem trivial, according to Gallup, this poll has predicted the winner in tight presidential elections since 1976.
Why? People vote for candidates they like. In fact, if you like a candidate enough, you'll assign them political beliefs or a stand on an issue that they might not actually possess. Researchers call this "voter attribution error." This jives with my research for The Likeability Factor (a few DVDs are still available). If you boost your L-factor, you not only become more electable -- you become much for successful in business too.
How's your BBQ rating? Download a free L-Factor assessment and see for yourself.
I had a speaking engagement last week in Sao Paulo Brazil at the World Management Conference. I flew in via a red eye, had one day on the ground and flew a red eye to my next gig in Chicago. I didn't get sick, and no one in Chicago told me I looked like hell, which I should have after 10 straight days of travel.
How did I keep myself healthy? I ate local fruit, drank a alot of water and got every second of sleep I could find. It was a recipe for road warrior health.
Where's the fruit? Everywhere. I took the above picture at the elevator. At this hotel (WTC Hotel), every floor offered an array of fresh fruit. I avoided any fast food or plane food and wrote down everything I ate (which improves my self-monitoring).
Wherever you travel, look for fresh fruit: hotel lobbies, convenience stores, restaurants. It is the secret to dealing with jet lag.
PS -- My second book (The Likeability Factor) came out in Brazil last week. It was exciting to see it in Sao Paulo book stores, in between Gladwell's Blink and The Secret!
Actually, right now I'm snacking on a carrot.
My brain says, why not some chips, but Michael Pollan’s brilliant new book (In Defense Of Food) suggests otherwise.
In this provocative and life saving book, he explains why being nutrition minded isn’t enough. In fact, most ‘nutritious’ products give us heart disease, diabetes and colon cancer.
What’s his big idea? Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
This isn’t what you think, another veggie-mad book. This is the science of a human’s synergistic relationship with whole foods. It has already changed my point of view and saved my bacon over the last week – where I lived in airports 8 days straight.
This is the same wonderful author that brought us The Botany Of Desire, the coolest book ever written on how plants can teach us a thing or two about branding and competing for scarce resources. His style is journalist meets indie-pundit, and reads well alongside The Tipping Point or Freakonomics.
This isn’t a diet book, it’s a paradigm shifter.
Today, I'm speaking at a job recruiting event for my good friends at Career Builder. I'm talking abou the importance of social responsibility and purpose in retaining and motivating talent. To illustrate its long term truth, I'm telling the Christopher Wren story. Here's a video, where you can check it out too. Talk to your boss about this and make sure you are giving your people an opportunity to build a cathedral -- not just make a living.
