May Day at the Fort

May Day and Winter Solstice are two of my favorite days. I love May Day because I loved delivering flowers when I was a little kid. I remember being almost as thrilled about the prospect of driving across town to my grandparents’ house only to turn back around and come home – we didn’t stay and visit or anything! – as I was about being allowed to ring a door bell and run away. What a rush for an elementary school kid! I love Winter Solstice because it marks the moment when the days start getting longer. The idea of a minute more of sunlight each day is somehow very reassuring to me.

Every May Day, I arrive at work early and put a flower on the desk of each of my co-workers.

Yesterday, as I drove into work, I was listening to the Cluetrain Manifesto. I was at the part about businesses trying to act like forts where employees must check all personal needs at the door before entering. Coincidently, our management team had just recently talked about the amount of time employees spend on personal endeavors at work (the underlying fear that social networking sites might be diminishing productivity).

This was on my mind as I walked alone through the hundred desks at our building. I must look at these desks ten times every day. But that day, alone with my flowers, the Cluetrain Manifesto on my mind, I saw them with a different eye.

One employee had her father’s obituary taped to her cubicle wall. One had a photo of another employee in a Halloween costume staring at the camera with a silly grin and crossed eyes. One had a photo of a former co-worker who hasn’t been with us for years. One had the thank you note my daughters made for her for the socks she gave them last Christmas.

Each desk tells a story and it’s the story of the employee who sits there. And the employee who sits there is more to me than just a co-worker. It is what they do when they are not working their eight hours that makes them understandable, interesting and engaging to me.

I don’t care if my team does personal stuff at work. I don’t care because I want them to do work stuff when they are at home. Some of the best things that have happened to my company came from ideas that people had when they were not sitting at their desks in the office.

At any rate, just a small thought for the day.

But more importantly, I took my four year old around the neighborhood to drop off flowers for her first May Day. And just like her mother, she LOVED it. She loved is to much that she begged to drive to both of her aunt’s houses. And so we did.

Something tells me that May Day flower dropping was much easier in 1970’s Kennewick where the streets were wide, the traffic was light, the parking was ample and there was no such thing as car seats. But we did manage to drop of flowers and run a little bit.

Only Kate caught us.

The Call

There were several blog posts that I booked marked with the note “read+often”; the ones about getting that call from your agent. THE call. The call that takes your dream of writing a book to a reality.

My call arrived on February 8. I had been in a strategic planning session all day and the group had just gone on break. Everyone had left the room except for my best work friend, SherrySteckly.

My cell phone rang and I recognized the New York phone number. I knew before I picked it up what was about to happen.

“This is Shari,” I answered with a smile, keeping my cool.

“Hi. This is Andrea… from Harvey Klinger” (as if I didn’t know!)

“Congratulations, you have an offer.”

Everything she said after that was kind of a blur. I tried to focus, I tried to take notes, but my mind was shouting,

“I got a book deal. I got a book deal. I got a FRICKIN book deal”.

After laying out all of the details, Andrea said nicely, “I will email all of this to you”.

I hung up, hugged SherrySteckly and said outloud, “I have a book deal”.

For the rest of the day, I had to refocus on the strategic planning session. We were overviewing our credit card processing systems. It was torturous.

When I pulled out of the office and was driving home, I finally let myself think about it again. I got a book deal. I felt like the day I got my driver’s license. I remember so vividly, being 16 years old and driving down 7th Street, by myself and coming to the clear realization that my life would never be the same. I don’t know whether this book thing will end up good or bad, but I do know for sure, my life will not be the same.

I was soon to learn that I did not actually have a book deal. I had an offer for my book idea. The next few weeks were a flurry of back and forths between potential publishing houses, my agent and me.

Eventually, I signed with Thomas Dunne, an inprint of St. Martin’s Press.

The manuscript is due on July 15. After that, the publishing house decides when it will go to market. My editor (yes, I said my editor) thinks it will probably be published summer of 2009.

I’m now on the hunt for women to interview, time to get away and write, and places to promote the book. If you have advice on any of those three, please let me know!

I’m going to publish a book.

Tyranny of the Tattle Tale

Last week I got a parking ticket. I parked in the CEOs parking spot and I was ticketed an hour later.

Let me give you some background. Our CEO is the only person with a designated spot. The rest of us have a cutthroat battle every morning for the remaining spots.

Last week my boss (the CEO) was on jury duty. He has no problem with others parking in his spot when he gone. In fact, he encourages it. I parked there, knowing he would not be in, so that others could have the spot I would have otherwise used.

When I brought this up in my protest about the ticket, the Head of Parking said, “Someone reported you. I had to do something” then he went on to complain about how many employees constantly turn each other in for parking violations.

So let me get this straight, (I thought but did not say), every time someone reports a perceived parking violation, you high tail it down to the parking lot and put a huge yellow parking infraction notice on the offending car?

And you are wondering why we have a culture of watchdogs? I don’t mean to be rude but, um, duh.

That is parenting survival 101 – never give in to the tyranny of tattle tales.

I live with tattling all day.

It starts in the morning

“She got more cereal than me!”

and goes through the afternoon

“She won’t share her toys with me!”

and on through the evening

“She hit me!”

And what do I do?

In the morning I say,

“You both got the same amount of cereal. Now, pay attention to your own stuff and don’t worry about your sister’s stuff”

and in the afternoon,

I ignore it.

And through the evening

“Work it out amongst yourselves, girls”

I am trying to imagine a world where I give in to tattle tales.

In the morning, the girls’ bowls would be the size of Outback Steakhouse as I gave each one more until they were satisfied they didn’t get shorted.

In the afternoon they would never play together because they would both be in one long continuous time out.

And in the evening they would be hitting each other far more because the resentment of getting in trouble would compound the fights.

I wonder what our corporate culture would be like if instead of acting on every parking complaint, our Head of Parking said,

“If the CEO doesn’t care about his space when he is gone, then you shouldn’t either.”

Or ignored them.

Or (gasp) said, “Talk to them yourself”.

Perhaps people wouldn’t get parking tickets as they unload heavy boxes into the building, or as they run up to get the temporary parking pass, or when they park in the CEO spot after he said it was OK.

And more importantly, perhaps employees will spend more time on productive work and less time on policing parking.

I’m just sayin.

What Does Get Done?

Getting my three kids into their pajamas is a pain in the arse. Every night. A Pain.

We’ve got the sticker chart. I read the books. I watch the Nanny shows. I know these little stars beside “puts pajamas on” are supposed to motivate everyone to be good and get ready for bed. Sometimes it really works. And sometimes it doesn’t.

Several nights ago, Dave stumbled upon something brilliant – the “eeny meany miney moe game”.


The girls love playing that game for eeeeeverything. So, one night, he lined up all three of them, started with one and tapped their heads in order, saying, “eeny meany miney moe, bekah, lexie, baby jo. My mother says to take off your shirt”

And whoever got tapped on the head last took of a shirt, or took off pants, or put on pajamas, etc.

Now, every night, they want to play the eeny meany miney moe game to get out of clothes and into pajamas (some readers might be thinking this is a little too close to strip poker, but, whadya gonna do?)

Flash forward to a company meeting yesterday. We are talking about goal setting and front line direction and someone said, “What gets measured gets done”.

The thought struck me – When did this become a universally accepted fact? We all take this as being true, but is it?

When I observe my kids, I note this truism –

What is fun gets done.

Have we strayed so far from what we were as children that we spend the entirety of our day working on what our bosses are measuring and mandating?

I argue with a resounding NO.

I think we spend a greater part of our day working on the things we enjoy working on.

I’ve joked in the past that if we could get our staff to promote our checking accounts with as much gusto as they internally promote our holiday party (or annual coat drive, or quarterly blood drives), we would be bigger than Bank of America.

So what should you do about this?

Start by picking up the book First Break All The Rules. It sets a good foundation for the theory of simply letting employees do what they gravitate towards naturally.

Secondly, if you ever come across something that your employees love doing and it makes you money – take note! That is a powerful combination that should never be underestimated.

Motherhood is the New MBA Featured on Alltop

It’s funny how things come ‘round.

When I first had the idea to write my book, I started my research with Guy Kawasaki. He had just posted a list of mommyblogger sites. I promptly bought one of his books.

18 months later, he twittered that he was building a new venture called Alltop (all the top blogs, I think it stands for). He gave a call out for mommy bloggers.

I, of course, responded.

I even had an email conversation with him. It was brief, but an exchange none-the-less. He added Motherhood to his site.

This made last week an A+ for me.

Messing with Momentum

Yesterday I got mad at my husband.

We were on our way out the door. Coats were on. The potty-trained one had gone to the bathroom. The baby was strapped in the car seat. Diaper bag was packed. All shoes were on the proper feet. Doors were locked. Lights, stove, television, radios were all turned off.

Then Dave went upstairs to grab something.

On his way out of the room, he glanced at his computer.

There was one email…. Just one little email he needed to answer.

As I waited down stairs, right by the door, three girls ready to go, things started to unravel.

First the baby started to cry.

Then a coat came off.

One child strayed to the living room.

A remote was found.

Mickey Mouse appeared on the TV.

By the time Dave returned, all momentum was lost. We were perched at the moment - ready to embark on our adventure and that one little email ruined it.

When we tried to put the coat back on, one started whining because she couldn’t see the TV. The baby’s cry reached a pitch that only removing her from the car seat and giving her a bottle would solve. Upon seeing the bottle, the one not watching TV decided she was hungry too. Out came a snack….. you get the picture.

Messing with momentum is serious misstep. Not only does it harm family outings, it can be a huge detriment to business.

How many times have you worked on a team that is excited and enthused about a project and one person fails to complete a crucial step? Time passes, folks move on to other projects. Open action items linger and finally, the project dies on the vine for lack of support.

I’m working on a project like that right now. It’s a great idea and it’s something we should do, but the more time that passes from the day we all agreed to it, the weaker the commitment to complete the project becomes.

If you are leading a project team, pay special attention to momentum. Do not let one person start to undermine the project because of their inability to follow through. If one person starts falling behind, it is likely the whole group can fall apart.

If you are leading the team, it's your job to make sure coats stay on, TV stays off and everyone gets out the door without a fuss.

Two Books, One Song and Lights Out

Last night I listened to my husband as he talked through the night’s agenda with our four and two year old. They share a room and going to sleep is one of their least favorite activities.

“Two books, one song and lights out” he reminded them.

I wonder how many times he has said that phrase in the past two years. Parents know that, in order to get the family to do most things, you have to spell out expectations every step of the way. We remind our kids every night, two books, one song and lights out.

My mind wandered back to a meeting I had last week. My co-worker sent a meeting request for a one-hour meeting.

Now, I work in the most meeting oriented company I have ever known. We love us our meetings. And to us meetings = one hour. No matter how little or how much we have to decide, we book meetings for an hour.

This particular meeting should have taken 20 minutes, but because the meeting request was for one hour, everyone came to the meeting with the expectation that we were there for an hour.

It started off slow. It meandered. It went off topic. He took a long time to wrap up. The expectation had been set for an hour and the expectation was met.

Here is my advice for managers –

Learn how to run a good meeting.

All things in business start with a meeting.

All meetings should start with expectations.

I schedule a meeting for the shortest amount time I want the meeting to take. Set expectations early to be focused.

I start all meetings on time. Set expectation that everyone is prompt.

I overview the objections before any conversations begin. Set expectations for discussion.

When wrapping up, I remind everyone of their action steps and deadlines. Set expectations for execution.

Meetings might be the most misunderstood, most abused institution in the business world. Learn how to run a good meeting. It will teach you the discipline for running the rest of your business.