Apr 282007

Janine sent this via e-mail, but I refuse to fill inboxes with this stuff. But the blogosphere? Oh, yeah!

What time is it? 12:47pm

What are you most afraid of? Republicans

What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater? “The Queen”

Where were you born? Hannibal, MO

What’s your favorite food? I hate playing favorites, but I’m going with popcorn.

What’s your natural hair color? Red.

Ever been to Alaska? No, it’s too cold.

Ever been toilet paper rolling? Not sure what this is, but it sounds like fun for 12 y.o.’s

Ever love someone so much it made you cry? Yeah.

Ever been in a car accident? Twice.

Croutons or bacon bits? Croutons. I don’t eat ze little piggies.

What’s your favorite day of the week? Saturday. So full of possibility, and so, so far away from Monday.

What’s your favorite restaurant? Wow…hmmm. I don’t have one, and that’s the truth. I am looking, however.

What’s your favorite flower? Bluebonnets. Texas was littered with them and it almost made me like Texas. Almost.

What’s your favorite sport to watch? Baseball.

What’s your favorite drink/s? Diet Coke and lots of it.

What’s your favorite ice cream? Vanilla. It has so much possibility.

Disney or Warner Brothers? Warner Brothers. Disney is too sugary sweet for my delicate sensibilities.

Have you ever been on a ship? Several. Radiance of the Seas was the last one.

What color is your bedroom carpet/flooring? I have wood floors…so they’re brown, natch!

How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Passed the first time.

Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? Bridget.

What do you do when you are bored? Shop. Create new Web ventures.

What time is bedtime? Some time after 11.

What’s your favorite TV show? ANTM. It’s like a trainwreck.

Who is the last person you went to dinner with? Mark.

What is your favorite vacation spot? Someplace warm & sunny. Don’t feel I’ve traveled enough to have a favorite.

What are your favorite colors? Orange

How many tattoos do you have? Nada

How many pets do you have? Nada

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Philosophy bores me.

What do you want to do before you die? Clean out my inbox and hide the porn.

Have you ever been to Hawaii? No, but it’s on the list & meets the warm and sunny requirement

Have you been to countries outside the U.S.? How many? Yes, 10 or so.

How many people are you sending this e-mail to? I’m blogging! It’s the here & now, baby!

Type the first word that comes to mind: Lugnutty

Texas Mountain Laurel - didn't have a good pic of bluebonnets

Texas Mountain Laurel - didn't have a good pic of bluebonnets

Apr 232007
Taking a very important call

Taking a very important call

I just returned from an internal conference filled with outside speakers, panel sessions and smaller group presentations. Sessions were live-blogged, table topics at lunch were encouraged, and evening activies were planned.

Did all of this produce engagement and knowledge exchange? I’m not sure. I think some of it resonated with people, and it seemed to be an improvement over past conferences. Still, people just didn’t seem to open up and talk about what they did and what made their jobs work.

However, I did have an interesting conversation with a colleague one evening in the hotel bar that I think was a good example of knowledge exchange between peers – war stories. Everyone has a war story, something that typifies an experience and proves that you can hold forth on a topic. My colleague and I talked for a couple hours. We started with the war stories, but then it gradually moved into a more positive, productive discussion about our jobs and how to improve them. It also gave me a better appreciation of his situation. Even though we hold the same jobs, how we’re able to perform them varies because of where we are in the organization. For me, it was the best part of the conference.

Now I’m left wondering how to build a conference that starts with war stories and moves to that sense of engagement between peers. Open space conferencing is one solution I know of, but I think it requires an atmosphere that’s more open than a typical corporate environment. Has anyone tried it in a corporate setting? What was your sucess? Any other suggestions?

BTW, I came across this paper that discusses “soft” knowledge management practices, like war stories, in organizations.

Apr 232007
R2D2 shills for the USPS

R2D2 shills for the USPS

No robots were harmed in the making of this blog entry.

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