Category Archives: Helpful Hints

July 30, 2013 · 8:46 am

Goosebumps

Today for our TunesDay song, let’s consider an entire genre of them.  The unfortunate thing is that no two people would agree as to which songs qualify for this classification so I’m going to talk about one which does for me.  You can take it from there with a song of your own choosing.

I was driving back from a meeting yesterday afternoon when Tom Waits‘ Jersey Girl came on.  Of course, it was the live version by The Boss which I’ve loved from the moment I saw it live in 1981 as Bruce opened the new arena in the Meadowlands.   Danny Federici‘s organ sounds like the calliope on the boardwalk – the carnival referred to in the lyrics – and the  backing vocals sound like a great doo-wop group singing on some corner as their sound drifts up into the night air.  The song gives me goosebumps every single time I hear it – every hair on my arm stands up.  It’s a strange and wonderful physical reaction brought on by the power of the music.  Which is, of course, the business point.

We should all be trying to achieve that reaction in what we do.  In many ways, goosebumps – piloerection for you scientific types – is a reflex left over from our animal pasts.  It’s something that happens in response to strong emotions such as those music inspires that touch us deeply.   It’s an obvious goal for any of the arts – film, culinary, or otherwise – but why not, say, industrial design?  I imagine some people had that response the first time they handed the first iPhone or saw a high-def plasma TV for the first time.

Maybe shoes move you.  Maybe it’s a brilliantly written analysis of last month’s sales.  Whatever we produce, I think I’m putting the goosebump standard up there with the Dylan standard I use when discussing musical acts (will my grandchildren listen to and discuss this artist and if not, are they really worth the time?).  Sure it’s a lofty goal – but why not set the bar high?

Touching people’s emotions in ways of which they’re maybe not even conscious is a guarantee to success in business and life.  How are you going to do that today?

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July 29, 2013 · 10:18 am

Being Fearless

I played (badly) in a golf tournament over the weekend and on the heels of that I saw an article that triggered some business thinking.

Tigers fight

(Photo credit: @Doug88888)

The piece was from last week and was on ABC News’ site.  It is about a paper written, as it turns out, in 2010 by a professor at the Kellogg School of Management and concerns what the author called the “Tiger Woods Effect” (you knew it would relate to golf, didn’t you?).  The author – Jennifer Brown – explained it this way to the Wall Street Journal:

Ms. Brown argues that the superstar effect is not just relevant on the golf course. Instead, she suggests that the presence of superstars can be “de-motivating” in a wide variety of competitions, from the sales office to the law firm. “Most people assume that competing against an elite performer makes everyone else step up their game and perform better,” Ms. Brown says. “But the Tiger Woods data demonstrate that the opposite can also occur. It doesn’t matter if the superstar is an athlete or a corporate vice president. After all, why should we invest a lot of energy in a tournament that we’re probably going to lose?”

Do we set ourselves up for failure by surveying the competitive landscape and recognizing the presence of some superstars in our competitive area or is that motivation to beat them?  I always make the distinction between losing and being beaten.  The latter is easier to swallow in my book – you did your best and someone was better that day.  Losing, however, stings – we know we were capable of so much more and didn’t perform.

It’s an easy out to discount your chances due to the presence of a superstar brand or firm or individual.  Mike Tyson used to win a lot of his fights without throwing a punch because his opponents would see him across the ring and a look of fear would cross their faces.  Pre-game trash talking is, in my mind, as much about bringing the opponent down to your level as it is false bravado.

We need to be fearless.    Even superstars have a bad day.  Once Tiger’s veil of invulnerability was lifted due to him being beaten on the course and his troubles off of it, the rest of the field recognized that they could win no matter what he did.  That was the case all along, by the way – they just stopped beating themselves.

What will it be?  The choice is yours.

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July 26, 2013 · 8:46 am

You’re Making Me Hot

Foodie Friday, and while I apologize for the link bait title, the topic this week is heat.  More specifically, high heat and why it terrifies some people.  If you’re going to be a serious cook at all, you must learn to harness the power of high heat.  My cooktop puts out more BTU‘s than does my furnace, and I had to relearn to cook on it.  Having done so, I can tell you that using the blazing hot setting is a revelation.  Turns out it has business implications too!

Ever had something fried that’s just greasy and awful?  Of course you have.  That probably happened because the cook  dunked it in oil that was not hot enough and the food just soaked up  the oil instead of getting a crust.  You need high heat – well, the PROPER high heat – when you’re frying (if it’s too hot for the oil you’re using, you get a fireball right out of Apocalypse Now but that’s another story).

It’s that way in business too.  Some projects need to be nurtured along, using the medium heat setting, just as most foods do better when you use medium to medium-high heat.  In the kitchen and in the office,  the lower the heat, the more control you have over the process. Lower heat tends to cook food more evenly – all parts of the item are even in temperature at consistent, even rates.

That’s how most projects get done too. But I love using high heat at times in business and while cooking.  The reality is that there are only a few specific  tasks or foods that ever require hellish levels of intense  heat. They end to be the real high-end stuff:  pan-seared steaks like T-bone and New York strip or brilliant, temperamental clients.  You want to flash-fry certain sides like zucchini or stir fries.  You need to blast through great ideas and test them via intense high heat to see if they can stand up.  One caution:  you have to worry about burning down the house or the office if you don’t pay attention and leave a high intensity effort unattended.

Be judicious about using it.  You wouldn’t fry an egg  this way.  Cooked over high heat the egg becomes  crunchy at the edge while too runny in the center, and a chicken breast (putting aside those that are pounded or butterflied and can be cooked in 2 minutes) tossed into a scorching hot pan seizes up and has a stringy texture.  Some clients or consumers or partners react badly to intense heat as well and it’s something you need to asses before you ruin the relationship just as you might scorch a sugary marinade in a too-hot pan.  Speaking of pans, you must have the right tools – pans that can hold up and a team that can hold up too, but once you know how to use it, it’s intoxicating.

Me?  I prefer it hot.  I like that I have to pay a lot of attention.  I can stand the heat.  Can you?

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