posterousfolio: that gut feeling we have

RiceTalesBrochure_Final.pdf Download this file

I wish we could have said we sampled lots of product to get here.
I know I had a nice feeling of satisfaction when we got through this anyway, though.

Art Director / coCreative Director: David Yu

Twitter-Owned Posterous Loses Databases, Suffers 17-Hour Outage

via thenextweb.com

My website was down for 17.5 hrs.
Since it was a Sunday, I'm assuming both my followers had better things to do.
I was in fact camping with the family and hope you were doing something similarly offline-y and Sunday-y.
The gruesome details are at:
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/07/22/twitter-owned-posterous-loses-multip...

Where’s the workplace love (aka AppreciationAtWork.com)? A Book (P)Review - @DrPaulWhite

via appreciationatwork.com

Why do companies lose people?
In a recent online presentation, Dr. Paul White cited research indicating that for 78 or 79% of people who quit a company, “lack of appreciation” is a top reason. An off-the-top-of-your-head think would probably lead you to one conclusion he presented: among companies that don’t appreciate, many have some kind of appreciation program, like an employee-of-the-month or “Dundies” or that ilk. It’s just not perceived as genuine appreciative so, ironically, it’s not so appreciated.

Dr. White offers four (4) handy hints for workplace appreciation. People feel appreciated IF:
1 it’s communicated regularly
2 it’s expressed in language relevant to the recipient
3 it’s individualized and delivered personally (i.e. not just a giftcard, but one the recipient would enjoy using)
4 it’s viewed as authentic

Dr. Paul White is the co-author The 5 Languages of Appreciation In The Workplace with Dr. Gary Chapman and presented these 5 languages*:
1 Words of Affirmation
2 Acts of Service
3 Tangible Gifts
4 Quality Time
5 Physical Touch
*not totally sure if there’s a preferred order, this was kind of reading it from the Appreciation At Work website.

If these sound familiar, it’s because Appreciation At Work is co-authored by Gary Chapman, the guy who brought us the 5 Love Languages (slightly different: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch).

A friend of mine suggested that you get the main idea of the 5 Love Languages by just knowing what the 5 Languages are. I actually read that book but tend to agree. And I’d hazard a guess that the 5 Languages of Workplace Appreciation are likely in the same boat.

The main takeaway of the whole idea, to me, is simply to give appreciation some thought when you do it, if it’s what you do. Multiplied over however many people you’re dealing with, or with staff very different from you (think introvert vs extrovert), and it can be hard work. Like love is. And like love, any given moment might not seem like it pays off, but we trust it does in the long run. There’s likely a lesson about appreciation (aka love) there beyond just the workplace.

Oh, I came across these cute freebie office tools on the book website too...

Late TV comment: #ThankGrimmItsFriday #FridayFridayFriday #Grimm #TGIF

Dana and I really like this show. It's a highlight of our new reality where we don't get out much on any night, much less a Friday.

Grimm was one of two fairy-tale-based dramas this season and rumour has it it's coming back next season. On TV last week they popped up the line "Thank Grimm It's Friday" and it cracked us up. Check out the show (google Grimm if you need to know anything beforehand) and it might crack you up too.

Posterousfolio: a website solution for finding solutions

via ettechnologiesinc.com

I wrote the content for this website, including the concept for the little flash animation intro.
Was an interesting exercise to find a solution for a solution-finder...

Art Direction: David Yu
Flash Development: Cody Nicol

posterousfolio: reading in case you're bored at the bar Pt 1

BRtent_trad.pdf Download this file

Client allowed us to do fun things with beer (there are actually a lot of aspects of beer advertising where this is not the case, somewhat surprisingly). Finally got a chance to poke some fun at Legal Disclaimers here. Overall, as fun as working with a beer client should be!

Agency: Phoenix Advertising Group
Art Director: Gillian Meyer
Creative Director: David Bellerive

late TV commentary: love, trust and #TheBachelor w Ben Flajnik

via people.com

Besides the lateness of this post (lateness is this site's modus operandi; it's my story & I'm sticking to it), the other standoutish thing about this from people that know me is that I totally don't seem like the type who'd be into something like The Bachelor. Those people are mostly right. I found myself surprised that I was as into this show's drama as I was. This seemed a unique season of the Bachelor, though...

Quick synopsis: It's a reality show called The Bachelor so you can likely guess what the deal is (as I'm essentially doing now): Bachelorettes are contestants to win the hand of the Bachelor. One or more Bachelorettes are kicked off each episode. The last episode, ideally, is the Bachelor proposing to one of the two remaining bachelorettes, that bachelorette saying Yes, and everyone living happily ever after.

I only tuned into The Bachelor at the very end of this season, starting with the penultimate episode, Women Tell All, where just about ALL the women (so my wife tells me) wanted Bachelor Ben Flajnik to pick Lindzi Cox (blonde, bubbly, rode in on a horse on their first meeting) and NOT Courtney Robertson (brunette, not as bubbly, came across as very calculated).

Shocker 1: Ben picked Courtney (she said Yes).

Shocker 2: At the After The Final Rose, months after the proposal, they hadn't been living together and she was not wearing the ring.

I'm bulleting my thoughts out based on a 3-2-1 analysis (tweaked from Dr. Paul Spate after attending his 1day workshop).

Three (3) Thoughts I Thought

1. The Bachelorettes spoke with a voice that seemed to ring true and is indeed resonating with a large part of the TV viewership: Courtney comes across as manipulative and two-faced. Rumour has it she broke a few of The Bachelor rules to get her way, including one or two around physical contact with Ben in the early weeks. Yet Ben chose her, listening to a voice very independent of this American consensus. I'm not sure who's voice it is, but it called to me a big question of how we know what's true. Granted, what the viewership sees is what is chosen through the editing process which is one carefully-selected hour a week. Still, I'd think Ben would have heard this Bachelorette consensus, one that didn't really have anything to gain by promoting Lindzi over Courtney or vice versa, would be heard with at least some ring of truth. The concept calls to mind a book I'm in the middle of, that On Truth book by Harry G Frankfurt (I know, it sounds made-up, doesn't it?...) where Frankfurt defends the importance of truth. In it, there's a neat section on Truth and Troth, an old term from which we get betrothal, in short, a couple "pledging their troth" "means that each promises to be true to the other" (p 68). So what's lingered with me, and with a lot of the audience, is that Un-true love, love with a lot of strings attached, ulterior motives and was a kind of win-at-all-costs love, won out over a love that was considerably less so.
2. Going on the record with a controversial thought: my mind went to the possibility that the conclusion was a contrivance by the show's executive powers-that-be. It's feasible, to me, that given the circumstances, Ben was told to propose to Courtney. This, after all, would be the most controversial and, therefore in the eyes of some, would make the best TV. This also provides opportunity for Lindzi to be The Bachelorette in a future incarnation of the show, one of the rumours floating around. I'm not saying this is what happened. But I'm saying it could have.
3. There was a time, probably not even not that long ago, where my wish would have been that this relationship not work out. My hope now, very likely shaped by being married with a baby now, is the complete opposite: messy and weird as the situation is, I do wish for this relationship to work. I'm not totally sure why, I just do.
   

Two (2) Questions I Still Have

1. To take this on a personal level, what can we learn from seeing a really weird example of trust on TV, and how can we use this as a basis to see how true our relationships, both lovers/family/friends and professionally, really are? The episode really evoked that all-round sense of trust and how we get it, keep it, nurture it and prevent its loss. And trust is making the rounds as an important leadership and business principle (unless I've missed the boat on that one... as a guy who set up a website based on The Late News, that is very entirely possible).
2. Does Josh Groban know his long-lost twin was The Bachelor?

One (1) TakeAway / Response / Conclusion
Bringing this one home in a weird way is to affirm the trueness of my relationships: with my wife, my baby, the rest of my family, and good friends: to stay true in word and deed, beyond just as duty to loving truth and being true in action and heart to my word(s). Seeing un-trueness and its fruit can drive us in this direction. I hope.