Business & Marketing

How Confident Are You About Your Business Direction?

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Those clever, creative and confident folks at Personality™ have put together a Confidence Evaluation that can help you, well, evaluate the confidence of your business or organization. It’s really about figuring out if your organization knows itself well enough to communicate effectively.

It’s a quick little eight-question PDF, and if you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader you can fill in your answers on the PDF, submit your info and get a free download of another PDF that thoroughly explains what you should do now that you know how confident (or not) your organization is.

It’s a pretty slick little tool and can help you begin to ask the right questions when it comes to marketing and communication. Check it out. Not only do I recommend it, but I also helped edit it (that’s my way of giving you the full disclosure).

Politics

Ignore Those ‘Elitist’ Experts

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The Democratic primary campaign is getting kind of silly. When asked to defend her plan for a summer long gas tax holiday (which will save you $28) by naming a credible economist who think it’s a good idea, Hillary Clinton said: “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists.”

So getting the opinion of experts is somehow a bad idea?

She went on to explain, “We’ve got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans.” Oh, so they’re elitist experts. Reminds me of a Jon Stewart bit from the Daily Show about how we should want the very elite running the country (“If you don’t think you’re better than us, then what the &#@% are you doing?!”). I can understand Clinton’s concern that we do what’s best for the vast majority of Americans, but I don’t think that means dismissing expert advice and accusing them of being elitist. That’s not populist, that’s paranoid. Or perhaps political.

The only thing that makes this gas tax debate more interesting is that Clinton and Republican candidate John McCain agree on it.

Society

Explaining Food Riots in Haiti

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Interesting (and lengthy) article explaining the causes and realities of the food riots in Haiti:

“Haiti doesn’t suffer from a lack of food because there’s no food, no! It is because the rich don’t understand the poor.” -Sylvie St. Fleur

A lot of it comes down to inequalities between the rich and poor, as well as big time mismanagement and corruption (within Haiti and without—U.S. aid practices share some of the blame).

Art, Society

Simple Living: Artwork for Darfur

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Nadia Plesner Darfur posterI love this painfully poignant Darfur poster from Nadia Plesner:

“My illustration Simple Living is an idea inspired by the media’s constant cover of completely meaningless things. My thought was: Since doing nothing but wearing designer bags and small ugly dogs apparantly is enough to get you on a magazine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention.”

She’s selling posters and T-shirts with the image trying to raise money and awareness for the plight in Darfur. She’s also getting sued by Louis Vuitton for using their product in her artwork.

It’s like many things I’ve come across recently that painfully remind me how wealthy I am and how easy I have it. And it demands an answer.

Society

If You Sponsor a Kid, Write to Them

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Compassion International booster Shaun Groves recently took a trip to the Dominican Republic and shared a story about an 11-year-old sponsored child named Daniel:

The conversation eventually turned to his sponsor.  Daniel said his sponsor is a man named Benny who has written him once in the last four years.  “Do you write Benny?” I asked.  “All the time,” he said.

After hearing about all the care Benny’s $32 a month provides for Daniel—education, nutrition, friendships, spiritual mentoring, medicine—I asked Daniel, “If Benny were here, what would you tell him?” I expected some variation on “thank you.” Instead, Daniel looked into our camera and said, “Write to me, please.” And that’s all.

Ouch.

I can sympathize with Benny. It’s hard to find time to sit down and write a letter, never mind the complicated issues involved in corresponding with a child in a foreign country who you’re supporting. I’ve talked about that difficulty before. But I think the only solution is to suck it up and do it. It’s going to be hard and awkward to forge a relationship, but that’s the only way to do it.

So if you do sponsor a child, I encourage you to drop them a line. I think building that relationship is a way to open your heart and start to do more than just send your $32 a month. Sending that monthly amount is huge, but we’re in trouble if we think that’s enough. Compassion International even has an online form you can use to send them a note and make it easier.

Twin Cities

City Pages’ Best of the Twin Cities 2008

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The City Pages recently released their Best of the Twin Cities list for 2008. I’m always eager to see who made the cut, but as I get into it I’m usually disappointed. It seems like you have to be way too hip to get all the jokes and references and be way too social (and rich) to actually experience all the best of’s.

Though they do offer a Google map, which is pretty cool (and lets you visually see the hipness centered around Minneapolis).

Transportation

Dealing with High Gas Prices

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A few years ago gas prices started rising and people started noticing. Back then I was paying $2.69 and griping. Yesterday I paid $3.41. I’m starting to see more and more stories about rising gas prices, but it’s curious that three years ago there was a flurry of gas price hysteria. The prices stayed high but the hysteria faded away. I guess people just got used to paying more.

But now that we are paying more (and noticing again—44% say gas prices are a ‘serious problem’), the hysteria seems warranted. Well, maybe not hysteria (like Minnesota Republicans who blame Democrats for high gas prices, pointing to the 8.5-cent hike in the gas tax, of which only 2 cents has been phased in so far) but at least some sensible action would be wise. Let’s take a look at a few smart ways you can deal with the high price of gas:

Top 25 Ways to Save at the Pump – My friend Steve Knight offered this list back in 2005, full of practical tips to get more of out your gas.

Buy a Super MPG Car – Forget the hybrid, if you really want good gas mileage, you need a Geo. MPR featured this St. Cloud, Minn., mechanic who fixes up old Geos and sells them to people looking for cars with better fuel economy. Many of his cars get 50 mpg or better.

Join the Hypermilers – Or you could join the folks who squeeze every last drop of fuel efficiency out of their cars by changing their driving habits and score eye-popping miles-per-gallon. Some of these measures are dangerous, but the basic idea of slowing down, letting your car coast, and avoiding hard accelerating or braking is smart and effective.

Hybrid Schmybrid – You could switch to diesel. Or grease.

If gas prices still have you down, you can always take the bus.

Domicile

Rummagepalooza ’08

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This weekend we had our massive rummage sale.

This weekend it snowed.

That’s the way it goes sometimes (though not usually in April). It rained and snowed and blowed all day Saturday, so we had to set up inside. We had rummage on our porch, our living room, our kitchen and the garage was packed (furniture stacked on furniture).

People actually turned out on Saturday despite the weather. We did pretty well.

On Sunday I pulled out my long johns again for round two and we had some sunshine. We were able to spread out a bit, but the crowds were much thinner. We probably made three times more on Saturday (lesson: don’t do a garage sale on Sunday).

In the end the effort was very successful, but we only moved about a third of our rummage. I think we’ll probably end up doing it another weekend, hopefully a more seasonable weekend.

My favorite part of the weekend was a little girl who bought a mini stapler for a quarter and walked around saying, “Staple, staple, staple,” pretending to staple everything, and a guy who told me a story about a goat that liked to get drunk.

A big thanks to everyone who donated stuff and came out for the sale.

Society

“Take My Children: Just Feed Them”

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A New York Times report from last week on the worldwide foot riots included this heart-breaking bit at the end:

Meanwhile, most of the poorest of the poor suffer silently, too weak for activism or too busy raising the next generation of hungry. In the sprawling slum of Haiti’s Cité Soleil, Placide Simone, 29, offered one of her five offspring to a stranger. “Take one,” she said, cradling a listless baby and motioning toward four rail-thin toddlers, none of whom had eaten that day. “You pick. Just feed them.”

A few related links:

Food Riots Begin: Will You Go Vegetarian – A quick piece suggesting vegetarianism (or at least partial vegetarianism) as a small, personal step to ease hunger—comparable to other “green” practices like compact fluorescents and canvas grocery bags. It’s an idea my wife recommended and while it doesn’t have a direct impact, at the very least it lets us act in solidarity with hungry people around the world.

Oxfam: What Can Be Done – Relief and development organization Oxfam has a section talking about what can be done, including reevaluating U.S. food aid, biofuel and more.

World Vision Canada Cuts Aid – Due to soaring food prices World Vision Canada will be feeding 23% fewer people this year. (Unfortunately the article and World Vision’s site don’t say what people like us can do to help. I assume donations, but you’d think there’d be more.)

America’s Role in Haiti’s Hunger Riots – An alarming article claiming U.S. farm subsidies and aid policies contributed to Haiti’s agricultural collapse and food riots. (Take it with a grain of salt: It comes from Truthout, a site described as “an anti-Bush landfill that masquerades as a bastion of news credibility”—of course that comes from a site that describes itself as “the only site on the web devoted exclusively to intellectual conservatism,” so you figure out who to believe.)

Business & Marketing

Youngstown, Ohio, Embraces Shrinkage

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I love this story of Youngstown, Ohio, embracing their dwindling population and lack of growth:

Youngstown, Ohio, has seen its population shrink by more than half over the past 40 years, leaving behind huge swaths of empty homes, streets and neighborhoods.

Now, in a radical move, the city—which has suffered since the steel industry left town and jobs dried up—is bulldozing abandoned buildings, tearing up blighted streets and converting entire blocks into open green spaces. More than 1,000 structures have been demolished so far.

It’s sad for the town and all the people who have lost jobs and homes, but at some point you have to accept the fact that growth isn’t happening and try something else.

“We’re one of the first cities of significant size in the United States to embrace shrinkage,” said [Mayor Jay] Williams.

I talk a lot about how continual growth doesn’t always work, and I think this is a good example. Despite the hardship, it’s cool to see something new rising out of the city. It won’t be as big, but that’s OK. Bigger isn’t always better.

A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.