Note: This article is one I was asked to write on behalf of San Miguel Catholic Middle School. It will be appear as part of a newsletter to parents, donors, community members and students.

The small group of half a dozen students gathered in the studio art room at Bishop Kelly High School shifted in their seats a bit as they contemplated the question they’d just been asked: “What would have been different if you hadn’t been a San Miguel student?” The most interesting thing about their answers is how closely they mirrored one another… and how much the prospect of what might have been different bothered them.

In each case, the young men and women, all juniors or seniors at BKHS and among the earliest San Miguel Tulsa middle school graduates, felt their middle school years taught far more than English and science…  they learned believe in themselves, to push themselves, to achieve.

“We were always encouraged to believe in the possibilities and to be committed to our goals,” said Juan. “It was just expected that we could, and so we did,” he said.

Joe O’Connor, President of San Miguel, understands. “That’s the mission, and it matters. Our students see success and it feeds on itself. We hold our students accountable for achieving, we support them all along the way and we don’t give up on them.” Students say that the accountability makes a difference. “We knew we couldn’t give up, we had to keep pushing and believe we could do it [be a graduate],” said Carlos.

The seniors and some of the juniors gathered for the interview now have goals they found nearly impossible to contemplate six years ago… college degrees and professional career paths. Some have already earned scholarships to their college of choice. With plans from international business to architecture, their horizons are as wide now as they want them to be… and every student in the room said being selected to attend San Miguel made the difference. Some are the first high school graduates in their families and are leading the way for their younger brothers and sisters and their community. Many return regularly to San Miguel for service projects and serve as leaders to the student community as they manifest the mission of believing in the possibilities inherent in each student. All demonstrated the politeness and respect that I’ve noticed are hallmarks of San Miguel students during the many visits I’ve made to the school over the past few years.

San Miguel students arrive early, stay late (study hall until 5 pm is mandatory) and depend on each other and their teachers to make it through the rigorous education. Parents provide service hours to the school, transport kids on trips, cook meals and attend conferences… last year saw a 100% participation rate from parents at parent-teacher conferences. The result is an education that changes more than the knowledge base of a student. It’s an education that changes the possibility base of each student… expanding the opportunities in the whole community along the way. It’s the heart of long-term economic development and growth and it makes a tangible difference in the lives of every family the school touches.

San Miguel is funded almost entirely through donations, and those donations change lives in very real ways. Please consider helping to fund the mission of San Miguel to provide a private, Catholic education to impoverished and underprivileged children, regardless of race or religion.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Blake Ewings’ closing keynote at last weeks’ Social Media Tulsa conference. One of the key takeaways for me was this statement:

It doesn’t mean only “tweet positive” but it does mean when sending thoughts, links, info etc. out into the world, we should all be mindful of the larger effect. It’s easy to say, “If you wouldn’t want your Mom to know, don’t post it,” but really, most of us feel a little more insulated in our online worlds than that. We use the public conversation to share our private frustrations. Sometimes, before we’ve taken the time to try to solve them privately. I have been guilty of this…

I’m still processing how and what I want to change about how I participate in the public conversation. What kind of social responsibility comes with a larger-than-average audience online? Mine isn’t anything like the superstars of the Interwebs, but it’s exponentially larger than the “average Jane” on Twitter, Facebook, etc. What obligations does that, or should that, entail as far as sharing?

And… based on some feedback I’ve already gotten on this post… does being more human actually give you more of a voice? Do people just care more if they “know you?” My instincts and experience tell me yes.

Like I said, still processing… and interested to hear your thoughts!

Ok, so here we are. It’s the first Monday of 2011. Did you greet it with your “typical Monday” attitude? Maybe even a tad worse because you may be coming back to work after a few days off for the holidays? Sometimes the excitement of the New Year is hard to hold onto after the champagne headache wears off. Here are a few thoughts on this first Monday of the new year:

Monday is not the enemy. Mornings are not the enemy. Here’s why…
“Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living creatively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in a striving toward an important goal.” -Maxwell Maltz

Don’t make your New Year’s resolutions about the same things you know you want, in a generic sort of way, but don’t want enough to make the changes necessary to get them. You know… like, “This year I will lose 20 pounds!” Make them about living creatively. What needs to change in your life, externally and internally, so that Mondays are not about that empty, I-hate-Monday-mornings feeling? What will it take for Mondays to be the bringers of opportunity, promise, ideas and energy? It’s possible, even for those who are not “morning people,” to love Monday mornings. Well, maybe not love… but at least to greet Monday with a welcoming smile instead of a growl.

For me, Monday mornings are best when I take thirty minutes sometime Sunday evening and get ready for Monday. I make some notes, one of my ubiquitous lists, and go through emails, calendar appointments, etc. so I can start off Monday on pace, on schedule, prepared. It’s sometimes the only time the whole week I feel ready, prepared, in control of my day. I happen to love Monday mornings…. true story, that.

Another way to think of “living creatively” is to just live an examined life. Stop rolling through your days one after another without introspection and that crucial inner dialogue that keeps us true to our beliefs, our values, our very selves.

• Take some time to tune into the thoughts and needs of others, whether they’re family or strangers.
• Connect to your larger world.
• Connect to your inner world.
• Think about why you care about what you care about.

The busyness and business of our daily lives (I have 4 kids, remember? Busyness is something I understand!) makes real introspection something that rarely happens without allowing it some time and space. So provide some… a few minutes a week devoted to just checking in with your inner self. I almost always drive with the radio off when I’m alone in the car… I use the time for thinking. Not daydreaming, but giving that inner voice an opportunity to speak. Find your moments. Now, if I could only find the necessary moments for physical exercise… that would be my “I hate Mondays!” equivalent.

This year, let’s resolve to welcome Mondays for the opportunities they are, and to stop blaming a day or a time for our dissatisfaction with who we are or what we’re doing. And I’ll see about that whole exercise thing.

And, uh, Happy New Year!

By now, you’ve completed all the steps in part 1 (previous post) and have a mountain of data…. random bits of impersonal knowledge. Next, we need to add some human insight to the data, season with some business sense and a dash of intuition and we’ll develop actionable information.

Talk to your customers. Especially your best ones. I don’t like lengthy, impersonal surveys for this. Customers are valuable and you should treat them (and their time) as such. Call up, go see, take out to lunch (depending on your business) your best customers and just ask them why they do business with you. Tell them you’re in the middle of trying to quantify who you are as a brand and that you value their opinion. In fact, you’d love to find more customers just like them. Ask them how they’d describe your company to someone looking for the service you offer (if they were selling your company to a connection, what would they say or do?) Encourage honesty… and look for telling information. Do you have a web site, but your customers don’t think of that as a way to tell people about you? If not… then perhaps how they think of your business isn’t reflected well on the web site. This happens when you THINK your market position and brand image are all about (A), and (A) is splashed all over your site (or brochures) but the perception in the marketplace is really (B).

Talk to your employees. Ask them how they describe who they work for… how they characterize your company. Ask them why they think customers buy from you. Don’t just ask your sales or marketing people. At one company, one of the guys out on the shop floor showed us a nondescript (to me) metal part. “These,” he said. “We use these. No one else does. At least, not in their regular line product.” I asked for some clarification… and found out that the company routinely uses a metal part two grades better than specs require in this particular product. It fails less often than comparably priced products. And this part shows in the product exterior. I talked further with sales, service, dealers…

The company was (attempting) selling itself on service… how they took care of customers and any problems that happened. Their service WAS good. But the real selling point, the reason customers recommended their products to other people, was that part. It meant (to the marketplace of people who actually USED the product daily) something to see that quality… though every part and bolt isn’t an upgraded version and the customers knew it. The product was a quality piece through and through, even so.

In their marketplace, long-lived equipment mounted to your truck was a badge of honor. Toughness and all that. Their peers could see the quality of their equipment and their investment… and that meant something to this market. Owning this brand meant you cared about how you did your job.

Service is great and all, but it’s even better to not need to call because the thing doesn’t break.

So the company’s web site, stuffed with service messages, and brochures with maps of authorized service locations, etc., weren’t helping their front line sales force (their current customers) sell. They needed to step back, go through the brand audit process and align their public messaging and touchpoints with what the marketplace told them was true… And arm their sales force, their employees and their customers with the right tools and information to share the message that toughness mattered.

So… now you are ready to sit down with the data from part 1 and the human insights from part 2. Really think about what all that stuff can tell you. Even if at this point you decide you want professional help or insight (let me know), you’ve already done a great deal of work and saved that time, effort and dollars. If you’re game to tackle it yourself, just remember that sometimes the biggest insight comes from the smallest details. Be not afraid.

Some days are better than others. It’s true for me, true for you and true for your customers. Some days really, really make you wish you’d stayed in bed. I had one of those yesterday. Won’t share all the details, but it culminated in a whole meatloaf I accidentally threw away (don’t ask) and an appointment at the Genius bar in the Apple store…. Except my appointment was made for the Woodland store (in Grand Rapids, MI) not the Woodland Hills store here in Tulsa, OK.
Nothing that happened qualified as a disaster or life-altering tragedy… Been through those and I *do* understand the difference.
What do you do on those days? When nothing is really wrong, but nothing is right, either? I think those days are the true test of our resolve to go forward, to be nice, to choose good. Even the selfish can respond unselfishly to a tragedy, but how we respond to the minor annoyances, set backs and irritations on a daily basis is indicitive of our true character. And, fundamental to the character of our business.
Would you want your clients to watch you deal with rude people in line at the movies? Or with the drycleaner counter staff who mixed up your clothes? Guess what… Potential ones ARE watching. Act accordingly.

It’s Sunday, but my weekend is suffering from a case of project convergence. It’s what happens when all your project planning goes awry (sometimes through no fault of your own) and multiple project deadlines converge. I work well under pressure; in fact, some of my very best work & ideas happen under the threat of imminent deadline. However, I can still only get through X amount of work in Y time. When a serious case of convergence happens, it can be paralyzing… Where to start? I can’t get it all done in time!! The planning for failure starts: who to e-mail or voicemail asking for an extension? Are there any shortcuts out there? And so begins the “research” into working & planning to work instead of actually working. Rather than spend time planning how to come up short & disappoint, I’ve learned that
my only way forward is to quickly prioritze based on what I think I can accomplish and start tackling that list.
Usually, I complete far more work than my panicked, convergence-resisting self thought possible.
Don’t paralyze yourself with a complete project list of all the things you can’t accomplish (in the time you have, anyway). Just start… Creativity has a momentum all its own and you’ll likely amaze yourself.

Feeling dry? Try some quality professional development for inspiration.

I attended the half-day Tulsa Print Show today, put on by CPSolutions in Tulsa. I almost didn’t go… so many deadlines and projects that need attention right now! But I did… and I had a great time. I learned many tips and tricks to put to use in the Adobe CS4 environment (when I get it… but that’s another story). I also brought back new paper sample books (always a great source of inspiration) and other useful stuff like envelope templates, letter openers, and a way cool combo pen/highlighter.
The most important thing I brought back, though, was a renewed excitement about my chosen career and appreciation for the talent and innovation out there. I love what I do, and today helped me reconnect with why I love it… and that was definitely worth the half-day I devoted to the cause.
The bottom line? If you have the opportunity for quality professional development, take it… yes, you’ll get up that morning feeling pressured about looming deadlines that you have less time to meet, but you’ll go to bed that night inspired to take them on in new and exciting ways.