Snakes in the Office
December 11, 2008
Not really; but there was a toy snake that everyone wanted to get their hands on at the LUCRUM office. You might be reading this and thinking, “what in the world?” Well its really not that crazy. Last Friday LUCRUM had their annual Christmas party hosted in the Bostick Center. We have food, drinks, friends, and a great gift exchange. This years White Elephant gift exchange was intense. Of course some people ended up with the annual regifts like Melissa Park’s Monkeys, Joe Thomas’ tomato and egg plant plates, and Jill Cole’s 1980s style picture frames. Some received the old balls gifts like Eric Duell’s half drank bottle of Hot Damn and Jesse Mathews’ power pack of Energy magazines. Then there was the power play gift; the radio controlled snake! As soon as the first person could steal, the snake was it. The next person; yep, the snake was it again! I think about 6 different people had Sammy the snake (hope you all enjoyed him). But at the end of the day, Dennis Foster became the proud owner of Sammy. Dennis, take good care of him. The rest of you, enjoy the pictures!
Merry Christmas!
Whole Lotta Handshaking Going On!
September 3, 2008
Last Wednesday the Yahoo Group called LinkedIn Cincinnati held their first meeting at the Sharonville Convention Center. 250 business professionals signed up to attend this evening affair that included a silent auction to benefit two of the members (Amybeth Hale & Jennifer McClure) who are responsible for raising 100% of the cost of their trips to South Africa ($6,000) in November 2008 to build homes, plant gardens, and share business expertise and resources with the South African people. I’m happy to say that my timeshare donation brought in $400
I had volunteered to work at the registration table and its a good thing I did. Attendees came in droves at one point and even with 4 of us working the table it seemed like the line would never end.
The whole purpose of the event was to network and meet like-minded professionals. Did I accomplish that? Not as much as I would have liked to but I made a few very meaningful connections and already met with a new acquaintance for coffee this week. In my opinion, that is what networking is all about. I don’t want to have 100 business cards in my pocket, but meeting 2-3 people that share my interests in business or other suits me just fine.
I hope they’ll have speakers at their next event and maybe some other type of activity that helps get the conversation flowing.
In the meantime, LinkedIn Dayton is having a meeting on September 12th with John Husted, Speaker of the Ohio House presenting. Looking forward to it!
LUCRUM is Human
August 29, 2008
This week I attended the American Marketing Association event called “Is Your Marketing Disco or Digital?”. A conference focusing on the future of marketing.
I listened to Ted Murphy from Izea talk about blogging and why companies should do it. During the presentation the wheels in my head were spinning and I was thinking, “Yeah! That’s a great idea” and “We need to do more of that” and “That’s LUCRUM’s vision too”.
Ted’s message about blogging was all about making a personal connection with your customers. Blogging allows a company to show its human side. A company no longer has to be just a name and a logo. A company blog shows your customers the passion, excitement and intelligence of the employees who contribute to the blog. The company now has feeling and a pulse. The company can now show their customers that employees are engaged, content, and willing to share their work experiences. Great Companies inspire Great Work.
Crossing the Finish Line
August 19, 2008
I hate running for exercise. Just the thought makes me shudder. All the aches and pains that come the day after I can do without. I have no motivation to put my fragile body through that! 2008 Reggae Run The other day fellow LUCRUM employees Steve McWhorter and Julie Grant were talking about training for the Reggae Run and I volunteered to train for it as well.
What was I thinking? I hate running! So this weekend I started my training. I started “wogging”, a combination of walking and jogging. I wogged 4 miles on Saturday and about 3 miles Sunday. It was too much for my out of shape self because I hurt my foot and could barely walk the last 1/2 mile on Sunday. My training is already off to a bad start…curse those Oreo cookies I ate last week! I’m probably carrying around another 5 pounds because of that cookie binge.
During my “wogging” on Saturday I came up with the perfect motivation to keep me running and participating in future marathons. (Okay, the Reggae Run is not your typical marathon, but to me, 5K might as well be). A close friend of ours has an inoperable brain tumor that is slowly growing and at only 34 years of age, its a scary reality for him and his wife to face. Saturday, as I’m sweating and cursing with the hot sunshine on my face, I think, “I’ll do it for Johnny 5. I’ll run my butt off and send all this positive energy his way in hopes it will help him through this ordeal.” I’m the last person to believe in all that mumbo-jumbo…healing crystals, your individual chi, feng-shui…yada yada, but for Johnny, I’d do anything to help him get better.
When I first met him 7 years ago, I nicknamed him Johnny 5 after that cute little robot from that 80’s movie Short Circuit. That was Johnny, the sweet guy in the group. It’s like in every group of friends you have the Jock, the Ladies Man (sometimes more than one), the Comedian, the Leader, and the Quiet One. That was Johnny, the Quiet One. All my girlfriends loved him because he was so easy to make blush and the easiest one to talk to about anything. He was like your little brother that you wanted to protect from all the “Cougars” out there.
Another friend just recently convinced me to run in the United Air Force Marathon held in Dayton on September 19. I’m only doing the 5k portion but it’s so soon, I know I won’t be ready. When I’m embarrassing myself by crawling to the finish line on my hands and knees, at least it won’t be front of friends and family from Cincinnati.
So when I’m huffing and puffing next to my fellow LUCRUM employees in the Reggae Run I’ll keep thinking of Johnny and what he’s going through. I’ll make it to that damn finish line no matter what! Even if I’m the very last runner I’ll pass the finish line with my hands raised like an Olympian. I now have huge motivation for the worse exercise known to man (in my opinon), but best of all I have the perfect inspiration. If you have anyone who might motivate you to do the same, join us on October 4th, 2008 or be there on the sidelines to cheer us on. I’ll be wearing a t-shirt that says, “4 Johnny 5“.
Decompression Days-Need ‘em, Gotta Have ‘em!
August 8, 2008
I’M BACK!
I just returned from the first real vacation I’ve had in seven years. We went to “hot as hell” Florida and played on the beach almost every day. One day we even got to see baby sea turtles hatching from their nest in the sand. We were just there, minding our own business and there they were…scuttling down the sand towards the water. I sent a Tweet by the way if you were following. See, for all you non-tweeters, Twitter can be useful! (I just wish I had a camera phone)
So why was this vacation so special? Because for once, that big white elephant in the room called WORK wasn’t there. No checking email every day, no phone calls to make, no fires to put out…no arguing with the husband about why I’m staying behind to finish up just one more thing. I did check email periodically, only because old habits die hard and I try to be on top of things. But for the most part, it was the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had.
Friends have asked, “So, did you have fun?”. And believe it or not, I didn’t have a quick answer. Fun wasn’t the word I would use to describe the vacation… more like relaxing. We stayed at a relatives house while they were on their own vacation and the house was right on the water (St. Lucie River), had a pool in the backyard and was seriously 6 minutes from the beach. After driving 2.5 miles we were sitting on the beach every morning by 10am soaking up the cancerous sun. Ahhh! It was heaven! We ate lunch on the beach most days and I looked at my husband one day and said to him, “This is the life. I can’t imagine living down here and being able to go to the beach every weekend!“ For the first few days it would start raining around 4pm or 5pm and that gave us good reason to be back at the house, decompress some more and take a nap. Again…relaxation!
We had no agenda but ours, didn’t have to get dressed and eat at a restaurant every morning, noon, and night. Stress free dining. Keith and I went into West Palm one night by ourselves and had dinner with friends. In the old days, I would’ve gone to West Palm to party hard but now, dinner with good friends, good food was just the ticket. We had the best time at Spoto’s Oyster Bar in downtown West Palm Beach. Great service by the bartender who was also playing waitress that night. Oysters were fresh and we even toasted to our vacation with OYSTER SHOTS!
At the end of the week I thanked my lucky stars that I work for a company that values an employees vacation time and realizes how important that time is, both for the employee and the company. I’m back… refreshed, re-energized and ready to do whatever it takes to help make LUCRUM successful.
Selecting A Skills Evaluation Tool
August 8, 2008
We have a lot of hiring planned between now and the end of the year. In order to add some consistency and a bit more predictability to the process we’ve decided to use a skills assessment tool. Brainbench is the obvious and probably most well known solution. So we’re evaluating that. Wanting to spice up the mix a bit we’ve also decided to evaluate the IKM TeckChek product. I expect to select a product by the end of the month.
So why am I telling you this? Because one of these two companies blew my expectations out of the water.
I talked to a Brainbench rep and setup our account to do some evaluations. We were given one exam at no-charge to evaluate the product. I fully expected, and did, pay for the other seven or so tests that we evaluated. Reporting for the Brainbench product is really very nice. You get comparisons against others in your company as well as the entire set of Brainbench test takers that have taken the same test. The product has a very nice administrative interface. All signs pointed to this being our selected product.
I left a few messages for IKM. We tried contacting them through the “contact us” link on their site. Silence. For about 4 days we heard nothing. Now, to their credit, IKM did follow up with me in June when I started this process, and I never got back to them. So I searched my email, found some contact information, and left another message. A day passed with no return call. I’m ready to give up at this point. I give it one more try and leave one final message.
Later that morning I get a return call with apologies because the rep had been travelling and could only now return my call. Expected, and nothing special. So I talk to him about our strategy and let him know we’re evaluating the TeckChek product against Brainbench. He took all this in stride. I told him I needed an account next week so we could evaluate some tests and that I expected to pay for them. Then the good part.
Right then, TeckChek sent me an agreement giving me site-wide access for two weeks allowing us to complete any exam we wished at no cost to us. Our agreement was in place within minutes. Then he had a training person reach out to us to train us on how to use their product. And none of this took any special efforts on their part. This is the way they do business. I did not have to bend around their processes.
They are holding our hands and making sure our business processes move forward as expected. Their processes are setup to provide this level of customer service, even to smaller accounts. The attention and the speed at which they responded once I contacted the right person made me think twice about our final selection.
I don’t know where things will fall out. We haven’t taken any of the TeckChek assessments yet. But if their tests are anything like their customer service, Brainbench has some pretty hefty competition. I’ll let you know how this all plays out.
- Andy
Blog…. Wiki…. Twitter?
August 7, 2008
Blog…. Wiki…. Twitter? Wow, am I behind the times… Well I guess this will be my first step towards a new future of trying to keep up with it all. Hi, Rob Klutts here, the new graphic designer consultant for LUCRUM and I am here to BLOG or at least give it a go.
About me… Well I have a wonderful family, wife Amy, daughter Olivia and a son Carson. We live in Morrow OH. I’m a car nut… so if you have a question about one I bet I might know the answer, also into Formula 1, ALMS and MotoGP racing. Other hobbies include mountain biking, bass fishing, motorcycling and playing with my children.
As for who I am in the office, I am here to play a new part in the corporate marketing and branding strategies for LUCRUM along with any client opportunities that may come along that I can lend my graphic and web design backgrounds too… and yes I am a Mac guy… Have been known to slam the keys of a PC but prefer the world of Mac.
Well I hope this passes the blog test… See you around the office!
A Blast from the Past
July 23, 2008
I recently had two separate occasions where my past caught up with me.
One such meeting was at a bar where a friend of mine was sitting at a table having drinks with a friend. I went over to say hello to him and the girl said, “Jacinta? Jacinta from Batesville?” (Batesville is where I went to high school). I said, “I went to Batesville High School, who are you?”. We proceeded to exchange information and I realized that she was one grade below me in school. Even though I didn’t recognize her or her name, no surprise since my memory is pretty much gone since having kids, we made a connection and exchanged contact numbers.
Since that encounter weeks ago, we met for lunch and have future plans to perhaps do business together and get together socially. She’s new in town and I love introducing new people to Cincinnati and all it has to offer. I have a wonderful network of friends and I can’t wait for them to meet her. I’ve also tuned her into LinkedIn, Twitter and LUCRUM’s blog. Before meeting me, she had no idea what these names meant. Now, she’s making connections and forming her own network of online friends.
The other blast from my past was surprisingly, right here at LUCRUM.
Rob Klutts is the newest addition to the LUCRUM team. Rob is a graphic designer who is here to help LUCRUM standardize our brand and the way the outside world sees us. He will also work on some internal projects and help our clients with any website projects they may have.
Rob sits right next to me and on Day Two of Rob’s first week, we started talking about stuff. Where we lived, our families, where we went to school yada yada yada.
Come to find out, HE went to Batesville High School too. He came to Batesville as a senior, I was a junior. He had moved away after middle school and came back to finish up his senior year. We started talking about all the people we knew, and I knew more of the upperclassman this time (when I met the girl from my story above I didn’t know any of the underclassmen, isn’t that how it goes anyhow? Plebes…). As he rattled off names, I came up with a few….and man….what a trip down memory lane that was!
It got me thinking of those days and what it was like back then…what “I” was like back then. Now, 17 years later (gulp!), I think back and shake my head and realize how different my world was compared to today. I cringed a little thinking of THE STUPID THINGS YOU DO AS A TEENAGER. Sheesh….thank God I’m “hopefully” older and wiser.
So even though these two connections had nothing to do with using any social media tool, I will truthfully tell you that I’m still making connections with the past using tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo and a new one I’m looking at, Zkout (pronounced “scout”). People ask me all the time, “What is LinkedIn?”. “How do I use it?”. And well, the only thing I can say is this, “Its a bridge that enables you to connect to others professionally and personally.” If you haven’t done so, try it. You’ll be amazed at the people you meet and maybe find out what your friends REALLY do all day.
What Happens When You Miss A Deadline?
July 21, 2008
At most companies you just move the deadline. At some, you might get some sort of reprimand. And at a select few, you may even get written up. Well, at LUCRUM we push you out of a plane! Josh, what the *(@#* did you do now?!
- Andy
Team Journey: Steps from people to real team results!
July 16, 2008
I sat down with LUCRUM’s Eric Duell a couple of years ago and talked about the value of teams. Eric is a principal consultant and specializes in executive alignment sessions - but is the guru of communications. The truth of our conversation has never left me. He tied together results of a team through proper leadership and stepped me through the teams ‘ascent’. This talk of ours was so powerful, that a couple years later, I chose to work at LUCRUM.
I don’t want to steal Eric’s thunder but there are dependencies that are really worth noting. I’ll just highlight them below:
Step 1: Show each person that they are part of the team and that they can contribute to the success and problems of the team. This expectation should be set from the beginning - this gives them the freedom to move to the next step.
Step 2: People need to feel that their contribution is part of the team’s success. Sure, the ownership is on that person to ensure that they are ‘engaged’ with the team, but it’s also on the leader - to make sure that the person has the right avenues to contribute. Ensure that contributions are appreciated…publically.
Step 3: Once these contributions are shown, this build trust within the team. This is a key point because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.
Step 4: Now that we have trust, the team can have honest and open conversations. Debates are not win/lose, rather they are healthy and passionate. This level of communication reveals the right data for the team to act upon.
Step 5: The leader now has the foundation to have a commitment by each member to the team. Here we are focusing on a common course of action, the holdouts, cowboys and dissenters are not present…for the team’s value is realized and we think of the team success first.
Step 6: Now that we are committed, we can be accountable. Too many times this foundation is shortcutted and we have tentative accountability; one foot here and one foot there. But, this team is now in a position to expect real accountability and forms the right partnerships to help each other.
Step 7: Once we are at this level of accountability, we are ready to do what the team was designed for; looking for the best solution with a focused team. Here is where the power is and this focus is how to concentrate the talents, passions, desires and energy of the highly successful team!
So, you see, this progression from person to maximum results is framed by real team development and leadership - but must progress through clearly defined stages. This is a strategy we strive for at LUCRUM. When you peel back all that extra baggage, we are left with real people who contribute within real teams to focus on real value for our clients with a real focus.
Imagine a team with a missing piece. What if we did not expect a team member to perform? What if we did not appreciate contributions? How would it be if the team could not have open conversations and the real data was hidden for fear of rejection. Could the team be committed if we could not talk openly? If people were not accountable and not held accountable, could we succeed? Any missing piece above would cause the team to focus on their own agendas and not on finding the best possible solution.
This model was truly one of the reasons that I chose LUCRUM to take my career to the next level. The commitment to teams is core to what we are all about.
~ Scott Felten
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