Thursday, December 20, 2007

Tú eres nuestra ¨Venta Nueva¨

Tenía curiosidad por saber cuánto cuesta un seguro médico individual, así que hoy llamé al número del primer seguro que vi.
Como de costumbre, una máquina te recibe. La opción pre-programada para atender llamadas de potenciales clientes nuevos se llama (y lo digo porque entenderlo no fue inmediato): ¨Ventas Nuevas¨. Esto es una sutileza, pero demuestra en quién estaba pensando el que programó el cuadro telefónico. Peor aún, hace pensar que la programación la aprobó cualquier ¨comité¨ formado ad hoc a tal efecto.

¨No me importa quién llame, para NOSOTROS esto es una venta nueva.¨ o ¨Hola, me estoy dirigiendo a tí en mi idioma...y quiero que me compres.¨
El problema con declararse ¨orientado al cliente¨ es que hay que alinear cada operación del día a día con ello. Y programar los sistemas de ATENCIÓN AL CLIENTE basados en tecnicismos internos, no lo está.


PD. Nunca cogieron el teléfono. Esa es otra...

Thursday, December 13, 2007

More versus less

Words of wisdom for the day, by Seth Godin: “More is easy to sell. Less almost never is”.

Yesterday I was thinking about the “positive-action oriented” rather than “negative-action deterrent” ways of saying things or giving feedback. “Don’t do this” versus “do more of (the opposite)” .

If we are to achieve our goals, and we want to align everyday actions with the long-term vision, I suggest we approach things from a standpoint of DOING rather than NOT DOING. The latter leads to inaction, that leads to fear of failure. And fear of failure is Evolution's bottleneck.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Process Re-engineering leads to alignment?

What do we do when a process doesn’t work in a Company?
We re-engineer it. After all, “process re-engineering” is to problems what aspirin is to headache: let’s shift some responsibilities, move some people around, arrange more meetings. And then, management’s selling line: “We are sure that OUR PEOPLE will understand this and execute accordingly”.
What have we done? We (think we have) have aligned “what we (must) do” (must is key here) with what we want to achieve.

The problem is that we seldom pay attention to the HOW and the WHY.

How people should execute processes is more important than the processes themselves, because it gives you the ability to improve them naturally. The correct HOW is achieved when people understand WHY. In other words, to achieve your long-term objectives, you need to make sure people understand why they do what they do everyday and how their activities contribute to achieving those goals. Because not always people understand WHY they must do what they are doing.

In your company, what percentage of people would you say can connect what they do everyday to the business strategies?

How grateful are we...?

This from the website www.plantingpeace.org

Did You Know...

30,000 people die everyday from starvation
150 million street children world wide
842 million people across the world are hungry
798 million people in the developing world are undernourished

Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than 2 dollars a day.

The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.

To satisfy all the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only $13 billion, hardly as much as the people of the United States and the European Union spend each year on perfume.

Makes you think...
Aaron Jackson is the founder of this organization. He said some very interesting things tonight on the Larry King show. Like the fact that you can deworm 2,000 in Haiti with $100. It´s possible to donate to their cause on their website.

Alignment of long-term strategies and day-to-day operations is not just a ¨corporate¨ concept. Here´s a guy who, at age 26, fully practices it. His organization´s mission (to which he fully commits himself 24/7) is:
Urging humans to make a conscious personal effort in there daily life’s to bring betterment to the planet so every creature grandchildren's grandchildren can simply live.
He´s built orphanages and homes for kids and adults in Ecuador, Haiti and Guatemala; more projects underway.

What´s your vision for yourself and what do you do everyday to accomplish it?

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Ojito, mucho ojo


Así se te queda el cuerpo antes de entrar a la cafetería de mi oficina. No porque el cartelito está al revés (lo que pasa es que no consigo darle la vuelta), sino por lo del OJO.
El cartel cumple uno de los dos objetivos por los que está ahí: captar la atención. El segundo (que la gente haga caso) no se cumple, por culpa del primero.

Por qué? Si has tenido que poner ese cartel en la puerta, cuando hace meses que las instrucciones están visibles en otros sitios es porque quieres advertir claramente que estás pendiente de ello. Te estás dirigiendo a los que no te hacen caso, simplemente estás gritando más alto.
Interpretación del cliente que no ¨roba¨ (que es la inmensa mayoría): les importa más reducir una ¨pérdida¨ de, digamos, 25 centavos por 100 personas que lo hagan al día (que lo van a seguir haciendo, las instrucciones ya estaban), a asegurarse de que, por ejemplo, la cajera te hable (no digo ya sonría) para que tu experiencia en el lugar sea buena y vuelvas mañana.

Si tu estrategia a largo plazo es alta satisfacción de clientes, deberías asegurar que la interacción de estos en el día a día está alineada con ello. Y un mensaje de bienvenida (no una advertencia) ayuda. Mucho.

¨Traducción¨:
* Combo = menú
* Refill = relleno

Ah, yo bebo agua, no Coca-Cola ;-)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Promotion fastrack


The whole ¨promotion¨ (¨corporate ladderism¨) as a goal in itself is broken.

Back

Ok, I´m back. ¨Stop and smell the flowers¨ kind of lapsus.

Alguien muy sabio me dice por ahí que al blog le hace falta vidilla en español, así que como estoy de acuerdo...bienvenidos al primer blog bilingüe que conozco ;-)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Dear blog

Dear blog,

I think we should stop seeing each other for some time. It´s not you, it´s me.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Cartoons on demand


Funny how in a matter of weeks you reconnect with two classmates you haven´t seen in ages (one since 8th grade). How? LinkedIn and Facebook, of course.

So, my dear old friend Irene sees the cartoons and she asked me if I could draw one with this theme in mind: people who don´t get the ¨coaching¨ thing, and believe that a coach, mentor...is there like a parent to a little kid, mainly to solve your problems, not helping you find the answers, whichever those may be.

Well, here it goes, Irene. And thank you, cause it got me thinking that we all are a little bit that person sometimes. I´m myself currently sensing that little boy inside asking for help and solutions more often than not. Luckily the older brother takes over just in time with a serenading ¨hey, just relax...keep looking that way. And enjoy the journey¨.

Hmmm....maybe the journey is the solution.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Who would you like to sue today?

Maybe God Himself?

http://tinyurl.com/2czz93

Craaazy crazy world...Have a good one.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Maturing...

Free Anesthesia


Here´s to soul numbing...

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Problem solving...



Thanks Manny!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Kidnaptionship



My perception of what it must have been to go through a ¨kidnap.tionship¨. Descriptions out there? Anyone?

Empathy

We all wish other people, especially our loved ones, behaved in a way they don´t, or achieved things we deem easy for them (because they are easy for us).
I think one of the hardest things in life is being able to let go of this, just letting people BE. It all comes down to empathy, being able to walk a mile on the other person´s shoes and understand how hard that thing can be under their circumstances. The other hard thing to do then, is help them create the circumstances that will allow them to achieve it, IF they want to.

Jose Antonio Marina
says that intelligent behavior is characterized by the creation of possibilities.

That´s why managers who inspire get a lot more done in the long run than those who use a command-and-control approach.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Meanwhile...


¨Life is...what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".¨
- John Lennon

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Feliz Aniversario

And speaking of true love and affection, today is my parents´ 32nd anniversary.

Felicidades papá y mamá!!

Hugggggg

A little true versus fake (conditional and conditioned) affection...











The Long Ladder


Been drawing, not only intimating with Cruzcampo during vacation. These are some thoughts on Corporate ¨ladderism¨ (the new extreme sport....it has tremendous side effects in the long run).



Whose ladder are you climbing...? Ever tried climbing your own?



Vacations with a Purpose


Greetings from El Puerto de Santa María, the town where I grew up, located in the province of Cádiz, Spain. Life is getting interesting and I needed two weeks to reflect on all things work.(Michele calls these getaways ¨hiatus¨, which I find very representative).

Nothing like sunset contemplation to clear your head. This one´s a view of the town of Rota, next to El Puerto, with the Naval Base in between both cities (those are navy ships).

Living abroad as I do, it´s good (important) getting to see your friends at least once a year. If you ever need an agency to help you with your corporate identity, packaging and a non-traditional but effective marketing campaign, check these guys out. They´re doing great things lately. It was founded by my friend Kisko, who I find to be a great innovator in this field.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Dear blog

Dear blog,
I haven't forgotten you. It's just that I still don't have internet connection in my new apartment...and probably won't for a while.
In the meantime I cheat on you with your younger sister nanoblogging, by updating my twitter page several times a day. Soon I will be bringing you both together.
While I'm away, please don't forget to greet the fellow "terricoleans" who pass by and offer them a thought or two, either written or drawn.
With no further instructions, I leave you til next time. Send my kind regards to your Google host server.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

milestone weekend

Long time...writing from my blackberry tonight: first mobile blogging experience. Getting used to the pearl's keyboard. Writing in telegraph mode cause my left finger is yelling at me...and cause I'm doing Twitter lately. That's the "nu thang, y'all know?"
Oh, and milestone weekend cause I moved to a "new" (long story) apartment. Lessons learned?
1. Mom & Dad's infinite generosity towards their children
2. Murphy's law applies to moving too
3. I avoided much of it by remaining calm and positive (law of attraction)
4.general contractors are to construction what copyright lawyers are to music.

Gud nait

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Take me to your leader...

Me likey di blog...


The word of wisdom today comes from Seth Godin on this post: if you have anything you´d like to say, tell the world, get it out of your system or simply type, do it. Just once, and see the effect it has on you.

Like Hugh MacLeod likes to remember that Clay Shirky says:


"So forget about blogs and bloggers and blogging and focus on this -- the cost and difficulty of publishing absolutely anything, by anyone, into a global medium, just got a whole lot lower. And the effects of that increased pool of potential producers is going to be vast."

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Here´s my afraidsumé...

Wishi washi


Here´s another one for the ¨it´s not you, it´s me¨ style of gracefully not getting it... hah!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Dad

Feliz día de los padres papá!!

Gracias por todo.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Business expired

Wrongbal Warming


Turns out it´s not that clear whether an increase in CO2 levels drives an increase in the Earth´s temperature or it´s the other way around.

I can´t find the tiny little post, but if you do, please send it to me. Thanks!

PD. I promise I´ll get better at the drawings, hah!

Mental Model


What´s your mental model?

What dots?


I guess some days it´s harder to connect the dots than others. You lose perspective, or hope, or simply patience...That´s ok, as long as you find posts like this one, by Nick Smith (again).

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Flow me...


From life2pointO:

The alternative to planning and organising is to be open to receive. Not in a passive 'do nothing' type of way, but as an active surrender to our inner knowing... and moment to moment engagement with our experience of life as it unfolds before us.

We think that without our conscious control our lives would be chaos. Not so, in truth they would reflect only Love and harmony.

Sort of a self-critique...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Innothon

Have you ever spent 17 straight hours talking about innovation and human dynamics? I just did. Hope I can wake up tomorrow... ;-P

Laif is gud.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Reassurance

Monday, June 04, 2007

Would you like BALANCE with that?

Back from the Dominican Republic. Two words: Alignment (my favorite word lately) and Balance. That´s how you can sum up the benefits of having a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) methodology in your company. That´s what I told the potential client (the purpose of the trip was to tell the success story of implementing a PPM methodology in our Company).

Something I realized during my visit: these people GET IT. I´m talking about the joy of living and taking it easy. Granted they´re a developing country and you begin to see ¨first world-like activity¨ in the city (rush hour, horns, rising prices, etc). But when you interact with them you still get the paused and HONEST ¨Hello, how are you?¨ that all of us fake in the other places I´ve lived in. It makes you smile back to them and CONNECT.

I wonder if it´s because they still have alignment and balance in their lives...

This is a view of the beautiful garden and pool in the Hotel El Embajador.


Thursday, May 31, 2007

Island hoping

I just found out Today that I fly to Santo Domingo, D.R. tomorrow at noon. Unexpected, but it´s always a good time to fly away and give presentations on alignment.

No blogging ´til Saturday. I hope to take some cool pictures to post.

Have a great weekend.

Monday, May 28, 2007

¨Poltrona¨ lifestyle

Guannovation



Yes, it´s THE question.

What is Innovation? Lately it seems like the ¨mojo¨ word, but what does your Company understand by innovation?:

a) Keyword in any strategic plan that needs immediate attention in order to be executed ¨as usual¨;

b) ¨Naipes joker¨ word used as an excuse to explore ¨new ways of doing things¨ (read: to postpone important decisions that rock the boat...);

c) Must-have word in the cover of cool business magazines;

I think innovation is a MINDSET. It´s realizing that:

1. We are not in control. Anyone who pretends to be is set for a good deal of frustration.

2. Nothing that got us here is guaranteed to take us there.

3. Yes, we will fail. And get up. And fail. And get up.....

4. It´s a whole new game... in every industry.

5. Connection is what matters. It´s what brings success. Oh, but don´t search for it; rather, open yourself to it. Otherwise it won´t happen.

And aligning everyday actions and decisions accordingly. That is: reconsidering everything, embracing the chaos, preparing to sail the boat of disruption.

Everything else is...well, tonight´s word: guanno . vation.

What is Innovation for you?

¨Cluelessy¨


Wouldn´t it be cool to have such a word? It rhymes with ¨cruelty¨...I guess because it´s cruel not to know yourself...or having the outcome of your interactions with other people be leaving them with that idea.

Friday, May 18, 2007

1,000 !!



We´ve officially crossed the line of a thousand visits!

My first post on this blog was back in October 29. Thank you for coming by, for your comments on and offline. I still suck at drawing on the Wacom pad, but that´s another story ;-) Let´s continue the conversation.

I want to thank all these bloggers for writing on their own voice and inspiring other people, me among them:

Hugh MacLeod
Enrique Dans
Charles Green
Seth Godin
Evelyn Rodríguez
Miss Rogue
Nick Smith

It´s a gud laif. Enjoy...

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

F.E.A.R., Inc.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Fear of failure




This is an idea I´ve had running around in my head for a while...Tonight I saw this post by Henrik Edberg and finally got it out of the system. Highly recommendable blog.

Ok, sleepy again. I wonder if I´ll ever get to sleep more than seven hours. Don´t you wish you had enough with just three? I do. Tomorrow the day starts at 6 am, meeting at 8. Maybe we all need to read this book ;-)

gud nait.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Review the six degrees!

I think it´s time we review the six degrees of separation statement/axiom/theorem, don´t you?

I mean, what year was that formulated? It came out of an experiment, right? Hmm...let´s see.

Ok, here´s what Wikipedia says. Apparenty the experiment was carried out in 1967 and then again in 2001. In the latter, the conclusion was that six degrees is an average, not a maximum.

Anyways, my point is that the connectedness we´re achieving by means of technology should lower this number in the next decade or so, at least to 4. What do you think?

Too many...



Inspired on this post by Nick Smith.

Reengineer


I bought this Wacom Graphire4 tablet and have been practicing drawing on it. At first it´s harder than drawing on paper but then you start getting the feel of it and discovering features, etc. The previous post was drawn on it too.

This is my modern version of ¨So much ado about nothing¨...

Sunday, May 06, 2007

So loooong...


The facts are: more and more people get divorced each year and people are losing faith in marriage/life-long relationships. There were 14,000 divorce cases in Puerto Rico in 2006 (25,000 people got married). Spain is the EU member in which marriages last longer, an ¨astonishingly¨ 13.8 years.

Why? Why do we make the difficult decision to spend the rest of our lives with another person and then fail miserably in so many cases? Is there a way we could save the drama? Let it be clear that I´ve never been married, let alone been in a relationship that lasted more than 8 months. But I think a good way to analyze this is in terms of goals and outcome.

Think of the many times you´ve heard somebody say ¨I´m ready to settle, at this time in MY life, finding a partner for the rest of MY life is what I need.¨ Their GOAL is to spend the rest of their life with someone (mistakingly identified with marriage). The outcome is very likely to be a STRIIIIIKEEE 1!! after a few years.

Now ask a couple that´s been together for, say, 30 years. Ask them ¨how do you do it?¨ You´ll get an answer that talks about them living for the other person, loving the other person everyday is the goal. As a result (OUTCOME), they´ve been able to spend their lives together.

How about changing the approach to marriage from the mindset of ¨I want to spend the rest of my life with someone, let´s go out and find her¨ to ¨I want to make someone happy that will make me happy, and as a result spend the rest of our lives together¨? Make the other person´s happiness your goal, and find someone with the same intention.

This is another smallapproachtothebigpicture. What´s yours?

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Time...Laif



So this gets a bit personal Today. It´s about not being aware that THIS is the only moment we have.

It´s funny: everyone who goes through a near death experience always says how it changed their perspective on life, and how they try to live to the fullest, enjoying each minute.
It´s even funnier how all of us that haven´t gone through it don´t even bother to try.

Someone said Today ¨...it´s only noon, I wish it was 5 pm already¨ and I started counting the many times I´ve said that too, and wondering if that´s what we´re here for: Longing for moments of joy while living (dying) through the ¨rest of the time¨. Obviously not. I´ve got the ¨what¨ clear. Now, ¨how¨ not fall into that?

Maybe this helps: Today is the only day of your life. I think I read it somewhere, so my thankful apologies to whoever said it so wonderfully. How many things would you regret not having done (mainly because you kept putting them off) if you died in two days?

I bet that´s an exercise the people that´ve gone through a near death experience have done, either at the time or after.

¨One Day Life¨ was the name of the band I played drums in back in Spain. The band was named so because (this is how we would explain it): our songs are about life in general; life is condensed into 1 CD; what if you could condense all life into One Day?

Well, Today I realized the real reason is because your life is only one day long: Today. And back in the day I used to play guitar too, which I enjoyed very much. I´ve been willing to pick up a guitar and start playing again for months! but for a few stupid reasons still haven´t done it. So Today I went, bought one, and played and played and played (yes, my fingers are yelling at me...). And it felt great. Can´t wait to be able to play Jack Johnson and sing along.

I think this is all related to the idea of ¨flow¨, ¨embrace the chaos¨, etc. The Smashing Pumpkins said it better back in 1993:

¨Today is the greatest
day I´ve ever known
can´t live for tomorrow
Tomorrow´s much too long¨

And that´s another smallapproachtothebigpicture, another way of living a gud laif.
Enjoy :-)

The text in the picture is a haiku I wrote back in eighth grade, somehow I always remember it.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Fluffy


Here´s to ¨I want to look beautiful but I don´t know why...oh wait, I do...because that´s what´s expected.¨

Name your insecurities....then kill them.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Nowhere Path


Inspired by Incubus´ song ¨Nowhere Fast¨.

Some lyrics:

Will I ever get to where it is that I am going?
Will I ever follow through with what I, what I had planned?
...
Will I ever get to where I'm going?
If I do, will I know when I'm there?

Do you have a vision for your life and a way to get there (other than ¨live everyday....carpe diem...bla bla bla)? Is what you do on a daily basis ALIGNED with it? I think this is one of the simplest ideas to articulate yet most difficult things to execute. What do you think?

Saturday, April 21, 2007

20 extra minutes

You call a company to demand a service. They´re open from 9am to 5 pm. It´s 5.02 pm and already nobody answers the phone. Result: you think ¨these lazy people drop the pen at 5.00 and they don´t care. I´m sure they´re still around and don´t pick up cause I´m 2 minutes late...¨ The ¨go the extra mile for our customers¨ attitude is nowhere to be seen.

If I were responsible for customer service, I´d pay the receptionist or whomever it is that answers the phone in the first place 10 minutes of overtime before and after business hours to be there and make sure those ¨borderline¨ calls are properly attended. I believe it exemplifies the customer-centric attitude it is talked about so much (¨we´re not just here from 9 to , we´re here for you¨). Plus, those ¨borderline¨ calls are usually very important.

What do you think?

Friday, April 20, 2007

Predecir el tiempo

Dicen los expertos que nunca vamos a poder predecir el tiempo con exactitud (teoría del caos, etc.). Lo interesante de todo esto es cómo interacciones en apariencia insignificantes pueden tener una influencia determinante en el ¨macro¨. El ejemplo de cómo el batir de alas de una mariposa puede influir en las corrientes de aire de la otra parte del mundo es clásico. Hoy me enteré de otro.

Resulta que el plancton, ese microorganismo de 1 milímetro de ancho que vive en el agua, ayuda a regular la temperatura de la Tierra. ¿Cómo? Este es el proceso:

La Tierra se calienta
El océano se calienta
Los migroorganismos se ¨excitan¨ y se aparean
Al aparearse liberan DMS (di-metil sulfitos)
El DMS se evapora y provoca condensación
Las nubes blancas tapan parte de los rayos de Sol
La temperatura de la Tierra baja.
En hechos como este se fundamenta la ¨Hipótesis de Gaia¨, de Lovelock, que afirma que la biomasa regula las condiciones las condiciones del planeta para hacer la vida más hospitalaria a las especies que aquí habitan (mos) (pena que algunasa especies nos empeñemos en hacer lo contrario).

Por eso, entre otras cosas ¨hay una parte de la realidad que se nos escapa¨. En este caso lo que nos permite predecir el tiempo.

Prueba a hacer una analogía con:
- Tierra = empresa,
- Plancton = interacciones entre empleados, mercado etc. (lo de aparearse no va ;-)

y luego mira si tiene sentido la cultura de ¨command and control management¨...mejor dejar que el Gaia se ocupe.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Promote slavery


hmm.....Why is it that we want to climb the corporate ladder?

1. Self-realization through ¨inspiring¨ people to execute tactical plans. Hhmmm...nope, they come from high up and they´ve metamorphosed from strategic plans that you´d never want to know how were conceived. Besides, you don´t agree with most of them. Deep inside you think they´re unimplementable.

2. Self-realization through ¨acquiring more responsibility¨ and being able to manage a unit/division/etc. Hhmmm....nope, this involves too many counter creative administrative tasks even robots would go on strike to avoid.

3. Self-realization through ¨being exposed to different roles so I can acquire new skills¨. Hhmmmm.....yeah, whatever.

4. Self-realization through driving a company car, using a corporate credit card and cell phone.
We´re getting there.

5. Got anything better? Please.

How about not climbing the corporate ladder?

Infatuation

Infatuation:
1. an object of extravagant short-lived passion
2.
foolish and usually extravagant passion or love or admiration
Synonim: Puppy love.


Here´s to: ¨It´s not you....it´s me¨.

I was thinking about it today and it made me laugh. Got any comments / thoughts / rants you want to share?

Monday, April 09, 2007

The truth II

Following the track of coincidence I arrived at this post and wanted to share it. The entire blog is worthy of reading (I know someone in Venezuela who will love to discover it) but this particular one...

¨This little willingness to know 'What Is' is enough. It does the rest for us. It knows it's own way into our conscious awareness and asks only that we give it welcome. In fact, by trying to add more we take away the little that is asked. We don't need to learn or practice anything or change at all, just come with empty hands and see. It is totally trustworthy.
We are perfect exactly as we are. So no more looking for answers and let's come see for ourselves instead.¨

It´s funny how the attitudes that work in life work also in business but we turn our backs on them. When was the last time you attended a meeting/sales presentation/contract negotiation where everyone brought this attitude?
  • willingness to know versus fear of not knowing
  • open mind and common goal versus (hidden) agendas
  • trust versus suspicion
...and we still wonder why we can´t get things done and aren´t happy at work.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

I go out at night...II

Almost forgot:


Friday, April 06, 2007

I go out at night...

The truth


Happy Easter...better yet, wish you an Easter of revelation and better understanding of YOUR own truth. A friend of mine was meditating on the idea of ¨the truth shall make you free¨ and he arrived at this conclusion: ¨you will know your truth, and YOUR truth will make you free¨.

That I wish you.

Someone already paid the price so that we wouldn´t have to live with fear (of failure, of change...of the future), with guilt or in the past.


From Mihaly Csikszentmihaly´s book ¨Flow: The psychology of optimal experience¨

Those who seek consolaation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.

be gud. live laif.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

God´s copyright part II


Goodbye DRM. Thanks Enrique for the link.


Or as my good atheist friend Luís would put it: It´s all the Universe´s property.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Paradox


A paradox:

To paraphrase Prof. Srikumar Rao: put a 100% into what you do, desire it with passion and be 100% ready to move on if the outcome is not what you expected; that´s where happiness/success lies.

The more you want something and the more you accept the outcome whatever it turns out to be, the more likely it is that you´ll get it. Not to be confused with not giving a damn and just doing stuff.
In other words, make ¨k=0¨ in your internal resort. The higher ¨k¨, the more work you need to do in order to move from 1 to 2 and the least probable it is you´ll get there.

or

FLOW.

UPDATE: Looking for inspiration? Read Evelyn Rodriguez´s latest post (...or her entire lent series, for that matter):

¨Lots of decaying slices of our life will be sloughing away during these accelerating times of the Springtime. If you haven't noticed this already, you may be trying to hold on to the dead and stagnant. It's your choice, but a fair warning that it could be detrimental to hold on to the wreckage.¨

Make k=0.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Meritocracy

Here´s to insecurity...


...and misalignment between value-added and the definition of success.

Re-engineer

Egolatry


...is the modern-personal religion. Marx wasn´t that far off.
;-)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Found all you were looking for?

Formalism: the doctrine that formal structure rather than content is what should be represented.

The ¨What¨:
Borders trains employees to ask every customer ¨Found all you were looking for?¨ at check out. If the answer is negative, the employee will offer the customer help on the items not found, which will lead to a new sale and increased customer satisfaction.

The ¨How¨:
As I was paying in the San Juan store the other night I heard:
Cashier: ¨Found all you were looking for Today?¨
Customer: No.
Cashier: ¨Ok, it´s $18.94¨.

Wait!! Weren´t you supposed to say something else? Why did you bother to ask in the first place?

Gap: a conspicuous disparity or difference between things.

It´s that gap between what is defined and HOW it is executed that marks the difference from a company to another. It´s usually in the little things.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Nope...

...failed. Whatever.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Shutdown

Tomorrow is Shutdown Day. A ¨day without computers¨, social experiments started by two guys in Canada. While I´m not typically drawn to these ¨let´s all...¨ initiatives, I think it´s a good opportunity to prove myself I can live without miss G5 for a day. We´re face to screen a lot lately.

See you on Sunday.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Change or alignment?

What do you think?

We don´t need to change the world, we just need to align things. Change is too disruptive...the world is what it is, and we human beings are the way we are. Maybe it´s more like: in order to change the world, we need to align it. How?

There´s one I consider critical, and where I believe many companies have an opportunity to close the gap: alignment between the ¨what¨ and the ¨how¨ of things. Two simple questions that reveal many things. Example: Senior management is clear, visualizes the strategy, is fully committed...and it fails. Happens all too often. Somewhere down the line, the ¨how¨ wasn´t clear and it never got implemented correctly. Of course, there are many reasons to the failure in implementation, but the root cause is this gap between what needs to be done and how it needs to be done (which takes us to clarity in communication, etc).

Case in point: advertising. Advertisers have been failing to effectively make their ads reach their targets effectively. Until Google delivered Ad Sense. What did they do? Align the ad you are presenting with the preferences of the person that is viewing it. How? Effectively closing the gap between the what and the how: placing an ad relevant to the search the person just made.

Got alignment?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Back


Back from Spain. Reconnecting with friends you haven´t seen in years and feeling it´s been like a week is awesome (has to do with the alignment thing, for sure).

So...the weddding was on Saturday. The reception took place in Bell Recó (photo) an beautiful palace built in the 1950s. It´s in Argentona, 30 km from Barcelona.
It seems we´re still in good shape for the 5 a.m. ers, laif is gud. :-)

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Weekend in Spain

Off to Spain tomorrow. Friday in Madrid, Saturday and Sunday in Barcelona for Javi´s wedding (that´s the official XPLANATION ;-). Good times.

It´s getting together with close friends with whom I lived six years (memorable moments like ¨gatito, gatiiiitooo...¨, Ildefonso, pears, ¨vaya mmmmiiieerrrda de díaaa!!!¨.....). I´ll post a photo or two next week. Null blogging for me until Tuesday.
Meanwhile, enjoy this...pure life. Awesome.


Laif is gud. Enjoy...

Monday, March 05, 2007

Entropía

Es mentira que todo tienda al desorden....solo a la reorganización. Lo que pasa es que nos ponemos incómodos cuando vemos que es una manifestación nueva de la realidad. Pura resistencia al cambio, vamos.
:-P

Eso es lo que me digo cuando veo mi escritorio...

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Effort & ROI...in everything



Thought of the day:
Real love (like everything that´s done in life ¨for real¨) is not worrying about ROI. In fact, real love´s ROI is infinite, like everything that´s done authentically.
Ironically, the more authentic (ergo ¨the more you¨) the less effort it takes to do it.

I´m going to call the intersection of both curves ¨compromise point¨. What compromise? Happiness, due to fear. Love´s commoditization, hah.

What do you think?

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Perfect Sunset II


I´ve been meaning to post this one for a while. Another perfect sunset: Miami, cousins, good wine from Smith & Wollensky and a great conversation.

Laif is gud. And it gets better.

Any perfect sunsets for you lately?

Friday, February 16, 2007

Weekend in Miami

Off to Miami tonight. Looong weekend with cousins.
Laif is gud. Enjoy!

:-)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Perfect Sunset


Have you ever experienced a perfect sunset?
Last January I took this picture. It seems as if the ship is carrying the Sun elsewhere...Sunsets are one of the things why I believe that the best things in life are free.
When was your last perfect sunset?