Triple Winning - by Gaylesam (Gayle Samuelson Carpentier)

Winning can be challenging and FUN too!

Your own personal 'win'! Survive the most mind-numbing new tech meeting with this handy tool!

Enjoy!

Shared courtesy of http://laughingsquid.com/tech-blog-bingo/

Corner Office - Companies Need 4 Leadership Types, Says VMware’s Chief - Question - NYTimes.com

Q. What are some important leadership lessons for you?

via www.nytimes.com

Valuable thinking if you are managing a growing organization - or working within one and trying to make sense of the dynamics. Thanks to Sheila Warren for the link!

Smile because it happened

.When I started blogging, I thought it would be easy to separate the public and professional from the private and intimate.  Turned out to be hugely wrong.

Over the last week, these two seemly separate world smashed directly into one another when a new friend, valued colleague and all around amazing human being, Mitch Van Wye died of a sudden massive heart attack.  I hung up my phone after hearing the news, and a huge wave of painful memory crashed over me, and I recalled the day I received the little square that had a message that would help me yet again (pictured below)

This little message square was given to me not long after my husband Jack died in 2007.  The person who gave this to me had no idea that day in early 2008 how deeply I was mourning, nor did they even know the content of the “nice wish of the day” insert.

The second I opened it, expecting nothing more than trite words, I found the best way imaginable to cope with incredible loss, and to begin to see how to control the only thing I COULD control—my reaction to the events.

It was the message I desperately needed that day, and this remains the only visible inspirational phrase you’ll find anywhere in my home.  And frankly most days, it’s the only one I need.

To this day, have no idea who Melanie Swift is, or how her words reached me—but as I struggle for a way to honor Mitch, I know in a very different way, his powerful message, that we can do more than we imagine and that we don’t hold ourselves to high enough standards, will always remain with me, and that message will make me smile as I remember someone who was a friend for too short of a time.

I hope I can be as brave in my words, as fiercely dedicated to telling the truth and making my life stand for excellence and for making people the best they can be—and hopefully BE the best person I can be because of the lessons he shared.  None of us ever really know the impact we make on others, and I hope what I learned from Mitch is to never stop trying.

When does what's in my head make a difference?

How many times do you look at something, see an obvious and straightforward answer, and realize this very obvious thing is ONLY obvious to you?

If that's happened to you - that's talent combined with insight combined with probably some unique experiences that made it possible to make that leap.  Yes, bad sentence structure, but all the same, whenever you have that moment, treasure it!

It's in those moments that your unique benefit to the world just surfaced, whether you knew it or not!

Human centered product design

The CEO puts on a white lab coat and funny glasses, announces "Innovation Week" at your company, then proclaims that "we should all be mad scientists." You sign up for the brainstorm in room B, get a handful of magic markers, a stack of colorful pads, then stare at a white board. 

via www.innovationreactor.com

How many of us have done the 'death march' visioning offsite meeting? No matter how many block voting done with postits, or white board scribbles or even pages of big easel papers covered with great ideas, real creativity happens in real time - not in a scripted environment of a conference room.

TechSoup is investing major effort in Community Driven Innovation and that's something to be excited about! I'm excited to be a part of the effort.

Technology Basics for Business - WSJ.com

What's your most memorable "that's my family" moment?

My husband Jack passed away just before Christmas 2007 - and he had been quite ill for a very long time before the stroke took him away from us. Since then I've winnowed, edited and added pictures to the very large gallery where I frame and position pictures for our family. The one picture I upsized and moved to a central position was the one you'll see here.

We did most of our life together out of order - and that's why you'll see the two of us swinging our then 5 year old son between us as we walked down the aisle after finally having a church wedding.

Story - oh yes - there's a lot of storytelling about the before and after, and it is indeed the heart of our "that's OUR family".

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Winning isn't always happy

Been mulling over my history while I've been nursemaiding my son through recovery of a gnarly and uncomfortable post-surgical time.

Whether family, health or caring - much of my own life has been finding the positive impact of what can easily be spun as a negative story.  Getting beyond victim, and moving onto owning the impact is, or it is at least for me, the beginning of a personal triple win.

I've often told staff, family or listeners that NO is a temporary state of mind, it's true and merely depends upon your willingness to let time roll onward.

The Do's and Don't of Social Media for Business - Steeling Sales

via davidsteel.typepad.com  specifically http://davidsteel.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/the-dos-and-dont-of-social-media-for-business.html#

Have to admit I enjoy and admire the thinking David Steel puts into his work - this one pager is a strong reminder about the humanity we need to focus on with this faceless (ok nearly faceless) medium

Steve Jobs or Bill Gates – which one do you admire more? And what would you want to ask them?

Oh heavens, that's a tough question for me given my professional connections to both tech leaders. Bill Gates I believe has staked out his own territory separate from Microsoft - frankly it pains me that Steve Jobs has not done the same. In my professional life, I have thousands of nonprofits who benefit from Gates generosity and spirit of support. It eludes me that Jobs appears to have none of that in his professional dealings. What I would ask Mr Jobs, "Why, despite your previous desire to be of social benefit, do you deny support to nonprofits in the US and around the world from Apple?"

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