The Great Turkey Hunt

November 29, 2010 in Fun, Life with 2 Comments

I LOVE puzzles and this year, I decided to spice up the Thanksgiving holiday by creating a modern-day treasure hunt. Everyone was coming to our house and it was all coming together quite nicely.

It all started with a delivery by my neighbor that had a box with a letter and a bag of items inside. He relayed a story of how he came into possession of the box (great job BTW) that was very Indiana Jones/Men in Black-ish. The kids were in awe and as soon as the door was closed, they were in the box.

The letter outlined the game and had one hint on it that led to a map where 12 plastic bottles were hidden. On the back, it had what looked like notes from someone who had been tracking the treasure for some time (ala Myst). Included were GPS coordinates to the bottles and the plan was to walk the neighborhood and find these bottles, but the weather had a different idea as it rained the entire day. So, we loaded up the van and a follow car and headed out.

It was quite a sight to see – me and three little boys running around in the rain looking for little plastic bottles with only the GPS unit guiding the way. After crossing back and forth over the one square mile that made up the playing field, we finally had all 12 bottles in hand. Now it was back home to find out what they contained.

Inside each bottle was a multiple-choice Thanksgiving trivia question and each was marked with a roman numeral from 1 to 12.

I had the best time designing the game and the treasure was worth the effort and we now have a memory that will last a lifetime, which is the point of holidays I have to say. Good luck and post a comment on how you did.

Explain That

November 3, 2010 in Politics with 0 Comments

Q: What is your interpretation of the results from yesterday’s mid-term elections?

The Vote 2010

November 2, 2010 in Politics with 0 Comments

I had a great experience this year voting. Mainly because I didn’t have to wait AT ALL and I felt prepared. There was one thing that made me pause though and those were the amendments to the State Constitution.

Issue 1 would provide that Arkansas citizens “have a right to hunt, fish, trap and harvest wildlife subject to regulations that promote wildlife conservation and management.”

Issue 2 would effect interest limits and issuance of government bonds for energy-efficiency projects.

Issue 3 would lower the threshold for issuing state bonds to attract major industries.

I voted against all three.

Issue 1 formalized a right to harvest wildlife in accordance with government regulations and when you give the power to someone to grant a right formally, you conversely give them the power to take it away. Additionally, this gave oversight into how that right could be exercised.

Issue 2 &3 had language in them that seemed give greater amount of control to the government to spend more taxpayer money to advance certain agendas that I simply don’t believe are worthy investments. Again, giving more control to the government is dangerous when you can clearly see it is intended to advance agendas.

I also gave pause when voting for Governor. I’m a Conservative and typically vote Republican, but I’ve liked the level-headed approach Beebe has taken to his role as our state’s leader; however, in the end, he is still a Democrat and with that come some fundamental differences in philosophical approach. I voted for Keet, but don’t expect him to win because of Beebe’s popularity.

One document that really helped me was the Arkansas voter guide put out by Family Council (http://www.arkansasvotersguide.com/). I had a copy ahead of time, but there was a copy at my polling place that I used to look up candidates in some of the minor races that didn’t indicate a party.

Whatever your affiliation, it is important that you exercise your civic duty to vote. As of the writing of this, there are still 4 hours left until the polls close. Remember, if you don’t vote, you forfeit your right to complain about the outcome. It is literally the only option you have to making sure your voice is heard.

Hay Maze: Evolution

November 1, 2010 in Fun with 1 Comment

I’ve always wanted to design and build a hay maze. It goes back to my fascination with puzzles and secret passages. So, when I got the chance to design and build one for our company’s Halloween carnival, I was giddy to say the least, but how to start. After a few minutes, the idea came to me to use Lego blocks to build it. So I raided my son’s collection for all of the 1×2 blocks I could find and set to work. Below is the evolution of that process.

Of course I had to do a 3D model.

Here’s the finished maze.

And the kids loved it.

The maze consisted of 100 bales of straw hay that was loaned to us by the Schaeffer’s from the Mayflower Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch fame. If you ever make it out there, make sure to find Ms. Schaeffer and hug her neck…just because she’s good folk.

The carnival was a great success and the hay maze was a first, but certainly won’t be the last. Bigger and better next year! :)

Thanks to my teammates in the Training and Development area – everyone worked hard and is still recovering from hauling hay all over the place.

‘Change your Heart, Change your Life’ by Gary Smalley

October 18, 2010 in Books, God, Life with 1 Comment

I was turned onto this book by a dear friend who happens to be a psychologist. Our conversation that night was around why people do what they do. I was fresh off some training with some Franklin Covey guys where they used an illustration (Fig. 1) that shows our behaviors are shaped by our beliefs and those behaviors produces results that either reinforce or challenge our beliefs. Belief Behavior ResultsThe point is that if you want to see change in your life, just changing what you “do” won’t produce any sustainable results unless we also change what we believe.

That’s when my friend said I should read Gary Smalley’s book, Change your Heart, Change your Life. He went on to tell me that it was a book about just what the Franklin Covey guys illustrated and was, in part, a personal testimony of this life-change technique in Smalley’s life.

So, I picked up the eBook for my iPhone and started reading it, but I didn’t read it alone. I invited a friend to read it with me (HINT: accountability technique was just disclosed). In the very first chapter, I was hooked. If the rest of the book delivered on just half of what Smalley claimed to do, I would be a better man for it.

In essence, the book walks you through how to both identify the beliefs that shape negative behavior and how to replace them with Scriptural Truth and in essence transform your life into one that is described as “abundant” by Jesus.

In just a few short weeks, I was indeed thinking and believing things differently as was my reading buddy. We both saw how those new beliefs had an internal and external impact on our lives. I highly recommend this great little book that can help unlock the potential for the life God desires for us all.

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that this book contains the techniques and principles needed to kick that nagging behavior that is stealing life from you over and over. It is a must for men and certainly won’t be a waste of time for women.

Sustained Communication – Improving Message Effectiveness

October 7, 2010 in Business, Leadership, Marketing with 0 Comments

To effectively position a new marketing message (or any message for that matter), we must adopt a new communication strategy – one that meets the immediate need to launch the concept and the long-term goal of acceptance and compliance. It must be:

  • Properly targeted and strategically sound
  • Based on an idea that resonates with key audiences
  • Reinforced in every corner of the enterprise through all channels

Regardless of the message, you must understand the audience, their natural concerns and questions as well as how they will receive the message given other workplace factors.

    PAYOFF
    The payoff for the increased preparation and effort is greater adoption of the message combined with a higher degree of consistency across the enterprise. For certain messages, this can translate into higher levels of engagement and effectiveness of the Acxiom workforce.

    REQUIREMENTS
    Sustained Communication requires new tools and new channels to ensure important messages have the best chance of being heard and subsequently adopted. These tools include, but aren’t limited to:

    • Interactive website where articles can be discussed (blog-style)
    • Video – capture event footage, provide live-streaming of roll-out events
    • Podcasts – leadership, business strategy, LOB, Market, etc.
    • Microblogging and Social Media

    PRICE
    The price is content – to keep today’s workforce engaged, there must be a sustained flow of new information through channels that lower the barriers to consume, invite conversation and raise the levels of emotional connection. Above all, it needs to be simple to the consumer, which translates to a great deal of work in strategic planning and implementation.

    RISK (of not changing)
    The risk of attempting to use the current communication template (e-mail and PPT decks) is a low adoption rate due to behavioral ambivalence. This template is both one-way and utilizes overused channels, which have ample evidence of their ineffectiveness.

    Shake things up and stay plugged in to the trends of how people are seeking information. It isn’t just about what you want to say – you have to factor in what they want to hear because choice makes it easy to turn you off.

    Page 2 of 17«12345»10...Last »