It Was Greek To Me

Tags

business acumen, Business Communications, clients, communications, Earth Day, Greek, jungle, landscaper, lawn, maintenance, mowers, play, vendors, william shakespeare

My backyard looks like it’s in a race to be the next great rainforest jungle of the county. While this seems completely apropos considering yesterday was Earth Day, I would prefer a perfectly manicured lawn with exceptional landscaping. Our maintenance men, however, seem to have other ideas (and clients), so I patiently wait for the mowers to come round while the yard is overgrown.

To ensure the contract is renewed and the yard maintained in a proper format, I needed to call the landscapers. If I did not make that call, the chance is nil they’ll magically read my mind and service the yard to my standards.

Getting what you want from a service provider is a two-way street. This means both parties must communicate in an open manner to 1) ensure the client’s needs are being met and 2) that the provider understands those needs. No one can read minds. It’s awfully unfair to assume the vendor knows all the ins and outs of your particular business or personnel if you don’t clue them in. When you’re open and forthright about the workings of your business, it helps to achieve goals. And as a vendor it’s important to ask those questions.

In honor of the Bard’s birthday (451 years young today), when either working with your clients or vendors, speak the same language. Otherwise, as William Shakespeare said, “It was Greek to me.” And you’ll end up with dissatisfaction on both ends.

 

Visine Will Get The Red Out

Tags

college, comma splice, communications, freshman, reality, red eyes, research papers, students, thesis, topics, UNCC, university, visine, writing

My eyes are bleeding. Not quite in the vampire-crying sense of bleeding, but they are tired and red.

It’s been quite the week. Have you ever been immersed in a long-term, intensive project that’s consumed almost every hour of your workday? And as you near the completion, you find yourself gasping for air, giddy with anticipated relief that the assignment will be over?

After grading and assessing 45 research papers this week, that’s where I am. My brain is ready for a vacation from comma splices, incorrect citations and formatting, and awkward sentence structures. Overall, the papers were better than worse. With a freshman writing class, that is success.

The highlight of the papers is the topics the students chose. At the beginning of the course, we discussed reality as a general, overarching theme. Then we dug down into what is each student’s individual reality. What is most important to them and what is shaping their lives? Some chose their academic majors, others chose a future career, some chose relationships, and others chose topics important to them. They wrote about their reality topic for the entire semester in essays, a daybook, blogs, letters and a research paper, which will culminate in an ePortfolio presentation in two weeks.

My reality at this point? It is to finish my writing projects for the week and then use the weekend to refresh and renew. And to buy a new bottle of Visine.

There Are Days I Feel Like Bertha

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Bertha, Bertha Knight Landes, Big Dig, Boston, business, business communication, Construction, goals, mayor, motion, objectives, overheating, physics, projects, replacement, seal, Seattle, tuneling specialist, tunnel

There is an amazing machine digging a two-mile tunnel as part of Seattle’s expanding infrastructure. It’s an ambitious project, reminiscent of Boston’s Big Dig. The lady doing the work goes by the name Bertha*. She’s a lot of woman – with a height of nearly 60 feet and her weight registering north of three tons. She’s also one heck of a tunneling specialist. First employed in 2013, she bore through 1,100 feet of ground—more than 10% of the total length of the tunnel­—in the first six months on the job. With only a few initial hiccups, there was great joy and anticipation for the completion of the project.

However, about fifteen months ago, Bertha overheated and came to a standstill. For a long time, no one could figure out what was wrong. Finally, the crew discovered a broken seal in need of replacement. With considerable effort and time, the construction team brought Bertha back to the surface for repairs. Poor girl. All she wants to do is dig dirt.

I can empathize with Bertha. I’ve had days (albeit not a year) when I am mired in a project, unsure how to reach completion. This week I counseled a few writing students who felt the same about their research papers – as if they were floating adrift in the academic sea while their work remained inert on a sandbar.

Being stuck in a middle of a project does not have to have dire consequences or cause grave consternation. Just like with Bertha’s, there is a reason for the stall. Assess the situation and find out what is causing you to overheat. Maybe your project requires retracing a few steps to ensure the work is meeting the targeted goals and objectives. Perhaps you need to reassess and reestablish the risks. Or maybe it’s worthwhile to brainstorm with an associate.

Once you’ve found the cause, look at the situation as a lesson in psychics: an object in motion is easier to keep moving than one that is stopped. When you do restart your project, give it that extra push needed to get your momentum moving again.

There is high anticipation for Bertha to get back on track, and for all of us as well.

 

*Bertha is named after Seattle’s only female mayor, Bertha Knight Landes, who served from 1926-1928.

Bertha

Age: 2
Height: 57.5 feet
Weight: 7,000 tons
Length: 326 feet
Occupation: Tunneling specialist
Likes: Dirt, small boulders, perfectly formed concrete rings
Dislikes: Sunlight
Role models: Bertha Knight Landes, Marc Isambard Brunel, whoever invented the shovel
Twitter:@BerthaDigsSR99