Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.
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On a recent flight across the country, I devoured a terrific book. The book was "Focus Like a Laser Beam : 10 Ways to Do What Matters Most," by Lisa Haneberg. As you'd expect from a book with a title like that, the book itself is very focused and un-fluffy, though it contains a lot of poignant stories about the advantages of focus, and the disadvantages of unfocused activity.
In the 90's, I was involved in an organizational change initiative in which there was a lot of discussion about "getting all the wood behind the arrow" as a metaphor for focus and alignment. Lisa takes us a giant leap forward in her book, using laser light's focused, aligned, and congruent particles as mental model to remind us to focus our goals, thoughts, and actions on specific goals to accelerate our success.
Part One: Excite and Energize
The first section of the book begins with methods to assess your individual focus, as well as how to assess your organization's level of focus toward a unified set of goals, then discusses how you can create a stronger connection with your employees and peers by tapping into the power of emotion and openness in your communication.
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Ahh, the joys of broadband!
Someone needs to start a service where I can write my blog posts in a letter, mail it to a dropbox, and have it post on my blog. That would've been faster than the 22.6kbps dial-up I used to post my July 4th post. Of course, there were some advantages - I didn't doo much email at all, and got to relax in balmy south Louisiana.
Stay tuned - while I didn't get any writing done, I did get some reading done and I have some great books to review for you!
Read MoreI'm on vacation this week, with only dial-up access. Therefore, my posts will be less frequent than usual (and, yes, I know that isn't all that frequent). But here in the US, it's the 4th of July - a very patriotic day.
So, I'm on my snail-like connection to share an excerpt from John F. Kennedy's innaugural address years ago. It's a message of challenge - and a message of hope. Go read the entire address, and see if you see it's applicability to current times as clearly as I do.
Happy Independence Day, USA!
Read More"So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring these problems which divide us.
Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.
Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.
Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens [and] let the oppressed go free."
I just sat in the middle seat on a flight from Washington, DC to Salt Lake City. I wasn't on my regular airline (an irregular one you might say), missed my connection, and am spending the night in Salt Lake City. By the way - the airline's people in the SLC airport are much more helpful and friendly than they were in Reagan National.
Anyway, I was sequestered in seat 44E (check it out on Seatguru - it's not the best seat in the house...but it's better than row 45, at least). With the guy in front of me leaning back and non-optional physical contact with the folks on either side of me it wasn't looking like a productive flight. I couldn't use my laptop, was getting a stiff neck from trying to read, and the movie is that awful Steve Martin version of the Pink Panther (I've seen it once, and that was once too many).
So, I busted out my "middle seat" collection:
These all help pass the time on any flight, but are indispensible when you get middleated on a long flight.
What about you - any tips for passing the time in these situations?
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