Genuine Curiosity

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.

 

Holiday fun, games, and whatnot

I've been quiet here for the last week or so, but having some fun with the family in Louisiana. I'm back in Oregon, and wanted to share a couple of online fun things I discovered this season (that you might enjoy, as well).

Rekindling memories of my Vertibird

My favorite toy of all time was something called the "Vertibird," by Mattel. I had a couple of them as a kid and wish they'd lasted (they were notoriously failure prone, and I couldn't convince my parents to buy me a third). The Vertibird was a helicopter toy that allowed any kid to pilot a helicopter and conduct their own search and rescue or conduct salvage missions right on their own kitchen floor. Tremendous.

Anyway, my first find is Peter Hirschberg's cool computer-based simulator called "VertiSim" that you can download and use for free. VeriSim will give you somewhat of a feel for what it's like to fly a Vertibird. The controls are very finicky, but it's still a really cool program (and you can't beat the price).

Finding old friends

In trying to track down old friends so I could send out cards this year, I found most of what I needed through Whitepages.com - and they (unlike lots of other address searching sites) don't charge you to get addresses. Another cool feature - once you find someone, you can click "Find Neighbors" and find out the names and addresses of the other folks that live on their street. This is handy (though maybe just a tad creepy?) if you're interested in sending cards to old or new neighbors.

This is all public information, and it's interesting to see what you can find about yourself online, isn't it?

Go elf yourself

I've saved the most fun for last. We had a blast this year with www.elfyourself.com, where you can turn yourself into an elf with just a few clicks. Start off the fun by clicking here to see what I look like dancing around in my elf suit!

When you're done watching me, go elf yourself.

Happy holidays from Genuine Curiosity!

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Traveling over the Holidays: Unleashing the Power of Nice

I'm on vacation in Louisiana, and loving it. However, getting here was a pain due to the fact that they lost one of our family's bags on the way. All's well now and we were treated just fine but it was still a pain.

Ironically, on the flight I read an excellent article on how to make travel more bearable: It's in "Best Life" magazine, and it's called "21 Rules of Stress-Free Travel"

Great stuff awaits you, like:

  • The safest seat on the plane
  • An analysis of relative seat costs on flights (I wrote about some of this pricing insanity in the past)
  • Cool tips for getting a decent hotel room and keeping it from making you ill
  • Very good luggage, security checkpoint, and packing techniques

Check it out and cut down on your travel stress!

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Learning through Blog Forums

Every year at this time, Rosa Say, author of the book Managing With Aloha, takes a long vacation and pauses her blogging activities. Does her blog just go dark during that time? Heck no.

Rosa calls on other folks to contribute "best of" links from their blogs in a sort of carnival. I'm proud to be in the mix.

In this ecclectic collection of voice, you'll find lots of great stories -- and you might discover some new blogs you like. Click here to redeem your Talking Story Gift Card and check out Ho'ike'ike 2006.

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A cornucopia of networking advice

Josh Hinds has honored me by asking me to participate in an interview on his site, "Business Networking Advice". I'm the December 13th entry in a long series of 3-question interviews on the topic of business networking.

You can find the interview here.

And be sure to take a look around the site - Josh is keeping it real over there, and I learned a lot of cool things from his interviews.

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2006 Talking Story Countdown!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote some pointers for how to prepare for negotiations. In response to that, Rosa asked a question about what to do after the deal is done.

Here are my thoughts and pointers:

  • Get it down in writing
    • Very soon after the agreement is struck (same day if possible), record what was agreed in writing. I use email because it's efficient and works for my style.
    • This written plan should include the main points of the agreement, committed action items with owners, and any time frames as agreed.
  • Raise the flag on any "gotchas"
    • When writing up the results of the negotiation, you may uncover "holes" that you forgot to address. Bring them up right away.
    • After the work you've done during the negotiation, you probably have a good idea what's going to work for both parties, so feel free to offer some suggestions for how to fill the holes.
  • Follow up and follow through
    • You or a designee on your side should "own" management to the agreement. This includes nagging people who aren't hitting commitments, double-checking the results to ensure that they meet what was agreed, etc.
    • Set a good example yourself by following through and keeping your own commitments. If you don't do this, what leverage do you have if the other person misses a commitment?
  • Don't be too dogmatic
    • Often, we commit based on good faith and what we know at the time of the negotiation. When we actually get down to delivering, we find that what we thought was appropriate doesn't make sense in the real world. Whenever possible, try to manage to the spirit of the agreement - not the letter of the law. This doesn't mean you can change the agreement at will, but you should be open to discussing alternatives that become apparent or necessary during implementation.
  • Don't rule out going back to the bargaining table.
    • Sometimes, one party or the other finds they can't deliver what they thought they could deliver. If you feel that coming, raise the issue early and try to create a collaborative environment to come up with a workable solution.
    • However, don't give up to soon - just because renegotiation may be an option, that doesn't mean it should be used as an "easy out."

These are the things that came to mind for me. What about you? Got any tips to share with us?

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