Endless Knots

Ah, Verizon. Thy name is customer service

I've had a thing or two to say about Verizon in the past so I've paved the way for the latest.

Verizon changed its website. Nothing offensive there only it's now impossible to log in. Neither my login or my password works anymore and the resetting process also appears to be broken.

Well, perhaps it's all operator error on my side but when I called Verizon for help, I received quite a few sighs from those trying to assist me. Of course, they were all in the wrong department. Eventually someone gleefully transferred me to the "right" department only it was apparently the Verizon Wireless department, which seems to be all of Verizon, since all the choices were referencing that as in, Please type or say your Verizon Wireless Number, which I don't have. Shame on me, old-fashioned person, I was calling about a land line. Imagine!

After I didn't have my wireless number or trouble with my wireless number or have questions about my wireless bill, I eventually reached the website assistance department and it was...

Closed.

So I wrote to them (another 10 minutes of investigation to find a way to do that) and received this response: Please call xyz #, which was the same number, etc and so on.

I wrote again. This time I got this response from Vicki (not to be confused with Victoria, whom you will see, was not in today):

Dear J. Lipnack,

Thank you for your prompt response. My name is Vicki, and I am responding for my associate Victoria who is out of the office today. I apologize for the delay and the difficulty you are having. While you can contact us directly at (8866) 326-7937, because that line is minimally staffed, you will experience a lengthy hold time.

Instead, I will be happy to confirm your user ID via email. If this is agreeable with you, please confirm your answer to "What is the name of your first school?".

Once I receive your response, I will proceed accordingly. In the meantime, if you have additional questions, please let me know. I look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Vicki

Verizon eCenter

Really? They appreciate my business? Vicki/Victoria. Wasn't that a movie?

Going underground

I've found someone who loves subways as much as I do. No, Lou Jones loves them more.

Feeling out of it? Read this

In the event that you have little idea what the next Incredibly Cool Big Thing is (while quietly feeling as if everyone else does know but, alas, you, neanderthal, are living in, let's see, the 20th century), just read Bob Tedeschi's NY Times piece in today's paper, "What Your Phone Might Do for You Two Years From Now." Should the article itself fail to cause a startle or two, follow just this link to Readius and its foldable display. Or this:

SRI International’s software venture, called Siri, is more ambitious, in that it allows users to speak or write natural-language requests into the device (“Find me a place to eat dinner tonight with Karen, reserve a table and put it on our calendars.”), which will complete the task independently and inform you when it is done.

By the by, Tedeschi leads the article by calling the iPhone a Model T -- and closes with the report that we may someday be free of our dreaded carriers. (Be warned, AT&T, your time is coming, say I, not Mr. Tedeschi, all in retribution for your website "upgrade" that disallows use by your customers.) But I digress. Here's more from the wrap to the article:

Dr. Lippman, of MIT, and Dr. Winarsky, of SRI, said they could envision a not-so-distant generation of smartphones communicating more intensively with others nearby via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Smartphone apps could, for instance, recognize when a doctor is in the building, and alert him if another person nearby had dialed 911. Or, your phone might capture images from a video camera around the corner from a subway station.

This idea, labeled “the third cloud” by David P. Reed of MIT, underscores the most profound change for smartphones currently coming to the market — namely, that they need not communicate with the carrier at all.

“Carriers used to control everything, and now the tables have utterly turned,” Dr. Lippman said. “That’s what’ll make the future so interesting.”

Congratulations, Setti!

Photo of Setti and Tassy, Abigail (center) from his website

Our wonderful city of Newton, Mass., elected Setti Warren as our new mayor today. Several firsts here: Setti is the first African-American to become the city's mayor, the first Iraq war veteran, possibly the youngest person to ever win -- and also quite possibly the first twin to hold the post, a unique qualification that speaks only to certain people.

I originally met Setti through the Freedom House board, where we were both members (I still am). I liked him immediately: he's warm and thoughtful and inventive -- and I'm delighted to see him taking on this challenge.

What won me over to supporting him was an odd thing, really. A friend had made a video of one of Setti's opponents. After watching it, I wondered whether Setti had anything comparable so I searched and found this. Take the time to watch. And keep an eye on us here in Newton. The Garden City may become the Future City with Setti in the mayor's office.

Go, Setti!

Do I hear $50? $100? $500?

Clever idea. BiddingForGood, which holds auctions for non-profits, is hosting one for Grateful Nation, the online volunteer site associated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. BIDMC CEO Paul Levy kicked the auction off this morning on his blog. Purpose of this auction is to raise funds to buy an ultrasound machine for Bowdoin Street Health Center in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. Placing an ultrasound machine in the health center will allow pregnant women to have their sonograms near where they live, rather than having to travel, often by public transportation, to the hospital itself, which can be a time-consuming journey. Very good cause that I support wholeheartedly, based on recent experiences close to home.

The auction runs for a week and includes about three dozen items ranging from a baseball signed by Luis Tiant (its value is marked "priceless") to a $100 gift card to Mantra Restaurant to an "Inspiring Speech for Your Organization by Monique Doyle Spencer" to, of course, an "Interactive Presentation" by yours truly.

Bid fast! The whole thing's over in a week but if you miss this one, plan ahead for the holidays, as there will be one the first week of each month. And naturally you too can donate an item, a service, a who-knows-what. I've turned my thinker-upper on to figure out what's next from us.

What to do with all that Halloween candy

Spotted this poster in a pediatrician's office in Brooklyn last Thursday.

Instead of freezing all that sugar -- or in a fit of capitulation letting the kids make themselves sick -- consider this. Scantlebury Orthodontics in Park Slope is sponsoring a candy buy back program - $1/pound! - and then is sending it to the troops. Kids can even write a letter to send along with their donations. All you have to do is go by on Tues, Nov. 3, from 2-6 PM to drop off and collect.

Tales from a Test Tube: The Mixing of Art & Science

Old Man in the Mountain
ink on paper
22" x 30"
2008
Eliza Stamps

Beyond Benign, "a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable science in order to create an environmentally, socially and economically prosperous world," is sponsoring an open house, featuring the work of visual artists, this coming Thurs, Nov 5, 2009. From the website:

"Beyond Benign was created by Dr. John Warner, a founder of the field of Green Chemistry, to provide an approach and means for scientists, particularly those involved in green chemistry and sustainable science, to reach out to the public. Guided by the belief that all scientists should be able to explain their research in a simple and meaningful manner to people from all backgrounds and of all ages, John incorporated community outreach into his students' academic experience as a requirement early in his tenure at the University of Massachusetts. His vision is to increase public awareness and understanding of science in general and specifically of the relationships between chemistry, human health and the environment."

The exhibition features the work of Betty Busby, Nancy Crasco, Megan Cronin, Tony Cruz,  Carlos Estevez,  Vico Fabbris, Bob Harmon, Brian Hart, Eliza Stamps, and students from the Innovation Academy Charter School.

Thurs, Nov 5, 2009
5:30-8:30 PM

Beyond Benign
100 Research Drive

Wilmington, MA. 01887


info@beyondbenign.org

www.beyondbenign.org

978.229.5452

Arguing the telecommuting case

New book by Kate Lister and Tom Harnishby on telecommuting (with possibly the greatest title of the year: Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home, says she, whose attire at the moment shall not be revealed) lays out the case, all of which I found in "8 advantages to telecommuting," Joyce Lain Kennedy's advice column in The Virginian-Pilot, excerpted here with bolding by me:

1. More than two-thirds of surveyed employers report increased productivity among their telecommuters – as much as 35 percent.

2. Teleworkers typically continue to work when they’re sick without infecting others, especially important in pandemics. (Er, not so sure this is a good thing for the sick ones)

3. Flexible hours allow teleworkers to run errands or schedule appointments without losing a full day.

4. Two-thirds of employees would take another job to ease the commute.

5. About 78 percent of employees who call in sick are not really sick. They do so because of family issues, personal needs and stress. The American Management Association found that organizations with a telework program experienced a 63 percent reduction in unscheduled absences. Unscheduled absences annually cost employers $1,800 per employee.

6. A poll of 1,500 technology professionals revealed that 37 percent would take a pay cut of 10 percent if they could work from home.

7. Some 80 percent of employees consider telework a job perk.

8. Average real estate savings with full-time telework is $10,000 per employee per year.

Scrumptious at Blue Marble

I can now vouch for the chocolate ice cream at Blue Marble in Brooklyn. Speclicious. Even better than that. Take a look at its interactive home page to get the scoop on the scoop, i.e. where all the ingredients come from. Well done, founders!

 

The flavors are in the colored circles

Everything about the place reeks of sanity

A lovely day for a ride

My hubby just sent me this photo, taken in the beautiful countryside northwest of Boston. He titled it, "A lovely day for a ride." Keen readers, especially those who know him, may spot another familiar vehicle. See it?

Don't think about an elephant or read this article

Matthew Guerrieri appears to be a perfectly competent journalist and, judging by this article, a good writer. Why, then, does he revert to juvenile trash talk in describing Margaret Fuller? Won't repeat how he describes her but ... it's typical. A brilliant, forceful woman reduced to being a trinket for the men around her. Really, Mr. Guerrieri. Made me so mad I wrote a Letter to the Editor of The Boston Globe. We shall see, we shall see...

I'm not the only one

Thanks to Brad Aaron of Streetsblog from whom I clipped the pic

Remember my saying that if a train could be "my person," it would be the A (New Yorkers understand). A friend recently reminded me that Duke Ellington was way ahead of me** on this one. Apparently, he was in love too. Not to mention the One and Only Ella. (Hers is a bit of an homage to trains everywhere - even the TGV shows up.)

(**And on further inspection, I've learned that Billy Strayhorn actually wrote "Take the A Train.")

Stop the drop(outs)

Freedom House (I've been on the board since 1995) has been hosting community forums throughout its 60-year existence. This one, coming up on October 20, 2009, is about the difficult issue of high school dropout.

“Getting Back On Track”

What’s going on with Dropout Prevention and Recovery in Boston?
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Freedom House, 14 Crawford Street, Dorchester, MA 02121
(617) 445-3700

Karen L. Payne, President Boston Branch NAACP, hosts; Phil Jackson, Director, Alternative Education, and Irvin Scott, Academic Superintendent, both from Boston Public Schools, keynote.

"A Doctor with MS Confides in Her Patient"

Risky and very humane move by Dr. Anne Brewster, a Boston internist. Here. We need more Dr. Brewsters.

More on corporate strategy - #NACD

I mentioned the “Board’s Role in Corporate Strategy” session below at the NACD Corporate Governance Conference. Here are a few more tidbits from the absolutely packed session, so popular that three rounds of additional chairs had to be brought in and people still were left standing in the back. 

Norm Augustine: Committees are very good at critiquing and dissecting but poor at putting things together. It befalls the management team to put together the strategic plan. The CEO sits down with management and comes up with the plan, then sits down with the board. I believe in the chair and CEO being held by the same person but, for this purpose, it may not be a good thing. 

Beverly Behan: In my work, I’ve made a number of international site visits. Could you talk about that when you were at P&G?  

Norm: I was on their board for 18 yrs. P&G does some unusual things: I spent a half-day sitting with an earphone in the Complaint Department listening to complaints. It was revealed to the customers that a board member was listening in. This gives you a real perspective from the person who counts: the customer. Sometimes we went to the annual offsite a day early. Then we paired up and visited someone’s home and asked if they were willing to talk about household matters. We wouldn’t tell them what company we were from. I’ve sat in fancy homes and homes with dirt floors. You get real insight into consumers. After about 20 minutes, people became very candid. I learned more during those visits than from all the management briefings. Here’s an example. We were in a very poor country. If you buy Tide in a big box, you save money. But if you have to walk a mile to get groceries, then it’s too heavy to carry and people buy it in little packages, which costs more. 

Peter Boneparth: At Jones [where he served as CEO], from a supply channel standpoint, it’s hard to understand what goes on in the far east but until you’ve seen it. It gives you a different perspective on corporate responsibility. At Kohl’s [where he’s a board member], the board is required to make five site visits per year. At Jet Blue [also a board member there], there is a maverick culture, which goes all the way to the board level. One benefit is free travel but we have to file trip reports and are expected to engage with people all up and down the chain on morale and talk to customers on flights. This is very important to developing corporate strategy. Industry expertise is at a premium in the boardroom.   Norm: I used to walk through stores on my own. I saw a woman taking non-Tide detergent off the shelf and asked her why she was not buying Tide. She said it was too expensive. It was $1 more per box. I bet her $2 that she wouldn’t buy it so she bought it. 

Beverly: I just talked to someone going onto new GM board. At the first meeting  with the new board, they all went to the Design Center where they walked them through the whole car making process from a blank piece of paper through to production. That afternoon they went to the performance track to see the Volt and other new vehicles drove them on city streets members of the production team. 

Question from audience: Could you tell us what information is essential for board to have in regard to strategy.

Peter: Competitive information is critical but don’t inundate the board with information. Understanding the customer base is critical. And you need good information on people in the organization.

Norm: I’m an engineer [as per below] which means I’m one of those guys who created the button that says “start” to turn off your computer. 

Peter: I’m now sitting on two bds. What I see now is the need for appropriate deference to management’s capability. You have to know enough about the industry to feel confident in asking the right questions. As CEO, I wasn’t comfortable that board at reservoir of knowledge. 

Norm: That’s the greatest dilemma I faced as a director. Your basic source of knowledge comes from the CEO and top management. If they’re not candid with you, there can be real problems. Alternatively, I’ve been on boards where two of the directors had buddies in management a few levels down feeding them information. Having been in the Pentagon, I believe in the chain of command and that’s just wrong. That company got into trouble and those directors with buddies knew about  problems before the rest of the board. It can undermine the CEO if you have board members dipping into the system without the CEO knowing.

And then this little reminder, which feeds into an upcoming post: 

Norm: American companies are being bought at an alarming rate.

How long does it take? - #NACD

One topic that came up a number of times at the National Association of Corporate Directors Corporate Governance Conference was this: How long does it take to change a culture? “Culture” is on the minds of directors and executives, not to mention the press (excuse me, the media, as “press” doesn’t quite capture its production any longer). But back to our subject, changing a culture. Given the meltdown. Given the excesses on a certain street with a bronze bull in the middle of it. Given, given, given…much talk about this at the conference, as per:

On the first night, when Bill George gave his talk, he mentioned having asked IBM’s Sam Palmisano how long it was going to take to transform that company’s culture: Five to seven years, Palmisano reportedly said, which he thought at that time would be the length of his tenure (he's been there seven).

The next morning, CA's (formerly Computer Associates) board chair, Bill McCracken, and its EVP and Chief Administrative Officer, Jim Bryant, presented the complicated story of CA’s return from an accounting scandal so serious that it sent its former CEO to jail. As luck would have it, I happened to sit down next to Patrick Gnazzo, the company’s Chief Compliance Officer, who pointed me toward Martin Biegelman's Building a World-Class Compliance Program, which contains a detailed account of what had happened there.

One intervention that CA used to rebuild confidence and trust, while relatively obvious, proved extraordinarily helpful: executive coaching.  “It really helped us,” said McCracken. “We had to create the culture of the company in the boardroom. The executive coach sat down with each of us and asked what each of us wanted to do personally to change. One of my changes, after 45 yrs in the business, was that for 38 of those years, I was at the top of a hierarchical organization. Now no one reports to me and I‘ve had to learn new skills.”

While some on the board initially thought coaching was a bad idea, ultimately everyone came around as they realized how much their own internal growth would affect the organizational change required to come back from scandal. (McCracken quipped that when another board member discussed his own coaching plan with his wife, she said, “I could have told you that.”)

Northwestern Professor and author Bill White, who chaired this panel, then addressed the observation that sits as the title of this post: how long does it take to transform a culture? For CA, the process is taking quite a long time. “One of the things that comes out when you read the litigation report,” White said, “is how deep these issues went, how embedded the problems were in so many levels of the organization. Do you see how long it takes to go down all the levels?”

CA has roundtables at all levels every year , where the “#1 subject is cross-boundary, cross-functional teamwork,” Bryant said.

“We’re taking it down through the whole organization,” said McCracken. “And, we’re all saying the same thing.”

And back at our session on the digital boardroom - #NACD

Excellent turnout, lots of interest in how boards can use Web 2.0 and its relatives to communicate better, with Thomas Gensemer, Managing Partner, Blue State Digital; Scott Greenburg, Partner K&L/Gates; Paul Levy, CEO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and me, moderating. Paul did a great job of summarizing the session. Take a look.

"She brought Norm" - #NACD

A four-year old was asked to bring her favorite thing to pre-school. "She brought Norm," said the speaker, introducing the recipient of the NACD Lifetime Achievement Award tonight. Norm Augustine (long list of major positions in companies, non-profits, government, and academia) then clarified, saying that in fact his granddaughter was asked to bring "a really old thing."

You never know who's going to bring down the house but Norm really did. The room was dark (it was a banquet where a number of people got awards, MSNBC's Norah O'Donell hosted, and Senator Amy Klobuchar presented another award) so I couldn't scribble down all the funny things he said but just take this advice: If you ever get an award, be like his granddaughter. Bring Norm, virtually speaking. Be funny. And self-effacing. It really works.

I'd gone to a session earlier in the day ("The Board's Role in Corporate Strategy") where Norm, Peter Boneparth, and Beverly Behan held a lively discussion about who should set strategy, board or management, (Peter had a good formula: "Management creates it, the board trouble shoots it, management carries it out").

There, Norm had explained something that has vexed me for years. Why, when you're shutting down a PC, do you hit "start?" Norm's explanation: It was designed by engineers (among whom he numbers himself).

Baby love, my bab(ies) love

So a woman walks into a conference.

The registrar hands her her packet, in which is the woman's badge and speaker ribbon.

Newly grandmothered and having spent the past four weeks with the little twitchlings, the woman has to remove the adhesive protector from the ribbon and paste it onto her badge.

"Where is the stickie on the other side of the diaper?' she thinks...

 
 

Bill George's "Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis" - #NACD

The kick-off speaker at the National Association of Corporate Directors Corporate Governance Conference, Bill George, had some very practical advice for board members. A former CEO and board chair of Medtronic, George now teaches at Harvard Business School, serves on several high profile boards, and writes books. Four in the past five years, to be exact, all published by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, publishers of four of Jeff Stamps' and my books. Jossey-Bass has a reputation for publishing good leadership books, in particular, as well as some real classics in organizational theory.

Given the crisis in business, kicked off by the meltdown precipitated by Enron and the two hundred firms that fell with it, and sent into molten lava by the financial debacle of 2008, George's advice is timely:

His points, from his new book, Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis:

1. Face reality: There's been a loss of trust among shareholders and the public AND it needs to be addressed candidly.

2. Don't be Atlas; get the world off your shoulders: CEOs can't do "this" (resolve crises) by themselves. They need to build coalitions and recruit help from boards and their organizations.

3. Dig deep for root causes. "Short-termism," George's "term," goes to the heart of this. Long-term thinking, including comprehensive succession planning, obviates some of the problems caused by only looking at the nearest hill. In thinking about succession, he favors internal candidates over external ones, who may not even know the industry of the company that they're being brought in to rescue.

4. Get ready for the long haul. No matter how bad things are, George says, they could get a lot worse so...we need to put structures in place that will survive even more adverse times, including executive compensation. George favors a common-sense approach: long-term rewards for long-term performance rather than unnecessary perks and short-term rewards that engender mistrust.

5. Never waste a good crisis. I really like this one. Bad times open up the possibility of great transformations.

6. You're in the spotlight so follow your "true north." Those last two words are the title of one of his books and a phrase in another. In short, stay true to your principles. Simple. Direct. Makes sense. And, he says, boards have to push transparency even if it makes the executive team uncomfortable.

7. Go on offense; focus on winning now. Here he cited one of my favorite corporate experiments in turning around a culture: IBM CEO Sam Palmisano's Values Jam, where more than 300,000 IBM employees were invited to participate in a several-day-long online conversation about IBM's values. When people are looking for great examples of corporate communication, they should look at what IBM has done with this "technology," very soft tech to be sure, very low tech in fact, mainly a facilitation technique for "massively parallel conversations," as IBM's Mike Wing has called them. I was delighted to hear George call this one out - as if it were commonly known. It should be.