Quote of the Day

"Speak like you know you're right, listen like you know you're wrong."

Wish I could attribute it...it is in the comments of an article on Fast Company about Design Thinking..about a book I want to read: Change by Design.

Lessons learned from being a hero

I accepted a hero award last night. 

Madison Community car awarded hero status for the No Car Low Car Challenge I initiated in my neighborhood.  Here is what I learned:


1. Use Motivating Emotions: People do like being a hero. It felt good. I told everyone I knew. The families in the Challenge were proud.
2. Have an elevator pitch ready: . I got interviewed by Channel 3 ( local TV station.)  I didn't make the nightly news. I think it was because I didn't have a quoteable quote. I did tell a story when I accepted the award.  People referred to the story the rest of the night ( media were gone at that point)
3. Make it easy for the press: The organization didn't have a press release (they should have)
4. Take photos: A friend took photos ( which I will post to my blog and send to my neighborhood newspaper).  The organization could have also been taking photos for their website, newspapers, to promote next years' awards.
5. Make it easy to take action: There was a bunch of people at the event. We all felt good about what we personally were doing.  We could easily have been asked to take some kind of policy related action while we were there.

Photo Credit: Flickr: kagey

Three Strategic Planning Questions

Here are three questions I want to talk about with staff as we get started on strategic planning.

1. What do we do well?  Indiviudally and as a team: What are our strengths? What are we passionate about? How do our strengths fit with what is needed? How do we make the most of what we do well?

2. Why should people "follow" us? Why would people come to tobwis.org?  When have we been leaders and what did we learn from those times that can we use? Why would people use our resources as opposed to other ones?

3. What have we done to earn the trust of others?  And how will we continue to deserve that trust and earn more?  Although, I think all three of these are important. The issue of trust comes up again and again anad again. 

These questions are from Leadership at Work by John Baldoni
Photo credit: flickr: campascca

CDC Expands their Social Media Tools

CDC just announced a new updated social media tools page. What is most interesting about this is there were rumors that the Health Marketing division of CDC was going to be cut.    Instead of waiting and wondering..someone took the intitiave to put out a  "New! Improved! "website.  What a great strategy! If your worried that your organization is going to cut you...go public with something that adds value.

Check out the New, Improved  Social Media at CDC

Power of Competition

My family has challenged 5 other families to a No Car/Low Car 10 day Challenge. One of the reasons I initiated the challenge was to get my two boys to get more physical activity.

The rules are simple. Try to earn as many points as you can. 5 points for walking/biking, 3 points for taking the bus and 2 points for car pool.

My 11 year old decided to bike to school even though his older brother isn't ( something he would not have done with out the incentive of earning points.)

The prize isn't all that motivating ( a pot luck dinner) but earning points and competing with other families is certainly working for Ben...and for other kids and their parents. I got a call last night from a mom who shared that her whole family walked to the library and were on their way to Walgreens...on foot. She didn't want to share her point total ( because that might motivate me to get more active.)

A little competition is going a long way!

Avoid telephonitis

According to Sacha Dicter, telephonitis is the process whereby otherwise conversant, engaged active people become silent when on a conference call. My two top tips from her list are:

1. Keep a list of who is on the call. Use this list to
-call on people you haven't heard from
-when an important question or issue comes up, make sure everyone on the call is invited to share their thoughts

2. Create an "in the room" role. If you have a group of people in one room, have one person be responsible for sharing what's happening "in the room"with those on the phone. "Everyone here is nodding their head in agreement. " I'm seeing looks of confusion."

These tips were adapted from Telephonitis on Sacha Dicter's blog

Make it Easy

A new report from the Institute of Medicine focues on environmental strateiges to increase healthy eating and fitness.

Examples focus on policy changes that can be made at the local level:
Zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants near schools and playgrounds,
community policing to improve safety around public recreational sites,
requirements that publicly run after-school programs limit video game and TV time,
and taxes on high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and drinks ( or tax the ingrediants that industry uses to make them...like high fructose corn syrup....so industry bears the tax burden not consumers)

Press Release that summarizes the report
Project Web page
Report Brief


It is easier to change the environment than to change individual behavior.

Slides are NOT Word documents

I was re-reading presentation tips from Chris Brogan From Chris' list here are three I want to focus on in my next presentations.

Respect your audience: they know more than we give them credit for....how can I structure a presentation so they build on what they know and add their own value?
Build in time for tips and take aways discussions at tables or with the person next to you.

Add value: give them take aways and give them doable actions
Structure my three top tips as take aways. Be clear about 1-3 actions for each of my tips.
Make sure my slides are visually appealing and add value to what I am saying ( no word documents)

Be an entertainer: be polished, eloquent and precise
For me this means making the time to practice, even though I have done the presentations multiple times.