Rothacker Reviews

Business Lessons From Van Halen

Imagine if you could design, build and insert a mechanism - like the robot from Lost in Space, into your business. A Danger Will Robinson would alert you to problems ahead. Van Halen built such a mechanism into its operation and it was brilliant.

Dan Heath and Chip Heath explain Van Halen's canary in a coal mine in their latest Fast Company article.

Betcha didn't see that coming!

How simple, yet how effective.

Think about your life and work. Could you design, build and implement a Lost in Space robot into your routine?

Ironically, my ancestors designed one such system. It was hair loss. They timed mine to be implemented as our oldest was becoming a teenager...

Lizzie's Sister Leslie

Hi, my name is Leslie. I'm Lizzie's sister. Lizzie still lives across the country with our Mom. She still goes to school and still works with the ladies in the kitchen. Lizzie is as tender and caring of a human being as God has ever put on this Earth. Lizzie would give a person in need the shirt off of her back. In fact, one time she did just that. Mom tried to explain that girls weren't supposed to walk about wearing only their bras. Lizzie's didn't understand. Mom chalked it up to one of those precious Lizzie moments.

I work as a designer for a graphic arts firm on the east coast. My life hits the accelerator the minute I get up in the morning and doesn't let up until my head hits my pillow every night. Days blur into nights that blur into days that blur into weeks that blur into memories that I can only remember by looking back on my Facebook page. I don't call Mom as much as I should and I call Lizzie less. I love them with all of my heart but life seems to be getting in the way. 

Mom called yesterday to let me know that Lizzie's best friend moved away. Sam, who had practically grown up with Lizzie, has all of his chromos. Sam would play with Lizzie and bring her chocolate candy and talk with her and protect her from imaginary demons and tell her her clothes didn't match and take her shopping. Although they are both thirty-two years old, when they are together they are nine. No one, including our own Mom, is more protective of Lizzie. Sam's company relocated to another state. He had to go. Lizzie was crushed.

I could feel her pain a thousand miles away. I want to take her into my arms and comfort her. I want to brush her hair back and let her cry on my shoulder. I want to take her pain away. The thing is, I'll call Lizzie and she'll be happy to hear from me. She won't say anything about how long it's been since we talked or how long it's been since I sent her a card. She'll forget about Sam and put all of her concentration on me. Who will be comforting who?

Some of us are chosen to help others...even though life has been placed in our way, even though mental challenges have been placed in our way. Sometimes we need a friendly nudge to move forward. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call to get us moving. Sometimes it's the right thing to do.

Can Adults Learn From Kids?

Can adults learn from kids? Yes! Especially those of us who could not or would not crawl out of our boxes...even if all four walls fell down at the same time.

I came across Adora Svitak today when looking over the speakers at this year's TED talks. Adora talks to the folks at Mashable here:

At the 1:56 mark Adora says, "Adults are confined by society's restrictions." She's talking about changing the world and coming up with new ideas. Adora says that kids offer a different perspective, a kid's eyeview, one that is not hampered and that's why adults should pay attention to kids.

Adora lets her kid side out for a quick moment and then recovers at the 2:24 mark. When asked if there was any technology that she was excited about, she said getting a free phone at TED was the high point of the conference for her. A second later she corrected and said that the speakers were her high point.

You know what Adora? I hope that you can hold off society's norms just a bit longer yourself. It's totally cool and totally kid to say the high point of TED was the free phone.

Don't be Evil

Google's Code of Conduct

Under the heading Serve our Users, Google states this guiding principle: Is what we are offering useful?

Whether or not you are a company or an author, is there a more clear and coherent guiding principle than this?

Ten Things Google has Found to be True

Under point # 9: You can be serious without a suit. Give the proper tools to a group of people who like to make a difference, and they will.

Just a couple of points that stood out to me.

Heather Derusha: Turn Signals Save Lives

If you drive on the Tampa Bay area streets, you don't need surveys, statistics or neon signs to alert you to the dangers of failing to use your car's turn signals. You need only drive one minute on one road to see what's happening. The key is to keep your eyes open. And then let the danger cut in front of the others standing in line in your mind. You know the other things you're thinking about while driving, things that are not as important as other people's lives and your own life.

What will it take to get people to use their turn signals and drive safely on our roads? My guess is increased awareness and more of us talking about the dangerous driving habits that have become our norm. 

Heather Derusha talks about the dangers of failure to use turn signals. I first learned of Heather in a 2006 article written by Rick Barry: Failing to Signal - It's Not Just Annoying. As this was a particular pet peeve of mine, I wrote about it here. Heather recently reached out to Friend me on Facebook and I noticed that she has not let her cause drop by the wayside. Heather promotes the Signal America campaign on her Facebook page. Check out Signal America's You Tube page too!

Tommy Duncan, author of one of the Tampa Bay's premier blogs Sticks of Fire, writes about the dangers on our roadways, drivers and traffic under Sticks of Fire's Transportation category. Ironically (not), one of Tommy's last posts is titled Tampa Bay Dangerous for Pedestrians. He cites the nauseating position that Tampa ranks among major cities when it comes to our propensity to run over and cream our pedestrians.

I have half a notion to invoke public citizen's eminent domain (think: citizen's arrest) on the owners of the tbt* and mandate that the Juice's talented editor Joshua Gillin cover the antics of Tampa Bay drivers. 

Although I allowed my brain to scatter a bit more than usual today, Heather's message is loud, clear and direct: Use your turn signals and save lives!

Be the Wind

Carla's basketball career came to an end this past Thursday night when her high school team lost a regional quarter final playoff game. She has been playing since fourth grade. The circumstances surrounding this last game were absolutely crushing. I'll not go into detail but it involves the power and influence that a high school coach has.

Carla's last game was an icon that represented her entire high school basketball career with the exception of playing under the varsity coach in ninth grade. If I could draw a picture of what someone getting their soul ripped from their body looks like, you'd begin to get an idea.

As a professional in the workplace, I was a manager for too many years. Looking back at Carla's career I can't help but to see the employee who has a bit of a wild side, who is a little different, who has the heart of a lion, one whose above average talent fluctuates between the surface and just beneath the surface, one who brims with the intangibles that make a difference and one who desperately needs to be understood.

Unfortunately, Carla didn't have the on-court-talent to neutralize the coach. She needed his fairness, support, encouragement, faith, respect and guidance when she needed guiding---guiding that is with dignity and respect. Some adults demand to be respected. Others get respect by being respectful. You can do the math here.

If you are a coach or manager don't be a crushing, soul-depleting downdraft on the wings of your players or coworkers. Instead, work from a position of support and understanding, instead, Be the Wind.

Update: as I was publishing this post, Simon and Garfunkel were singing Bridge over Troubled Water. Nothing in this Universe is random, nothing.

Castles in the Sand

When you were a kid, did you ever build a sand castle? Do you know one reason why you probably got it done? You didn't allow yourself to become paralyzed by whether or not your project was specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. You probably didn't have anyone standing over your shoulder asking if you were done yet. Asking that is, minus any hands-on, support or intellectual help.

Chance are, you might have been on the beach one day and got the idea to build that sand castle. You checked out other kids' sand castles. A picture of a castle began to appear in your mind. You put your thoughts in order and began to build. If something didn't look right, you changed it. Friends came by and suggested you might want to add a moat. You listened and then built the moat. You checked to make sure that the castle's walls were strong. You trimmed away rough edges and put the finishing touches on it. You felt pretty darn good after you finished.

When it comes to innovating, making things better - whether it's relationships, physical appearance, hobbies or stuff at work, we need to be kids again. We need to jump in and do it. It's okay to name things in our process. It's okay to use words like design, design intent, research, concept, prototype, build, test, feedback and modify. But we're not going to get too rapped up in the language. The intent is to get things done.

Photo by ebaumsworld

Use Intent not Goal

I can't believe that I compared a bowel movement to a goal. No doubt my subconscious was driving that thought.

I would like to create a new framework for looking at goal-setting and goal-achieving using the design process and its related language. Our first project is to use the word intent instead of goal. I'd rather this process concentrate more on the feelings and impressions that are invoked by a different language as opposed to the American Heritage's left-brain driven interpretation. To give my case a little meat however, I will defer to my favorite dictionary.

Intent n. An aim or purpose.

Goal n. A desired purpose.

Based on this definition alone, an intent sounds more desirable than a goal. An aim - direct, a target. Desired - I wish, I want. Let's look at the Latin derivative for the word intent to gain traction: intendere. Intendere is also the Latin derivative for the word intend.

Intend v. To design for a specific purpose.

Design v. To have as a goal or purpose; intend.

The key is the v, as in verb. I goal to lose weight? Or I intend to lose weight?

All rightttttty then. With all due respect to my trusted American H., it's time to shelve him, shelve the semantics and get down to design, which I wasn't quite prepared to do. I wanted more time for research and time to flesh these thoughts out. But that's noun creep. To get things done I need verb creep. I need to move from concept phase to prototype phase. I need to sink my mind and hands into the process, get a mock-up out there, play with it, test it and build a feedback loop to refine it.

Moving forward, this effort will be filed under the category Design Intent.

The Road. A Short Motivational Video

Once you have tasted flight you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward - Leonardo da Vinci

I found this video over at Matt Michel's Comanche Marketing.

The Who & the Super Bowl

"Hey Mom! These old dudes are singing the song from CSI Las Vegas!"