Earth hour

In case you didn't hear Saturday night from 8-9 was Earth hour. Surpised me too!!

I actually found out when I logged onto Google that night. Check out what they did. Apparently turning the page black causes so fewer pixels to be illuminated that it saves massive energy.

Funny though, there's been a page doing this for a while now...blackle. Google search with an earth friendly face.

Conflict dissolution

Don't you wish they'd just fall in line. Don't you just love to bring the hammer down. That is if you're perfect...

We all have to deal with conflict. In communications you're always finding people breaking the rules. You know the guys stretching you're square logo to fill an 8.5x11, misspelling your web address on they're promo materials, rearranging the vision statement to fit their needs.

I've been thinking for a long time on how to deal with those conflicts and misunderstandings. For one, I'm a really straightforward guy. Some people like that, they know where I stand immediately, other times it hinders me from being able to be heard. If you rub someone the wrong way they stop listening.

So here's what I've discovered for myself, and it seems to work. I've based it on watching my mentors and hearing what scripture has to say on peacemaking.

1. Affirm that you have a relationship. Let the person know how you feel about them, not the situation. I often love the person that I'm talking to and that makes it all the more difficult. Also doing this helps bring the group together towards a solution and not the blame game.
2. Before you ever start, identify if this a personal, work or spiritual problem. Each has their own unique way of being handled. That's not to say that all of them shouldn't be addressed but some are more clear cut than others.
3. Bring a positive/Be a part of the solution. I learned this from my mentor and friend Randy Renbarger. Instead of ever coming down on someone he always offers a solution. Instead of looking at someone and asking why they did this or that without consulting communications he instead asked how he could help. He knew they weren't out to get him so instead he went strait to the heart of the problem, they didn't know they could get help.
4. If you do need to address the hurts bring specifics. Don't say things like "you always" or "I can't remember when but you did." If you're bringing a hurt it's on you to address the specifics. Most people want to help and don't want to have wronged you. Not bringing examples puts them in the conundrum of wanting to help but not being able to.
5. Go to the person responsible, quickly. Don't talk about it with anyone who does not need to be involved. Do it quickly so that hurts don't fester. We all know times when we've put off discussing something only to find out that once we did the person was incredibly sorry and never knew they had offended. I will always miss time I could have spent with friends over perceived wrongs.

So that's my model. I'd love to hear if you do something different, would add something to the list, or have a hard time with one piece. Obviously different situations and relationships call for different angles, but for me these have proved to be a foundation to build on.

_sl

Identity Crisis

Well it finally happened- I've been victimized. I can now join the ranks of those who have in some way suffered identity crisis.

Doing bills last week I noticed things were way off of where I expected. I started wondering if I had suddenly purchased a new apple product, but realized with the apple backlash day looming that couldn't be.

So I started looking closely and there it was, 440 bones to paypal.



So I called my bank, they assured me that it would be taken care of, not to worry. An investigation would start as soon as it posted to my account and they would temporarily refund me the money until the investigation was over. Cool! They also canceled my card an initiated a new one. Go wachovia! Good user experience abounds.

Then I emailed paypal. Not so happy about having to go the email route. I just lost a signifigant sum of money. I need to hear a carbon based creature assure me. Never the less I was able to follow the progress through a resolution center view. An email was sent to the "seller." The same night the case was closed as the seller had refunded my money.


So I'm mostly feeling ok about it, until today when the fee hits my account. No new stuff has posted to paypal so I'm sure it's the original charge, then I'll see the refund.

All in all a good experience considering a someone from a country we don't have diplomatic relations with stole my money. Ain't the web great.

Got experience?

I need help. In many ways. We're looking to hire three "experience consultants" to go through our site and tell us what they like and what needs help. We'd like two professionals and one mystery shopper.

If you know anyone, or would like to be someone, to help us out with this email me.

Only caveat is we would like it if they didn't know Perimeter well.

Seems like there should be a whole post in why we think this is important but it's getting late.

I'm lost

The other day I had to go to the DMV. After driving for two weeks with an expired license including a trip to Orlando and back, I decided it was time to put on my big boy shorts and go get it renewed.

If you don't know I live WAY out. Literally half way between Atlanta and the S. Carolina state line. That wouldn't be so bad if I worked in S. Carolina but I don't. So I went to my local DMV in a smaller county.

I drove up, no one was there, maybe 10 cars. Walked in, no one was there, like perhaps eight people (I guess someone left a car overnight). Looking around, they were obviously using a number system to call people up to the counters but I couldn't see a ticket dispenser so I assumed they were slow and weren't using it.

So after a moment I sat down. The guy next to me told me I needed to go get a ticket from one of the counters. Cool! Nice guy. Should have bought him a starbucks.

After that smooth sailing. In and out in 15 minutes.

BUT, what if I didn't sit down next to the nice guy? How long could I have waited? How frustrated could I have gotten?

Everything was perfect except they blew the experience at a key point.

How often do we do that to people that walk in our doors or visit our website? I'd love to say never, but I know better. Perimeter is a big place, I often see people looking for this class or that prayer group. I always try to help someone if I notice.

How many people walk in on Sunday and walk right back out? We are responsible for that. We need to help them find a seat, get a bulletin, find the sermon downloads.

When we don't what kind of frustration do we cause? How long are we letting people sit in the lobby waiting for a number they didn't get? How can we empower members to be the nice guy that helps out?

One day when I'm smarter I'm write a top five on how to fix this. For today I'm just asking the question.

Planning for inspriation

I know we've all heard the addage "failing to plan is planning to fail."

Poppycock!

Well at least to an extreme. Too many times I see people create process documents and ministry plans that are excellent but are unwilling to veer from them when inspiration comes.

Unwavering plans and rigid structures leave out room for the inspiration, creativity and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Some of the coolest things often happen by accident. For myself some of my best designs come from when something accidentally happens, when I clicked the wrong button and it was suddenly cool.

The question is how do we build room for inspiration into our plans? We have to create that space for the Holy Spirit and creativity and we DO need to plan.

For different disciplines that answer is going to be different. In the tech/production world it might be systems that allow greater flexibility at the 11th hour. For IT it might be processes and systems that allow greater freedom.

In communications I think it comes down to building policies that allow that flex. I know I'm guilty of not letting this work. I often have preconceived notions of what something should be. But we have to create structure that allows creativity to fill in the blanks.

At Perimeter we love spreadsheets, process docs, critical paths, you name it. As a creative my challenge is to work in those margins. To find something cool in the spreadsheet.