Fun facts found in Outliers by Gladwell

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After reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers this weekend, about people who are extraordinarily successful, I was intrigued by the idea that birth year, family culture back several generations and other seemly unimportant factors combined with dedicated practice can provide the foundation to make talented people great.

The lesson for the younger generation who seek instant results is that Gladwell found it takes over 10,000 hours of practice to become really, really good at something. And, it is the time spent practicing that differentiates the ordinary from the extraordinary. Your environment, family, birth month or other seemingly arbitrary factor may provide the opportunity to get in more practice hours.

With my work encouraging students to consider technical education paths at Sierra College leading to technical careers, I was fascinated with Gladwell’s review of how language and culture may predispose some students to excel at math. Again, it is about putting in long hours of practice to become really proficient. Our culture, schools and families may not be emphasizing the need for math practice enough to prepare future engineers. Gladwell also reviewed the importance of struggling, without giving up, to find a solution to a math problem as a way of developing problem solving skills. Employers I’ve interviewed continually mention their desire to find prospective employees with problem solving skills. (224-249)

As a marketer, I found Gladwell’s review of communication styles among pilots interesting. He suggested that your culture and its associated way of dealing with uncertainty and its sense of hierarchy influence your communication style. Depending on the situation, this may advantageous or disastrous. Gladwell showed how an employer, after realizing what communication is style is needed in the cockpit during an emergency for example, can train pilots in methods to enhance understanding and result in better outcomes. (200-212)

All in all, Outliers is an interesting read, especially if you enjoy statistics and stories. I was somewhat disappointed that the reader is left to come up with his or her own conclusions about how to use this information to enhance an organization’s success. Now I’m seeking a way to turn the fun facts into action.

Hands-on projects inspire kids, newspaper articles catch parents’ attention

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Sierra College Workforce Development and Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) is inspiring young people to consider careers in product design, engineering, technology and manufacturing by offering hands-on projects at schools in Placer and Nevada counties.

After a recent build in Grass Valley, the Tech-Explorer catapult project was featured in the Union newspaper. Kids catapult into learning College program eyes local work force

To spread the word, Sierra College has used press releases describing the goals of the program:

For Immediate Release December 16, 2008 #62

Contact: Sue Michaels/Diane Wright, Sierra College Marketing/Public Relations 916-660.7272, 916-630-4535(fax) smichaels@sierracollege.edu

Lincoln High School students apply math skills to building catapults

Sierra College STEM grant introduces education path to highly-paid, technical careers

ROCKLIN -Students in teacher Ellen Byron’s Honors Algebra II and Pre-Calculus classes will measure, cut and manipulate metal on industrial power tools to manufacture parts and build catapults from 10:45AM to 3PM on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at Lincoln High School located at 790 J St. in Lincoln, CA. Learn about the project at: http://www.sierracollegetraining.com/techexp_program.php

A former Industrial Engineer, Byron is excited about offering this project. “Building the catapult will give students a glimpse into ‘What can we do with the math we learn?’” said Byron. “In careers like engineering, it is so exciting to think of a concept and then turn it into reality. Many of these students are so focused on the academics that they don’t realize all the great career choices that math and science can provide. Through this project, I hope some sparks will fly in their minds and open their imaginations to many technical career choices.”

According to Sandra Scott, Director of Workforce Development for Sierra College, the hands-on Tech-Explorer catapult project engages students and makes academic studies more relevant. “Project-based learning allows students to apply what they are learning in the classroom to real skills used in the workplace,” said Scott. “This project introduces students to local, highly paid in-demand careers such as technicians, product designers and engineers.”

Sierra College won a Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM) grant from the California Community College Chancellor’s office to bring short-term, turn-key applied academic projects that meet State of California secondary education standards into middle and high school classes.

STEM careers are in demand reports Nicholas Terrell for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in STEM Occupations http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2007/spring/art04.pdf. The report shows that “STEM workers earned about 70 percent more than the national average in 2005, accord­ing to BLS” and the average wage for STEM occupations in 2005 was $64,560 compared to $37,870 for all occupations. (pg. 29 BLS Occupational Outlook Quarterly Spring 2007)

The BLS recommends: “Prepa­ration should begin in high school, with coursework and extracurricular activities focusing on honing problem-solving skills. … Students interested in a STEM career should get started in high school by taking as much math and science as they can. Even those who struggle in these subjects during school can succeed on the job; with persever­ance, many people who may have had difficulty with early math or science classes can later thrive in a STEM career.” (pg. 30 BLS)

The mission of the Workforce Development Division is to deliver flexible learning opportunities that produce change. For more information, go to www.sierracollegetraining.com or contact Sandra Scott, Sierra College Workforce Development at (916) 781-6244.

Color Trends

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I have been blessed to have worked with wonderful designers who take the text I write and turn it into eye catching print materials that reinforce the brand.

To learn more about color, you might want to check out pantone.com. You’ll find Pantone’s Top 5 trend palettes.

It is also fun to look at the PANTONE fashion COLOR REPORT SPRING 2009. I’m excited about fuchsia red as you might expect. At the end of the report, designers tell their “must haves” for the upcoming season.

Technology Meltdown Rant

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Today, I had a technology meltdown.

My email didn’t work. Thank goodness I can rely of Valley IT Support (www.valleyitsupport.com). I sent an email via my website at 6:17 am and had a reply by 6:23am setting a time to resolve this problem.

Then my phone dropped off a client in the middle of a conference call. I called the telephone company and the voice mail said that they were really busy and I should go online. I did and was lead through a series of menus until I got instructions on how to go out to my box, unscrew the lid and test my wires. I gallantly followed the instructions and unearthed my inner engineer hiding behind the marketing gal. But, since the problem of dropped calls was intermittent, my tests didn’t reveal anything. So I had to call the phone company and wait until I could request a technician.

I couldn’t upload changes to a client’s web site in the usual manner due to some technical difficulty. At I-Tul (www.I-Tul.com) the tech experts answer the phone and quickly offer alternatives to work around the issue. So, this was resolved quickly too.

The final straw was my calculator. I found “new” batteries that weren’t new enough to make it work and ended up doing calculations longhand. It’s good to know I can still do it.

This evening my step-mother said she finally got her email fixed. I had sent messages to the customer support requesting assistance for her. They had replied to her via email even though her problem was that she couldn’t access her email. That’s why I had submitted the service request for her. Is someone actually reading the service requests or is everything automated?

Today’s lessons:

  • Having a responsive IT expert is priceless.
  • Web sites are great to help customers help themselves and email is a wonderful tool but if those don’t work, customers need to be able to reach a real person.

Hopefully I’ll have time to actually do some marketing tomorrow since I went on a technology rant today.

Participate in Community Blogs

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To gain more name recognition for your company and actively participate in your community, consider writing on your local newspaper’s blog. I write as MarketingAction on placeropolis.com a web site maintained by Gold Country Media featuring the Loomis News and other area publications. I report on community news, submit photos, post the marketing class I teach, promote community organizations and make other comments on country living.

On page 6 of the Nov.27, 2008 Loomis News, a cropped 9 x 4 photo that I took at Folsom Lake was featured. The newspaper picked up my photo from the online posting. The original picture was posted at: http://www.theloomisnews.com/detail/99579.html?content_class=2&sub_type=photos&town_id=13

You can see my other posts at http://www.placeropolis.com/user_profile.html?view=4637 The most popular, with over 1900 views, was about local berry picking and other news bites. Occasionally what is written in a blog may be used as a story idea by the publication editors. There are over 6800 users on placeropolis.com.

Make personalized ecards

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I tried Smilebsox to make an ecard using some recent photographs I’d taken including the wild turkeys seen here. The web site is not nearly as intuitive as the wonderful Flip Video Camera reviewed below but it is still pretty easy to use. I got stuck trying to figure out how to add multiple photos until I realized that there was a tab on the right where you choose how many photos you want to use. And there isn’t an obvious button to turn the card off. It was good to have a way to share the shots I’ve been taking on recent hikes. And it is an interesting way to keep in touch with clients and associates.

Surveymonkey.com a quick way to gather information

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Several of my clients are currently using surveymonkey.com to gather information important to their organizations. One has asked employees to confidentially give input to help with strategic planning for 2009. The other asked advisory committee members in which way they may be able to contribute to the program. Both saved the managers’ time by gathering needed information from participants and posting results in one place.

This is a free program or can be subscribed to for less than $20 per month to take advantage of convenient downloads and other services.

The only downside that I have experienced was using surveymonkey.com to directly email out a customer survey rather than have the client email it to customers. The one sent out by surveymonkey.com was blocked by many systems.

Customers deliver better service than employees

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I’ve been shopping at the same grocery store for 15 years. When I had a particularly bad experience due to lack of shopping carts, clerks unable to find things, out-of-date produce and no bagger available to help me out, I felt compelled to call the store.

The person I spoke to was gracious in taking my feedback and told me to stop in for a gift card left in my name in appreciation for bringing my experience to her attention.

When I stopped in a week later, there was no card and I was told that I had probably called the wrong store. They did however offer a lower valued card, all that the weekend staff were allowed to issue.

So I tried again a week later, finally reaching the store manager. By this time, I had figured out how to show him the text message from 411 documenting that I had indeed called the right store as well as the exact date and time that I’d had this interaction. He too politely listened and apologized for the experience and offered a gift for my trouble.

My gripe is that I tried really, really hard to give my feedback. I was frustrated that the store didn’t have a mechanism in place to communicate among their team so they’d know what I’d been promised. And, it left me wondering if anything was done with my feedback.

What can you learn from this?
  • If you get feedback from customers, you need a system in place to communicate the problem and the solution to your team.
  • It would have been more proactive and had greater positive impact to send the card to the customer with a thank you note rather than put the onus on the customer to request the card. It would have been even better to let the customer know what had been done with the feedback.
  • The store would profit from talking with employees about how real customers feel about their experiences and what needs to be done differently to enhance those interactions.

The further irony to this story is that on my second visit I witnessed the customers delivering more service than the employees. The gentleman in front of me in line noticed that the mechanism to move the items toward the cash register was not turned on. So, he manually moved his food forward to make room for me. Then he turned, and started helping me take things out of my cart and load it on the ramp. After I thanked him, he said he was just standing there so he might as well help. How lucky his grandchildren are to have a grandfather like him as a role model! Then the woman, who was behind me, revealed that she was back in line for the second time. During her first round at the checkout counter, her purse had covered a few items and she didn’t realize it until she was out at her car. So she brought them back to the store to pay for them. Now these customers are truly delivering service to this store. Maybe the customers should be training the employees!

Sierra College STEM Grant attracts middle school students to Tech Careers
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The Sierra College Tech-Explorer catapult project that introduces students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math was reported in a brief in the 10-24-08 Sacramento Business Journal page 29 under Business Notes.

The press release » 10/13/08 Sierra College offers relevant technical education to Roseville middle school explains the project and lists several sources for career information.

From the release: According to Sandra Scott, Director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Sierra College, “Our vision is to engage all students in applied learning and interest them in pursuing the classes now, in high school and later at Sierra College that can lead them to rewarding technical careers.” She explained that if middle school students can grasp abstract concepts by applying them to a project that is relevant to them, they may be more motivated to take math, science, computer, design, robotics and other technical courses. “Developing their interest now, in middle school, can give them an edge in determining their future,” said Scott.