When I was a kid, in the summer, my sister and I would go to the library once a week and come home with stacks of books. My stack was eclectic: novels, almanacs, poetry, animal books, art books, whatever struck me that week. My sister’s stack generally consisted of books on fish, Jacque Cousteau, sharks, [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Libraries Kick Ass!!
Posted in Uncategorized on August 31, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Blame-a-palooza: Why a Culture of Blame Will Kill Innovation and Scare Off Your Customers
Posted in customer service, Leadership on August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Stuff happens. Customers leave angry or disappointed. Grant applications are denied. Events are poorly attended. Cataloging gets backlogged. Books wait to be shelved. Printers get jammed. Computers break down. Mistakes are made both by accident and by human failure. How do we deal with these moments? In many ways, assigning blame is inevitable. It’s how [...]
Let’s Not Get Crazy: Controlling Anger
Posted in Uncategorized on August 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
art: Tommy Pariah We all get angry. For some folks, it takes more to get them angry than others. For some it’s like filling a bucket and when the bucket is full, it spills over. The one thing that seems to be true no matter the origin of the anger is that when it spills, [...]
Life in a Sitcom
Posted in customer service on August 11, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I bought a condo, exactly one week ago. It’s always a little tricky dealing with mortgage brokers, lawyers, insurance agents, real estate agents. Buying a home is really a logistical obstacle course of multiple hoops to jump through. I’m not the greatest hoop jumper; but, I managed to pull it off and on time. The [...]
Is Kindness Trending?
Posted in kindness, Leadership on August 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
At Powells last year, I was responsible for keeping the Business section shelved and orderly. One book caught my eye: Kindness Revolution by Edward Horrell. I loved this book. At some point, I’ll write a post just about that book. For now, I’ll summarize it very, very briefly by saying that it is a book [...]
