The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

Over the holidays, I read two or three good books – but none better, nor more useful than The Daily Six, by John Chappelear. Subtitled “Six Simple Steps to Find the Perfect Balance of Prosperity and Purpose”, this is a great coaching manual for anyone who wants some practical guidelines for keeping things in perspective, while developing a prosperous career. The tough economy will present a seductive temptation to tip the scale in favor of work – over everything else. We all know that’s not a good idea. This book underscores that.

A self-described “recovering big shot”, John Chappelear had it all – then lost most of it. A multi-million dollar business, with all the attendant trappings, was lost (and repossessed) practically overnight. His wife kicked him out (for good), and his kids disowned him (though not for good).

It was what he calls his “Gift of Desperation” that set him on a path to figure out how to live again, and this time, how to get it right. By developing “The Daily Six” – a list of (guess how many) simple but profound principles to practice every day (hence, the daily bit), he slowly, but surely, re-built a balanced life, replete with career success, meaning, fulfillment, and family.

If this were just another self-help book, I probably wouldn’t have read it, and I surely wouldn’t be blogging about it. Here’s what I like about it:

• It’s short (130 pages).
• It’s full of good stories. I like stories. I learn from stories. These are good stories.
• It’s practical. There’s nothing in it I can’t do.
• It’s actionable. There’s nothing worse than a book full of lofty ideas, but no call to action. Well, there are things that are worse. But you know what I mean.
• You get the impression, from reading John’s words, that this is a guy who’s really grounded, thoughtful, wise, and somebody you’d probably like to hang out with.

You don’t need me to tell you where you can buy a book. But I’d suggest you order it from Chappelear’s website, www.JohnChappelear.com. He’ll even sign it for you.

Gotta go. One of the “six” is to have a daily quiet time. I’m going for mine now.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Last week I wrote about a trip on jetBlue from Jacksonville to New York, this Delta Platinum frequent flyer’s first jetBlue flight in several years. It won’t be my last. The trip back was every bit as enjoyable as the trip up. Not unlike the outbound leg of the journey, this trip was direct (no connections to make), on time, comfortable, and featured a friendly, helpful, and professional crew. The satellite TV worked, and provided a nice break from working on my laptop, which was easy to do, given the ample space between me and the seat back in front of me.

And whatever off-putting feelings you may have about the John F. Kennedy Airport, you may, for the most part, throw them out when considering jetBlue’s new terminal 5. It’s new, clean, spacious (but not so large that you walk your legs off between your plane and ground transportation), and when I was there, had enough TSA staff to get you through security in a reasonable amount of time.

But the best thing about JFK’s Terminal 5 is the Cibo Market eatery. Hard to describe. Very Euro/Manhattan. Buffet, gourmet salad bar, Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Boar’s Head Deli, and a couple of other things all wrapped up in one location. Actually makes me look forward to eating…in an airport.

One word of caution. If you’re returning a rental car, then flying jetBlue from Terminal 5, allow about 20 minutes from the time you get your rental receipt until you end up in the terminal, via the easy-to-use, but elaborate, and long, train system at JFK.

So, I still love Delta, and will continue to earn most of my miles with them. But – I can’t imagine taking Delta’s little Comair regional jets, (whose seats have all the comfort of the bleachers on the losing side of the stadium), to that dark, crummy hole in LaGuardia ever again. In fact, I’ve already booked my next trip.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

For a variety of reasons, I’m a big Delta flyer. And mostly a fan. But having already hit platinum on Delta for next year, I decided to give jetBlue a try for a trip to New York.

Since its founding in 1999, jetBlue Airways has garnered a pretty strong reputation as both a good carrier to fly, and a good place to work. With the notable exception of the notorious, ugly, and seemingly anomalous service debacle of February 2007 (which got it yanked off the cover of Business Week’s “Customer Service Champs” issue), the airline’s strategy has mostly been focused on affordable fares, simple operations, satisfied employees, and happy customers.

On today’s flight, from Jacksonville to JFK, I’d have to give them an A+. The gate personnel and flight attendants were all polite, friendly, helpful, and professional. We left on time, and arrived early, into their brand spanking new, spiffy dedicated terminal at JFK. The free satellite TV (at every seat) worked fine, and they gave me a diet Coke and a bag of blue potato chips, which I enjoyed. They didn’t get the chance to lose my luggage. And the walk from the plane to a taxi was short and convenient.

No complaints. I’ll report on my return later in the week.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed , made me think. Which is exactly what its detractors don’t want you to do.

My son’s high school chemistry teacher offered his students extra credit for going to see the full-length documentary (we pay for him to go to a school where teachers and students have the freedom to be open-minded, an option not offered in the public schools in our community.) And I went with him. How often does your teenage son say, “Hey, Dad, you wanna go see a movie?”

There are so many things going for this movie that it’s hard to know where to start. A brilliant piece of filmmaking, at once entertaining and disturbing, the movie is chock full of visual and audio allusions, inserted in precisely the right moment to support the very dialogue you’re hearing. It’s clever, laugh-out-loud funny, and provides evidence that there is, indeed, intelligent life among moviemakers. At least one of them.

Another major asset is Ben Stein himself, a man with a profusion of intellect, energy, and insight, not to mention money. Stein himself is a study in contrasts: brilliant, dressed as dull. The movie exposes the narrowminded, parochial view held by many in the so-called “scientific community” that the only explanation for the origin of life is fully contained in the theory espoused by Charles Darwin in the 19th century, and no further evidence need be brought to bear on the question, thank you.

Stein points out, with arresting clarity, against a backdrop of Nazi totalitarianism and mind control as a metaphor, how threatened this crowd is by any discussion that suggests that there may be more to the universe’s origin and development than that which Darwin theorized. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want anyone else to talk about it. And, if you’re a scientist or educator, and you dare question Darwin, ask that alternative theories be considered in addition (not instead of) or point out that it, like Intelligent Design, is a theory certainly worthy of consideration, but not settled fact, your job, your chance to be published, and indeed your career will be in grave jeopardy.

I don’t know where we came from. Nobody knows. Big Bang? Evolution? Intelligent Design? Far greater minds than mine have debated this for centuries. And that’s good. Let the debate continue. Maybe one day we’ll get it figured out (although I doubt it). And certainly not if those Ben Stein exposes continue to exert pressure to make sure no intelligent discussion ensues.

This blog, unlike the targets of “Expelled” welcomes, indeed encourages, contrasting points of view. Let us hear from you.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Okay, what you usually find on this page is a post relating to Richard’s most recent vacation, a rant from yours truly on a current source of irritation, or an opinion or tidbit pertaining to leadership, employee relations, or organizational performance. And that will be a consistent theme for this blog, because Richard takes a lot of vacations, I spend enough time pissed off to be affectionately known as ‘Grumpy’ by my granddaughter, and we earn our livings dealing with leadership and workforce issues.

Today, however is different. Chalk it up to about a week of 100+ degree heat in the Memphis area, where I live. The weather has taken the starch out of everyone’s sheets, so today is going to be “blog lite”, if you will, but you’re going to be the beneficiary. I’ve got a little tip to share with you. Let’s get to it.

For about two months, I have used a new, free (repeat, free) service called Jott. Jott is a relatively new personal communications and organizing tool that, using some slick voice recognition technology, enables you to send individual and group emails via your cell phone. In other words, if you are traveling or just out of the office, you can use your phone’s voice function to deliver both voice and email messages to a friend, staff member, or the entire team, all in one fell swoop. You can also use it to send short reminder messages to yourself. It’s as simple as calling Jott’s toll free number (on speed dial, of course), speaking the name of your contact, speaking your message, and hanging up. That’s it. No taking your hands off the steering wheel to text or type an email with your thumbs, or any of that stuff. Just enter your contacts into Jott’s online directory, and you’re set to go.

I’ve used it to quickly and effortlessly interrupt Richard’s vacation, advise business associates of last minute meeting changes, and respond to clients while on the road. Speak at a reasonable pace, enunciate your words properly, and you’ll be pleasantly amazed by the result. Jott even negotiates “Southern” with aplomb.

Headquartered in Seattle, Jott was founded in 2006 by a couple of Microsoft alums. According to John Pollard, Jott co-founder and chief executive, “we are solving a problem of, when away from your PC, how to communicate multimodally in text, hands-free.”

If you ask me, Jott is a really neat tool, and next to Skype and Vonage, is one of the hottest, most useful things to come out of the voice market since Alexander Graham Bell. Give it a try.