Making a Bad Choice the Right Way
This is a bad Reman U. I mean it. It hasn’t been thought through, agonized over, contemplated, speelchecked or proofreaded. I didn’t have a blinding insight nor did I have one of those everyday experiences that suddenly feels like an analogy for good work/life decisions. What I do have is a deadline, a commitment – ultimately, a promise. I would rather sign my name to a bad Reman U than break a promise. So, this is a bad Reman U, but maybe that’s a good thing.
We All Work in Customer Service
As luck would have it, the job I held next was primarily a glorified customer service representative position, except now, customers were called clients. I answered their questions, solved their problems, and provided them with statuses of projects. Although it wasn’t the right fit, I learned more about how companies interact with customers and clients, more of the inner-workings of a company, and how each role impacts another.
Who’s Telling Your Brand Story?
Jennifer Porter asks: Who’s telling your brand story? You can’t control what is being said, you can lead it.
How to do Impossible Things
49 hours and 17 minutes ago, 13 of my peers and I were beginning a challenge that was physically and mentally impossible. Broken into teams of two, seven on each team, we were to follow orders and perform various dreadful movements at the command of Navy Seal Special Ops veterans. We had all trained hard for eight weeks prior. Nobody knew what we were up against, yet we all showed.
The Karma Effect
The world is sometimes a competitive, cut-throat place. How can kindness win out? Should we quietly do good? Do we praise those who do? What about those who don’t?
The Cog in Your Customer Experience Strategy
At the shop, they were able to remove the stubborn cog in a few minutes and the service guy walked me to the register. “That will be $17.64,” he said. Hmmm, I thought. It was a bit more than I expected, but certainly worth the time and effort I saved not fighting this with a vice, torch, and other Medieval devices. “Really?” I asked him, wanting to confirm that was the correct amount. The line item in the receipt read FREEWHEEL REMOVAL – and my project was a cog removal. He confirmed. I shook my head, paid and left.
Millennial Marketing Can Be Awesome for Your Business
Encountering a millennial in the workplace is pretty normal for most of us now, depending on the industry. If you’re in a business that utilizes technology, then there’s a bigger chance you’re surrounded by millennials – or maybe you’re a millennial yourself. If you’re in the automotive or machining industry, it may be different. Regardless of your industry, you probably have people talking about millennials whether it’s good or bad, true or false, right or wrong, the stereotypes are out there in full force.
Tone It Up
Tone is important when working with others in pretty much every capacity. Even on a close-knit team, caps or a poorly worded (or punctuated) joke can come across as exhibiting a negative tone. If you let it, it can influence your tone and that of those around you. How your tone is received is how you are received.
Ideas Don’t Work Unless You Do
One poster caught my eye: “Ideas don’t work unless you do” – an aphorism from product designer and creativity guru, Tanner Christensen.
The Tale of Cha Cha: A Pint-Sized Relationship Lesson
Sometimes when you meet someone, you have no idea the lasting impact they’ll have on your life. They might annoy or burden you or seem like someone just whizzing by in the periphery. And sometimes, even when the start isn’t great, it’s the beginning of a relationship you just can’t shake.
Know Your Outcome
A couple weeks ago The Reman Runner talked me into doing a 5K: a race that happened to be a trail course, something I had never done before and certainly wasn’t training for. I convinced myself the three miles without any sort of recent running would be completely fine despite the total lack of preparation. Easy.
Building Projects (and Relationships) in the Dark
Imagine with me for a moment that you and your team are working together to build a project vehicle. Because of scheduling challenges, each of you has to take separate turns doing the work. When your turn arrives, you enter the workspace to find all the parts you’ll need. It’s obvious something has been done, but it’s not at all clear how far and where your predecessor left off. You spend the first several minutes of your time figuring out what’s been done and then get to work.
