Passion, People and Principles
post # 390 — June 19, 2007 — a General post
There was an article about startcooking.com, my wife’s project in the Boston Globe last Wednesday. Here’s the link to the article which I have also quoted here below :
A former home ec teacher puts her cooking tips onto a videocast
By Jonathan Levitt, Globe Correspondent | June 13, 2007
With her sunny perma-smile, hearty chuckle, and First Lady hairdo, former home economics teacher-turned-video blogger Kathy Maister fits in somewhere between Ina Garten and a hard-sell QVC demonstrator. Her recipes — for meatloaf, 7-layer dip, deviled eggs, and Tex-Mex cheeseburgers — seem right for a menu at any small town American diner.
Just don’t mistake the savvy Maister, 54, for a bumpkin. She has traveled all over the world, and she posts lively videocasts on startcooking.com, a website she launched last December. “Since then things have exploded,” says Maister. “We are getting 50,000 unique hits a month. There is such a need for this.”
As the name implies, startcooking.com caters to people who want to start from the beginning. You learn, for instance, how to crack open an egg. “The goal has always been to teach the absolute fundamentals,” says Maister. “I’m a stickler for doing everything the proper way. I say, learn the rules first, then if you want to, you can break them.”
Maister, a South Hadley native, is doing something on her 3-minute videos that no one else has attempted. With the help of a computer team from Montreal — designers who moonlight as musicians — Maister shoots between 400 and 1,000 photos for each three-minute segment. The Montreal teams turns her photos into a video by converting them into “stop-motion animation,” with catchy music and kitchen sound effects like “boing” and “plop.”
The recipes are for appealing comfort food: home-cooked classics like beef stew, lasagna, and chunky guacamole. “I wanted to start with food that people actually like,” says the cook. Startcooking.com also has a tips and techniques section with advice on how to store brown sugar to prevent it from hardening, even how to load a dishwasher. When Maister chops an onion or carves a turkey, it is textbook perfect.
The vlogger came to this project from a career in home economics. After she graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she taught cooking and sewing in high schools all over Boston, moving from one classroom to the next as home ec programs were dropped.
Between teaching and starting her site, Maister played the role of travel companion, flying first class around the world with her husband, David Maister, a consultant, author, and former Harvard Business School professor. Their Back Bay apartment is packed with art and antiques shipped home from exotic places. A carved oak sculpture of Krishna from a temple in Delhi stands guard in the foyer, Thai masks and English grave rubbings line the walls, and the powder room is plastered with wallpaper painted to look like the view from a houseboat in Kashmir.
In her free time Maister did handwork like sewing, knitting, needlepointing, and tassle making. On a trip to Estonia in 2006, she decided to throw herself back into teaching and the idea for the web site occurred to her.
It began by turning her dining room into a video studio but after a while, she decided that wasn’t working. Now she cooks and photographs the recipes from beginning to end in her tiny, impossibly clean kitchen. “We don’t use any tricks,” she says, “no white glue instead of milk.” Photographs are taken with a digital point-and-shoot camera and natural light. The ingredients are from the supermarket shelves. Maister hasn’t owned a car since the mid ’80s. She walks to the Shaw’s at the Prudential Center with her trusty grocery trolley and wheels it all home.
The website has already attracted interest from advertisers and other sponsors. Maister has been featured on the iTunes “New and Notable” food podcasts and Nokia picked up the show as content for their N-series phones.
So far, she and her husband have foot the bill for the project. “We need to start thinking about making this work economically,” she says. “The creation of these videos is no trivial expense. We decided to give it a year and see what people thought. Up to this point it has been a public service, but now there may be some opportunities.”
Meanwhile, the latest celebrity-cook-to-be e-mails new fans from all over the world. “People write to tell me that I’m teaching them everything that mom never did,” she says. “Even my own 88-year – old mother in South Hadley is learning new tricks.”
post # 386 — June 18, 2007 — a General post
The 13th episode in this series puts fourth that in order for the employees of an organization to raise their performance, the managers must first improve in their role. In order to accomplish this, however, managers must be willing to be held accountable to the standards of the organizations. We will discuss one way that this accountability could be installed inside an organization.
Audio Timeline
00:39 — Introduction
00:12 — Over-investing in training, under-investing in accountability
02:07 — Managerial accountability
02:59 – Standards and the goals of an organization
06:25 – Conclusion
You can download Accountability or sign up to receive new Maister Moments videos automatically with iTunes or other video players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My seminars are always available for download at no cost.
post # 388 — June 15, 2007 — a Managing post
I’m coming late to the party here, because Bill George’s book TRUE NORTH (written with Peter Sims) is already a best-seller. It’s a follow-up to George’s AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP book, and here’s his description of the five dimensions of authentic leadership:
1. Pursuing Purpose with Passion
2. Practicing Solid Values
3. Leading with the Heart
4. Establishing Connected Relationships
5. Demonstrating Self-Discipline
George is the former CEO of Medtronic and is now a professor at the Harvard Business School, as well as a board memeber of such firms as Goldman Sachs, Target and Novartis.
The TRUE NORTH book contains the stories of 125 prominent individuals judged by George to be authentic leaders. It makes for fascinating and inspirational reading.
George obviously intends us to believe that we can learn from these stories, but I walked away believing that, even though there were commonalities among the people profiled, each achieved what s/he did because of who they WERE. As Gorge stresses, these people were formed and forged through their early life experiences.
Which makes me worry and wonder? Can we ordinary folk really learn from these examples? Can the dimensions isted above (which are really personaliity characteristics and deeply-formed attitudes) really be affected by books, speeches, training programs, consultants?
Is leadership development an oxymoron?
post # 387 — June 13, 2007 — a Managing post
In preparation for a seminar I was doing, I reviewed a wonderful book called “The 2R Manager,†(Jossey Bass, 2002) for which I wrote the foreword, and which I recommend a lot.
It was written by Peter Friedes, the former CEO of Hewitt Associates, the HR consulting firm.
Pete’s basic insight is that, to be effective in managing others, we must know both how to be “requiring†of people (that’s the first R) — make sure that they deliver on and live up to the tasks they take on. A manager must also, however, do this in a way that “Relates†(the second R) to each individual.
These two dimensions can define nine kinds of managers:
The first four are the extremes:
The Abdicator: low requiring, low relating
The Demander: high requiring, low relating
The Pleaser: low requiring, high relating
The Overwhelmer: high requiring, high relating
Then there are four which are less problematical, but still less than perfect:
The Supervisor: About right requiring, but low relating
The Friend: About right relating, but low requiring
The Encroacher: About right requiring, but high relating
The Energizer: About right relating, but high requiring
The best, in Pete’s view, is someone who is about right in both requiring and relating: The 2R Manager.
Which are you? Which is your boss?
post # 385 — June 11, 2007 — a General post
In the 12th episode of my live videocast and podcast series, Managing Dad, we will examine the parallels between being and effective manager and being a catalyst for change within your family. As you will see, the very same tactics that fail at home, will fail in the workplace.
Audio Timeline
00:40 — Introduction
01:05 — How the generally accepted rules of management break every rule of being a family member
01:42 — Criticism vs. interpersonal sensitivity and skill
03:22 — The #1 Qualifying test as manager: Ego suppression
04:03 – Conclusion
You can download Managing Dad or sign up to receive new Maister Moments videos automatically with iTunes or other video players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My seminars are always available for download at no cost.
Because of prior poor experiences — or the generally bad caricatures that exist about many professions — clients are often suspicious (at least initially) of the motives of their service providers.
Just think of the many jokes about consultants who act as if they are more concerned about looking for the next follow-on assignment to cross-sell than doing the current one well; lawyers who are suspected of running up the billable hours because they are paid by the hour; and advertising agency people who are more concerned with winning prizes than selling the client’s product or service.
Whatever your profession, you need to be prepared for the fact that, at the beginning of every new relationship, you must avoid confirming other people’s (inevitable) starting suspicions about your motives, and must actively work to demonstrate that you are, in fact, unlike the providers that the client may have experienced before.
These are the opening paragraphs of a new article of mine called Integrity Impugned. The article is based on my seminars and an extensive blog discussion we held here almost a year ago.
post # 383 — June 4, 2007 — a General post
In this episode, we will discuss the importance of language in interpersonal relations. In business, performance appraisal or even out and out criticism supplants skillful use of language and careful presentation of issues and solutions. We will examine a story of exemplary language skills and note the various applications in business life.
Audio Timeline
00:40 — Introduction
00:59 — The real talent: reading the person in front of you
01:50 — An example of language skills in action
03:51 — Conclusion
You can download Using Language to Get What You Want or sign up to receive new Maister Moments videos automatically with iTunes or other video players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My seminars are always available for download at no cost.
post # 382 — June 1, 2007 — a General post
This will have been a productive and inspiring season due to everyone’s insightful contributions. This is why I want to take the opportunity, one more time, to extend my gratitude to those of you who have joined me and others in the discussions that took place here. I appreciate the generosity and sincerity with which you share your thoughts. Thanks to all of you.
Commentors
Pete Aldin, Jerome Alexander, Alkali, Amit, Richard Becker, Jimmy Blackmore, Wally Bock, Pawel Brodzinski, Duncan Bucknell, Charlie, John Churchill, Anne Costello, Carmine Coyote, Stuart Cross, Ctd, Mark D, Daniel, Dave, Krishna De, Dogidoll, Stephen Downes, Francis Egenias, Heidi Ehlers, Judith Erickson, Guanming Fang, Denis Fort, Eugene Gascho, Geoff, Michelle Golden, Gopalreddy, Phil Gott, Mark Gould, Charles H. Green, Grisha, Ford Harding, Sharon Hayes, Hermes, Joseph Heyison, Howie, Irene, Jake, Jennifer, Jim, Katherine, Anthony Katselas, Kiki, Cary King, David Kirk, Karma Kitaj, Pamela Koons, Greg Krauska, Thomas L., Lynette, MG, Bruce MacEwen, Susan Martin, Peter Marx, Matt Mason, Maxim, Billy Mayers, Erik Mazzone, Francine McKenna, Michelle, David Miles, Matt Moore, Karen Morath, Kate Morrison, Evden Eve Nakliyat, Nancy, Michael Netzley, Norah, Mitch Owen, Sameer Panchangam, Patmcgraw, Johnson Paul, Peter, Priam, Raven, Steve Roesler, Mikeal Rolson, Richard Rosenstein, Sandra, Sandy, William Shipway, Simon, Alan Smith, Sonia, Splinter, Stee, Jim Stepanek, Richard Steven, R. Stipe, Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan, Peter Vajda, Dina Verdict, Vironika, Ashutosh Wakankar, Will, Sasha Willis, Worm, Liz Zitzow
Trackbacks
Accountants Round Up
Bill Cara
By Will McInnes
Counsel to Counsel
Desperate Freelancer
Engineers without Fears
Execupundit.com
Gautam Ghosh – Management Consultant (also: here)
Golden Practices
ITZBIG
Lean Blog
McGee�s Musings
Modern Marketing
MorePartnerIncome
Right Attitudes – by Nagesh Belludi
Rush on Business
What About Clients? (also: here, here)
Podcast Trackbacks
Engineers without Fears
post # 381 — May 30, 2007 — a Client Relations post
Three things came together in the past week or so that caused me to reflect on what we know about trust.
First, I was reading in The Economist an article on immigration which pointed out that, throughout history and throughout the world, people like to associate with those with whom they have a lot in common.
That’s why, The Economist argued, immigrants from the same country tend to move (at least initially) to the same cities and regions where previous immigrants from their origin have gone. Just as there are Bangladeshi areas in certain British towns, Irish in Boston and Russians in Brooklyn.
Nothing wrong with that, right?
Well, no, but in the same week I received an email from someone in an eastern European country who asked: “Do you think the principles of trust that you and your co-authors described in the Trusted Advisor apply in Eastern Europe? Rather than the factors of credibility, reliability intimacy and lack of self-orientation that you write about, trust in my country basically boils down to whether or not you come from the same village as I do. Or at least the same region.â€
The third thing that happened is that I was sent an email about a blog by Carmen van Kerkhove, who argued that, essentially, many diversity trainers in business focus on all the wrong things. One of her most telling points is that by trying to teach people how to be “sensitive†to other races, genders and religions, the training actually just trains people how to hide their racism — it doesn’t stop them being racist, just how to not show it!
I’m really not equipped to be a moralist, but there’s some complicated stuff going on here.
Sometimes, we work hard to be race-, gender, religion- and class-blind. The, at other times, we are all “realists†and recognize that, very often, people like to deal with people who are like them. We call it “comfortâ€, “chemistryâ€, “connection.â€
For example, when we strive to create diverse firms in order to appeal to diverse buyers (female partners to go after female clients, people of color to “penetrate†the ethnic community they come from) we are trading on the (apparently universal) tendency of people to prefer dealing with people like themselves.
There seems to be an aspect of how we as humans come to trust that is inherently “racist.†OF COURSE, it’s not just Caucasian males who can be racist in trusting people who are like them. People of all nationalities, genders and religious background do it ALL the time — not just occasionally, but (it would appear) as the default position! Global literature and movies from any age would be only a microscopic fraction of what they are if we eliminated dramas based on star-crossed lovers whose families do not want them to marry because they come from different backgrounds.
If all this makes you uncomfortable (as it does me) there’s still some hope. People like interacting with and TRUST people with whom they have a lot in common, when there’s no other evidence. “Being like us†(ie the class-ist, racist, religious, gender-biased starting default position) can, it seems, be overcome by just being more trustworthy than others. Credibility, reliability, intimacy and lack of self-orientation DO matter.
But let’s not fool ourselves about what a large portion of the world actually uses to base their trust judgments on. We don’t have to like it, but we do have to acknowledge and deal with it.
post # 376 — May 28, 2007 — a General post
The 10th episode in my live video and podcast series deals with helping another human being to live up to their potential. We will examine the prospect that this is a general process not unlike parenting a child or coaching an athlete and learn a number of tactics to nurture the excitement and success of others.
Audio Timeline
00:40 — Introduction
01:08 — Step one: Does this person want to live to standards we do?
02:29 — Step two: Finding an overlap between organizational needs and personal excitement
05:05 — Step three: encouraging success in the overlap
08:48 – Conclusion
You can download Train a Pigeon or sign up to receive new Maister Moments videos automatically with iTunes or other video players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My seminars are always available for download at no cost.
