When a Major Delay = Fabulous Service

Have I told you my Hertz story yet? No? Then you might not believe it's possible to equate a 3-hour delay in a car rental with the most excellent customer service on the face of the planet but I'll swear till my dying day that it's true.

Although I've told this customer service story lots of times to anyone who will listen - that's what people do when they are ecstatic, incredulous even, over the amazing service they've received - it's been a while since I've shared the whole thing and I haven't mentioned it here. It's time I fixed that.

I was reminded of my Hertz experience twice in as many weeks when members of my LinkedIn network asked related questions about service - what constitutes 5-Star Service and a request for examples of Moments of Truth in Service. Although my answers differed slightly in focus, both brought to mind the vacation that almost wasn't.

First, it helps to know how much this mini-vacation meant to me. While everyone else recently has been ridiculing the passenger who missed her flight, I have some ideas how she might have reached that state of collapse. There but for fortune...

In my case nearly ten years ago, our company had gone through yet another in a series of sizable layoffs a couple of weeks earlier. I hadn't had to let go many people myself, but this was one of the few times the line managers had not had much input into the process and that lack of involvement had resulted in some mistakes that made things messier.

Much of that didn't impact me directly but layoffs are never an enjoyable aspect of a manager's job and this was still even more emotional than normal. Helping people cope - on my team and others - and mitigating the hit on productivity was taking its toll.

Then there was the house that we were supposed to be building. The time that wasn't already spent on coaching employees or caring for a 3-yr-old all went to packing up moving boxes so we could tear down our existing home to the dirt. The packing up was happening but uncertainty and delays over the tearing down part meant we had to cancel our midwest baseball stadium tour. After having enjoyed our northeast baseball stadium tour so much the year before, this was a major league disappointment.

In the midst of it all, Tall Person learned of a family wedding and decided it would be important for him to attend. A weekend alone with a toddler for me when I was already feeling stretched - how fun. I started to feel envious of my sister's planned trip to Telluride that same weekend with her infant son.

When my father caught on, he quickly suggested that I fly into Salt Lake City with Small Person. It would be a bit of a drive from there, but certainly manageable. We'd spend a long weekend together as a sort of mini-family reunion. It gave me something to look forward to and I kept myself focused on that ray of hope the way I've focused at other times on the finish line of a long and brutal race.

When departure day arrived, Tall Person drove us to the airport, then went to work for a few hours before leaving for the airport himself. The flight itself was non-eventful, but when I went to the car rental, Hertz had not yet installed the car seat I'd requested. The attendants wrestled with the installation while the agent stood there with my paperwork and driver's license, waiting to hand it over to me when the car was ready.

Still they struggled with the carseat, so being more experienced with that operation, I jumped in to help. The agent tried to stay out of the way and idly looked over the paperwork in his hands. Doing so, he came to a realization and called me over.

"There is a problem with your license. It's expired."

My heart sunk. Immediately I realized the truth of what he was saying. In the midst of everything else that had been going on in my life, I'd managed to overlook that important detail just long enough to have forgotten about it altogether during the intervening months. And just as quickly, I realized the enormity of the situation, even before he spelled it out for me.

"Without a valid license, we can't rent you the car."

There have been very few times when I have come up against truly irreversible mistakes but when it happens, it has always resulted in the same hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach - no, no, no... it can't be true. In that moment, I may not have become the woman in that video, but I understood how she felt.

Not generally one to allow emotions take control (crying at movies doesn't count!), I was suddenly unable to prevent months worth of pent-up tears as they began to slide down my face. I tried valiantly to keep my composure and found I just couldn't. It seemed there was nothing to do but go back inside and re-book myself on a return flight. I wasn't even sure how I would get home from the airport.

As unwanted as they were on my part, the tears were too much for the Hertz agent. He started casting about for solutions. Could my family come get me? No - they were too far away. Did I know someone else in the area who could take me? No, I could think of no one who lived in the area. I had flown all this way for nothing. I was going back home to an empty house, both literally and figuratively.

Still, the agent kept looking for answers. Still, none of them were workable. He went to make some phone calls to see if there might be other solutions he hadn't considered. I collapsed into the chair near the car I wouldn't be driving, my son trying to offer hugs for tears he didn't understand. I called both my husband and my father to share the bad news.

Ultimately, the Hertz agent returned. The very last thread of hope he'd been following showed some promise. Maybe, just maybe, I could get a driver's license in the state of Utah. It had seemed like a slim chance at first, but he'd called around and he was reasonably sure it could work if I thought I could pass a written test. He'd have one of the attendants drive me.

It seemed like a lot to go through, but I don't struggle too much with multiple choice exams and anything seemed preferable at that point to cutting my trip short. I regained control of my emotions, keeping tight rein on hope as well as distress, and Ahmed drove me over to the nearest Department of Licensing office. I called Tall Person to share the shred of hope I was clinging to.

We arrived at the DOL office just before noon, with lunchtime crowds building. I stood in line forever, filling out the license application form while Ahmed, the Hertz attendant, entertained Small Person with paper cranes he folded from forms others had discarded. Finally, I reached the head of the line and explained my plight. The woman was sympathetic but we hit a road block when she realized I could not supply a local address.

"Don't you know anyone in Utah? Anyone at all whose address you could use?"

I tried to search my brain but it was quickly becoming addled with all the stress and the knowledge that the line was building behind me just compounded the problem. No, no family or friends in Utah came to mind. I could think of women with children my son's age all across the US - Indiana, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Georgia - but none of them in Utah. No work contacts either. I started to feel dizzy. The line continued to build behind me. I was sure I was about to become so much bureaucratic roadkill.

Instead, the woman encouraged me, "I'm sure you can think of someone. Just step aside right over there and when you've come up with a local address, come straight back to me so that you don't have to stand in line all over again." I found it easier to breathe again; the tunnel vision that had been encroaching began to recede. I thanked her profusely then pulled out my PDA and set to work looking through my address book for a clue to a local contact.

Finally, I hit on one. A work colleague of my husband's... I didn't know his wife well, but hadn't she mentioned her family was from Provo? I called Tall Person for a third time. He was at lunch with the colleague in question and they had already guessed what I needed.

"I bet you're calling for Jennifer's parent's address, aren't you? Here it is..."

Two major roadblocks down, one more yet to go. Ahmed the Hertz attendant still patiently entertaining my son, I began working on the open book multiple choice exam. The only tough part was locating the information in the pamphlet they provided. I had to will myself to slow down and not panic, and even to remember to breathe. Finally, I had just two more questions to answer. I kept flipping through the pamphlet and could not seem to find the right sections containing the answers.

Then, with the worst possible timing... "Mommy! I have to go!" For that matter, so did I, which was not helping me think. And we were both hungry, having had very little to eat all day. But just two questions to go... I looked pleadingly at Ahmed. He was kind enough to come escort Small Person to the bathroom while I finished my exam. Clearly that was way above and beyond the call of duty; I knew it and was beyond thankful.

Turning in my exam was an exercise in torture. The man responsible for validating my responses pulled out the correction key and started checking. The first couple responses marked wrong didn't surprise me, given the situation. The next few concerned me; how many could I miss and still pass? Then as his pen bled red all over the paper, I stopped breathing again. Feeling dizzy once more, it barely occurred to me that this couldn't possibly be right. No matter how stressed I was, there was simply no way that I could have gotten every single answer wrong. No way.

It seemed odd to him also and he took a second look even before I thought to ask. "Oh, wrong key!" I nearly collapsed with relief.

Validated against the appropriate key, he reassured me that I had indeed passed. I went through the motions of having a photo taken and scheduling the driving portion of the exam I knew I wouldn't be taking and then rushed back to Ahmed and my son, full of smiles and a temporary Utah driver's license in my hand.

Three and a half hours from when I first stepped into the Hertz office, I dropped off Ahmed at the airport again and headed south and west to Telluride, arriving just an hour after my sister and in plenty of time for a late dinner.

When I returned to Seattle at the end of the weekend, I wrote an extensive thank you to Hertz and set about getting a new Washington State driver's license which, given that I was beyond six months overdue, would have been much more difficult had it not been for the Utah license I had in my possession at that point. Meanwhile, somewhere in Provo is a family who has never even met me, receiving junk mail in my name.

Nearly ten years later, I still love to tell people how out of the way the Hertz people went, both personally and professionally, to help. They didn't just provide excellent customer service; they helped me deal with a problem that was entirely of my own making. And while I have no idea which licensing office I visited, I am equally thankful to every agent there who helped me, encouraged me, reassured me, and in every way possible, made it easier for me to accomplish what I needed when just behaving as we've come to expect bureaucrats to behave would have made it tougher - or even impossible.

Some people talk about delighting the customer or excellence in service. Instead, I believe it comes down to just caring enough to do whatever is in your power to have a positive impact on the customer's experience with your brand. Every customer interaction is a tangible exercise in brand management.

That day so many years ago, every individual I encountered provided me with a brand experience that has stuck with me all this time because of how superbly positive it was in the face of utter hopelessness. Who wouldn't want that kind of customer service? The beauty of it is that it doesn't have to cost the company extra.

Sure, not having Ahmed around for a couple of hours had to have been a bit of a stretch for the Hertz guys. But it's not like someone shows up every day with an expired driver's license, so going to such extremes is probably not needed often enough to drive up costs significantly. And I like to think that my continued raving over my experience with them is worth more than enough to cover whatever costs they did incur. The long-term gains for great brand management in the form of great customer service can be huge.

How is your customer service influencing your brand?

Fail Big - Count Me Out

When startups are encouraged to fail big, I'm pretty sure no one had in mind the recent troubles with Count Me In, the same company Small Person's soccer and baseball teams have used over the years to handle registrations. I'm just glad now that I did not end up working with them as I'd imagined a year ago that I would. Sometimes there does seem to be some grand design in the universe.

At the very least, it's one more reason to believe the adage, "it's better to be lucky than good."

For those impacted and those associated with the company who I know to be good people, I wish the best. I'm sure this isn't an easy situation, but hopefully it can all be resolved with a minimum amount of damage all the way around.

For the rest of us, I'm sure we're just glad to be clear of the blast zone.

What are the potential long-term consequences of today's decisions?

What We All Want

My son thinks I'm famous, a notion that I actually find quite amusing, especially since I was once (and he 'knows' it), but not for the reasons he's glommed onto now. When I showed him my name in the back of John Moe's book, Conservatize Me, I really only did it because I figured he might find it mildly interesting. And I steeled myself for an appropriately pre-teenager derisive (or worse, completely devoid of emotion) "Oh." Instead, what I got was an enthusiastic hug and wide eyes proclaiming my importance in a world beyond his own - Wow, you're famous! It was in that moment that I began to re-think my position on why we sometimes pursue fame, or at least appear to.

Sure, it's nice to feel well-regarded within my own family and circle of friends. And for some, fame or recoginition mean credibility, access, or power, which might be inducement enough to crave it. I'll even readily admit that there are perq's to being a celebrity that are kinda cool - getting invited to sit in the players' wive's section at baseball games is one that I appreciated - but I've always maintained that the downsides mean that (for me anyway) the equation never really quite balances out in favor of pursuing fame.

Thinking about what it is that makes me proud to have been on-air for all those years even when my performances didn't always warrant such pride and proud to have been associated with John's project in however small a way it was and exactly why it is that I'm so happy that just having my name in a book means so much to the junior member of the family all helped me to crystallize my thoughts on the matter.

For me, and I suspect for a great many others out there too, it's not the fame itself that matters so much. What matters is that it is a flag indicating that we've achieved something else that matters even more. We've made a difference.

Let me know at techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com how you make a difference. I always like to know these things.

What does "making a difference" mean to you and what qualifies as that?

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Kimm Viebrock is an ICF-credentialed Associate Certified Coach who helps technology professionals and service-oriented technology groups develop and use their skills more effectively and increase their value within the larger organization, allowing them to do more, do it better and have more fun doing it. Kimm is devoted to finding the connectedness in life.

Back to School

In spring, there is a quickening that results in bursting forth when the changes can no longer contain themselves. In fall, despite the clues that do exist, it seems that everything is going along pretty much as it was until the day when suddenly it's not - like stepping out of cut-off shorts into dressier clothes for the classroom or the leaves suddenly dropping off the trees after an October storm. Going back to school is part of that hard cut-over and it can mean so many things.

With school comes so many endings... End of warm summer weather. End of unstructured time. End of baseball season. And there are beginnings too. The beginning of cooler nights, soccer in the rain (at least around here), football, and time with friends after a summer full of family... payoff perhaps for the added discipline that comes with getting back into learning mode.

We're seeing all these transitions and more around our house. Summer was definitely an unstructured time for small person and me. We went swimming. He practiced his bike-riding skills. We spent time at the ocean as a family a couple of times and went hiking.

I worked too, though I didn't exactly do much blog writing over the summer. I managed a Judy's Book review from time to time and that was about it for writing, although I did also sign up with Associated Content and finally got around to sending in submissions a couple of weeks ago. I must have felt that fall discipline coming on early.

Now that small person is back in school, I am looking forward to devoting some more time to my latest writing project - an interfaith study guide for families. I spent a good chunk of the summer thinking about the need there is today for us to expose our kids to different ways of thinking and believing beyond what we might teach them ourselves and it galvanized me to finally get started on a project that's been on my mind for quite a while now.

I started some of the work of laying a foundation for how an interfaith study guide centered around families with kids might be organized and what sort of information would have to go into it to make it a helpful resource. Now I'm ready to dive in on the real work. If I were to feel that there was one thing for which I was uniquely qualified, this would probably be it. At least that's how it's felt the past couple of months. This is a good thing; I intend to use that energy to draw me into the work when everything else is trying to pull me out of it. Now, if I could just remember to quit once in a while so that I can remember to do other things too, like housework and catching up with friends.

I'm excited about another horizon-stretching writing project that isn't even mine. It's my 'friend' John Moe's, and it's called Conservatize Me and we're rapidly approaching release date. The quotes aren't meant as any kind of a jab; they're just there as a lame way of hedging my bets, kind of like how lots of reporters think they've kept themselves out of trouble simply by tacking on the word "alledged".

The reason I'm hedging my bets is because I have zero clue if John actually considers me any kind of friend or not. In fact, it's quite possible he might not recognize me when I show up to one of his booksigning appearances. It's not like we talk. He did interview me. Twice even. The first time was on the radio and someone I knew heard me without me telling them in advance, which is, of course, totally beside the point but cool from my perspective nonetheless. That there was a second time presumably has something to do with the fact that he too felt at least some rapport between us.

Anyway, John and I have exchanged emails a couple of times too. And I read his blog, which I totally love, probably at least partly because with our small person nearly ten, it's fun to be reminded of what five was like. I wonder if I should warn John about eight?

But here's the thing - and I know this already from television - you can't just meet someone a couple of times and read or hear them out there in the ether somewhere and then think you're friends. You might have some ideas about what they're like and you might even be right about at least part of it. In fact, you might even be right when you suspect that you have enough in common to become friends. The thing I have to keep reminding myself though is that friendships require time and attention - nurturing. This is a skill at which I've never exactly excelled.

Someday, they'll perfect a method of sending "Thinking of You" cards directly from the brain. When that happens, I'll have it made and my friends will hear from me on a much more regular basis. Until then, those who consider me a friend do so at their peril. My friends all know this so that part is not news. Mostly they seem to overlook it though occasionally they are honest enough to point out where I'm falling down on the my end of the implied bargain.

I am helped somewhat by the crazed circumstances in which most everyone finds themselves these days. It seems everyone's busy enough that my own lack of social graces is not quite as noticeable as it once was. Of course it also means that with neither side doing good job of keeping in contact, we'll quite regularly go months without seeing or even talking to one another. On the good side, we usually pick up about where we left off - friendships in slow motion.

I do my best to compensate by sending electronic birthday cards when I remember to find out a birthday and make note of it and by reminding myself in my calendar to reach out to folks from time to time. That helps - at least until I get so far behind that I don't follow my directives to myself any longer to send an email or make a phone call. Usually it's the phone calls that get me. See, this is where being at school or at work together can really make a difference. When we're in the same physical location together, it's so much easier.

If you have tips on how to stay in touch with people, send them to techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com - we're not too proud to ask for suggestions and I for one am always more than happy to learn something new, even when it means having to give up old ideas to make room for the new ones.

What [skills/projects/ways of thinking/relationships/etc] are you cultivating?

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Kimm Viebrock is an ICF-credentialed Associate Certified Coach who helps technology professionals and service-oriented technology groups develop and use their skills more effectively and increase their value within the larger organization, allowing them to do more, do it better and have more fun doing it. Kimm is devoted to finding the connectedness in life.

More Links

You know what I totally missed pointing out in all the excitement around Kyle MacDonald completing his paperclip-to-house trade was how instrumental Corbin Bernsen was in the whole deal. While his role in the trade is interesting, it's the interconnectedness that makes it even more fascinating to me.

First, we used to enjoy seeing Bernsen on LA Law so that spousal unit could poke fun at the various inaccuracies in how the legal profession was portrayed. I don't remember being nearly that bad about aviation-related portrayals but we both are pretty tough on broadcasting. In any case, I did always think the Arnie Becker character was pretty interesting.

Fast forward a few years, and our older son totally fell in love with the movie Major League to the point that we bought a copy. Of course the resident small person loves baseball (all my fault, I'm sure) so much that he too now watches the movie. Fortunately he hasn't picked up any of the foul language - yet.

Those are practically throwaway links though compared to Bernsen's role in the new show Psych that's airing on USA Network. I just discovered it this week in time to catch the pilot and fell in love with show. I sure hope the rest of the episodes live up to the quality of the pilot.

Everything is connected - it goes way beyond six degrees of separation for me. It makes me wonder if there are likely to be any additional connections made between Ripley's "American Idol"-format competition for the movie role and Lawyerpalooza... or whether someone in my family might be demanding a trip to Saskatchewan anytime soon although I figure it'd have to be at least as much fun as seeing the World's Only Corn Palace. I'm sort of hoping small person won't end up sending his entire snow globe collection to Corbin - though I can sort of get the temptation that might exist.

What sorts of connections and 'small world' stories have you collected in your life? Send them to me at techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com and maybe we'll find even more connections!

How does the (real or imagined) interconnectedness of life impact your decisions and actions?

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Kimm Viebrock is an ICF-credentialed Associate Certified Coach who helps technology professionals and service-oriented technology groups develop and use their skills more effectively and increase their value within the larger organization, allowing them to do more, do it better and have more fun doing it. Kimm is devoted to finding the connectedness in life.

House Divided

Dealing with differences of opinion, especially those founded on deeply rooted emotions, can be a difficult task. It's important to respect the other person's opinion without getting walked upon in the process. Staying calm and avoiding personal attacks are helpful too. When it's family, remembering that you are family and that you love each other is an important ingredient. When it's the work environment, it helps to work on building interpersonal relationships and focus together on the common cause. And all of these skills will be tested very seriously over the next couple of weeks in my house because everyone in my family is a Seattle Seahawks fan... all of us, that is, except my sister who lives in Pittsburgh.

I have to say that this is not a Super Bowl matchup I'd ever worried about before. For starters, the Seahawks had done so poorly over the past few years that I'd nearly given up paying any attention to them whatsoever. After all, I am primarily a baseball fan anyway. But we did used to have season's tickets to the Seahawks and I have spent many a lovely Sunday in December inside the Kingdome, usually watching them lose. More painfully, it was often the only decent weekend day(s) out of the month, which made it that much tougher to be indoors. That's beside the point though.

This year, the Seahawks have given us something to be excited about. Although they've gotten very little respect from everyone else until they started beating teams during the play-offs, they've been a well-oiled machine this season. That's fine; perhaps that means they'll be able to sneak up on the Steelers in what is certain to be a tight game.

Sure, as a franchise, the Steelers have the upper hand with previous Super Bowl trips under their belt. But how many who will actually be down there on the field will have Super Bowl experience to share? This is where Seattle has the advantage of numbers and we're hearing already about how that's helping bolster the team for the upcoming showdown. And I'm hoping that not having been to the Super Bowl yet in their own franchise history will make the Seahawks that much hungrier for a win.

My sister, of course, feels differently and is completely confident Pittsburgh will take the day. I have faith, though, that we'll be able to keep our senses of humor even as we begin to engage in the requisite trash talk. And I know that we'll somehow manage to avoid any kind of personal attacks (I swear, if I tell any "Pittsburgh fans are so stupid they..." jokes I won't mean the members of my own family; honest!) and by the end of the day on Super Bowl Sunday, one of us will still find a way to be happy for the other. Hopefully it will be my sister of course, recalling that she did originally grow up here in Seattle!

Fortunately for me, I've had plenty of practice in dealing with these kinds of situations because I also happen to live in what we've affectionately come to call a "bi-species" household. As a UW grad (Husky) married to a WSU grad (Cougar), it's made for some tense Apple Cup games some years but usually we've managed to escape them with dignity mostly intact and still willing to celebrate Thanksgiving together.

Of course, this also means that I'm well versed in the tradition of talking trash to the "enemy" though it is always in good-natured fun and never meant maliciously in our circle. We're able to do it and not get hurt feelings because everyone understands that and we pay close attention to whether we might be in danger of crossing the line though sometimes we do tread awfully close! Speaking of which...

"A study was performed to determined which of the US cities had the highest literacy rate. The mayor of Pittsburgh, being highly competitive, was disappointed to learn that while they'd made it into the top ten, had not ranked any higher than number 6 and so embarked on a city-wide literacy campaign. The effort paid off and the next year, Pittsburgh ranked third in the study, just behind Seattle, which had scored the second place slot for the second year in a row. Figuring they were on a roll, the Pittsburgh mayor issued a challenge to the Seattle mayor, saying they figured by the following year, they'd be number one and Seattle would still be second place chumps.

"When the results of the study came out the following year, the Seattle mayor was pleased with their own first place literacy ranking but was perplexed as to how Pittsburgh had managed to drop all the way to number 8, nearly out of the top 10 altogether. So he called up his Three Rivers counterpart and asked about their reading habits that year.

"Somewhat disturbed with the response, the Seattle mayor fired off a quick email to Holmgren, 'Mike - I think I understand now why they're wearing the white jerseys. You might want to call up Cowher to let him know they get to be the home team and we're actually playing in Detroit; he might not have read the memo.'"

I'm sure you can come up with better (and shorter!) jokes about the Steelers. Send them to me at techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com and let's get this thing going.

How will you stay fully engaged while detaching from the outcome?

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Kimm Viebrock is a Certified Professional Coach who helps technology professionals and service-oriented technology groups develop and use their skills more effectively and increase their value within the larger organizaion, allowing them to do more, do it better and have more fun doing it. Kimm is devoted to finding the connectedness in life.

Prove It!

It seems that some folks aren’t so sure about this ‘getting to know you’ stuff. I’m big on proof, so here’s your chance to see it for yourself in some quantifiable way. I feel comfortable promising some extraordinary results that should be convincing.

First, pick a sport that holds no interest for you – preferably one in season if you want to see the effects anytime soon. If you’re a sports nut already, choose a team with which you can’t be bothered or turn this task over to some sports-phobe with whom you have regular contact like a buddy, parent, or significant other. If you’re involving someone else, then you have a choice – they can choose to do this themselves or you can be a bit more sneaky about it though I certainly wouldn’t recommend anything illegal, unethical or immoral.

Got a sport in mind? Good. I happen to like baseball, so let’s use that one as an example. Now – pick a team if you haven’t already. This can be completely at random. You (or your test subject) can pick a name out of a hat, choose based on uniform colors or mascot, roll the dice, etc. You get the idea. I’ll choose the Seattle Mariners for my example.

Now, pick an individual on that team. This choice too can be rather arbitrary if you like; the only real requirement is that it be a person who’s likely to get some playing time. I’ve seen some people choose a player by nationality, a name they like, birth date, you name it. Have some real fun with this piece.

In my case, I’m picking Jose Lopez this season for the Mariners because I have zero clue who this kid is except that he hit a real sweet triple in their game the other day against the Brewers, giving the 2005 Mariners their first Spring Training win. If you’re trying to get your girlfriend interested in your favorite sport, you might try choosing a player that shares her birth date (you do know when that is, right?) and point out that he looks as great in tight pants as she does. Extra points if he plays for a rival team.

Okay – now you’ve got a person, a team and a sport. That’s the order too, so keep that in mind. Here’s the experiment… now that you’ve identified an individual, simply pay more attention to this person and what they’re up to during the sporting season. If you care to carry the experiment out that far, keep it up through the off-season too.

You can start by doing a Google search on the person and see what you can find out. With Jose, for instance, I can quickly confirm that he is one of the new kids on the block and that he’s Venezuelan. From there, simply let curiosity be your guide. I might be interested in finding out more about his hometown or digging into some of his stats. If I run across some numbers that don’t mean anything to me, then maybe I’ll find out more about them and what they’re good for.

Throughout the season, keep an eye on the sports pages for your person, or their team, or that sport – again, in that order. After your girlfriend becomes sufficiently convinced about why she should care about a particular player, you can always point out to her whenever you find accounts of him in the news if she doesn’t pick up on it quickly enough for your liking; keep track though – pretty soon, you’re likely to see her beat you to the punch. Hopefully you’re plenty secure in your manhood where sports are concerned. It’d be a shame to start feeling like you’re something “less than” just because she starts spouting on-base percentages when you’re barely tracking with RBI’s.

If it’s still slow to catch on or you simply want to see a new level of involvement, try wagering something small (and legal) on an outcome involving your player or your team with someone else who is also conducting this experiment or already has a vested interest themselves. Suggestions include who does the dishes, who pays for the next beer or who runs out for Cherry Garcia ice cream in the middle of the night. This is where it can get interesting having a girlfriend rooting for the team most likely to damage your own team’s prospects, so choose wisely!

Any worthwhile experiment of course includes a review of what's been discovered. Are you (or your test subject) more interested in your chosen sport? More knowledgable or conversant? More aware? My hypothesis is that the answer to most if not all of these questions is a resounding "Yes!" The key to my theory is that it's the relationship; once you build a relationship, more stuff happens and usually it's better than whatever happened without the relationship.

Prove me wrong if you like but I'll want proof you made a serious effort as well as some information about what you learned about why it didn't work. Whether your discoveries support or contradict my claims, I'm very interested in what you find out. I hope you'll send whatever useful data you collect to techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com so that we can all continue to learn.

As an added incentive to comment, I have a limited number of magnetic Mariners schedules available for proud display on your filing cabinet or your refrigerator. They're perfect for planning your trips to the ballpark, tracking their broadcasting schedule or just trying to figure out what nights traffic is going to be bad. Be sure to let me know you want one and give me a good email address so I can arrange to send it to you.

How much more could you accomplish if you were more engaged with your work or your life?

Dealing With Whiners

Think of a complaint you've heard recently... or made. It should be easy to do. The world is full of whiners. Even I give in to whining now and then. Sometimes it just feels better than taking responsibility for myself. Fortunately, I usually snap back to how I really want to be, which is not a whiner.

Anyway, I digress... back to that complaint. I was at a Little League baseball game not too long ago and the complaint I heard there was something about not being able to get shoes tied. "I can't tie my shoes!" came the plaintive cry.

When the complaint originates in the office, it often lacks that particular tone that sets off warning flags for parents but I'm sure you know what it sounds like anyway. There are statements made in exasperated tones - "Andy still hasn't finished that report we asked him for!" And there are questions that are more rhetorical than inquisitive - "Where did all the pens go?!" and then there are the "I can'ts" - "I can't get this $%#@^# application to work right!"

At the root of all of these complaints is some form of a request... "Andy, please send me the report so that I can ask for the budget we need on this project"... "Are there any pens hiding someplace or can you put in an order for me so that I can write out my report?"... and, "It looks like I'm still having trouble with this application; do you know something about this that would help me out?"

Find the request and make it directly, or find the request in someone else's complaint and respond to that, and you'll probably get a lot farther. In any case, at least it won't be whining anymore. In the case of the little leaguer, his mother suggested that perhaps he wanted to rephrase his statement in the form of a question. Maybe that's how Jeopardy got started.

What sorts of requests have you heard disguised as complaints? Send them to me at techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com and let's compare notes.

What would you ask for if you thought you could get it?

Baseball and Business

Poor Alex decided he really was after the ring more than the dollars after all. I wonder if his timing is off? He jumped ship for the Yankees only to find the Rangers picking up the pace (they're solidly above .500 now; we won't mention that it was at the expense of the Mariners) while the Yanks are looking for a beer in which to drown their sorrows. The good thing about the sport - both for Alex and the Mariners (okay, the Yankees too) - is that in baseball, anything can happen. I'm sure they'll all turn things around... maybe even the Mariners. You've still got a ballgame, even when you're down to your very last out. How can you NOT like baseball?

Well, certainly I've known a few in my day who didn't. What I found was that most of them weren't engaged enough. I suppose that's true of just about any sport. What is surprising is how much of the human element is involved in the process of getting involved in a sport.

Go ahead, try this little game... you've got tickets to your favorite sport and your drinking buddy backs out at the last minute. You've got to find a replacement so you grab someone else, someone you don't hate, a date, maybe your brother... and it turns out this person doesn't know a thing about baseball (if you don't know a thing about baseball, think of another sport or try this on yourself; it's just a game for crying out loud). So now you're faced with the likelihood of having to leave before the seventh inning stretch because they drove and they're bored. Here's what you do - point out something unusual or interesting (to your seat partner, right? That's the person you want to be more involved in the game) about a player - they share a birthday, a hometown, he and his wife do charity work for kids with serious illnesses (works best on the women), you get the idea.

Now that your seatmate is focused on a particular player, mention whenever that person does anything noteworthy like getting a hit or making a play. You can also explain other little things this player might be doing (- See there, it looks like he's talking to the second baseman about strategy but really, they've already got that part all figured out and they're just talking about some hot babe in the stands over there. - Really?) or explain what they need to be thinking about next. What you're doing here is personalizing the game and that makes it more engaging. Go ahead and try it; see if it doesn't change someone's outlook on the sport.

This same principle is why people like to vote folks into elected office that they've met, even if there may be big differences in how they approach matters. We tend to trust those we know more than those we don't.

It's also the same principle that makes us more inclined to give somebody we know the benefit of the doubt when things don't go well as opposed to assuming they're an idiot or they're intentionally trying to make our lives miserable.

This last one is particularly helpful in the business world so think about getting to know your co-workers, especially those who work in other departments that historically don't get along so well with your own. Find out what they do when they're not working; look for interests you might share in common. You might be surprised at the kind of social capital that builds for you both and how much easier it is to get work done.

Send your baseball predictions and any tips you have on building social capital to me at techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com. I prefer good news about the Mariners though I appreciate the truth and helping others succeed even more.

How would building social capital at work help you?

Lawyerpalooza Tickets On Sale

Tickets to Lawyerpalooza 2 in Seattle are now on sale.

There, I promised I would let you know when that happened.

Now I'm going to go to a baseball game because while I believe in being responsible, life's too short to not have some fun once in a while and it's a nice day out.

Find something to enjoy in each day.