November 20, 2002
Dear Everyone:
A few weeks ago, “Jeannie” could not find her cordless phone. Anywhere.
After searching high and low, she decided the most likely hiding place was on the dining table, which was covered with stuff. The assumption was that she used the phone at some point in time, put it down on the dining table and the piles of stuff just swallowed the phone.
So she spent the best part of a weekend clearing everything off the dining table. All the stuff had to be moved to new locations until the dining table was completely cleared off. I am a witness to the fact that the day I arrived, the dining table had absolutely nothing on it.
Not even the phone.
For the phone, it seems, was not on the dining table after all. “Jeannie’s” next plan of attack involved the laundry area.
However, I decided to try a different approach. The phone, while cordless, has a base, or cradle. The base is used to recharge the cordless phone, when not in use. The base also has a function called a “page”. You press the button on the base and it sends a signal to the phone, telling it to ring. You then follow the sound of the ringing to find the missing phone.
(Note: As “Frankie” can attest to, this only works if you have not already drained the battery in the phone to the point where it is too weak to ring.)
So I went upstairs to the office to press the “page” button on the base.
And that’s were I found the phone. Sitting in the cradle, recharging its little battery to its heart’s content. Apparently, the weekend before, I had used the phone and, in my usual “a place for everything and everything in its place” mode, had put it away by placing it in the cradle.
Which was the last place “Jeannie” would think to look for it, of course.
After all, she didn’t leave it in the cradle. She was looking for it in the last place she put it down.
Typical Peacock behavior. However, I will not use it as an example during my presentation at tomorrow night’s ARMA dinner.
I’ve been spending many hours working on this presentation, which gives a “very brief, high-level, in-depth overview of the four Social Styles.” Which are:
Panther
Peacock
Dolphin
Owl
I put together around 28 slides of information garnered from various sources (many of which don’t know they contributed) last Friday. Then I refined and retooled for a while. Yesterday, I did a dry run which came out at about 35 minutes. The program needs to be somewhere between 45 and 90 minutes. Anything less is too short. Anything more is too long.
So I added some more slides and did another dry run. Just under 45 minutes, without audience participation. A little more tinkering and I think it’s just right.
The only problem is that I was working on the presentation during “office hours”. While my boss “supports” ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators) wholeheartedly, I need to bill a customer for my time. And I obviously can’t bill ARMA. So I’ve been charging the time on my data reformatting project. Then I take the computer home with me and reformat the data during evenings and on weekends. It all comes out in the wash.
As for the presentation itself, I do plan to use something that “Jeannie” mentioned to me one time about how Peacocks view non-Peacocks: “God, you’re so controlling! Lighten up! Why can’t we change the floor plans at the very last minute? It’s just a wall! Relax, will you?”
I’ll let you know how it went next week, assuming there is a Letter next week. I’m on vacation again.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |