Now for the list (in order of enjoyment and the breadth of the experience)

1. VLN 6 hour Enduro at The Ring – Nurburgring – Nurburg, Germany – August 26, 2006; Guest of Hermann Tilke – My business partner, Steve Patti, and I got to travel over to Aachen, Germany to meet with Hermann Tilke and his firm to discuss a unique business concept in Central Texas.  As the meeting was ending he invited us to be his personal guests at the VLN 6 hour Enduro taking place that weekend at The Ring.  The cars were awesome. The racing celebrities were mixing with the people. The experience was unforgettable.  My new love for auto racing was born.
2. Arsenal v. Man City – Emirates Stadium – London, England – April 4, 2009; — Being in London for the 2009 Linkshare Symposium, my business associate, Alan Rapoport, and I wanted to do something memorable.  I looked on Craigslist for some football tickets for any club playing in the city that weekend.  A nice listing from Peter Egbe turned up, I rang him and we were confirmed to meet him at the stadium.  The tickets were expensive relative to American sports.  However, once inside the stadium we were treated to the ultimate English football experience. Not only were the seats spectacular, but we were sitting in the section that originates the yells, chants, and singing.  So, we were thoroughly immersed in the experience that day.
3. 1986 Texas-OU Game – Dallas, TX — Brian Bosworth was arguably the best linebacker in college football.  The Texas Longhorns were at the tail end of the Fred Akers era.  Akers was already getting the “Fire Fred” attention so Bosworth wrote “Fred” and “Akers” on the tape on his shoes. He wanted Fred to stay so that OU could continue to dominate Texas. I watched Boz through binoculars most of the game. I have never seen a more intense player in college football.
4. 2009 Bristol Fall NASCAR Race – Bristol, TN — My dad and I flew into Knoxville, TN for my first opportunity to see a NASCAR race live.  It was great having my dad there (he grew up in Tennessee) and we were treated to a great experience because my company had a box at the race.  Being the “stadium racing” event that it was, it was not short on action. As a part of being in the box, we got to draw a driver at random with a little prize money attached if the driver placed 1st, 3rd, or 5th.  I drew Kyle Busch – my least favorite driver.  He ended up winning and the cost of the trip was covered!!
5. June 30, 1998 – Chicago Cubs v. Arizona Diamondbacks –  Sammy Sosa hits 20th HR in June (still a record for any month in baseball history) – On a spur of the moment, with two business colleagues in tow, we decided to take the train down Wrigley from the client with which we were working.  We bought a few scalped tickets (and they were amazingly cheap in the upper deck).  Sitting and looking straight down the first base line we watched Sosa hit a monster shot over the right field wall.  While not high (it never got higher than we were sitting), it was still rising when it got over the wall and onto the street.
6. Winnipeg Jets v. Minnesota Wild – December 13, 2011 - Winnipeg, Canada — Again on a business trip, my colleague and I were hopeful to get to see a Winnipeg Jets game.  I have always been a hockey fan, but an opportunity to see hockey in Canada would be truly spectacular. The game was more than sold-out (street tickets were going for $400). With the return of the Jets to Canada after a long absence, the fans were the most supportive group I have ever seen for hockey.  Luckily the company we were visiting was able to get us two tickets (and provided an authentic Jets sweater) and we got to see the Jets beat the Wild.  I am now a Jets fan and Canadian hockey is the best hockey on earth.
7. 1986 Dallas Cowboys v. Seattle Seahawks – Irving, TX – November 27, 1986 — Having moved away from Seattle in 1983 I had missed seeing the Seattle Seahawks play in person. My parents decided to surprise us with a trip up to Dallas to stay at the Westin Galleria and then go to the game on Thanksgiving. It was COLD, but the game was fun (especially with the Seahawks winning).
8. 1994 World Cup Soccer – Germany v South Korea – June 27, 1994 — My good friend Robert Graham scored a pair of tickets to each of the three Group C & D games in Dallas for the 1994 World Cup.  Being a huge Germany fan he asked me if I would like to attend so I could root for my team. It was really hot and the Germany fans were having a blast.  We got into the singing and chants and enjoyed seeing Germany win.  The day prior we got to go see the German team practice at SMU. The discipline and regimen was a sight to behold – and steadfastly German.
9. Seattle Mariners v. Toronto Blue Jays - Seattle, WA – July 1, 1983 – This was the last game I ever got to see in the Kingdome before moving south to Texas.  Seeing these two 1977 expansion teams play one another was not particularly memorable. What was memorable was before the game when I was standing in the center field bleachers, holding up my glove, and watching Spike Owen throw me (and I caught) and BP ball from second base. I still have that ball today (and find it ironic that Spike Owen played for UT and I was moving to Austin).
10. 1996 Olympic Soccer – USA v. Argentina – July 20, 1996 – My best friend from college, Rich Fletcher, was living in Birmingham, Alabama and was offered a pair of tickets to an Olympic soccer game. Knowing I was the biggest soccer fan he knew, I was invited to attend with him.  It was not as good as World Cup soccer, and the US was not playing well in the game, but the experience was still wonderful (and patriotic).

Background

This paper was written after several years of organizational change surrounding the turnaround efforts at a large multi-channel retailer.  As stability takes hold, it is necessary to build the foundation for continuous improvement from an organizational standpoint.  After groups within an organization have prospered and learned significantly over a period of time, it is critical to maintain the desired growth for the business, as well as individual professional growth for the associates within the group.

Opportunity

An associate within a group should be developed to grow on three particular levels – Tactical, Analytical, and Strategic.  As an associate grows, he or she should become well versed in all three disciplines and these skills will be transferable upward within the group as well as into other groups throughout the enterprise.  As the group seeks new associates, it is imperative to look for moldable traits from each level in order to develop long-term growth.  The ultimate goal is to produce associates that can think strategically and understand the analytics and tactics within a program or group.  In turn, this produces a logical path as follows:

▲    –          An associate that is solely focused on tactical execution

■    –          An associate that has learned or is being trained in tactics, analysis and strategy

▼    –          An associate that has developed all three traits and leads through strategic direction

▲  –>     ■  –>    ▼

The director of the group should be ▼.  His or her direct reports should be ■.  In turn, all others within the group should be developed from ▲ to ■ over a pre-determined interval.  This creates opportunities and direction for associates while defining measurable objectives and creating a well-run and effective organization.  The following information outlines each level of development and how they inter-relate.

Tactical

Day in and day out, there are functions that need to be performed in order to keep programs running, customers happy, and analysis happening.  These tactical procedures are typically basic in nature and repetitive at different intervals.  This is the best training ground for associates as they grow into analytical and ultimately strategic associates.  Being grounded in the basic fundamentals of programs allows for easy movement between programs and ultimately to a deeper understanding of individual programs and enterprise directional thinking.

Traits:

• Detail Oriented
• Organized
• Learning Focused
• Process Oriented

Analytical

Being analytical does not mean printing out reports once a week, glancing at them and putting them into a binder never to be seen again.  Analysis means getting into the numbers, understanding the strategy set forth by the enterprise, and seeking knowledge to which action can be associated.  An analytical associate is usually grown out of tactical execution.  Someone that has done the day-today activities of a function should inherently be able to analyze the output of the function.  Current associates should be challenged and the organization should seek new associates that get into the business at a micro level and seek a thorough understanding of it in order to drive the program and enterprise ever-forward.  Finally, an analytical person should always have a sense of the metrics of the program and seeking new ways to measure the business.

Traits

• Detail Oriented
• Organized
• Critical Reasoning
• Contextual Thinking
• Intuitive

Strategic

Often, people confuse strategy with operational effectiveness.  In the article “Michael Porter’s Big Ideas” (K. Hammonds, Fast Company. March ’01),Hammonds writes “There’s a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness. Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different. Operational effectiveness is about things that you really shouldn’t have to make choices on; it’s about what’s good for everybody and about what every business should be doing.”  He follows on to say “The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you’re trying to accomplish. The company without a strategy is willing to try anything. If all you’re trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be very successful.”  Therefore it is imperative that associates can understand, derive, and deliver strategy in an effective manner.  The learning of this takes time and is built on a foundation of understanding of the enterprise, the business, and roles within the enterprise.  Before strength in strategy is built, an associate must first know the tactical and analytical roles within the program or group.  As each of these is grown it leads to a basis for strategic understanding.

Traits

• Visionary
• 360° View
• Tactical
• Analytical
• Strong Business Acumen
• Communicative

Summary

While these points may seem intuitive, it is necessary for a manager (at any level) to maintain a view of these types of traits and the corresponding development.  Often companies spend more time reacting to growth, positive or negative, than to developing a solid platform to attract, grow and retain associates that are ultimately responsible for the long-term goals of the company.  As an architect designs a house and a contractor builds it, each piece is reliant on another to be successful.

Looking ahead during that first walk on the first (cold) day of 2011 I thought “how on earth am I going to walk 250 times this year totaling 1,250 miles or more?”  By mile one my shins ached, my breath was short and I was just hoping I could get through the first 5 miles.  But as I got to mile two, the pain subsided and I found my pace.  I completed that day.  Then I completed the first week.  Next came the first month.  By the time I reached that point it was a habit.  The miles kept adding up and by mid-year I was genuinely ready for the 2011 Avon Walk in the Rockies.  That was a challenge.  We walked a marathon day one and a half marathon on day two.  The challenge was the altitude and the rolling hills (going mostly uphill). However, it was incredible and my recovery was fast because I was actually in shape!!

During the year, I did take off two weeks just to make sure that I did not burn out. Ironically, during the weeks I took off, my body craved physical activity.  When I got back to the daily walking I was even more eager the reach the 5 mile results each day.  Finally by the end of December I reached the 250th walk (and 1,325 miles total – including the training and walking for the Avon Walk).  Looking back I was not surprised that I did it.  But, I was amazed that I stuck to it and enjoyed it so much.  I highly recommend this approach to anyone looking for a way to start, continue, and complete an exercise goal.  For those with more visual reasoning, here is what 1,325 miles looks like as I tracked it on DailyMile (guess which month had the Avon Walk in it).

For fun, I looked for a relative distance so I could see what 1,325 miles represented.  Dallas to Washington, DC was the best view – and here is that map (now that makes me tired).

Today I was alerted to some fun Google is having with search results.  Much like the autocorrect parody’s seen with Word over the years, Google has taken a search result set to a whole new level.  I implore you to try searching on the following terms and enjoy the ensuing results -

• Tilt
• Askew
• Do a barrel roll

Initial Problem Description

Google released an update to their +1 button script sometime on Tuesday (10/25/2011). This new script had a line of code that interfered with most JavaScript frameworks. This script error only affected some of Internet Explorer browser users. Sometime on Wednesday night (10/26/2011), Google appears to have rolled back their script changes. Google has made no official announcement that references the problem or the original update that caused it. The only information about the outage was gathered here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-plus-developers/lOt_NJ2j7P8.

In this forum, the problem was confirmed on Google’s developer discussion group and was escalated by a Google support engineer around 10am Wednesday morning.

Effect on a website

Any page that loaded the Google +1 script would encounter script errors after the button had rendered.

We all know that Twitter is the best way to learn about things happening. Today, I saw that @aplusk had posted a link to a presentation done by the CEO of Fab.com. It is titled “21 things we’re learning at Fab.com – October 2011“.  The 21 things are easy on the surface, but the commitment to them, and the ability to stay focused on them, inspires me.  Thank you Jason Goldberg

If you are interested in getting an invitation to Fab.com, go here –> http://fab.com/whh0t

HandShake2.0 is an interesting site that caters to the interests of business people in an online social media way.  In their words -

“Handshake 2.0 is a business news, social media public relations, and business development site featuring new developments in entrepreneurship, best practices in business principles, business models, innovation, and the latest on company leaders and companies, from start-ups to moguls.  Handshake 2.0 synthesizes the personal, the social, and the technological, adds the fundamental business risk reduction principle of “It’s who you know,” and shares its clients’ corporate messages in multiple, well-established social media channels and mobile applications, resulting in “word of Handshake” leads and referrals for clients’ companies.”