AlliShapira

New Blog Site

2008-01-03T20:11:00.000-05:00

I've transferred my blog and my website to Wordpress.com

Please visit my site at www.allisonshapira.com to access my blog.

Thanks for the visit!

Allison

The Art of the Start

2007-12-27T19:10:00.000-05:00

Moving right along down my holiday reading list, I just finished The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki.

It's an excellent read for many different reasons, not the least of which are the wit and wisdom of the author, who writes in such an engaging style that I was able to read the book in just a few days.

But I'd like to focus on one specific chapter that was relevant to public speaking:

The Art of Pitching

While Guy is mainly talking about how to pitch to venture capitalists, his points are transferable to many types of presentations. Some of his main points are:

10/20/30 - Ten slides, Twenty minutes, 30-point font as a rule of thumb for presentations. This makes sure you don't overload your audience with long presentations that have too many slides that are too hard to read.
Make your points relevant to your audience by adding real-world examples or stories.
Know your audience in advance and cater your presentation to them.
Practice your presentation a minimum of 25 times so you become comfortable with it. He says, "There are no shortcuts to achieving familiarity."

Guy included had some great guidelines for using PowerPoint, including "animate your body, not your slides."

There were also a few pages in the book dedicated to public speaking itself. Again, he had some very relevant suggestions beyond the normal "make eye contact, use body language" which are important but not the only points. For instance:

Say something interesting
Meet the crowd before the speech (so you see familiar faces in the audience)
Ask for a small room (instead of a large room that might not fill up)
Practice. He rewords something I repeat often during my lectures to highlight the importance of practice. He says, "Ironically, the more you practice, the more you'll sound spontaneous."

An excellent book that has much to offer individuals from all fields. I highly recommend it.

Made to Stick

2007-12-24T17:47:00.000-05:00

Since classes have ended for the semester, I've been reading some interesting books related to communication.

I just completed Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

It was a fascinating and well-researched look at what makes messages "sticky" - what makes them stick in people's minds long after they have heard them. The book looked at both truisms and urban legends, famous and obscure messages. The authors find a pattern among sticky ideas, that many of them have some combination of the following 6 elements of SUCCESs:

Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories

The book is relevant for anyone who has to convey a message: school teachers, PR professionals, marketers, parents, governments...just about anyone.

As a public speaking professional, I found one section particularly interesting. The authors mentioned that in certain studies they performed, there wasn't "necessarily" a correlation between good speakers and sticky messages. In other words, you could really entertain a crowd for 15 minutes, and they wouldn't remember a word of it.

This is a challenge to those of use who speak publicly on a regular basis and who help others to speak well. It's a reminder that our goal as speakers is not only to entertain a crowd, but to inspire them to think or act in a certain way afterwards. We can't simply focus on presentation without focusing on content as well.

We need to ensure that our delivery is an effective vehicle for delivering a message that our audience will remember afterwards. In other words: have something to say, and say it well.

This was a powerful take-away from the book.

A Day in the Life of a Public Speaking Consultant

2007-12-07T09:57:00.000-05:00

This past Monday, I had a day that made me stop and think about how much I enjoy the field of public speaking. It was a day that helped me really delve into the field in several different ways. Here is a description of my activities, starting from 1:00 PM and ending at 9:00 PM.

1. Toastmasters Meeting: At the last moment, I was asked to give a speech to my local Toastmasters club, Crimson Toastmasters at Harvard University. I decided to start a new advanced speaker's manual entitled "Speaking to Inform", and for this first speech I educated my group about the best way to prepare for a "Question and Answer" session that often follows a speech. It's a particular skill set within public speaking that unfortunately you need to experience in order to improve. But there are specific ways to prepare for it.

I had to leave this meeting early in order to attend...

2. Presentation by Professor Rod Kramer of Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He spoke about "Effective Self-Presentation: How Leaders Project Desired Images." I found this fascinating because he discussed such important speaking techniques as making sure your nonverbal communication matches the verbal (show the audience you really believe what you're saying) - and we looked at examples where the opposite happened. He mentioned an idea that I have long espoused when talking about the subject of leadership: no matter what values or ideas you have, you have to be able to effectively convince people at work, in the media, within your constituencies, etc. In other words, it's not enough to have a vision - you have to communicate that vision to others. Communicating that vision to others is in itself a leadership challenge.

At the conclusion of that fascinating presentation, I left to prepare for my next engagement, where I was the featured speaker:

3. Public Speaking Clinic at the Harvard Kennedy School on the subject of "Taking Control of Q+A." You may now realize why I was so quick to speak at my Toastmasters club. I had already prepared a speech for this clinic. During this clinic, I spoke about how to prepare for and handle Q+A sessions. Then I gave the students a chance to write their own short speeches on a controversial topic. They each presented their speech and took tough questions from all of us (myself and the students). After that exercise, I facilitated group feedback for each person. It's a great method for giving everyone experience speaking and taking questions, and also for stimulating the analytical way in which we need to observe and learn from other speakers.

At the end of this session, I had to leave promptly in order to take a cab to Simmons College, where I was giving my final presentation for my Writing class about the reality TV show I was asked to write.

4. Presentation of "The Communicator with Donald Trump." In this show, Donald Trump is searching for a new VP of Communications for his company, so he sponsors an Apprentice-type reality show to find one. Each week, he gives the participants a variety of writing challenges to test their communication skills, and each week they make a variety of outrageous errors. The participants themselves are each stereotypical in their roles: the MBA student, the writing professor, the foreign diplomat, and the communications consultant (guess who wins?).

So for this final event of the day, I gave a Power Point presentation on the concept, rules, and participants of the show, and then read from the Pilot episode that I had written. The class reaction was great - people loved the participants and the exercises. Of course, this was in my business writing class, so I knew my audience.

Public speaking is a skill: the more you practice, the better you will become. The converse is also true: the less you practice, the worse you will become. That's why when opportunities come along to speak at the last moment, I always accept them. And that's why a day like Monday really makes me feel like I have increased my capacity to both speak in public and teach others how to speak.

Service Learning Project

2007-11-19T22:44:00.001-05:00

A fascinating part of our Writing class has been the service learning component, which we finished this past week.

There are several non-profit organizations in the Fenway which work with Simmons and other local colleges in an effort to engage their students in service learning. "Service learning" was a new phrase for me, and I learned that it entails encouraging students to help a local community group or organization by giving them a credit-based assignment that requires them to work with the group.

It reminds me of companies that encourage their employees to volunteer in the community.

Being a writing class, we were asked to write copy for the web site of a local non-profit in the Fenway. I was the group leader of a team of five women, and each of us tackled a page of the web site. The scope was pretty limited, and we felt like we should be doing much more, but we stuck to the assignment and wrote to the best of our abilities.

I liaised with the community contact, and over the course of a month we stayed in touch to make sure that our project would fulfill the organization's expectations. While we have yet to receive our grades, we all felt pretty good about the work we did.

I really like this component of our class, because it gave us practical, hands-on experience with an actual company facing an actual need. It wasn't writing a theoretical letter or drafting our personal literary narrative, interesting as that may be. It was directly related to the field of business communications, and for that I feel that I have benefited as a professional. At the end of the day, that's why I'm pursuing this degree.

Turning Ideas into Deliverables

2007-11-19T22:41:00.001-05:00

In my Writing class tonight, our guest speaker was the Director of Development Communications for a large organization in Boston. He had some interesting ideas about how to achieve results as a communications professional. I chose the best ones to write about tonight:

1. Find out what the client really wants - this requires some reading between the lines and asking some delicately phrased questions. Not a bad start. Sometimes we are given an assignment or job when the client has a specific goal in mind that they don't articulate. To ensure the client's satisfaction, find out the real end goal in advance.

2. If you work for the organization, how does this job fit into your communication plan? Do you even have a communication plan?

3. Collect primary source material - what already exists? How can you avoid reinventing the wheel?

4. Define your audience. I cannot stress this enough, and anyone who has read my past blog entries knows how much I emphasize putting yourself in the mind of your audience before you engage in any communication project. It's not about changing yourself for your audience, it's about showing them the specific aspects of you that are most relevant.

5. Find an ally to bounce ideas off. It's of great use to have someone who can look at your work from an outside yet relevant perspective. Sometimes we get so focused on our work that we are unable to analyze it - it's like looking at a huge Salvador Dali painting from up close. You need to be across the room to appreciate it.

6. Don't procrastinate. In my writing class, there is almost unanimous consensus that everyone procrastinates. But I do not. Singers and speakers do not procrastinate, because we know that you can't just wing it - you have to be prepared. And it's so much easier when you plan in advance!

7. Always gives others a deadline for getting back to you. It's a simple courtesy - when would you like a response?

8. Don't expect the client to do the proofing. How anyone can hand in a job that is not proofed, I do not know...

9. Get to know other people's schedules and work pace. This seems crucial when working in a team environment.

There were a few others, but these are the most salient ones. And many of these points are relevant no matter what field you are working in. Most are directly related to communications, but they can also be applied to a number of disciplines.

Good thoughts to end the night.

The Death of Distance, Part 2

2007-11-17T17:45:00.000-05:00

This week was our last discussion of the year. The final two classes will comprise our group presentations.

So for our final discussion, we talked about The Death of Distance by Frances Cairncross. I really liked the format of the discussion - our instructor put up slides from the chapter "The Trendspotter's Guide to New Communications," and we engaged in a discussion of all the issues it raised, from privacy to outsourcing to world peace. A great discussion, and I think it was a great way to end the class. I was specifically interested in the social and cultural consequences of emerging communications technologies, and as a result of this class, I feel like I'm in a better position to deal with them as a communications professional.

I was specifically interested in the idea that technologies can simultaneously cause fragmentation and cohesion. When you're dealing with someone's communications adoption, it's important to recognize in which way they are affected.

In closing, our instructor warned us to always think through the new technologies that we are using, in an effort to understand their implications. But no matter what technology we are using, it always comes down to human relationships - we are always trying to communicate with one another, and that will never change. The medium may change, but our needs won't. And we won't.

The last two quotes of the class were the following:

"Technology takes shape long before its full consequences for society emerge."

"Technology, driving economics, has the power to change the social and physical world."

Interesting thoughts to keep with me as I progress through the Master's in Communications Management program.

Yoav and iTunes

2007-11-09T10:52:00.000-05:00

My husband and I recently had a fascinating conversation about iTunes.

We were walking on the beach in Florida, and I was complaining about how I couldn't purchase songs on iTunes Italia with an American credit card.

I said, "Why can't they just allow Americans to purchase Italian songs? It's not like the technology is different."

So Yoav said, "Well, let's work backward. What would you have to do in order to let Americans purchase Italian songs?"

In doing this backward thinking, I realized that the issue was not so much one of technology as it was one of copyright. For iTunes Italia to give Italians access to Italian songs, they need to purchase the copyright for those songs from the record label. They purchase the songs for a particular audience, knowing that they will be widely popular to the audience.

In order to purchase the copyright for an American audience, you have to pay a lot more to have access to a much larger audience (US iTunes users vs. Italian iTunes users), but only a small fraction of that audience will actually purchase those songs. Since the market for Italian music in the US is not so high, it would be very hard to recoup the cost of making music available to such a large audience.

After going through this exercise, on the beach in Florida, I found myself much more appreciative of iTunes' challenge. But I still want to download Italian songs...

What's a Fat Draft?

2007-11-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

Our writing class has been going well. I've already mentioned the research paper, but I want to touch upon an interesting exercise we went through in class.

We learned how to write a fat draft: to take something we're working on and simply double its size. For every sentence, add another sentence with more details. Then, when we have a second draft that's twice as long as the first, condense it into a third draft.

At first, this exercise seemed a little silly. Our instructor had just told us that our writing style was too long. And who has time to do this?

But then, as I added more details here and there to the performance review I had written for myself, I realized that I was coming up with new ideas and angles from which to write. Having freed myself from the bounds of brevity, I was actually being more creative.

Then, when I went back and wrote a third draft, I incorporated some of the fat draft material and came up with a concise, logical third draft that was no longer than my original. But it was much better.

In a society where we always need to be brief and effective under deadline, sometimes the best way to be brief and effective is to take just a little more time - to take a draft, flip it upside down, fatten it, and then slim it down. In the end, it will create a better product.

Last ECT post for now

2007-11-09T10:23:00.000-05:00

Last night's ECT was particularly interesting. We talked about Disruptive Technologies and the effects they can have on a company and an industry.

What are they? How do you recognize them? What are their implications?

We spoke briefly about each of these, and I feel we should have spent more on actual examples. But we moved quickly to a connected topic that was also fascinating - the technology market adoption cycle.

As someone who has worked tangentially in marketing (PR is a form of marketing an image), it was so interesting to actually study the field of marketing. We discussed the S-curve of the adoption cycle, and learned about two books by Geoffrey Moore that discuss how to cross the chasm between early adopters and the early majority, between visionaries and pragmatists. The books are Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado. I'm going to add the second book to my personal reading list between semesters.

In suggesting how not to get left behind when a disruptive technology comes along, our instructor suggested that we READ - follow different sources all the time, from the stock market, to the newspapers, to online media. Don't get silo'd into your own field or product, rather keep your eyes and ears open to the political, technological, and social changes that are going on all around you. Pretty wise advise.

To be a Communications Manager?

2007-11-09T10:15:00.000-05:00

Our ECT instructor is always explaining the relevance of ECT's to our future careers as "Communications Managers" - "As CM, you are going to have to manage people's expectations...as CM, you are going to have to deal with situations like this..."

I always feel a little underwhelmed by those statements. Although I appreciate the direct relevance of what we are studying, I feel we shouldn't be striving to be simply communications managers. We should strive to be leaders in our field, whatever the field is. Do we want to simply manage communications at our company, or do we want to lead the company to use communications technologies in the most effective ways? Do we want to manage the status quo, or stay on the cutting edge of technological innovation so that we keep our company one step ahead of the competition?

Perhaps I feel that by referring to ourselves as communications managers, we accept a more passive role in our future professions. I prefer to look at the future in a more radical, catalytic way. We're not doing this just to get paid, we're doing this because we are inspired by this field, and we are going to achieve great things.

ECT and the Internet

2007-11-09T09:56:00.000-05:00

We've also spent a fair amount of time discussing networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. We learned that the Internet is just a network of networks that joins people together. It's a connection of people through computers, since at the end of the day, it's the people who send things to one another. Communications is really a discipline, not just a technology.

The Internet has pulled us out of a two-dimensional world, where we are no longer bound by geographic constraints - our physical address has become our IP address.

Our instructor provided some figures during class to show the differences in the adoption of a technology. Here is the time it took a technology from the first available product to adoption by at least 50 million people:

Radio: 38 years
TV: 13 years
Internet: 4 years

The point? ECT's are accelerating at a rapid pace, and we need to be prepared for new ones to be developed all the time. We're only using a fraction of the fiber optic cables that we laid around the world, so we have room to do much more. We need to anticipate what's coming and embrace it.

ECT Almost Over

2007-11-09T09:31:00.000-05:00

We only have one more lecture in our Emerging Communications Technologies class before our final presentations, which end the semester. It's amazing that we haven't even gone on Thanksgiving holiday, and yet we are almost done. That's one of the advantages of starting class the first week in September.

I have some notes to catch up on here, as I haven't had as much time to blog as I would have liked. The best time to blog is right after a class, when the information is fresh in my mind. However, when I come home from class at 9:30 or 10:00 PM, I want to spend time with my husband in the two hours we have before going to bed. This is a work-school-life balance that I need to manage, since I'm sure it will only get more relevant as school continues. So I look at it as practice.

Over the past month, we've spent a lot of time in class studying the history of broadcasting, from public speaking to newspapers, from radio to internet.

Interestingly enough, the first newspapers in ancient China and Rome were used to control the population - they were a form of propaganda. Maybe it explains the instinct some restrictive governments have to control the media in their societies - it's an age-old desire to control their citizens. It shows a need for control that hasn't really gone away over human history. Now it's simply harder to do it, but the desire is still there.

Additionally, many newspapers have focused on the exact same types of news items, from ancient times through today: sports, weddings, obituaries, horoscopes, upcoming events. In other words, although technology has evolved over centuries, cultural needs and wants have basically stayed the same. We want to know what's going on around us, in our society and in our country.

But since we're in ECT, we also want to focus on changing technologies and how they effect us. For instance, newspapers in the 21st century are having to change their priorities. As less people subscribe to the printed paper and more people read it for free online, newspapers are relying more on advertising to pay for their production.

In general, we are going to have to manage the expectations of a new generation of people who expect most information on the Internet to be free: newspapers and information, music and movies. The recent strike in Hollywood is a result of this tension. In a capitalist society, you have a right to ask payment for the result of your hard work - but in capitalist society, you can only receive payment if you produce something the consumer is willing to pay for. The decreasing willingness of the consumer to pay for a product or service will force producers to look for some kind of reasonable balance, even as they adjust their production to allow for decreased revenue.

Business or Creative Writing? Part 2

2007-10-29T22:35:00.000-04:00

Venting can be very helpful. The best part about venting is that, once you've vented, you start to realize that you were wrong. But you need to vent in order to realize that...

Having re-thought my earlier blog, I'm now starting to realize that not everything we learn is immediately useful. Some things take time to be useful. Others are useful in unforeseen ways.

To take a concept I learned from my Emerging Communications Technologies class, some of the most ground-breaking technologies were invented with completely different purposes from what eventually made them life-changing. Some inventions were created a full 40 years before they became widely useful.

In other words, it's important to realize that we don't know everything there is to know about what will help us down the road. Give it a try. Dare it to help you, and it just might, one of these days.

Guess I better start that research paper...

Business or Creative Writing? A Case in Point

2007-10-29T21:53:00.000-04:00

Interesting dynamics from my "Writing for Business Professionals" class tonight. It's sitting on my mind and I need to let it out.

Despite the title of the course, the class has dealt more with creative writing than business writing. I haven't minded because the readings are interesting and I know that, more or less, being a better creative writer will help me become a better writer, period. I overlook the fact that the only business writing we have dealt with is how to edit someone else's letter or email.

However, tonight we were given the assignment of writing a research paper on some random topic that we came up with during our in-class brainstorming session, without any focus on real-world application. This brainstorming session produced such topics as the history of the high heel and the pop-tart.

In the last 10 minutes of the class, the instructor said the paper should be 5-10 pages, due next week. This is in addition to the 150 pages of creative reading to do for next week, in addition to the outline of our final project due next week. In addition to the writing project we are doing for our outside organizations. And meanwhile I'm flying to Florida from Friday - Sunday to perform a wedding.

I realize that to the business school student, this may seem trivial. But we're talking about an awful lot of work for something that is only loosely related to business writing. If the assignment were to write a case study, I would understand. To write a business plan, I would understand. But to pull out all the stops for a research paper when my business writing class is teaching me neither case studies nor business plans, and I start to rethink my investment in the class. Our class is already reeling from our final project, which is basically to write a reality TV show that talks about the different writing styles we've learned in class, such as freewriting or brainstorming. Wait, when do I learn how to write a business plan?

Thoughts? I would love to hear other people's feedback as to how I can make this research paper relevant to my business writing. Help me find the silver lining!

Thanks for letting me vent.

Interconnected Craziness

2007-10-21T11:59:00.000-04:00

Some moments beg to be recorded in some way - you're going about your daily life and, all of a sudden, you look at your situation not from down on the dance floor but from up on the balcony, to use an expression from Professor Ron Heifetz of Harvard University. You take a step back from your routine to acknowledge the larger trends that are developing around you.

I'm sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon. My husband is speaking with his cousin in Israel, calling from a basic American cell phone to an Israeli land line. In another room, my father-in-law is using his Palm Treo to conduct business with an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, I'm running back and forth between my desktop and laptop computers, using a flash drive to transfer a file from one to another because the laptop's Internet connection is stronger and I didn't save the desktop's files onto our network. My iPhone is resting on top of the textbook Communication Technology Update.

A third computer, the slowest in the house, is sitting unused in the office, ironically right next to the wireless router.

This is the multimedia home that has been created around us. Rather, this is the multimedia home that we have created for ourselves. It is both more complex and more user-friendly than ever before. It allows us to be in more places at the same time than ever before.

It also means that three people are in the same house and don't interact with each other all. But we could if we wanted to, and that element of disconnect by choice, with the option of instantly reconnecting at will, is a key factor in our lives. Technology is moving at a lightning pace around us, and we can pick and choose when and where to harness it, and when to let it go right past us.

2007-10-17T11:10:00.001-04:00

Thomas Friedman had a great editorial in today's New York Times. In full disclosure, I think most of his editorials are excellent, but this one in particular captured me from a marketing communications perspective.

He talks about needing a different approach or "on-ramp" when speaking to different groups about global warming. You can't walk into a dangerous neighborhood speaking to people about the danger of climate change when they're worried about drive-by shootings and neighborhood gangs. You have to phrase it in a way that actually takes into account their concerns and incentives.

This idea of different "on-ramps" or "entry points" onto the highway of a social or environmental movement highlights a basic tenet of marketing, public speaking, advertising - in short, communication - which is: know your audience. Who are they, and what message are you trying to get across? Knowing this in advance of your conversation or campaign will greatly increase the chance that the other person will hear you.

Writing for Business Professionals

2007-10-05T10:40:00.001-04:00

While less ground-breaking, my writing class has been just as educational as my technologies class. Especially since each item we cover is relevant to my day-to-day work.

Each week, we start the class by discussing the business writing we've experienced at work over the past week - people will complain about long business emails, bad cover letters, and rambling meeting summaries.

This past week, our instructor gave us a series of 5 subject lines and asked us to make them more eye-catching, so that the reader would have more incentive to read on. The examples she provided weren't so bad, I thought, and she should have given us ones that needed more obvious help. But then I realized that in most cases, the subjects you see at work will never really be that bad - but you still need to make them better. It was a more realistic exercise.

It was an interesting exercise, and most people came up with Boston Herald-type subjects which were funny and eye-catching. However, they might have been a little TOO entertaining, prompting us to discuss the need to know the particular audience that is going to receive the email you are sending. If it's in a professional setting, an eye-catching email might be regarded as SPAM and deleted right away. Or it might simply look unprofessional.

As with almost any type of communication out there - it depends on your audience.

We've been reading two books for this course:
Effective Business Writing by Maryann Pietrowski
On Writing: A Process Reader by Wendy Bishop

The two books are like night and day - one is a short and sweet guide to business writing (itself a model for business communication), while the other is a longer and more complex discussion of the many different types of creative writing, with short and long stories for further reading. I am enjoying both books, but the creative book is really surprising me by how much I am enjoying it. I've never really studied creative writing, and I'm finding this feeds a desire I had to study the subject.

The class was split about the creative book - some people loved it like I did, while others found it a complete waste of time. But after discussion, we generally agreed that we could use more creative practices and innovations in business writing, and in business in general. Every chapter, whether relevant or not, gives you another tool for your writing toolbox.

ECT Continued

2007-10-05T10:20:00.000-04:00

I want to mention what we've discussed in the past two ECT classes, since they mention a recurring theme.

The two Big Words in our ECT class are BANDWIDTH and CONVERGENCE. More bandwidth gives you the opportunity to send voice, video and data much faster to many destinations. When you can send and receive all three at the same time, you experience the convergence of the three.

I want to reiterate how interesting it is to understand the back-end of communications. I've spent most of my life dealing with the front-end: public speaking, interpersonal communications, coaching - in other words, interactions between people face-to-face.

In ECT, we're learning about the other side of communications - how people and machines communicate with one another from a distance, or how one facilitates the other. It's fascinating and relevant.

Anyway, we briefly went over a timeline of invention for telegraphy, telephony, radio and TV, and we realized that they were all being created at more or less the same time: from the late 1880's through today. And now, they are all converging into new devices for new uses for new audiences. You have to admit, that's pretty cool.

We read Vannevar Bush's article "As We May Think", written in 1945 at the tail end of 1945, and realized how many of his predictions about the future have come true.

In yesterday's class, we talked about radio waves and televisions. It amazed me to learn that television is just a series of still images played at such a rapid speed that they seem to be continuous motion - like those old flip books we used to play with as children. I'm sure this is old news for many people, but I am not ashamed to be amazed by this. In fact, I maintain a generally high level of amazement about physics and chemistry in general.

We then talked about TV, specifically pixels and aspect ratios. We learned the difference between current standard televisions and the new HD televisions that will eventually phase the old ones out completely - HD has more pixels for a clearer picture, along with a movie-screen ratio of 9:16 for screen size, which makes for a rectangular image. We also learned how liquid crystal displays (LCD) work.

Again, it's very cool to understand what's all around us. To look at my digital camera in playback mode and realize that the image is created by stimulating electrons caught between two panes of glass. It's probably the same amazement that the little Berber children had in Morocco when I showed them their image in the LCD screen - either ways, it's like magic, whether you understand it or not.

Our instructor alluded to something very important towards the end of class yesterday: as bandwidth increases and convergence takes place, we as communications managers have no choice but to provide a multimedia experience for our customers. In other words, convergence is raising people's expectations of what communications should look like, and we're going to have to either manage or fulfill those expectations. It should be an interesting journey.

Update on Emerging Communications Technologies

2007-10-05T09:49:00.000-04:00

I've been pleasantly surprised by the reading for my ECT class. I've already mentioned The Death of Distance, but it's Communications Technologies Update that has really surprised me.

It's a large book with lots of statistics and graphs. It's updated every year or so in an attempt to keep up with the latest technological innovations. For each technology, it gives you a history of it, an update on its current use, and a "what to watch" section predicting the future based on recent advances. From telephony to broadband, it describes technologies that are literally all around us but about which we know very little. It even throws in a few public policy issues by mentioning relevant legislation surrounding the technology, something that I think would make for great class discussion.

The best part about this book is that my husband knows all about the subject. So when I ready something about multiplexes, I can specifically ask him more about it.

For instance, I read a chapter on Home Networking a few weeks after Yoav had set up a network in our home. So I could think back to what he had gone through and by reading the book I could understand it more in detail. Then I could talk about it with him.

If at all possible, I recommend reading this book while sitting next to a Computer Engineer.

My only complaint about the book is that we don't discuss it in class. We have to read 3-5 dense chapters about radio, telephone and internet before class, then in class we spend 2.5 hours discussion only radio. And the lectures are planned out in advance, so it's not just that we run out of time for the rest.

While I'm getting a lot from the book, I worry that by not discussing it in class, I simply won't retain the information. And I think we have the time to discuss it, if only briefly. If I could suggest a format, I would recommend that the instructor start each class by asking for everyone's thoughts on the reading, which would prompt us to discuss what we'd learned.

MCM vs. B-School

2007-10-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

As you may know, I heavily debated the merits of a Master in Communications Management degree versus an MBA. I had one foot in an MBA program before deciding to try the MCM first before diving into 4 crazy years of B-School madness.

However, I still debate the two, and my personal debate ends differently depending on the day - some days I believe the MBA is a better choice and that I should switch programs for next semester, while other days I realize the MCM is much better suited to my career aspirations and I should stick with it. It doesn't hurt that the MCM is much shorter, less expensive and probably easier. I didn't choose it for those reasons, but sometimes the fact that those reasons exist makes me feel like I'm wimping out or choosing the easier of two paths.

But it's not about easier vs. harder - it's about rationally deciding what's the best way to spend the next 2 - 4 years, and in fact whether or not it's worth spending 4 years as a crazy, part-time student. MCM is 2 years, MBA is 4 years.

There's no question that an MBA is a more useful degree. It teaches you the language of business, it gives you credentials (and experience) that translate worldwide and tell future employers exactly what you have studied and what you can do. It prepares you for a variety of different positions.

However, an MCM gives me a specialization. It gives consistency and breadth to my resume. It gives me specific training in an industry that I am convinced I will operate in for the next 5-10 years, whether in business or politics. Actually it's not an industry - it's a horizontal, a skill that is crucial to any industry, from medicine to finance to academia.

And in the mere two classes that I'm taking this semester, I've already used knowledge and training from both in various professional endeavors.

It's directly relevant to what I want to do. And I'm good at it.

So for today (and the past week), the MCM has won the debate. Next semester there's a course on "Financial Aspects of Business" in MCM, and I look forward to learning some necessary finance skills there.

And in the summer, there's a 2-week intensive course on international marketing that takes place on location in Rome, Italy. Given that I speak Italian fluently and want to work in Italy, this networking opportunity seems too good to pass up.

Thoughts on the Fall Schedule

2007-10-05T09:24:00.000-04:00

I've been a little too busy to write lately with all my classes and work commitments. But I have been taking notes on what I'd like to blog about. I'm just lacking the free time to sit down without other things on my mind and be able to free write.

In general, I've been pleasantly surprised with the work load. It's heavy but not overwhelming, which means that I have quite a lot to read but I also have the time to enjoy and retain what I've read. And I've been surprised with how much I've been retaining.

Two classes per semester, in other words two nights per week, aren't easy. Add to those two nights my weekly work commitment and the weekly meeting of the new student Toastmasters club that I started, and I have only one free weekday evening - Friday, and I'm not sure that even counts as a weekday evening.

But I feel it's worth it - I have time for work, time for my classes, and one night a week free for my personal interests. I can handle this for a few years. It may be affecting my diet, though, since it means I either have junk food or bird food for dinner. And I haven't been able to keep a regular gym schedule since class started. But I'm still working things out.

This is a work in progress.

Boston Photo Walks

2007-09-21T11:11:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday, I went on a tour of the Freedom Trail for the first time (yes, after about 10 years in Boston I still had never done it...)

Given my interest in photography, I decided to try Boston PhotoWalks, a walking tour of Boston offered by Saba Alhadi. Saba gives you historical commentary during the tour, while also showing you the best angles for taking pictures of the sites you visit. It was an interesting and enjoyable mix of photography and history, and I got some great shots out of it. She also does tours of Beacon Hill and the waterfront, among other sites in Boston.

For our final stop, we visited old North Church in the North End. While listening to the story of Paul Revere and the "one if by land, two if by sea" communication system set up in the tower of the church, I realized we were talking about optical telegraphy.

There's my Emerging Communications Technologies class, showing me how communications has been and still is all around us...

ECT - Vacuum Tubes

2007-09-21T10:55:00.001-04:00

This week's Emerging Communications Technologies class focused on the history of computers. While I admit, once again, that this is not the most interesting subject, I was once again fascinated by certain concepts. For instance, we spent 20 minutes talking about vacuum tubes that made up computers in the 1950's, and our instructor even brought in an actual vacuum tube from that time period. Assuming how each computer was made up of tens of thousands of vacuum tubes, we could imagine how it would take an entire room to hold a computer.

So when the transistor was invented and reduced the size of computers by a factor of 1,000, I was really impressed. I learned that transistors changed electronics forever, in the same way that later inventions in the last decade also changed electronics forever. I like finding these parallels between past and present experiences, like when I compared the initial reactors to the telegraph vs. the internet.

I'm also continuously amazed that even today, computers are all about the same principle of "and" and "or" gates and circuits, just as they were in the 40's and 50's - simply smaller and faster than before. It's like the Introduction to Computer Science class I took one summer at USF in Tampa, Florida. Those rudimentary programs I wrote for class are still relevant!

We also spoke about encryption, and I was impressed by the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of codes. The basic idea is simple: Encrypt a message, send it as gibberish, and decipher it on the other end. But the complexity of the gibberish itself, when using a factor of 2, can be amazingly complex. And so it should be, if it's protecting my credit card number!

So I have to admit that I really appreciate what I'm learning in this class, and I find that I'm thinking about it all the time - when I see my computer, when I buy something online, I think about my ECT class. Which must mean that it's working...

Ghostwriting Part 2 - In Class

2007-09-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

After ghostwriting a letter to Starbucks on behalf of my mother-in-law and editing it slightly as I knew I would have done in reality, I brought it to class this past Monday night.

Our instructor had us form groups of 2 and trade letters - each one had to edit the other's letter, then give it back for consideration. This was difficult for a few reasons: first, because we don't really know the other people in the class yet, so it's awkward to give them constructive feedback; second, because almost everyone in the class is an experienced writer, so you don't feel like you can contradict them too much.

However, for exactly those two reasons, this was a great exercise. Whether you're giving feedback to a superior or subordinate, especially if they have a similar skill set, it's great to learn how to provide feedback with diplomacy. This is something I've learned from years in both diplomacy and writing, but I never dealt with both of the above two reasons at the same time before. Although tentative at first, my partner and I both were able to give constructive positive and negative feedback that we both appreciated.

The questions we asked ourselves about the other's writing were:
What are the strong points in this letter?
What are the weak points in this letter?
How could this message be improved? What would sharpen the message?
Our criteria was to be: balanced, specific, constructive, and gentle.

Then we had a class visit from a woman who works at the Scott/Ross Center for Community Service, a non-profit organization which encourages service learning. We learned about how Simmons students help this and other non-profits. For instance, I volunteered to be the team leader for a group that was tasked with writing copy for the website of another non-profit, a task which helps the organization market itself using an effective website while we get experience writing copy for one particular industry. It's an actual assignment for class, and I think it will be a great experience that will benefit both myself and the organization.

Pats Jerseys to Sox Jerseys

2007-09-16T23:56:00.000-04:00

For my husband's birthday, I got tickets to the Patriots-Chargers game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. It was my first regular season football game and it was incredible - tens of thousands of screaming fans eagerly waiting on every play. We stood the entire time, such was the excitement in the stands that no one could sit down. There was such a strong sense of camaraderie that we felt with each first down and touch down.

Since the Pats were ahead, we decided to leave a little early to beat game traffic. We had stood in traffic for one hour on Route 1 trying to find parking before the game, we didn't want to repeat it on the way out. Leaving half-way through the fourth quarter made a huge difference. Although dozens of people left when we did, Route 1 flowed normally and we returned home before midnight.

On the way home, my father called from Florida to a) ask how we had enjoyed the game and b) bring our attention to the fact that the Red Sox were trailing the Yankees 4-2 at Fenway Park. From an assured football victory, we turned anxiously to an unsure Sox loss. After we turned to AM radio to follow the game on our own, my father stayed on the phone to share our excitement. But oddly enough, there was a television delay, and every pitch reported on our radio came a few seconds before the actual pitch on television, resulting in an eery kind of hearing the future before seeing it happen.

We all waited breathlessly as David Ortiz came to the plate, potentially to save the Sox one more time. From pitch to pitch, we could hardly contain our excitement. When Ortiz hit a pop-up and the Yankees won, we were deflated. I bid good-night to my father and hung up. As we drove through a crowded Kenmore Square, I realized we had gone from Pats Jerseys to Sox Jerseys, and the people in the latter ones weren't smiling.

But this is what Boston sports is all about, I thought, moving from one game to another, each one just as important as the last.

And this is what technology is all about, I thought, using it to live a sports moment with one's father, no matter how far away or through what medium. We watched the game together, him in front of his television in Florida and me on I-93 North from Foxboro to Boston.

The social benefits of communications technology come will always come down to this.

The Death of Distance

2007-09-15T18:16:00.000-04:00

As part of my Emerging Communications Technologies class, we're reading the book "The Death of Distance", by Frances Cairncross. I'm a few chapters into the book and I'm liking it more and more.

Initially, I found the book a little outdated. This new edition was published in 2001, so it spends a lot of time predicting what will happen as a result of the world's increased interconnectedness. It's difficult to read someone's predictions when you're living in the period they're predicting about. At the same time, I have to admire the author's predictions, since many of them have come true.

This book seemed to be a precursor to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, a fantastic book that talks more about the amazing things going on now, rather than what will happen in the future - a wise treatment considering how many times predictions are wrong. It almost seems like The World is Flat picked up where The Death of Distance left off.

However, after reading the second chapter, I've realized that the book delves into history more than I thought. It talks about earlier communications technologies, such as the telegraph, the radio and the telephone. It comes back to the democratizing effect that expanding communications technologies have, since the technologies of the rich are now more accessible to the middle and lower class. Friedman also spends a lot of time on this when he talks about a more level playing field, whether it's within a society or between nations.

I'm now enjoying the historical aspect of the book much more, especially since the author draws parallels between past and present disruptive technologies, comparing the telegraph and the internet, which incurred strikingly similar public reactions in their respective times.

One of the most amazing facts I learned was that some of the most widely-used communications technologies started out with completely different goals. The internet, the phonograph, and the telephone all took time and constant modification and evolution before they became the raging success that they were. Much like the Post-it note was developed for another function (and failed at that function), many times the most useful inventions start out in another field completely.

It shows the power of invention across all industries, because you never know where the next killer app. will come from.

Ghostwriting Assignment

2007-09-15T11:38:00.000-04:00

For my business writing class, we were given the assignment of ghostwriting a letter of complaint to Starbucks on behalf of a significant other - spouse, parent, etc. The challenge is to write in their voice, not in ours.

I've ghostwritten articles, speeches, and letters many times throughout the years, so this is not new to me. However, it's still a great exercise, especially since I'm writing on behalf of my mother-in-law, who has an actual complaint against Starbucks.

But it leads me to a significant question - do I write the letter in her actual voice? Or do I write it in the full knowledge that she would have brought me the letter first, and I would have changed it to make it sound more professional?

In the working world, when we ghostwrite for someone we do it because we write well, sometimes even better than our principal. The principal (the person we're writing for) wants his/her voice, only better. So how authentic can you be when you know that the authentic style is incorrect?

I also find it difficult for our teacher to grade such an assignment, because she has no way of knowing if we are doing it correctly. I asked this question, and she responded that we would know if it's correct or not. But I think that's giving us too much benefit of the doubt - if you've never ghostwritten before, it would be difficult to know if you're doing it correctly or not.

If I were giving this assignment, I would have asked us to all write a letter on behalf of the same famous person - George Bush, a newscaster, someone people have heard speak before. Then we could compare the letters to one another and recognize which were effective and which were not.

But it's still a great exercise, and I'm enjoying writing the letter with my mother-in-law's complaining voice in my head. My husband is amused as well.

ECT First Class

2007-09-13T22:12:00.001-04:00

Tonight was my first class in Emerging Communications Technologies (which I recently switched into after being registered for another course).

Our instructor described the goal of the course as "learning enough about technology to go head-to-head with the tech people at your company." So, enough to manage people who work in technology, and have a basic understanding of what they're talking about, while still letting them do their thing.

Nice goal, especially for someone like me who does not count this industry as a forte. I've always been more of a "front of the house" person, to use a term from the restaurant industry, while Comm. Technologies seems to be more of a "back of the house" field. But it's an important component of communications, and if I am to count myself as an experienced communications professional, then I need to study this field.

We started out by discussing the history of computers and networking, from carrier pigeons to optical telegraphy to electric circuits. Decimal code, binary code, octal code.

I admit it's a bit confusing and I'm not enthralled by it, but it's kind of like spinach - it's good for me and will make me strong.

In the meantime, I can recognize the benefit of becoming more familiar with network bandwidths, and learning the meanings behind all the terms associated with my computer - RAM, ROM, Flash, Hertz, MIPS, etc.

At least it won't get stuck in my teeth before a speech.

Writing for Communications Professionals

2007-09-10T22:15:00.000-04:00

It seems I'll be able to switch into a required course entitled Emerging Communications Technologies, which sounds really exciting.

In the meantime, tonight I went to my other course, Writing for Communications Professionals. True to its name and much to my delight, most people in the class are in fact already communications professionals in the fields of PR, marketing, writing, and advertising. I look forward to some great cross-pollination to take place during and after class.

Our instructor is really laid back, outgoing and self-confident. She did a great job helping us get to know each other. Our ice-breaker exercise was to introduce ourselves, jobs, etc, and mention three particular items: our worst writing skill, our best writing skill, and a writing story from our childhood. It turned out to be a great exercise, because people had to share their weaknesses (a humbling experience), their pride, and tell us a little about their childhood. For instance, we learned that some people had similar weaknesses, or had strengths that complemented one another. We learned if someone grew up in another country or state.

In the class, we are reading from a wonderful book called "On Writing: A Primer" by Wendy Bishop. It's the kind of $60 book that you groan when buying because who wants to spend that much for a book you'll probably never use after school? But after reading the introduction and first chapter, I realized what a valuable source of information it is for writers.

Near the end of class, our instructor handed out a letter written by the Development Director of an organization to a potential donor. It was riddled with type-o's and improper content. We moved into groups of 4 and collaborated on editing the content and style. The result was four very different but very good editing drafts, each one teaching us a little more about the numerous possibilities in editing a document. We then discussed the tact with which we would suggest those edits to a boss or superior. I feel like I have a lot of experience to add in this area - it's the very epitome of diplomacy.

For our homework, we need to ghostwrite a letter of complaint on behalf of a family member, using their voice. I'm a little unsure of how the instructor is going to recognize whether or not we are being authentic to the voice of our principal, but I guess she trusts us to recognize this ourselves. I think I'll hand the finished product to another family member to test for effectiveness.

All in all, an exciting class that will create many useful skills in writing and speechwriting. I look forward to the next class.

How to Study Communication?

2007-09-10T07:24:00.001-04:00

I think I want to change my first class.

It's actually an elective, and it's about the dynamics of working in teams. It's a really interesting topic, and it uses different mediums to show you the different ways that people must collaborate - conference calls, webinars, in person, etc.

To that effect, our first class was a conference call. Unfortunately it was pretty underwhelming - some people were late, some hadn't received the instructions email, some had received it but hadn't read it...I know it's only the first class, but I was looking for a little more discipline. I've always been a stickler for discipline - at work, at school, even singing in a chorus.

In this first call, I realized how much I dislike working through certain mediums, like conference calls. I'm a people person - I love working with people face-to-face. I want to use my hands, my face, and my voice to express myself. I realize the importance of using different mediums, but the in-person dynamic will always be the most important. Furthermore, I ask myself what the value is of mastering a medium that I would prefer not to work in.

Listening to our professor explain the format of the course, it still sounded very interesting and extremely useful.

But she said that the outcome of our various team projects didn't matter - just the dynamics of the team itself as we worked on a project - and we had to write papers throughout the course about those group dynamics.

Which made me realize something: what is the best way to study communication?

Can you simply eliminate the importance of the project itself and study the communication that surrounds it? In that case, how do you get inspired to complete the project when it doesn't matter?

Or is communication something that happens when you focus on the project itself? Is communication only realizable in hindsight?

It reminds me of a similar question: Can you teach leadership, or is leadership something that happens when you're doing something else?

During my time at the Center for Public Leadership, I've realized that if you can break down leadership into its numerous characteristics (decision-making, negotiation, interpersonal communication, etc.), you can teach them to varying degrees. And you can be so inspired by other leaders as to take on their charisma and passion. You can also read "case studies" of leadership and learn from how leaders have acted in certain situations.

A colleague of mine recently said that leadership is an activity, not a characteristic - that's why you can fail from time to time and still be a successful leader.

Getting back to the team dynamics class, I am trying to transfer to a required class instead of an elective. I think the required class will give me a more accurate sense of the graduate program itself and help me focus on other skills that I really want to develop.

Stay tuned.

Graduate School

2007-09-08T16:25:00.000-04:00

I've recently decided to get a master's degree and have been debating my options. Given that my current job is part-time and offers tuition reimbursement, it really seems like this is the optimal time to study. I'm willing to put my consulting work on hold, since whatever I study will help me significantly increase my offerings as a consultant.

I've been debating between two choices: an MBA or a master's in Communications Management.

The argument boils down to general vs. specific - do I want a general degree that will give me a set of tools that will be relevant in any sector, public, private or non-profit, or do I want a degree that allows me to specialize in my field, communication, with additional management training? This specialized degree is still relevant across industries since communications skills themselves are necessary everywhere. And whatever industry I work in, I'd still like to deal with communications.

I can fully rationalize both decisions, and I've been flip-flopping back and forth, depending on the day. I was registered for Boston University's Graduate School of Management and even sent in a deposit before realizing that the program would take longer than I anticipated. I took some time off to think and decided to take courses in communications management first, at Simmons College.

My first class was underwhelming, to say the least, which has led me to greatly rethink my decision. But I am willing to give it another shot, given that one course in one elective is not an optimal indicator of how the course (or school) really is.

Let's see how it happens. I intend to blog through this process for those in the field of communications who are considering such a move - and to discuss what I learn.

Friend Needs Kidney Donor

2007-08-29T08:31:00.000-04:00

I received this email from a colleague about a mutual friend who desperately needs a kidney transplant. Albie is a wonderful man whom I have known for many years. Please pass this along so that we can find a potential donor to save his life.

Allison

************

Dear Friends, Family and Colleagues,

Albie Sherman a dear friend and Jewish communal leader who is a Vice President at University of Massachusetts Medical Center, is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. He has many candidates go through the process and has recently had someone who was turned down at the last minute.

If anyone is willing to be, or knows of, a potential donor, please call or e-mail the Massachusetts General Hospital transplant coordinator set forth below.
Please send this message out to your friends and colleagues far and wide.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail me. Many thanks for your consideration.

HERE ARE THE OPTIONS IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE:

1. Albert can receive a kidney from a person with blood type "A", positive or negative, or blood type "O", positive or negative.

2. In NEPKE (New England Program for Kidney Exchange) he can use type "B" in a swap. This is a program where incompatible pairs are matched by computer once a month. For instance, Albert needs type A or O. If he has a willing type B donor, the computer matches him with someone who needs a kidney from a B donor and has an A donor for Albert, so they do a 4-way swap.

Any willing donor, whether or not he/she knows his/her blood type, should call our transplant coordinator, Jayne Reilley at Mass General Hospital, at 617-724-8633 or email her at JGALLEYREILLEY@PARTNERS.ORG

Again, please distribute this far and wide.

Thanks!

AR
Alan Ronkin
Deputy Director
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston
aronkin@jcrcboston.org

On reading "Tough Choices" by Carly Fiorina

2007-01-06T11:28:00.000-05:00

Just recently, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina spoke at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and brought some copies of her book Tough Choices. Since I was unable to attend her talk, I thought I would start reading her book and see what it was like.

Tough Choices is a fascinating memoir. It is an easy-to-read autobiography that talks about Carly’s life from childhood to “leaving” HP. There were insightful quotes about character, leadership, and running a company that I thought were simple, effective, and relevant across all industries – it proves a theory that I have had for a while now, namely, that some of the best professional qualities are simple “best practices” that can be intuited by good people, not merely studied in school. A waitress learns pretty quickly the importance of good customer service – she doesn’t have to go to school to ask herself the question “What does the customer want?”

I really enjoyed Carly’s book because she sounded like the kind of executive that I would like to be: honest, direct, passionate, logical, and inspirational. She does an excellent job portraying her character and compassion for each of her jobs, no matter what the product. Of course, we must remember that it is an auto-biography, which means it will invariably be subjective. But I felt that she did a good job of admitting her mistakes when she made them throughout the book. I finished the book thinking that passion can be found and harnessed to serve both private and public sectors, which in retrospect seems logical – whenever you have people, you have passion.

Rather than paraphrase the whole book, I selected the quotes that I found most inspiring, and I’ve listed the page numbers so that you can read more about them if you like.

Pg.19: “Don’t think about the next job; focus on doing the very best you can with the job you have.”

She learned this while being a receptionist, and I think this mindset not only makes you a great employee, it makes you a great colleague. Who would you rather work with or manage, someone who is just biding their time until the next opportunity, or someone who completely dedicates themselves to their current position?

Pg.67: “If you’re going to work for a company, large or small, then you must be prepared to embrace the objectives of that business. If you can’t, you should work someplace else.”

It seems like a no-brainer, but think about how many people work for a company just for their own personal goals – it sounds innocent enough, but ironically, it is the people who really focus on the company’s goals that do well for the company and do well for themselves.

Pg.67: “Sometimes you have to go slow first in order to go fast later.”

She said this around consensus-building and the need to rally your entire team around your agreed-upon strategy. If you take the time to do it right in the beginning, you can move faster later. If you skim through these details in the beginning, you’ll wind up spending much more time and energy later. My father calls this failure the need to “pay the pied piper.”

Pg.79: “All triumphs are much more about choice than they are about chance.”

This statement reinforces the idea of personal choice and control over one’s actions. It shows that we have the power to determine a positive outcome – we simply need to “work as hard as we [have] to and [prepare] for everything that might come our way.”

[Can’t find page number]: “We cannot always choose the hurdles we overcome, but we can choose how we overcome them.” I searched all around Page 3 (where I wrote that this quote was in my notes) but I couldn’t find it. In any case, this is another example of personal power and the ability to take what is given to you and make it better.

Pg.113: “A leader’s job is to add value, not get in the way, or preside or take credit. If things are working, people actually don’t need your help. Go find where they need you.”

Pg.125: “Advertising and marketing are great only if they are authentic – real reflections of a company’s aspirations, capabilities and choices.”

I have struggled with this in the past, because many people view advertising and marketing as trying to make a company something that it is not. The customer is not stupid – he or she knows when they are being misled. The best marketing is honest.

Pg.135: “One of the reasons leadership is lonely is that it requires both passion and dispassion. A leader must be part of the team and yet able to step back and see clearly.”

Pg. 171 [On the issue of glass ceilings]: “More is achieved by focusing on the possibilities than by fixating on the limitations or the inequities.”

Although I am lucky to have never dealt with this issue in my work experience, I firmly believe that we overcome the glass ceiling by focusing on our work and being outstanding in every way, not by harping on the ceiling’s presence.

Pg.185: “Leaders are defined by three things: character, capability and collaboration. Leaders are candid and courageous; they know their strengths and use them; they bolster their weaknesses by relying on others with complementary skills and by constantly learning and adapting; they know when they need help and seek it; they know when help is required by others, and they provide it.”

Lately I have heard the word “character” mentioned when discussing leadership. It strikes me as both natural and odd; natural, because I think of character as doing the right thing even when no one is looking; odd, because it is so subjective. Who decides what defines good character? Would a Republican define it the same as a Democrat? How about a European versus an Asian? In an age where people try to stay overly objective on every possible issue, usually out of ignorance of all the facts, to place such an emphasis on something as subjective as character seems out of place, even as I see it completely natural.

Pg. 203 [A company is like a sailing vessel]: “A sailing vessel doesn’t proceed in a straight line, although it must achieve forward momentum and sufficient velocity. A destination is determined, a course is set, and then the boat tacks, adjusting its sails to leverage or compensate for the changing winds and tides and weather. Arriving successfully and safely at the end of the journey requires flexibility.”

Pg. 213: “Dave Packard once said: ‘People wrongly assume that our proper end is profit. Profit is what makes all other ends possible.’” This refers to Hewlett-Packard’s corporate objectives: “The betterment of our society is not a job to be left to a few. It is a responsibility to be shared by all.”

Pg. 221: “All my experience taught me that leaders are made, not born. Leadership doesn’t just happen; leadership can be taught and developed.”

Once again, the issue of personal power comes into play. Throughout this book, I saw a recurring theme of an individual having the potential to do great things, no matter what the obstacles.

Pg.232: Throughout the book, I was impressed by Carly’s commitment to candor, both personally and professionally. As someone whose professional experiences were formed in the field of diplomacy, I personally find it difficult to be direct on many issues. It is refreshing to see someone who espouses a philosophy of directness.

Pg.237: “It will always be a CEO’s job to raise people’s sights and focus them on what’s necessary and what’s possible. A leader’s job is to sense, ahead of others, danger as well as opportunity and to lead the organization to adapt itself to both.”

Pg.254: “An authentic, powerful brand is more than a logo or a marketing slogan. Market share cannot be achieved without mind share, so a brand must be invested in and built over time. But that investment will be wasted if the behavior of a company does not match the promise of its brand…An authentic, powerful brand is a promise and a reminder that a company will be as it says it will be…Those values mean doing the right thing when no one is looking and even when the consequences are difficult.”

Pg.264: “We accomplished the largest integration ever attempted in the industry through rigorous attention to detail, disciplined processes and collaboration, and an expectation for both speed and precision.”

Pg.265: “Values are signposts to guide people’s behavior when the rules aren’t clear and the supervisor isn’t present. Goals and metrics are what get done; Values are how those things get done.”

Pg.307: “Moments of spontaneous joy…a moment of joy is a moment when the soul is allowed to float, weightless.” Carly describes how suddenly being without a job has given her the opportunity to recognize spontaneous happiness in her life. I interpret this as that moment when you stop everything you are doing, look around you, detached, and realize that you are happy.

Two Great Quotes

2006-12-18T21:02:00.000-05:00

My husband Yoav has come up with some amazingly insightful quotes lately. Here are two of them.

1) Last week, I had the chance to meet a very influential person whom I work for. After the first day of this encounter, I told Yoav that I regretted not going to up to this person and saying something memorable. I feared that he wouldn't even remember me the next time we met.

Yoav responded by saying "Hard work and time. That's how you get noticed." In other words, replace a snappy soundbyte with an impressive work ethic.

Sure enough, the next day this person asked me to do something - by chance, I was standing next to him. I performed the task to the best of my ability, and he both noticed and appreciated it. On his way out of the building, at the end of the second day, he looked at me, smiled, and said thank you.

2) A few days ago, I was walking along the street with Yoav, talking about graduate school. I was considering different options out loud. I noted that many of the powerful men and women mentioned in The Economist usually went to Harvard Law School or Harvard Business School. Doesn't that mean that, in order to become a powerful person, that's where I have to go?

Yoav responded by saying "You become powerful by doing what you love, not by pursuing power for its own sake."

The more I thought about it, the more I agreed. When we do something that we love, we are naturally better at it and naturally excel, which makes us more powerful. The ones who go after power for power's sake do not have the same long-term success.

Amazing Internship Flyer

2006-12-10T11:48:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday evening, I was sitting outside my Arabic class in Sever Hall, Harvard Yard, and I saw an internship flyer that just blew me away.

The headline said:

WE NEED INTERNS TO BRING US

insights on how Colombian bonds will be affected by the rally in

COFFEE

It was an advertisement for Investment Associate and Technology Associate summer interns at Bridgewater, a hedge fund manager.

Not only was the title eye-catching, but the fine print was just as catchy. It explained Bridgewater’s drive to be the absolute best in the business – better than professors, traders and Nobel laureates.

Here is some of the language:

“We need to find the best people, bring them to their full potential, and have them contribute immediately…There isn’t one person within our walls not doing something critical to our success – including our….interns…We seek to hire the future leaders of our company straight out of college.”

It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. No finance experience was necessary, and they were telling me that I could still make an impact on the success of the company. These hedge-fund managers were saying that they weren’t just hiring interns to perform busy work; they were creating future leaders, helping them find their “full potential.”

Fostering leadership development and growth: how many times have you heard a great person say that he was inspired to be great not because he believed in himself, but because someone else believed in him? A guidance counselor, a friend, or a parent - how about an employer?

I used to hire interns at my previous job: I creating the marketing plan to reach out to them, interviewed and hired them, and gave them tasks. Sometimes I didn’t even have the time to really go over the work they did – I just needed to get stuff done. Sometimes I didn’t even need to get stuff done, but I had to find work for them anyway. This was not an optimal internship experience because as an organization we had never created a strategy for intern growth and development, despite the fact that numerous interns became full-time employees in our organization, myself included.

So imagine my surprise when I read this intern flyer for Bridgewater: here is a company that stopped to think about what the real purpose of an internship was, how it could benefit the intern as well as the company, and how to inspire the best and brightest to apply – by telling them that they are going to make a difference, that they are going to become a leader.

I know nothing about this company – just what I read on the flyer. But this simple document made a tremendous impression on me.

Opera vs. Orchestra

2006-12-02T11:04:00.000-05:00

Last night, I attended a concert of the MIT Chamber Music Society. Having spent high school and college as a vocal performance major, I am currently trying to maintain the presence of classical music in my life, in addition to my other professional and personal interests.

I find it both inspirational and bittersweet: On the one hand, I am reminded that musicians are always musicians, whether they perform or not. On the other hand, I am reminded of how much technique I have forgotten, despite over a decade of practice.

The selections and the performers in last night's concert were both outstanding. The pieces were Fantastie in F minor, Op.103 by Franz Schubert (for four hands!) and the piano trio in G minor, Op.15 by Bedrich Smetana.

As I watched the Fantasie, I was struck by the differences between public speaking and performing on an instrument, which are also differences between opera and orchestra.

In public speaking, as in opera, the performer is an actor: conveying emotion through one's face, body language, and voice. The text itself is important, but is not nearly so without these presentational aspects. No scripts are used in an effort to maximize the actor's contact with the audience. (And public speaking is definitely a form of acting; no matter what kind of bad day you are having, you cannot pass it along to your audience.)

However, in an orchestra or instrumental performance, it is the opposite. The focus is almost exclusively on the music itself; aside from bowing, no eye contact is made with the audience, sheet music is the extreme focus of the performers, and there could quite possibly be no emotion on their faces, despite the glorious sounds emitting from their instruments.

But it varies from performer to performer, and I'd like to compare each of the two pieces I heard last night as examples.

The piano Fantasie for four hands involved three actors: two pianists sitting at one piano, and a page-turner. The two pianists (male and female) sat side-by-side on the same bench, eyes focused intently either on their sheet music or on their instrument. With every crescendo or decrescendo, with every scherzo or pizzico their arms and hands reacted, the music flowed out of the piano with amazing emotion and feeling, yet the performer's faces were motionless. They could have been sitting bored through a lecture. And they were so perfectly in synch with one another, that their eyes never met, despite the fact that their hands caressed and intertwined throughout the piece. It was at the same time intimate and distanced.

The piano trio was somewhat different. It involved four actors: a (different) pianist, a cellist, and a violinist, all of whom were female, and a male page turner who was the pianist from the previous piece. As in the Fantastie, there was no eye contact with the audience, and they mostly focused their eyes on their music or on their instruments. However, the energy in their performance was completely alive; they frequently made eye contact with each other, whether to ensure consistent entry or exit on a passage, smile at a favorite section, or otherwise share emotion. The energy and emotion came not only from the beautiful music they produced, but also from their visible relationship with one another.

Both performances were powerful, arresting, and professional. But I was struck by the inherent differences between opera and orchestra, between singing and playing an instrument.

Since much of my time is dedicated to helping people improve their presentation skills by establishing a connection with their audience, it is fascinating to realize that other aspects of performing require little to no interaction with the audience, and nevertheless result in being absolutely effective. It reminded me that the variables, the possibilities in every field, are endless, and it instilled in me a sense of awe and appreciation for the infinite combinations that can be made.

The Game of Giving

2006-11-19T11:33:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, I attended a conference where the issue of fundraising was discussed. Throughout the week-long event, at every meal, baskets were passed around for one cause or another, and people would stand up and pitch their particular cause. I think people gave more money in the beginning, due to the newness of the activity, while towards the end of the conference they had pretty much given as much as they were prepared to give.

But on the last day of the conference, a young woman walked to the front of the room, stood at the podium, and asked for donations for a certain cause. Suddenly a young man in the room stood up and announced that he would match the total amount that was raised.

The basket was passed around and a total of $100 was raised. The man graciously upheld his side of the bargain and contributed an additional $100. The young woman casually asked if anyone else would like to match the $100 contribution. One person stood up, and then another, and in the ensuing momentum, more than $1000 were raised. That lunch raised more money than any other meal at the conference.

I realized that most of the conference attendees had the money to donate, but they only did so when it became fun, when it became a game, and when they saw others doing it.

It was a fascinating realization that should be considered by those involved in both development and marketing. Letting the client or donor have fun through an extemporaneous game can be more fruitful than a more targeted, serious pitch over time. While not the only effective form of fundraising, it was an important lesson to learn.

"Good to Great" Life

2006-09-30T15:43:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. It was a phenomenal and fast read that I found incredibly inspiring, especially given the fact that I don't often read books like this. Or didn't use to...

Throughout the book, I was struck by two factors.

The first factor that struck me was the simplicity of the concept: Do what you're good at, do it well, and stay focused. Similarly simple concepts in the book include: Surround yourself with like-minded people, be patient, be realistic, and have faith in the end game.

We are not talking about sophisticated strategies that are attainable only by business school graduates or heirs to fortunes. We are talking about self-evident truths that can be discovered by the hard-working owner of a hot dog stand. They can be taught to children through leading by example.

The second factor that struck me was the applicability of these concepts in almost any field, both personal and professional. In fact, using these concepts in an effort to merge personal and professional interests will help ensure a more satisfied life overall.

As a hard-working individual, you realize that you can literally do anything if you really want to. You can be great if you want to. However, the question to ask yourself is not "How do I push for greatness" but rather "What subject or issue makes me want to be great?

For example: I am talented at learning languages, but I don't simply pick up a language by watching TV or buying a book. I learn a language through consistent, diligent, and prolonged study of the language, both written and spoken. I put a tremendous amount of hours and energy into learning the language.

Anyone putting in the same amount of energy could learn the language, but my passion for languages makes me want to put in that amount of energy, thereby ensuring my success, which in turn makes me sublimely happy.

What field or career actually makes you want to work that hard? If you can't answer that question, perhaps you can find employers who demonstrate the values and commitments mentioned above. Stick with the right people and you will be inspired. The rest will come.

I hope.

Fall Morning

2006-09-30T07:10:00.000-04:00

Just back from Israel, there are many stories to tell. In the meantime, I'm content to revel in the cooler temperatures, the crisp fall morning, the rising sun reflecting on the power wires, and the half-asleep girl in pajamas rushing to move her car before they start re-paving our parking lot.

Sometimes it's good to be woken up early. There's so much you would have missed by 10 AM.

Just when I thought....

2006-09-01T08:26:00.000-04:00

Every time I go grocery shopping, I look at my shopping cart as a third-party observer. What would someone else think looking at my cart: that I'm a young mother? a college student? a healthy eater?

With all the prepackaged salads, individual-size cottage cheeses, and other convenient snacks, most probably you'd think I was a young mother with kids at home. Not so!

So when I buy a lot of fruits, vegetables and meats, I feel a lot more mature in my grocery experience. I feel like an accomplished foodie who is able to not only appreciate fresh food, but cook it herself.

Just when I thought that the "accomplished foodie" title finally applied to me, what do you think the above shopping list, left by my husband this morning on the refrigerator door, would say about us?

Fleeting Intimacy

2006-08-25T07:51:00.000-04:00

I love the fleeting moments of intimacy that we find with strangers in our daily lives. They rejuvinate you, leaving you feeling like part of a community, part of a whole. These incidents are scattered around us like hidden jewels that you can only find if you have a certain amount of situational awareness.

Yesterday I flew from Vermont to Boston on a small propellor plane, with 10 other people, most of them businessmen (the only way anyone can afford this flight is if it is for business). On the plane there was this shared camaraderie, a feeling of togetherness from being on such a small plane in such a big sky.

Walking around Logan Airport, I was talking on my phone, lugging my carry-on while I looked wildly for my baggage carousel. I couldn't find it and in the meantime I saw across the room one of the businessmen from my flight, who was also taking on his phone and lugging around his briefcase. We shared a fleeting moment of intimacy when our eyes met and, despite our respective cellphone conversations, we shrugged and made a face that we had no idea where baggage claim was.

Funny, comforting, and fundamentally human.

Sarasota Sunrise

2006-08-13T17:03:00.000-04:00

Somtimes you're presented with a vista that must be photographed - it's as if nature itself is imploring you to marvel at its abilities.

Sunrise this morning in Sarasota, Florida, was one such instance. Standing on Longboat Key, looking back at the mainland, I could not help but look in stunned awe at the view: proof that life is truly as beautiful as you think it can be.

Humanity

2006-08-08T07:43:00.000-04:00

In Israel, almost every adult is a reservist in the army. When we think of soldiers, we think of our brothers, sisters, even our parents. The headline "Reservist dies in battle" strikes fear in our hearts because it could be our neighbor, our baker, or our cousin.

Here's one photo which reminds us of our humanity.

Good Marketing

2006-07-30T14:03:00.000-04:00

This past Friday, I was walking around Harvard Square feeling like a melting ice cube in a hot drink. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you wear; you're still hot no matter what.

As I walked past the beginning of the 66 bus stop, a middle-aged woman on the side of the road asked me if I'd like a cold bottle of water. I accepted gratefully and, after making sure that it was a sealed bottle, I drank it to cool off. I noticed that the woman gave me a business card along with the bottle. On it was written:

"Yes...it really is free!
We hope this small gift brightens your day. It's a simple way of saying that God loves you, no strings attached.
Let us know if we can be of more assistance."

On the back of the business card was a map with directions to Hope Fellowship Church in Cambridge.

I looked around and noticed at least two more people handing out water to grateful passersby. They all just smiled and offered the water with "no strings attached."

I thought it was a fantastic form of marketing for a couple of reasons:

1. It was non-threatening. No one was trying to engage in conversation or discussion about religion. The business card simply said "here we are."
2. The people were smiling and friendly.
3. The give-away was extremely useful and relevant: cold water on a hot day.

What a great marketing effort, I thought. They aren't trying to sell anything, they're just trying to get themselves recognized and associated with a sense of good-will and acceptance. If I were Christian, I would certainly have considered stopping by their church on any given Sunday.

People hand out products on the street all the time, but I rarely accept what they have and I never remember them. The combination of the above three items really made an impression on me, and I will remember their usefulness then next time I need to engage in any form of marketing. Whether you're selling a product, service or idea, you can learn a lot from these three points: be non-threatening, friendly and relevant.

Cead Mile Failte

2006-07-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

We just returned from a whirlwind weekend in Ireland (as I like to call it, "just toolin' around Ireland"), and we had a fantastic time.

A good friend of ours (the man who introduced Yoav and I) returned to his homeland after about 7 years in the States, and has repeatedly invited us to visit him for over three years now. We finally took him up on his offer.

We arrived at Shannon Airport on Saturday morning after a direct 5.30 hour overnight flight from Boston. We rented a little GW Golf and concentrated very hard on 1) Driving and 2) Stick shift, both on the left-hand side. We were anxious at first but soon enjoyed overcoming both challenges. It was a fun yet practical adventure.

Our first stop was Galway, where we walked around the main pedestrian areas and window-shopped. We happened upon an open-air market, where we picked up some garlic cheese, almond-stuffed olives, garlic-basted white beans, and bread. We enjoyed a decidedly Middle-Eastern feast along the river. Not very Irish, but we had just begun.

We then drove to Carrick-on-Shannon, where Kieron lives.

The roads looked like highways on the map, but they are actually one lane in either direction, winding through the countryside and right down the middle of towns. You often see cows and sheep grazing right alongside the road, on small plots of land separated by stone fences. You might see an entire hillside divided up into these small stone territories.

Kieron used to be the fitness instructor at City Gym in Kenmore Square before he returned to Ireland and the gym closed. He now teaches pilates and salsa in Carrick, which is a small, quaint town right on the Shannon river.

We arrived and immediately went over to a pub to watch England vs. Portugal in the World Cup. Most of the Irishmen there were cheering against England. They eventually got their wish.

At the pub, Yoav had his second Guiness in 5 hours. For dinner, we drove to an out-of-the-way restaurant further down the Shannon.

We stayed overnight at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast owned by Kieron's brother and sister-in-law, called "Ciuin House". It was a stylish, intimate hotel that was beautifully decorated and smelled calm and inviting. We had traditional Irish breakfast the next day, trying blood sausage for the first time. Not as bad as I expected, and the white sausage was actually pretty good! Gourmet adventure successful.

The chef was from Germany, and I jumped at the chance to practice my German – she obliged by switching to it permanently for the rest of our conversation.

After breakfast, we took a boat down the Shannon River, heard some commentary and enjoyed the weather. Afterwards, we went to the Carrick town center, where there was a multicultural festival going on. At lunch, our waiter was from Sardegna, Italia.

Between Kieron teaching me Gaelic, the German chef, the Italian server, Yoav’s Hebrew and my English, that day I spoke 5 languages. My ideal day.

The drive to Dublin was shorter than we thought due to the presence of a nice highway - no nice towns to bisect, but we earned more time to spend in the city instead.

Dublin is not one of the more beautiful cities in Europe, but it has some fun pedestrian areas, one of which was the location of our hotel. The Morgan hotel is n elegant, minimalist boutique hotel located in Temple Bar, a great base for exploring the city.

We were wary of the nearby pubs that proclaimed to be authentic Irish pubs through neon signs and colorful banners outside, instead we asked the receptionist at our hotel where she would take her friends to eat if they were in town for one day. She recommended a great steak house on a side street.

We went out dancing that night at a night club called Spirit. The trance music was refreshing and liberating, after so much hip-hop saturating the night club scene in the States. When you go dancing on a Sunday night, through, you never know what the scene will be, and in fact it turned out to be gay night. Yoav got hit on by someone, and although I had to rescue him and take him to another room, he was at least flattered by the attention.

We tried another place called 4 Dame Lane to finish off the night around 2 AM. Not too late, since on a short trip like this you need to maximize all your daylight hours.

The next day was our last in Ireland, and we spent it all in Dublin. First: the Dublin Castle, where we learned a little of the city’s history. Second: lunch in a great Italian caffe’ where we once again got to speak Italian. Third: the Guiness brewery, where we took a self-guided tour and enjoyed a free pint of Guiness. Finally, we took a cab over to the National Gallery to see a Caravaggio painting. We had exactly 20 minutes in the museum, since I misread the guidebook and we got there late; Yoav said it was the first time he had ever visited a museum and left without tiring of it.

We left Dublin in the evening to drive to Shannon, where we had rented a room near the airport before our flight the next day. The three-hour trip passed quickly thanks to some great techno on the radio. It feels like the beat keeps your heart pumping and your head alert.

We were able to leave Dublin so late because the sun sets at around 10 PM in Ireland during the summer, so you really get to enjoy the entire evening.

Our hotel in Shannon was grand and dark, reminding me of The Shining. There was also no air conditioning, so I was able to lose weight that night just by sweating in bed.

At the airport, there were a number of soldiers on leave from the Middle East, on their way home. Later on the plane, our American Airlines pilot mentioned that today was the 4th of July, where we celebrate our country’s freedom, and how relevant it was to see soldiers on that very day who were serving their country. A very poignant remark.

Our flight back to Boston was uneventful, except for the fact that we upgraded to “Economy Plus”, which means bigger seats but the same food, it seemed.

I regret not having studied Gaelic before my trip – English and Gaelic are both official languages in Ireland, so street signs are in both. Even studying merely pronunciation would have been a great introduction for pronouncing everything around me.

But we planned this trip in less than two weeks, and we weren’t exactly sitting around eating bon-bons during that time. Next trip to Ireland, I’ll learn Gaelic and we’ll travel to the coast.

I really enjoyed these little weekend jaunts – you get to enjoy a new city, feel the vibe, taste the food, enjoy the nightlife, and not worry about seeing everything because it’s simply impossible. You get to experience the city and decide whether or not you’d like to come back. It’s like sampling ice cream, only there are a dozen ways to individuate the tastes of the cream, and it costs considerably more money.

Overall, a thoroughly satisfying international experience. I can’t wait for the next tasting.

Fantastic Quote

2006-05-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

"I don't believe bigger is better, I believe better is better. Period."

Leslie Wexner, CEO, LimitedBrands

Bahamas Wedding

2006-05-22T20:53:00.000-04:00

A funny sight welcomed us to the Bahamas on Friday - our JetBlue plane pulled up alongside a Bahamas Air plane. Its name was partially hidden by the jetway. It looked like:

Hamas Air

Hiatus

2006-05-14T16:06:00.000-04:00

Has it really been one month since I last blogged? Things have been so busy that I haven't had time to concentrate on many of my hobbies.

Working in a university environment is truly thrilling - every day I can chose between dozens of lectures, workshops, and classes. How can one not learn from such abundant knowledge?

Once such example is a recent event I attended that was sponsored by the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. It was a conversation between CPL Director David Gergen and noted author Dr. Spencer Johnson. Spencer Johnson published a few books many of you may be familiar with, one of them is "Who Moved My Cheese?", a parable about change and how we deal with change. He also co-authored (with Ken Blanchard) a book called "The One-Minute Manager", which Yoav has said could be one of the best management books he has read in a while (and he's read quite a few).

These books are based on the ideas of honesty and simplicity. We often fall into the trap of using our intellect to make things more complex than they need to be. If we just stop our frenzied activity, we can see how we can be much more effective if we focus on some simple ideas.

Below are some quotes and thoughts from Spencer's talk:

“Simplistic is naïve and not enough;
Simple is enough and nothing more”

Spencer was the second of three people in the past week who talked about the need for introspection and self-reflection.

“Don’t confuse activity with productivity,” he said. He used the 80-20 Law as an example: 20% of what you do brings in 80% of your results. So identify the other 80% of what you do and spend less time doing it.

Learn to respect the simple:
• Some teachers make things complex, so you think “Wow, he’s smart!”
• Great teachers make things simple, so you think “Wow, I’m smart!”

“Insecure managers create complexity…real leaders don’t need clutter. People must have the self-confidence to be clear, precise, to be sure that every person in their organization – highest to lowest – understands what the business is trying to achieve.” Jack Welch, interview in Harvard Business Review.

Quote of the Day

2006-04-13T12:04:00.000-04:00

For your inspirational enjoyment, I have posted what I consider to be an extremely empowering quotation.

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

The Art and Practice of Speechcraft

2006-03-31T11:25:00.000-05:00

Just a few remarks about writing a speech, as I am in the middle of one right now.

Regardless of the subject matter or the audience, there are a few steps that I take.

1. Ideas - just throw out ideas about what the speech could be about, based on the audience and your goal.

2. Research - do some research on the subject matter so you are informed enough to understand the issue.

3. Outline - once you've decided on a few main ideas, start to draft an outline: the intro, what the main points will be, and the conclusion.

4. Extemporaneous writing - drink coffee, close the door, and focus on writing. Write as much as you can of the speech, word-for-word. Don't stop to look up facts or do more research, just highlight the questionable parts so you can come back to them. You want to just stay in a writing groove. Make sure you do this during your most productive time of the day. For me, it's early morning.

5. Take a break! Get up and clear your head.

6. Research - check the facts you were unclear of when you were writing.

7. Re-read and make changes - Go through the entire speech and make any necessary changes in text or location.

8. Run-through #1 - Rehearse the speech outload - you don't need to memorize it, you just want to get a feeling for how the speech sounds out loud, and whether or not there is a logical flow of ideas.

9. Make any necessary changes...

10. Take a break! Clear your head.

11. Run-through #2 and make necessary changes. Speak it out loud!

12. If possible, sleep on it. Wait until your next productive time of the day to continue.

13. Start to outline. Yes, after expanding your speech from an outline, you want to re-condense it into more specific outlines. Ideally, when actually giving the speech, you should have an outline in front of you instead of words.

14. Run-through #3 with the outline in front of you, not the speech. Adjust changes as necessary.

15. Sleep on it again. Wait for productive time.

16. Final run-through (#4+) with outline. Try it without the outline, but have the outline handy.

I strongly encourage clients to write out their speech word for word when crafting it. This allows you to precisely ensure you stay on message and within the time limits. It also allows you to be more eloquent.

However, I strongly discourage clients to read from the speech when actually giving it. The audience can always tell when you are reading from your notes, and it breaks your level of eye contact with them. Just have the outline in front of you to job your memory.

These steps to writing a speech are relevant regardless of the audience, goal, or occasion. They all boil down to:

PREPARATION

which leads to

CONFIDENCE

Your perceived authority in your subject matter comes from confidence. Your audience can tell.

Happy speechwriting!

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things

2006-03-23T21:37:00.000-05:00

Beginnings are always filled with grand expectations, but sometimes they start out as large blanks that you wait to fill in. You know you'll fill them in with something wonderful, but they start out blank just the same.

Starting this new job, I am filled with a renewed sense of purpose. I see the possibilities and opportunities, and I literally cannot wait to see who I will become as a result.

What will I look like as a professional in 5 years? What will I have accomplished? I have absolutely no idea, but I know it will be of enormous significance.

Once when I was in Cyprus, I had an amazing dream. I came home to find that my messy suitcase had been packed and was ready to go. Someone said to me "It's the official luggage packers. They pack your bags to prepare you for an important mission."

Actually the dream was in Italian, so the luggage packers were "I Preparavaligiatori del Presidente."

Ma comunque, I remember this dream because it filled me with a sense of purpose, as if some goal I have been reaching for had finally been achieved, as if I had arrived at some long-awaited destination.

Although I firmly believe in self-empowerment, that we have the ability to change our lives and improve ourselves for the better, no matter what, there is still some comfort to the idea that good things are meant to happen.

Who will you become in the next 5 years?

The crocuses are out!

2006-03-12T08:34:00.000-05:00

Growing up in Connecticut, you always know when winter is coming to an end: when you start to see yellow and purple crocus flowers coming out.

Seeing the leaves sticking out of the ground is the first step, but seeing the actual flowers is a sure sign of the coming spring!

Yesterday, I took this picture of crocuses. Ironically, when we saw them Yoav and I were carrying our laundry bag, which was filled with my snowboarding clothes. Have I used them for the last time this year?

Italy in Short

2006-02-26T17:40:00.000-05:00

Our travels took us across northern Italy, from Padova to Torino and back to Milano. Having rented a four-door Fiat Punto, we were in particularly good shape.

One of the oddest things about driving in Italy is the rigidity of the highway driving patterns. Trucks in the right lane, passenger cars in the middle, and speeding cars in the left. If you are in the left lane passing someone, and another car comes up behind you, it will flash its lights so you get out of the way and let it by. Then you can get back to passing the other cars.

The funny thing is you never see the speeding cars come up behind you; that's how fast they're driving. One minute your rear-view mirror shows a clear road behind you, the next minute someone is tailgaiting and flashing his headlines impatiently. Where did he come from?

Another odd situation is that, of all the speeding cars that passed us, 95% were stationwagons. Not SUV's, not sedans, but stationwagons: 5-door BMW's, Audis, Hondas, really any stationwagon. It got to be that we would count with relief the sedans or other cars which passed us, but we barely counted the fingers of one hand. How can you explain it?

I'll leave you with another photo.

Passage to Israel and Italy

2006-01-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

We just bought tickets to Israel and Italy for February, and as a result we are waiting with eager anticipation for our trip.

The highlight of planning the trip has been calling the Olympics in Torino and ordering tickets for the Men's Cross Snowboarding Event, in italiano: Tante grazie a Lei, Signora...

I haven't been to Italy in over 5 years, and I simply cannot wait to visit my old town and see my good friends. Here are a few pictures of my time in Italy from 1998-1999.
Ma Signora, questo libro e' in inglese. Vado a prendere uno in italiano per Lei.

Photos of the Day

2006-01-22T15:44:00.000-05:00

I took these photos at home using "eletric votives" that were left over from the wedding. They cast a beautiful blue light.

To take the pictures, I turned off the camera's flash function and rested the camera on a dresser so it would focus.

Dunkin Donuts Faux Pas

2006-01-18T10:40:00.000-05:00

We witnessed an example of terrible customer service at the Dunkin Donuts near Route 2 in Cambridge on Sunday morning.

All six of us walked in to get breakfast before driving up north to go snowboarding. Hua ordered a breakfast sandwich first, and while the rest of us ordered, he put salt and pepper on his sandwich while standing near us at the counter.

A worker named Rado came up, look at him sternly, and shouted, "You don't do this here!!! We have tables!" and pointed at the seating area behind us.

I looked at him and responded, "You mean: 'Could you please move to the tables?'" implying that he should have asked more nicely.

He looked at me and shouted: "I don't speak English!" to which I responded "So we won't come back here again." He said "fine" and went in the back of the store to brood.

Another friend of ours, Jared, asked to speak to Rado and explained politely that he was offended that Rado was so rude to us, and that we would be back to talk to the manager of the store.

At that, Rado responded "OK. It is my fault. I apologize," in a very unapologetic sort of way.

Interesting - Rado disproved himself as a non-English speaker. The word "apologize" is not your standard first-year English word, while "please" is one of the first words everybody uses.

As a business owner, I think I would ensure that each and every worker knew how to speak to employees in a polite way. There are rude people in every culture, and they act rudely no matter what language they are speaking.

There is no room for such rude language, either body language, tonality, or verbage, in the service industry. Yes, it really is that black and white.

Quote of the Day

2005-12-26T21:56:00.000-05:00

Life isn't about finding yourself.

Life is about creating yourself.

-Anonymous

Networking

2005-12-20T22:16:00.000-05:00

When I was a waitress in FL, it was my job to smile at people. Whether they were sitting in my section or not, whether they would tip me or not, I was responsible for saying hi and making sure they felt welcome. Even now when I hold events through work or greet people at Toastmasters, I make sure to smile and welcome everyone there.

Actually, it's a rather empowering feeling - to know that you have a right to speak to any person in a room. It gives you confidence and makes you feel at ease.

Lately, with holiday parties around every corner, we are provided with the perfect networking situation: professional events with food and/alcohol where we can meet interesting and relevant people.

The key to overcoming shyness is to act like you are working at the event. Imagine the host has asked you to greet every single person who enters the room. Doesn't that empower you to meet people? Doesn't it give you the confidence to smile and introduce yourself to everyone?

Networking is a form of selling yourself, and nothing sells more than confidence.

Quote of the Day

2005-12-20T07:46:00.000-05:00

Our quote today actually comes from dinner Friday night, when Yoav and his MIT SDM friends were celebrating the end of classes. While talking about the day's final class, Ilana said something that shows the nadir to which a boring class can descend:

"There I was sitting in class,
Surfing the web, drinking rum,
And I was still bored!!"

Thanks, Ilana, for a memorable quote and a fun evening.

Quote of the Day

2005-12-16T07:47:00.000-05:00

Every day is white paper.

What will you make of it?

-Ari Charbonneau, Singer Songwriter

The Rabbi And The Flood

2005-12-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

An orthodox rabbi is studying in his living room, when there is a knock on the door.

When he opens the door, it is a policeman, who informs him that the rivers are rising, a flood is expected, and evacuation is recommended.

The rabbi explains, "I am a man of God. I am sure he will protect me from danger."

The policeman shrugs his shoulders and leaves.

As the rabbi is watching the rising water getting closer and closer to his house, there is a second knock, this time a State Trooper.

The trooper says, "Rabbi, we are evacuating the area as the flood is getting serious and you are in jeopardy."

Again the rabbi explains, "I am a man of God. I am sure he will protect me from danger. I am staying."

Well, the water continues to rise, until the rabbi is forced to stay on the second floor.

He hears some yelling and looks up to see two firemen in a rowboat right outside his second floor window. "Rabbi!" one of the firemen calls, "Get in the boat, the rains are not letting up! It's getting serious."

"I am a man of God. He will protect me from danger. I'll stay."

The firemen, fearing for their own safety, row on.

As the flood rises, the rabbi is forced to climb out onto his roof, just as a helicopter is flying over. The helicopter drops a rope ladder and a voice calls down, "We're coming to get you, rabbi!"

"No, no.... God will protect me. You go on."

Well, needless to say, the water continues to rise and the rabbi drowns. When he gets to Heaven, he is really upset.

"I must see God," says the rabbi. "Please take me to God." He is granted an audience with God. "Lord," says the rabbi, "after a lifetime of devotion to you, why would you forsake me in my moment of need?"

God says, "You schmuck, I sent two cops, a rowboat full of firemen, and a helicopter...."

Blizzard!

2005-12-09T16:32:00.000-05:00

The snow was so intense this afternoon! It swooped down and swept us away in 24 hours.

I stood at my window in downtown Boston looking at the snow and wind swirl UP between the buildings. It was amazing.

Check out some fun pictures of the snow:

The Sighing Man

2005-12-06T07:47:00.000-05:00

There's a Bruegger's Bagels right near our house, and a man works there who is always sighing in the most depressing way. It seems he is in a perpetual world of sadness. You tell him what kind of bagel you want and he always seems like he was forced to work against his will that day. (Remember Clerks: "I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

At first it really upset me, since I get kind of sensitive when people aren't nice, especially when they're in the service industry. However, after a while I learned not to take it personally and I actually found it a little amusing.

So on Sunday I went in to the store kind of hoping he would take my order, and he did. In a voice that sounded earily like Marvin the depressed robot from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he said "Who's next?"

I stepped up with a huge grin on my face and said "Good morning!" rather loudly. Yoav looked down, a little embarrassed to be seen with me.

The sighing man remained expressionless waiting for my order.

I paused slightly and then ordered, defeated.

However, after he was done with my order, an older man behind me walked up and said in a rather depressing voice, "How's it goin'?" The sighing man responded, "Not bad, how 'bout you"?

Yoav gave me a significant look, and I realized that I had overdone it. The disparity between mine and the sighing man's mood level was too great. I should have let myself down to his level, and then back up just one or two steps, in order to cheer him up. (see my previous blog about the chart in my dad's office for communicating with patients).

A significant part of communication is about creating a connection with your target audience, be it a person or a crowded auditorium. It doesn't matter what you're mood level is; you should adjust it to the audience so that they can relate.

Relation = communication = mission accomplished.

The mission in this case? Getting a positive response from the sighing man. We'll see next time.

It doesn't get any better than this

2005-12-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

Waking up late on a Sunday morning to find the (second) first snow of the year...

Lazily making Hazelnut coffee in a terrycloth bathrobe while watching the thick flakes of snow fall through our large kitchen windows...

It doesn't get any better than this right now. Sono contenta.

Last Year's Trip to Greece

2005-12-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

How about these views of Santorini? Courtesy of yours truly...

Browse my recently added pictures of last year's trip to Greece at my Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allishapira

Inspiration

2005-12-02T22:43:00.000-05:00

"It's hard to remember that this day will never come again.

That the time is now and the place is here

and that there are no second chances at a single moment."

The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson

Quote of the Day Part 2

2005-11-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"

Too often we spend so much time trying to please others that we fail to do what is best for ourselves. In both the business and personal world, we must take the initiative and move ahead, with all the self-confidence and self-respect that it necessitates, otherwise we will not progress on our own. In order to do this, you must believe that you deserve it.

"And if I am only for myself, then what am I?"

Of course, the former begs the latter, because you cannot have only one. We must also remember to assist those who cannot provide for themselves, whether it be clothing, food or advice. I'm not being ideally altruistic, just realistically sympathetic. We do not exist in a vaccum, rather the idea of society melds us together so that we have some degree of dependency on each other for comfort, love, coexistence, etc. You can help yourself and help others at the same time.

"And if not now, when?"

A powerful instigator of action. The personal motto of movers and shakers and go-getters around the world. The antithesis of procrastination. Jump!

Quote of the Day

2005-11-26T00:31:00.000-05:00

Perhaps the best quote to come out of my religious schooling; stay tuned for my commentary. In the meantime, I just wanted to get it down "on paper" so I'd remember I wanted to talk about it.

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?

And if I am only for myself, then what am I?

And if not now, when?

-Rabbi Hillel

Poor Cabbie

2005-11-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

During my $50 cab ride from Tampa airport to my brother Scott's house, the Haitian cabbie proceeded to educate me about current Haitian music by blasting some fun and upbeat music from the latest local music festival.

As we neared my brother's house, he off-handedly asked me if I could bring him out some turkey, as it would be the only Thanksgiving dinner he would have that night. I kind of joked and said "You're not having any Turkey dinner?!"

When he dropped me off, there was kind of an awkward silence during which he was probably waiting for me to say something about the turkey and I was pretending to have forgotten. When I finally said "Happy Thanksgiving" and turned inside, I felt ashamed for having not brought him anything. It would have been awkward, but it would have been the right thing to do. I thought about it all during dinner and afterward.

Although the lessons we learn from every such incident will certainly make us better people, there is always that lingering regret for not having got it right the first time.

I'm sorry.

2005-11-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

Have you seen our beautiful city lately? Perhaps experienced it in the golden light of the setting sun?

And did you enjoy it?

I hope you did.

Bloggare

2005-11-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

Penso che questa sia la mia prima volta di bloggare in italiano. Mi e' venuto tante volte di farlo nel passato, pero' per una ragione o un'altra non sono mai riuscita. Non e' male, pero', come un mezzo di utilizare il mio italiano, anche se e' stanca e triste questa mia vecchia lingua.

Oggi ho ascoltato la canzone "Una Poesia Anche per Me" di Elisa...una di quelle canzoni con cui vuoi proprio chiudere gli occhi, concentrarti e semplicemente cantare con tutto il cuore. Questo l'ho fatto quando stavamo tornando da un buon ristorante nel South Boston, un ristorante che si chima "South". E' un po' lontano da casa, cosi' avevamo un bel po di tempo per guidare e ascoltare e cantare.

Family Phrases 1

2005-10-23T08:59:00.000-04:00

In an effort to record my family's words of wisdom, I have decided to record them here. Stay tuned for more free education...

Allison: I didn't know you had made a mistake until you told me.

Grandpa: First time, shame on you. Second time, shame on me.

Dad: You don't have to floss all your teeth - just the ones you want to keep.

PR and Blogging

2005-10-07T22:38:00.000-04:00

A fascinating post about the love-hate relationship between PR professionals and bloggers is available from Richard Edelman's blog. Richard is the President and CEO of Edelman PR, a global public relations firm with 40 offices worldwide. Yes, in Spain and Italy...I know what you're thinking...

Richard has been blogging about PR professionals and the bloggers who love to hate them. His post from October 5 mentions the shift taking place in PR strategy in order to successfully pitch to various bloggers. He talks about the need to research bloggers, understand their individual areas of expertise, and write to them with sincerity and respect.

I commented on Richard's blog that the above criteria are not new - they are in my opinion the best modus operandi for effective PR professionals and are also the basic factors to writing a speech, namely: know your audience and tell them something they are interested in hearing.

These are basic elements of human interaction that seem to have been trampled in the need for immediate results - it also doesn't hurt that there are a great deal of people out there who tend to respond to bland general marketing campaigns. As I'm not one of them, I always seem to see through those pitches for what they are. It's like an insincere salesman - you see right through him or her.

I think my best quality when I was a waitress was my sincerity in selling items to my guests. If I convinced you to order the espresso cheesecake, it was because I really loved it myself - otherwise I wouldn't have "pitched" it to you. And my desire to sell it to you came out of a sincere wish for you to enjoy it as well.

It all comes down to respect, to treating others as we would like to be treated. If that is found latterly to be the best way to attract quality clients, then I'm not surprised.

Toastmasters

2005-09-07T20:49:00.000-04:00

I have been a member of Toastmasters for several years, and normally I get a sense of immense satisfaction from each and every meeting. I arrived tired from a full day at work, and at the end of the meeting I bounce home with energy and enthusiasm for life. Toastmasters revives and inspires me.

Lately, however, I have felt less excited at the end of each meeting. It stems from no longer being involved in local leadership and from a sense of feeling like I could do certain things better than other people are doing them, such as speaking in a more animated way or introducing a topic better.

At our last meeting we had a speaker who is supposed to be a more "advanced" Toastmaster, who has competed in regional contests and who really takes speaking seriously. However, I found his speaking style to be overly dramatic and bordering on theatrical monologue. At one point he forgot the end of a sentence, proving that he was in fact reading from a script and did not fully comprehend what he was saying. This person did not have an evaluation but I nevertheless drafted a full evaluation of him merely for myself.

The speech was disproporionately bright and cheery for the room or for the occasion - it sounded like a motivational speech that rebel teenagers are forced to listen to but never identify with.

My father has an "emotions" chart in his dental office. It has pictures of emoticons ranging from dazzlingly happy to depressingly glum. As a medical practitioner, you are supposed to establish the emotional level of the patient, and act in an emotion that is one or two levels above the patient. Acting way too cheery with a depressed patient will cause them to be out of touch and not identify with you. For instance, if the patient is like "Life sucks", then they won't understand you if you respond with "No - life is great!" But if you answer with "Yeah, life's hard sometimes, but you know, it gets better and this is how...", then the patient sees you in a more reasonable light.

Having said all this - Toastmasters is a fantastic public speaking organization that has had a tremendous effect on my speaking skills, and I highly recommend it to everyone - you learn just as much from the sub-par speeches as you do from the exemplary ones.

Musica Mizrahit

2005-08-31T00:48:00.000-04:00

I just got back from the Sarit Hadad concert at The Roxy tonight. It was an interesting event - Sarit herself was stuck in traffic and so arrived an hour late. No problem - in the meantime, the DJ spun great middle eastern techno, music that stirs my soul.

I was scheduled to say a few words before the concert, and I was a little nervous as always - it doesn't matter if I speak for 20 seconds, I can't concentrate on anything else before the speech. However, it was taking so long for the show to start that I was nevertheless able to let myself go and dance with friends from work.

After locating the organizer, I gave her my business card so she could introduce me. It's funny what some people consider to be professional behavior in front of a crowd - this woman stood in front of 400 people, squinted at my card for a few seconds, and then, with a very thick accent, introduced me as "Director of Public...pause...Disturbancy". It was so terrible that it was funny.

From the river to the sea...

2005-08-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

Last night I attended a community memorial in honor of the victims of terror in Israel. It was a moving although sparsely attended event involving local Jewish and political leadership. There was also the ubiquitous anti-Israel protestor waving a Palestinian flag at the entrance to the memorial, something that has started to help me find the location of these events.

Some local children began the event by reading the names of victims of terror. Then came the moment of silence in honor of the dead.

A few seconds into the moment of silence, a call pierced the air: "Free, Free Palestine! Free, Free Palestine!" The anti-Israel protestors had interrupted the moment of silence, shocking us out of our rememberance and immediately helping us to understand the kind of extreme radicals with whom we were dealing.

The entire event was marred by these hecklers, who shouted "From the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free!" - something that very clearly calls for the destruction of the state of Israel - a zero-sum game, in short.

The keynote speaker was a young American man whose American girlfriend was killed while studying abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was sitting in a cafeteria eating lunch when a bomb went off, killing her and eight others instantly. The Hamas terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the middle of his speech, the young man was interrupted by one of the protestors, who shouted "She was killed because she was tresspassing!"

Can you imagine the type of people we are dealing with, when a study abroad student is considered tresspassing and condemned to instant death? I have nothing against the general Palestinian population that desires to live in peace alongside Israel, just as Israelis alongside them. Furthermore, I support their desire for a state. However, I have everything against someone who justifies the killing of innocents for political purposes. The sooner the Palestinians rid themselves of these radicals in their midsts, the sooner they will find themselves living and governing themselves in safe and prosperous society alongside the state of Israel and not instead of the state of Israel.

There is no excuse for targeting innocent civilians.

Linked In

2005-07-30T19:18:00.000-04:00

I've been networking a lot lately on LinkedIn.com. It's a fantastic way to meet people in your field from all over the world. Since we've been thinking about moving to San Francisco, I've networked with about 10 people from the PR field in the Bay area. When I'm ready to search for jobs out there, I'll immediately be in a better position than your average job seeker.

Similarly with Italy - I've been networking with a number of people from Roma and Milano. The news is not as exciting from over there as the economy is going through un brutto periodo, but that doesn't deter me from getting to know people in my field, even if their most comment question is "Why would you want to leave the US?"

Nothing has come to fruition yet with LinkedIn, but I think it's the mere possibility of fruition that keeps me supremely satisfied with the web service.

I think that's an anology for humans in general - we're happy as long as there is the possibility that something good can happen.

It's called "hope."

Quote of the Day

2005-07-17T15:56:00.000-04:00

Our quote of the day comes from the comic strip Eyebeam via someone named Jamie who posted on a friend's blog (see Miss O's Diary to the right).

"It's either feast or famine at the table of love, and, alas, there's no Tupperware. "

Mom's new blog

2005-07-12T21:42:00.000-04:00

My mother Betty just started a new blog tonight. As she states in her first post:

"Hi ..this is my first attempt to blog (whatever that means). "

I'm really proud of the way she has been embracing technology over the past few years. Not only has she started sending emails to me, but she shares pictures and now her diary online. Regardless of whether or not she understands the technology or its myriad implications (like blogging), she nevertheless has taken it up as something new and fun to try.

In her early 60's, she is the ideal "mover and shaker", always willing to try something new and exciting, because you only live once. She has tried numerous business endeavors over the years, some have worked well and some less, but all have had a positive effect on her and on the entire family. She allows herself to learn from every experience.

You may have read my previous post about my father and his dental practice - it's important to know that my mother and her adventurous philosophy have played a similarly critical role in my development, serving as a necessary balance to my father's practicality and wisdom.

While my father was teaching me the value of staying up-to-date on the news or on the latest books in my various fields of interest (and amazing me by his capacity to absorb and retain information), my mother was always reminding me that I could do anything that I wanted, no matter how crazy, as long as I believed in myself (she proved this by doing everything she wanted to do before my eyes). In the end, those two philosphies merged to form the powerful sense of empowerment that I try to maintain every day, and will be two essential ideals that I pass along to my chidren.

Tennis and Customer Service

2005-07-03T22:32:00.000-04:00

It's Sunday night and I already feel that we have had a successful weekend. Yoav and I played tennis yesterday and today, both times for over an hour. We really push ourselves to play hard against each other, with some impressive corner shots on each side. We are competitive enough to try and one-up each other, but gracious enough to acknowledge the other person's good shots against us.

I think these two qualities are both important and inseparable in life in general. We should be competitive (think "self-confident") in whatever we do, but at the same time realize that there will always be others who know more - and we need to acknowledge their skills in a humble way, by learning from them.

There are few things in life that are as beautiful as the ability to learn from others, whether they know it or not, whether we know it or not.

Take for example the year I spent working for my father when I was 22. As a recent graduate with a liberal arts degree (read "unmarketable") I was anxious to find a good job and start building a career. I worked with my father to make some money in the meantime. What I did not realize was that this office experience would shape my business ethics and morales in a significant way. Working with a man I still consider to be the smartest businessman out there would teach me how to interact with clients for years to come. His ability to remain cool and collected, even when badgered by impertinent patients who thought they know more than him, forever instilled in me an ability to take a deep breath and smile when responding to an issue at work, a quality that has since been dubbed "diplomatic" by my colleagues. His practical and realistic approach to his field led to the ability to cut to the chase of every argument, yet his friendliness and witty sense of humor made it a pleasurable chase for everyone involved.

He was not the only one. His financial assistant and my best friend at the office was also deeply influential in shaping the way I look at the concept of "customer service". She single-handedly raised the bar of expected customer service skills to a level that no other office, certainly no other medical office, has ever been able to match. From looking at the schedule beforehand in order to personally greet a patient by name to working with them one-on-one to create a payment plan for their treatment taught me more than any MBA course could possibly have done.

In short, when it comes to life, we are forever like children among adults, soaking in the lessons of those around us like grammar and vocabulary to a child who has not yet learned how to speak, because we are forever around others who know more than us about something.

That is the beauty of life, and that is why our "language" skills are forever improving.

Forever forward. Amen.

In Defense of Zionism

2005-06-28T18:51:00.000-04:00

I disagree with the current trend in academic circles stating that Zionist philosophy is racist and discriminatory.

It could not be further from the truth!

The textbook definition of Zionism is "the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, advocated, from its inception, tangible as well as spiritual aims." It is an ideology based on thousands of years of persecution and has only been able to become reality in the past century.

Zionism calls for Jews to live in the land of Israel. It does not call for non-Jews to get out. It does not prevent non-Jews from living there. Only misguided statements made in the name of Zionism could possibly be regarded as discriminatory, such as statements that only Jews belong in Israel. Although such statements have been made by extreme elements in the Jewish religion, we all know that there are extremists in every religion and political group, and similar to other religions or political groups, they do not represent the view of the majority.

I am increasingly worried about public opinion regarding Zionism, and some people I have met mistakenly believe it has to do with Israel's policy in the Palestinian Territories (which is based on very real security threats and not ideological yearnings - furthermore, they fail to take into account the daily terrorist attacks [yes - even in June 2005 they still happen daily but are not reported] against Jewish Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, in the territories which make this policy a necessity for survival). These misinformed people talk derogatively about Zionism but actually have no idea what it is truly about, namely establishing a place where Jews can be Jewish and never feel or be threatened for it.

As a Jew who believes in the benevolence of Zionism and supports the right of the Jewish people to live in the land of Israel along with others, I feel it is my job to explain this purity of thought.

The 23rd

2005-06-23T22:03:00.000-04:00

For those of you who know Yoav and I well, you know we go out to dinner every 23rd of the month, coinciding with our first date, which was March 23, 2001. Never mind we didn't actually start dating officially until almost a month later, we still celebrate the 23rd of every month, except for April when we celebrate the 17th (our wedding anniversary) and March, when we celebrate the 26th (because that's when Yoav proposed). It's complicated but fun and we love it that way.

So tonight we went to Firenze, a trattoria in Brookline (I know, it sounds weird to say 'trattoria" and "Brookline" in the same phrase, ma che si puo' fa - e' proprio cosi). Our waitress was the daughter of the owner, who is Fiorentino (quel sorprese...) and we talked to her a little about Italy. Then we saw four women come in speaking Italian, which made the experience all the more exciting. I kind of wanted to go up and speak to them, but when you're already in 4 speaking a language, finding someone else who speaks it isn't too special and in past situations I've always felt a little uncomfortable.

Ma comunque

What was FANTASTIC was that Yoav and I had several full-length conversation in Italian. He is improving exponentially and really proving he has a gift for learning languages. As opposed to me, who loves languages and studies very hard to learn them, he likes them and only has to mildly concentrate to pick them up. Interesting...I guess that means there's a good chance our kids will pick up languages well, grazie a Dio.

Buona notte a tutti.

Motivation, or lack thereof

2005-06-21T16:59:00.000-04:00

Summer is always a slow time at work. We have few phone calls, few information requests, and few projects. As a result, we're usually doing the small organizational stuff that's been shoved aside during the year when we were scrambling for 10 extra minutes in the day.

But all this inactivity leads the brain to become sluggish and apathetic, to the extent that when someone actually calls and needs something dachuf, immediately, we're slow to respond. I usually feel angry when someone calls me and asks for something because I've become so lazy that I don't want to move but don't want to do anything else either.

This last hour of the day is the most excruciating example of such a feeling...thankfully Yoav blogs so frequently that I have plenty to read. But I've still been looking at my watch every five minutes for the past hour.

Later tonight I have Toastmasters, which should be great - I've missed so many meetings that I don't feel as connected to the group as I used to, although Blaire and I are still best friends. Tonight I think I'll go out with the usual group of people who go to Cornwall's for dinner and a beer after the meeting. Blaire is going too, which will be a treat.

The Perfect Job

2005-06-20T20:21:00.000-04:00

BTW - Here is my latest list of ideal jobs:

US Diplomat - traveling the world for 2-4 years at a time. Imagine: the State Dept. PAYS for you to learn a new language, in addition to taking care of housing. You arrive at a new destination with locals ready to help you learn the culture. This is the closest thing to perfect that I can imagine. It fills me with a sense of purpose and idealism. It makes me swoon with the international possibilities. I can't stand it - it's too exciting and too impractical with a genius husband to think about too much. And yet...

Public Servant - I'm really starting to be intrigued about becoming involved in local politics. It's something I've always thought about, but certain professional realities are making it seem more like a possibility and less like a daydream. Ideally, being able to affect both local and foreign policy issues at once would be my preference.

International Communications Director - for a large company with offices throughout the world. Ideally I would be sent to these offices for extended periods of time (up to a month) to oversee their communications practices and standardize messaging.

Executive Director or Director of Marketing - for an international language school. Ideally I would like to travel abroad to market the school to various audiences. As a result of my own experiences at such schools, which was PHENOMINAL to save the least, I would love the possibility of reliving the experiences of each and every student as they learn their new city one step at a time. I could help them become at ease, give them tours, plan events, find housing for them, and just enjoy the experience.

Interested parties - please contact me directly!

Israeli Independence Day

2005-06-19T17:04:00.000-04:00

There is nothing like feeling a sense of belonging - to a family, a group of friends or a culture. The Israeli Independence Day celebration at Government Center downtown was a combination of all of the above.

We started with a rally in Copley Plaza and marched to Government Center - Ayelet, my younger sister-in-law, headed the march with the Israeli Scouts holding a flag that flew in the 6-Day-War of 1967. On the way I met a good friend and we marched together. I stopped periodically to take pictures. Having Ayelet at the front of the parade holding such a meaningful flag gave me the chance to act like a proud parent and take a dozen pictures of her.

At Government Center we heard the Israeli rock band Machina, who played a combination of Rock and Ska, two genres I loved in high school and still love now - it has a satisfyingly crunchy edge that makes me feel like dancing. Everywhere I looked I saw people I knew - colleagues, various members of the Jewish and Israeli community, friends, family.

I arrived this morning on my own, but I managed to find different groups of people every hour to hang out with and talk to -and I spent a good 6 hours there today! Where else could you do something similar?

In college, when I was enthralled with Greek culture, this was the kind of welcoming I wanted into the Greek community. It was obviously difficult due to the fact that A) I'm not Greek and B) Not all communities are as welcoming as mine is, although I guess when you're a member of the tribe (MOT) things are different - same as the Greek or any other community.

In short, it feels wonderful to belong, to be part of something that is larger than yourself and from which you can draw energy. That is what I felt today with the Israeli community in particular and the Jewish community in general. It comes from a shared history, present and future. It's a sense of "we've been through a lot of shit together over the past 2000 years, but we're still here and going strong. Hot Damn."

I don't think it's impossible to recreate this situation with other cultures, for instance if I spent a significant amount of time learning Greek and then actually living in Greece, I'm sure I could get the same type of response - it's just a question of effort and dedication. Likewise with the Italian or any other culture - it's just a question of effort. It helps when you "look the part" - looking Mediterranean rather than Asian, for example in this case.

Let's wait and see what community welcomes me home next.

The Laugh of a Culture

2005-06-18T12:38:00.000-04:00

Sometimes we have experiences that change the way we look at life, react to others and exist in general. For me, living in Italy was one of several such experiences.

The challenge is not in getting up the courage for this adventure, or even carrying it out once it is in process.

The challenge is maintaining the positive effects of it per sempre, forever.

Living in Italy was like the caress of a warm breeze on a sunny day...it carried with it warmth, love, the smell of wonderful cuisine, the sense of humor of a nation, the laugh of a culture.

Once you return, that breeze remains with you, in your heart and swirling around your shoulders, but eventually it fades, leaving only a faint memory and no substance. An Italian song on the radio, an unexpected conversation from strangers on the street, and you remember once again, it aches in your heart as you remember what you once knew, what you once were.

How do you hold on to it so that it is a substantial part of you forever?

First entry for Alli Shapira

2005-06-17T13:31:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking of starting a blog for awhile now, but procrastination and the excuse that “I don’t have the time” have held me back. I never succeeded in keeping a journal when I was younger – my thoughts always raced passed my pencil, which struggled to keep up. I had somewhat more luck with travel journals, especially when I traveled alone, but again it was only in certain situations and only when I was feeling particularly inspired. The idea that I can only write when melancholy or downright depressed is something I always though poetic yet limiting, so voilà – my attempt at writing a blog.

Of course, with this information in mind, you’ll find it predictable that my inspiration to start a blog comes from a current melancholy or from romantic notions, namely my recent uncertainty about my future, my job, and the purpose of my life. On a more positive note, I also have my new husband Yoav to thank for blogging inspiration. Ever since he started a blog a few months ago, I’ve been driving him crazy with my constant edits and critiques, but I’ve also enjoyed hearing him speak in a previously unheard way.

I realize the need to reconcile my above statement about writing conditions with my current job, which involves writing of all kinds – speeches, proposals, editorials, letters, etc. Because these are a different kind of writing genre for me (“professional” as opposed to “creative”), in my mind they are bound by different rules, which allow me to be an extremely proficient professional writer with only a cup of coffee, an early alarm clock and a closed door.

If I were able to develop my creative writing to a point where it no longer depended upon my mental state, it could make a valuable contribution to my professional writing, which would become more introspective and poetic.

What an excellent goal.