Line between Work and Play

Learned about Newman Darby at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Great "Invention at Play" display. Loved this quote. Here's more about Darby. .

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT | When to Correct Others

At a recent, casual family gathering, my brother-in-law asserted that, "60% of all cattle in the state of Missouri are in Barry county." There are over 100 counties in Missouri, and while I have not been to every county yet, the ones that I have been in all had cows, so this statistic reeked of exaggeration to me. Like Larry David, I have no hesitation when I hear hogwash, so I spoke up and said, "I don't believe that. That seems way too high." After some dialogue, discussion and debate, we both pulled out our smart phones and raced to find information to support either his claim or my disbelief. No joy.

Later that night, I figured taking another run at finding some verified numbers would be good practice for me to refine my Google search skills. I tried a few more specific variations and eventually hit the mother load: National Agricultural Statistics Service.

There I found that...

• Barry county = 83,000 cattle
• Missouri = 4,150,000 cattle
• Barry county = 2% of cattle in Missouri
• Howell (93,000), Lawrence (100,000), and Polk (105,000) counties all have more cattle than Barry. Barry is 4th in the state.

Armed with my new facts, I had a couple of decisions to make. Should I correct my brother-in-law? If so, in what setting and how? On the one hand, his point was that Barry county had a lot of cattle, and it does. On the other, 2% is a far cry from 60%. And there is the whole matter of who was right.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Would you correct him? If not, why? If so, how? When is it appropriate to correct others and how should you go about doing it? Leave a reply and share your thoughts.

Everybody Onboard

One of the biggest challenges of any multiple-location retailer is consistent execution. How do you make sure every associate at every location on every shift is up to speed on every initiative. Last night, I took my kids to Barnes & Noble. When I checked in on Foursquare, I was excited to see a special actually in the store (not nearby), AND it was just for checking in (not for being mayor), AND it was for an item my son was buying. Score! Now, for the bad news. I showed the offer to the associate working in the music section. He wanted to see the offer, so he asked to hold my phone. I wanted the $2 off, so I let him. He wanted to check with his manager, so he started to walk off with my phone. I really like my phone, so I asked for it back.

When the manager arrived, she also asked to read the offer, and she also did not know anything about it. She and I walked the entire music section looking for the Foursquare display. No joy. Finally, I suggested, "Why don't we just try the discount code and see if it works." They tried it, and it worked. Joy.

WHAT ARE YOUR IDEAS

How do you make sure every possible person in your execution chain can deliver as promised? Leave your ideas in the comments below.