DISQUS

I like to think of myself as the creative bears. Bears hibernate in the winter and when the females emerge in the spring there is usually a new cub with her. A new creation. So when the days get short, Instead of calling it the blues, I call it my creative hibernation. I go inside and focus on what creation I want to emerge in the spring. It's my time to reflect, to examine what in my life that I want to keep and what I need to discard. A self evaluation of sorts.

The shorter days usually bring on those winter blues and I find that if I focus on the fact that the winter solstice is when the sun begins it's return and the days begin to get longer, it helps. By the time of the solstice, I want to have gotten to the point of looking ahead to my life and where I want to go next. Then I get busy.
I know you are fine, I won't tell you to cheer up or snap out of it. It's a process, embrace it and use it to your benefit Chris. You are delightfully talented and you should be allowed to have a little "down" time. With out it, how would you know how great the up time is? Take care!

That's so cool. I appreciate that! Now, when are you coming through Columbus?

I've been turned off by the US auto makers for years. I'm a former Ford Pinto owner and you might remember what a piece of crap that car was. It barely made it 100K miles. A lot of really stupid things went wrong with that car while I owned it. From broken knobs to the arm rests on the door falling off. I put a lot of time and way to much money into maintaining that car. As soon as I could afford it, I made the move to Toyota and purchased a corolla that made me happy for years. The only maintenance I had to do on that car were the tune ups, battery replacement and exhaust. The car was far more fuel efficient as well.

The US auto execs have a lot of work to do to win back my respect and part of that would have to include inviting in the innovators. I think they need to be more open to ideas from outside their ivory towers and encourage a two way conversation with their consumers. Maybe even create some "Open Source" cars. Basic body style choices and publish all the specs including the engine so smaller start ups and innovators can create new add ons or experiment with the engine design. US car companies would reduce their internal R&D expenses by using the ingenuity of inventors and creative thinkers across the country. Keeping the industry closed the way it is guarantees failure, if not now by providing a bail out, then later.

If the Feds are going to assist these companies, I want to see a plan to remain open, innovative and flexible. I won't agree with providing assistance to keep doing things the same way. That would be throwing good money after bad in my opinion. I feel awful for the families that have worked for years for these companies and are now suffering because of the mess the US auto industry has made. We owe it to them to insist that changes be made to prevent this from happening again.

Reading the whole history of this, tells me that Bob works for a company that isn't interested in listening to it's employees. In fact, the company appears to not care about it's employees at all. I wonder what their turn over rate is. It's sad that they aren't really paying any attention to who is working for them or the possible creative assets the companies can tap into. Old style management is on it's way out and even large corporations have the ability to change with the times. Fortune 500 companies just take longer to die. As for connecting with your customers on line, I don't see how it's any different than the face to face conversations many people have with others in day to day life. Companies surely have no real control over what their employees say to potential customers at social gatherings, on the golf course, or in their own neighborhood. Why try to control it on line?

I think was happened here was a missed opportunity. For Bob to be excited about the use of social media and to want to reach out to assist customers on line is a good thing, but Bob could have used a slightly different strategy to accomplish the same goal and possibly have a completely different outcome.

Bob first did the right thing in getting permission to get involved with the customers on line, but I don't think he went high enough to do so. Had I been in Bob's shoes, I might have sent an email to someone even higher up in the company and invited them to respond to some of the comments, offering to post their response for them or show them how to get involved in the discussion. Giving corporate VIP's the opportunity to participate in social media might be a better spring board to opening up a discussion about how a company can use it to engage with their customers. Bob could then also offer himself as a resource of information as to how the company could benefit from using social media tools.

If, the response from the corporate VIP's was an order to stay away from on line discussions, the Bob would know that this company is one that will not be very successful in coming years and now would be a good time for him to find one that held more promise. Bob would then be able to keep himself out of hot water in either case. Large corporations such as this can be fearful of change. Others are capable of making the Queen Mary turn on a dime.

Bob could have tested the waters with the powers that be much higher up than his immediate supervisor to find out just how flexible his company is.

Mitch,
I am so happy that Holly is doing well and little Lucas was safely delivered. My sister had the same issue and came through just fine.

Holly, you did a great job there! My best wishes to all three of you.

Ok, I'm a boomer who uses social networking. Most of it is new to me. I have two blogs, a facebook page, a myspace page and I'm on twitter. I dtarted all this just a few months ago and it really exploded for me when I got on twitter.

For me, I am using it as a learning tool, a way to keep my ear to the ground so to speak, and something to do to stave off boredom. Right now I am unemployed and have been looking for work for about 6 months now. Using social networking keeps me from getting too self absorbed and in a funk about not working. I see value in it. Any agency that hires me will have a resource for internet strategies and the use of the internet. So, that's me. Thanks for asking.