Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A new word for the workplace dictionary

My boss is one of the most intriguing, intellectually-minded guys I know. He is in fact so intellectual and so witty that I often find myself obsessed with trying to figure out his comments. He uses dry humor that one can only understand if you’ve been in the CIA with some secret language that only you know. When I finally understand what he is saying I want to congratulate myself as if I’ve accomplished a mission to "crack the code" Da Vinci style.

It was one such event the other day when my boss was expressing how livid he was with how another co-worker responded to an external client. The co-worker was so unprofessional and mindless that my boss wanted to, wait here it is, "defenestrate" him. The other team members and I stopped his ranting and said, what? Defenestrate? What does that mean? He said he wanted to throw him out the window. We all rushed to our computers to look it up on dictionary.com and sure enough the word means "to throw out of a window." I love it.

I was suddenly brought back to remembrance of my high school German class and remembered that "Fenster" is the word for window and perhaps is the root of this wonderfully poignant word. That will help me to remember it easier now too.

So if you’ve ever had a moment where you’ve thought of throwing someone out the window I would urge you to use this word and feel happy in knowing that you have verbally acted on it and hopefully befuddled the listener. More additions to the workplace dictionary to come later.

Posted by Melanie Lopez at 15:05:46 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, November 16, 2007

Getting the attention of Millennials means being connected

Millennials are a new breed of consumers who are well connected – to their families, friends, and online "communities". They spend time with the people that matter to them, whether virtually, on the phone, or in person. These connections are influential to Millennials at work, home, and in the consumer world.

TV is no longer king
A Forrester.com study on next generation consumer behavior shows that Gen Yers sacrifice watching television to use the internet and other media such as, cell phones, watching DVDs, and playing video games, compared to Gen X and Boomers. I personally find myself jumping for the internet first when I get home from work even though I’ve been staring at a computer screen all day (which probably attributes to my eye fatigue!). If I do turn on the TV it’s usually for background noise or to watch my favorite reality show.

'Friends' opinions matter more
Millennials have so many media messages being thrown at us that the only sane thing to do is to turn to other people like us. Smart retailers like Amazon.com and Target allow shoppers to post reviews of the products online and with mitigation I usually go for the item that got the best reviews. The same goes with shopping for cars or finding a place to stay for a trip. When my husband and I took a trek to Europe for two weeks of backpacking we went to hostelworld.com and narrowed our search for hostels and B&Bs to only include user ratings of 80% or higher. On eBay users get to know sellers not by the traditional name, phone number, and address, but by their ‘personality’ and ratings from other buyers.

Don't underestimate social networking
Getting connected with this generation is less push and more pull. No longer does one-way communication work. Instead you have to tell us "what’s in it for me?", and then we might include you in our comparison process. The result if you can connect with our generation is a very loyal and influential network. Something not to be underestimated.

Posted by Melanie Lopez at 16:10:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

5 Gen-Y Tips for going to a Work Conference

If you’re a young professional, you have likely been asked by your boss (or you asked them) to attend an industry conference to expand your knowledge and receive relevant training. I recently attended a week-long conference in New England and by the time you hit Hump Day your head starts to hurt. Instead of getting overwhelmed by all the information and “useful” techniques, try to focus on how to get the most out of it for yourself.

1. Be adventurous. The conference will be more memorable if you can enjoy your surroundings. Being that you’re far away from home you will have a lot of time to spend outside the conference and should take advantage of that opportunity by exploring the city. Ask the locals where the best places to eat or favorite sites to see are.

2. Attend a session that is completely off the subject. It’s easy to overload yourself with information that is tied to your job. Hearing about other topics outside of your sphere can actually stimulate you to think differently about what you do in your job. It’s also refreshing to change your frame of mind and think about something else.

3. Think practical. Oftentimes speakers hype up the topic and give you best-case scenarios for fixing a problem. Ask yourself if this is something realistic and accomplishable at your organization, and if not, how can you tailor it to meet your organization’s needs. Seeing and doing are completely different things.

4. Do a brain dump. Even if you took good notes on the slides, it’s hard to remember what it meant six months later if you just stash your conference materials into the bottom of your file cabinet. As soon as the conference is over and you’re back in the office, compile your notes and the concepts you learned into a document, sorted into categories that are relevant for you.

5. Don’t try to boil the ocean. It’s cliché, I know, but seriously don’t try to accomplish the impossible. Pinpoint a few simple things from the conference that you can implement right away, and then prioritize 2-3 larger concepts for implementation.

Your boss won’t expect you to come back and revolutionize the workplace. You can prove the value of the conference by implementing a few key concepts that you may not have thought of otherwise. Hopefully the conference exposed you to new ideas or paths for your career and new people that helped you grow not only professionally, but personally too.

Posted by Melanie Lopez at 10:17:50 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |