Adventures in iPhone land

In the post below, you will see that I purchased my first phone that was not Motorola.  I bought an iPhone.  Primarily because of the video and internet features, but also because my wife wanted one.  I figured if I bought one too, it would minimize what I would need to learn to provide tech support.

So, today I am at a client visit.  I want to show some of the video, so I figure I will connect to the internet.  No such luck at the client location.  I thought I was having a problem with the data plan.  Then in the car on the way home, I tried to place a call.  I was unable to place a call.

What was going on?  As luck would have it, I was on my way past the ATT store.  I stopped by the store.   The sales person affirmed that it was not making a call.  He waited a few minutes, then made a call.

I asked what he did.  He said that the iPhone is like a little computer.  Sometimes, maybe once a week, you need to reboot it.  Press the bottom button and the power button together  for about 15 seconds.

Nice to know that even the iPhone has its quirks.  Not just a Motorola issue.

More to come as I explore the features and benefits.

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Bought something other than a Motorola phone

I broke my heart this week.  Bought a cell phone other than a Motorola.  For 25 years, in good times and bad, I always bought Motorola.   As I reminded my son,  the Motorola phones put him through college etc.

But there was nothing to buy at either Verizon or AT&T.  A sad state of affairs for the company and people who really helped make it happen.  I remember in 1984, walking around with a portable.   While I thought people would be amazed, for the most part they were ambivalent.  Didn’t see why anyone would want a portable cell phone.

Anyhow, it’s a different world now.  I need to move on.  But, it’s a sad world when “What you never thought possible” is gone.

No Interest in How to Have Fun

One of the nice things about writing a blog is that you can see what subjects resonate with your audience.  I wrote this piece below  about two weeks ago.  Did my usual promotion on Twitter.  Picked up the usual volume of visitors from our SCORE Chicago web site.   Almost any posting gets traffic.  Some get more, some get less.  This posting got no traffic.

Now, I have a pretty diverse set of followers on Twitter.  Thought for sure that I’d get some traffic.  But, I guess that people aren’t too interested in fun.   Curious, during the glory days of Motorola, there was in the HR world a view that we should at least try to create some fun.  Maybe that is one of the reasons that Motorola is not what it used to be… but I think not.

Probably when you are trying to survive, fun seem to not be a priority.  Too bad

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3 Tips on Having Fun at Work

In today’s times, sometimes it is difficult to have fun at work.  Here are 3 tips to help out.

1. Recognize accomplishment.  When something good happens, you get an order, or solve a problem, announce it and celebrate it.  When I worked in the cell phone business,  when someone, either us or a competitor found a creative way to improve a product, that accomplishment was celebrated.  Then in a competitive situation, we challenged ourselves to do better.  Caution, don’t let someone else’s accomplishment, turn into accusation.

2. Enjoy being in your working group.  Create a regular process of getting together and having a good time.  The most successful collaborative efforts create events to enjoy just working together.  I worked on a project with a customer, internal people, and suppliers.  Every month, we’d get together in another location do a business review and have a nice dinner.  One of my colleagues stated that “you can’t be too upset with someone you eat with”.  Caution: don’t let the celebration become dominated by one person or group. You don’t want to turn it into a coronation.

3.  Announce that one of the goals of the group is to have fun.  Just saying it gets you half way there.  Caution: if you say it, you need to do it.  See points 1 & 2.