First 50 Days

A:  I just did the oddest thing I've done so far in this job:  I auditioned a church.  Destination church (http://destinationchurch.org) is going to be turning our theater into their sanctuary on Sunday mornings starting this Sunday (Feb 28.)  Well, it was important to me to know what they were about before they started showing up.  To be honest, I think they're pretty cool.  If you're looking for a Christian church in the Lakeview area, I'd suggest swinging by!

B:  Finally, I got a chance to sit down with our awesome Front of House Staff.  These are the unsung heroes of the theater.  They're the ones who take your tickets, get you seated, serve you drinks, and pick up the bathrooms after you throw your spent paper towels on the floor.  (Hey, why do you do that, anyway?  Yeah, I'm looking at you, towel-thrower!) 

Benjamin, our General Manager was in the meeting.  So, it wasn't a "skip-level" meeting.  I'm not sure how I feel about those.  It seems weird to say, "okay, I'm going to talk to your staff without you, but after that I'll be building a culture of trust.  No, trust me.  The moment we get done badtalking you behind your back, we'll be on track to do some serious teambuilding!" 

So here's my poll question -- does your organization use "skip-level" meetings and how do you feel about them?  (You can tell me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  Sorry, we don't have a way to do comments on our site yet.  But if you e-mail me, I'll post it.)

C:  Had to throw in a shout-out to our training center.  I didn't make it out to our back-to-back student shows, but I heard they were awesome.

D:  Up to one in the morning auditing competitors' websites.  The more sites I look at the more I realize it's all about telling stories, y'all.  I'm beginning to sound like broken record, or ummm... mp3?

 

This was my day off.  Time with the wife included watching District 9 and Inglorious Basterds.  (Spoiler alert:  if you combine the two movies, Hitler gets killed by a prawn.  Ahmjusssayin'.)

Ack.  My car won't start.  I had signed up for an event in Lake Forest through the Chicagoland Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development.  (The CPLP after my name stands for "Certified Professional for Learning and Performance" and I received it through ASTD.)  Anyway, this was part of the "cognitive learning strategies" professional development network, so I'm really bummed I missed it. 

I've been wanting to learn more about cognitive sciences ever since I earned that that was Thiagi's background.  Thiagi is a learning guy with ASTD and ISPI and also someone who has presented at Applied Improvisation Network conferences.  (Applied Improvisation is a common term for using improv training to achieve other ends, like learning and development in corporate environments.)

If you're, perchance, also someone who does this kind of work, here's a network you should be on. 
http://appliedimprov.ning.com/

Don't forget to say hi!
http://appliedimprov.ning.com/profile/MattElwell

I'm continuing to work on how our organization can better tell its story of entertainment and corporate services.  One of the constant refrains I come back to is "funny is just the beginning."  You know?  We can make you laugh, but we do so much more:  corporate training, events marketing, blah blah blah.  (Oh yeah, we blah with the best of them.)  But that's just a slogan, not a story.  What's our central story?  and what are all the other stories we tell around it? 

So, I went to my favorite life coach, Google.  In my hunt, I came across Lori Silverman.  Here's her site:

http://www.wakeupmycompany.com/

She's all about how companies can tell effective stories, and now the moment I clear through the books I have on my shelf, I'm downloading her book!  In the meantime, I found this video of her online.  Perfect intro to storytelling, IMHO:

http://www.partnersforprogress.com/PowerOfStory.htm

Okay, last link:  if you really want to lose an hour flipping through all the different ways professionals apply storytelling to business, here's a great e-book.

http://astoriedcareer.com/free_e-book_storied_careers_40.html