Learn how to work hard, work long hours. Find something you love, and then excel at it. Above all else, learn how to create, learn how to invent. That’s your only hope, really.
That’s from Hugh McLeod, specifically this page here, from his “Art of Not Sucking.”
Tell us a little bit about your “ABCD” (Always Be Collecting Dots) policy?
Meyer: Dots are information. We hear a lot about the business need to “Connect the dots.” But unless you’ve turned over every rock–working athletically to collect information–there just won’t be many dots to connect. ABCD is my way of encouraging our staff members to learn as much as they can about our guests and the world so that we can create even stronger strands of loyalty and constantly make new friends for our restaurants. Taking an extra interest in people goes a long way.
This applies to any business that deals with the public – hospitality counts, and not just when it comes to serving food and drink. The individuals best suited to collecting and connecting dots are the folks who talk with your customers every day. Support staff serve as an essential hinge between the development process and the consumption process; service staff can be a huge resource if you let them.
Meyer is an inspiration to me, and anyone working any sort of support or service should read his book, Setting the Table. I wrote about another interview with him a while back.
Today I filled out a survey for Automattic; it was about how I liked working here, and our company culture, and what I thought about leadership. I’m very curious to see what comes out of it, but after a day’s worth of perseverating on it, I keep returning to Ten Bullets, a sort-of training video by NYC based artist Tom Sachs. Here’s a little blast from the past, a piece I wrote about Ten Bullets and how it applied to working in hospitality – I think much of it still applies, since, after all, what is customer service but hospitality? I’ll put the video in the comments if you’d rather not click through.
This was taken at 8 weeks – we’re now at 34 weeks.
Holy Moly.
One of the many and varied benefits of working for Automattic is their support for co-working spaces – given that we all work from any flat surface with a wireless signal, it’s often nice to find a spot that is not your home where you can get down to business. This might be because you have kids at home, or you’re trying to maintain work hygiene, or just because you like it – like anything, the reasons will depend on who you ask and what day it is.
The tricky part is finding a good space – we don’t have any real dedicated co-working spaces in Saratoga Springs, though we do have some office farms and other rental options – what we lack is the kind of open floor plan, both work-and-social kind of combination of table-share and mental catalyst. A place for combinations. While there are places with the appropriate footprint, the cost to rent or other factors have driven Team Sharatoga away from leasing a number of offices in town – a three year lease, for instance, is a scary proposition for an untested model.
Inspired by Bob Horan’s move to open his unused classrooms to local businesses, I’ve reached out to the Business program at Skidmore College – it seems that maybe a similar arrangement with them could be mutually beneficial. Get students closer to folks working in cutting-edge fields, provide some space for those people to work in an academic setting. I’m meeting with them tomorrow.
Simon Ouderkirk 