Bonne Chance @ DAHplaytime

Harmony

Harmony is a little town on the Pacific coast of California. It's north of Cayucos and south of Cambria, in San Luis Obispo County. A population of 18 is reported for Harmony, California. There is a Harmony Winery, and a Harmony Glassworks, both easy to find in this tiny burg. Until the mid-20th Century, Harmony was home to a major cooperative creamery.

Harmony is also the name of more than a dozen other towns, scattered across the United States.

Harmony is the name of a character on the TV show 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'

The word 'harmony' is derived from a Greek word, anglicized as 'harmonia' (joint, agreement, concord).

Joint, agreement, concord. Compatibility and congruity.

Harmony is the name of a song by Elton John. It's the name of an album by Gordon Lightfoot, and an album by Three Dog Night.

In music, harmony is the use of different notes to form chords. I appreciate a reference I saw recently to harmony as the 'vertical' aspect of music, in companionship with melody as the 'horizontal' aspect. Since that's how the notes look written down (melody moving from right to left along the staff, while harmony appears as the companion notes above and below the melody line), that made good sense to me.

I also like the visualization of the melody (or theme, or leader) moving along a path towards an objective, while the harmony (or complexity, or team members) are following the melodic direction, but are covering different parts of the path, but all moving towards the same objective, or resolution.

There's a small wood framed picture on my desk. It shows me and Christine, smiling at the camera (at some happy family occasion), with a swirl of musical notes above our heads, and the word 'Harmony' flowing through the notes. My mother created this art-card image. I look at it and smile every day.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

Serenity Prayer, DAH-version

I've been thinking about the first stanza of Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer, made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

But I think about it in a slightly different way. I think about the relationships in life between what is, what must be, and what can be.

In my personal life, I don't have much trouble contemplating the connections between these three (what is, what must be, what can be), adjusting the linkages between them, and moving forward.

In my work life, this is much more challenging. Different people, with different views of the world and takes on reality, answer each of the questions. Their answers are often incompatible, but even that isn't always revealed at the start. If your boss asks you what is, then tells you what must be, your honest, initial response about what can be is not always appropriate for sharing. And so, perhaps, you share nothing at all, or you share in a happy-face lie. This does not bode well for the future.

If it is possible to avoid response, promising to return with a considered "plan," that is often a good way to diffuse the incompatibility situation.

If avoidance and delay are impossible, better to stand up straight and deliver your bad news, even if you're not sure that the bad news is the correct news.

What is.

What must be.

What can be.

Or, if you're really lucky, maybe your boss has a really short memory, and stalling could just inspire forgetting. What is and what must be could disappear into the ether, leaving you with what can be and a happy ending.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

On The Run

I'm almost always in a hurry. I make an effort, on Saturdays or Sundays, usually, to calm down. I read a book, take a casual, strolling walk, try not to DO too many things. But it seldom works.

I called my brother a couple of weekends ago, and was astonished to find them just 'hanging out' at home. Granted, they had been out the evening before, but shouldn't there have been some project underway, or chore undertaken?

Even now, as I type these words, I know that I have 60 minutes to compose two blog posts and prepare research materials for our wine tasting group this evening. I know I won't get all that done. But I have to get in the car and drive to Arroyo Grande to pick up some furniture, then drop that off, hustle up to Atascadero to get bread for tonight (Hush Harbor Bakery), then on to Paso Robles before 10:30 AM for meetings.

The thing I'm always ready to dispense with are meetings. I can see how they serve a purpose. Unfortunately, that purpose doesn't often benefit me, much. I think I might like really short meetings, where each side of a question was swiftly and thoughtfully presented, and we made a group decision. I've never been to a meeting like that. Meetings are generally a time for people to share what they've been doing, and share what they're concerned about, and check in with other meeting attendees to see what they've been doing and what they're concerned about. Sharing information and emotion is useful. But, for most things that I work on or care about, I already have all the information and emotion I need in order to get back on the run.

Stand-up meetings. Fifteen minutes. Everyone comes prepared with their essential arguments, and we know in advance that a decision must be made and action plans agreed upon. Read, set, go!

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

A Sense Of Urgency

Nothing really gets done without a sense of urgency. A real sense of urgency, not just frantic spinning energy. Without a real sense of urgency to generate the focused energy necessary, it is usually impossible to break free from the complacency of the status quo, to break out of orbit and make real change.

One of the ways I learned (years ago) to look at my to-do list each day was with an evaluation of which items were important and urgent, important but not urgent, unimportant and urgent, and unimportant and not urgent. That last category, of course, represented the things one should never do (banish them fro the list!). But I think I began to attach the word 'just' in front of the word urgent, as in 'it's just urgent.' That devalued urgency in my mind, a bit, always making me question. Is it just urgent, or is it actually important?

I was reading about a concept called the 'burning platform' yesterday. Essentially, a crisis is unlikely to move the resolutely complacent among us unless there is a 'burning platform.' Almost everyone will move if they find the floor beneath them burning. But, as with stories of a boy crying 'fire' (or 'wolf') too many times, I find that I'm even becoming inured to the discomfort of hot feet while standing on a burning platform. Maybe it's simply a warm day, and the floor isn't on fire at all. This is probably the result of media sensationalism, with its new disaster-of-the-day regimen.

It is also the result, in business, of some managers crying 'fire' because they fear complacency. But if we don't actually have a burning platform (or if our platform is burning slowly, smoldering over time), this technique will backfire, and necessary urgency will not be inspired. We must be careful to create real, essential urgency, with importance attached, to create necessary change.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

Marketing A to Z

Today I'm writing about a book that, so far as I know, is out of print. Sorry about that. But it's still quite a wonderful book about marketing. 'Marketing: From Advertising to Zen' by Tim Ambler. Published in 1996. And, because it is more than a decade old, there are tools available to today's marketer that were unimagined in those halcyon days before the dot com boom (or bubble).

Mr. Ambler is a particularly appealing writer for DAH, for a couple of reasons. First, because he is English, and writes with a rather dry wit. Second, because he has worked extensively in the world of wine and spirits, and this informs his observations and examples. Both reasons make his writing resonate with me.

The A to Z format makes Mr. Ambler's book something of a primer. And he wrote it with an opening 'note' to an invented newly-appointed General Manager who is starting in the position after this weekend: 'You were telling me the other day that you had no idea what your colleagues in marketing do. Clearly they enjoy spending the company's money but is it all worthwhile? On Monday they will be spending your money. You might like to read this book over the weekend to discover where the money is going and what it should be doing for you.'

I've used concepts and quotes from Mr. Ambler's book frequently over the past decade. Here are a couple of juicy ideas about marketing to help you through the weekend:

'At its most general level, 'marketing' is the presentation of a proposition in the way in which it is most likely to be accepted. Whether it is the packaging of a brand of cat food or the election manifesto of a political party, marketing is distinguished from all other business activities by the way it takes the customer's point of view and looks back' (page 141)

'The foundation of all marketing is the positioning statement ... the marketer needs to make clear for whom the brand is intended, why they should buy it, and what the competition is.' (page 4)

'Positioning = precision = sacrifice.' (page 181)

'Marketing is the taking of comprehensive, decisive, and rapid action but only after creativity has supplied innovation and surprise.' (page 347)

That last one reminds me of my own 'think big then focus.' It also feels very theatrical. Must be why I like marketing.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

Bill Russell on Winning

Today's post is a series of excerpts from an article in today's 'Wall Street Journal' (07-May-2009, page D10). Boston Celtics basketball great Bill Russell talking about why he wrote a recent memoir: 'Red and Me.' The feature article in the WSJ was written by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg.

This is not a post about basketball.

This is a post about one way to win.

'When Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics in late 1956, the team was anchored by guards Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman. But by season's end, the focus was on the front court, where Mr. Russell played. Coach Red Auerbach, acknowledging the rookie center's shot-blocking skills, changed his approach.'

'Instead of trying to mold or change his game, his new coach had analyzed how Mr. Russell played. Mr. Auerbach recognized what it took to make Bill Russell a winning player, which helped make the Boston Celtics a winning team.'

Eleven championships in thirteen seasons together. That's a winning team.

Mr. Trachtenberg quotes Mr. Russell:

'The things that got in the way of winning we dismissed, sometimes easy, sometimes not, but we always got rid of them,' says Mr. Russell, who lives on Mercer Island, Wash. 'If we didn't get along that would impede our winning. Both of us were aware of that. I don't want to give the impression that it was smooth as silk at all times. We disagreed. But we could always tell the other person that we were having a disagreement, and then decide how to solve it. It was never a wall.'

The places I've worked, we've often talked about not reshaping a job description to fit an individual. That probably makes really good sense in large organizations, where an individual usually can't make much difference (although that isn't always true). But in smaller organizations, when you recognize championship caliber skill and talent on your team, shouldn't you shuffle your lineup or revise your gameplan to win?

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

The Curse of Knowledge

I've just been dipping back into the book 'Made to Stick' by Chip and Dan Heath (it's subtitled 'Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die'). It's a pretty fascinating study, a quick read, and suggests some general approaches and rules about why some ideas and stories and brands are 'sticky.'

The book's authors identify 'sticky' ideas as those that are understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought or behavior. They outline a SUCCESs approach to creating stickiness:

Simple: Find the core (the single most important thing) and keep it simple (compact and profound);

Unexpected: Get people's attention using surprise, hold attention by making it interesting (applicable, not gimmicky);

Concrete: Help people understand and remember through concrete examples and plain talk;

Credible: Help people believe through third-party endorsement and real, factual evidence;

Emotional: Make people care through the power of association, appealing to their self interest and identity;

Stories: Get people to act through stories of simulation (tell them how to act) and inspiration (give them the energy to act).

But here's the rub: The Curse of Knowledge. Unless you find stickiness by accident, you probably had to do a lot of thinking and research and drafting and testing, even if only in your own mind, before sharing your sticky thought. And because you've thought and researched and drafted and tested, you now carry the Curse of Knowledge.

'You know things that others don't know, and you can't remember what it was like not to know those things. So when you get around to sharing (your sticky idea), you'll tend to communicate as if your audience were you.' ('Made to Stick' page 245)

As Paul Dolan suggested to me after months of frustrating meetings, trying to share a business concept: 'This is as natural to you and me as breathing. It's going to take the others a while.' I felt as if I'd evolved to live on land, and couldn't figure out how to share the concept of deep breathing with all those still dwelling in the sea. I couldn't undo my ability to breath, or my Curse of Knowledge.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

Good Night, Mr. Brunelle

My high school music teacher passed away on Sunday evening. Dick Brunelle, Davis, California. Mr. Brunelle built a large, loyal and loving following of students. He challenged us to be better than we thought we could be, at the start. And when we got better, we found that he'd instilled in us the desire and drive to get better still.

I auditioned for Mr. Brunelle's elite Madrigal Choir on a lark, months before I was to begin high school. I was surprised to be chosen, and have spent all the years since wondering if Mr. Brunelle even knew who I was. He never behaved as if he knew. Despite dozens and dozens of concerts and performances, and tours up and down the Pacific Coast.

One of my most vivid memories from High School was during auditions for the musical 'Kiss Me Kate.' I read and sang for the lead male role, as did others. I was called back to read and sing again, and, after I was finished, Mr. Brunelle said, 'Can't anyone else do this part?' I suspect he was simply urging on the competition. But I always felt he would have preferred anyone over me, if he could have had the high quality he desired.

I think Mr. Brunelle always wanted us to be even better. And I never thought I was good enough. I suspect that's a notion I brought with me, but working with Mr. Brunelle gave it deeper root in my psyche.

The 'Brunelle Experience' built bonds between those of us who rehearsed and performed with him. Bonds that crossed ages, as so many of us shared similar experiences decades apart. Bonds that nurtured friendships that I retain to this day, and that I'm sure will nurture me until I, too, pass away, hoping that I've made a difference in someone else's life, as Mr. Brunelle made in mine.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com

Rhinoceros at Cuesta's Interact

On Friday Christine and I attended a performance of Eugene Ionesco's 'Rhinoceros' at Cuesta College's Interact Theatre. This is the theater space that's soon to close ('Rhinoceros' is its final production), making way for a new performing arts center on campus.

'Rhinoceros' was written in 1959. It is part of a school later labeled Theatre of the Absurd (by critic Martin Esslin), whose playwrights express the inherent meaninglessness of life.

'Rhinoceros' ran for 240 performances on Broadway in 1961, starring Eli Wallach and Zero Mostel (who won a Tony in the role of Jean). It was adapted into a film with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel in 1973, coming off their manic comic success in 'The Producers.'

The Theatre of the Absurd often includes a broad playing of comedy and tragedy, wordplay and nonsense, absurd plot twists, and cliched or redundant dialog and action. 'Rhinoceros,' set in a French village, tells the story of how one man, Berenger (Wilder in the movie) copes with his modest, unsuccessful life, as his fellow villagers turn into rhinoceroses.

The production at the Interact, directed by Richard Jackson, was clearly well-rehearsed. The actors had their lines and blocking down cold, and that allowed them to move quite quickly through the play. 'Rhinoceros' was written in three acts. This production divided the whole into two, and was completed in two hours, including intermission.

Every performer was given a moment to shine. The two male leads (Rob Cowell as Berenger, and Steve Hunt as Jean) did the heavy lifting with skill, energy and aplomb. The set, set dressing, lighting, sound and costumes (and masks) were fine and supported the production well. In fact, they could have been less without detracting.

The acting was mostly naturalistic, and the choice for a matter-of-fact acting style was probably good for the less experienced performers. However, I would have enjoyed a bit more over the top absurdity. That would have been jarring, however, if some performers did it well while others did not.

I thought this was a very credible, enjoyable production. Would that the audience had been a bit larger, as the show deserves it.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com

Too (Two) Cool SLO Things

Late Thursday I drove to the post office to mail some VNW stuff north to Mendocino, then I stopped by Pacific Coast Home and Garden on Santa Barbara Street to pick up our first CSA box from the CalPoly Organic Farm. CSA is consumer supported agriculture. CSAs usually (as in this case) offer subscriptions for a weekly box of produce from the farm. So that's the first cool thing: We got our first CSA box from the CalPoly Organic Farm. One worrying thing about the first cool thing: We signed up for the Large box, but most people seem to be going for the Small box, based on the size of the box piles at the pick-up spot, so we may have rather a lot of fresh produce to enjoy.

Second cool thing: We're going to see 'Rhinoceros' at Cuesta College tonight. That's sort of fun because Christine suggested it. One of her classmates at Cuesta was handing out postcards for the production, and she said 'Let's go!'

'You know it's kind of an odd play, right?' I asked.

'Theater of the absurd, or something?' replied Christine.

'Yeah. They all turn into rhinos, pretty much,' said DAH.

'OK,' said Christine, smiling. Well. I don't really remember what she said, but it was something positive.

Seeing Eugene Ionesco's 'Rhinoceros' is the first part of the second cool thing. The second part is that it turns out this is the closing production at Cuesta College's Interact Theater. We'll get to see a part of local theater history before it's gone forever, to become the campus shipping and receiving building.

Cuesta College has a new performing arts complex opening this year. And, I guess, the college doesn't do that many productions, since they can wait until November to move into their new space. A 450 seat main theater and a 150 seat black box theater. State of the art sound systems, a 68-foot fly space (I've watched the building go up. You can see it from Highway One). Dressing rooms, green room, scene shop, costume shop. Totally tricked out. I hope they get in a few more than two shows a year. With a 450 seat space, they'll need to bring in touring shows. Since the Performing Arts Center at CalPoly has a 498 seat theater, a 1,289 seat concert hall, and a 180 seat recital hall, we have no shortage of performing arts spaces in SLO. And that's not to mention the 130 seat SLO Little Theatre.

The Interact Theater is 100 seats. It used to be a World War Two era military chapel. Converted in 1971, it became the primary performance venue for Cuesta College. And now it will be gone. I'm pleased that Christine suggested we see the Rino at Interact, and that getting a sense of recent history in SLO is the second cool thing.

A review of 'Rhinoceros' next time.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com and www.VintageNewWorld.com