Erin Albert's Blog

I’ve been thinking (particularly while jamming out to Lady Gaga in my car on the way to and from places–she LITERALLY is a rock star) that there’s a Stairway to Heaven, right?  Also, there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women (according to Madeline Albright, anyway)…so, is there a special place in heaven for women who DO help other women?

Furthermore, with women’s heart month coming up in February, I was thinking how cool it was to have all the musical artists get together for recordings for Africa “We Are The World”, (way back in 1985), Band Aid “Feed the World”, etc.

So, here’s the new next big idea!  The #1 killer of women in this country is…breast cancer?  NOPE!  It in fact is HEART DISEASE!  So, to honor February and women’s heart health, wouldn’t it be TOTALLY AWESOME to have all the women artists get together to do a song on love, and give the proceeds back to understanding and fighting cardiovascular disease in women?  OR, for the travesty in Haiti…we’ve got to help those people out as well.

Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyonce, Rhianna, Cyndi Lauper, Sarah McLachlan, Cher, Alanis, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Pink, Tori Amos, Barbra, Celine, Shakira, Gwen Stefani, Aguilera, Faith Hill, etc….ladies, can you please get together for a cause and make things happen?

Make that album!  I’d buy it!

Ah, if it were only Edward Cullen cloaked in his pale skin that we would be wrestling with…but instead, today I speak of another type of vampire:  of the time variety.

You probably already know what I’m talking about – the all day, vacuous corporate meeting that everyone is required to attend, to the 5 minute phone call that turns into 50 minutes, to getting stuck in traffic and taking double the amount of time to reach your destination.  These are all examples of what I call time vampires–they literally suck time right away from you.

Time, as I’ve probably ranted about before here, is the most precious resource we all have.  It is more valuable than money, it is more valuable than any gold, silver, or any other commodity I can’t think of off the top of my head this morning.  Time is precious because it is finite.  Everything else is potentially infinite.

This is why we must watch our time like a hawk – we must carefully try and maximize each fleeting moment to the best of our ability – because it is just that…fleeting!  So, here’s a few things I do to try and beat the monster in the time machine:

1.  Be ruthless about your calendar – try and block the time you need to get things done – you need down time between appts to actually think through items, so schedule it!

2.  If it is a meeting you’re being asked to attend – make sure you really need to be there.  If you’re not the decision maker or making decisions in the meeting – why are you having it in the first place?

3.  Kick it old school – with the nasty weather, instead of trying to fight mother nature and doubling your time to and from a meeting – just pick up the phone and do a phone meeting.  That way, jammies are optional, you still get your work/networking done, but you don’t have to leave home.  YAY!

4.  Double your work, double your downtime – try taking your laptop to a meeting you are merely observing.  Not only can you take notes on it, but you can also crank out a ton of work during the dull moments, or time the content isn’t as relevant to you.

5.  NEVER blow off a meeting.  If you can, try and reschedule it.  As an example, my iPhone had a “upgrade” (of my own doing, mind you) and my calendar was switched to a new platform in the new year.  Of course, it LOST a bunch of my appointments.  But I’m usually not that careless about my schedule – a backup plan is necessary so that you don’t blow your appointments.  OTHER PEOPLE’S TIME is as valuable to them as YOUR TIME is valuable to you.

6.  Max your time out in the car – I’m trying to learn Chinese right now – but I only do it in the car.  I have Chinese for dummies, on CD!  If you don’t/can’t find the time to read, get a book on CD!  They are AWESOME, you can actually LEARN while you’re driving, and keep up with the literature.  That way at the cocktail party, when someone asks, “Hey, have you read such and such book?”  You can reply, “But of course!”  They don’t need to know HOW you read it, just that you read it!

So, unless the vampire looks like Rob Pattinson, I’d avoid time vampires altogether.  They suck…literally! Instead, figure out how to maximize your time and use it as a power to do more of what you love, whatever that may be.  For our time is limited on this earth – so why not focus instead on what we are here to do, what we love to do, and in turn make the world a better place by doing so?

Ok, now I’m reading my Mergers & Acquisitions homework.  The WSJ wrote a piece on Jan 5th about M&A advice–first off–holy cow advising in M&A is some sick money!  But more importantly, WHY are companies merging AT ALL?

The article gives case in point of Cisco v. Apple (not a court case, just comparing the value of both companies).  One company grew by acquiring other companies.  The other grew by dumping a ton of money and research into R&D.  (I’ll let you guess which one was which.)  The one who spent the big bucks on R&D is now worth more than 800% in stock more than the paltry 20% for the other co.

So, dear friends – if M&A is so hot, yet it isn’t really producing good profitability or increase in value of the acquiring company, WHY are companies doing it?  Bigger isn’t always better.  Furthermore, anyone who read David v. Goliath knows that the bigger they are, the harder they fall!

When, perhaps, if they did the inverse (took a huge company and blew it up into bits), that could be a better alternative?  Yet, I haven’t seen any ginormi-corps busting into bits.

Should they, though?

As I take a break from the stacks of reading I’ve got to finish for the start of class again next week, here are some things I’m tossing around in the back of my mind, distracting me from my reading:

1.  Although we’re still hovering around 10% unemployment, those who are lucky enough to have jobs are at an all time high for being dissatisfied with their work.  Those 25 and under are particularly jaded with their work right now too.  People want meaning and purpose from their work, but they’re not getting it.  (Will they ever truly get 100% of it by expecting it from one job and one employer?)

2.  What are the barriers to starting a business, or rephrased, what are the barriers to busting in one’s passions?  I watched the movie, Nobelity, this weekend, and I’ve posted on my status page via facebook my favorite quote from the movie, as stated by the 1997 nobel peace prize winner, Jody Williams (who started an agency to rid the world of land mines):  ”There’s nothing magical about change.  It’s getting up off your ass and caring enough to take the first step to contribute to change on an issue you care about.”

We like to talk about change, how to teach change management, get people more comfortable with rapid change, etc., but really – when you think about it – it really does boil down to Ms. Williams’ statement above, doesn’t it?

3.  Why aren’t people starting more business to pursue their passions, or just out of simple necessity – because there aren’t jobs out there at a full time, six figure basis anymore?

4.  What can governments, higher institutions of learning, and communities do to help spark an entrepreneurial culture and way of life in a city, or a state, or even a country?

5.  Even if one never wants to start his or her own business, shouldn’t everyone at least be exposed to the basic skills of identifying pain/problems, flipping them into opportunities, writing plans on how to build those opportunities, and selling them back to the universe in order to make our world a better place?

Alright…I’ll go back to Family law reading now…

ps – I like this article – weirdness – good one!

This article in The Atlantic takes a fascinating second look at how gene alleles might actually shape our personality.  Reading this, although Gattica-esque, reminded me of previous neuroscience research I learned about a couple years ago around migratory birds.  Apparently, birds are becoming a bit more manic during migration periods, not only because they have to fly for long periods, but they have to travel a little longer due to climate changes.

The environment is demanding more mania from the birds, and I’m wondering if the environment is demanding more ADHD from us due to multitasking, which in turn might drive more genetic demand for s/s alleles?  Yes, these are big leaps to make, but I do know this: I really have no desire to know my genetic code.  The battle is hard enough NOT knowing!

Nope, it’s not the law.  It’s not science, math, geology, or even anthropology.

My favorite subject is the future.

Today, being a snow day, I had an extra hour to write an article for the future state of pharmacy for a publication.  Why do I love talking about the future? Because to me, if you talk about what you want, there is a much higher probability that it might actually happen.

Take a moment and consider your own future.  What is it that you want your future to look like?  Dare to dream!  It’s a little scary, but avoiding the future is probably even scarier.

In two words, my day today was spent writing.  About last year.  All year.  In two more words it was: performance management.

The reflective process on my past performance is not my favorite task.  On one hand, I suppose it is good to know what we have accomplished relative to our goals.  However, on the other hand, I really care more about what I’m doing in the present and what I’ll be doing in the future, rather than just pontificating upon what I did in the past.  After all, the past is in the past for a reason.  Another problem is that performance management tends to look at tasks, rather than measuring our effectiveness for handing change, being flexible, and the HOW of handling the work, which I would argue is probably more important to assess than merely the tasks themselves.

I really don’t have much witty to say about the performance management process, other than it is probably administratively necessary.  If I were the boss of the universe, though, I’d rather be asking people what has them passionate and fired up today and what they are going to do about it today and tomorrow, rather than dwelling on the past.

Besides, does past performance REALLY predict future performance?

Hmm….too tired to tell at this point!