Ali Bytes: Bullet-sized strategies for modern living

I’ve been collecting quotes since the 6th grade. In high school, my friend Mary frequently made fun of me for this gem from my quote book: “In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.” I don’t blame her but I like to think my standards are a little higher now. Here are some thought provoking quotes I’ve found recently.

1. “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1st Inaugural Speech
2. “Show me a good loser and I will show you a loser” – Paul Newman, from the Observer newspaper, January 2, 1982.
3. “Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.”
   -Oliver Herford, writer, artist and illustrator
4. “Private opinion creates public opinion. Public opinion overflows eventually into national behavior and national behavior, as things are arranged at present, can make or mar the world. That is why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important.” - Jan Struther, A Pocketful of Pebbles
5. “Christian values have motivated the Ku Klux Klan to burn houses, and Jimmy Carter to build them.” - Mohja Kahf, Washington Post June 22, 2007
6. “I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. This makes planning the day difficult.” - E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little
7. “As we grow older and realize more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that the only real and abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people.” - P.G. Wodehouse, author of Jeeves novels (inspiration for AskJeeves.com)
8. “Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair – George Burns, actor and comedian. He has too many good quotes to pick from so here are two more: “It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.” and “Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope.”
9. “Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake a whole relationship.” - Sharon Stone

More quote posts: Carl Jung, Wedding Crashers, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dave Barry. Ahh, what does this list say about me?

In my first semester as a business student, I read a useful article about people-centered management: Putting people first for organizational success by Pfeffer & Veiga, which was part of the inspiration for this list blog (before I realized every business article and book uses numbers ala The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). I was reminded of this article in a few recent conversations with friends who are looking for more fulfilling jobs so thought I’d share.

Studies show that companies that treat their employees as their greatest asset and manage as such have lower turnover and greater sales, profitability and stock market value per employee. Read on before you dismiss this as common sense. How many of these practices does your company follow?

1. Employment security: To encourage innovative and productive behavior, managers need to make employees know that they won’t lose their jobs for creative risk taking gone awry or work themselves out of a job for a job well done.
2. Selective hiring: Companies that attract a large applicant pool and then carefully choose people based on knowledge, skills and abilities consistent with company values and mission (i.e. the Southwest way) are doing it right. They invest the up front effort into hiring the right people by evaluating individuals on the skills that are hardest to learn (and can’t necessarily be taught) - initiative, passionate problem solving, ability to learn, collaborative approach - and avoid wasting time and resources on fitting people to a job they might not have been right for.
3. Self managed teams and decentralization of decision-making: Allowing individuals the autonomy and power to control decisions within a team structure leads to an increased sense of ownership and accountability. It also provokes initiative and greater acceptance of responsibility because of the lack of hierarchy - barriers to growth and achievement.
4. Comparatively high compensation contingent on organizational performance: This seems so obvious and yet I know too many people who get raises based on lapsed time. Effective companies directly link pay to success and pay for performance - above industry averages if possible.
5. Extensive training: Like Southwest, GE (the other golden child of b-schools across the country) has applicants pounding down the door. If employees are to help push innovation within the organization, critical in a knowledge economy, they need the opportunity to adopt new skills to use on the job. A formal program sends a strong message that employees are worth the investment.
6. Reduced status distinctions: Blurring the hierarchical structure can be done through language, labels, physical space, wages, and a host of other signals. This effectively establishes equal value for all employees and reduces perceived or actual barriers between top management and lower level employees encouraging information flow.
7. Extensive sharing of financial & performance information across the organization: Did you know every Whole Foods store has a book that lists the salaries and bonuses of all 6,500 employees for any employee to see? While that’s an extreme case of transparency, or “open book management,” disclosing financial performance, strategy, operational measures, etc. all convey trust and encourage ownership in achieving established qualitative goals.

My coworker turned me on to this super clever and geeky collection of memes on flickr. A meme is, according to dictionary.com, “a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.” Trust me that these are more interesting than that definition. Music buffs and those who like puzzles will particularly enjoy figuring these out (though I did give the “answers”).

Also looking at the commentary introduced me to a new acronym for the list: FTW which ashamedly (Ali fail) I had to look up. I think these are all “for the win.” Which of these made you LOL?

1. Pitch (Aha)
2. Things I Would Do For Love (Meatloaf)
3. Irony in a bar chart (Alanis)
4. My Lover (Michael Jackson)
5. Ability to Live (U2)
6. Things You Need (The Beatles)
7. Countries That Should Cry (Sarah Brightman)
8. Chills (Olivia Newton John)
9. Time (Gloria Gaynor)
10. Schedule (The Cure)
11. Barbie (Aqua)

Click here to get all the flickr song chart memes and waste more of your day away.

I haven’t done a picture post in a quite a while, which is not to say I haven’t been taking any. These amusing pictures are actually all from my cell phone. As always, feel free to respond with your own commentary or photo captions.

1. This is a McDonald’s get-out-the-vote metro advertisement. When did fast food restaurants get into the business of promoting civic engagement? I think they should stick to solving another major problem in this country - one they actually impact - obesity.
2. Man successfully sporting a white linen suit on a hot summer day.
3. I saw this sticker on a mini van window in DC today. The sign, showing a failed attempt at removal, says “This vehicle violates N.Y.C. parking regulations. As a result, this street could not be properly cleaned.” Do paper tickets no longer have enough impact or has the Goo Gone lobby secretly gotten a lot stronger?
4. A real life adult boy scout - and unsuspecting victim of citizen journalism and laughter - with no little boy scouts in tow. I don’t want to be judgmental but does this concern anyone else?
5. Broken saxophone in the middle of the road in Georgetown, which poses the question, where is its owner? In a hospital bed somewhere?
6. I knew they make furniture, but who knew Ikea makes clothes too?
7. Apple truly taking over the world. Or just a really boring business school class.
8. Every day on my way to work I see miscellaneous articles of clothing lining the street. These were the first I’ve seen that looked like someone literally walked right out of them.