#36 Who Moved My Cheese?

I remember about 11 or so years ago when I was at my last job and we had a bunch of internal changes, many of which didn't sit well with the older set. Next thing you know the book Who Moved My Cheese? starting greeting some of these folks when they would arrive at their desks on random mornings. It's hard to imagine that anyone could manage their staff that way, but alas it was done and it went over as well as you'd expect.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I remember reading an article in Harvard Business Review generational trends and how the core traits of generations basically repeat over the course of history as the one sets' actions influence the next. Very cyclical people we are and it was an amazing article. This made me think of how different my generation is from both the Boomers and the Millenials. Those 2 however are surprisingly similar in some respects. Particularly when it comes to having their cheese moved. This lead me to the idea of writing a Who Moved My Cheese, the Gen Y Edition.

See, the Boomers needed that book because their parents (and some of themselves even) largely held same job their whole careers, so when adversity would strike, they seriously had no idea what to do. This jaded our parents who in turn jaded us. We Gen Xers never had any fucking cheese anyway so we had to either find it, make it or just bitch about it. Eventually we sort of figured it out, but then came the next group ready to take over. But the Millenials are like robots. They expect things to be where they are and are truly puzzled when they're not. Wha..? The golden ring is always behind this pink barrel on this level. I dont...it doesn't...compute.....TILT>>> They can't handle it. And in the workplace it's the same. Slightly different cheese, but same reaction. I work with some of these people (kids). They need a book. I can write it. It will help them. Gold stars and blue ribbons for everyone. We're all winners.

#31 - Blog Idea #5: Self Help Analogies

I know, I know. Another blog to distract me is all I need, right? But this one could, or should I say will, be awesome. And it's different than my usual blog ideas as it means to help. I mean it has the same underlying intent of entertaining and educating through prose, but thematically it's more socially oriented, a la Chicken Soup for the Soul or something. It's called the Analogy Advice Blog. Sounds straight forward right? It is. The premise is that people would email me not unlike a call in show, like say Love Line, and they would air their problems to me. Problems which they have no good way of making sense of or explaining to anyone. That's where I come in. I've been told I have a sort of gift in the art of analogy. I can take almost any scenario and play it back in ways that make sense, allowing chaos to coalesce and drive enlightenment by connecting seemingly obvious dots. Like, I can take marketers and designers and turn them into cats and dogs to make a point. I can use sports, weather, history, pop culture, you name it, and draw a parallel between reality and clarity. A wise man once said (I think it was in an Indiana Jones movie come to think of it) "May he who illuminated this, illuminate me", or something like that. See, I want to be the "he" in that. Got an issue? Bring it!