About Creating Synergy - criteria

This section is devoted to the little things you can do as a manager, employee, friend to build synergy in an office environment. Lift someone's spirits, or just say thanks for a job well done. Often times we think that employee benefits need to be some astronomically priced conference, or equipment, or the mighty dollar (or multiples of them) and while there is nothing wrong with any of these, I believe it is the day-to-day things that you do, that build teams, and create synergy in an office.

So as I explore what some of these things look like, not all may resonate with you, but pick one up, try it out, if it doesn't work, try something else. Different employees are going to appreciate different things, so I will try to post a sampling of the things here and if you have others that work, I would love to hear them as well. My criteria for what I am posting: things that you can do for $3-5 per employee, some even less. Consistency is the key, small things you can do on a regular basis, maybe once per week, or every other week. So, enjoy this section and if you get positive feedback from your staff, I would love to hear it.

A tale of two whales...

One of the things I love about being a designer and artist is that sometimes, you have the opportunity to just completely wing-it. See how things go, work on the fly, making changes and tweaking things. Well, recently I decided to organize an evening bible school at my church, along with a lot of great helpers which left me time to scheme up some other crazy things. I found instructions online for making an inflatable whale and well, there is the challenge, I have to try. So I head off to the local hardware store in search of black plastic, no go, so opted for some blue tarp and a couple of rolls of duct tape. Now, the instructions didn't work with the tarp that I had, so I just plopped everything down on the floor and started taping. Fast forward a couple of hours and viola! Whale. So far it has been a smashing success, the preschoolers had story time inside, you enter through the mouth, and other classes were begging to get in as well. Sometimes, having a preschooler as a client/audience has its advantages.

The second whale, was one I fashioned out of a 4x8 foot sheet of foam insulation, painted with Krylon H2O paint and then detailed in acrylic. It makes for a light yet sturdy whale that a student can easily carry across stage. I was apprehensive about the foam and painting it, but it went exceptionally well and now have a plethora of ideas about what could be built with it. You never know where your inspiration for the next client project may come from, perhaps the sea. 

OMFG?

So, Adage this week is talking about the Gossip Girl promo in which they use OMFG (Oh my F-ing God). It has been getting a lot of media lately, and thought I would put it out there to see what others think. Personally, call me old, but I am not a fan of the campaign or the show, maybe it is Lost-like cult that I never got hooked into, or perhaps I just didn't like the taste of the Kool-aid. And ironically it isn't the F word that so bothers me but the God reference. Has TV gone too far? Yes, I fully understand that this is what the language of youth is, but looking at historical trends, will things swing back to a more conservative, and if it is a trend that occurs naturally, will that still happen if network TV is encouraging it? Don't get me wrong, I like edgy, out there, fun. But can we not be a bit more creative and intelligent about it? I don't know, what is your take on the ads? I think they left me with more questions than answers, was that the point?