I recently listened to a podcast by Dave Ramsey on unity.  He discussed the five enemies of unity:

1. Gossip
2. Poor Communication
3. Lack of a Shared Purpose
4. Sanctioned Incompetence
5. Unresolved Disagreements

As many business writings suggest, the first step to success is to create the right team.  It leads to better performance and happiness.  I have spent the last 20 years building the right team (with lots of hits and misses along the way) and it feels great to finally have it in place.  In order to build the team we have now, I’ve worked hard combating the five enemies listed above.

Gossip, according to Webster, is a rumor or report of an intimate nature, but it is also a complaint made to someone that can’t solve the problem.  For example, don’t go to the interpretive planner and whine about how you wish you had a new desk.  At TSI we believe in self responsibility.  If you pose a problem it is best you also present a possible solution without blaming others for your issue.

Poor communication comes in many forms.  I’m currently encouraging everyone to hit reply all more often.  Let’s keep everyone informed.  If all the recipients don’t want to read it, they can delete it.  At least the opportunity is there to be informed.

Our core values, mission and strategies bring us together around a shared purpose.  It’s hard to imagine a workplace where the employees didn’t believe in the company’s mission and vision.  What would be the purpose of their workday?

I equate sanctioned incompetence with a lack of accountability.  If someone is not meeting their goals and objectives, leaders must hold them accountable.  Of course, that means that each person must have goals and objectives in place to which they strive and their performance is measured.  Unfortunately, and painfully sometimes, holding someone accountable leads to firing.  No one said leadership is easy.

We attempt to address issues immediately so there are no unresolved disagreements.  If you go home and talk to your spouse about something that is gnawing at you at work then that issue needs to be addressed at work.  I used to put a time limit on my direct reports.  I encouraged them to have that crucial conversation within 48 hours.  People are chicken to have tough conversations.  Face the fear and address it; it’s for the best in the long run.

What is your work culture like?

I recently discovered that a few of my co-workers here at Taylor Studios are fans of documentarian Ken Burns. Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War has been a valuable resource while working on exhibits for the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, IL. Several of us refer to it from time to time while collaborating on the project. In reflecting on Mr. Burns’ work, I began to wonder what makes his work so appealing to me.

First, he is a welcome distraction from the shows found on television today. I can’t stand to watch “reality” TV. The idea that Americans will compete to “survive” in a location filled with actual starving residents seems backwards. I also have a short attention span, and the idea of watching a drama that may never end is terrifying. Ken Burns’ PBS documentaries provide me with a wholesome (limited duration), almost cathartic diversion from this type of programming.

Second, Burns’ documentaries appeal to my love of both history and nature. I have a fascination with certain periods of history, and do my best to learn more about those times, oftentimes through Burns’ documentaries. I also enjoy hiking, trail running, camping, mountain biking, and most anything that gets me outside. My wife and I have a goal of visiting all 58 of the National Parks someday. So far, we’ve made it to 8. I guess it’s a long term goal. When I think we might be faltering in our commitment to visit the other 50, I watch an episode of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea and re-dedicate myself on making it out to these amazing places.

Perhaps my favorite part of Mr. Burns’ talent is his ability to tell a story. He has a way of identifying all of the threads and storylines woven within his content, and presenting them to the viewer in an immersive and compelling way. I can read books all day about WWII, and watch archival footage taken during the fighting, but Burns’ The Civil War tells the stories of the men who fought the battles, links their stories together, and makes me think about them as men, as humans, as well as patriots immortalized in history books.

I think that Ken Burns’ work parallels what we do here at Taylor Studios. We offer services and products designed to be worthwhile learning experiences. When pop culture is brought into a design, it’s done objectively, so as to be studied and understood for its lasting cultural impact, rather than fleeting emotional worth. The nature centers and museums we design are distractions from the consumer culture outside their doors. They offer a chance to look into worlds otherwise unavailable to a visitor. We offer information about history, natural sciences, and all sorts of other subject matters. Assuming that we do this well, we tell a story. If we do it exceptionally well, we tell an engaging story. Every project we deliver has the opportunity to spark an interest for further learning, or to create a genuine passion within someone. At the very least, each project has the ability to cause someone already interested in the information to re-engage in what they already enjoy.

That’s how I feel about them. Kind of a six-year-old’s level of enthusiasm. I just love ‘em. If I could have a superpower, it would be making a fifty-year-old tree appear wherever I pointed. We’re lucky to live in the Midwest, which has an amazing range of tree species to choose from. And the coolest part is, they’re so darn useful.

This image summarizes a lot of the reasons why planting or having trees around your house makes so much sense (at least, when you’re not in an area prone to wildfires). Not only can trees make it cheaper to cool and heat your home, they help your whole neighborhood’s air quality and keep it cooler in summer. And when it comes to property values, trees are golden. They add not only curb appeal, but also real dollars to your selling price.

So there are economic reasons aplenty to plant a tree. But the aesthetics are why I have planted six trees at our house in the past six years. The sound of breezes through the leaves, the birdsong, the dappled shade; they add more than I could ever put a price tag on. The other side of our street is a mature neighborhood, so they have huge silver maples and red oaks cutting the afternoon sun over our road.

It’s getting towards the end of the best time window to plant trees, but if you can get them in before Memorial Day, you’ll be good. If you remember to water them! Water all summer and into the fall. Soaker hoses are a sure bet, but don’t be stingy with the water. It’s a great reason to have a rain barrel!

A couple of important notes before you run out to the nursery and grab whatever is on sale:

1) Know your soil.
Is it acidic, alkaline, full of clay, or sandy? Even if you choose a tree native to your region, it has to be a good match to your soil.

2) Choose a native.
In almost any situation, a tree species that naturally grows in your region will do better. Look up your local county or university extension online to get a list of good trees for your area. If a nursery tries to sell you an ash tree, take your business elsewhere.

3) Pay attention to what size your tree will be when mature.
Don’t doom your oak to a life of ghastly trimming by planting it underneath wires. Power companies often provide their customers with brochures showing planting guidelines. The more you know about the tree you want to plant, the better!

4) Call before you dig.
In Illinois, Call Julie (http://www.illinois1call.com/). Don’t be the person who cuts a cable.

Taylor Studios is on the edge of an older residential neighborhood, so we’ve got a nice view of some great trees. We’re very lucky. I hope your workplace is similarly blessed!

As we celebrate our 20th year in business, my mind wanders back to some of the early years. What kind of start does it take to survive 20 years in business? Our start was frugal, fun, persistent and filled with a passion for what we did.

In the early years, we had a mail-order business of artifact and fossil reproductions. In order to offer our clients unique pieces, we had to be creative in financing the business start up. We bartered, we negotiated and we sold wherever we could. We once traded a very cool buffalo skull for our supplies. I miss that skull. I actually skinned the buffalo myself. It was meaningful. We negotiated royalties with other fossil collectors in order to add their pieces to our catalog.

We went to tradeshows, flea markets, reenactments or anywhere we thought people might buy our wares. For one particular show, we filled the back of the little Sonoma pick up truck with our reproductions, sleeping bags and our dog and drove to Ohio for an event. We slept in the back of the truck. A friend’s parent lived nearby and brought us sandwiches.

All in all we sold our reproductions all over the world. Part of our income was the $2.00 people sent us for the catalog. During this time we were also attempting to establish more opportunities with our museum clients. We got a job here and there, but the mail-order business supplemented our start up. The reproductions showed the museum world the quality of our work. It got our name out there. We loved teaching others about history, too.

I have a notepad with these six steps of goal setting written in it. I think it is a combination of Stephen Covey and Napoleon Hill.

1. Have a burning desire.
2. Decide what to invest in and what to give up.
3. Set a date.
4. Develop a plan.
5. Write it down.
6. Read it twice a day.

I did not follow these to a T. Yet, I still practice many of them today. I see a bunch of these steps in the early years. It works and life can be grand when you achieve your goals. Never give up.

Stephen J. Gould, the prominent American paleontologist, picked his career at age five. At five years old, his father took him to the American Museum of Natural History where he saw a Tyran­nosaurus rex. “I had no idea there were such things—I was awestruck,” says Gould. Although he had never heard of the career, he left the museum determined to become a paleontolo­gist.

I have Google Alerts set for a variety of keywords and I go through them daily.  If you don’t know what Google Alerts are, check them out here…I’ll wait.  OK, so some of the keywords I use are “museum,” “exhibit,” “exhibit design,”and “nature center.”  Lately I’ve seen countless stories about the Christian Louboutin exhibit at the Design Museum in London.  There has been at least one article every day for the past week and approximately one article a week going back through March.  I think I’ve seen more publicity on this exhibit than any other—ever.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Mr. Louboutin’s shoes.

In fact my husband offered to buy me a pair a couple years ago, but, as always, the practical side of me won out and I turned them down. (What was I thinking?!)  Anyway, my point is not about the beautiful shoes, but the publicity surrounding this new exhibit.  I’m just wondering why exhibits about the Civil War or an amazing dinosaur don’t garner the same PR.  These types of exhibits will educate, inspire, and empower kids, giving them something to do other than video games and Facebook.  Without them, we may have never known Stephen J. Gould.

Optimal Foraging Theory asserts that animals forage for food in a way that maximizes potential caloric intake while expending the least amount of energy while doing so.

In a 2004 article called Strategies for the Curiosity-Driven Museum Visitor, author Jay Rounds has applied a foraging model to visitor behavior:

The task facing the curiosity-driven museum visitor is analogous to that of a foraging animal in the wild. The animal has a fairly-well-defined territory within which it must find the food it needs. In that territory there are a variety of food sources, each of which offers a different level of nutrition. (1)

A parallel between optimal foraging theory and museum visitor behavior? Wow!

I have finally found a description of how I behave when let loose in a museum exhibit. I hurry towards the exhibits I perceive as having the greatest potential effect. If they take too long or become in any way exhaustive, I move on.

As I looked deeper into foraging theory, I found something even more analogous to museum visitor behavior, it’s called Information Foraging Theory.

Information Foraging Theory considers humans INFORMAVORES. The most important concept in the Information Foraging Theory is information scent. As animals rely on scents in the wild to indicate the chances of finding prey in a certain location and then guide them to other promising areas, so do humans rely on various cues in the information environment to get similar answers. Human users estimate how much useful information they are likely to attain on a given path, and after seeking information, compare the outcome with their predictions. Then they make the proper adjustments. (2)

Finally, an evolutionary explanation for why I bypass exhibit labels with far too much text.

Sources:
(1) Rounds, J. 2004. Strategies for the curiosity-driven museum visitor. Link
(2) Wikipedia Link

Every so often, a couple of the hats I wear here at Taylor intersect. I also act as the front line IT troubleshooter, so I do have a little computer geek credibility. A few years ago, we purchased a powerful new server that was running Windows Server 2008 and had a bunch of extra RAM. The IT company we called on to set up the server was very eager for us to use a new technology, Virtual Machines (also called VMs). This allows the physical server to contain multiple other servers that are only virtual. They don’t have their own physical location. They exist only as rather complicated programs running on the physical server. If you have a Mac and have used programs like Parallels or VMWare to run Windows (within a window on your Mac desktop), then you have been using a virtual machine.

Well, virtual machines are mighty handy even when you’re not mixing operating systems. Some major business tasks, like email, do best when they are the biggest program running on a server. Can’t afford another physical server? Make a virtual one! And if you set it up correctly, you can shut down that virtual machine and move it to another physical server in an emergency. The entire virtual machine is contained within a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) that is just a really big data file.

What’s so green about VMs? Look at it this way. Every large, electricity-gulping server you turn into a virtual machine reduces your power usage. You have fewer machines to keep cool, and your servers take up less space. From another angle, you can add a server to your setup without purchasing another piece of hardware that will only become toxic e-waste in five years.

Come to think of it, you are probably using a virtual machine already. Many of the internet services corporations running data centers the size of football fields have been using virtual machines for years to save power, infrastructure, and space.

Is this the first time you’ve heard of virtual machines? Does your company use virtual machines in your own IT setup? They may not be a perfect fit for every company, but they can both be green and save green!

Taylor Studios is happy to announce our attendance and exhibition at the 106th AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo™. The event is one of the industry’s largest and will be held April 28-May 5 in Minneapolis Saint Paul.

While there Taylor Studios will host a celebration of our 20th anniversary. If attending, you are cordially invited to celebrate with us on Tuesday, May 1st from 4-6p with cake and champagne! We’ll be in booth #1011, across from the AAM Showcase.

Taylor Studios will be participating many events surrounding the conference so if you’re there please keep an eye out for us. A few places we know we’ll be in addition to the MuseumExpo include:
Sunday Evening Opening Reception
Monday Evening AAM Events at Como Park Zoo, Minnesota History Center, and Science Museum of Minnesota.
Tuesday Evening TEA mixer
AAM is a wonderful opportunity to rekindle friendships and start new ones. We hope to see you there!

In the Shop this week we’re working on projects for Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center, Morton Arboretum and doing some lifecasting!

I have this great little book called The Dog Poop Initiative.

In a fun storybook format, it tells a story about the doers, those that take action.  And the rest of the population that points, blames and whines.   It talks about the lack of willingness to take initiative, to be a leader, teamwork and service.  It talks about the responsibility to set the example as parents and community members for the next generation.  As a business owner the lack of initiative is disconcerting to say the least.  I have heard story after story of the difficulty of finding entry level employees that will show up to work on time, that will give notice when they decide to leave and other base level responsibilities.

This also proliferates in personal stories I hear about parents not holding their children accountable, enforcing rules or offering any kind of discipline.  Parents that are disrespectful to teachers when their kid gets in trouble.  I have a close associate whose child was physically abused during school hours by his own team members.  None of the teachers or coaches would step up to the plate to give the appropriate discipline.  It is a heart-breaking story.

There is much talk in the media about the crisis of character.  The GSA and Secret Service stories certainly speak to a lack of character.  Do you think we have a problem?  How do you define character?

Would you pick up the dog poop if you saw it in the middle of the soccer field?

Do you show up at the time you say you are going to arrive?

Do you follow the rules?

Do you hold people accountable?

Can we teach this in our museum exhibits?

How can we help teach our communities?