Endless Knots

Yoga, blessed yoga

I agree. There's nothing like it. See CNN's "Yoga's appeal broadening to disability community:"

...[l]ongtime instructor Karen O'Donnell Clarke says the limitations could have a number of sources: multiple sclerosis (which she has), a sports injury, fibromyalgia or even a sedentary lifestyle. Post-surgical conditions, Parkinson's disease, stroke and arthritis may also cause some impairment. "Pretty much if you name a health condition, yoga can help with it," she says.

Sad to see you go, BostonNow

Sorry to learn that BostonNow, the free local paper that had built its circulation to 119,000 in just a year, has shut down. According to the notice on the site, "rapidly deteriorating economic conditions" are the cause. JSONS, Journalism Students Online News Service, goes into more detail about the paper's financing:

Current financial problems faced by its prime investor, an Iceland based company called Bauger-Group, triggered BostonNOW's closing. Last week, Bauger-Group sold all of its media holdings to Dagsbrun Media, which in turn shut down BostonNOW.

We here at Endless Knots, being me in thoroughly self-referential form, are particularly sad as I'd been named a "featured blogger" on the site, meaning I was listed on its homepage. Just a week ago, they'd contacted me, asking for pictures and permission to use my name and image in an advertising campaign.

The exposure was great. Every day, I posted here and on BostonNow, which meant that I had even more readers. A number of my posts were chosen for reprinting in the paper as well. So good for us bloggers and quite sad for those working at the paper.

You'll be missed. And thanks, editors, for all the efforts.

And while we're on the subject of food

Who among us would admit to liking a chain? Me. I had a spectacular lunch today on New York's Upper West Side, mentioned it to a friend, who in turn told me that it's a chain: Le Pain Quotidien. Great country decor, communal table if that's your wont, and superior food. I had a "Raw Salad," the name of which is a little oxymoronic...but, boy, it was great. Grated carrots, grated cabbage, tomatoes with mint (truly delicious - try it, it's that simple), tofu, cukes, and maybe something else. Doesn't sound like much, does it, but if you're in the mood for something light, order it and think of me. Appears that they have locations in a number of, to my way of thinking, random locations: Australia, Belgium, France, Kuwait, Russia, Turkey, Lebanon, UAE, UK, and US (NY, LA, and Washington, DC). Does anyone know anything about this company or why it has such far-flung operations in such dissimilar places? What's the common thread? They exist in places where people eat bread (le pain)? Wait...it's a franchise operation. New Age Mickey D's?

PS: The company was wonderful too. Thanks, Dr. Yoodie.

Very tasty

In my irregular series on great eateries, a huge hoorah for the revival of a wonderful coffee house in my beloved city of Newton, Mass. Until, say, fifteen years ago, there were delis and coffee shops of the old variety - meaning you could get a good square breakfast and maybe a cherry coke for lunch - but few sit-around-with-a-mug-of-proper-joe locales locally.

Then two enterprising and convivial entrepreneurs opened Caffe Appassianato in Newtonville, one of the city’s thirteen unique villages. Patrick and Ray had the touch and we became regular customers, taking a long moment most mornings where we cooked up more than one book. We spent so much time there that when the first article was written about the place, we were profiled as writers who hung out there. Then, the grand disappointment. Patrick and Ray opened a second location in Marblehead, Mass., and if you’ve ever been there, then you know that it’s hard to compete with the ambiance, never mind the nearby ocean, of Boston’s North Shore.

When they sold the Newton shop to Omar, we were sad to lose our friends but the new owner's ebullient personality, coupled with the excellent falalel that he served, made for a welcoming atmosphere. After a couple of years, he sold to another owner who changed the name to Taste (struck me as a tad precious), the menu (that included a square pattie of hash browns), the coffee, and the atmosphere. Instead of a warm neighborhood place, it became more like a snooty coffee bar in Soho. With bad coffee.

Then the unexpected. About six weeks ago, the place was sold again and the new owner has in a very short time brought back warmth, fine service, and really good coffee, in this case, beans from George Howell, founder of the long-gone but fondly remembered Coffee Connection. Welcome, Nik. So glad to have this great place back again, now named Taste Coffee House.

Bad in math? Take art!

Lucky me. I had the chance to spend some time the other night with my old friend and networker extraordinaire, Lisa Kimball. Lisa’s been working of late with Plexus Institute, purveyors of the concept of “positive deviance.” In a nutshell, this approach to organizational change focuses on what goes right rather than its dreaded evil cousin. Plus, instead of introducing massive initiatives from the top, these folks find those pools of ingenuity in the organization, coaching staff to coach others in very simple interventions that solve seemingly intractable problems. In other words, do-it-yourself because...those who do know best.

Here’s a video that makes the point: Jasper Palmer, for whom “The Palmer Method” has been named, came up with a simple fix for a mounting problem. As staff at Albert Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia began using isolation gowns and gloves in all situations where needed, their trash problem grew exponentially. Some numbers help demonstrate the magnitude of trash growth: from 6000 gowns to 120,000. That’s a lot of paper and latex to get rid of. Mr. Palmer figured out the fix. Take a look.

Now what has this to do with the title of this post? The principles of positive deviance remind me of some beliefs about education that we witnessed working with a child who was doing poorly in math while excelling in art. The parents of said child were advised to tutor her in math. They chose a different approach: they amped up her art education and guess what? The following year, she got As in physics.

Circling back to positive deviance: find what’s working well in your organization and spread the news laterally. Identify areas where processes are good and invest in making them exemplary. The laggardly areas are sure to follow.

Ah, that great yogurt...again

It's the day of the short posts. And a day to celebrate the Greek yogurt that I've fallen in love with. Yesterday's NY Times magazine has a great piece on the history - and renaissance - of Greek yogurt, thick, creamy, versatile. Jill Santopietro's piece, Greek Revival, chronicles the humble beginnings of America's distaste of, and now mania for, yogurt. For those who still have yogurt makers in the closet from days gone by, the appearance of this delicacy - also in organic versions from Stonyfield - is yum yum yum. (My yogurt maker is right next to my mason jar bean sprouter.) Commercial over.

Voices without Votes

Reuters is providing Voices without Votes, a nice service where bloggers from around the world can publish/link their commentary on the US election. Subtitled "America Votes, The World Speaks." Makes the point.

Americans are the only ones who can elect the United States president, but the 2008 election offers a unique opportunity to harvest global commentary on America's politics and foreign policy and how it affects the rest of the world.

Voices Without Votes highlights conversations in non-American blogs and citizen media, with emphasis on the regions covered by Global Voices: Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East.

The sad demise of the fortune cookie

Does anyone know how or why fortune cookies have lost their oomph? This has nothing to do with taste...well, in this post, it does. A little.

I had a hankering for wonton soup tonight. If I were a better person, I would have made it but alas I was not in a cooking mood and so we ordered in. Good food. Bravo, Jumbo Seafood, a local eatery that belongs to a delivery service.

Comes then the crushing disappointment. Cracking open the cookie. Back in the day, I remember fortunes like: "Cross the great water and meet your great love." "An unexpected meeting will change your career." You know. All of us has a friend who keeps these little slips of providence in his (in my experience, two men I know do this) wallet.

But in the last few years, I've consistently gotten proverbs not prognostication. Really useless. True, but useless. Tonight's case in point: "Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness." I agree but what about tomorrow? What's happening then? Come on, fortune cookie makers. Let's get back to divination.

Powerless Point

Last week, I was cleaning up a presentation ("Virtual Teams in the Age of the Network") that I gave last Fall at the Brookings Executive Education program for a new one I'm giving there next Tuesday. It was, let me see, a frustrating (no), aggravating (closer),  *!#$%^***!! (getting there) experience.

For reasons known only to some programmer (not even a developer) who's probably cashed out by now for life on a private Caribbean island, I could not change the footer. Page numbers would not appear. Bullet symbols would not convert from vertical lines to small dots. Line spacing would not reduce.  Please don't send me suggestions as I didn't just fall off the PPT turnip truck. I tried saving with a new file name, copying content of troublesome slides to new slides, changing slide master, etc. We all know the tricks. A colleague with a PC (yes, I'm Mac, he's PC) - after struggling as well - was finally able to make most of the changes.

So when I was asked to speak at the Boston KM Forum, I decided to go slideless. Just stand up and speak. True, the topic lent itself to addressing the audience directly: "Moving Beyond Web 2.0 Resistance." Which ultimately is not about technology but about people, ye ole' "90% people, 10% technology" rule.

When Larry Chait introduced me, he said I would not be using slides. A hearty round of applause followed. And as I spoke, I sensed that people were actually listening, as in making eye contact, nodding their heads, responding when I asked questions. Note to other speakers out there: IT FELT GREAT!

Doug Cornelius live-blogged my talk which Paul Levy has responded to with "Throw off the crutches of ppt!" - where he gives a really good list of reasons why Powerpoint may not be exactly the most powerful way to engage an audience. Read them both. And thanks, guys. Maybe we can teach a class about how to give a presentation without slides.

One last thought: Edward Tufte gives a very good seminar (and has written an essay called "The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint," in which he gives some excellent suggestions for how to use PPT if you must). I attended it a few years ago and, humbly, feel that when I do use slides, they're the better for it.

Featuring Eliza...

Eliza's April 17th opening is featured at ChelseaArtGalleries.com. Please tell all your New York friends.