Archive for April, 2007
April 30, 2007 at 5:22 pm · Filed under Public Relations
On Wednesday I lecture for the first time at RMIT. This is undoubtedly one of the top universities in Australia. I am speaking to a first year course on the subject of Issues Management.
I don’t mind walking into any board and advising on leading issues of the day. Yet the thought of standing before 100 fresh-faced students panics me. Am I that old and out of touch? I think I fear being irrelevant.
My presentation is attached - feel free to give it a scan. Download rmit_lecture_issues_management_2_may_07_whj.pps
April 11, 2007 at 6:49 pm · Filed under Australia
A few weeks back I posted on Easter in Australia. I was questioning why the nation has such a love affair with the holiday - it’s bigger than Christmas and Hannukah and Halloween in America rolled into one!
I have no more answers - but some great theorists have responded. English traditions, fertility rites, druid festivals, cold weather and more were offered.
So in lieu of answers let me offer some interesting tidbits to make you sound smart on the subject:
- Australians are the largest consumers of Easter eggs in the world;
- An average Australian eats 10 Easter eggs each season;
- Some 200 million Easter eggs are sold each season; and
- Cadbury offers 300 Easter products and adds 30 each year!
Special thanks to Helen Hawkes and her article “Made in Heaven” from Sunday Life, The Sun-Herald Magazine on 8 April 2007 (pages 18-19) for the great facts!
April 11, 2007 at 5:28 pm · Filed under Workplace
I’m in mourning. Funny as this may sound I’m in a deep funk because my boss resigned. I don’t see him often - we speak monthly. He’s in Hong Kong and I’m in Sydney. I’ve seen him a grand total of four times. Yet he’s smart enough to leave me alone yet available when I need him.
Am I missing the man (even though he’s tendered his resignation and has yet to leave - that’ll be months from now)? Or am I disappointed by the mere fact there’s change coming?
I’ve had more loser bosses than most people had suits. The micro-manager. The tyrant. The absentee. The control freak. The ambivalent. The unclear. The meanie. The head-tripper. They start to take their toll.
So a request: Define for me the perfect boss. Give me examples - of the good. And what makes the worst boss the worst? Let’s not name names - but profile real jerks.
A good laugh or an inspiration may help the mourning process.
April 4, 2007 at 5:32 pm · Filed under Social Media
So many small things can make a grown man feel old and foolish. When your younger colleague tells you he likes “Working Girl” with Melanie Griffiths because, “I really enjoy old movies.” Or you finally get your brain around blogging only to learn that podcasting is where communications is headed. Just when you thought it was safe to enter the water…
Now I want to trial email posting. This hasn’t worked to date - why should it work now? TypePad says I have this super cool confidential email address that allows me to ping a note and see a posting. Can you read this? Is it working?
If it does then I’m tossing away my “classic” films like “Jaws” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and getting with the times. If it don’t got Wentworth Miller or Scarlett Johannsen I’ll toss it atop “Gone with the Wind” and archive it…
April 4, 2007 at 4:09 pm · Filed under more on me
I was never the kind of kid to attract nicknames. I never excelled at sports - and most good nicknames are born on the pitch. I was more at home in the library and excelled in the classroom. Plus I had atrociously correct manners (still do) and dressed well. I was in high school before I owned a pair of blue jeans.
No nicknames. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way - I always believed there was something wrong with me not to attract nicknames.
My Dad loved a radio comedy show called “Bob and Ray.” Wikipedia describes them perfectly:
“Their format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, such as conducting radio or television interviews, with off-the-wall dialogue presented in a generally deadpan style as though it were a serious interview.”
On their fictional newscasts, they frequently turned to roving reporter Wally Ballou. It became the first nickname I ever had. When I was young I didn’t understand the derivation - I failed to ask my father about the connection and naturally assumed he made up the name.
(Or because I was overweight I assumed it was Balloo the Bear from Jungle Book. He jumped and danced and made a lot of noise. Sounded like me at the time.)
So today I’m confessing - my nickname is WallyBalloo. I hadn’t realised the radio star had the letter “U” at the end. I’m the double “O” kind of Balloo.
So in this vein of true confessions - what’s your nickname? What’s the derivation?
April 3, 2007 at 5:37 pm · Filed under Workplace
Australians shorten everything. Christmas becomes Chrissie. Sunglasses are sunnies. Swimsuits are cossies (figure it out yourself).
And every single name gets reduced to the shortest nickname possible. Is it the heat? Does the extreme temperature make it hard to get more than one syllable out? When I first moved here in 1990 Walter became Wal. That’s right - Wal. But try dragging the vowel sound out by a yard or two. Oops - make that a metre.
And then there are the nicknames. Some of them come from Cockney rhyming. Americans are Septics. (Yank rhymes with Tank and while we’re there I think Septic Tank.) Every person gets a nickname. One of my colleagues has the surname Churcher. She got the nickname Cherry and now can’t shake it (see the photo she sent - I think she’s quite proud)!
What was your nickname? What’s the worst nickname you ever heard - or gave? What’s the fascination?
I don’t mind walking into any board and advising on leading issues of the day. Yet the thought of standing before 100 fresh-faced students panics me. Am I that old and out of touch? I think I fear being irrelevant.
Thanks for visiting!
