I have no clue as to what a Grand Pizzle does, but surely Burley is suffering the loss this week.

While attempting to uncover the duties of a Grand Pizzle, the closest I came to an answer actually extended the mystery. I discovered that someone has created a LinkedIn profile for a “Lord Pizzle,” Grand Poopah at Prestige Worldwide, in the Toronto area. Perhaps a distant cousin?

I may have to investigate the Toronto lead in-person this summer, when I attend the IABC World Conference in Toronto.

In the meantime, any suggestions from you as to the value of a Grand Pizzle in society?

It saddens me to see how many of these communication professionals unknowlingly sabotage their effort to market themselves and/or their company. How?

They opt for flair over readibility, by choosing a typeface and/or font size that are hard to read.

A recent example: Last week, I met a very nice photographer at an IABC/Chicago networking event. We exchanged cards, and I sent her a follow-up email the next day. One day later, I received an automated notice from my mail server, stating that my email didn’t go through.

I looked at her card again. Her photography business was named after her, with a middle initial that looked like a lowercase letter “L.” Her email address was in 9-point type, with part of it appearing (to my aging eyes) to be “@klh…” I then realized that the letter I took for an “l” actually was an “i”–the difference was very hard to detect.

It is difficult to generate leads, and it is unwise to put up barriers that discourage potential customers or colleagues from reaching you.

But I didn’t have a sense of national loss that I might have if the winning team had been from a Nordic country. As the teams lined up for their medals, and their names were announced, it was clearly a celebration of athletes who competed for their nation of origin, but who were making a living elsewhere. In several cases, players from the Canadian team were shipped in from a U.S.-based professional hockey team, and some of the U.S. team were cheered in Vancouver because they played professional hockey in Canada.

Does that make a difference? If you’re asking whether it was “wrong,” clearly not. If you’re asking whether it changed my attitude, I’d say that it did. I was cheering for the U.S. team to pull the upset, but when the medals were being handed out, I was proud of both teams.

It didn’t feel like “Canada versus America (U.S.).” It felt more like “Canerica” showing the world how we can compete with each other, but maintain our honor and dignity, even when we don’t “win.”

That happens in sports, and doesn’t happen often in politics or business.

I was reminded of that tonight, and I remembered why the Olympics remains important. I’m sorry that another Games has ended, and with it, the taste of what might be, in that mystical land of Canerica.

Still, I think this has value. Enjoy.

Black
“Is it because I’m black??!!”
The comedian asked.
As if being “black” could be a reason
Or an excuse
To treat someone differently.

But what is, “black”?
How could a single color
Singled out from the rainbow
Tell so many
That they have no shades of grey?

Not different
From each other.
Not the same
As anyone else.
Separate and NOT equal
In the color-blind eyes of the racist.

Is Black History Month
A time to gently return
The color black to the rainbow,
So that it can join the other colors
In a celebration?
Where every color is joined together AND equal
In the color-soaked universe of our Creator God

“Is it because I’m black?”
“Yes,” the rainbow answered.
As if we could be a rainbow
Without you
Within us
To be glorious together.

(c) 2008 Tom Keefe

Link to story

Was it cowardice, or common sense? If an axe-wielding extremist broke into your home because you posted a comment or cartoon that might be considered “offensive,” or continued to plot ways to kill you, would you be willing to die for freedom of speech? Really?

Why then, do I hear and watch so much “humor” and “editorial comment” knocking the Christian faith, but just about zero directed at Islam? Why do people think it is acceptable, even in the workplace, to use “Jesus Christ” as a swear word, but those same people wouldn’t think of substituting “Prophet Muhammad”?

Christians don’t blow up innocent groups of people, and they don’t grab an axe to attack people who disparage their Lord, Jesus Christ.

Should they? It seems to work for Islamic extremists, at least in Denmark. Allan might think his local journalists are wimps, but maybe they are realists. And maybe we are, too.

In an Associated Press news article titled, “Obama: No weeknight television for Malia, Sasha,” the U.S. president says the one sure way to help kids learn is to stop them from watching television on school nights.

The story quotes Obama as saying, “The girls don’t watch TV during the week. Period.” He later adds, “Very early on, we set expectations for Malia and Sasha in terms of them taking responsibility for their own education. They got alarm clocks at age 4 to begin waking themselves up, making their own beds and getting themselves ready to get to school on time. We monitor them. But they are expected to be prepared to learn when they go to school.”

I’ve fought a losing battle for years in the Keefe household around time spent in front of the TV. Unfortunately, my wife was in the habit of using television to fall asleep at night, and that habit continues to this day. The kids watch some television “to wind down” after school, and actually spend several hours in front of the tube every day.

Most of the shows we watch add nothing to the value of our lives; they are just time-wasters. I have enough other interests and commitments to keep me from lasting long in front of the TV, and the kids are active enough in sports and church groups so that they do engage in healthy pursuits.

I just wish that they could see how much of their lives are being wasted in front of the boob tube.

UPDATED 2/28/2010: I finally was able to upload the video to the IABC/Chicago YouTube channel. I’ve deleted the PodPress videos, which took too long to load, and embedded the YouTube video. Enjoy!

In this 8:45-minute video, Barbara is interviewed by IABC/Chicago volunteer Wanda Whitson. They discuss:

• The benefits of a social media policy for organizations, and the risks if companies don't have one
• Some of Barbara's favorite social media tools
• An example of a successful social media campaign for an external audience
• Who 'owns' social media within an organization
• Then, two session attendees share one learning that they obtained from the session

For information on upcoming IABC/Chicago events, go to http://chicago.iabc.com.

For information on the consulting services offered by Talisman Associates, Inc., go to www.3talisman.com.

Coincidently, I had spoken the day before with two separate and distinct groups of job-hunters, which were clearly scared AND scarred by ongoing weak economic conditions and the related highly competitive and frustrating job market.

I’m no stranger to unemployment and a prolonged job search, having been laid off from communications positions in 1991 and 2001. The 2001 layoff was the hardest, coming just three weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers. That attack caused an already struggling economy to tailspin, and hiring froze across the board. I was sitting that morning in a coffee shop with a group of fellow unemployed professionals who had agreed to form a job/networking group. When one of the group members said, “Hey, someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Tower,” I replied, “That’s a shame, but we’ve got to focus on getting a job.” Of course, what I mistakenly perceived to be an accident caused by a poorly skilled pilot turned out to be one of the most significant events of this decade.

It also marked the beginning of a two-and-one-half-year period of under- and unemployment for me. It was a humbling experience, which continues to make me more empathetic with current people who are “in-transition.”

Like the fellow IABC/Chicago members who shared a drink with me after the lunch seminar at Maggiano’s in Chicago. (I took the afternoon as vacation time, and they had time to spend.)

Like the soon-to-graduate Loyola University students who later that evening asked me and three other professionals for advice about a communications career—and whose stiff expressions and carefully chosen words revealed their unspoken, deepest question: “Do we really have a CHANCE to get a decent job?”

At times like this, job seekers need to be heard. It sucks to finally get an interview after weeks of no nibbles, only to be discarded because someone else matches your work experience, AND has something else that the hiring manager preferred. When you are in mid- or late-career, your spouse doesn’t want to hear it. He or she wants to hear that you got the job, along with the salary and benefits that you’ve struggled without for so long.

When you are about to graduate, your parents and friends don’t want to hear that you don’t have any prospects. They want to hear that you have landed a terrific position that will allow you to move out on your own and pay back your student loans.

No, in this scary job market that scars more than it soothes, people need to have someone who has an open ear.

Someone who has been there…and knows that he might be there again one day.

Make a Smilebox greeting

While I avoid making New Years resolutions that include the words “diet,” “exercise” or “resolution,” I did decide to help organize a weight-loss challenge at work.

Maybe it was the endless commercials for the television show, “Biggest Loser.” I did stop watching them after I read about an Australian study linking television watching to an earlier than necessary death. No sense tempting fate.

Whatever the reasons, I joined 22 fellow employees who are throwing $10 into a pot that one person will earn on March 8. That person will have the greatest percentage weight loss between today and March 8.

Most of us are using the challenge as a motivational tool to eat better and exercise more. I’ll use it as an opportunity to trash talk my colleagues, now that football season is winding down and my Chicago Bears have gone into hibernation. Lately it stinks to work with Vikings and Packer fans.

First challenge: The IABC/Chicago board meeting tomorrow night at the Ben Pao restaurant. I might have to pass on the egg rolls and fortune cookies.

Any helpful ideas for losing about 25 pounds in eight weeks? Please don’t suggest that I cut off a limb or stop eating completely. I may like to trash talk my colleagues, but I hate eating my words.