The Business Card Exchange
Posted: April 9, 2015 Filed under: Business Leave a commentI was at a meeting last week in Chicago with other CIOs from the Midwest whom I had not previously met. Instinctively, we continued the time-honored tradition of exchanging business cards. In the era of LinkedIn, Bump, and a myriad of other technologies and methods to connect with others, it surprises me a little bit that this custom has not become extinct.
The Economist offers a reasonable explanation in Why the business card is thriving in the electronic age. The article notes, “The Chinese invented calling cards in the 15th century to give people notice that they intended to visit.” Since that time, there have been myriad iterations and purposes of cards—they may be quirky, clever, or even unique works of art. Personally, I’ve always found it helpful to have a card that is easy to write on.
After some thought, I realized that the card itself is really incidental to the value of the ritual: the introduction, handshake, discussion, and connection. A business card is a tangible souvenir of a physical interaction, a prized commodity in today’s increasingly impersonal, digital world.
Photo by Mark Baker
Weekly Download 15.6
Posted: April 7, 2015 Filed under: Weekly Download Leave a comment
Here’s a recap of news and notes from around the Web that caught my attention over the past week or so.
Implementing Cloud as an IT Service Delivery Model a good article that describes the business value created from implementing the ITIL service model and cloud computing.
For those of us who feel we work best under pressure of deadline, How We Trick our Brains into Being Productive give some excellent tips on the appropriate use of procrastination.
The Inbox of our Lives addresses the challenges of email. But is it email per se, or is email an easy scapegoat for the larger issue of information overload and how to process it all?
Email is the longest. It takes the most from me to respond. It’s the channel that holds the greatest complexity. And why is it complex? Because it’s a place that we put the things that require thought. It’s a place to think about more than the next to-do, the next meeting, the cute-ism we want to share. It’s a place where we can struggle with ideas….email is the place we try to get our minds around the unruly. So of course it’s harder than the others.
I’ve always enjoyed journaling just for pleasure. I hadn’t thought about focusing on a specific change I’m trying to make and noting my progress over time. Need to Change, Keep a Diary shows the value of journaling as a tool for transformation.
ZMAB15 