Open up your mind and say, ahh...

It is that time of year. Everyone is running around like a turkey with its’ head chopped off. SO. MUCH. IS. GOING. ON.  Even if you don’t have “stress at the workplace”, this infographic touches upon some things that everyone can apply to their own lives, no matter the producer. Let’s face it—everyone has stress in their life. Hopefully this infographic will enable you to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It can be incredibly hard at times, even with the right management.

I read an article about a study evaluating the different forms of stress management for one of my social work classes. The study within the article brought up four different ways of managing stress: 1) source management, 2) relaxation, 3) thought management, and 4) prevention (Epstein, 32).  Through the study conducted, the researchers were able to conclude that “the…study showed clearly that prevention is by far the most helpful competency when it comes to managing stress” (Epstein, 34).

So, although things like yoga and acupuncture help to lighten the load, avoiding stress in the first place is the number one way to deter the bad feelings and physical harm caused by it. We must practice self-care. This will enable us to further help others. Happy Sunday, y’all.

Epstein, Robert. (2011).Fight the frazzled mind. Scientific American Mind, 30-35.

PowerPoint can be incredibly convincing when done well, but sitting through the much-maligned scourge of presentations is, all too often, mind-meltingly, sleep-inducingly, soul-crushingly, dull–not to mention completely ineffective. What makes this basic medium so difficult to master? Ravi Mehta, CEO of recently launched Slidevana, believes it’s a matter of understanding the format. “Unless you’re a graphic designer, you’re generally used to thinking in words and prose. PowerPoint is a type of visual communication; a lot of people go into it without shifting their perspective, which is why they can end with something that looks more like a teleprompter,” he tells Co.Design. His company aims to take the guesswork out of creating slides with a set of 150 templates–”a complete toolbox”–that will, in theory, help direct users to a more compelling means of getting their message across.

Mehta designed all the slides himself, but he is not a designer.* Instead, his experience comes from years in the tech industry, both giving and observing presentations in all their glory (or infamy). As for the design of the slides themselves? Well, they look pretty standard-issue. The key for Mehta is ease of use. “We present prefab slides so people can dive right in and start working on telling their story,” he says, stories that will either appeal to emotions, with image- or quote-based slides, or reason, with data-centric diagrams. In a conscious choice to cut down on unnecessary clutter, only two themes are offered: Dark, which suits dramatic keynote addresses in large, dimmed rooms, and Light, a better choice for more intimate roundtable talks or printed presos. Inserting your own content is done with an easy drag-and-drop, and it’s possible to customize throughout a deck.

One-time customers are able to access any new additions to the collection, and the service is offered for PowerPoint for both Windows and Mac, as well as Keynote. It would have been interesting to see what Mehta would have created in collaboration with a design professional to refine the format, because there’s certainly ample room for these PowerPoint presentations to improve their aesthetic appeal. And ultimately, to achieve the kind of professional transcendence implied in Slidevana’s company name, you’ll have to really distill your mission statement. “The most important part of the presentation is the moral,” Mehta says, and no pie chart in the world will help you fabricate that.

*Our advice: Hire a designer. Quickly. Because these things need a ton of work.–Ed.

Image: Jiri/Shutterstock

I get a variation on this email quite often: “I wish there was a job in social media for _____, because I’m really skilled in _____.” What’s fascinating is that the person is waiting for permission, and worse, waiting for someone else to create and open a role for them to fill. My first thought upon receiving this is to ask the person, “Who do you admire in life?” They often cite some famous person. I then ask, “Did someone make that job for them? Or did they choose an adventure that brought them there?” Sometimes, the light bulb goes on right then and there. Other times, well, bless your heart.

Where The Path May Lead

When I think about all that a business can do to succeed (or all that an individual can do, for that matter), I start from the mindset of forgetting about the path that someone else has forged. Why? Because innovation rarely (never?) comes from following an established path. If I were going to design a hotel, I wouldn’t try learning what worked and didn’t work for the Four Seasons, I’d think through (and then interview others about) all the details that matter to me as a traveler, and then consider what I could do better.

For instance, in redesigning my hotel experience, how difficult would it be to offer personalized grocery runs for every guest with a small 15% fee on top of the retail value of those products? Instead of the same lame mini bar options, I’d have invested in exactly what I wanted, would have paid for the service, and would have a much more personalized experience in my room. Hint: the path before me would never take me to this idea.

Everybody’s Doing It

In the 1990s, fax marketing was a serious consideration. (I have to pause to say that Aaron Strout often jokes about fax marketing, and I write this, I’m snorting a bit, thinking of his humor.) If that’s what you had to go by for what works as marketing, would you do it?

Many employees inherit jobs or reports or duties that came from someone before, and often, they don’t think to evaluate or question what the tasks or reports or whatever serve. I see this with marketers who keep vast spreadsheets full of information that when I query them, they are doing it because they were told to do it, and when I ask their leadership, those people say they have no idea what to do with some of the data they’re receiving.

Trends Are Shaky Signposts

If you asked people about what the current trends were in digital marketing, they’d point to Pinterest, to Google+, to Facebook nearing 1 billion users, to many other number-filled or feature-driven conversations about trends.

If you ask me, I’d say it’s in building intimate little communities of 1000 or so active contacts who are reached through more intimate communications channels for more personalized interaction. Another way of saying that: email marketing is sexier than ever. I say it related to zero trend analysis. I say it because my data says it’s true, at least when properly executed.

As the trend is large (Pinterest), I’m excited by the small ( Gentlemint). As the trend says big 3D TV experiences, I’m thinking YouTube. As people seek to automate more of their business efforts, I’m wondering how to do more bespoke/custom work.

I’m not being contrary. I’m following my own analysis, and that says that choosing my own adventure will be a lot more rewarding if I pay attention to what’s effectively finding me a community of value. I’m using my own internal and professional compass to decide what I want to do with the territory.

You Choose

Never let life lead you. The goal, the opportunity with all this, is that you can choose what you want to do, how you want to do it, what you want to pay attention to, how to care about what comes before you. You can choose the cubicle or the home office. You can decide on being an employee or leading your own mission. Never before have we had this much opportunity.

So, then, why aren’t you choosing? Or are you?

Photo: Terrafugia

There’s a flying car coming to the New York International Auto Show this week. The Terrafugia Transition is a two-seat airplane with foldable wings, four wheels and turn signals. Over the past few years the Massachusetts company has called its creation a “roadable aircraft” and lately, a “street legal airplane.” But ahead of the Transition’s first appearance at an auto show, it’s perhaps more appropriate to simply call it what it is: a flying car.

Terrafugia and its Transition have been around for several years, but until now the company has largely stuck to the aviation community. But Terrafugia co-founder and CEO Carl Dietrich says that looking at the people who have placed orders for the $279,000 vehicle, they thought it would be worth looking outside the aviation world.

“We’ve noticed in our order backlog there are actually a fair number of people who are not currently pilots who are putting deposits down to order a Transition.”

So the company is coming to New York to gauge interest in a flying car from the non-pilot sector of the public, hoping the attraction of a flying car can create a few pilots and most importantly, customers.

Development of the Transition is progressing and last month Terrafugia completed the first flight of the production prototype. Dietrich expects flight testing to continue through 2012 and deliveries to begin next year.

The dream of a flying car has been around for a long, long time. And in recent years we’ve seen a dune-buggy-turned-car that flies like a powered parachute aimed at accessing remote parts of the developing world, and even aerospace guru Burt Rutan explored the concept in his final days at Scaled Composites.

Just today a Dutch company announced the successful first flights of the PAL-V, a single-seat three-wheeler that’s also a gyrocopter. But as is the case with many inventions that try to combine two already matured products, one plus one does not usually equal two.

The PAL-V One from Holland. Photo: PAL-V

The math doesn’t quite work out on the Transition either, though it’s arguably the most serious attempt at producing anything close to a practical flying car. It’s a decent airplane and as a car it can get you from A to B. The biggest challenge is finding the niche that can be served by the Transition which is neither a great airplane nor a great car. Terrafugia’s Dietrich says that marketplace might be people who fall in between the long driving commute or short airplane flight.

“If you’re flying 1,000 nautical miles, you’re probably going to want a higher performance aircraft” he says. “But if you’re flying 100, 200 or 300 miles, this might be ideal.”

With a cruise speed of 105 miles per hour, the Transition is faster than a car, especially considering it can often travel in a straight lines rarely available on the road. But it’s slower than many other Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), many of which fly at speeds closer to 135 mph. And comparing it to other new LSAs, the Transition is at least $100,000 more than most models.

But what Terrafugia believes is the value in the Transition is the convenience of always having the option of driving if the weather or some other issue prevents a safe flight. It’s true that one of the biggest challenges general aviation pilots face is being grounded because of bad weather. Many small aircraft can fly in inclement weather, but it requires more training and often more equipment to do so safely. So Terrafugia is touting the fact that its relatively simple light sport aircraft won’t force you to wait, or have to rent a car, just to finish a trip. Just fold up the wings and continue your journey on the ground.

Of course then you’ll be driving a rather delicate $279,000 car down the road. Little has been said about the cost of somebody backing into your folded wing. Something as simple as a minor fender-bender may be a bit more expensive than simply replacing a bumper.

Terrafugia’s Transition in flight. Photo: Terrafugia

Despite any potential drawbacks, Terrafugia has found a customer base that believes the flying car makes sense. Dietrich says about two-thirds of their existing customers are looking at the Transition as a practical form of transportation to suit their specific needs. Examples include a surveyor who could travel quickly to jobs around the state and a real estate developer who likes the idea of being able to scout new sites from above and give aerial tours to customers. The other third simply see the Transition as a fun vehicle and like the idea of owning a flying car.

For the rest of the population there are plenty of ground-bound vehicles to look at this week in New York and lots of plenty of airplanes to see at shows like Airventure in Oshkosh. So the challenge will be to decide whether or not the $279,000 Transition is a better option than a $100,000 Porsche Carrera plus a $160,000 Flight Design CTLS (leaving some extra cash for those car rentals).