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to thank a vet: feed a vet, hear a vet, pay a vet, house a vet

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Let me just take you on a tour of how my mind works. Tomorrow is Veterans Day. So I decided to reprise a couple of earlier posts, find some new info and offer a chance to thank (and help) our veterans. First stop was Cup of Joe for a Joe. This is an organization that provides a cup of coffee, purchased by you and me, to veterans. But I hear that they don’t offer a discount to veterans in all of their shops so for an hour I got sidetracked into researching whether to recommend this group (I do). In the meantime I’m looking at pictures of veterans and remembering that The Civil Wars were talking about repairing their rift. So I searched out their website (I swear Google is the source of ADHD) and found out that no, they haven’t repaired their rift and the break up is for real. But they have offered us a song by way of gratitude (and maybe apology). So enjoy the song…it’s an awesome rendition of ‘You Are My Sunshine’. And now I’m getting back to where I started. Thanking our veterans by helping out.

Feed

This is my favorite….if you’re in line for coffee or at a restaurant having a meal and you see a vet in fatigues, pay their bill. Even if it means you have to order less. Cup of Joe for a Joe is another option…I’ve donated and gotten a couple of sweet notes back. And I’ll do it again.

Hear

Yesterday in New York City, Veteran Artist Program (VAP) presented their latest show ‘Telling’ featuring the stories of 7 returned veterans in their own words and by their own voices. In addition VAP offers opportunity for veterans to express themselves through the visual arts, performing arts, writing/literature, film/video, and new/interactive media. Go see a VAP show, donate to the organization, partner with them by becoming an ambassador.

Pay

The employees at EcoVet are veterans trained to build furniture. They create rugged and beautiful furnishings from the salvaged material pulled from decommissioned tractor trailers. LEED points people.

ecovet12

House

Build a house for an injured veteran. Homes For Our Troops builds accessible homes for returning injured veterans. You can help by donating money, offering supplies, giving your sweat equity, buying their merchandise. Check their website and find a veteran neighbor that could use your help.

To our vets, from the bottom of my heart I thank you for the service that you do and the sacrifice that you make.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

my disruptive life

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l design disrupted

You know that I’m an interior designer specializing in restaurant design. You’ve read my bio. But you read my posts daily and wonder how does all of this writing fit with your understanding of what I actually do for a living? The answer is I’m practicing my own version of disruption.

Disruptive thinking is the term of 2014. And it follows close on the heels of design thinking. According to Fast Company, design thinking is a ‘proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results’. Disruptive thinking takes this idea a step further and in a slightly different direction. To think disruptively you must look where you haven’t looked before to find first the problem that no one has yet discovered, then solve it creatively. Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, published in 2010, was written by Luke Williams, fellow at frog design’s New York office and an Executive Director at the NYU Stern School of Business. (frog design, if you will recall, was instrumental in helping Apple Computer create its design edge.) Luke Williams contends that finding the problem, disrupting the status quo, is the first creative step in the process. Much like scrum has transformed the way problems are viewed and solved, disruptive thinking transforms the way processes are viewed then re-defined and executed. According to Williams, there are 5 steps to disruptive thinking:

  1. Craft a disruptive hypothesis: be wrong at the start to be right at the end
  2. Discover a disruptive opportunity: explore the least obvious
  3. Generate a disruptive idea: unexpected ideas have fewer competitors
  4. Shape a disruptive solution: novelty for novelty’s sake is a resource killer
  5. Make a disruptive pitch: under prepare the obvious, over prepare the unusual

In my case, I’m at number two: discovering my opportunity. I’ve designed space for over twenty years and loved it, except the part where design separated me from the research and writing that feeds me. So on weekends and during my scarce evening hours (I am raising two kids remember), I’ve taken classes and written fiction and essays. Fun, yes, and a nice distraction, but not fulfilling. So I’ve battled with how to be both a designer and a writer for years and finally had that ah ha moment a few months ago….just do both and see where it leads! That is my Disruptive Hypothesis. I’m doing this by reading and writing every day about things that are connected with design, architecture and food. The only three things that I know for sure are that I am a designer, I am a writer and one feeds the other. By researching and writing from the perspective of a designer I am finding ways to meld the two, making me better at both.

As I continue to research and write, I learn daily about all of the possibilities out there and I get closer to disrupting the current system and finding a place we haven’t been before, a place where design and writing can work together that allows me to contribute meaningfully.

That is my very long winded answer to the many who have asked me….what do you do?

Have a great week,
Leslie

 

say thank you

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photo courtesy lettersofnote.com

photo courtesy lettersofnote.com…entertaining letters by famous people

Apparently John Lennon wrote thank you notes. Jimmy Fallon is also a fan of thank you notes. And I want to thank Jimmy Fallon for bringing his version of gratitude into the limelight. They elicit a type of joy that probably isn’t what Emily Post was after.

I’m also a big fan of letter writing, especially thank you notes.  Once upon a time I even ran a website called ‘letters and paper’ and got to spend all of my free time writing about writing. Heaven for a writer, unfortunately not a very profitable use of time (luckily I spent enough time at the drafting table to compensate). Regardless of profitability, the handwritten note is  worthwhile because it creates a significant and pleasurable impact on both the writer and the recipient. The recipient gets a momentary break from their frenetically digitalized workday, and the writer experiences the moment of joy that any flight of gratitude offers.

There are plenty of reasons to hand write those notes in your business as well as personal world.

  1. Feeling grateful elicits happiness, so finding a reason to thank someone will make you happy.
  2. After a job interview a handwritten thank-you note tells the interviewer something about your humanity…bosses like to hire humans. And this will set you apart as the type of human that bosses like.
  3. If you want to leave a lasting impression, write a thoughtful note of thanks for a favor done or a gift received or time spent. Lasting impressions are like money in the bank of your future.
  4. Congratulations are a great opportunity to connect, and may inspire a thank-you note in response which makes two people happy (see number 1).

I create and keep notecards and stamps at my desk for both personal and professional note writing. Apparently I’m not alone…thank you notes even made the New York Times.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

ps: I just found these awesome notecards for booklovers…I wouldn’t suggest using them professionally unless  you are in the publishing business…but if you run into my husband you might mention that his wife is a book lover, hint, hint…;)