Roanoke River Blueway Debris Removal from Rivers Edge Pedestrian Bridge
Roanoke River Blueway Debris Removal from Rivers Edge Pedestrian Bridge – Photo album of joint effort by Roanoke Stormwater, Parks & Rec, and Solid Waste Employees
http://ht.ly/EjFCX
Stormwater Management at Patagonia’s Ventura Headquarters
Stormwater Management at Patagonia’s Ventura Headquarters
http://youtu.be/O6qbiyMlZWg
When rainfall hits an impermeable surface — such as a parking lot, roof or sidewalk — it runs off, carrying with it garbage, oil, gasoline, pesticides, etc., that are then are washed away, eventually ending up in the ocean. This video provides insight into the improvements Patagonia made to its corporate headquarters in order to reduce and clean the stormwater leaving our campus. We added two bioswales to the a low-lying areas that drain our parking lot. The bioswales allow stormwater to soak into the soil, which naturally filters it.
Zappos Says Farewell To Job Postings
Zappos Says Farewell To Job Postings
http://ht.ly/xNzzb
Zappos has a new program called Zappos Insider, which can be found on their careers page. The Zappos Insider was created as a place for candidates to reference so they can learn more about the company and its culture. To do so, the candidates will need to become members of Zappos Insider.
By becoming a member, candidates have the opportunity to chat with Zappos Ambassadors. This interaction places them in a position of higher consideration when openings become available. The candidates who invest the time to enroll and learn more about the company are given preference. This process eliminates candidates who apply anywhere and everywhere. The Zappos Insider program encourages a more engaged relationship between the employer and prospective employees.
Be a Success in Life and Business with an Elevator Pitch
Be a Success in Life and Business with an Elevator Pitch
http://ht.ly/wu6gv
Your words are your most important competitive weapons. In this regard, your ability to deliver a compelling elevator pitch is crucial to achieve success. There are many situations where you have only a minute or two to make a positive first impression. You must be able to deliver a compelling and memorable message.
“Government Entrepreneur” is Not an Oxymoron
“Government Entrepreneur” is Not an Oxymoron
http://ht.ly/vVP5Q
Public entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship. It’s the pursuit by public officials and their collaborators of opportunity without regard to resources controlled. First year students at Harvard Business School are taught that entrepreneurs face substantial risk in pursuing a new opportunity and a basic Catch-22 that comes with it: that it’s difficult to reduce risk without resources and difficult to attract resources while risk is high. Public entrepreneurs face the same predicament. The course teaches four tactics to cope with the challenge: lean experimentation, scaling, partnering, and storytelling. We can create…
How Successful People Start their Day
How Successful People Start their Day
http://ht.ly/vHgvV
All hours have sixty minutes, not all hours are created equal. Some will fly by as you are “in the flow,” doing something you find exciting and fulfilling.
In the summer of 2012, Fast Company looked at how successful people spend the first hour of their day, and not one included getting bogged down in tasks and processes.Just as we did in high school homeroom, our first hour should include private reflection, reviewing our schedule, catching up with our colleagues, and choosing the One Big Thing that you want to accomplish for that day.
#1 – Stay Away from the Minutia
#2 – Gain Awareness & Be Grateful
#3 – Choose Your Frog
#4 – Ask Yourself if You’re Doing What You Want to Do
Gardening plots at train stations let you raise veggies while you commute
Gardening plots at train stations let you raise veggies while you commute
http://ht.ly/vVAXS
With community garden plots atop train stations, Tokyo is solving two seemingly unrelated problems: Transit hubs can be ugly and industrial-looking, and city-dwellers often don’t have space to garden.
For about $82 a month, Tokyo residents can grow veggies, flowers, and herbs at one of five train station gardens, or “Soradofarms.” Those with thumbs more black than green can get advice, help looking for pests, and weeding assistance. Tools and seeds are provided too.
Not only does ripping up weeds sound therapeutic after a long day at work, but Fast Company says the spaces bring the community together, functioning almost like public parks. “For many, it’s just a place to come to relax,” writes Adele Peters. “[F]amilies come for picnics or to give their kids a little extra room to run around.”
The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders – Peter Diamandis
The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders
http://ht.ly/vHj50
In an era that feels starved for leadership, we’ve found men and women who will inspire you — some famous, others little known, all of them energizing their followers and making the world better. #43 Peter Diamandis – CEO, X Prize Foundation
Apart from the 14 other companies he has founded, Diamandis presides over X Prize Foundation, which hosts $10 million competitions to solve global problems. “He has an infectious optimism, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says futurist Ray Kurzweil. He makes “each person understand that their role is critical to the success of their organization and in turn that the overall project is critical to transforming the world.”
Delta Airlines Sky High on Roanoke Region
Delta Airlines Sky High on Roanoke Region
http://ht.ly/vVC8B
Delta’s in-flight entertainment magazine Sky profiled the Roanoke Region for their April issue, which features Richard Branson on the cover.
Split into three parts over 30 pages, the profile features the best the Roanoke Region and the New River Valley have to offer in the realms of business and tourism. Beautiful photos of the area are spread throughout, interspersed with “My Roanoke” sidebars featuring quotes from locals such as Carilion Clinic CEO Nancy Agee, Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, musician Nicole Yun, and Robert Kulp and Mike Whiteside of Black Dog Salvage .
The feature begins by touting the region’s rebound from the Great Recession and its diverse economic turnaround in a section titled “Virginia in the Vanguard.” Roanoke’s health care industry, higher education, branding of the outdoors, and other factors, were cited as reasons for the region’s resurgence over the past decade.
The second segment of the profile focuses on the tourism industry, outdoor access, and cultural amenities of the region. Along with recommending a trip up Mill Mountain and a ride on the greenway, author Jenny Kincaid Boone lauded the growing craft beer and farm-to-table restaurant scenes, proving Roanoke is ahead of the cultural curve.
Grow Salad In Your Kitchen Inside This Sleek Sensor-Driven Cabinet
Grow Salad In Your Kitchen Inside This Sleek Sensor-Driven Cabinet http://ht.ly/vVNB8
It started with an aquaponics system in a frat house. Now the two MIT grads want to scale the idea and make it easy to grow veggies right in your kitchen.
There’s plenty of excitement about urban farms using aquaponics and hydroponics. The idea of growing food closer to consumers means less fossil fuels burned, fewer chemical inputs, and fresher food. But logic says it should be possible to go further. Why stop with a farm somewhere on the edge of town? Why not bring it to the home and have even fresher food?
There are several home hydroponic systems on the market, such as this Internet-connected home garden, and even some involving fish. But what Grove Labs is talking about is more like an appliance, just like your fridge or washing machine.
To test out the OS, Blanchet and Byron are currently working with controlled-environment commercial farms in the northeast. Later this year, they’ll start prototyping the cabinet and piloting it in a few homes. The final product should be ready by the end of next year, Blanchet says. Grove has taken pre-orders.
N.H. city alderman sees need for Wellness Coordinator
N.H. city alderman sees need for wellness coordinator
http://ht.ly/vH3Ux
As city health costs soar, ‘wellness’ post pushed in Manchester
A member of the Board of Mayor and Alderman says he thinks the city can spend less on health coverage for employees by hiring a $48,000-per-year wellness coordinator to make sure municipal workers eat right, exercise and receive preventive medical care.
Alderman Garth Corriveau will renew his bid Tuesday to convince colleagues to create the position of city health and wellness officer in the Health Department.
The city is self-insured for most health claims and contracts; reinsurance companies cover excess coverage claims.
Corriveau said the goal for the new city job is to move city worker health plans from a system that pays fees for health care services to one that rewards good health. The wellness officer will try to teach city workers about the importance of good health practices and assist employees in working with the health insurance system.
”I believe with $40 million in annual spending, we can find massive amounts of savings; we can be more cost-effective,” Corriveau said. “I now believe this is an initiative we can’t afford not to do.”
The original 2010 proposal from Corriveau came soon after city Public Health Director Tim Soucy issued a “concept paper” on creation of an Employee Health and Wellness Program.
Soucy said at the time that a city wellness program could be constructed to look into “evidence-based practices that demonstrate reductions in municipal health care costs and improved health outcomes of city employees.”
5 ways to be better at processing feedback
5 ways to be better at processing feedback
http://ht.ly/vodyz
Every leader needs honest feedback, but it’s all too easy to intimidate or stifle the people capable of giving it to you, writes Mary Jo Asmus. To get better feedback, stop being defensive and embrace criticism. “Someone giving their honest observations is like getting a gift carefully picked out especially for you,” Asmus writes
9 Ideas That Can Change Everything We Think About Cities
9 Ideas That Can Change Everything We Think About Cities
http://ht.ly/vlai8
By 2050, a staggering 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. (Right now it’s 51 percent.) That will be about 6.72 billion humans putting pressure on a lot of aging infrastructure.
The race is on for cities around the globe to meet the needs of a rising population amid a changing climate and a shifting technological landscape. The cities of the future will have to balance high-tech advances with sustainable living. Here are nine ways they can do that: http://ht.ly/vlai8
6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever
6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever by:Alissa Walker
It seems counter-intuitive, right? Rip out eight lanes of freeway through the middle of your metropolis and you’ll be rewarded with not only less traffic, but safer, more efficient cities? But it’s true, and it’s happening in places all over the world.
Many freeway systems were overbuilt in an auto-obsessed era, only to realize later that cities are actually healthier, greener, and safer without them. Like freeway cap parks, which hope to bridge the chasms through severed neighborhoods—Boston’s Big Dig is a great example—freeway removal projects try to eradicate and undo the damage wrought from highways, while creating new, multifunctional shared streets that can be utilized by transit, bikes, walkers and yes, even cars.
Okay, you’re thinking, but where do all the cars go? It turns out that when you take out a high-occupancy freeway it doesn’t turn the surface streets into the equivalent of the Autobahn. A theory called “induced demand” proves that if you make streets bigger, more people will use them. When you make them smaller, drivers discover and use other routes, and traffic turns out to be about the same. Don’t believe it? Check out http://ht.ly/vdhTe to see freeway removals that have occured in cities all over the world.
Amazing: Top 75 Pictures of the Day for 2013
If you haven’t seen these Top 75 Pictures of the Day for 2013, they are pretty amazing:
http://ht.ly/vaVvF
How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here’s 14 ways to tell
How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here’s 14 ways to tell
What makes some people more successful in work and life than others? IQ and work ethic are important, but they don’t tell the whole story. Our emotional intelligence — the way we manage emotions, both our own and those of others — can play a critical role in determining our happiness and success.
Plato said that all learning has some emotional basis, and he may be right. The way we interact with and regulate our emotions has repercussions in nearly every aspect of our lives. To put it in colloquial terms, emotional intelligence (EQ) is like “street smarts,” as opposed to “book smarts,” and it’s what accounts for a great deal of one’s ability to navigate life effectively.
“What having emotional intelligence looks like is that you’re confident, good at working towards your goals, adaptable and flexible. You recover quickly from stress and you’re resilient,” Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, tells The Huffington Post. “Life goes much more smoothly if you have good emotional intelligence.”
The five components of emotional intelligence, as defined by Goleman, are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social skills and empathy. We can be strong in some of these areas and deficient in others, but we all have the power to improve any of them.
Are you ignoring your top performers? 4 Steps to Coach Your Really Good Employees
Are you ignoring your top performers? 4 Steps to Coach Your Really Good Employees
http://ht.ly/sE1a9
Top employees typically receive less coaching than do underperformers, which can be a source of frustration for talented workers who want to grow professionally, Avery Augustine writes. Meet with top performers to discuss their goals and suggest new challenges, and don’t let them become “complacent about their jobs,” Augustine writes. “Your star employees may not seem like they need much guidance, but giving them a little more attention can help them become even better employees—which will benefit everyone (including you!).”
The car-free city and other innovative solutions to keep pedestrians alive
The car-free city and other innovative solutions to keep nearly 270,000 pedestrians from dying every year. http://ht.ly/szDFT
One of the main culprits in pedestrian fatalities, the car, could also be one of the solutions. Volvo has become a leader in pedestrian safety with the release of technology that uses radar and cameras to scan the road for pedestrians (and bikes). If a pedestrian steps out in front of the car, it automatically applies the brakes to avoid a collision. But in case of a collision, Volvo is also prepared by rolling out cars with external airbags for pedestrians to reduce head injuries.
But not all solutions to pedestrian safety have to be innovative. The biggest steps that the World Health Organization suggests, in a pedestrian study last year, that cities make to increase pedestrian safety are straightforward enough and include:
-Adopting and enforcing new and existing laws to reduce speeding, curb drinking and driving, decrease mobile phone use and other forms of distracted driving;
-Putting in place infrastructure which separates pedestrians from other traffic (sidewalks, raised crosswalks, overpasses, underpasses, refuge islands and raised medians), lowers vehicle speeds (speed bumps, rumble strips and chicanes) and improves roadway lighting.
Still, these types of changes aren’t happening fast enough.
“More than 5000 pedestrians are killed on the world’s roads each week. This is because their needs have been neglected for decades, often in favor of motorized transport,” said Etienne Krug, WHO Director of the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability. “We need to rethink the way we organize our transport systems to make walking safe and save pedestrian lives.”
Public-Private Partnerships Survive Legal Challenges in Virginia
Public-Private Partnerships Survive Legal Challenges in Virginia http://ht.ly/s1x8e
Virginia has long been the U.S. epicenter of the movement toward public-private partnerships to finance transportation infrastructure. So a high-profile lawsuit generated big interest in the transportation community when a judge ruled that tolls on a Norfolk-area project were technically taxes, not user-fees, and the state had illegally deferred its power to tax to a private-sector operator. P3 supporters worried that may have threated the future of similar projects in the state. But this fall, the state supreme court rejected that line of thinking and overruled the lower court, ensuring those types of projects will go forward.
How to measure sidewalk cross slopes
How to measure sidewalk cross slopes http://ht.ly/rGwt9
Our Americans with Disabilities Act consultant explains the right way to meet the ADA’s 2%-or-less rule AND how to make your own wheeled digital ruler.
•It is best to measure from the back of the walk to the face. Since the most recent Public Right of Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROW) require a 4-foot-wide sidewalk, I suggest using a 4-foot-long ruler or at least a 36-inch-long digital measurement ruler as your measuring tool.
Mike Ross is an engineer in the street maintenance division of the City of Overland Park, Kan. He and his staff developed a simple, wheeled device in which you can insert a digital ruler and then roll the device along the sidewalk for readings without constantly bending over and picking up the ruler and putting it down again. It is important to advance a short distance and then stop so an accurate reading is possible. The actual digital readout, of course, faces the person pushing the device.
This tool will also help with measuring the slope of curb ramps, linear slopes of ramps, trail slopes, etc. Most digital rulers also allow you to remove the actual measuring tool in the middle of the ruler to measure small areas.
Strategy+Business: Best Business Books of 2013
Strategy+Business: Best Business Books 2013
http://ht.ly/rCGfO
Our annual review of the year’s best business books: Walter Kiechel III on Strategy, David Hurst on Company Stories, John Jullens on Globalization, Howard Rheingold on Digitization, Catharine Taylor on Marketing, Sally Helgesen on Managerial Self-Help, and James O’Toole on Leadership.
Grunder Great Ideas Video: Begin with the End in Mind – Applied to Hiring Employees
Grunder Great Ideas Video: Begin with the End in Mind – Apply this 7 Habits principle to hiring employees. http://youtu.be/L4jqKUiVccU
Shape 2014 with an effective year-end employee message
Shape 2014 with an effective year-end employee message http://ht.ly/rpD1u
While the content and tone will differ depending on the sender and audience, within the general format you’ll want to:
•Thank employees/team members for their hard work during the past year. If you don’t have time or the inclination to draft the full message, this is the core and very basic element you should include.
•Review accomplishments against annual goals. Public companies will need to protect against divulging anything that is not yet public or could be considered material. This section should also focus on the accomplishments of the particular audience and tie them back to the larger organization’s goals so that employees can see how their contribution fits.
•Acknowledge specific achievements, such as handling of an acquisition, divestiture or reorganization; reaching a stretch goal; completing an initiative or activity that was above and beyond the group’s normal responsibilities; or expanding the organization/group’s capacities in a new, value-adding direction. This reinforces organizational values and encourages employees to repeat the actions and attitudes it took to accomplish that success.
•Make a general reference to the coming year’s goals/focus. Notice that this is a general reference, not a detailed review. Hone in on the key areas, be it customers, sales or innovation, and why those areas are critical for success. Those in groups or divisions should tie the group’s goals back to the overall organization’s goals.
•Reiterate the end of the year’s opportunity to take a breath before the new year begins. This is a significant component. Some employees feel they need permission to enjoy a holiday or even take time off. Others see it as proof that management does, indeed, have a heart. Most simply appreciate acknowledgement of the holiday season, their hard work and marking the year’s passing.
•Wish them a happy new year. Consider alternatives such as “happy holidays” or “season’s greetings” depending on the organization’s culture and the delivery mechanism.
Mendoza via Grunder: Setting 90-Day Goals Changed My Life
Mendoza via Grunder: Setting 90-Day Goals Changed My Life: Here’s My System
http://ht.ly/qu46t
The key to setting a goal for anything is to make them time-bound, measurable, and written.
The vast majority of people who make goals fail to give themselves a deadline, and they fail to write them down. But, according to Stanford’s executive program, 90% of high-performing people:
set specific goals with outcomes,
set a deadline for their goals,
and write them down.
I’ll set my goals at the beginning of each quarter. I set three personal and three professional goals.
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