Another Way to Be Green: Recycling Design Center Out-dated Items

Design Centers around the country get annual updates of carpet, fabric, tile, window treatments and the like. Which means that the out-dated items end up being discarded. In a new approach to recycling, I've begun picking up out-dated items from a local interior design center and putting the items to the following uses. Schools, craft-classes, and creative individuals can recycle things in useful and artistic ways:

1. Fabric samples – turned into pillows and a patchwork doll-quilt.
2. Fabric samples on the card-rings are serving as Fabric Store play things.
3. Paint chip cards – are perfect for playing design store – and are big enough to draw on as individual “canvas” pages.
4. Tile samples and flooring – peeled off the original display boards they become squares for counting and pattern making. Plans include glue and paper for patterns too.
5. Carpet samples – have been turned into play house and doll house carpeting.
6. Wood Blind samples – taken out of the holder, they are now in the block-set for building ramps or roofing.
7. The 4 and 5 –ring binder/book handles from some of the big display books have been cut apart and delivered to the neighborhood Kindergarten teacher who uses such things for big-books illustrated by the kids and sent home to each house for “reading and review comments” --- These are GREAT binder/board/handle which serve as binding/spine improvements for what had been worn-out in the circulation of the kids.
8. Ongoing samples – each year Kindergarten teachers create learning centers. Some teachers include a “home building/design” center in their rotation. So, we’d love to keep getting items and be able to forward them to our school's Kindergarten classroom. Perhaps other schools would be interested too.

Papered In?

If your office is piled with paper, it is time to clean! Even when you can find what you want when you want it, a piled-high office creates a visual information overload. Sort your papers into the following categories: recycle; file in the archives; file in active files (or piles); destroy - anything that needs to be kept confidential should be destroyed. Once you have sorted and organized, work will flow more easily and you'll feel less overwhelmed.

How Many Calls Does It Take?

How many calls does it take to talk to a live person at your company?
Over the last few months, I've discovered that it can take from one call to as many as 20 calls before talking to a live person who can actually address my question. Only because of the intense desire to conduct some business with the 20-call firm have I persisted. The royal-run-around is a waste of time and a lost business opportunity.

Stanford Picks up Moving Out!

Moving Out of the Box (Praeger/Greenwood, 2007) has been picked up by Stanford University Press for paperback publishing for a period of seven years. To have my work recognized by Stanford as a valuable contribution to decision-making, consensus, and command-and-control literature is an honor.

Vision in Action

Ran across this Japanese Proverb: Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

Clear Messaging

Saw this bumper sticker: "Visualize Whirled Peas." Which prompted a smile and this business reminder: be clear about your message and desired outcomes before broadcasting and publishing the message.