Creating Community around LOST

My last post featured the story of my Dad's dedication to a single project for his entire career, and this post stays in the family, this time with my Brother and all that he put into his work covering LOST for Entertainment Weekly.  There must be something in the Jensen male gene that keeps us engaged in a single activity, and focused on seeing it through...from my Dad and his work as a detective, to my Brother and his commitment to LOST, to my own story of spending 10 years with a local technology company.  Either way, for this post I want to recognize my Brother and what he has done for Entertainment and the LOST community by providing his insights and opinions over the last 6 years.  His passion for the show, and his desire to try and determine what it all meant and to share that with the LOST community is a great example of "Making it Happen."

I have to admit that I am not an avid LOST fan.  I watched it occasionally, but as a result of infrequent attention to the show I was ironically "Lost" quite a bit.  For me, I liked the challenge of trying to figure it all out, when I had no idea what was going on.  The other attraction was trying to be somewhat informed as I followed the various online blog posts and videos under Doc Jensen.  So, when it came to the finale, I didn't camp out and watch every minute..in fact, I only watched the last hour.  It didnt matter though, because I knew that the next day I would heave Doc Jensen's recap waiting for me to help explain what it all mean...and I'm not alone in that.  As Jeff's reputation for thoughtful analysis and "inside scoop" emerged he started to have a very loyal following.  People eagerly anticipated his weekly breakdown of all the details from the previous week as well as what was to come.  Also, over time Jeff and his EW partner, Dan Snierson, stared to get active in Social Media to further their message.  On twitter, @EWDocJensen has over 21,000 followers. His Doc Jensen blog typically received many 100's of comments.  And their weekly Totally Lost videos I'm sure get a lot of views.  Given that I am in the social media/community space for my job, it is great to see how Jeff, and the EW team, have created a community around the show and have leveraged social media tools (blogs, twitter, video) to expand the reach of their message.  The LOST audience was eager for the kind of storytelling and insight that Jeff offered, and I think were entertained by the creativity that he and Dan put into the Totally Lost videos.  It provided an opportunity for the audience to see the "real" side of Jeff and the person behind the columns.

So, cheers to Jeff and what he did over the last 6 years covering the show.  I know it meant a lot to him, and he had a passion for delivering on what the entertainment world wanted...someone to try and make sense of it all.  As he moves on to something else, I'm sure it wont be easy to let go of 6 years of brain numbing analysis, but I'm sure he will Make It Happen again, just as he did with LOST.  

Great job bro!

Read More!

Dedication, Persistence and Patience

As I was reading through a random selection of tweets last week I noticed one from Washington State Representative Dave Reichert (@davereichert) mentioning that it was "Police Week" - a time to honor those that serve and protect us day in and day out.  In reading that, especially from Rep. Reichert, I immediately thought of my Dad, Tom Jensen, who has served in law enforcement for the last 30+ years, 25 of which have been dedicated to single case, The Green River Murders.  For all you Gen X and Y'rs our there can you imagine a) working for the same "company" for 30 yrs and b) on the same project (or case)?  In this day and age, it is unheard of.  However, for my dad it was necessary...necessary to see something through to it's completion, necessary to bring closure to families, necessary to help reassure the public that they are safe.  I can think of no better example of Making It Happen then my dad and his effort on this case that has been his career.

 

Like many people, including myself, my dad has his "quirks."  I think the hat he was given with the initials E.C. on it (which stands for Endearingly Crabby) a few years ago while working on the Green River case, pretty much sums it up.  That's just who he is.  Behind that however, is a person that was dedicated to his job, understood his role, and pushed forward amidst adversity, uncertainty, frustration, and near failure to help solve the most prolific serial murder case in the history of the United States.  For 11 years (1990-2001), he was the only Full Time resource on this "unsolvable" case.  He had every opportunity to give up, move on, and do something different.  Instead he persisted and patiently went through every tip and every piece of evidence, until there was finally a breakthrough.  DNA Technology had finally caught up and in processing a final piece of evidence, they were able to make a match.  In 2001, after all those years of uncertainty and frustration, he helped make the arrest of Gary Ridgeway.  It took another couple years to bring the case to trial, conviction, and final closure for families of the victims, and in that process, my Dad was again right in the thick of it doing everything he could to ensure that all the families and the public were served.

All of this hard work, dedication, persistence, and patience finally came in the form of formal recognition a few weeks ago when my dad was awarded the King County Employee of the Year for 2009.  Knowing my Dad this is not something that he wants a lot of attention on, and he will be the first to give a lot of credit to other involved, but I know he deserves it and he should be very proud for what he has accomplished.  He has definitely Made It Happen!  Since the case has been closed, my Dad still continues to serve, applying his skills to try and solve Cold Cases in the State of Washington...and trying to Make It Happen again.

P.S. - Stay tuned for another "Make It Happen" post down the road as my brother is working on a graphic novel that tells my Dad's story.  Here is an interview with him talking about what to expect.

Read More!

Teacher Appreciation

This week was Teacher Appreciation week, it was difficult for me not to write a post about teachers and how they Make It Happen.  Not only do I have my own personal experiences as a student when I was younger, but now as a parent, I have the opportunity to witness how each and every day teachers have a positive impact on the lives of kids.  So, this post is about teachers, and the three things that they do on a daily basis to "Make It Happen"

Patience

If you are a parent, you know that as much as we love our kids, they can push our buttons, right?  Well, think of someone that spends 6+ hours of the day with your kid...and dozens more...at the same time!  The second you think about how challenging it might be, step back and think of what our teachers face on a day to day basis.  There is an art to teaching, to engaging a number of kids, and helping them learn.  The patience that teachers must have to push through the day, face the challenges that pop up, and continue on is something we can all admire and learn from.

Service

With any teacher, but especially with the teachers that I have had the privilege to be around in my lifetime through private schools in West Seattle, the word service comes to mind.  They are dedicated servants to the kids, families and the community.  In the private school setting that I have been involved with, teachers are specifically trained in what it means to "serve" and dedicate themselves to that line of work.  It takes a special person to humble themselves day in and day out to serve.  It can't be easy, but through their service they make the world a better place for the future.

Compassion

What I love about the teachers I have had, and the ones now teaching my kids, is they have a level of compassion that I wish I could have.  They have the ability to embrace kids, and the challenges they might be facing, inside or outside of the classroom, and help them learn.  I feel fortunate the my kids are around teachers now that if they have a concern, or a struggle, that they will be understanding and generous with their time to get them through it.  I know for sure that this will only help my kids in their journey.

I came across a tweet from @shanuacausey the other day with a quote from Warren Buffett that said "Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."  When I think of teachers, they are planting trees today (through the education they give our kids), so that there is shade (opportunity) for someone in the future.  They are without a doubt making it happen.

What are other attributes of teachers you have had that make them special?

Read More!

Pushing Forward Change

Since we are all creatures of habit, guess what, we don't like change.  We don't like it when our normal latte stand is closed and have to try a new one a block away and we don't like it when the road to work is under construction and have to get there a different way.  For the most part, many like to hunker down and just do things they way they have been done..put the blinders up and just "be"..it's just easier.  As we all know this isn't how it works, things change, people change, technology changes, etc. and we have to adjust and adapt.  Along the road we come into contact with people, or companies, that seem to always push the envelope.  They embrace change, and rather than take the approach that "we hope it doesn't impact me," they force the issue, and get people moving forward.  They 'Make It Happen.'  In my opinion, Facebook, with the F8 event and the changes they are making to their platform, have done that. 

Even with the wild growth of their platform (400m users and growing), Facebook realized that a major change is needed to really move forward, and fully embrace the new/future web.  They announced a number of features, which I wont go into a lot of detail on in this post (look here for a great recap and commentary), that created quite a stir.  Why? Because it is change, and it is pushing the envelope on where the web and social goes.  Some call it "Transformational" while other feel that there are significant privacy issues (as noted in this great post by Robert Scoble.) Have they made people uncomfortable?  Yep. Have have they lost some users?  Probably.  I'm not even quite sure what it all means yet, but what I do know is that Facebook has a vision and in order to realize that vision, they understand that change is needed.  We have to accept openness, and embrace ways to tie our digital world together.  Could they have just stayed the course, added some cool features, and grown their user base at some percentage year after year? Sure.  Instead they decided to shake things up, ignite some ambitious change and move forward.  Are they trying to rule the web?  Hard to say, but I admire how they didn't just settle, they pushed forward with some big changes and made it happen.  In doing so, know we can engage in further conversations to determine where we go from here and I look forward to that.  

What do you think?

Read More!

Making an Impact

Day in and day out we settle into a routine...Get up, have breakfast, go to work, go home, do "stuff", go to bed...repeat.  As we get older, maybe get married, maybe have kids, we pack more and more in.  Then at some point we stop and say to ourselves, am I having an impact?  Is what I am doing contributing to the greater good?  Are my talents being put to the best use?  The typical next step is to think about getting more involved, volunteering here or there, and finding that thing that makes a difference.  The challenge is that we typically do a lot of "thinking" and not a lot of doing.  Well with this post on Make It Happen, I'm featuring my Uncle, who after retiring a little bit ago, asked him self the same question...but he is doing something about it.

Per his very first blog post my uncle gives a little background on his desire to answer the question "what have I done that is truly fulfilling and rewarding" If you think about that one for a bit, how would you answer it?  Have you done something that is really rewarding and made a difference?  If you have, awesome!  For many, like my uncle, I bet you struggle to find that something that truly has had an impact.  At a point in our life I think everyone desires to feel like they have left a mark and had a positive impact, in some way shape or form.  For my uncle he realized that nothing he came up with really satisfied him...there wasn't that "thing" he could point to and say, "I did that!" So, he did what I think many of us don't do enough of, he took the initiative to find something the might just answer that question...something that he can feel a sense of accomplishment about.  He Made It Happen by signing up for a month long volunteer opportunity in Morocco to help kids with their English and other comprehension skills.  Will it answer his question?  Time will tell if that will satisfy him.  Although I'm pretty sure it will, one thing is for certain, he can say that he tried to Make It Happen.

I encourage you to follow his blog at http://dechew.blogspot.com/ and see how he is having an impact.




Read More!

Community

Since my transition to a new role that is all about Community, I have used the phrase "Make It Happen" in a lot of what I do, mainly because I think that encompasses what community is all about...It's about going above and beyond to help, share, and give to support a need with the knowledge that you might not get anything back right away.  Rather it is just the right thing to do.  So, when all the buzz around Seattle late last week was how there was no money for Seattle's annual July 4th Fireworks show, I was one of the first to make the statement that this was going to be a case study for community...how people come together around a need to do what they can to Make It Happen.

I guess the initial kudos needs to go to Tom Douglas and Dave Ross for stepping up on their radio show to make some of the first pledges and to get things kicked off.  With the need identified, a goal in sight, and some initial support behind it, I don't think it was a big surprise to see businesses, big and small, as well as individuals make contributions to make the show go on.  Donations started to come in quickly.  $1000 here, $5000 there, until finally the big corporations in the area Microsoft and Starbucks said they would contribute $125k each in matching funds.  Before you knew it, the core $250k was there, combined with the $250k in matching funds, and the goal was met.

There were a number of comments out there about why this was so important...seriously, they are just fireworks, right?  Well, I guess not.  In a world where things are always changing, and things come and go, this community event was one that people said, not this time.  It showed how we have depended so much, and maybe taken for granted, what the big businesses do for us (i.e. WaMu/Chase being previous sponsors).  But in the end, I think it also showed that if we care enough about something we can make anything happen. 

So, what is your next fireworks show?  Something that you simply cant just let pass by and go away...something that you are willing to get behind because it means a lot to not just you, but to all generations, and to the entire community. Read More!

Have to vs. Get to

About a year ago I wrote a personal blog post about the awesome perspective that my wife has about the things we do on a daily basis.  The idea is this; if you listen very carefully to how people describe their day, what transpired, or what is planned I would bet that a very high percentage use the term "HAVE TO" a lot.  Q: What are you up to do today? A: Well, I have to take the kids to school, then I have to head over to a friends house to help them with a project, then I have to do some things around the house....etc.  For this Make It Happen post, I want to challenge people to replace the word HAVE with GET.  It changes the perspective in a big way.

Often time when we approach our day, the things we do, our tasks, more often than not people do those things because of a sense of obligation...it's what is required...and thus we use language like "HAVE TO" to describe it.  I think it was about a year ago, and my wife and I were talking about that very thing.  We heard ourselves talking about all the things we HAVE to get done, all the meetings for the non-profit work that HAVE to go to, when the light bulb went off.  For many of these things, because we were feeling an obligation, or the requirement, and by using the word HAVE to, we were starting to resent all these things.  All these things that we know are important, that we know have a positive impact, that we know help make our lives and the lives of others better...but that one little word put a damper on our perspective.   Think about it:

• I have to go to work - Are you really going to give it your all?
• I have to take the kids to practice - Will you really support them the way they need to be supported?
• I have to go to a meeting - Are you going to be focused on the topics being discussed?I have to help a friend move - Are you going to truly understand their emotions?

Just think if you flipped all the statements around with one little change:

• I GET to go to work - Doesn't this help you appreciate the fact that you at least have a job...and drive you to do your best?
• I GET to take the kids to practice - Doesn't this help you realize that the kids love it when you cheer them on...and makes you love your kids more?
• I GET to go to a meeting - Doesn't this help you keep the meeting on point..and make you engaged?
• I GET to help a friend move - Doesn't this help you treasure your friendship...and make you consider their point of view?

You could make an analogy to the whole glass half full or glass half empty argument.  When you use the word HAVE, your perspective is empty and not looking at the bigger picture.  Where as when you use the word GET, you realize that what you are doing has an impact, and through your engagement and involvement you have the opportunity to great things.  So, I challenge you to watch your words the next time someone asks you "What's going on" and see if you use the word HAVE.  Try to change that around and use the word GET...see how quickly your perspective on those things might change.  Even more important think about how the person's might catch on and say, "wow, that is a great perspective."  We all have gifts, and we GET the opportunity to use them on a daily basis to Make It Happen! Read More!