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By Marian Banker On August 26, 2011No CommentsThe theme for yesterday’s Evening Cafe (Facing Age-Related Changes) was “exit strategy”. It was a great starting place for our small gathering to delve into the areas we are looking at as options going forward.
Harriet has already made a commitment to her new business, which incorporates a lot of what she already knew from her experience in grant writing, fund raising and working with non-profits. Jean is on the brink of taking a new direction in her life. She has a passion for color, color analysis and therapy and has even obtained a certificate in it. Her challenge is how to make money building a business around something she loves. And Irene has a million great ideas and needs to sort them out according to what will motivate her long term and where she’ll be able to make money most easily.
Exit strategy for all of us means finding a way to continue to thrive despite the challenges we face at this age.
Several resources which can be helpful for us, and others our age, were mentioned. Here’s the ones I made note of.
Coming of Age, http://comingofage.org
The Transition Network, http://thetransitionnetwork.org
PESID, People Empowering Seniors Independence & Dignity, http://www.meetup.com/PESID-people-empowering-seniors-independence-dignity/.
It seemed like there was some very good possible synergy that came out of our discussion. I do hope you will follow-up with each other. You just never know what might develop.
In September our Morning Café will take place on Monday, September 12th from 10 – 11:30 a.m. Our theme for this meeting will be “relationships”. The web page can be viewed at http://www.primestrategies.com/age-related_changes.htm. And the next Evening Café will be Thursday, September 22nd, 7 – 8:30 p.m. The planned theme for this one will be “love and sex”. Make note of these on your calendar and plan to attend if you can.
Recent Posts
By Marian Banker On June 15, 2010
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My husband, Marty, is an excellent cook. He does most of the cooking of our evening meals. I usually handle breakfast and lunch when we’re here together. Last weekend he made lobster rolls. OMG, the way he made the lobster salad was so delicious. It’s certainly the best I’d ever eaten, and I’d say could be the best in the world. I’ll share his recipe with you so you can make it yourself. The portions aren’t exact. Use your judgment, but you want at least half of the mixture to be vegetables.
Start with one pound of lobster meat. We buy ours at the Brooklyn Red Hook Lobster Pound. It’s got some mayo already on it, but nothing else. Think of it as a blank canvas.
1 pound lobster meat
2 – 3 scallions, chopped
1/2 sweet red pepper, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. sweet pickle relish
1/2 – 3/4 cup mayonnaise
Blend together, cover and place in refrigerator for 2 -3 hrs. so the flavors can meld. Spoon into warm soft rolls shaped like hot dog rolls, but have the cut on the top. MMMMMmmmm, good. But they are filling, so plan one at a time.
If you do try it let me know what you think.
P.S. – I know this isn’t about business, but I wanted to share it because it’s so good.
By Marian Banker On June 14, 2010
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The husband and wife partnership I started working with a few weeks ago has progressed nicely. Last week there was a complaint from the wife (aka Jane) that she needed access to ‘resources under the husband’s (aka Joe’s) control and Joe had not been willing to agree. Their homework assignment was to discuss it again to see if they could come to agreement. Upon hearing more from Jane, Joe became convinced that it was better to designate time from his staff than for Jane to go outside to get the needed resources. In the future the decision might be different. It was agreed that if either had need of the other’s services and they could not agree to provide them with staff, the other would have the option to hire outside resources, keeping in mind the return on investment of the decision.
Also historically they said they often disagreed with each other in meetings with their executive staff. Because this took extra time and was not a good face to be presenting to those who had major responsibilities, they decided that when they found themselves disagreeing they would stop the discussion and say they would work out the disagreement at a later time and come back with a unified position next time. At this past week’s meeting they didn’t disagree in the meeting, but realized they didn’t agree and decided to discuss it afterward. By taking it up specifically after the meeting they were able to reach agreement and are prepared to come back next time with a unified statement. Both felt it wasn’t perfect, but that progress had been made.
The bottom line: in order to move forward on anything, agreement must be reached. When there is disagreement it saps energy and time and keeps things from moving forward.
By Marian Banker On May 21, 2010
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I recently started working with a husband and wife partnership running a company of 40 employees and $20M in revenue. They came to me because they seemed to butt heads whenever they had a decision to make. Each had strong feelings about how things should be done and frequently found it difficult to reach an agreement. Fortunately they both were eager to find a resolution to their communication issues, which they had not been able to resolve on their own.
In addition to finding out where they were together and where they were apart, I learned each of their strengths. I asked if there was a delineation of duties, with each having responsibility for specific areas. While it seems they knew their areas of strength they did not have anything like a table of organization.
So their first assignment was to agree that each would be the final decision-maker for specific areas. The husband took web site development and marketing; the wife took operations and product management. For projects they agreed that the individual responsible for the department bearing the bulk of the work would oversee the project from beginning to end and would assign tasks to the other departments if needed.
They also agreed that before major decisions were made in their areas they would run the details and facts by the other partner. If the other partner had issues or concerns they would take 24 – 48 hours to consider everything before making a final decision.
This change meant they would need to communicate the new structure to their department heads, which is on the agenda for next time.
They have used the new system for 2 weeks and things seem to have gone smoothly so far. We’ll see what comes up as new projects are started and the staff adjust to a clearer delineation of roles and responsibilities.
