Travel Log - Star date 20080322

Plane, train or automobile: The Exploder rides again! This time I got to haul stuff and had a co-pilot!

Mission: This one was a doozy! A few members of our staff that are certified to deliver the leadership training that I do every week were asked to assist at our National Leadership Conference in Nashville, TN. Here is my schedule:

Saturday 15th - Drive to Nashville. Unload and set up registration
Sunday 16th - Church (Palm Sunday!). Run registration booth for @ 300 participants
Monday 17th - Co-facilitate with HR Directors in four breakout sessions
Tuesday 18th - Co-facilitate with outside training firm for 30 DMs

Wednesday 19th - Co-facilitate with outside training firm for 30 DMs (same group)

Thursday 20th - Drive home!

Number of human interactions: Well over 300

State(s) visited: TN

City visited: Nashville

Interesting fact about this city: The Gaylord Opryland Hotel is ginormous and a great place to host an event.

Halpert says: I LOVE the Opryland Hotel!! Check out my TV and the size of my bed (yes, that's me in the middle of the pillows down there)!!

Travel Log - Star date 20080315

Plane, train or automobile: Racking up the miles on the Exploder!

Mission: A lot on this trip... a two-day leadership workshop, then two days of visiting new management Team Members in two different divisions. Oh, and did I mention that I got home at 9 p.m. on Friday and left at 7 a.m. on Saturday for a leadership conference in Nashville, TN?

Number of human interactions: About 20

State(s) visited: GA, SC

City visited: Atlanta, GA; Anderson, SC; Greenville, SC

Interesting fact about this city:
Atlanta, GA - I actually stayed near Stone Mountain. I'd like to bring the girls down with me on a trip so they could see it. I don't do much sight seeing on my trips - I have work to do!

Anderson, SC has a great little downtown area. My mom is thinking of moving south (and leave balmy South Dakota??) and I think this area would be great for her.

Halpert says: Wow, 5 different beds in 5 nights!!! Maybe he really is Travel Man!

Travel Log - Star date 20080308

Plane, train or automobile: The mighty Exploder!!!

Mission: Two two-day leadership workshops. This is a region that I have not worked with before, so the pressure is on to deliver high quality workshops!

Number of human interactions: 30 Team Members total

State(s) visited: OH, WV

City visited: Morgantown, WV

Interesting fact about this city: If you are not expecting to see this building, you suddenly think that Close Encounters of the Third Kind is happening!

Halpert says: Man, that was some good Mexican food at the Rio Grande!

Champions!

I have been assistant coaching my daughter's 9-12 year old basketball team the past few months and thoroughly enjoyed my foray into coaching. We ended up as the number one seed in the playoffs by playing the best defense in the league (11 points a game) and scoring the second highest number of points (17.9 points a game).

We had a bye week during the first round of the playoffs and learned that we would be playing the only Team that beat us in the championship game. What an opportunity!

We arrived at the gym during half time of the consolation game being played before ours so that we would be ready to warm up as soon as that game ended. The kids all looked so excited that they might throw up! The game before ours ended and we quickly took the court to practice our free throws and rebounding - our usual pre-game warm up.

Our league starts the "B" Team in the first quarter and also allows each player to shoot one free throw - that might be the only chance some of the kids get to score some points. Our head coach noticed that one of the boys on the team ("K") had a bloody ear and we had to send him to the bathroom to get cleaned up and ready to play. We were a player down and we hadn't even started the game yet. My Big Girl (the smallest kid on the team) calmly stepped to the line and sank her free throw! She averages less than a point a game and already she was on the board! Three of her teammates followed suit and we had a 4-1 lead before the jump ball.

Our "B" Team played good defense and took several shots, and ended the first quarter locked at the 4-1 score. The second quarter starts with free throws for the "A" Team and they added a point to our total. The coach's son typically brings the ball up the court for the "A" Team and as he came across mid-court, we could see him holding up his index finger as if he was signaling for an offensive set. I leaned over to Coach and said "I don't even know what #1 means, do you think any of the kids know what that means? "The "A" Team usually has the 11-12 year olds, so the level of play elevates and we played our best quarter of basketball all season, going in to halftime with a 12-1 lead. Soccer Mom was sitting in the middle of a group of parents from the other team and they were all commenting on how well our team passed the ball and hustled for every loose ball.

The second half was Coach's choice as to who to play and we kept our "A" Team in to start. "K", the boy with the bloody ear earlier, is known for his enthusiasm and tendency to lose focus. Coach did a brilliant job of subbing him in for a minute at a time and he grabbed several rebounds and had several shot attempts. He came off the court yelling "That was best few minutes of the whole season!". If only the rest of the team had played that well - we got a little sloppy and we let the other team close to within 1 point - it was 14-13 with about 4 minutes to go.

In my regular job I teach "soft skills" to store managers and one of the topics in our session is setting goals. We discuss that team members will put in extra effort if they see that they are close to the goal. I saw a text book example of that from our coach's daughter. She is our best shooter and for the entire season had set up on the wing to spot up for her favorite shot. The other team inbounded the ball and had to go the full length of the court. Coach's daughter hung back on defense against their best player and stole the ball! She drove down the court for a layup! I lived in Orlando for many years and one of my favorite Orlando Magic highlights is from the 1995 playoffs when Nick Anderson stole the ball from Michael Jordan - "Nick Anderson stole the ball! Nick Anderson stole the ball!" (Click here to see it - it is #4 at about the 3:20 mark) Her steal was every bit as exciting and game changing!

The other team took the ball out of bounds again and she stole the ball again! They recovered much faster, but the damage was done. We held on to win the game 16-13. My Big Girl has a gold medal with her name engraved on it and I have wonderful memories of winning that championship with her as her coach.

Travel Log - Star date 20080223

This was an off week for the entire league that Big Girl plays in, so stay tuned for championship game highlights!

Plane, train or automobile: The trusty old Exploder

Mission: Visit new management trainees with the Division Manager. This was my first planned visit with the DM and his presence really paid off. He looked at things from a slightly different point of view and helped drive home the importance of following our program. He incorporated the information into his next managers meeting and I am seeing more Team Members in the program in his division after two days than I do in some divisions that I visited a month ago.

Number of human interactions: 8-10 at the store level.

State(s) visited: 2 - VA and a brief trip into North Carolina

Cities visited: South Boston and Danville, VA and Yanceyville, NC

Interesting fact about this city: South Boston has no Starbucks - not uncommon in rural towns. I think the residents of South Boston would be in for sticker shock if Starbucks comes in - I stopped at a coffee shop next to our store and was able to buy a LARGE cup of coffee for 69 cents. 69 cents!!!

Halpert says: How come I didn't get any of that coffee?

Customer "service"

This post is not related to the normal travel stuff that I bore both my readers with...

I use a BlackBerry for work. I am on the road so much, and having email on my phone makes my life much easier and gives me more time with my family when I am home. I have come to rely on the "insert name of a berry here"Berry (my girls call it the RaspBerry, the LingonBerry, the DingleBerry, etc.).

So you can imagine my frustration as I saw my battery life grow shorter and shorter over the past few weeks. BlackBerrys are known for great battery life, and for almost a year I have had no complaints. Now, I get about 8 hours off of a full charge - way down from the 30-36 hours I would get before.

On my lunch break, I rolled over the store I purchased the phone last March, expecting to swap the battery for a new one. This store is not a "service" store and I need to go across town to the "service" store. The next morning, I wait patiently for the "service" store to open. I flashed my phone to the man behind the counter and barely got the words "I need a batter...." out when he said "Don't have a battery for that phone". ???

I have an 8700 model, which was sold by every carrier you ever heard of and was advertised heavily in early 2007. There must be millions of these phones out there. Here is a transcript of the rest of our conversation:

Me: "Um... where can I get this replaced?"

Him: "You have to order it from the manufacturer."

Me: "Aren't you the service store for XXXXX?" The service I use had their logo displayed in 4,358 places in the store.

Him: "Yeah, but we are ZZZZ ZZZ. We are just an authorized dealer."

Me: "But not authorized to carry batteries for them."

Him: "There aren't that many phones like that out there. You could check out the new battery store over at the mall, they might have it."

Me: "But that wouldn't be covered under my service plan."

Him: "The battery is not covered under the service plan. The phone is, but batteries are an accessory, and accessories aren't covered."

Me: "Don't accessories enhance the use of a product?"

Him: "...yeah..."

Me: "I can use the phone without the headset, I can use the phone without the holder, but I can't use the phone without a battery. I would say the battery is not an accessory."

Him: "Your plan doesn't cover batteries."

What you can't see from this dialogue is the body language of the man behind the counter. He was ready for me to leave as soon as he saw my phone. So I obliged.

I went to the new battery store. They don't open until 10 a.m. and it is only 9:15. I head back to the office and tell my dear wife what is going on. She goes to XXXXX's website and is informed that they can't communicate with customers until their customer service upgrade is complete. ??? A communications company can't communicate with me? Call me crazy, but I would think that a phone company could figure out a way to have their people talk to me even if they worked off a two day old database.

My dear wife found a battery at eforcity.com and promptly ordered it.

Guess what I am going to do when XXXXX's customer service upgrade is done?

Travel Log - Star Date 20080216

Big Girl's basketball team earned a first round bye in the playoffs, so we spent Saturday scouting the other teams. We'll have a tough match up against the winner of the game we saw!

Plane, train or automobile: The trusty Exploder

Mission: In-Store Management Training visits. These were local, so no chance to find a Moe's or rack up some hotel points.

Number of human interactions: 4. Great time with the new management team members and the division manager was very responsive to the program.

State(s) visited: Virginia

City visited: Madison Heights

Interesting fact about this city: Um, it's between Lynchburg and Amherst?

Halpert says: Why did you make me sit in the car? Don't you know that dogs' brains can melt in the heat? Oh yeah... it was 40 degrees.