"Fluffy" Pillows at Wingate by Wyndham??

Went to Fayetteville to teach some CPAs. Arrived at the Wingate by Wyndham Hotel. Great room promising "fluffy" pillows. I should have noticed that the 4 "fluffy" pillows were standing edge-up at attention side by side on the bed, like a full-dress Marine Honor Guard. After a 4-hour drive, I lay down and got consussion. OMG. The Washington Monument is fluffier than these pillows which are about 12 inches high and with the texture of concrete. This was obviously the artificially staged room used for shooting misleading advertising photographs. You know, like the plastic burgers and salads they use for advertising food that you can never actually experience. I called housekeeping to ask for some pillows that you can actually rest your head on. "Sorry, that's all we have," I was was told. "Has anyone actually managed to sleep on these torture-blocks," I asked. Obviously not - the last victims are still undergoing surgery for severe head and neck trauma. After two hours of torture, a blinding headache and neckache drove me across the street to the Courtyard by Marriott at 2am. "This is a strange request, but do you think I might borrow a couple of your pillows" I asked. "I'll return them in the morning IF I wake up." After convincing these folk that I wasn't a wino, hophead or total lunatic, I staggered back to the Wingate clutching my 2 pillows, trying to avoid the hard stare and raised eyebrows of a local trooper on his way home from the local coffee and donut emporium. Blissful sleep at last, albeit for just a couple of hours. Just another example of advertising sizzle without the steak. If some genie ever offered me a wish, I'd wish that every advertising and marketing agency were forced to actually use the products and services they so fervently and blindly promote.

Xidho ama xoola waa!

USA Today reports that we have so many Somali refugees living in the USA, that we have to start translating stuff. First is the "Click It or Ticket" seat-belt signs. Because Somalia has no government, the concept of getting a ticket is totally foreign to them, so a translation of "Click it or ticket" doesn't work. Instead, the warning is "Strap it or lose your livestock!" Not sure how effective a warning to Muslims to "Strap it or get 72 virgins!" would be.

CitySearch Sucks!

In January 2008, a CitySearch rep signed my business up for a CitySearch Charlotte website. As part of the “sales-pitch” he convinced me to cap the account at not less than $200 per month as “this would allow the full impact of CitySearch to be noticed.” Additionally he promised that a professional ad writer at CitySearch would be in touch with me to “extend their free ad writing service to help me create the best CitySearch page possible.” And finally he recommended my entry being placed in the “educational-Personal Development” category.

What a load of Bull!!!

It’s now June 2009 and this is how I’ve benefitted from CitySearch.
1. In spite of countless emails and phone calls to secure the free ad writer service, I’ve yet to receive this service or even speak to this person.

2. Over the past 18 months, CitySearch has billed my company a total of $2140 for clicks on my CitySearch website which has yield precisely nothing at all. Zip. Zilch. Nada!

3. When I’ve tried to access my account, the portal has been closed, down for repairs or simply not operational.

4. I’ve spoken to my rep on numerous occasions about this lack of performance from CitySearch. I’ve asked my rep to investigate the click-through logs to see where the click-throughs are being directed. After many promises to investigate this, with absolutely nothing forthcoming, my rep disappeared, most likely for a less frustrating and more honest job.

5. I made contact with a new rep. Told him my tale of woe. This is what he advised – “Ok, I checked into things and this is what I would recommend. Move to the basic package at $99.00 per month. Business consulting just isn’t one of our top categories and doesn’t receive a lot of relevant traffic. The reason you’re getting random clicks with no return is your page is appearing in several categories that aren’t necessarily core for you. This is done to enhance exposure but sometimes backfires and gets no return. I’m negotiating one month’s credit for you now. I can also add additional categories, (business consultants, productivity consultants), to help target your campaign more specifically.)

6. By what authority my page was listed under “several categories that aren’t necessarily core for” my business, I have no idea. All I can guess is that CitySearch decided that because they could not bill me for $200 in click-throughs in the “Educational-Personal Development category” they could increase the click-throughs by listing me in other categories. As I’ve never been able to access my account, these new categories could possibly include nose-picking, stomach-scratching and jay-walking. And the promise of a month’s credit is REALLY generous, especially after I’ve spent $2140 with these rip-off artists. Yes, the category-padding DID backfire. I received the blast!! CitySearch took the profits!!

7. I’ve just been billed a further $183.45 for another month of these highly-suspect click-throughs, which again have yielded zero results. I wrote the following to my rep : “I've not seen the credit you indicated and I now see that CitySearch has just billed me another $183.45 on 06/24/2009, once again for zero noticeable traffic. Please look into this. I'd like this latest charge reversed. Also the credit of $196.45 charged on 6/1/2009. And also the account suspended. Please get back to me with a date when this will be done.”

8. And here’s the response : I had your account cancelled on Friday, June 5th, 2 minutes after I received your email request to do so. Your billing cycle runs through the 21st of each month with billing occurring in arrears. The invoice you received on 6/24/09 was for your last month of service. I tried negotiating for a credit but a credit can only be issued on a live account. I was denied my request for a refund.

9. Don’t you just love the gall of these people? Instead of working to fix the problem, they obviously figure that they’ve fleeced enough from me and rather than spend a bit of time and effort in retaining a customer and building some loyalty, it’s off to fleece some other sucker. After all, they’ve already billed me for $2140 worth of bull-shit click-throughs. Surely a couple of months of free service while they get their act together is not too much to ask for. But no, it’s cherry-picking time. Time to fleece another sucker - there’re 300 million in this country and a new one born every minute!

Bottom line? CitySearch really does suck! Total rip-off!

Caveat Emptor in ‘Scamerica’

Last week, one of my students drew my attention to a radio advertisement touting a “revolutionary” new speed reading course. “In just 7 minutes you could be reading up to 1000 percent faster, enabling you to read 10 books in the time it presently takes you to read one book. And you can try out this course absolutely free. Call now for your free trial.”

First of all, nothing about reading is “revolutionary” – reading is like breathing – you either do it well or you do it badly. Then they don’t tell you that, for the free trial, you will need to pay a bundle for the shipping (which is pretty standard) and handling (which is where they cover the cost of the free trial!). Nor do they tell you that they will need your credit card details to bill you 5 easy payments of $50 if you forget to cancel your order before the free trial ends.

And they don’t tell you that you could also invest the shipping and handling money in the lottery where you COULD win $300 million, enabling you to run for President of the United States and never have to read a book or newspaper again!

The critical consumer will see through this marketing ploy. “In just 7 minutes you COULD be …” does not mean you WILL be. In fact, the word COULD means everything and nothing. Ask those who COULD have made a fortune investing in the stock market. Similarly, “…. reading up to 1000 percent faster” covers everything between 0 percent and 1000 percent.

But since the critical consumer is about as commonly found as geographically-savvy Republican vice-presidential nominees, I suppose I should try for a bit of one-upmanship with my latest advertising proposal … which is infinitely more accurate. “In just ONE minute, you WILL be reading 50 percent to 20,000 percent faster without losing comprehension. Guaranteed or your money back. Send your payment of $595 now!” You don’t believe this? Try me!

Our Greatest Enemy ...

"Many young Americans are willing to serve, but too little is made of the declining number of young people who are qualified to serve. This is the real story and it’s a shocking one. Only 28 percent of the 17 to 24 year-old population qualifies to wear a military uniform. The other 72 percent fail to meet minimum standards on education, character and health. The problem gets worse. Of those eligible to serve, a significant portion chooses not to for a variety of reasons." Gen William S Wallace, commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Any guesses on the ratio between sub-standard education, sub-standard character and sub-standard health?

No Child Left Behind - Scientific Gravy-train?

So, according to the Institute for Education Services, the federal government’s $1 billion-per-year initiative to help our children read has yielded “no statistically significant results”! Mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the Reading First Program set out to promote reading instructional practices that have been “validated by scientific research”.

Backed by a $1 billion-per-year gravy train, Reading First grants were awarded to schools to implement the scientifically-validated reading instructional practices to children in Grades 1, 2 and 3. Now we learn that these scientifically-validated instructional practices have yielded no scientifically-validated results. One can only wonder how these scientifically-validated practices were validated if not by scientifically-validated results … which quite clearly they were not!

Reading First funding can be used for:
• Reading curricula and materials that focus on the five essential components of reading instruction as defined in the Reading First legislation: 1) phonemic awareness, 2) phonics, 3) vocabulary, 4) fluency, and 5) comprehension;
• Professional development and coaching for teachers on how to use scientifically based reading practices and how to work with struggling readers;
• Diagnosis and prevention of early reading difficulties through student screening, interventions for struggling readers, and monitoring of student progress.

Reading First funding started in 2002 and this is what the billions of Dollars has yielded :
• Reading First did not improve students’ reading comprehension.
• Reading First increased total class time spent on the five essential components of reading instruction promoted by the program. So the extra 45 to 60 minutes a week spent on developing reading skills netted zero results.

Bear in mind that the whole Reading First Program is restricted to improving the reading skills of Grades 1, 2 and 3 only. That’s it! After grade 3, you’re on your own and are expected to survive with the reading skills you have. Small wonder that teenagers think that reading sucks – they’re reading with a skill that’s not much better than an 8 year-old.

And so we come to our crop of struggling high-schoolers – the “at-risk” students. Why are they “at risk”? Quite simply because we let science supersede common sense. “A common variable among low performing students is their low reading level. Most of our low test scores are related to reading problems. I doubt the target kids have the basic skills to benefit from (an advanced reading skills) your program” says CMS teacher Dr T.

“Unless we give the students diagnostic reading tests such as these (at ExecuRead.com), we may never know their reading entry level. Is it really fair to assign ten pages of reading to a student who reads less than 100 words a minute (it will take that student 4 minutes to read a text-book page of 400 words, or a total of 40 minutes to read ten textbook pages.)?” asks another teacher.

Come on people! Have you ever seen a teenager struggle with the instructions on the latest computer- or Play Station game? Or abandon the sports-page on the eve of the Superbowl? And where were all these scientifically-validated instructional practices 50 years ago?

When it comes to human nature, you simply cannot throw science and money at it and expect results. And when it comes to reading, all the science and all the money in the world will not make one iota of difference IF YOU CANNOT CHANGE ATTITUDES.

Reading skills will improve when our children WANT to read, when they can see the VALUE of reading and what reading can DO for them. It’s all motivated by self-interest and self-gratification. And it’s a ‘sell-job’. We don’t sell Coca-Cola by talking about ingredients, taste-formulation and gas-volumes. We sell feelings – refreshment, exhilaration, satisfaction, vibrancy. Similarly we can’t sell reading by talking structure & components or by telling people to read what WE WANT them to read. We need to talk fun, excitement, satisfaction, entertainment, reward – the excitement of the destination rather than the drudgery of the journey.

And it starts at home. This process of developing attitudes. Parents who have replaced reading-evenings with TV-evenings create an attitude about reading. Parents who complain about having to bring office-reading home and who can’t play with the kids because they have office-reading to do, create an attitude about reading. And they end up with kids who prefer TV to books and who see reading as a chore that they’ll have to face when they become adults.

And it continues at home. With TV it’s what they WANT to watch. With reading it’s what the teacher WANTS them to read. And if you’ve ever looked at the erudite literary yawn-stuff that teachers are peddling, you don’t need a scientifically-validated process to recognize a disaster in the making.

With my kids I find that the best way of getting them to do something, is to find out what they want to do and then suggest it! I didn’t force them to read Tolstoy, Conrad, Joyce, Twain and Poe, but when they begged to go to the library or book-store to get the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, there was no resistance from my side. Neither did I have to enforce reading time. More often than not, I have to physically remove the book at 2am on a school-night, in spite of the pleas of “Oh Dad, I’m almost finished the book!”

Once I had instilled in them a passion for reading, a realization that reading can be as exciting and rewarding as TV and movies, then came the process of gently manipulating their interests and once there is interest, there is a motive for wanting to read. And this is all a lot easier in a home where there is a culture of reading.

The bottom line is that attitudes are built at home and in the absence of a positive attitude about reading, all the money in the world spent on “scientifically-validated” instructional practices will continue to yield “statistically insignificant results”.

Recession-Proof Yourself and your Organization

Trying to survive a recession? Make yourself indispensible. That’s it. And this applies to both the individual and to the organization itself.

For the individual, a recession means cut-backs. Organizations need to trim overheads in order to remain profitable with smaller volumes. So they reduce expenditure - and one area for reducing expenditure is the payroll. The first to go are those people with an unfavorable payroll-cost to work-product benefit ratio. The solution is to be pro-active – change the ratio – make yourself indispensible to the organization by increasing your productivity and output at no additional cost to the organization. Become versatile - acquire new skills and improve your existing skills – empower yourself to adapt to new challenges and additional responsibilities. No organization off-loads valuable employees when the value of the worker outweighs the savings in payroll-cost.

To achieve this, learn to read faster and more efficiently. It will save you time and increase your productivity. By increasing productivity, you’ll get more done in less time. With time saved, you’ll be able to increase your work-load. Think about it – how much time do you spend each day on work-related reading? Two hours? Well, if you simply double your reading / comprehension speed, you’ll have an additional hour a day, 5 hours a week, to do additional things – acquire new skills, pick up additional responsibilities, offer assistance to someone else. You’ll be delivering work-product at a lower rate per Dollar than your competitors and this increases your value to your organization.

For organizations, a recession means budget-cuts and your customers start shopping around, looking for the best service and quality but at a cheaper price. Customer-loyalty is superseded by the need for Dollar-savings. To stay in the market, organizations need to reduce overheads while increasing work-product. Some organizations resort to expenditure cut-backs - expenditure on payroll, capital investment, marketing, promotional and training activities. Others endeavor to increase work-product, customer service and quality of output.

In most organizations, the payroll is the biggest single overhead – the process of buying human work-product at a Dollar-cost per hour. It’s been said that the only cost that exceeds the cost of training your work-force is the cost of not training your work-force. A better-skilled, versatile, more-productive work-force is able to deliver better and more work-product, in less time and at a lower cost per hour. Train your work-force in their weakest skill – that of reading. Think about it - reading education stops at age 6 and yet reading is the key to knowledge and information.

And here are some numbers : 10 managers costing you $100k each in salary, benefits and overheads and working a 40-hr week with 2 weeks annual leave and spending 2 hours a day on work-related reading – email, newspapers, reports, journals, manuals, correspondence. That’s a cost to you of $50 per work-hour. And a cost to you of $100 per day, per manager, in reading time. If these 10 managers learn to process information just twice as fast, a very conservative increase, they’ll free up an hour of reading time every day – that’s 10 hours per day, 2500 hours per year – a savings of $125k in reading-time-cost in the first year alone. And the cost to train these 10 managers to read at least twice as fast, without losing comprehension & recall? $3000!

Do the math. In a time of recession, effective and productive information management training for your work-force is a no-brainer.

We’ve witnessed the trends, worldwide, for the past 30 years. As economies head into a recession phase, smart people and smart companies commission speed-reading training courses to increase productivity and to reduce the hourly cost of work-product. Similarly, as the economy enters a revival, speed-reading training enables workers to manage increased work-loads and activity-levels, thus increasing work-product at the same hourly cost to the organization.

Author : Dr Bruce W Stewart - B.A.(Econ)(Law), Dip. Spec. Ed., M.A., D.Ed. - executive reading skills coach since 1975 and developer of the ExecuRead range of speed reading & comprehension skills training courses for executives, professionals, managers & students. Contact him in the USA on 888 439 3287 or at Info@ExecuRead.com