Artificial divisions between work life and the rest of life are for the birds. Ideally, creativity and energy flow through both. I've tried to encapsulate some of my ideas about work and life in the stories on this page.

• Natural Workflow
  
  I love good food, especially in good company, so I keep up the family gardening tradition, and grow some of my own fruits and veggies. Here's a shot of the back garden in early Summer.
  
  
  
  Colorado summers are hot and dry at lower altitude, so the lushness is a by-product of a computer controlled irrigation system I designed and installed.
  
  The system saves time, water, and money and results in healthier plants and better production. I think it's a good metaphor for business. Half of the word "workflow" is "flow". The word is not "workstruggle" or "workpain" and our work lives shouldn't be that way.
  
  Good business systems flow, and this is more than a nicety. Performance psychologist Csíkszentmihályi suggests that flow = top performance.
  
  When systems are built to match the people and the products they produce, work becomes more enjoyable, and results in better products, increased productivity, a healthy work environment, and intrinsic professional development.
  
  The garden metaphor reflects Peter Senge's thinking in the The Fifth Discipline, where he suggests that natural systems are similar to business systems. On that note, one cannot intimidate or coerce a tomato plant into making more or better tomatoes.
  
  
  
• Gravity, Confidence, and Learning Styles
  
  I grew up teaching skiing and snowboarding. The experience of working with folks from all walks of life, visually impaired and autistic kids, Hasidic ladies skiing in long skirts whooping it up, the middle-aged Chinese-American ladies from New York City for whom the skiing stance clicked when I compared it to Tai Chi, the nervous, the fearless, the fearlessly unwise, cowboys, accountants, city slickers, the old, young, and everyone else, definitely shaped and enriched my life and my approaches and instincts around teaching and learning.
  
  As instructional designer-developers, building a lesson may take days, weeks or months, so results are seldom instant. On the mountain, results are immediate and graphic.
  
  Push the timid too hard, and they freeze. Give the fearless to much reign and you may be pulling them out of the woods on the side of the trail, hopefully unhurt. Using the wrong metaphor or activity with the wrong group can completely derail a ski lesson. Run the right lesson with the right group, and you see people jump ahead years in ability, magic, joy, and eternally youthful smiles.
  
  I still teach friends, and their kids to ski from time to time. It's gratifying when I can put abstract information from instructional design research into live practice, resulting in "Aha!" moments for learners in ski lessons.
  
  
  
  The details, for ski dorks, from left to right: Toyota Tacoma, 2004, reliable transport to the hill in any weather; Ride Yukon 172 snowboard; Volkl Gotama with Voile CRB, soft snow telemark setup; Fischer Watea with Marker Duke AT, K2 Hippy Stinx with CRB, twin tip telemark setup
  
  
  I was out skiing with my friends Barb and Pete this winter. Giving tips, I noted that Barb, who is super smart and athletic, was zoning out to the verbal tips describing the physics of skiing, balance, gravity etc.
  
  However, when we did exercises designed to enable her to feel what we discussed, for example whiskering the ski poles on the snow to increase proprioceptive (spatial awareness) input, she immediately put the verbal and kinesthetic (body awareness) together and cranked her skills up a notch.
  
  Ok, so no kidding, it's Adult Learning Theory 101. Barb is primarily a kinesthetic learner. Her husband Pete, who can internalize the verbal tips very effectively is a verbal learner.
  
  Point is, one size seldom fits all. When developing instructional materials, it is ideal to provide something for all learning styles. Talking PowerPoint is easy to build, and tools abound to that end, but it is often constructed such that it is geared primarily to the auditory learning style, or in some cases, no one.
  
  Leveraging research in practical, effective ways is rewarding, fun, and a practical necessity to drive ROI, whether on the hill, in a weeks long training program, or in the classroom.
  
  
  
• Mental and Physical Balance
  
  Cultures from Athens to Sparta to China have all had notions of the peaceful scholar warrior, persons who trained their minds and bodies in service of society. It's a good ideal to strive for.
  
  Physical endurance and agility are linked with their mental counterparts, but it's tough to live this ideal when working long hours in a cubicle. One solution, at least for me, has been bicycle commuting.
  
  
  
  I ride to work as often as I can. My serious cyclist friends laugh at my setup, but I have room for gear, work clothes, laptop, raingear, lights, bell (stop laughing) and tools.
  
  Riding trails to and from work, seeing the sun and moon rise and/or set keeps a sense of adventure alive in the work week, which is critical to maintaining creativity and an upbeat mindset.
  
  
  
• Business Efficiency, Amateur Forestry, and Roast Chickens
  
  Food writer Anthony Bourdain has stated that the ability to roast a good bird is an essential skill and precondition for anyone aspiring to call themself a chef.
  
  I was fortunate to be introduced to this skill by my friend, master chef, and bon vivant Richard Schlosberg.
  
  I think Bourdain's statement may derive from the fact that roasting a chicken demands good technique. As Homer Simpson famously said, "Fire makes it good" - or very bad in the case of roast chicken.
  
  Fail to apply the right amount of heat to a bird, and you get a half-cooked, greasy reptile, with frightening gobs of unmelted yellow fat beneath the skin. Get it right, and you have a crispy, savory beast that fries itself in its own juices and schmaltz.
  
  Technique, fire, is key. Over the last few years, I have cut down overcrowded trees in my suburban backyard. Instead of putting the wood into the taxpayer funded landfill, I stack it and roast chickens and grill steaks in the barbecue over coals from the scrap wood, then toss the cold coals into the strawberry patch as fertilizer.
  
  This is not done because I'm overly frugal, but because in life, business, or the kitchen, there's something wholesome about putting to full use what comes your way, and doing things in a way that doesn't generate heaps of trash, literally or figuratively.
  
  I can also do without the gasoline flavor of commercial charcoal and lighting fluid. I don't love the smell of napalm in the evening. There are few things I enjoy more than sitting around with friends, especially outdoors, talking, while cooking up some nutritious food.
  
  Recipe for Chicken a la Twig
  
  
  • Acquire bird.
    
    
  • Soak bird in cold salted water (brine) overnight, for at least an hour in the refrigerator. Whole birds need more time.
    
    Forego the brining at room temperature lunacy. Bacteria multiply exponentially and rapidly at warmer temperatures.
    
    And wash your hands and utensils at the appropriate times. Undercooked poultry and unsafe handling, can make you temporarily never want to eat again.
    
    
  • While prepping the bird, burn ample clean wood, diameter unimportant, or charcoal, down to coals in the barbecue.
    
    Don't skimp on the fuel. Fire is fun to watch, and It takes time to roast a bird. Watch your fire so you don't smoke up the neighborhood or set the patio on fire.
    
    
  • When brining is complete, dry rub bird with poultry seasoning, garlic, and perhaps some chili powder.
    
    
  • When the fire has burnt down to ample coals, put the bird in a cast iron pan so the fat doesn't flame and burn, and cook with the barbecue lid on and vents open for 45-60 minutes and until interior temperature in the thicker meaty parts reaches no less than 185 degrees Fahrenheit.
    
    You may add potatoes, carrots, celery, and chopped onions to the pan and cover it for much of the cooking time, for a one dish meal.
    
    You could also use a Dutch oven and an open fire for this dish, as in the photo, instead of the pan and barbecue. Adding a cup or so of liquid would be necessary, i.e. wine, beer, stock, or water.
    
    
  • Baste regularly with a brush. If you don't have a meat thermometer and basting brush, acquire these essentials.
    
    
  • Remove bird from grill with tongs, another essential. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
    
    
  • Sturdy white wines, perhaps Greco di Tufo, go well with this.