Gimme the ROWE plan -- any day!
In This Issue: Issue 353 - - April 24, 2007 
•   Welcome! And what's new...
•   3. Get Creative
•   1. Gimme the ROWE plan – any day!
•   4. Meditation --
•   2. College Inventor Competition
•   5. News You Can Use
Welcome! And what's new...
We’ve had a busy week here at 48 Days. On Tuesday I spoke to the LifeWay bookstore managers at the Ridgecrest Retreat in Asheville, North Carolina. Joanne and I enjoyed a few days at the Biltmore Inn and took in the Festival of Flowers.

On Saturday evening, our daughter Ashley (48 Days Customer Success director) gave birth to her first child. Little Clara Isabel Logsdon resisted the process but finally conceded to join us via C-section after a very long day. Momma, Daddy Nathan and baby are doing fine. Many of you have been communicating with Ashley in this process – thanks for your prayers for the beginning of this little life. We should have Clara packing boxes in the 48 Days Sanctuary in a week or two.

We are getting tons of calls from around the country on the live Sunday night radio show. Remember, you can hear the live broadcast of 48 Days to the Work You Love and call Dan and Tim Knox with your questions (615.737.9986) each Sunday night from 6:00-9:00 PM CDT. The call letters are 99.7 FM in Tennessee or go to Super Talk 99.7 WTN for direct Internet access. You can also listen to any past shows via podcast. 48 Days to the Work You Love

If you’d like to have us promote your business around the world on the 48 Days radio show and our other media connections, just shoot an email to media@48Days.com for the details. Kevin will give you an option that fits your needs.

"We cannot discover new oceans until we have the courage to lose sight of the shore." -- Muriel Chen

*To view this newsletter on our website in full html, please go to http://www.48days.com/newsletter/access.php

1. Gimme the ROWE plan – any day!
For years I’ve been talking about the move we are seeing from paying for “Time” to paying for “Results.” Now we’re seeing this phenomenon sweeping through old, stuffy corporate environments.

Best Buy is one of the hottest companies for this new work model. Their new ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business expectations that equate physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

So now workers pulling into the company's headquarters at 2 p.m. aren't considered late. Nor are those pulling out at 2 p.m. seen as leaving early. There are no schedules. No mandatory meetings. Work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do. It's O.K. to take conference calls while you hunt, collaborate from your lakeside cabin, or log on after dinner so you can spend the afternoon with your 4-yr-old.

There has been a subtle shift going on for several years, but Best Buy is the most open about the new work flexibility. At IBM 40% of the workforce has no official office; at AT&T, a third of managers can work from anywhere they choose. Sun Microsystems Inc. calculates that it's saved $400 million over six years in real estate costs by allowing nearly half of all employees to work anywhere they want. And this trend seems to have legs. A recent Boston Consulting Group study found that 85% of executives expect a big rise in the number of unleashed workers over the next five years. In fact, at many companies the most innovative new product may be the structure of the workplace itself.

So how about you? Would you thrive in a work environment where your value was judged solely on the results you produced? Would you welcome the freedom to show up at 2:00 on Monday and to take Thursday afternoon to go fishing? And yes, I realize that some jobs just are time-connected. But I suspect that about 80% of what we have as jobs could work with this model.

Just put “results only work environment” in a Google search to see how the ROWE plan is exploding.

2. College Inventor Competition
We are receiving a ton of calls on the radio show about Inventions. Some of the ideas are awesome and will certainly lead to success for the inventor-caller. Last week we had callers suggesting a better dog leash – one caller described using current technology for an “invisible” leash that was likely the seed for someone to take it to the bank.

If you’re a college student and have an invention in process, you may want to enter this contest. One undergraduate and one graduate winner or team will each receive $15,000.

Your submission could be a plant, a chemical process, design or idea.

Get the entry form here

3. Get Creative
My wife Joanne gets lots of comments about the license plate on her car. Yes, it says 48DAYS.com.
Yes, it’s a real license plate in our fine state of Tennessee. I always try to look for creative solutions and ideas – otherwise I get bored very easily.

What ideas are you developing today? The late Peter Drucker, author of multiple books on economics and creative leadership, used to say that if you’re doing the same things today that you were doing a year ago, you’re probably falling behind. When the world is changing, you better be changing and looking for new solutions as well.

And okay, the plate is real – but I did assist the state just a little in making it exactly what I wanted. Joanne’s terrified that she’ll be hauled off to jail any day now. Will some of you promise to go visit her if that happens?

4. Meditation --
With all of the tragedy of this last week, I struggled to find humor that I wanted to share. Instead, I’m sharing a piece from the front of The Cathedral of All Souls Church in Asheville, North Carolina. I saw this on Tuesday and was immediately attracted to the peace it encourages:

“……It is a community where all are welcome, trust is present, risks are taken, and where our gifts and graces enable us to be who God knows us to be.”

May we each create such a community around us.

5. News You Can Use
Free Train Ride:
Yes, if you are a high school junior or senior and are planning on going to college, you can book your travel with Amtrak and take Mom or Dad along for free. And who says you can’t squeeze in a little surfing on that visit to UCLA?
Hey Mom I’m Paying

Bring the Kids:
This accounting firm in Indianapolis encourages employees to bring their kids to work with them on Saturdays – and provides snacks, movies and arts and crafts projects. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the top reason people stay at their jobs has little to do with pay or promotions. People stay because they feel the company cares about them.
Indy Star

I’ll roll those dice:
More than 26,000 people have applied for the 1,000 jobs that will be available at the new MGM Grand Casino opening up in Detroit. Thousands have lost their jobs with the auto manufacturers and are looking for something new. Michigan has the nation’s highest unemployment rate – now just who is it that will be spending money in this casino?
Detroit News

CPAs – boring but the pay is good:
Accounting is the hottest job arena and will probably continue to be so for the next decade. The reason – thousands of accountants are retiring. It hasn’t been one of the hot careers lately and now all of a sudden, there are a lot of positions open and waiting. The average salary offered to accounting graduates is $46,508.