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February 2004 · 366 Days a Year
 to this month's edition of M45 Momentum, a monthly e-newsletter for the business community featuring tips, trends and trivia from the experts at M45 Marketing Services.
Consider the familiar lament, "If only I had another day to work on that!" Well, this month you do. In this issue we focus on the work week—how to be prepared for contingencies and how to make the most of it along with your team and your time.
We encourage your feedback! Send comments and story suggestions to info@m45.biz. Having trouble with the formatting? An HTML version of this newsletter is always available at www.m45.biz/resources/momentum/2_2004.asp. |
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No, it’s not type-casting—or some Big Brother tool to “catch” you at something at the office! Most “Personality Assessment Tools” for business help to define how people prefer to assimilate information and make decisions, as well as how they re-energize themselves and interact with others. The best ones illustrate a critical truth in any business setting: diversity is important. No one style is more important or “better” than another.
M45 Marketing Services offers a short and easy Co-Worker Workstyle Profile as part of our teaming training, employee communications activity or as part of a branding exercise. Here are some frequently used tools, variations of which you can also find on other Websites that offer online testing and scoring:
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In case of fire, emergency or any crisis—we all know how to contact the closest police or fire department. But what happens if the problem occurs inside your company? As much as you try to avoid perils, they still happen. Are you prepared for an emergency? What is your crisis plan for dealing with the media to disseminate correct information and avoid detrimental publicity?
![[Siren Graphic]](http://www.m45.biz/clients/momentum/graphics/siren.gif) There are a couple of basic things that should take place immediately following the occurrence of a crisis situation or event at your facility or location.
- Understand the severity of the crisis
- Activate your site/facility crisis management team
- Gather the facts
- Prepare standby statement in anticipation of media inquiries
- Prepare additional materials and establish external communications
- Ensure continuous communications
M45 can help you develop a plan for communication to ensure that you're prepared. So, while a crisis may cause you to panic, it won't make you lose your cool.
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If you think that pesky February 29 is adding an additional eight hours to the year, consider these statistics of average hours worked per year:
| Era |
Worker |
Hours |
| Middle ages |
English worker |
2,309 |
| 13th century |
Adult male peasant |
1,620 |
| 14th century |
Casual laborer |
1,440 |
| 1400 - 1600 |
Farmer-miner, adult male, U.K. |
1,980 |
| 1850 |
Average worker, U.S. |
3,150 - 3,650 |
| 2004 |
Average worker, U.S. |
1,996 |
(Source: http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/~rauch/
misc/worktime/) |
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Star Light, Star Bright
M45 is not only the name of Freeport's favorite marketing services provider but it's also the brightest constellation in the night sky. Also known as the Seven Sisters or Pleiades (and Subaru in Japanese), M45 comprises seven stars visible to the naked eye, and thousands more not so visible.
Why is M45 so bright? Because it's the closest constellation? Good guess, but it's not so simple. Brightness is a matter of distance and intensity. For example, the star Deneb is 100,000 times more intense than our sun, but it's tens of thousands times farther away. If Deneb were our sun, we and our internal organs would be guaranteed a nice tan in less than a second.
So, how far is M45 anyway? Astronomers recently measured the distance to be about 434 light-years from Earth, not exactly a stone's throw. To put that in perspective, it would take the Space Shuttle over 16 million years to get there. If you don't have that much wiggle room in your deadline, we suggest you head to M45 in Freeport instead! |
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Welcome, Wendy!
Our newest star, graphic designer and promotional coordinator Wendy Gustafson, has had some interesting observations since joining M45 early in 2004. Wendy reports overhearing the following tidbits around the office in just her first two months:
- Joe volunteered to coach some neighborhood kids on ways to improve their look-to-buy ratio at their lemonade stand.
- Kathryn referred to tomatoes grown in her garden as "deliverables."
- When asked what she did for a living, Marilyn found she really needed PowerPoint to explain.
- Lance asked his friends to "think outside the box" when making Friday night plans.
- Aubrey insists that Napoléon would have been much more effective had he put his ideas into a spreadsheet.
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M45 Marketing Services
524 West Stephenson Street, Suite 100
Freeport, IL 61032
815-232-2121 - Phone
815-297-0166 - Fax
www.m45.biz
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