Yay!

We’re very happy to be able to say that most of us are back to our own Avo email addresses now and things are getting back to normal. So we’re back!

Thanks for all the understanding, support and kind thoughts from all our clients and friends.

Jules will be on DSTV’s Summit TV (Channel 55) in an interview about personal and corporate branding.

The interview will be aired three times:

Monday 14 May at 18.30

Tuesday 15 May at 08.00

Friday 18 May at 18.30

So, absolutely, positively no excuse to miss it!

To all our clients and friends, we’re sorry to say that we had an armed robbery at the Avocado Vision offices last night.

Most of our computers and hard drives have been stolen, including our server.

We are still able to access the internet and we are receiving all our mail on one computer, so please keep emailing (you can also email avovision@avovision.co.za with the name of the person that the email is for in the subject line).

Some of us will also be setting up temporary internet addresses in order get email while we wait to get a new server set up, which is going to take a few days.

Please phone us at the office on (011) 614 0206 if you need to contact us in the meantime. Jules is on 082 900 4564 and Elaine is on 082 900 7893 as well.

We’ll let you know as soon as we’re ‘back to normal’.

The Avo Team.

Well didn’t the Avos have a nostalgic morning!

This morning at Kudos and Cock Ups, ‘there was but a handful’ of people and we realized that only the original Avo members (and our very newest addition) were there. Talk about a flashback.

As fuzzy as it was, needless to say that the rest of you were sorely missed!

Hope you’ll be joining us in that special space again very soon…

C. xxx

I am a strong believer in the universal push and pull that controls our lives. I know our roads are mapped out and we decide which path we are going to ultimately take along the long and winding road. When I came to a fork in the road last year, there was a sign that read “follow me”. I took it and was fortunate enough to be given directions to a fantastic company called Avocado Vision.

I am the new kid on the block at Avo Vision. So what do I do here? I would like to think of myself as the gourmet chef at our company. I get given all the fantastic ingredients, but still have to prepare a memorable dining experience. You get what I’m saying? I am the project manager, baby! The one that puts it all together. So you can count on me to get it done, but don’t ask me to prepare lunch for everyone here!!

It’s been a memorable year so far. I have gone from teaching to project management (talk about a 360 degree career change!) and I recently got married! Wedding pics are on their way - and I promise to bring them to a Kudos and Cockups soon.

I am an old soul in a young body. But don’t get me wrong - I enjoy a good time. I love old music and getting down on the dancefloor. I can shake it with the best of them. As you may already have heard, I was an uncultured bride on the dancefloor at my wedding. I love spending time with my family and friends, reading and a good glass of wine!

Thanks to all of you for welcoming me into the Avo space and for making me feel so at home.

Avo’s been in the media again (like we’d let you down!).

Our latest published article was in the Women Inc magazine.

The article, Management Lessons, is, in a few words, about managers taking accountability for staff retention with a personal reflection from Jules about the lessons she’s learned in her own management role.

She writes about how many people leave bosses, not companies, but when we ourselves become bosses, we find it hard to believe that people might want to leave us.

Jules uses Avo’s ‘walking through the fire’ period from last year to describe how she and Elaine, as managers, had to acknowledge that they were responsible for staff retention.

Had they not taken the neccessary accountability, we might have seen many people walking out the door. Instead, we didn’t lose a single, vitally important, team member!

It’s a great article with valuable insights into the management role.

We’ve also our ‘How to negotiate a better deal’ article published on the web by Inspiring Women, just click here if you’re keen to read it.

Okay, that’s it from me for now, hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I’ll catch up with you next week!

I would just like to issue a warning to all of you out there who have not had much to do with Elaine over the past few months. And, unless you are concerned with matters lottery, then you probably won’t have been in touch with her, seeing as she has done very little else but that through this time.

You probably remember (fondly), the sweet, amiable woman who was the glue, the empathy, the soul of our Avo space. She was the one we all ran to when we needed a shoulder. You could always rely on her for a kind sms when you were feeling down, a chocolate on our desk when you felt unloved, a coffee moment when you most needed to bare your soul. The fairy godmother of all Avoland!

Well I just want to issue a health warning to you all out there who think she’s still in that space. After months of the tireless pursuit of excellence in the field, rounding up trainers, coaching and cajoling, and squeezing blood out of a stone, she has gone through a powerful transformation. You HAVE to see her! She’s scary. She has even announced to a trembling Avo team that she has finally discovered her Inner Arrogance!

She’s hard! She’s sharp. She’s 100% focussed on delivery and performance, and she has lost her ‘empathy’ strength. Hanli and I were cowering in a coffee shop the other day, commiserating about how scared we are nowadays. And Hanli has now coined a new phrase for her: ‘Suck-it-up Sampson’! Because that’s all she says when we bring her issues to solve!

SO don’t say you haven’t been warned. She’s nearly done with her work on the lottery, and then she be let loose on the world again. And don’t let this photo fool you either: we took these months ago…..! (although I must say I can see a gleam of something brewing in those eyes)

And if you’re looking for me, I’ll be hiding in the boot of my car - don’t know what she’ll do when she sees this blog!

So many of our clients and friends have been calling us lately, concerned about the way forward with our Ngikwazi company and the lottery, now that it has been suspended, that I thought I’d better give you an update on where we are.

Because of the judgement that the process the NLB followed to select an operator was flawed, the minister has had to open the decision-making process again and reconsider the tenders of the four bidders. Because this takes such a monumentally long time, he was unable to make a final decision before Uthingo’s license expired, and so, at literally the 11th hour, made the decision to suspend the lottery temporarily.

Our instructions have been to maintain a state of readiness. So our team has been out in the field with strength. Elaine, Vanessa, Jill, and the intrepid gang of trainers are out there checking every back yard to make sure it’s fit and tidy so we can switch everything on at very short notice: we are incredibly proud of them - they are doing an AWESOME job!

Gidani has been completely faithful to all our agreements, paid us everything in full, and has been the most incredible partner to work with. We feel very privileged to continue to be part of this process. We await the next announcement with eager anticipation!

and PS: I have it on good authority from one of my ‘hocus pocus’ connections, that Gidani will indeed be rewarded the license, but only in October…..let’s see how that pans out…

Time is something we all have exactly the same amount of in every day with the challenge to make it count, and this is what seems to be the hardest aspect for most of us.

With all the fancy gadgets and inventions that are supposed to help us do things better and faster with the added bonus of ‘convenience’, the more pressure we feel to squeeze impossible amounts of ’stuff’ into a day. We end up overwhelmed and overloaded with everyone’s expectations.

24/7 Manage your Life is a one day workshop that will help you understand how to manage your time more effectively and manage yourself within the time you have.

During the workshop you’ll start to understand the principles of time management, identify your own time management profile, define what you want to achieve, learn how set goals and map them, prioritise between urgent and important tasks and understand the principles of delegation.

Join us and we’ll give you some insights and philosophy, some tools to help with the decision-making process and help you use Microsoft Outlook as an effective support tool to implement your learnings.

We look forward to being part of your journey to manage your time (and self) more effectively.

If you would like to take part in one of these workshops, contact Gill.

For those of you who dont know who Van Halen is, they are a seriously cool rocking band, one of my favourites, along with the 560 cd’s that I own…so hint, hint, its my 30th this year - would LOVE to add about another 560 cd’s to my collection!

I’m the latest addition to the Avo Fan-damily, after an 11 year long stint at Nedbank. So far, so good - a huge change in mindset, but my energies are in sync, and I feel so at home amongst the Avo’s. I’ve gone from the world of “Banking” to the world of “BEER” - woo hoo!!!! Yes, I am currently project managing loads of stuff at SAB. And just for info, BEER does not make you FAT, so, all of you who keep telling me you have “beer-boeps” have been misguided, for if you drink beer in moderation (ha ha), thou shalt not gain the “beer-boep”.

Besides my hobbies of music and beer, rugby, rugby boys, and dancing I love to travel and experience the world! I’m off to Malawi at the end of the month for Jackie’s wedding (yay, as she does the dance of Joy!), and it promises to be a blast!

Ok, thats enough airtime from me, besides the fact that Carin will break my legs if I take up any more space - so, all you keen bloggers, any offerings (free of-course!) of music, rugby boys and beer will be welcomed!

Later!