I have just had a heads up from Jules, that Elaine is going for her second tattoo!! I have it on good authority that this is the design she is thinking about! Apparently, i have finally got through to her about visible tattoos and she has chosen the slightly less visible belly button area.

Elaine used to have a belly ring! She said it was damn sore - so will rather maximise her belly button area with a tattoo!! (Not as sore as that scar, she got in a bar fight - what did i tell you about these tattoo types!)

Why the word mom - well she thinks it will give the tattoo a slighlty more redeeming quality. We managed to disuade her away from the monkey’s bottom - can’t put the graphic on this site - not suitable for sensitive viewers - plus, i was scared Jules would kick my butt!

The words bar fly and tattoo are quite synonymous with each other - one would put them in the same category if doing a ‘mix and match’ activity, they go together like coffee and rusks, avocados and guacomole. A sailor draped over a pool table in a bar, sporting a tattoo - no problem - it is the stereotypical norm!!

However - how about this - director of the company (you work for), draped over a pool table (during working hours) and other director (of the same company) going to a tattoo parlour for a quick tatoo (during work hours) - how does this sit with you?

No it is not a dream - it is reality - it happened and we have proof!!!

We are finding it very difficult to deal with this incongruent behaviour - and in fact - are feeling very vulnerable about it.

More than anything - we are worried that this behaviour might be emulated by some of our more impressionable members of staff! Because we hold our boss chicks in such high regard - it might seem that this is acceptable behaviour.

You can understand our dilemma and concern - anyone out there who has a similar problem - your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Please leave your comments on this site - i’m off for a beer, a quick game of pool and if time permits, a piercing or two!

Three times a year, aspiring SAB Sales Managers gather at the SAB Training Institue to embark on a two week leadership journey - The Sales Leadership Programme. This is one of the exciting leadership programmes run by Ashley Lovell, SAB Learning and Development consultant from Marketing Sales & Distribution. Avocado Vision project manage this exciting programme, amongst others.

The programme in February saw Ashley and his Sales Leadership Programme delegates, together with Avo and Chris Vind from Corporate Adventures, getting together at the Mother of Peace Orphange in Northriding to take on an Extreme Makeover Teambuild.

The orphanage in desperate need of repairs was the lucky recipient of an extreme make over organised and executed by Chris (Corporate Adventures), Avo, Ashley and his delegates.

Gutters were put up, a water storage tank erected, paving laid, grass laid, shade cloth shelter erected, jungle gyms repaired and painted (even the rocking horse got a creative new look!!)….

There was even time at the end of the day to relax around the braai and have a couple of well deserved beers.

The kids were absolutely thrilled with the attention that their home received.

Well done everyone!!

This is going to be one of the birthday wishes that you send, via a belated birthday card, because you missed someones birthday!!!! So, happy belated birthday Avo Website!!!

The site, actually turned 1 year old on the 14th Feb. The first official blog, was blogged by Mike Stopforth - remember this:

Hey Avo’s! Welcome to your new, improved, uber-sexy organic website, www.avovision.co.za. This is a new medium, it is not a traditional website, so it will take some adjusting. Have fun, experiment, add stuff, and watch it grow!!!. If you are struggling please do not hesitate to email me with your questions.

And so the change management process was set in motion, as the Avo’s were being convinced on a daily basis to start blogging - at times, it seemed like trying to push a watermelon through a hose pipe!!

But, look where the site is now….well done everyone…..i think the Avo Bloggers need to go down to the “Knuiper” for a beer or two to celebrate our first birthday!!

Recently, 90 trainers took to the roads of South Africa in their VW Caddys, armed not only with Gidani Lottery training terminals but also laptops, laminators, printers and cameras.

These 90 trainers not only have to train approximately 30 000 learners from 8 000 retailers in 92 venues across the country, in four weeks, on how to operate the new Lottery terminals, but they also have to do a whole lot of back office admin.

When they are out there, for each training session that takes place, they have to register the learners, creat electronic registers that link back to a database, take digital photos of the learners, create ID cards with the photos, print and laminate the ID cards and save that info so that it can also be linked back to a main frame data base, print certificates and burn back up CDs.

Now that sounds relatively easy to those of us who work with technology daily. Many of our trainers however have never had the privilege of working on a computer…..

And so their training began……in approx 6 hours of real learning time they had to learn how to do the above!!!

So, we created a step by step Geeks Guide to Technology, for easy reference and then began the practical training at the train the trainers conference.

I will never forget that first day of training…..the room was filled with electronic equipment connected by numerous powercables, USB cables and extension cords leading off everywhere. The new lotto trainers eyes were as big as saucepans when they saw all this stuff and the room was filled with silent intrepidation.

We made it clear at that point that no one in the room is to be percieved as stupid and there is no such thing as a stupid question, with regards to their working with the technology - and we made it clear that everyone has different levels of knowledge related to their exposure and experience with technology. So, those who did not even know where to switch the laptop on, were made to feel comfortable.

I have never been so proud of so many people at once….the cropping, dropping and dragging of photos was excrutiatingly frustrating for many, who have never had the opportunity to develop the fine motor skills necessary when using a mouse, to put a cursor on a grab point and crop a picture or left click and drag at the same time.

Many have never owned a camera - let alone a digital camera, which they must now take hundreds of pictures of learners with, download the images onto their laptops and then open each photo, crop it and drag it onto an ID template.

Logistically, I never dreamed that this part of the project would be so huge…we bought 90 laptops, 45 printers, 45 laminators, 45 digital cameras and 45 proximas - we loaded all the software necessary onto all the laptops, creating easy short cuts, and loaded the necessary templates (in numerous places on the laptop in case a template got altered or corrupted) and then we started to buy all the stationary necessary to create ID cards etc. So we bought everthing in numbers of 33 000 - lamination pouches, ID clips, sticky labels…and so the list goes on and on…(sorry if anyone else needs to buy any of this stuff - we bought the suppliers in South Africa out of these materials!!!), our shopping spree filled a warehouse - you get the picture!! All of this also had to be divided up and distributed amongst the trainers, as well as electronic equipment being serialised before being handed out - this created another piece of logistics bigger than anticipated…what a learning curve!!!

So if you are out on the roads of South Africa and you see a white VW caddy - give them a friendly wave - it could be the Gidani Lottery trainers, who have had the courage to empower and arm themselves with skills and technical knowledge that many might shy away from!!

On Saturday 3rd June my Avo Team and i had the pleasure of briefing the SAB Management Development Programme delegates on their Apprentice Challenge.The MDP is one of the most exciting leadership programmes on the SAB training calendar. The programme sees approximately 40 local and international delegates gather at the SAB Training Institute to embark on a 3 week leadership journey. Avo project manages this exciting programme.  

The Apprentice Challenge is a collaborative effort between SAB, UCT Graduate School of Business and Avocado Vision. The aim of the challenge is to see if delegates can translate their learned, theoretical knowledge into real-world entrepreneurial and original thinking.

We came up with the novel idea last year, for the 2005 MDP Programme. Syndicates raised R71 000 for the Mother of Peace Community, an AIDS orphanage in Northriding, Johannesburg. Due to its great success SAB decided to include it again in the programme and see how the 2006 delegates fair against their predesessors.

The Avo Beading Instructors showed the syndicates beading methods, through making bracelets, keyrings and necklaces. Once the syndicates techniques were sound they were left with a box full of beads, tiger tail wire, crimps, beading tools and other interesting material and an entrepreneur brief.

The entrepreneur brief was short and simple:

1. Design a creation/s.

2. Design and execute a marketing plan and strategy that will ensure that your syndicate makes the most money possible from the creation/s you have made. The syndicates will be marked on design, finance, engagement and follow through.

All proceeds made from this challenge will got to the SAB Corporate, Social Responsibilty Initiative and funds will be distributed from there. This means that every single cent goes to a worthy cause. http://www.sabreweries.co.za/sabltd/home/default

When Avo clients challenged the team to come up with something really creative and fun for teams to do together, we certainly rose to the challenge. The result of our collective thinking is this mad-cap adventure: a truly diverse, REAL South African, Jozi-joll, with lots of that special corporate responsibility ‘Zing’ thrown in!
What Avo set out to create was a fun, meaningful, innovative way to facilitate team cohesion, encourage participation and expose team members to experiences that they will find magical, amusing, enriching and rewarding!!
                                       
The reason why we are so excited about this race, is that it speaks to what Avocado Vision is all about. We are all about creating conversations, helping people understand and communicate with each other a little better so that teams will be better equipped to listen to each other, care for each other and have good, clean fun together.
At Avo, we encourage creativity, innovation and discovery because we know how valuable it is for people to be open to new experiences.
We hope you find the idea of the ‘Ama Zing-Zing’ race just as inspiring as we found it to be when we created it. We look forward to seeing your team in the starting blocks!
The half-day challenge is loosely based on the popular television programme called ‘The Amazing Race’; however, this race is a race of an altogether different nature!

You and your team will be  taking place in activities such as:
Taxi-code’ training, an orphanage visit, word-collecting and you will be ‘zinging’ around places like the Oriental Plaza, Secret Garden, Mandela Bridge, Diagonal Street, The Rand Club and a vibey Shebeen! 

And guess what…we can do it in Cape Town too!!  Glen and Hanli are off to Cape Town on the weekend, to facilitate the race for one of our banking clients……..sooo, watch this space to read all about it and see all the pics, when they get back!!

The concept of negotiation is relatively easy to understand. However, mastering the art is a whole lot more complicated and difficult to accomplish because it not only involves techniques, but also requires certain behavior that is not always easy to adopt.

On completion of this program, you will:

• Fully understand the nature of negotiation and the associated benefits
• Understand the key concepts of negotiations, negotiation relationships and negotiation styles
• Understand the role of their own personality and conflict handling disposition in negotiations
• Be able to prepare and plan for a negotiation
• Understand all the factors that affect the climate of the negotiation and how to use these to best advantage
• Understand how to negotiate for common ground
• Understand how to conduct truly persuasive communication
• Understand how to deal with conflict and aggression
• Be able to demonstrate the capability to apply these fundamental negotiation skills

The Brand of One: Sell yourself well - you are your own product

We are facing a business world that has changed fundamentally. In a world where everything is different, the only thing we can rely on is unpredictability, and so a new working order is emerging.

It is the individual that is fleet-of-foot and alert to the changes signaled in their environment that will be the survivor of this age. And it is now that the true ‘brand of one’ emerges: people who are on a journey of constant evolution and self-discovery know that to survive and meet the demands this new world throws at us, our ability to market ourselves effectively has never been more key.

It is because people are realising that they are responsible for their own present and future that building a personal brand that manages both customer expectations and personal integrity has become a very necessary element in modern business practice.

Selling yourself well is no longer something that happens by mistake and it is too important to leave to chance, so this talk will teach people how to read their markets, themselves and then build a strong personal brand that blends their market’s expectations with the uniqueness of who they are.

Mind the Gap: Communicating across the generations

Intergenerational conflict is not only something that happens between parents and their errant offspring. Research shows that a lot of uncomfortable personal relations happen in the workplace as a product of conflicting value systems of different generations. In order to understand staff and customers, it is important to get an insight into their value systems.
We have known for many decades that our value systems are largely in place by the age of 10. Startling, more recent research is pointing to the fact that world events and moods that happen during the formative years of any generation’s life have a profound impact on the outlook and value system of that generation as a whole.

This talk looks at the fundamental shift in paradigm companies are experiencing as they start coming to grips with this concept including:

• Tailor-make their marketing strategies by speaking a values-based language that the different targeted segments understand
• Change their staff-retention strategies to meet the differing needs of the different generations that work for them
• Change their client retention programmes to target the right strategy at the right customer group
• Manage customer care programmes by solving issues in ways that suit the client generational value profile.