North of the 49th | Amway

As you may know, especially if you read my last post, I'm a something-is-better-than-nothing kind of guy. That's why you won't hear me say a bad word about Earth Hour — and why I ask you to consider participating.

A quick primer for those who aren't familiar with Earth Hour. Essentially, it's a venture organized by the WWF (no, not the guys in tight spandex. Although I'd love to see what would happen if they DID run it! "If you see your neighbour go to turn on a light, feel free to body slam them through any table. Preferably synthetic ones. After all, we don't want to waste trees…) to encourage people to shut off all electricity for one hour each year.

This year's event takes place tomorrow. It's a global venture where, at 8:30 local time, you shut off your lights, appliances, TVs… everything. The Earth Hour Web site claims that the event has over five million supporters in over 100 countries. And it only started in 2007.

I'd love to think that one day enough people would participate that you would be able to see, from space, a rolling blackout of the Earth — kind of a electric wave (that sounds like a disco-era dance…). You can visit the Earth Hour Web site to find out more and to register.

That's the what. As for why? Well, I can't make that decision for you. We support the event here at Canuck Central, but to be honest we're pretty limited in what we can do. There aren't too many people here Saturday at 8:30 p.m. for one thing. Secondly, we're already very active in minimizing our impact on the environment. Our Enviro committee, led by our TQS manager Robin Bell, has already instituted several programs to encourage employees to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We already power down all computers and lights at the end of each day. Only essential power (for security and network stability) is used anyways.

But we do encourage our employees to participate at home. And that's where we can make the biggest impact. Sure, one building going green helps — but spreading that message out to all the employees spreads that message exponentially. It's happening in the schools, as my eight-year-old daughter came home the other day mandating that we participate.

If you have 100 people in your organization, that's 100 families that can participate. They also will share that with others, who will share it with others. The end result? Kevin Bacon participates in Earth Hour.

Naysayers will say one hour means nothing. And, in the grand scheme of things they're not wrong — they're not right, but they're not wrong. One hour doesn't negate years of bad habits, lack of education, or callous disregard for the environment. But one hour gives you time to reflect upon how you use energy. We try to be vigilant at home, but some things slip through the cracks — lights get left on, the odd recyclable finds its way into the trash, we've yet to start composting, although we keep saying we will. 

In the end, it all comes back to Schoolhouse Rock. "Knowledge is Power" was the mantra of Schoolhouse Rocky and his crew. And it remains true today. That one hour of change could prompt you to reconsider if you really need to leave that hall light on. You may find opportunities to switch to CFL lights. You could consider turning down the heat at night, or installing a programmable thermostat (again, one of those things that have slipped through the cracks as Casa Menard. I bought one when we moved in, but haven't yet installed it. Electricity and I aren't great friends…)

And those little changes, multiplied by however many others who find similar opportunities to change, increase the impact of our efforts exponentially. We're NOT going to solve all the world's problems today. We're not going to make a drastic difference tomorrow. But we can start along the right path. We're not ready as a society to stop polluting; we're not able to completely negate our environmental impact. And we may never be able to do more good than harm. But at least we can lessen our impact. 

Too often we get focused on perfection. If we can't do it exactly right, why do it at all? I don't get that. Better is better. Period. Like we tell our kids, grades don't matter — you don't have to be perfect. As long as they — and we — do our best, then that's all we can ask.

Earth Hour's a start. Pass it on!

I was a big Schoolhouse Rock fan (who am I kidding, I still am. About 11 years ago, I was on a trip to Washington and I sat back on the steps of the Capitol and sang, 'I'm Just a Bill' — mock if you must, but you'd do the same if you were my age) and one of the phrases that's stuck in my head is "As your body grows bigger/Your mind grows flowered/It's great to learn/Because knowledge is power!"

That being said, sometimes I wonder, "What am I doing here?" It's usually at the moment that an IBO sends in an e-mail or calls in saying, "Oh, I didn't know about that. Is that new?" or "Why didn't you tell us about that before?"

The problem is, we usually do. But obviously our message isn't getting to the right place. It's of particular frustration to me simply because I type my little fingers off trying to get the right information out to the right people at the right time. And I try, hopefully successfully, to do it in an entertaining way — even if it's product copy or a What's New article — so that I can engage the reader.

But it seems that effort is wasted. My question to you is twofold: Why and How?

The Why: Why do some of you not read what we write? Most everything we do here in our Communications department is to provide you — either as an independent business owner or a customer — with the information you need to make decisions that are right for you, whether that means building a balanced business, or learning about a new product. Yet those messages often fall on deaf ears (or, I guess in the case of writing, it should be blind eyes, but I've never heard that before — maybe I'll coin that phrase, "Our message is falling on blind eyes." I like it!)

The worst feeling is going out with a request, like "Tell us what you think about Product X," and hearing only crickets in return (you see, you couldn't hear those crickets if the message fell on deaf ears, but you could if it fell on blind eyes — and who really wants to see crickets anyway? This may catch on!)

I do have my theories. One, I feel, would be the overwhelming amount of media you get, especially as an IBO: targeted e-mails, transactional e-mails, messages from upline/downline/customers, plus What's New, Twitter (remember, sign up for @AmwayCanada), RSS feeds, etc. I could be wrong, but maybe we're quenching your thirst for knowledge with a firehose here.

And now The How: As in, how do we fix this? We've got a lot of exciting stuff out there: new products, pricing changes, sponsorships — including next week's kickoff to the Nutrilite Canadian Championship, our Imagine – True Success training tour, TV commercials, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But how can we make you aware of it?

Or maybe the real question is do you want to be aware of it?

So I implore you to help me be better at my job. What information do you want and what's the best way to get it to you? Do we send enough e-mail? Too much? Not enough? The right kind? What are we doing well? What could we do better? What are we missing? Would you listen to Leadership Hotlines as a Podcast? How do we integrate with the various organizations to ensure that people just starting this business get the information they need?

And there's the rub. It's one thing I've always struggled with since I started as the Canadian writer. How do you balance the new versus the old? We're seemingly always focused on the new and the next? But what about the products that maybe we've taken for granted. Just because you or I know Double X, that doesn't mean the woman who just registered last month does. It's a delicate balance that I don't think we've struck yet.

Please, whether you're an IBO, a customer, or just a visitor to this blog, take a moment to tell me what we could do better!  After all, when it comes to making smart decisions, Schoolhouse Rocky had it right — Knowledge is Power!

I'm asking for your help. Comments are open, or drop me an e-mail at northofthe49th@opportunityzone.com.