Of course I’m starting this post at 2:45 AM when I promised myself it would be up by midnight, but hey, I’m a nocturnal creative person ~ true to form, but sometimes I get blue when I run late, especially at night. I worry constantly that I don’t work hard enough, use my time wisely enough, produce enough, clean enough, whoa—it’s so depressing!
A few sleepless nights ago, while prowling the Internet for interesting stuff, I read an article about the value chain of the Ipod. I love reading about high tech nonsense, probably because most of my professional life has been in an industry that still routinely uses trapdoors, hand cranked winches, and weighted fly systems of ropes & pulleys. Don’t get me wrong, theatre people are obsessed with technological innovation and always have been, but our innovations are often obscured behind the scenes. After reading about how a single Ipod is basically built in nearly every corner of the world, bringing it’s value & $$$ to collaborators far & wide, I was falling without a safety harness back into worrywart mode. Why is it that the Ipod, an inanimate object, gets a fantastic sounding accessory called a value chain?! I must have one, too ~ move over mp3 player!
I made this at 3:00 AM, rocking the ’80’s vibe, Al!!!
Well, apparently in business school they teach you all this evaluation stuff, which they call “tools.” We theatre people measure success by one tool only: applause. But, I’ll try anything once and MindTools promised value chain assessment is as easy as 1. Brainstorm all the services you provide in your life, 2. Clarify what your “customers” value about your services and 3. Think about ways to add/improve your value~ voila! This is your personal value chain. Frankly, I think this is an accessory that blows Troll Beads or Silly Bandz way out of the water.
So here is a visual breakdown of my own value chain, made on my new ipad2 with Coolibah, a free scrapbooking app:
work in progress ~ my value chain
Next time I’m up late at night instead of worrying about if I have any value, I’m going to update my What to Improve column, but at heart I’m still a theatre girl so if you liked this post, please feel free to upload a video of yourself clapping. ♥
