Princess Perils for Vanessa Hudgens

I don't usually pay attention to the scandals that the mass media produce. This time I have to say something. I saw on Twitter a couple of days ago that Vanessa Hudgens was a "trending topic". Trending Topics on Twitter give you an idea of what the users of Twitter are talking about. Sometimes, it is nothing at all, but when a star's name begins to appear, there is usually an event in that person's life that people are talking about and thus the trending topic.

I followed the trending topic to see what the conversation was about and learned that Princess Vanessa has yet another set of risque photos making the rounds of the internet. This happened in 2007, and she promptly apologized for her mistake. It was handily dealt with as a lapse of judgement and Disney didn't even bother slapping her wrist.

From what I've read, Hudgens' lawyers are saying that the new set of photos are from before the first set surfaced on the net. (As if that makes it all better?) The scandals and the reactions of the people around them say a lot about our attitudes toward purity and standards of behavior! It begs the question, "Why?!" Why would she take the pictures? Why would she show anybody else? Why can't Disney react with anything more like guidance? Why is she still a role-model for tweenies?!

I wanted to comment briefly on the "Why did she do it?" question here today. Vanessa Hudgens started acting when she was 8. I am not saying that 8 year olds should not act. I am saying, though, that it is the job of an eight-year-old's parents to keep them grounded in reality. At some point, it became more and more important that Hudgens follow acting. That is when the grounding in reality starts to become more and more important.

I have a lovely 13-year old daughter. She has always been the apple of our eye. From her early days, we have praised her for her intelligence and personality. I never wanted to see her develop the attitude that being pretty is the final measure of a human being. If we are not careful, that is the message we send to kids, and I wonder if that isn't the message that Vanessa Hudgens began to get.

Disney liked her. Zach Efron liked her. The cameras were always rolling. Was that enough? Maybe just a little experiment with the cameraphone. It is a private matter. Nobody will know. *POOF!* Innocence gone.

On the first occasion of pictures finding their way onto the net, her lawyers expressed dismay that a "private matter" was making it into the public arena. Who could control such things?! Well....Vanessa could've controlled the matter. She could have not taken the pictures.

Once upon a time, you had to take pictures on film. You had to have the film developed. You knew that someone handled the photos, and would see them. Now, we think we can take risks that aren't really necessary because, "Nobody will know." Ask Vanessa Hudgens if anybody knows about the photos she took in private.

I am writing this post for parents. Teach your kids values that will keep some degree of purity as a characteristic of their lives! If anybody has a problem with that word "purity" showing up multiple times in this post...then we really ARE in trouble!

Book Review: DEATH by Meeting

I have decided to try to do a review of the books I read, so you can get a preview of some of the things I read. I hope you find this useful. I will start with a book I just finished, and in a couple of days, I will do a review of a book I finished about a week ago. "DEATH by Meeting", I really enjoyed and think it will be a very useful book to anyone who has to run meetings in their work. The next book I review will be one I loved to hate for most of my reading of it. :-)

"DEATH by Meeting" is by Patrick Lencioni, and is written in the form of a "fable" to teach a new concept. For that reason, it is actually a pretty light read. If you are one who skips to the end to decide if they will like the book or not, you will get a complete misconception, since Lencioni recaps some of the key concepts taught by the fable in a couple of chapters at the end.

I won't steal any thunder from the book by telling any more details that to say that Lencioni advocates through the story, the idea of doing your meeting "on purpose". Don't expect one kind of meeting to be a "one-size-fits-all" affair. Conflict, drama and context are your friends in getting vital information onto the table in your meetings.

Lencioni's protagonist in the fable gets the executives to understand that the first 10 minutes of any meeting, like in a movie, will set the stage for the rest of the movie, and will probably determine whether people are engaged or bored by the rest of the piece. Meetings are no different.

The idea of doing meetings in varied ways to match the topic and purpose should NOT be news to any of us, but the fact is that in MOST organizations, a meeting is a meeting is a meeting. They are all the same and most of the participants would give their left arm to have an acceptable excuse to miss the meeting. Lencioni crafts a wonderful story to help executives grapple with some concepts that will help protect their organization from "DEATH by Meeting". I would encourage anyone who needs to run meetings in their role in their organization to read this book and implement as much as possible. It is a good read and makes some excellent points!

As a final point, I would say that my wife commented on the speed with which I finished this book... I usually plod carefully through non-fiction to make sure I get the point. Since Lencioni wrote this like a well-lubed work of fiction, I flew through it and couldn't get enough! :-)

Unfaithful Blogger

I just looked at my archives and realized that I have not been particularly faithful to blogging for the last few months. It can get tricky sometimes keeping track of all the options for communication. Some of the options are so similar, I sometimes blur the lines a bit.

Let's see....there's Twitter, there's Facebook, there's my blog, there's e-mail updates, there's Skype...the list seems endless. Each serves its purpose, but at times I think there might be just too many options. Each comes with its own set of expectations, and something has to give. Hmm...did I mention face-to-face communication, telephones, letters...etc...? I think that is probably what suffers. As we develop the habits of virtual communication, we need to make sure we retain the connections that I like to call "analog" (as opposed to digital).

Do you ever struggle to keep up with your communication? What do you do to keep the tensions in check?