All Change.

Earlier this year, Jenny, Beth and I moved house. It's been a stunning move and we are grateful every day for this new home. I've also been privileged enough, in the midst of significant organisational change at work, to get a new role.

It's not been an easy process to walk through, thinking about leaving a great team, trying to create a CV that told my story in an engaging way and thinking about the opportunities in my current role to have good fun producing some good work, but I was feeling like it was part of this season of change we are walking through.

One if the biggest things I want to take with me in this role is that just because ive been offered something new, doesn't mean I've made it. It doesn't mean I have it all figured out. I'm just joining a new team to continue my learning.

It's been fun reminding myself that im not all that (whatever that is!).

A wise friend once said "never believe your own press" and that's very true. Never take too much out of what people say about you. Recognise who you really are and how much we can all grow.

That said, I'm still excited by what's next.

Suited & Booted

I have two suits. I have a kilt. I can enjoy wearing smart clothes.

However, in a recent conversation with a colleague, it was stated (not by me) that photos of team members provided to our customers would've looked better if all the guys had been wearing a suit.

"They would have looked more professional".

Oh really?

I disagreed. Why? Well, I think you can wear the suit, but be the least professional person in the room.

It might mean you look the part, but that's not enough.

In an age when conversation & relationships are what matter in customer service, I think authenticity and relevance are the true measure of professionalism. I think they fly in the face of (or at least challenge the insistance of) the "stiff upper lip".

I put this out on Twitter & Facebook yesterday:

"does being suited & booted for an existing customer make you look more *professional* but less personable?"

A few people responded:

"You can look professional and still BE personable. :-)" Theresa Seeber

True, but the suit doesn't mean you are either.

"Personable is in the character not the clothes" Colin Hilditch

Oh yeah!

Maybe it's just me, but I think a suit can be a veil that is hidden behind.

A crutch that is leaned on.

Sure, the first time you meet someone, you want to create a good impression, but perhaps the way we meet someone for the first time has changed - we look each other up on a search engine or check out a social network profile. That makes things different - and it all the more important for those involved in meeting customers to be aware of what can be found online.

I'd rather have a trusted supplier who I got to know to a deeper level than just the guy with the suit & tie from X Company.

Maybe this change is still happening and the old way is still the norm?

I wonder if the soon, when we call an engineer or plumber if the supplier will send you a link to the engineers profile before they arrive - so you know what they're like (and look like!).

What's your view?

Thank you, RAC.

Last year, we changed car insurers and opted to take seperate breakdown cover. At the time the old Pug was a bit fragile so we thought it best to get something fairly comprehensive, especially with babyB on the scene.

The RAC got our business by being 1) well priced (ie cheapest), 2) easy to buy online (most convenient) & 3) covering the drivers, not the cars.

We never needed to call them in 364 of the days of the policy. Today, day 365, we did.

On a wee road trip to collect her parents from Glasgow Airport a few weeks ago (that's a 40 minute motorway journey from home), Mrs theWeir was in her parents car with her sister & babyB. Then the electrics on the car packed in on the motorway.

The car kept running, but no speedo, lights and left indicator permantley on (presumably the car's way of saying "I'd like to stop now"). They pressed on the airport. On arrival at the pick-up point, the car (a four-year old Ford Mondeo) died. No power, kaput.

Mrs theWeir phones me, gets our membership details and phone number them pulls out her RAC card and phones them up. Helpful people on the phone (first star to RAC). Van on it's way. Ticket man at the Airport drop-off point is really great - very understanding of the situation and keeps checking in to see if he can help. Nice.

Van arrives in good time, mechanic confirms a dodgy alternator (it's less than a year old) and quite rightly says - you're not driving that back through with four adults and a toddler. He can't tow it back as there's too many passengers - need to get a flat bed.

He confirms this with RAC control (I think) who arrange for a flat-bed tow lorry to collect them all and take them home. Might be an hour or more - sorry they can't have one right away. But then RAC man leaves (to do other calls, or maybe have a tea break, either's good with me). But the call centre keep in touch, confirming when the flat bed was dispacted and giving an eta. (Second gold star).

Flat bed driver was great, babyB and Mrs theWeir get front fow seats and the car is loaded up. They head for home. Then the call centre phones again to make sure everything has worked out okay. Now that's what I call service.

Thank you RAC for looking after my family. I'll be renewing our cover you now, rather than looking for a *better deal* anywhere else.

That's my story, but I'd love to know if you've had anything similar or worse from RAC too. Just to bring balance

FULL Disclosure: I've never earned any freebies from RAC, or been paid by them. Just so we're clear.

Who is this babyB character then?

When Jenny and I wanted to let our friends know that we were expecting a baby, I set up a blog using iWeb. It was a fairly handy way of letting the world know what was going on. I was kind of new to blogs and thought that a native application for creating & updating would be best. I realise now that this was not the wisest move on the planet.

However, you can imaging that I wanted to share with everyone once our wee girl was born. Beth Ann Weir. The announcement is here. That was 18 months ago. At the same time as we were adjusting life to being a family of three, I was learning more about the social (and sociological) nature of online interaction and reminded that "one it's online, it's always online.

One of the people that I've learned most from over the piece was Mitch Joel. Some time last year, his "significant other" (I can't find out if Mitch is married or not) delivered a baby. He doesn't really talk about the baby - at first I found this really odd. Especially when one of his co-participants (and another person sharing great ideas on new media), CC-Chapman shares so much about his family online (including helping his daughter put together an online video series.

When asked on his regular podcast why he didn't talk much about his family - it was through choice. It was all about letting his family choose how much they were online and hoe much they weren't. This baby had little influence over what would be shared online - but you can be sure that in 15 years time, they would have something to say about their toddler-days being on Flickr for the world to see.

Hearing this (and Jenny being a little concerned that *anyone* could see photos of Beth (or us) online made me think. How much do we want to share? How much do we want to keep private and what does that mean.

So, when I started using the babyB handle when talking about our wee girl. I talk about Mrs theWeir as "theWeir" is my twitter, friendfeed, identi.ca and bebo handle. We only let friends & family view picture on Flickr & Facebook. Pictures of babyB do not end up on Posterous. This can be restrictive when there's something very cute I might want to share (and I'm sure I'll come up with a way to make it work in the future), but for now it's working alright.

I do share tons of other photos on Flickr, Facebook and Posterous, but just not of babyB.

And that's why I use those abbreviations. It's not to be better than anyone else, just the way we're working it for now. All these self-publishing platforms are new ground and making informed, wise decisions is what it's all about for me.

What do you think? Do you share your family & photos with everyone?