A couple of months ago, I created an internal task force to help me stay informed of all the business-related happenings that occur outside of my rather small sphere of influence. The group consists of Andrea and Tiffany from our sales suite (who talk to multitudes of customers every day), Krista and Jenny from our web team (who interact on social media and monitor trends on our site), Denise from our acquisition team (who helps us reach new customers), and Cindy, our HR Manager (who does way too much for me to put inside parentheses). And I'm there, too, but I try to just be a fly on the wall while they roundtable about what's going on in their worlds. It's a great gig for me, actually!

While I was in the midst of researching/writing an article about social media for our latest RecogNation , I paused and realized that I was getting into some pretty deep water. I sent out an S.O.S. and our HR Manager, Cindy, kindly threw me a lifeline. We chatted for a bit and, to my relief, she pointed me in the direction of some resources to help me reach a conclusion. Thanks, Cindy!

Because I'm a bit of a nerd, I get really excited when I read an article or post that I think is particularly thought-provoking, or an idea that is especially innovative. I'll send it out to everyone I know and wait patiently for the wave of wows to come washing back to me. But, alas, most people just don't have the level of enthusiasm that I do for these things. Thank goodness Baudville has given me a forum for sharing with an audience (you!) who might really appreciate this information: it's my new Five Favorite Fascinating Finds Series! If you missed August's, you can find it here. But, now, let's get on to September and see what's been percolating over the past month.

I'm old. Relatively speaking, anyway; and definitely speaking compared to the majority of my co-workers. I didn't get a cell phone until late 2005 and I wrote most of my college term papers on a typewriter—and, even though I've come a long way in the hipness department, I am still fairly traditional when it comes to my workplace values. So, you can imagine my discomfort in being surrounded by an entire subset of people who share few or none of my old-school viewpoints. (Not to mention that no one ever gets any of my Brady Bunch references!)     

The good news is, I've been able to adapt to (or, in some cases, cope with) the ways of the Millennials, and I have become a lot more tech savvy and trend aware than I would be if I'd stayed inside my shack and yelled at the kids to get off my lawn. So to speak. I think they may have picked up a few of my tricks as well, which means we have a good ol' win-win situation on our hands!  

I have a confession: last week I announced on Facebook that I would be taking a Facebreak. I probably didn't need to broadcast this little tidbit, except that making it public was definitely a good way to keep me accountable to my promise. But, that's not the confession part…the sad truth is that I only lasted a wimpy three days before I was logged back in and plugged back in—just like that.

Why is this a big deal? It isn't in the grand scheme of things, but it is considering how much research and writing and soapboxing I've been doing about our over-dependence on technology, as well as our lack of mindfulness when we are tuned in to our devices. In short, I was having a walk the talk moment.