Ripping open that bag of Kettle Maple Bacon chips at the end of the day isn’t due to a lack of self control. It’s because you wanted to eat those delicious, tasty, bacon-flavored chips.

“It’s not that people cannot control themselves, it’s that they don’t feel like controlling themselves, at least on certain tasks,” said Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto Scarborough.

In a paper published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Inzlicht, Brandon Schmeichel from Texas A&M University, and Neil Macrae from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, show that self-control is not a limited resource and that people should find pleasure in productive activities.

“In short, when people are ‘depleted’ or fatigued, they experience a change in motivational priorities such that they attend to—and work less for—things they feel obliged to do, and attend to—and work more for—things they want to do [and] things they like doing.”

It’s a long-standing belief that self-control is a resource that can be drained and that when it’s exhausted we are powerless to our urges and perform duties less optimally. However, Inzlicht, Schmeichel, and Macrae suggest that our decline in performance isn’t due to a lack of self control. It’s because we shift our priorities.

Inzlicht says that we increase our self-control by changing the ways we relate to our goals, changing “have-tos” into “want-tos.” And if that doesn’t work, you should plan for the inevitable changes in your motivational states by taking breaks.

“Breaks and vacations are not antithetical to productivity, but may actually boost it,” Inzlicht said. “Some smart companies already realize this.”

Changing a “have-to” to a “want-to” is not impossible, either.

“If someone wants to eat healthier, they should think of the enjoyment that they can get from eating delicious, yet healthy, foods; in contrast, they should probably not frame their eating goal as something they feel obliged to do because their doctor or spouse is trying to convince them to do so,” Inzlicht said. “The key is finding a way to want and like the goal that you are chasing.”

(photo credit: coldpants via photopin cc)

Severe weather can occur at any time of the year, although many areas across the country see the majority of their severe weather from March through August.  As our venues approach the busy spring event season, we thought it would be good to remind our venue managers about severe weather preparedness. We encourage you to sign up for IAVM’s Severe Weather Preparedness taking place March 4-5 at the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. In the meanwhile, here are some amazing lightning facts that might inspire you to take action.

Lightning Facts 101

Lightning takes many forms: cloud-to-cloud, cloud to ground, or the reverse, as ground-to-sky discharge. Regardless of the direction of the lightning stroke, a great deal of energy is released as the electrical charge balance of the earth’s atmosphere is restored.

There is an average of 25 million lightning strikes each year. Each day the earth is struck by lightning about 10,000 times so that’s about 100 strikes per second.

Top 5 States                                      Strikes per Year      Strikes per Square Mile

#5 South Carolina/Oklahoma (tie)            451,841                                             14.6

#4 Alabama                                                824,171                                            15.9

#3 Mississippi                                             856,384                                           18.0

#2 Louisiana                                               942,128                                            20.3

#1 Florida                                                    1.45 million                                       25.3

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Our get-a-member campaign, iCommit, is currently under way, and with your help we can increase our membership by adding 500 new members by March 31. This would take IAVM to an unprecedented community of 4,700 members. More members means more collaboration, a bigger and more diverse network for you, and a greater pool of experts to create inspiring and motivating educational sessions at conferences.

Let’s look at it this way: If every member strives to add just one new member, we could DOUBLE our membership by March 31—certainly by the end of 2014. How exciting!

Will you commit to help IAVM build a stronger association and a bigger network of like-minded leaders? We hope so! You did an amazing job last year and helped us achieve record numbers. Your passion for the industry is contagious, so let’s work together to grow your association .

What’s In It For You?

Besides feeling good about supporting the industry, for each new member that you refer who actually joins IAVM, your name will be entered into a raffle to win one of five $500 Apple gift cards (generously provided by Ungerboeck Software) to apply toward the purchase of any Apple product including an iPad, iPhone, or iPod—your choice! The more members you bring, the more chances you will have to win. The campaign ends March 31, 2014.

To ensure you are eligible to win, make sure the new member who joins lists your name in the Applicant Section titled “Who Recommended IAVM To You?” and enters “iCOMMIT” in the Promotional Code field in the Payment Method section of the membership applications.

If you have questions, please contact me or Summer Beday at 972.906.7441 or membership@iavm.org. We value and appreciate your support of IAVM!

(Image: Orange Photography)

Winter Storm Leon lunged into the southern parts of the U.S. this past week. Sure, you can quote Charles Dudley Warner and say, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” But that’s not true. There are people out there who are doing something about it, primarily in the preparedness field.

Consider IAVM member Leonard Bonacci and John Comerer. Bonacci is vice president of stadium events and operations for Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, and Comerer is the stadium’s security director. They are part of a team that ensures the safety of all guests during events. In our latest issue, Joe DesPlaines wrote a story about how Bonacci and Comerer handled a Shelter-In-Place (SIP) during a storm at Taylor Swift concert. DesPlaines does a great job explaining the before, during, and after aspects of the situation, and he had Bonacci and Comerer identify key lessons learned:

• “There were some guests that refused to shelter, even with the lightning! Mostly these were fans in the ‘pit’ who didn’t want to lose their place as space in this area in front of the stage was given on a ‘first come’ basis. We ultimately had to ask the police for help, and we now know to routinely use the uniformed officers to clear the pit.”
• “We also found that people moved out of the seating areas fairly quickly but stopped when they entered the concourse and/or service area tunnel, effectively stopping the sheltering. We quickly learned that we needed to position some staff at the entrance to move people into the concourse, to accommodate all the guests.”
• “We had some guests who were very frightened of the thunder and lightning. We realized that we had to take special care with guests who panic and become immobilized.”
• “This event confirmed our training to be prepared to respond with urgency. Storms move fast and lightning can strike miles from the storm center. Activating the SIP plan was an immediate call to act quickly to maintain the safety of the guests and staff.”
• “Emergency planning must be totally transparent. All participants including venue employees, police, fire, EMS, tour staff, and even the performers need to know there is a plan and what actions we will take if activated. It was our understanding that even the star knew her shelter location.
• “Having executive leadership ‘buy-in’ to emergency response is invaluable . Their support and encouragement really motivates the staff.”
• “Communication is key to a successful shelter—with guests and staff. Providing information, even if it was a repeat of something previously stated, helped keep everyone calm.”
• “All the practice paid off—it was rehearsal for the real emergency.”

Training to properly respond is what drives the program at Severe Weather Preparedness & Planning for Public Assembly Venues and Events, which takes place March 4-5 at the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. There you will be trained on such topics as atmospheric electricity (lightning threats), safe sheltering, and crowd dynamics. All the instructors are experts in the safety, security, and weather fields. Registration is open and available for members and non-members.

You can now blame your gender on your inability to remember things. According to researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, men have worse memories than women.

“It was surprising to see that men forget more than women,” said Jostein Holmen, a NTNU professor. “This has not been documented before. It was also surprising to see that men are just as forgetful whether they are 30 or 60 years old. The results were unambiguous.”

More than 48,000 Norwegian people took part in a longitudinal study, and nine  questions dealt with memory. The results—published in BMC Psychology—show that “subjective memory impairment” was reported by half the participants, with men reporting the most problems for eight out of the nine questions. Remembering names and dates were the most common problems. And your education level matters. Those more highly educated have better memories , and those who are more often anxious or depressed have memory problems.

“We have speculated a lot about why men report more frequent problems with remembering than women do, but have not been able to find an explanation,” Holmen said. “This is still an unsolved mystery.”

(photo credit: Rusty Clark via photopin cc)