Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps

CFOZ version

Two minutes of cardio (your choice), samson stretch, CFWU x 3 (x 2 if in first two weeks of WODs)

Three rounds for time of:
Run/walk 400 meters
10 Sit-ups
Pvc/broomstick Deadlift, 15 reps

Post time to comments.

Deadlift Starting Position Intro, Mark Rippetoe...[wmv][mov]

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SO1 Joshua Thomas Harris, 36, drowned during combat operations, August 30th 2008 in Afghanistan. He is survived by his parents Dr. Sam and Evelyn Harris, his brother Ranchor and twin sister Kiki. -- Lauren Glassman, October 10, 2008

Five rounds for time of:
40 pound Dumbbells split clean, 15 reps
21 Pull-ups

CFOZ version

Two minutes of cardio (your choice), samson stretch, CFWU x 3 (x 2 if in first two weeks of WODs)

Post time to comments.

Dumbbell split clean - video [wmv] [mov]

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Canadian Army Master Corporal Erin Doyle, 32, was killed in a firefight August 11th, 2008 in the Panjwaii District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. He is survived by his wife Nicole and his daughter Zarine. -- Lauren Glassman, October 9, 2008

Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
21 Burpees

Each burpee terminates with a jump one foot above max standing reach.

CFOZ version

Two minutes of cardio (your choice), samson stretch, CFWU x 3 (x 2 if in first two weeks of WODs)

Three Rounds for time of:
7 Jumping Pull-ups/Standing Pulls
7 Bench Dips
15 Burpees (If you cannot do a knee burpee, do a combination of a wall push-up and a squat.)

Post time to comments.

This is a NEW Hero WOD. Ryan, you will be remembered.

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Maplewood, Missouri Firefighter, Ryan Hummert, 22, was killed by sniper fire July 21st 2008 when he stepped off his fire truck responding to a call. He is survived by his parents Andrew and Jackie Hummert. -- Lauren Glassman, October 8, 2008

I wonder how proudly we talk with our students about their successes. Do you acknowledge each of the students' firsts? Do you let your students know on a daily or weekly basis their successes? Do you break your curriculum down so that they can celebrate small successes instead of waiting until the end unit test to be able to show a success? Do you celebrate each success to motivate them in their learning? Do you celebrate each success to show them that they are moving forward? Do you celebrate each success so that when they find a task especially difficult they can look back to their previous successes and know that they can achieve this task? Do you scaffold the curriculum so that they can easily move from success to success or do you have a sink-or-swim approach to student learning? Do your students look forward to the next challenge so that they can show how well they are doing or do they dread the exercise that they know they will fail at?

How do you make your curriculum a success one for students so that they constantly have new learning firsts?

If you are interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

CFOZ version

Post time for each of five rounds to comments.

CrossFit London, Ontario, courtesy of www.crossfit.com

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:

2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 2-Pood Kettlebell swings

CFOZ version

Post rounds completed to comments.

Chief Petty Officer Nate Hardy was killed Sunday February 4th during combat operations in Iraq. Nate is survived by his wife, Mindi, and his infant son Parker.

--Lauren Glassman, February 12, 2008  

Demos and image courtesy of CrossFit HQ.

A common set of metrics will be recorded for each organization so donors and investors can check regularly and track their progress or spot trouble. Social entrepreneurs will be able to benchmark their results against those for similar organizations around the world.

The system will allow foundations and other donors see what the return on their investment is, and compare it against other similar organizations to see if real progress is occurring. I can imagine that not only will the information be useful to investors, though, but also to other stakeholders - partner organizations, beneficiaries, almost anyone involved the same field who wants to stay informed of the value of programs and money.

Since social enterprises are relatively new entities, standards and benchmarks are not common or shared. A specific metric that one enterprise decides to use may differ with the next. The PDMS offers a solution to the current haphazard situation...

The system will provide a deep reservoir of vital stats. All listed companies will use the same financial accounting methods. They'll be measured based on seven basic metrics, including revenue growth, net income, the number of customers served, jobs created, wage growth, local suppliers supported, and additional money raised. Additionally, investors and social enterprises can customize the system to include their own goals and accomplishments.

But how can PDMS really make a difference? The Acumen Fund is an early player in testing the database and offers evidence:

For instance, a few months ago Acumen managers noticed that an ambulance company in Mumbai, India, didn't have enough patients per day riding in some of its vehicles. Acumen sent a representative who helped the company, Dial 1298 for Ambulance, analyze its operations and shift things around to make more efficient use of vehicles and personnel. "They came up with a beautiful model that will make it possible to break even on every ambulance," says Sweta Mangal, chief executive of the ambulance outfit.

The ambulance example shows how this system may provide ways to make easy adjustments in programs and financing to achieve an end goal.

I am interested to hear critiques against such standards for social enterprises - do they create a restraint against the very same creative methods that set these organizations apart? Is it really possible to compare one social enterprise against another, when each seems to serve a different issue, audience, or mission? To what extent should investors look to this database to make their funding decisions?

But as the article states, there is a lot of "latent capital" in moving large amounts of money and ideas for social change - and the PDMS may be a huge shift in increasing the impact of "doing good" across sectors.

(More information can also be found at the Clinton Global Initiative's website, and Vinay touched on PDMS back in March when discussing social investing).

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Run 400 meters
Max rep Pull-ups

Post number of pull-ups completed for each round to comments.

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

For time:
Snatch 135 pounds, 30 reps

Use 95 pounds, 65 pounds or broomstick as needed and post time and load to comments.

CFOZ version

Two minutes of cardio (your choice), samson stretch, CFWU x 3 (x 2 if in first two weeks of WODs)

Using a pvc pipe or broomstick, do the WOD for form.

Post time to comments.

Learning the Snatch, courtesy of CrossFit HQ.

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

Muscle & Fitness does Crossfit

Video courtesy of Petrenek Fitness
Demos courtesy of Crossfit HQ.

135 pound Clean and Jerk, 30 reps

Use 95 pounds, 65 pounds or broomstick as needed and post time and load to comments.

CFOZ version

WODs)Do the above with a pvc pipe or broomstick. Concentrate on the form. Please note that a Power Clean or a Squat Clean are not specified. You just want to get the bar up from the ground to overhead as fast as possible. If you would like to make this a bit more challenging use the Squat Clean.

Clean Drops...[wmv][mov]
Cleaning from the Ground, Coach Burgener ...[wmv][mov]
Push Jerk Benefits ...[wmv][mov]

Tosh does "Grace"

All demos courtesy of CrossFit Headquarters.

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

In honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael McGreevy, 30, of Portville, NY, who was killed in Afghanistan June 28.

With heavy hearts we offer our prayers and condolences to his wife, Laura, and 14-month-old daughter, Molly.

The price of freedom, and its worth, is found in Michael’s passing. The debt owed to Michael and his family can never be repaid but only honored by remembering Michael and remaining free.

–Originally posted on CrossFit.com by Lauren Glassman, July 15, 2005

Here (Win)(Mac) is Brandon Gilliam of CrossFit North Santa Cruz doing the full version of “Michael.” Please note that he does the GHD sit-ups because that is the scaling he needs for his fitness level. They are not required do do this as Rx.

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

In this WOD you do one round of 21 thrusters and 21 pull-ups, the second round as 15 thrusters and 15 pull-ups and the LAST round as 9 thrusters and 9 pull-ups. “Fran” is one of the girls near and dear (or hated and despised) to the heart of many CrossFitters. She is almost considered a right of passage…be very weary of her.

Here is today's vid from the Main Page. You'll get to see some of the big dawgz do "Fran" CFOZ-style!
"Virtual Fran" - video [wmv] [mov], courtesy of CrossFit Headquarters.

Rest 1 minute. Repeat for a total of 5 cycles.

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

The Power Clean

"The Chief", CrossFit San Diego - video [wmv] [mov]

All videos courtesy of CrossFit Headquarters.

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

If you want help scaling a Hero WOD, let me know.

1. How do you measure KM effectiveness or ROI?
2. How do my KM results measure up to other companies?
3. How do I estimate the ROI for a proposed KM project?

Based in part on a presentation I built for a an Inquira webcast series on this topic, I finally committed to paper an overview of the metrics impacted by support knowledgebases, along with benchmarks (from the SSPA benchmark database) for each metric (where available), with the overall industry average as well as averages for B2B and B2C support.  The metrics are divided into 4 different areas of KM impacts:  Employee Productivity, Interaction Volume and Cost, Customer Satisfaction, and (believe it or not) Revenue and Repurchase.  I also have a section on emerging metrics for customer discussion forums/communities.

For long time KM experts, this may not seem like rocket science.  But what I have found is that different companies track, and care about, different metrics.  While most of the metrics are interrelated, some companies are only concerned with particular views of the data, so I felt it was important to look beyond the usual productivity metrics and include how upticks in employee performance impact other areas.  Here are a couple of examples:

Training days per year.  TSE (technical support engineer) training has changed dramatically over the last decade.  Not only have training methods changed as younger workers tend to find eLearning (lessons delivered to the employee desktop) more effective than classroom training, but also mature knowledgebases of content mean TSEs need to be trained only on the basics, not how to handle every conceivable problem they will encounter.  Companies have seen training time reduced with the introduction of searchable knowledge repositories, with new hires “going live” faster than in the past, and experienced agents spending less time off the phone attending training.

• Industry average days of annual technical training: 17.9 days for first year techs; 13.3 days for experienced techs
• Consumer average days of annual technical training: 21.8 days for first year techs; 3.3 days for experienced techs
• Enterprise average days of annual technical training: 24.9 days for first year techs; 21.5 days for experienced techs

Incidents handled per shift.  As average incident handling time decreases, and first contact resolution increases, TSEs are able to handle more incidents per shift, allowing the same volume of inbound interactions to be handled by fewer technicians.

• Industry average of new support cases handled per shift (Tier 1): 12.1
• Consumer average of new support cases handled per shift (Tier 1): 19.0
• Enterprise average of new support cases handled per shift (Tier 1): 6.5

Volume by channel.  Using knowledgebase and search tools to improve the customer experience and success of Web self-service, support organizations today work to move more customer traffic to Web self-service, as well as drive more assisted interactions to non-phone channels.  Tracking interaction volume by channel over time shows customer adoption of each channel, and helps companies estimate cost savings through deflected phone incidents. 

Technical knowledge of TSE.  This post interaction survey question specifically deals with how satisfied the customer was with the technical knowledge of the TSE.  This metric should improve as agents are able to quickly find needed information in the knowledgebase, making them an expert on any product or service issue. The SSPA Benchmark tracks satisfaction with technical knowledge of TSE for both direct employees and outsourced workers, across phone, email and web.  The examples provided here are for direct employees and phone interactions.

• Industry average satisfaction with technical knowledge of TSE: 81% Satisfied; 53% Very Satisfied.
• Consumer average satisfaction with technical knowledge of TSE: 45% Satisfied; 44% Very Satisfied.
• Enterprise average satisfaction with technical knowledge of TSE: 85% Satisfied; 57% Very Satisfied.

The report is in editing as we speak and should be live in the Research section of the SSPA website later this week.  I hope companies will use this report to see where they are out of synch with benchmark numbers, identify specific metrics to improve, then investigate which technology has the best track record to impact these metrics.

If you have any questions or comments, please add a comment or shoot me an email.  And as always, thanks for reading!

Defining the digital divide

There’s been a lot of chatter over the years about the digital divide or the idea that there is a great chasm between people who have access to technology such as computers and the Internet, and those who do not. While some 68 percent of the U.S. population has access to the Internet via broadband or dial-up connections, there are still millions of people across the country who do not have any access at all.

Overwhelmingly, these unconnected individuals tend to be minorities and people with low education levels. A recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only 57 percent of African Americans and 37 percent of Hispanics have Internet access. And only 29 percent of people who have not graduated from high school are connected to the Internet.

It’s difficult to gauge what the impact of this exclusion means. In the past, Internet access was viewed as an unnecessary luxury, a tool used to send e-mail and casually surf Web sites. But increasingly, the Internet has become an important tool for getting information about and access to just about everything from health care to social services. It’s used as a tool to engage parents in their children’s education. And as newspapers shed their classified listings, it’s become an important tool for looking for jobs.

“Digital inclusion has traditionally been seen as a charity initiative,” The Knight Foundation’s Perry said. “But that is rapidly changing. Increasingly, cities of all types–urban, suburban, and rural–are linking universal digital access to economic development imperatives.”

From the beginning, Wireless Philadelphia’s goal has been to provide broadband service to families who have never owned a computer and have little or no online experience. The group believes that getting these families online will increase their access to educational, employment, and life opportunities.

But it will also have big benefits for the city, such as reducing crime and unemployment, improving public health and social service efficiency, and increasing educational excellence.

“It’s nearly impossible to apply for an entry-level job today without having basic digital skills and Internet access,” Greg Goldman, CEO of Wireless Philadelphia said. “And there have been studies that show patients who access information online about HIV AIDS, hypertension, or diabetes have better health outcomes.”

We'll find out what happens next quite soon...

The powerconsumption (alias Powerplay) brought no change (idle and load). Additionally we've got information, that AMD will have in the upcoming Catalyst-Versions (8.10 and 8.11) "big plans" - We will see.

Update: After a short delay, we benched the games Crysis, Assassin's Creed and UT3. In Crysis we had a performanceboost from more than 10% on our testsystem. Our gamebenchmarks are from ingame scenes (no Benchmark Tools used).

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20″ box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of “rotate”, the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Add your points and post them to comments.

CFOZ version

Two minutes of cardio (your choice), samson stretch, CFWU x 3 (x 2 if in first two weeks of WODs)

Three rounds of:
Squats
Sumo Deadlift High-Pull w/pvc (Win)(Mac)
Tuck Jumps
Push Press w/pvc (Win)(Mac)
Jumping Jacks

In this modified version you will follow the above rules for timing and rests. Here is a description for performing the tuck jump from the HQ FAQs Page:

Do tuck jumps. Multiple single-unders in no way compensate for the exertion required for double-unders. Stand with your feet slightly inside the width of your shoulders. Bend your knees and lower your body down 8-12 inches. Explode into the air and bring your knees up to your chest in a tucked position. Upon landing, your feet should be in a strong, dorsi flexed or “toes up” position. Use your whole foot to generate power, not just your toes! Maintain good posture in your upper body. Keep your chest and head up. Don’t let your shoulders lean out beyond your knees. This can stress your lower back. Explode off the ground as quickly as possible and repeat for the required number of repetitions.

Post reps totaled as you score to comments.

Here is a little of the real Fight Gone Bad and the history behind it, courtesy of CrossFit Headquarters.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of the triplet:

Deadlift: 1 1/2 body weight
Bench press: body weight
Clean: 3/4 body weight

Set up three bars and storm through for time.

CFOZ version

Post time to comments.

Admittedly, this doesn't look very challenging without any weight, but you should concentrate on the movement of each rep. The clean and the deadlift are very mental movements and require coordination to get them right. If you have a barbell available, by all means scale up to an empty bar. Below you can watch Gillian Mounsey, who placed third at the 2008 CrossFit Games, put out a beautiful Linda.

Gillian Does Linda - video [wmv] [mov], courtesy of CrossFit Headquarters.