Unfortunately, in our current political culture, the notion that two opposing parties could come together for a singular purpose seems rather absurd. Rather, the norm is to stubbornly take sides. Dig our heels in. I’m right. They are wrong. Actually, this is nothing new. This was the case from our country’s very beginning. In 1787, the states’ delegates were so divided on whether on congressional representation should be equal amongst states (irregardless of their population) that it threatened the very basis (and existence) of the Constitution.

Fortunately, our forefathers learned how to be talk it out, how to see value from the other side. This situation (in 1787) eventually became known as “The Great Compromise” – a proposal that, while at the time seemed quite radical, was the beginning of our current representational structure (a proportional House of Representatives AND a Senate with equal representation).

In the business world, working with the competition is an even greater anomaly. Other than negotiating usage rights and/or buyout agreements, working with the other side is almost unheard of. That’s why the story of NUMMI is so intriguing.

NUMMI was a joint venture by GM and Toyota in the early 80s. Toyota was looking to enter the North American production space. GM was looking to learn the “secrets” of Toyota’s efficient production system. The results (and lessons) from the experience(s) is quite remarkable – in both what was accomplished and what was not. In fact, the lessons go well beyond GM and Toyota, but are incredibly insightful for our relationships today (business or not). But hearing the story from me would not do it justice. Instead, I invite you to take your next commute or car drive and listen to some of the best storytellers of our day, the team at NPR’s This American Life. Here is their story of NUMMI (personally, one of my favorite TAL episodes of all time.) Enjoy.

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Download story here.
or stream via the This American Life app here.

Lots of us have favorite hobbies, favorite foods, favorite just about anything. Have you ever wondered how much time or how often you take part in that favorite thing? Or, have you just wanted to collect information on, well, just about anything? That’s where Daytum comes in. Daytum is an extremely user friendly site that simply put, “helps you collect, categorize and communicate your everyday data.”

Now let’s say one of your favorite things is tacos. I mean who doesn’t love this tasty dish? With millions of different recipes out there in the world, this classic dish shouldn’t get dull. Our friends at Faust love tacos so much that they started keeping track on Daytum, and it turns out they aren’t the only firm in the Chicago area that loves tacos.

Take a common love of tacos, add a little competitive spirit and a great resource like Daytum, and you have yourself a Taco Challenge. Throughout the month of June, Rule29 will be competing in this epic event against Faust, Grip, and Floodlight. Winner is determined by dividing the total amount of tacos consumed by the amount of participants per office.

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Halloween has come and gone. We can look back fondly of our memories of pumpkins carvings, spicy chili, and crazy costumes. Check out our Flickr set of the Annual Rule29 Halloween festivities. I feel obliged to give a shout out to Grip Design for attending, and Faust Design, while unable to attended did submit an eerily awesome virtual entry of their pumpkin carving skills. But now we’re moving on to the next big holiday and as the stash of left over candy slowly disappears it’s time to thinking of more wholesome food and Thanksgiving, bring on the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and Turkey!!

It’s now the official start of the Hand Turkey Challenge. Like last year, download the template below, use a little creative magic and draw a sweet hand turkey, scan and email back to us at mail@rule29.com. We’ll post all of the entries for YOU TO VOTE ON, and one lucky hand turkey will win a $50 iTunes gift card as our way to show our thanks to you and runner up will win a $25 dollar itunes gift card. Check out all of last years’ goblling creations at our Flickr set. Please have your Turkeys back to us by close of business the 24th. May the best turkey win!

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