Scout for Success

Of Mastadons and Voting Booths…

It was 5:57 a.m. as I stood in line outside the designated polling place in the beautiful forest preserve near my home.  Dozens of people had arrived before me, and talked quietly or sipped their morning coffee as we waited for the appointed 6 a.m. opening.  The sun was rising up beyond the groves of trees and its light silhouetted the stone statue of a large Ice Age mastadon a short distance away from the winding sidewalk, poised as if to take a curious step closer to the small, white-gabled discovery museum where voting would take place. 

Not to delve too deeply into allegorical symbolism, the scene still gave me pause to think about the import and impact of today’s election.  For the past month or more (and many would say far longer) leading up to today it has felt as though our nation was collectively slowing down, almost grinding to a halt.  Those are disconcerting circumstances for a people, a country and economy as vital, tumultuous and contentious as ours.  Small business owners, in particular, have seemed to be locked in some parody of the statue maker game we played as children, business plans and marketing initiatives frozen on the drawing board while we wait to see “what happens.”

Well, “what happens” happens today.  Hopefully, like the Prince’s fairy tale kiss, the Election will break the spell and allow the innate energy, vitality and gumption of the American voters, the people who do the real work of making the country run, to start flowing again - regardless of who wins.

Stand up and be counted - VOTE!

Dragon NaturallySpeaking - Thumbs Up for Great Speech Recognition Software!

While I knew that the speech recognition program Dragon NaturallySpeaking had been around for a while, I was surprised to learn that it had originally been developed in the early 1980s. I’ve been considering buying the software for some time and finally ordered it last week.

The intuitive interface and the accuracy of the program are amazing. I foresee using this software tool more and more frequently in my work, primarily because it is so accurate. I actually created most of this post using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and I am getting more proficient every time I use it.

After installation, within about two hours I had mastered most of the dictation commands, corrections, editing and formatting functions. It’s best to do the set-up and training when you have some quiet time for yourself, as it does require concentration and you will want to practice. However, I can already tell that with each use it will become simpler and more natural to speak into the noise-canceling headset (comes with the software) and I’m looking forward to the increased productivity and the time savings that this product offers.

On a separate note, I wanted to learn more about Dragon NaturallySpeaking and other similar software because of the trend toward speech recognition in electronic records management, especially in the medical field. EMR, or Electronic Medical Records, will hopefully become the norm for the healthcare industry in the United States. I also foresee a need for qualified trainers who are familiar with these programs to provide specialized and accelerated instruction to physicians, nurses and other healthcare staffing personnel.  Definitely a Scout-recommended product!