Bill's Blog

Saving the World at Work - Tim Sanders Book re-launch

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers announced its impending bankruptcy and - well there’s no point telling you, you already know!

In the press and associated journals, it was all doom and gloom, new, relevant initiatives were ignored as companies turned to survival mode.

According to one of my favourite business book authors, Tim Sanders, it's time to get back to thinking about our future and not just survival.

He remarks that the green movement was accelerating along with corporate social responsibility both long term initiatives to improve our life and our world. But after the crisis, they were ignored – even frowned upon – as business got more ruthless and self preserving. Short term thinking got us into the economic mess, quick solutions were sought and no long term solution was likely of being adopted.

Today, Tim will re-launch his book geared to inspire us all - business owners, executives and staff alike, to reconnect with the longer term objectives.

Saving The World At Work is a hybrid business trends/motivational book that identifies the Social Responsibility Revolution, potentially what will become the biggest business event of our lifetime. The book argues that to attract top talent, profitable customers and savvy investors, companies must serve people, communities and the environment. With Twitter and Facebook an the rest of the Social Media wave, companies can no longer hide and everything they do is transparent and visible.

I’m all for it. Go Tim.

The book re-launch page is: http://bit.ly/relaunch

Career Advice from Dilbert?

I’m a big fan of Dilbert, the Scott Adams business cartoon strip and on many times have seen parts of my career reflected on the page. Guess how surprised I was to come across the following blog, sign-posted to me from Julien Smith. Let me explain that I’m reading Julien’s latest book, Trust Agents, which he wrote with another blogger I follow, Chris Brogan which sets out a manifesto for the use of social media. (There is a connection here, stay with me!)

Scott Adam’s post suggests we should become very good (top 25%) at two or more things to have “something extraordinary” as a career.

25% is not that difficult a target to achieve in my mind. 1 in 4.

A quick, unscientific trawl of the web came up with the following.

To be in the top 25% of lawyers you need to be one of the top 37,760 (2008 figs)

To be in the top 25% of accountants you need to be one of the top 58,710 (2003 figs)

To be in the top 25% of teachers you need to be one of the top  109,500 (2002 figs).

These stats focus on careers but if we lower the focus to skills, it becomes even easier to be in the top 25%. Think of what you are skilled in. Where is your expertise and how does it make you better than the rest?

That’s Julien’s and Chris’s pitch in Trust Agents. Looking at Social Media, Facebook, Blogging, Twitter, podcasting etc and combining it with your expertise to become the defacto sage, the oracle of the subject -Agent Zero, as they put it – is a opportuntity we can all take up now. By starting now, we have an opportunity to be at the top of the pyramid, see Julien’s original blog, and build a career from there, doing what we enjoy.