Bill's Blog

Brian says "Engage!"

Often, when I'm running "Innovative Use of ICT" workshops, we turn to social media and how should a company use tools such as Blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

I'm by no means an expert, but could be called an interested dabbler and use each of the above media myself. Personally, I think the best strategy is to try it out for yourself and not to be afraid that you might get it wrong.

However, I also recognise there are others who can claim the expert moniker and if they suggest a specific road for action, then I most certainly would consider following them. Steve Cunningham of PolarUnlimited is one such person and I regularly follow his reviews and recommendations on Action University and it was with some relevance that his latest review is of Brian Solis' latest book "Engage!".

Here is the summary for your benefit.

A worthy reference document for all, don't you think?

Are you all Meshed up?

My current read is “The Mesh, why the future of business is sharing” by Lisa Gansky and, unusually, I wanted to bring it to your attention even before I’ve finished reading it!

I believe it’s going to be a business model changer. There are books that make you think but more important books like the Long Tail and Free by Chris Anderson, (and I suppose any book by Malcolm Gladwell or Seth Godin), that make you act. The Mesh is such a book. I think we will see the emergence of mesh businesses over the forthcoming months and years as we trim our structures to the core – to our key value adds – while we leave the rest to someone else.

So what is a Mesh business?

Firstly, Mesh business share. Not one way sharing like outsourcing, but more quid pro quo and for the benefit of their clients. Secondly, Mesh businesses are on-line active. They are keyed up in the use of web tools to manage their transactions. Thirdly, Mesh businesses focus on the physical rather than intangible, so there generally is an “shared” asset you can touch involved , say a car, a hotel room, a piece of equipment. This is not to say that service businesses can’t be part of the Mesh community. There is a place for service also, but in support of the physical experience. Finally, Mesh businesses are promoted by word of mouth, by good referral on good experience. Again web tools, specifically social media are prevalent.

So are you, or could you become a Meshed business? Can you team up with another group of companies to deliver the elusive synergies? I’m interested to know.

For another summary of The Mesh, check out Action University’s perspective below.

Want a copy of the summary? Download it here.

 

Just take a pebble...

Libraries and bookshops are having to extend their premises to allow for the ever growing number of books outlining how you should embrace social media as the new enabler in your business.

Why? Haven’t we all been social way and haven’t we always shared our experiences? This goes way back to prehistoric man painting his hunting sagas on the cave wall and recounting of adventures round the camp fire.

We want to be social because we want to belong and we want to feel appreciated. We want to be connected. So forget about the “media” and focus on the community, the content and the consequence.

A great book which covers all of these areas and one I highly recommend is Six Pixels of Separation, by Mitch Joel.

To give you a flavour, here is Action University’s summary.

 

My main take away from the book was the need for authenticity and consistency within your various networks. If you are not yourself and consistent in your approach - in what you say and how you say it – then you are at risk from becoming a social spammer and we all know how much we hate that!

Oh, and don't forget to make ripples!

Want a copy of the summary for future reference. Here you go! (Similar summaries of equally useful books are available in earlier posts).

Hat tip to Emerson, Lake and Palmer for the blog title!

Mahout the Change

Like their previous book, “Made to Stick”, the Heath Brothers, Chip and Dan have another insightful title in “Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard”.

It’s really work reading in full but to summarise, it covers a strategy to manage the dichotomy of our minds: our rational side and our emotional side. The Heath Brothers prefer to use the more colourful analogy first introduced by Jonathan Haidt, in “The Happiness Hypothesis”, namely the emotional Elephant and the rational Rider.

The weakness of the Elephant, our emotional side is evident: looking for the quick payoff rather that the long term goal. When attempts to change fail, it’s usually the Elephant’s fault but it can also be as a result of the rider not being able to control the Elephant long enough to reach the destination.

The book sets out a three-part framework for change:

Direct the Rider: What often looks like resistance is in fact a lack of clarity. So there is a need to provide crystal-clear instruction.

Motivate the Elephant: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion  - a put upon Elephant by a forceful Rider. It’s critical that you engage with people’s emotional side, get them connected and on the path to cooperation.

Shape the Path: what may look like a people problem is more likely a situational problem; what is the Path? When the path is clear and well defined change is more likely.

I’ve a background in IT and software development which could readily benefit from the framework. I’ve often heard developers say, “our biggest problem is users” but is it? Developers fall in love with their code and don’t like feedback from testers and as a result any changes arising from testing are mere “tweaks”. How does the framework effect the change and align software releases much closer to the customer’s needs?

Direct the Rider: Set the scene. Point to the destination of a celebration of a successful software package. This certainly floats the developer’s boat with the peer appreciation (and CV content) it brings. Set out the steps to get there: closer understanding of the end user, better appreciation of their needs, features that the customer needs not those the developer wants to develop.

Motivate the Elephant: Get out and get on. Get the developers out of their cubicle and next to users to experience the issues first hand. See the user’s pain. Experience their frustration. Put a name to the issue: Steve’s problem, Carrie’s confusion.

Shape the Path: Many developers have the best of equipment, unlike the end user who may have had his technology for a number of years. Swap the best for the common and then you are truly developing for your user and you will more easily create a solution that delivers.

There are many more gems in the book and here is Action University’s take.

 As a friend of Action University, I’m privileged to be able to offer you the summary as a download. You can find it here.

So, have you made a Switch? Would the framework have helped? Do you have examples where you have motivated your elephant? I’d love to hear.

On the road again? Innovation Willie Nelson style!

In his book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist suggests in Rule 3 that our Brains are all wired differently.

We all have neural networks like major highways but our side streets, our winding countryside roads are based on our experience. As no two of us have the same set of experiences, all our maps are unique.

When I need to be creative, I find myself travelling the side roads, the single track routes rutted with potholes that bump you to attention or those that run alongside beautiful scenery that inspires.

Alternatively, when in delivery mode, the highway is the best and shortest route. It gets me from A to B optimising the use of my resources: time, fuel and can I say “wear and tear”?

Medina also informs us that when we look at something, our brain dissect the image into multiple elements which are stored in a host of different areas, disassembling the vision like a jigsaw to bring back together when we need it. What if, however, we could create a different picture from the elements? Now that’s innovation! Like, Tim Hurson suggests in “Think Better” that’s the third third – the final stretch where the really great ideas emerge.

So on what route do you find inspiration? What is the scenery of your creativity? I’m interested to hear from you.

Want to find out more of the “Brain Rules”? Check out the following video by Polar Unlimited.

 

 

 

The Final Results Rule challenge

Friday, the end of the week and final RIFM Results Rule challenge. And this is an easy one!

Action Challenge #5: sometime this week, when you’d otherwise be doing something like watching TV or reading a trashy magazine, steal two of those minutes and take an action to move one of your goals forward.

Why is it easy? Purely because of time differences. Most if not all of the movers and shakers I follow and who inspire my Great Work (with homage to Michael Bungay Stanier) are from the USA and Canada and time wise range from five to eight hours behind the UK and GMT.

So, when you were sleeping – sorry Steve, I had to use your strapline – I was working. We then have working day overlap, some of which is developing opportunities with my overseas contacts and when my work day is over, I’ve still a few hours where I can move into development mode, check out Google reader feeds,  review your work, if not speak to you through the wonders of VOIP. Then relax time with a RIFM recommended book!

So I’ve already go this one in the bag and am fully exploiting the advantages!

Another day another challenge

Day four of the  RIFM Results Rule Challenge.

Action Challenge #4: Create one new measurement around something that’s critical to your success, but that you aren’t measuring today.

I’m challenged by this challenge. You see with a background in math/maths (dependent on what side of the Atlantic you are reading this), I know that you can make anything significant. Lies, damn lies and statistics.

Secondly, I’m a firm believer that you get what you measure. For example, if you stress the importance of frequency of meetings as a sales performance indicator, then you will get a high number of meetings recorded. Do they produce more sales? Unlikely. Most probably, sales executives enjoying a latte with a client who has no intention of buying!

So to meet the challenge you need to make sure that your measurement is not a stick, but more a carrot (read Dan Pink’s Drive for a greater insight), and that everyone buys into the concept and vision. Best to make the measurement qualitative rather than quantitative.  If things are getting better, then things are moving forward.

My measurement? I’ve read a great number of books and tabbed key points with post-its. My intention is to turn these into keynote mind-maps so I’ll be measuring how well I meet this commitment. Blogging them soon!

Results Rule - The Second Challenge

 
I’m still aligned to the Readitfor.me   challenge and here is the second.

Action Challenge #2: Pick a part of your organization (or life) aside from your product/service and make the commitment this week to pursue the best in it. Take one action this week to set the wheels in motion.

This one is pretty easy, not necessarily to do but certainly to identify.

Two years ago when I set up my blog, this very one,  I had the big intention of using it to share my experiences with readers. Topics were to be general and wide ranging, covering all areas of work and non-work. Two years on and only a dozen or so posts later, I’m embarrassed on the lack of achievement.

However, in the intervening period, thanks to RIFM, I’ve not been necessarily idle. The social media books summarised, including Trust Agents, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel, The Whuffie Factor, by Tara Hunt and The New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg have all given me insight into how I really should be sharing on-line and aspire to the best.

So, inspired by Results Rule, and the above, I’m committing to posting at a more regular interval, and along with Steve, sharing my thoughts and what I get from the summarized books (and others) with anyone who is interested.

My supplementary challenge is: Am I getting the content right? I welcome comments!

 

 

Results Rule - the Read it for Me challenge.

I'm a regular follower and subscriber to Steve Cunningham's Readitfor.me book summary service. His latest summary, Results Rule, by Randy Pennington is augmented by a number of challenges which take forward  key points from the book.

Steve sets out one challenge per day that we should take on to turn the big idea into action. So not being one to shirk from a challenge, here goes.

Action Challenge #1: Find one person at work this week who you aren’t great friends with (yet). Ask them to go grab a coffee and get to know them a bit better

Action #1. Working within one of my clients with whom I’m spending a lot of time at the moment, I got the chance to sit on the interview panel for their CMO. Now while, you find out a lot about someone through applications and interviews, much of that is formal, structured and focuses on business expectations rather than the individual themselves.

Taking on board the Monday challenge, I had coffee with the new appointee and found out more about who they were what makes them tick, what their challenges are and what they want from “life , the universe and everything”.

Turns out – serendipitously – that our paths crossed earlier when they were an undergraduate participating on a entrepreneurial programme at University and I was one of the “Old Grey’s” wheeled in to give the some practical advice. Small world.

Now, co-creation plans are underway to work to promote social media marketing in the client and RIFM will be one of the sources of inspiration!