Setting goals and objectives are one of the first things we do when embarking on a new mission, whether it be a small task or major initiative. Knowing what you want to accomplish in the end helps you to start in the right direction and then navigate a variety of obstacles and leverage opportunities as they emerge.

So, why don’t we do this with more things? Even mundane endeavors. Say, with elevator rides.

Riding the Elevator

Groups of dissociated riders gather on elevators based on first availability. If more than one opens at the same time, you make a quick assessment and guess which may get you to your destination more quickly. You may have even “raced” a colleague in order to see who had the best elevator instincts.

Rarely you’ll get an express ride to the proper floor. More likely, you’ll stop along the way, maybe at wrong floors due to mistakenly pressed buttons, maybe due to where other passengers are going, maybe due to people calling for the elevator at some of the floors you pass.

It’s all quite inefficient and random. But it doesn’t need to be.

Rethink

What if the elevators knew who was going to which floor before anyone got on board? What if the riders were assigned to the appropriate elevator according to destination? Could that not make for a more efficient system? Less wait time. Less riding time. Lower energy use. Less wear and tear on the equipment.

Well, that’s just what’s emerging in new elevator systems being developed by some innovative companies. Read more about that here: Smart Elevators Bring You There Faster & More Efficiently.

Set your destination

Sometimes we need to rethink the obvious, and these new elevator systems provide a good example. And, as always, knowing where you want to go is crucial to getting there most efficiently.

Photo credit: Mai Le

Herbert Simon Says, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” And he’s right. Even though he said this long ago, way back in 1978 before this thing called the Internet started pervading all aspects of our daily lives.

Pioneering the field of attention economics, Simon rightly pointed out the emerging scarce resource of modern life – attention. As information content becomes more abundant, our ability to process it becomes severely constrained.

Think about it – you used to get letters in the mail, exchange memos (on paper!) at work, and select between 3 to 5 channels of television in the evening (before they went “off the air” at night – remember that?). Telephone calls and faxes inserted themselves into this otherwise calm and deliberate exchange of information, and by doing so they got attention. What’s interesting about phone and fax is that they got attention because of the transport mechanism itself rather than the value of the content.

Now, content is king. Your information must be relevant, interesting, and useful. Not only that, it must be timely, concise, and precise. Even then, you’re information is competing with a lot of other information of the same caliber, which is why building communities and relationships online is often a crucial factor of success. If you’re information comes from a known and trusted source, if it’s anticipated, if it’s helpful, it has a chance to break through. Which leads to an emerging concept that content really isn’t king – you’ve got to have that great content in the right context (this is a particularly powerful concept if you think about added aspect of mobile devices and individuals using multiple devices).

So, how will you garner attention for your [marketing project, IT initiative, next great idea]?

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

When we embark on a new mission, we make plans that account for a variety of contingencies, alternative scenarios, competing interests and more. We anticipate as much as possible, we pre-determine strategies for response, and we make decisions up-front so as to ensure a positive outcome. We try to stack the odds in our favor as much as possible.

But things change. The unexpected happens. Variables change in a different way than we expected. New variables emerge.

The more things change, the more success depends on our ability to learn and adapt. Insight and resourcefulness overcome big and small challenges. And sometimes guts and determination beat out carefully considered strategies to get us to the finish line. The ability to adapt to changing circumstances, to see old things anew, and to consider and execute novel approaches marks the difference between success and failure.

Photo credit: libraryman

Talent is important, and not to be underrated.

But, it’s not enough.

Talent shows capability and capacity. Talent shows competence and skill. Talent shows aptitude, but it doesn’t show attitude.

Caring matters. And that’s where effort comes in.

When we’re good at something, we have talent. When we care about something, we deliver. And while talent matters, enthusiasm is crucial (and can even beat out “just” talent pretty effectively).

Enthusiasm converts to effort, and effort matters. Really wanting to succeed. Really committing to delivering. Really making sure that the talent is applied.

Talent plus effort produces amazing results.

Photo credit: Or Hiltch

Yes,we are all in sales. But selling ideas can be hard. And intangibles are devalued right out of the gate.

Concepts can be hard to explain concisely, and hard to grasp completely.

Show and tell, however, is simple and effective. Concrete examples speak volumes.

This is why Jim McKelvey, cofounder of Square, espouses the mantra – “build it first, explain it later.”

That’s how Square broke into the marketplace and disrupted an arcane, complex system. And it can work for you too.

Prototype your ideas. And if they’re not concrete items to be built, like an electronic card reader, make them concrete some other way. Create a demo, draw a sketch, or find some other way to illustrate the concept. Give your audience something to react to in order to spark a meaningful conversation for moving things forward.

We’re proud when things go well and embarrassed when they don’t.

What if we flipped that around?

We could be proud of our failures:

- if we dared to try something different

- if we did it with good intentions

- if we didn’t succeed, but we did learn something valuable

- if we provoked a little controversy, discussion, and debate.

We could be embarrassed by our successes:

- if we took the easy, safe route

- if we settled for good enough in place of excellence, innovation, or thoroughness

- if we didn’t really learn anything except to prove with one more anecdote that the old way works well enough to be repeated yet again.

Photo credit: chefranden

Trust earns influence

You gain influence when people trust you. But trust does not come easily. Or quickly.

People gain trust in you over time. As you prove yourself. As you are known to be reliable and consistent. As you are known to be insightful and valuable.

This whole package – your presence, over time – is what makes you trustworthy.

And that is what makes you influential.

Building trust

Trust is built little by little. That’s a big reason why it usually takes a long time to earn it.

Credibility is a big part of trust. People want to know who you are, what you’re about, where you come from, and what motivates you. They want a context in which to better understand you.

Online, that context is your profile. And having a complete and up-to-date profile is best way you can expedite trust.

When your LinkedIn profile has a recent photo, a complete but succinct summary, relevant and up-to-date skills, an accurate work history, and information about your education, you build trust.

When your Twitter profile has a photo of you (not a logo or a cute avatar), a relevant and interesting short bio, and a link to more relevant and complete information about you (like your LinkedIn profile), you build trust.

When your blog has an about page that has a recent photo of you, a nice summary of your skills and experience, and a bit of an explanation about what you blog about and why, you build trust.

First impressions

Expediting trust in this way is simple. And it’s important, because when you finally get someone’s attention, they are going to want to know a little more about you. That’s your profile’s job. Help it to provide a good first impression of you.

Lasting impressions

Making a good first impression is crucial. But you also need to be present. When you put yourself out there, you need to be there.

When your LinkedIn profile has a recent status update, or shows a recent comment or like on someone’s post, or contains a recent book review you’ve published to your reading list, you show your presence.

When your Twitter account shows recent tweets, retweets, favorites, and follows, you show your presence.

When your blog shows recent posts, your responses to comments, and categorized listings of your many past posts, you show your presence.

This is an important component of building trust. People want to know that you’re there now, and that you’ll be there in the future. Showing your presence online expedites trust.

Becoming trustworthy

Becoming trustworthy isn’t easy. And it isn’t quick. But it can be expedited quite a bit when you put these basic measures into action.

Why slow yourself down? Go, update your profiles. And show your presence.

The way we manage our careers now is very different than in the recent past. It takes different skills to stand out in an organization and a very different approach to be successful in a career that will span work at a variety of organizations.

Reid Hoffman, cofounder of the popular business and career oriented social network LinkedIn, and his coauthor Ben Casnocha, make the case that the best approach to managing your career these days is to approach it as an entrepreneur would successfully manage a start-up company.

After convincingly establishing why you should think of your career as a start-up, the authors spend the bulk of the book explaining key strategies for success in start-ups and in your career. Focusing on your core competencies with gusto is crucial, but so is having contingency plans. And not only having them, but actively working them even has you pursue your current path. You may need or want to pivot to another plan at some point. They suggest really only three plans – your current “Plan A,” a solid “Plan B,” and a last-resort “Plan Z” just in case things go wrong with both Plan A & B.

The book makes a strong case (not surprisingly) for constantly building and leveraging your professional network. There are great tips on the main areas that require focus and attention here, with many specific examples.

Risk taking is the third big focus area of the book. The authors provide good advice for assessing risk and how to take smart risks in your career. The advice here provides a good strategic framework for thinking through the many choices you’ll need to make over the course of your career, such as when you to pivot from a Plan A to a Plan B.

The book is well-written and easy to read. The tone is positive and encouraging, with lots of great tips scattered throughout the content. Each chapter is punctuated with a list of ways to “invest in yourself” that includes things you should do immediately, in the next week, and in the next month, making it easy to translate the lessons of the book into concrete actions. The book concludes with a nice summary and great suggestions for further reading.

I think this book is spot on in its assessment of today’s world of work and what individuals should be thinking and doing in order to succeed. I highly recommend this book.

While traveling through Chicago O’Hare Airport recently, I noticed an innovative mobile marketing strategy in action, and it looked to be quite successful.

We’re all mobile these days, with lots of attention paid to multiple screens. These mobile device screens are quickly replacing TV screens, particularly when people are moving about. Airports are full of travelers looking for a place to sit and recharge. Not only to recharge their personal energy, but also to recharge their devices.

If you’ve been to an airport recently, you’ve no doubt noticed people whose eyes are darting about along the walls in search of an outlet. Or those who find an awkward seat on the floor because it’s close to one of the rare outlets. I’ve even seen seasoned travelers with power strips so that it’s easy to share access to those rare outlets.

Well, some smart marketer figured out a clever solution – create some seats with a place to put your screen, plenty of outlets for recharging, and also a little bit of privacy from your neighbors. And then – put some good old fashioned advertisements right there where they’re sure to be seen. And ads that appeal to the explorers who are likely using those seats.

A great video is making the rounds this week. It’s a talk on creativity by John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) from way back in 1991.

John knows creativity, and he gives a great talk on how to create the conditions necessary for creativity in your work. Even if you never plan to get on stage, creativity (which is in many ways another way of saying strategic thinking) is crucial to reaching new heights of success.

But, creative work is hard. Not hard like lifting rocks, but hard like trying to focus your conscious efforts on breaking new ground rather than tending to easier miscellaneous tasks. It’s hard beacause, as John explains (about 3:30 into the video):

It’s easier to do the trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent.

It’s also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about.

Watch the whole video, and in a little more than 13 minutes you’ll get some great advice on how to approach creative work by creating the conditions of space, time, time (not a typo), confidence, and humor.