Today I had an issue with points not accruing on my Hilton HHonors loyalty account correctly. When I connected with the representative [...]]]>

I have been a loyal Hilton customer for years and will always choose them over any other hotel chain if possible. I have spent hundreds of nights in Hilton hotels over the years.

Today I had an issue with points not accruing on my Hilton HHonors loyalty account correctly. When I connected with the representative over the phone they asked me to provide my account number and pin number. I did not know my pin number – it turns out that this is a randomly generated number that can’t be changed. The next piece of identifying information that they asked for was the password I use to log into my account.

Wait – WHAT?! The password I use to log into my account?! I wanted to be sure I was hearing them correctly. Yes, it was true. My password was there in plain text on the screen in front of the representative. The password I use to log into my Hilton HHonors account can be seen by every customer service representative in the company. They can technically write down my password, go home, and log in as if they were me, granting them access to my saved credit card and other personal information that is associated with my account.

This seemed very suspicious. What company in their right mind would allow customer representatives access to user passwords? I hung up and called back to get a different representative to be sure that this wasn’t a fraudulent question. The next representative confirmed that asking for the user’s password was in fact standard practice.

Lucky for me, I work in the computer industry and have an understanding of security practices. I don’t use the same password for multiple online accounts and was able to recognize an unsafe security practice. However, I am sure many people use the same password for their Hilton HHonors account and their bank account. A company should NEVER ask for a user’s password, for account verification or any other purpose.

In addition to credit card information, a Hilton HHonors account contains your name, address, phone number, email, and answers to security questions which are similar to those asked on other sites. This is basically everything you would need for a good start in identity theft.

To make things worse, Hilton HHonors wouldn’t allow me to delete my credit card information from the site – at least one card must be left on file and entering a fake card produced an error.

I filed a complaint with the “manager” who could not give me a next step or timeline for the response. I have already reached gold level in 2013 and would hate to switch to a different hotel chain after all of these years and many great experiences with Hilton. However, sharing my password with anyone is a deal breaker.

I will continue to pursue this issue and report back here. Please share this story so that other people know that their personal information is compromised by Hilton.

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At the Document Strategy Forum in Greenwich, CT on May 1st I will be presenting two sessions. I will be giving away three free passes to this event in a twitter content April 1st – 5th, 2013. Follow @EricaToelle [...]]]>

I’m excited to announce three upcoming speaking events in April.

At the Document Strategy Forum in Greenwich, CT on May 1st I will be presenting two sessions. I will be giving away three free passes to this event in a twitter content April 1st – 5th, 2013. Follow @EricaToelle to win!

• Create an End User Adoption Strategy
• SharePoint 2010: ECM for the Masses

On April 20th I will be presenting at SharePoint Saturday Portland. This is a free, one day conference organized by volunteers from the Portland User Group and features internationally recognized speakers. Space is limited so be sure to register here. I will be presenting:

• Create an End User Adoption Strategy

Finally, on April 29th I will be presenting virtually to the North Vermont SharePoint User Group. Additional details on this event can be found on their meetup.com site. The topic will be:

• SharePoint 2013: What’s New in Social (Including Yammer)

I hope to see you at one of these events!

Related posts:

1. How to Create an End User Adoption Strategy #ESPC13

When: April 2nd – June 13th | Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8pm

Where: Seattle Central Community Collage | 1500 Harvard Ave (Capitol Hill), Seattle WA

Cost: $485 for WA in-state residents

How to Register: See information at the [...]]]>

I am very excited to announce the pilot class of my SharePoint Site Administration community college curriculum!

When: April 2nd – June 13th | Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8pm

Where: Seattle Central Community Collage | 1500 Harvard Ave (Capitol Hill), Seattle WA

Cost: $485 for WA in-state residents

How to Register: See information at the end of this post.

Course Description

Do you have an interest in business and technology? Would you like to learn how to build no-code technology solutions that can make businesses run more efficiently and smoothly? Maybe you like to organize information and want to apply this to a career. If you answered yes then SharePoint is the right technology for you!

In this class we will teach you how to use the building blocks provided by SharePoint 2013 to enable collaboration and organize business information. You will learn how to be a true SharePoint consultant by correctly defining the problem, gathering business requirements, architecting a SharePoint solution to solve the problem, and testing your final solution. No code is needed; this is all done through an internet browser. Only intermediate knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and an internet browser is required.

Once you have completed this class you will be qualified to be a SharePoint Site Collection Administrator and be ready to perform this role in any organization. You will also be qualified to pass Microsoft Exam 77-425:SharePoint 2013 Office Specialist which will be available in July 2013.

The class will use the 2013 version of Office 365 for hands on learning.

How to Register

• Email the registration office: scccregistration[at]seattlecolleges[dot]edu
• In the email say you are registering for the SharePoint Special Topics class and include the following information:

1. Item #: 2012
2. Class Title: MC190 Special Topics: SharePoint
3. Provide your student ID if you already have one (it’s ok if you don’t)
4. Include your name and address.
   You will need to add you SSN later in person if they would like tax credit for your tuition cost

• They will email you back with you registration form, payment instructions, and your student ID
• You can pay tuition online ($485 for in-state residents)

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I have a custom list created in SharePoint 2010 Foundation that I am [...]]]>

This is one of the times where I hope this blog can be a learning tool for myself and for other people. SharePoint is an extremely versatile tool and there is no way that one person can know everything ;^)

My Problem

I have a custom list created in SharePoint 2010 Foundation that I am using to track “task” type information. I am using a custom list, rather than a task list or calendar list for multiple reasons that I’m not going to get into. This list has the following fields:

• Title
• Assigned to
• Date 1
• Date 2
• Date 3
• Date 4
• Etc.

Business Requirements

The business requirement is to create a single list that shows “all dates (1, 2, 3, or 4) that are due this week” and several other views based on similar logic. If ANY of the dates (1, 2, 3, or 4) occur in the current week then I want the entire row to show.

Initially, I created a web part page with four views of this list, one for each Date (1, 2, 3, 4) using the following filter for each web part: Show items only when “Date (1, 2, 3, or 4) is greater than or equal to [today] AND Date (1, 2, 3, or 4) is less than or equal to [today]+7″. However, the customer really wants all of this information to be a single list, rather than in four separate web part views.

Functional Requirements

I have access to SharePoint Designer 2010 but not access to deploy a solution the farm. A sandbox solution might be a possibility if necessary, but I really want to avoid that. We cannot purchase a 3rd party solution.

I am wondering if it possible to accomplish this using client side code and / or a Data View Web Part or Content Query Web Part and XSLT. I am open to any other ideas as well. I also have complete freedom from an information architecture perspective in regard to using site columns and content types.  All of the information is located in a single list, in a single site.

Dearest SharePoint Community: Is there some way to fulfill this requirement? Thanks a million for sharing your expertise with us!

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Placehold.it allows you to generate a placeholder image using only a URL.

For example, http://placehold.it/350×150 will display as:

I used to keep similar images on my SkyDrive for SharePoint / WordPress site mockups [...]]]>

I recently discovered Placehold.it from one of my favorite user centered design blogs, http://www.zurb.com/blog.

Placehold.it allows you to generate a placeholder image using only a URL.

For example, http://placehold.it/350×150 will display as:

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TED Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Are you trying to motivate your SharePoint users using a carrot and a stick approach to adopt your solution? Or, are you deploying a platform and hoping business users will get creative with the possibilities? This video examines the [...]]]>

TED Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Summary

Are you trying to motivate your SharePoint users using a carrot and a stick approach to adopt your solution? Or, are you deploying a platform and hoping business users will get creative with the possibilities? This video examines the science behind human motivation, provides guidance on the difference in impact behind these two techniques and explains the importance of intrinsic motivation.

SharePoint Application

I wonder if it would be possible for self organizing teams of business users to apply for a “time grant” in their organizations to create a business solution built on SharePoint and other related technologies.  Grants could be selected by a set of objective criteria outlined in a business case, such as time saved, ease of maintenance, ease of execution, positive impact on the customer experience, or fulfillment of strategic goals.  The team of business users could partner with a business analyst from IT to design the solution, and SharePoint technical experts could build the solution to ensure quality. I think these types of agile project teams will be the future of SharePoint, and it seems they might increase the quality of people’s work experience through intrinsic motivation as well.

h/t Jeff Shuey

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The full text whitepaper can be purchased here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14697010902727211

In this paper, we offer a model of [...]]]>

This is a summary of the following research article: Di Virgilio, Marie E., Ludema, James D. (March 2009). Let’s Talk: Creating Energy for Action through Strategic Conversations. Journal of Change Management, Vol. 9 (No. 1), 67-85.

The full text whitepaper can be purchased here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14697010902727211

Abstract

In this paper, we offer a model of how leaders and managers can generate energy for action by engaging in the right kinds of conversations. We develop the model by linking social constructionist thought with theory from the field of positive psychology. We propose that effective leaders generate energy for action by engaging people in conversations that provide them (and themselves) with a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Energy is expressed in the form of support, time, money and resources, which contribute to the success of the work. Continuous attention to conversations that invite the co-creation of desired futures creates upward spirals of energy and increases the probability of successful change over time. These ideas are illustrated with a case study of a successful IT change initiative in a Fortune 100 insurance company and conclude by discussing implications for research and practice.

Key Points*

* I highly encourage you to read this research paper in full as it provides important context for these key points.  I also only summarized the points that I personally found interesting so that they can be referenced in future articles on this blog. Please note that some of these key points represent the work of referenced authors.

• By taking, planning, proposing, and acting, people build networks of conversation that are embodied in their systems, structures, strategies, processes, procedures, and cultures and, thereby become background conversations that define their day to day reality. Similarly, they adopt and enact narrative and meta-narrative patterns that are then passed on to them by their predecessors, and by the broader culture in which they are immersed. These story lines delimit what is right, real, and possible, and thereby define the range of options available for action. [p. 67]
• Engaging in the right kinds of behaviors allows organizational members to co-create new possibilities that increase their sense of autonomy, competence and belonging, which in turn elicits positive emotions such as interest, joy, hope and pride. Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention, cognition and action and build physical, intellectual, and social resources, which lead to increased energy for action. [p. 68]
• Human social order is produced through interpersonal negotiations and implicit understandings that are built up via shared history and shared experience. [p. 69]
• People use seven types of speech acts to create social reality by expressing their thoughts about a person, place, thing, role, commitment, or set of values: [p. 70]
  1. Assertive: Propositional content is transferred. For example, we will grow 25% this year.
  2. Informative: Gives propositional content and change the reality of the people that are being addressed. For example, an executive telling her direct reports that we will grow by 25% this year.
  3. Expressive: Adds or subtracts value from something or someone. For example, recognition of success or failure.
  4. Declaratives: Used to alter identities. For example, giving someone a new title or role.
  5. Directives: Gives orders, instructions, commands or makes requests of another person. For example, an executive telling her direct reports to achieve 25% growth without compromising the company’s ethical standards.
  6. Accreditives: Gives consent, permission, or authorization to another person. For example, the executive gives her reports permission to add headcount to achieve the 25% growth goal.
  7. Commissives: Gives a guarantee. For example, the executive promises a bonus for those that achieve the 25% growth goal.
• If we understand organizations as networks of conversations built through an ongoing dialog that is brought into reality by the means of reoccurring pattering and structural coupling, it is an invitation to see organizational life as a form of narration within ongoing relationships. [p. 71 (paraphrased)]
• Narratives typically consist of four phases: [pp. 71-72]
  1. Manipulation Phase: often begins with a directive-commissive pair of speech acts to create a sense of unbalance that must be resolved, sand therefore motivates someone to act. For example, when a growth goal is set by an executive and it is understand the direct reports will need to deliver that goal.
  2. Competence Phase: Described what is needed to be ready to carry out the tasks to restore the imbalance from #1.
  3. Performance Phase: The phase in which the subject obtains (or fails to obtain) the desired object.
  4. Sanction Phase: Accomplished through expressisves, such as thanks, acknowledgement, disapproval, punishment, etc. Restores the imbalance created in #1.
• A real life case study is presented to provide examples of real world application:
  1. Manipulation Phase: A successful business case use in the study covered the following key points when making the case for change: existing policy, background information, presented the business opportunity in financial terms, posed critical questions for consideration, made recommendations, and estimated benefits.
  2. Competence Phase:
  • Create and communicate about the project vision – An executive communicate in a meeting about the project. A prep sheet was created which contained the meeting purpose, agenda items, audience description, key messages and concerns. [p.75]
  • This meeting provided the benefit of bringing all of the people who needed to make the work successful together in one room.
  • It allowed an executive to discuss the importance of the work and ask everyone to support it.
  • Control the timing and flow of information – it is important that key people understand and support the change before others hear about it. [p. 75]
  • Demonstrate success – Find ways to keep the organization informed about progress. [p.76]
  • Find new and novel ways to talk about the work – Demonstrate a new perspective through new data, visualizations, etc. [p.76]
  • Influence through others
  3. Performance Phase: the project team was clear about the support, time, money and resources they needed to achieve the desired results. [p. 77]
  4. Sanction Phase: Team members were rewarded with a bonus and public recognition. [p. 77]
• Without narrative structure to sequence actions and texts …conversations by themselves have little meaning. [p. 77]
• Allowing people to help you co-create these narratives allow organization members to increase their sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn elicits positive emotions such as interest, joy, hope, and pride. Positive emotions enhance thought-action repertoires by broadening the scope of attention, cognition and action, and building physical, intellectual and social resources, which lead to increased energy for action. In other words, persuasive narratives create energy for action by boosting positive emotions and increasing the organization’s overall intelligence, creativity, resilience and cooperative capacity. [pp. 77-78]
• Energy in conversation is defined as: [p. 78]
  1. A person’s energy level, which they automatically interpret as a reflection of how desirable a situation is.
  2. A person’s interpretation of their conversational partner’s energy based on the partners expressive gestures.
  3. A feeling of being eager to act and capable of acting, which affects how much effort a person will invest in the conversation and into subsequent, related activities.
• Collective energy depends on: [p. 80]
  1. How autonomous and capable the members perceive the collective to be.
  2. How much they feel that they belong.
  3. How sincere they perceive other members to be in advancing collective goals.
• As people join in creating narratives in which they can “see” and anticipate their basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness being met, positive emotions are activated such as interest, joy, hope and pride in one’s association with others, the work, and the organization. [p. 80]
• Questions left unanswered by research: How and why changes in pattern of conversation lead the changes in pattern of enacting. What are the dynamics at play? What are the psychological and relational processes that allow new narratives to elicit new pattern of coordination, collaboration and action? [p. 68]

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Many of them were not easy to find, and I may have missed some people.  Please feel free to comment here or @EricaToelle if a correction is needed.