Bas de Baar's shared items in Google Reader

Is Your Company Culture Linked to Social Learning Success?

2010-03-18T05:49:46Z

A wonderful article was recently posted by Marcia Conner and Steve LeBlanc over at Fast Company entitled “Where Social Learning Thrives“. The entire piece purports that a fun, productive and consistent culture will help ensure social learning takes flight.

What struck me, however, is the following line itself:

Social learning thrives in a culture of service and wonder. It is inspired by leaders, enabled by technology and ignited by opportunities that have only recently unfolded.

There are those companies that certainly have instilled a fun, productive and consistent culture (see Zappos, SouthWest Airlines, Google, etc.) but what happens to your social learning quest if your company culture is, well … anti-fun, anti-productive and anti-consistent?

Is it the CLO who single handedly is required to change the culture, in order to ensure social learning thrives?

Will the social learning quest succeed if the executives don’t help foster the ‘culture of collaboration’, connected by fun, productive and consistent attributes?

Frankly speaking, the 90-9-1 phenomenon scares me greatly. If a company’s culture is one that is suppressed, or driven by a ‘culture of fear’, there is no way 90-9-1 improves, and to me, there is a very difficult path ahead to drive the social learning quest itself.

I am a firm believer in social learning. I am an advocate, a poster boy, a model citizen describing its inherent benefits. If the culture of a company, however, is riddled with apathy, even bleeding edge people like me could find the ultimate success of the social learning quest extremely difficult to achieve.

What do you think? Is your company culture linked to how successful your various social learning/media/networking initiatives, projects and actions will be?

Requirements Documents in an iPad World

2010-03-16T22:00:00Z

One of the items which I have intermittently struggled with as a BA is how to properly format requirements documents. It has always frustrated me that requirements documents created in a word processor are tied to the default paper size for their country and how spreadsheet requirements documents are tied to no format at all. What I desperately want is an electronic requirements format that is formatted to my screen. When I say 'my screen', I don't mean the monitor on my desk at work, but the screen of whatever device I happen to currently be using to view the document, be that my dual 20" desktop monitors, my Dell laptop monitor, my MacBook Pro or my iPhone.

This article by Craig Mod, about how the iPad could change book layouts, really got me thinking again about requirements documents layouts. Any time I get a chance to speak with new BAs about requirements documents, I always end up spending a large quantity of time discussing how to properly format a document using the built in tools provided by all modern word processing and spreadsheet programs. I do this to 1) save their sanity from the quirky editing rules built into these applications and 2) to ensure their stakeholders sanity when reading these documents.

Why is there not a way for me to simply take text, mock-ups (images), diagrams and matrices (what I consider to be the 4 foundational blocks of requirements documents) and let the requirements application do the formatting for me? How much time would I save this way?

Wouldn't it be great if we could create project artifacts that contain the required business information but without any formatting? Each artifact could then be viewed in whatever format is most appropriate for the device which has opened the artifact. If you're trying to print, all the information rearranges in such a way as to fit the paper size used by your country or geography. If you're trying to view on a mobile device, the graphical content is viewable inline as a reduced quality graphic (so as to shorten the download and rendering process) but can be tapped and zoomed for additional detail. A device like an iPad would allow the textual elements to fill the space of the screen, just like a printed page but using the device's native screen size and still allow for zooming in to view the detail of diagrams and data sheets.

Its not only formatting that could be improved in this new world but also how we manage requirements would change if all project members had a device like the iPad. What if I could shadow a person who has a very mobile job, keeping a Visio-like application open the whole time, dropping in an action box every time they performed a new step in a task? This is something very difficult to manage today with a laptop as when you're moving around a lot, you need someplace to set down the laptop to be able to use it. The iPad simply has less of this type of limitation when it comes to mobile content creation.

I see devices like the iPad being the future of our profession. My laptop is an indispensable tool for me as a BA, but if anyone ever creates a 'killer BA iPad app' like I have described, then I would buy one of these devices in a heartbeat.

What about you? What ways do you see the iPad being useful (or not) in your projects?

Let them eat cake, Let us eat foie gras

2010-03-15T21:40:58Z

I’d like to tell you two stories. Both of them are true.

As a Project Manager, I have come across many broken things in organizations. Regardless of your profession, I challenge you to look for the broken things in these two stories.

The first story involves a woman who lived in country where the people did not have enough bread to eat. This woman, however, did not have this problem. She had plenty of food, wine, and even…cake, (brioche, actually). When this woman heard of the plight of her people, she supposedly said “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” or “Let them eat cake”. Considering that brioche is a luxury bread made with eggs and butter, it reflected the woman’s arrogant obliviousness to the nature of famine.

Sometimes cake is a symbol. Sometimes it's just pretty and yummy.

We all think we know who this woman is: Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, wife of Louis XVI. In fact, it was Queen Marie-Thérèse, the wife of King Louis XIV, who uttered these infamous words.

Regardless of which Queen of France said these words, we all know how this story ends, and thus recognize the power and symbolism of this quote. Both the Queen of France, Mary Antoinette, and her husband, King Louis XVI were beheaded during the French Revolution, an epic transformation process resulting in centuries-old ideas about hierarchy and monarchy being replaced by new and “radical” notions of citizenship, rights, and democracy. It happened pretty quickly actually: three years to destroy notions held fast for centuries. The quote “Let them eat cake” thus eventually came to symbolize the selfishness of the French monarchy…well, any monarchy for that matter. For while France chose a rather bloody path towards democracy, every modern nation eventually chose democracy over monarchy. “Let them eat cake”: indeed, the people replied, we shall, thanks very much.

My second story involves a company trying to make its 2009 “numbers”. “Numbers” are revenue, profit and cash flow actuals against targets that companies post at the end of each quarter, presumably, in order to make shareholders happy. (“Presumably” because the reality has very little, if anything, to do with shareholders.) Knowing that they would have difficulty making its “numbers”, the management at this company “asked” their employees to reduce their work week from five days to four. Naturally, their pay was also reduced accordingly. There was no such sacrifice on the part of management.

A VP from this company traveled to a far away office in a far away city to thank his employees for their noble sacrifice. That evening, given that the VP was on an expense account, he went out to dinner in a very expensive restaurant, even though the far away city was (and is) world-renowned for the quality of their cuisine at all budgets. The VP invited a select few managers to dine with him and they all ordered foie gras: an expensive delicacy in an expensive restaurant for a select few. I wonder if the VP said something like: “We’ve had a tough year. Let us eat foie gras.”

Naturally, this company made their 2009 “numbers”. Naturally, because the company made its “numbers”, the VP and his management team received their bonuses. Naturally, they accomplished this on the backs of their employees, who were rewarded with…reduced pay.

The parallels between the two stories, I hope, are obvious. Both involve monarchs who are oblivious to the plight of their people: the Queen who can eat brioche when her peasants are starving and the VP-King who can still eat foie gras in an obscenely expensive restaurant even after he has cut the salary of his employees. Both involve people whose rights and needs are subjugated to those of “the hierarchy”: the peasants starve while the Queen eats brioche, the employees get less pay while the VP-King eats foie gras. Both involve a select few who “have” while the majority “have not”.

However, the similarities between our two stories end here. The first story ends with the peasants who say “enough is enough”. Paradigms shift: and monarchy gives way to democracy.

The second story…has yet to play out.

Don’t you think it’s about time that it finally did?

Mindmapping PM

2010-03-16T04:01:00Z

I was thinking about ways to introduce the ideas in PM to someone totally new to the ideas - like a new project sponsor or executive put in charge of a project unit. This is my first pass at layering the ideas.

What do you think?

(Click on the image for a full view)

But it's better than TV

2010-03-15T09:39:00Z

At the local health food store lunch buffet, they offer stir fried tempeh.

I never get it. Not because I don’t like it, but because there are always so many other things on the buffet that I prefer.

That's why I don't watch TV. At all. There are so many other things I'd rather do in that moment.

Broadcast TV was a great choice when a> there weren't a lot of other options and b> when everyone else was watching the same thing, so you needed to see it to be educated.

Now, though, you could:

Run a little store on eBay
Write a daily blog
Write a novel
Start an online community about your favorite passion
Go to meetups in your town
Volunteer to tutor a kid, in person or online
Learn a new language, verbal or programming
Write hand written thank you notes each evening to people who helped you out or did a good job
Produce small films and publish them online
Listen to the one thousand most important operas
Read a book or two every evening
Play a game of Scrabble with your family

None of them are perfect. Each of them are better than TV.

Clay Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work instead of to waste. Add that up across a million or ten million people and the output is astonishing. He calls it cognitive surplus and it's one of the underappreciated world-changing stories of our time.

We learn from stories and experience

2010-03-14T12:58:12Z

When it comes to learning and genuinely retaining something, nothing beats experiences. Formal educational or speaking settings don't always allow for actual hands-on experience with the content, but almost every learning situation — including presentation in various forms — does permit the use of stories. Stories, that is, that illustrate the content and bring people in, enabling them to "experience" the material in an engaging, visual, and imaginative way. A way that will be remembered. One can use analogy, or metaphor, or the depiction or verbal reenactment of actual, relevant events that illuminate and make the material more real and more memorable. Stories have an emotional component and when you engage people's emotions, even just a little bit, you stand a better chance of them paying attention and remembering your point (whether or not they agree with you is another matter entirely).

People remember when emotions are triggered
Early this week four students in my Japanese labor management class did a presentation on employment security in Japan. Three days later when I asked other students to recall the most salient points of the presentation, what they said they remembered most vividly were not the labor laws or the principles and the changes in the labor market in Japan, but rather the topic of karoshi and the issue of suicides in Japan, topics that were quite minor points in the hour-long presentation. Yet death-from-over-work and suicide are extremely emotional topics that are not often discussed. The presenters cited actual cases (i.e., told stories) of karoshi and suicide which also attributed to these relatively small points being remembered most in people's mind.

Stories get your attention and make it real
In January this year we drove the Hana Road (one of the most beautiful places in the world) to the 'Ohe'o Gulch Falls at Haleakala National Park in Kipahulu. The falls look inviting and are usually calm, but to warn the tourists of the great dangers that lurk, large warnings signs have been installed to advise people to use great caution. Of course, people often ignore warning signs like this or think that the dangers are abstractions that happen to other people, if they happen at all. What I found very effective was that the park service included real newspaper clippings of actual deadly accidents that had occurred there recently. I know it was effective because people read these articles and you could see the look of concern on their faces. I usually would only glance at such signs, but I stayed there and read every word. I felt sad for the victims who were no longer abstractions but real people with names and hometowns, they were mothers, and sons, and so on. Reading the actual accounts of what could happen — what did happen — stopped me in my tracks. It was informative but also emotional. In this case, those things together made quite an impact and the content was memorable.

The sign on the left features actual newspaper clippings in the design which underscores the dangers by making it more emotional, real, and memorable.

Teaching and presenting with emotion and enthusiasm
Here is a wonderful podcast with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (famous astrophysicist and one of my heroes) that all humans should listen to. In this interview on science literacy, Dr. Tyson touches on the issue of experience and emotion and the importance of enthusiasm. Again, experience may be best, but we can also use storytelling and other methods to get people's emotions involved and to get them more engaged with the content in a deeper, even exploratory way. It is not enough to give people information, we must stimulate their imaginations. Presentations and class lessons are ephemeral and short. As much as anything else, shouldn't we be stimulating people in a way that inspires and encourages them to go out and learn and discover more about our topic on their own at their pace and in a way best suited for them? Bullet point slides, for example, rarely inform, are hardly ever memorable, and never inspire action (unless that action is taking a nap). Below is an excerpt from the fantastic interview with Dr. Tyson.

"Research and education has shown that field trips are remembered long into adulthood. Why? Because you’re experiencing something rather than simply reading it in a book…. To experience something has a far more profound effect on your ability to remember and influence you than if you simply read it in a book. So why not figure out a way to turn a lesson plan into a living expression of that content. A living expression, so that sparks can be ignited and flames can be fanned within the students. And at that point, it doesn’t matter what grade they get on the exam because they are stimulated to want to learn more. If they didn’t learn all the “A” stuff for that exam, they’re inspired enough to go out and buy a book or spend more time on the documentary that they saw on the Discovery Channel or on PBS. And there it is. You’ve cast a learner into the world. And that’s the most powerful thing you can do as a teacher. The enthusiastic teacher is fundamental to igniting flames of interest in any student in any subject. So that’s not a special need within the call for science literacy. That’s a need for all teachers in all subjects."

— Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Listen to the entire interview here.

NOTE: Moving forward presentationzen.com will be updated about twice a week. But if you are interested, I update my more personal blog — garr.posterous.com — a couple of times a day, usually with iPhone photos of life in Japan. Sometimes it is completely useless, but I also show snaps or video clips that may contain small lessons or actual useful content. Posterous.com is pretty cool (and free) as it allows you to upload photos, etc. right from your iPhone. We can learn a lot from the lessons around us, and saving snaps you take of remarkable things you see to a blog is a pretty good way to keep and share your discoveries. (My Posterous profile.)

Boring Brands

2010-03-13T01:52:51Z

There is no trick or luck in being successful. In fact, success can be created and summed up in two words: be remarkable.

Easier said than done, right? Whether it's being a musician, selling helicopters or developing the next online sensation, the ones that rise to the top are the ones that are remarkable. They are the great ones, the ones that people talk about, and the ones we all wind up cheering for. Seth Godin wrote the perfect business book about this, Purple Cow, and it's an idea that is not lost on best-selling business book author, Tom Peters, either. Peters has a new book out next week titled, The Little Big Things, and in promoting the launch of his latest business book, he has also been publishing some interesting video clips about what it takes to be an amazing brand in our decade.

What this video clip: YouTube - Tom Peters - Strategy: Be Extraordinary:

It's a great question to constantly ask about every element of your business isn't it? Are you excellent and remarkable or simply "ho-hum"?

Tags: brand business business book online video purple cow remarkable seth godin strategy success the little big things tom peters youtube

Virtual Collaboration & Change Management

2010-03-12T21:00:00Z

Guest Post by hnauheimer of Radical Inclusion

"If you want to build a wiki, don’t drum up people by sending them emails and adding them as users. Rather make them long for access to the important information your wiki contains." by Juliane Neumann, Radical Inclusion

Lately, our group has been reflecting on what it takes from an organization to implement effective Virtual Collaboration (VC) processes. The question is not a new one – the idea of collective Knowledge Management (KM) has been around since the dawn of the WWW (and even before), but the great visions have turned out to be disappointingly shallow promises. We have come to the point where the tools have reached such maturity, adaptability, and user-friendliness that we all cannot help but rub our eyes asking why the adoption rates of virtual collaboration are far below even the most pessimistic expectations.

How does collaboration and KM fit into the concept of VC?

There’s an I in Twitter and a ME in Social Media

2010-03-10T12:07:55Z

As we’ve learned time and time again, there is no “I” in team. Instead of focusing exclusively on “what’s in it for me,” we’re encouraged to contribute to the greater collective of groups in order to accomplish wonderful things – those usually unattainable by any one person.

Of course, this headline is a play on those words, but it also opens the door to an interesting conversation – one that explores a global network of connections weaved from both relations and relationships and bound through action and reaction.

I recently asked aloud who’s the me in social media as a way of escalating the discussion around the importance of what we do and say online and also what we don’t do or say and how these seemingly innocuous deeds contribute to the establishment of our Web identity.

Indeed, we cast digital shadows…

However, with all we know about social media, we are ambivalent to its possibilities and its perils. Instead, we are seduced by the capacity to channel our inner-celebrity and as such, we’re intoxicated by the responses and relationships we earn by willfully sharing in public what was once deemed and coveted as private. The allure of becoming Internet Famous is not necessarily the aspiration of those who engage in social networks, but it is something that manifests either intentionally or unintentionally, almost becoming our certification for tweeting, commenting, posting, and sharing.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating observations that I’ve documented and something that continues to receive a significant focus of my attention, is the idea that through social media, we are creating a global society of digital extroverts, rich with individuals who are gaining confidence online and ultimately offline, by saying and sharing the very things that they might not have otherwise voiced in real life.

It’s almost a form of healthy self expression, combined with validation and a touch of self-actualization…

I Tweet, therefore I am…

I pay attention to the work of Dan Zarrella, a friend of mine who is also a social scientist of sorts. Most recently, I analyzed and shared his work in which he dissected the behavior and defining characteristics of retweets.

His most recent study examines how social behavior affects relationships on Twitter and certain activities contribute to the state of those who follow us.

Even though an “I” is absent from team, a “me” readily apparent. I believe that as social media evolves and matures, we need to focus less on the “me” in social media and more on the “we” in the social Web.

Now we have the data to prove it…

Zarrella drew a parallel connection between social language and followers. Using inclusive words such as “you” and “we” usually ties to a greater number of followers.

Ultimately, it’s how we value and in turn, continually invest in relationships that define who we are in the long term. The net result is that accounts with a greater number of followers tended to use social language more frequently than those who focus on the “I” in Twitter.

Concurrently, Zarrella also surveyed the relationship between narcissism and connections.

Those who tend to talk about themselves also possess a propensity to repel legions of prospective followers.

Emotions also play a role in how individuals form and cultivate relationships. Zarrella documented that people who share updates that are rooted in negative sentiment, such as sadness, aggression, derogatory commentary, etc., will find it difficult to increase their audience and their connections.

Sometimes we need to realize that inner monologue is a gift worth embracing…

We each possess an inherent and unique ability to make decisions governed by a moral compass. These decisions are now challenged by real-time architectures that entice us to say what we think, before we think it through. What we publish online says more about us than we know or we may realize. In an era where common sense may prove uncommon, an updated form of social psychology is necessary to learn and consequently teach netizens how to create their own destiny, centered by a relevant and meaningful social compass.

In a recent discussion with Dr. Drew Pinksey, he advocated a deep understanding of the importance of relationships in the real world in order to foster and cultivate meaningful connections online.

As much of this is so new, we are literally learning as we go. We share what moves us with an audience of people we know, those we wish to know, and those who desire to know us. Part of acting of course, is reacting, and it’s through those reactions that we learn the rules of engagement as well as the content and activities that engender reactions.

In many ways, the “me” in social media contributes to a stage of participation that at first blush, resembles an ecosystem of vanity, or something that I refer to as the egosystem. But it is this egosystem that has empowered each one of us to construct something truly significant.

The true latency of social media lies in our ability to continually connect meaning and relevance over time. After all, we are all in this together. The ability to publish information nowadays is not our true opportunity to gain prominence. Recognition and reciprocity are among the strongest forms of currency in the social Web and as such, we are measured by our actions and our words.

Never forget to pay it forward, it’s how you got here and it defines where you’re going.

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook
—
Please consider reading my brand new book, Engage!

—
Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism:

—
Image Credit: Shutterstock

The Wordperfect Axiom

2010-03-10T10:35:00Z

When the platform changes, the leaders change.

Wordperfect had a virtual monopoly on word processing in big firms that used DOS. Then Windows arrived and the folks at Wordperfect didn't feel the need to hurry in porting themselves to the new platform. They had achieved lock-in after all, and why support Microsoft?

In less than a year, they were toast.

When the game machine platform of choice switches from Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of bestelling games change and new companies become dominant.

When the platform for music shifted from record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too, and many labels were crushed.

Again and again the same rules apply. In fact, they always do. When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled.

Think this only applies to software?

The platform for healthcare changed from independent doctor's offices and small practices to hospitals and hmos.

The platform for TV changed from airwaves to wires (so HBO and ESPN win, NBC loses).

The platform for cars is changing from gas engines to alternatives.

And the platform for books is changing (fast!) to e-books and readers. Just published today: the Vook multimedia production of Unleashing the Ideavirus. The price will increase to $5 in two weeks, but right now it's 99 cents. It runs on the web and on your iphone [try this link too] (and the iPad on April 3rd.)

Here's the thing: Vook abridged it, built it, filmed it and distributed it in less than ninety days. They have a software application that they can use again and again for other titles. They've organized themselves to be profitable at a profit margin that few big book publishers can match.

Once again, the platform changes. Insiders become outsiders and new opportunities abound.

Org Purgatory Defined: Being a GenX Leader with a 2.0 Millennial Mind

2010-03-10T06:16:46Z

Recently, via pretty much any social network and email system I belong to, the ‘How Millennial Are You’ quiz was making the rounds.

For disclosure purposes, I scored 82/100.

I am currently 38 years young and for most of my existence on Earth, I have lead pretty much anything I have come into contact with including but not limited to school presidencies, athletic captainships, corporate world roles and community endeavours. Not boasting, just providing some colour for you the reader about this humble ENTJ blog scribe.

My natural leadership DNA tendency is to include, involve, engage and be mindful of the human element … at all costs. Without the team, nothing gets accomplished. There’s an unattached adage I live by, which is “we’re not here to see through each other, we’re here to see each other through”.

This brings me to the aforementioned title point of purgatory.

Although potentially frivolous and certainly not scientific, the quiz mentioned above demonstrated to me that many leaders (regardless of generational classification) have 2.0 tendencies that Millennials also employ, but there are many individuals working in organizations locked into a 1.0 framework. Not bad, per se, merely an observation.

Don Tapscott (1998) describes Millennials using defined themes: (1) independence, (2) openness, (3) inclusion, (4) strong viewpoints and free expression, (5) innovation, (6) early maturation, (7) investigative, (8) immediacy, (9) consumer savvy, and (10) authenticity. Skiba & Barton (2006) augmented the definition to contain attributes such as interactivity, connectivity, and collaboration.

Forthrightly, I’m all of that.

As organizations wrestle with the latest 2.0 technologies, we not only need to stop, drop and roll, we need to think through how these defined themes not only affect Millennials, but how they affect leaders/employees of the organization who have demonstrated these traits for years. It’s not just a Millennial thing. It’s an everybody thing.

Secondly, the defined themes and traits of a Millennial, to me, are merely the definition of the new 2.0 organization itself. Call it Work 2.0, Future of Work, Future of Management, Culture of Collaboration … I don’t care … it’s the evolution of the workplace, and it’s happening right now … across the entire globe.

Millennial, GenX, Boomers, Silent Generation, etc. are simply labels and we are retrofitting those labels into the culture of an organization. The culture of your organization is the single most important aspect to focus on if you want increased revenue, profits, customer satisfaction, etc. The identity of your organizations rests on finding ways in which to bring the Tapscott, Skiba and Barton themes to life, regardless of generational vernacular.

Once this is accepted, adopted and implemented, only then will the 2.0 technologies make sense for the organization.

I am a GenX leader with a Millennial frame of mind; I’m a blue ribbon personality who wants to ensure the entire team is treated equally and fairly. I want to ensure the team is continuously being engaged to explore options, ideas and opportunities before decision making or execution is underway. I use the latest (and sometimes greatest) 2.0 technologies to foster a collaborative work environment. This is fast becoming the new ‘norm’ from a bottoms-up perspective, but it’s incumbent upon ‘the organization’ to sort out how the technologies can assist the culture, which in turn assists the people inside of the organization to feel engaged and a part of the answer.

In conclusion, what is organizational purgatory?

Organizational purgatory slaps the Millennial label solely on Millennials. Taking the characteristics of a Millennial and attaching them to the cultural fabric of tomorrow’s organization is as 2.0 as it can get.

The biggest triumph is getting out of bed

2010-03-09T17:46:02Z

Psychology Today did an interview with me. It was about my most triumphant moments in my life, and how I overcame obstacles to get there. I knew immediately that the interview was going to be a disaster, so I told them I wanted to do the interview written, rather than on the phone.

Then I didn’t write the interview for a week.

Then I complained about the questions: I don’t really believe in triumph. Because the most triumphant moments are the days when I have no idea how I'm going to fix anything, but I get out of bed anyway. On the other hand, the moments of huge achievement are not actually that hard to get to. By the time you're close, you are so motivated to get there that it doesn't feel like work at all.

So I wrote that. And then I felt bad. So I tried to give an example. People like examples. And I like Psychology Today. And I didn’t want to disappoint them.

So I wrote that the moment when I was a freelance writer and a new mom and had post-partum depression but I knew I had to keep working so I had to get out of bed and write. Maybe there were fifty moments like that. Or five hundred. But those are the moments of triumph. The thing is, I think it was probably messed up that I kept working and did not check myself into a hospital. And then I started thinking that all my moments of triumph came at the heels of me having done something totally terrible.

Like, let me tell you right now that before I could play volleyball professionally, I was literally starving. So I stole bagels at the bagel shop. I have had about ten editors take that out of my writing. Out of my Business 2.0 column, out of my book, and my editor will tell me now that this is not good to put in a post. Stealing is bad, right? But my point is that it’s very hard to do some extraordinary triumph without taking some extraordinary risk or making an odd judgment that other people would not make. That’s why the triumph is extraordinary.

Another thing about the bullshit of big triumphs: Our big moments — where we can change the world — come because so many other people have helped us, and luck has come to us. But our small moments, when no one is watching and no one cares and the only thing that makes us try again is an unreasonable belief that we can get what we want for ourselves — those are the triumphs that we do all by ourselves.

When I have been on the cusp of huge success, there have always been people to help me. For example, my agent stayed with me when I was out of money but about to get a six-figure book deal.

But there was no one helping me get out of bed the day I knew I had to start writing my book proposal even though the odds of getting a big book deal from it were terrible. The daily task of believing things will improve when then things look bad. We do that on our own, and each time I do it I am thankful, in a deep, spiritual way. I'm not sure what keeps me going when everything looks terrible, but I know that each time I do it, it's a triumph. And it happens a lot.

Another thing. Everyone, please shut up about your biggest failures. I hate when people write about their failures because they always write about how they pulled themselves up, or what they learned. And really, then, it's not a failure, is it? It's a learning opportunity, or a chance to shine. Failure is something you did not overcome. You did not learn from. And most people are too embarrassed to write about it. High achievers don't have failures because they can learn from everything.

There is no finish line, there is no gold prize. There is only living with yourself, day after day. So each day needs to be a small triumph so you can pat yourself on the back before you go to sleep. I try to do that. Today's triumph is doing this interview with Psychology Today. Sure, I couldn’t quite do it, and I had to be quirky and weird, and it probably cost me getting into the article. But at least I wrote something.

Comment on: The biggest triumph is getting out of bed

Orlando Scrum Gathering Kicks Off With A Bang #sgus

2010-03-09T17:15:51Z

This week marks the annual North American Scrum Gathering in Orlando. This year’s event promises to be very dynamic, with a track dedicated to project management as well as several Pecha Kucha talks.

Day Zero
But before the festivities even began, Mike Vizdos and Jean Tabaka convened a pre-gathering retreat for Certified Scrum Trainers/Coaches. Thirty or so of Scrum’s thought leaders spent a full day trading tips and techniques for helping people learn and do Agile Project Management with Scrum.

There was much discussion around the correlation between coaching and training. The consensus that, regardless of which certification you hold, you need to do both coaching and training for any successful Agile change initiative.

Day 1 Kickoff
Then yesterday came the big kickoff. Scrum Alliance President, Tom Mellor, welcomed 300 attendees. Like last year, he asked for a show of hands for who was a PMI member / PMP, and a solid 40%-50% responded. He also announced the Scrum Alliance board will feature member-elected slots starting in the second quarter of this year. Then Luke Hohmann briefed everyone on the process the Scrum Alliance used to prioritize the backlog of member needs and requests. The results are yet to be finalized, but it was encouraging to see the Scrum Alliance share how intentional it is being with developing its strategic plan. After these introductions, Jeff Sutherland and Kent Johnson took the stage to talk about Scrum + CMMI. And offered some juicy quotes and tidbits:

Regarding role of managers in large scrum: learn to let go of control, motivate improvement, and lead.
Some companies are using scrum to manage their cmmi level 3 efforts…with great results
Root cause analysis of failures. Is a key source for Scrummaster’s impediment list
common benefit of cmmi is rework. Systematic, a CMMI Level 5 agile company moved from 50% of efforts reworked to 6%
scrum maps closely to cmmi level 3 when used with agile engineering
50% of Scrum teams do not have working software at the end of
“pure scrum” doesn’t make sense and is useless.
20% improvement with scrum is a waste of time you shoul be striving for 10x improvement
Self-organization does NOT mean you get to do what you want
Don’t misread the agile manifesto to say process has NO value

Day 1 Deep Dive
After the intro sessions, there were several day-long deep-dive sessions to choose from:

Dialogue Room & Scrum Clinic hosted by Michael de la Maza and Gerry Kirk
Project management, How to: Specify Critical Product Quality Requirements - Tom Gilb and Kai Gilb
Software Craftsmanship Workshop – Micah Martin
Artful Making Workshop – Lee Devin
Coaching the Coaches - Lyssa Adkins
The Kanban Exploration – Karl Scotland
Coaching Self-Organized Teams - Joseph Pelrine
Improv: The Mechanics of Collaboration - Matt Smith
Innovation Games® for Scrum Teams - Luke Hohmann

I chose Innovation Games®, and was floored. After only a couple hours, I knew that I would simply have to attend the full 2-day class to get all the golden goodness Luke had to offer.

Innovation Games® are facilitation techniques for collecting, organizing, and prioritizing requirements. I continue to be amazed at how little project managers (i.e. people like me) are trained in real product management. I used to think “requirements management” was about enforcing scope with change requests, but now there’s a whole new world I’ve been exposed to. For example, here’s a question every PM should be able to answer: how do you know your requirements are even correct? Yeah, it stumped me too.

It was a fantastic first day, with only more exciting stuff to come tomorrow.

The Lines Continue To Blur (At Breakneck Speed)

2010-03-09T02:27:15Z

Some still look sideways when thinking about mobile. Some are just kidding themselves. Our world is changing faster and faster.

The writing is on the wall. Marketing Charts had a fascinating news item today entitled, Mobile Facebook, Twitter Growth Explodes, which stated:

"In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112% from 11.8 million mobile users in January 2009. While only 4.7 million mobile users accessed Twitter from their mobile browser in January 2010, this represented 347% growth from 1.05 million mobile users in January 2009."

It's easy to say the shift is subtle (especially when you look at the amount of people who own a BlackBerry, iPhone or Nexus One compared to those who are simply "online"), but it's happening fast, and it's not just about having a mobile version of your website (more on that here: The End Of Big Website Builds). What's happening is that consumers aren't thinking about your online website and your mobile website, they're simply looking to access content and platforms wherever they are and however they want to.

It's not about the kids (at all).

"Despite the stereotype of teens spending every waking moment on a mobile device, Nielsen data suggests their parents actually spend more time performing mobile web surfing. Only 7% of mobile social networking activity was represented by 13-to-17-year-olds and only 16% by 18-to-24-year-olds in December 2009. The leaders in mobile social networking activity are 35-to-54-year-olds, who accounted for 36% of mobile social network usage in December 2009. Close behind them were 25-to-34-year-olds, who performed 34% of the month's mobile social networking activity. Users ages 55 and up combined for the remaining 7%."

What do you think these numbers are going to look like in 12 months time? What about 24 months?

Are you (and your business) ready for this?

Tags: blackberry content facebook google phone iphone marketing charts mobile browser mobile social networking mobile website nexus one nielsen obile online online social network platform twitter website

The End Of Big Website Builds

2010-03-07T01:49:22Z

If you thought fragmentation was changing the way a brand buys media, just wait until you see what it's going to do to the Digital Marketing space.

Are the days of big websites and long website builds numbered? It could well be. If you think about how people find and connect to most brands, it's not just through a search engine anymore. In fact, more and more people are having their first brand interaction on their mobile device. There are many people who are also connecting to brands for the first time in spaces like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Does this mean that the website is going the way of the dodo bird?

Not exactly, but it does mean that the overall Digital Marketing strategy is going to change dramatically in the next little while. Instead of one, big and centralized website with many digital marketing outposts in the appropriate platforms, it is more than likely that we're going to see more and more brands create multiple spaces and platforms to ensure that they're connecting with the right people in the right communities.

Imagine a world...

Where a Digital Marketing strategy focuses less on one big website and more on creating engaging "things" like iPhone apps, a mobile website, a Facebook page along with a Blog (or whatever), and it's all supported with a simple website that acts more like a hub for all of the other spokes. Yes, there are some (only a few) brands already playing with creating Facebook pages in lieu of micro-sites for promotions and experiential marketing initiatives, but it has not become a commonplace activity where you find a brand doing multiple things in multiple channels and focusing less on driving consumers to their marketing-riddled jargony websites.

It becomes a more complex Digital Marketing play.

The "game" used to be about always driving people back to your own, controlled, website, and the truth is that the more vibrant community for a brand may be happening more through a mobile app or online social network platform... or something else or something in addition to it. Does this mean we need to trim websites back to WordPress Blog-shaped platforms or micro-site sizes? Not really, but it does mean that if a brand's vibrant community is happening in a place like Facebook, they won't have much control or ownership over the content, but they might be able to do things (in terms of connecting and growing that community) that they could not scale to with a big, towering website of their own.

This is just further proof that the conversations are everywhere (and maybe not where we always want them to be).

Tags: blog brand branding conversation digital marketing digital marketing strategy dodo bird experiential marketing facebook facebook page iphone app media micro-site microsite mobile device mobile website online community online social network promotion search engine twitter website website build. media fragmentation wordpress youtube

The Last Notebook And Journal

2010-03-06T01:43:11Z

There are moments in time that should make you stand back in awe and marvel at technology. This is one of those moments.

Engadget posted this today: Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details (update: video!). No, it's not an iPad, but it is one amazing looking device. So, what is this new device from Microsoft? "Courier will function as a 'digital journal,' and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected," reads the Engadget Blog post.

But, you have to watch these two videos demos:

Bye bye Moleskin.

Tags: blog digital journal engadget ipad journal microsoft microsoft courier moleskin notebook online video tablet technology

The One Thing About Building A Community

2010-03-03T14:25:09Z

Have you ever wondered why there is such a struggle to build a sense community around the Digital Marketing initiatives you are developing?

It goes well beyond the famous movie line, "build it and they will come" from Field of Dreams. There is one, critical, piece of the puzzle that most Marketers and self-proclaimed "Community Managers" forget: it's not about what's happening on your space as much as it is about what you're doing on the communities that serve your industry and space.

You will have no semblance of community unless you are an active community member in the other spaces.

If I had to do this all over again and start from scratch right now, what would I do? Without question, I would start a Blog and fill it with relevant and valuable content for the community, but I would spend ten times as much time adding value to the five or ten existing communities where my potential members might be hanging out, reading and connecting. It's not a ploy and it's not a trick, I would do this because I am interested and want to engage with the other community members. I would also be hopeful that those community members would be appreciative of my contributions and take a chance on checking out what I'm up to on my own space.

Give more than you get.

Some people hear that and think it's about giving more on their own space (Blogging more or tweeting more). Big mistake. The "win" (if you can even call it that) is to give away more on the existing/other communities and spaces. To be valuable and relevant there. It does seem so counterintuitive at first blush. The idea is to populate and add value to someone's else's platform and community? Yes. Hugh McGuire (from Librivox, Bite-Sized Edits and a co-host on the Media Hacks) said it beautifully and succinctly: "don't Blog to be known... Blog to be knowable." It's subtle... and it's true.

The community decides when it's a community... you don't.

When you are an active member of an existing community, they will, if everything goes well, become proud participants and members of your community. They don't owe it to you, and just because you created a platform doesn't give you explicit rights to any community. As mentioned here, there and everywhere, community is something that is earned after time and value. Community is not something that happens when you need it, it's something that you build over time that is suddenly there for you, when you need it.

If you want to build a community - be an active community member everywhere else first... and mean it.

Tags: bite-sized edits blog blogging community community building community manager community member contribution digital marketing field of dreams hugh mcguire librivox marketer marketing media hacks publishing reading tweeting twitter

Social Capital: The Currency of the Social Economy

2010-03-03T12:34:36Z

The convention for creating financial opportunities is evolving and changing the way we seed prospects, promote our expertise and prowess, and connect with those who can help us learn and advance through the facilitation of strategic and mutually beneficial alliances.

Digital capitalization is laying a foundation for expanding the need to cultivate and participate, not only in the real world, but also in the online networks and communities that can benefit us personally and professionally.

In an era of democratized publishing and equalized influence, it can be said that engagement and participation are a new, powerful and effective form of “un” marketing. At the very least, this is an epoch of empathy.

Social capital is a strong ally, an elite catalyst for lucrative relationships, and now a metric for qualification, consideration and ultimately success (however you define it). This is a state of human economics that is thoroughly discussed in Tara Hunt’s book, The Whuffie Factor. Our “Whuffie” or social capital and intellectual assets are defined by both online and real world conduct and its “balance sheet” is available for anyone with a web browser to review, assess, and analyze.

Reputation, trust, and relationships, are each earned at varying levels, through our action and words. Our interaction reinforces impressions and engenders experiences. As such, our personal and professional brands are essentially reflections of our contributions. In the end, we get out of it, what we invest in it.

By participating in relevant online communities and publishing content that promotes our expertise as it empathizes with those seeking information and direction in a way that literally speaks to them, we begin the process of building and shaping our online reputation, brand, and persona that traverses virtual, augmented, and actual realities. The ideas and wisdom we share and the relationships we forge only fuel its proliferation and stature.

Like any form of capital, Social capital rises and falls with the market and the individual to which it’s governed by the state of the industry and affected by the state of corresponding affairs. As it escalates, however, it unlocks opportunities that are commensurate with the community’s assessment of its value. In the same regard, the community will not support or reward lackluster, opportunistic, also-ran, or hollow engagement in the long term.

Again, social capital is measured by individual value and collective perception.

The Human Algorithm

But trust and reputation are only as valuable as their ability to represent you in your absence. And as in anything online, perception and presence are the focus of proactive programs that enhance the discovery process and steer recognition and stature in your favor.

As search plays an increasingly important role in the investigation process of surfacing qualified candidates and social objects around relevant topics, we quickly become brand managers for our intellectual and personal assets. Our livelihood now pivots on our ability to connect dots between who were are, what we stand for, and the value we offer.

You will be Googled.

You will also be Twittered, Flickrd, YouTubed, Facebooked, and LinkedIn’ed.

While Google is the standard by which all search is measured, those active in defining their presence in traditional search will do so through organic as well as through optimized techniques such as SEO. However, as search becomes social, the role of queries disseminates beyond Google with content sought and channeled directly within Social Networks as well as new breeds of real-time search platforms. As such, prominence is then ascertained by the digital shadows we cast across the traditional and social Web (yes, there is a difference) and also through our investment in driving strategic visibility. Essentially, our brand as defined by our views, opinions, thoughts, observations, and actions, becomes a social object that requires dynamic cultivation and placement.

The Human Algorithm becomes our lifeline to regulated exposure while also providing a foundation for constructing and enhancing our presence directly within the channels where prospects are seeking information.

Social Customer Hierarchy

As social media becomes ubiquitous, businesses will no longer possess the means to effectively scale and sustain participation across all conversations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other online communities. Whether you agree with this or not, brands will face the need to prioritize who they engage based on what I refer to as the Social Customer Hierarchy. The level of influence and authority a customer or prospect holds determines their placement in the chain of preeminence.

Yes, we earn prominence and amass social capital through productive contributions to online societies. In the process, we increase our stature and amplify our voices and it will escalate consumer matters when other traditional means are exhausted. Brandishing this distinction however, erodes value, and over time, ranking and credibility are diminished.

Our online reputation and the activity that contribute to its definition are investments in our social capital. The return on these investments is evident in the opportunities and relationships that ensue and proliferate. Our social graph, the connections we forge and actively nurture, represents a very public testimony. If you’re not actively investing in its significance, you may actually take away from its net worth.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook

—

Please consider buying my brand new book, Engage!

—

Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism:

—
Image Credit: Shutterstock

On project management blogging

2010-03-02T19:00:00Z

When I started this blog there were only a couple of dozen project blogs around. Now it seems like I discover a couple of dozen a day!

And many of us are talking around the same themes and ideas. For example, many of us rail against bureaucracy or bloated control processes at the expense of the team’s motivation, enthusiasm and desire to get things done.

Frankly, I have to question myself about the value of this blog today. Am I still contributing, or is this space just another part of the internets noise?

Way back when this blog was in it’s infancy I decided to focus on the role of the business analyst rather than on project management, to provide it some sort of differentiation from the project blogs that were already out there. But today there are plenty of outstanding BA blogs.

And my focus has broadened beyond my initial focus into scrum and technical pm practices, mainly because these are the things I am working on and thinking about as I go.

So, what’s in it for me these days?

I don’t seek to monetise this blog (although I have added some affiliate links) and I haven’t tried to leverage my online reputation in my day job.

On the other hand I do get to engage in some interesting discussions with my peers around the world, which I don’t get to do with my peers in the building. And by engaging in a professional community I get to learn.

I also force myself to articulate ideas in relatively clear language, which for me is important. I haven’t yet tackled the really important discussion – which is about dialogue with sponsors and stakeholders. Sometimes I think the project blogging community is all about project teams talking to themselves in a closed environment. That’s not really what we are about.

Sometimes I also think that the PM and BA blogs are operating in two different worlds. One a couple of occasions I have asked questions in PM and BA forums what the readers think about the other role, but usually just get a generic answer that, at least to me, says the answers aren’t really thinking about the potential conflict and collaboration embedded in the partnership.

Monster-Watching: Some notes.

2010-03-02T06:10:45Z

So I spend a lot of time with my monsters.

Sometimes I have negotiators or moderators. Sometimes my monsters get cookies. Sometimes they don’t (not all monsters like cookies).

And it seemed appropriate to give some more information about the what, why and how of monsters, in case you want to talk to some of yours.

So. What is a monster?

A stuckness. A block. A wall.

Internal criticism. Old stuckified beliefs about what is true (like the outsider complex).

Anything you think to yourself (or about yourself) that hurts.

But why monsters? I don’t want monsters!

You don’t have to have monsters, sweetie. Of course not!

Jen talks about the Inner Critic. Hiro talks about pictures. Char calls them voices. Voices. Stories. Narrative.

Jo calls them Gremlins. One of my Kitchen Table mice has a flock of birds — the Flock of Stuck. Fi has her goblin (Mike). And, of course, Jung knew about the shadow.

These all work. Substitute whatever you like when I say “monster” — it’s okay by me.

The reason I go with monsters is this: as metaphors go, this one has all kinds of hugely powerful elements. Enough to make Metaphor Mouse proud. Because the monster metaphor is all about transformation.

Here’s what pretty much always happens.

When you’re working on a stuck or sitting with a hurt or working through the layers, you eventually discover that your stuck just wants to protect you.

Your monster means well. It’s just going about it all wrong

Your monster is small and vulnerable and fuzzy. And it just wants to know that you’ll be okay. And that’s why it makes itself so big and fierce — to scare you into letting it take care of you.

And once it knows that you know, it can turn into something else.

When we actually interact with our monsters (and recognize their intentions, while still letting them know that it is not okay to keep freaking us out like that), they change shape.

From big, bad wolves and scary, menacing shadow creatures … into pocket-sized playthings with enormous googly eyes.

From that sense of dread because ohmygod something horrible is Right Behind You … into Sulley from Monsters, Inc.*

* Best tagline ever: “We Scare Because We Care”.

From Max’s initial impression of the Wild Things roaring their terrible roars and gnashing their terrible teeth … to his realization that they can’t hurt him.

They’re just fuzzmuffin furball playmates, as vulnerable to loneliness and hurt as he is.

Talking your monsters is all about witnessing this transformation.

And really, being the one who initiates that transformation by showing up and being genuinely curious about the monster and your relationship with it.

We don’t kill monsters. Or hunt them. Or scare them.

We talk to them.

We let them know what we need to feel safe and supported and loved.

We find out what they need. Where their safety is.

We are curious about them. We are curious about ourselves.

I don’t mean to imply that they’re not scary. Because they are.

It’s super important to acknowledge the scariness of the scary (because encountering a monster really is terrifying).

And that has to happen before we can recognize whatever good intentions or old, out-of-date defense mechanisms might be behind the scary.

Eventually you might realize that whoah, your monster is a total sweetiepie fuzzball. Or that might never happen. Either way, we start with noticing how uncomfortable it is to be frightened.

That’s the starting point. Permission to be scared. And to ask for help. And to have other people stand up for you to negotiate and document the experience.

Would you like to meet some of my monsters?

Obviously you’ve already met my fear and my hurt and my anxious and my stuck.

But some of the physical representations of monsters who live in my house.

This is Diki.

Rawr.

He is a very menacing dragon.

And on the right he’s dressed as a pirate duck. Along with Selma who’s dressed as a pirate dragon. For Purim.

(Thanks, Elizabeth the Bee for surprising us with hand-made costumes! You rock!)

Schmooasaurus is below left. He is a super-schmoo.

That’s Miflatzon at bottom right. Pictured here with his girlfriend Sophie, who is French (and not a monster at all).

He is my little Monsterchen!

Please note him rocking the sovereignty crown, which was a present from Deborah.

It’s not that all monsters are as cute as these guys.

Certainly most of mine aren’t. *shudders*

When we’re in the scary, we’re really in it.

And so I don’t in any way mean to imply that the fear isn’t legitimate or that our perception of how mean they are is wrong.

Of course not.

Just that the more we actively learn about our monsters, the easier it is to recognize their hidden motivations. And their extreme fuzziness.

I keep the monsters I already know around so that I can remember how something that used to terrify me is now familiar.

So that I can remember how I used to believe my monsters when they said I wasn’t a writer. Or when they told me I would fail miserably.

I can remember how useful it was to discover that they were just trying to keep me from getting hurt. And what happened when I stopped being impressed by them.

Some of them went away. Or morphed into other things. And some of them became schnoogly friends who sit at my side while I write to you.

You do not have to like your monsters.

You do not have to become friends with your monsters.

You don’t have to be grateful for them or appreciate them or anything. Blech. Not required!

There are no shoulds in monster-watching.

You get to have negotiators and protectors. You get to have support and love. You get to have hand-holding when you want hand-holding and to be left alone when you want to be left alone.

The point of the watching isn’t to scare you. Or them.

The point of the watching is to find out what happens when you bring attention to your world and your experiences.

And maybe to be surprised.

Comment zen.

We all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff.

We try to be patient while interacting with our stuff. We don’t throw shoes or give advice. And, of course, we give everyone’s monsters or non-monsters lots of room to be what they are.

*blows kisses at Commenter Mice and all the Beloved Lurkers*