How Will We Meet in the Future? by Kare Anderson
October 28, 2008
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Want to stand out from the competition? Take a cue from a bank. Some people in Orange County, California, will be walking into a local bank branch to vote. Many will be assisted by bank volunteers who have been trained as poll workers. This SmartPartnership made local and international news. Would you like customer-attracting media coverage too? Read on.
Help Solve a Problem
In past elections many county registrars across the country scrambled to establish places for people to vote and attract enough poll workers. The bank is offering this service for free and will not be “drumming up business outside voting booths” says Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley.
Yet Wells Fargo gains a priceless halo effect as Americans carry out the centerpiece of our democracy in their bank.
“The poll site is a sanctuary of sorts. It’s a place that is completely neutral: There’s no promotion, there’s no advertising, nothing,” Kelley said. “The goal of the program is to recruit poll workers — not to brand a stadium.”
In exchange Wells Fargo wins the opportunity to use the Orange County seal on its literature and website, and advertise its partnership with the county – and thus its support of democracy. This Me2We approach generates fresh value and visibility for partners that they could not achieve on their own.
Smart Partnering Method Generates Goodwill and Good Value
A SmartPartnership is an alliance among two or more organizations that generates additional value for the “mutual market” of customers the partners seek to serve. In a weak economy, SmartPartnerships is valuable for consumer-serving companies as they are often less expensive yet more credible and memorable than traditional advertising and solo promotions. For example, another popular, private /public SmartPartnership is the Adopt-a-Highway programs sprinkled across the country.
Any Kind or Size of Consumer-Serving Organization
Can Become More Valuable by SmartPartnering
If you are in business, what kind of SmartPartnership with a government agency would generate fresh value for the agency and positive visibility in front of your kind of customer?
If you work in a government agency what kind of SmartPartnership would expand your capacity to serve or offer a new program or provide more convenience for those you serve?
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October 28, 2008
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Tired of self-promotion? Would you like to make work and life easier, more productive and fun – with others? Here’s four ways others accomplish more together than you can on your own – and sometimes forge friendships.
1. Co-create Products, Cause Support and More
• From clothing design to science experiments, the right crowd can get more done together.
• Collaborate online for a cause or faster innovation - and to become more well-known.
• Crowdsource a contest; take it public.
2. Swap and Share
• Enjoy more travel by house swapping or other shared hospitality.
• Swap books, lightly-used clothes and more.
• Moms share everything from recipes to medical advice.
3. Get More Out of Meetings
• Organize meetings for those who share your interest and perhaps make money.
• Capture the benefits of twittering at conferences.
• Create conference formats that will excite and involve attendees.
• Start a mutual growth, support or mastermind group.
• Share ideas in a fast and fun way for everyone. Try Ignite and Pecha Kucha.
• Make conferences more popular by harnessing the right technology.
4. Attract Customers With the Right Partners and Methods
• Even and especially in a bad economy partnering can be profitable.
• Train others to teach your methods – even sell your stuff.
• Forge an alliance with a bigger business or other organization.
• Recruit an unlikely ally to attract more interest.
Now, what Me2We methods have you used to accomplish more with others?
http://www.movingfrommetowe.com/2008/10/23/4-successful-ways-we-achieve-...
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October 28, 2008
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“Presidential candidate George Bush will be active in making pronouncements in the coming weeks… He wants to define himself before his opponents do it for him,” intoned a radio commentator when the previous Bush became president. Yes, nicknames stick. “To name a thing is not the same as to know a thing,” Richard Feynman wrote, yet naming is a potent persuasion tool.
In fact, your ability to successfully label a person, product or political campaign is probably the most powerful way to influence others’ perceptions of their choices. (Too many choices frustrate us.) Consequently, be armed to argue well. As hot opinions swirl around our presidential campaign and economic troubles, here are some nuggets from Anthony Weston’s pithy Rulebook for Arguments:
1. “If you can’t imagine how anyone could hold the view you are attacking, you just don’t understand it yet.”In seeking possible explanations, solutions or causes, Weston suggests that we keep looking for more options, rather than immediately narrowing them. That way, we can state our case more fairly, and possibly head off objections more effectively.
2. Find out what other sides consider the strongest arguments for their position. Also, I suggest that you find the best evidence and most vivid examples they use or could use to support their positions.
3. Preemptively raise possible counter-arguments. Develop them in sufficient detail that your readers will fully appreciate the position you are disarming.
4. Avoid using two “great fallacies”:
- Generalizing from incomplete information.
- Overlooking alternative explanations.
5. In writing your view:
• Use definite, specific, concrete language.
• Develop one idea per paragraph. Don’t “fence more land than you can plow. One argument well-developed is better than three only sketched.” Attempting otherwise is akin to offering “ten very leaky buckets to one well-sealed one.”
• Get to the point quickly. Avoid redundancy and unnecessary details. (See, also the Heaths’ warning regarding “semantic stretch”).
• State your conclusion clearly, directly and briefly.
6. Emotionally loaded or prejudicial language “preaches only to the converted.”
• Careful presentation of the facts can itself convert.” Moreover,
• “It is not a mistake to have strong views. The mistake is to have nothing else.”
7. Stay open to changing your mind or improving your approach by incorporating others’ ideas, giving them fulsome credit for their insights. (Lincoln would be proud of you.)
Here’s an extraordinary, recent example of two ambitious leaders arguing agreeably about a BIG issue.
Ready for more on decisionmaking traps? T o better understand yourself in relationship to others – and for more ideas to move from me to we – read about Nudge, Sway, Multiplicity, On Being Certain, The Starfish and the Spider and Here Comes Everybody.
http://www.movingfrommetowe.com/2008/10/24/how-we-can-argue-better/#more...
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July 2, 2008
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In art class we were asked to draw a familiar object. I picked something simple. A tire. No one could recognize it. And yet, after reading The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures I was able to draw a description of SmartPartnering and another on storyboarding.
Let people literally see your idea to adopt it faster or to buy. Read this fun book by Dan Roam. Dan gives you a method based on our six ways of seeing:1. who/what 2. how much 3. where 4. when 5. how 6. why. These ways affect each step in our visually thinking/creating process:
1. Identify the topic/issue
2. Develop an idea/approach, to
3. Express a solution.
Herb Kelleher intuited this approach when he used a bar napkin to show investors how Southwest Airlines could beat competitors.
I thought of Dan’s book when Ellen spoke to me after my session at the IABC conference in New York last week. Her firm, Cognac shows that even complex topics can be understood in ten minutes or less – with the right “big picture” image. Since our brains retain visual information much better (David Melcher says 89% more) than text, this is mighty good news.
Even better, hear Dan lead a teleseminar on July 9th. It’s free. And he’ll be joined by several bright minds: Seth Godin, Anil Dash and Rich Sloan.
Also hear my interviews with two other gurus in the fast-growing field of visual thinking, Lee LeFever and David Sibbet. Here’s Carl Gude’s visual shorthand for politics.
Ok. If you are still not comfortable drawing your own explanation, to illustrate your text, here’s some free resources for drawings, clipart and photos suggested by Meryl Evans.
Or discover simple ways to make and distribute “how to” videos.
By the way you can hear BlogTalkRadio’s John Havens interview me at IABC.
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June 10, 2008
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Some of the most masterful baristas in the U.S. gathered in a hotel lobby in Minneapolis for their annual competition last month, judged by their peers.
But this year was different. More excitement.And pressure. Coffee growers, café owners and other baristas and coffee lovers from around the world can watch them perform. In real time and later. (Congrats Kyle Glansville!) Observers can share comments or photos.
Consider this story a free, mini-seminar: How to involve more people and sponsors in your event. Be the first person in your kind of industry or profession to adapt this approach for your gathering. Your “first ever” might attract media coverage too. Here’s what happened.Rich, a tradeshow blogger and a judge at this coffee contest, describes what the fresh twist on the traditonal barista contest. The Specialty Coffee Association live video blogged the competition, with a real-time chat screen.
“This was the first time either was attempted at this event (last year’s even had some time delayed video, but no interaction). The live video/chat enabled family, friends, colleagues, fellow baristas and coffee growers whose beans were being represented from around the globe as well as curious folks like me to witness the competition with close up camera work while engaging in ongoing conversation as it was happening.
In many ways watching the competition remotely was preferable to taking a seat in the bleachers and watching in person (very little talking inside (kinda rude to do so), poor sight lines, hard to see the details that mattered for scoring).
There was also a conference blog that included video interviews from the show floor, some session reviews and even some light entertainment.” Plus they created a captivating flickr photostream. (Sidebar, if “even” a local coffee shop in Atlanta can attract national coverage for their contest, perhaps you can too?)
As Jemima Kiss notes, live blogging by attendees is now so powerful that some are resisting what they may view as their loss of control. Like Jemima, I feel the participants can’t be stopped - and that is great. Increasingly more people will discover fresh ways to collaborate at conferences and other events. Perhaps The End of Control signals the strength of a more inclusive way of gathering, made possible our new media tools.
Want to Attract More Fans to Your Event?
Do you operate a street fair, game, lecture series, in-person contest or a product demo center at a trade show? In fact are you part of any kind of event that you’d like to grow?
Then would you like:
• To attract an even more people to it?
• Let people watch in real time and any time, anywhere later on?
• Enable more bystanders to see what’s going on?
• Build an ongoing community around your recurring gathering?
• Attract sponsors to cover the cost of the event?
• Get watchers involved in:
- Rooting for and voting for their favorites?
- Inspired to seek permission to participate in the event next time?
- Offering advice for improving the happening next year?
• Build an ongoing record of your events to use in:
- future events
- audio, text and/or or video “how-to” guides
- promotions to attract future audiences, sponsors or members?
You can accomplish all of the above, if not the first time then over time, by finding fans of your kind of gathering who have social media know-how. That’s what the folks at the Specialty Coffee Association discovered. In so doing the social media geeks got a greater taste of coffee knowledge and the coffee experts got a big gulp of blogging and vlogging expertise. That’s a Me2We collaboration to accomplish more (and have more fun) together than apart.
Here’s BBC producer, Robin Hamman’s “10 tips for live blogging a conference or event.” Lee Odden and Sarah Perez offer more suggestions. For covering any event, Anne Helmond helps you choose, “between Twitter, live blogging or fast publishing. ” Get your comprehensive social media “how-to” kit, compliments of Chris Brogan. Robin Good is another generous, reliable “how-to” guide for such tools, including for video publishing.
Many groups could make their event more involving, exciting and valuable. That includes gatherings as diverse as top chefs’ demonstrations, high schoolers’ robotic contests and dog groomers’ workshops.
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June 10, 2008
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Other than inadvertently becoming part of a scandal, crisis or other notably bad or good news, here’s the most likely method for becoming part of a media story – in a positive way. Get briefed on stories for which reporters, producers or bloggers are seeking input – right now.
For $99 a month, get PR Leads, a daily email of updates, customized for your situation. Dan Janal is diligent and savvy because he depends on our happy referrals to get more business. Two other popular media matching services are free. Publicist (and sky diver) Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out (HARO) email gets delivered to you three times a day. At the top of each email is a summary – one-liners on the kind of sources reporters are seeking. Scan it quickly to see if you’re a match for one of the queries. In just a few months over 10,000 sources signed up, as you can here.
Journalists submit their query here. ProfNet, a venerable fee-based service was upset with this upstart.The other free service is Getting Ink Requests. It is run by another social media maven, Sally Whittle and a large collective of journalists. You can get queries via a daily email or Twitter or add value to your blog by featuring Getting Ink Requests on it.
As you review your compilation of media queries from HARO, Gettng Ink Requests, PR Leads or ProfNet, look for strong matches. Can you offer tips, insights, information, stories or examples that directly relate to what the media person is seeking? Be brief, specific and to the point. See, for example, how Peter got HARO to be a part of this New York Times story.
If you are off-topic or too self-promotional you’ll get be blacklisted by that media person. Here’s Sandra Beckwith’s tips on how to respond. (Don’t get featured on the Bad Pitch Blog.)Kristen King also writes bluntly about the biggest mistakes some people make in responding to queries.Here’s tips for offering what a reporter needs to cover your story.
Also, if you’re paid for your expertise (or you want to be) then help people find you when they want what you know.To raise your visibility and value, you may want to emulate Sally Whittle or Peter Shankman’s community-building model. That is offer a social media-based, free compilations/matching service related to your business. If so, remember this.
While Sally actively encourages people to share the media queries she collects, Peter asks that you do not. So far Peter is attracting far more queries and members it seems.
Ann Hanley sees Peter’s approach as a healthy sign of our social media future.
Erik Sherman describes why Peter should be able to copyright his compilations to preserve the value he is creating for himself while facilitating a service that can remain free for “us.”
That’s the “Me2We” way.As you can see, taking this “first ever” approach can raise helpful thoughts and competitive concerns among those who are accustomed to having more control. The downside of this free-for-all future is the weakest link.
The weak links are the aforementioned, irritating off-topic responders who spoil it for the rest of us. That’s why some journalists and others are seeking sources among their existing circle of colleagues, as Shel Holtz describes. Hint: How many media pros are you LinkedIn to?
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June 4, 2008
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Those mortifying accidents.
Stephen J. Dubner unleashed a pent-up flood of guilt and shame from readers of his New York Times column last month. Ever written an email, then sent it in haste … to the wrong person? Or cc’d people who shouldn’t have seen your candid message? Or mistakenly received an email that was not meant for your eyes?
Within days after Dubner told his tale, 166 readers shared their stories of regret, outrage and in Marci Alboher’s case, a happy ending. Wonder what’s the proper etiquette in this new world of instantly sendable missives? Like advice on avoiding such mishaps?
Want to read more stories to feel better about your mistake? Visit the Web site, Think Before You Send, for the book, Send, by the New York Times’s Op-ed editor David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, former editor at Hyperion.Gossip. Billion dollar goof. Mis-directed love notes. Quick-trigger lawyers. CEO’s insults. Doomed convoy. Nope. There’s no retrieve key. Just apology. Done right.
It’s an unavoidably and increasingly transparent world. Some are proudly, vividly telling all in the name of authenticity - often humorously - sometimes attracting a large community (or audience), posting personal or “social” information on several sites, Twittering away throughout day.
Some, like Claire, create Great Email Disasters.“Oversharing.”It seems we are diving into this new way of public living, even if we aren’t (yet) celebrities. iPhone. Flip video. The tech toys are alluring. (I love them.) And the bravery and exuberance, especially of women, to tell it like it is, inevitably opens the conversations for us all.Today had its slow moments. Yet life flies by fast.
With each year it passes faster. So why not go slow to go fast? Sometimes anyway. Make more moments memorable. Consider your concentric circles of family, friendships, colleagues and acquaintances. Pause to contemplate the most thoughtful ways to reach out, and with whom. Until Facemail arrives, pause again before you send.
Preserve reputations.
In this “always on” anywhere, any time, anyone (photo.video.word) coverage of most any situation, consider how you want to connect. Keep confidences. Be trustworthy. Cultivate relationships in a transient, time-starved world.We need some privacy to be our truest selves.
Akin to the old-fashioned notion that fences make good neighbors, our thoughtful lines of privacy may enable us to grow ever closer.I am a situational extrovert and value my friends. Yet I look forward to walking and driving without talking on the phone or even listening to music, to notice the world around me, the thoughts and feelings seep that into my consciousness.
Anybody else like that? Maybe I’m simply clinging to a world where we choose between solitude and constant contact with others. Our life is our ultimate art. Found your line of privacy? As someone once said, “In art as in life it is often a matter of where you draw the line.”
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June 2, 2008
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Want a window into a preferred way of life(style) at work?
When a hot start-up in San Francisco seeks talented workers who have many choices about where to work - what does it offer? Call it the google effect. Grockit can’t provide the on-site laundry services, 14 restaurants (and much more) of google. Yet, today it landed 8 million more in funding and can offer:
• Cheap desks, expensive chairs.
• 30 inch monitors, top of the line Mac Pros and ergonomic keyboards.
• A powerful software development tracking tool to manage work throughout the organization from engineering to operations to academics.
• Benefits (health, dental, vision):
Every month we put cash into a HSA for employees. You never lose your HSA money, it sits in a bank account you can access, and you can use the HSA Bank Card to pay for preventative medical care or to cover the cost of deductibles.
• Tasty breakfasts and lunches that are nutrient dense and all most entirely organic.
• Water is filtered through a 10-stage filter.
• For cleaning, we only use non-toxic supplies.
• We recycle and compost far more than we trash, use high efficiency lighting, and purchase our food from local businesses and farms.
Considering that mix of benefits, it’s not surprising this start-up, Grockit is “developing an online learning game where people can teach each other.”
Our learning take-aways - from these benefits - for recruiting star employees:
• How many companies offer a mix of benefits that closely match the profile of employees they most need?
• How many firms describe their benefits in language that reflects the career and sense-of-community interests of their kind of sought-after worker?
• How often do you see benefits written so briefly, in such vivid, specific detail?
Tip: The specific detail proves the general promise. Generalizations are less credible or memorable.
Look for the launch of their game this Fall. GrockIt's approach is radical. While some of their language attacks traditional education, the first step may be more narrow: help in prepping for educational tests. Co-founder, Farbood Nivi, said last year, "We are trying to turn the global education market on its head. We want students to teach each other rather than going to teachers. The knowledge is inherent within the system. Today’s market is about conformity, order and obedience. Then the teacher will gift you with the knowledge. We’re trying to facilitate student interaction and totally circumvent the master-slave dynamic."
Nivi wrote of his massive plans at LinkedIn, "We aim to utilize the awesome power of the internet to help the world learn. Our first step is leveraging the web to provide live online GMAT test prep classes to anyone with a PC and an Internet connection ... We are currrently developing a P2P Learning Game that will help students from around the world teach each other ... We are also expanding to include LSAT, ACT, SAT, GRE test prep in Q3 of 2007."
Speaking again of the power of specificity and brevity, Navi wrote: Grockit is founded on a few principles.
1. Learning should be low cost and high quality.
2. Learning should benefit the student, the teacher, and society.
3. Learning should be engaging, and interactive.
Grok has been one of my favorite concepts since childhood. Here’s two of my favorite quotes from Grockit.
• Grockit is a play on the word 'grok', which was coined by Robert Heinlein in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Grok means to understand something so well that it becomes a part of you. We created the word Grockit to mean understanding something so well that you can teach it to others. (They practice what they preach, working and learning in pairs.)
• Learning 2.0 is a re-emphasis on learning as opposed to education. Education is an institution while learning is what people do. The 2.o also means that technology, namely the distributed web, is going to help us do that.
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June 2, 2008
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He was in Bangalore and his co-presenters were in San Jose, yet Cisco’s CEO appeared live - on thesame stage. How? By using a breathtaking 3D holographic-like technology.They tout it as, “the world’s first real time virtual presentation. Aptly, it’s called TelePresence.
See Sir Richard Branson – live at a London press conference, while standing at Necker Island, his Caribbean retreat. Or preview “the first space age Olympic swim suit.” On Wednesday a Telstra executive in Melbourne, Australia interacted with an audience in Adelaide.
My friend Rick watched a demo and raved about it. Suddenly, this is a competitive space. And, yes, this is Cisco’s big new business, partnering with Musion, yet it will have to cost less to gain traction. Why am I interested in it, aside from the astounding effect of a holographic human presence?
Because:
• The realistic presence it provides means people around the world can gather for what really feels like an in-person gathering.
• The best actors anywhere for a particular play can assemble to enact it, for more people to see - live and later.
• The top experts on a topic can appear on a panel, taking questions from audiences in many places.
• Crowdsourcing becomes easier.
In short, it enables more realistic “face-to-face” group collaboration. Cisco had an I-Prize contest in which anyone could propose novel ways to use this technology. Already it is in 28 countries, lightening the carbon footprint. Five years ago I spoke on Cisco’s global, in-house on-demand TV station. I still get emails from Cisco employees who clicked on their computer to see my presentation when they thought it might help them with a current need. Holographic-like appearances, however takes that kind of live and on-demand capability to a whole new level.
As useage goes up and cost goes down, the world will flatten for more Me2We opportunities. We’ll be able to get a better feel for each other, no matter where we actually are. I can hardly wait to try it.
Skip travel and lodging costs. Meeting Planners’ Alert:
For PCMA, SGMP, MPI, ASAE, NSA,MeCo, MeetingsNet, MiForum and others in the meeting or communication professions: bring the most relevant speakers and panelists to the same stage - no matter where they are standing in the world. Enable “attendees” to talk with them. Encourage convention centers and conference hotels to provide this capacity, offered by Cisco, HP or other firm. Set the bar higher.
First, Cisco CEO John Chambers is providing it for large conferences, concerts, events, awards ceremonies, multi-site meetings, high level briefings, retail, museums and product launches - even movies and soldier/family conversations. Then Chambers wants to bring it to our homes. (Well, not every room, in the home.) Stay tuned.
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June 2, 2008
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A big stumbling block in hiring the graphic designer who most “gets” your business is this. You won’t know if you’ll like the design until after you put your money down. The smaller your business and budget the greater the risk it seems.
That’s how it works at two popular places, ifreelance and Elance. Buyer post requests for designs. Designers submit proposals. Buyer hires a designer, then waits to see the results.
This month, crowdSPRING, an online business launched to level that risk. It provides protections for creatives and for buyers.
Here’s how it works. Would-be buyers post a description of their project, the budget and their deadline. Then, according to co-founder, Ross Kimbarovsky, “Creatives from around the world submit actual designs - not merely RFPs. Buyers pick from actual designs.” To demonstrate how it works crowdSPRING posted a $5,000 contract the design of their home page. (I spoke at HOW Design, a conference where attendees could give great feedback on this approach.)
crowdSPRING provides for buyers and sellers such protections as project management, legal contracts, reputation management, online portfolio placement, and intermediary customer service. Adds Kimbarovsky, “We believe that once a buyer purchases creative services using crowdSPRING’s new model - they’ll never go back to the traditional model.” Note, they already have 1,503 members and visitors from 122 different countries/territories. For variations of this approach see GeniusRocket and Criggle.
Kimbarovsky and his colleague Pete Burgeson, said they took this approach after reading about crowdsourcing and communities in Howard Rheingold’s book, Smart Mobs. Crowdsourcing, a term actually coined by Jeff Howe, means, “taking tasks traditionally done by a single person or small groups of people, and farms them out to a global workforce.”
Thanks for the tip Michelle Wolverton. Kimbarovsky and the other co-founder, Mike Samson, “wanted to achieve just three things with crowdSPRING: give creatives a level playing field, offer buyers choice, and protect intellectual property for all.” See what you think.
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