I've been reading Emotional Intelligence (by Daniel Goleman) of late, prompted by my mother-in-law, my son (well his behaviour) and the fact that I had it sitting in my 'to read' pile for far too long.
The theme, which I guess I intuitively knew, is that 'control' over your emotions are far more important in life, success and everything that human beings engage in. In fact a number of studies point to how emotional intelligence trumps IQ everytime.
I was reminded of this today when thinking about self-belief and 'being in the zone' or the ability to channel your own abilities through self-belief.
I personally find that when I enjoy something, have fun and truely beleive in what I am doing, my motivation and performance shoot up. Okay so that's nothing startling but being able to channel that energy in a business context is something I have missed out on for a while. On Friday, however I got the opportunity to pitch some ideas as I suggested here. Usually I find this type of pitch hard going, probably because I try and pitch what I think the customer wants to hear. I tried a different approach, which focused on what I believe in: social computing, social networking, word of mouth marketing and open source marketing, etc.
The presentation from my perspective went really well. I enjoyed myself and got across true enthusiasm for the subject matter and my real interest in the business I was pitching. It was very refreshing. Its not that I haven't found other businesses interesting but rather my presentations lacked conviction. So I feel through the power of belief I have turned a corner i.e. reading Emotional Intelligence finally acted as a catalyst to change.
Now, whether the business buy into the ideas or not, it doesn't really matter. Why? Well, because I learned something from the experience and got across an authentic point of view. (Oh and enjoyed it). If I get the work well, its a bonus. Still thanks to them for the opportunity. And my wife helped a huge amount too :)
John Winsor: Learning to Listen Again
I started reading John Winsor a while ago after Johnnie pointed to him. He of course is the driving force behind the Spark book on innovation which is a fantastic read (which I should blog on). I missed this post the first time round but John refers back from a further post on Listening to Key Voices. It characterises why my beliefs have changed towards the idea of brand as passion. This particular point being my highlight (my emphaisis):
Love - While many businesspeople might laugh, this is the start of great listening. Great companies don't just like their customers, they love their customers, and their employees too. Look again at Nike and Apple. Both companies are on crusades with their customers to change the world. And their customers can feel the love. They recognize that these companies really care about them and want to spend time with them. It's all about letting people talk and tell their stories without any screens or interruptions. It's about slowing down enough to have the time to engage people in a passionate dialogue while in the context of their lives.
I have promised myself to practice this in my life, at work and home. Its having an effect already.
Charlene Li's Blog: Forrester's Social Computing report
Charelen Li blogs on Forrester's Social Computing report and makes some very telling points:
To fully appreciate the value of social computing, companies have to let go of control. That means letting customers control the brand if you're a marketer, and it means enabling new enterprise tools that IT can't easily control to attract and support employees with high social computing needs. In many ways, this is the source of the great distress that I routinely hear from corporate managers.
As James says:
Nicely put - sounds like open source marketing to me.
I have a presentation on Friday when I am going to pitch some of these ideas. I hope they can see the wood for the trees.
800-CEO-READ Blog: Focus Groups
Steve Cone the author of Steal these Ideas was hosting 800-CEO-READ blog and slated focus groups (unsurprisingly) with the line
You either know your business or you don't.
I am not sure I agree totally with the thinking although I don't think Focus groups are the right way forward, but talking to customers is IMHO. However I had to laugh at the Henry Ford Quote:
"If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse."
Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | The ringmaster of the blogosphere
Guardian do Technorati and apprarently interview Dave Sifry. Lots of basic stuff but some little nuggets. This is a model that Johnnie and James promote and one I have also done some (read: a little) work on, with them:
Another development concerns who is using Technorati, alongside all those bloggers checking their links and the time-challenged looking for news. "We have a lot of companies that use this service who want to be able to track 'what are people saying about my company? What are they saying about my products? Hell, what are they saying about my competitor's products?'" Other regular visitors include the "cool-hunters", desperate for the next trend in music or fashion, and journalists seeking stories and sources.
Yesterday I had a meeting at Explore, an Adventure Holiday company based in Farnborough. I was really impressed with their passion for authentic holidays, their desire to be environmentally responsible, particularly in their host countries and encouraging their clients to do so too.
By operating in small groups, we minimise the impact on the local culture and resources, whilst blending in more easily.We issue our travellers with clear guidelines on responsible tourism. These cover a variety of issues from litter and waste disposal in remote areas, to begging and artefacts. We encourage customers to buy local crafts and support local skills, but never to buy products that exploit wildlife or the harm the habitat.
We use locally owned suppliers wherever viable to provide and run services. This ensures that the local economy benefits directly. We also expect local suppliers to meet our standards, with particular consideration for the environment.
When recruiting Tour Leaders, we assess their environmental credentials and then train them to our own standards. They are also required to complete a Responsible Tourism Audit on each tour.
And lastly about their passion for their customers. They want to engage with them and create value.
I was impressed. I hope they were too.
In the meantime go and visit their site because there are some amazing holidays. I'm considering the Elephant Odyssey around Sri Lanka. (well when I have saved up for it :)
Guardian Unlimited | Science | The prize: $10m. To win, just solve these science problems
First there was the Ansari X prize and now... well Human Genome mapping, Environmentally friendly cars and Orbital space flight. Its one way to generate innovation. Perhaps the government should shift their funding to this model? Its fascinating what the X foundation want to see developed.
Very high risk but great rewards - just ask Burt Rutan.
From the MediaGuardian.co.uk |-Opinion section, commenting on the rise in video content on the web.
Its an interesting leader on the whys and wherefores of charging for content. Whereas in the past (i.e. last week :) ), the model seemed to be about the content, now it seems to be about where and how you consume it, or as Emily Bell suggests: "the price of ease".
Then there is also this other tasty little throw away line:
not really so much about extracting value as creating freedom and therefore causing disruption.
Convergence, communities and brand are all impacting in subtle ways to change the landscape in monumental ones. I guess its why I so love the Communities Dominate Brands book (and ongoing blog) and you can also see Hugh's 'marketing as disrtuption' meme poking through.
We live in interesting times.
My charge for this content? Well intelligent conversation would be good... failing that you could offer me a job :)
State of the Blogosphere, February 2006
Some facts in summary from Dave Sifry, blogging on the Technorati blog about the state of the blogosphere:
- Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs
The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago- On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
- 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
- Technorati tracks about 1.2 million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour
- Over 81 million posts with tags since January 2005, increasing by 400,000 per day
The state of growth is absolutely staggering, but perhaps the more interesting stat is around the number of people still posting after 3 months. The fact that tagging is taking off also gives rise to the importance of such ideas. Its an area that businesses could pay much more attention to in terms of their websites.
Cross posted from What if...? project » Blog Archive » Where is the Internet going?
Quoted from Revolution Magazine this highlights the growing importance of the Internet and blogging:
According to a new research by the European Interactive Advertising Bureau, the average European internet user spends 10 hours and 15 minutes online a week; a 17 per cent rise on 2004 and a 56 per cent rise on 2003. As reported on Revolution, With the exception of early mornings (6am to 10am), the internet is the second most-used medium throughout the rest of the day. The research also found blogging is becoming more popular, with 13 per cent of European users regularly contributing to online blogging sites…Meanwhile, 12 per cent of users download podcasts at least once a month, 10 per cent make phone calls over the web, and 29 per cent download music at least once a month.
Ten years ago, I had never been on the Internet. Five years ago I had never heard of blogs. Three years ago I had never downloaded a song. Two years ago I had never heard of podcasting. One year ago I had never made a phone call over the Internet.
By next year I expect to have all my music and maybe my video on a hard-drive and using my PC to record media stream via the web (or through Digital TV if IPTV is not here). Most content of which I expect to be made by ordinary people not media companies. And if they are made by media companies then I will pay to view not be funded by advertising. This could cause huge changes in the way marketing and business work particularly in the media arena.
Are you ready for it?
If not I suggest you take a look at the What if Project blog to see a workshop that could help you.
[Update: Also noticed this interested conversation over on Joi Ito's blog on Radio being killed by MP3 players]
Anecdote: Complexity thinking can change how you think about problems in your organisation
I have been reading aboout complexity since Stuart started lecturing me on it back in 2001. His enthusiasm led me to buying numerous books and attending a number of seminars at the LSE and be inspired by people like Dave Snowden (but that's another story).
This post that I picked up earlier, though is a fantastic summary of complexity and system thinking inspired by Kurt Richardson:
- The complementary law: A complex system is a system that has two or more potentially contradictory descriptions.
There is no right person, right answer, right perspective, right description.
- System holism principle: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
You’re not going to be able to get an outcome you want through control.
- Incompressibility (Darkness principle): The best representation of a complex system is the system itself
When organisational issues and problems arise, it is a common mindset to want to dive into analysis mode. More and more analysis. Lets strive towards a description and understanding of this problem. The only problem is that it won’t happen. As this principle suggests, we will always be in the shadow the whole, and of course, the whole is greater than the parts. Couple this with the first principle and what do you do with all those contradictory descriptions and findings anyway?!
Guardian Unlimited Business | Business latest | Publishers and politicians want a word in your ear
And before I forget - from yesterday's Guardian, an exciting little piece around podcasting and how its being used by print publishers:
"[Podcasting] is all about updating the brand and creating a buzz around content," says the head of the Association of Online Publishers, Alexandra White. "It's part of a general shift in the way people consume content from passive to more on-demand."
And:
Get yourself on iTunes and you've instantly got a potential 42-million-plus audience." says Computing magazine technology editor Chris Green
Although this article isn't pitched this way - imagine as a small business having access to that potential market. Now admitedly only a small percentage are going to listen to your podcast but 0.01% is still a big number for a small business' marketing reach. Of course this isn't traditional marketing I'm talking about - its more about establishing a connection with your customer and getting across who you are and what you do as a business. And most importantly interacting with them and starting a conversation.
(So yes I need to eat my own dog food and do something myself)
So as Johnnie might say: "Yes, and..?
Via Hugh at Gapingvoid
Creating Passionate Users: Naked Conversations on a Bus
Blogs let the "little guy", from a cowboy horse whisperer, or a geek who can make your life a little simpler develop a global microbrand. That means they can keep doing what they love--what they're passionate about--rather than, say, working 60 hours a week elsewhere and leaving no time for doing the things that help teach, inspire, or entertain the rest of us.
I've yet to get Naked Conversations (I'm not on the preview list unfortunately) and really do want to read it. AS Kathy points out later it would provide lots of ammo for convincing the sceptical out there. There is no magical wand to wave. Hugh underlines this:
It seems to me what a lot of people are hoping for from the whole blogging-as-marketing thing is a tested method that is (A) easy to implement, (B) easy to replicate and (C) easy to sell to their boss. Good luck.
But it is cheap, it isn't difficult to understand and it is extremely powerful. And you can always get people like me to help (plug plug).
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Warner Bros to sell movies on net
"One of the most effective weapons for defeating online piracy is providing legal, easy-to-use alternatives," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group.Its In2Movies service will enable viewers to download legally Warner's blockbuster movies and regional programmes as well as material supplied by third parties.
New films will be made available to registered users of the service from the day they are released on DVD in the German language.
At last! I foolishly claimed Movies would be available online as long ago as 2004, but no such luck! Reading the quote above you would think that it is obvious that to provide this stuff legally online (rather than prevent its access) is a good idea. It seems to have taken them a long time to realise it. Maybe Warners are more progressive or maybe they have been hit worse than most.
In any case it certainly highlights that convergence more than ever is on its way to homes (again later than I predicted but then no body is perfect).
Get your multimedia converged digital device now or as Communities Dominate Brands would have it - your mobile (oh and you might want a Windows Media Center as well in case you feel like it).
Just as I was about to publish I noticed Tomi's latest post
Convergence is obviously happening, nobody would doubt that. The beauty of it is, that today there is so much of a new opportunity, that convergence can give numerous opportunities to create new innovative service propositions to existing customers. That of course needs innovation and creativity.
This is all very exciting - I wish I was back in the Produyct Development workspace looking at these for real rather than as an interested bystander.
