A valentine to the creative class: 

"If you tell one person to bring you a dozen roses you’ll probably get a dozen roses. If you tell a dozen people to bring you one rose you probably won’t get any." 

                                                                                                                            Anon.

 

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

                                                  Wayne Gretzky


A couple in their 30's were recently discussing end-of-world scenarios at a bar. Global instability. Emerging threats. The loss of America's pre-eminence. The scope of change makes them uneasy.

I remember feeling the same way during the oil embargo of the 70's. In college, we were told Japanese interests would soon own every major U.S. corporation. The economy was bleak.

Yet people survived those times.

Americans have survived much worse - a civil war, food and water shortages, a world war... and those survivors would tell you the same thing: life goes on. Change always delivers new opportunities, despite the chaos, decay or destruction we experience in the small space around us.

It might seem like the end of the world to some. It's not. It's just change. Another opportunity will emerge somewhere.

Here's what I tell my kids about all this: Don't be afraid, be curious! Take a risk. Travel. Experience the changes going on outside our four corners. Listen. Learn.

Then take your best shot.

Values, Needs and Relationships


Last night I attended a meeting to plan a community-wide appeal - petitioning neighbors to support a new zoning overlay. At stake: a positive, arts-based initiative that most people will support at face value. The goal is significant - two-thirds must support the initiative - yet very achievable.

During the meeting, one well-intentioned and passionate volunteer consistently used militaristic terminology to outline his desired approach to the task. He used terms like "lemmings", "sheep" and "obstacles" to describe his neighbors and "target", "slaughter" and "attack" to frame the actions required. He's a decent person and I'm not certain he was aware of the impression he created.

Sometimes sales people (or those tasked with a specific objective) forget the real opportunity: to develop and nurture relationships, using actions and words that stimulate positive, productive interactions well into the future.

Consider this approach: Use language and actions that are common to your audience's  values. Map the benefits of any initiative to the needs of the community and make it the #1 goal to develop stronger relationships through a shared sense of purpose.

Perhaps the group could utilize terms like "porches", "local economy", "creative", "party", "friends", "exciting", "opportunity", and "shared values" to re-frame the discussion.  Words and actions like these are more likely to win converts and result in both short-term and long-term gains.

As most of us already know, there is greater opportunity to convince someone to accept a new idea or try a new product when they do not feel they have a target painted on their back. (One person down. On to the next...)

Check out this concept further in my book... Selling The Moment: Values, Needs, and Relationships: Turning Ordinary Sales into a Lifetime of Success 

Creative Thinking, 2011-style

Here's a great comment by Michigan Govenor Rick Snyder, a former Gateway Computer executive and venture capitalist, made during his visit to the Detroit Auto Show.

“It is companies, it is innovators, it is entrepreneurs that are going to create a better future for Michigan,” Snyder said. “We are committed …to creating the very best environment in the world to create that environment for success.”

During the opening for the new Dali Museum, I had the good fortune to speak with an artist who rips apart old guitars to make new, better sounding and better crafted electric guitars. His goal: "I want to make guitars that kick ass."

Keep in mind, the former American icon, Fender guitar, is now made in China. That's as bad as saying Harley Davidson is now made in Taiwan. Good grief.

The only way to bring business–and jobs–back is to place your bets on young, brash artistic entrepreneurs like the one I met last night. And by the way, the very cool museum kicks ass, too.

Buy from a local artist. Visit the new Dali. Both decisions are a good bet on our economy and a great experience as well.

App-y New Year!

Fresh off the holidays, it's time to take a look at one trend that is re-shaping the way we create and distribute learning: mobile apps.

Recently, I championed the use of a really cool smartphone app (Qrank) to fully engage employees - and customers! - in content related to organizational development. Although the client is - self-proclaimed - still living in Learning 1.0, they realize technology has moved well beyond simple eLearning pager turners. As a culture, most corporations are also well beyond the point of trying to keep "learning behind the wall". Today's learners: employees, leaders, customers, vendors, etc. are surrounded by online resources that deliver relevant information quickly and easily.

Why pretend employees can only learn the "secret recipe" from a corporate course or some internal site published by the organization? Very often, employees obtain the same (or similar) information from competitor sites, You Tube, peer blogs and customer emails faster than the CEO can compose the official press release.

Here's why this social media app is so appealing...

QRANK (sounds like crank) is a social media app that offers everyone a five minute brain scratch in the form of 15 trivia questions.

The standard Qrank game invites players to choose 15 of 20 cards that have questions from seven categories: business and government, entertainment, history and place, life, literature, science and nature, and sports. Points are awarded based on the difficulty of question and the speed at which the user chooses the correct multiple choice answer. Once players complete their final question they see how they rank among users in their city, state, country, and globally.


Now...it didn't take me long after stumbling on this game to see a huge possible application for learning. Rodney Gibbs, CEO of Ricochet Labs, was quick to listen to my proposition for using his game engine to educate and fully engage an organization's customers and employees.


Imagine using an application like Qrank to:

1. Quickly create and host a trivia contest at a sales center or at multiple retail locations. Invite guests to play onsite for additional prizes and a chance for employees to engage them in branded conversations about products or special offers.
2. Forego the traditional newsletter or email blast and invite members to compete in an industry-related quiz.
3. Launch a series of contests throughout the year, with sales people (or any department for that matter...) to see which employees are staying on top of new product or industry knowledge. A final competition or annual event could cap the year's effort.
4. Last, just use it as a distributed quiz that tests knowledge. Simple enough. Oh, and by the way: you can track results using any SCORM compliant Learning Management System.

Not bad for an application that is fast and free to download, carries a small footprint and is addictive to play. Another big plus is the instant localization (local, regional, national or global stage) Qrank and other social apps offer as I design the learning.


I'm not the first to see a huge upside to using game engines like Qrank. And the developers I have met are eager to extend their program's usability. I'll be updating my blog with progress on Qrank and other apps, to see how I might be able to apply them quickly and affordably and create more meaningful learning moments...

This Thanksgiving: thankful to be learning.

Last month, I decided to enroll in a creative writing class at the professor’s invitation. My instructor, Anda Peterson, is also a member of my writing group. Our small team, affectionately known as the Prose Posse, consisted of accomplished academics and journalists. I was the only technical writer in the bunch–the odd man out.

Writing mostly for corporations, I have learned tasks I will never perform directly. Technical writers will tell you that some subjects stay in their heads long after the project ends. Like a YouTube kitten or snippet of music that loops mercilessly, pulling the memory through one ear with a wire hanger eventually seems like a good plan. I wish I could forget how to perform Upper Extremity Sonography so I could make room for the name of the craft beer I sampled yesterday and quickly forgot. It’s most likely hanging out with my lost wallet and my third grade teacher, whose name I cannot recall.


Technical writing and instructional design is also a highly structured and deliberate process. My inner editor is a style guide that screams line-by-line revisions and keeps me on a strict budget. Deliver key objectives in line one. Select images that reinforce performance. Use quizzes to verify comprehension.

In truth, that box we love to hate and long to think outside actually gives us something to work with - a canvas on which to express ourselves. As a friend once told me, "creativity is our ultimate expression within defined parameters." I love trying to be as creative as possible, even when working with corporate or regulated material. However, open-sky, unlimited vistas are another matter. That blank sheet of paper can be a daunting partner.

So, I was immediately humbled by the burgeoning talent in Anda's classroom. Students in pencil thin jeans cranked out prize-worthy prose mere hours before class. A volunteer would recite lyrical lines, revealing yet another captivating story. Earnest and callow hearts searching the evening stars for answers or diving into the abyss for dinner. I panicked. My first submission was due in two weeks. My creative vocabulary felt limited by comparison, reduced to words like “happy," and “really." Pulling dead weasels through a rusty pipe would have been easier and more entertaining.

Despite my trepidation, the class seemed to respect every submission. I discovered creative writing courses are possibly the most life affirming event beyond kindergarten. Everyone brought something to share and then applauded. I don’t remember ever clapping in accounting or project management classes. Charitably, my classmates withheld the withering criticism my work fully deserves, an act of kindness typically reserved for the disabled or elderly. Based on the stories they submitted, I wondered if one or two of them were receiving community service hours for listening to mine.

Last night, I shared my experiences with a neighbor and how I hoped to live long enough to read something published by my fellow students. In return, I owe them the favor of purchasing their first published work, as payment in kind for helping me learn.

Thanks Anda. And to my classmates - a very special thank you!

Creating an Atmosphere of Collaboration

Improv teaches us to work with anything we are given (a prop, a line, an opportunity, a rejection, a bad economy…). No matter what it is, your FIRST answer is always yes. I want to use television as a metaphor for work.

IMPROV:

Whose Line Is It Anyway is an improvisational television show - a great example of working with anything and having fun doing it. The performers respond affirmatively to anything shouted out by an audience member. They work with what they are given and make us laugh. The energy seems to grow and grow.

"REALITY"

Now think about the reverse situation. Reality TV is an emotional wasteland where participants scream at each other and argue constantly. Sure, it's a human train wreck, and fun to watch for fifteen minutes and a beer, but would you really want to live there, 24 hours a day? You can almost feel the energy draining out of the room...

Where would you rather work: at the IMPROV or the Jersey Shore? What kind of office environment have you created?

Forming a Great First Impression

Every Chef knows that how the food looks is as important as how it tastes.

LIkewise, you may be prepared to sell a service, but does your customer see preparation in your delivery? Or, does your customer see a wreck of a website or a nervous person sitting in front of them.

In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcom Gladwell confirms years of research into first impressions and then takes it one step further. He says our decisions occur much faster - instantaneously or in less than two seconds.

In Gladwell's research, he finds we do this whenever we meet a new person, or when we have to make sense of something quickly or encounter a novel situation. "Snap judgments are, first of all, enormously quick: they rely on the thinnest slices of experience. They are also unconscious."

When we meet a person, our primal instincts are hard at work trying to gauge if this person is a threat or not. We are unsure how to interact with them. We don't know their temperament and basically we want to figure out if they will hurt us or help us.

Our minds act with lightning speed, calling upon all of our senses during any first encounter. We listen to the timber and tone of the stranger's voice. Our eyes focus on movement and other non-verbal cues and our noses try to detect any foreign or threatening smells.

While our brains are busy sorting through all the input the other person's brain is doing the exact same thing. In the case of the web-based sale, emerging systems track customer movement and make recommendations to the administrator.

Although it sounds like a joke, that last sensory input (smell), may be the final frontier of the online experience. It's hard to imagine, but sooner or later, scent will become part of the online experience. I just hope it's not a two-way technology...

First Impressions Matter

One day, the banquet manager at a resort hotel at a very big theme park in Orlando took his crew of dishwashers to the banquet hall. Spread before them was an immense sea of tables, flowers and decorations for a lavish wedding dinner.

The manager asked his dishwashers to imagine the same scene, but only with dirty dishes. "It wouldn't matter if we spent all week on the decorations," he said. "If the bride's glass is dirty it will ruin her impression of this day forever. Imagine if this was your own daughter's wedding...?"

His point is simple: contact = impression = experience.

Sometimes almost everything can go right, and yet the most essential task taken for granted can ruin someone's impression of your service or product. (If my glass is dirty, then how clean is the kitchen...?)

BE "PASSIONATELY PRESENT"
by Kristine Forster


Is it just me, or do you have days when when the thought of  tackling all those emails and RSS feeds seems like an overwhelmingly daunting task?

Over my cup of coffee and slightly burnt cinnamon and brown sugar pop tart this morning (mmm - breakfast of champions), I energetically attacked said mountain of rss feeds that, I am remiss to say, I have allowed to start piling up – again.

I'm so glad I dug in to that pile this morning though because here's what I read from Brendan Burchard's, "Life's Golden Ticket eNewsletter":

"Are you showing up as "passionately present" as you can each day, and are you lighting up your co-workers with energy and passion and excitement for what you are doing together?"

Along with my pop tart, I savored the taste of that question; and as the coffee does to my energy level, I'm allowing that fine thought to bolster my thoughts and attitude today.

As leaders of your organization or team (or family at home) – there's no greater skill for a leader to possess than the ability to inspire others. Give yourself permission to wade through the sea of demands and expectations and responsibilities that surely await you and settle for a moment on the question above.

I know when I did this morning it made the sun shine a little brighter, my coffee a little heartier, my resolve a little stronger and my pop tart all the sweeter.

Burn the Old Manual

Still using paper manuals to teach your leaders?

If traditional leadership and career tracks are anachronistic, then the traditional leadership curriculum is also dead. Hold a funeral. The only thing sustaining those traditional approaches to leadership development is... traditional thinking.

Consider this: public school systems are starting to compensate teachers for student test results and performance. It's pay for play in academia!

I'm not trying to fry my own bacon, but if public schools are trying this, shouldn't (capitalist) businesses treat their corporate education similarly? That's a scary thought for some corporate educators, but it may become commonplace.

I wholeheartedly support the idea that corporate educators should be paid based upon student outcomes, as long as executive leadership does likewise. If 3rd grade teachers can do it, why not the rest of us?

My thoughts: Shake up your leadership development program. Explore new approaches to learning that reward autonomous assessment and development. Throw out old manuals and start with a clean sheet of paper, or no paper at all!

Design something with impact, a program that excites, challenges, and motivates through meaningful engagement.

The Horizon Report: emerging technologies and how they will impact learning.

A great read that highlights six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use on campuses within the next one to five years. The report presents critical trends and challenges that will affect teaching and learning over the same time frame.

Visit www.educause.edu/eli for a copy of this newly issued report.

Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Stone, S. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Listening to the Service Experience

Creating a great sales effort begins by hiring people that have the raw ability to learn and to:

* fully understand products or services

* effectively deliver presentations fearlessly and consistently

* care about their customer's experience by listening and learning.

How? Here are a few ways to listen and learn:

Live Chat

Eliminate phone tag and offer service on demand. Even if you run a small businesses you can provide real-time support for visitors to your website. Organizations like LivePerson.com, BoldChat and Live2Support.com provide outsourced support services at competitive rates.

On-Demand Consumer University

Learning isn't limited to employees. In fact, consumers can benefit (and appreciate) the same information you provide your team.

Video FAQ and How-to's

You Tube offers a video plug-in for your site, that gives you the chance to quickly and affordably post content, like how-to videos that can make life easier for your customers.

Social Media

Services such as Facebook help you connect to multiple communities. Tools like Visibility and Radian 6 allow you to measure the effectiveness of your outreach to those groups.

Staff profiles and Blogs

Customers want to follow the team members they talk to everyday, not necessarily the CFO or COO. Get over your need for control and let your people blog. Employees may pleasantly surprise you by attracting even more customers.

Independent Reviews

Customer reviews and feedback are part of a richer online experience. Some companies, like customerreviews.com, offer widgets that can enable a review function within your own site. Others, like tripadvisor.com offer 3rd party reviews for specific services, in this case, hotels and travel services.

Celebrating (and taming) My Inner Control Freak

contributed by Kristine Forster

I have a bit of really exciting news to share – along with a personal revelation.

Ok … first, the revelation. Although I'm a fun-loving, happy person, I am also a ‘type A’ personality. To be completely transparent, the phrase “control freak” was once used to describe my approach to work. Ouch. That's the kind of phrase that can make anyone think twice, yet I’m getting more comfortable with the label as time goes on, especially when it comes to evaluating my performance and results. Why? Because, at the end of the day I’m the one responsible for the

quality of my work … so I have a personal stake in the services I provide.

Other performance-driven types know the kind of pressure that drives us, the energizing, heart palpitating, blood-drumming-in-ears-so-I-can’t-hear-a-thing caffeine rush that’s our response to everyday challenges like change, hidden agendas, financial struggles, physical stresses, personal dramas, etc. Couple that with all the ridiculous performance demands we place on ourselves: the expectations, constant scrutiny and life-altering consequences that are so intensely associated with our work performance ... we need to exert an inordinate amount of control just to manage it all from day to day (hour to hour, minute to minute). It even sounds exhausting!

Here’s what I recently discovered: the ability for people like me to adroitly manage this pressure determines how effective (successful) we are with daily tasks. Regardless of where we are operating (work, home, community, etc.), by better handling the stress of little things we can succeed with larger goals. When viewed in a larger context, those smaller pressures almost seem to evaporate.

More important, our ability to perform under multiple, concurrent stressors is not inherent at birth. It’s not the ability of a chosen few. It’s actually a skill. (Yeah! Are you jumping up and down with me?). This means it can be both taught and developed and nurtured and shared. This is good news, and although controlling our actions to the benefit of others is one of the fundamentals taught in any communications class, the ability to successfully transfer this knowledge into practice is the difference between a life well-spent or just spent stressing over small things.

What is the difference? By re-framing (or taming) this desire for control, we can begin to use that impulse for something more constructive, actions that are more positive for everyone around us.

Let's identify the things we can't control. For instance, I can’t control the economy. I can't control international politics or the distribution/redistribution of wealth. I can’t control the weather, or my mom and dad’s moods or whether you like me or not ... However, I can control the choices I make to improve myself, better my community and share my passion for life with my colleagues and friends.

Instead, let's be BOLD get fired-up, passionate, excited...about the things that matter. Whatever cause or goal that makes you want to stand up, grab the reins and take control. Then, try to do something good with that energy, something that may seem small or ordinary, but that can make a bigger difference later on.

Choose to open a door for another employee as you talk to him/her about their recent experience.  

Choose to ask questions that lead to better understanding. 

Choose to challenge assumptions. 

Choose to let go of the small things to achieve the larger ones. 

Make better choices, daily.

By developing the key mental and emotional skills that allow us to conquer and control those small challenges we can concentrate on delivering to the best of our ability, each and every day. We take control in a positive direction…to achieve large goals. 

Let's take this journey together, one happy control freak with another!

Learning About Commitment, the hard way

My first job out of college was with IBM. After training, I was assigned to small business (underscore) and office products. Our area was affectionately known around the office as the "THUMP' district: tattoos, hustlers, undercover, mob, pimps.

I could not imagine any of my potential clients on the south side of town using a typewriter for something remotely related to legitimate work. It was not an easy market.

Before getting THUMP'd, I had fantasies of casually selling $4 million computers to well-heeled executives while teeing off the 9th hole. Instead, I was trying to convince struggling business owners to buy a Selectric III typewriter or slap down $5,000+ to be the first on their block to own a personal computer.

I had some lean days. In fact, I had many, many lean days. After one of those days, my manager took me aside and spent an afternoon helping me understand how to turn my luck around.

"Russ, don't waste your talent with people who don't appreciate you, or spend another day with a company that looks like death eating a cracker." Don had a deep southern accent that flavored all of his down-home expressions. "Just thank them for their time, make a sale if you can, and then commit yourself to the next prospect who can appreciate what you have to offer."

He added another thought that meant the world to me.

"I'm committed to your success - that's why I hired you. Stop in anytime. I'll be glad to go over your progress anytime you want."

It was only later when I got back to my desk that I laughed out loud thinking about his "death eating a cracker" homily. In the end, I was successful, even in that crappy territory. Only much later in life did I realize the two important lessons he had shown me:

1. People respond when someone is truly committed to their success. Through his dedication to me, and my dedication to my territory (and not my products), I was able to create loyal customers who trusted me, regardless of where I worked or what I sold. Through commitment, we both gained success, and my manager gained my respect and lifelong appreciation.

2. We "sell" ourselves everyday, no matter what we do for work. Through our words, actions, and body language, we either invite others to participate with us to achieve great success, or push them away, causing us to work even harder to stay afloat.

Stop getting THUMP'd. Commit yourself to others, and to your customer's success.

Does Online Instruction Work?
from an article in HUMAN RESOURCE EXECUTIVE ONLINE
by Peter Capelli

Studies that look at the effectiveness of online training, compared to classroom-based learning, offer some conflicting results. Online training seems to be more effective for older, motivated students, while the classroom works best for younger low-achievers. There are some lessons HR leaders can take away from the findings.

Experience Guru Takeaways:

Gov't research indicates:

• The most important difference (between ILT and WBT) is that online learners have near continuous access to the material.
• Online learners who spend more time on their learning tasks perform better (there's a qualifier in there...)
• "Blended" learning, using techniques in addition to online, improves outcomes even more

New research suggests:

• Inexperienced, low-achieving and younger students did better with traditional delivery
• Why? classroom instruction is good at forcing students to pay attention

Summary:
The best outcomes can be derived from a combination of ILT and WBT approaches, tailored to meet the needs of the learner

Walking the Talk

I hit the streets everyday, for one hour, regardless of where I find myself.

When I travel it’s usually for a client, so the people and places I meet are part of the environment – the client’s audience and community. I like to see their town from a dog’s point of view - walking into local spaces and meeting people I might not see as I ride by or fly over the city.

By walking, I learn firsthand how people view our client. By visiting local coffee shops, I find out what people really think about the community. By using social media I see the challenges their customers are trying to resolve. In other words: I try to get very close to the client community.

Sometimes I hear great feedback. Sometimes I realize that something is missing – a disconnect between organizational values and leader actions, or services that don’t meet real needs. That makes for a challenging presentation, yet I am committed to helping my clients build authenticity and commitment to action in a way that improves the customer experience. Usually, that means bringing leaders physically closer to their audience.

Try it sometime. It’s healthy for leaders to leave “the safety bubble” of familiar acquaintances and places.

Walk across town, visit your customer communities and listen to the feedback. Becoming part of the busy streets, stores and less-frequented neighborhoods where your audience lives can teach you more about their needs and challenges than a survey.

Dan Pink, on learning and motivation from his book, Drive:

"Human beings have an innate drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives."

"The opposite of autonomy is control. And since they sit at different poles of the behavioral compass, they point us to different destinations. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement."

"It means resisting the attempt to control people - and instead doing everything we can to reawaken their deep sense of autonomy. A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude. According to a cluster of recent behavioural studies, autonomous motivation promotes greater conceptual understand, better grades, enhanced persistence at school and in sporting activities, higher productivity, less burnout and greater levels of psychological well-being."

[Jane Hart] Organizations - and L&D departments in particular - need to relinquish control and support learner/employee autonomy. Social Learning requires a culture of trust in employees that differs from the "teacher/student" model of planning and controlling their every move.

Mark Oehlert, from the Defense Acquisition University makes the point:

“The US Airforce will give a pilot a $30m aircraft full of deadly tools – so why not trust them with Facebook at work?”

The fish rots from the head down.

My grandfather died when I was very young, yet I remember a handful of comments he made to me. I remember one in particular, as we left a store where a manager had been rude to us.

I must have said something about it because my grandfather's plain spoken response was: Son, the fish rots from the head down.

It sounded funny to me, so I remembered it. But now I understand what he meant: the quality of an organization's leadership is reflected in the actions and attitudes of its individual employees.

Ever walk into a store or office and immediate get a bad feeling, a bad vibe or whiff that something or several things just don't seem right? It could be a general sense of unease, an inability for employees to act with confidence, bad attitudes or a lack of attention to detail.

Whatever the symptom, that stinky smell means something is dead or dying at the top. No real passion for the business. No real commitment to employees. No respect for customers, beyond their ability to make leaders richer. Regardless, don't take it out on the employees, start by evaluating opportunities to re-engage, re-ignite and re-focus leadership.

Leading Change

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

— Theodore Roosevelt, "Citizenship in a Republic," Paris, April 23, 1910

A truly authentic leader is going to stir things up by waving a flag in the face of mediocrity. She is not going to protect the status quo - that's the definition of a manager. He is going to be a catalyst that spurs people to action around a central vision - not just maintenance of a dusty concept. He will help his people proudly answer "why" they work and "why" their work matters. She will continuously plant the flag a little further along the trail than the day before...