The Simplest Thing That Works

Freed by the Web

Web 2.0 for business class - San Jose Mercury News.

Found this article today when I googled "collaboration" and "business."  It talks about "SaaS" - which stands for "software as a service,"  and is pronounced "sass."

If you're familiar with Salesforce, it's a great example.  If you're not familiar with it, Salesforce is a subscription-based, online customer database service.  So, instead of buying a CRM software package, and having someone in your company manage it, you subscribe to Salesforce, have everybody take the tutorial -- and everybody manages it.  It all happens online. 

NetSuite is another example: they offer not only CRM, but also e-commerce and accounting support.

It seems that the technological advances we call Web 2.0, along with almost ubiquitious high-speed internet access, have made these approaches not only feasible, but preferable.

Proteus (my company) uses Salesforce, and we've found it remarkably easy to use and helpful -- especially given the fact that we're spread out all over the country (and sometimes the world).  Using a computer-based CRM just never really made sense for us.

As the article notes, these services, and others like them popping up all the time, are the business analogs to facebook and myspace: business-focused ways to promote the same kind of online information-sharing and collaboration among users.

I'm fascinated to see how this evolves over the next few years...and how we'll figure out ways to balance our need for real-time, face-to-face interaction with our ever-increasing capabilities on the web. 

Teaming

Today I have the too-rare pleasure of spending the day with my business partner, Jeff. Generally speaking, the fact that we're almost always in two different places (he lives in Minneapolis, I live in the Hudson Valley and New York City; when we're with clients, it's rarely with the same one at the same time) isn't a problem: we communicate well and frequently, and we share a clear sense of where we're trying to take the company and how to get there.

However, when we do get the chance to be in the same room, I really appreciate it. Wonderful, serendipitous things happen that only arise out of the cadences of face-to-face conversation. For instance, this morning we were talking about my new book, and we surfaced and began to develop what I think might be a great idea about creating a quick "Are you a 10?" self-test that people could take to determine how strategically they're approaching their work and their life before reading the book. That ad hoc creative session almost certainly wouldn't have happened on the phone or via email.

It reminds me: even though technology makes it possible for people to work together without ever seeing each other...it doesn't mean we don't need to see each other. There's so much that happens when you're sitting in the same room, looking into each others' eyes; you get so much more nuance about the other person, and how he or she is processing the conversation; the silences carry weight and meaning and become a part of the dialogue in a way that just doesn't happen when you're on the phone; you can build an idea together in a way that's virtually impossible when you can't see the other person's subtle facial responses.

What do you think about this...have you found it to be true?

Blogging Hall of Mirrors

Link:
How to be a Productive Slacker .

You know how if you stand in between two mirrors, you see yourself reflected infinitely on either side? I'm wondering if it's possible to do some internet version of that.

I've just had the pleasure of being asked to do a guest blog on Slacker Manager, a wonderful blog by Phil Gerbyshak and David Zinger: the link is above is to that post. In their introduction to it, they reference my blog.

So, if you go there from here, and then click back to here from there, and then click back to there from here, and then...

Just wondering.

Being a "Good Citizen"

Link: Management Craft.

Here's a really great post from Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft, talking about how middle managers can team better with their peers. In Growing Great Employees, I talk about the core responsibilities of any employee, the things every person in an organization can legitimately be expected to do in order to support the success of the whole enterprise. One of these responsibilities - as I see it - is to be a "good company citizen." Here's how I define that:

Generally speaking, employees who are "good company citizens" don’t make it difficult for those around them to succeed; they’re honest, consistent and respectful in their interactions; they don’t try to accomplish their own goals at the expense of others. None of us are perfect, but to my mind, employees are responsible for making sure that they’re not doing stuff that makes others dread to come to work with them!

In the post above, Lisa offers eight very clear guidelines to help middle managers practice this kind of "good company citizenship" with their peers. In fact, I think she's selling herself short -- I believe these guidelines are useful for any employee, at any level.

Check it out!!

Politics and Other Inevitabilities

Link: Office-Politics.

This is a link to a great website, Office Politics. The idea behind it is very simple and powerful: the founder, Franke James, invites people to write letters to the site about political issues they're dealing with at work. She has collected a wonderful and diverse group of authors and thinkers to respond to the letter-writers. I'm very honored to have been asked to join this advisory panel; Franke has also been so kind as to feature my book on the site this week.

It's amazing to see the universality of these issues: I've yet to read a letter on office-politics where I thought, "Really? I've never heard of such a thing!" When human beings aren't operating at their best, there are definite themes. I suggest you wander around on the site -- I suspect you'll find some advice that applies to your situation...

Keynote Speaking in Paradise

I had a wonderful experience this week. I was the keynote speaker for a meeting of the senior leaders of FirstCaribbean International Bank. Why was it wonderful? Here are the main reasons:

First and foremst, the group was marvelous - smart, engaged, passionate. They're in the midst of making a major change in their culture, and they're approaching it with a great combination of enthusiasm and realism. I just thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend time with them.

Second, I had the opportunity to speak about two things that are really meaningful to me: the topic of the presentation was "Leadership in Change," and I had the chance to focus on leadership and culture change in organizations (and how it happens or doesn't).

And finally, it was in Barbados. I'd never been there, and it's a truly unique and magical place. It's gorgeous, to begin with, and the Barbadians are a great combination of friendly, unpretentious and proud. At the risk of sounding like the Barbados tourist bureau, if you've never been there, you should definitely consider going.

All in all, an amazing opportunity.

Create Your Own Meaning

Link: Seth's Blog: Logos.

I agree with this blog post of Seth Godin's - he talks about logos that have become ultra-recognizable (Nike's swoosh, Starbuck's mermaid, Apple's apple), and opines that it's goofy to spend a kajillion dollars on a "meaningful" logo; he recommends picking something that's cool-looking and doesn't carry much instrinsic meaing -- and then to create meaning for it.

I like to think we're doing that with our Proteus logo (the blue shape in the picture to your left). I hope that, when clients see our logo, they think of the experience we hope to create in working with them: illuminating, strengthening, trustworthy.

It's the same with people, I think. I've observed that some people try too hard to make you think something "important" about them from the very first moment: through creating an extreme "look," or by focusing attention on their possessions, or by lauding their own accomplishments. It almost always rings false. I find myself most impressed by people who enter into situations "neutral" -- solid, simple, unprespossessing, gracious -- and then let you see who they truly are by creating real meaning in their interactions with you.

Once upon a time

Link: 800-CEO-READ Blog.

The 8CR blog is one I check out often. Today's entry is especially nice: it focuses on Ira Glass and the art of storytelling.

I'm a big, big fan of storytelling as a way to teach, learn and communicate. It three-dimensionalizes messages and connects them to head, heart and guts.

Imagine our ancestors sitting around the campfire in some neolithic past, making sense of the world through stories....our love of narrative is hardwired into us.

Wander over to 8CR and get some insight about about how to do it well....

Viral Coolness

Just found out something very exciting from the wonderful folks at 800CEOREAD. My ChangeThis Manifesto has been downloaded over 12,000 times since it was published on April 5th. I wrote it to rant about how crazy and unfair it is that most corporations provide so little preparation and support for new managers to succeed. Then I offered a kind of 'first aid kit' of stuff from my book, designed to help readers of the manifesto to be better managers.

I can only assume that people are reading it, finding it resonant and valuable, and telling their friends about it. I'm thrilled!

Manifesto!

Link: ChangeThis :: Growing Great New Managers .

Yet again, I'm indebted to my friends at 800CEOREAD. A few months ago, they invited me to write a ChangeThis manifesto; yesterday they put it up on the ChangeThis website. It was a great opportunity for me to rant about one of my favorite topics: how weird it is that we promote people into management and expect them to somehow - magically! - know how to manage well.

Now, if you don't know about ChangeThis, you should go check it out on general principles, whether or not you read my manifesto. Their premise is that people are tired of sound bites and polemics, and want an alternative. Here's how they describe their reason for being:

Weʼre betting that a significant portion of the population wants to hear thoughtful, rational, constructive arguments about important issues. Weʼre certain that the best of these manifestos will spread, hand to hand, person to person, until they have reached a critical mass and actually changed the tone and substance of our debate.

Some of their manifestos are funny, some are irreverent, some are instructive -- all are thought-provoking. Yet another cool service the folks at 800CEOREAD are providing to the world.