Many moons ago, a video I wrote and produced was nominated for an American Film Institute Award. I flew out to LA, wore a tux, the whole thing. I knew I was in trouble when I discovered that Cathy Rigby and Gary Coleman were the hosts for the evening. My video lost, defeated by Shari Lewis and Lambchop (hey, even Kukla, Fran and Ollie would have been better). Ever since then, I’ve been awfully wary of the whole prize thing.
Go figure: last night the SXSW conference awarded Corey and Gil the award for best community site (Squidoo). And yesterday, Small is the New Big made the shortlist for the Blooker Prize. Even a quick look at the nominees makes it clear that I have no chance of winning, but it is pretty cool to be listed. And no, I’m not renting a tux, and you can leave your sock puppets at home.
March 12, 2007
- Please turn your clock ahead (if local laws permit).
- Replace the batteries in all your smoke detectors.
- If you don’t have smoke detectors, buy a few. They’re really cheap now.
- If you can find some neighbors who might need smoke detectors, buy some for them.
- Take out your #1 and #2 credit cards. Call the number on the back and say, "I think I’m going to need to cancel my account because your interest rate is too high." Then wait silently. Watch what happens. Boom, I just saved you a few hundred dollars.
- Feel free to use that money to pay down your credit card debt. Or,
- make sure you have tenant’s insurance if you rent. And,
- back up your hard drive.
Boom. Spring cleaning is done.
March 10, 2007
I still remember an interaction I had with Jim at Activision in 1985.
And when I run into Ted once or twice a year, he reminds me of something I gave him eight years ago.
As Derren reminds us, your actions today could be tomorrow’s anecdote. One that grows in the telling. In fact, every single interaction you have… every blog post, every customer service interaction, every shareholder conference call… could turn into an anecdote that lives on for years.
I guess you’re in the anecdote creation business now.
March 9, 2007
Tony pointed out a neat idea to me. Some organizations are good at listening. Some are good at talking. A few are even good at both.
But having a dialogue is different. It’s about engaging in (sometimes) uncomfortable conversations that enable both sides to grow and change.
Almost everything that happens before you fly on a plane is not as it seems. In order to deal with anxiety, the airlines put on a show. They’ve been doing it for a long, long time, and it’s starting to show signs of wear and tear. The show is getting old and the lies are starting to show. Here’s some snips from an Economist article (hat tip to the Freaknomics blog):
“GOOD morning, ladies and
gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the
airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is
fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At
Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is
not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those
in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency
landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go
bust.
…
Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not
remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the
event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have
occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied
aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This
aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life
rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled
shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets
and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention
the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.
Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with
the aircraft’s navigation systems. At least, that’s what you’ve always
been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere
with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn’t sound
quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by
mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on
board at all, if you think about it…"
The list is endless (plastic forks, etc.) but the lesson is subtle: every business does this. From the standardized layout of a doctor’s waiting room to the forms you fill out at the bank, we subject our clients and prospects to a little show that is not directly related to what we’re doing for them. We’re all doing theatre. We want our waiter to be better dressed than us, and the stockbroker’s office to be as far away from an off track betting facility (or a laundromat) as possible.
Of course, the show is related to what we’re selling. It’s related for the same reason that the price of a cup of coffee varies by a factor of 120 depending on who made it and where you consume it. You don’t have to like the fact that a show is going on, but you’re part of it. The most successful organizations understand this and work hard to put on a show that works. One that doesn’t get in the way of what we set out to purchase in the first place.
I liked this book a lot: Clear Blogging.
Unlike most books that cross my desk, it’ll take you more than a few minutes to get all the ideas out of it. But in this case, it’s worth it. Recommended.
March 8, 2007
In May, I’ll be doing a bunch of speaking engagements for the public in cities around the US. I’ll post those here in the next few weeks. For those in Denver, though, there’s a long-scheduled event at Daniels at DU. April 19th at 8 am. I’m not in charge of organizing it, so feel free to share your queries with the folks at Daniels.
"It’s a creative approach, but like any new company, there’s a certain risk. More new companies go under than old companies."
That’s Michael Kozol, public policy specialist for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, quoted in the Times.
This so perfectly captures the fear and irrationality of the large organization that it’s hard to keep from typing in all capital letters. Here’s what he forgot to say, "Actually, every large company goes under… except for the large companies that take risks and reinvent themselves. The rest of us just fade away, sooner rather than later."
He also forgot to say, "Actually, the top spots and large investment stakes in big companies are pretty much all taken, so if you weren’t lucky enough to end up on top, (or if you don’t want to spend your career waiting for your boss to die) the only way in the world you’re going to succeed is by doing your own thing, building your own division or starting your own gig… and by teaching the big guys a thing or two."
The manager of the Chase bank in Pleasantville parks right out front. Her branch is on a quiet street with parking meters available for customers to use. Figure there’s perhaps a dozen spaces convenient enough to make it worth going to the bank… if they’re full, keep on driving, because there’s always another bank coming up soon.
And yet, the manager parks right out front (in fact, I saw her move her car from two spaces away to an even closer spot today). She has four or five people working in the branch, so if they follow her lead, that’s half the spaces.
Of course, it’s a far bigger issue than parking spaces. It’s about eating lunch with your employees, handing out free samples to customers instead of your friends or answering the phone yourself when customer service gets backed up.
I’m increasingly coming to the conclusion that there are really only two attitudes that people bring to work with them. Either they park right out front, or they park down the street in order to send a signal to their staff, their customers and themselves.
March 7, 2007
It’s a lesson we all learned in high school, but one that is playing itself out in the art market as well. Thanks to Steve for the link.
What makes a great work of art? Almost entirely, it’s how much it sells for. An expensive avant garde painting that breaks through a price barrier will define an entirely new school for years to come. We do the same thing with music… if a song takes off, sells lots of copies and makes the musician rich and famous, we assume that there’s some sort of inherent ‘quality’ in what they did, as opposed to deciding that our definition of quality in that field is: what sells.
The critic in me cringes to write this. After all, what makes a great work of art should have nothing at all to do with how much it sells for and everything to do with how it makes you feel. I think the game here is in the definition of ‘great.’ And what society has chosen–for a coffee shop, a song, a poem, a new kind of workman’s comp insurance–is that ‘great’ means successful. Not the other way around.
So the challenges, I guess, are to get good at predicting ‘great’ before the market takes action, and to be clear with yourself and your colleagues about what exactly you’re trying to build.
