Blurred Lines

We think of Facebook as something personal, because it has a password and most of the content is personal in nature, but it is public.  It is open space.  We think the lock on the gate let’s us in, but in fact, the lock on the gate let’s us out.

We think of a public square as public space.  But with headphones and heads-down mobile technology, it might be more of a private experience.  Add to this augmented reality with personal interests represented and the public square might be very private.

As the lines between public and private space and information blur, what are the implications to privacy, to communication, and to the responsibility we have to our fellow users of these spaces and systems?

Your Address in the Digital Landscape

It used to be when someone asked for your address, they meant your street address.  I know, it sounds funny now, because it is much more likely that we exchange email addresses today, or perhaps our social handles.  And sometimes we are in the same place, without sharing addresses at all.  I have “friends” (or are they “followers”?) on Pinterest because they were suggested based on our affinity for ridiculous shoes or fabric art (or at least that is what I assume about the algorithms that brought us together). We are now residents of the digital landscape and we might not know our own address.

This got me thinking of the implications of this to other elements of our work.  If co-workers in far-flung parts of the globe use the same ERP system, website, salesforce automation tools, and data warehouse, is it like we are co-located in a single office?  How does our citizenship in the digital landscape affect who we consider our “first team” (to use the language of Patrick Lencioni)?  The people we might be interacting with the most (in terms of pushing and pulling information or internal customers of our work product) might be people we don’t know personally, but interact in a brokered matter through these systems.

So, both in our personal and work life it might become increasingly difficult to know our neighbors.  It could be that software designers, using human design principles, might be responsible for how human and how humane, we are to each other in the future.

The Last 2%

"It's the last two percent of a job that ensures your successful completion of the project." - Art Gensler

Free Business Idea #57

What if there was a real life “bull**** meter”?  I’m imagining a browser plug-in that would rate the credibility of website claims by searching for the authority of the site and author, the propositions and data in the excerpt (comparing it to other credible sources online).  There could also be a crowd-sourced element where individuals (with their own authority ratings) would comment on and rate the claim.  It could give back a credibility rating score that people could look at.  If all the reviews of a product were by employees, the credibility of the testimonial would be low.  If a number of leading data scientists agree to the recidivism rate in Orange County, then it would have a high score.  It would help people navigate the world of internet information overload and make sense of their world.  It might also elevate the dialogue around critical issues beyond the sound byte by aggregating sound bytes (in big data fashion) to provide better and more predictive patterns.

Someone should do this.  And tell me about it.  You’re welcome.

Your Better Self

"Be yourself, but always be your better self." -Karl G. Maeser

Free eBook: The Payoff of Paying Attention

This month, I presented at the luncheon series for the Portland Chapter of the American Marketing Association (or AMA-PDX).  The presentation that I delivered has been reconfigured into an eBook which is now available for free download.

This ebook outlines three approaches for finding inspiration for your business or products in the most unlikely places and shares some case studies.  From Charming Charlie retail stores, to the National Basketball Association (NBA), to "So You Think You Can Dance?" on FOX, the stories illustrate how to find new approaches, broaden your perspective, and to make the most out of all of your experiences.

Feel free to share this post and the eBook with others that might be interested.  You can tag me on Twitter @jenniferdavis.

Game Plan

"Everyone has a game plan until you are punched in the face." -Mike Tyson

Free Business Idea #32

What if someone combined a pizza place (like MOD) with the business model of Tom’s shoes?  For every pizza sold, one would be given to a hungry person (through a school, at a homeless shelter, through service agencies, etc).  I bet people would pay a little more for their pizza knowing they are helping a good cause.  Plus, it could make people choose your pizza place over others when corporate events and birthday parties came around.  It would taste good and make them look good while they are doing good.

Someone should do this.  And tell me about it.  You’re welcome.

Growth

"We neither shun growth or idolize it. We view it as a by-product of achieving our other goals." -McKinsey & Company

Staying Relevant

"Staying relevant means being willing to run a different business every few years" - Katherine Power

Keep Your Word

"The single best way to keep your talent is to keep your word." -Art Gensler

Technology

"Technology, when well-implemented, endows us with super powers." - Samuel Hulick

Artificial Intelligence Might Not Be Artificial

Elon Musk is afraid of artificial intelligence. He supposes that when the robots take over they might make us housecats. Or maybe we already are? 

Recode Decode's podcast interview with the co-founders of Numenta suggests that fears about artificial intelligence are wrong. 

My Thoughts on Politics

“Words! Words! Words! I’m so sick of words! 
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you! 
Is that all you blighters can do?”

-          Lyrics from “Show me” from My Fair Lady

Because of the Because

A study at Harvard, asked subjects to cut into a line of strangers waiting to make photocopies. When they asked simply if they could use the photocopier (saying “Excuse me. May I use the machine?” for instance), subjects were successful 60% of the time. However, when a reason beginning with the word “because” was added (“May I use the photocopier because I’m in a rush”), the request gained instant credibility, and compliance skyrocketed to 94%.

What’s more amazing, it didn’t seem to matter what the given reason was (“May I use the photocopier, because I need to make copies”), compliance remained at about the same level, 93%.

This is a lesson in persuasion that all of us can apply.  Giving people the benefit of an explanation makes us more influential.  I highly advise against giving a dumb or non-sensical reason (“I need to make copies, because I need to make copies”).  I imagine that would help your cause today, but hurt your credibility long term.  But giving people the courtesy of a reasonable and relevant “because” will make all the difference.

Helping Hands

"Helping hands are happy hands." -Timber Jim Serrill

The Relationship Between Sight and Insight

Paying attention.  Looking at the data and patterns.  Facing the reality.  Drawing conclusions.  That is when insights happen.

When is Brave not so Brave

"It's easier to be brave when you are not alone." -Amy Poehler, comedian, actor, best-selling author, and mother (who knows her share of terrifying situations)

Widening Circles

The passage below was first written in 1955 by Anne Morrow Lindbergh in her book “Gift from the Sea.”  They were brought to my mind recently in the horrors of this past week. 

As a bit of context, Anne was born in 1906, and was married to Charles Lindbergh, was herself an aviator, acclaimed author, and mother.  This would put her grandmother’s era (which she referenced below) in the late 1800s.

She writes:

“The world is rumbling and erupting in ever-widening circles around us.  The tensions, conflicts, and sufferings even in the outermost circle touch us all, reverberate in all of us.  We cannot avoid these vibrations.

But just how far we can implement this planetal awareness?  We are asked today to feel compassionately for everyone in the world, to digest intellectually all the information spread out in the public print, and to implement in action every ethical impulse aroused by our hearts and minds.  The interrelatedness of the world links us constantly with more people than our hearts can hold.  Or rather – for I believe the heart is infinite – modern communication loads us with more problems than a human frame can carry.  It is good, I think, for our hearts, our minds, our imaginations to be stretched, but body, nerve, endurance, and life-span are not elastic.  My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.  I cannot marry all of them, or bear them all as children, or care for them as I would my parents in illness or old age.  Our grandmothers, and even – with some scrambling – our mothers, lived in a circle small enough to let them implement in action most of the impulses of their hearts and minds.  We were brought up in that tradition that has now become impossible, for we have extended our circle throughout space and time.”

I can not speak for my great-great-grandmother, but I wonder if her trials and that of her immediate circle were more manageable and more actionable than what we face today, as Anne supposed.  Today, we have the world's tragedies pitted against the same body, nerve, endurance, and life-span that could shoulder a lesser load, but crumble under the weight of today's news cycles and headlines.  Or at least that is how I have felt this week.

In times like this, I want to go back to my immediate circle.  Where actions can be taken and progress felt.   Start there and fan out again, as I have strength.  My compassion is strong.  My conscious is pricked.  My empathy is stirred.  And my weakness is revealed.

Labels Matter

If you are a start-up, how do you talk about your business?  Are you building a company? Hatching a company?  Founding a company? Planting a business?  Disrupting an industry?  What does this say about where you are focusing your time and energy?

If you are in a more established company, what language do you use?  Are you growing a company?  Managing a company?  Leading a company?  Transforming a company?  Leading a turn-around?  Scaling a company? Leading a team?  Building a sustainable business?  Are you creating wealth for shareholders?

If you are exiting a company or business, how do you describe that?  Are you divesting?  Are you stepping back?  Are you stepping away?  Are you implanting an exit plan?  Are you just not showing up anymore?

The words you use matter.  Think about how you describe your business and what that says about you.