Importing Best Practices

I no longer think different ways of working are inherently better or worse. I find the most productive workers in any task group have found an optimal process. Often that structure can be improved by adding processes from outside the environment.

That’s harder than it looks, as Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it.

Yet, I have seen several times when importing a little knowledge from another discipline made for great gains.

My second tour selling COBOL, we started changing our offer every six weeks, borrowed from something I had read about cosmetics retailing. Prospects were meeting with us just to be entertained, but as long as we were there, would we take a look at...

Wasn’t too long before senior management wanted to renegotiate commissions if it was that easy...

Building a cellphone empire, we had enough hard partiers that we used parts of the 12 step approach to improve our global scalability. They understood the need for weekly meetings, for having everyone define their reality, for finding individual solutions. The level of managerial opinion went way down, and we set industry records for five years.

More frequently, I’ve seen best practice candidates that appealed to someone’s ego or how they THOUGHT the world should be. I wasted six weeks once because my boss kinda read a book on an airplane and thought he had found the silver bullet. My tribe thought I’d lost my mind.

Years later I learned Best Practices Better Be Blatantly Obvious, Otherwise They Are Not Best Practices. Wish I had figured that out.

Just when we’ve optimized all we know, that’s when we get to participate in disruptive innovation, ready or not. Just when you perfect the carburetor, you get fuel injection.

Stewart Emery says there are two requirements for growth, an absolute commitment to telling the truth about reality and surrounding yourself with people who are committed to growth.

Isn’t that the real secret of best practices?

Join us at DevFestDC September 28^th, for awesome new technologies and resources for building projects and companies!

Where Solutions Are Created

We were practicing stories defining what we had done for others, when a marketeer pointed out that we were talking about previous engagements, not the people we supposedly would be talking to.

The marketeer wanted to fashion a way to talk about the goodness of what was going to happen to the next guy.

That’s not going to work for a couple of reasons.

First, when you are talking about the future, you can’t talk about truth, you have to talk about vision. If you want to be believed, start by telling the truth.

Second, no matter what I say, the listener is going to apply what they hear to satisfying their own need. Get a listener to tell you what they heard you say, and you will learn what they really want.

That means you don’t need to start with a specific solution for everyone. That specific solution develops out of what they value from what you have already done successfully.

What’s your best story?

Neat, But Not Gaudy

Did you ever get the feeling that actions are now requiring more meetings before they can start? Just a feeling I’m getting.

That you keep getting stalled by “interested parties” that aren’t?

Reminds me some career advice I got from a pretty good foreman many years ago.

I said, “Hunh?”

He said, “Hunh, hell. Do something!”

Worked.

Or, as Uncle Ross said, “If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes.”

“Neat, But Not Gaudy?” That was Bob Harold’s advice on how to solder copper pipe.

Worked.

A Dozen Golden Nuggets from the Blog Lab Event

The WebManager's Roundtable and Dick Davies put on a powerful practical workshop for active organizational bloggers – covering a broad range of attendee inspired topics, such as process – better/easier blogging; managing – avoiding blogger burnout or lighting the flame; volume – achieving greater distribution & getting more readers; comments – being a comment shill & reader contributions; and writing – finding the voice the readers want & building relationships.

From the wealth of material at the front of the room and tips and techniques shared by bloggers, here's some of the best - a dozen golden nuggets:

• Always be thinking about your next blog and potential topics as you attend meetings, events, have conversations, read others – what can I add of value
• The Rule of One – one thought per sentence; one subject per paragraph; one topic per blog post
• On Editing: overworking a blog is like overworking a piece of metal – eventually it weakens & breaks
• About comments: do you invite them; conduct reader surveys; use the recent or most commented widgets; comment on other blogs; give a timely reply to all comments received or acknowledge them; and reuse the comments (with attribution) in other places
• Every post must have a purpose – as the test: Why would you want to read this post?
• A post offers another view; advocates a position; shares thoughts & ideas; educates; illustrates; and gives desirable alternatives – be clear in your mind and consistent within the post what you are seeking achieve
• Successful bloggers set a goal and run to meet that goal – e.g., 5 paragraphs, 10 lines, two posts per week
• Web 1.0 was push oriented – put it out there; Web 2.0 was two-way oriented – asynchronous dialogue; Web 3.0 is just now coming in with computers using comments, reader feedback, news, and other data sources to create content on the internet
• Timeliness is important when blogging; credibility is critically important as a blogger
• Analytics are useful to a point – don't obsess on them
• What a quick gauge of the influence of a post – Google the title to see who is reposting it and commenting on other sites
• A snappy title can draw in readers – scan Buzz for current hot phrases for ideas for your headlines

And #13 for a baker's dozen: just as you may have different private and public personalities, as a blogger you have an electronic (on-line) persona – the you that appears to your readers through your blog and posts; establish and refine your voice as a blogger and work to strike a clear picture of who you are and remain consistent to that image – don't write like a professor one day and a comedian the next. This is who the readers are developing a relationship with and who they will follow in Google Reader.

Comments keep the learning going – please share your nuggets to help us all learn to blog better.