Badges

I was in a meeting yesterday where I heard, “Well you’re the only one with skills to do that. The rest of us came up in corporate environments.”

Lesson: The skills we develop are appropriate for our current environment.

In Reamde, I remember two telling realizations.

Zula, the refugee niece, understood that looking good by keeping the suits communicated was more important than solving the problem. And the way to get the time to solve the problem.

Her Uncle Richard, the founder, was wondering just what his job was, until discovering a core threat, when he found that the suits didn’t have a frame of reference to even address how to solve the game ending problem.

When your environment changes, how do you change behavior for a group?

Well, let me back up. The game you are playing has changed in the last few years, right?

Proceed.

How do you motivate people you seldom see?

One of our best practices this year has been awarding badges. We got the idea from game designers and social networks, where awards are given for beneficial activities. Alex George  of The Federal Contractor Network called his "The Wall of Ego." I paid attention to that wall.

Ours is a little different. In every case the award doesn’t actually exist, it is just described. And it is made up the first time awarded.

We have awarded for first blog post, first public presentation, first sale, first completed project, first LinkedIn recommendation, first referral, first website, first software architecture of a new product, first Google Plus page, first Corporate Google Plus page, and so on. Notification of mastering necessary skills.

After someone gets an award, there is a flurry of activity as others pile on to get it.

We talked about the badges as they were awarded throughout the year, recalled them when embarking into a new area, like the Vikings meading up around the fire the night before a pillage.

Now it’s December, and I had three conversations yesterday going over the achievement of the past year. I’m seeing a hardened cadre of professionals able to get results in a new area in less than a day.

When we started, we have documented instances of over a year to get a first badge. They are part of our “I wish I knew then what I know now” culture. Humor greasing progress.

Badges. Who knew?

January 12^th! Join us for The Direct Economy at AITP!

Consider: The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.

Did you ever notice, no matter how hard you do the wrong thing, it never quite works?

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The Direct Economy

How To Profit From The Most Lucrative Market In The History Of The World!

A Tale Of Two Resorts

Orlando, Florida and Carolina’s Outer Banks (OBX) are two areas on the east coast where people go to enjoy the weather, vacation, and be entertained.

Orlando, with a major airport, Walt Disney, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, Legoland, and the Magic playing at Amtrak Center, is an implementation of big companies. Most workers are corporate employees.

Legend has it that Nags Head was named for lights hung on mules' heads by “wreckers” who would lead ships to be shipwrecked near shore where the economically challenged could loot the ships of their valuables.

COBRA logo

Home Depot came to OBX less than ten years ago, and competes with much older hardware and lumber recyclers providing construction materials.

At the Outer Banks, instead of hotels, most visitors rent houses. Chain franchises compete with local restaurants. There is little corporate overlay, most people work  by themselves or in small crews.

Contractors performing maintenance on houses change every year, and we find competent help by asking neighbors.

The New Work Model

Please, somebody tell me what to do!

Guys saying that will be unemployed or in low reward employment.

It used to be that you did what your boss asked and the boss would get you paid. That hasn’t been true for 20 years. 

Increasingly, staff jobs, and the “professions” of the ’60’s are being done by software. Figure that ten positions then is two positions now, and the repetitive, billable work is done online by the customer.

Clearly, we need a new understanding.

We know the job prospects for someone who can’t read.

What are the job prospects for someone who doesn’t know how to find and use the opportunities in the new economy?

How can you learn what you need to know?

Mary Meeker’s 2009 Web 2.0 Summit presentation, slides 31, 32, 62, shows how there were a million mainframes in the ’60’s, ten million minicomputers in the ’70’s, a hundred million PC’s in the ’90’s, a billion desktop/cellphone users in 2000, and predicting 10 billion mobile consumers in the next decade. 

The New Opportunity

Ten billion addressable customers connected to you through  your browser!

Those southern boys coming north to Detroit after WWII knew how to dirt farm. They had to learn how to build cars.

This isn’t about computers. The internet breaks down the old barriers of distance. But you have to design your offering for that market.

For the past 15 years, we have been learning this new model. Did you ever call 1-800-GOOGLE for support? There is no one there.

Consider the difference between the Microsoft (paid consultants encouraged) and the open source development paradigm (Proceed. You won't break the Internet).

Technology is how you do things. That is what is changing.

Look at buying books, cupcakes, shoes, zip cars, clothing, even air travel. New companies are undermining entrenched providers. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

At Global StartUp Weekend, Washington DC had the third most startups of any city in the world. Were you involved?

New Organization

Last week, I figured out I was working with 15 people in 9 distinct ventures, some paid, some under development.

It’s not a management pyramid structure, it’s a hub and spoke system, some projects I am dominant, others I play a supporting role. The model is Open Source Leadership.

I was leading BlogLab, when we got into a conversation about monetizing blogs. I asked if there was an example of monetization without blogging? Got a good one. That video had advertising, went viral, and the person who posted the video said it paid for his kid's college education. The lesson, monetizing is not connected to blogging, monetizing is connected to monetizing.

One of the participants described it as lightning fortune. Reminded me of the sculpture in Sweet Home Alabama.

William Gibson wrote, “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Descriptions abound when you know what you are looking for.

Reamde – Neal Stephenson

Makers – Cory Doctorow

All of William Gibson

What action you are taking after reading this post?

Join us December 13^th at the Capital Technology Management Hub Launching A Green Technology Startup for Sales Lab’s How to Convey Your Business Personality - Easily, Simply, and For Free! Good times! Great crowd! Sterling presenters!

The Last Chapter

The last chapter of the book on our life has not been written yet.

We may feel that it won't be turning out as we had hoped or expected.

While we were working – the world changed!

• The Internet has evolved and many roles which were staffed before are on-line now;
• Processes which had required labor now use technology and fewer people with lesser skill and experience levels;
• Vast amounts of data, research, information, and content are available by simple searching through the browser;
• Entire professions have been radically changed by an 'in-the-box' approach – e.g., basic accounting, legal documents, family physician.

What do we do now, having seen the significant changes that have evolved?

One action not to take is 'wait it out' in hopes of a return to 1985 – won't happen! Holding on to this point of view is like retiring in place and not telling anyone.

Things have changed – now it's your turn:

• Learn new skills and techniques with application in the new economy – become a doer to get greater depth in what you are learning. Building a website teaches more about planning, design, layout, functionality, and connectivity than it does about writing code;
• Explore the new normal – going beyond the local newspaper or evening news. Read blogs and articles by a variety of writers with differing viewpoints – go to events and listen to the comments by the audience for a richer experience...develop your own assessment of 'what is' and 'what's possible;'
• Be open to a new approach – whether as a provider or a recipient – does the change provide benefit...value...efficiency...access? An example – you don't have two-hours for dinner at your favorite restaurant, so you order solo catering on-line and drop by to pick up your dinner (with all the trimmings) – hot and ready to eat at home...as a restauranteur or a diner, you win using a new approach;
• Find out what is needed and figure out how to provide it – do this as an employee and you may be on the way to redefining your job in a World 2.0 model; as a provider, offering what is needed is an evergreen business goal and a possible new line of service for you.

Even more so with the rapid pace of change today – we do not live in a stagnant environment. Change is dynamic. It is not practical to be in a dynamic setting, trying to remain static (unchanged) – imagine how much energy you would expend in a rowboat at the mouth of Niagara Falls, trying to maintain your position. We must continue to evolve in a dynamic setting – or go over the Falls.

The good news is – our last chapter has yet to be written and, by being engaged, we can greatly influence the story.

Got some stories to further the discussion? Please share.

Join us December 13^th at the Capital Technology Management Hub Launching A Green Technology Startup for Sales Lab’s How to Convey Your Business Personality - Easily, Simply, and For Free!

Virtualosity and Building a Sales Team I:

The virtual tools now available through the internet allow for a much more flexible business operation than the traditional sales organization can tolerate. In fact the potential of virtualization for sales is barely being realized at the present time. Add the current economic situation to the present tools available and there is a large pool of qualified and motivated people to provide the manpower for a national sales team without offices.

There are also a number of low and no-cost tools to use to recruit, train, and maintain contact with a team of salespeople. These include listing services, teleconferencing and video conferencing services, social media sites, business networking sites, as well as simple e-mail services that many of us take for granted right now.

Using many of these services I have been able to provide sales teams of up to 15 people for companies doing business across the country, with a current group that should grow to 30. The main pitfall is in not maintaining proper contact with those in the group on an individual and group level. If contact is maintained one can get a feel for the individuals involved, if they are up to the challenge of working as part of a virtual sales team, and who can be counted on for priority or special tasks.

Next-setting up the team

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What Killed Management Consulting?

Once upon a time, there was an industry called management consulting...and it wasn’t about computers.

There wasn’t an internet, so as a consultant, I was passed around a CEO grapevine. The users paid more attention to their grapevine, since it was their best source of necessary information.

Major consulting firms came to a point where they either became their practice in information technology or diminished and disappeared.

Today, the information that management consultants lovingly doled out is available on a browser, and if not from me, then from someone else. Nothing can be hidden.

Management consulting was an early outlier of the current business transformation. We had a fifty year run as a hot industry, and were transformed by the internet. Today costs are down, information is easily available, and the remaining consultants are using the same technology that killed their industry to create better delivery and results.

How does this pattern play against your industry?

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