Entries from May 2008 ↓

How do you convince your boss to buy in with new idea? How do you carry out the main message of your presentation? How do you make your blog readers read your blog?

You make your messages sticky.

by Or Hiltch

I was reading J.D. Meier’s Six Principles of Sticky Ideas that he distilled from Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. And it related to me a lot. The principles are:

• Principle 1. Simplicity
• Principle 2. Unexpectedness
• Principle 3. Concreteness
• Principle 4. Credibility
• Principle 5. Emotions
• Principle 6. Stories

It related to me since I was blogging on Basic Skills For Effective Public Speaking and on Glue Audience To Your Presentation With ZoomIt that are just about that - how to make your message to stick.

It related to me since I am on my quest to reach the Tipping Point. Sticky Message is one of the main ingredients to reach the Tipping Point according to Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. The ingredients are:

• The law of a few. Which is about getting to know:
• Connectors (think of Darren Rowse).
• Mavens (think of Leo Babauta and Skellie for writing and Chris Pearson for WordPress and SEO - OMG, just seen he has Google’s PageRank of 7!).
• Salesmen (all of us, the underdog bloggers, who comment on their blogs, and link to them from ours).
• The stickiness factor. Read this post from the start.
• The power of context. Context matters. You can be connected, backed by good mavens, and armed by an army of salesmen. Out-of-context-ness will kill you.

Continuing blogging theme, the recipe for killer blog would be:

• Make friends with Darren.
• Follow Leo’s and Skeillie’s tips on writing and Chris’ tips on SEO.
• Pick your niche and stick with it.

Nothing new but it only proves that The Tipping Point theory works and that there are recipes for each ingredients. Here is a live example. Shilpan has made it in 3 months with Success Soul blog. The blog has rank of 42 on Technorati. I think it is very nice achievement for such young blog. Have you seen the number of comments there?

Got sticky message?

Do you have a dream? I bet you do, me either. What about those that surround you, do they have their dreams too? No doubt. Who’s responsible for their dream to come true?

You.

You are responsible for their dream fulfillment.

by mikelens

Matthew Kelly poses an interesting question in his book The Dream Manager:

“Isn’t one of the primary responsibilities of all relationships to help each other fulfill our dreams?”

I say “Yes”, it is.

• That is why I want to Become A Superhero.
• That is why I believe that Experience Is The Most Valuable Product.

In every interaction I reflect on what I do and try to see the other party as a customer, I try to constantly reflect on myself - “Am I offering this customer the best experience?”.

Today I am better than yesterday

The result was amazing:

• My kids get their daddy more often and with full attention. Their biggest wish is having their parents to spend more time with them. Not just be but interact.
• My wife gets more attention. Less transactions, more meaningful conversations, and more positive emotions. We both noticed our interactions become transactional lately. We wished to seize our passion and our love back, just like it was 10 years ago. And we seize it back now.
• My managers and co-workers … I realized I made few serious mistakes. Now I know what to improve.

I think that today I am a better person than yesterday. I help making other people make their dream come true, and they help me to make mine to come true in response.

How you measure your success? Achieving goals? Personal energy level? Impact on others?

What if you fail and fall right on your face? How do you get up and move on?

You learn from  mistakes and motivate yourself. You adopt The Mindset Of Failure.

by s-t-r-a-n-g-e

Me: “Sweetheart, I feel exhausted, I feel I’ve spent too much energy and achieved nothing.”

My precious wife: “You achieved a lot. You took your chance and you experienced what you wanted to.”

Yeah!! I learned a LOT, I experienced a LOT, and I know I am far ahead of the game now, although I have only few tangible achievements to show off right now.

Another great support and motivation I’ve got from Dale Carnegie Weekly Tips, here is what I’ve got lately:

“Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man that goes the furthest is generally the one willing to do and dare. The “sure thing” boat never gets far from the shore.” - Dale Carnegie

Dear alik:

Approach new experiences as opportunities to learn rather than occasions to win or lose. Doing so will open you up to new possibilities and can increase your sense of self-acceptance.

What a timely advice!

I recommend Dale Carnegie Weekly Tips, here is a Sample weekly tip.

Enjoy.

Are you hiring manager? Want to hunt the best talent? What is the most effective and efficient technique? Is there one?

Yes, there is. The technique is called “Hiring Smart”.

by apesara

In his book 45 EFFECTIVE WAYS FOR HIRING SMART: How to Predict Winners and Losers in the Incredibly Expensive People-Reading Game Pierre Mornell outlines 45 techniques for hiring smart. My favorite is #45 - “Design Your Own System”.

For me the easiest way to design my own system is adopting working one and adapting it to my needs. So here it is, below is the template I adopted form the book. There are many techniques from the template I already use and they are effective for me. Some look way farfetched like #27. But I still leave it in the list - some day I might decide it is exactly what I needed. Use “TODO’s…” column to capture actual facts. Use “What I think” column to write down assumptions, conclusions, and questions. Enjoy.

Think it is too time consuming? Think twice and listen to those who are in the know:

“You cannot spend too much time or effort on “hiring smart”. The alternative is to manage tough, which is much more time consuming” - Gary Rogers, Chairman & CEO, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream

Happy hiring.

• How do you keep up with the exponentially growing pace of our time?
• How do you cope with tons of information in interconnected, interdependent flat world?
• How to overcome the failure of hierarchical organization structures (search “Knowledge Worker Age” on the page)?

You continuously learn.

by lexdenn

These three questions are the core reasons that make learning a core capability according to Peter M. Senge and his book titled The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization.

Keep up with the exponentially growing pace

Set your own pace. Find Your Strengths, Know Your Life Purpose. Build an architecture of your own life. Develop yourself iteratively and in cycles.

Cope with information in interconnected world?

Paradoxically, I started to read more lately. I mean I started to read books. Yes, I am ashamed I never did it before. Here is the list of books I have read recently:

1. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
2. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You
3. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
4. Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service
5. Married to the Brand: Why Consumers Bond with Some Brands for Life
6. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
7. The Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today
8. The Handbook of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: Inspiring Others to Achieve Results
9. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
10. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
11. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Ok, this one I read few years ago)
12. Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance
13. 45 EFFECTIVE WAYS FOR HIRING SMART: How to Predict Winners and Losers in the Incredibly Expensive People-Reading Game
14. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
15. The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

Reading books is time consuming. The following resources and techniques are much more effective and efficient for me:

• “Read” audio books utilizing drive time.
• Regularly read JD’s The Book Share where he distills gold nuggets from the books he reads. And he reads a lots of books.
• Subscribe to www.getAbstract.com/.
• Practice ninja techniques for RSS consumption. Readers do not read the Web - they scan the Web. This might be a good tip for bloggers to publish more readable or should I say scannable blogs with eyes friendly and effective layout.
• Never read in depth emails with knowledge nuggets, store it in dedicated folder for further re-use.

I am also regular reader of Mike King’s Learn This blog were he passionately shares new stuff he learns.

Consider adapting software performance engineering practices to day-to-day life. Here is an example how caching can improve your response times - The Fast And The Peaceful.

Overcome the failure of hierarchical organization

Find organization that resonates with your values. Speak your manager’s language and then Manage Your Manager For Fun And For Profit. Check periodically asking yourself One, Two , Three - Is This Manager For Me? Offer your work echo-system best Experience you can offer. There is no reports and managers. There are team members that are responsible for each one’s part. Build A Tag Team. Become a superhero, it is easy.

Footnote

“There are no mistakes in life, there are only lessons to be learned: Advice to the Youth.” - Mark Twain

Have a look at one of the most viewed videos to learn more. It might make you decide to start learning differently - Did You Know; Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age