Give them new eyes not new landscapes

Employee engagement Part 1
Extract from ‘Defrag your business’.

I’ve been working on one truly inspirational and breathtaking charity web based project for over eight months now. It is just mind boggling and humbling to log on every day or so and see what the boys and girls have achieved. No-one can say that web technology hasn’t taken massive leaps forward over the last few years and changed our horizons and expectations of how we find information and interact massively. Except, that is, if they look at one specific area. Intranets.

Almost without exception they look exactly the same as they did five years ago. While the wide-scale adoption of social networking and the early stages of true Web-based rich media applications are part of our daily out-of-office lives we haven’t seemed to connect our intranets, our most powerful internal communications tool, to the benefits and opportunities they provide. Sure, they may have added a few tweaks and funky functions but actually and fundamentally not much has changed.

I find this both bewildering and exciting. Exciting as it presents me and you with tremendous opportunity. Bewildering because the power and potential is, more often than not, passing by with scarcely a nod or glance.

Intranet audits were a staple of my experience. I have seen lots of them. Way too many for anyone who wishes too maintain their sanity. With some glorious exceptions, which I can count with my socks off, there is little to suggest that intranet teams, (where the intranet has acknowledged by management as a key lubricant for internal comms programmes), are utilising the true power of technology and adopting the characteristics of the “read-write” Web to develop the concept of two way communication, engagement and all the fluffy pink stuff we like to put into our mission statements.

Forums, blogs and wikis are finding their way onto some intranets, but the number of companies employing these social computing tools is a bare fraction of the total number of intranets functioning today. As for the other elements of Web 2.0, I’m aware of less than a handful of intranets that have embraced notions like social tagging (as exemplified by del.icio.us, the social bookmarking Web site. The opportunities and benefits for social computing applications on intranets are huge.

Some enterprising companies are starting to use Wikipedia to develop an in house internal knowledge bank. (Arguably more useful is actually a 'failure bank' but that’s another story) These tools are used so not much for communication but address the ‘at least we know where it is when we want to find it’ principle. But the true asset value of a company is its knowledge repository. It is 60% and more or your net worth if you believe Harvard Business School. Can you think of a better reason than giving the management of knowledge flow, its retention and acquisition in your organisation anything less than 150% support and making it your number one priority? I can’t think of any either but amazingly, although internal communications, innovation and differentiation features in pretty well every survey of corporate priorities, (even more annual reports) few pay it more than lip service. Why? Because it is hard to do and few know really where to start. ‘We tried the intranet thing but it doesn’t work ‘is probably the most often used phrase I hear. So you give up do you? Or, do you just get better at it?

Lets just pick one simple example. The commonest .net2 deployment are, or at least should be, blogs used for collaboration and project documentation but even these only have even now a tentative deployment. This is frankly bonkers as they take seconds to set up and can save thousands of pounds

Imagine, just for one dizzying moment, that the CEO has a blog for a new product and then, just imagine, and I know this is a stretch, the impact and discussion arising from 40 sales people dealing with the inevitable launch issues and how quickly these issues would be flagged, fixed and customer facing people made aware of solutions.

The often quoted example of this in practical action is BT's launch of their Home Hub. Initially it was an unmitigated disaster but, by using a blog site to give direct feedback from sales people, installers and development engineers to the CEO, it was transformed into the biggest selling device of its kind, not just in the UK but across Europe.

Imagine her feeding back to the team, the whole team, by video with a small thank you and identification and appreciation. It really isn’t hard this stuff, but lets not get too giddy here.

The phrase I often hear from frustrated CEO's who are bemoaning the lack of communication is that 'my door is always open'. Yes, it might be but it works both ways too.

As I keep saying, there is nothing common about common sense.

So, why have so many intranets become covered in dust and moss? Mistrusted and a place of last resort for finding information.

Frankly, because it is not that big a signal on the corporate radar simply. On the face of it, there are few metrics that can get put on the spreadsheet for the weekly meeting that get the juices going. It is true to say that the benefits (and costs) are largely hidden. But if you have to pick one try just this one. Staff retention. Then look at the incurred costs for loss of knowledge and recruitment and training. Now that is truly scary. It can wipe of the profit for a business unit in no time. One key loss alone will pay for the tweaks in the intranet that may (I would say probably) alleviate much of the frustration in allowing them to do their jobs effectively. Which, if you are still awake, is cited as the number one reason individuals leave jobs

This position is reinforced by the often prevailing view that it is just good money chasing after bad. The existing intranet hasn’t lived up to expectations in the first place; why invest more time and effort in it now? Many executive teams, optimistic about the intranet’s potential in its early days, now wonder what all the noise was about. While there certainly are productivity tools online—that’s just a matter of common practice in the workplace anyway—the innovation and the knowledge sharing that was supposed to flow from the intranet just never materialised.

Why? Well we could point to a range of contributing factors. Actually you can generally just pick one of the following and you won’t be far wrong. Ill advised planning, design, not enough thought given to search and findability but in most cases it's just simply down one major decision, often made at the beginning of conception- who will be its owner? Who looks after it, nurtures it and cultivates it? For the answer to that see Chapter 8. ‘What should a knowledge manager manage then?

So who does own it. It is seen by many as a poison chalice - it is easy to pass the buck to IT departments. Too easily in most cases. Now, and this may surprise a few people who know me but I’m going to stick up for them, well, for a minute anyway. It’s a s**t job. That is why they bring their own sandwiches - it is their one small pleasure. (It's really so they can play war games at lunch and not leave their desks).

It is a close tie as to whether HR or IT departments get more bad raps. To be fair to IT, they have probably invested time and effort into developing the infrastructure of the current iteration of the intranet and, unsurprisingly given their workload of fixing printers and replacing laptop keyboards that are allergic to Starbucks Latte, are in no hurry to move in a different direction. They haven’t had their lunch yet anyway. Intranet software vendors aren’t exactly blameless either. Few are using .NET2, most use ASP. or ASP.net at best, which is five year old technology. Do you get the theme here? And then we haven’t even mentioned Sharepoint!!! Or bless it, Lotus Notes and making all that compatible with their new ERP system or SAP.

Corporate IT staff and corporate comms staff, some of them, anyway—are largely under informed, if we can put it delicately, about what’s happening on the Web and often have a blind-spot that something they use daily actually could actually be hugely relevant and have a massive benefit to them. They hold the belief, justified or not that ‘Our company would never sanction that’ so they don’t suggest or push their ideas forward. Its a self fulfilling prophecy and a depressing spiral. 20th century communication in a 21 st century world. And any way, should the IT department be doing that. Who should be keeping on top of this - Can it really be the IT department’s responsibility, most of which are stretched pretty thin just keeping the meter fed, and coping with Mr. Gates First Tuesdays. And beating their previous best in Call of Duty 4.

Many communicators/managers ( if that is not a contradiction, sorry but I'm just a bit skeptical), figure the intranet is working just fine the way it is; why fix what isn’t broken? This is an interesting view from those who inhabit the dreamworld of delusions of competence. How do they know??? By definition, at least for every IC and innovation projects I know and have worked on, is that its about change and change is not discrete but is perpetual motion. It’s a classic mistake to look at the project having an end date, think that box is ticked and walk away from it when it goes live and not put continuity and development factored in to its ongoing life-cycle. Even more so for the company Intranet. It should be the heartbeat of any organisation. If it is put down on a shelf you can’t be surprised if it just gathers dust and gets ignored.

Trust, and that is the key element in all effective communications, is developed through consistency, relevancy, timeliness and accuracy. One intranet I recently was asked to look at had not had anything added to it for three years. That is not an intranet, it is an historic document. Is it any surprise I some times have to run out of meetings screaming.


Inevitably at some point we have to start talking numbers to justify investment in fixing tweaking or ripping up and starting again. As you or somebody else from higher up the food chain will undoubtedly obligingly point out, there already has been an investment that been made in the existing portals that haven’t produced the kind of results most companies hoped for. It’s difficult for organisations to write off significant investments in order to start from scratch. But that doesn’t mean you should persevere with old tools and tactics otherwise we would all still be pushing paper memos around. It is interesting to see the metrics applied to measure its affect, success or return on investment. Generally these amount to a big fat none, which, for any management process is just plane daft. Its tricky yes, but hardly impossible.

And, if you don't think your intranet may not be mission critical in your organisation, here is one statistic you may like to reflect upon. Even if this is only half true is still truly breathtaking. On average the typical administrator in any office environment spends 45% of their working day looking for information to help them do their job. I am assuming that those who could make the decision to invest time, effort and funds in getting the intranet right have no concept or are remotley interested in the impact that freeing up 25% of their colleagues time could have on, their customer focus, their efficiency and even, their bottom line. If this tone appears slightly sarcastic my apologies, but it arises from the huge frustration that my experience has shown me that faced with all the other daily challenges what is looking them, literally in the face, every time they log on to their network is often the cause of so many of their problems.

The really infuriating thing is that none of this has to be expensive to implement.

There are some practical limitations too and by far the trickiest for most organisations, both public and private sector, is struggling to retain a command-and-control structure for their intranets. Tools that put control into employees’ hands are an anathema to intranets where only authorized representatives of the company can contribute content. But is that what they should be their role anyway? Is there an argument for loosening the approval processes in key areas? I’d argue, yes absoblinkinlutely yes. Should senior management really be a feared of any possible negatives and shouldn’t they be aware of them and manage them anyway? We live in a world of 360 degree reviews and employee engagement surveys, you carry out them of course don’t you? You don’t? Well you are in trouble then and the best intranet in the world won't help you.

Or maybe you subscribe to the view I saw recently in a post from an HR VP which was a thinly disguised ‘You should be bloody lucky to work for us, just get with it’. And then to sweeten the message, guess what, we are having a pajama day next week just to show you how cool and cute we are. Erm, yeah. Really? I see that in any comany and I’d be polishing up my CV. You will be needing it when your competition cream you into history or you get ‘outsourced’.

Just ask for this stuff, what can they say? No? Its just a word and won’t kill you. I’m hoping here that you actually have some form of innovation and idea management built into your intranet. No? Then start reading at the top again and pass this onto your boss and her boss's boss

Rainmaker 2009

21 tips to make you a world class (knowledge) manager by next friday

OK, here is a big statement. You may or may not agree with it but if you would kindly indulge me for the time being I would be most grateful.

A CEO, in virtually any organisation, has primarily one role. She, or he, is the person who has to find and implement the most efficient methods of consolidating, directing and dispersing knowledge. Internal communications to you and me.

Firstly, let us assume you think there actually may be something in this? As evidence to confirm our suspicions let me offer up this. A recent survey of the CEO's of 100 of the Fortune 500 companies by Boston Consulting found that they thought that, 'they could do better with corporate communications' and that it (communication) was one of their top five priorities. I draw two conclusions from this; Firstly, you can make a lot of money by carrying out studies of the obvious, and secondly, they didn't ask the right question. Interestingly, the other four items on the list, the usual suspects of profitability, cost reduction, sustainability and innovation, can only be influenced if you manage the knowledge flow in the organisation in the first place. You can argue about that over your next strategy/ priority meeting.

While you are doing that and mulling it over, you may also choose to reflect on the overwhelming obviousness that Intellectual Property is probably the only asset that gives your company its value. It isn't your bricks and mortar, your inventory, your capital investment. Another survey states - and this one is actually much more telling - that Knowledge accounts for, on average, 67% of the net worth of every corporate entity. So, if I was you, I'd better start looking after it. if you haven't already started. You may have a facilities manger but where is your knowledge manage? And if you have one, are they in the right place and are they actually managing knowledge.

It probably isn't surprising then that many companies - at least those who have got the point - have established a board position with responsibility to manage the knowledge processes, and implement those strategies and processes that will enhance this value further. The postings come under various business card guises; CEO, Knowledge Manager VP's, Chief Information Officers, Innovation Managers, Front Line Change Coordinators. If the company body have really been thinking with their heads on and not taking the first answer that they think of then hopefully have figured out that these positions do not necessarily have to fall within the shadow of the IT department. (Maybe I don't have you explain why to you but if I do drop me line and I'll send you my paper on the subject).

Internal Communication is often seen as something of an organisational poison chalice. And everyone, but absolutely everyone thinks they can do it better than the next person and has some, often less than constructive view, on it. How IC effectively works isn't just about intranet usage rates, or cascading briefs, the software, usability, or sorting data. That is, to be honest, the relatively easy bit. The real difficulty is the effect of the 'social software' within an organisation. What happens in and around and despite these mechanisms. Add to this the truism of every organisation, that everyone wants to change but nobody wants to change themselves. Getting people do something real and positive about improving communication requires developing a set of skills which is more akin to duck herding. Trying to get lots of individuals, with their own sensitivities, experiences, references and paranoia's and trying to get them all talking and moving in the same direction ( known as Quacking and Flapping in IC parlance). You need to delicately move them forwards without moving too quickly yourself so they all end up in the same place, without scaring them off to fly off somewhere else and onto somebody elses pond. Some people are really good at it. Most of us actually aren't, including many 'people persons' who truly believe they are.

With that in mind I've put together a few tips, which may or may not help people in coming to terms with their new job specification and working in the 21 st Century. How communication can effectively harness the talents of your colleagues and generate a truly innovative and empowered culture.

These are the twenty (or so) CEO/CIO/Knowledge manager's , or indeed any managers management principles of.. err...management

1. Don't always question.
I know it is what most of us do, and what the Gurus told you do in the old days of last year's fad management strategy. They implored us to 'Question everything. Challenge every assumption'. You still do that, just don't get obsessed with it. Instead, revitalise the casual conversations and information sharing as a normal business practice. And devote as much as half of your time to developing that dialogue. You can't expect to learn a lot just by challenging your staff. They will, more often than not, give you the answer they think you want, especially if they have to give answers off the cuff. Welcome, unreservedly, anothers thoughts and opinions and give them time to respond.

2. Establish a nil tolerance for Mediocre Practice but don't polarise the process and focus too much effort on establishing Best Practice.
Instead focus on ways to eliminate worse practice. When is best good enough anyway? A Best Practice will invariably come out in the end if you are initiating the other 19 ( or so) principles. Incrementally eliminating worst practice is a much quicker fix, for both you and the customer. In any case the question you should be asking is 'whose best practice are you adopting? Are you benchmarking yourself against the mediocre, the safe, and the obsolete? Is it a 'me too' action. Do you want to give Karaoke performance of Britney Spears or Ella Fitzgerald. For a lot of people Britney is good enough. But for some....?

3. Actions SHOUT.
I'd like to introduce you to the CASER principle, with apologies to Gordon Gould, the first man to use the word, laser, whose acronym I have blatantly hijacked. (Laser actually stands for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation for all you pub quizzers out there, which is why you shouldn't really spell it with a 'z'.)

I have made up my own version. CASER which stands for Creativity Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Results.

If you can vividly show the effect, good or bad that results from the implementation of their ideas then you reinforce the feed back of the original signal. Which is how a laser works. Show them that you take their ideas seriously, and they will trust you more seriously to share their ideas. It is absolutely not about a new staff suggestion scheme.

3. Actively Look Out.
Scan the horizon, not just through the myopia of market analysis or the telescope of your marketing or sales department. That is an awfully narrow field of view.

And have regard not just for at the usual suspects, the competitors in your field or your own market. Navel gazing eventually makes you look silly or deranged.

Most of the good ideas don't come from your own staff (Or you for that matter). You are not the stewards of all things 'magnificent'. Humbleness is truly attractive and inspiring. Acknowledgment of others contribution wins friends and accomplices, not just internally but with the external stakeholders too. Your customers will have way more ideas do how you product is and could be used.

4. Experiment Persistently.
Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of intellects however flawless their rationale.You can, and must, plan ahead to know where you want to go, and what steps you will have to make to get there. But then put the plan aside and focus on the first steps. Regularly stop to reflect on the action and repeat the process.

3. Let go of the need to be right. It's OK to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.
Your mistakes are your experience. Pass it on. If you malign failure, you destroy entrepreneurship, snuff out innovation and in the end you harm the company. If you "forgive and forget" because you want to be that great boss you always wanted to work for, that same mistake will be repeated twice or a dozen times. Failure is normal, accept it, move on but demand that lessons be learned and communicated through the entire organisation.

Expect no less from everyone in your organisation.

4. Empower but support
It is absolutely all right, positively, to give assignments to people who have never done that task before. The codicil is that, if you do, then it is your absolute responsibility as a manager to provide them with a network of expert advisors whom you trust. Legitimacy lies in competence as much as position in the organisation chart. Position without competence results in disaster. Competence without position results in helplessness.

5. Don't refer to the 'Internal organisation'.
Talk about specific people. Referring to other organisations of the company as "them" is laying the ground for future excuses about the lack of results for everyone.
Organisations are almost inevitably impersonal, complex, and change every 24 months anyway. People and communities however are far more stable, resilient and trustworthy.

7. Kill off internal client-supplier relationships.
The internal market approach is the very worst possible form of internal collaboration. A client-supplier relationship in a monopolistic environment is the epitome of bureaucracy. It damages the social network and value of the company and paralyzes its ability to solve problems for the customer. If you want to reinforce the silo mentality then ignoring this is the very best way of doing it.

8. Before deciding on a plan, always ask with whom the plan was discussed.
The raison d'etre of the corporate manager is not to come up with the bright ideas, but with ideas shared with other stakeholders. Reject all proposals and action plans bearing only the signatures of your staff or the CE0 for that matter. Ooop's, Did I say that out loud?

9. Involve people collectively in your thinking.
If you merely want compliance (at best) rather than real commitment then use managerial authority to deploy programs and plans from the top-down. Then you can buy a ticket and sit back and watch it all unravel. If you want people to adopt your views and act accordingly, you must engage in meaningful conversations with them, and not "cascade down" or "communicate messages"by e-mail. If you have a teenager you will l know exactly what I mean.

Think about the power of stories. No-one is won over by a PowerPoint slide, a chart, other people's quotations, or an Excel spread sheet. Well they shouldn't be. Nor will they ever adopt for themselves another persons goals. Intellectually in the short term it may possibly: the short term in this case being the five minutes after the Ra-Ra speech until the next problem hits them as they get back to their desk. For medium or long-term participation you need to connect emotionally. How to do that? Well that is the tricky part and the reason why 99.999% of all managers, including you and me are not Steve Jobs.

10. Management is not so much about delegating to individuals than about organising and empowering groups.
Effective action ("execution") in any organisation is all about coordination and synchronization. Speed of execution is best achieved by self-synchronisation of competent people who understand and trust each other. The first job of a manager is to detect who these people are and make sure they work together in the right setting (working group, project team, community of practice...) Or separate them if they or in a dysfunctional group. .

11. It's not about giving objectives.
It's about making sure they understand your intent. If they really understand your goals and if it makes sense to them, they will figure out what to do by themselves. It is by far more difficult to articulate a clear intent than to give objectives. Those that figure out that particular trick are the true leaders. Remember the power of the story in communication of this intent.

12. Never give targets without negotiating them first.
Giving measurable quantitative targets without negotiating them with those responsible for making it happen is just bad and poor management. But negotiate hard and if you do shift their comfort zone, give them the support to deliver. Not an excuse to fail.

13. Don't Squirrel knowledge
Don't think that you always know what information is 'good' for your staff. Let them know what you know, give them access to every document you have, unless it is explicitly confidential or for a damn good reason. Don't work on a "need to know" basis. No one ever said 'Oh, that Barry bloke, he communicated way too much'. Let them sort out the information overload. There are plenty of tools and tricks to help them. Even if you do cocoon them they will always find out indirectly but via the noise half-truths, conjecture, second-guessing, the water cooler whispers and arrive, probably, completely at the wrong picture. Paranoia is a part of almost every human activity so don't give it more oxygen. It is far easier to manage any fallout than motivate the disenchanted.

14. History is good- Look back.
Balance market studies, action plans, specifications etc. with case studies, lessons learned, good practices. Spend some time reflecting on past experiences. And ingrain all new employees and stakeholders with the story. Encourage the promotion of the myths and legends. Commitment to the past reaffirms the company's culture and the brand.

15. Don't promote people that sound smart, but those who make sure that smart things happen.
The company's promotion process is the primary driver of employees' emotional positivity. It isn't, no matter what you may think about money, or perks or glory, at least the truly valuable people in your organisation. It can build or destroy confidence or simply reinforce the CGAS attitude.(CGAS is an ancronym I will let you work out for yourself)

16. Don't expect dedication from someone who fears for his job.
All efforts are stalled by the fear of job loss. If you need to fire people, do it at warp speed, and make sure it appears to all as an exceptional event. Don't subscribe to the deadly spiral of cost cutting.

17. Never manipulate your staff. You actually can't!
Employees are hypersensitive to inconsistencies and incoherence across an organisation. They immediately detect every ripple of manipulation when they hear conflicting messages. Largely, because they are looking for them and we come circling right back to the paranoia thing again. Establish trusted relations with your peers first. Trust is the bandwidth of communication.

Juts one big note. Poor e-mail communication, drip feeding strategies, poorly timed. (Never send mission critical stuff out on Friday) is the fuel of inconsistency. Fast isn't always best.

18. Get yourself a knowledge technology coach.
Communication and collaboration technologies are dramatically changing. E-mail is becoming extinct. You need to up your game.

19 and 20. Ask yourself and everyone else you can think of, this question
What are you going to do to make sure you and your organisation have mastery of the flow of knowledge, bearing in mind that this skill will probably be your only competitive advantage next year?

OK, maybe you wont get around to it all by next Thursday.

Idea Amplification

Bounce your thoughts.

Just like it’s hard to play basketball without a backboard; it’s hard to be

creative alone. Especially if you’re a solo entrepreneur, independent

consultant or spare room tycoon with employees, no coworkers or

nobody to take a five-minute break with to talk about your (potentially)

cool new idea.

Make sure you have at least fifteen people – each of whom are totally

different in their thinking styles and backgrounds – whom you can call upon

at a moment’s notice to bounce ideas off of. Also make sure that when they

take the time out of their busy day to be your creative backboard, you buy

lunch.

Remember: Creativity perishes in a vacuum.

What habits are preventing your best ideas from seeing the light of day?

Who might assist you in developing the ability to share your ideas?

And how many smart, cool people did you take out to lunch last week?

Creativity Bootcamp prologue

I am often asked about developing new ideas and just how to you actually start. For many people the barrier they have to overcome is simply a frustration, fueled by a  feeling of lack of confidence. Which is understandable but strange. Creativity is an art they haven't practiced probably since they were six. At six they were brilliant at it. When you were six you did things for yourself, not because you had a target to meet or a sales figure to hit or a KPI to acheive but because you just could. There was no agenda, no reason, no justification, no peer respect. No sense of failure.

Which that means that for most of us now, with the pressures and burdens we carry (Mostly in our heads) that in most cases we just simply don't know, or don't remember, where to begin; whether it is in looking at how we might improve an old process or developing a new service or product, or fashioning a new idea that differentiates the business from the commodity fog. There are tons of books out there, and I think I’ve read most of them, on how to brainstorm, how to get in the zone, how to be creative. I think most of them do miss the point, which to me is the relevancy of creativity to what we could, grandiosely, call the Human Condition but prefer  to call Spirit.  It’s what makes us who we are. And we have, for the most part, lost that element of our experience. I feel the loss comes directly through our addiction to the concept of not failing.

Creativity means doing it for yourself, just because you can. Beethoven wrote sublime music not to pay his taxes, …you can add you own favourite artist in here from the list of thousands….Most entrepreneurs don’t actually create businesses for the money.  They may hide behind that but if you talk to most of them, once they have it,  it’s about creating something out of nothing.

Creativity is more of a state of mind.  Create for yourself, with no agenda and the ‘for ‘comes later, if there is a for.

To me Creativity is about; 

the  Horizon, not point.

The Process, not answer.

The Ball, not scoreboard.

The Discovery, not answers.

The Pursuit, not attainment.

The Journey, not destination.

Grab  a coffee, go fro a walk. Let yourself run free with those ideas for a bit. 

Not so easy? I'll be back soon with the next bit to explain a bit more about what I mean.

 

Pic of the week

When all the world around you seems to be crumbling, it's nice to see an eternal optimist.

My new elevator statement

86 % of over 300 CEO's  surveyed state that innovation is in the top three priorities for their organisation.  

Less than 10% had an innovation management programme in place.  

We show them how to fill that gap.

Idea filter tool

OK, you have a room full of post it notes, , a blizzard of flip charts, a list of product or service  ideas. You have brainstormed until your  grey matter is dry and wrung out like a window washers rag. 

How do you know which idea  is going to work and is worth pursuing?

If you can't answer yes to any of these three questions the answer is simple, bin it. Somewhere where you can find it later though - The present may just not be ready for it yet.

Here you go.

1. Does this idea fundamentally change the value chain of the client. Are they getting something that they would perceive as having added value?

2. Will this idea fundamentally change the expectations of the customers.

3. Will this  change the competitive landscape of the industry.

If you answer YES to any of these then move on to two more questions ..

4. Will you be making a contribution

3. Can you make money from this idea?

If the answer is Yes to the last two then congratulations.  You have an idea that stands some chance of success.

That was the easy part. Next comes the hard part. Innovation. How you get that idea out there.

Hitting the floor running

I’m often, in my workshops and in coaching business leaders, looking at trends and how organisations  can adapt internally to position themselves to captilise on the opportunities. Much of that time currently is spent putting into perspective the fact that we've always had downturns; there's still plenty of growth opportunities. One thing is for sure, that applying creativity to those plans and making innovation the heart beat of an organisation, to hit the floor running when the ties loosen and things start to get moving again, isn’t just a nice thing to think about, or have, but is fundamental.

What has become evident is that probably the most pressing issue for leaders today is in bringing things back to the core. While uncertainty and chaos disrupts global markets, there continue to be the basic truths that still apply: understanding your industry, competition, skills requirements, the gap in capabilities, but most importantly understanding your customer and the ability to respond their requirements quickly and effectively, are the factors that will define any organisations’s future success. Thinking outside the box is all well and good But you still have to look in your own box too to see what really is there. But in a different way

So what can you do right now to make sure you are at least on the starting blocks when the pistol is fired?

Think expand.
In the current climate it undoubtedly is depressing and demoralising and it's all too easy right now to lose your motivation and direction. Don't let that happen! The future is out there still! So think opportunity: Apple, GM, (Bad example ;-)MIcosoft were all founded in periods of recession.

Check your reaction times
Agility is the key word. You have to have a team that can react to opportunities faster than the competition. That means giving them the freedom to make decisions, not bodychecked by internal processes and management pyramids. Allow them to take real responsibility for their own budgets and have fixed goal posts that everyone understands. Your people are better than you think. Let them think.

Immerse in creativity. 

Idea generation is now at warp speed- products are insect like in their life span.  but appear out of nowhere. Here today, gone tomorrow. Twitter didn’t ‘exist’ 12 months ago until Stephen Fry talked about it on national TV. Audio Boo is about to take it on head to head. Rapid product change is not just desirable its what is happening now: we don’t have choice in dealing with it, reacting to it and embracing it. We just have to face it.

Check your knowledge.
Your abililty to access ever more scarce, specialized skills will define your future success. It's your ability to establish a fast, agile, quick-to-assemble collaborative team that will define your ability to grab all the opportunity that is emerging out there. If you don’t have, it get it. Creative talent is your most valuable asset. Not mini-me’s and karoake ideation. Look outside your industry. A sign of a truly crap company, waiting like a dinosaur for the meteor to hit, is their recruitment advert which says must have xxx years experience in such and such an industry. The job that should be advertised in that company is for a new CEO .

Know thine enemies.
Where are the threats likely to be coming from? Could new business models, technologies, new regulatory , political or social trends impact your bottom line in a way that you hadn't thought of before? The biggest clothing retailers are now the supermarkets!

Scout for talent.
Heads and ideas are your most precious asset and are going to be a scarcer resource. Just as football team scout the playing field of the world you must do the same. And don’t look in the normal places such as the Universities; look outside, at the new entrepreneurs, the children in school enterprise clubs and develop the management skills to utilise these in the best way for them, not you. People leave bosses, they don’t leave companies. The rewards in developing your talent pool are way above any ROI calculation. 


Define your voice.
You have to keep people focused on the future. Leadership is all about keeping your team focused on opportunity and goals, and then carrying the water for them to deliver. Positivity, talking about the future and consistency reinforce that. If you waver, so will they and then you are on pushing a snowball up a volcano.

Visualisation demi-God

I'm a great fan of napkins and  pencils. 

I think I'm on my 167th   little Black notebook. It serves as my idea engine and data capture system.  Not just words but doodles and  images ,  clouds and mind maps.  I find for me and I know not everyone is the same, that visualising a process or route cause helps enormously.   My office is a blizzard of post it notes, on all four walls.  Its amazing what you can  achieve with just four colours and some electricians tape to give you the lines.

Anyway  I came across this by Paul Hughes and  I just love this approach and would just like to lick this off the screen. It looks so good. 

 

Follow this for the full presentation at flckr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulhughes/sets/72157603312387650/show/

This is a tough time for people who don’t like change.

Which is the most successful company in your sector? Depends what you mean by success of course. The chances are it’s the one that applies imagination and creativity to meet their customer needs.

Who is the most valuable person in your business?
It’s the girl or guy who actively think, and then helps others to think and provide solutions. Sometimes referred to as the mavericks, rebels, oddballs - they probably have a surfboard strung up over their desk. Sweeping stereotype there but my apologies. I just liked the image in my head.

And who is the happiest person you know? Again what do we mean by happy? I'd venture that it is the one person you know who has found the point where their passions and talents meet.

What do all the three have in common? Well apart from feeling very proud of themselves, and so they should, you could say that each has found a way to plug into and use their creative power within themselves.

But, before we go on, let me tell you what creativity isn’t.

The word creativity has been hijacked somewhere along the line. Its use now is as a catchall, encompassing word, sometimes applied in a slightly derogatory way especially when used by those who ‘don’t get it’ to describe the slightly bohemian, hippyfied amongst us or those people who march to a different drum - It is used as both and adjective and a verb those that write paint, play, dance, sculpt, do stuff with their hands, generally hang around at Hobbycraft. It is often accompanied by a slight shaking of an exasperated head. We have a guy in Barnsley who wears shorts, knee high scarlet socks and matching bobble hat every day of the year; He is just brilliant and you can see him marching proudly around our shopping centre almost everyday in any weather. Is he creative or just weird? Bit of both really

So here is my view; It's so much broader than that - you just can't describe just how broad an impact it has made and will continue to make in our World.

Creativity is what happens when imagination has focus; innovation is what happens when creativity has a bottom line; enterprise is what happens when innovation meets ability, entreprenurship is what happens when all the aforementioned are put on the same cart and passion becomes the fuel.

And, if you ask most entrapraneurs, which is what I do a lot in my innovator workshops ; after they get over the shock of realising that they can actually make money from something they love most will say that it’s the fulfillment of creating something from nothing that makes them warm and fuzzy. And then it’s a compulsion to do it again and again. They like the money too, obviously. Now that is creativity. OK it’s a bit of simple analysis I grant you but at least it gets you thinking. And lets me move on a bit.

To this bit actually - There are roughly 6000 languages spoken in the World, ( although we have just lost Manx apparently) These weren’t dreamt up spontaneously by the dictionary compilers or an infinite number of blindfold monkeys with typewriters but by humanity's inherent ability to create. There is a glorious bloke down my road who has some fantastic flower beds. Bob at Number 48 is linked directly, in so many ways both genetically (Obviously as I now know from the current avalanche of of books articles and programmes on the subject) and spiritually, to another eminent biologist and current media flavour of the year, Charles Darwin - Why does it take an anniversary to remind us just how blooming remarkable people are. Each, in their own way, required a certain spark to illuminate, the ability to look at things in a different way, to see a new pattern.

But I am digressing slightly. Why is creativity or innovation so vital and especially now in our current economic and social conditions? Well some would say the current situation is largely the result of 'karaoke' thinking in the banking industry, an exercise in bandwagon riding over the edge of a cliff as it happens and innovation impotence. The old ways, methods and rule books are having to be torn up. The impact and success of companies will now depend on as much as the ethical way they do business, their CSR programmes and how they manage their customer relationships to establish trust and credibility as much as the value of product or service they market. Innovation and different thinking has never been so keenly needed to be enabled universally, not just by individuals but by every public and private organisation.

Innovative companies attract innovative thinkers which contributes to them becoming more innovative and attracts the….so the cycle goes on. What are you doing to day to address the innovation gap?

You may like to reflect on this. ‘Creativity can be applied to any aspect of human endeavor and enterprise’. Well there is brassy and bold statement. Certainly it can be used to improve or change a process, or a product, or a service, or to improve a relationship.

For what its worth I beleive that anyone can be creative. the label 'creativity' applies to just any progressive thinking. The creative superstar starts to think where the others stop. They break out of pattern, they zig while the others zag. You both get there in the end but they go a different route. By doing so they uniquely separate themselves out from the rest. And, curiously they appear to have a hell of a lot more fun and fulfillment than the zaggers in doing so. The happiest person you know? Maybe, probably.

The really good news, and this is really, really good news, is that anyone and any organisation can learn to harness creativity in all its manifestations. Its not hard. Learning to unleash your creativity is like learning to play golf. We can all swing a club and hit a ball ( except my mum) but that every so often anyone can connect and hit that one beautiful shot. It is the promise of repeating that shot that keeps us coming back for more. Everyone has that in them, the possibility to hit a hole-in-one but…. not all of us can be Tiger Woods. Creativity requires practice and the more you practice the better you get. But somebody has to show you how to do it right to start off or help you so you can experience that feeling of the sweet sound of connection and power as the ball flies into the sky often as possible.

Alternatively you and your colleagues can be (un)happy with your lot,and sit feeling sorry for yourself, quietly fermenting in the culture of mediocrity. Conformity and risk aversion has come home to roost and he is a big, big turkey with a bad attitude.

If you were to ask me, and I hope you are, embracing creativity and innovation, at its fundamental core, is the recognition of the fact that that we don’t know everything but it’s really fun trying to. Well that’s the answer I would give today, but I’m not sure about tomorrow. None of us are. That is the point. But what I am sure of is that the only people who will lead us out of this mess are those that can truly embrace change, and apply their creativity muscles.

Darwin was right on so many levels. We have before our own eyes proof that it is not the Survival of the Fattest. It is those that can adapt most quickly to opportunities that survive and flourish. And we have a tool that surpasses every other leaping, flying, jumping, seeing, skill. Our minds. An incredible tool that can visualise a Billion futures and a Billion solutions. We had better start learning how to use them again.

The next big thing? Remember the date you saw this.

Following on from my creativity crisis  blog and my railing against the education system which was a bit of a rant,  every so often you see something which simply blows you away and just reinvigorates your own creativity levels and faith in what the human mind can deliver, if it is let loose with imagination and what if' questions.

Wondering what the next  must have product will be? The product that will redefine  the market place, for pretty well everything? The product that makes the IPod look like an abacus. Here is the answer! Remember the date you saw it.

ASTONISHING!!!

The Creativity Crisis

One of my current clients is presenting me with a series of  quite challenging problems based around  the question "How to engage business and the educators  so that they link together and help collaboratively to develop our children's full potential?' 

The focus, ('cos that is where the government funding comes from, bless them)  is on the basic skills and developing literacy and numeracy, which, of course are vital. 

The problem is that they seem to miss a very big point. That creativity lies at the root of everything. The ability to think differently, to break patterns, to not mind making a mistake. Without that we produce simply Russian dolls  who can take exams... stop me before I get too carried away and  do some real damage...

Innovation is creativity with a bottom line.  Enterprise is creativity applied commercially.

Following is a video from 2006 ago from my fellow scouser Sir Ken . 

And a quote from 1776...  'the greater part of what is taught in schools and universisties.. does not seem to be the proper preparation for that of business'  The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith. 

Not much has changed really has it?

This video should be  statutory viewing for every teacher on their first day of each term, for every educational administrator before every budget meeting; for every politician at every photo opportunity with a child;  and for every  parent, whenever they wonder if they are doing 'the Right thing'

Please pass it on. Please, please  pass it on. 

Sheffield Buzzes

My thanks to all the attendees at the Big Start-up workshop in Sheffield yesterday. Just a joy to see and share the enthusiasms and passions. 

Alex, great to see you back on fire  and Tim, just one authentic and inspiring bloke.

Is this the smartest guy you have ever heard?

The future is here and it is now!

'Nothing really good has been invented yet'.

Isn't that the most exciting phrase you ever ever have heard?

Creativity- what's it all about then?

Creativity explained 

Zapparisms

Reading Daniel Gilbert's book  came  across an attributed brilliant quote from Frank Zappa

'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture'

to which I would add

'writing about creativity is like juggling about sculpture'

add you own...

Innovation handbook for CFO's

With over 25 years experience of throwing myself at brick walls of various heights and thickness, trying to develop a culture of innovation and creativity in a wide range or organisations I can say, without any shred of doubt, that the biggest barrier to establishing an innovation culture is convincing senior management of its value, and exactly how to measure its impact to justify investment.

Less than 1% of companies have any innovation performance metrics and reporting systems in place but that 1% are the top performers in their sectors A coincidence maybe. Are you mad?

The word cloud below illustrates some of the key  considerations and serves as a memory jogger for senior management. Or, you can simply carry on as you are, and watch as your competitors harness their innovation and creative talent and burst out of the recession first, leaving you trailing in their wake.  

I know what I'm doing today.

Innovation word cloud

In a recent presentation to a group of CEO's in Yorkshire ' Innovation, the key to recession survival'  I was trying to sum up what should or could be management's approach to innovation and adjusting their organisation's mindset. 

Hope this helps

20 20 hindsight Wish more people would be so honest

Here is a really Interesting post from the guys at one of my associates regarding their predictions for 2008 in internet development

http://tinyurl.com/92ys44

What does 2009 hold for you?

Recession opportunity

I'm posting this as a reblog from my personal hero and innovation guru Phil Mckiney. You can find him at Killer innovations Phil is the CTO for one of the top 20 Innovation companies in the World, so it is interesting to to get his views on the opportunity that the Credit Crunch opens up, to people with a vision. I'd only add that I think it applies to NGO's, NFP's and indeed any organisation. In fact never have innovation champions and active management been more sorely needed.

'With the recent economic downturn, the world is changing. More and more people are waking up to the new reality that they don't understand the fundamentals of the new economy.

What drives share price? What has changed?

What makes up share price? Over the last twenty years, we have seen the decreasing role of book value (machinery, buildings, etc.) on the overall market value for public companies. What is replacing book value is the value attributed to intangibles (ideas, innovations, management teams, etc.) In 1978, market value for US public companies was 95% of the book value. Twenty years later, book value was just 28% of market value while 82% was made up of intangibles.

Not all intangibles are equal. I would argue that intangibles that don't ultimately create value (e.g. the skill to create complex financial instruments such as re-packaging mortgages did not create any value) should be valued at or near zero. Investors believed in the value of these intangibles to later find out that there wasn't any real value being created. What was missing was increased transparency of the value attributed to the intangibles.

So is there a bright spot in this economic downturn?

One look at intangibles tied to innovation is the the Innovation Index(1), a weighted stock price index of the top 20 innovators in North America. The Innovation Index fund returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). By comparison, the S & P 500 returned 28% the NASDAQ returned 34% and the Dow Jones Index returned 30% thru December 31, 2007. More recently, the Innovation Index Fund is up 9% in 2008 through September 19 (per there blog site). I haven't checked recently but I'm sure it hasn't been completely immune to the most recent market issues.

How does the Innovation Index select companies that create real value from innovation?

Keep in mind that this one of many ways to look at the value from ideas/innovation but the The Innovation Index lists their criteria as:

Rankings of world’s top innovative companies as published by BusinessWeek and Boston Consulting Group
Rankings of the top Innovators as published by Forbes, Fortune and other business publications
Analysis of revenue, earnings, cash flow and management performance
Assessment of the tangible value of the Innovators including their brand value
Historical analysis of launched innovations – products, acquisitions, pricing, distribution, business model, services, process – and their impact on current and future revenue and earnings growth
Analysis of planned market innovations and potential revenue growth
Independent analysis by S & P, Zack’s, Barron’s, IBD and related resources
Complete analysis of the Innovators’ customers, competitors, environment and macro-economic factors that could impact their growth and stock performance
Wherever possible, interviews with key members of the management
As the economy churns (thanks to the global marketplace), investors need to put a higher premium on the capacity to translate ideas into innovations. Some organizations may make the disastrous decision to cut-back or stop their investment in innovation at exactly the wrong time such as this economic downturn. Those that cut innovation may never recover when the market comes back.

How will this play out in the economic recovery?

In this new world, the winners during the economic recovery will be companies with an innovation culture, an established methodology to create and capture ideas along with a creative labor force that can translate the best ideas into innovations.

Are you posed to be a winner? If not, now is the time to get ready ...

Painting the picture

A few of my clients, and myself included are going through some curious times, trying to evaluate the direction and plan their next steps, reacting to the current financial crisis - or maybe is it an opportunity to do something different?

The beautiful question is here to help and today to HELP people imagine what they need to become in order for their goals to manifest. Today that means to ask questions that will help them ( and me) imagine in detail what they want to acheive


1. What will this decision look like in 10 years?

2. For your life to be perfect, what would have to change?

3. What kind of person do you definitely NOT want to become?

4. Is this experience helping you become the best version of yourself?

5. If you pursued this dream, what would your life look like in 30 days?

6. What would REAL fulfillment look like in this area if you were truly living your life purpose?

We need to position ourselves in the future to EMPOWER people to speak from the future, then look back to identify the steps that led there.


1. How do you want the world to know you 3-5 years from now?

2. What three things can you do TODAY to increase your freedom tomorrow?

3. Look ahead six months: standing there, what decisions would you make today?

4. What three small acts you could take today to prepare for the life or work that you’d like?

5. What steps need to be taken to make you feel like you’ve achieved a Return on Investment from this new endeavor?

6. What has to happen in the next year for us to be able to look back and say, “That was best possible use of our efforts”?

Then we need to ask questions to INSPIRE people to paint a compelling, detailed picture of the desired future and make meaningful strides toward it.


1. What would your life look like right now if you were truly healthy?

2. If everyone did exactly what you said, what would the world look like?

3. What are the essential features of the world you want to live in so you can be your best?

4. When you imagine living the life you want, how do you see yourself starting your day?

5. What would REAL fulfillment look like in this area if you were truly living your life purpose?

6. What if, overnight, a miracle occurred, and you woke up tomorrow morning and the problem was solved – what would be the first thing you would notice?

There is nothing more powerful than a question

There is nothing more powerful than a question.

A question can ENABLE learning.
A question can PREDICT the future.
A question can EXPLODE people’s brains.
A question can CRACK open a new world.
A question can ENLIST your creativity.
A question can SEND you off to the races.
A question can CUT deeply, yet playfully.
A question can VISUALISE ideal conditions.
A question can EMPOWER others to turn inward.
A question can FORCE you to confront yourself.
A question can FUNCTION as that little nudge, push, tipping point or last straw you needed.

In my experience as a writer, speaker, coach and entrepreneur, the most important moments in my career have revolved around asking myself specific, profound questions.

Questions that shifted my paradigm.
Questions that changed my business model.
Questions that doubled and tripled my annual income.

In the coming posts I'll share with you the the questions that I think are the most important, so set up your feed, book mark and please just pay it forward.

Take care out there

Quote of the day

If the wind isn't blowing, you had better start rowing

The story is the thing

I received this from one of my mentors this week. Think it says better than I just why i spend so much time on teaching the art of the story to my clients

'This week a subscriber asked me if I'd do a More Clients on the topic of trust. This is an important topic, in fact marketing is all about trust. It's about how you create it, build it and maintain it.

But what is trust anyway?

We all know that trust is about keeping our word and doing a great job and maintaining our integrity. But that's only the foundation. All of that is required just to stay in business.

Much more important is understanding that trust is a story you tell your prospects and clients every day. And if you tell the right story, the ultimate outcome is that people feel good about doing business with you (and then tell others).

Very few people actually think, "Can I trust this person, can I trust this business?" And even fewer people ask for solid evidence on which to base this trust (credentials, education, track record).

No, instead we listen to the story the business is telling us. And if the story fits the way we see the world, if the story is authentic, and if the story makes us feel good, then trust grows automatically.

In fact, we make decisions about trusting a business or a professional in just a few moments. You see, the story of a business is conveyed by every single visual, verbal and sensory message delivered to the
prospect.

And the reaction is almost instantaneous.

You shake someone's hand and they don't look you in the eye. You come to their web site and the design is dull. You read the headline on the site and you feel confused. When you send an email asking a question, the answer takes days and doesn't really give you the information you were looking for.

How does all of this make you feel?

Any brilliant story about your services was drowned out by the delivery of that story. Trust plummets. And it doesn't matter to the prospect how great you are at delivering your service or what wonderful results you've had with past clients or how many diplomas are hanging on your wall.

The story you communicate goes way beyond the content of the story. The story, as far as the prospect is concerned, is the way the story is packaged. In fact, the story IS the package.

So if you want to build trust, you've got to tell a story that makes your prospect think, "Wow, this makes sense, this feels good, this feels right, this is exactly what I'm looking for!"

And then you need to keep telling that story at every single step of the marketing process: when someone asks what you do, when they look at and read your web site, and when they call you with a question.

When you do all of this, believe me, they'll end up doing business with you and telling others, because it FEELS GOOD doing business with you. You'll be giving them exactly what they want and they will put themselves completely in your hands.

Now that's trust.

Make it your highest priority to build trust by telling stories that engender trust. Make your story authentic. Make it passionate. Make it sincere. Make it fun. And realize that, above all, your story goes way, way beyond words.

What story are you already telling your prospects? Look at how you're presenting your business in person, on the phone, on the web, in print, and by email.

If someone else were telling the story you are currently telling, would you trust them? Or would you run the other way?


The More Clients Bottom Line: You communicate trust through the stories you tell. And if the story engages your prospect and makes them feel good, you can consider yourself a master marketer.


What story are you telling your prospects that makes them trust you? '

Seth gets it too.

Don't you just love it when somebody else agrees with you. For twenty years I've been talking and teaching about the importance of the story in markeltng and now our mentor in one of his recent pots says much the same thing. We have never spoken but I really really really like Seth Godin. He must be clever. He agrees with everything I say Here is his post.

You really don't understand a concept until you know what it's made of. The taxonomy of marketing (filled with a bazillion tactics) is murky at best. The tactics are so numerous, expensive and sometimes emotional that we easily focus on the urgent instead of the important. Perhaps we could try a different approach:

Never mind the "P"s. Marketing has five elements:

DataStoriesProducts (services)InteractionsConnection
DATA is observational. What do people actually do? Wal-Mart uses data to decide if an end cap is working. Google Adwords advertisers use data to decide which copy delivers clicks and sales. The library can use data to decide which books to buy (and not to buy). Paco Underhill uses data to turbo charge retail. Data is powerful, overlooked and sometimes mistaken for boring. You don't have to understand the why, you merely need to know the what.

STORIES define everything you say and do. The product has a myth, the service has a legend. Marketing applies to every person, every job, every service and every organization. That's because all we can work with as humans is stories. I want to argue that data and stories are the two key building blocks of marketing--the other three are built on these two.

PRODUCTS (and services) are physical manifestations of the story. If your story is that you are cutting edge and faster/newer/better, then your products better be. Average products for average people is a common story, but not one that spreads. When in doubt, re-imagine the product. Push it to be the story, to live the story, to create a myth.

INTERACTIONS are all the tactics the marketer uses to actually touch the prospect or customer. Interactions range from spam to billboards, from the way you answer the phone to the approach you take to an overdue bill. Interactions are the hero of marketing, because there are so many and most of them are cheap. Unfortunately, all lazy marketers can do is buy ads or spam people. Which creates an interaction that belies your story, right?

CONNECTION is the highest level of enlightenment, the end goal. Connection between you and the customer, surely, but mostly connection between customers. Great marketers create bands of brothers, tribes of people who wish each other well and want to belong. Get the first four steps right and you may get a shot at this one.

Some questions marketers must ask: Does this interaction lead to connections? Do our products support our story? Is the story pulling in numbers that demonstrate that it's working?

In that light, what are you working on? If it's not one of these five, not going to seriously change the dynamic of your marketing, why exactly are you bothering?

My guess is that your organization spends almost all of its time on the interactions. Once you see the world through the prism of the five pieces, you can get in balance. Or, you could be Jack.

Google quote for today

Today's Google Quote just made me smile and I;d like to preserve it for more than just 24 hours.

'My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared.'

Better than Free

Better Than Free
[Translations: Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese]

I was directed to this blog by a friend of mine and i agree with her that this probably one of the modst inciteful posts I've ever read on the market, trends expectations and comunciations stickiness that we must use in internal and external audience engagement.

Kevin Kelly is just one astute dude. Wish I had written it.

The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times. IT companies make a lot of money selling equipment that facilitates this ceaseless copying. Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.

Our digital communication network has been engineered so that copies flow with as little friction as possible. Indeed, copies flow so freely we could think of the internet as a super-distribution system, where once a copy is introduced it will continue to flow through the network forever, much like electricity in a superconductive wire. We see evidence of this in real life. Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with internet, it will be copied, and those copies never leave. Even a dog knows you can't erase something once it's flowed on the internet.



This super-distribution system has become the foundation of our economy and wealth. The instant reduplication of data, ideas, and media underpins all the major economic sectors in our economy, particularly those involved with exports -- that is, those industries where the US has a competitive advantage. Our wealth sits upon a very large device that copies promiscuously and constantly.

Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of free copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies?

I have an answer. The simplest way I can put it is thus:

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Well, what can't be copied?

There are a number of qualities that can't be copied. Consider "trust." Trust cannot be copied. You can't purchase it. Trust must be earned, over time. It cannot be downloaded. Or faked. Or counterfeited (at least for long). If everything else is equal, you'll always prefer to deal with someone you can trust. So trust is an intangible that has increasing value in a copy saturated world.

There are a number of other qualities similar to trust that are difficult to copy, and thus become valuable in this network economy. I think the best way to examine them is not from the eye of the producer, manufacturer, or creator, but from the eye of the user. We can start with a simple user question: why would we ever pay for anything that we could get for free? When anyone buys a version of something they could get for free, what are they purchasing?

From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free.

In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them "generatives." A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.

Eight Generatives Better Than Free

Immediacy -- Sooner or later you can find a free copy of whatever you want, but getting a copy delivered to your inbox the moment it is released -- or even better, produced -- by its creators is a generative asset. Many people go to movie theaters to see films on the opening night, where they will pay a hefty price to see a film that later will be available for free, or almost free, via rental or download. Hardcover books command a premium for their immediacy, disguised as a harder cover. First in line often commands an extra price for the same good. As a sellable quality, immediacy has many levels, including access to beta versions. Fans are brought into the generative process itself. Beta versions are often de-valued because they are incomplete, but they also possess generative qualities that can be sold. Immediacy is a relative term, which is why it is generative. It has to fit with the product and the audience. A blog has a different sense of time than a movie, or a car. But immediacy can be found in any media.

Personalization -- A generic version of a concert recording may be free, but if you want a copy that has been tweaked to sound perfect in your particular living room -- as if it were preformed in your room -- you may be willing to pay a lot. The free copy of a book can be custom edited by the publishers to reflect your own previous reading background. A free movie you buy may be cut to reflect the rating you desire (no violence, dirty language okay). Aspirin is free, but aspirin tailored to your DNA is very expensive. As many have noted, personalization requires an ongoing conversation between the creator and consumer, artist and fan, producer and user. It is deeply generative because it is iterative and time consuming. You can't copy the personalization that a relationship represents. Marketers call that "stickiness" because it means both sides of the relationship are stuck (invested) in this generative asset, and will be reluctant to switch and start over.

Interpretation -- As the old joke goes: software, free. The manual, $10,000. But it's no joke. A couple of high profile companies, like Red Hat, Apache, and others make their living doing exactly that. They provide paid support for free software. The copy of code, being mere bits, is free -- and becomes valuable to you only through the support and guidance. I suspect a lot of genetic information will go this route. Right now getting your copy of your DNA is very expensive, but soon it won't be. In fact, soon pharmaceutical companies will PAY you to get your genes sequence. So the copy of your sequence will be free, but the interpretation of what it means, what you can do about it, and how to use it -- the manual for your genes so to speak -- will be expensive.

Authenticity -- You might be able to grab a key software application for free, but even if you don't need a manual, you might like to be sure it is bug free, reliable, and warranted. You'll pay for authenticity. There are nearly an infinite number of variations of the Grateful Dead jams around; buying an authentic version from the band itself will ensure you get the one you wanted. Or that it was indeed actually performed by the Dead. Artists have dealt with this problem for a long time. Graphic reproductions such as photographs and lithographs often come with the artist's stamp of authenticity -- a signature -- to raise the price of the copy. Digital watermarks and other signature technology will not work as copy-protection schemes (copies are super-conducting liquids, remember?) but they can serve up the generative quality of authenticity for those who care.

Accessibility -- Ownership often sucks. You have to keep your things tidy, up-to-date, and in the case of digital material, backed up. And in this mobile world, you have to carry it along with you. Many people, me included, will be happy to have others tend our "possessions" by subscribing to them. We'll pay Acme Digital Warehouse to serve us any musical tune in the world, when and where we want it, as well as any movie, photo (ours or other photographers). Ditto for books and blogs. Acme backs everything up, pays the creators, and delivers us our desires. We can sip it from our phones, PDAs, laptops, big screens from where-ever. The fact that most of this material will be available free, if we want to tend it, back it up, keep adding to it, and organize it, will be less and less appealing as time goes on.

Embodiment -- At its core the digital copy is without a body. You can take a free copy of a work and throw it on a screen. But perhaps you'd like to see it in hi-res on a huge screen? Maybe in 3D? PDFs are fine, but sometimes it is delicious to have the same words printed on bright white cottony paper, bound in leather. Feels so good. What about dwelling in your favorite (free) game with 35 others in the same room? There is no end to greater embodiment. Sure, the hi-res of today -- which may draw ticket holders to a big theater -- may migrate to your home theater tomorrow, but there will always be new insanely great display technology that consumers won't have. Laser projection, holographic display, the holodeck itself! And nothing gets embodied as much as music in a live performance, with real bodies. The music is free; the bodily performance expensive. This formula is quickly becoming a common one for not only musicians, but even authors. The book is free; the bodily talk is expensive.

Patronage -- It is my belief that audiences WANT to pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to connect. But they will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable amount, and they feel certain the money will directly benefit the creators. Radiohead's recent high-profile experiment in letting fans pay them whatever they wished for a free copy is an excellent illustration of the power of patronage. The elusive, intangible connection that flows between appreciative fans and the artist is worth something. In Radiohead's case it was about $5 per download. There are many other examples of the audience paying simply because it feels good.

Findability -- Where as the previous generative qualities reside within creative digital works, findability is an asset that occurs at a higher level in the aggregate of many works. A zero price does not help direct attention to a work, and in fact may sometimes hinder it. But no matter what its price, a work has no value unless it is seen; unfound masterpieces are worthless. When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention -- and most of it free -- being found is valuable.

The giant aggregators such as Amazon and Netflix make their living in part by helping the audience find works they love. They bring out the good news of the "long tail" phenomenon, which we all know, connects niche audiences with niche productions. But sadly, the long tail is only good news for the giant aggregators, and larger mid-level aggregators such as publishers, studios, and labels. The "long tail" is only lukewarm news to creators themselves. But since findability can really only happen at the systems level, creators need aggregators. This is why publishers, studios, and labels (PSL)will never disappear. They are not needed for distribution of the copies (the internet machine does that). Rather the PSL are needed for the distribution of the users' attention back to the works. From an ocean of possibilities the PSL find, nurture and refine the work of creators that they believe fans will connect with. Other intermediates such as critics and reviewers also channel attention. Fans rely on this multi-level apparatus of findability to discover the works of worth out of the zillions produced. There is money to be made (indirectly for the creatives) by finding talent. For many years the paper publication TV Guide made more money than all of the 3 major TV networks it "guided" combined. The magazine guided and pointed viewers to the good stuff on the tube that week. Stuff, it is worth noting, that was free to the viewers. There is little doubt that besides the mega-aggregators, in the world of the free many PDLs will make money selling findability -- in addition to the other generative qualities.

These eight qualities require a new skill set. Success in the free-copy world is not derived from the skills of distribution since the Great Copy Machine in the Sky takes care of that. Nor are legal skills surrounding Intellectual Property and Copyright very useful anymore. Nor are the skills of hoarding and scarcity. Rather, these new eight generatives demand an understanding of how abundance breeds a sharing mindset, how generosity is a business model, how vital it has become to cultivate and nurture qualities that can't be replicated with a click of the mouse.

In short, the money in this networked economy does not follow the path of the copies. Rather it follows the path of attention, and attention has its own circuits.

Careful readers will note one conspicuous absence so far. I have said nothing about advertising. Ads are widely regarded as the solution, almost the ONLY solution, to the paradox of the free. Most of the suggested solutions I've seen for overcoming the free involve some measure of advertising. I think ads are only one of the paths that attention takes, and in the long-run, they will only be part of the new ways money is made selling the free.

But that's another story.

Beneath the frothy layer of advertising, these eight generatives will supply the value to ubiquitous free copies, and make them worth advertising for. These generatives apply to all digital copies, but also to any kind of copy where the marginal cost of that copy approaches zero. (See my essay on Technology Wants to Be Free.) Even material industries are finding that the costs of duplication near zero, so they too will behave like digital copies. Maps just crossed that threshold. Genetics is about to. Gadgets and small appliances (like cell phones) are sliding that way. Pharmaceuticals are already there, but they don't want anyone to know. It costs nothing to make a pill. We pay for Authenticity and Immediacy in drugs. Someday we'll pay for Personalization.

Maintaining generatives is a lot harder than duplicating copies in a factory. There is still a lot to learn. A lot to figure out. Write to me if you do.

Posted on January 31, 2008 at 6:21 PM
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Risk avoidance and the bigger risk of not risking

I've often been asked, "What is the biggest mistake you've made in your business?" And the first one that comes to mind was not creating and selling products much sooner. I was in business for years and years before I created my first product. Up to that point I only offered consulting and workshops.

And why didn't I create and sell products sooner? Simple. I thought I didn’t know how, that no-one would be interested but more importantly, and behind the lines on my forehead, I was actually afraid of doing it wrong. I didn't want to risk making a mistake.

I finally took the leap in 2006 and taped a live workshop and sold the CD set. When I look back at how well I've done with it the risk was mostly in my own head. Nothing actually went wrong. People loved the audio sets and I made great money.

And then this first product became the foundation for more products to follow. Now more than 70% my income comes from products and I just love putting them together. I can't tell you how excited I am about the new one coming up.

I'm not saying that it's daft to avoid all kinds of risk. Some risks are truly scary. You could lose everything. These kinds of risks need to be considered very seriously.

So lets not even worry about big risks for now. We can allow our accountant to worry about them, we pay him enough and frankly he won't be kept awake at night - but lets look at the risks that aren't really risky at all but that we avoid anyway. I divide them into two categories:

1. Risking to learn (or do, which is the same thing really) something new

You really wouldn't think it was risky to learn something new, but you'd be wrong. You see, anything that is outside of our comfort zone is perceived as risky. Even if the upside it huge, it's easier to stick with what we know.

Are there some things that you could really benefit from learning but you've put them off because they will take you out of your comfort zone? For me it was HTML and how to do a grown up web site, e-mail marketing, how to make web sites work. After all, I was just a words man wasn’t I?

2. Risking to try something new

And if learning something new is perceived as risky, then actually doing something new is... well... better put off until tomorrow! We'll think about doing that marketing plan, that web site, that eZine, that presentation later on when conditions are better.

But I am sure you are like me. When finally the penny dropped and i started creating my own products to sell, the risk was entirely imaginary. I was taking a much bigger risk with my business by not creating these products sooner. I was earning less income, missing opportunities, stagnating. and for me the next phase of my business life and creativity took off

Ultimately we are not daft but we do often have to have the barrel of the gun pointing at us before we are shaken up sufficiently to do something about it. The shame is that most of us will only take a risk when we realise that the cost of not acting is greater than the cost of acting. Unfortunately we often have these realisations a little too late. Like right now, with many businesses struggling to keep their order books full. What are those things you're putting off? Try taking a minute to write a few of them down.

Now you should have a short list of things you're not learning but could probably benefit from learning and another list of things you're not doing but would likely profit from if you got around to doing them.

Now ask these four questions for each item on your list to the following questions:

1. Is this something that would truly benefit me if I learned it or put it into action?

2. What are some of the possible benefits I might gain if I learned or did this thing?

3. What could I potentially lose if I didn't learn this thing or do this thing?

4. What's the worst that could happen if I took a risk and learned this thing or did this thing?

In answering these questions honestly you will probably find, as i did, that what used to look risky might not look so risky anymore. In fact, it might actually start looking like a flippin' great idea to learn or do this thing and why didn't i think of this sooner?

Starting questioning those things you perceive as risky. Look at the upside of doing them not just look at the upside of avoiding them.

What are you not risking? What is this avoidance costing you?

A lot, in almost every case i have helped with

And even if you fail, which you won't, at least you will know what not to do again.

KM power tools

What are you going to do to make sure you and your organisation have mastery of the flow of knowledge, bearing in mind that this skill will probably be your only competitive advantage next year?

Why your company doesn't exist- well maybe

If you can’t describe your product in eight words or less … it doesn’t exist.
Customers crave simplicity. Could you explain your idea to your mother?

If you can’t define your product … it doesn’t exist.
Because a confused mind never buys.

If you don’t have a unique product … it doesn’t exist.
Because a choice-saturated mind never buys.

If it doesn’t exist on the Internet … it doesn’t exist.
Not just a web-SITE; a web-PRESENCE. Octopus, not earthworm.

If you can’t Google it … it doesn’t exist.
What happens when someone googles your name?

If people aren’t talking about your product … it doesn’t exist.
It’s simple: get noticed = get remembered = get business. Who’s blogging about you?

If you’re not marketing your company DAILY … it doesn’t exist.
People who “do a little marketing here and there” will “get new customers … here and there.”

If you don’t write it down … it doesn’t exist.
And if you don’t write it down, it never happened. That’s why writing is the basis of all wealth.

If people aren’t retelling your story … it doesn’t exist.
The only true reason your business will grow is if your existing customers are telling your potential customers about you. Word of mouth is the most honest, most sincere and most authentic form of marketing.

If it can’t be found … it doesn’t exist.
Even without Google, people still need to be able to contact you. So, if your phone numbers, addresses and emails are out of date, disconnected or no longer in service, you’ve got a problem. Because if they can’t get you, they’ll just pick the next guy on the list.

Space gardeners

‘ Some Martian dirt has the same basic chemistry as garden soil, a new analysis from the Phoenix lander suggests. The find widens the range of organisms that might be able to live on Mars'.. today - New Scientist

Now this tickles me on several layers. Could this be a place we could send all those TV gardeners who drive you nuts, gleefully describing the zillions ways you can take a plant out of one pot and then put it in another. Or how to best make a hole in the ground and then… well maybe put a plant in it?

Maybe we can grow oilseed rape and turn it form the red planet to the yellow planet like our countryside.

Or maybe, if the gravity is less - and I really don ‘t know if it is so go with me on this one - we could grew increasingly ludicrously sized vegetables. Now wouldn’t that be an allotment show?

To boldy plant lobelia where no man has planted lobelia before.

Stop me now.

Any suggestions to this string welcome