Posted on

Harvard Business Review (ed)


Is it just me, or has the shine paled on the institution that the Harvard Business Review once was?

It used to be that the articles were weighty, and almost all were worth reading, if only to broaden one’s understanding. I vividly recall reading it from cover to cover, learning about obscure ideas in unfamiliar industries that just might apply to my own. It seemed to regularly give me food for thought, and pointers to great books with powerful ideas that I could use.

Since it moved to a monthly format, however, things changed to my mind.

More lightweight stuff-started to make its way in, and in my field there is a lot of it, consisting of little more than re-treaded ideas said just a little differently. I have found the good articles to be more rare, and the best reading to come from the short “forethought” articles that track new trends, and new ideas. I used to think that the articles were the place to find new ideas, but not so anymore…

Of course, could just be that I am a bit older than when I first started reading the journal in my early twenties. Being forty does change a few things, and it might be that I have been around the block a bit, and heard some of the same ideas over and over.

Maybe it is just a bit of both.

Posted on

An Employee’s Worst Nightmare

Life in Caribbean companies can be chaotic. Employees take advantage of the chaos by trusting that managers will forget about half the things they ask for in a matter of minutes. Changing circumstances will render unnecessary a good number of the other requests, leaving employees required to keep track of perhaps only 10% of all the things a managers asks for.

The tricky part is to figure out which 10% is important.

I remember a US executive I once consulted with, who expressed some frustration with his direct reports. They apparently could get little done, leaving him feeling frustrated at their collective lack of progress.

I interviewed his direct reports, who admitted that they freely ignored his first few requests for any action, knowing that he would either forget the request, or resort to making the request of several people at once.

When I asked him about repeating his requests to different people, he freely admitted that he used this practice because “that was the only way to get stuff done around here.”

Did I mention that he was a Senior Vice President, and that his direct reports were all Vice Presidents?

Into this morass of confusion comes a product that a colleague of mine, Scott Hilton-Clarke, has been refining for the better part of the last 6 years.

Executive Slice has been through several iterations, and its latest test release is the most innovative and provocative, which tells me that Scottie is on the right track.

The new promise of the software (which is shared between executives, managers or professionals on the same team) is that it “Prevents Promises from Falling Through the Cracks” (or something quite similar.) It does an amazing job.

What Scottie has done is to imagine the conversational “space” between the members of a team, and the promises that keep things together, or allow them to drift apart.

His thesis (in my words) is that managers have no business trying to remember all the promises that they have made, and others have made of them. They world is moving too quickly, and situations are changing too frequently to even try.

It is no mistake that Scott is a Caribbean consultant, who led the Y2k implementation at Jamaica’s largest bank. He knows a thing or two about managing against a background of chaotic events.

Whereas a manager in North America and Europe might try to reduce the chaos, Scottie seems to understand intuitively that that approach is doomed. Instead of wasting energy in that direction, it seems that he has instead focused on managing the promises that fly around organizations un-managed, and unrecorded.

The chaos will never go away, but we can become highly effective in managing or thriving in spite of it. (From my point of view, this could become a company’s competitive advantage.)

His software offers a powerful way to shape the promisphere, that space of promises and commitments that exists between managers and their reports.

In Executive Slice, promises that are made are immediately captured in the programme, and then “remembered” by the system’s players all the way through completion. As useful as this feature set is, the real power of the system comes after the promise has been made.

The manager to whom the promise has been made has a variety of interesting ways to follow-up on progress, and ask for updates, information and clarification. The system automatically reminds him when promises are overdue, or in limbo.

At some point in the future, it will offer coaching on how to have difficult reporting conversation, and even coaching conversations so that a manager who has two minutes to prepare can do so effectively.

Over time, the effectiveness of both a manager and their reports can be tracked by simply measuring how well they are managing the promises they are making, and the ones they are receiving.

To go back to the example of the Senior Vice President and his hapless Vice Presidents, a reasonable performance review system would show who are the effective and ineffective players in the promisphere.

But let us not be fooled – this is an employee’s worst nightmare, regardless of level. The time is coming, through tools such as Executive Slice, where chaos and change will no longer be good excuses to not get work done.

The 10% game will be over, as will its cousin – the game of working ridiculous hours to fulfill unrealistic deadlines. In its place will come a level of rationality and communication that will help teams to deal with chaos more effectively, and this will be no small blessing for the Caribbean manager.

Posted on

Launching : One Page Digest Issue 1.0

Framework One-Page DigestIssue 1.0 Oct 2006

We sent you this digest because we believe you have an interest in this topic.
If we are incorrect, please send us email at newsletter@fwconsulting.com.

Links

Quality Consultants (website): As far we know, there is only one company in the region that has done employee opinion surveys across several countries. Their database is the deepest that we know of, and can end any speculation you might have about the scores you received on the last company survey.

Caribbean360.com (online newspaper): Simply the best one-page source of news across the region, issued three times per week. Available via website or email.

Accountability (Framework white paper): We believe that this particular value is critical to the success of Caribbean companies. Learn how to create a culture filled with this ethos in this paper.

Trinidad-Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (online discussion): Too much suspicion and misunderstanding remains between the business-people of these two regional leaders. Read about, and comment on an idea whose time has come. Stay tuned for more.
Did you miss the Framework white paper?
The Service Inventory: A Tool for Touch-Point Analysis. Gearing your Caribbean company to develop a precise customer experience.

About This E-mail

The Framework One-Page Digest is produced monthly by Framework Consulting, Inc. and is intended to provide E-level managers with a reliable source of new ideas for managing Caribbean companies. To join the mailist list, visit http://urlcut.com/digest and follow the instructs to subscribe to FrameworkDigest.

You are receiving this mailing because you are listed as a friend of Framework Consulting. To remove yourself from this mailing, send email to newsletter@fwconsulting.com with the words REMOVE in the subject line. To ensure delivery, add fwconsulting.com to your address book or as an approved sender.

Framework Consulting Inc, 3389 Sheridan Street #434, Hollywood FL 33021

Comments: I recently launched this One Page Digest, primarily for busy executives who don’t have time to search out ideas on my blog, or even find FirstCuts too long to read.

There is a still a lot of information I have that is worth sharing, and I created the Digest to get more of it into the hands of Caribbean executives more quickly. To subscribe, follow the instructions above.

Posted on

Internal Networking

Following a presentation I gave on Regional networking to the HRMAJ conference, I was asked the following question:

Can you please give me some tips on internal networking? I am new in my HR dept and at times the going may be tough.I have an MSc in HRM but based on feedback I have not made the transition from theory to practice as yet. It is noted however that I am not necessarily using most of the concepts learnt in school as yet.

I think this is an interesting question to sink my teeth into, and with her permission, I’ll answer the question she raised here.
———————————————————————————————–
OK, permission granted. Let’s call her “Q.”

First off, Q, I would forget about all that was learned in school. Not that it wasn’t interesting or valuable, it is just that so little of it is applicable that it is better to focus your energy on other things than trying to remember or use everything you learned. When you need it, it will be there, so relax . The workplace is not just another step from your masters, like a PhD might be. Outside of the classroom (in which you have spent probably 20 years of your life) the rules are very different.

This I know from experience… I graduated thinking that I should be using as much of my classroom learning as possible, but in retrospect it was just not as important as just about everything else I will mention here.

I would focus on the following:

  1. Developing the critical interpersonal skills that you will need forever but did not even begin to learn in school. I would look for skills that help you give feedback, communicate, sell, public speak — all those skills that involve speaking and listening. I would sign up for every course possible, because you can never get too much of them. Join Toastmasters and get lots of practice speaking in public.

  2. Start reading books and taking courses that require serious introspection into why you do the things you do, and don’t. Start to learn about what makes you tick. Take diagnostic tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, read books such as “The Road Less Travelled” and take personal development courses that help you think about your career. The sooner you decide what your passions in life are, and face up to the kind of courage it will take to pursue them, the better.

  3. Find some good people to emulate. This might be the most important. Don’t copy them, but learn from them, taking the good and leaving the bad. Understand that you will outgrow them at some point, but until you do, learn.

  4. Work with people who will stretch you. Look for tough projects to volunteer to be on. Often, the best people are attracted to the most challenging projects. You will be networking with them as you work alongside them. Stick your hand up and volunteer to come in on weekends and to stay late to work with them.

  5. Pick a single area you are interested in and learn everything there is to know about it in your job. Become the expert and go WAY beyond what people are asking you to do and be. It may not pay off for a year or two, but when it does, it will.

  6. Look for chances to take a leadership role in ANYTHING. At this point in your career, if they have a Garbage Committee, you should be trying to head it up! If there are no such teams, then form them. As a young employee I helped to start a group called “The Gang of X” in my department, from our my own initiative. It was not just fun, it was quite an empowering experience as we looked at ways in which the department could improve.


Pitfalls:

  1. If you get bored on the job for more than a few days, get yourself going by asking your boss for more to do. If you find yourself bored for weeks on end, then for the sake of your career you need to quit.

  2. If negative people like to spend a lot of time hanging around your cubicle, “run dem.”

  3. If you ever find yourself holding on to a job for the money, know that it is the beginning of the end, and that you have given up on being a professional. Just because everyone else you respect might be doing the same thing, that means nothing in the grand scheme of things in which your self-esteem and respect are more important than your pay.

  4. If you fail to keep in touch with people, read The Tipping Point where Gladwell talks about mavens. Find excuses to stay in touch by sending material that you find of interest to see if they also might be interested. I regret not doing this earlier in my own career. This takes tons of time, and you will do it clumsily at first — just make sure that the things you send out are truly of interest to YOU, and not just done because you should.

For example, I am sending out 500 Christmas cards this year to fellow professionals in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the USA. They are all hand-written. Many gasp at the idea (and the cost), but the first few times time I saw a card I sent on the wall of a couple of different people I did business with, I realized that I had discovered something of value.

I am not saying that you should use this particular method yourself, but you must develop one that you authentically enjoy.

Q, I hope this helps. If you recall from my conference presentation, I believe in starting with what you are passionate about first, rather than what logically “should” make sense. Engage the heart, and your mind will follow — when it comes to networking. Only then, will it not feel like a burden but more like doing what comes naturally.

P.S. Consider me to be your test case. How are you going to “network” with me from now on?

Posted on

Customer as Number Two

The Customer as Number Two

A few years ago, I was sitting and eating lunch while reading the
overseas Jamaican paper (name?), when I had to drop what I
was eating in disgust. I was stopped in mid-meal by a picture
of a mad-man, his head full of live maggots.

I happened to know the editor of the paper and I immediately
called. She was not in office, and I was put onto the head of
advertising, who I also knew, as I had recently placed several
ads.

I complained vehemently.

She exclaimed – “Mi know how you feel! When I went to the
printers and dem show me de picture… dat was when I know dat dis
week’s paper wasn’t coming anywhere near me!”

I was flabbergasted.

I had expected her to explain, or defend, and not to react as if she had nothing to do with the paper. The best that I could do was to ask her to pass on my complaint to the editor, and hung up — but I have never forgotten her reaction.

————————CUT HERE———————

To subscribe to FirstCuts, send email to firstcuts@aweber.com, or fill out the form at right.

Posted on

RBTT’s Gambling Problem

Today, in a taxi to the airport, I heard the worst advertisement ever.

RBTT Bank’s newest promotion involves the following promise – spend over US$1000 before Dec 31st, and be automatically entered to win a chance to have the entire balance paid off in January. In short, the bank is encouraging its customers to make over a thousand dollars in new purchases, in order to qualify to win the promotion.

My problem with it?

It just all seems to be encouraging gambling – paying cash in order to have a random chance of winning big.

For some reason, I doubt that RBTT has imagined the full range of outcomes. Let us, on their behalf, perform a thought experiment and imagine what would happen if the promotion is wildly successful.

One person “wins” and ends up with a nice zero balance. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of customers end up with new balances over US$1000. Many of them might well have changed their buying pattern or choices in order to win the promotion. Some will have used credit instead of cash. Others will have decided to make purchases they never intended to make in order to qualify.

All will have new balances of more than US$ 1000 on their RBTT card on Dec 31, and the majority would have them because of the “success” of the new promotion.

RBTT would seem to be a winner, if the promotion succeeds. After all, new balances mean new interest income.

But does RBTT really benefit in the long-term? I cannot imagine that the kind of customer who would change their buying habits in order to take on new card debt to win a lottery is the kind that RBTT wants. After all, a gamble on that filly in the 5th is not the same as a gamble on a new US$2000 card balance. When the 5th race is over, the transaction between the track and the bettor is over.

However, on January 1st, RBTT will have a new long-term relationship with a debtor who is essentially a gambler.

I cannot imagine that this fits the profile of the ideal customer. If I were RBTT, I would immediately “assist” these new debtors to break their addictive habits. Maybe Gambler’s Anonymous? After all, surely RBTT does not want their customer to repeat the behaviour.

If the program is successful, and other banks decide to play copycat, I am sure that RBTT does not want them jumping ship in time to gamble once again.

Instead, RBTT must want the gambling card-holder to settle down, see the error of their ways, and become a faithful and trusted customer who pays the monthly bill like clockwork.

All this, rather than chasing down the next card, dice, scratch, domino or internet game of chance. Hopefully, when this unlikely “transformation” occurs, they will bear no resentment towards the bank for profiting from their weakness for the thrill of a win.

P.S. I received the following email at left in my inbox on 12/22.

Posted on

FirstCuts Issue 4 — Transforming an Airline

FirstCuts
A Framework Consulting Online eZine
High-Stake Interventions — New Ideas Issue 4 October 21, 2006

Transforming an Airline
by Francis Wade

Editorial
This past week I attended small parts of the Human Resource Management Association of Barbados’ annual conference in Bridgetown. I had an opportunity to reflect on how lucky I am to be a Caribbean professional — one who travels and works across a region that I am proud to be a part of.

This contrasts with the time spent living in the U.S.A. when I could never shake the feeling of being a stranger in a country I was unable to care deeply about.

I am thankful to be home, and I consider each territory in our region to be a part of my extended home, and each business to be one that is an economic extension of my own.

In this sense, my comments on BWIA in this issue are spoken as an extended owner,and while the airline’s seemingly rough landings make me very nervous each time around, I think of them as our landings, by our airline, owned by our people.

Francis

Transforming an Airline

I flew BWIA West Indies Airways last week and had some time to think about its upcoming demise.

BWIA, the official carrier of Trinidad and Tobago, is officially going out of business on Dec. 31, 2006. It will be replaced by Caribbean Airlines, which apparently will take over much of the equipment, personnel and routes of today’s BWIA.

At the same time, there have been announcements in the press about the possibility of an upcoming merger between the airlines of LIAT and Caribbean Star. The coincidence is that both of these activities are taking place in the same industry, at the same time. As a past customer of all three companies, I read the pronouncements in the press while thinking that not much would change.

As I sat in my seat on a recent BWIA flight wondering where my lack of confidence was coming from, I happened to lower the tray-table and registered a familiar sense of annoyance with a “steupps” of the teeth. As usual, the back of the pink, leatherette seat in coach class was defaced with graffiti and pen marks.

Just as you would expect, given that most people are right-handed, more of the blue and black mess is on the right than the left. The marks look accidental for the most part, but now and then there is evidence of a malicious adult and mischievous child leaving their “mark” on purpose with a note that they “….wuz ‘ere.”

A pet peeve of mine is that somewhere, someplace, someone decided to pick these particular seats. The problem with them is not that they are ugly, but that they are perfect for writing on. The result is graffiti… hidden behind the tray-table, on the back of every seat.

I cannot say how all this came about — who decided on
the colour scheme, or the choice of fabric. How is it that the
seats could not be reliably cleaned? Why couldn’t someone install some kind of cover?

And why should I think that this particular annoyance will not
be repeated in the new Caribbean Airlines?

I am no expert on the airline industry, but I can predict that
whatever organizational culture allowed messy seats to be the norm, is likely to be continued in the new company. After all, the CEO will be the same, and the vast majority of the new airline’s staff will be drawn from BWIA.

I asked myself, if I had a blue-print for creating the new airline, what would it look like? I came up with three simple, but uncommon steps that I think would apply to Caribbean Airlines as well as to the possible LIAT/Caribbean Star merger.

The airlines should focus on embracing, rather than denying, their history of failure, co-creating the future with their employees and making bold requests for action and sacrifice.

********* Step 1: Embrace the History of Failure

The tendency of most organizations in a transition such as this one is to try to fast forward work to define the new company, in an attempt to quickly put some distance between the new and the old dispensations. The website announcement of the new airline bears this out. There is no mention of the reason why BWIA is closing; the announcement speaks only to how lucky the
new airline is to inherit the fine safety record of the soon to be defunct airline.

Unfortunately, any kind of transformation program gets its strongest start from doing the exact opposite. Instead of ignoring the past, the first step to a deep transformation is to embrace the historical reality fully and completely.

One way to do this would be to engage all the employees in an exercise to bring closure to the company’s past. This exercise would have to encompass both the positive and negative aspects of the company’s performance to date.

The truth is, in spite of best efforts, BWIA was a financial failure. At the same time, many good things happened for the thousands that were employed and their families in its sixty-plus year history. In Step 1, this mix of positive and negative results would have an opportunity to be fully aired and expressed.

Practically, this could be done in BWIA in a series of meetings, primarily devoted to exploring the past in order to tell the truth about it. There would be no effort to try to change anything at this point. Instead, the positive end-result would be that people’s aspirations and hopes would have a chance of being put to bed, and their disappointments would have an opportunity of being addressed.

I imagine employees saying “Thank You,” “I am sorry this did not work out” and “Goodbye. “

For the typical results-driven, Type A executive, especially, this can all be very difficult medicine to swallow.

“Embracing the history of failure” looks an awful lot to them like slowing things down, and avoiding the job that needs to be done. They might well argue that people should be able to move on, and just forget about the history. Or they might say that such an exercise should be delayed until the new company is launched.

However, it is quite normal for a CEO to be able to mentally and psychologically make a shift that their staff cannot.

The staff of the new airline will have 550 employees, compared with the 1800 that BWIA had. The vast majority of them will come from the old company.

The fact that they would have been selected, and their colleagues left without jobs, provide perfect conditions for survivor guilt, the debilitating emotion that affects employees in situations like this. Research has shown that employees experiencing this phenomenon can experience productivity decreases by as much as 50% for months at a time.

Doing the exercise inside BWIA, rather than Caribbean Airlines, could leave everyone satisfied that they have done their best to take care of all their colleagues, while preparing all the ex-BWIA employees for whatever is next in their careers — Caribbean Airlines or not.

I imagine that the transition team is currently focusing on the “hard” aspects of the business — those that are measurable and tangible. If executives could stop the frenetic 24/7 activity that is no doubt underway, it would help build a strong foundation for the new airline to build on.

From my work with regional executives who have lead such transitions, their message is a singular one: the “soft” aspects of your transition are more important than you think.

********* Step 2: Co-Create the Future

Once employees experience closure, it takes only a nano-second before they feel the creative impulse to create anew. A smart company will capitalize on this energy and meet this impulse with an opportunity to co-create.

From my experience, it does not matter what exactly gets created, whether it be a statement of values, vision, strategy, a business plan or even a new company logo.

The actual creative activity is irrelevant.

What is important is that the activity be authentic. It must be vital to the well-being of the company. It cannot be merely “symbolic.”

It is equally important that everyone has a chance to be heard, to contribute, and to see how their contribution might be included in the final result.

I have seen very few companies in the region put themselves through this process, and do it well. I put this down to a paucity of methods, and an unwillingness to risk the activity going badly on a public scale, rather than a lack of awareness of the need.

********** Step 3: Call to Action and Sacrifice

This might be the hardest step of all.

CEOs and Managing Directors in our region have come to believe that a key part of their job is to shield their employees from bad news. This paternalistic relationship is one that is actively encouraged or passively allowed by both employees and managers.

However, paternalism is the very opposite of the responsible, adult-like give and take that marks healthy companies. Without this kind of relationship, it is impossible for companies like BWIA to make the changes it needs to make.

Obviously, if Caribbean Airlines conducts “business as usual,” it will result in more of the same failures.

What most leaders fail to realize is that when their employees are working with them to co-create a future, they are ready, willing and able to make the changes necessary to bring it
about. When the requests made of employees are bold, and big, it can help to demonstrate that the days of paternalism are over, and that progress will only come from cooperation.

In fact, it is widely believed that BWIA’s demise had more to do with a lack of cooperation than anything else. The inability of the management and unions to work together to save the company was seen by the owners as the final straw.

This third step is not optional.

If this step is not taken, a dangerous vacuum gets created. In response, employees in our region retreat even further into a paternalistic mindset, waiting for management to “tell them
what to do next.”

If it is taken, managers can make the case that the unusual circumstances involved, require everyone to find ways to change the way they do business. In the case of Caribbean Airlines, a critical mass of employees doing business in new ways is the only thing that will make a difference.

What will prevent dirty seats is not just new fabric. Instead, it will take a concentration of human energy to overcome this, and other hard-to-solve organizational problems. Ultimately, BWIA could not solve the problem of either clean seats or job-saving profits.

Starting off on the right foot might save Caribbean Airlines, and Caribbean Start/LIAT, from continuing the sad legacies of the past.

*

Next Steps
~~~~~~~~~~
To discuss this topic further, visit our company blog and follow the 6-part series of entries starting with:
http://tinyurl.com/yjr458
We promise to respond to comments and discussion added.

A white paper called “Equal Shmequal. It’s Never a Merger of Equals” written by a former employee, Amie Devero, can be found among our white papers at www.downloads.fwconsulting.com. This short but brilliant article applies to every merger I have ever witnessed.

Useful Stuff
Tips, Ads and Links
Framework’s One-Page Digest will be launched by the next issue. The Digest is intended as a short email with clickable links to some crucial resouces for Caribbean Executives, produced on a monthly basis.

Current Research Update: Study of Trinidadian Executives Working in Jamaica. We have begun to analyze the data collected, and are falling in love with what we are finding. An idea has come up that we should be looking to a second phase in which we include expatriates from other countries.

To manage this newsletter, we use an excellent programme called AWeber that you can explore here:- http://www.aweber.com/?213577

Subscriber Q&A
“I just read the 3rd issue of First Cuts and you continually amaze me with the pure honesty and outpouring of self into the things you write and put together. When I read most everything you write (including your blog) I feel like I’m talking with you rather than you talking to me and that’s the joy in it I think. It draws me in rather than tries to keep my attention focused on what is being said. And that’s a wonderful gift. Thank you.”

General and Newsletter Subscription Info
To contact us with feedback, questions or praise, email newsletter@fwconsulting.com

To subscribe, please email firstcuts@aweber.com from the email address that you which to be subscribed from

Please feel free to use excerpts from this newsletter as long as you give credit with a link to our page: www.fwconsulting.com

FirstCuts © Copyright 2006, Framework Consulting, except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with permission from copyright holder(s). All trademarks are property of their respective owners. All contents provided as is. No express or implied income claims made herein. Your business success is dependent on many factors, including your own abilities. Advertisers are solely responsible for ad content.

Contents

Editorial
Feature Article
Useful Stuff

* Tips, Ads and Links
* Subscriber Q&A and Feedback
* General and eZine Subscription Info

FirstCuts: An Online Newsletter From Framework Consulting Inc.
954-323-2552
876-880-8653
3389 Sheridan Street #434
Hollywood FL 33021, USA

Posted on

Doing Business with Strangers — Networking 4.0

A couple of days ago I met a friend, colleague and business partner of mine who lives in Trinidad. We spent all of an hour together. Yet, this was only the second time we have ever met in person.

The Internet has further opened up the possibility of doing business with people that we hardly know, and this is not limited to performing simple transactions. What enables this deeper level of commerce and cooperation is not how well we know other people from first-hand or second-hand sources, but how well we can get to know them from the different sources that exist in cyberspace.

Knowing someone from their Internet “reputation” is very different than knowing that they have certain qualifications or experiences, or hold one position or another.

I am listening to a brilliant, not-so-new audiobook by Seth Godin called “All Marketers are Liars.” In the book he talks about a company being authentic, and allowing its true character to come across in all communication with the public. An example: some CEO’s have blogs, and these blogs give very powerful insight into the true nature of the company, especially when the blog has an authentic voice. Not surprisingly, those bloggers that insist on trying to “put their best face forward,” are the ones that appear to be the most “faked”. When the blogger is a CEO it puts the entire company at even greater risk.

Successful networking in the Internet age has a great deal to do with having the courage to be authentic in cyberspace, and taking a lead in defining oneself.

The truth is, that if we do not take the lead to do it ourselves, then someone else will do it for us by mentioning that they met or know us, and what their impressions are/were. In other words, we run the risk of being defined by others to our detriment.

Most of the defining will be done by strangers.

Can these strangers be trusted?

Whether or not they can be, they must be interacted with, if we as professionals are at all interested in creating a personal brand that people can trust. If we think about the interactions we are interested in having, we can drive them towards certain outcomes that we have an interest in.

For example, a professional project manager who has an interest in the management of concerts could express it in the formation of a public brand that demonstrates their passion, and expertise. Over time, they could simply corner the market on this brand by generating an Internet and therefore public presence.

What allows this to happen is a skill at interacting with strangers in cyberspace.

This is a skill that I cannot quite name, but it has to do with learning how to make and trust Internet acquaintances, both professional and personal. Kids in their teens get this concept readily — they live in a networked world in which friends are thousands of miles away in other countries, and they communicate with them via IM, email and text messages in real time.

In our day we had something called a Pen Pal — a stranger we got to know by exchanging mail over long distances, and long time periods.

Today, the intervals have been shrunk dramatically.

We have blogs like this one, in which, with the click of a Publish button, anyone in the world can have instant access to any of the thoughts that I wish to share.

The difference is staggering, and the trust required to operate in this new world is quite different from what it ever used to be. Instead of trusting my Pen Pal, I now need to trust millions of people who interact in cyberspace.

The upside of all this instant exposure is that cyberspace can be used to amplify authentic messages — warts and all.

For the professional, deciding to stay away from it all is just not an option. Having no presence on the Internet is a little like not having a telephone — it communicates something about our level of seriousness and professionalism regardless of whether or not that is the message that we wants to send.

The best option, as always, is to be proactive, and to master the medium. There are many ways to get our message and our brand out, but it is up to us to use them to our benefit.

Posted on

Books I am Reading Now — October

Someone asked me where I find all the time that I do, to undertake all this reading. Well, given that this month’s reading list looks a lot like August’s should say something about how little reading I have done lately!

Reading List (paper)

  • Words to Our Now by Thomas Glave
  • Presence by Senge, Schwarmer, Jaworski, Flowers
  • A Course in Miracles (text)
  • Culture Matters by Lawrence Harrison and Samuel Huntington
  • Return on Customer by Don Peppers and Martha Roges
  • The Right Move by Delano Franklyn
  • The Answer to How is Yes by Peter Block
  • 2 academic journals on Carnival


Listening List (audible.com mp3’s on Creative MuVo Slim)

  • Lectures by Marianne Williamson
  • A mystery novel
  • Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • Fast Company Magazine Monthly Summary
  • The Right Use of Power — Peter Block


eBook list (Palm Tungsten eReader or PC)

  • InfoGuru marketing by Robert Middleton
  • Create Your Own Information Products by Alice Seba


Added to my usual list of magazines is a list of ezines:

  • Multisports. com
  • Total Immersion
  • The Economist
  • Active.com
  • MoveOn.org
  • Nerve Insider
  • A new Christianity for a New World
  • ConsultingWire
  • The McKinsey Quarterly
  • Performance Bike…. to name a few


I am also using Google and Yahoo Alerts to tell me when there is any mention of Human Resources and various Caribbean countries. I also look to see where my firm’s name has been mentioned, of late using a Google alert.