Conversation Agent

Jason Alba on The Future of Work

I met Jason when he linked to one of my posts on career months ago. In our conversations, I learned that it was the difficulties of a job search he experienced first hand when he was downsized in 2006 that led to the creation of JibberJobber.com. Given his extensive software and IT experience, he was able to build a tool that was more suitable to managing not just a job search, but a whole career.

In addition to authoring four blogs, one of which is at JibberJobber.com, he has written two books: I'm on LinkedIn - Now What??? and I'm on Facebook - Now What??? (co-authored with Jesse Stay).

I recently sat down with Jason to have a conversation around the future of work.

In many of your posts and talks, you draw a difference between career and job. Certainly things have changed in the last 5-10 years and we are drawing more security from our core skill sets and abilities than we are from any one employer - or we should. Do you still see a pervasive need to continue making that distinction between work and job?

Jason: Absolutely … I thought that the entire world was making this distinction as “job security” means less than it ever has, and I saw the message all over blogs and articles. It seems, however, that for every person who reads the blog, there are 999 people who don’t read, or think, about it. I don’t see anything in the future that would decrease the need for us to be career oriented, thinking about CEO of Me, Inc., and hope to see more people take this seriously.

There's also another curious thought I have about the future of work. More and more, I find that we are defined (we learn, grow, become more experienced) by project instead of by design. Do you find that to be true? Is a career now, in fact, a succession of meaningful and game changing projects?

Jason: A career should be defined as such a succession, because a project might be what you and I think, or what a professional does for 18 months at one company (instead of many projects, wrap it up as “helped XYZ company achieve …”). I read somewhere that the tenure of a CXO could be as short as 12 – 18 months… imagine changing jobs (unwillingly) every year! How do you define what you did? It was, in essence, a project. And you are collecting a string of this type of project work.

I hear this from many companies that are hiring today. Although there does not seem to be scarcity in the number of resume submissions, there is rarely a match for what they are seeking among them. Part of the question may be one of format - I've seen some great candidates show up with very poor resumes, and vice versa. The other part may be the fact that the hiring process is old and tired - we need to reinvent a new one. What is your take?

Jason: I’m disgusted in the hiring process. You may be the perfect “candidate,” but if you are missing on criteria they will discount you early on. I think it’s a shame that the hiring process is trying to be automated and efficient, and it is so problem-ridden. I’ve even heard of situations where HR has deleted all of the resumes they have on file just to clean it up and start over, not because they were junk, but because the HR person was overwhelmed and needed a fresh start.

These are not paper submissions, these are human beings, with families, bills, and talents. I have no idea how to really get beyond the issues, but I’ll say that this entire process is broken, not just with HR, but with job seekers, and recruiters, and interviewers, and hiring managers, and … yep, it’s all broken. That’s why we’ve seen all of these “solutions” pop up over the last year or two.

On the candidate side, I hear it continues to be difficult to run an organized job search campaign, if we should still call a job search a campaign.

Jason: It should be actually, if you are doing the job search right, this should be very hard to organize. Think about it – if it takes one month for every $10,000 in salary, you might be in a job search for over seven months, right? In those seven months you will have hundreds, maybe thousands of new network contacts.

How do you nurture those relationships, and know where you need to focus your efforts? Then, pile on all of the target companies, places you submit your resume, jobs you apply for… and the phone numbers, action items, dates, etc…. this is a lot of information that you should manage and track. And think of how valuable all of this information will be in your next job search!?

I know you created a tool to stay productive and on top of all activities. Is it easy to use instead on a spreadsheet? What are the benefits of using that system vs. an home grown one? Sell me!

Jason: When I was in my job search I used a spreadsheet to manage all of that information, and ensure that I did all the follow-up stuff you do in a job search or networking situation. Within about a month my spreadsheet had hundreds of line-items, and it was getting out of hand (especially as I started networking more).

I realized that a salesperson would never be able to run a successful campaign on a spreadsheet, and that is why there are products like Salesforce.com, ACT! and Goldmine… what if I could marry the job search process with one of those CRM tools? We built a website to do just that, which is JibberJobber.com. The free version of JibberJobber, which is available to you for life, is more functional and powerful than an Excel spreadsheet would be for most people. There is no sales jargon… it is a relationship management tool designed to help you manage your career.

If you want to upgrade you get a number of bells-and-whistles which aren’t necessary to do a job search campaign, but definitely help as you network and proactively manage your career relationships. You can, of course, go the “home-made” route, which I did, but when it gets frustrating, or you spend more time on design than on doing the job search, you’ll want something that is sophisticated, a long-term solution, and designed for you. That’s JibberJobber.com.

There's a lot of talk about specialization - being really good at something. Yet, when I see job openings, the descriptions are very general. Is there a disconnect, you think, between what we consider the jobs of the future and what companies still need?

Jason: Yes, I definitely think there is a disconnect. I think this is one of the “broken” things about the job search process. Job descriptions are biased with company culture and jargon, which might be meaningless to outsiders… how do you apply to a culture that you don’t know or understand?

In fact, I’m guessing that most hiring managers are not thinking about the line-items in a job description when they are hiring as much as “can this person do the most important job,” which might not be on the job description! It becomes the job seeker’s job to figure out what the hiring manager’s hot spots are (while still addressing the job description, especially if HR is involved in the hiring process).

One need just take a look at how social media is creating new opportunities for writers and publishers. Now we're hearing about community managers and even chief bloggers. Do you think those titles will take hold and stick?

Jason: I hope so… I am really impressed with companies that are doing this right, and really engaging a community in real conversation. It’s very consumer-oriented… I’m not sure too many companies are really ready for something like this. Kudos to those who are there, and moving forward!

After all, many of the white collar jobs we have today did not exist even a decade or two ago. Is change more rapid now? What would you suggest for individuals entering the work force today?

Jason: You have to think about this “flat world” thing, and how you are going to stay competitive over the course of your career. Think about your network, and the depth of the relationships, as this is going to be just as critical as knowledge or skills.

Become the CEO of Me, Inc, and do stuff a CEO would do: contingency plan, get a board of directors, strategize, grow and develop, prepare, etc. I think about how my career is different than what my son (who is now 7) will be faced with, and it’s a totally different world that we’re preparing him for.

What about mentors? Is it still important to have mentors to be successful? Do you have a mentor?

Jason: I have people who mentor me, but no official mentor or coach right now. It’s rather fluid – depending on what I need, I tap into my network to find someone who has already paved the way and can help me through an issue. Mentors are critical, and that’s one reason to grow and nurture your network.

Where do you draw inspiration?

Jason: From various sources. I have a vision of what JibberJobber could be, and what that would mean for me and my family. I am very driven by my users, who I know are career-oriented and passionate about preparing for their futures.

I get inspiration from companies I read about at TechCrunch, learning about what other entrepreneurs are doing, their successes and failures. I have about 30 career experts who have partnered with me and they are very inspirational and encouraging.

And, none of this would be possible if it weren’t for the support of my wife, kids and family. I’d stubbornly move forward, but they are so supportive and it’s great to not have to worry about them not having a vision that permits me to do what I do. Finally, I believe this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and that what I’m doing will really help people in a big way. I read somewhere that that’s a characteristic of entrepreneurs, so I’ll take it.
__________________

Thank you, Jason.

Recently, Geoff Livingston addressed how social media beefs up the resume. In my experience with hiring, the hardest part of reading someone's resume is figuring out what this person accomplished and the business results of those accomplishments - their story. I am still seeing piles of poorly written compilations of things a candidate has done, often in no particular logical order.

How about using social media learnings to clean up those resumes? If you've been looking for a job and wondering why you have not gotten calls, take the red pen and try an edit. You may get your resume noticed with tags, for example. What other elements of the world of social media can you utilize to refresh your resume and job search?

However, remember that the goal with your resume is sell me, not tell me.

Jobs Have Evolved, Shouldn't Job Search?

"...the workplace has evolved – people expect more control; seek more perspective; crave more enrichment. And so we’ve evolved. We’ve broadened our lens to be more than just a marketplace for jobs. [...]

A better job is a better experience; an experience that leads to better possibilities, better opportunities, better relationships, better perspectives – all working together to improve life along the way. So, simply put, our mission is to inspire people to improve their lives."

[from The Monster Promise]

I buy that. For many of us work is an important part of our lives. Not so much as to sustain us and our families - that, too, of course - more broadly because many of us derive meaning and joy from accomplishing. And we accomplish through work.

Work is 2.0

The other day I remarked how the prevalence of online conversations centers around what we are working on. Sharing details about our projects, requesting help on research and even development have become par for the course. And an accelerated course at that, where everyone ends up learning as much as they are teaching. Learning how others approach problem solving, think through questions, and their preferences in communication style is included.

We are getting more things done with the assistance of others. What we output is also improving thanks to the feedback and rapid beta cycles we are immersed in. The results are better, and so is the satisfaction of being part of a team, even when it is a virtual one.

Will you remember those individuals who have a certain set of skills and approach them to become part of your team when the opportunity arises? You bet. We are working in teams online - building off each other's ideas, borrowing concepts and testing them in our context, going viral on marketing and word of mouth when we find a product and service that lights us up.

Is Job Search?

If we as peers can hear and see so much about each other online, why can't recruiters and companies? In checking the Web sites of Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, and TheLadders.com, as examples of well-known and used career sites, I see no evidence of Web 2.0 efforts. The 2007 annual report of Monster.com referenced above, page 41 [hat tip to Marshall Sponder]:

"...We have been able to build on Monster's brand and create worldwide awareness by offering online recruiting solutions that we believe are redefining the way employers and job seekers connect."

"We also operate a network of websites within our Internet Advertising & Fees segment that connect companies to highly targeted audiences at critical stages in their life. Our goal is to offer compelling online services for the users through personalization, community features and enhanced content. We believe that there are significant opportunities to monetize this web traffic through lead generation, display advertising and other consumer related products. We believe that these properties are appealing to advertisers and other third parties as they deliver certain discrete demographics entirely online."

Yet, I find no community portal on the site. What the company labels community is part of their corporate social responsibility program. To be fair, Marc Cenedella does have a newsletter he sends out to everyone who becomes a member of TheLadders.com. I have found many useful articles there, too. My friend Jason Alba was even quoted there recently. Yet, it is still one way, from Marc to my mail box. The only time I wrote back to TheLadders.com providing feedback about my experience as a subscriber I received no response.

A Better Question Might Be

Does your business use a social media strategy to attract and select talent?

I asked this question recently on LinkedIn. Expanding upon it: We live in an environment where you need a team that can hit the ground running (this means hands-on attitude). And despite the impression that there are plenty of options for your business to cherry pick candidates in the current economic climate, talent acquisition and retention continues to be a challenge.

You can get to know how someone thinks, problem solves, and markets and sells their ideas through blogs and other social media. Are you taking advantage of those options? I asked the question because the hardest part of job search is that of screening. Shifting through piles of resumes to find the right candidate is a demanding chore. Mostly because thanks to career advisers, most resumes look exactly the same. Yet because your company culture is different, so is your job opening.

Fit comes together from thinking in ways that are appreciated and understood inside a particular culture. Fit is also part of a company's brand experience.

What is Your Answer?

Bryan Person, who organizes a Hiring/Getting Hired in a Web 2.0 World Social Media Breakfast in Boston, does some work with Web 2.0 tools.

From the answers on LinkedIn, Adrian Shooter, who is currently working (the site is in flash) with Vodafone, remarked:

"My ultimate insight is that talented individuals are no longer seeking out specific industries or even specific functions to work for. I am uncovering that more and more individuals are simply looking to join organisations that share their values, behaviours, vision and essence. This is because talented people know they can be successful in a variety of circumstances.

With this in mind I am helping organisations not so much market their business but simply providing platforms in social environments where those from baby boomers to generation Y can get a taste of their culture. Talent is smart, sophisticated and use trusted networks to make choices.

I am working with everything from wiki's, blogs, social networks, vodcats, mobile and a few new technology areas. People need an opportunity to engage with your employer brand in a variety of settings."

I chose his answer as "best of" because he provided insight into why it makes sense to use social media as part of the recruiting efforts.

Another very good response came from Bob Lenthart, who provided some insight about how looking for a feel of candidates helps tremendously. He also volunteered that all of their employees are active and the company puts no restrictions on who they start their base with: friends, family, former colleagues, etc. Through a conversation with another recruiter who replied to my question, I observed that recommendations from friends and colleagues may also backfire. There may be no fit in the current company culture.

Matching a personality to a company's culture matters a great deal to the long term success of candidate and company both. As personality comes across more easily from the digital marketing of a personal brand, it would make sense to employ some form of social media in your hiring practices.

Remember that however you recruit is very much part of how your company brand comes across in the marketplace. How individuals experience it may influence them in their buying decisions as customers. Do you use social media to recruit? If so, how? If not, why not?

Marketing Jobs of the Future

I was having a conversation with my friend Marshall Sponder the other day about marketing jobs being cut from marketing groups in a lot of places. These functions are being consolidated and, in many cases, outsourced to agencies.

[data provided by SimplyHired, a search engine for jobs.]

Many companies think they can do more with less - resources (including budgets) and people (including those who really get your business). We've been over that in a couple of economic cycles already. Yet, I think this cycle is different for a variety of reasons.

Marketing Itself is Changing

It's not going away, how could it? Instead, thanks in part to the changing expectations and preferences (especially communications) of customers, it's evolving into something very different. You know, when you talk about data that is vital to your business, so that you stay in business and keep your customers, you talk about continuous data replication (disclosure: this is one of the many things my company does).

With marketing, we need to shift our thinking to continuous customer conversation (listening is a big part of conversation). A flow of constant awareness about where your customers are in their preference cycle, and where you stand in the permission spectrum. Do you have the keys to the cellar or only the foyer? That affects your ability to talk about what else you've got that they may need - and buy - from you.

The biggest question of course is, do you know your customers? I am amazed at the number of companies, even reputable ones, that do not know the answer to that question. If you're planning a flavor of social media involvement, start there.

How can you go to a stranger and introduce yourself with a straight face when you are a stranger to the people you've already gotten on board? Answer that question and you can begin to think about the community/forum/social network layer in your online presence - it could be your web site, transformed.

This is beyond going from mass push to personalized mass push. It's first class pull. For that you need to begin to understand (listen for) what people are looking for, what is sticky in your site, and learn to respond to their needs in real time. The biggest advantage a small business with a blog has over you with a big site, is that the marketer at the blog can adjust the content to the needs of the readers on a dime.

To extrapolate:

• Changing customer expectations lead to the need for continuous customer conversation.
• Customer conversations lead to better understanding of what they buy and why.
• Control in the hands of customers leads to a better view into what you have that is sticky.

Analytics is Marketing

We've been moving in that direction for a number of years. Analysts in the analytics groups are not being touched in this economic cycle. That's because they are being seen as those who hold the answers to the questions companies are asking - actionable analytics that are directly tied into the way a business is run.

That is great news for people who already possess those skills and interesting information for those who are looking into a career in marketing. With a caveat. You still need those people who understand your business, how you make money.

At the other end of the table sit marketers who have been producing lovely diagrams filled with information that is currently hard to measure, or unmeasurable. Then there is also a bit of shiny object syndrome - we tend to become enamored with new technologies and tools for the sake of it, and not necessarily as tied to a business strategy.

We need to link these two groups together to open the door into actionable information. A lot of what happens today is lost in translation between form and function. Part of it is due to the fact that we don't speak the same language. It's everyone's responsibility - and advantage - to begin to acquire that fluency. I see marketing jobs of the future migrating in the hybrid direction.

To extrapolate:

• Seeing what is sticky won't help you if you do not know what it means.
• Measuring starts with the right things - business-driven and concrete.
• Actionable intelligence is not a crystal ball, but a hybrid of marketing and analytics.

Where Do I Find the Right People?

The next logical question is how do I hire the right people? This is applicable across the board, with an emphasis on versatility towards using new technologies and tools to hold customer conversations. As well, you may look into those who are able to facilitate - communities, blogs, editorial calendars, internal processes - and have an understanding of SEO and SEM.

Job search engines are not very good both on the employer and the job seeker side. If you've been looking to hire through them, you know what I'm saying here. On the employer side, you have a lot of resumes from candidates that don't lead to hires for a variety of reasons. On the seeker side, you don't get enough information about companies and visibility into their culture.

Culture matters a great deal for what we call fit. If you are to be successful in retaining staff - and get your training time and cost worth on the employer side; your time, effort and talent/skill worth on the candidate side - fit is vital.

Social media has a way of cutting through a lot of that. Yet, none of the major job search engines is currently using social media intelligently. And we're back to the semantic search. Referrals now have the potential to go to a whole new level. From deliberate and requested to third party mentions and testimonials picked up in the greater online conversation.

To extrapolate:

• Data matters in relationship to intelligence - what you are looking to do.
• People who look good on their resume may not be the right fit for your company.
• Semantic job search may bridge the gap on fit/attitude for the candidate and culture/authority for the company.

I will reserve another post for the conversation around jobs migrating to agencies. You can look forward to a healthy debate on that one. In the here and now, this is what I'm seeing as a developing trend. With marketing shifting to the digital space, it will be more important to be fluent in the language of analytics. The fluency on business has always been a pre-requisite.

How are you hiring? Who are you partnering with? Do skill sets match this trend?

[Check out what Aaron Strout, VP of New Media at Mzinga says about hiring through social media]

Conversation with Dan Pink, Author of Johnny Bunko

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Dan Pink is one of my favorite storytellers. One of the characteristics I most admire in him is his curiosity. In addition to being an engaging writer whose clear and simple style conveys the full power of action, he is a very likeable and generous individual.

After meeting many years ago via my involvement with the Fast Company community, I had the good fortune of hosting two events for Dan Pink in Philadelphia - one about what is still the best book written on the the future of working for yourself, Free Agent Nation; the other about moving from the information age to the conceptual age, A Whole New Mind.

Now Pink is dispensing career advice with a comic book - Johnny Bunko. We had a conversation recently about the differences between job search and career management. This is how I see it:

• Job search can be seen as temporary, frustrating, subject to the highs and lows of energy we all experience and to the vagaries of the marketplace on which we feel we have no control. We see a job search as totally focused on the immediate need.
• Career management is the ongoing discipline of developing relationships (inside and outside your industry, company, and line of work), learning new skills, sharing contacts and information freely, mapping out your options at any point in time, and taking control of your destiny. We see a career as an active pursuit that can open new possibilities for us.

With all this in mind, a career is something we all manage continuously, no matter the level or title we achieve. Do you think CEOs are immune? Think again. I met David Pottruck at a Wharton Leadership Forum a couple of years ago. Pottruck was the CEO of Charles Schwab until he lost it all and got his identity back as he dealt with the blow. "I slept like a baby," he shared at the event, "I woke up every two hours crying." There are many lessons in his story.

Johnny Bunko also learns many lessons about his career thanks to a supernatural career adviser and a series of situations he encounters at work. I sat down at the keyboard with Dan Pink to talk about his new project.

You wrote Johnny Bunko in Manga, which is a form of literature, fiction and fantasy on the rise especially in Japan. Do you think this form will become pervasive in relaying business ideas?

Dan: I hope so!   Graphic novels in general, and manga in particular, are incredibly efficient and expressive ways to convey ideas.  Since people are so strapped for time these days -- and since so much raw information is available on the internet -- there's a premium on books people can read and absorb quickly.   That doesn't mean dumbing things down.  No way.  It simply means telling stories and making arguments in more inventive ways.    

How popular is Manga in Japan? Why?

Dan: Manga is insanely popular in Japan -- in some sense, it's as popular and wide-ranging as television is here.  You can buy manga titles for just about any topic -- not just love stories and ninja tales, but also manga for time management, manga on political topics, manga history, manga financial guides, and so on.  In Japan, 22 percent of all printed material is in this comic form.  Amazing.    

Are you saying that the anatomy of a business book is changing? How?

Dan: Yes.  Take career books.  People today get their tactical career information online.  If they want to know what keywords to put in a resume or what a company does, they go to Google.  That means that books can no longer deliver only this kind of tactical material.  It becomes outdated before the book reaches store shelves.  What books can do, though, is offer strategic information -- big picture advice.  That's what I'm trying to do here.  Plus, most business books are too long.  Not JOHNNY BUNKO.  You can read it in an hour. This is a career advice manual for just about anyone who wants to find a better direction.

Do you expect that it will be job seekers to purchase the book?

Dan: Maybe.  The book is keyed around six broad lessons about work that I wish I'd known 25 years ago.  I think these lessons are always valuable to remember.  But I think they're especially clarifying for people who are at career inflection points -- whether they're just starting out in the workforce or whether they're seeking (or forced) to make a change.    

In reading the book it occurred to me that the advice may seem simple, yet the dynamics between the characters and the ideas put forth as the story comes to life can be a challenge for someone who goes through them.  Do you think that the presentation and format will help readers figure out all those connections better?

Dan: Again, I hope so. This is story -- a quick, zippy tale you can read in an hour.  I think it's precisely because of those qualities that the lessons will stick with readers for a long time.   We keep hearing about a shortage of talent. I'd argue that that shortage shows at every level, all the way to the top gun in companies.

Many organizations, especially agencies, plan to hire young talent they can groom (hopefully). What lessons are there in this book for people who are interested in hiring and keeping great talent?

Dan: There are lessons on both sides of the fence.   These lessons apply with equal force to recruiters as to other professions.  So I think those looking for talent could apply these principles and do better at their work.  In addition, the more companies honor the values inherent in these lessons, the better off they will be.  Places that allow folks to "Think strengths, not weaknesses" or to "Make excellent mistakes" or to "Leave an imprint" are places that are going to attract the best talent.

____________

Thank you, Dan. What about you? Do you take the time to think about what you have done and what you could have done better? Do you have a career management strategy? For companies - how are you going to address ways to attract the best talent?

New Career for Journalists? Write for PaidContent

Regardless of your vision for the future of blogging, the future of journalism might be tied to online publications more than we all think. In this post in the New York Times Bits section (business, innovation, technology, society), the discussion between Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Rafat Ali of PaidContent highlights a few pieces of information.

Before I get into that I must say something that has been in the back of my mind for quite a while about the commenting I see at sites like the ones cited here - and in many cases at the sites of what used to be respected print publications like USAToday. Dudes, discourse is a worthwhile goal to aspire to. Personal attacks lopped at each other do not seem to add much to the conversation.

In terms of preference, it is much simpler than we might think - people gravitate towards what they know, and like. Then we go ahead and rationalize why we're making that choice. Things like: it provides more analysis, it's more genuine, there is good content, and so on. There is one interesting undercurrent in the comments to the Times blog - people are still voting for unbiased reporting. We can have that conversation on objectivity one day. 

The Times describes Mr. Arrington as right brained, while Mr. Ali is decidedly left-brained. I see those as two approaches to publishing. Nathan Richardson, PaidContent CEO who worked at Yahoo! Finance through its growth, sees the difference not shockingly to favor PaidContent. “Journalistic integrity transcends just being a blog,” he said.

And here's the payoff - the need for better writers (and researchers) is going to skyrocket as these online properties grow (VC financing or not). Where are they going to find all those qualified writers? “We can hire two good journalists, pay them well, and build a vertical,” said Mr. Ali. That could be good news for some journalists. Are current Schools of Journalism keeping up with the changing career landscape?

As we're now talking about tridigital (traditional + digital), the next generation of writers may already be there. Yes, I'm aware than many journalists are already pulling double duty - as are many marketers like this one. If the boundaries are blurred now, will they get even more fuzzy (as my friend Armano says) or will brand new careers emerge?

[image from Citizen Kane]

Career Advice from a Comic Book? Meet Johnny Bunko

I just received my copy of Dan Pink's new book (thank you, Dan), The Adventures of Johnny Bunko - The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, and I am already writing about it. Dan and I corresponded about manga at the time he went to Japan months ago. The impact of a comic book that teaches lessons applicable to business did not hit me until now that I have the book in my hands.

Manga is the word for Japanese (or Japan-inspired) comics. In Japan, manga isn’t just for kids. You can find manga histories, manga how-to guides, and manga cookbooks. In fact, one—fourth of all printed material in Japan is in comics. And the form has become wildly popular in just about every other country on the planet. As Forbes says, manga is the “hardiest and most voracious cultural virus presently known to human society.”

Susan Berfield writes in Business Week, that the Johnny Bunko experiment comes at a time when business book publishers, like any others, are contending with readers who have less time to gather information from the printed page.

The Story

Bunko is an office jockey at Boggs Corp., a bumbling Everyman trapped in a job he loathes, wondering how he got there. Enter a supernatural career adviser, Diana, who emerges from Bunko's chopsticks late one soulless night at the office. She is sarcastic, tough, and wise and reveals to Johnny the six essential lessons for thriving in the new world or work.

The story itself can be enough to draw us in, after all, who has not had a similar experience? Well, aside from the magic character... unless you did. And, drawing us in is exactly what Pink plans to do with the activities surrounding the book launch.

Pink Does Social Media

Readers will be asked to send in photos of the Johnny Bunkos in their offices, suggestions for the seventh lesson, and narration to accompany drawings. I see many more opportunities with the book, which I read in less than one hour last night.

For example choosing a color palette, adding characters that are custom to your experience, and changing the marketing challenge to something that resonates more with you.

One note of interest is that Rob Ten Pas, the artist who worked with Pink on the book, is a graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), the school I had the privilege of visiting last week. Pas is the winner of TOKYOPOP's annual Rising Stars of Manga competition.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting their first job?

Are Blogs the New Thought Leadership?

Usually what happens inside an organization is that a group of people from different departments get together to discuss topics for thought leadership materials. The biggest concession made to the marketing or public affairs group is to tie those into existing messages as put forth in campaigns and brand promises.

I've been thinking about a better way when I came across Five Ways to Make Yourself a Workplace Superstar from Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk. Her five ways (in bold) and some of my notes about them:

1. Have gaps in your resume -- I'm with Trunk on this one. Do take the time to think differently about yourself; experiment by taking on short term projects that stretch you. Gaps are opportunities for you to be in charge of your career, seek out new ventures and work on your terms. Plus, they can give you the chance to recalibrate your personal brand.
2. Cut corners at work to make time for the gym -- it means find that mind-body balance by creating an exercise program that works for you. In The Power of Full Engagement, authors and consultants Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz write about the pulse of high performance being a balance of stress and recovery. They translate energy as the capacity to do work -- the spaces are as valuable as the activity.
3. Start a side business -- Len Hernstein is the brain thrust behind Brand ManageCamp, where Greg Verdino will be speaking about Empowered Consumers, Emerging Media and Marketing's New Rules on September 26 (Wednesday). He started his business while working at Campbell Soup and was able to get the business off the ground while working as brand manager. If he could do it for two years, you can too.
   
4. Turn down promotions -- there's something incredibly interesting about corporate America. Often people get promoted from superstar as individual technical contributor to manager. Thus the saying that one gets promoted to their level of incompetence. It takes very different skill sets to become a manager and frankly one must really want to do it to be good. Trunk makes a great point here -- who's in charge of your path?
5. Start a blog -- starting a blog is the equivalent of letting people into the way you process information and form opinions; it's a way to see if you exercise critical thinking and flex your writing muscle articulating on topics of your choosing. This is part ideas lab -- the place where I test concepts to see for myself if they hold water. Sometimes I do not know exactly what I'm thinking until I commit it to writing and invite others to poke holes into it. The process is so transparent that it cannot be easily faked. It's also a way to let others inform our thinking without having specific agendas -- on a peer to peer level, with peer being defined as interested person/thinker. This is a very different process from the one we encounter in corporate America, where the person's title may be the driver in decision making.

So are blogs the new thought leadership?

[learding by inspiration, Sitar Ruparelia, Flickr]

The New Kind of Business Hero

"This new kind of business hero... must learn to operate without the might of the hierarchy behind them. The crutch of authority must be thrown away and replaced by their own ability to make relationships, use influence, and work with others to achieve results." [Rosabeth Moss Kanter, When Giants Learn to Dance]

When you hear the word politics you'd like to cover your ears and start humming to yourself, I'm quite sure of it. I have many friends who work in the career counseling and outplacement field and they tell me that the number one desire of people in career transition is for their next job to be free of office politics.

We might as well just decide to become hermits. Put two people together, you have politics. If we look at the Wikipedia definition:

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions.

I like Hannah Arendt's: "political power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert." Some of the greatest thinkers and philosophers from Confucius to Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Russeau spent considerable time on the subject.

With the flattening of organizations and the increased number of free agents who collaborate on a project-basis, there is an increased need to make decisions in group. Yet, group settings are the worst places to make decisions. Instead, we would be best served if we learned to build those relationships that are crucial to the success of our projects ahead of time.

Did I whet your appetite? I just finished reading the advance copy of GUST, The Tale Wind of Office Politics by Timothy L. Johnson. Tim blogs at Carpe Factum and was one of the very first people to welcome me to the blogosphere. This was not the first book on the subject I read, it was probably the easiest to digest. It's a complex topic; one charged by our own assumptions and ideas.

Are you starting a new job? Did you get that promotion you wanted? Have you succeeded in getting that big account? Are you working on a new project with a large team? The successful outcome of all these activities hinges upon your ability to embrace change (sometimes to initiate it) and to get the attention that is critical to your projects.

Tim's medium is the fable, which may be a very good way of making the subject approachable and concrete. Two themes jumped out at me as I began reading:

• The characters' victim status was compounded by the fact that they felt out of control and helpless so they whined a lot -- take a moment and reflect on this observation, I did. Quite sobering.
• The top person was completely clueless about what was happening inside the organization -- executives have many things competing for their attention. They juggle, while running and ducking.

When you have two or more people working together, what matters is that they are aligned towards a common goal. Knowing how to build relationships, use influence and work with others is crucial to achieving the results you seek. If you are looking for one resource to get you started on this topic reach out to GUST, and begin comprehending how to best communicate with the people and companies you work with.

In a world where we exist more and more as fuzzy people in David Armano's parlance -- "It's about putting aside egos, getting out of silos and mixing it up with each other—I mean really mixing it up." -- it becomes essential to be able to work effectively across teams and projects. We have new technologies and tools at our disposal, yet the make or break point remains the domain of the decisions people make.

Interface is not only for systems, it's for people too. Did you have a situation that could have been solved by a deeper assessment? How do you handle politics?

5 Tips to Maximize Event Attendance

Every year, many of us attend at least a couple of events. Some of us also organize events for associations and professional circles. How do you make sure that you make the most out of the money, time and effort you spend? After attending dozens of conferences and organizing 101 events, 3 of which international in scope and attended by more than 120 clients, I found that there many actions that help me maximize the opportunity.

Here are 5 tips to consider when attending events:

1. Start with why

Attending a conference begins the moment you sign up for the event. It is a good idea to vet the program against one's concentration of interests, professional focus, and group affinity. You will make good use of your time by thinking about what you want to learn and how that compares with the proposed program. It is also possible that your main focus is to meet key influencers in an industry where you plan to transition. Or perhaps you know that you will be able to connect with partners and peers who usually attend such event.

For the events you organize -- can you craft an experience specific to the people you want to invite to attend? This is not very different from blogging or Italian meals: they are designed to be a draw for a certain kind of conversation and social opportunity.

2. Do your homework

When you sign up for a conference you obtain a more detailed program. Go through it and select the sessions that interest you the most ahead of time. Many large conferences offer back to back parallel sessions so you want to make sure you choose yours ahead of time. This will allow you to have more time with people you meet and feel less harried. If possible, obtain a list of attendees before the event. Review names, titles and companies that interest you. It will be easier to find them at the event if you know who you are looking for. Even better, contact them before the conference with an invitation to connect there.

For the events you organize -- Use RSVP. This is a great way to learn who's coming ahead of time. Over the years I have created amazing networking opportunities for attendees just by paying attention to the people who sign up. Think who should meet whom, be a good host and help make introductions.

3. Stay present

You are at the event, great. Now make sure you do not spend half the time looking to be at the next session or talking with the next person. That was the reason why you did your homework. It may seem a bit like common sense to say it -- you get the most out of being there by being present each single moment. If you're listening to a speaker, do so actively, leaning forward, participating even with your body language. Feedback is the most precious of gifts. When in conversations with other attendees, don't let your eye roam.

For the events you organize -- As you introduce attendees to each other and to the speaker, remember that it's about them, not you. The better to provide a brief reason why they should meet, their common interests, etc.

4. Be specific

This goes without saying; you are representing yourself as well as your company. It is easier to be remembered when you have a sense of purpose and are centered on it. The better you can communicate exactly why you are there and what you hope to get out of the event, the greater the chance that you will realize your goal(s).

This is valid also for the events you organize -- what's in it for you? Is it visibility within a professional circle? Do you want to establish credibility in a certain environment?

5. Follow-through

You collected all the notes, business cards and contact information from the conference. Now you're ready to organize the information and act upon it. I like to enter the contact details in my Palm with snippets from our conversations. I then cross reference the list of people with whom I connected with the LinkedIn database. The purpose of cleaning up your notes and entering the data is not to collect contacts; you want to plan action steps right away.

The point is to launch permission-based activities that will allow you to stay in touch with the professionals you met in the following weeks and over time. Your network can be your currency -- who you know and knows you matters.

Some of my follow-through actions are sending hand written thank you notes, sharing knowledge in the form of articles and books, and introducing people to other professionals with common interest. How do you make the most out of your time and money? What is your favorite follow-through from someone you've met?        

2 Weeks to a Breakthrough with Lisa Haneberg

Today I had the good fortune of spending a lot of time with Lisa Haneberg and I can tell you that everything they say about her is true: she is energetic, passionate and motivated to help you succeed. If you do your daily practice, you are Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, too.

This is not going to be an interview with Lisa, Phil Gerbyshak has already done a great one at Make it Great! Lisa and I had an interesting conversation over dinner and I can add that she is also a fantastic active listener. The type of conversation she's in is focused and in action -- she paid attention to what I was saying and the goals I was sharing (focus) and asked me to elaborate on the actions I am taking to get there.

The language I've used for some of the considerations she recommended was a bit different. I found it easier to adopt hers in my thinking. And here's the big aha for me from tonight's event -- breakthroughs are a social act. Maybe I knew that, maybe we all know that, deep down. So I'm sure I'm not stealing her thunder -- and thundering it is outside just now -- in writing this.

We know it and we don't. Lisa has wonderful stories that can help you catalyze your thinking around concrete, simple, and sometimes unexpected things you can do every day to leap to a breakthrough. I believe her -- I'm reading her book right now and will be putting it into practice.

Some of the thinking we shared is around how humans are chaotic systems -- somehow they never do what you expect them to do. And that is good. What that means is that we can create small little changes in our daily routine that can lead to big effects. Did I mention that Lisa's tour is on a bike? This here is Hazel, a 700-pound beauty that can present some challenges when packing all your stuff to leave for your next destination.

Tonight I learned that how we share publicly our goals matters. As well, our ability and willingness to make requests can function as accelerator to breakthroughs -- remember, they are a social act. I think I can go a little easier on action, the third component of the daily practice, my foot there is firmly pressed all the way down to the metal. And I already have my first list of five unreasonable requests to make this coming Sunday. So here are my questions to you:

• Do you share your goals with others in a compelling fashion? This allows you to enroll them in helping you.
• How often do you follow up with making requests? For example, do you ask for (and take) candid feedback?
• Are you ready to take action on what comes your way that is aligned with your goals?

Find Lisa's next stops on her tour here. I know for sure that she will be in Chicago, Fargo, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. I know a couple of you live in those places. So go out and meet Lisa -- she has passion and heart and your finding out how you can leap to breakthroughs is important to me. You can trust me on this one, I care. Thank you, Lisa.