Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

How we Handle Change Based on Culture

Catching up on some interviews I bookmarked for later reading, I came across this bit by Amy O'Leary about her tenure at the Times#: “Having the opportunity to speak outside the Times to speak to journalists and students was a remarkable way for me to almost make recommendations for the future, which, within the Times, I was hesitant to do absent of broad collaboration. When I’m talking at a conference, I can be more speculative and creative and talk about what I think might happen in two or three years. That’s where I feel I’ve been able to do some... Read more →

Design as an Agent for Change in Complex Systems

“In complex systems the cause and effect are not easily understood. [...] If something is broken, try to learn what is really the problem behind it rather than just fix it.” Talk by Lorna Ross, Director of Service Design* at the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation recorded for Service Design Network. Ross addresses the contradiction and tension of being in a service industry while at the same time dealing with people coming to it in circumstances less than optimal and connecting with people who really do not want to connect with them. What the experience feels like: “there is a... Read more →

Making Things, Reporting, and Valuations

Making Sense: Online, in social networks, making sense of news has become more complex -- increasingly it is about providing context along with fact-checking. Complexity underpins all of our systems, including currencies. Reported.ly puts its social-first journalism model to work covering the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Nieman Lab: Over the next 18 hours, Carvin and his small team divvied up the coverage, with an eye towards providing context but also playing to the strengths of certain channels. As Carvin told me, one of the biggest goals of Reported.ly is fitting coverage to the right platform — finding what kinds of storytelling... Read more →

Business Insecurity

You are probably familiar with this scenario, or have read about it somewhere. Company rebrands and rolls out new logo, color palette, templates, a corporate font, new taglines, potentially packaging and decals, ads, and web site. Employees had front row seats to all this, vision and mission statement included. It is an expensive endeavor, as you can imagine. A worthwhile effort done for the right reasons -- like a merger/acquisition/consolidation/evolution or to reflect how customers view the business. Customers do care about the brand, yes even when it comes to banks -- see Wachovia becoming Wells Fargo (two completely different... Read more →

The Many Faces of Marketing

I've been talking to the Business Marketing Association (BMA) about participating in a panel conversation on the then and now of B2B marketing integration. What does that channel mix look like? How does your brand stand out in the streams of text and visuals online and anywhere else? They are two great questions that I plan to tackle with the help of colleagues and peers on the brand side. The first order of things is defining what the new role of marketers is -- strategists, technologists, analytical gurus? Yes. Can you have all of that in one person? If you... Read more →

Snobbery and Your Mother: is Your Idea of Success Truly Your Own?

“It's a sin to judge any man by his post.” [St. Augustine] A few years ago, I went to hear Alain de Botton talk about his then new book Religion for Atheists. The proposition interested me for two main reasons -- being brought up through an inclusie education system that taught me the history of most known religions, and my view of social behavior as encouraged by online networks and tools. Botton's thesis is that we should look to religions for insights into how to: - build a sense of community - make our relationships last - overcome feelings of... Read more →

Character-Building Lessons from Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi was published in Il Giornale per Bambini, the first Italian publication for children, between 1880-1881. It is a moral tale, and a good read for children and adults. “The Talking Cricket (Grillo Parlante) was right! If I had not run away from home and if Father were here now, I should not be dying of hunger. Oh, how horrible it is to be hungry!” You are probably familiar with the Disney movie adaptation. The original story is more explicit, contrasting darker scenes with more moving ones. Like when Geppetto gives Pinocchio his only... Read more →

Wearing Data on One's Sleeve: Who Owns the Information?

The Internet of Things (IoT) has four big data problems, according to Alistair Croll at O'Reilly#: 1. Nobody will wear 50 devices This is kind of self-evident. For example, according to a recent PwC study, fitness trackers, devices that have been in market and on people for a few years, are worn consistently only by 10% of the people who buy them. One device down, 49 to go. 2. More inference, less sensing Convergence has been trending in technology for a few years because it is more convenient to carry around good enough computing capacity and communication tools in a... Read more →

Honesty Risk and the Internet of You

Making Sense: Finding the problem is the most rewarding part of commerce and life; even when there is no apparent solution or fix. The Honesty Risk. Take it. Mark Pollard: “We don’t have a problem, we just need to sell more” is like an adult holding at bay a kid with an outstretched arm in a play-fight, it’s like wearing hockey gear in a pillow fight, it’s a mental whoopee cushion. And it’s usually a dishonest and unimaginative response to problem-hunting and can signal a relationship that will struggle to get traction because someone – or an entire company –... Read more →

Fiction is Where Truth Lies

In his forward to On Writing. A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King says: One thing I've noticed is that when you've had a little success, magazines are a lot less apt to use that phrase, “not for us.” Companies continue to believe in statements like “being the right fit” without questioning its premise: right fit for what was or what should be? How do you know ahead of time that your culture is not marching your business happily down a cliff? Take a look at the S&SF magazine (site) mentioned in King's book and you find a reference to... Read more →