Archive for the 'Mentions' Category

The Dumping Ground

Published
by
Ehren
on July 12, 2008
in Mentions, philosophy and work
. 0 Comments

During my rather long commute home (2 hrs), as is typical of my mind, I was storming up thoughts and ideas.  Then it hit me — why is it that we are usually so keen on delegating work off to people that we don’t want to do or we supposedly don’t have time to do?

The answer: Simple, we want to focus on what is important to us, our goals, our role, and our responsibilities.  This answer includes something along the lines of doing what’s best for the company and the job that we do, etc.

The problem with this solution is that it frequently results in the creation of what I call The Dumping Ground.  This is the area of the office that usually seats the newbie, the assistant, and often mistakenly considered the least important person in the organization or department.  For some odd reason we carry on a tradition and belief that the least important person in the organization or department deserves the most amount of delegated work.  These are the people who are supposedly picking up the slack.

The ironic thing about this is that despite how most people have gone through the turmoil and stress of being dumped upon with the plentiful amount of what is referred to as effectively delegated work, we have no problem doing this to the next person in line — we have essentially accepted the fact that this is the way things are.  Therefore that’s okay right?

Wrong.  We have our opportunity to make a difference — here is that chance.

Here is an example of the typical chain of events:

1.  The HiPPO (Highest Paid Person in the Organization / most important … thank you Google) wants something done.  He or she tells senior management.

2.  Senior management looks at what needs to be done within the context of the bigger picture.

  • Option A:  Go to The Dumping Ground
  • Option B:  Go to Middle Management

3.  Middle Management identifies the steps involved with what needs to get done.

  • Option A: Go to The Dumping Ground
  • Option B: Go to Junior or General Staff

4.  Junior or General Staff either takes care of the problem or looks at how something is going to get done.

  • Option A:  Go to The Dumping Ground
  • Option B:  DIY - Do It Yourself

The problem with passing on work to The Dumping Ground is that there is not enough consideration and thought put into whether or not the work should be taken to The Dumping Ground or if there’s even a simpler way to deal with the work.

Quite often The Dumping Ground is where the ground-level action is taking place — things are getting done that everyone takes for granted.  Of course in the meantime, decisions taking place in management and even amongst general staff that create more projects which in turn, create more so-called effectively delegated work for the folks at The Dumping Ground.

What happens at the dumping ground

Solution:  The Trinity Approach

1. Listening.  Yes, actually listening, not just the token nod.  Listen for what the folks in The Dumping Ground actually strive for and observe how they thrive.  Living is different than thriving.

2. Consideration.  This just brings me back to my point when I had posted about the Employee Bill of Rights.  My #1 rule:

Never forget where you worked and never forget how you felt, and what you did when you started working.

And please don’t say that just because you sucked it up and put up with it means that everyone after you must too.  That’s pretty much saying that you’ll follow lemmings over a cliff.  At least try to change the environment for others.

3. Simplify.  Like fractions, we reduce and simplify.  Don’t make things complicated — accountability does not require bureaucratic-like red tape.  There are almost always a way to do things simpler and sometimes it may even be better to share 10 minutes of workload between five people than have one person deal with that one task alone.

The Result

It’s obvious.  You’ve made a difference that is greater and bigger than you.  Sometimes it isn’t just about getting the project done but how you do it.

Throughout my experience in different workplaces, I’ve been on both the receiving end and the person delegating work so I am just as guilty — I think it’s worthwhile to try and rid ourselves of bad habits.

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A Lively Avatar

Published
by
Ehren
on July 9, 2008
in Mentions and fun
. 0 Comments

I always enjoy a good avatar.  With Google’s introduction of Lively yesterday, I decided to take a gander.  Surprisingly Lively works quite smoothly in the browser but it’s a little slow in loading — maybe because it is just so new.  In comparison, I found Second Life more complex and difficult to use while Lively has been relatively user friendly.  These are just my initial thoughts as I tinker around.

On the other hand — I’ve got myself a new avatar … still waiting for the glasses though:

Still waiting… for glasses?

While we’re waiting … check out this video my sister compiled from a family of robins who made themselves neighbours right in the middle of our front yard!

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A Ruined RuinedIphone.com?

Published
by
Ehren
on July 6, 2008
in Mentions, Ponderings, marketing and politics
. 2 Comments

Now I’m not against companies diving into social media and I’m not necessarily against businesses taking part in advocating for change, but when I got back from my camping trip this weekend to discover that some sort of video marketing arm of a web development company called OilChange.com had “acquired” RuinedIphone.com, an online petition for Rogers Communications to listen to the demands of Canadian customers — I was a little stunned.

How is it that an online petition that is founded on bringing together the voices of Canadians, be “acquired” by a business?

I realize that this may have been a good opportunity for the folks at OilChange.com to bring awareness to their services and many people may not care or mind, but I think it is somewhat in poor taste for a company to suddenly drop in and obtain the rights to the website with no transparency and very little explanation on how they are accountable to the people who have signed and may be signing the online petition.

I signed the petition only because I support the cause, not for additional purposes.  The fact that the website has supposedly exchanged hands (I don’t really know what has happened…) causes me to lose faith in what I felt could have been a powerful statement on RuinedIphone.com.

I’m sure not everyone feels the same way I do so I’d be interested in hearing how others feel about this step.

A typical bus has two rear doors thus allowing for two lines. However you arrive at a platform with people waiting in only one rear line. Would you start the second line?

View Results

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Update (July 7th 2008): The folks at RuinedIphone.com and OilChange.com have posted a FAQ and news updates on why and how they are taking over.  Kudos and thanks for this update.  We all appreciate it!

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Their Master Plan

Published
by
Ehren
on June 29, 2008
in Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables and philosophy
. 0 Comments

Funny. Friends, loved ones, family, and colleagues have consistently discussed our own so-called master plans.  Whether it may be for life, for our own companies, for the businesses we work for, or for the causes we fight for — I often wonder how everyone else fits into the master plan.  Similarly, parents, families, businesses, managers, and leaders have plans for us that we are not necessarily aware of. For Google, their plan involved us — people from around the world.  We don’t really know what their master plan is but watching this video about Google’s Master Plan reminded me of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.

So despite the fact that we use Google and the many products or services they offer, the lack of transparency and accountability clouds the trust that people have for the company. Do we choose to endorse their master plan somewhat blindly or do we question the means with which they do things? When we create our own master plan that involves the people around us — do we expect them to jump on board unquestionably? Would we do the same for others?

The answer is likely not simple one, but the essence of that answer is: if you want me to become apart of your so-called master plan, then you will have to inform me of what that plan is.

Participation is not required.

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The Need for Thoughtful Vision

Published
by
Ehren
on June 25, 2008
in Interests, Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables, fun and video
. 0 Comments

How we do or respond to something is fascinating, don’t you think?  Whether it may be a casual glance, a dismissive wave, or an onerous glare — these are just a few of the many combinations of actions that can occur.

So far here’re a handful that I’ve come up with:

We first run into some random stimulus — something that triggers a response or reaction from us.

The Just Do It Attitude

Some Random Spontaneous Stimuli –> Roll Dice + Take Action

The Deer in Headlights Approach

Blank Look –> Hope for the best … and let’s cross our fingers in case

The Puzzle Piecing Fanaticism

Some Random Spontaneous Stimuli (i.e. random tidbit of information) –> Search and Acquire Mode is ON!

The Pondering Life Act

Stimuli triggers mental white noise –> Flashbacks occur in the mind faster than the average CSI episode

No.  Nothing else happens.

The AUGH! Syndrome

Perceived sudden stimuli –> Some ear-piercing or bass-heavy scream of sorts

The Swerve & Disintegrate Tactic

Bothersome Stimuli Occurs –> Avoid at all costs until stimuli fades from sight or mind

The Twitch Process

Stimuli triggers emotion –> Result: a form of habitual behaviour

The MudderFudder Grumble

Stimuli Here –> Some form of “pleasant language” spoken under one’s breath

The Rebel Without Even a Reason Effect

Some shape or form resembling stimuli –> A response that happens anyway … just because

The Backwards Logic Drive

A stimulus –> Rational thinking that is triggered but is ignored because it makes too much sense

Perhaps we can compile a list!

So the point — visualizing.  What do we do when we visualize something?  We seem to make better decisions.  We can see into the distance, the impact of our decisions. A simple example would be Amazon’s review chart.

More importantly — being able to visualize our behaviour or the behaviour others allows us the opportunity to change.  Check out Chris Jordan’s video on Picturing Excess.  Quite astonishing.

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Wasting (even more) Time

Published
by
Ehren
on June 23, 2008
in Interests, Mentions and fun
. 0 Comments

I used to be huge gamer — but there’s a huge time leakage somewhere — so now I’ve been reduced to a casual gamer which isn’t bad at all since I’ve taken up other hobbies, pastimes, and pursuits.  On occasion though I do run into a few games online that I wholeheartedly embrace.  Some many months ago I mentioned casual gaming and noted a couple of games — this time here are some more time wasters that I tend to enjoy.  They’re not necessarily puzzle games like bejeweled which I’ll play on the ipod touch or something mobile, but something more substantial.  That said, there are definitely quite a number of addictive and very odd games out there.  I love Flash games — they just keep getting better and they are so tiny in file size compared to the huge productions out there.  I know — not a fair comparison but still it’s important to me when it comes to accessibility.

Comatose - Forget about Resident Evil!  This is definitely a great zombie shooter game with some problem solving mixed in.  Not necessarily as action-packed as The Last Stand but nonetheless satisfies any urge to shoot the odd zombie that is chasing you down — especially when you’re on a friend’s computer, they’re on the phone, and their computer doesn’t have any games loaded besides solitaire and minesweeper.  Nothing against solitaire fanatics but it just doesn’t always cut it…

Attak - This is a great quick action game from the folks at JohnnyTwoShoes.  Especially if you only have a few minutes to spare and you just want to kick butt — either the computer’s or someone that you can persuade to game with you for 120 seconds or so!

Defendoid - A classic space shooter.  I’m not sure if this is a real game or if it was developed purely for the sake of CBC’s jpod television series.  Regardless, it’s brilliant 80s-retro style fun.

Heli Attack 3 - I haven’t played 1 or 2 … This reminded me of the classic 2D side-scroller Metal Slug but game play is definitely a little more in-depth with regards to weapons and movement.  It’s got the ability to save too which is great for a flash game so you can come back for more.

Commando - Definitely much more like Metal Slug.  But if you wanted the new one, go here!

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Lay Down the Blame Arrow and Look in the Mirror

Published
by
Ehren
on June 19, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables, books, economics, marketing and work
. 0 Comments

I’ve been itching to talk about the recently revamped copyright law in Canada but I’ve held back for the most part.  I decided otherwise after I was reading Matthew Ingram’s article in the Globe and Mail about music sales being the lowest in 20 years and that — yet again — the blame is placed on the customers, not buying enough and downloading illegal copies of music.  This by the way is untrue as new reports have surfaced.  This is beside the actual point of this post.

What I find amusing about every media industry (and I work in one) is that we continue to direct the blame away from ourselves.  The Music industry blames the internet and file-sharing sites; the video game industry blames the internet for game piracy; the movie industry of course blames the internet and file-sharing sites as well as video games; and the book industry blames all other industries for its troubles and for overshadowing the importance of books (plus one another internally).  What’s next?  Are we going to blame lower sales on the lack of fuel cell-powered vehicles in North America?

We all know the internet and customers are not really to blame.  We can try to delegate the blame but it really does not make a whole lot of sense in the end.  Many businesses are built upon taking advantage of current events, emotions and impulses that every consumer may have — if that’s the case, why wouldn’t a consumer do exactly the same to a business if provided with the opportunity?  Especially when there is usually little or no reason for a consumer to display any sign of loyalty.  Oh right, the law.

This law protects the rights of the creator or developer of a product and ensures that the creator or developer receives due credit ($$$) for their work.  I quite respect that.  This is vital to ensuring that people who are creative and innovative and who take risks will ultimately survive.  But where does it say that this risk is guaranteed to provide a complete return?

I think it is important for artists, authors, creators, and developers to receive credit for their work but I also feel that entire industries should not be complaining about customers and blaming them for their losses (or so-called losses in some cases) if they don’t receive the credit or attention that they expect for their work.

Why should we as customers care? Because customers don’t deserve the blame.  Customers deserve more — we all deserve something greater than what currently exists.

Businesses and creators currently dictate what should and shouldn’t be produced, what can and can’t be improved, what is and isn’t possible.  I respect business owners, shareholders, and in particular entrepreneurs because of the risk they take but I disagree with approaches that are focused on putting business before the customer.  Any company’s success is linked directly to their customers, not to the company internally.  It is we the customer who:

1. Decides what to pay for and what not to pay for.

2. Decide a product’s level of usefulness.

3. Ultimately find out the hard way what’s easy to use and not so easy to use

4. Discover which book was worth the read, what song was great to listen to, and what art we actually enjoy.

5. Are hurt or injured by the errors and mistakes in judgment that businesses make in the process of developing their product.

It is we the customer who deserve the right to want and demand more from businesses and creators.  Creators deserve the respect for their achievement but they ultimately serve those who are willing to embrace what they have produced and/or selling.

Customers are ultimately part of the product creation and development process — not simply the recipients.  I think social media websites are on the cutting edge in this field because they are forced to identify what they are doing wrong for the customer on an extremely frequent and consistent basis — and then make the appropriate changes.

I’m not saying that we have to take this route for all media, but I believe that it is important for all businesses to step in this direction.

Books and the Cycle of Blame

I can elaborate on books as a medium since I work in the book industry. It’s somewhat sad.  People blame video games taking attention away from reading.  People blame movies for that too … and television … and the internet … and anything else we can pretty much put our finger on.

That’s just reason number one for why books don’t sell as well as they used to.  Let’s take a look at other reasons that frequently pop up in the discussion, shall we?

Publishers blame booksellers for not pushing their books enough.

Publishers blame booksellers for not carrying greater numbers of books on their limited shelf space.

Publishers blame authors for not being more active and promoting the book.

Publishers blame government grants for not providing more support.

Booksellers blame publishers for not helping them out and doing more.

Booksellers blame publishers for selling direct over the internet.

Booksellers blame publishers for focusing on selling bulk quantities of books to larger chains such as Chapters, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Costco, etc.

… and most recently, booksellers blame publishers for focusing on wholesalers and distributors.

Authors blame publishers for not pushing their books enough to booksellers.

Authors blame publishers for not helping them get more publicity.

This is all … wrong.

We complain about how people aren’t reading enough yet the opposite is true — there is more reading taking place than ever before.  Just not the way we think it SHOULD be.  Then again, when did we as the book industry earn the right to decide what SHOULD be?  The customer dictated what they wanted eons ago and now they are evolving.  The fact that we have tied ourselves so closely to what “should be” has ultimately hurt ourselves, damaged our credibility, while simultaneously forced us to ignore the customer.

Businesses and customers both have rights.  But the right to dictate what becomes successful and what doesn’t belongs to the customer.

Photograph by Jasoon

We have only ourselves to blame.  Just like the music industry, movie industry, and all other media industries.  We have not been listening to all of our customers.  We merely listened to the core group of people who refer to themselves as book readers/lovers.  Even when industry-wide sales started declining, we decided to point fingers at each other rather than look at ourselves or the way we actually do things — and instead of finding a way to adapt to the evolving customer, we continue to force the customer to adapt to us.  We argue amongst ourselves and tell each other this is simply how it is and that we need to keep publishing massive number of books in order to stay in business because the government grants favour specific types of books over others.  Is this the way we want to continue to operate into the future?

Now here is the true dilemma we face.  We keep thinking that ebooks are the future and are the solution to our problems — but they aren’t.  They are merely another medium that will converge with other media in time.  The key to solving our problems isn’t by looking for another way to push more books, it’s how we look at ourselves and what we sell.

Time to step in front of the mirror.

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Whilst at Book Expo…

Published
by
Ehren
on June 16, 2008
in Interests, Mentions, books, fun, marketing, web 2.0 and work
. 0 Comments

So I’ve spent the past weekend at Book Expo Canada.  A few of my colleagues are generally much more enthusiastic (and in some cases optimistic) than I am but I nonetheless tag along because it’s both amusing and fun to see my co-workers have so much fun (… right, and because it’s all part of the job of course).  Lots of meetings, lots of free books (more given out than received… or in my case — none).

The funniest thing that seemed to pop up in various conversations was the fact that whether it may be publicity, traditional or online marketing — the question from management always seems to be:  “Can we do it for less?” or “Can we do this for this small amount of $$?”

photograph by http2007

No this isn’t Book Expo Canada but if they offered free food, it might as well be!
Photograph by http2007

The answer is usually very simple.  You’re either going to provide me with the monetary resources or you are going to provide me with the time work on some form of initiative — either way, it’s not “free”.

What I found most amusing was that as soon as I got home was that my mind got hit with three ebooks.  Mind you, they are all books that are marketing and business driven so they don’t necessarily serve as the literary world’s finest examples but they do indicate how books can be more than just another book.

I ran across Dave Balter’s The Word of Mouth Mouth Manual Volume II which I should add is available in PDF format to download for free.  Haven’t fully read it yet but the few pages I have scanned have impressed me thus far.

I then ran across Dave Balter’s book again on Seth Godin’s own blog which reminded myself and all his other readers about Seth Godin’s Ideavirus — also free for download in PDF format.

And then … I was reminded of Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo’s recent book on social media Getting to First Base which isn’t free but I did purchase it out of support for a great introduction to social media.  Despite the fact that I did get the ebook a while ago, I haven’t finished reading it yet — about half way through and it’s good for anyone who needs to hit management on the head with some sort of wake-up call, or even those in management themselves!

Seriously, I need an ebook reader … Amazon Kindle where are you in Canada?!  While we were all busy marketing books at a trade show and conference — the word continues to spread about books available online, one way or another.

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