Zane Safrit

Creating Your Own Aha Moment

Don't you love those Aha moments? And how they arrive, seemingly,  unexpected...all of a sudden? Kinda like Pow. There's one.

Is that how it works with you?

And do yours bring you  gifts of breakthrough solutions, connections, insights, even inspirations to keep moving forward?( Mine also include the Doh! Slap upside the head...what was I thinking 'gifts', too.)

And do you ever wonder why we can't just order up an Aha moment when we need it? Our economy could sure use a few and Aha moments are core to delivering innovations. So....why can't we go there wherever  there is when we desperately need to have an Aha moment? You know, like every day. Or, twice a day.

(Maybe we have them when we need AND are  ready for them. But that's a discussion outside the scope of this blog and post.)

Deborah Chaddock Brown describes her own Aha moment and how it was created, consciously, with a systematic approach with 3 questions:

• What personal/professional outcomes did we require?

• What did we do that gave us the most pleasure and feeling of success?

Then based on the Jim Collins model from Good to Great:

• What did we do better than anyone else?

• What are we deeply passionate about?

• What would people be willing to pay for?

The first two questions were offered by  Norma J. Rist, President of CEO Consulting at a recent gathering of CEOs she hosted with the goal to start the discussion and the creation of Deborah's Aha moment.

Deborah's post shares the whole journey that's common with Aha moments: the look in the mirror, the bathroom epiphany and the acknowledgement that consciously and systematically creating Aha moments is hard work. But then...do you have another option?It's not rhetorical question. I'm asking.

And maybe this process, Deborah describes, and Ms. Rist delivers in detail...is an the way, A way, to have an Aha moment almost on command. I've read the post 3-4 times and each time I think...(that little voice speaks) Man, there's something here, something that shifts my thinking process in way that will help me reach my goals. 

I don't know. What do you think? Read her post and let me know. Or let her know.

 

And one [site] to rule them all

Digital/social media is becoming like the fabled rings of power in Lord of the Rings. There's a ring or site for video, for audio, for text, for short texts, to share songs, to share pictures...but no one site to host them all (and in that light...rule them.)

Facebook and MySpace are like the BIG rings for Men and Elves. But their leaders weren't strong enough to use that power wisely.  I find only chaos and clutter at their sites...and way-y-y-y too much advertising of no meaning. Kinda like middle earth...back in the day.

Enter Andy Brudtkuhl and his consulting firm, 48web,  and his new resource, SocialCard.me. Andy describes it as a way to bridge the social networking gap between offline and online interactions.

It's a simple, user-managed, personal-branding resource for social media users to share all their content in one place. Here's my site: YouMetZane.com.

The skin isn't finished. And I realize I have a few more feeds to add.

But what I liked is this is one site where I can insure a consistent personal brand, where people I meet can quickly get to know me, that will build traffic to my primary sites, it's a richer experience than using Friendfeed (granted  FF shows more than one...Andy, what about a group feed?) and it was fast to create. Ok, at this point, Andy created it. But soon, he'll open up for us users to create our own.

Andy, the more I sit and write and digest what I like about SocialCard.me...the greater mission I see for it. Given the movement towards personal branding, the greater time spent online networking, the resulting leverage with offline/in-person networking, the mobility of talent, the chaos in the job-market/economy...the possibilities and audience here only grows.

For readers, I'd say get a site now. Contact Andy at  SocialCard.me.

Disclaimer: Time is short, today, hence:

1. Apologies for the loosely-articulated metaphor with Lord of the Rings. You, the reader, and the book deserve better.
2. And the vision of possibilities  deserves a more thorough articulation.

Both are added to future projects.

Innovation Resource: Jack's Notebook

I'm into the 2nd chapter of Jack's Notebook. Gregg Fraley wrote it, sent it to me to read in preparation for our interview on November 19th? Gregg?

I like it. As the title says it's a business novel about creative problem solving.  We need some solutions. We're all clear on the problems and challenges. Now we need some solutions and a methodical means to find them and deliver them. After 2 chapters, I think Jack's Notebook might be one of those resources we can use to find just that.

Inspiring Infectious Innovation

From Don the Idea Guy

  Unlocking Cool - By Jeremy Gutsche, TrendHunter.com    

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: innovation marketing)

Just "rural" internet stuck in the slow lane?

Jason Fried at 37signals has discovered the rural life and all its pleasures: peace and quiet, a slower pace, room to think, fewer distractions, more focus time, cheaper costs, less traffic and more (or less depending on your perspective) that makes life out here, well, so pleasant.

And he's discovered the dirty little secret about rural life....internet access is stuck in the 90's.

Dialup speeds and the accompanying decline in productivity and innovation and community, and connection with ideas and resources and solutions are the norm.

By comparison, our whole country is a rural community if you compare our internet access speeds to our big-country competitors among the industrial nations. Japan's average internet access speed is 61 Mbps; Ours is 1.2. As a nation, we're rated 19th among industrial nations for internet access speeds. That makes us, as a nation, the equivalent of Jason's rural community when compared to our competitors worldwide among the industrial nations. 

How's that going to work out for us as a nation in the future? Well, jobs and businesses and the income they create are fleeing the isolation of rural communities here in the US. Out of necessity, not necessarily out of desire, they leave. Let's take Iowa as an example. Iowa ranks 47th for internet access speeds among 50 states. Job creation is a major challenge here. So is retaining the students that graduate from the state's excellent education system.

Our internet access speeds in-effect turn us into the world's newest rural community.  It doesn't bode well for creating the jobs we need to pull ourselves out of our current problem.

Back in the day...30's, 40's, 50's rural communities lived without electricity and phone service. Leaders like Lyndon Johnson and Huey Long built whole careers on the basis of bringing electricity and roads to the rural community. Those were the equivalents of internet access. That brought the world to those communities. And their products to the world.

That brought equality in education and free markets to those same rural communities. That brought innovation and jobs and communities grew and wealth was shared, distributed, created. Everybody was happy.

Who's the leader that will step up and say infrastructure, including comparable internet access speeds along with roads and bridges and airports and transportation, is the foundation for a new wave of innovation and job creation?

Harvest Time for Ideas

And here's a tactic to start harvesting ideas.

Here are the steps to take to follow Jack Cheng's advice that  DonTheIdeaGuy shared, or retweeted:

1) Search twitter. (www.search.twitter.com)
2) Enter one of the key phrases: someone should, there needs to be, I hate...(or I wish, I'd love, why does, why not...)
3) Harvest the ideas generated when you see the results.

Try it . Share the results.

I'll do the same.

Thanks, DonTheIdeaGuy . Thanks,  JackCheng!

(Whup!) Here's one idea already, before I publish this post:

Set this up in your office, with your team, or even your home.

• Buy a whiteboard
• Write them, the someone should's or the there needs to be's, up there

The key is not to limit them just to work.

• Harvest them: monthly, weekly, daily.

What do you think?

Innovation, jobs and broadband

A study conducted by SRRI, Sacramento Regional Research Institute, documents the connection between the expansion of broadband's access and use into the general public and the increase in jobs. Ars Technica writes:

[SRRI] estimates that for every one percentage point of the adult population using broadband, the employment growth rate rises by 0.075 percentage points—the payroll growth rate also grows by up to 0.088 percentage points.

Jobs are added. And above-average paying jobs.

Based on an estimate of "strong" broadband growth over the next several years (about 3.8 percent), SRRI says that California could see a cumulative 10-year gain of 1.8 million jobs and $132 billion in payroll.

So, is it any concern, then, when we see Japan is ready for the broadband future? A recent study by two universities confirmed:

Japan was the only country that is "future-ready." And the future, in this case, isn't very far away—the study looked at what Internet users are expected to be doing within the next three to five years.

By future-ready it means they're ready to deliver enough broadband to deliver a great user experience for all the online interactive applications like:

social networking, basic video chatting, and standard-def IPTV...visual networking, HD video streaming, "consumer telepresence," and large file-sharing. These activities will require a download speed of roughly 11.25Mbps and an upload of 5Mbps, which still isn't common in many countries today.

Yes. It's not common here in the US. That's because our 'readiness for today' is barely above that of Russia's.

There are steps being taken to address. But...we're already behind. And other nations aren't waiting for us. And the jobs lost to other countries while we lag, aren't coming back when we catch up. Some countries remain our allies. But not THAT much of an ally.

No real broadband; no real jobs.

Attack of the Feature Creep

From Tom Fishburne. You can listen, streaming-mode, to our conversation on BlogTalk Radio at the link in the upper right corner of this blog until October 1. Or use this link after that date.

BlogTalk Radio Guest: Tom Fishburne

Tom Fishburne, author of This One Time At Brand Camp, will share his insights on branding, marketing, agencies, innovation, clients, customers, employees, great brands, what happens when good clients/agencies go bad (no that's just in there for fun) and what happens at Brand Camp.

Tom shares a tremendous amount of wisdom and insight on the process of marketing and branding and how it all works, or doesn't, in creating a brand, a customer, a marketing plan, word-of-mouth...through the use of humor and cartoons. He started sharing his cartoons with friends and colleagues. Before he knew it, he had 10,000 people subscribing to his weekly newsletter.

Join us at 9:30 AM Central, today, Wednesday, September 17 at www.blogtalkradio.com/zane-safrit.

Tom's already done a series of interviews about his career, his passion, his book and his cartoons. You can read them  at the links below:

*  Fresh Peel | Aug. 25
*  Church of the Customer | Aug. 26
*  Dan Roam | Aug. 28

John Moore from Brand Autopsy generously shared these links and notes from his conversation with Tom.

Disclaimer:  Tom's gladly and quickly agreed to license his cartoons for use here on my blog. I've chosen his cartoons on Innovation. They appear each Thursday when I discuss Innovation.  You can see the first 3 here , here and here.

Innovation: Meat Space Meet Digital Space

ON meet OFF.

Trendwatching has just released its September newsletter, Off = On. It's all about some new ways the offline world is making the most of the online steamroller.

Or meat space meets digital space. ( You can tell I like that phrase for in-person, real-time, face2face, 3-d, body to body, networking events: Meat space. )

As always, trendwatching is out in front watching trends. You ought to read their newsletters. They're free. You just have to give 'em an email. That's the first step to move from ON to OFF.  (See who's driving? ON is driving the future, innovation, in the OFF world. )

Innovating Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement notified its members (I'm one) of this upcoming 2-day event: Innovating Employee Engagement.

Why should you go? Well, when you realize that on average 70% of your/our employees are NOT engaged...(translation: 70% of your number one asset, your most expensive asset, is being under utilized to their detriment/unhappiness, and that of yours, your company's and your customers.)

Why should you go? It's being held at the always fun, cool, productive Catalyst Ranch. I've attended 2 events there in the past. Both were excellent, engaging, fun, productive, interactive, personal. Innovative and engaged.

And if you want to stay current with best practices, resources, conversations, forums, events and ideas related to building employee engagement, then you should join: Employee Engagement.

Springwise and Trendwatching

2 great resources on innovation.

Trendwatching

Springwise.

Making Innovation Routine

Innovation's a process you can't turn and turn off like the lights in your office. For its success, it must be an ever-present, ongoing process, with everyone's participation required. 

Corporate giants like P&G have the resources and years of experience to sustain and ingrain the innovative process.

But what about comparatively itty-bitty companies with 20-30 employees a wee-bit less in revenues than Proctor & Gamble? What do they do? How do they create a culture of sustainable innovation?

First off, remember small companies have an open-field for innovation. In many respects they have a huge advantage over their larger competitors: no existing, legacy, systems. There are no careers, no departments, no incomes attached to now outdated systems or procedures. There's no infrastructure that must first be rent asunder. There are no billing systems and CRM systems that will require massive amounts of change. There's no staff that needs an explanation of why what's worked good enough...must now be changed.

That's a huge advantage.

The other advantage is that unless some innovation occurs...they have no new product, no added sales, no extra income, no bump in commissions, no rise in revenues, no increase in cash-flows...That's usually a big motivator. If not, you really have done a poor job hiring.

Ok. Great. But how does a small company in effect institutionalize innovation? How do they harness this potential from an open-field perspective with its excitement and motivation?

INC magazine carries an article from A.G. Lafley, the chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), and Ram Charan, adviser to such business leaders as Jack Welch and Robert Nardelli where they imagine they're leading a company of 30 employees and 4 million in revenue. How would THEY create a disciplined, consistent, focused ever-present system of innovation? Innovation: Making Inspiration Routine.

Link from Skip Reardon at Be Excellent.

Curing Intolerance with a 2nd Language

A link to a link to a link brought me to an interesting post today. Take the Talking Cure is the title and it posits:

Recent research in developmental psychology shows that bilingual children are quicker to develop an ability to understand the mental states of others. A likely interpretation of these findings is that bilingual children have a more fine-grained ability to understand their social environment and, in particular, a greater awareness that different people may represent reality in different ways.

As I read it I began to think...isn't this the challenge within an organization? Sometimes, it seems the various functional silos all speak their own language. A corporate balkanization arises where the IT-Guy doesn't hear what the endusers saying, and customer service doesn't care about the technical challenges that interfere with what's obviously best for the customer, and finance speaks the numbers with no terms to describe the interrelationships of the itemized details on a quarterly cash-flow, and sales has no interest in the language of the company bottomline as their language doesn't have a term for it. And the CEO wonders why what's so obvious can't be understood.

And this balkanized internal communications becomes a tower of babel if you try to innovate a new product or streamline a process or generate new reports.

My thinking is what's described as a communications breakdown, dysfunction, disconnect, or disengagement in a corporate setting, is nothing but the manifestation of cultural intolerance we see in our general society. Of course, it's intentional. Some of my friends are in IT, says the customer service person.

And the problem rests with an intolerance that's built year after year, brick after brick, with specialization in tasks and expertise, and too much pressure which taxes the willingness and time to understand that other person's language. And after awhile...the habits and routines, behavior patterns and attitudes, as well as a default set of rewards for NOT understanding the other's position...make sure that your former friend in that other department is now barely recognizable, much less comprehendable.

A 2nd corporate language, IT speaking customer service or vice versa, sales becoming conversational with corporate bottomlines, would build a greater awareness that different people may represent reality in different ways.

Take the talking cure. Encourage, enlist, incite, inspire them to live overseas for a little bit in the others' departments or worlds. Learn a 2nd language. Say goodbye to corporate intolerance. Be more harmonious, run a bit mor efficiently, innovate faster and easier, reacquiant yourself with your former friends and colleagues. Ultimately, we all speak the same language.