Warner Bros. has finally released an official version of the teaser that leaked online over the weekend. The post Here’s the Suicide Squad Trailer That Freaked Out Comic-Con appeared first on WIRED.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (the publisher) and I are giving away 10 free copies of my book Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. Hooray! It wouldn’t be in my Flat Army conscience to simply give away the books without some form of collaboration, connection or participation. Sorry. To win a book - and yes, it will be shipped to you directly by Wiley anywhere in the world - write down your thoughts in the comment box below as it relates to this simple question: What is the biggest culture issue facing our organizations today and why? It doesn’t have to be about your organization specifically, if you work for one, and it doesn’t need to name names either. There is no length requirement to your response and you can only enter one comment to be eligible. You can submit a comment up until March 31, 2013. The 10 winners will be selected by me and announced in this space on Monday, April 1, 2013. (no it’s not an April Fool’s joke, I promise you) I’ll enjoy reading the issues and your reasons why. UPDATE: the winners have been selected and books have been shipped. Thanks for participating. 31 total views, 26 views today Related Posts:The 10 Winners of Flat Army Copies Are …Friday Fun: You Don’t Have an Office?Download Chapter 1 for Free - Flat Army: Creating a…Credo of the Collaboration CanoeAnnouncing the Full Book Cover Jacket of Flat Army

Topic: eLearning 101; A Quick Start for eLearning First Timers Date and time: Wednesday, 2nd October, 2013 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM US/Pacific Description: Every Year More and More Companies are joining the online learning movement. Whether it’s a late realization that online courses can save your institution money or eLearning is just ‘new to you,’ it […]

A short, personal message of thanks one week after the release of Flat Army. 44 total views, 4 views today Related Posts:Flat Army: Chapter 11 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 12 OverviewFlat Army: Afterword OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 10 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 9 Overview

Apple accounts for fewer than one in five smartphone sales worldwide. But when it comes to making money, it pretty much has the whole pie. The post Apple Doesn’t Sell All the Phones. But It Makes All the Money appeared first on WIRED.

For years, the teachers were given the role of collector of information and disseminating that information through a sage-on-a-stage classroom. However, with the rapid increase in the reach of Internet, information is now freely and easily accessible. The classroom is no longer the single source of information, thought it remains a very important one. Voice […]

As promised, it’s April 1, 2013 and I’m taking the opportunity in this post to announce the ten winners who receive copies of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. If you recall, I asked people to surface their beliefs concerning "the biggest culture issue facing our organizations today and why?" There were 39 responses. Wow. Judging was not easy. I’d like to thank everyone for participating. Your passion and consternation mixed with analysis and detail was both insightful and at times alarming. I wish I could give each of you a copy. The winners … with a brief explanation as to why are as follows: @Cindy Jensen Your use of the word vulnerable was key. I too believe leaders need to manage (it’s unavoidable) but they need to be vulnerable … opening themselves up to this concept called humanity. Well done. @Josh Alter  I believe you are spot on. Although I don’t think an all-face-to-face edict should be forced (ahem, Yahoo!) we need to find the proper balance between F2F and digital. It’s critical for the next few years. @Rob Your succinct entry caught my attention as did the point about inertia itself. It reminded of a quote I live by, "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." (Churchill) @Jennifer Lee Your comment was as though you’ve already read the book. Nicely written. @Leisa Johnson Resting on past success or the laurels of a good job will do nothing for the Flat Army organization of tomorrow. I enjoyed your point about complacency immensely. @Erik Korsvik Østergaard I couldn’t have said it better, "To acknowledge, understand and exploit the fact, that the network based organisation is far superior to the traditional one." @Steve You really made me think about your argument of ‘tradition versus trust’. I hadn’t thought of it that way before. Thank you. @Mark You make a strong case for what I wrote in Chapters 2 and Chapters 3. Engrained past ‘management’ and ‘training’ practice needs to give way to the ‘connected leader’. @Geoff Wonderful point about time. It may take longer to collaborate and think, but in the end, it will result in a healthier result and organization. @Stacey You blew my mind away with the term ‘They’sayers’ and the argument depicted therein. I’d like to quote you in my next book if I can. @Jeanette Cefre Two thumbs up. A learning culture is essential in today’s Flat Army organizational quest, and is the thesis around Chapters 9 and 10. Again, thanks to everyone for contributing. In doing so, you already demonstrated to me you are a Flat Army leader. For those 10 names above, I have your email address and will forward them off to Wiley who will be in touch with you directly about shipping instructions. Ancora Imparo 42 total views, 3 views today Related Posts:10 Free Copies of Flat Army … Participate to Winthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheetWHY I Wrote Flat Army: The Flat Army Golden CircleFlat Army: Chapter 10 OverviewAnnouncing the Full Book Cover Jacket of Flat Army

Adobe Master Class trainer Robert Farrell has been teaching Adobe users how to effectively use our software for the past 25 years. We are offering his courses for $10, slashed from $39. Offer ends September 23. Here is the Complete Course List on Adobe KnowHow. He teaches Edge Reflow, Illustrator, Indesign, After Effects, Dreamweaver and Responsive Web Design on Adobe […]

On the afternoon of Sunday, March 24, 2013 I sent a generic email to my entire LinkedIn network. Close to 1800 people received this email. Its overarching intent was to ‘ask’ for their support. (click here to read it) As some of you might know, I recently published my first book. Excited doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about both the book and becoming a rookie published author. My Dad told me a story once when I was a wee lad about his aspirations to become either an author or a journalist. Back in the day, and the day being the 1950′s in England, my father wasn’t given the choice to choose his career. His own father — the town mayor no less — informed my Dad he was to become an electrical engineer and to forget about a career using Gutenberg’s device of wonder. Of course when it was time for me to decide what to do with my life, my father acted as a sounding board not the actual speaker of selection. He was a true ‘guide on the side’ not a ‘parental drone with a megaphone’. Which brings me back to my decision to release an email to 1800 LinkedIn contacts informing them of the availability of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. I debated whether to do it. I truly did. I knew there would be people who simply deleted it and said to themselves, "whatever." I took that risk. I knew there would be people who might even get annoyed with what they might brand as ‘spam’. I also hoped there would be those that saw the intent of the message which was to simply consider my ask to make others aware of the book. I got a truckload of positive emails, texts, DM’s and even phone calls and face-to-face high fives to last a lifetime. Many from people I haven’t directly heard from in years. Since the beginning of 2013, I have tried to do things ‘differently’ with the launch of the book. For example, I created a self-made video for each of the 13 chapters — and released one per week — as a way to provide additional insight into the book. I forbid the back cover to include any recommendations or quotations from others. I didn’t even want an official launch party. There are reasons to my author idiosyncrasies. And then on March 24th I sent a direct email to anyone in my LinkedIn network. There were other actions planned — including press releases / interviews / articles / reviews — but I still believe the direct email to my LinkedIn network was an act of communication and not SPAM. But there were going to be some who disagreed with me. I’m not naïve; it was inevitable. This included an individual who is both in the acknowledgments and showcased in the book itself. I consider this individual a true interlocutor and an intellect. The email I received from this individual started out, in my opinion, as an attack but it swiftly and gently moved into a "here is what I’ve learned from my experience" to a "I think you can do better" denouement. The attack was as follows: I feel that spamming me and others with a generic message sent via LinkedIn, in the hopes of getting help with spreading word about the book is the wrong tone considering you’re promoting a body of work you’ve created that dares to help organizations understand "social" for use inside the organization. As an act, this message feels so much like a violation of that. At first, I said to myself, "Where is the unLinkedIn button" but then I read on. The email concluded with the following: I don’t think you really want people to spread awareness of your book. I think you want to build a motivated, self-directed army of fans who feel a kinship with what you have to say, Dan, find it empowering and useful… and ultimately see it as a vehicle to move whatever big rocks they have forward. Don’t give into the seduction of what’s easy. Get personal, where it’s messy, complicated and hard. And it’s there where I really appreciated the advice, feedback and experience. For those that believed I may have overstepped email boundaries with a direct yet generic email informing you of the release of Flat Army and asking you to inform your network, I don’t apologize. That’s right, I don’t. I asked my entire LinkedIn network for help. I see nothing wrong with that. Aren’t we connected in the first place to support one another? LinkedIn, at least in my opinion, is the new business card networking machine in our professional world and I would have done the same in 1995 if LinkedIn were around then. Where I erred, however, was the cadence in which I sent my email communication notices. What you don’t know is that I had always intended to send a personal note of appreciation and thanks to everyone (and there are over 150 people I signal out in the acknowledgments) a few weeks into the launch of the book. My rationale was to give them some time to see I actually put them in the book versus spoiling the surprise. So, in rookie author honesty, I think I messed up with those in my network whom actually make up my ‘direct professional ties’. For even sweeter irony, Chapter 7 — The Participative Leader Framework — is written with the point of direct network ties throughout. Ouch. Those direct and personalized notes were always coming but I now agree with my friend who sent me the response which, in part, you read above. I should have sent those notes earlier and personalized the launch of Flat Army for this important audience. I even sent the acknowledgments to Jane Bozarth in advance of the launch for her to read only to realize I forgot to include her. It turns out "to err is human" is one of my finer qualities or I’m simply an arse. But for the rest of my LinkedIn network … my excitement was (and continues to be) over the moon hence my generic email to you inquiring about an ask. If there is a better way, I’m all ears. My Dad never had the chance to be an author. Now that I am and I have vanquished what I believe was a parental mistake on the part of my Granddad, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Equally important was my belief in the thesis of the book that I was comfortable enough asking 1800 people for their help. My ask remains my ask. My thanks to the many who did something about my ask. (Flat Army reached #3 in Canada and #8 in the USA last week in the Amazon Kindle charts for Leadership. There is no way that happens unless the network is spreading the news.) But, as I often say, Ancora Imparo. 77 total views, 3 views today Related Posts:Flat Army Book Launch Party … A Sea of HumanityMy Network is my Net Worth - Part IIAnnouncing the Full Book Cover Jacket of Flat ArmyMy 1800+ LinkedIn Network Graphically Mappedthe FLAT ARMY cheat sheet

Whoever pirated bootleg trailers for Suicide Squad, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, and Deadpool is ruining it for everyone. The post Dear Idiots, Stop Leaking Comic-Con Trailers appeared first on WIRED.