Colin Duff's blog post was featuredHow to Get Your Employees Innovating Like Tech SuperstarsThe business press is buzzing with stories about tech. Companies who are leveraging employee-driven innovation schemes to great effect. The latest, Adobe Kickbox, looks like something special and conveniently they have open sourced it, so any organisation can deploy it.Kickbox starts with a two day course on early stage innovation, which any manager from any function can apply to attend. Then the real fun starts with the issuing of a red box - as according to Adobe making the "innovation process ‘a physical thing' makes it concrete and real" - which is full of goodies to enable individuals to pursue their idea and circumvent the usual corporate blockers. Goodies include: a Starbucks gift-card, instructions and materials (templates, checklists and a self-gating six stage process to get to proof of concepts) and a $1,000 prepaid credit card to spend at their discretion with no need for receipts.Three things make Kickbox standout from other employee-led innovation processes. Firstly, the level of empowerment given to individuals is much higher. In addition to the $1,000, there are "no managers, no committees [and] no rules." They have also banished deadlines, commitments and judgement in appraisals. (Participants do need to convince a committee at the end of stage six, at which point they get a blue box and the potential to secure substantive investment). Secondly, the process requires employees to adopt an entrepreneurial approach by doing things quickly and cheaply. Thirdly, it’s intrinsically scalable. As Mark Randall (the VP who created it) says, ‘Kickbox is playing the law of large numbers, most ideas are expected to fail. But gems will emerge that wouldn’t through traditional processes… and Adobe only needs 1 out of 1,000 ideas to work to be very successful.’Whilst fundamentally the process is fantastic, many aspects are impractical for normal companies (i.e. the non tech elite) and especially retailers. Firstly, most will balk at the high failure rate (even if it will ultimately deliver more blockbusters). Of the thousand boxes Adobe have issued, so far only sixty employees completed the first six stages; only twenty three have secured investment; and none have led to blockbusters yet. Secondly, the process is designed with digital ideas (i.e. software related) which can best tested through website front of mind, so it’s less useful for retailers who sell physical products. Thirdly, it was developed to be used by top talent, and frankly it is asking a lot of your average middle manager. Finally, good luck getting approval for the $1,000 discretionary cards.However, by making a couple of adaptions retailers can effectively deploy Kickbox and greatly increase the idea success rate:1. Assign everyone an innovation coach: Whilst Kickbox espouses the value of giving employees the freedom to ‘be the CEO of their idea,’ even the best CEOs use coaches (as do software developers in the form of scrum-masters). The best coaches are seasoned innovators who can provide advice and help overcome inevitable roadblocks; especially the really tough ones in the physical world. For example on a recent employee-led innovation project I ran for an alcohol company, despite their valiant efforts, participants struggled find bars who were willing to let them run live experiments with customers. Whilst others within the business had relationships with bar owners, they were reluctant to share them outside of the formal bureaucratic channels. So, I simply commissioned a specialist recruiter - with lots of experience and contacts doing this sort of thing - and one phone call, a few hundred dollars and six days later we had four bars in place. Similarly, on another project for a supermarket (focused on food), employees were struggling to test sales due to arduous food safety and supply chain issues. To get around these we dry tested new concepts by putting empty packaging on their shelves and recorded how many consumers picked them up. The moral of both stories is that many things that are straightforward for experienced innovators can be a nightmare for regular employees, hence the necessity of a coach. (Coaches are also the ideal person to sign off project expenses if your company’s finance team can’t live with self-certification).2. Impose some structure: Adobe may be okay without having any timescales for delivery, but most retailers are not. And if Kickbox doesn’t deliver results quickly, cynical myopic managers will often prevail in killing it. So, at least initially, consider turbo charging the process by providing dedicated time for employees to work on it with fixed deadlines for completing stages. On another employee-driven innovation project I was involved with, at another retailer, we gave employees two weeks to complete each stage, with half a day’s assigned work time, before forcing them to on the next one or quit their project (none quit). Whilst this meant some of the prototypes were a little scrappier than would have been ideal it had a galvanising effect on everyone involved; as any innovator will tell building momentum on projects is one of the biggest determinants of success.Now go forth and start your employee-driven innovation revolution!Colin Duff is a Senior Innovation Manager at Argos. You can follow Colin on Twitter @Colinpduff.See More

My daughter is taking an Advanced Placement English Language course this year. That may be why the November 2014 article in The Atlantic Magazine, "Passive Resistance," captured my attention. The author, Steven Pinker, explores the role and value of the passive tense. (Or, expressed in the passive tense: The role and value of the passive tense are explored by author, Steven Pinker.) Despite a generation of English teachers imploring us to use the active voice, it’s frequently not our go-to communication strategy in business. And The Atlantic article explains why, describing the ‘passive’s ability to hide the doer.’ That’s right… hide the doer. Think about some of the recent communication in your organization. Our sales targets weren’t met last month. Service has slipped. The market’s reception isn’t what we expected. Forecasts were off. And the list goes on. We pass along a litany of passive tense messages daily. So, aside from disappointing a lot of English teachers, what’s the problem with this communication pattern? A lot. Words have power. And the absence of words can rob power. Taking the ‘doer’ out of the spotlight undermines responsibility and accountability… and has implications for motivation, performance and results. "Our sales targets weren’t met last month" may be a kinder, gentler way of sharing lackluster results; but, if meeting sales targets is important, it’s a completely ineffectual way to express the message. The lack of clarity about who’s responsible for sales inhibits ownership. And ownership is essential for making the changes necessary to beat targets next month. "The market’s reception isn’t what we expected" softens the truth that "we miscalculated our company’s value." This shift from passive to active goes beyond mere words; it shifts energy and allows people to move past being bystanders and victims to being active players able to affect change. "Forecasts were off" certainly places no blame and allows everyone to maintain self-esteem. But so does "we really blew our forecasts"; and this active tense triggers committed, competent individuals to want to do something about it. In organizations, we put tremendous energy into the construction of buildings, business plans, systems and processes. To optimize these investments, (the construction of our sentences requires similar energy) we must now put some energy into the construction of our sentences. The post The Simple Connection Between High School English and Accountability appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Bradley Matthews posted a blog postDisproving Myths About Digital Wealth ManagementTechnology has transformed traditional financial-advisory models, creating an urgent demand for investment firms to revise their customer acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies. The new dynamics of digital consumer trends in all sectors of Retail suggest that investment firms who fail to adapt to this ongoing digital-paradigm shift are bound to suffer a rapid extinction.In the era of smart phones, tablets, ubiquitous web access, e-commerce, social media, virtual reality, and mobile payments, twenty-first-century retail investors are increasingly looking for online solutions to their wealth-management needs. The following post will bring clarity to some of the most common misconceptions about wealth management in the digital age.Myth No. 1: Digital-Investment Solutions Are Only for MillennialsMedia and consulting firms promote the fallacy that demand for digital-wealth management solutions only comes from Millennials—those born sometime between the 1980s and early 2000s. But at Trizic, our review of the data indicates that the demand for digital-wealth management services represents a growing customer interest that transcends generations.This insight is substantiated by our ongoing contact with retail investors and financial advisors, as well as analyses of industry reports and data points. For example, we know that The 2014 World Wealth Report by Cap Gemini and RBC Wealth Management states that 56.7% of investors across all age segments already conduct most or all of their wealth-management business digitally. Over the next five years, 64.3% of respondents expect the bulk of their financial advisory needs to be managed online, with that number surging to 82.5% for investors below the age of 40.The stereotype of investors favoring face-to-face contact with financial advisors is becoming obsolete, with the report’s finding that participants favored web-based interactions over direct-advisor contact in the "informational" and "transactional" aspects of the client-advisor relationship. This is further supported by a recent Fidelity survey that found that 87% of Gen X and Gen Y investors felt technology enhanced their relationships with their financial advisors.Myth No. 2: Wealthy Clients Are Less Interested in Digital SolutionsWhile it’s true that digital-investment advisory solutions are growing in popularity among investors, regardless of age, another myth prevails: digital-wealth management is only for mass-affluent clients.Well, that’s partially true. Mass-affluent consumers are increasingly drawn to web-based investment solutions; however, all of the aforementioned data points are from surveys consisting exclusively of high net-worth individuals! That’s right: investors, young and old, regardless of their net worth, are increasingly adopting these next-generation platforms as well.Forward-thinking wealth management firms should consider how digital solutions can capture and engage tech-savvy clients of all ages and backgrounds, across a spectrum of net-worth clientele.Consumers all over the world are actively searching for digital solutions to simplify their lives—this includes wealth management, too. No wealth management, brokerage, or advisory firm can afford to neglect consumers’ shifting demand for digital convenience.Brad Matthews is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Trizic.See More

You’ve seen the research. Read the reports. Talked to leaders and employees alike. You know that despite our quantifiable understanding of the bottom-line impact of employee engagement, it continues to elude most organizations. The reason engagement is such a sought-after commodity is because it’s a powerful contributor to a cycle that every business wants and needs for long-term success. Here’s how it works: Engagement unlocks discretionary effort. It creates the conditions that encourage individuals to volunteer more of themselves, their time, their creativity, and their talents to the organization. Discretionary effort at its core is a choice people make to ‘go the extra mile,’ a choice based in large part on their level of engagement. Then, discretionary effort plays out in innumerable ways. Greater attention to the needs of customers. Improved sales and service. Innovations and improvements. Productivity and efficiency. Bottom-line results. But it doesn’t stop there. Once you start this ‘engagement ring,’ the cycle can naturally perpetuate itself. Because the thing about employee engagement is that much of what it produces also feeds it. Depending upon the study, key drivers of engagement include such factors as career opportunities, recognition, performance management, pride in working for the company, organizational reputation, and relationship with one’s immediate supervisor. These items are inputs to engagement… but they are also frequently the outputs as well. For instance, when an employee is highly engaged in his or her work, and invests discretionary effort to drive extraordinary results: Career opportunities may be more likely to follow. These career opportunities encourage greater engagement and the ring continues. He or she is likely to receive recognition for their work. This recognition encourages greater engagement and the ring continues. The organization will excel, instilling pride. This pride encourages greater engagement and the ring continues. The process can naturally perpetuate itself… but only once you get an employee into the engagement ring. The good news is that there are countless ways to begin this positive cycle - that also serve the business: Tap into the talents people want to use Demonstrate appreciation Ask for input Highlight successes Offer opportunities to learn and grow Provide honest, meaningful feedback As leaders, one of the most strategic investments of time and energy may be in taking the actions required to get employees in the engagement ring… because once they get in, they’ll become part of this cycle that can nourish and sustain itself while delivering unbeatable business results. So, what about you? Are you in the engagement ring? How do you help others in? This post originally appeared at Lead Change Group. Image: Liz Price The post The "Engagement Ring" appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Rick Delgado's blog post was featuredThe Brilliance Behind the Clinton Email ScandalAfter the discovery of massive, sophisticated, state sponsored cyberattacks like Red October and Inception-Cloud Atlas, the fact is pretty well established that the intertwining of political intrigue and cybersecurity is de rigueur in the twenty-teens, so it would be a bit out of fashion for the usual circus of issues surrounding the next presidential election to break from the trending pattern. And who would understand both the circus, and the issues better than the former Secretary of State, and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton?Two weeks ago the AP reported that during her tenure as Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton conducted all her email correspondences through a private domain, Clintonemail.com, that was hosted on her own private server located in the Chappaqua, New York home she and her husband, the former president, share.Since that news broke, criticism of Mrs. Clinton’s conduct has taken three forms. First is the fact that the private mail server was outside, and directly in violation of the federal government’s transparency and record keeping rules. But those rules are, for the most part considered guidelines for best practices, and not the same thing as formal regulation.Second are worries that an unofficial server - housed outside the sophisticated state department network - was potentially more vulnerable to advanced security threats from state sponsored hackers. While these worries may be valid (after all, one could suppose that such a network would have far less sophisticated network monitoring safeguards in place,) a non-official email address of this type would be off the public radar, and therefore less likely to be identified as a potential information source in FOIA requests or even by terrorist hackers. Chris Soghoian, the lead technologist for the ACLU, disagrees. As Andy Greenberg recently wrote, Soghoian believes that although "the American people didn’t know about this, it’s almost certain that foreign intelligence agencies did, just as the NSA knows which Indian and Spanish officials use Gmail and Yahoo accounts."The third theme in the spectrum of criticism raises concerns for what this scandal might mean for Hillary’s bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and what it might mean for the climatic conditions of the election in general. But the fact that the real Clinton family brilliance lies in their adeptness for spinning juicy stories to their advantage might mean Hillary could actually stand to sway some swing voters her way.Mrs. Clinton’s decision to use a private server (physically secured under lock, key, and Secret Services guards but outside the federal security fence) may have been harmless, but it certainly raises eyebrows, and rightfully so. After all, what innocuous motives would have driven a high-ranking politician to eschew the State’s cloud computing-based, secure email server in favor of a home-brewed option (requiring vastly more effort to set up and monitor?) After all, Gawker’s J.K. Trotter at Gawker reported very convincing evidence that the private server and especially its contents were deliberately kept out of the hands of state department overseers.Notwithstanding her perfectly practical and downright grandmother-ish reasons, like the ones she gave the press, stating that it was a convenient solution to limit the number of mobile devices she needed to carry on a daily basis down to one, it is not difficult to speculate that the move held dark political underpinnings, like those suggested by Trotter. After piecing together valid inquiries into the possibility that Mrs. Clinton’s motives may have been focused, at least in part, around skirting FOIA requests from journalists, Trotter ultimately concluded that the private server enabled the likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate to completely, and unrecoverably wipe away any correspondences she sent or received during her tenure as Secretary of State, that she didn’t want publicized sometime down the road. It appears that Hillary's "Aw, shucks" routine is simple a cover for a shrewd cloak and dagger move, and a brilliantly executed one at that.The public may never know exactly what information Clinton has transmitted using this private account, but her strategic if potentially nefarious use of private server technology was nothing short of brilliant from a political standpoint. While the public may find Mrs. Clinton’s secrecy just as troubling as the mainstream media finds the issue juicy and reportable, what the discovery of Clinton’s private server doesn’t spell, for her at least, is any kind of scandal worth losing sleep over. She won’t lose voters over it.Rick Delgado is a technology commentator and freelance journalist.See More

Most workers don’t aspire to leadership roles. That’s the key finding of a study conducted earlier this year by CareerBuilder and Harris Poll. Based upon the responses of more the 3500 workers across the United States, only about one-third (34%) aspire to leadership positions. This is interesting data for organizations and leaders everywhere. First, it might settle the nerves of managers and supervisors because it confirms that not every employee is looking to rise up through the ranks. My research with Beverly Kaye found that one of the key reasons managers don’t engage in career conversations with their employees is fear. Fear that everyone will want a promotion. Fear that they can’t deliver on those expectations. Fear of the disappointment and disengagement that will ensue when these two conditions collide. But the good news is that two out of three employees aren’t coveting the manager’s - or any other leaders’ - job. At the same time, this data is also unsettling because it demonstrates a fundamental challenge with the way organizations are structured. Unfortunately some of that 66% of employees who are disinterested in leadership positions will pursue them anyway.  That’s because in too many organizations, ‘up’ is the only way to develop. So those without a genuine appetite to lead will chase down promotions because it’s their only chance to grow. So, what’s an organization to do?  Plenty! Distinguish between the 34% and 66%.  Ensuring job satisfaction, engagement and, ultimately, results demands that you understand employees, their motivations, and their aspirations. Work with those who possess an authentic desire to lead, finding ways to cultivate these skills and talents - even before opportunities for promotion open up. Leadership isn’t reserved for certain levels. It’s a state of mind and a set of skills that can be practiced regardless of role. Don’t assume that just because people don’t aspire to leadership, they’re happy where they are. Many aren’t. Many of your 66% are bored, going through the motions, and not contributing to their greatest capacity. Figure out what interests them, where their passions lie, and what they would like to accomplish. Then work collaboratively to help facilitate opportunities for development and growth in their current roles. Find ways to reward employees for deepening their knowledge and skills… without changing roles. (Let’s be honest, many of the 66% are pursuing leadership because it comes with a pay bump.) Consider treating leadership as a discipline rather than a level. What if advancing to leadership was a lateral rather than vertical move? What if it didn’t come with an automatic raise? What if people moved into leadership because they really wanted to do that kind of work? Information like that generated in the CareerBuilder study can be a powerful tool for organizations to look differently at leadership, who wants it, and why.  It also helps organizations produce better results by ensuring that 100% of employees are doing the work they want to do most. Image: © Dpvue | Dreamstime.com - Individual Fish Success Winner Outsider Boss Photo The post To Lead or Not to Lead: Most Employees Say "Not"… but Many Go For It Anyway appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Despite the fact that I wrote this a couple of years ago, the suggestions continue to hold up well. Wishing you a happy, healthy holiday season. ‘Tis the season… when leaders everywhere scramble to find the perfect holiday gift for their staffs. This year, will it be: The latest business title? A gift card for designer coffee? An outing featuring laser tag, team building and pizza? Perhaps you’d like to do something entirely different.  Why not give employees something they really want this year - a gift that will keep giving long after the egg nog is gone?  Consider something from my Holiday Gift Guide… for leaders who want to delight employees and deliver results. 1.  Encourage career development. Employee Delight:     Price: $0 According to recent research conducted by Aon Hewitt, 91% of all employees report that career development is among their top priorities. Yet, in engagement survey after engagement survey, managers consistently earn their lowest marks in this area. Imagine your employees’ delight if this holiday season, you invested some genuine attention in understanding who they are and their hopes and dreams, as well as toward helping them develop plans to move forward, toward their career goals. (And this gift teaches why giving is a good as receiving because as you grow others, you’ll also deck the halls with greater capacity and capability.) 2.  Remove roadblocks. Employee Delight:     Price: N/A Forget the visions of sugar plums. What employees really dream about is working without unnecessary obstacles, fire drills, or other irritants.  Ask them about what gets in the way of their best work and you’ll likely be surprised by the struggles and work-arounds that are part of their daily routines. Watch employees light up brighter than any holiday decoration if you take even small steps toward clearing the way for them. 3.  Express genuine appreciation. Employee Delight:     Price: Priceless Spread good cheer in the form of recognition and positive feedback. Too frequently, leaders become inadvertent Scrooges, withholding praise and wondering why performance is lackluster and morale is low. Catch people in the act of doing things right. Be on the look-out for contributions - large and small. "Thank you" doesn’t require fancy wrapping or a bow; yet it’s warmer than chestnuts roasting to the hearts of employees. These Holiday Gift Guide suggestions come with a range of benefits. They’re value-priced to fit any budget.  There’s no tax or shipping.  And you can even hope that they’re re-gifted as employees find ways to extend the positive practices you model to others. So, with the number of holiday shopping days quickly dwindling, skip the malls, dig deeper - within yourself not your wallet - and experience some real magic this holiday season… and all year long. Gift me with your own thoughts!  What do you employees want most? What gifts are you considering this holiday season? The post Top 3 Gifts Employees Want Most this Holiday Season (and All Year Long) appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Aaron Auld's blog post was featured50 Shades of Bluer vs. Grayer: How HANA Will Galvanize the SAP Installed BaseLast month, SAP announced its Business Suite 4 SAP HANA. The SAP installed-base has long been known as one of the great treasure troves of the IT industry. Many a vendor has set its sights on penetrating this venerable hoard of the world’s richest, most successful companies to varying degrees of success.One of the most successful vendors at penetrating the SAP installed-base has been Oracle who benefited enormously from SAP’s grave error of judgment in OEM’ing the Oracle database as part of the SAP Business Suite. Now, the S4 HANA Business Suite announcement has SAP kicking off another upgrade cycle for its installed-base that will force its customers to make hard choices about the future of their IT landscape.Let there be no doubt that there are many "true blue" SAP customers who want nothing better than to banish Oracle from their IT landscape; customers who allowed Oracle into their networks at face value simply because SAP OEM’ed it. These are customers who have suffered under Oracle’s hardball licensing tactics where Oracle is masterful at extracting money by exploiting a customer’s changing usage patterns. In fact, in a recent Oracle user survey covered by Information Week, 92 percent of Oracle customers are unhappy with their licensing practices, this includes the SAP installed-base.There is also a large portion of the SAP installed-base who have already been through SAP upgrade cycles and subsequently failed to see the value to justify the actual cost and expense of upgrading. The last upgrade cycle of the SAP Business Suite, which was promised to be the last ever customers would need to make, was pushing an "enhancement packet" strategy of continuous innovation. These enhancement packets were supposed to enable customers to update functionality in a modular fashion. However, adoption of this SAP Business Suite upgrade was mediocre at best. SAP customers discovered that upgrading was not only a painful multi-year process, but that it was next to impossible to justify the cost. Many SAP customers even opted for a paper upgrade of their Business Suite license without actually installing the software, with a promise from SAP to continue support of their older systems.So now here again is SAP with yet another upgrade, which will quite justifiably give cause for concern to a good portion of their installed-base. Most SAP customers are not about being an "all-in" SAP shop as much as they are focused on growing their business in the best way they can and showing a tidy profit at the end of the day. They are likely to be less than overjoyed at hearing SAP’s renewed upgrade plans.An SAP Business Suite upgrade is no trifle; customers know this could pose significant operational overhead on their margins. These customers are already eyeing the cloud and alternative offerings from best-of-breed vendors, which will allow them to extend the life of aging SAP applications for as long as possible in a strategic bid to manage their company margins.The S4 HANA Business Suite upgrade cycle could well miss the desired effect and end up exposing a large share of the most fabulous treasure chest in the IT industry to new upstart technology vendors who can address specific SAP customer pain points and help them avoid an expensive and painful upgrade process. Ultimately, as customer options grow, the blue will fade to gray.We see more and more companies shying away from classical lock-in situations. They know that the IT space is evolving and they want to keep their options open. Cumbersome, multi-year, resource-consuming IT projects are being replaced by lighter, more flexible and agile solutions which can evolve or be replaced further down the line without ripping the heart out of a company’s operations. We believe the days of customers putting all their eggs in one basket are long gone. We’re especially skeptical of any vendor who claims that their solutions can perfectly address a customer’s every need. We certainly wouldn’t want to stake our company’s future on such a bold (and unproven) claim.Ultimately, the trend that’s worth paying attention to is a more thoughtful, flexible and heterogeneous data and IT eco system that connects smoothly, scales quickly and simply to requirements, is easy to manage and relieves increasing budgetary pressures. What modern organization does not want to identify and implement the best solutions for every individual business application, even if that means engaging more with the market place, looking at other vendors and doing some testing, rather than blindly locking in to one vendor’s strategy for better or for worse?Aaron Auld is CEO of EXASOL.See More

We’ve all experienced it. The meeting goes well. Everyone nods, smiles, and quickly agrees. There are no objections or even questions to answer. You leave feeling confident that your proposal will be unanimously adopted. Then you hear about the meeting after the meeting… and the lingering concerns and worries that ‘everyone’ has… and you know that the torpedoes have already been launched and your proposal is sunk. I call this dynamic ‘dysfunctional politeness.’ It costs organization dearly in terms of dollars, but it also takes an enormous human toll: disappointment, mistrust, frustration, and disengagement. Each time we choose to be agreeable rather than raising legitimate concerns, offering candid feedback, or telling the truth about our reactions, we hurt both the results and our relationships with others. THE GIFTS OF CONFLICT The ability to engage in constructive conflict - focused on issues and expressed with respect - is a key hallmark of effective teams. And it makes sense. Openly airing different points of views and passionately testing ideas helps groups: Identify and adjust faulty assumptions, Eliminate or solve problems early, and Bring the broadest and best thinking to decisions.  "Conflict is what prevents all forms of stagnation and vulnerability from being overtaken by your competition." - Steven Berglas, consultant/clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School But beyond the business argument for constructive conflict, there’s a human one. It also builds relationships and teamwork. While it might seem counterintuitive, teams that engage in the most heated and intense conflicts are frequently the strongest. They know they can count on each other for absolute candor. They know that once the group makes a decision, everyone will own it and work toward its success. They know that whatever someone has to say will be shared in a forthright way that allows for the back-and-forth required to fully understand and respond to issues or concerns.  "Tumultuous meetings are of a sign of progress." - Patrick Lencioni CULTIVATING CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT: 3 STEPS Are you and your team not realizing the benefits of constructive conflict? Here are three steps you can take today to start cultivating this critical team competency. Do a Personal Gut Check Check your own reaction to conflict and evaluate the effect it has on your team. Your mindset drives your behavior. If differences make you tense, team members will pick up on that. If you rush in to smooth over minor disagreements, others will quickly learn that conflict is not OK… and dysfunctional politeness may creep in. Set Expectations and Ground Rules Share what you know about the value of conflict and the role it can play in helping your team achieve excellence. Brainstorm agreements that keep conflict safe. Examples include: focus on issues and ideas but never people; use respectful language always; listen to understand the other point of view fully before speaking. Model the Conflict You Want to See Your own behavior is the most powerful leadership tool at your disposal. Others learn far more from what you do than what you say. So model effective conflict daily. Challenge ideas in a respectful and supportive way. Test assumptions with open-ended questions. Demonstrate high-quality listening and the courage to ask questions that stir up productive controversy.  "All polishing is done by friction." - Mary Parker Follett What do you think?  How is dysfunctional politeness hurting your organization? What does constructive conflict look like to you… and how do you promote it? This post originally appeared at Lead Change Group. Image:  www.dreamstime.com and Liz Price The post An Argument for Conflict appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Kelli Richards's blog post was featuredCan Apple’s Interactive Digital Music Solution Refresh the Music Industry?When U2 released its album "Songs of Innocence" with an exclusive iTunes partnership, the band was trying to figure out something a bit more complex than simply reaching as many fans as possible. It was grappling with which side of music history it wanted to fall into: the "stream or die" path of slowly decreasing record sales and pirated downloads or the path to reviving the music industry.While automatically downloading the album to all iTunes users’ libraries felt a little too "Big Brother" for some consumers, it’s a great example of revenue-generating experiments on the horizon. As piracy and streaming continue to cut into artists’ revenues, bands and record labels are actively upping their game to encourage fans to purchase more music, goods, and experiences.Few artists are likely to follow in U2’s footsteps with the same strategy after the backlash from iTunes users, but when a challenge emerges in the market, we can always look to Apple to lead with the most creative solutions. The "Songs of Innocence" maneuver was Apple showing its hand: The solution to diminishing music sales could be an interactive digital music approach.How Innovation Shaped the Music Industry’s Path.Fans crave a sense of being closer to the artist, and even 20 years ago, Apple was involved in making this happen. During my years at Apple, my good friend Ty Roberts of Gracenote had created something called the enhanced CD, which created the same types of immersive artist-to-fan experiences for the CD (years ahead of the digital online music curve).For more than 25 years, Apple has been a leading innovator in the way bands make, market, and distribute music. During my tenure driving music initiatives at Apple, I spent a fair amount of time encouraging artists to use Macintosh (coupled with software such as Pro Tools) as a partner in liberating their music-creation process from expensive recording studios. For the first time, artists could write, record, and mix their music from their own home studios at their leisure.The digital landscape subsequently changed the industry forever. The 2001 introduction of the iPod and the launch of iTunes in 2003 were seismic shifts. But when songs first became available in MP3 format, pirating software such as Napster and BitTorrent took over, costing the music industry billions in illegally downloaded songs every year. To be fair, both services attempted to demonstrate to record labels how they could monetize the many millions of users who were accessing songs through these torrents — but those efforts fell on deaf ears back then.This demand for free media led to the development of streaming music options such as Spotify and Rdio. While access to artists is at an all-time high (a pro for consumers and smaller bands), the sweeping popularity of these applications deprives established artists of fair compensation. Streaming music has its share of detractors, including Taylor Swift and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. These big-name naysayers choose to ride a new wave of marketing and distribution that will protect their hard-earned income: the creation of products desirable enough (and personal enough) to coax fans into paying.How Interactivity Feeds the Artist and the FanInteractive digital music is one attempt at recapturing these lost music dollars. Rather than downloading individual songs (legally or illegally), interactive albums give fans access to a rich, immersive visual and audio experience with add-ons they can’t get from a streaming service, such as photography, interactive lyrics, and fan remixes.Then, these interactive downloads can be woven into an artist-focused app that organizes each artist’s concerts, brand partnerships, merchandise, and product offerings into one place and sends revenue straight to the artist — instead of to the other players in the music ecosystem.Interactive digital music is a perfect extension of Apple’s philosophy because it allows musicians to embrace their creativity and recapture some of what made physical albums special. It’s a flashback to a time when artists had the resources to care about the presentation of the artwork, write long-form albums on specific themes, and design a rich and powerful artist-to-fan experience.Although we can sense hunger from fans for more of this engagement, we don’t yet know how much money they’re willing to pay for these types of experiences or how they’ll actually embrace these opportunities. One of the most important aspects of developing any new product is deciding whether it meets the needs and desires of consumers. But as Apple has proven time and again, consumers often don’t know they want something until it’s presented for them to try.Like anything in marketing, interactive digital music is an evolving experiment. But as long as companies dabbling in this arena avoid a fiasco like Sony’s ill-fated anti-copy rootkit technology, there aren’t a whole lot of foreseeable downsides. Apple has the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the growing interest of artists, fans, and its own products that can deliver this new immersive experience.The music industry has always been about more than sounding good and getting a record deal. But today, artists have to give more than ever just to get what they got in the past. Artists who want to recoup lost sales and protect their livelihood from piracy must be willing to try new things — and surprise and delight fans with engaging, cutting-edge, interactive experiences.Kelli Richards is the CEO of The All Access Group. She is also the author of a bestselling e-book, "The Magic and Moxie of Apple: An Insider’s View."See More

I’ve opened a few recent workshops using electronic polling applications. (If you’re not familiar with the technology, it might be worth a look.) I asked a few questions to establish a base of understanding and interest, and using their cell phones, participants texted their answers. The responses were aggregated and displayed in real time; I then used the data to drive the rest of the session. The groups loved this approach and insisted it be incorporated into future workshops. I have to admit, the technology is pretty cool — but the groups’ positive reactions struck me as disproportionate to the level of freshness and flash. It was clear that something else was going on. Could it be that at our cores, human beings want evidence that what we think, speak, or share is real? That is has power? That it makes a difference? "If employees feel like they are throwing pennies down a bottomless well and they never hear a splash, they are going to stop throwing the pennies. We have got to show them that we are listening."                                                     — "Lead for Loyalty" by Frederick F. Reichheld. In many organizations today, employees have come to expect that their perspectives are powerless, their input ineffectual and their thoughts thankless. Organizations commit tremendous energy and resources to help leaders become better listeners. They teach this skill in an ever-evolving array of flavors: reactive, reflective, proactive, empathic, co-active. Yet leaders aren’t showing that they’re listening and employees aren’t hearing the splash. I’m listening Executives would likely bristle at an employee’s perception that they aren’t being heard. Sophisticated listening systems and tools abound in organizations. Yet there are fundamental disconnects and mixed messages for many employees. False involvement in decision-making In an effort to elevate involvement and engagement, leaders ask for input to decisions they have no intention of turning over to employees. When employees’ reactions are ignored, they miss the splash. Employee-input systems launched but not maintained Well-intentioned systems and processes are established to systematically gather ideas and innovations, but the organization can’t dedicate the resources to keep it up. The feedback loop is left eternally open, and employees miss the splash. Survey-mania Hungry for data, many organization engage in annual surveys of employee perceptions, engagement, and satisfaction. Energy is invested in data gathering and analysis. Statistical abnormalities and data anomalies are explained away. And the survey goes out again next year. When employees engage in repeated rounds of data gathering and don’t see changes as a result, they miss the splash. The simple act of listening Leaders have learned to reflect emotions and paraphrase content. But, when it’s left at that and employees don’t see action as a result, they miss the splash. Despite an increased ability to engage in a range of listening activities, employees are feeling less "heard" than ever before. From hear to hero For the most part, employees trust that their leaders are hearing the information they share. What’s missing is a commitment to doing something with that. That’s what meaningful listening would look like. And that’s the splash employees are looking for. Leaders today need to practice listening 2.0, which involves changing the focus from soliciting and gathering more input to actually using it. This new focus involves three critical steps. Apply a strategic lens to what you’re asking. Really be intentional, making sure that there’s a good likelihood that you’ll be able to act on what you hear. Do something with what you hear. Take appropriate action. Make the employees’ investment in sharing information with you pay off in some way. Let others know how you’re using their input. Communicating the value of what’s been shared in terms of the action you intend to take reinforces employee commitment. It also trains employees about the kind of information you find most valuable so they can bring you more of that. Sharing why you’re not acting on information is equally helpful. It communicates your bias to make productive use of what others offer up and encourages more input in the future. Listening 2.0 blasts past the old artifacts of listening ("uh-huh," "interesting," "tell me more," "if I’m hearing you correctly") by focusing beyond the message to something more fundamental and satisfying to employees: how to systematically make use of it. And that is sure to make quite a splash. What about you? What kind of listening splash are you making with your employees? How does your organization systematically use what it hears? The post Listening 2.0: Making a Splash with Employees appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Lisa Cheng commented on Gareth Price's blog post Happiness Is an Open-Source Project

Swapnil Shah posted a blog postWhat the Telecom Industry Can Teach Utilities About Staying Relevant in a Market EvolutionRemember the days when a residential move would mean not just a new telephone number, but often a whole new telephone provider? The days when people and businesses fell into zones determined by their address and whatever telecom provider held stakes over that address? Though this model reigned just 20 years ago, it seems almost pre-historic. That’s because we, as consumers, have become accustomed to choice in our telephone provider selection and carrier package, as well as control over how much we spend on our monthly telecommunications bill.Nowadays, we expect a bill that breaks down our phone use. With that information, we know exactly how we’re using our phones - both landline and mobile - and can use that information to pick an option that works best for our lifestyles. That may mean sticking with just a landline, opting for a cellular only plan or going with a family plan. We also expect that AT&T, Sprint or Verizon will send us regular texts to let us know that we’re nearing our monthly data allowance so that we can respond accordingly - cutting back on texting or using our favorite apps. And if we don’t want to change our habits? Then we just sign up for a different package or provider that better delivers value based on our usage patterns.We’re on the cusp of a similar shift in the energy market, where utilities are being forced to innovate in order to deliver better value to customers. Much like the telecom industry in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the utility market is facing new technologies and deregulation - thereby opening up new doors for customers who were previously confined to one energy choice. As a result, consumers and businesses are increasingly seeking out new, lower cost and more flexible alternatives - such as solar, microgrids and retail energy suppliers. In this environment, the traditional utility service of generating and providing energy hold less value than it once did.Utilities now find themselves at a pivotal inflection point where they must shift their business models in order to compete with this environment of increased customer choice. According to an Accenture report, continued growth of distributed energy resources could drive down utilities’ revenues by up to $48 billion in the US. And studies by Accenture and Pike Research show that 90% of utility customers are looking for more engagement and better services from their utility. Taking a cue from the much transformed telecom market, utilities are beginning to find that the key to staying in the game is to bolster customer engagement via customized intelligence. Customer relationships will become utilities’ most important assets, and customer data - previously only used for billing purposes - will be the foundation for building those relationships.By leveraging data-driven technology capable of tracking particular buildings’ energy consumption in real-time, utilities can unlock insight into specific ways their customers are using energy. They can then use this information to engage customers with recommendations and/or offerings that best fit their needs, while creating new revenue channels for their own businesses. This approach allows utilities to ensure customers view them as trusted advisors (not just de facto bill senders) which creates a deeper relationship with the customer that, in turn, increases customer satisfaction. The deep insight into energy use consumption also opens the door for utilities to engage customers on up-sell options that fit their needs, resulting in new revenue streams.Already, some utilities are evolving their approaches to better engage customers. British utility E.ON recently launched an Energy Toolkit, which leverages FirstFuel’s analytical software to provide its commercial customers with ongoing, personalized insight into their energy use, along with suggestions for how they can improve their consumption. Not only does this intelligence deliver value to customers, it improves E.ON’s bottom line. The ability to provide custom energy use insights and savings recommendations shifts E.ON’s role from commodity provider to trusted energy advisor and helpful resource - a beneficial shift in this evolving environment.As distributed generation continues to play a role in the rapidly evolving market, we’ll undoubtedly see more utilities follow in E.ON’s footsteps. Utilities will find that in order to compete with customers who are increasingly creating their own energy they must find innovative ways to stay relevant. Through customer intelligence analytics, they can secure the insight needed to help customers make smart energy use choices and to deliver new products and services that help customers optimize their bills. By using data-driven insights to deliver enhanced, personalized experiences, utilities - much like the telecom providers before them - will then be able to effectively engage consumers, and maintain their market share and coveted spot on the value chain.Swapnil Shah is co-founder and CEO of FirstFuel Software.See More

Over the past several years, a focus on authenticity has touched nearly every aspect of life. At work and at home, we try to ‘keep it real.’ In customer and employee interactions, we’re encouraged to remain genuine. Open, frank conversation is sought after and candor is valued. But has the pendulum swung too far? A case in point: When a recent cross-country flight sat for a half-hour on the tarmac, the pilot shared over the PA system that the delay was not their fault and that if we passengers were as frustrated as they were, we should leave a message on the airline’s website.  He went on to explain that he and his co-pilot ‘don’t get paid for sitting around like this.’ Another case in point: When I called Dr. K, a family member’s primary care physician following surgery conducted by another practitioner, Dr. K shared in no uncertain terms that the surgeon had not informed him of this procedure and the he never informs other general practitioners when he works on their patients. In both cases, highly educated individuals who hold positions of tremendous responsibility with extensive experience under their belts were being authentic, transparent, and candid. The information they shared was likely true. And unnerving. I want people who are flying my airplanes and taking care of my loved ones to be professional. I want them to demonstrate emotional intelligence. I want them to use good judgment and share what I need to know - not what they need to get off their chests. And employees feel the same way about their leaders. During a recent focus group, service workers shared the following comments: "I wish my supervisor tried to be more of a boss and less of a friend." "The busier I get, the less extraneous information I need." "He’s just trying to connect with the troops, but when he bad-mouths the company, it makes me feel bad." "I don’t need to know all the battles my boss is fighting with his peers and the organization." As leaders, we owe it to our employees to be authentic and transparent… but there’s a clear line when this becomes unproductive and shifts into abdicating responsibility, complaining, and blaming others.  When we don’t honor this line, we undermine the employee’s engagement and connection to the organization and we seriously compromise our own credibility. So, before you are tempted to be completely transparent and authentic, ask yourself: Is this information others need to get the job done? What is my motivation in sharing this information? Can I frame the information in a constructive rather than destructive fashion? In the case of the airline pilot, his frustration was valid. And there’s no reason for him to take personal responsibility for something beyond his control. But, I would have had a lot more confidence in him as a person and in his airline if he has instead said something like: "We’re sorry for the delay. And my co-pilot and I just love to fly… so we promise to take off just as soon as we can." Professionalism and authenticity are not mutually exclusive. And successful leaders find a way to integrate the two - serving their employees, organizations, and themselves. The post Has Professionalism Become Passé? appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Craig Bueker's blog post was featuredWhy Enterprise Technology Teams Are Losing the Battle Against Digital RiskGartner recently published the results of a senior executive survey which revealed that an estimated 60% of large-scale enterprises will experience a significant digital security breach. These breaches will be caused by internal IT teams’ inability to manage digital risk as new technologies and the internet of things creates more complex and interconnected technology environments.Why are technology teams unable to effectively manage the emerging complexities around digital innovation, exposing their organizations to such significant digital risk?  Understanding the answer to this question is a critical step in finding the solution that will put your organization into the 40% that will remain digitally safe.Digital Risk Factor 1: Unrealistic ExpectationsIn a report titled, "Top 10 Strategic Predictions for Businesses to Watch Out For," Gartner estimates that digital businesses will require 50% less IT business process workers and 500% more digital business jobs by 2018. This statistic is significant for two reasons. First, in the past, IT teams were the gatekeepers of technology for organization staffed with people who were experts in their disciplines but held little technical knowledge. However, today’s enterprise environment is drastically different. Technology now pervades and sometimes defines the way people work, making business jobs inherently digital. IT teams are no longer the experts on the technology being used by organizations and users are increasingly making purchasing decisions, expecting IT teams to manage integrations and digital risk around platforms with which they have no experience and cannot even evaluate.Second, as digital tools and their accompanying data integrations proliferate, it becomes fundamentally impossible for IT staff to be experts on all things technology. Expecting the IT team to be a one-stop shop for the management of all enterprise technology, let alone to mitigate the accompanying digital risk exposure, is in and of itself one of the biggest digital risk factors of all.Digital Risk Factor 2: Independent Assessments That Are Nothing More Than Self-AssessmentsHistorically, organizations have evaluated technology team performance through compliance audits. These audits are often performed by non-engineers, who are either part of the internal operations staff or external consultants with operational or financial backgrounds. In order to gather the necessary data for an assessment, engineering skills are required. As a result, IT teams are asked to gather the data on which their performance will be evaluated. Essentially, IT performance is determined by a self- assessment without checks and balances, creating situations where weaknesses are often covered up, unseen, or in some cases, exacerbated over years creating enormous technical debt—the accumulation of technological problems that become increasingly difficult and expensive to address as more systems are built on faulty foundations.Digital Risk Factor 3: IT Brain DrainA recent report from Beazley reveals that corporate data breaches attributable to human error comprise over one-third of all breaches that occur. And, the report continues, the frequency of these types of breaches is on the rise, with a 10% reported increase between 2013 and 2014 alone. Even more alarmingly, when organizations combine the risks associated with poorly designed systems, protocols and workflows along with human error, the degree of total risk explodes. According to a report issued by Online Trust Alliance in January, 2015, over 90% of the data breaches that occurred during the first half of 2014 could have been prevented if organizations had rethought their digital risk management strategies and policies.But who is qualified to rethink digital risk management strategy? Gifted engineering talent is aggressively pursued by the best technology companies in the world to innovate and create new products that change the way people live. This lure of this call coupled with high compensation rates has drained the engineering talent pool of the minds who are the best equipped to design the complex architectures and synthesize cross-disciplinary technology solutions. The engineering teams required to comprehensively manage digital risk and enterprise technology have become incredibly difficult to recruit and when found, prohibitively expensive.So how do we set up our technology departments to succeed?Be realistic about the expectations laid on technology teams. We must revise technology and digital risk management strategies to reflect the modern day tech landscape, instead of carrying forward structures, hierarchies and processes that no longer work.Create checks and balances that enable your organizations to independently assess technology performance. These assessments should be performed by independent, third-party engineering teams who can also benchmark performance against best-practices, as well as competitors in your vertical.Support internal teams with the subject matter experts who are focused on the digital risk management and have the engineering skill and experience to help them succeed.Craig Bueker is founder and CEO of Criterion Advisory.See More

Guest post by John Bell This post celebrates the launch of former CEO John Bell’s new book, Do Less Better: The Power of Strategic Sacrifice in a Complex World.   It’s easy to preach about the merits of simplification, but John takes it to the next step with real-life examples and tactical advice about how to improve results by doing ‘less better’. This post gives you a sense of where the book might take you. The dictionary describes "momentum" as a strength or force that keeps growing. Gamblers in the rush of a hot-streak believe it. Sports teams enjoying this hidden force go on inexplicable winning streaks while opponents can’t seem to string two wins together no matter how hard they try or how ‘talented’ their roster. Those of us who watched the recent near impossible comeback by the Seattle Seahawks against the Green Bay Packers with a few minutes on the clock witnessed the incredible strength of momentum. Business isn’t all that different. But unlike finite measurements such as sales, market share, profit, stock price or market cap, momentum remains an intangible - a powerful one. Companies short on momentum have a heck of a time finding it, and those who enjoy momentum can ride the big surf for extended periods of time. But take momentum for granted and the tide will turn - at first you won’t even realize that it has gone. And then, all of a sudden, the signposts are everywhere. No matter how hard you work to stop the erosion, the reversal is evasive. Sustaining high growth over the long haul isn’t easy. Winners are suddenly losers. Look at Kodak, Blockbuster, Blackberry, and Nortel. Each rode the wave of success, only to come crashing down. Like the phoenix, some rise again. Leaders who suffer the tough days of turnarounds and manage to resurrect a business are the ones who think about momentum in strategic terms. These folks know the success factors that raised them from their corporate cesspool. Most will continue to leverage the factors with unabashed zeal. For example, if it was innovation and creativity that brought revival, chances are high that innovation and creativity will remain a cornerstone of their corporate culture. This is how one sustains this intangible asset. Early in my career, I was part of a management team that swam in four years of red ink at Jacobs Suchard’s Canadian subsidiary. We just couldn’t find the momentum even though we thought we were doing all the right things. And then suddenly, our innovations in the market took hold and market share started edging up. At first we were cautiously optimistic, but after a year of impressive sales growth, it was clear that we had rediscovered momentum. Profitability followed, and with that, a very important intangible asset - confidence. Those of us who suffered those dark days of red ink would never forget the agony. Never would we allow ourselves to take momentum for granted. The shareholders benefited handsomely, and so did several young managers who were part of that company before the takeover by Kraft Foods. Those talents went on to become CEOs and business unit Presidents for such notables as Nestle, ConAgra, Anheuser Busch In-Bev, Warner-Lambert, Rogers Communications, Electronic Arts and Coca-Cola. This lesson in sports momentum and business momentum is also a lesson in life. Think about it.   John Bell is a retired consumer packaged goods CEO and global strategy consultant to some of the world’s most respected blue-chip organizations. His latest book has just been released by Macmillan USA. Do Less Better: The Power of Strategic Sacrifice in a Complex World is available at all online book sellers. The post Momentum: Your Most Undervalued Asset appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Gareth Price's blog post was featuredWhen Wearables Can Talk to Each Other: Happiness Is an Open-Source ProjectAs a digital marketing agency, Ready Set Rocket likes to keep its finger on the pulse of new technologies. Recently, we’ve started experimenting with wearable technologies, a market we find very promising, but prone to a certain kind of feverish hype and techno-utopianism. Products are announced to great fanfare that record a certain metric or data point, but forgetting to answer the question of how recording all that data will benefit or help an end user. Devices that fail to fulfill real needs end up quickly relegated to a dusty shelf after the initial novelty wears off.In a world where consumers demand and even expect technology that can connect to other devices, wearables just aren’t ready for their close-up. The majority of these products comprise what are basically self-contained empires: Google Glass doesn’t talk to the FitBit, for example. To achieve a future where wearables truly benefit people’s lives, they need to talk to each other. What’s more, the data they are capable of producing needs to be more accessible to end-users and other devices.To further these efforts, we advocate for wearable makers to open up their devices and to focus on how devices will improve people’s happiness and satisfaction.One of the areas we see as most closely tied to how technology will revolutionize the science of individual happiness is Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology. BCI technology employs electrodes to read a person’s brainwaves, and to see how certain thoughts trigger certain actions or emotions, a process known as biofeedback. Right now, BCI devices are rather clunky and awkward—think of a helmet full of electrodes—but over time, they will evolve into more unobtrusive headbands that people can slip on very simply. BCI devices combined with software to monitor emotional states will give us a stronger idea of someone’s true reaction to a product or service. Unlike traditional focus group testing, where responses are highly subjective and filtered through conscious filters, BCI technology elicits one’s subconscious response. Marketers can then compare the responsesBCI devices combined with software to monitor emotional states will give us a stronger idea of someone’s true reaction to a product or service. Unlike traditional focus group testing, where responses are highly subjective and filtered through conscious filters, BCI technology elicits one’s subconscious response. Marketers can then compare the responses to multiple variations of content, product elements or services to discover patterns of responses. This way, they can advise brands on creating products offering the best possible consumer experiences.Although BCI technology is potentially capable of providing unique insight into a range of human emotions, both positive and negative, right now we’re interested in measuring what we call the Happiness Quotient. This is how wearable technology, especially in the form of the headsets and other devices that read BCI data, might contribute to helping brands and creators to develop products and experiences that increase individual happiness and satisfaction.One way we can do this is by using BCI technology to measure and create responses that are readily definable as specific emotions, from happiness, sadness and anger, to engagement and focus. At the moment, this is difficult. We can read brainwave frequency and amplitude modulation to show us certain responses to specific stimuli, but the algorithms that can pull together these groups of responses to indicate a specific emotion are primitive.Speech recognition technology offers a good analogy for understanding this problem. While it has existed in some form since the 1950s, it’s only recently become useful in a general purpose way. It has always required extensive, strong training to recognize a particular voice. Current generations of speech recognition, for example Apple’s Siri, or voice-activated call-center technology, has improved on this, with a greater capability to understand different voices than in previous generations. It took years of researchers collecting thousands of voices repeating certain words over and over, however, for this to happen.To create better products and services, we need similar amounts of data on emotional inference. Just as with speech recognition, we need to put BCI-enabled headsets onto a large number of research participants, gauge their response to a stimulus, and use that to calibrate a model that can be applied to everyone. But in order to create the algorithms that will tell us that this product or element makes this person happy, or this person bored, we need to gather a large amount of this information, ideally in a quick timeframe.This is where the open source element comes into play. If we can offer access to the data BCI devices generate to everyone, it will make it that much easier and quicker to create algorithms defining specific types of emotions. Makers of BCI-enabled wearables can aid in this by allowing users to easily access to the data they collect on emotional responses. They can also make it possible for consumers themselves to engage in training these algorithms by allowing them to transmit (in a private, protected manner) their own data back to the manufacturer for research purposes.Some manufacturers of headsets have developed proprietary algorithms that have begun to infer some emotions. Unfortunately, they have kept this information proprietary. Yet they could also benefit from open source BCI technology. These proprietary algorithms are trained with data from only a small number of focus group participants. With access to data from other sources, they could greatly improve the accuracy of those algorithms.There are efforts underway to manufacture open-source BCI devices. One organization making promising headway in this is OpenBCI, a non-profit that designs affordable open source BCI-enabled technology. It has developed a circuit board that is compatible with any type of electrode, and can be used to sample electrical brain activity (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), heart rate (EKG), and other parameters. It is compatible with any type of electrode and is supported by a growing open-source framework of signal processing applications. In essence, it allows users to build their own BCI-capable headsets.Through allowing individuals to measure and better understand their emotions, BCI technology is the key to a potential revolution in the science of individual happiness. By opening up devices, data and source code, device manufacturers will tap into a growing ecosystem that will result in a wide range of as-yet unimagined applications for their devices that will fulfill real human needs.By allowing open access to devices and data, marketers like Ready Set Rocket will be able to harness it to help create products and services with our clients that will improve people’s satisfaction and happiness. It’s that Happiness Quotient—an element no one should overlook in the rush to crown the next big thing.Gareth Price is Technology Director at Ready Set Rocket.See More

Guest Post by Scott Edinger I’m delighted to host this guest post from a former colleague and thought leader, Scott Edinger. He and co-author Laurie Sain launch their book, The Hidden Leader: Discover and Develop Greatness Within Your Company, this week. It’s a practical, actionable guide for anyone who is interested in enhancing their own effectiveness or building leadership capacity within an organization. The article that follows gives you a flavor for how The Hidden Leader may help you! If you are a leader in any capacity whatsoever, odds are that you have heard, or perhaps even been told that you should be more inspiring. When I co-authored the book The Inspiring Leader, we studied the ability to inspire and motivate others and found that it was the most influential leadership trait promoting employee engagement. Additionally, when subordinates were asked what characteristic they most wanted from their managers, it was to be more inspiring. But who has the time? The secret is not to create additive work in your efforts to inspire others. Rather, take small steps to change your approach to doing the work you must already. So as you try to be more inspiring to those you work with try the following. Be an exemplar of the behaviors you wish to see in others. If you want to instill greater collaboration in your business, be a role model of doing so and visibly demonstrate your cooperative efforts with others. Discuss it in meetings. Celebrate team success. Recognize collaboration efforts elsewhere. Behaviors of key leaders tend to proliferate. Make sure you are proliferating good ones by getting out in front and displaying the traits you want to see flourish in your organization. You know this, right? People will do as you—and other key leaders do. This takes virtually no extra time. Connect on a human level and use emotions to your favor. One of my clients is a manufacturer of major commercial equipment. In a meeting with their senior managers we discussed that while they build machines, they build those machines through people. We don’t operate like machines and because of that we need to connect with those around us as people. Not as a job function to be completed or a task to be accomplished, but as people with feelings, goals, and individual needs. For some leaders a good place to start is simply using some good manners (something I find all too often lacking). For others, understanding a person’s point of view and what is important to them, is a powerful means to further develop someone’s engagement in your team. You are already interacting with the people you want to inspire so take a few precious minutes to change the tone and tenor of the conversation. Prioritize innovation over problem solving. The best leaders I work with are constantly seeking to raise the bar. When presented with challenges, they use them as a chance to innovate and try something completely different and creative. My avatar for innovation is Antanas Mockus, the former Mayor of Bogotá Colombia. When confronted with major traffic problems in Bogotá, he didn’t go the conventional problem-solving route of more police, harsher fines, or typical traffic problem solving approaches. He hired 420 mimes to mock people misbehaving at intersections throughout the city.  Fatalities and accidents decreased due to his very creative approach. As an aside, this is not permission to go mock your employees. That’s not the point here. You are already spending this time trying to solve problems so thinking creatively doesn’t have to take more time. But it does require you to be intentional about it and create an environment where it is safe to express new ideas. Stop emailing and do more live communicating. Sure, email is a form of communication, but it is one-dimensional. Personal interaction is best when you need to communicate matters of strategic importance, engage in discussions about alternatives, or topics that are nuanced and can’t be sufficiently addressed using the forum of email. I’ve heard suggestions that when an email thread has been commented on three times and an issue is still lingering that email is no longer an effective medium to resolve the issue. If you are not in the same location, pick up the phone. Walk down the hall. Use a videoconference. Anything that brings additional dimensions to your communication with others. Don’t kid yourself about email being efficient. Just because you send an email doesn’t mean something is done. Try adding up the collective wasted time on extending decisions, discussions, and deliberations on email. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say this will save you time. Develop the skills of someone else. Nothing inspires loyalty like helping someone improve. This rarely occurs as an HR or talent development initiative as a means to develop bench strength. This happens most effectively when a leader highlights the growth and learning of people on their team. In one of my first jobs I worked for a manager who prioritized my development with training, coaching, and investing in my growth as a professional. Twenty years later he still inspires me when I speak with him. Helping others to grow and coaching to improve performance almost always drives loyalty, increases engagement, and ultimately improves performance. This will take you more time. But it doesn’t have to be a lot. In fact, if you focus on developing others in the context of the work you are doing through modeling, planning, and debriefing, you will accomplish two things at once. None of these are particularly onerous time commitments. Pick one or two of these areas of focus and work on them. Here’s the trick. It is tough to become an inspiring leader with one action per week that you remember to check off at 4:45 pm on Friday afternoon. You need to create simple and demonstrative actions daily, even multiple times daily to develop a habit with impact. In most cases, it is not about creating additive work. Rather, it is finding ways to integrate new behaviors in the work you are already doing. Surely you can spare ten minutes a day, right? Scott Edinger is co-author of the new book The Hidden Leader. As founder of Edinger Consulting Group, Scott has worked with leaders in nearly every industry sector, helping them formulate and implement growth strategies, increase revenue and profit, develop leadership capacity, drive employee engagement, and attract and retain talent. The post Be More Inspiring In Just Ten Minutes Per Day appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Barry Fischer's blog post was featuredData Shows Why Utilities Worldwide Should Pay Attention to the March 20 Solar EclipseThe world’s most sun-powered nation is about to encounter an unusual complication: the moon.When a solar eclipse sweeps across Europe on the morning of March 20th, the moon’s passage in front of the sun will cast a sudden and giant shadow across Germany — a country whose reliance on solar energy is, by international standards, astronomical.Although Germany is no bigger than the state of Montana, it boasts more than a quarter of all the solar electric capacity installed on earth. Its 1.4 million solar energy systems produce nearly 7 percent of the nation’s electricity. (In the US, solar provides about 0.5 percent.) And during the sunniest hours of the year, photovoltaic systems have satisfied up to half of Germany’s power demand.That raises an interesting question: when the moon blocks up to three-fourths of the sun shining on Germany later this month, how will electric utilities and the power grid respond?To shed some light on the problem, we cracked open Opower’s energy data storehouse — the world’s largest, spanning more than 55 million households worldwide. Our findings highlight the fascinating challenges of a solar-powered energy future, and how new technology and innovative utility strategies will be essential to the operation of next-generation power grids.Energy Data From a Recent Solar Eclipse in AmericaIn October 2014, we caught a glimpse of how an eclipse can affect a region that’s teeming with solar panels: the Western United States.The Western US comprises several of the top solar states in America, and its sun-fueled energy portfolio continues to expand briskly - across large-scale solar arrays as well as customer rooftops.So when a partial eclipse obstructed 30 to 50 percent of the sun on the afternoon of October 23rd, the western power grid felt it. Utility-generated solar electricity production plunged between 1:45 and 4:30pm, before returning to a typical late-afternoon pattern.During an eclipse over the western US on October 23rd, 2014, utility-generated solar power production plunged (1:45-4:30pm), before returning to a typical late-afternoon pattern (Source: CA ISO)Rooftop solar systems responded similarly. Electric usage data from a sample of 5,000 solar homes in Opower’s database shows that their shipment of excess power to the grid — indicated by negative electricity usage in the chart below — rapidly contracted during the eclipse. Solar customers exported 41 percent less electricity than usual between 1:45 and 4:30pm.Looking at the same data from a different angle, you clearly see the steep drop-off in electricity supply: solar homes’ export of power to the grid declined markedly faster than usual.How did the sudden drop-off in solar production affect the region’s power grid? In short, it required utilities and grid operators to fill in the gap.The electric system relies on exact second-by-second balancing of demand and supply. To prevent grid instability and blackouts, sudden decreases in solar power (or any kind of power source) must be compensated by changes elsewhere in the system, like turning on other power plants, reducing electric demand, or discharging energy stored in batteries.That’s precisely what happened in the western US. At the peak of the October 23rd eclipse, which took more than a 1,000-megawatt bite out of solar power supply, the region’s primary grid operator responded by dispatching an unusually large increase in thermal (likely gas-fired) electricity generation.But what would happen if we were to raise the stakes, beyond our western US example? What if we tripled the amount of solar panels installed and doubled the severity of the eclipse?For an answer, we look to Germany.What to Expect in GermanyBetween 9:30am and noon on March 20th, Germany’s 1.4 million solar power systems are in for a wild ride.In the span of 75 minutes, the moon will go from occluding 1 percent of the sun’s glow to 73 percent. Solar production will fall, and fall fast — up to 2.7 times faster than it normally ever does, according to an analysis by the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. The effect is similar to turning off a medium-sized power plant in Germany every minute — for a full hour.The reverse is also true. As the moon recedes from blocking 73 percent of the sun to blocking none of it, solar power output could skyrocket by as much as 18 gigawatts in just over an hour — up to 3.5 times faster than usual. (Note that in the Western US case study, this kind of rebound in solar production was largely immaterial, since the eclipse ended near sunset.)That said, there’s also a chance that the eclipse’s slingshot effect will be less severe than the chart above suggests. The ultimate outcome depends on cloud cover. If clouds are already blocking the morning sun, for instance, the eclipse will cause solar power production to dip from an already low level to a somewhat lower level than that, and then inch back up again.While Germany’s eclipse is perfectly predictable, the weather on March 20th is not. That means utilities and grid operators have to prepare for the most extreme impact and the most dramatic ups and downs in solar power production.How will they do it?As in the Western US, managing the impact of the German eclipse will hinge on real-time flexibility in power grid operations. Fortunately, that’s something Germany is good at, as evidenced by its impressive reliability in operating a grid that gets 17 percent of its electricity from solar and wind.When the eclipse hits and solar power supply starts to tumble, German energy providers and grid operators can respond with a combination of strategies — such as releasing energy stored behind hydroelectric dams, turning on quick-start natural gas power plants, or importing electricity from neighboring countries.To complement those tactics, utilities could also modulate power demand — by encouraging their customers to avoid or delay electricity usage during the first half of the eclipse. This approach would resemble one that several American utilities deployed with Opower last summer to shave power demand by up to 5 percent.Reciprocal strategies could be used when solar power quickly rebounds during the second half of the eclipse. Energy providers could store excess energy behind hydroelectric dams, ramp down gas power plants, export electricity to other countries, or help customers shift their electricity demand toward that time window.Given the German power sector’s strong record of grid reliability and their strategic flexibility planning for March 20th, the country will likely navigate the day’s unique operational challenges without a hitch.But in a future brimming with more solar power, one has to ask: could the situation posed by Germany’s solar eclipse become the norm, rather than the exception?Foreshadowing the Future of Utilities and the GridThe upcoming eclipse over Germany’s solar panels provides a sneak peek at a fascinating challenge facing tomorrow’s electric grid.Namely, how can utilities and grid operators achieve the large-scale flexibility required to embrace an energy resource that, by its nature, rapidly turns on and off — whether predictably due to eclipses and sunrises/sunsets, or unpredictably due to clouds and weather?The challenge Germany confronts on March 20th may actually become a daily occurrence within 15 years, according to a presentation by one of the country’s largest electric transmission operators. Assuming the German government achieves its target of 66 gigawatts of solar capacity, a clear-sky sunrise in 2030 could drive an increase in solar power supply as steep as the rebound phase of 2015’s eclipse.During sunrises in 2030, the scale of Germany’s solar installations could drive an increase in power   supply as steep as the rebound phase of 2015’s eclipse (Source: Ecofys and 50hertz).Grid authorities are facing a similar future in renewable energy powerhouses like California, which is striving toward 33 percent renewable electricity by 2020. One oft-cited statewide scenario suggests that at sunset during some parts of the year, the sudden drop in solar power will necessitate an extremely brisk ramp-up of non-solar resources (labeled "net load" in the chart below) to compensate for the sun’s departure and, simultaneously, to meet the evening’s high electric demand.The "duck chart" suggests that flexible, non-solar energy resources will increasingly be called upon to compensate for the sudden drop in solar power when the sun goes down (Source: CA ISO).As the electricity produced by renewables like solar and wind continues to grow, the grid will inevitably see larger swings in power production. That’s why flexibility measures like fast-ramping power plants, adjustments to customer energy behavior, dynamic power pricing, energy storage, and a range of other strategies represent a critical dimension of the power grid’s evolution to meet the needs of the 21st century.As far as upcoming eclipses go, it’s not just Germany that will get to showcase the flexibility of its electric system. America’s increasingly sun-fueled grid will be forced to adapt to the moon’s shadow for multiple hours in 2017, 2023, and 2024.It will require ingenuity, but if we can put a man on the moon, innovative utilities will find ways to deal with the moon’s shadow. By doing so, they’ll be taking one small step toward creating the electric system of the future.Barry Fischer is the Head Writer/Editor at Opower.----------Special thanks to: John B Lee (graphics) and Casey Davis-Van AttaData Privacy: All data analyzed here are anonymous and treated in strict adherence to Opower’s Data Principles.Author’s note: The analysis and commentary presented above solely reflect the views of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Opower’s utility partners.Methodology and Technical Notes: Utility service points analyzed are located within a common area of the western United States bounded by a 200-mile radius. Usage statistics are per-household averages based on 15-minute-interval electricity consumption data measured on October 23rd, 2014.Solar households (n=5,240) are defined as residential utility customers who possess an onsite renewable energy system that is bi-directionally interconnected with the electric grid, and that exported power to the grid on the day of the partial solar eclipse.Projected electricity usage and exports are modeled using a quadratic polynomial function, to represent a baseline pattern under typical, non-eclipse conditions. The function corresponds to a trend line that symmetrically connects pre-eclipse negative usage values (9:00 am - 1:45pm) with the eclipse day’s terminal negative usage value (4:30 pm) - thereby constructing an approximation of baseline values for the eclipse period itself.We portray Germany’s eclipse scenario as a tripling of solar panels relative to the western US. This portrayal is based on data from the Solar Energy Industries Association, suggesting that cumulative installed solar electric capacity across California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico is approximately 12 gigawatts. Germany’s installed photovoltaic capacity is estimated to be greater than 38 gigawatts.We compare the German eclipse’s first-half impact to turning off a medium-sized power plant in Germany every minute for a full hour. This comparison is based on the prediction that, given clear skies, the reduction in solar output in the first 60-75 minutes of eclipse will be between 6,000 and 11,300 megawatts. Towards the lower end, this represents a change of ~100 megawatts per minute; the average size of a natural gas ("Erdgas") power plant in Germany is also ~100 megawatts.See More

For decades, leadership development has been a significant focus of businesses worldwide. Billions of dollars and millions of hours have been invested in a wide range of activities to build the capacity and effectiveness of those charged with guiding and directing organizations and the people within them. But today, many organizations are implementing a small change in semantics that could lead to big changes in terms of their leadership development efforts. They’re dropping the ‘ship’ and focusing on leader development instead. What difference can the absence of four letters in a word make? A lot. Leadership development in many organizations is a function, a set of processes and activities aimed at turning out cadre after cadre of ready, willing and able individuals who’ll keep the business running.  It’s a well-oiled machine that operates on metrics and margins. It generally espouses a global set of competencies or capacities that all leaders must learn and master - all in service of the needs of the business. Leader development, on the other hand, is personal. The focus is not on building organizational capability by generating what some might interpret as an undifferentiated pool of talent; rather, it’s about growing the individual in unique ways that complement their strengths, talents, and interests. It also targets key areas for improvement that will support the leader as well as the business. Transitioning from leadership to leader development shifts the focus ever so slightly to the individual and in so doing creates a dynamic tension - even an obligation - to the leader investing his or her time in development. It allows - even encourages - those charged with growing talent within an organization to focus on the needs of a talent pool of one (the individual) rather than a broader population and to craft tailored plans and solutions for each unique leader. A human resources director recently summed up this sentiment: "When I used to think about leadership development, I came at it from the perspective of the needs of the organization. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still focused on the business. But when I think about leader development, people’s faces pop into my mind. You can’t help but approach the work differently when it feels that personal." The shift from leadership to leader development infuses additional humanity into the process. And this humanity elevates the importance of - and generates more opportunities for - a focus on the soft skills (which, let’s face it, are the hard ones anyway). Trust, communication, and empathy take on greater significance when the focus is on the leader versus the broader capacity. Putting the object of development at the center of the equation clearly benefits the leader; but it also benefits the organization. Buy-in, accountability, and commitment - they all grow.  Individuals can sense the shift. They appreciate the genuine attention to their development needs. And they have more skin in the game as a result. So, as organizations struggle to elevate engagement, build motivation and commitment, and compete in today’s hyper-competitive environment, perhaps a small semantics change should be considered. Perhaps it’s time to jump ‘ship’ on leadership development… and set sail in the direction of leader development instead. The post Should the ‘Ship’ Sail on Leadership Development? appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Rich Waidmann posted a blog postFive Ways to Rid Your Company of Office JerksThere are a lot of things that impact a business - technology, location, economy, workforce, etc. But have you ever stopped to think of how the different factors of your workforce, such as personality, play a role in your company’s success or failure? Well, maybe it’s time you do.Recent research reveals that more than half (55 percent) of today’s IT professionals admit to having been bullied by a colleague. This number highlights the fact that the conversation of bullying and jerk-like behavior needs to extend beyond the schoolyard - and into the office. And not just to establish a more pleasant workplace, but a more successful one as well. Those same professionals report the ways in which their department is impacted by poor behavior:Low employee morale: 59 percentEmployees take on a "lone wolf" mentality and prefer to work alone: 42 percentDecreased product quality: 40 percentInability to get work done: 34 percentDespite these statistics, 57 percent of companies lack a zero-tolerance "office jerk" culture. But, with more and more competition for the best talent - coupled with the need to remain competitive (both from a hiring and business perspective), it’s time to rid the workplace of office jerks altogether. Here are five steps to doing so:1. Support and promote positive relationships. The research shows that providing an environment that supports positive relationships among colleagues leads to the highest job satisfaction (43 percent) followed by office locations (27 percent), the culture (15 percent) and investment in employees (11 percent).2. Create a "water cooler" culture. There is a real value and significance to having a social work environment. If you don’t have a water cooler, don’t worry; the research shows you don’t have to: • 77 percent report the socializing takes place at people’s desks • 40 percent around the coffee maker • 27 percent in the conference room • 23 percent outside the office (e.g., at a bar, restaurant, etc.) • 14 percent around the actual water cooler3. Implement a formal culture. Create a binding "contract" and have every employee sign it. This should go along with a set of guiding principles within your employee handbook that outlines your company’s values, including behavior - and expectations around it.4. Have a process (and implement it). If someone is guilty of exercising behavior that doesn’t align with those company values, it’s important to address it immediately. If there are employees that are chronic abusers—regardless of their title or importance—then it’s critical that they be asked to leave the organization.5. Join the movement. As the ‘The Jerk-Free Company’ since 1996, we are taking the next step - creating a "No Jerks Allowed" movement to get other companies to take the "jerk-free" pledge. We’ve launched a new website dedicated to the movement (www.nojerksallowed.com) with videos, blog posts, content and anecdotes. Consider it a resource as you look to rid your workplace of jerks.The research shows that taking a stance against bad behavior, like bullying, can lead to improved employee morale and increased job satisfaction. Are you ready to stand up - and say no - to jerks?Rich Waidmann is the founder of Connectria.See More

This year will go down in my professional life as "The Year I Met my Online Personal Learning Network and Lived to Tell the Tale (Ad Nauseum)". On average, every month I have met at least two people from my wider personal learning network whose connections I made through Twitter, LinkedIn or Yammer.  I would get an email, direct message or a request to ‘have a coffee and chat’ with someone because they have a great experience to share, a story to tell or simply, they are want to learn what’s happening in our industry. Of course, the most unforgettable experience was meeting my wider network in London in August this year which escalated our Twitter relationship to a whole new different level. Usually these meetings are over a cup of coffee or lunch, away from our respective workplaces and in a social or informal environment.  In the case of the London tweet up it was a lunch at a brewery followed by drinks at a nearby bar. A highlight of my recent trip to the UK was meeting Colin Steed, Lesley Price and Jane Hart in person (who I was in awe with to say the least). If it’s a chance to get out of the office, get some fresh air and meet someone new in your line of work, what’s not to like? But this got me thinking what have we actually achieved from meeting face-to-face after our online connection?  If I had to explain the benefit to my boss, how would I explain the value of a network? Before this year, I did not know @LearnKotch however, after meeting on Twitter, we realised that we had much to share and learn from each other.  Coming from similar backgrounds, we connected in not only our work but culturally.  From this meetup, we organised tours of our respective workplaces and got to meet each other’s work teams.  Our online learning content development team met his team and together, in a warm boardroom on a Friday morning in July, we shared our success, stories and frustrations with our respective work.  We shared tips and techniques of online courseware design and development and learned the challenges that go with working in different organisations and business clients. This meeting culminated with an arrangement to share particular online course content that would have saved our organisation time, money and resources rather than designing from scratch. Secondly, I met Jasmine Mahlki through Twitter.  She explained that her organisation was considering implementing Yammer and wondered if I had any networks whom she could speak to.  Our organisation has used this social networking tool for some years already and I had the perfect person in mind.  With a quick phone call to him, he was only to happy to help out and provide any advice for Jasmine. These are just two of my stories on the value of learning networks that directly impacted my role - and they follow a pattern. The first was the online connection itself through social media.  The second was the follow-up with a face-to-face conversation and then a third was an actual collaboration or shared project, task or action that resulted in some benefit and support. The result of these three actions changed the relationship to one of mutual respect, trust, equality and collaboration. A true peer-to-peer learning network. So with these in mind since my return from the UK, I had been thinking about creating a ‘space’ where people who meet online can meet face-to-face in a social, informal setting away from work where they can freely converse on things that are important to them - much like what I did with my PLN when I met with them in person. A ‘space’ where there were no formalities, no structure or agendas (because frankly, let’s face it, we get this at work and it does our head in) but just conversations because the actions and the stories will naturally evolve out of these dependent on the people taking part. Last week I participated in two tweet chats.  The first one was the Educational Technology MOOC #etmooc which was a catch-up for those who had completed this cMOOC. The chat revolved around questions of what people were doing in their lives post ETMOOC and how they have implemented the educational technology tools they learned into their work.   The second chat was the weekly Learn Chat #lrnchat on Friday morning.  The topic of this chat was related to communities. Paul Signorelli (@trainersleaders) had been in both of these discussions and he posted a link to the Wikipedia article on Third Places, a concept by Ray Oldeburg from his book, The Great Good Place. Wikipedia says, "Oldenburg calls one’s "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace — where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs." This is when the jigsaw puzzle fell into place.  I had my ‘space’ and I had my name.  It was exactly what I was trying to define in my own head and it came from someone who was in my Personal Learning Network from San Francisco.  He also wrote about it in his blog post, When Communities of Learning Discuss Community - and Produce Results. The results were immediate.  I knew exactly what I had to do and how to do it because Paul had given me that piece of the puzzle that was missing from my jigsaw puzzle carton. He may as well have been in the same room and handed me the piece and said, "Helen, I do believe that THIS is what you’re looking for".   YES! In the next hour, I set up a Meet Up group called Third Place - a place for Melbourne based learning professionals in all industries to converse and network in a social, informal environment such as cafes, library, pubs or restaurants. In the first week of going live, we had 27 people sign up many of whom I hadn’t connected previously but who may have read my blog or Twitter posts. Others had an interest in learning and wanted to connect with others in the field for networking. Our first event will be held in a couple of weeks at the atrium in the Royal Melbourne Hotel for after work drinks. It will be an opportunity to meet some new faces in the one place and establish new networks and friendships with people in our line of work.  From there, we’ll play it by ear but the intention is to spread the events with morning, afternoon meetups in cafes as well as breakfasts and lunches. Whoever rocks up will be warmly welcomed and the beginning of a wonderful network and friendships will unfold. I can’t wait. Care to join me?Filed under: Development, ETMOOC, Uncategorized, Work Narration, XPLRPLN Tagged: 2013, etmooc, Lrnchat, October, October 2013, personal learning network, PLN, Third Place

Guest Post by Dr. Stacy Feiner I’m delighted to celebrate the launch of Talent Mindset with this guest post by Dr. Stacy Feiner.  In her just-released book, Stacy provides a step-by-step process for acquiring, developing and deploying people within any organization. It’s no-nonsense, in-the-trenches advice that will help any leader make the most of his or her most valuable asset, talent. Here are important questions to ask yourself: How is training being delivered at your organization? How are your people learning? What tools are you providing to facilitate engaged mindshare? I find so often that business owners are locked into the belief that you don’t need to develop someone you hired to do a job. In other words, if someone needs to be developed, they’re not right for the job. On the other hand, owners know that people need to develop on the job to grow, but they don’t know how to tell the difference between someone with high potential or someone who is just tapped out. Most training professionals acknowledge collaborative activities are critical for workplace learning, and when typical corporate training is deployed, workers tend to get frustrated and "check out." The old way of training doesn’t produce the type of worker needed to succeed in today’s networked society. That is, someone who is collaborative, who creates value, fulfills personal and company goals, is flexible and forward thinking. There is a movement that is changing the way we work, the meaning we give to work and what we should expect from our careers. There’s a radical paradigm shift that is altering the formal, rote training we applied during the Industrial Age into a network-based mindset that emphasizes knowledge and connection, and that really works for today’s Information Age. In a Strategic Talent Management framework, Training is an enterprise-wide campaign that sets the tone for your expectations of employees’ performance. It is the foundation upon which you will eventually build Performance Management and Leadership Development. Training is also a Recruiting tool that attracts valuable players who desire a learning environment where employers invest in their success, and support their growth. When we change the way training is formatted and delivered, we empower the people in our companies to engage, collaborate, think strategically and deploy their talents for the purpose of reaching the organization’s goals. What do you think? How is training changing in your organization? How should it? This is an excerpt from Talent Mindset (available on Amazon).  Learn more at stacyfeiner.com or follow Stacy on Twitter @stacyfeiner. The post Training: The New School appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Jeff Brown's blog post was featuredHow to Stop Credit-Muling Theft and Cell Phone Fraud Dead in Its TracksSmartphone fraud has turned into a cash-cow for criminals who are developing increasingly simplistic ways of scamming mobile carriers. And while street theft dubbed "Apple Picking" is one thing, a more sophisticated crime is also at hand.In the U.S., popular carriers like AT&T and Verizon often subsidize the phone to encourage customers into multi-year contracts.  The device that normally costs $700 is sold for $200 upfront and the rest is rolled into the monthly fee. This is where fraudsters are taking advantage, and where mobile carriers are starting to fight back.The all-too-common operation called credit-muling works like this: Middlemen are dispatched to multiple points of sale, offering the homeless and others on the street $100 to buy a smartphone on their behalf, using fraudulent customer data. The hired-help buys a number of phones using fake credentials for about $200 each, with obviously no plans to follow-through on paying the two-year contract.Then, the middle-men turn around and sell these brand new phones for what they’re worth - roughly $700 - often overseas.Fraudsters also execute similar schemes online. Five cyber criminals buy five smartphones from the same carrier at the exact same time, using the exact same fraudulent credentials. By the time the information is processed and flagged, it could be 24-48 hours later.The multi-billion dollar smartphone market is turning the tables, however, using customer analytics to put an end to this type of fraud in real time. Some national carriers are now implementing a unique big data toolset to run a customer’s credentials at the point of sale, causing any number of red flags to appear before the person ever sees the new phone. By assessing applicant information during point-of-sale transactions to reject fraudulent smartphone purchases from occurring, carriers can beat these criminals at their own game.Using these point-of-sale analytics could yield literally astronomical savings for the telecommunications industry. These customer analytics detect 99.9 percent of credit-mulers seeking to scam the system. Given that carriers can lose anywhere between $400 and $1,500 per fraudulent application, eliminating this activity altogether clearly adds up.To learn more about credit-mule schemes, read this informative WIRED article.Jeff Brown is a Product Manager at Infogix.See More