The Archives
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05.23.08Age of Conversation 2 kicks offAfter a couple of posts where I've expressed frustration about the seeming inability of business and government to take advantage of social media, I thought I'd close off the week (it's Friday afternoon here) with something a little more positive. As many of you know, I'm one of the many co-authors for the new edition of Age of Conversation. The theme of the 2008 edition is Why don't people get it? - kind of apt given my posts this week... Anyway, under the terms of our AoC agreement, we're only allowed to post a snippet of what our chapter contains, so ...
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05.21.08What a difference a week makesThe past two weeks, I've attended two one-day (well, one evening and an all-day) conferences that couldn't have been further apart in the reaction they drew from me. The first was Interesting South on 12 May and then on Monday this week, Web Directions South Government. Both conferences were run extremely professionally by great teams. The content at both was largely really well selected by the organisers and well presented by the speakers. But the audience and the "buzz" at each was worlds different. The good news first. Let's talk about Interesting South. Based on the London Interesting, Interesting South was an eclectic ...
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03.27.08Company-Customer PactPart of the new way of doing business is to be engaged in a conversation with your clients and stakeholders. It's all very Cluetrain-ey. Moreover, it's critical to make that conversation human, and for it to be in both directions - from you as the business out to the customers you provide a product or service to, and back the other way - for you as a customer back to the businesses that you deal with respectfully (where it's earned) and to deal with the people there in the same way you expect them to deal with you. This concept is reflected ...
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02.06.08Yes We Can. But can we in Australia?This is why politics in America is such a hot subject. Passionate, statesmanlike speakers with a real message of change and hope. Beyond that, inspiring others to participate and get the message out. Will.I.Am of the Black-Eyed Peas has put together something special here - I've watched it several times and still choke up. It's very reminiscent of the feelings I get when I hear We Are the World or Do They Know It's Christmas?, perhaps even more powerfully so. Barack Obama truly excites me as a politician. He is articulate and inspiring and can write his own stuff - the ...
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01.27.08EngagementThanks to my Melbourne-based compatriot, Michael Specht, I have seen this video from McDaniel Partners on the issue of employee engagement. Riffing off the incredible Miniature Earth, it delves richly and poignantly into the lives of the people you work with every day. It's an unfortunate fact that most organisations simply have no idea how to engage their staff, treating them largely as cogs in some Industrial Age dark Satanic Mill. The idea of an engaged, enthusiastic and loyal workforce is anathema to them and is blamed on Gen Y or lack of loyalty in some other area rather than a long, ...
