Organizational Courage

Cow Pattie on the Web 2.0 Trail

Just when you thought it was safe to skip trustingly across the wide open meadow of web 2.0 word of mouth marketing……someone throws a cow pattie right in your path.

We at frank have been expounding on the virtues of web 2.0: the transparency, meritocracy, and sheer all-around goodness that comes from free web speech and people who are willing to put their opinions out there. We’ve blogged about the amazing new barcode-reading cell phones that help you compare product prices and user reviews. We’ve jumped up and down about the new wave of transparency that’s sure to follow.

And now the cow pattie on the path: PayPerPost.com (note: in my own little protest, this has purposely not been hyperlinked) is a new company that puts advertisers and bloggers together: bloggers get paid ($4 to $35/post) for each mention of an advertiser’s product. Bloggers are not obligated to be positive about the advertiser’s product / service in their post, nor are they obligated to reveal that they’re being paid to post about a particular product or service.

This is the anti-web 2.0, or what we at frank call “knarf” (backwards frank – get it?) behavior. It’s using web 2.0 tools to appear transparent, while hiding the true relationship between advertiser and blogger. Unethical? I think so. Illegal? Unfortunately, no.

So especially during this holiday shopping season as you’re tripping around web 2.0, just watch where you step….

Tech Hook-up or Disconnect?

Great Star Tribune article in yesterday's paper outlining the delicate balance of technology access vs. overload. In his article Neal Justin points out the pleasures and pitfalls of our over-access to technology. He cited a study by NY media services company OMD, that breaks out the 41 hours per day an average person spends on electronic devices. (Mr. Justin came up with 43 hours, but I pulled the roughly two hours spent on magazines and newspapers). Obviously there are only 24 hours in a day, but the OMD study cites 41 because of multi-tasking. 

How does this info feel to you? About right? You putting in your 41 hours? And is that a good thing?

Between Boyfriends

I’m in the middle of a guilty pleasure – a trashy book called The Between Boyfriends Book by Cindy Chupak, one of the Sex in the City writers. (By the way, it’s pretty funny, even though I’ve been happily married for eleven years.)

Throughout the book Ms. Chupak constantly refers to ‘perfect’ blind dates: those guys who are perfect on paper but who just, well, aren’t in real life. Her point being, so much of dating is sheer chemistry.

To me, it’s sort of like job hunting. How are you supposed to get married (i.e., pledge your troth, take the job) after only three to four ‘dates’ (i.e., interviews)? How are you supposed to know what that company is really like – do they fight fair? Will they hog the covers? Will they get along with your friends? Let’s face it: anyone can behave for three or four dates.

I propose a whole new system of interviewing: you get to spend at least a full day with no-holds-barred access up and down the ladder. You get to ask anything. You get to see people in their actual, messy cubicles.  While you’re at it, make it a full 12 hours: stay 7AM until 6 or 7 at night. How full is the parking lot? How about over the weekend?

Sure, it might not give you your every answer about this new place. But at least you’re less likely to be surprised when someone leaves the toilet seat up.

Who's wearing the pants?

I bought a new pair of pants yesterday. They're funky, cool, but professional: even my cutting-edge fashionista step-daughter would be proud of me. They're what we called 'hip huggers' in the 70's, but are just normal pants now. Not those hideous low-rise things that only look good on Lindsay Lohan, but just a little lower than I'm used to. Which comes to the point: I can't seem to get used to them. The pockets bulge out because I keep pulling them up higher on my waist. Which sort of defeats the purpose of buying cool new pants.

So I'm wondering what other things / emotions / actions / behaviors I continue to keep in my life, that no longer serve me? What else have I gotten so used to, I don't even notice? Or, what do I tolerate because it's too much work to change?

As we slide into the holidays, and turn into our 10-year-old selves (or worse, our 15-year-old selves) when we walk in the family front door, what unconscious behaviors take over?

This week's all about intentionality. Wearing my pants like I mean it! On purpose. For real. 

Coke goes web 1.0 to 2.0

This is so cool: Coca-Cola has announced its intention to work with rural African communities, using Coca-Cola's product and logistics expertise to bring drinking water (and other beverages) to the communities.

In my mind, the most exciting part is Coca-Cola's movement from a web 1.0-based, colonial, bureaucratic approach (such as the approach it used to bring soft drinks to India, where high pesticide levels resulted in product bans) to a web 2.0, grass roots partnership approach with local communities.

Hats off to Coca-Cola for taking a new approach, letting go of 'control', and partnering for a lasting solution!

Java goes 2.0!

Looks like even the big guys are getting on board with web 2.0 thinking --- Sun Microsystems announced today that it will release Java as open source software. It may keep a licensed, supported version as well, but is offering an open source version to spread the gospel. Awesome! I'm curious about the culture and business process changes that will take place inside Sun, in order to make the shift. How will business success be measured under the new model? Will this have any impact on the internal Sun culture? What are the new rewards?

Anyone out there have any insight on 1.0 companies moving to 2.0? Would love to hear more.....

I'm in Dallas at my husband's college reunion with a hodgepodge of family (my dad, step-son, step-daughter-in-law, granddaughter, sister-in-law, brother-in-law) and John's college friends. What I'm noticing today is the way I gravitate toward some people: their positive energy, what they're up to in the world, the way they focus on possibilities and fun and beer and other good things. I also gravitate away from others: people who want to talk about idiot politicians, traffic jams, illness and tragedies large and small.

Neale Donald Walsch (author "Conversations with God") indicates that there are only two motivators for any thought or action: love and fear. So my question for today, and probably throughout the weekend: which is driving me? The love of energy and passion and emotion and fun, or fear of being dragged down by other people's negativity? Or maybe some of both?

What would it take to push the envelope even further into love: to lovingly spread a little sunshine, to lovingly challenge negativity? Or to just love someone enough to respect where they're at, whether or not I find it negative and draining?

Challenge for the day: watch each interaction, and decide the extent to which I’m being driven by fear, or by love.

No judgment, just observation. 

I'm Back!

It's been a long while since I've posted: I've taken some time out to find what we at frank call my "vvpn" (very vertical passionate narrative). Still working to fine-tune the point, but I DO know it has to do with connection, spirit and living full-on. More to come.....