Obvious to you.

At a fabulous event to stimulate and inspire entrepreneurship from a surprising source - The British Library, I was reminded about the importance of placing yourself in your customers' shoes. 

Christina Richardson, founder of the Nurture Network, an outsourced marketing function for small business did a succinct presentation on key steps as you market your new business. 

With respect, to me it was obvious. With even more respect, I saw many people in the audience madly scribbling notes. 

It was a reminder to think about what of value can be shared, however obvious it may be to you. 

You? What could you share that may be obvious to you, but helpful to your customers? 

Endless loops

Workshops, actions, engagement, meetings, calls, following up, managing up, managing down, minuting, maximising...hurrying.

I wonder, what would the corporate world be like without the endless loops of communication, planning, sharing responsibility and activity organising. And we just focused on the doing.

What would organisations be able to achieve if we weren't spending time in endless loops?

Would the world be a different place?

Sparking some ways we could do this. What if....?

- The entire organisation had a 5-to-do rule. No more than 5 major areas of focus.

- Daily tasks can only be listed on post its (inspiration: 99%)

- Everyone does what they say they will, first time.

- The organisation celebrates when people say no.

- Work only in small teams, with discrete focus and fast actions (inspiration: Thoughtworks).

- From an organisational perspective - making really clear goals, resource allocation and basis for achievement > lessens jockeying (and associated time wasting activities) and improves focus.

- Shorter time-frames for delivery (no more than 1 week)

- Entire org run in an agile manner (aka 37signals and Thoughtworks).

- Have customer voting each week on what the org should do > pinpoint accuracy for delivery to customer needs.

- Say it is OK to fail. People try new things, better ways and stop wasting time covering their tush.

- Cookie cutter communications - clearly outlined 'you should communicate this and then', so people share what needs to be shared, without waste.

- The opposite - total acceptance of different working styles but ruthless accountability for the work that needs to be done.

- Task lists / business priorities with voting buttons - decisions made fast.

- Simple (gasp) paper signs on everyones desk - this is what I do, this is what I don't, this is what I decide.

- All work is integrated into some form of project, with project 'bubbles' sharing and overlapping. (note, need to be cautious with notional business aka SM style distraction

- Could have a 'mute' button on all incoming information streams for when we need to focus.

What are things you do, or could do to stop endless loops in your organisation?

Me, I'm going start with clarifying responsibilities and the post-it to-do list.

image credit: adriapocera

From super celeb to super connectors?

Influence, voice, status, once the purview of philosophers and politicians, more recently owned by Paris…and although I think Obama has perhaps blended the two sources of influence, I wonder if the new celebrity is the Superconnectors.

What are Superconnectors? People who not only have and promote extensive links between online communities and individuals, but also distill thinking and information to help more people understand and connect over concepts. Their celebrity or position in the statusphere is reinforced and created by their direct connection with the community.

In an interesting post, Techcrunch discusses the transition from the traditional ranking of status online – the blog Authority list by Technorati and how that is no longer a true indication of status given the links, connections and content on micro-blogs and using other media.

I’m curious – what do others think?

more thinking to come….

(30 April, 2009)