Random Articles

• Hotel Room as Showroom Hotels are now leveraging their experience comforting weary travelers and giving their guests the opportunity to take the hotel experience home. Marginal Revolution points to a Forbes article documenting the Regency in Manhattan’s addition of price tags to their bath mats, pillows, and bath robes. In a related development, Selelect Comfort recently announced a partnership with
• Two Quick Reminders About Work  The current problems cannot be fixed by the behaviors, processes, and relationships that caused them. Not completely fixed is better than completely broken.
• The Buzzword Blacklist Here’s a small (and growing) list of meaningless, negative words that I’d like to strike from my world. User Consumer Content Sticky Leverage Synergy Facilitate Doc Searles has a nice follow-up on these terms and language in Relating to Customers …customers don’t like being “consumers” or “targets.” Being “reduced” doesn’t stir their hearts, either. Least of all do they wish to be “acquired.” Doc, as
• Want Better Collaboration - Improvise The earlier collaboration techniques post (Stop Asking Questions) was based a key to successful improvisation. This post digs further into the relationship between improv and collaboration. Good improvisational comedy teams believe a group of individuals working together can start with nothing and quickly create something engaging, desireable, useful, and valuable. From this perspective, the keys for
• Veen’s Presentation Tips I highly recommend Jeffrey Veen’s Seven Steps to Better Presentations My personal favorites: #3 Don’t Apologize. Apologizing for your own performance so directly and swiftly weakens. #4 Start Strong and #5 End Strong. I was in a sales presentation recently where the main presenter apologized 5 times in as many minutes. From the audience’s perspective - it’s