“I want to see evidence of video and audio skills. I want to see evidence of familiarity with CSS, RSS, HTML and every other acronym of new media. I want people who live online, consume content on mobile devices, use social-bookmarking tools and participate in Web communities. I want people who don’t think they need […]
Ron Baker’s ‘Your Employees are Volunteers’ is a much needed post. It includes gems like: “Today, knowledge workers themselves own the firm’s means of production in their heads.” “In fact, your people are actually volunteers, since whether or not they return to work on any given day is completely based on their own volition.” Thanks […]
Smarter people than I can debate the title of this post literally, I’m using it as a metaphor for web development and customer relationships overall. Vendors don’t have full control over their customers. Never did. Best they can do is encourage, support, and remove obstacles impeding their customers’ success. Especially if the vendor wants to […]
In an age when every employee and customer is a few mouse clicks from their own weblog and podcast and Forbes is spreading blog FUD it’s refreshing to see Big Blue is not only publishing podcasts, but encouraging their employees to do the same. As a nearly hundred year-old company that no one ever got […]
In Newsweek’s cover story “Reading Your Baby’s Mind” on baby’s brain development, new research is profiled into the “babies learn foreign languages easily” phenomenon. The research states, a baby can easily learn a second language easily only if the secondary language is spoken by someone the baby has an emotional connection with. “…without the emotional […]
I’ve mentioned this before in Job Security is the Ability to Get a Job, there’s a line in the Princess Bride that I think accurately describes the modern day employer-employee relationship: “Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.” – Dread Pirate Roberts Today, Seth Godin said the […]
Stever Robbins over at HBS Working Knowledge has some excellent Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload. His examples of good & bad emails are quite illustrative. My 2 favorite suggestions: Charge people for sending you messages. Ignore it. Related Posts: Get Your Email Read with Specific, Compelling Subject Lines Better Email Tips
I’m starting to see more tags (see Better Email Tips) in my email subject lines. Today, I received an email canceling a meeting, with all the information contained in the subject line with “(eom)” at the end. eom: end of message I’d recommend using it when your entire message can be included in the subject […]
Late last week, a client and I were discussing a struggling project. The client mentioned his project team regularly works nights and weekends to meet the deadlines he had scheduled. I was stunned. This was months into a years longs project. There are 3 things fatally wrong with this management strategy: It devalues both the […]
On MPR the other morning, they had consultant and author Marilyn Paul talking about ways to spend less time in your inbox. Her suggestion is to institute email subject line tags. You include these tags in your email subject line. Here are the one’s I remember: ty: thank you nrn: no reply necessary nbd: need […]