SAMBA Blog

Brainstorming

Tom Kelley from IDEO makes the point that brainstorming meetings, shouldn't resemble at all, any other type of meeting.

He's right.  Brainstorming is a special activity that runs counter to the thought process and flow that happens in almost every other type of business session.  Brainstorming is about quantity of ideas, freedom from constraints (mostly), lack of evaluation and critique.  It's an artistic exercise more than it is a scientific one.  

The best brainstorming sessions seem to be the wackiest.  They include games, lots of physical movement, silliness, and dare I say...fun. 

This often clashes with the rigid professional culture at many organizations.  Tough.  Innovation doesn't care about your corporate culture...nurture it by any means necessary.

 

Where do You Work?

Creative people seem to understand the value of work space.  Having an environment that inspires you to do your best work, to think, to imagine, to ruminate enables designers, architects, musicians to create their best art.

 

But business people often don't care where we work.  We just need things done.  So we do our work on the plane, on trains, or in a mundane office.  Because much of the work we do, is often mechanical, scientific, or routine in nature.  

 

But every now and then we create art too don't we?  Whether it be preparing a presentation, brainstorming an idea, or writing a memo to inspire.  These are things where the spirit, the magic, the artistic value of what we do matters more than we often think.

 

Do we really expect to do our best work on the commute home on the Long Island Railroad?  Maybe we need to take a lesson from creatives, and start considering where we do our most important work more often.

When Everyone Goes Daily Deal

Who doesn't like a deal? And if your buddies can help tip the deal, that's even more fun!

But what happens when everyone goes daily deal and every purchase you make is a heavily discounted group buying promotion? What happens when you've trained every consumer to wait for the discount or buy in groups? We're a long way from this scenario but with all the daily deal and group buying sites popping up, we're hurtling to this destination at a rapid pace.

Then remarkable becomes small, custom, UnGroupon, selective, invitation only, face-to-face, scale-avoiding, never-on-sale, and whisper quiet.

Layups vs. Dunks

A professional’s work has style; it is distinctively his own. But he doesn’t let his signature grandstand for him. His style serves the material. He does not impose it as a means of drawing attention to himself.

This doesn’t mean that the professional doesn’t throw down a 360 tomahawk jam from time to time, just to let the boys know he’s still in business.  -- Steven Pressfield (The War of Art)

 

When's the last time you threw down a 360 tomahawk jam?  

Too Much Authenticity

Everywhere you turn, social media "gurus" are telling us to be authentic. No doubt keeping it real is something we all appreciate. But why are all the gurus harping on this?

Consider this: maybe all this admonishment to be authentic springs from a deep seated suspicion that we're actually not being real. That the perceived need to send signals more frequently than ever before because everyone else is sending updates, tweets, streams, feeds, blog posts, etc. causes you to play catch up or keep up.

Do you know what happens when we try to fill the natural silence of conversations and markets with forced interaction? Awkward.

One on One Communication

We often communicate to groups of people to save time, money, or both.

We might organize a meeting with the entire staff to communicate praise for a job well done.  You might send out party invitations to lots of people with a catch all facebook event invite.   Some may even send out a group text message on January 1st, to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

This may be more efficient, but it's seldom more effective.  People are more engaged when spoken to one on one, they're more responsive when singled out, and are more appreciative when receiving praise individually.  Everyone likes to be picked.


Consider one on one more often.  It might be worth the extra time and money.

 

 

"There must be some kind of catch"

If people are saying that about your free offering, that's a great sign.

Unless there is a catch.  Unfortunately...there almost always is.

But when there's not...you have something that might just be worth my time, attention, my goodwill...something maybe even worth spreading.

Raise Your Game

Arnold Schwarzenegger was arguably the biggest actor in Hollywood.  He didn't have to run for governor, but he did anyway.

Jon Stewart's Daily Show is successful beyond comparison.  He didn't have to hold the Rally to Restore Sanity, but he did anyway.

Oprah Winfrey was already on top of the world by most people's measure.  She didn't have to start her OWN network.  But she did anyway.

Even the most successful entertainers in the world have to continually find ways to challenge themselves, raise their game, take risks that scare them to death.  But it's not just entertainers, it's a human need that we all have, though some of us choose to ignore it, even run away from it.

Here's the reality:  the higher you climb, the harder it gets to challenge yourself.  It requires putting more on the line, bigger stakes, usually risking bigger failures in more public ways...so you better practice now.

 

A rose by any other name...

Short, easy to remember, and relevant domain names are next to impossible to find these days. They're more scarce than physical real estate. Every entrepreneur has had the experience of trying to come up with dozens of names only to find that they're all taken by domain squatters or other entrepreneurs doing something with the domain.

So we've resorted to inventing new words or new names. Of course, this can lead to ridiculous names that have no inherent meaning. This could actually be a good thing. You start off with a blank slate and get to position and attach to your "made-up" company name and domain all the qualities and personalities it needs to reflect your story.

Here's a neat tool that I use when I'm in need of a domain name. Go to Instant Domain Search and check it out for yourself. It saves me a ton of time because it gives you real time feedback on whether or not the domain is available. It also allows you to jump into a Whois search with one click on a link.

True or untrue? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet? Not if you have to type .com after the other name!

Jon Has a New Project

Jon Dale, my SAMBA colleague, my good friend, and one of the founders of this blog has a new project you should know about...it's called Moolala.
 
 

Moolala is a Daily Deals site with a pretty enticing marketing twist.  When you refer friends to Moolala, you get a percentage of the deal value for the purchases they make, forever...not only that, but you also get a percentage for purchases that their friends make, and for their friends too, and their fr--you get the picture.

They call this multi-level rewards system the PayMatrix, and it could very well be the unique advantage that leads Jon's company to success in this super competitive daily deals space.

If anyone can do it, it's Jon.  And with a exciting story, a smart marketing strategy, and a great team of people on board to make this thing fly...I wouldn't bet against him.

 

I hope you'll visit Moolala and sign up today...it's free.

 

P.S.  None of the links in this post are affiliate links.  I just think Moolala is really cool.

 

 

Truth to Power

When it comes to our superiors, teachers, mentors, leaders, you must be willing to look them in the eyes and tell them they're wrong.

Loyalty is virtuous, but cowardice is not.

 

Own Your Intro

When you meet someone at a party or a networking event, what do you say?
 
 

Do you say what you want to say, or what you think you should say?

 

I have a friend, a tax accountant, who writes movies in his spare time.  You can probably guess which one of those two activities he's more excited, passionate, and ambitious about.  But when he meets people, he introduces himself as a tax accountant instead of as a screenwriter.  Why?  Because he doesn't think he's had the success or credibility that would allow him to introduce himself as a screenwriter yet.
 
 

But when you introduce yourself, it's your opportunity to establish your identity, not only to the person you're speaking with, but to yourself.

And it's this ownership of this new identity, that can attract the people, energy, and opportunities that can make it a reality and lead to that very success.  You don't need permission to write "Screenwriter" on your business card...just guts.

Spam is Getting Better

In a bad way.

This blog gets a significant number of spam comments...always has.  But more recently, I've realized it's getting harder to tell if a spam comment is truly spam or not.

It seems spammers are getting more sophisticated with their messages, more specific, less generic, including bits of relevant info that can throw you off.

What does this mean for you?

As spam gets better, so must we.  After all, you don't want your e-mails, comments, messages to mistakenly be associated with spam!

This means we have to add even more of the precious element that is so hard for spam to duplicate:  Personalization.  Make your e-mails to prospects, Facebook wall posts, blog comments, etc. extra personal. 

Give it that special human touch that is almost impossible to duplicate with technology.

 

Birthday Paradox

If you put 57 random people in a room it turns out, you can predict with 99% certainty that 2 of them will have the same exact birthday.
 

To most, this seems counterintuitive...and wrong.

But mathematically, it's absolutely right.  This is why statistics is so important.  It turns out human beings make cognitive errors all the time when looking at the world, especially when trying to see patterns, are trying to determine causality.  In a world where we're required to make important decisions based on massive amounts of data, we can't just "eyeball" it.

You don't have to be a master in statistics, but you at least have to understand that it exists.  And then you need to find someone (or a machine) who does understand it to help...or suffer the painful (but often silent) consequences.

Infinite is Free

When we came to the end of the SAMBA program with Seth Godin, he gave us all a piece of art which reminded us that, "the market for something to believe in is infinite." 

So as you begin your charge into the new year, consider this:

Are you selling hope?

Or are you gifting hope?

New Media vs. Old Media

Google's Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review video is very good.  So far it's recieved close to 2 milllion views on YouTube.
 
 

I heard someone exclaim the other day, "Can you imagine how much it would cost to get 2 million people to watch a commercial via TV advertising!".

The sentiment is right, but comparing the two (traditional vs. old media) in that way is like comparing Apples and Oranges.  It doesn't quite capture the magnitude of the difference.

Consider that when you're at home watching American Idol and a TV commercial for Pepsi comes on...you didn't choose to watch it.  It just showed up.  And although some very good commercials might win you over and touch you by the end...advertisers are fighting an uphill battle.  I mean, I'm watching for American Idol...not you! 

And this has a negative effect on how engaged the viewer is, how receptive they are to the message, what emotional state they're in when they watch it...and all these factors contribute to the ad's overall effectiveness. 

In contrast, every single person who watched Google's Zeitgeist video on YouTube pressed play.  They chose to watch, most were engaged from the very beginning, expecting something that was going to delight them.  This is because most of the people who watched did so at the recommendation of a friend, a powerful type of endorsement, that to this day marketers haven't found a way to surpass.

This argument may be obvious, especially to the readers of this blog, but it's important we revisit these concepts over and over again.  Because as my mentor reminds us, often in the midst of a revolution, you don't realize you're in one.

But we are.

2011 - The Year of Education Abundance

2011 will be a year many will go back to school to get degrees.  This is will be a worthwhile pursuit for many, but for others maybe not.  

That's because the world is changing everyday, and high quality FREE education is quickly becoming ubiquitous.  This, combined with the fact that large players like Google TV, Apple TV, and others are racing to enhance the way we consume web video, this seems to be a prime opportunity for this movement to gain momentum.  

And as the world realizes it this year, I think 2011 will be a year of Self education.

Just yesterday I watched this excellent Philosophy lecture on the Morality of Murder from Harvard's Michael Sandel at Academic Earth.  It dawned up on me how good the educational content on the web is getting.

Then you have the most influential speakers in the world giving 18 minute presentations at TED for all to see.

And try visiting Khan Academy, and check out some of his recent 15 minute tutorials, to see how even simple production can produce quick and effective learning via the web.

Getting a degree is not the same thing as getting an education.  And once you really get that insight, you may realize you don't need a degree to get the education you've always wanted.

I hope this year this educational revolution will tip.  Let's see.