Fast Company

The Truth About Kids And Social Media

Miles Kohrman — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:14:03 GMT

According to a recent study, 78 percent of parents helped create their children’s Facebook pages, and 7.5 million users are under the age of 13. The way your kids use social today will shape their future. It's time for everyone to get educated on how--and how not--to live online.

Kids and social media.

Most people cringe at the thought of these two terms used in the same sentence and it falls into the same scary category of kids and drugs. Why?

We don’t like what we don’t know or understand. Parents don’t like the thought of their kids embracing social media because they don’t fully understand the benefits and dangers. In many cases, they also don’t understand the social platforms to their full extent. Education is key for the parents as well as the kids. Not to mention teachers! Everyone involved needs to understand the pros and the cons.

As most of us already know, there are clear downsides with kids using social media and this topic has been covered for years. Cyber bullying, privacy and identity theft are only a few negatives that should be considered. Just as we teach our children how to ride a bike, we need to teach them how to navigate social media and make the right moves that will help them. The physical world is similar to the virtual world in many cases. It’s about being aware. We can prevent many debacles if we’re educated.

So what are the benefits of kids using social media?

This is where parents and educators need to think long term and recognize that kids are building a personal brand from an early age. Their digital footprint will have an impact on their future. Where they end up getting admitted to college, getting a job, and more. Social media will help connect them with like-minded individuals, including mentors, that share similar interests and aspirations that can help them achieve their long-term goals.

Here’s a scenario to consider. A few weeks ago, my team and I had 40 third-graders come to the Digital Royalty office. They asked us questions and we asked them questions. When we asked how many of the third-graders were either on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, more than half raised their hands. Facebook has a minimum age restriction of 13 years old to create an account. But according to Consumer Reports, last year 78% of parents helped create their children’s Facebook pages and 7.5 million users are under the age of 13 and lied about the age associated with the account.

After getting into a discussion with the third-graders, we learned that several of them had abandoned their Facebook accounts because that’s where their parents were. They knew that the adult powers that be are a hop, skip, and a click away from monitoring the kid’s accounts on Facebook. The third grade solution was to hop Facebook to Instagram (which, ironically, Facebook also owns.) In some cases, kids said they created new, rogue Facebook accounts where they connected with their friends and used their old ones as a decoy for parental supervision.

Admittedly, this is not formal research and not all third graders are using social media. However, if a substantial portion of third graders have embraced this new form of communication, what does that mean for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders? Are they seasoned pros at selfies? (And if you’re unaware of what a selfie is, I rest my case.)

Fast forward 8-10 years and the same children are now graduating from high school, or they’re preparing to, and they’re applying for colleges or jobs. Everything they’ve posted online for the past decade is searchable and social media only amplifies what already exists, both strengths and weaknesses.

Imagine a college admissions recruiter evaluating two applicants side by side. They both look the same on paper. They shine academically, with impressive transcripts, essays, and SAT scores. Both have an extensive list of extracurricular activities and outstanding recommendation letters.

The difference is Applicant A has a large social following of Twitter followers and Facebook friends which they’ve used proactively to connect with future professors, industry leaders, executives at companies. They’ve already built a network of people who they are sharing valuable content with, allowing their strengths to shine. You are able to get a genuine understanding of the applicant by seeing how Applicant A engages with their followers and posts about the issues he/she is passionate about.

Applicant B may have a social media presence (what college-age kid doesn’t?), but never took the time to fully develop it and turn it into an asset by having a “neutral” (read: a non-keg-stand) avatar photo, removing inappropriate language, and posting information that spotlights passions and strengths.

As the college admissions recruiter, you can only choose one. Who would you choose? In this case, Applicant A’s wise use of social media gives him/ her an edge, over an otherwise perfect Applicant B.

Why? Universities want to recruit the students that they believe will best represent the university, both online and offline, while in school and beyond. Students with a robust social media presence and clearly defined personal brand stand to become only more influential. These students are positioned to become leaders in their respective fields, which will reflect positively on the university social communication word of thumb. Additionally, the recruiter has full access to who the applicant associates himself or herself with by who they’re following and engaging with. It’s a sneak (organic) peek into the life of the applicant.

The scenario remains the same for job applicants. When choosing between two similar applicants, hiring managers are increasingly turning to social media outlets to supplement information they are unable to glean from applications or interviews. Many companies use social channels as screening tools. According to a recent study conducted by the Society Of Human Resource Management (SHRM), 77% of employers use social media to recruit candidates. Additionally, they can get a sense of cultural fit within the organization and identify red flags that may include inappropriate posts or even a candidate who is bashing a previous employer.

So now that we know education is key, many parents ask us at Digital Royalty, what’s the first step? Similar to how we begin the education process with executives of brands, sit down with your kids and ask them what they know. Do an informal assessment and study their proficiency. Hop on the computer and mobile phone to evaluate their proficiency and better understand what they know. You might be surprised. Then, after you’ve educated yourself, educate your children.

--Amy Jo Martin is the founder and CEO of Digital Royalties, a social media and education company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2012 her book Renegades Write the Rules made The New York Times Best Seller list. Follow her on Twitter at @amyjomartin.

Byline (ONLY ENTER NAMES ON THE LEFT: "and" IS ADDED AUTOMATICALLY):

Amy Jo Martin

Our Robot Overlords Will Teach Us To Be More Productive, Better Collaborators

Michelle No — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:04:40 GMT

"Robots give us this really unique tool to look into the mind of a human," Adam Setapen, a roboticist at Romotive, which makes the iPhone-powered robot Romo, says in a new Fast Company video. Meanwhile, by building the mind of a robot, humans learn valuable lessons on efficiency and creativity.

Robots are designed to be productive, task-oriented tools.

But what about the people who create these automated machines? Do the roboticists building the bots pick up the tendencies of their creations, becoming better collaborators along the way?

“A roboticist is someone who can take different subfields and combine them and use them in novel ways,” says Adam Setapen, a roboticist at Romotive, which makes Romo, an iPhone-powered robot.

Adam Setapen

That ability to communicate with different people increases productivity in the workplace by up to 25%, according to a study by McKinsey & Company.

While Romo isn't built to collaborate, its creators hope it can help its users be more productive at home and at work.

And so, if we are one day more machine than man, that could mean a boon for collaborative business.

4 Ways To Improve Your Sustainable Business Strategy, From The Man Who Grew REI

Anya Kamenetz — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:53 GMT

Kevin Hagen learned quite a bit from leading the sustainability charge at REI for the past seven years. Here's what he thinks he did well--and what he wishes he'd done better.

In a series of recent posts on his blog, Kevin Hagen, who just left REI, went into great and transparent detail about the mistakes he made and lessons learned leading corporate social responsibility at the outdoor retailer for the past seven years.

This is especially surprising and helpful to other business leaders because, by many measurements, Hagen's rein was quite successful. During his tenure, the company, the nation's largest consumer cooperative, grew from $1.3 billion to $1.8 billion in annual sales, and from 3.3 million to 5 million active members, even while reducing its environmental impact. With the support of his suppliers--longstanding green brands like Nike, Patagonia, and Timberland--his employees, and the members, Hagen was responsible for taking REI from “random acts of greenness to sustainable business strategy," in the words of former CEO Sally Jewell.

His posts and an "exit interview" with Greenbiz.com founder Joel Makower contain some great insights for business, whether you're going green or not so much. Here are five of the best.

Think "I have a dream," not "I have a nightmare." Build a positive vision of the benefits of change for people to latch onto, instead of resorting to scare tactics. "Success comes from talking about the upside of change rather than the downside of the status quo."

Don't settle for trade-offs. Push to improve on all metrics at once.
REI wanted to cut electricity use, but dim lighting was affecting sales. They redesigned stores with windows, skylights, solar tubing, and LEDs. It was more expensive up front, but sales per square foot increased while utility costs dropped by more than $3 million a year. From 2008 to 2012, REI added almost 40 stores while total electricity use remained almost flat.

When it comes to sustainability, as with other metrics, your intuition is probably wrong, so do the math. "I assumed that moving $2 billion in goods all over the world would make freight the biggest part of the CO2 impact after energy use. When the numbers where crunched, it turned out that freight was 10%, but employee commuting was substantially bigger at 15%." By quantifying and targeting the impact of employee commuting, REI was able to design a commuter reduction program that improved retention and recruitment as well, a nice example of multiple benefits.

You can't be sustainable without collaboration between customers, clients, and even competitors. "Collaboration is an excellent litmus test, in my opinion, for how advanced or how sophisticated a company’s sustainability efforts are."

The Takeaway: "You’ll know you achieved real innovation when folks look at the final solution and say, 'That’s not sustainability; it's just good business.' "

[Image: Flickr user Ton Rulkens]

The Perks And Perils Of Launching A Massively Successful Startup

Amber Mac — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:53 GMT

Before you ever "Liked" a single thing on Facebook, Lane Merrifield was busy building Club Penguin into a hugely popular social site for kids, which Disney snapped up for $350 million. With his new venture, he's trying to develop a healthier work, life balance. Trying.

Before Twitter grew wings and Facebook went public, Lane Merrifield was figuring out how to create a safe social networking destination for kids. Club Penguin launched with a flood of traffic in 2005.

Lane Merrifield

His big idea? Recognizing early on that the Internet is an inherently social place.

Two years later, Disney swooped in with a $350 million offer to buy the popular service. For five years, Merrifield helped his Internet baby grow within the entertainment juggernaut.

He resigned late last year to work on a new startup, the student assessment software company FreshGrade, which will focus on "building some cool stuff for schools," among other promising-sounding ideas.

During this episode of Dialed, Merrifield discusses the challenges of launching, running, and selling a startup--and finally figuring out how to be an entrepreneur without totally losing your mind.

[Image: Flickr user Bart Hiddink]

Why Jennifer Aniston Became A Hair-Care Entrepreneur

Drake Baer — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:40 GMT

A star partnered with an MIT professor. What happened next changed the way we think about frizz.

Why would Jennifer Aniston, who is so mind-boggingly famous that her character's name (Rachel) on the '90s sitcom Friends would become a haircut, decide to co-own a hair-care company?

"Honestly, this was my gut," she tells CNBC of her taking equity in the beauty startup Living Proof, with a CEO, Jill Beraud, who is one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business 2013. "We just want to do really good things for gals and their hair."

Turns out the really good things are actually damn good: Living Proof was cofounded by Dr. Robert S. Langer, a biomedical engineering professor at MIT who recently received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Note: If it's true that you want founders to be product innovators, a guy who developed nanoparticles to fight cancer might be a good bet.

How to make a better bottle? Langer started by setting out to understand one of hair care's most persistent problems--frizz. He and his team realized that while almost every other anti-frizz product relied on silicone, they could solve the fuzzy problem with some clear understanding.

"What causes frizz is moisture, so other materials—polymers can keep moisture out better than silicones and actually would be lighter than silicones, [and] it could cover hair better than silicone," Langer says. "When we did this, we came up with a totally different material called a PolyfluoroEster and that works a lot better."

The proof is in the Living Proof: Entering the market five years ago, the brand is now in more than 1,000 retail locations across North America, the U.K., and Australia. Aniston's partnership accelerates the startup, which was seed funded with $1 million from Polaris Partners.

Now, CNBC reports, the company is going after the $50 billion dollar global hair-care products industry. Aniston described what makes her company special:

"This is a fun opportunity to sort of enter into a business and be a part of something that I think women really appreciate--to have healthy hair," she says, "and we're sold a lot of crap."

The Takeaway: If the incumbents have fuzzy solutions, make one that's clear.

[Image Courtesy of Living Proof]

Newark Mayor Cory Booker On The Power Of Physical Face Time

Ellen McGirt — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:11 GMT

The famously busy mayor--and founder of social video discovery site #Waywire--meets with Fast Company's Ellen McGirt to discuss why nothing beats a real-world hangout. Yes, even the perfect tweet.

“Nothing is as powerful as a 20-second video clip, where you’re actually seeing the human being.”

Newark's famously active mayor Cory Booker was describing his new technology play, Waywire, a social video discovery and commentary site. He made the statement during the first of what has turned out to be a series of poignant conversations with Fast Company, on everything from time-management tactics to the power of tech-enhanced people.

But, ironically, Booker may be forgetting one crucial thing: because nothing is as powerful as some high-quality face time. And we don't mean of the Apple variety.

Cory Booker and Ellen McGirt

That's particularly true if the interaction comes with someone as energized and energizing as Booker. No tweet or Facebook update can possibly compete for raw, visceral oomph with the force of the physical. And an in-person pow-wow is almost always a more effective way for communicating a thought.

As if to underscore that idea, the full-time mayor and part-time tech entrepreneur dropped a near perfect quote from W.E.B. Dubios’s The Souls of Black Folk.

Here it is:

“In a world where it means so much to take a man by the hand and sit beside him, to look frankly into his eyes and feel his heart beating with red blood; in a world where a social cigar or a cup of tea together means more than legislative halls and magazine articles and speeches--one can imagine the consequences of the almost utter absence of such social amenities between estranged races, whose separation extends even to parks and street cars.”

So what do you think: Did Booker do the quote justice? Or do you need to hear it in person to feel it completely?

To Have A Productive Day, Make Work A Series Of Sprints

Drake Baer — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:07 GMT

A well-timed burst of business--followed by a well-earned rest--can do wonders for your productivity. Here's how to put one foot in front of the other to get it done.

Got a case of mush-mind? It's because your brain is overloaded and your attention is over-divided. How do you cure it? By selectively sprinting into your most important tasks.

That's according to Tony Schwartz, an engagement consultant who's worked with the likes of Google, Facebook, and Coca-Cola. Writing for the New York Times, Schwartz makes an intuitive argument: that since quality work requires focus, and you only have the energy to focus for so long, you need to be conscious of how and when you focus in order to do your best work.

"... it’s better to work highly focused for short periods of time, with breaks in between, than to be partially focused for long periods of time. Think of it as a sprint, rather than a marathon. You can push yourself to your limits for short periods of time, so long as you have a clear stopping point. And after a rest, you can sprint again."

What he says is interesting for a few reasons. First, in blocking out your time into sprints, you're actually blocking out distractions. When you close your Gchat and turn off your phone for 90 minutes, you become an authority in the way you spend the scarce resources of your attention--same as why empty calendars make people so productive. (And if 90 minutes seems too long--how about 50?)

When you push the limits of your ability and give yourself a goal, you're apt to enter into what positive psychologists call flow. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term--and his book of the same name provides a polished understanding of what's happening when we're doing our best work. It's usually in a burst of skill-expanding immersion--similar to the 90-minute sprints that Schwartz recommends.

After the sprint comes the rest. As we've talked about with Schwartz before, not working is part of doing your best work. Why? Because, while your mental energy is a renewable resource, it doesn't refresh on its own--you need to take responsibility for it. And no, you're not "taking a break" when you fuss with your phone.

Faced With Overload, a Need to Find Focus

[Image: Flickr user Sebastian Mary]

How To Talk Like A Most Creative Person

Drake Baer — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:03 GMT

At the center of every great project--whether Google Maps, a podcast, or Nashville--lies a conversation. Just ask Daniel Graf, Connie Britton, and Marc Maron, three of this year's Most Creative People in business.

Combing through our Most Creative People of the year list, you can see that technologists, performers, and interviewers all have a masterful command of conversation--here are three examples of how they do it, and what it means for work, innovation, and, of course, creativity.

Daniel Graf: Director of Google Maps for Mobile

If you remember, Apple booted Google's Maps from iOS last year, ushering in the dark age of Apple Maps. This made Google do redo their own iOS app--one that kicked Apple's ass on its own turf. Daniel Graf led that team, one which followed Google's new imperative to make beautiful, functional products--and make the best maps experience ever created. As he tells us, a daily conversation was critical to the process:

"We had design reviews every single day, down to the pixel. Everyone in the room, from the product team to the design team, would discuss features. At first you might think, What a waste of time. But that hour a day is the reason why, when you read the reviews and use it yourself, the product seems so polished."

That's the lesson here: since a product like Maps draws on so many disciplines, you need to get those teams together to confer. Just make sure you do the proper, Bonsai-style preparation--and capture all the value that's created.

Connie Britton: Actress, Nashville

Connie Britton, the firebrand lead on Nashville, isn't afraid to speak her--and her character's--mind. One of the jobs of an actor, Britton says, is to help writers "deepen" the portrayal of the character. After her co-star Charles Esten complained about his character getting a tone-deaf line or two, she told the same to him:

"I said, 'Of course they want to hear that from you; you're here representing this character.'" Anything change? "He's a regular. He's having long conversations with the writers."

That's a bold kind of honesty--and it's one of the habits of the Most Creative People.

Marc Maron: Comedian, Host of WTF with Marc Maron podcast

When you're talking to someone, listen closely. Marc Maron, who hosts the ridiculous(ly wonderful) interview podcast WTF, says that he "can't really detach" when he's speaking with sludgerock legends or deadpan masters--we imagine he's not thumbing at his phone the whole time. It's not that the interviews go off script, he says, it's that there's nothing resembling a script:

“I don’t make a list of questions. Ever. I think a lot of my interviews are driven by my need to feel connection. You listen and when you hear intonations, you hear feelings. It’s just feeling where there’s something more, getting them to a place that they’re not usually."

Why's this helpful? As we've talked about before, creativity often springs from joining two or more previously unrelated ideas--and a wandering conversation like the kind Maron talks about is a fine way to serendipitously uncover those connections.

100 Most Creative People In Business 2013

Tim Ferriss Goes Offline

Drake Baer — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:00 GMT

And joins forces with Quarterly.co to deliver meaningful, tactile goods. In a world full of touch screens, tastemakers are going after "physical engagement." The 4-Hour Workweek author tells us why.

"Humans are tactile creatures."

Tim Ferriss is explaining why he--of 4-Hour Workweek, Body, and Chef fame--has joined up with Quarterly.co, the curated subscription business that provides real-life awesomeness in a startup scene crowded with messaging apps.

Tim Ferriss

But unlike the subscriptionistas sending you smatterings of makeup samples, Quarterly.co's mailings spring from their stable of tastemakers. Founded by former GOOD editor Zach Frechette, the startup is a way for admirably cool people like Pharrell or Joshua Foer to share the things they love with the startup's 8,000-plus subscribers. Things like gaming dice from Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and a pinhole camera from Jason Kottke. Crucially, this is not curation via hyperlink.

"We’re living in this moment where we’re stepping back and assessing how much of our lives we’ve brought online and realizing that some sort of correction or rebalancing is needed," Frechette once told Co.Design. "We hope Quarterly.co can be a bridge between the digital and the tangible."

The bridge saw such serious traffic last year the startup had to put off adding new users until it could catch up on its original subscriptions. To help with the scaling, they brought in $1.25 million in investment from True Ventures and Collaborative fund. And a new executive.

Meet the new CEO.

Mitch Lowe has been in the subscription space for a while now: he was a cofounder of Netflix and the former president of Redbox. To help with the billing and shipping problems Quarterly ran into last year, he brought in the same fulfillment company he used at Redbox. Lowe joined Quarterly, he says, because he saw a vision of "business about amazing people that needed an execution strategy."

Mitch Lowe

That goal to be executed, he says, is to deliver packages that feel like they were put together by someone you admire--the athletes, actors, writers, and chefs he's trying to bring into the Quarterly.co fold.

This, it seems, is the sticking point for Ferriss. He says that there's only so much that can be shared through his blog--and he says his readers have been asking for a box since 2007. But he couldn't make those shipments happen until Quarterly figured out procurement and fulfillment.

What's being procured and fulfilled?

Ferriss is modest about where his ideas come from: just your average gadgets and gear from Cirque du Soleil performers, chess prodigies, Fortune 500 CEOs, and military snipers. From that array of amazingness, Ferriss says he's selecting the things he'd give to his friends as a gift, and in so doing, he's turning the connections with his audience from "online relationships into offline relationships."

To get an idea, check out his contributor page: There's an easel for Zen-style brushwork; an athletic greens powde; and a copy of Bird by Bird, the beloved writing guide by Anne Lamott.

For Ferriss, Quarterly.co provides a tangible way for his readers to join his experiments in lifestyle design:

All the items are, on some level, about crafting a better life. Whether that's improving physical performance, dramatically changing business or creativity, or creating adventures with the right tools. Most of the things I include are vetted from the happiest top performers I know and meet. Olympic athletes, check. Founders running startups worth $1 billion? Check. It's like a physical diary of the coolest things I find in the world.

A physical diary of the world's coolest things? Might make a nice gift.

[Image: Flickr user That Other Paper]

Exhuming JC Penney’s Failed Marketing Makeover For Leadership Lessons We Can All Use

Shawn Graham — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:46 GMT

The iconic, 111-year-old retailer ditched nearly everything former CEO Ron Johnson attempted during his short stint in charge. Good call?

Out with the new, in with the old.

In a sweeping move to right the ship after former CEO Ron Johnson’s failed attempt to reinvent the JC Penney brand and inject new life into the business, the company has adopted a bold new marketing strategy--hire their retired former CEO who Johnson replaced just about two years earlier and quickly return to the deep discounts and door buster deals that originally got them into this mess. Wait. What?

I get it. I really do. After experiencing a deeper than expected loss of $348 million and a drop in same-store sales of 16.6% in the first quarter of 2013, something definitely had to be done. And so far that something has meant completing undoing just about everything Johnson tried to implement during his 17 months in the position. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

When you get right down to it, JC Penney's “new” marketing strategy sure does sound a lot like the old one--reconnect with core customers, offer promotions, and bring back some private label brands. But here’s the thing: If that approach had actually been working in the first place why bring Johnson in to shake things up?

Trying to reinvent the image of a 111-year-old retailer

Johnson was obviously on a short leash, and his inability to deliver meaningful results while the company continued to experience mounting losses only made that leash even shorter. Whether or not he would have been able to completely overhaul the brand, appeal to a new customer base, and help guide JC Penney back to a path of consistent profitability, we’ll never know. The company was burning through a lot of money and they didn’t have the luxury to give him more time.

Johnson has taken a ton of flak for creating a mess during his short tenure as CEO. He failed big time trying to reinvent the brand and marketing strategy of a 111-year-old retailer in a hyper-competitive landscape. But just because things didn’t work out doesn’t mean there still weren’t some really good ideas and insights the company could use and build upon as they develop their “new” plan. To completely wash their hands of pretty much everything that was put in place over the past two years seems a bit shortsighted and reactionary.

Putting the "new" in new marketing strategies

With department stores and more and more discounters and online retailers nipping at their heels, one thing is for sure--just staying the course is definitely not an option. If JC Penney is ultimately going to be successful and avoid another failed makeover attempt, at some point they’re going to have to embrace “new” marketing strategies and actually mean it.

[Image: Flickr user Anthony Albright]

Cost Per Whatever: Has Ad Tech Crippled Advertising?

Francine Hardaway — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:45 GMT

Effectiveness and efficiency are the two sides of advertising. Always have been, always will be. We’ve measured efficiency up the wazoo of late, but we are less skilled at measuring effectiveness.

In the beginning, there was creative. Then came reach and frequency. Much later, programmatic buying.

I've been having fascinating state-of-the-industry lunches over the past few months with Rodney Mayers, the CRO of Palo Alto-based Proximic. We've been trying to figure out how to tell the ad industry that although programmatic buying does bring efficiency to the process, it doesn't necessarily bring effectiveness. Efficiency is a work flow problem that can be solved by programmatic buying. But solving it will not necessarily move product unless it is combined with effectiveness--what makes people act.

Effectiveness, the be-all and end-all of advertising, is a totally different story.

In the race to prove themselves up to the task of working with the CIO, CMOs have forgotten what Steve Jobs knew well: We are human and therefore emotional. We make decisions mostly on emotions. Where are our customers and what makes them buy? How do we query data to arrive at effective media buys? Effective advertising provokes decisions, but efficient advertising simply reaches people.

You have to ask the right questions of the data produced by programmatic platforms in order to combine your increased efficiency with effectiveness. CMOs need to go back to the drawing board and spend time on how people actually make decisions. Because most decisions are made emotionally, the CMO actually may need less data. However, as data storage and cloud computing have drastically reduced the cost of storage, there is a contest to see who has Bigger Data, though most of it might be worthless.

This is especially true in brand marketing, where online advertising should work best. Tweaking the last little metrics to squeeze out some more 0.001 improvement might be okay for direct response marketers, but as online advertising matures, more and more agencies are becoming aware that branding initiatives work very well online, especially in cross-platform campaigns. Brand advertisers just need metrics to be in the right range, and then it’s more important to be able to scale the campaign--to reach the right people with the right messages. The question is "did this ad move the revenue needle?"

We should be measuring effectiveness--not efficiency. If we are efficient in getting the wrong message to the right people, what good does that do? In ad tech, we sometimes forget how important it is for the media buyer in an agency to actually get things done, and to execute easily in a way that can be communicated (and understood) by clients. The media buyer needs to be able to say "I bought this because..." and back up the decision with metrics that can be understood, not metrics that obfuscate.

These quotes from Ad Age's latest CMO study tell it well:

"A lot of them use metrics that don't measure finance at all. Some said, 'That's a good question.' Others said, 'If my boss is happy, that works for me.' Another: As one respondent colorfully put it, his company's marketing ROI measurement is like 'pissing in the wind.'"

That's why to measure and reinforce effectiveness.

Historically, digital measured what it could and declared it a standard--first hits, then pageviews, then it was visitors, then unique visitors, then CTR, then CPA for early direct response deals in display, then CPC when search exploded, then viewability. It's now CPW (Cost Per Whatever). We've measured what we are able to measure, not what should be measured.

Effectiveness and efficiency are the two sides of advertising; they always have been and always will be. We’ve measured efficiency up the wazoo lately, but we are less skilled at measuring effectiveness, because it means different things to different brands. We’re right back to the “half of my ad dollars are wasted” problem of John Wanamaker’s day.

A measure of how efficient a buy is can be tracked with big data. Effectiveness is far more complex.

[Image: Flickr user Martin Terber]

"Seek Out Those That Will Take A Risk On You": DJ Patil's Inspired Commencement Speech

Drake Baer — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:34 GMT

The Greylock Partners data scientist shows how chaos theory and kindness go together--and can lead to a job, a career, a life, the universe, and everything.

A great story--and some excellent career advice--came out of DJ Patil's commencement speech at the University of California's School of Information last weekend. (See the full speech and video at bottom of this post.) Though Patil is now your prototypical renegade meteorologist, data scientist, and GenFluxer, he was once your average about-to-grad undergrad who didn't know what to do next.

So he asked around for help.

"One of my mentors, Reggie Brown, suggested that I go talk to Jim Yorke, who is best known for coining the term Chaos Theory," Patil said. "To which I am sure my own thought was 'One does not simply email the father of Chaos Theory.'"

Then the younger Patil worked up the nerve to email his hero. He typed out a message asking if he could join his research team, clicked send--and panicked.

(Good move: like Warren Buffett says, you become your heroes.)

To Patil's surprise, the Father of Chaos Theory wrote him back, politely saying that he should try applying through the usual process. But there was one problem with the plan: His grades weren't high enough to make the cut.

Finding a way around the process

"When I told my father about it, in his infinite wisdom he suggested one thing--road trip," Patil recalls. "A special one that might just 'happen' to take us near the campus so we could meet Professor Yorke in person."

So Patil did that and the plan worked: He met the good professor and had a fantastic conversation. And thanks to Yorke, he made it into grad school. And Professor Yorke would become Jim--they would work together as student and advisor, then colleagues, for more than a decade.

"By finding a way to talk to Jim, I put myself in a position where he could take a risk on me," Patil says. "And to you I say, seek out those that will take a risk on you. Put yourself in a position so people can easily help you out. It did not take very much effort on Jim’s part to take a chance on me, but I had to make it easy for him."

In this way, Patil's path is an embodiment of Chaos Theory, which holds the central tenet that small changes, as well as small risks, can lead to big impacts. Put another way, this is the wisdom of the coffee date: If you give someone the opportunity to show you kindness (and possibly launch your career), they just might.

That's practical graduation-day advice. For more, check these inspiring addresses from David Foster Wallace, Jeff Bezos, and Arianna Huffington.

The Takeaways: "Actively take chances on others, even when it is at a risk to you," Patil says. "Seek out those that will take a chance on you."

3 Of The Most Inspiring Graduation Speeches Ever

Patil's full speech:

Be Mr. Knapp

Mr. Knapp and DJ Patil

Thank you, Dean Saxenian, distinguished guests, faculty, family, friends, and most of all, you, the Class of 2013!

I can’t adequately express how honored I am to be your commencement speaker, but let’s set the tone right for the rest of today and start by being brutally honest with each other.

Right now, at least one of you is silently praying that I’m going to give this talk in 140-character snippets. Come to think of it, I suspect that it’s really Dean Saxenian who has her fingers crossed since she hasn’t read what I’m about to say today.

At this point in the day, I am the person standing between you finally being able to update your LinkedIn profile. So I’ll keep this short. If it gets too long, you can start tweeting at me and my phone will start buzzing. I’ll take the hint.

I realize this is a commencement speech and you are expecting me to share something insightful. Here is the problem with that for your class with the amount and rate you have learned, I would argue you are the ones who are already teaching us. Why? You are an order of magnitude faster at finding information than we have ever been. When we were in college, it would be incredible to be a participant in a single global trend. Your generation does it on a monthly basis. Even if it is the "Harlem Shake" or mimicking the latest K-pop dance steps.

You have grown up fully immersed with information at your fingertips. And as a result, you seamlessly interact with technology in a way humanity has never seen. Over the next 20 years, you will have casually documented your lives more than any other person has in history. In fact, through Google, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, YouTube, Yahoo, Foursquare, Reddit, Yelp, Instagram posts and whatever comes next, each of you individually will create more than 5 exabytes of data. To put that number in context, up until the turn of this millennia, that is how much data we had created collectively as a species. At this point, we can safely say you are the the ones creating most of the world’s content.

So, what am I supposed to tell you? My first piece of my advice is to respect your elders because they made it through to graduation without Google, just saying.

There is something really unique about a commencement. This is a human experience and we are here to celebrate you. So I would like to start with the story that involves no technology.

I want you to remember back to high school and the different kinds of kids in your class, the smart one, the cool one, the athletic one, and the one that was always in trouble. The one that trouble just seemed to seek out. Remember them? Well, that was me. Proof? During the first 90 days of my freshman year of high school I had been suspended, kicked out of my math class, and been read my rights. None of which were related incidents. You know things are bad when you start to know the names of your high school administrators. Mr. Knapp. To this day I can remember his office and what if felt like sitting in the chair next to his desk while he rendered the next sentence.

When you are constantly in trouble, you quickly learn to make sure you are the first one to the mailbox. Thankfully, email was not a popular thing at that time. And during a summer day between my sophomore and junior years, I did my usual interception plan, and it paid off. There in the mailbox was a plain white envelope with my name on it. It was thin and light, with our school logo in the upper left. The kind of envelope that elicits panic because only two things come in it--trouble or rejection. And there in traditional, bureaucratic font, was the latest recommendation by the school administrators. As a top student, I had been selected to join a brand new, elite group of future leaders.

I asked my friends and none of them had been picked for the group. I began to think this was an epic practical joke. So, I agreed out of curiosity. And when I arrived at training a month later, it was one of those made-for-TV moments. The coolest and smartest kids were all there, and when I walked in it was pretty clear that everyone thought I was the person they were supposed to mentor. To top it off, the person who was leading the training: Mr. Knapp. With that mix, let me assure you, you can’t make up that kind of awkward moment.

Still, I figured what the heck, I would take advantage of the school’s mistake, and here is the crazy and lucky thing--I was actually really good at the work. I enjoyed the program so much that it became a turning point that sparked a set of positive chain reactions. After a year I had become a transformed student. My grades still were not very good, but to my parent’s relief, I wasn’t getting suspended. I got to thinking how great it was that someone’s mistake turned into such a life-changing experience for me. So I decided to look into it and found, I, in fact, had been handpicked by Mr. Knapp. Mr. Knapp?! The very same person who had suspended me earlier. Why pick me? Here’s a brand-new program, which he created, and he personally took a risk on me.

Through that, Mr. Knapp taught me one of the most important lessons in life: We cannot make progress without someone taking a chance on us. Now if we take a moment to reflect on our lives; actually let’s do it. Take 10 seconds and think about someone who took a chance on you. Got it? Now, think about what it cost them. I suspect if you measure it in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take much effort on their part. Now compare that to the impact it had on you. In my case, it was little effort for Mr. Knapp to pick me, but it led to a giant impact on my life. Small choices can lead to big outcomes. But it is not going to happen unless you are willing to take chances on people.

By attending this university and in particular this program, you’ve already proven that you have what it takes to succeed. Because of that, you will quickly find yourself in positions of power where you will have the ability to have an immediate impact on someone’s life. So here is what I implore you to do: Actively seek out those you can take a risk on. The key word here is "actively." Passively is easy. Actively seek them out.

Why? It will help you grow as an individual. By actively helping others, you will also learn a tremendous amount about yourself. The things that make you tick and what you really value. The ties that form between you and those you have taken a risk on are some of the most powerful bonds that can exist. The gratitude you receive in return will be a gateway drug to a lifestyle of supporting and encouraging people, rather than tearing them down. And right now, we have a world where we could use much more of the former.

When I was in college and nearing graduation, I didn’t really know what to do next. So I went around and started to ask people for their advice. One of my mentors, Reggie Brown, suggested that I go talk to Jim Yorke, who is best known for coining the term Chaos Theory. To which I am sure my own thought was “One does not simply email the father of Chaos Theory.”

I finally worked up the nerve to write him a quick email about joining his research team and without thinking too much hit the send button. And then that moment of panic, where you stare at the screen, hands frozen, wishing there was an undo button on life.

To my great surprise, I actually got a reply and remember being so excited by the note that I didn’t care that he had actually politely blown me off and suggested that I apply through the usual process. There was one major problem. I was pretty sure my grades would not make the cut.

When I told my father about it, in his infinite wisdom he suggested one thing: a road trip. A special one that might just “happen” to take us near the campus so we could meet Professor Yorke in person. The plan worked. We met and had a fantastic conversation. Thanks to Professor Yorke, it would turn out to be the only grad school I was formally accepted to. From there, Jim and I, and yes I now call him Jim, would work together first as student and advisor and then as colleagues for over a decade.

The thing is, none of this would have happened if I obeyed the rules. There are no rules, only guidelines. By finding a way to talk to Jim, I put myself in a position where he could take a risk on me. And to you I say, seek out those that will take a risk on you. Put yourself in a position so people can easily help you out. It did not take very much effort on Jim’s part to take a chance on me, but I had to make it easy for him. A central component of Chaos Theory is that small changes can lead to big impacts. Similarly, those small risks can lead to big impacts.

Everything I have shared, you already know. In fact, you have lived it! Think about the first time you arrived here. Remember when you didn’t have a clue what was going on? The moment at orientation where you met each other for the first time? You didn’t even know where the bathrooms were. Or how about your first class where the professor asked if there are any questions and you didn’t dare raise your hand out of fear of being the stupid one? In fact, no one raised their hand and together you were collectively lost. But, at least you were lost together. And now look at you, you are the ones who will soon be teaching the next generation. When you are at the front of the room in class or in front of a team and when you ask for questions, you will recognize that same moment when no hands will go up.

So how did you do it and how did you make it here today? You sought out individuals that would take a chance on you, and you actively took chances on each other.

Remember those late nights working on problem sets together? Or the times when you were about to fall and one of your peers was there to save the day? You learned to be vulnerable and trust in each other. You actively looked out for each other and had each other's backs when the times were tough. You picked each other up when one of you stumbled emotionally, academically, and even financially.

Now it’s our turn as a society to take a chance on you. All of you, through your hard work and tenacity, have gotten here to this ceremony and have established yourself to earn our trust. That is, in fact, what the piece of paper you are about to receive represents. A certification of our trust in you. And it is not a moment too soon. Because we have to take a chance on you. The challenges we are facing as a society are steep. We have real threats to our environment, our health, and our well-being as a species. We have a society that is rapidly losing faith in public service, which is the highest embodiment of a willingness to take risks on those that need it most. To help solve these pressing challenges for our current children and for your future children, we have to place our faith in you.

So there is my advice to you:

Actively take chances on others, even when it is at a risk to you.

Seek out those that will take a chance on you.

Today is an awesome day to celebrate you and all you have accomplished. Most of all, remember to say thank you to those that helped get you here. I want you to take a second and ask yourself who is your Mr. Knapp. That person that took a risk on you. Maybe they are even here today. One of the most important things you can do in life is say thank you to them.

To make sure I put that in practice, I want to say thank you to my wife and kids, Veyd and Samaara. I also want to say thank you, to all of you, the Class of 2013 for all that you are going to do in the future. Finally, I want to say thank you to Mr. Knapp, who is here today after 25 years since suspending me, and making a career of taking risks on students like me.

Class of 2013, who are you going to be a Mr. Knapp to?

[Image: Flickr user John McStravick]

How Da Vinci-Like Thinking Helps You Imagine Future Success

Faisal Hoque — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:32 GMT

Da Vinci’s belief that "everything connects" helped make him the 15th-century Italian Renaissance man we all admire today. And it was another legendary thinker who noted that "the past is prologue." Connect the dots to create a pretty picture for you and your business.

In recent years, Leonardo da Vinci has attracted a lot of fresh press with the popularity of Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code. And now with a new TV series from David Goyer Da Vinci's Demons on Starz, Da Vinci’s stature is perhaps at an all-time high.

The Boston Globe writes, "In the buoyant new historical fantasy series 'Da Vinci’s Demons,' Leonardo da Vinci might as well be the guy who invented the latest, greatest social media app. He’s a technological geek with strong people skills and an ability to market his concepts."

I got hooked into the series right from the very beginning. The series shows how Da Vinci manifests the future with his ability to repeatedly visualize and then architect his innovative future. It was Da Vinci’s observation and belief that "everything connects" that made him the 15th-century Italian Renaissance man that we all admire today.

I call this ability to connect "the CONVERGENCE"--bringing art, science, and spirituality together. And making connections between disparate things is perhaps the number one skill needed for creative thinking.

The ritualistic practice of thinking about how different things relate to each other, and how different things could be combined to make something completely different results in sustainable innovation. And it applies to our lives and professions equally, no matter what we do.

The Power of Visualization

Author Harvey Mackay, in his blog Power of Visualization Helps You Achieve Goals writes: “To have an idea or dream, and then to see how you can make it happen, helps shape your plans and defines your goals more clearly.” Mackay highlights that Nobel Laureate Jonas Salk was asked how he went about inventing the polio vaccine. His reply? "I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense what it would be like."

For the most part, my life (sure, it has been full of ups and downs just like millions of other people’s) is an absolute result of how I visualized my steps forward. Manifestation of a reality perhaps begins with a vision, faith, and a certain amount of luck along the way.

But the ability to visualize the details of how disparate elements connect with each other makes a significant difference. To visualize, it requires us to be deeply "awake" along with having the how-to knowledge for the implementation of our plan. People who succeed constantly visualize and re-envision the steps of how to push forward regardless of a situation.

Take a look at the following clip from Da Vinci’s Demons, where (even though it's a fantasy) the art and science of visualization is masterfully captured:

The Practice of Visualization

In the psychology community, creative visualization refers to the practice of seeking to affect the outer world by changing one's thoughts and expectations. It is practiced extensively in the professional sports community.

Dr. William Fezler, in his book Creative Imagery: How to Visualize in All Five Senses suggests creating a detailed schema of what one desires and then visualizing it over and over again with all of the senses (i.e., what do you see? what do you feel? what do you hear? what does it smell like?).

Visualization practices are also common in many Eastern spiritual exercises. In Vajrayana Buddhism, complex visualizations are used to attain nirvana. Hindu Monistic theory makes similar arguments as Dr. Fezler. Robert Redford’s movie The Legend of Bagger Vance is full of Hindu mysticism of practicing mental visualization. The movie was based on the 1995 book of the same title by Steven Pressfield and is about a golfer in Georgia.

“See the place where the tides, and the seasons ... the turning of the earth all come together; where everything that is becomes one. You've got to seek that place, with your soul, Junuh. Seek it with your hands, don't think about it, feel it. Your hands are wiser than your head's ever gonna be. I can't take you there ... I just hope I can help you find a way.” ~ Bagger Vance,

Successful people like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates (who is a big Da Vinci fan, incidentally), and Will Smith all claim to practice visualization. Actor Jim Carrey says that he wrote a check to himself in 1987 in the sum of $10 million. He dated it "Thanksgiving 1995" and added the notation: “for acting services rendered.” He visualized it for years and in 1994 he received $10 million for his role in the movie Dumb and Dumber.

Okay, but most of us are neither sages nor celebrities, so how do we practice visualization?

As an entrepreneur, author, technologist, and a dreamer, I have taught myself three basic things in the hopes of manifesting my own future:

I imagine myself in the final stage (of my goals, my products, my companies, my personal life, etc.).

I study patterns (of my surroundings, my markets, my skills, my behaviors, my reactions, my skills, etc.).

I practice rituals (to be disciplined about my devotion, to recover from my defeats, to thrive, to achieve a higher degree of confidence, etc.).

Visualization is perhaps one of the many attributes that assures one’s future. But I have come to believe it is certainly a critical factor.

Who was Da Vinci Really?

Da Vinci’s Demons is, of course, a television fantasy, but it effectively portrays his thinking process. If you want to know the real Da Vinci and all his ups and down, check out the following BBC program: Leonardo da Vinci: The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything.

Self-Improvement Strategies For Becoming A More Authentic Leader
Creating a Company Designed for the Long Haul
The 3 Pillars Of The Innovation Economy

[Image: Flickr user D Petzold]

Happiness Secrets From The Staff Of Delivering Happiness At Work

Lydia Dishman — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:32 GMT

Ebullient corporate culture helped grow Tony Hsieh's Zappos into a multi-billion-dollar, shoe-loving enterprise and spawned a consulting firm, DHW. Here's how the team finds their bliss--and how your people can claim their own.

You probably heard that a happy employee is a productive one who can boost the bottom line. How much? Here are some numbers:

33% higher profitability (Gallup)
43% more productivity (Hay Group)
37% higher sales (Shawn Achor)
300% more innovation (HBR)
51% lower turnover (Gallup)
50% less safety incidents (Babcock Marine Clyde)
66% decrease in sick leave (Forbes)
125% less burnout (HBR)

It’s no surprise that the 20 employees of Delivering Happiness at Work (DHW) compiled this list and toss around the data any chance they get. The startup brainchild of Zappos’ Tony Hsieh and business partner Jenn Lim emerged after the publication of Delivering Happiness a book that waxes on the benefits of value-based management and work, life balance.

To drive the point home, the consulting firm’s even set up a return-on-investment calculator that allows any company to determine how much malcontent could cost them based on the number of employees on staff. So far, over 200 companies have signed up, and DHW workshops have garnered rave reviews from clients as diverse as HP, former Lost producer Ra’uf Glasgow, and RealTruck.

But dispensing delight doesn’t stop at the end of a workshop. After all, DHW couldn’t exactly deliver if its own staff was disengaged. And an individuals’ pursuit of happiness is serious business for the consultancy. According to culture and brand boss (aptly named) Sunny Grosso, “We walk our own talk.” Everyone at DHW practices what they call Purpose + Vision in order to be the change their clients wish to find in their own companies. For this, the two-year-old DHW has garnered a spot on the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Companies for 2013.

Although Grosso regales anyone who will listen with anecdotes about their new/old Airstream mobile office and cowbell ringing for staff achievements, he warns against equating these feel-good initiatives with the free puppies, keggers, and back rubs that have become the lingua franca of culture at most startups. Like the "vibe managers" at Heroku, the team at DHW are committed to a set of core values that drive every communication and decision. “A lot of people think [happiness] is fluffy,” Grosso admits, but it's what built Zappos into a $2 billion business.

With that in mind, Fast Company asked Grosso to give us a peek inside DHW’s happy hive. Here are a few of their best practices:

Draw Your Own Culture Target
The premise is simple: Draw a bull’s-eye with three concentric rings. The center spot is the “me.” Grosso explains that this represents, “The idea that happiness at work and in life starts with you.” The next circle is “we,” which could be your family, friends, and coworkers. The outer ring is for community, or all the people you affect in your job such as partners and vendors.

By putting yourself in the middle, Grosso says, you begin to see how much your own personal values influence those around you. Aligning those things that are most important to you with your “we” and “community,” will make your work more fulfilling, your partnerships stronger, and your impact on the world greater, she asserts.

Birds of a Cultural Feather
Every person on the DHW staff has a poster of the organization’s 10 core values up on their wall. Grosso even has a small copy stuck to the back of her phone. Referring to a speech made by Delivering Happiness CEO Jenn Lim, Grosso says, “Our core values are the code, the DNA,” that allows the team to fly together as seamlessly as a flock of geese in formation.

Bring Your Weird Self to Work
That’s not to say that everyone needs to share the exact same personal values in order for the organization’s values to unite the team and strengthen the business. DHW team members are encouraged to bring their whole self to work, with all the attendant weirdness that may involve.

“I used to do gymnastics,” recalls Grosso, so the time she spontaneously did a handstand at work sparked a colleague to begin showing off his facility with contortions. “Our work environment allows you to be you more,” she contends, and is less about work/life balance and more about how work mixes with life.

Scaling Individual Happiness to Strengthen the Organization
It may sound like a simple recipe for a small startup, but Grosso points out that Zappos does the same with some 2,000 employees who are an eclectic bunch. Bringing your weird self to work is okay if you can exist--happily--within the company’s 10 core values.

Grosso says that Zappos’ IT department is an example of a team that has a different micro-culture within the parent company. “They are less about sharing and interacting and having Jello shots,” she notes, laughing, “But they still adhere to the core values. Some [values] are stronger than others, but that’s okay.”

Happier Collaboration Through Video Conferencing
Though small, the DHW team is spread across several offices in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Atlanta, and across three business units (including the DH clothing line and community-focused efforts) so collaboration doesn’t happen as seamlessly as it would in one open office. Nonetheless, Grosso says they make a “huge effort” to bring everyone together via video conference once a week. In addition to quarterly in-person meetings, every Friday at 11 a.m., everyone on staff is required to stop what they are doing and join the call, no excuses. “Connection is one of the pieces of the science of happiness that we teach companies, so it’s something we take very seriously,” she says.

To energize the assembled crew, the call starts with something fun such as Grosso or Lim sharing photos of their travels to speaking engagements or workshops. This week for instance, Grosso proudly shared a pic she took of a billboard in the Gates Foundation’s offices that asked, “Does happiness matter at work?” in anticipation of a presentation she was doing there. The visuals, she contends, make more of an impact than reciting a laundry list of the week’s appointments.

Talk to the CEO
The video conferences also have an “Ask Jenn” component in which the entire team has the opportunity to quiz Lim about anything from how many hours she put in on a given week to which magazine’s cover she’d like to grace. Questions are emailed in advance from each team member. “It’s important to make sure people have a connection to her because she’s on the road so much,” says Grosso.

The Path to Happiness is Paved With (Well-Placed) Praise and More Cowbell
Then the conversation moves to “snout outs” which Grosso likens to the way a dog pushes its nose out of a car window. The premise again is to share accomplishments. “Did someone impress you this week?” or “Did you appreciate the way someone collaborated?” are just some of the items thrown out for praise.

And just to add a little extra encouragement for those who don’t like to toot horns, good ideas are celebrated with ringing of cowbells.

Use Constructive Honesty
Not every person or idea is a good fit at any company and DHW is no exception. Grosso admits that even after putting some employees through the rigor of interviewing, they just weren’t right for the team once they were hired. Like the founders of Asana, Grosso credits the company’s tenet of extreme transparency to weed out potential trouble.

She also cites the research of Barbara Frederickson at the University of North Carolina that illustrates how a ratio of three positive emotions to one negative is minimum optimum for high functioning teams. So if someone or some initiative isn’t working out, Grosso says the team will share their thoughts in a positive way.

Collaborate Right Now
The final component of the conference is to work on something together right away. Usually there are four items that require immediate attention and the team brainstorms solutions onto a whiteboard. Grosso says that allows the meeting to end on a note of inspiration and connects the team (once again) to the higher purpose of the organization.

[Image: Flickr user Andrew Shapter]

The Sweet Science Behind How Chocolate Makes You More Productive

Drake Baer — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:25 GMT

New research suggests that the components of cocoa make you more content. And that leads to creativity. Open up and say: Yeah!

Stop for a minute and savor cocoa's accomplishments: battler of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease; booster of blood flow; and now, research suggests, calmer of the mind.

While there are many excellent qualities to chocolate, research at an Austrailian university shows that the polyphenols in chocolate can make people feel more calm and contended.

So what else can the lovely stuff do?

Polyphenols are a group of badass antioxidants found in tea, walnuts, olive oil, fruits, and veggies. The polyphenols found in dark chocolate hang out with brain receptors associated with anxiety, the study authors say, in the same way that some common anxiety medications do.

"Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement," says Matthew Pase, the lead author of the study. "This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood."

And how does your mood affect the work that you do?

As we've discussed before, when people get creative, they relax their inhibitions, allowing ideas to flow more smoothly.

The inference, then, is this: If cocoa supplies your brain with polyphenols, and polyphenols allay anxiety, and anxiety inhibits idea-flow, then mood-elevating chocolate can help your ideas stream out faster.

Conclusion? When you grab your next bar, go dark.

"The higher the cocoa content of the chocolate," Pase says, "the more polyphenols the chocolate will contain."

The Candy That Calms

[Image: Flickr user John Loo]

Where Do You Come From? Tips For Creating A Powerful Provenance For Your Brand

Mark McNeilly — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:05:32 GMT

There's a good reason Apple puts "Designed in California" on its products, rather than "Built in China." Lessons for all of us on developing a successful backstory.

One of the first things we like to know about people when we meet them is where they're from and what's their story. The same is true for brands. In the business this is often called brand "provenance," which comes from the French word "provenir," meaning "to come forth" or "originate."

It's an irony of this age of globalization (or perhaps because of it) that people want to tie brands to specific locations. A classic example of the importance of provenance is French champagne. Only sparkling wines made from grapes from the province of Champagne can use the word "champagne" in their title. Provenance is crucial for many brands because it proves their authenticity and is shorthand for the craftsmanship and ingredients that go into these products as well as the history behind them. Provenance is a key element that sets them apart and, in many cases, allows them to charge a premium.

So how should you manage a brand in a category where provenance is important? Here are a few principles:

1. Understand Customer Perceptions
As always with marketing it starts with the customer. How do they view the location your brand is from? What attracts them to it? What emotions does it elicit? What is magical about it?

For example, Paris evokes romance and fashion. To take advantage of that "L'Oreal has consistently tied itself to Paris," states Eric Zeitoun, president of Dragon Rouge, a global design and innovation company. "This reinforces the stylish aspect of the brand and differentiates it from brands like Olay, which can only claim scientific heritage. Similarly, most luxury watches have consistently claimed their Swiss heritage as a way to associate themselves with precision and craftsmanship."

2. Leverage Location--But Build On It
Once you understand customer perceptions you have a base on which to build. And while it's important to utilize your place of origin, it's crucial not to just do what Fred Richards, worldwide creative director, Consumer Branding at The Brand Union calls "postcard branding." This refers to what Richards calls "the lazy application of location images on the front of packaging in a vain effort to indicate provenance as 'postcard graphics.' Simply placing an Eiffel Tower image on the front of your package does not make you French."

Instead you need to think through how your brand represents your place of origin and go from there. Per Barbara Apple Sullivan, managing partner of the Sullivan agency, Ikea puts Sweden's reputation for clean design and simplicity at the heart of its product portfolio, then builds on that. Ikea's "visual identity system is built around the Swedish national colors of blue and gold, and each store’s unique layout is designed to maximize efficiency for the consumer. Product names like the Fjordgard and Finnvik mattress and Swedish meatballs served in the store cafeterias serve as subtle callbacks to the company’s homeland."

3. Focus On The Details And Tell The Story
A brand's provenance comes to life not only through the offering but the story around it. As Camilo La Cruz, EVP and director of Innovation and Experience Design at RAPP, states, "The where and how are a powerful source of myth at a time when we seem to be obsessed with the craft, authenticity, and personality of the places and people behind the things we buy."

Ghurka leather bags provide an excellent example here. The story of their heritage and attention to detail is beautifully told in this video.

4. For Comeback Brands--Rediscover Your Heritage
Chrysler, with its "Imported from Detroit" campaign, provides a path to follow here. As Paul Kuzma, chief idea officer of TRIS3CT points out, the car company "has grown from a tag line to a brand unto itself and has given Chrysler a runway for success. Plus it helped the brand find supporters who are lining up for the cause, including Michigan friends like Carhartt."

(Two caveats here: 1. Will Chrysler build cars that live up to the tagline? and 2. How Detroit fares can affect how this campaign is received. The more Detroit struggles the more problematic that is for the campaign. To a certain extent tying too closely to a location puts your brand at the mercy of the locale's dynamics and perceptions. )

5. For New Brands--Find Your Story
Just because your brand is new doesn't mean you have no opportunity to build on your provenance or heritage. There are many new brands from locales around the U.S. and around the world that have interesting heritage and stories that capture them. A local example here in North Carolina is Fullsteam Brewery. Their vision is to "create a distinctly Southern beer style that celebrates the culinary and agricultural heritage of the South." They do this by using unique, Southern ingredients and working with local chefs and even musicians to create interesting beers. Like Fullsteam, many other craft brewers around the U.S. have taken advantage of their provenance to build their brand.

6. If You're Provenance Isn't Attractive, Don't Emphasize It

Not every brand has the benefit of positive provenance. For example, while Japanese companies set the standard for quality products in the auto industry, other Asian countries are not perceived similarly. That's why Apple puts "Designed in California" on its computer packaging instead of "Built in China."

Over time this may change, but until it does, for some brands it may be more beneficial to focus on attributes other than provenance to position themselves.

In sum, provenance is something many brands can leverage. It's just a matter of figuring out how best to do so. Hopefully the guidelines above provide a path to do so.

[Image: Flickr user Halfrain]

What Steve Jobs Taught Me After I Said "No" To Him

Maccabee Montandon — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:52 GMT

James Green, CEO of the search retargeting company Magnetic, was once hired by Jobs as a VP at Pixar Animation Studios. And, curiously, it was while working for one of his biggest business heroes that Green learned what not to do when leading a company.

I worked for Steve Jobs at Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 and '98 before he sold Pixar to Disney. I don't have many heroes in my life, but Steve was (and still is) one of them. Meeting him and having him ask me to work for him were dreams come true.

Like so many dreams, reality was very different from what I had envisioned. While I don’t regret any of the time I spent working for Steve, some of those times were hard moments. But that's when you learn the most.

John Lasseter, the director of the early Pixar movies (he now runs Disney animation) recommended me for the position. My first interview was actually at Steve’s house. You can probably imagine the giddy feeling I had as I walked up to the front door, rang the bell, and waited for him to greet me. This was the first time I'd talked to Steve or seen him in person. We began to talk about my past experience, and Steve explained that this role was to be a liaison between Disney and the producers at Pixar. In one of the most surreal moments of my life, I actually said "no" to Steve Jobs. Although I'd love to work at Pixar, I explained, having "middle people" doesn't work, as it’s better to just put everyone in touch directly. Although I declined the initial role, Steve ultimately offered me a job running new business development and marketing.

Pixar is an awesome place to work. My title was "International Man of Marketing." As soon as I started, I began learning, absorbing, and doing as much as I humanly could. Turns out, when you worked for him, Steve Jobs was almost impossible to say no to. If you had an idea that he disagreed with, Steve would respond with persuasive arguments about why you were wrong, enumerating them for you immediately. "James, here's seven reasons why you are wrong.” At the time, this was very intimidating because even if you know you're right, it's almost impossible to stand up to his relentless intellect. If he felt it was going to be a particularly difficult conversation, he'd take me out for a walk. It was never, ever, a good sign when Steve dropped by and said "Hi James, let's go for a walk.”

The combination of my enthusiasm for Pixar and Steve's relentless vision ended up with my job looking more and more like the one I said no to: the marketing middle man between Pixar and Disney. After a period of time I found myself in a room with Steve knowing that if I didn't resign I would be shown the door. I resigned.

So what did I learn from Steve Jobs?

I learned that you must pay incredible attention to what someone wants to do when you hire them. If what they want isn't exactly what the company needs, you shouldn’t hire them, no matter how smart, driven, or successful they are. In hindsight, Steve probably shouldn't have hired me. If someone isn't working out in the position you hired him or her for, it rarely turns around. If the fit is wrong, as a leader you should end it quickly, but not aggressively, and don't make it about the person. I remember when I walked out the door he said, "Life is long and I'm sure our paths will cross again." And sure enough, Steve and I stayed in touch.

Steve also taught me about transparency. He was actually a bit of a contradiction when it comes to this, because while he was great at marketing and coming up with fresh ideas, he wasn’t a great communicator. He tended to sit back and not tell his staff what he expected from them. From watching him operate, I learned to always let my employees know what I want and expect from them at the outset. If you explain to your employees what your company’s goals are and why, it will be motivating for everyone involved.

Building relationships first and doing business second is another lesson I learned from working with Steve. When you are going into a new situation, build relationships with people before anything else. Make sure everyone is on board before you make decisions or you will alienate people (sometimes your best ones) in the process.

Walking out of Pixar was one of the lowest points in my life. Steve also suffered humiliation in his life (being ousted from the company he founded), yet he returned to even greater victory. My victories aren't on the same scale as Steve’s, but the sweetness of the comeback is so much richer and multifaceted than that of the first win. And Steve gave me that, too.

--James Green is the CEO of digital ad technology company Magnetic, which specializes in search retargeting.

[Red Light: Bloody via Shutterstock]

Byline (ONLY ENTER NAMES ON THE LEFT: "and" IS ADDED AUTOMATICALLY):

James Green

Every Entrepreneur’s Biggest Mistake (And How To Avoid It!)

Nick Nanton JW Dicks — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:44 GMT

According to one study, 66% of new products fail within two years. And 96% of all innovations fail to deliver any return on a company’s investment. Here's how not to be just another ugly stat.

In 2006, Salemi Industries thought they had a surefire moneymaking product. It was something totally new that (a) had an obvious need and (b) could be sold worldwide. Anthony Ferranti, the man behind the innovative product, had noticed that with the widespread usage of cell phones in public areas, callers needed a private place to have their conversations--and to not disturb others in, say, a restaurant. So he decided to create a solution.

That solution was his invention of what he called “The Cell Zone”, a large plastic pod that he saw as the modern equivalent of the phone booth. You could step into The Cell Zone and have a perfectly private talk without being bothered and without bothering anyone else. The early signs were good--The Cell Zone proved to be a sensation at that year’s Restaurant Show, where eatery owners expressed enormous enthusiasm for the product.

Now guess how many Cell Zones the company ended up selling? You might have an idea since you’ve probably never heard of it or seen one. The company ended up selling less than 300, and losing close to $650,000 in the process. Turned out restaurants didn’t care for the price ($3,500) and they didn’t want to give up the square footage to accommodate the privacy pods.

The moral of this particular story? You can have what you think is an awesome product with the greatest potential in the world--and still fall flat on your face. And here’s why: because, before you put everything into perfecting whatever it is you want to offer, you never tried to actually sell it.

Recently, the Harvard Business Review published an article in which they surveyed 120 entrepreneurs from all around the world to ask them what their biggest mistake had been with a product or service launch. The number one answer of more than half of these business leaders? They didn’t try to sell it early enough. To quote one of those entrepreneurs, “Don’t make anything until you sell it. Get people really interested in buying it before you invest too much time and effort.”

The fact is that few things really “sell themselves”--especially if they’re new to the marketplace. According to Booz & Company, 66% of new products fail within two years, and, according to the Doblin Group, an astonishing 96% of all innovations fail to deliver any return on a company’s investment.

Here are a few tips on how to presell your launch, so you can know whether it’s worth moving forward, or whether you need to either change it up or drop it altogether:

Beware of the Bubble!

Another regret expressed by many of the entrepreneurs surveyed by the Harvard Business Review was that they let themselves be swayed by initial sales to friends and family. These kinds of people obviously want to support you and, if the investment isn’t too big, will happily buy your product. You can also end up depending too much on your staff or co-workers’ enthusiasm for something new you want to bring to market. Again, they want to believe in what you’re doing and often won’t give you a truthful impression of what’s waiting for you in the cold, unforgiving marketplace. So don’t rely on the opinions of those in your “bubble”--survey others who don’t really have a reason to prop up your new product with manufactured praise.

Co-Create With Your Potential Customers

Today, more than ever, buyers want to feel involved with what they purchase and use--and they want to know that the seller is listening to what they have to say. That’s why increasingly the concept of co-creation, involving consumers in the actual development of a product or service, is becoming a dominant business approach. Francis Gouillart, author of The Power of Co-Creation: Build It With Them to Boost Growth, Productivity, and Profits, says a great deal of today’s R&D is being done through social media. "Social media has liberated social forces...What used to be a fairly isolated political process has become a form of business," says Gouillart.

Try Out Your Sales “Story”

We’ve written frequently about the concept of StorySelling--and, as a matter of fact, we have a whole book on the subject coming out this summer. That’s why we believe it’s crucial to see if you have a powerful enough story to tell about your new product or service--one that will convert a prospect into a buyer. For example, we will frequently discuss with a few key clients a new service we’re thinking about providing, to make sure people like them would actually want to pay for the value it would bring to their business. And they are able to do the same thing, because we provide them with a platform to share new ideas through different channels of media--print, television, radio, blogs, and books--which enables them to gauge reaction and see what sparks excitement.

Of course, some products just aren’t destined to be successes--celery-flavored Jello is one that comes to mind! But if you take the time and put as much effort into your selling as you do into your product development, you’ll have the advantage of knowing whether your new offering can really take off from the launching pad!

JW Dicks (@jwdicks) & Nick Nanton (@nicknanton) are best-selling authors who consult for small- and medium-sized businesses on how to build their business through personality-driven marketing, personal brand positioning, guaranteed media, and mining hidden business assets. They offer free articles, white papers, and case studies at celebritybrandingagency.com.

[Image: Flickr user Tim Parkinson]

Have You Hired A Star Data Analyst Today? Here's Why You Should

Bryan Pearson — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:40 GMT

Some 97 percent of companies with revenue of more than $100 million are pursuing expertise in business analytics. But the data analytics field is projected to come up short of professionals by 2018. You do the math.

If you’ve ever wanted to see what the fate of your personal information will look like in five years, then open to the senior class of any 2013 yearbook. There you will see, among the hundreds of portraits of graduating teens, the faces of those who will be managing your data.

From the places where you spend your money to what you buy to how you buy it, the details of your activities will be captured and managed, largely, by the college-bound freshman of today. And there may not be enough of them.

Consider that 97 percent of companies with revenue of more than $100 million are pursuing expertise in business analytics, according to Forrester Research. Yet the data analytics field is projected to come up short of professionals by 2018--almost 200,000 qualified data scientist positions are projected to be vacant by that time.

With more than 2 quintillion bytes of new data every day, who should be surprised? My own quick, informal search recently revealed 1,950 available data analyst and scientist positions.

The loyalty industry is approaching a critical juncture: The need for jobs in data analysis is mounting, so who do we want at the wheel? To fill this mounting demand for what Harvard Business Review called “the sexiest job of the 21st century,” dozens of programs have been developed at major universities, including Columbia, Stanford, New York University, Northwestern, Syracuse, University of California at Irvine and Indiana University. My alma mater, Ontario-based Queen's University, recently launched a master’s program in management analytics and easily filled the class in the program’s first year.

But for the industry to thrive its leaders need to have more than a good education, they also need a principled conscience. This may not sound sexy, but consider the power data yields. Mishandled, personal data can affect a person’s credit ratings, personal insurance coverage and job prospects. It can really turn our lives upside down.

So how do our institutions build the models that balance these considerations while sorting out those who want to solely let the data speak for itself? Many offer ethics courses, which I believe should be a requirement in freshman year. No one should have access to data without understanding the rationale for having it, the need to care for it, and the implications of mismanaging it.

But what else? I’d also suggest these points on the responsible use of customer information in the wake of Big Data:

Put yourself in the customers’ shoes: Data analysis may require a curious, scientific mind, but it needs to be viewed from a personal perspective as well. The student (and later, employee) has to put the customer at the center of his or her purpose from the start, and then base every decision on what is meaningful to that consumer, based on what the shared data reveals. Responsible data use is an important part of this task.

Respect the data: Once a person agrees to share his or her personal information, a company, by way of its employees, is responsible for treating that data with respect and care. To me, this means being transparent--explaining your intentions for the data and what’s to be gained by the customer. It also means using the data as promised and retaining it only as long as needed. And always destroy data with care.

Use the data to benefit the customer: Smart companies focus on creating real value for the consumer as well as themselves. For a lot of brands, this task has been oversimplified through the deliverance of incentives such as cash, points or coupons. But such offers are so commonplace to today’s savvy consumer that the significance is diluted. The experiences people value are those that are relevant to personal needs and aspirations. Communications, offers, merchandise and service all should reflect the information revealed in the data.

Learn to share: Once the data analyst or scientist graduates and gets to manage actual data, he or she should share its substance with others within the organization. To do less would be to limit its possibilities. By sharing the insights across the organization, from marketing to merchandising to store planning, the data wizards are empowering the organization to reconfigure every aspect of its operations around its ideal customers. These insights can help decision making on price, promotions, the products stocked and communications. Maximizing insights in this way will help a company stand above its competitors.

There are tremendous opportunities for both companies and customers that arise from sharing information and improving the way we create meaningful interactions. But the industry is simply expanding too fast to cut corners, and our brands, reputations and balance sheets are at risk if we don't ensure balance between what is possible and what is right.

Only then can we make the move from Big Data toward good data.

--Bryan Pearson is president and CEO of LoyaltyOne and author of The Loyalty Leap: Turning Customer Information Into Customer Intimacy. Follow Bryan at www.pearson4loyalty.com.

[Image: Flickr user Bruce Guenter]

You're Going To Need More Than New Packaging To Call It Innovation

Colin Weatherby — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:32 GMT

The definition of what constitutes an "innovative" idea has gotten pretty loose lately. It's time to challenge your team to come up with truly revolutionary ideas that create a distinct competitive advantage.

Stand in front of a grocery store’s cereal aisle and you may be confronted with more than 130 different boxes of flakes, Os, pops, or puffed forms of grain slathered with varying amounts of sugar. Move to the detergents and you will see a wall of powders, liquids, bleaches, softeners, stain removers, and more, stretching on for 20 feet. Move to oral care and you may encounter 42 different variants of Crest toothpaste alone. Then just try to pick out a toothbrush. Sheesh.

Yet if you were to go into virtually any of the world’s largest firms that make the items sold in that grocery store today, you would find that most of what they are cooking up are yet more such product variants and line extensions. “Surely, we will sell more if we make one in mango flavor, no? What if we make the potato chips with pink Hawaiian sea salt?" Changes like these are easy in big firms--they don’t require factories to be retooled--so they’re common.

There’s only one problem: As an innovation strategy, it’s nearly useless.

Why Product Performance Isn’t Enough

There’s nothing wrong with product performance innovation per se. In fact, depending on industry or context, such innovation may be necessary to cut through the noise of existing offerings. When a PC first gets designed with special chips for managing graphics, or includes a nice little biometric feature that starts it up securely with just your fingerprint, users value these advances. But if that’s all you use, this steady progression of new functions and features is insufficient for continued success and differentiation. Today, nearly every category is hyper-contested. Also, suppliers can only succeed if they can sell their little specialty ingredient or functional doohickey to all the market players in an ecosystem, not just one. That means any unique effect is swiftly eroded.

Remember that a firm’s overall performance inexorably erodes through the phenomenon known as the cost of complexity. Pickup truck wars illustrate this trend. For several decades, the key to marketing a pickup truck has been to assert that yours is more macho than everyone else’s. Toughness and torque are keys, with horsepower and towing power detailed in a basso profundo voiceover. To dramatize just how tough these trucks are, we see ads showing them being thrown off cliffs, driven through fiery tunnels, and molested by robots in underground bunkers. It’s certainly a relief to know that these fine vehicles will survive such ordeals, but thankfully such situations seldom arise in real life. When all the trucks are mighty macho, innovation that helps the truck driver or owner do something else is what matters.

Today, almost any design can be knocked off in record time, whether you work in textiles or technology. Launch any new gadget and an engineering deconstruction will quickly appear online showing the components used, with clear speculations about the suppliers and costs of each one. Twenty thousand products were introduced at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, including dozens of new ultrabooks, OLED TVs, next-generation smartphones, and 3-D printers. There is always room for thoughtful designs in the world, but who’d like to make a bet on how many of these will be successful in the marketplace? It’s safe to say that a large percentage of them will enjoy only a short and troubled life.

Apple represents the apotheosis of gadget lust. Still, with reliable regularity, it adds to its arsenal of beautifully designed technology objects, causing the technorati to swoon on cue. Yet Apple’s products are just the tip of an innovation spear that has been carefully designed from start to finish. Even before he became CEO, Tim Cook had won praise for the way in which he drove efficiencies through every part of Apple’s supply chain. For example, many analysts believe the company has a substantial cost advantage on flash memory due to its supply chain management. The platform of iTunes and the App store has allowed it to generate enormous value from an ecosystem of developers and record labels keen to connect with Apple’s audience. That makes any of the devices that connect to that ecosystem much more valuable and appealing. 25 billion songs had been downloaded by February 2013, an indication of a lucrative business model by anyone’s standards.

So, while Apple designs beautiful products, the point is that there is much more to its success than “mere” product performance or industrial design.

It’s not that product performance is unimportant. Rather, challenge your team to add other types of innovation to achieve a bigger and more sustainable competitive advantage.

Text adapted from Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs (April 2013; Wiley) by Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters. For more details, see www.doblin.com/tentypes

--Larry Keeley is cofounder of Doblin, an innovation strategy firm, now a unit of Deloitte Consulting LLP. He teaches innovation effectiveness at both Chicago’s Institute of Design and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Ryan Pikkel is a design strategist at Doblin. Brian Quinn leads client relationships and programs at Doblin. Helen Walters is the Ideas Editor at TED.

[Image: Flickr user Thebarrowboy]

Byline (ONLY ENTER NAMES ON THE LEFT: "and" IS ADDED AUTOMATICALLY):

Larry Keeley, Brian Quinn, Ryan Pikkel, and Helen Walters

How To Ask For A Raise--And Get It

Drake Baer — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:04 GMT

A long chain of events leads to a bump in pay. Let's trace the path upward.

As Cosmo editor-in-chief Joanna Coles once told us, nothing can annoy your boss more than over-asking for money that you "need"--you're better off “explaining that you’re worth more.”

Begin by knowing the average salaries for your title, industry, and area: Sites like Salary.com and Glassdoor.com can help. But you need the small scale, too: Like Shawn Graham wrote for us, it's wise to gauge the health of your company before starting the compensation conversation.

When Amazon is hiring, they don't want to know what school you went to; they want to know your accomplishments. That same substance-orientation applies to the art of this ask: If you're going to get paid, you need to show how much value you're creating.

The raise question is one of relationships

If you become integral to the work of your company (and especially your boss), you'll have better footing for your ask. Like consultant Mark Samuel writes in Making Yourself Indispensable, you only become indispensable when you "use your gifts and principles in service to other people’s success, improvement, or survival."

Managers do the raising. While it's not always obvious, the truth is they are (mostly) human. This fact that has many consequences, like that they walk around with unconscious assumptions. One of those is that we tend to use ourselves as the measuring stick for the worth of others (for more on this, see how hiring is like dating). Since this is the case, we can infer that your boss will be more apt to hire you if she feels like you guys have common interests, culture, or "alignment"--though that attitude does put the syc in sycophant.

If you're less interested in kissing asses, you should be more interested in showing the way you create value for the company. Like Y Combinator founder Paul Graham discusses at length in his essay "How To Make Wealth," getting paid is a matter of measurement and leverage:

"You need to be in a position where your performance can be measured, or there is no way to get paid more by doing more. And you have to have leverage, in the sense that the decisions you make have a big effect."

How can you tell the difference? If you're working in a sweatshop, Graham notes, you have measurement but not leverage: Your productivity gets measured and you get paid accordingly (we hope), but you're not party to decision-making. Big earners, in contrast, have both measurement and leverage: The CEO's company either booms or fails; the director's film either gets big or doesn't; the pro athlete's team either wins or loses.

This, then, shows the logic beneath another one of Amazon's hiring factors: owning projects. If you own a project, you gain leverage and more material for your raise-nabbing argument.

The Takeaway: They don't want your needs. They want your accomplishments.

The 10 Reasons You’re Not Getting a Raise

[Image: Flickr user Conan]

Hone "Strategic Patience," Watch Your Creativity Spike

Drake Baer — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:01 GMT

An art history professor makes her students sit in front of a painting for three hours. P&G invents the Swiffer. Those events are more alike than you might think.

Deep patience. Close attention. These are not virtues often associated with college students (or some tech workers, for that matter). But as Harvard art history professor Jennifer L. Roberts recently explained, the skills for finding the "details, relationships, and orders that take time to see" can be introduced.

She calls it "decelerating education," like when, for an intense research paper about a single work of art, she prompted her pupils to plop down in front of a painting for three hours, giving them a stillness they don't usually get in a multi-tabbed way of life.

“(It's) designed to seem excessive,” she says, but students end up “astonished by what they have been able to see.”

Is seeing "instantaneous apprehension"?

We click through articles and know what they say in 20 seconds, we leaf through books, we Insta our way through grams. But seeing longer can mean seeing more: Roberts, an American studies scholar, uses John Singleton Copley’s 1765 painting Boy with a Squirrel as a case study:

John Singleton Copley, Boy with a Squirrel

After she spent an hour with the painting, she says, details began to reveal themselves, like about the shape of the boy's ear or the squirrel's ruff, the way the boy's hand was in proportion to the glass of water, how the folds of the curtain fell, how the eye was depicted, and what these varied symbols may mean. Since painting is a slow art, she says, finding its meaning comes from being on that slow end of the temporal spectrum.

Getting to that slow, still, detail-receiving place is a feat of "strategic patience," "patience engineering," or, she jokes, "time management"--a point understood by Einstein and P&G.

When deceleration is acceleration:

Smart people have told us about how acute, focused observation births creativity. And we've discussed, innovation often begins with observation before moving to addition or subtraction.

Swiffer is an example: When P&G wanted to make new a product for people's homes, they studied they way we cleaned. After hours of fieldwork, they realized that people were spending as much time cleaning their mops as they used the mops themselves. So they set out to built a quicker mop--and the result of that process may be leaning in your closet right now.

But that innovation didn't spring from "instantaneous apprehension": P&G engineered the same patience--and gained the similar benefits in an acute, focused reading--in studying their customers as Roberts practiced in burrowing before a portrait.

Patience, then, is a kind of appreciation: In the same way that a gourmet can savor the flavors of a dish and reverse-engineer its preparation, the patience-practicing, insight-seeking observer becomes familiar with the subject of her study, whether canvases or customers--and in so doing, can begin to know their needs.

The Takeaway: Give yourself some time--and patience--to produce.

Advancing the Science and Art of Teaching

[Hat tip: Annie Murphy Paul]

[Image: Flickr user Phil Roeder]

Put Asking For Help On Your Daily To-Do List

Colin Weatherby — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Leaders should know everything about their project from top to bottom--except, that just isn't possible. Setting aside your pride and asking for help is the truest sign of dedication.

Nobody can do it all and some tasks are best left to the expertise of our more qualified allies. But sometimes it's tough to recognize the difference between throwing in the towel and calling for backup. Sometimes, our egos just need a reminder that it's okay to ask for help.

Happier founder and CEO Nataly Kogan got her first taste of this sage wisdom as a young temp worker in casual conversation with her boss.

Nataly Kogan

"He said, 'no one can read on your forehead that you need help,'" says Kogan. "Learn to say that you need help and don't see it as a weakness. See it as a point of strength."

Now Kogan runs her own company, where confidence and productivity aren't just prized attributes, they're part of the business model. She makes a point of adding "Ask for help" to her to-do list every day as a gentle reminder that her organization has outgrown her skills and expertise--the goal of any ambitious leader. Her daily plea for assistance is the glue that keeps Happier running smoothly.

The Takeaway: Make asking for help part of your daily to-do list.

Reject Rejection

Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:22:14 GMT

Resilience is among the most important qualities for any entrepreneur. In order to have it, you must first learn how to deal with rejection.

One of the key elements of living a meaningful life, or as we call it, The OPA! Way life, is learning to be resilient. And one of the key elements of being resilient, as well as of building resilience, is knowing how to deal with rejection.

Rejection is becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives. Take dating, for instance. It used to be that we could be rejected maybe once or twice a year; but now, we have speed dating where we can be rejected every five minutes, or on-line dating where we can be rejected in an instant! With social media, feedback is instantaneous, and with it comes an increase in the likelihood of rejection. In the workplace, learning how to deal with rejection is a critical skill that all of us need to develop and maintain.

Importantly, rejection is a two-way street: we have been rejected by others and we, in turn, have rejected others. We have to expect rejection in our work lives since work is a collaborative effort, a trade-off--we can not expect everyone to just blindly follow our way or accept all of our ideas. We can not simply conclude that a person who rejected our idea is "out to lunch" or "doesn't get it" because it begs the question, if we reject someone else's idea, are we "out to lunch" or "don't get it?" Recognizing this point will help us become more sensitive to whom and why we are rejecting, as well as increase our capacity and, as a result, our resilience, to deal with rejection that comes our way.

In Elaine's recent TEDx talk in Hong Kong (see below), she shared the insights she gained by researching rejection. She discovered three common responses to dealing effectively with rejection in a wide variety of personal and work-related situations. Taken together, these three "responses" can be viewed as practical guidelines for building personal resilience.

The first response or guideline is to Reflect. Reflect on why the rejection may have happened. Was it you or your approach? Did you not give the right information that the other person needed in order to make a decision? Was it a timing or resource issue? Reflecting on why the rejection happened is a valuable initial step to giving you insight about the other person's reaction because, in the final analysis, "it's not all about you!"

The second response is to Reboot. Rebooting essentially means to start over, hopefully trying a different approach or offering new information in order to convince the other person(s) to agree with you. It may also be helpful to sell parts of the idea at first, versus trying to sell the whole concept or program all at once. This will help lower the risk of accepting your new idea and lessen the complications arising from implementing it.

Realistically, others may change their mind and decide to support you...or they may never change their mind. At this point, it's important to move to the third response, Reject. By this we mean that it's important to understand that everyone is in a different "space" and, in some cases, no matter what you say or do, they will always reject you or your ideas. In this regard, some people strive for safety and predictability, so your new idea or proposition may seem too "risky" to them. Others strive for creative freedom and your proposal might be too mundane or out of character for them.

Understanding the motivation of others is key to knowing when you should keep trying to connect with them and keep selling your idea, or when you should go back to the drawing board to develop a new idea or when you should simply walk away.

By adopting a mindset that gives you permission to "reject rejection" after following the previous two steps (i.e., Reflect and Reboot), you ensure that you don't become a prisoner of your own thoughts while, at the same time, open yourself up to new opportunities to connect meaningfully with others. (The "O" in The OPA! Way)

Learning how to deal effectively with rejection strengthens our sense of self and builds our resilience when confronting life's challenges, both in our personal and work lives. In turn, this simple mantra--"Reflect, Reboot, Reject"--when put into practice, helps us live and work with more meaning.

Drs. Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon, are meaning experts and the co-founders of The OPA! Way® paradigm of "Living & Working with Meaning" and the OPA! Center for Meaning in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA. Pattakos is the author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts, and Dundon is the author of The Seeds of Innovation. They have co-authored a new book on The OPA! Way (forthcoming).

Follow The OPA! Way® on Twitter Twitter @TheOPAWay and join the online OPA! Village.

[Image: Flickr user Mark Probst]

The 9 Most Creative (Least Gratuitous) Brand Vines

Rae Ann Fera — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:31:28 GMT

Anyone can throw a tiny video together. Here’s a rundown of brand-generated Vines that make the most of the platform and that make every second count.