Rothacker Reviews

Brazen Careerist

Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk.

Today's world of work is not the same as your father's was.  Thank God!  Penelope Trunk, columnist for the Boston Globe and Yahoo Finance in addition to her own Website has written a spot on, insightful book titled Brazen Careerist.  Penelope hopes to provide a roadmap for Gen X and Y'ers to follow in pursuit of their own life's work.  Drawing on real world experience, she stories upon such topics as:

• Grad School
• Adventures
• Resumes
• Interviews
• Managers
• Office Politics
• Sex Discrimination
• Promotions
• The New American Dream

Penelope's work has been referred to as the modern day version of What Color is Your Parachute?  While the Brazen Careerist is a manifesto and rallying wake-up cry for Gen X and Y'ers, I find that it talks frankly and honestly to a whole other generation of folks.  Mine.  The Boomers.

As a Boomer manager, I feel as if Brazen Careerist is my own personal undercover spy, infiltrating the Gen X and Y'ers' world.  Of course for me, there isn't a trace of spying or undercover that goes into dealing with folks from these generations.  It is all about collaboration.  And if one wishes to collaborate, they must understand the other collaboratoree.  Brazen Careerist introduces us, stays in the conversation and provides that much needed understanding.

For Boomers who do not recognize the workplace change today, there is no help.  But for those of us who relish in the new environment and who cherish the spirit and attitude of those who will one day be placing us in nursing homes*, I find the Brazen Careerist positively fascinating!!

*Our Gen Y daughter has for sometime reminded us of her role in this potential eventuality, helping to explain why we should see and support her point of view...or perhaps our nursing home will not have all of the amenities that we would expect.  She tried to explain the concept of an outhouse...

Shelfari

To move forward we must take advantage of communities.

Do you love books?  Do you love to talk about your books with others?  Well, it probably won't overthrow My Space in member count, but Shelfari promises to be a place for book lovers to hang out, show off their book collections and recommend their reads to others.

I came out of the closet about ten years ago.  It was a tough thing to admit.  As a matter of fact, I only admitted it to a very few people over the years.  Heck, I started to type it here and I still froze for a second.  OK, I'm going to close my eyes and type just as fast as I can...  I am a right brain person!  A quick glance from side to side shows the contingents are not on the floor rolling around and laughing their behinds off.  Whew!

One of the things that I've noticed evolving, is an acute appreciation for design and creativity.  Try trolling through My Space and notice the various design and creativity of its members.  Design can be seen in the home, truck and car makeover TV shows.  It will be interesting to see how (if they can) members of Shelfari pimp their bookshelves.

Note: If you're wondering how a supposed right brain person has a site like mine here, it's because of the big ole, moss-dripping, slimey concrete barrier of technology that I haven't been able to overcome.

10/14/06 Update:  I joined Shelfari yesterday.  In addition to the community potential, I signed up as a way to catalog and keep track of my books.

Social Media

To move forward we must Radio Back our discoveries to those right behind us, those with less time.

Bob:  I was working on my blog last night.
Boss:  What's a blog?

The social aspects of the Internet have fascinated me from day one.  It wasn't very long after getting online ten years ago, that I found communities of people who shared similar interests.  In those days I used a handle for a name and remained anonymous.  One community that I belonged to was work related.  It mostly consisted of people much higher up in the food chain than me - but they never knew that.  Soon I was considered one of them, boosting my confidence to the moon.  Isn't perception such a fickle beast?  Here I was, a lowly peon-cat, with upper middle management type people valuing my contribution based on my content, supported by my perceived position.

It was also about this time that I became an Internet evangelist, mostly yapping to small business owners and management.  I couldn't help it, I was so excited about the potential to learn and connect with others.  Here is a visual of the over whelming reaction that I got :  "I (meaning me, Dave) am an encyclopedia.  You are a cat.  Read me."  Fast forward to the present.  Try talking to a baby boomer business person about blogs, podcasts, wiki's and content communities.  The cat still can't read.  Heck, newspaper articles profile blogs and podcasts as if they were just recently discovered.

I discovered a nifty little white paper, written in cat-speak, designed to help folks understand the social media frontier of 2006.  Check it out.

What is Social Media?

Six Degrees of Blogging

Most Excellent Blog Adventure

Today's visit begins at Troy Worman's Orbit Now site.  My goal is to link from Troy's site to someone I am not familiar with.  And then link from their site until I reach six degrees of separation.  Criteria for the journey are:

• The site must contain a blogroll
• I must find the site interesting
• I cannot link to a familiar name

I was surprised to see how many people do not have blogrolls.  I wasn't surprised to see how many people have a Seth Godin link.  Congratulations Troy on your two year blogging anniversary!

By the way, my mode of transportation today is a Schwinn Cruiser Deluxe.  Troy sends me over to
Anna Farmery's place, The Engaging Brand .  What a delightful concept here that Anna paints:  See the Person Not the Roll.  Anna doesn't have a large blogroll but I found a gem with her referral of Heidi Miller's Talk it Up place.  Can you believe how Heidi is designing her promotional material and biz cards?  Guts!

Heidi says, "visit Garr."  Garr Reynolds calls his corner, Presentation Zen .  Garr starts of this post on Learning From the Art of Comics:

"You know my philosophy: Keep reading and keep looking — we just never know where we'll find inspiration and knowledge if we open our eyes and go off the beaten path."

I've kept this thought close to my heart for years! 

Garr tells me about this young woman who helps to liberate people.  Pamela Slim does just that.  As with Heidi, Pamela is enlisting her readers for biz help.  Awesome!  You know, on the way over here, after beating off this guy who wanted me to deliver his newspapers ( I politely refused you know, I'm not into violence), I passed a boat load of businesses run by the connected generation .  They all appear to be operating much like Heidi and Pamela.  Smart women.

No, the final stop on my visit today is not some wild Australian Aborigine.  Although I have often wondered how someone could apply the six degrees of separation and find one of these bush folks.  Pamela says I should absolutely stop by Kristie T's place of biz .  What a great way to end my trip - landing on Kristie's words on gratitude.

Thanks for riding along on the Schwinn with me today! 

Work Cultures

Time to fire up the ride, kick out the jams and go cruising today.  A rumbling muscle car, a little Space Truckin' by Deep Purple and vapor trails in Cyberspace - does it get any better?

By way of magic and technology, I begin the day in Hawaii at Starbucks sipping hot coffee with my friend Rosa Say.  Rosa and I can discourse deep into spirituality, growing up or working at Woolworths, but today she simply tells me to check out a wonderful writer by the name of Verna Wilder .  Rosa knows that I will connect with Verna because she knows Verna admires creative writer-coach Julia Cameron.

Back in the Cutlass, I change the eight track tape to The Best of Bread and a little Baby I'ma Want You.  I roll into Colorado late morning and hook up with Verna.  Spend one minute on Verna's site and you smell the fresh morning flowers of soulful expression...

  "I like the idea of finding the shape of my life and defining it by stepping into it, and as Marilyn says, opening my heart to who I am, which means a lot of letting go of who I thought I might be or who I was trying to be. Who I am is in there already, in my heart. I find that very comforting."

...Verna's love of sculpting words to fit her thoughts is postively neon! 

"Dave, what's any of this got to do with work cultures?"

"Chill.  I've got a half tank of gas and two more tapes.  Lets get back to the Magic Carpet Ride."

Paperback Writer is just finishing up on the Kenwood as I pull into Terry Gold's  office parking lot.  Verna's directions are perfect.  Walking through the front door, something strikes me as unusual.  I think it's this conversation that I am over hearing.  Terry is talking about the office of the future .  His assistant, Angela Watson, injecting her thoughts on what should be in the office of the future:

"As part of my job as your assistant, I typically remind you of your next meeting and often times have to run around the office to locate you. My idea for “the office of the future” is to have a GPS tracking devise on you at all times that would enable me to pull up a map online and find your precise location."

pssssst, this is where the culture part starts surfacing...

The tone in Angela's voice is both serious and mischievous.  Angela's demeanor perks my curiousity.  Remember, she is talking to her boss here.  I picture Terry as an entreprenuer always on the move, a cat with a high metabolic rate.  I sort of fade back, away from their conversation and notice a matchbook lying on the floor.  This seems odd.  I get the feeling not many folks working here smoke.  Inside the cover I notice an address.  Back to the Cutlass.

The car's headers roar to life as the speakers roar The Wizard by Uriah Heep.  The song is barely over as I pull into Angela's place.  If there was any doubt before, this seals the deal.  Terry Gold has created a tremendous work culture!  Or perhaps more correctly, he has let a tremendous work culture evolve. 

As a manager, I have an enourmous amount of respect and admiration for the culture at Terry's company Gold Systems .  This type of work environment can do nothing but enhance a company's product and service!!

Well, it's been a lovely Saturday, thanks for cruising along.  Now, I think I'll go to the park .

Note:  I do not own a muscle car :(

               

Customers.com

Customers.com  is the book that launched Dave 2.0!  It moved my mindset out of the old economy and into the new economy.  It provided a bridge for me to understand the transition from doing business brick and mortar style to conducting business over the Internet.  Author Patricia Seybold published this book in 1998.  I am not qualified to comment on various Web site's technical aspects and how far they have evolved since 1998, but Seybold's philosophy on how to take care of a customer via the Internet hasn't changed one bit.  It still is the best I've ever read.

Seybold outlines the following competencies and success factors for doing business in cyberspace:

• Target the right customers
• Own the customer's total experience
• Streamline business processes that impact the customer
• Provide a 360-degree view of the customer relationship
• Let customers help themselves
• Help customers do their jobs
• Deliver personalized service
• Foster community

Seybold then provides two different case studies for each of the above factors.  She uses companies like American Airlines, Babson College, Dell, Cisco and Amazon as examples.  Case studies consist of business processes, technical infrastructure, best practices and Seybold's recommendation for action.  This book is written for both techies and biz folks.

The case study on Tripod.com actually inspired me and two others to launch a Web site in 1999, designed to acquire, nurture and grow a community within the air conditioning industry.  It was a wild ride for the first two years but we were never able to make money, although that really was never the intent.  (Que lastima, where was Ad Sense then?)

Pick up a copy and read Customers.com.

Nodes of Knowledge

It's my turn today at Talking Story .  The Ho'ohana Community at Talking Story consists of folks who try to make a difference in the lives of others while in continuous pursuit of self-improvement.  Conversation is always stimulating.  This month however, conversation ramped up a notch to vibrant and stimulating.  See, it's all about this thing called learning.  The desire to learn is a viral force that runs rampant through the Ho'ohana Community.  Most excellent!

The Cluetrain Manifesto

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a book about conversations enabled by the Internet and technology.  Conversations between people and conversations between a company and its market.  I had mentioned in an earlier post I would be writing about the progressive-thinking-business mindset.  And although this book is seven years old, it still is seven years ahead of some organizations...

Marketing guy:  "Boss, we need to launch a blog for our customers."

Boss:  "A blog?  Isn't that something like a personal diary?"

Authors, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, postulate that the Internet can alter the way people interact with business.  Of course it has.  One need only look at E-Bay or Amazon.com.

To Be Real

To be real is one theme for me that resonates through the book like a never ending echo.  Locke tells us of when he was a PR guy.  His job was to evangelize the corporate product to journalists - to be an extension of the corp-speak brochure.  He felt phony doing this.  So he decided to talk to the journalists about things like knowledge sharing and applied technology.  It turned into having genuine conversations with genuine people.  The result?  His company got substantial ink.

Where Conversations Take Place

Rick Levine talks about places like e-mail, chat rooms, web pages, news groups and mailing lists.  He speaks of individuals and authenticity in their voices.  We can recognize when we are being spoken to by a person or by a corporate directive that's traveled through layers of lawyers and editors. 

The Axe

Doc Searls and David Weinberger get down to it.  The Anti-Conversation: Broadcast advertisement that consumers could care less about.  The authors construct a delightful metaphor of an axe buried in the head of consumers.  The axe represents the incessant marketing message that the public incurs - even at times without noticing.  If the axe is successful, we buy the product and silence conversation.

I recommend this book because it has the power to keep us grounded in reality.  And for me, reality is conversation. 

Cluetrain: 95 Theses II

 Ninety-Five Theses  - Written for the people of Earth. 

(50) Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical.  Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.

Keep in mind, these points were written circa 1999. I suspect that there has always been a greater respect for hands-on knowledge over ivory tower dwellers.  It's just that the power of hyperlinking provides instantaneous knowledge to all corners of the Earth.

The next few points talk about command-and-control management and how this culture divides external and internal conversations.  The manifesto encourages companies to get out of the way and let the market talk to its employees.  Problems however, lie in corporate firewalls.  And what access is available is cloaked in corporate hucksterism and false, meaningless language.

(74) We are immune to advertising.

(75) If you want us to talk to you, tell us something.  Make it something interesting for a change.

Isn't it amazing these days how many companies don't just get this?

(76) We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service.  Stuff we'd be willing to pay for.  Got a minute?

(77) You're too busy "doing business" to answer our e-mail?  Oh gosh, sorry, gee, we'll come back later.  Maybe.

(78) You want us to pay?  We want you to pay attention.

It makes you think that companies are programmed like robots.  They talk in a slow monotone voice, void of the ability to listen and adapt.

(83) We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal.

I get the feeling that this concept might have tipped. 

(85) When we have questions we turn to each other for answers.  If you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to.

One can equate tight rein to "no Mary you are forbidden from blogging about our company while you work here."

(89) We have real power and we know it.  If you don't quite see the light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive, more interesting, more fun to play with.

(91) Our allegiance is to ourselves - our friends, our new allies and acquaintenances, even our sparring partners.  Companies that have no part in this world, also have no future.

(94) To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing.  But we are organizing faster than they are.  We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.

(95) We are waking up and linking to each other.  We are watching.  But we are not waiting.

I believe there has been some evolvement to a higher order of interaction between the corporate world, its employees and its market.  But not much. 

Next:  We'll delve into the book.

Cluetrain: 95 Theses

 Ninety-Five Theses  - Written for the people of Earth.  This is where it all began.  Although these 95 points of liberation were written at least seven years ago, they resonate just as true today...if not more. 

(1) Markets are Conversations

Theses point number one and The Cluetrain Manifesto's central theme.  And conversations take place between human beings in a human voice...which is a lead in to points two and three. 

(6) The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media

In yesterdays gone by we watched TV advertisements; we read newspapers; we were hypnotized by brochures; we were broadcast at, and then we bought products.  But, be it good or bad, we never spoke much about these products beyond our own neighborhoods.  Contrast that thought with the latest design in Tween Jeans.  Check this out now - can you say My Space.com?  Notice that I didn't hyperlink to My Space.  What's the point?  There isn't one person who will read this that doesn't know about My Space.com.  That's conversations on steroids!

(18) Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity

By way of SarahinTampa, here is a company that gets it: inspired DECOR .

(25) Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships

Ok, this might be a start: Fastlane GM Blogs .  Not!  This I think is an example of a corporation trying to go undercover.  If the darn mustache would stay on straight they might have a chance.

I am more apt to give up ex Microsoft employee and blogging demi-god Robert Scoble as an example, although in the grand scheme of the Redmond campus I think he was more of the minion population.

(42) As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company - and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines

(43) Such conversations are taking place today on corporate intranets.  But only when the conditions are right.

I could be wrong, but I am afraid these two points have not progressed that much.  I think that most company intranets consist of nothing more than slapping the policy manual and benefit information online.  I would love to here about companies doing otherwise - providing true interactive communication!

Next:  I'll comment on a few of the remaining theses points.