Status

This word has come to be important to many young people lately. Conceptually it's been around a long time of course, but young people being who they are, didn't actually have an easy, simple descriptor for it. I'm referring to Facebook, and the relationship status that displays on one's profile.

For a young person, it's perhaps the most important element on the page, as it speaks to who you are involved with, peacocking this a little and mutual consent all at once.

The choices offered (above left) are interesting too - the obvious ones and the perhaps less obvious ones.

While we've always been interested in this kind of information about our fellow person, Facebook has brought it to a new level I'll suggest by bringing it out so very clearly. Don't believe me or buy into that..? Adjust your status and see how many comments you get. You'll be surprised.

The Ugly Underbelly of Mass Collaboration

Mass collaboration is a form of activity that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project, and as a concept it's come into its own in light of social and other sharing platforms on the internet. It's a clever, wondrous idea and one whose time is upon us. You can see it at work in the twitter-sphere, and it has been leveraged and used for numerous advances in high profile endeavors such as the human genome project. It's also a popular *new* theme for business books from various intellectuals and business boffins telling us that the future has arrived, and here's what we can expect. It's 'all the rage' as we said in the old days.

Twitter passed 106.5M users in May 2010 according to their developer conference entitled Chirp (pauses and smiles for cuteness) and at that point, there were an average of 55M tweets a day. The top 10 in terms of who is being followed make up more the 44M people, though it's probably fair to say that it may be the same 5.8M people that follow Brittany Spears, that are following the other quasi-celebs that make up the top-10. All this to say, we're talking about a sizable audience, and one clearly that has the technical means to speak and be heard which simplistically = money.

All this popularity has an ugly side too though, and one that I'll admit I don't like. Even more to the point, this less attractive attribute is not being acknowledged as such, and we're doing ourselves a disservice that could undermine the overall perceptions we have about mass collaboration.

There have been some anecdotal examples of crowd-sourcing (I consider this an informal version of mass collaboration as consent to participate isn't overt, but rather volunteered) specifically utilizing Twitter that have tended to be about a given problem or issue affecting a single individual. While there have been times that satisfying these issues is altruistic, all to often they are simple complaints and collaboration as a result turns into mass whining.

Whether it's Dooce complaining about her washing machine, Dave Carroll's broken guitar thanks to United Airlines, or this week's broken wheelchair for little Tanner with muscular dystrophy, the outcome is the same - a new phrase which I wish I'd had the foresight to trademark that I fear you'll see repeatedly in the future "Twitter Outrage".

What is twitter outrage ? This is when the bandwagon is jumped on by many people, following some aggrevious act by some company. Often, it's nothing worse than the normal lack of service any of us encounter, but those with a large following or the ability to create a sensational story can create a twitter outrage and hold some poor company hostage. When mainstream media catches on, it's a hurricane in a teacup - sans the teacup.

Is it right to do this, is this perhaps the way that the 'little guy' finally gets heard and the mistakes that companies make are for once held up to them for accountability..? Perhaps. But let's also consider the other people that have been screwed by Maytag, had destroyed baggage by United, or had a disservice done to them on Air Canada..those without Twitter or Facebook or YouTube. These 'other people' are yesterday, today's and probably tomorrow's customers and they are still going to get the same levels of poor service, as before. What they won't get is people bending over backwards for them, as the PR machines at these companies focus on the squeaky twitter wheel - the ugly underbelly of mass collaboration. We are slowing feeding ourselves this porridge of satisfying bad behavior - we are rewarding inappropriate activity, and that is wrong.

I think the onus is on the people with a large following not to whine, and not to use their interested bases for service vengeance when they need to simply get in touch with customer service. Why do I think this...? I think that while poor customer service will sort itself out with traditional market forces, over time misusing the crowd-source will compromise the very idea of mass collaboration if we let it denigrate into whinging. And that...that would be a far larger shame than a broken guitar or washing machine.

Hindsight

A few bigger projects and initiatives that had very long development times are done now. It's almost anticlimactic, and a little sad. One or two remain and work remains on them, but in thinking about the few that are complete I'm pondering what might have been done differently or better. The rationale to do this is to that hindsight is 20:20 and foresight never is.

Being a firm believer that we rarely learn as much from our successes (we must have been correct, it was a success after-all), hindsight also grants us the chance to see perspectives and dimensions otherwise invisible to us at the time. It creates an opportunity to learn and therefore do things differently (and better) next time.

As a proponent and passionate believer that we should all be pushing for the 10% advantage, or improvment, hindsight is an essential tool as we move forward from challenge to challenge.

Moving

You should move, we all should, regularly.

It provides a few things that are all worthwhile..

1. You get a chance to revisit all that junk buried in closets and drawers that has been gathering dust since the last time you moved it. This brief trip down memory lane allows you to smile and reminisce at the past, and in parallel wonder why you kept these things from the last time you looked at them. Cue more puzzled smiles.
   
2. It allows you to "throw out", which I relate to the way that the human body functions, and is a good thing. We can't be additive forever, sometimes we need to cleanse. There are some well known guidelines for this that I won't trouble you with here, but its easy to find them if you want some 3rd party guidance as to what to keep, and what to toss out.

A forced review of what is important in our lives (if only the file structure in our respective desks) is a good thing to do from time to time. You will be more productive and in touch with your priorities afterwords.

Business Lessons from Africa

Carnivore in Nairobi, Kenya is a theme restaurant where you are served rare and unusual foods. It's a festive atmosphere and caters to those wishing to be both entertained and gluttonous. Meat is on the menu in many varied forms, some familiar, some rare and some not. Service is done on swords and sliced at your table by waiters with machetes. The presentation as you might expect is more than half the experience though the food itself is wonderful.

What impressed most though was the driveway and security. It was a restaurant sitting amidst a huge plot of land with multiple security checkpoints. Entering the Carnivore compound was akin to gaining access to a secured government facility. This was impressive in and of itself and lent a feeling of security that was understated and appreciated. However my party hadn't sought this out when selecting this venue - this was simply a value add. Or was it ?

The lesson (and very full belly) I took from this wonderful evening was that the intangibles or value-adds in our businesses are what makes the customer experience quite special. If we dissect (perhaps a poorly ironic choice of words in this case) the Carnivore experience to it's core elements, we are looking for a comfortable environment to enjoy a great meal. Conversely, if said another way, we cannot truly enjoy our evening of great food without the comfort of a secure environment.

What does this mean for those of us not in the food business in Africa ? It means we need to boil down our offering to it's core components and ensure we are meeting and exceeding customer expectations on each and every point. We cannot just "serve great food", that's not enough. Be extremely granular when doing this, as all too often we expect our customers to make connections for themselves as to how to use our product or service and we overlook gaps that we create. Assumptions we make based on our over-familiarity with our own products can be very problematic. In our expanding age of self service spurred by exponential growth in online adoption, nailing the customer experience is critical.

One of the reasons the Carnivore experience sat so nicely was that less than 12 hours later, I found myself attempting to work a CSFB bank machine - not my normal bank. After three aborted attempts, I finally got the knack of their user-interface. Now, I don't consider my self a dummy with ATM's, nor do I have a limited experience with them, but this particular design was very ill-conceived. As I not so silently cursed the Swiss design, the beauty of the Kenyan execution popped out. The irony of the situation caused me to pause and smile a little.

If you happen to be in Nairobi, check out Carnivore. Besides a great evening out, it's a strong example of a solid business in action where they "get it". They understand what it takes to deliver. We could all learn from them.

The Roof of the World

When I was 46, I climbed Kilimanjaro - the highest peak in Africa and second tallest mountain in the southern hemisphere. It was a difficult physical effort but an adventure nonetheless and one worth doing. It took 8 days and our party covered more than 100 kilometers on this, the world's largest free standing mountain.

Th peak has very little oxygen, is covered by glaciers and protected by a relentless freezing wind, but it is filled with exhilaration. The road to the summit is slow and winding and dotted with those that couldn't make it and the scars of those that did. We saw people give up mentally, fail physically and push themselves to as yet unforeseen limits. It was a vivid, realistic example of a group of people all trying their best, and testing their limits.

Our equipment failed and yet we didn't. We witnessed what will be regarded by those in our party as the most sublime sunrise in history standing atop the world. Looking across the great rift valley at Africa's third highest peak, well above the clouds and earthbound concerns, we each celebrated our accomplishment personally. We have the requisite photos but an observation by one in our party struck me deeply. The peak itself wasn't a matterhorn of jagged rock to cling to precariously but rather a small rise above the surrounding area, sitting on top of another small rise and another. Peaks are not always clear to us when we see them, and yet we know they have been reached when we look at our achievements in context of how we had to push our-self. This effort that I have heard described by many as "the most difficult task of their lives" was very real to each of us there, and so the summit was defined and imaginable as we climbed and climbed. Life isn't always so clear-cut though, and our everyday mountains come in ranges and not just as as freestanding, conquerable tasks.

I learned more about myself in this adventure than I had thought and I urge you to seek out your own personal Kilimanjaro - but remember to prepare thoroughly and wear a base layer, it's cold and unforgiving where you dare to go.

Are you ready ?

When you're about to do something BIG, how do you know you're ready ?

You can prepare, train and plan certainly. The old adage about failing to plan = planning to fail comes to mind, but when it comes down to it, when there's no more prep time, and it's now perform or die......you have to decide if you're ready.

This, like so many things in our lives is a mental state - it's a mind-game we play with ourselves. We can be certain to fail - and probably not disappoint that inner voice; or we can be determined to succeed and do our utmost to achieve that end.

When it comes down to it, to that moment when you're stepping on stage, standing up in front of the customer, facing the other player to be tackled literally or figuratively, or looking up at the mountain to be climbed - each of us has to decide.

It's what makes life interesting, the placing of yourself into those situations where you test your own resolve. Some thrive on it, others cringe in front of it. In the end it's very personal for each person and few others have access or insight into us as we make the choice.

What about you...are you ready ?