The problem with not understanding

Web 2.0 = human dynamics 101.

That's my opinion. These web 2.0 tools we have today are just enablers for us to interact, in the same way we do offline, on a larger scale and faster pace.

One unexpected feature of these tools is that they drive control freaks crazy. Why? Cause you cannot control the interactions that take place when you use them. Hence, the need for authenticity and transparency, of really focusing on the other side of the interaction, rather than your own.

Authenticity and transparency nurture trust. The problem with not understanding these tools, is that you will never align your behaviors online with those that a connected, hyperlinked world values. At the core, these are non other than, I think, our true nature.

Blogging is like Sex (I)

Blogging is like Sex.

1. You start doing it out of curiosity.
2. You don´t have to wait until you´re married to blog. Not anymore.
3. Your parents never taught you how to blog.
   
4. You´ll always remember your first post.
5. Had you known it is this liberating, you would´ve started years ago.
   
6. ¨I can´t blog right now. I´ve got a terrible headache.¨
   
7. ¨No, seriously. I really enjoyed your last post¨.

Global Warming

Looks more like WRONGbal Warming...

En español...

In English...

Oh well.

The problem with Customer Loyalty...

...is that it should be Loyalty to the Customer.

The problem with Human Resources

...is that humans are not resources.

When utilizing a resource, such as fuel, it gets used, burns out and all remainings are waste. It doesn´t benefit from the interaction in any way. Not a good analogy for humans, although all too familiar sometimes.

Humans want realization. The problem with treating humans as resources is that it might be ALIGNED with a company´s needs for something to use and burn out, but certainly not with humans´ wants.

I´ve been thinking about this for weeks. Today I read Seth Godin´s point of view: why not a VP of Talent.

Everything wired to everything else

Wow.

Talk by Vilayanur Ramachandran in 2007´s TED conference.

The problem with selling

Today someone gave us a presentation on his product. Things I remember in no particular order:

1. Seven bullet points in a single slide, all appearing at the same time...as an introduction.
2. Misspellings in several pages.
3. ¨Yes, I´ll answer that but first let me show you this other feature because if not we´ll be here ´til tomorrow morning¨. (yes, he did say that).
4. He spoke for 20 minutes more than we had agreed.

The message I got was:

¨I´m here to tell you about my product. I know you have problems, and I don´t know them yet. If we have time at the end, we´ll discuss your situation; but first, let me tell you all about the features of my product and the things it can do. I hope this will impress you enough to ask me to come again, and then prepare a proposal.¨

You have an option: try to sell features, or offer to solve problems (that those features happen to solve). The problem with the first approach is that people can tell it´s not ALIGNED with their needs.

This guy is the General Manager of the Company.

2K

2,000 visits and counting! Thanks for stopping by, seriously. Attention is a gift, so I appreciate your reading this.

Be gud. Live laif. ;-)

Suspicious Office Humor

3pm, exhausting day @ work, your mind starts spinning...You come up with a suspiciously funny joke:

¨How do they mute a phone in [insert favorite place here]?¨

Life Template

Here´s to vicarious existence...

Extreme 9 to 5

Come n´ play, come n´ play...

My idea of you...

Will you marry your idea of me!????

Update: Craig Harper says it better. Read his post the morning after posting mine. Talk about coincidence. Worth reading ;-)

Intelligent quotes remain

So it turns out that trying to get something from someone is really not a selfish act. At least not if you want to be successful.

Dale Carnegie wrote ¨How to win friends and influence people¨. A central idea to the book is that there is only one way to make someone do something; and that is by making that person WANT to do it.
So the next question is: how to MAKE someone WANT to do something?
Enter Charles Green, author of ¨The Trusted Advisor¨ blog. ¨In order to get someone to buy from you something she needs, first you need to understand what it is that she wants (in life).¨

Is what you´re asking for ALIGNED with the other person´s values and desires?

The increase

Here´s to the ladder´s perks.

Heaven is a shopping mall

Here´s to ¨I´m afraid to die, that´s why I have 33 pairs of shoes.¨

Una de fotos...

Por aquello de que me encantan las analogías...

Esta imagen me pareció la analogía perfecta para mi estado de ánimo cuando la tomé. Llevaba así un par de meses: cuesta arriba, sabiendo que iba a algún lado pero sin entender muy bien dónde ni si quería.



Desde esta semana es más algo como así:



Amplitud, serenidad, empezando a percibir la luz que se asoma.

Qué foto define tu estado de ánimo?

Edu-llaboration

This makes me wonder what the future of education as we understand it will be like:

www.freebase.com Via techcrunch: "Freebase is a massive database. The purpose of the database is to centralize as much data as possible, and allow participants to freely add and access data - developers can extract information from Freebase via a set of APIs and add it to their web applications. It also builds relationships between highly structured pieces of data, something that can’t easily be done with distributed data controlled by different entities. "

Formalismos Laborales

Pensamiento cínico del día:

“Lo de que el cambio frecuente de trabajo se ve mal en el curriculum se lo han inventao las empresas mediocres, hombre! Para que no se les vaya la peña en cuanto descubren lo mediocres que son.”

Ja!

Firmado: yo.

Tú eres nuestra ¨Venta Nueva¨

Tenía curiosidad por saber cuánto cuesta un seguro médico individual, así que hoy llamé al número del primer seguro que vi.
Como de costumbre, una máquina te recibe. La opción pre-programada para atender llamadas de potenciales clientes nuevos se llama (y lo digo porque entenderlo no fue inmediato): ¨Ventas Nuevas¨. Esto es una sutileza, pero demuestra en quién estaba pensando el que programó el cuadro telefónico. Peor aún, hace pensar que la programación la aprobó cualquier ¨comité¨ formado ad hoc a tal efecto.

¨No me importa quién llame, para NOSOTROS esto es una venta nueva.¨ o ¨Hola, me estoy dirigiendo a tí en mi idioma...y quiero que me compres.¨

El problema con declararse ¨orientado al cliente¨ es que hay que alinear cada operación del día a día con ello. Y programar los sistemas de ATENCIÓN AL CLIENTE basados en tecnicismos internos, no lo está.


PD. Nunca cogieron el teléfono. Esa es otra...

More versus less

Words of wisdom for the day, by Seth Godin: “More is easy to sell. Less almost never is”.

Yesterday I was thinking about the “positive-action oriented” rather than “negative-action deterrent” ways of saying things or giving feedback. “Don’t do this” versus “do more of (the opposite)” .

If we are to achieve our goals, and we want to align everyday actions with the long-term vision, I suggest we approach things from a standpoint of DOING rather than NOT DOING. The latter leads to inaction, that leads to fear of failure. And fear of failure is Evolution's bottleneck.